➡️ Access ALL FREE business resources, episode blueprints, and exclusive content from past episodes: https://stan.store/leopareja

Tommy Mello started with $50, a borrowed truck, and a garage door business everyone thought was a dead end—now he's built an $800 million empire and decoded the exact playbook that separates $1 million operators from $100 million machines. The A1 Garage Door Service founder reveals how watching his mom come home with blistered feet from selling 53 houses (while bartending to survive) wired him to bet everything "a dozen times," why he flew out twice a month to study every major HVAC shop in America instead of guessing his way to scale, and the brutal math showing why chasing $10 million EBITDA companies beats grinding $1 million deals (hint: it's the same work, 10x the return). This is the raw systems blueprint from someone who didn't know how to make payroll multiple times but studied his way to a 4.5x return in three years, exposing why 99% of home service operators stay stuck and what it really takes to become the operator private equity hunts.

➡️ Show Links

Website: https://a1garage.com
Podcast: https://homeserviceexpert.com/podcast
Book: https://www.elevatedbybooktommy.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tommymello
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tommymello

➡️ Timestamps

00:00 Mom's Blisters: Selling 53 Houses While Bartending to Survive
02:10 The Red Corvette Moment: 16 Years Old When Everything Changed
03:36 Parents' Money Fights That Programmed Him for Millions
06:13 "Don't Speak" by No Doubt—The Song Playing When He Knew
07:03 Starting a Roth IRA at 16: The Cousin Who Changed His Life
09:45 $50 and a Borrowed Truck: Starting a Garage Door Company at 19
11:22 Buying Out His Partner at 21 With No Business Experience
15:30 The $100M Shop Tour Strategy: Flying Twice a Month to Learn
18:15 "I'm Just a Garage Door Kid"—Humility That Opened Every Door
21:36 Getting on ServiceTitan Changed Everything (The CRM Revelation)
22:12 The Legacy Promise: Why Every $100M Shop Let Him In
23:18 HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical: Building the Home Service Empire
23:28 4.5x Return in 3 Years: The $6M Restoration Company Win
23:46 Why $10M EBITDA Beats $1M EBITDA (Same Work, 10x Exit Multiple)
24:13 The Math Private Equity Doesn't Want You to Know ($80M to $540M)
25:02 The Bankrupt Founder Thesis: Why They Make the Best Hires
25:23 "I Didn't Know How to Make Payroll"—Betting Everything a Dozen Times
25:47 Everyone Wants the Views, No One Wants the Hike
26:12 The $800M Speedbump: Why the Next Deal Won't Change Him
27:12 Designing Life at 45: Golf, Hunting, and Stomach-Hurting Laughs
27:57 "This Is My Last CEO Role Ever" (We'll See About That)

➡️ Connect With Leo Pareja

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/leopareja/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/leopareja/
Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@leo.pareja

➡️ Access ALL FREE business resources, episode blueprints, and exclusive content from past episodes: https://stan.store/leopareja

Gina Kirschenheiter was a bored housewife from New York who stumbled onto Real Housewives of Orange County by accident, watched her marriage fall apart on national television, then leveraged 866K Instagram followers and 24.2 million monthly views to build a real estate business that doubled in revenue in under a year at eXp Realty—now leading a 6-agent team while raising 6 kids and teaching other agents how to turn social media reach into million-dollar listing presentations.

➡️ Show Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gina-kirschenheiter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gina.kirschenheiter/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gina.kirschenheiter

➡️ Timestamps

0:00 Intro: Meet Gina Kirschenheiter, Real Housewife Turned Top Realtor
2:04 From Bored Housewife to Reality TV Star by Accident
5:18 Using Reality TV as Therapy: Working Through Life on Camera
6:36 "You Should Get Your Real Estate License": The Career Pivot
9:18 Being a New Agent with a Million-Person Audience
13:23 The Golden Era of Social Media: Why Now Is Different
16:44 Getting Past Cringe Mountain: How to Start Creating Content
25:59 The Tuesday-Friday Listing System: Content That Converts
27:44 The Listing Presentation Advantage: 24.2 Million Views in 30 Days
30:05 Social Media Is Modern Marketing: Free Reach Beats Everything

➡️ Connect With Leo Pareja

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/leopareja/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/leopareja/
Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@leo.pareja

#GinaKirschenheiter #RealHousewives #RealEstateAgent #eXpRealty #SocialMediaMarketing #ContentCreation #RealityTV #RealtorLife #TikTokStrategy #InstagramMarketing #AuthenticBranding #ListingPresentation #BlendedFamily #EntrepreneurMom #ViralContent #RealEstateInfluencer

➡️ Access ALL FREE business resources, episode blueprints, and exclusive content from past episodes: https://stan.store/leopareja

Failure isn’t final—it’s feedback. In this powerful episode, learn how elite entrepreneurs recover faster, build systems that turn setbacks into success, and master the mental frameworks behind resilience. Discover why systematizing recovery beats talent or luck, how to measure progress after failure, and why a plan B isn’t the same as a comeback system. This episode dives deep into mindset, leadership, and emotional endurance so you can scale through chaos with clarity, purpose, and confidence.

➡️ Timestamps

0:00 The fear of failure and power of recovery systems
0:16 You’re not the same person to everyone—villain or hero?
0:43 Success is about systematizing recovery, not avoiding failure
1:15 Why most people quit—and how volume trumps talent
2:05 The psychology behind failure and recovery mindset
3:02 How to build systems that turn setbacks into momentum
4:01 The difference between plan B and recovery systems
5:00 Why systems outperform talent and luck long-term
6:02 Learning self-compassion and grace through failure
7:15 The danger of perfectionism and false success confidence
8:03 How to transform failure into a process for excellence
9:10 Building emotional resilience through radical ownership
10:00 The loneliness of leadership and need for support systems
10:32 The 1% life: embracing extraordinary problems with grace

➡️ Connect With Leo Pareja

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/leopareja/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/leopareja/
Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@leo.pareja

#EntrepreneurFailure #SystematizeRecovery #OvercomeFailure #BusinessMindset #StartupTips #RadicalOwnership #1PercentLife #FailureToSuccess #EntrepreneurMotivation