Designing Your Dream Life: Tony Taveras - Linear Roofing Executive and Champion Bodybuilding Pro

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Fony T's in the building, kinda. With technology these days, it puts you in the virtual building. That's right. Dude, man, so great to finally get a chance to have a conversation and chat with you for a few minutes. I know you and I met late last year in uh Fort Worth, Texas, at uh at one of our uh Apex fly-ins. You were one of our uh featured speakers. And let me tell you, from one speaker to another, you got up on that stage and absolutely blew the roof off. This man can speak the paint off the walls. And I go, This is my people right here. We need to connect and have a conversation. We did very briefly after your talk and come to find out we had uh one mutual friend that came to top of mind that you had mentioned in her talk, the one and only Mr. Eric Thomas, aka the ET the hip-hop preacher. So I immediately knew when I had that inkling of like, hey man, this guy's got the thunder and he's going places. I need to link with this guy. And then we find out E.T.'s our mutual buddy, and then that leads us to a podcast episode here. So I'm excited to sit down and chat with you for a few minutes today. Thanks for taking some time out of your legitimately busy schedule. I know that you guys are non-stop over there uh making moves. So, dude, it's great to carve out a few minutes and hang out with you.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Yeah, buddy, thank you for having me on, man. It's it's great to connect and uh yeah, it was it was wild at that that speaking event when you walked up and you said you knew ET. And it's like he he he's been such an inspiration to me since I was 20 years old. Ever since that video went viral, you know, you got to want it as bad as you want to breathe. That just that just hit me so hard when I was coming up in the sales arena. I remember watching that video. This was before I became a VP with LA Fitness. I was the youngest VP ever promoted at the time in the company, helped grow that organization to multi-billion. And I remember watching that video and just tears streaming down my face. It just connected with me. And we ended up linking Eric Thomas and I actually in Michigan when I was a regional vice president having breakfast together. We've been in contact ever since. He came to our transaction dinner a couple of months ago. He's coming out to Hawaii in a couple of months to see me and be at a show that I'm promoting. So good dude, man. And he and he says that you are a beast too. So it's great to be on here with you, uh, one brother to another, man. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

I appreciate that. He has the same thing to say about you, but it's funny how that works. I mean, God's got a great sense of humor at times when he links us all up and we find out how closely connected we really, really are, or we just start aligning with the people that we're supposed to be on the path with. So, brother, it's been my it's it's my privilege to spend some time with you today. On this show, I really like to unpack people's stories. It's called Beyond the Story for a Reason, because I like to go back to the beginning of the story where things really started to uh uh originate so we can get some context on what you know how how the incredible uh Tony T came to be today here and really unpacked that story a little bit. And you did a great job uh of that when I had the opportunity uh to hear you speak uh in in Fort Worth last year. So let's go back to the beginning of the story. Where did this all start?

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Man, you know, I I'd have to start with my parents. You know, my parents are amazing human beings. It's very rare when a couple can come together and grow a business together. You know, I grew up in in in New York. My dad was born in Santo Domingo, so we're we're Dominican. Uh, grew up in that New York area, new was born in New Jersey. My parents actually decided to leave New York on uh on a dream. So they had a dream first off when we actually moved to Texas. When I was about seven years old, we moved to Texas and I was like, why are we moving to Texas? I had all my friends, I'm this kid, you know, I'm in elementary. And I'm like, all that all there is in Texas is a bunch of cowboys and horses. Like, I don't I don't want to move there. You know, I didn't know any better. We ended up coming, yeah, we ended up coming down to Texas and uh they ended up starting a business together. It was called Insurance Licensing Services of America, and it ended up being becoming one of the top businesses in their space. And actually, their clients were Chubb, AIG, some of the biggest insurance carriers in the world. They ended up nabbing. And I actually grew up, believe it or not, in the office building. You know, they started from nothing. They bought an office building. We grew up in the office building. I remember at one point I was taking showers in the alleyway. So, like, truly grew up watching my parents grow a multi, multi-million dollar business from scratch. And they ended up actually uh selling their business two years ago for like 16 times Zibida. So, you know, my parents were were extremely uh, you know, it instilled discipline in me, consistency, how to grow a business. So definitely it started, it started with my parents. Amazing. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

And then when did you decide that, hey, listen, it's what'd you do after high school? I always like to start after high school because people either started on their own path or you know, started on the college path on their what happened after high school and how did things start to really take shape for your life?

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Yeah, it's a good question because you know, as they were growing the business, it was like they started to see that success as I was in my high school years. You know, they started to grow it, they started to make money. And, you know, of course I could have said, Oh, I just want to come into the family business, but I didn't want to, I didn't want to really at that time, I didn't want to have to deal with insurance. It wasn't what I wanted to do. Lo and behold, I didn't know years later I would end up dealing with insurance restoration, right? It's like the other side of the coin. But I ended up becoming uh very much in love with with athletics, uh, had a sports background, uh, became all state in football, uh, was on varsity my sophomore year in basketball. So I was a two-sport athlete, uh, also did some powerlifting, was all state in powerlifting. Ended up actually getting recruited by Princeton and Harvard. So my dad was on me in terms of grades. I didn't really get to Dayton high school. He was like, son, you're gonna be in the books and you're gonna be training, you're gonna be working on sports. Like my goal was to go to the NFL, and that's what I was training for. I ended up getting recruited by Princeton and Harvard, took visits, but I ended up deciding to go to North Texas. So, you know, even though I had some smaller offers, I had a bad injury my senior year that actually cut my season halfway short. I was in a small little country town called Grosbeck, Texas. You know, so there wasn't a lot of people that came to watch us play. You know, our mascot was a goat. You know, that's how I got the nickname the goat. You know, some some people look at that name on IG and they're like, is this guy like super egotistical or cocky? And it's like, no, I mean, none of those. It was actually, I was I was nicknamed the goat at 12 years old. So I just took form of that. And when my dad told me it meant greatest of all time, I kind of just tried to embody that in anything that I touched, right? So I had a bad injury my senior year, didn't get the offers that I wanted. I decided I didn't want to go Ivy League, even though they were giving me a partial scholarship. And I ended up walking on. I decided to walk on to North Texas because I said, you know what? I know my skill and ability and I know my work ethic. And if I walk on to a D1 school, I know I'm gonna earn a scholarship and I wanted to play ball about two hours from where I lived in Grosbeck. So ended up walking on to North Texas and uh did very well. You know, I trained my my uh redshirt freshman year. I got to the point where I was benching like 500 pounds uh as a freshman redshirt. I was running a four-six. I mean, I was a specimen at that time in college, and I was lifting at the time with the defensive tackles. I mean, I was a middle linebacker and running back, but I was lifting with the big boys, right? So the work ethic was there. You know, what ended up happening in college, my sophomore year, I started working in on special teams, I actually got cut on a kickoff. Someone came out, blindsided me, cut me, which was illegal. Ended up uh my hip and pelvis came out of alignment. And uh, I was having sharp pains up my pelvis for about a couple of months. I was seeing a specialist and I re and I really felt like my body was telling me like my time in the sport was done. I was having a lot of nagging injuries. And my dad always said to me, he said, You know, son, you're gonna have to have a backup plan. You know, what if football doesn't work out? What if you do get an injury? You got to have your brain and you got to have a business mind to be able to move forward and do something else because football is not gonna last forever. And boy, oh boy, was he right. Right. I had to walk into that that office with the coach. Uh, our coach at the time was Todd Dodge, who was, you know, the the the supreme high school football coach of South Blake Carroll, who ended up taking over at North Texas. And I remember crying in that room and walking away from the game of football ultimately. So that's that's what happened after high school. Played college sports, had a bad injury. And then after that injury, you know, I honestly went into a little bit of a dark place. You know, I had for 10 years my focus, my dream, everything I was doing was to go to the league and go to the NFL. And that was my story that I was telling myself from 12 years old. And so when that got shattered, it's like I didn't know, I didn't know what to do. I didn't have that discipline. I started getting into fraternities, I started parting. You know, I remember I for one year there, I was in such a dark spot that my mom actually wrote me a letter to my college dorm room, or maybe it at the time I had a house with a couple of guys, and she wrote me a letter and she said, and I'll never forget this. She said, I didn't raise my son to be this way. That's not how he raised you. And when she wrote me that letter, my whole life shifted. I said, No, I cannot disrespect my name. You know, I I have to, I have to go and become something. I have to go fulfill my potential. I'm the only combination of my parents. So that means something to me. You know, I gotta make them proud and I got to represent for the name that's on my back. And ever since I got that letter, a light bulb switched. I actually ended up uh walking into an interview at LA Fitness. I was 21 years old. That is, believe it or not, where I met Kurt Lennington, who is now, yeah, the CEO of Linear Roofing. I've been with Kurt now for 15 years. He hired me, he gave me my first sports club. You know, I ran the LA Fitness in Denton at 21 years old. I then quickly became the number one training director in the country for LA Fitness. I was a kid. I mean, I was 21. I was running a $10 million store and uh ended up having 20 trainers. I grew, I grew the EFT tap to where we were billing $125,000 a month in personal training. And I was breaking records all throughout the country, became their youngest vice president at 24 years old, got on the acquisition team. As we went to acquire other fitness companies, I would then go in and train those employees on what we were doing, became a regional at 26, and the rest was history. Blew up in the fitness world, became the GOAT, so to speak, of selling personal training for about eight years. And then lo and behold, I visited Kurt for his birthday when I was 26, 27. I was at the time probably making $200,000, $250,000 a year, running the entire West Coast for LA Fitness. He showed me the model of linear roofing, and the rest was history. I resigned from my regional vice president role and I took a shot and I didn't know shit about roofing. I didn't even know what a shingle was. And uh, and then I came on board to linear roofing, and I'm sure we'll get into a little bit of that. Dude, that's amazing story.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Yeah, it really, really. I mean, you it's it's so funny. We we think that we are going we're destined for one one one one plan, and then uh, you know, God says, hold my wine, watch this. Yeah and uh we got a little uh plot twist on it. But at the same, you know, one of my favorite quotes lately has been what didn't work out for you worked out for you. And I think, man, I'm 44. I thought, how many times has that shown up in my life where we think it is the absolute end of it all? It's the end that was it. Everything, that's it. My life's going to hell in a handbasket. Yeah and then it's like, wait a second. That had to go. So whatever was next could could reveal itself, right? Without that margin there, there's there's there's no availability there. Sometimes we hold on so tight. I'm sure you could probably could have weathered through those injuries, it probably wouldn't have done you any any any good. You could have weathered through them, you could have rehabbed through them, you could have toughened you know through the pain and all that, but at what expense once you get to the league and everything else on there? So getting that letter and the very fact that you listen to your parents when you were in college is admiral in and of itself, because I've got a college kid myself, and she listens to me about 20% of the time, I would say you reach that 21, 22 age, and it's I am independent.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, you get a little rebellious, you know. The the parents are telling you what to do. And then I kind of went through that stage a little bit with my dad, you know, because it was almost like everything I did, he was scrutinizing and he was on me and he had the best intentions, right? I know that now we have a great relationship now. But at the time, as a son, you're like, I just want to be my own man, I just want to make my own decisions. And so, you know, that was that was difficult because, you know, when I when I decided to leave L, when I decided to join LA Fitness, I'll back up, I actually dropped out of college. So you talk about these parents who were running a big multi-million dollar business who wanted me to go to Princeton. And this is my story. I call them and I say, guys, this this man who was Kurt just offered me to run this sports club. I like I I'm enjoying this and I can go make a hundred thousand dollars a year at this. If I if I continue in school, what's to say I come out and I can make 100K? So I bet on myself and I said I'm gonna resign from school. I only had a semester and a half left. Wow. Oh, they were pissed. They were pissed, you know. So I had to follow my gut and jumped into LA. And then when I decided to eight years later, when I had when I when I got to the top of LA fitness, got to the top of the fitness industry, I had to follow my gut again. And I said, you know what, I'm gonna resign. This is not where I want my life to be. I don't want to make 250 grand and be a slave to the clock for the rest of my life. I want something that I could have that that whatever I put into it, I can exponentially get a return that I'm worth. And so I I want I want unlimited growth. So I said, you know what? I'm gonna resign and I'm gonna come on board to linear roofing. And you know what Kurt said to me, he said, Hey, you come in, you recruit, train, develop the sales force. And he said, One day, one day we'll make you a partner. There was no guarantees, people don't know this. There was nothing on paper, there was nothing written. My parents actually said four years in, son, don't you think you should get something on paper? And I said, You know what? I trust this man. Everything he said he was gonna do, he's done for me. I'm gonna do what I said I was gonna do. I'm gonna, I'm gonna build this thing. And I'm sure that when we get it to the point where he's ready, he's gonna tie me into business. Five years in, I got tied into the business as a 20% owner of linear roofing. You know, eight years in, we transacted for the largest deal in the insurance restoration space of our kind. And now we're already on the verge, eight months later, to transact again within the next 12 months for what could be a billion dollar deal. So, you know, it all worked out for me, and and I trusted my gut. And uh here we are.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Hey, that's an incredible story. Is that when it what what conversation did you have with Kurt when he said trust the process? I saw that in your post last week. He said it was the best advice he's ever given you as you were showing off that fine automobile of yours. Um, when did he when did he tell you that? Was that early on?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

That was early days. You know, that was when I was 21, 22 years old, you know, in LA. And and he had always instilled in me, stay the course, you know, and what I found was there were so many talented guys around staying the course. Yeah, that yeah, there were so many talented guys around me in the fitness business when I was coming up, selling personal training, and I would just see them wither away. They would self-destruct, they would find a reason to destroy themselves or go jump into something else. And you know, and I and I can see it now. As long as you're willing to stay the course in something and master it, you know, you cannot become the elite, the top 1% of something if you don't work on that craft and you don't you're not in it long enough. They talk about the 10,000 hour rule. So it stuck with me early on. You know, another quote my dad used to give me even before that was son, you know, most people will be playing early in their life and they will be paying for the rest of their life. They're gonna regret it because they play early in their 20s and all they want to do is party, party, party, chase tail, not be focused. And now from 30 to the rest of their life, they're hurting, they're not where they want to be, right? So he said, You got to pay early and you'll be able to play the rest of your life. And that's that's what I did. And and I and I and I saw Kurt's brilliance, and I said, you know what? I'm choosing him as a mentor and I'm gonna stay with him until the fucking end. And uh that's what we've done, and we we built something super special in the roofing space. You know, six years into this thing, you know, I was able to come across a project for a lady named Jennifer Toddrick. And that but this was in Fairview. At the time, I was doing million, two million dollar homes, uh, walking them through the insurance claims process. I was selling at the highest level in the roofing game. I understood how to knock doors. I created the scripts that we that we've duplicated, and I came across this project and I didn't know she was actually working for her own HGTV show. I I crushed her project, painted her home, did her garage doors, did her roof. It was so seamless. She put me forward to the production company, which was out of Australia. Uh, that group was called Essential Quail. They were working on the project for the show and ended up beating out all the other contractors, ended up getting on HGTV, helping start the show. I was the second star on the show. It was a show called No Demo Reno. And uh that really helped blow us up a little bit more, getting that national presence where I would have people in Europe or in New York, you know, they were on a they were on the treadmill and they were like, Tony, I see you on the TV screen, you know. So shit changed pretty fast after that.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Yeah, I totally can those type of opportunities, but you just never know when those opportunities are gonna they're are going to happen. But I you get you got a hundred per you have a hundred percent failure rate by not showing up, right? Yeah, showing up, showing up to those opportunities is what uh what what provides them. And you said, you know, you're something your dad mentioned to you that you know people want to play in their when they're younger and then they pay when they're older on there. I didn't view it that way. I had a kid at 20 years old, and her mom didn't want to be involved as involved with the process. So I raised her uh myself, but I became an entrepreneur shortly thereafter because I remember going into a sales job and then having to go get her from daycare and then saying, you know, we all have kids, you need to figure it out, you can't leave. And I'm like, Well, I'm not coming back here ever again, or to any other job, and became an entrepreneur and I put in that hard work. And like I mentioned to you earlier, she's she's graduating in April, which is mind-boggling to me. That's awesome. But I look at it now, I'm 44 years old, I'm about as free as you could possibly ever be liberated as a human being and an individual, not married, no ties, no anything. I could get a call, hop on a plane in two hours if I absolutely needed to. And I I attribute that to putting in that work and saying it's my job to feed this child, put diapers on her, shape and mold her, prepare her for the world, and we can play in our 40s. And baby, we play and we play.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

You would thrust right into it. That that changes your whole perception of reality as a dad.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I mean, granted, all my friends are having kids and starting the family now, and all I go to all the birthday parties and all the gender reveals and all the free booze and all that. No problem. I'm in. I'm in. But that program, but again, I I don't predict the future. I never know what it's in store. But right now, I'm having a great time because I I was able to to to to to to uh to pay early on, yep. Um, so that I can now enjoy a little bit of this this wild ride we get to experience the with the world of of entrepreneurship. I want to talk about Linear and what you guys have done and what you guys have built and and achieve. But before we get into all that, let's shift gears real quick to the book The Alchemist. Because of you, my brother, yeah, I've read that I've read that book twice. Now I'm still a little lost. I listened to the audiobook twice. I'm really trying to dig in. There's certain items that I took from it, but you shared a significant part of why that book had an impact and literally changed your life. Let's talk about that for a minute.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Yeah, it's um that book. I I remember when I finished that book, and I did I did the audible and uh the audibles by Jeremy Irons. You told me to, yes, right? Yeah, I was like, that audible hit me different, right? He's he played the butler, I believe, in one of the Batmans. He's a famous actor, but yes, he does all those voice inflections and the characters in the book. And I remember at the end of that book, man, when when when when it when it showed that that that depiction of him on that that edge of the edge of the cliff and he started talking to the wind and he started talking to the sun and then he turns and then he talks to the creator and then he realized at that point that he actually had the creator inside him the whole time and that we are magical magical beings and we have the creator inside us and we can create anything that we want and at that point my whole my whole reality shifted and I was like man I can manifest anything I want because I have the creator I have this power within me and I need to spread this light. And so it definitely shifted the way uh the the the world of possibilities and my my ability to dream and create um and as well it just it got me to understand that everyone has this personal legend. And if you're not on the path of this of your personal legend and you don't see these omens hitting you because as it talks about in the story he's seeing these omens to to let him know that he's on the right path. And like if you're walking in your purpose and and in your calling like you're gonna feel it within your soul because your soul is a part of the creator. So you just got to be able to follow your gut and your instincts and so many people want to get in their brain and use all this logical analytical stuff. But a lot of times now I go by a feel I go by my instinct I I I I I utilize that even in my conversations and I'm very intentional when I'm having conversations with my people even in work. It's like you know I don't take any situation lightly because that situation may impact that person's life forever. Right. So that that book is just phenomenal I love what you said there.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

That is it could it could our words have power they uh they they most definitely do. And uh you know I choose to speak life into people as much as I possibly can but you know a lot of people I I think that it comes along a lot with self-awareness which is a grossly grossly underrated um tool to have uh as a human being of being self-aware of how we're actually showing up in this world because it absolutely matters it can you know they they they say the the way that we are the way that we show up uh has so much impact on the world so much more so much so much that's out of our control almost that it's so important to be aware of you know how we're showing up you definitely know how to show up because that's why we're having a conversation right now uh and and we're buddies now man because uh you know of that lane that that same thought process of um you know making sure that that's a priority what what do they continue to mention in the book throughout the book is it is it's something like what what's meant for you won't miss you or something there there's so many quotes like people could go online and you just google the quotes from the alchemist and then they're just mind blowing but yeah one of them is you know how it talks about if you want something bad enough yeah bad enough like it has to burn inside you like some people say they want shit but they don't really want it and that's why they don't get it you know there that I remember when I wanted to become a VP I would be driving up to my club in LA fitness and I would I would be looking to break records and and I would call out the whole country and I would be driving up to my club and I remember these moments where I was by myself in the car walking into a closeout and I was just crying I was just crying because I wanted it that bad and it talks about in the book that the universe actually conspires to help you achieve your dreams if you want it that bad.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

So you got to really ask yourself whatever you're wanting in this life whatever your goals are your targets like do you really want it? Does it burn to the point where you get so emotional because if you do if you could put that feeling into it and you you you you get behind it with actions daily and consistency, the universe is going to help you get it right it's just a matter of time.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Absolutely those moments it's funny you mentioned those moments of emotion. I find that a lot I uh over the past couple years I've been fortunate enough to be able to start flying first class not all the time um but it's new for somebody who was you know uh grew up just with whatever we needed this is uh this is and I find myself emotional in those states I find myself going back to I live in Miami here so we got beautiful landscapes all over the place to catch a sunrise and walk and this is one bridge called the Kibiscane bridge it's a two mile bridge that I walk over and I hang out in that stretch of beach down there in the morning and meditate and and get my head together on the weekends. But there's been some times I've been emotional on that walk because I've worked I have worked through some shit on that bridge. I've worked through some shit on that beach and being able to to to see how far I've been able to to to to come from where it used to be and be like constantly going back to check in. It's that whole don't ever forget where you came from that's not just a neighborhood that's not just a city that's like where were you emotionally when you got on this on this adventure um to to to become the best version of yourself right but um I love those I'm grateful for those emotional moments where I remember my emotions were out of control. So I I I remember those days where it was just and now it's like what are you crying for?

SPEAKER_00 27:20

We're crying because we're doing it man we're doing yeah yeah I'm so grateful right yeah for all the hard work you've put in the sweat equity right so many people want that high level of success without putting in that work and they're fooling themselves my but my boy Gary V says said that for the past decade.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Everybody wants it nobody wants to work for it. Yeah it's like you can't fake pushups is another famous quote from so let's talk about this empire you guys have built here at Linerary roofing and everything you guys the whole conglomerate of everything that's taken place on here. What do you guys you know for for the for the listeners that may not be familiar with with linear what's the brand all about what do you guys do what are you excited for this year I know there's a lot uh on the table as well but let's let's kind of break it down just to kind of give a 3000 foot perspective.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Yeah so you know we we became quickly you know and and I say quickly because to do it in in seven years to become the authority figure you know in DFW for roofing I mean DFW is the Mecca you know for hail storms. So we got into a space where where others when we started in the space you know they were like are you crazy? You're coming into the roofing space in the hottest area in the country and you think you're going to be able to compete with all these other national roofing companies and we're like hold my beer right it's like we didn't know any better. I think that was our advantage because you know we came from building a multi-billion dollar business already. That's what people don't realize. You know Kurt and I and many of our uh top executives you know our COO he was a top executive for LA as well you know he was the right hand to the owners in the op side Kurt was one of the right hand to the owners in the sales side I was Kurt's prodigy in that business we helped scale that business to multibillion like we we helped grow that company. So we recruited in many of the directors many of the GMs you know came and followed us we actually didn't have to recruit them off the bat because they just wanted to know what the hell we were doing. You know we started growing this thing they started seeing our success you know my first thing was to get really good at at selling it. And then I started bringing in some of the top guys that I knew around the country. And so what we do is basically we help homeowners through the insurance claims process and we're able to put their home back to pre-storm conditions. And we don't just do roofs we do it all from from gutters to screens to garage doors to painting to fencing we wanted to get into the arena where you know when when a hailstorm came through or or uh a hurricane comes through we can restore the entire property so we got very good at being able to deal with adjusters the insurance companies we would meet adjusters on site make sure you know at these million dollar properties that everything that a homeowner had on this property was getting accounted for by the insurance company because if an adjuster comes out, you know they're working for the insurance carrier right you know they may miss a couple of things even if they don't mean to so it's our job to make sure that the homeowner is getting everything that they should and then we have the guys and the crews to be able to restore it all. And we got great at it and and we we knew if we could come into this industry which was very rogue in a sense right at the time when we came in there was a lot of roofing companies that had a bad name. They were running away with first checks shingling on top of shingles. So if we knew we could come in with that type of business acumen we didn't know roofing but we knew how to take care of customers we knew how to sell we knew how to build value we knew how to deliver excellent customer service and if we just did what we say we were going to do we were already going to separate ourselves. So it just started snowballing and we started doing some you know some of the cowboys homes I did you know the middle linebacker for the cowboys Brady James and it just started we started creating the social media effect we use social media to our advantage and what happened is we would bring people in we would get them winning at such a high level to where we we took guys from the fitness industry that were making 100K a year. Now all of a sudden they're making four 500k a year and now they're telling all their people that they've worked with. So it became this movement and then about five years in we created this slogan you know this we are not the same right and people see this thing we actually have this thing trademarked it's bought by our platform. I mean it's bought right so we take pride in that because in the roofing space when a storm comes through you know homeowners get knocked on their door by all these different types of roofing companies and they're pitching all these different things you know what is truly making you different you got to have certain separators. So being able to teach our guys what makes us not the same the fact that we are A plus rated the fact that we were voted the elite contractor of the year the fact that we're now on the cover of the biggest roofing magazine actually this month, uh Roofing Contractor magazine we're on the cover, right? We're on an HGTV show like there's not many companies that could check off all these boxes. So it's like I tell homeowners it's like if I was getting my uh open heart surgery and I was getting cut open on the table and I know I just have to pay a deductible and a surgeon's going to perform on me am I gonna go to the surgeon who just got out of college who basically doesn't have many surgeries performed or am I going to go with the guy with all the credentials with 20 years of experience and has all the accolades. I'm gonna go with that guy because my life's on the line. So we got very good at getting all the credentials we needed separating ourselves recruiting high level talent and then we blew this thing up. And so you know now we're expanding across the country we transacted with the private equity group O2 capital investment group out of Michigan and uh now we're adding different roofing companies about every two to three months you know they have an MA team and uh now we are you know the largest platform of our kind in the U.S. We already service over 34 states. I mean we're gonna service the whole country and at this point we'll end up you know transacting again with another equity group that'll take us to the next level right so our next transaction could be somewhat in the range of you know could be about a billion dollars you know that's where we're getting to you know when you think about companies like Brinks ADT you know um Apple you know big companies in their industry you know a lot of them didn't get there by just hiring people internally they get there a lot of times by by acquiring other businesses bringing them in and making them a part of theirs that's how you grow very fast. So that's what we're doing now. There's not a lot of platforms backed by private equity that are purchasing and acquiring companies to scale at that level because ultimately what's going to happen is insurance carriers are going to want to work direct with these type platforms because now we can help service all of their clients all across the country most roofing companies are just local you know they're just in one little city so they can't tie in to an insurance carrier like a Chubb. So this thing is about to get way bigger than we could have even imagined I love it.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

I absolutely love it. I'm so encouraged by you guys' story and I, you know being associated with you guys. I mean I just you know I know who Kurt is we haven't had a chance to yet to get him on the show we're gonna make that happen and of course oh yeah uh you and I are lifelong friends whether you like it or not now absolutely brother we're lifers now um but I'm encouraged by that you want to win you got to get around winners you got to make sure you're in the right room with people winning uh and also make sure you're not the richest and smartest guy in the room and when I get in the linear room I'm definitely neither of those which I which I'm real grateful for. Tony man it's been so great to hang out with you for a few minutes here man and get to know you. I appreciate you carved some time you know out of your day to to to have a conversation with me.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

And I just wish you guys nothing but the best uh next time I'm in Dallas I'm gonna definitely come see you guys and check out the operation and uh look forward to furthering our relationship here man and any final thoughts for our listeners yeah um you know as well believe it or not you know I I mean if some listeners follow along what I what we do and what I'm doing personally you know not only have we now grown this business but I also you know was able to take off in bodybuilding in the last couple of years you know I I won the overall so as we were growing this business as I was able to go on HGTV I was able to win the overall at Universe um turn pro you know people don't actually know this story I know this this this podcast is about storytelling so I'll be quick about this one but I walked into universe and I actually had an umbilical hernia I had a hole in my stomach most people don't know that and I walked in I I had I had a hole open up about six weeks from that show and I was going to I was going to that show ultimately to turn pro and I ended up finishing it out and winning the overall and then having surgery right after after that I became uh an Olympian I was I was invited to the Arnold by Arnold Schwarzenegger so I compete in the two largest shows on earth won the Dallas Europa and now even on the side you know I am I'm now becoming a promoter in the bodybuilding space you know my goal is to have one of the largest shows in the world to give back to athletes because I know that it takes extreme discipline and consistency and the traits that you have in bodybuilding if you can put those into your business which that's what I've done put some of that discipline and consistency and what I've learned in bodybuilding into business you can be ultimately very successful. So I'll be promoting a show this year in Hawaii I'm promoting a huge classic physique lineup two weeks after the Olympia and eventually I'll create my own show.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

So we got that going on and uh yeah just a lot of fun stuff as you as you saw I'm into cars also you know so so yeah follow me on on uh Tony Goat underscore Tavares on my IG or my TikTok I have a YouTube as well for some car content and uh bodybuilding content and uh entrepreneur content as well with linear absolutely we'll be sure to include all of Tony's links in the uh show notes at the description of this podcast episode but make sure you connect with him he's a great human I fully endorse making sure you're following him consuming and listening to what he has to say be encouraged by his journey because we've all got something in us but it's connecting with individuals like Tony that really flip that switch and help us reassure us that we're on the the right path or actually get us on the path. Tony I appreciate you my brother I look forward to getting some some hang time in uh next time I'm in Dallas bro oh yeah we're gonna do it thanks for having me on brother appreciate it it's my pleasure man keep rocking until next time friends thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast be sure to appreciate it if you haven't done so already make sure you're subscribed to the show this way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined please leave us a review be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast launchlab.com studios we'll talk to you next time