The Home Service Expert Podcast

🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com
Revenue is everywhere in home service right now. Profit is not. Tommy sits down with his mentor Al Levi, author of The 7-Power Contractor, and Jim Leslie, president of Home Service Freedom, to break down why: the hiring excuse every contractor uses ("nobody wants to work") and the answer Jim gives back, what a lost tech really costs, the five things of staffing, why you should triple your pricing, why the owner who is the best CSR, dispatcher and tech is the ceiling on his own company, the zero-or-two cranes rule for your org chart, and the listening tour every owner should take this week. Al is retiring at the end of the year. His last small-room session is at Freedom 2026: Monday, October 26, 6 PM, Mandalay Bay. Use code ALFREEDOM at freedomevent.com to unlock a seat in the room with Al and Jim.
Home Service Freedom: https://homeservicefreedom.com | The 7-Power Contractor: https://7powercontractor.com
-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
00:50 - Al, Jim and Freedom 2026
02:03 - Revenue for vanity, profit for sanity
03:49 - Put your pricing online
05:50 - Three kinds of testimonials
06:38 - Lead times and the boom-bust cycle
11:19 - The five things of staffing
11:32 - What a lost tech really costs
12:35 - Al's last room at Freedom
15:00 - The empty truck in your yard
15:44 - Stand on the bridge
16:39 - Triple your pricing
17:51 - Fighting commoditization
22:15 - Would you send me to your mom's house
25:29 - They just don't want to work for you
27:22 - The best CSR, dispatcher and tech
28:15 - Zero cranes or two
30:09 - The five-year org chart trap
32:26 - Burning tokens on technology
35:33 - There is no silver bullet
40:40 - What your accountant should say
42:24 - $2.6 million to the bottom line
46:54 - The listening tour
50:04 - Al's three-month notice
55:57 - One thing to do this week
59:45 - The room at Freedom
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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com
Most home service owners hear virtual assistant and think someone to answer emails. Alyssa Shivers and Mia Juan of Ready Roles think bigger: five callers on $5.75 an hour brought one moving company almost $500,000 in paid estimates in a single month. In this episode they break down what owners get wrong about VAs, why a $3 an hour VA gives you a $3 outcome, the 10-day onboarding that makes a remote hire work, the flat fee model where every dollar after that goes straight to your VA, how many calls a data activator makes a day, and the real reason most VAs fail (it is not the VA). If you are still reading your own email, this one is for you.
Ready Roles: https://readyroles.com | Mia Juan on YouTube: search "Mia Juan"
VA readiness checklist from Ready Roles: [LINK OR ATTACHMENT FROM READY ROLES]
-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
00:55 - What a VA actually does
02:13 - Data activators explained
05:56 - The first-hire mistake
08:01 - The owner is the problem
10:00 - Night shift in the Philippines
13:47 - $3 an hour buys a $3 outcome
15:11 - VAs and AI tools
20:16 - My Home Story Pro
21:19 - $500K from five callers
23:18 - The pitch and the script
26:35 - The Dream 100 list
29:10 - The time study
30:00 - How to start with a VA
33:04 - Ten minutes a day
34:46 - What to pay a great VA
40:25 - The octopus executive assistant
41:38 - Eight steps of delegation
42:34 - The owner who blamed his VA
48:30 - The Big League Movers story
52:58 - What it costs
54:56 - 200 calls a day
58:08 - Go after the big players
1:01:58 - Closing advice
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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com
Derek Cornish got laid off, answered a job ad, and became the top salesman at a window company. Then he and his partner Lakota Tidd built Top Home Improvements from a garage to $20 million a year across three Michigan locations on door knocking and 300 events a year. In this episode Derek breaks down the sales system behind it: why close percentage is the first KPI to track, why his Detroit manager did more revenue with fewer reps, the month they raised prices 30% and had their biggest month ever, sweat questions, same day next day, first in last in, the scariest room in the company, and how to fix commission breath before it costs you the sale. If you run a home service or home improvement sales team, this is the playbook.
Follow Derek Cornish and Top Home Improvements: https://tophomeimprove.com | derek@tophomeimprove.com
-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
00:51 - Laid off, then top salesman
07:35 - Selling to people not looking
09:25 - Why 3 out of 10 wins
10:43 - Bottom line beats top line
14:37 - Never scared of price
16:41 - From texts to a KPI system
18:37 - Fewer reps, more revenue
26:30 - Commitments and accountability
29:45 - The scariest room
33:01 - The first KPI to track
34:26 - Same day, next day
37:27 - Beating the big brand
39:58 - When they ask for a discount
45:46 - Selling out of your own pocket
54:31 - Go for the no
55:37 - Commission breath
59:39 - A million behind, a million ahead
1:03:04 - Pancakes and the Top Home cult
1:09:01 - Raised prices 30%, biggest month
1:11:54 - Fractional CFO and accrual
1:13:14 - Role play, role play, role play
1:21:26 - Predictable Success
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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com
Tommy Mello does $410 million a year and admits he is still chasing the next thing. Tal Ben-Shahar taught the most popular course in Harvard's history, built the world's first master's and PhD in happiness studies, and won Israel's national squash title at 16 only to feel nothing three hours later. Together they break down the arrival fallacy that runs every entrepreneur, why happier companies post better margins, the SPIRE model, minimum viable interventions you can do in 60 seconds, why New Year's resolutions die by January 17, the phone-in-a-box rule, the accountability buddy that raises follow-through by 200 percent, the good enough life, and what it means to give yourself permission to be human.
Connect with Tal ⟶ https://talben-shahar.com
-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
01:27 - The unhappiness that started 30 years of research
03:23 - National champion at 16, satisfied for three hours
05:40 - What is the arrival fallacy?
06:30 - Unhappy versus depressed and quiet desperation
08:11 - Enough is never enough and the $3 billion regret
09:38 - Two schools of thought and turning goal theory on its head
13:43 - SPIRE: the five elements of wellbeing
17:20 - Minimum viable interventions
18:34 - Five things you can do in the next 60 seconds
22:31 - Vision boards and the environment that primes you
25:04 - The six-week challenge and why resolutions die on January 17
26:51 - Keystone habits and islands of sanity
28:16 - Would you sleep next to a bottle of whiskey?
30:45 - Habits belong on the calendar
31:39 - The age of distraction and being bored with dignity
35:43 - Zero startup cost and the 200 percent accountability buddy
37:54 - Commitment bracelets and the letter N
42:53 - Stress is fine, recovery is what's missing
43:51 - Does happiness lead to success or the other way around?
45:01 - Six Fs, balance and fitting 48 hours into 24
48:59 - Wearables, step counts and building happiness into a blue collar culture
52:49 - Speed round: the biggest misconception high achievers have
53:46 - Live every day as if it's your first
57:27 - Rate it 1 to 10: cold plunge, sauna, sleep and reading
1:00:39 - Permission to be human
1:02:02 - Learn to fail or fail to learn
1:03:47 - Advice for your 20s and the 90-minute sprint
1:05:34 - $10 million and the Happiness Studies Academy
1:06:35 - Five books, one for each SPIRE element
1:08:19 - How to reach Tal and his closing message
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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com
Jason Feifer has run Entrepreneur Magazine for 10 years, and his message to owners is the opposite of what you'd expect: the title you hold is rented, press won't save you, and the only safe ground is something you own. He and Tommy get into being singular instead of interchangeable, the billionaire mentor he walked away from, why he tells businesses to stop chasing coverage, and the arbitrary yes that keeps life interesting.
Connect with Jason ⟶ https://www.jasonfeifer.com
Instagram ⟶ https://www.instagram.com/heyfeifer/
-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
02:05 - Singular or interchangeable
05:33 - Accessible vs available
06:51 - The title you rent
10:37 - Who should actually be an entrepreneur
16:20 - Why he ditched his own framework
18:50 - Ryan Reynolds: willing to be bad
21:05 - The Mailchimp all-hands story
25:43 - The Gary Vee focus debate
28:05 - The billionaire's list
30:46 - An interesting life
31:40 - The Dan Martell exchange
35:28 - How the speaking career started
37:50 - Don't bother with press
39:40 - Google zero
41:57 - What matters most: brand trust
43:01 - Awards, rankings, and recruiting proof
46:00 - The rapid-fire round
47:34 - No meetings before 11
52:40 - The Dave Eggers sellout screed
59:01 - Where to find Jason
1:01:00 - The arbitrary yes
🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com
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