Digital Social Hour
Master Door-to-Door Sales: Lessons from $35M Success | Tony Wells DSH #1278
Sat, 29 Mar
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Ready to master the art of door-to-door sales? 🚪💼 In this powerful episode of the Digital Social Hour Podcast, Sean Kelly sits down with Tony Wells, an inspiring entrepreneur who turned his life around, going from humble beginnings and overcoming addiction to building a $35 million business! 🙌 Tony shares raw, real, and life-changing lessons about resilience, faith, and the grind of door-to-door sales—the ultimate cold calling challenge. Learn how he transformed rejection into opportunity, became a sales powerhouse, and helped others in recovery find purpose. From his first million at 40 to selling a company for millions, this episode is packed with valuable insights you can’t afford to miss. 🎯 💡 Whether you’re an entrepreneur, sales professional, or someone looking for inspiration, this conversation is for YOU! Discover how discipline, mindset, and gratitude can lead to unbelievable success. 📺 Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 🚀 Hit that subscribe button to stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 💬 Join the conversation in the comments and let us know your biggest takeaway from Tony’s journey. 🌟 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 01:12 - Growing Up in a Trailer Park 03:15 - Early Addiction Struggles 10:24 - How Shrooms Changed My Life 13:38 - Losing Everything: A Personal Journey 19:14 - Launching Your Business: The Beginning 22:20 - Mastering Sales Techniques 26:25 - Selling Weed in College: A Real Experience 30:22 - Education and Its Impact 34:00 - First Time as a Guest: Insights 34:34 - Discovering Your Passion 35:50 - Overcoming Victim Mentality 37:05 - Embracing God's Favor 38:25 - The Power of Gratitude 39:22 - Making an Impact on Others 42:00 - See You at the Game APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: Tony Wells https://www.instagram.com/tonypwells/ SPONSORS: KINSTA: https://kinsta.com/dsh LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ #lifecoaching #selfimprovement #d2d #solarsales #doortodoortraining
Chapter 1: What are Tony Wells' early life challenges?
You're right. Yeah. So I'm glad to be here and represent the Midwest. Let's go. How long you been out there? My whole life. Yeah. Born and raised Minnesota boy. We lived in California, Newport Beach for around five years. But ultimately we came back to Minnesota about 2017. Nice. You've seen a lot of growth in that city, right? You know, it's, I'll say in the rural towns.
So there used to be a lot of, I call it like the farm. the farm towns and now it's all suburbia. Nice. That's cool. Yeah. Cause you grew up in trailer park, right? You had some humble beginnings. Yes, sir. How long were you there? Your whole life?
No. So I was in a living trailer park till about fourth grade. Yeah. So my mom, you know, my mom and dad were, they were divorced when I was three years old. Mom was on welfare. My dad lived in a trailer park. And then in fourth grade, I moved up to a city called Champlin with my, with my mom, my stepdad. And, you know, got two sisters, you know, from, from them.
Um, but yeah, it's, uh, the life that I live today is a lot different than, uh, than I was used to growing up as a kid for sure. Do you think you got that hustle mentality from back in the early days? Wanting to work really hard?
I think so. You know, I grew up with no money. So, you know, for me it was, um, No, I always wanted to, you know, fit in, right? So if the kids were wearing, you know, polo designer clothes, like, you know, I wanted to wear that too. You know, back then it was wearing Jordans or it was wearing, you know, the Reebok pump shoes.
But, you know, my family couldn't afford it, you know, so I'm not proud of this. But, you know, for me, in order to get that, you know, I was either stealing or at the age of 15, I was selling dope. Damn. And that's how I was able to... be able to get those kind of clothes. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: How did addiction affect Tony's life and career?
I used to shoplift a little bit. You did. I got caught and I haven't done this since. Yeah. Yeah. I got caught as well. I got humbled. It took me, do you know what Wegmans is? No.
It's a grocery store on the East Coast. I grew up in Jersey. Okay. But I got caught stealing and they took me in the security room. My mom had to pick me up. Super embarrassing. I haven't stolen since. So what were you stealing? Dumb shit, dude. I was a kid. Like candy and like, I don't know, gift cards, whatever. Okay. It wasn't worth it. Okay. They put me on the wall of shame. They did? Yeah.
Okay. So I haven't stolen since. Yeah. So if I was to go there now, would you still be up on that wall of fame? Hopefully not. Wall of shame? You could check. Bridgewater, New Jersey. Okay. But yeah, that was one of my worst habits when I was a kid. Yeah. The shoplifting, you know, and then... You know, I was a drug addict by the time I was 14 years old. Wow. That's young.
Drug addict at 14. Damn. Did it start with weed and kind of work its way up? Yep. Start with weed. That's what they say. It's not a gateway drug, but I think that's BS.
You know, for me, it was, you know, or I'm sorry. No, it didn't start with weed. It actually started with drinking. So we used to get drunk, you know, before school. So we'd meet up at a friend's house about 6.30 in the morning. Jeez. We'd start to get drunk. That's so early. And then... But what happened was we get into school and, you know, kids would start to pass out, right? 28.
Okay. So I'm 45. So back then we had these little – uh, wooden dugouts. And so basically we would pack weed on one side and then you put a little oney on the other and then you'll just take a little one, one hitters. Like a one hitter. Yeah.
Yeah. I think I caught the tail end of that. I saw some of those. Okay. We did gravity bongs where I grew up. That's a gravity bong. You never heard of that? Oh, man. Maybe we didn't call it that. So explain to me. So you put a, I don't even know what to call it, but you put a hole at the bottom of a water bottle. Okay.
And then you put on the cap, you put a hole in it and you light the weed in like a socket on the cap and then you lift up with water. So it just fills with smoke. Oh, so high back then. But I don't remember doing that. Yeah. Those were deadly, dude. I mean, with the bongs. It was pretty much a bong. Okay. Yeah. So picture a whole water bottle full of weed vapor. You would inhale the whole thing.
What about out of apples? We've done apples. Yeah. Apple bowls. Okay. Yeah. I've done that before. Yeah.
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Chapter 3: How did Tony Wells overcome personal struggles?
And so then with like mushroom and acid, like the first couple of trips were, were cool. but then I'd always, I always had bad trips and like the worst trip I ever had is, and this was like the last one I was, I locked myself in, we were, we were, uh, taking acid in my buddy's basement at his parents' house. And, um, I locked myself in, in his bathroom.
And, and I just remember like laying on the floor, hugging the toilet and just praying like, God, just like make this trip like end. And you know, so that was it. But, But I was an addict, so I still then wanted to find a different high. And then I got into ecstasy. You ever done ecstasy? No, I haven't done my own. Okay. So ecstasy, I loved ecstasy because that would make me super loving.
That's Molly, right? Yeah. Okay. Yep. So like, you know, I just want to be like hugging on you or hugging on whoever's around me. And I'll be telling you that I love you. Yeah. but what I didn't realize is that when you take ecstasy, it actually drains all the serotonin in your brain. Yup. I heard that. And so then I get into depression and then I got to, you know, suicidal thoughts. Yeah.
So I stopped doing the, doing the ecstasy or as the kids say, no Molly. Um, and then I got into cocaine and when I got into cocaine, like, that gave me the confidence, you know, I'm in high school still. So that gave me the confidence to talk to girls.
Um, and it also allowed me to drink the way that I wanted to drink because I could, I could like maintain like this level where if I got without cocaine, I would just go like this. You would black out, right? Yeah. And, um, but when you do the cocaine, like you can continue to drink all night. Um, but eventually I became like a violent, um, cocaine user.
Were you an angry drunk? Are you gotten fights a lot? Yeah. Yeah. I had a friend like that. Yeah. I hated going out with him.
Oh my God. And I was a, I was a little punk. Yeah. I mean, I was little, but I always had like the older friends or the bigger friends. And so I would start the fights, but they would finish them for me. Got it. But, but I can only imagine being that friend, right? Like that would suck to have a friend like that. Yeah.
Especially these days with social media. Cause back then you got in fights. No one knew about it. Yeah. It was low key, but now it's all over the internet as soon as you do it now. That's what I tell my kids. I got two teenage daughters and two younger boys, and I tell them, girls, whatever you do now, if it's on video, it's there forever. It's going to haunt you. Yeah.
Getting in fights isn't worth it anymore. Now you'll just get sued. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Especially someone like you, you know, we'll dive into the business side of things soon, but crazy story. It sounds like, yeah. Wow. Yeah. I got to like acid and shrooms and then I stopped there. Okay.
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Chapter 4: How did Tony Wells start his successful business?
And so I, I started to get this attitude of gratitude and, and so this is, you know, this is 18 years ago. Um, but then my wife also encouraged me to go to church. Right. So God's working through people. He's working through my sponsor to work my character. He's working through my wife. He's working through the pastor.
And before, I grew up in a religious household, but I didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so around the age of like 19, 20 is when I wrote off God. I actually didn't want anything to do with it because religion and God to me were the same thing. But she encouraged me to go to this church.
And at this church, this pastor, and it's a big church, like probably a thousand people in this church. And the pastor was like, hey, like, I don't care if you've ever been to prison, you're a prostitute, you're a drug addict, like you're welcome here. And that was the first time I ever heard that from the pulpit. So I was like, you know what? Like, I'll continue to come back.
Because I felt like he was talking right to me, even though he's talking to a thousand people. So that's when my life, you know, really started to change. Wow. What a journey, man. And you're still on it now. Now you're crushing it. Yeah. When did the business start from there? Was it shortly after that you started going to church?
Yeah. So, you know, like becoming a, you know, even a millionaire and then a multimillionaire, that didn't happen until I was 40 years old. Wow. You know, I'm 45 now. So I made my first, like I made my first million, like million in my family's bank account when I was 40 years old.
And how that happened is in 2017, um, my, the gentleman that was my sponsor now, 18 years ago, he started a roofing company and he said, he, he called me one day and he's like, Hey, you know, I was, I was, um,
meditating and and and god told me to call you and ask you to be a partner in my company and at that same time my wife and i and our four kids were living out in newport beach california and i was on my knees and and i was praying and i said you know because my wife and my oldest daughter wanted to move back to minnesota i wanted to stay in cali because i came from a trailer park so i was living my dream
we were, we were, we were broke, but I was still living my dream. And that was to be out on the beach. And I'm praying like, God, if you want us to move back to Minnesota, like you're going to have to open that door wide open.
And if you don't want us to like, just go ahead and slam that door shut in Courtney's face and let her know, like we're supposed to be here in Cali and stay here and, and all is going to be well. But if that is your will, just let me know. And that same day, I got that call. And the call was, I was meditating. God told me to ask you to be a part of my company. So I told Courtney that.
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Chapter 5: What sales techniques did Tony Wells use in his business?
That's probably the normal. Um, and then, then you got your rock stars, right? You got your guys that'll make 500,000, um, 600,000, but you know, you got your outlier that, you know, went into 250 solid for no college degree. And yeah, you know, yeah, you could start at a pretty young age. Dude, what was cool about our company is that 70% of our staff were in recovery.
Wow. So that was a passion point for you. It was a passion point. You saw yourself in them, right? Yeah. And 30% of them were felons. Wow. So you didn't care about criminal record? I didn't. I should say, as long as there wasn't any kind of like, you know,
predatory right stuff you know yeah um where where our employees the the most of their criminal background you know maybe some of it was you know assault charges but the majority of it was drug related yeah yeah because back then you could get arrested for weed yeah
Chapter 6: How did Tony Wells grow his company to $35 million?
yeah which is now legal almost everywhere correct yeah so we had guys that went to prison for you know selling a lot of dope and yeah um we're now now it's illegal a lot of entrepreneurs started selling weed man yeah a lot i did that was mine i was 15 yeah i was 15 when i started yeah high school or carla no i did in college pay for my uh food okay you're selling selling dope or weed yeah is that what weed is i don't know the terms these days
And I don't, I'm 45. It might be called something different, but all right. So you're, you're, you're selling, you're selling weed in college. I was selling weed when I was 15. So would you, would you buy it in the pounds or like, how'd you start out?
No, I never got to the pounds level. Okay. Yeah. I got to like a QP. Yeah. Or HP is the most. Okay. And then I would split that with someone just so I'd be able to smoke for free and then cover my liquor and eating expenses for the week or whatever. Okay. You know? Yeah. And I was in room 420 in my hall. Shut up. Yeah. Shut up. Yeah. Shut up. It was destiny. What? It was destiny.
So I had to. Come on. If you get room 420 and you're not doing weed. That's a crazy story. Yeah. Yeah, my mom was a little old school, you know, a little slap in the face sometimes. Yeah. I think tough love is good, though. Yeah. It worked on me. Because you still need a little bit of respect and fear, you know, if you're going to listen.
Well, it's... You know, I think that's one thing that's different about today, right? Where society says... how you can correct your children. You know, for me growing up, you know, I want to honor, I want to honor my step, my dad, he wasn't in the picture from the age of 14 to 24. And then he ultimately died when he's 56. He was, he's also an addict and alcoholic.
So my stepdad, he really raised me. But we didn't see eye to eye, you know, growing up. And he definitely parented me differently than how I parent my children today. And the reason is because of how I was parented growing up. I'm purposefully different in how I discipline my children because of that. But... I still believe that, you know, like in the Bible, right? Not to spare the rod.
I don't, I don't beat my kids, but I'm still firm with them. Yeah. You know, but, but not as firm as maybe how children were raised, especially like back in the day. Oh, back in the day, you're getting fistfights with your parents. Oh, well, I don't even know if you're getting fistfights, like, Your dad's pounding on you in the 1950s, right? You're not talking back.
Unless you're grown. No, my dad grew up on a farm and they got works to death, man. Yeah, but that's how it was. These days, you can't. Yeah, you lay a hand, you're getting canceled. Yeah.
You lay a hand on your kids. Yeah. Yeah, times have changed. But like you said, the respect needs to be there. Correct. Now I see a lot of kids walking over their parents. You know, they're just glued to their phones or whatever. They don't even listen to their parents at the dinner table. Dude, the phones, the iPads, like it's a problem. It is.
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