Don't Do Nothing

[00:00:00] Aaron: You were looking in the eye of a life sentence. 

[00:00:02] Tom: Two of them actually. And that was when I knew I’d gone too far. I ended up in prison and I almost died and all this other stuff. And then when I decided to go straight and I decided to become a businessman, I wanted to actually have more in life. That being a druggie made everything a thousand times harder.

[00:00:19] Tom: You know, like somebody goes, like, started at zero. How about I was like, minus 30 

[00:00:24] Aaron: owner of planes, helicopters, all sorts of stuff, but giving back way more. Why do you give away so much of your money? Guys, today we have probably the most prominent person we’ve ever had on the show. 

[00:00:36] Tom: Oh no, we’re 

[00:00:37] Aaron: are high and close.

[00:00:38] Tom: Okay. 

[00:00:39] Aaron: Uh, this, this man has had the most intense transformation that I’ve seen on human being, um, at least personally myself. Okay. Okay. 

[00:00:48] Tom: Okay. 

[00:00:49] Aaron: From literally being an arrested drug dealer. Okay. Yeah. An addict. 

[00:00:54] Tom: Yeah. 

[00:00:54] Aaron: Okay. 

[00:00:55] Tom: Yeah. 

[00:00:55] Aaron: Uh, living on, on, I mean. Jail per permanently. You were looking [00:01:00] in the eye of a life sentence, 

[00:01:03] Tom: and two of them, actually 

[00:01:04] Aaron: two life sentences.

[00:01:04] Aaron: It’s multiple I barrel, double barrel 

[00:01:07] Tom: baby. 

[00:01:08] Aaron: And transforming all of this through finding out about himself with a technology of Dianetics and Scientology, and then becoming not just a creator of a massive company and now chairman of the Board of American Power and Gas, which literally has provided jobs to hundreds of thousands of people.

[00:01:26] Tom: GG gazillion, a gion. 

[00:01:28] Aaron: Lot, lot, lot, lot of people. A lot. A lot of people. Okay. Yeah, yeah, 

[00:01:30] Tom: yeah. 

[00:01:31] Aaron: Providing jobs, providing energy. Setting an example for not just business people, for spiritual people, for anybody who doesn’t think that they can transform and can change from wherever they’re at to where they want to be.

[00:01:44] Aaron: And owner of planes, helicopters, all sorts of stuff like living a, a, a fancy life. But giving back way more. Yeah. Way, way more than anything he’s consumed personally. Yeah. To bring that person who not even close, who was, who [00:02:00] was like him at one time, to move them up. He is the number one contributor to creating ideal churches of Scientology on the planet.

[00:02:06] Tom: That’s 

[00:02:07] Aaron: true. Number one. Yeah. Okay. The second largest contributor to a monument to El Ron Hubbard himself, which is gonna be here in Clearwater, 

[00:02:15] Tom: the hall. Mm-hmm. 

[00:02:16] Aaron: El Ron Hubbard Hall. And the third largest contributor to the International Association of Scientologists. 

[00:02:21] Tom: That’s true. 

[00:02:21] Aaron: Massive powerhouse Tom Cums.

[00:02:22] Aaron: Yeah. Hundreds 

[00:02:23] Tom: of millions of dollars. 

[00:02:24] Aaron: Hundreds of millions of dollars. 

[00:02:26] Tom: Yep. 

[00:02:26] Aaron: You heard that. Right? And to donate that much, you gotta make, you gotta make, oh man, I can. Woo. So we’ll get into it. Welcome to the show. 

[00:02:32] Tom: Thank you. 

[00:02:32] Aaron: Wow. 

[00:02:33] Tom: Wow. Hi guys. 

[00:02:36] Aaron: Tom, I wanna start at the beginning. I wanna start before, I’m glad you have 

[00:02:39] Brad: somewhere to start.

[00:02:39] Brad: ’cause I don’t even 

[00:02:39] know 

[00:02:40] Aaron: where to start with this guy. I, I, you know, you know, I, I wanna start like, you, you came to this world. Okay. And somehow you ended up. Which a story that a lot of us know or, or have heard of. Right. It’s kind of like folklore legend at this point. Mm-hmm. But literally like face on the ground, like getting arrested, all that [00:03:00] whole thing.

[00:03:00] Aaron: Like, but before that, how, how did you end up there? What 

[00:03:04] Tom: was upbringing? Well, you know, you know, I mean, like everyone else in life, I mean, I mean, it’s like, uh, you know, I grew up in a really great family. My mom and dad were good people. Unfortunately, they did not know how to ha uh, handle a wild one. Mm-hmm.

[00:03:20] Tom: Right? They didn’t have tools. I mean, they’re good people. They’re very Christian, very uh, uh, very devout Catholics. And, you know, I, I became, um, you know, an altar boy. I did the whole communion and, you know, all the different things that we did in that religion, right. But they didn’t know. And unfortunately it’s, it’s the, the, the elements that we’ve learned in Scientology of how to handle the different aspects of life.

[00:03:49] Tom: They did not have these tools. So it’s a disadvantage for them having a tiger by the tail and I was the tiger. Mm-hmm. Right? And, um, so there was that [00:04:00] issue and then there was the, um, it just, 

[00:04:04] Aaron: and where, where was it? Where, like where, where were you born? Where did you 

[00:04:06] Tom: grow? Oh, no, no, no. I was born in America, you know, mid, got moved to Las Vegas, which was a very, I miss opportune time for me because, you know, you take an adventurous person like myself.

[00:04:19] Tom: Yeah. And you stick ’em into a city, sin city. They, they call it sin city, you know, it stays in Vegas, stays in Vegas. That’s not true. Right. And it’s, uh, so there’s the. The problem with Vegas, there’s just too much money to be had. Mm-hmm. There’s too much to go. And if you’re young and dumb and full of, you know what you’re gonna spend that money on girls and drugs and Oh, the booze was free.

[00:04:43] Tom: You had all the free alcohol you ever wanted. So it was not a very, it was a very unethical type of place in the moral structure of that city didn’t exist. 

[00:04:53] Aaron: Mm. 

[00:04:53] Tom: You know, it didn’t exist. Right. You know? What age 

[00:04:56] Aaron: did you get there? 

[00:04:56] Tom: Huh? 

[00:04:57] Aaron: What age 

[00:04:57] Tom: did you five. I moved there five. So I grew up in [00:05:00] Vegas. I grew up in Old World Vegas.

[00:05:02] Tom: And you just, and it actually, it dements your mind of how you think, but what is normal, right? Mm-hmm. And, you know, and it’s, uh, it’s, it’s, this is a true story. My first telemarketing job was working for a call girl sitter. 

[00:05:19] Wow. 

[00:05:19] Tom: No way. True story. True story. You know, people would see these advertisement for prostitution and I answered the phone and the customers.

[00:05:28] Tom: It’s 

[00:05:28] those cards. Those cards that they send out. 

[00:05:31] Tom: Oh my God. No, it true. 

[00:05:32] Brad: That did that used to be legal? It was, 

[00:05:34] Tom: no, it was all done. They come out, weren’t just gonna book a date. And you know, what happens between two in consulting adults that’s up onto you, you know, and da dah. 

[00:05:43] So you remember the pitch still?

[00:05:44] Tom: Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it’s um, so it’s, it’s Dement. Yeah. And then you add the drugs on it. 

[00:05:54] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:05:54] Tom: And it was in that era of time where, ’cause we were just young kids and I, I had a very [00:06:00] normal childhood. Good parents, good neighborhood. We had boys, we had the huge desert to go play in. We had horses and dogs and motorcycles and mini bikes and go-karts, normal.

[00:06:13] Tom: Middle of America, no different than anybody else. Then we’re in a van and knowing a Volkswagen bug. Mm-hmm. Driving up to the mountains with, uh, one of my friends, his hippie sister and her hippie boyfriend. Next thing you know, somebody hands a joint to us in the backseat and he goes, here, you guys could have some of this.

[00:06:33] Tom: Just don’t tell mom. Right? Mm. So this was like, we get this marijuana cigarette and we’re looking at this and we’re looking at each other going, okay. You know, and it, this is where it started. 12 years old. 

[00:06:46] Brad: Wow. 

[00:06:46] Tom: You know, and then it just went on and on and on. And when you hang out with people who do drugs, you’re gonna find people who do different drugs.

[00:06:55] Tom: And then it just, one thing led to the other, and it was, so by the [00:07:00] time I made up into my twenties, the volume of drugs and the, in the different categories and all the different things done, I had done every drug known to man at that time. It was the quantity mm-hmm. That we were doing. And it was unbelievable to the point where I figured I had to get out.

[00:07:23] Tom: Yeah. I saw my friends going to jail or going into a grave. Mm-hmm. And this is where I saw these two roads leading to. And then I had a moment that happened to me when I was in my, you know, when I was 22 years of old age and I had to go enough. 

[00:07:41] Mm-hmm. 

[00:07:41] Tom: I need to stop. 

[00:07:42] Yeah. 

[00:07:42] Tom: And I need help. And I went and talk to my mom, which was useless.

[00:07:47] Tom: I mean, I love my mom, don’t get me wrong, but she had no idea to do with me. And, uh, she go, call your sister. Call your sister. She helps you. She lives in la she helps people. And so I did. And I was supposed to go see her. That [00:08:00] was on a Thursday. I was supposed to go see her on a, on a s what was it on a Monday.

[00:08:06] Tom: So I figured what I would do is one more drug deal. So I’d have some money. And I got arrested and I, and, and that just changed everything. Mm-hmm. I got busted big time and, um, it changed my life. So I’m there in jail, orange jumpsuit going through that whole drill and, um, yeah, it was, um, a bad hair day.

[00:08:27] Brad: Yeah. Question. Yeah. A hot take. 

[00:08:30] Tom: Yeah. 

[00:08:30] Brad: Is marijuana a gateway to it? A gateway drug. 

[00:08:34] Tom: Okay. It’s guys, it’s like, when you say gateway drug, you know, I, I, I’m not a professional drug rehabilitation thing, but if you’re gonna look, here’s the deal. When you go, we smoked. I, I can promise you guys, this is a pretty good sized room.

[00:08:52] Tom: I filled this room with the amount of marijuana that I’ve spoken, so I’m not sitting here from a holier than thou viewpoint. I, [00:09:00] I love, that’s, that’s why I’m asking. I loved my marijuana. I love my fucking pot. I love my tie sticks. I love my better bud. I loved the bong. I smoked. Pot every day of my life from 2012 to 22.

[00:09:15] Tom: Okay. I loved it. And I was always high. Right. Okay, so then what would you, 

[00:09:20] Brad: can you clarify? 12 years old to 22 years old? 

[00:09:22] Tom: Yeah. Do I say it backwards or? No, you’re fine. It’s good. It’s okay. Fine. Good. But the point I’m making, see, it was the pot. I had a relapse. Right. I forgot. So, so, but like, think about it guys.

[00:09:32] Tom: Think about what you say. Right? Hey, man, you wanna go get up? 

[00:09:37] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

[00:09:38] Tom: I mean, think about now you don’t mean physically, you mean mentally or spiritually. Let’s get up. How about this? Let’s get wasted. This is one way we, we use those words. I think you use the same words now. Oh, absolutely. I can’t imagine they, they came up, Hey, let’s get stoned.

[00:09:56] Tom: Oh, let’s like, become a rock, you know, [00:10:00] you know, be, become wasted and all these things. And now I’m not gonna say I never had fun. At any of the times when we got stoned, we got fucked up. It is true, we did. Now I come out, I’m 22 years of age, I finally get out of that prison or that jail and I and I, and I decide I want to change my life.

[00:10:26] Tom: Oh, I don’t know how to read or write. I’m a moron. I’m not educated. ’cause I was always high at school. Did not learn. Hardly how they let me graduate is beyond my wildest imagination, right? And now I wanna go live this thing called life. So here’s the point. It’s not that it, it, it’s like I didn’t have fun.

[00:10:54] Tom: It’s not like I didn’t enjoy it. It’s like, you know, just like I smoked my cigars, now I [00:11:00] enjoy them, right? The point I’m making here is it made me stupid. Mm. And it, it, it simplifies, you know? Come on guys. If anybody has smoked pot, you’re sitting there and you get high as a kite. And you’re just fucking stupid.

[00:11:16] Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:16] Tom: You get, you get stoned, you’re fucked up. You’re wasted. You know, especially the pot we smoke. If you’re not having that happen, you’re smoking wa, weed, ragweed. You’ve got cheap bastards. Get some good shit if you’re gonna do this. But it got to be to where you just take one or two hits and you’re outta your mind.

[00:11:35] Tom: Yeah, you’re so wasted. Or you had such quantities of pot oil in your bloodstream. All you had to do is just add a little bit more and you’re wasted again. Right? Mm-hmm. So the point I’m making here is now. I wanna live a life. Mm-hmm. I don’t want to be a pothead. I don’t want to be a drug lead. I don’t want to.

[00:11:57] Tom: I want to succeed. I got [00:12:00] outta jail. While I was in jail. I promised everybody that I could think of my dad, dad, Jesus Christ, God himself, Moses Buddha, you name it. I promised them I get out. I change my life. 

[00:12:11] Aaron: Wow. 

[00:12:12] Tom: Now I want to change my life. I’m a idiot. 

[00:12:14] Mm. 

[00:12:15] Tom: I’m a fucking idiot. Yeah. I do not know how to type.

[00:12:18] Tom: I can’t write. I don’t know how to spell. I can’t. If it wasn’t for the word shit, I couldn’t form a sentence. Right. It’s just how do you win in life like that? How do you win in life? If you’re just a piece of shit, how do you do? But the point of making, I made the decision. I want to go do that. I want to go win in life.

[00:12:43] Tom: I want to become something that I could be proud of. And you know, all these people I promised. But it’s the point I’m making because I was a hothead and I was wasted all the time, and I, it, it was 10, 15, [00:13:00] 20 times harder. Mm-hmm. Had I not 

[00:13:02] mm-hmm. 

[00:13:03] Tom: Had I not, you know, I would, if I could have been, I look at these young guys grow up in our church, the Mormons, the, you know, some other people there that actually abstain from 

[00:13:15] Brad: mm-hmm.

[00:13:16] Brad: Yep. 

[00:13:17] Tom: Themselves up. It’s 

[00:13:19] Brad: a lot of Christians do today too. They abstain. A lot of Christians are starting. 

[00:13:22] Tom: Yeah. Yeah. And as they should. So guys, it’s like, first of all, if you listen in this and you’re a pothead, I get it. I was there. I understand. It’s fun. It’s addictive. Don’t say it’s not addictive because you couldn’t stop if you wanted to.

[00:13:37] Tom: Right. Yeah. You know, it is addictive just like tobacco is, and, and uh, you know, but it does, it will take away from the quality of your life. You’re not gonna. Die. You just might wish you could. Right? Because it does your life up and just as if you were an alcoholic. It’s no different. It’s a different type of, uh, [00:14:00] disadvantage.

[00:14:01] Tom: You know, if you drink too goddamn much, if you smoke too goddamn much and do all these things, it’s gonna be a disadvantage. ’cause the whole thing that is gonna give you a quality of life is you. And if you go yourself up, waste yourself, stone yourself, dampen yourself, drunken yourself. Who’s it gonna live your life?

[00:14:24] Tom: Mm-hmm. And if you look at the piece of shit life you have, then you can actually understand, well, well we’ll transform that. If you have a piece of shit life, no one did it but you. 

[00:14:36] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:14:36] Tom: And you look at these habits that you formed along the way. And, and that is the problem with drugs. It’s not that they didn’t have fun and we didn’t enjoy ourselves.

[00:14:45] Tom: We didn’t have some good laughs here and there. And I’m not trying to say that it’s the destructiveness. Mm-hmm. That carries for you because you will not be as effective in any way, shape, or f form by being as pothead. It won’t [00:15:00] ha it’s impossible. Fucking impossible. 

[00:15:01] Aaron: That, that’s a, that’s a good segue because you told me a story how, you know, a one thing that people tell themselves, especially when they’re addicts, is that mm-hmm.

[00:15:08] Aaron: They’re smarter, they’re, they know more. They can only operate, they can only do the work that they’re doing while they’re high. 

[00:15:14] Brad: I hear this from people 

[00:15:15] Aaron: all the time. That that is the thing, like, it, it, it will boost them. Yep. And you told me a story about a time when you said, oh, you know, you were extremely high.

[00:15:23] Aaron: Maybe you could tell a story and you had a, a realization. So you’re like, you’re gonna go record it. 

[00:15:28] Tom: No, not. Okay. What? No, this is, this is the thing. A period of time that changed my life. Right. This is where I went. Uh oh. Uh oh. Right. Is um. You know, we got to a point in time where, you know, you’d ask if it was a gateway drug.

[00:15:44] Tom: Yeah. ’cause you go, go, you go to somebody’s house to get high, there’s gonna always be someone that brings other drugs. I mean, it’s just inevitable. So the answer is, yeah, it is. Obviously if you’re gonna smoke pot, you’re going to get exposed to all these other drugs. Whether you take ’em or [00:16:00] not, that’s on you.

[00:16:01] Tom: But the point is, I freaking promise they’re gonna be there. And we got into every drug that was known in men. ’cause you go to a place where other druggies hang out to. Mm-hmm. And they’re gonna bring other, other drugs. And just, if you go where people are booze heads, they’re gonna go to a bar and there’s other types of alcohol.

[00:16:17] Tom: It’s just normal, right? Mm-hmm. It’s not like some calculated, it’s just normal. Right? Yep. So we got into cocaine. Really, really, really heavy. And in those days, that time of, um, was very popular. It was before crack cocaine was invented. We did what was called freebasing, which was basically the precursor to crack cocaine, which means when they make cocaines down in the jungles of wherever, it’s not water soluble.

[00:16:44] Tom: You can’t snort it. You can’t bring it in unless they add hydrochloric acid to it, which makes it water. How about that for a nice little additive to your cocaine, right? That’s what allows you to snort it, right? And then they, by the time it moves from all these [00:17:00] processes, people step on it and cut it, and cut it, and cut it.

[00:17:03] Tom: Dilute it. Dilute it. Diluted, diluted, diluted. So maybe when you’re getting a gram of cocaine and you pay your a hundred bucks for it, whatever it costs nowadays, um, it’s maybe 50% cocaine. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. If you’re lucky, right? So when you take it and free base it, it’s a way that you go and wash the cocaine.

[00:17:24] Tom: You take I, God, if I remember it was something like, uh, baking soda. And rubbing alcohol. And you take it and you bring it, you pour your cocaine into it, you bring it to a boil, and then you lay it out on a, a, a, what do you call it? A mirror. And it dries, alcohol dries off, and you just have, uh, this white powder that shows up.

[00:17:44] Tom: You scrape it up, it’s pure cocaine. Mm-hmm. All the, all the, um, stuff in junk, all that stuff has been washed out of it. And that’s why they call it free base. You take it down to base cocaine. Mm-hmm. Before you, they made it water soluble. But the only thing you can do with it is [00:18:00] smoke it. 

[00:18:00] Aaron: Mm. Oh, 

[00:18:01] Tom: okay. You can can’t snort it.

[00:18:02] Tom: Right. Wow. And man, it’ll you up. It’ll get you so high. It’s not even funny. So we started off with that. We’d buy one or two grams. Okay. Fast forward. We got so bad where it got down to four of us would get together in a night, we’d buy an ounce of cocaine. 

[00:18:23] Brad: Wow. 

[00:18:23] Tom: Which is 32 grams. Wow. And we’d sit down and free base that and we’d smoke an ounce of cocaine a night amongst four or five people.

[00:18:34] Brad: Wow. 

[00:18:35] Tom: Dude. This we’re talking and taking a one or two grams of cocaine and smoking it on one hit. 

[00:18:42] Brad: Wow. 

[00:18:43] Tom: Anyway. It was intense. How I didn’t die was incredible. Now to your story, right? Mm-hmm. So we’re, and we, and this is what would happen. This is, this is the stupid part, right? Because I had to go to work in the morning, I was a telemarketer and I had a job and I to go.

[00:18:59] Tom: [00:19:00] So I stay up till like, you know, we, I, you know, and I, and I would go to, I don’t know, 10, 11, 12 o’clock at night. 11 o’clock, one in the morning, smoking all this $2,000 worth of fucking cocaine. 

[00:19:14] Brad: That’s, I was gonna ask like two grand in 

[00:19:15] Tom: one night. Two, yeah, about two grand in about buy an ounce for two grand at that time.

[00:19:19] Tom: And, but there was four of us, so we, it was like, what, $500 each, right? Oh, what a bargain. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. Well, we sell drugs all day long so we could go buy our, our coke, right? Anyway, the point I’m making here, we would smoke all this. This was going on for about two weeks. It got that intense and, um.

[00:19:38] Tom: And then you’d sit and then your coke would run out. Now, you know, you had to go to sleep. So start eating quaaludes and drinking like hard liquor so you could go to sleep. 

[00:19:46] Brad: Mm wow. 

[00:19:47] Tom: And then like just, you know, like that, like how stupid, let’s get this high with like $500 worth of coke and then use $20 worth of booze and pills to take you down.

[00:19:56] Tom: I mean like, like how about how, how, how stupid is that? [00:20:00] Anyway, 

[00:20:00] Brad: yeah, it should have been $500. 

[00:20:01] Tom: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But uh, so we actually, I came to go to bed. I was tired or whatever, jacked up or whatever, high as a kite. And, um, I saw a tape deck, an old Panasonic tape deck by my bed, and I’m like, how’d that get there?

[00:20:20] Tom: I was like, I still to this day have no idea how it was. So I just got curious about it. And there was a microphone with it, like a handheld, handheld one. So I hit record and I started talking to it. And guys, this is the part. They talk about creativity, right? And um, I started talking into this and I felt for myself that I sounded amazing.

[00:20:45] Tom: I found myself incredible. I found myself like I was a mixture of Gandhi and Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, and you name it. Anybody who has ever said any fantastic words over the period of time. I [00:21:00] have been coming amalgamated all of that into that conversation. I was like blown the away of my conversation.

[00:21:09] And how good, how 

[00:21:10] Tom: That’s what your thoughts are. No, because like, you know, like, I’m like never really spoke well and never spoke eloquently, never had anything worse saying, and, and the words were just flowing out of me. Like it was something damn gorgeous, right? And I was like, wow. Wow. Couldn’t believe it.

[00:21:28] Tom: Turned the thing off, got there, got to bed, go to sleep, passed the out, get up the next day. And I go, whoa, there’s the tape deck. I remember, yeah. I’m like going, cool, right? 

[00:21:39] Brad: The secrets of the universe. 

[00:21:41] Tom: Oh my God, there’s, I get all these guys, right? So let’s go to hear what I have to say. I hit play. I started listening to this and I had the biggest shock I’ve ever seen in my life.

[00:21:53] Tom: All I heard was,[00:22:00] 

[00:22:00] Tom: I’m like, like some retarded person being electric. Shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I’m like, oh my God. I actually officially knew I’d lost my sh I lost my shit. Okay. God. And that was when I knew I’d gone too far. Mm. And this is, and it was from that event that stopped me. And I’m gonna say something here and you, I hate me for it, but too bad, I’m gonna say it anyway.

[00:22:32] Tom: This people that think this is what is gonna help bring out their artful creation, that they have to do this. Here’s the problem I have with it. Modern day art looks like, okay, okay, where’s the beauty? Where’s you, you know, guys. You are a spiritual being. You are not your body. You have a body. Thank God I have a body.

[00:22:56] Tom: It’s not me. This thing called [00:23:00] die. You’ll see it city here. You could have this body dead and sit here. The eyes close, it will look like Tom. But if I’m not here to automate it, it doesn’t mean anything. I’m not it. Okay? You are not it. I have one. You is where the glory comes from. You is where the art comes from.

[00:23:26] Tom: You is where all the beautifulness that you bring and add to life. And I’m tell you something, drugs will fall. You up? Mm. Okay. This is what the words we use. Mm-hmm. Okay, let’s go get fucked up. Yeah. It’s not your body that’s, yeah. It can get incapacitated. You can get the body drunk and you can fix it, you know, handle all, its, uh, what would you call it?

[00:23:51] Tom: The central nervous system and all that. But more importantly is you as a spiritual being, this is where the ful, and you [00:24:00] go out there guys, and you look at these authors that can write books, that can write, um, you know, like people like Wilbur Smith and, and Bernard Cornwell and, and different guys that can, these are guys books that as a man, I enjoy these things.

[00:24:16] Tom: They can take me places, transport me in time. And you read them and you’re like, oh my God, this is you, you, you read about a, a war story and you come out and your hair’s pted back. You’ve got gunpowder on your face and splinters in your arms from reading a book. It’s one of the most gorgeous things that they can transport us to places.

[00:24:41] Tom: Okay. And, and, and make us laugh. And make us cry and, and and, and it’s art. Okay. And, and you’re not gonna be able to go do that if you’re fucked up. Okay. And I’m telling you some of the thing that artists, that you see, some of these paintings that are capable of being painted. And [00:25:00] I go into these old buildings in Europe where I travel around and you just look at these pictures and you just go, how did they do this?

[00:25:07] Tom: How did they, how did they bring these about how this, the tools they had at those times? And you just like the, how they bring about a bean in these people and they, they, it’s like magic. It’s so fucking phenomenal. And you look at some of the stuff that they try to pass off for art now it’s looked like somebody took some paint and wiped their ass with it.

[00:25:28] Tom: And I, and I, and I am being derogatorily ’cause it’s. Up. It’s not okay. And I’m calling a spade a spade, from my opinion, that isn’t art. It’s horses and it’s driving down the tonality of society and I don’t buy into it and I don’t think it’s cool. You know, stop getting high, get your head outta your ass and they start making some real art.

[00:25:51] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:25:51] Tom: My opinion. 

[00:25:52] Brad: Love that. Nice. Yeah. 

[00:25:55] Tom: So then we’ll see the haters come out. Right. 

[00:25:57] Brad: Good, good. I can’t wait. Oh my gosh. 

[00:25:59] Tom: [00:26:00] Yeah, so, ’cause it needs, I mean, because here’s the point, guys, the artist is so important. 

[00:26:06] Aaron: Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

[00:26:06] Tom: Because you’re painting the picture for tomorrow. 

[00:26:09] Aaron: Yeah. 

[00:26:10] Tom: Tomorrow is drawn, written by the artists.

[00:26:14] Tom: Is so valuable. Is so important that they do their job. 

[00:26:21] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:26:21] Tom: They are the ones that paint tomorrow, literally as in literature and physically as in paintings, as in movies, as in art, and what have you. Okay. And I tell you, it is this, this thing, I use it as a crutch. Okay, well fucking stop being a cripple.

[00:26:39] Tom: Yeah. You don’t get your together. That’s right. You know, and it’s like, and I didn’t say it was easy. Didn’t say it was, I never said you didn’t have fun while you were high. Never saying any of that stuff, you know. But I tell you something, you know, you go look at what some of the old world masters created in, in their, and then, and then it’s just, you go into [00:27:00] these museums and see them and it’s like, it just leaves you breathless.

[00:27:04] Tom: It’s just absolutely incredible to see these, like, why God, look at what they were able to create with No, I mean, I, I, I actually can’t even fathom how they did that. Mm-hmm. You know? 

[00:27:15] Aaron: Amazing. 

[00:27:15] Tom: Can’t even fathom it. 

[00:27:17] Aaron: Okay. And so then you were in this life and you had this realization, you have to stop. So is that shortly after, that’s when you called your mom and you asked for help?

[00:27:26] Aaron: Like right after this 

[00:27:27] Tom: incident? That was the same day. I mean, it was like, I, I woke up on that Thursday morning, hit play, went, oh fuck. That night I went, talked to my mom. She said, call your sister. I called her. It was a Thursday night. I called her. She go, come see me on Monday. I got arrested on Sunday. So, oops.

[00:27:44] Brad: Okay, then you’re in, you’re in jail. 

[00:27:46] Tom: Right. 

[00:27:46] Brad: You, you handle it somehow. Somehow handle 

[00:27:49] Aaron: Well, that story I have to, that we have to get it. I mean, I know it’s like, yeah, there’s limited time in, in jail. I feel like that was also, I mean, that was like a, a moment of divinity somehow [00:28:00] because something happened in that jail, you know?

[00:28:01] Tom: Well, I changed my mind, you know? Yeah. I mean, it’s just like, 

[00:28:04] Brad: yeah, but explain that 

[00:28:05] Tom: because, okay, fine, fine. No, I will. Okay, guys. ’cause guys, I just spent the last 10 years of my life. Existing as a druggie and a drug pusher. Alright. I had a job, I was a telemarketer. Pretty good one at that, mind you. Right.

[00:28:22] Tom: Made good money. Um, and, and it was about drugs and it was about girls and it was about getting laid and it was about physical sensation and it was being numb all the time. And this was, my life was being numb and, you know, trying to stay high and have an orgasm. Okay. I mean, this is like what life existed as, right?

[00:28:45] Tom: Mm-hmm. As a 22-year-old kid growing up in Vegas, alright? Mm-hmm. And, um, when the, the hammer came down and I get arrested, um, going to jail. We’re popular for about two seconds ’cause we’re on the [00:29:00] news now. We’re back within about 200 people in a rather large, um, dormitory type jail saying. And they each, instead of having a room, you had a cage and there would be like, like six or eight people per cage, and then they’d open up the doors and you’d go into a common area.

[00:29:18] Tom: Like sounds healthy. Right. You know. Um, and what I saw, I saw two things. Number one, I talked to guys go, why are you in here? What did you do? It was a kind of common question, right? Yeah. And, and I mean, this guys, there wasn’t one exception to this. They were either selling drugs 

[00:29:45] Brad: mm-hmm. 

[00:29:45] Tom: Like I was and got caught and now they’re right like me, or they were high on drugs or wasted on alcohol and did something stupid.

[00:29:59] Tom: [00:30:00] Now they’re. Like me and they’re gonna go to prison. They’re in a jail waiting to go through the court system and they’re gonna go to prison. Like for years and years and years, or like me, for the rest of my life, I was 22. They said, if this gets happened, you would be eligible for parole when you’re 55.

[00:30:23] Tom: Wow. I know. It was three and a half million hits of amphetamines. They were pissed. Okay. Truckload. So the, the, the, the, the, the point of making here, there wasn’t one exception in these hundreds of guys. You know? Okay. Not talk to every one of them, but if you talk to 30 of them and you find out 100% of them were either high or wasted on alcohol or drugs and they did something stupid, now they end up here or they got caught selling drugs like me, I can pretty much carry forward that.

[00:30:57] Tom: Yeah. You know, there might be an outlier or whatever, but. [00:31:00] Who ends up in jail that are gonna go spend the rest of their life in prison without being stupid. Mm-hmm. At what makes you stupid? Being drunk or high in something. You see where I’m going? Mm-hmm. I mean, it’s like pretty much inevitable, right?

[00:31:13] Tom: Mm-hmm. So now, and I noticed that I went, wow, that, that’s a reality shifter. But what was worse, or I don’t know if I want to call it worse, what I found it was fascinating. I could sit there. This is before I became a Scientologist, I knew all about anything, right? Is that I saw these guys shifting their beingness.

[00:31:39] Tom: They, they, ’cause, you know, in, in Nevada. Where I grew up, they have prisons. At that time, it was literally carved out of a solid rock mountain, and it was up in, out of Carson City. I forget the name of it. It was Nesty. And this is where their long-term felons went to. [00:32:00] And it was like living inside, I can’t even fathom.

[00:32:03] Tom: I can’t even like in a 

[00:32:04] Brad: cave, 

[00:32:04] Tom: like a cave, but with cages in, in a mountain. Yeah. In a mountain. And no, I mean, I, I’m like going, I can’t even think with this. Right. And the, and the viciousness that would they start 

[00:32:15] Brad: getting shorter like a dwarf? 

[00:32:16] Tom: I would. Got it. But no, they started putting ugly on. Mm-hmm. They started putting, I’ll kill you before you kill me on, they started changing this thing.

[00:32:27] Tom: I swear to God, I swear to God, I was, the thing that amazed me the most is these two, this white guy and this black guy started going at it because somebody wanted to watch this. One soap opera on this channel. And this guy wanted to watch this soap opera on that channel. And I swear to God, they were gonna kill each other over who got to get what station.

[00:32:54] Tom: And I don’t mean beat each other up and be mean. I mean, as in you, I’m gonna end your [00:33:00] life. Mm-hmm. You’re gonna be dead. 

[00:33:02] Mm-hmm. 

[00:33:03] Tom: And it was, and I just saw this, this guy, do you know what it was? They stopped. They had to take away their humanity. They had to take away their love of their fellow man if they ever had any, and replace it with pure, animalistic, I’m gonna kill you.

[00:33:27] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:33:28] Tom: As is a survival mechanism. And I looked at this and I looked at this, and then here is the thing that saved me. I said. I’m not them. 

[00:33:37] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:33:38] Tom: I’m not that I am human. I am saying I don’t want to kill people. I don’t want to live that life. I will, you know, no, that’s not me. Yeah. Now, I didn’t sit that, make that decision from the viewpoint that that would set me free.

[00:33:57] Tom: But as I move forward in time and go through [00:34:00] the years, I have no doubt in my mind that that was the point where I made the decision, this is not the life for me. This is not what I. I want this is, uh, there’s more to be had. There’s more to, uh, what would you call it, um, experience. I, I have a chance to change the course of my direction and I’ve made the decision, let’s get on with it.

[00:34:24] Tom: Mm-hmm. You know, so then the next thing was, you know, I had to get a bailed outta jail. I got, had to talk my mom into it and her new husband, and that was a great time. And then I got outta jail and I had the court system and I had to get off of all the hard drugs. And I had a mother to get off a pot.

[00:34:39] Tom: That was really hard, you know? ’cause I was a pota holic and all these different things. I needed to change my environment. I had to like, I had to change my life. Mm-hmm. You know, it was really tough, really brutal. But, um, I did it, you know, and after about three years, I, I’m now 25. 

[00:34:59] Aaron: So, [00:35:00] so can, can you go into how, right, because like you mentioned, like, Hey, this person there, hey, if they wanna get off, because from what we’ve seen, and we’ve talked to a few people, a lot of people wanna stop.

[00:35:10] Aaron: They, they literally do not know what to do. So in your case, what did you do to achieve that change? Well, 

[00:35:17] Tom: okay. No, I mean, I, I, I’m being, I’m completely transparent, right? Okay. Um, so I, I had, you know, basically there was the cocaine and the free basing. We had all this paraphernalia and it’s made outta glass ’cause you smoke in the shit, right?

[00:35:33] Tom: And I took ’em all and I crashed ’em up against the, a concrete wall shredded them. ’cause you could go in there and clean them out with alcohol and, and, and just the, the, you, you clean your pip and you can smoke the residue and get high again. I just said, I gotta get all that shit away from me. So I destroyed everything.

[00:35:50] Tom: Just went in there, cleaned the house out from one end to the other. Get and cleaned all the hard drugs. Honest to God, [00:36:00] truth, I couldn’t stop smoking pot. It was so hard for me. Um, I loved my weed. And, uh, um, so I got the, but I knew I had to get out of, uh, Vegas. Um, it was just too much of a history there, you know, it just wrong things, a change environment.

[00:36:17] Tom: Moved to Reno, Nevada. Had a friend up there, moved up there, got a job up there. Um, that was a whole lifestyle. And then, uh, I had an opportunity to move to Los Angeles, start my first company, and I made a decision to go do that. So I did. Right? And I finally go get to meet my sister who helped people. She lived in Los Angeles and what she, and this is how I found Scientology.

[00:36:42] Tom: She’s a Scientologist, right? Had no idea. No, no clue what this was at all right? And so what happened was, um. You know, again, I was, up to that point, I’d gotten off all the hard drugs. I still loved my pot. So I, there’s this [00:37:00] thing that you can do. It’s called the purification rundown. And you, and it’s a sauna system where you sweat exercise, take nutraceuticals, like, you know, minerals and vitamins, and it flushes out your drugs, right?

[00:37:13] Tom: Mm-hmm. And I know I’d taken a lot of pot, smoked a lot of pot forever, ever, right? And, um, so I knew I had a lot of residue in my body, so I went and did the purification. Literally, the night before I did it, I smoked a joint. I went, well, there’s the last one. And, uh, you know, and I went, okay, let’s go do this.

[00:37:32] Tom: And I did it. I mean, see, you know what I, I have to say, it was just a decision I wanna change. Mm-hmm. It’s the decision. 

[00:37:40] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:37:40] Tom: I need to change. And there’s a decision that could be more to life. There’s a decision. You can have more, you know? And, and, and, and, and, and I think, I don’t think I’m any different than anyone else.

[00:37:53] Tom: We all wanna have more. Yeah. We would like to have nicer things. I we’re right here in the holidays and you [00:38:00] have all these people you know, and all these people you care about and you’d like to get nice things for ’em. You’d like the world to be nice. All right. Okay. Well, in order to have nice things, you gotta be able to do better things.

[00:38:14] Tom: Mm. In order to do better things, you have your, you gotta be something better. ’cause if you’re going to, ’cause the guys I’ve owned call centers my entire life and I’ve had people, and I don’t care how they look. Mm-hmm. Because I’ve had people that look like they just fell off the back of a Harley, you know, and they’re like, you know, biker dudes or biker chicks or whatever, like rough characters that just came, actually, some of ’em didn’t just come outta prison or they’re in the halfway house and all this stuff.

[00:38:41] Tom: I don’t care. It doesn’t mean where you’ve been. Mm-hmm. It’s where are you gonna go and our, what are you gonna do about you because you are the one that take you on that path. It isn’t society doing it. You are in the driver’s seat a hundred percent of the time and it’s like how are you going to behave [00:39:00] that will adjust your doing this, which will adjust what you get to have.

[00:39:03] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:39:04] Tom: If you can adjust you. You’re gonna adjust what you do and then you get, and then life will adjust what you have. Mm. And you can have anything you want. I’m a pri prime proof of this. I’ve come from nothing. The only thing I got from my dad was my last name. And, uh, and the rest of it, I earned it. And I keep earning it and I keep working and, and life tries to take it away from me.

[00:39:27] Tom: It’s never, it’s never a point to where you go, woo-hoo, I have this forever. You gotta keep being aware. You gotta keep working at it. You gotta keep putting it there. And you need to have your full attention on it. And, uh, and if you don’t, odds are, I mean, I do mean this odd czar life will come and take it away from you.

[00:39:47] Tom: Mm-hmm. You know? ’cause you just stop paying attention, for lack of a better phrase. Yeah. You know? Anyway, I don’t know. I don’t remember what the question 

[00:39:55] was. 

[00:39:55] Aaron: No, it’s good. Yeah. How, how’d you, how’d you stop? And there it was, you decided, and you did the pur for the 

[00:39:59] [00:40:00] next 

[00:40:00] Brad: and the final and the final solution that handled the weed thing was a purification run.

[00:40:05] Tom: Yeah. The, you know, that was there. I, um, um, yes, to answer your question, well, you know what was interesting? This is a true story, right? 

[00:40:12] Aaron: Yeah. 

[00:40:12] Tom: Um, when you’re doing the purf. It’s this work on this premise. There’s this thing called metabolism. It’s when you’d eat food, drink fluids, bring stuff inside your body, there’s a process.

[00:40:26] Tom: It does something with it. And that process is called metabolize or, you know, metabolism. So now, um, we know if you eat food, you food comes in this way and stuff leaves that way. Right? We know this, right? It’s supposed to work this way. But if you bring in the, your body also has the ability with your lungs, your kidney, your liver, various organs of your body to, if you get a poison inside the body mm-hmm.

[00:40:55] Tom: It can get rid of it now. Mm-hmm. Alcohol, pot, all the [00:41:00] chemicals we’ve taken, the only reason you get high is it is a poison. Mm-hmm. It is what affects you. And it’s by controlling the amount of poison you put in, you can get. You can’t, right? Yeah. And, uh, uh, so what happens is your body is struggling to metabolize this, get rid of this.

[00:41:21] Tom: Right? And, um, and if you get overloaded, it can’t, it’s like can’t take the garbage out. So in order to, it gets overloaded and it can’t take the garbage out, it starts storing it into your fatty tissues. Okay? That’s a fact. It’s proven medical fact that if you, you ingest this stuff and you can’t get rid of it, it goes into the fatty tissues.

[00:41:47] Tom: So what happens, and this is like one, it might get real to you, like alcoholism. One of the problems of trying, someone trying to beat being an alcohol, they get into a stressful situation. [00:42:00] The alcohol stored inside the fatty tissues will come and give them a. Like a little taste, you know, kind of comes in there.

[00:42:08] Tom: Same thing with the pot and whatever. So this is, this is the working. It’s not even a theory, it’s just a fact, right? This is what happens, right? So now I’m in the pur, been in there for a few days and you just go in there and you take uh, minerals and vitamins that are designed to open up the fat and let out, right?

[00:42:28] Tom: And then you sweat, get it out, you know, clean the body, purify. That’s why they call it that, right? So I’m in there, it’s going good. I’m not really having a good time. Like, okay, nice people talking, da da guys. I haven’t had any pot now for about 5, 6, 7 days ’cause I’ve been in there and, uh, and all of a sudden something turned on.

[00:42:53] Tom: I got so. Wasted that I’m like, [00:43:00] like I had just smoked two whole big bag of buds. Right. I mean, I wasted, I don’t know what’s happening. Hadn’t had anything to smoke in a long time. And I have this white terry cloth cow and I’m wiping my face with it. You could see the outline of my hand with this brown stuff that quite luckily looked like either oil or I couldn’t tell.

[00:43:25] Tom: I’m so wasted and it’s coming out of the pores of my skin. 

[00:43:31] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:43:31] Tom: And, and I’m looking at this and I’m wiping my chest and this towel is starting to become brown. 

[00:43:40] Brad: Wow. 

[00:43:40] Tom: And I can’t figure out what’s going on ’cause I’m wasted. I mean, like wasted. Right. Oh my God. And this goes on for probably 20, 30 minutes and I’m wiping my body down.

[00:43:52] Tom: It’s coming out of literally every pore of my body. This towel turned out. It, [00:44:00] it is. I don’t even know. I probably should have saved it. It would’ve been amazing. Um, but it was pot oil. 

[00:44:08] Brad: Wow. 

[00:44:08] Tom: It was the oil from all the pot. If you are any kind of professional pothead, you know what hash oil is, right? It’s the oil that they came from the, um, hashish plant, you know, and instead of smoking it, you can make a fluid with it.

[00:44:22] Tom: Well, pot has a similar thing like that, and this is the body metabolizing and it stick it in into the fatty tissues. Guys, I could have taken that towel and cut it in the little one inch squares and sold each square for $50. You could have put it in a bong and smoked that thing and gotten like 10 people high.

[00:44:42] Tom: It had so much high THC oil in it. I was shocked by it. It was, this is, this is the problem that we get into with the pot. Now that I’ve got that out of my body. 

[00:44:56] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:44:56] Tom: Okay. Now I don’t have that trickling [00:45:00] into my bloodstream, getting me to getting that desire. 

[00:45:05] Yeah. 

[00:45:05] Tom: For the pot. 

[00:45:06] Mm-hmm. 

[00:45:07] Tom: That’s what cleaned it up.

[00:45:08] Tom: That’s what done. So that’s the physical desire. And then you have some counseling you could do is handle the mental thing. ’cause I, I did have fun times. I did. You know what it’d be like, you know, you go to handle problems in life by smoking a joint and becoming numb. Yeah. That doesn’t really handle the problems, but it makes you numb.

[00:45:29] Tom: So temporarily the problems are gone, then you become unknown and the problems are bigger. So you smoke more pot, you give me a more numb, it’s a, a. Thing that we all done, right? So now, okay, what problems were you trying to solve with pot? All this stuff. There’s other ways to mentally help you rise above being a pothead or a druggie or whatever.

[00:45:52] Tom: But it’s both physical and mental and spiritual. ’cause that is the combination of who we are and what we are. But that can actually get to [00:46:00] the point. And now, you know, this is like, now I’m now 67, you know, I haven’t smoked a joint in fucking billion years. Right. And, uh, you know, and I can, I can remember the way it smelled.

[00:46:14] Tom: I, I, I go around Holland in different parts of California and stuff. I smell it. I’m not offended by it. It was like a, you know, there were times when I had fun doing that shit, right? My, my, my friends and I being idiots and just asphyxiating ourself with pot smoke. But. It fucked our lives up, man. Mm-hmm. I ended up in prison and I almost died and all this other stuff.

[00:46:36] Tom: And, and then when I decided to go straight and I decided to become a businessman and I decided I wanted to actually have more in life, that being a druggie made everything a thousand times harder. 

[00:46:49] Mm-hmm. 

[00:46:49] Tom: So, where I should have gotten to, if I started at 25, by the time I was 28 or 29, I should have been to a certain level.

[00:46:57] Tom: It took me until I was like 35 [00:47:00] to get there. ’cause it was just harder. It was so much challenge there because I didn’t get an education. ’cause I didn’t know how to speak. I didn’t know how to, I didn’t know. Mm-hmm. I was a 

[00:47:10] mm-hmm. 

[00:47:11] Tom: You know, and then, so this is the problem that I don’t want other people to have that, you know, like, like stay away from that.

[00:47:19] Tom: Yeah. You could have a laugh, but there’s other ways to have a laugh. 

[00:47:22] Yeah. 

[00:47:22] Tom: Okay. And, uh, you know, so there’s, that’s just the reality of it. So I just like, from that viewpoint, we can get ’em to like. Just stay away, you know, and go have fun in another way. 

[00:47:34] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:47:34] Tom: Okay. That’s really, that’s my viewpoint. 

[00:47:36] Brad: Yeah.

[00:47:37] Brad: That’s beautiful. Great. So you, you handle the drug situation and then it’s, it’s kind of, seems like then the world kind of opened up a little bit from, from, from your viewpoint. Just ’cause I know your backstory 

[00:47:49] Tom: little. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I’m more like shoved a wedge in it and opened it up, you know?

[00:47:54] Tom: There you go. I mean, life isn’t not gonna come and give you 

[00:47:56] Brad: No, what I mean is like, then you could see possibilities. No, 

[00:47:58] Tom: you, it’s 

[00:47:59] Brad: like, oh shit. [00:48:00] Go do something. At least that’s what it, 

[00:48:02] Aaron: I mean, you started, you started your business at the same time, is that what you said? 

[00:48:04] Tom: Yeah. Identical. Identical times like that.

[00:48:07] Tom: You know, it’s, um, because I, I mean this sincerely, I was, I made a lot of promises when I was in jail. I was like, look, if I get a chance 

[00:48:16] mm-hmm. 

[00:48:16] Tom: Gimme a chance. Let me gimme a chance. So, um, I took it, I was given it, and I took it and I started running with it. And I, and I never stopped. I’ve not ever stopped.

[00:48:27] Tom: Never. Actually, I never realized that, but I’ve never stopped. I’m still running till this time, and that was like 42 years ago. 

[00:48:33] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:48:33] Tom: Never stopped running, you know, and I, I’ve seen no point in doing so either. 

[00:48:38] Brad: Yeah, of course. So what, what I wanted, what I wanted to ask is after the, the drug thing is handled, what’s, what’s the next, like, what’s the next barrier you found yourself running into in life?

[00:48:49] Brad: Like, what, what, what’s the next milestone that sticks out? For 

[00:48:52] Tom: me? For me, for me, for me, 

[00:48:54] Brad: yeah. 

[00:48:54] Tom: I was illiterate. 

[00:48:56] Brad: Oh. 

[00:48:57] Tom: I’ve never read anything and never, I, I [00:49:00] couldn’t. I didn’t know how to type I, there, there was a long, you gotta understand, this is a year of, there were no computers, there were no laptops, there were no phones.

[00:49:08] Tom: You, you had, you know, you just, everything was manual. It was old school. Right. You know, and I, I, I didn’t know how to communicate. I didn’t, I I, I had the gift of gab. 

[00:49:17] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:49:18] Tom: I could talk, I could communicate, but my handwriting looked like something like Fred Flintstone carved out of rock. Right. You know, and, and it’s, I didn’t know how to spell words and there weren’t dictionaries you could find everywhere.

[00:49:33] Tom: And I mean, it was so hard. Right. I met a girl, I wanted to write her a letter. I had to like, do 30 versions of it. So before it looked like it wasn’t like a cartoon. It was hard. ’cause I didn’t know how to be in communication with the world. So I had to go through, so I started going to night school right.

[00:49:54] Tom: At the, at the church. And I went in there and. I’ll tell you something. The, [00:50:00] the, um, 

[00:50:01] Brad: you know, I’m gonna interrupt you for a second. Okay. You’re the only person who I’ve ever heard call it night school, and I love that. 

[00:50:07] Tom: Yeah. 

[00:50:07] Brad: We should just adopt that as like, hey, we’re just, we’re we gonna church going to night school?

[00:50:11] Tom: Yeah. 

[00:50:11] Brad: Because that’s, it’s all it, I look at me, I’m like, that’s actually what it is for 

[00:50:14] Tom: me. Yeah. It is night school. 

[00:50:15] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:50:15] Tom: Yeah. I go to night school. 

[00:50:16] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:50:17] Tom: Yeah. It, it’s just fucking school. Right. You know, and it’s, uh, I would get up at like 5 30, 6 o’clock in the morning. I’d roll into the office, I’d start all my selling.

[00:50:27] Tom: I’d go run Los Angeles, buy all the sold, ship it out, figured out how to do that. Around six o’clock I went time to go to school and, um, and I, and I, uh, uh, go, you know, in Los Angeles, I mean something, everything was far, far right. So I’d have to go somewhere, grab some food, go there, go to school. School started at seven, go to 10 o’clock, and I just started.

[00:50:52] Tom: I just. I have never stopped doing that, ever. You know, I keep doing that and, and, and is what allowed [00:51:00] me. And it was hard. It was so hard because I did, I mean, I remember walking into the school and I go, I saw all these people studying and listening to tapes and reading books, and I’m like, uhoh Uhoh read a lot.

[00:51:17] Tom: I was freaked me out because I think the only book, I’m 25, 26 years old, I, the only book I ever read was Charlotte’s Web. I don’t know if you remember this, like Yeah, yeah. 6-year-old book. Who? I was a pothead. I was a druggie. I don’t read. Right. Are you kidding me? You know? And it was like, and I went, okay, all right.

[00:51:38] Tom: Suck it up, princess. But this is the way through. We gotta get back. And I had to, and this is the part I’m saying, I had to get, find a literacy. I had to find. You know, I did. I, I had no vocabulary. I did, I knew nothing about life. I knew nothing about [00:52:00] science. I knew nothing about geography. I was a pot hat.

[00:52:05] Tom: I was a loser, right. That wanted to not lose. And so now I had to go and put Humpty Dumpty back to gather again. Mm-hmm. I destroyed him. Now. I had to go build him. So I spent, and I, and, and guys, I never stop. I still, to this day, I, I study, I, I, I keep, now I’ve gone from illiterate, super illiterate to super literate, you know, and I have a very large vocabulary.

[00:52:36] Tom: I can, if. I choose, not swear, but probably, I’m sure it’s happened sometimes. Right. And I can actually have an intelligent conversation with intelligent people. I run very large businesses on every face of the, every corner of this world. I have employees in like multiple like jurisdictions. I have to learn laws, I have to learn rules, I have to hold [00:53:00] the fort.

[00:53:00] Mm-hmm. 

[00:53:01] Tom: As an executive, I have phenomenal, I have thousands of people that work for me. We do probably close to somewhere around three quarters of a billion dollars a year in revenue. I have thousands of families that are determined on me making right decisions to keep a roof over their head, boot in their belly, surviving.

[00:53:19] Tom: Well, all of these things, man. Uh, you know, and, and it’s a responsibility that comes with quote unquote success. I would have to say the success comes from successfully doing these things. Right. You know, so it’s been tough. Because I came from, you know, like somebody goes like, started at zero. How about I was like, minus 30.

[00:53:43] Tom: Yeah. Right? Mm-hmm. Because of drugs. Mm-hmm. This is the problem. Why I am so anti getting wasted is it just lowers down your survival potential. 

[00:53:53] Aaron: Yeah, 

[00:53:54] Tom: it does. If I would’ve come back there and could you imagine I knew how to write, I could sign my name. I [00:54:00] had a nice penmanship. I knew how to spell. I had a hunger.

[00:54:04] Tom: I wanted to go do this stuff. And I could have started when I was 16 or 17. ’cause I always had this entrepreneurial spirit. What could I have done? And I didn’t have to start from minus 30. Yeah. So that’s the whole point with like, you know, being a tremendous druggie, illiterate, and two life sentences, that’s, you know me, right.

[00:54:27] Tom: You know? Mm-hmm. And I go, okay, so I have to overcome all of that. I did 

[00:54:33] Aaron: Amazing. Yeah. 

[00:54:33] Tom: Did. Yeah. You know, but it’s like, it would’ve been nice that I could have been Well, you get the idea. Yeah. Yeah. Talking of Jesus Christ. Right. You know, 

[00:54:43] Aaron: man, 

[00:54:43] Tom: you know, who would wish that on anybody? Right. 

[00:54:46] Aaron: And how, how come, you know, you walk in this, uh, the church that Sunday school and you’re like, sorry, light’s cool.

[00:54:53] Aaron: You see all these guys reading And like, you could have just walked away and been like, uh, you know, I, I I’m not, I can’t read. Like, [00:55:00] what made you push through this barrier of like, dude, this, this, this is stuff, 

[00:55:06] Tom: you know, you know, that’s a good, I I don’t know. I’m gonna, I’m gonna, because it was so hard. I mean, this is the truth.

[00:55:13] Tom: Course time was from seven to 10. I’d probably get in there and, um, read two or three paragraphs. ’cause Mr. The problem is that Mr. Hubbard is not stupid. Mr. Hubbard has an incredible. Craftsmen are master free of the human language. Mm-hmm. Has a really, uh, uh, uh, well worded vocabulary. Right. I never met hung out with people that spoke like that.

[00:55:42] Tom: Right. Like, what the fuck did she say? Right. And, you know, but it was like, I have to say it was one word at a time and literally, and I, and I, and this is not trying to be funny. Ha ha. I’d show up around, you know, of course, started at seven, get in there, get going. I’d [00:56:00] probably try to, you know, you would listen to a tape of him talking, or you’d be reading one of his books and I’d make it to about 20 minutes into the course and I would crash and fucking burn.

[00:56:11] Tom: And I would like, um. Just because I don’t understand what he’s talking about. And there is a phenomena that occurs when you hit something that you don’t get, it just knocks you out. Right? Mm-hmm. Just like you, you go check it out now, right? And so I’d actually, there’d be a three hours of night and I’d have about 20 minutes worth where I got it.

[00:56:32] Tom: I think I got it. And then two and a half hours of like, okay, I’m right. And I’d be working with people who help you clear that out, get to the other side, or I would just go to sleep under the job. Right. But it was the, the data that I got during the 20 minutes, that truth, those two or three points of truth that came to, you know, the rest of it was just English words that I was [00:57:00] wrestling with.

[00:57:00] Tom: Yeah. You know, this man had a, has a vocabulary, which I did not understand as a druggie. So I would get the. The truth on a good day, it might last 40 minutes, but only about 20 minutes that hit one of these fucking words. But it’s the truth I got that kept me coming back every night, five nights a week.

[00:57:24] Tom: And then I worked all weekend long and, uh, just kept coming back to night school. And that over time, I grew, you know, one brick at a time. I just grew, I just kept adding to my brick, my, you know, me. I just peeled away my ignorance, peeled away my stupidity, replaced it with some intelligence, took away my illiteracy, put it back with, uh, you know, a proper vocabulary.

[00:57:52] Tom: And, you know, I literally, this is an honest God truth. I was 32 years old when I found out what a verb was. 

[00:57:59] Brad: Oh, [00:58:00] wow, 

[00:58:00] Tom: what a verb was. Yeah. So that, I thought that was the number, Roman numeral five. I didn’t know that meant something. Oh, wow. You know, and they might, and then the differentiation between, you know, a noun and a pronoun and a verb, an adverb.

[00:58:14] Tom: I was 32 and I figured that out. 

[00:58:16] Brad: Wow. 

[00:58:16] Tom: I went, so they go, what is that? I go, I, it’s five, you know? And I went, okay. So I didn’t get any education. They didn’t understand the parts of speech and all that stuff. Just didn’t, never had an interest on it. Let’s just get high. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, and, and boy did we, I was really good at that.

[00:58:40] Tom: I had eight plus grades on that. But 

[00:58:43] Aaron: yeah, entrepreneurial, that was your 

[00:58:44] Tom: first entrepreneurial, yeah. Then selling drugs and all that stuff, doing business and trying to stay one step ahead of the law, you know? But it was, um, but yeah, it was, it was, it was, I’m not gonna use the word painful, I guess Painful would’ve been.

[00:58:58] Tom: Giving up and [00:59:00] going to prison and dying there. Mm-hmm. That would’ve been his PR painful. Yeah. This was a chance and I got a chance and I took it. 

[00:59:07] Brad: Mm-hmm. Wow. 

[00:59:08] Tom: Okay. Mr. Hubbard helped me get my shit together, you know, and I said, I’m forever grateful for that. Right. So, 

[00:59:16] Brad: amazing. And when, when would you say, like, if I look back at my, my journey in Scientology, I can pretty much pinpoint the moment or moments where I was like, oh damn, I’m actually a Scientologist.

[00:59:28] Tom: Mm-hmm. 

[00:59:29] Brad: When did, when did that happen? 

[00:59:30] Tom: I know exactly where it was. Yes, it was, um, I lived in Los Angeles and it was on the, at this time the organization, the church was on Ventura Boulevard in May. Uh, uh, city of like, I think it was called, uh, fucking, I forget the name of the city, but it was right there, right off of Studio City.

[00:59:50] Tom: And, um, well, I’ve always been, um. Enamored or [01:00:00] fascinated by the subject of selling. You know, and I, uh, uh, in Vegas when I was a teenager, still in my teens, you know, 18, 19, I got a, a job working in timeshare. This is why, when the subject timeshare was invented. 

[01:00:18] Mm, 

[01:00:18] Tom: I mean, it was, oh wow. It’s like, it was invented, like, like day one type shit, right?

[01:00:24] Tom: And they’d take this building and it had like, you know, 200 rooms and they took every one of those rooms and sold it 50 times right into the future for 20 years. And just, and then they just started printing money, which, but then I would actually see, and I had a job of touring someone through this hotel and entertaining them, getting him coffee, water, show ’em in a video, you know, da da da, da da.

[01:00:51] Tom: And then at they. Then the closer from the back of the room would come in and go, Hey, you know, Tom, could you go get us some more water and stuff? You know, I was [01:01:00] the boy, you know, I would just do the manual work. But I see these guys sit down with these couples and then about 20, 30, 40 minutes later go, can I get a kit please?

[01:01:13] Tom: And they have just sold them 20, 30, 40, $60,000 worth of vacations into the future. 

[01:01:18] Brad: Wow. 

[01:01:19] Tom: I go, what the fuck? What’s happening in this conversation? Yeah. 

[01:01:22] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:01:23] Tom: Now I didn’t know they were very scandalous and ethics and you know, lying, cheating, and stealing. I didn’t understand it, but I made the decision. I want that skill.

[01:01:31] Tom: Yeah. I wanna be able to sit down with someone and have a conversation with them. And actually, um. Become a great salesperson, right? Mm-hmm. So now, so they started giving me talk to this guy. There was a guy by the name of Doug Edwards and he lenon a guy by called Tommy Hopkins. And there’s Brian Tracy and there was all these guys that you could call and read and listen to and whatever.

[01:01:55] Tom: And I just absorbed it all and tried to use every bit of it, but it [01:02:00] was wanting. 

[01:02:00] Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

[01:02:01] Tom: So when I was on, I went to ninth school, one of the first things I had to do or got to do was a communications course. 

[01:02:09] Mm-hmm. 

[01:02:10] Tom: And this is this course where it teaches you patience, it teaches you in order to to learn to communicate.

[01:02:19] Tom: You have to learn how to, I know this is gonna sound so stupid, but be there tentatively be there. Yeah. Because there’s one thing of trying to talk to someone and you’re over here, or you’re stuck in the earlier meaning, or you’re like, just splattered. Right? Yeah. How do you gather yourself and prevent yourself from being splattered, right?

[01:02:40] Tom: So there’s that, and then it, and then it’s uh, this, you know, various elements of how do you project a communication, how do you acknowledge something? And I’ll tell you, once I finally got towards the end of this, I went for me because I wanted to become a professional salesperson. [01:03:00] And that’s just the art of communication.

[01:03:03] Tom: I mean, far by and far. 

[01:03:05] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:03:05] Tom: So I went ahead and, um, and I started getting these drills and whatever, and there was a point I could see it like, like it was yesterday. I went, this is the guy who figured it out. This is the true knowledge of how I can become, I learned this, I learned how to apply this. I will become a master for a salesperson.

[01:03:27] Tom: And I did, I learned it. Ed did become a master for a salesperson. And at that point in time, I just, um, felt Mr. Hubbard was a genius. I thought he was the cat. Meow. I just went, okay, so what else has he got? And it was just like, I’m in, I’m, I’m in this. Is he, he figured it out. He, he had all the mysteries of the world of what I was trying to master got solved.

[01:03:51] Tom: I went, good, I’m in. Let’s go do that. It happened right there that night. And you know, it’s not like this big, uh, uh, thing. It was just a small [01:04:00] decision. I went, okay, this is the guy. He’s figured it all out. He got the data. 

[01:04:04] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:04:04] Tom: And this is the thing. Let’s set you free. And so I went, okay, let’s go. Let’s go see what else he’s got.

[01:04:10] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:04:10] Tom: And I’ve been doing that for. 40 something years now. 

[01:04:13] Brad: Mm-hmm. 

[01:04:13] Tom: And boy did he figure it out. 

[01:04:15] Brad: Oh, unreal. So good. Wow. 

[01:04:17] Tom: How about you? 

[01:04:19] Brad: Me, 

[01:04:19] Tom: similar thing. 

[01:04:20] Brad: Mine was, uh, you know, the course personal values and integrity 

[01:04:24] Tom: Uhhuh 

[01:04:25] Brad: where, uh, it’s like, so it’s not the first course that I did, it was the second course that I did.

[01:04:30] Tom: Right. 

[01:04:30] Brad: And, uh, the first one I did was overcoming ups and downs in life. 

[01:04:33] Tom: Uhhuh. 

[01:04:34] Brad: And then that one, the first one, overcoming ups and downs. I was like, okay, this is cool, but nothing really hit me if, I mean, now I go back, I’ve done it again and I’m like, huh. Here it’s, how did I not see it? I understand, but I did personal values and integrity and there was a line in like the first page of when you get into the actual course, and it was like, the only thing that’s true in Scientology is what’s true by your observation.

[01:04:56] Tom: Right. 

[01:04:56] Brad: And I was like, well, I’m safe. 

[01:04:58] Tom: Okay. [01:05:00] 

[01:05:00] Brad: I like, I can actually just look at this and nobody’s gonna make me do anything. 

[01:05:03] Tom: Okay. 

[01:05:03] Brad: And I was like, I’m down. 

[01:05:05] Tom: Okay, good. 

[01:05:06] Brad: I’ll, I’ll look at whatever. 

[01:05:07] Tom: I got it. You 

[01:05:07] Brad: know? And in fact, I actually brought that home and then showed that same line to my wife. Boom. She was in the org the next day.

[01:05:13] Tom: Wow. Wow. 

[01:05:13] Brad: Wow. That’s a powerful for me. That’s 

[01:05:15] Tom: so I can totally have It is somebody who, who positioned it correctly. In other words, here’s this data, if you don’t believe it, you’re gonna rot in this thing called health. You know? Right, 

[01:05:25] Aaron: right. That 

[01:05:26] Tom: was my experience, but prior to that, but what we’re here to tell you about is this thing called love.

[01:05:31] Tom: Right? Yeah. But if you don’t take our love, you’re, you know. Okay. All right. All right. I got it. Anyway, we’re up into a tangent. Aaron, how about you? Where did you realize that you were gonna become a church member? 

[01:05:41] Aaron: Man, you know, I, it was kind of very different for me, but, uh, my dad brought me in and, uh, he showed me flag, and I just liked it.

[01:05:51] Tom: Okay. 

[01:05:51] Aaron: I, I mean, I didn’t even read anything. Okay. And I’m like, how do I, how do I join this? You 

[01:05:55] Tom: could, you could feel it. Such aesthetic. 

[01:05:56] Aaron: Yeah. I was like, I was like, this is a great place. Like, oh, wow. They do this, [01:06:00] they do business here. They do that. I’m like, how do I join dad? He goes, do you wanna join? I said, yeah.

[01:06:07] Aaron: He said, you’re in. 

[01:06:08] Tom: Okay. 

[01:06:08] Aaron: I said, what? Really not 

[01:06:09] Tom: easy. 

[01:06:10] Aaron: Yeah. I like, great. Do 

[01:06:11] Tom: they know who I’m Exactly. Do they really know what I’m doing? You know? Yeah. 

[01:06:15] Aaron: I just like saw the place. I’m like, I like it. Right on All simple. I mean, of course there’s all over time when you study things. Yeah. So, so Tom, I think like what’s amazing is that decision that you said, Hey, I’m gonna be a masterful salesperson.

[01:06:27] Tom: Right. 

[01:06:28] Aaron: And like at that time you had a business already. 

[01:06:30] Tom: Yeah. 

[01:06:31] Aaron: And uh, there 

[01:06:32] Tom: are three employees, me, myself, and I. 

[01:06:33] Aaron: And how. And, and kinda where were you then? What was like the, the financially 

[01:06:40] Tom: social, economical. 

[01:06:41] Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

[01:06:42] Tom: Broke ass poor. 

[01:06:43] Aaron: Okay. 

[01:06:43] Tom: Yeah. No, I had nothing. I, I, I, you want some money? Go make it. 

[01:06:47] Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

[01:06:48] Tom: You know, go, I was like broke.

[01:06:49] Tom: I, I had nothing. I had a little capital from my brother-in-law, you know, the, the guy that my sister was married to, he said, I’ll be your business partner. He gave me like, I think $12 or something like [01:07:00] that. I had, I had a little 

[01:07:01] Aaron: a hundred 

[01:07:02] Tom: something, you know. Yeah. Maybe a hundred at all once. But, you know, it was like nothing, you know, and it was, um, so I just had to go in there and build it off, you know?

[01:07:10] Tom: Definitely. 

[01:07:11] Aaron: And so how fast from that, like, boom, now you have this, you’re gonna, you one made the decision to like, no sales get into it. You did a communication course, you already decided to be a business person. How, how is that trajectory? Just to kind of give a picture, like what does it take, obviously not for anybody, but for you like to get to where 

[01:07:29] Tom: you’re at.

[01:07:29] Tom: I think, I think, uh, uh, my, my. If I, there was ever like, like what allows Tom to be Tom, I’m an amazing salesperson. I really understand the art of that and I’m also a great administrator. 

[01:07:46] Mm-hmm. 

[01:07:46] Tom: I have, ’cause normally a salesperson completely sucks at, he goes, he sells something and he goes, here you go. And then he goes, sells the next one.

[01:07:56] Tom: He go, here you go as far as running the [01:08:00] administrative line of making sure whatever sold, gets delivered and the person’s happy and they pay their bill, they suck at it as a rule, right? Mm-hmm. I happened to be brilliant at both ends of it, so gave me an edge that most people don’t have, right? So that thing, I took that company from, uh, you know, started literally I was 25.

[01:08:23] Tom: I worked my way up, I went through, you know, getting staff, hiring staff, bringing people in, making the. Decision in which way I was gonna steer the strategy of the company early on and, and just kept showing up every day, always getting it going. And probably, and within, uh, five years. ’cause you had to go five years of those days you had the Ink 500.

[01:08:46] Brad: Mm-hmm. 

[01:08:46] Tom: I made 125 on the list. 

[01:08:48] Brad: Wow. 

[01:08:48] Tom: Yeah. Yeah. 

[01:08:50] Brad: Actually I’ve seen that on his office. He has the actual magazine. Oh yeah. It’s in the office. Yeah. It’s amazing. 

[01:08:55] Tom: Yeah. Made 125 on the list, which is hell then 

[01:08:59] Brad: [01:09:00] 500 by the way, not 5,000. 

[01:09:01] Tom: Yeah. Well, even when it was 5,000 or still 125 on the list five. Yeah. Still they come there, but they didn’t have the 5,000 those days it was in 500.

[01:09:09] Tom: But, um, but yeah, it was tough and it was, um, a lot of work and a lot of dedication and I didn’t understand this thing of, uh, overcoming the ups and downs in life. I did not understand that, that that data, and I had some evil that worked for me that, um. Submarine me and, and betrayed me. And I saw it, but I didn’t know what to do with it, and I didn’t educate on it.

[01:09:32] Tom: And boy, that was a painful, painful message. Very painful. 

[01:09:37] Aaron: Yeah. 

[01:09:37] Tom: Yeah. 

[01:09:38] Aaron: Yeah. 

[01:09:38] Tom: Yeah. So, 

[01:09:39] Aaron: so that, that company was gone, 

[01:09:41] Tom: gone history. Totally. Yeah. I didn’t know what to do, do takes one person, you know, I had family members involved and I had, it was, it was, it was tough, you know? And, uh, so I, I just bounced. I said, all right, I’ll go do it again.

[01:09:54] Tom: And I did, 

[01:09:55] Aaron: yeah. 

[01:09:55] Tom: You know, got betrayed again. Okay. And said, well, man, probably should start studying [01:10:00] the subject matter of suppressive people. And I did. And the, you know, now the last time I went up, you know, I, I created and, and developed and, what do you want to call it? Uh, persevered. Yeah. Within the, the last one, which we started like 30 years ago, right.

[01:10:17] Tom: Or whatever, 25 years ago. Wow. Yeah. Something like that, right when I moved here. But, uh, you know, I’ve gone through the, the ringer. It’s not all been easy and I’ve been free. That’s for sure. You have to keep that showing up and keep fighting. Absolutely. And 

[01:10:31] Aaron: I, I mean, you’ve hired so many people. I know that you’re, you guys hire, like, how many people do you hire in a week?

[01:10:36] Aaron: You 

[01:10:36] Tom: current for the call center? 

[01:10:37] Aaron: Yeah. 

[01:10:37] Like 

[01:10:37] Tom: we need 30 people to start a week. 

[01:10:39] Aaron: Yeah. Need, 

[01:10:40] Tom: need. So that means we’re have a machine that probably process, it started at about 120, you know, and then they come down to, they’ll interview 60 of them and invite probably 40 of them and you’ll get 25 to 30 of them show up.

[01:10:55] Mm-hmm. 

[01:10:55] Tom: Okay. And then we put ’em through the mill, you know, ’cause it’s a [01:11:00] hard job. I have to call just to give an idea, you know, call into this business, get you or your wife on the phone, put you through a cold call uninvited. Get you to grab your power bill, run the pres presentation on you, keep you tied up for probably 40 minutes.

[01:11:24] Tom: All on a call, call. Wow. We do that six, 700 times a week. Successfully. Successfully. Oh, unreal. Brutal. Now the guys who can do that, they’ll make, you know, 150, $180,000 a year working for us. Yeah. 

[01:11:37] Brad: Just 

[01:11:37] Tom: calling. It’s huge money. 

[01:11:38] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:11:38] Tom: But man, the face rip that they have to go through is brutal. It is tough. Now, when they succeed, they make fortunes, they don’t, they go find another job.

[01:11:48] Tom: Mm-hmm. 

[01:11:49] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:11:49] Tom: So we have to constantly keep putting it there, keep putting, like, we want them to work, we want them to keep calling, we keep going there and we gotta [01:12:00] keep replacing. Yeah. So they have to constantly reestablish the place. Always. 

[01:12:05] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:12:06] Tom: Always. 

[01:12:07] Aaron: And before you talked about opportunity, right? Like opportunity comes, you take it.

[01:12:12] Aaron: Do you see yourself now giving those opportunities when you hire somebody, have you seen a transformation like, wow, this person got this opportunity moved. Like you, you switched? From being the person that needed the opportunity. 

[01:12:25] Tom: You were pushing them out. Yeah, absolutely. No, no, no, no, no. There are so many people who’ve come up and, you know, have been, you know, thinking they’re for their, you know, the ability that they’ve come from like, crap, you know, they had no income or they were in a, on the wrong side of the tracks or whatever.

[01:12:42] Tom: ’cause we don’t tolerate the drug edness and the, and the alcoholism and you know, we just don’t tolerate it mm-hmm. In any of our groups. Right. So the amount of people that in all the different works, and whether it be in Italy up in the, the United Kingdom or in down here in Florida, [01:13:00] all the different areas of the world where we work, it’s, um, over and over and over again.

[01:13:05] Tom: Number of people come up, they go like, man, I can’t believe this opportunity I’ve been given. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. It’s sincere. You know, because it is actually changed the trajectory of their lives. It’s actually, you know, it’s, um, you know, it’s an interesting thing. Like you live in a place like Italy.

[01:13:22] Tom: You know, you, you, your average person, I know this is gonna be hard to understand, will make like 1,500 euros a month. That’s what they get. 

[01:13:31] Brad: No. 

[01:13:32] Tom: Oh yeah. 

[01:13:33] Brad: What? 

[01:13:33] Tom: Yeah, that’s it for a month. That’s what a person would make. Now I’ll have to pay another 1200 a month to the government 

[01:13:42] Brad: for 1500 to pay 

[01:13:44] Tom: uhhuh. Yeah, I know.

[01:13:45] Tom: It should say it’s a socialistic or offer an 

[01:13:47] Brad: office person. 

[01:13:48] Tom: Yeah. Like a, like customer service person or receptionist or someone to work in accounting or, you know, something like that. It’s a massive package. A prime, A prime executive. Like a, like a, like, you know, [01:14:00] big, like pretty good. Well, we’re talking about these type of people that work out here.

[01:14:03] Tom: That’s like maybe 1800. They get up there like a top exec getting 2,500. 

[01:14:09] Mm-hmm. 

[01:14:09] Tom: You know, it’s like a month, a month. A month, you know? I know, I know. It blows my mind. Okay. But I’m sitting there now, I’ve, I’ve put together sales programs. I have people making three, 4,000 euros a month. I have them making six, eight, 9,000, 14,000 mm-hmm.

[01:14:26] Tom: A month. Look at that kind of trajectory. Like insane amounts of money, relatively speaking. 

[01:14:32] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:14:32] Tom: Right. You know, so it’s, uh, this is, this is, so you could imagine how they feel and even the ones that, um, are making two, $3,000 a month, you know, or like I say, two, 3000, but, you know, in that two to two to 3000 range, make a great job.

[01:14:49] Tom: We really keep the, I put the fantastic human resource department there who keep the fucking insanity down. If someone starts going off of rails, they get [01:15:00] uninvited to the party. You know, we keep a sane environment. So people like coming to work. You know, we got a really great group and, uh. That’s there.

[01:15:09] Tom: And the same thing up in the uk. They’re not much different price range really in the uk. What? Mm-hmm. It’s not, you know? 

[01:15:17] Brad: That’s unreal. 

[01:15:18] Tom: So talk to our friend brewery and go see like, I mean, you know, because here’s the point, the government will take so much of it. So somebody getting like 35,000 a year, it’s like, like, like that’s a good start place.

[01:15:31] Tom: Like 25, 30. Not kidding. Insane. I know. Blows your mind. I know, I know. Blows your mind. That same, you know, and it’s, uh, yeah. The money we make here in America, like when we went to Italy, I had to put handcuffs on Jim because we’re used to talking in our mind, you know what, where our, our economy is. Mm-hmm.

[01:15:51] Tom: You know, and it’s, uh, but. And somehow they make it, they do something different there. I I, I, this is why you’ll have like success, like [01:16:00] we’re in the, in the culture there is people still live with dear old mom and dad. 

[01:16:04] Aaron: Yeah. 

[01:16:05] Tom: You know? 

[01:16:05] Aaron: Right. Because you don’t have money to even 

[01:16:07] Tom: on 

[01:16:07] Aaron: your 

[01:16:08] Tom: own. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:16:10] Tom: It’s a trip. It’s a different culture. 

[01:16:11] Aaron: Yeah. 

[01:16:11] Tom: But it’s like making people to actually giving them the opportunity, driving them, training them how to fulfill, fulfill that, uh, the, their, their, you know, get free is really what it is. How do they get free? 

[01:16:27] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:16:27] Tom: That’s, that’s like, you know, free from the economic struggles.

[01:16:31] Tom: Yeah. And then teaching them how to do that. I love it. I enjoy it. And, and the reward is, you know, ’cause we tied, if they succeed, I succeed. 

[01:16:39] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:16:40] Tom: But I don’t succeed. They haven’t succeeded. We have to have it. We gotta a both win or neither one of us will. Yeah. You know, so we really, really strive to do that.

[01:16:48] Brad: That’s amazing. Amazing. So we talked, we talked earlier at the beginning about. You give away a lot of money. 

[01:16:54] Tom: Mm-hmm. 

[01:16:55] Brad: Right? 

[01:16:55] Tom: Yes, I do. 

[01:16:56] Brad: And it’s not just to the church by the way. Like you, you [01:17:00] from, from what I understand, you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I know about several non Scientology organizations where you’ve given a lot of money, of course over the years.

[01:17:08] Tom: Yep. 

[01:17:08] Brad: I mean, including like, just one notable one that, that I know about, ’cause you mentioned it on your Instagram, was Turning Point action. 

[01:17:14] Tom: Correct. 

[01:17:14] Brad: You know, which is amazing. Um, why do, why, why do you, why do, do you 

[01:17:19] Tom: No, no, no. It’s an, that’s the question. It’s an insane ’cause I’ve given them millions of dollars and it’s, uh, I, uh, met Charlie Chi Kirk many years ago.

[01:17:30] Tom: I love America. I love United States. I love this country. I’m disgusted on what’s happened to it. I’m disgusted on how, um. It’s being eaten from the inside. I’m disgusted by many aspect of it, like of what’s so happened to her. And I saw him as a person is willing to go out there, who’s a capable of doing something about it.

[01:17:57] Tom: Very super articulate [01:18:00] person. Super smart. Seemed to be, you know, different religious beliefs than mine, but super spiritual being super, everything. And uh, and he gave a shit. All right, perfect. I’ll back you up. I’m in, let’s go. Yeah. And then ever since that day, I met him like many, many, many, many, many years ago.

[01:18:19] Tom: I’ve been flowing in money every month. 

[01:18:21] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:18:22] Tom: And when I met him, I said, look, watch this. This is gonna be the most important dollar you ever get, is a consistent one. 

[01:18:28] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:18:28] Tom: So you’ll have this much money show up in your account every month, guaranteed. 

[01:18:33] Brad: That’s 

[01:18:34] Tom: amazing. You know, and, uh. Without having to ask for it.

[01:18:37] Brad: Right. Right, right. 

[01:18:37] Tom: You know, that’s how, what I mean by that. 

[01:18:39] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:18:40] Tom: So, and he went, well, that’s cool. I’m kind of like wondering if it was true or not. And it turned out to be true. And I gotta imagine it was, uh, it helped. 

[01:18:49] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:18:49] Tom: You know, and it’s a sad thing to see him having been taken out by the bad guys, but, um, 

[01:18:56] Brad: yeah.

[01:18:57] Tom: Anyway. 

[01:18:58] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:18:58] Aaron: Yeah. 

[01:18:59] Brad: So in, [01:19:00] in the, in the bigger, in the bigger in including that, what, like, why do you give away so much of your money? Like, just as a, as a general way of, 

[01:19:09] Tom: okay. You know, first of all guys, you know, I have this viewpoint. I want to help make this a better world. Help get, you know, I want to see things being improved.

[01:19:24] Tom: Okay. And, you know, and it’s like, you know, there we go. Let’s save the wells, let’s save the world. Let’s save, let’s save, let’s save. Try to prevent something like that. But that’s fine. Now I insist on doing it from the first class cabin. I’m not gonna be a martyr. I’m not going to live a life apart poverty.

[01:19:43] Tom: I’m not going to, you know, but there’s, and, and I know this sounds stupid, there’s only really only so much money you can spend, you know? And, and to me the money isn’t, it’s just a scoreboard. Okay? I strive to [01:20:00] become more competent, always. I mean, I’m this successful person and compared to where I came from, which we discussed at great length, and to where I’ve arrived, people would like kind of go score.

[01:20:12] Tom: He did it. He won. He did. I go, really? I mean, that’s it. That’s all I could do. That’s all I’m capable of. Game’s over. Take my ball, go home. No, there’s more. Mm-hmm. Let’s go get more. And how do we go, go do more, you know? And it’s like, you know, there’s no such thing as the game is over. Let’s continue to go get more.

[01:20:34] Tom: Not because I need the money. 

[01:20:37] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:20:38] Tom: It’s the game. It’s the playing of the game. It’s the, I want something to win at. I want something to, it’s really kind of demonstrating my competency. Mm-hmm. Right. Can I help others do better in life? And if I could do that, to me, that is what money is. It’s like a scoreboard.

[01:20:57] Tom: You go see your favorite football [01:21:00] team in America play and you look at the score and it’s seven to 21. You get, the guy with 21 is demonstrating that Sunday at that game, they were more incompetent than the other guys. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That’s all it is. Yeah. Same football, it’s the same game, but they’re just demonstrating more competency.

[01:21:20] Tom: Yeah. And to me. When you start seeing the money rolling in, assuming that it’s legal, moral, and ethical. Yeah, of course. You’re not robbing people, you’re not selling drugs, you’re not in the prostitution, you’re not people out. You’re not selling your soul to the do devil to make a dollar. Okay. ’cause that does happen.

[01:21:39] Tom: Absolutely. That aside, no, you’re doing something right. Right. It’s legal and it’s moral and you’re not breaking your own ethics code. Right. You start making lots of money ethically like that. That fucking is cool. I think that’s cool. It shows that you got your shit together, you’re smart. You’re doing the things that are not [01:22:00] easy to do.

[01:22:00] Tom: Mm-hmm. Right. And I mean, you guys are businessmen. You know, this is not easy what we do. We have the world coming in there, kicking us in the balls all the time, you know, and it’s like, right. So that’s the part where. Um, I don’t even remember the question, but it’s like, why keep on keeping on? Right? Is to keep demonstrating competency and then it’s like, okay, so now you amass this money, what are you gonna do with it?

[01:22:24] Tom: Well, let’s go do something good with it. It’s really the honest to God truth there is, like, I have a very beautiful life. I, I, I like clothes, I love nice things. I, I travel well. I live in nice places. I have beautiful places there. Okay, now what? Okay. And actually, I don’t necessarily only just make these niceties by top priority.

[01:22:49] Tom: ’cause you start getting caught up into doing something good, it becomes more important mm-hmm. Than the other stuff. So it’s like, kind of like it’s a jockey, like, okay, I keep [01:23:00] this lifestyle, but come on man, this is important to me. Let’s make sure that this happens. Yeah. Right. You know? So, and, 

[01:23:08] Aaron: and in another front, you’ve done your role in populating the earth.

[01:23:12] Aaron: Hey, you have six children, which we talked about, uh, not on the podcast, but before. Right. How has being a father affected this entire thing? Right? Your role of what you’re doing, your example you’re setting. 

[01:23:23] Tom: I don’t know. Um, you know, I just, I I think my kids would probably want to comment on that. You know, it’s, you know, I love my children, right.

[01:23:32] Tom: You know, um, I’ve become a wealthy man, right? And I very important to me that I do not have. Um, trust babies and stuff like that, keeping my kids like, um, um, uh, three of my children have become part of a religious fraternity called the Sea Organization to where they, um, have dedicated their lives. Like I grew up, there was nuns mm-hmm.

[01:23:58] Tom: For the women and [01:24:00] priests for the men. My son became the equivalent of a priest in my religion and my daughters and nuns. But now, in our case, my religion, they can get married. Mm-hmm. Right? So they can have, you know, life the, uh, you know, have a husband and wife team. Right. So all my kids are happily married and doing really well, so they’re like, they got their life right.

[01:24:21] Tom: And I get to interact with them because I’m very active with my religion, so that’s really cool. I love that. But they, they have their own life. So I can be proud of them. They can be proud of mine. My other kids, um, uh, wanna have babies. They want to grow up and be mom and dad and stuff like that. Fine. I’m cool with that.

[01:24:39] Tom: I would, I did that route, right? So now, so do you want some money? Good. Go get a shop. Right. Just go succeed and like go, go work. Right? And, um, but we do good times. We have times together. We go on credible vacations. But I don’t, I’m not that guy that sits home and they, you know, and when, when they were little, I mean like when they, [01:25:00] they were growing up from little, yeah, it was like, kind of like a normal normal, right.

[01:25:05] Tom: You know, you had the little kids running around and all that stuff and, but then eventually it seems like in the blink of an eye, they’re no longer little, they’re no longer running around. They want to get the out of the house and go somewhere, you know? So, I mean, it’s usually about around 12, 13 years old that s over, they’re, they’re done.

[01:25:24] Tom: They don’t wanna be little kids anymore. They want to be adults. So my thing was, okay, go ahead. And my son wanted to join the, the sea organization when he was 12. He goes, dad, I want to go do this. I go, okay, okay. Right. I laugh because I go, dude, it takes dynamite to get you outta bed at seven, eight o’clock in the morning, and you wanna go do that?

[01:25:46] Tom: Good luck. But, um, anyway, but he didn’t do it. He, his mom waited until he was 15, you know? So I went, okay, it’s fine. That was like about, you know, when, it was about 23 years ago. So it’s been a while. [01:26:00] And, uh, but yeah, so my kids, the family life. I love it. I love, uh, I got grandchildren. I love my, uh, my, my older grandson because I can go hang with him.

[01:26:09] Tom: I got another grandson is moving his way up through the, you know, little boy stuff. And I have a little granddaughter who’s precious as all hell, and she’s moving up through the little granddaughter thing. And, uh. So, yeah, it’s my family, you know, and it’s, uh, but it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s funny, I never, just because they gave birth to kids, I never stopped living my own life, you know, kinda like kept mo moving ahead at, at a hundred miles an hour.

[01:26:35] Tom: And, you know, pretty much I tell my family, just try to keep up. Kept, keep up. 

[01:26:39] Brad: Yep. 

[01:26:40] Tom: And they go, dad, I never, you don’t call, you know this. And I go, I hear that from everybody, guys. Christ. Yeah, but we’re your kids. I’m like, okay, okay. I don’t know. They’re probably pissed at me more times than not for not staying in communication and shit.

[01:26:59] Tom: You [01:27:00] could do more than one or two Sybil syllable words of when I send you a communication. I went, okay, okay, okay. Okay. I got it. So, um, anyway, I’m probably not the easiest father in the world to get along with. Right. Or not to get along with, that’s not fair. But getting calm with, because I’m busy. Mm-hmm.

[01:27:19] Tom: I stay busy. 

[01:27:20] Brad: Yep. 

[01:27:20] Tom: I just stay busy. 

[01:27:21] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:27:22] Tom: And, uh, busier than probably they are. And, and it’s, and it’s, I don’t see that ever changing. ’cause to me being busy is being alive. 

[01:27:30] Aaron: Yeah. 

[01:27:31] Tom: You know, being, being active, being moving. I mean, just shaking and moving, making shit happen. Right. And, um, 

[01:27:39] Aaron: okay. 

[01:27:39] Tom: Yeah. 

[01:27:39] Aaron: Well, we have a, a closing question.

[01:27:41] Tom: Yeah. 

[01:27:41] Aaron: Which is, in your own words, what is Scientology? 

[01:27:47] Tom: A chance? It’s a chance to find yourself. A chance to find, I mean, everybody, including me and the three people in this video, we’re [01:28:00] constantly battling things that we know we should be doing and we’re not, and we’re constantly battling things. No, we are doing that we shouldn’t.

[01:28:10] Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

[01:28:10] Tom: And really is a juggle between these two. And Scientology allows you ’cause Aaron’s reasons. And you, Brad and myself are gonna be different. ’cause we’re different. We all have uniquenesses of why we do the things that we shouldn’t and why we don’t do the things that we should or different. And Scientology will help you find your own reasons and then be able to do something about it.

[01:28:38] Tom: And to the degree that you do, start doing the things you should that help you and stop doing the things. And, and guys, this is no written rules. Here’s what you shouldn’t do. Here’s what you should do. No, no, no, no. These are your personal, 

[01:28:54] Brad: yeah. 

[01:28:54] Tom: This is not something Mr. Hubbard or Scientology gives you. No.

[01:28:57] Tom: This is the, you know, [01:29:00] you know, ’cause your life is your life. And then, and this is what I love about our religion, is it says, you live your life. I’ll live my life and we’ll have a good life together. Because we’re both living good lives. Right? And this is why we like each other. We all contribute to each other’s success.

[01:29:14] Tom: You know? So it’s just a chance to go in there. No guarantee, no offer guarantees, and come with a goddamn guarantee. It’s just a chance that you could go learn something about yourself and start winning more in life, period. 

[01:29:27] Brad: Mm-hmm. 

[01:29:28] Tom: That’s my answer. 

[01:29:29] Brad: Oh my God. Amen. That’s one of my favorite answers ever.

[01:29:32] Brad: Okay. Well and on that note, Tom, thank you so much for being here. Welcome me. You’re the best. Welcome. Another episode in the books. Good. Thank 

[01:29:39] Tom: you. Thank you. My pleasure. Ciao.