Weldon Long
speaker
182 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Mar 2025
Weldon Long’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Listen, I went through a lot of years of my life in those prison years blaming the judges, the prosecutors, the ex-wife. Then one day it hit me like if all those things are the reason my life sucks, then all those things got to change for my life to get better. And that's probably not going to happen. But if I'm the problem, then I can change that, right?
I have control over my thoughts and my behaviors. So that was kind of a watershed kind of turning point for me.
Well, first of all, let me say how happy I am to be here. I was telling Ashley, your executive assistant, that of the young bucks coming up, like you're the brand. You know, you got the old guys like me, the Drew Camerons, the Joe Calloway. You know, we're all fading, right? And you got this new group of energetic, talented, super dynamic people. And I've been following you, too, for a bit.
And I'm really pleased to be here. I'm really proud and inspired by the work that you're doing. You're a badass. And I think that's really cool. I also want to say this. I agree with you. As much as I'm into sales, I always say nothing happens until something gets sold. Nothing gets sold until somebody sets a lead. And that is kind of the priority for me.
My story, you kind of outlined, I was a ninth grade high school dropout, started running the streets, pulled a gun on a guy in 1987, got sentenced to prison the first time for 10 years at 23 years old, and did about four and a half years in Colorado, at the state system in Colorado.
After four and a half years, the parole board and their infinite wisdom thought I was rehabilitated, and they kicked me out in the street. So I get out. I'm 27 years old. Still a ninth grade high school dropout. No experience, no education. Now I'm a convicted felon, right? Not a real impressive track record. Made it to about 18 months.
Went back to prison a second time for a couple of years on gun charges. Got out again at 30 years old. 30 years old now, my 20s, I gave up to the penitentiary system. Knucklehead, first-class POS type of just garden variety loser. Nothing good to say about it. And 30 years old, I'm out again, and I hook up with some guys in Vegas doing some sketchy telemarketing.
Tell people I should have been suspicious when they hired me because it doesn't say much about their hiring standards at that point. Did that for a couple of years until one day we all get indicted on federal money laundering and mail fraud charges. Went to the federal joint for seven years.
But it was during that last seven years that the change happened, right, kind of the moment of clarity, the epiphany. It was June 10th, 1996. I know exactly when it was. One of the cops walked into a cell house, called me aside, and told me my dad died. Fifty-nine years old. I was 32. He was 59, very young, which is really young now because now I'm 61. And the kid just really seems young.
And but that was that was Tommy. That was kind of my moment of clarity. I'm like, I'm a first class piece of shit. I had a three year old son that I had fathered when I was out on parole, abandoned him. He was left with his drug addicted, heroin addicted mother. I'm in prison. Now my dad's dead. And so that was kind of my turning point. So I made the decision.
that I was going to find out what really successful people do. One of the things I love about you and following you is how much you're into reading and studying what the masters have done, and you're smart enough just to go out there and do it. You might improve it even, which is cool. But I started reading a lot of those same books.
The first book I picked up on that day, four or five hours after I heard the news my father died, was a A little book you've probably read, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Not knowing that Stephen Covey would be a mentor and a friend and endorse my books years later, I was just a loser in a cell.
But I read that book, Tommy, and it's like for the first time I really understood the importance of the right value system. Honor, integrity, hard work, fidelity, faith, all those things. And that book set me on the road. There was hundreds of others after that. Seven years later, I started changing my mindset with that whole process.
I wrote out what I refer to as my prosperity plan, my first one on a sheet of paper, and stuck it to the wall of my cell with toothpaste, right, because we didn't have glue or tape in the penitentiary. And every morning I would meditate on it and study it, just like Napoleon Hill said, right? Imagine yourself already in possession of these things. So I started visualizing it.
39. 39, when I walked out the last time. 39, getting out of federal prison. Yeah, and you built all this, and you're about that age now. That's crazy, dude. Oh, my God. Yeah. I can't imagine. It blows me away when I see what youngsters like you have done. Anyway, by the way, the guy that hired me that gave me the job, you probably know, Drew Cameron.
Drew was the guy that was a consultant for the local company that hired me. I told Drew my story. He goes, dude, I think you're a changed man. I'm like, damn straight, Drew. And Drew and I, of course, are friends all these years later, do a lot of work together. Uh, did that for a year, opened my first company, HVAC company, not really knowing what I was doing.
I don't know anything about the mechanical side to this day. I don't know the first thing about the mechanical side. Uh, I'm a sales marketing guy, much like yourself. And, um, I grew that company from $0 in 2004 to about $20 million in total revenue in five years and sold that. My first book came out in 2009, so I started traveling and speaking.
By that time, I started doing a ton of work for Carrier and Bryant because we were a Bryant dealer, and they were like, dude, you're selling a ton of stuff. And so I said, I got this sales system that I put together, which is just my interpretation of all the masters, you know, Tommy Hopkins and all those people who lives here. We should stop and see him. Tommy's a good friend.
He's been very, very generous to me. did that and started Travel and Speaking. Then as you and I were talking about off the record earlier in 2019, I got back on the HVAC side because crazy stupid money was coming in in private equity. So I built that company, grew that to $42 million in total revenue in five years. We just sold that
And we purchased five others that we're developing around the country and hope to grow those and maybe make some money and turn those at some point. So it's been kind of a only in America story. And anywhere else I'd have been shot a long time ago, put away for life or whatever. So I'm very grateful. I'm a very grateful person. I appreciate every opportunity that we have in this country.
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