late 20s, early 30s. And I loved living in New York. And my partner wanted to move here.
I said no for a while. And then finally, you, you know, you compromise in relationships.
And I did. I'm like, I'm from LA. The older I'm getting though. I mean, this traffic is a real
problem. Like, I mean, most of the time, but it's like, it's a problem.
It's a problem when it's a problem. Absolutely.
Well, you're all moving here. I'm in, I'm in between San Antonio and Austin and New
Braunfels. And it's been the fastest growing suburb in the nation for years. And both cities
are the two fastest growing cities. So yeah, all the Californians are bringing their traffic.
The thing is like, I don't want to go somewhere hotter than this.
No, it's so hot here. I love it, but not everybody does.
Like, and it's not dry heat. It's humid. It's humid.
Yeah. I can have, if I had to move to Phoenix or something, I could probably handle that more
than the humidity, honestly. So nice. I, I born and raised here. So it cracks my skin.
When I go to dry places, I can't, I can't deal with the dry. So we're all conditioned for
different places. And you know, what's fun though. Now I got another friend I can visit in LA.
So hang down the fourth there. I don't, I don't want y'all's taxes, but I do love to visit.
You know, the tax thing is interesting because like, I, I don't know how much more I'm paying
in taxes than you, for example. I don't want to know. I think, I mean, I, I, I mean, I, I,
I mean, I, I'm not exactly, I'm not being funny. Like I don't know. And I think that it's probably
better that way right now. Yup. Plausible deniability is a good thing to use in many
circumstances. So this is one of those, we'll leave it where it's at for both of our hearts sake.
Tax, anybody wants to put the answer in the comments, you're welcome to. But I got Matt
Gerlich on stage, Life Transformation Coach. And you've been living what you talk about. I really
do enjoy, I read through your website and your relationship with your partner and how you've
stepped into what I would call being your best self. You know, like showing up and being
authentic. And I greatly appreciate what I read. I look forward to diving into your vision. I'm,
I'm excited to help some of the audience members learn their worth and how to advocate for what
that looks like. And while I don't think we could put a definitive cap on somebody's worth, since
I have a feeling we both believe it's infinite in value. I think you decide your own word. I mean,
nobody's going to value you as high as you value yourself. Well, and once you learn how to do it,
you're not going to be able to do it. And as we get ready to dive into that, I'm gonna write that
down because we're coming back to that. Along your journey, what are three resources that you
recommend for visionaries and leaders who are also on this journey of discovering that?
I have, I mean, it's kind of random, but as I was thinking about this, there's an author
named Glennon Doyle. She wrote a book called Untamed. She has two books before that.
I'm a huge reader on my journey, on my growth, my healing journey. I'm kind of tired of hearing
myself say healing journey. So I'm trying to call it growth sometimes more now, but I found her book
and this woman is fierce and really taught me how to like be who I want to be and to stand up for
what I need to stand up for and advocate for myself. And the book really changed me and I
love her. And she has two other books before this. Her life story is like crazy and funny and she's
like relatable and she's a mom of three kids. She's like, I mean, I honestly couldn't imagine a better
parent, like a better example. She's not perfect. She apologizes, teaches her followers to do that.
She's big. She has a few million followers now at this point, but that book was really, really
important to me. And it also encouraged me to write my own book, which is something I've been
working on. And the next thing, honestly, like good old fashioned meditation. Are these answers too
long or is it okay to go into this a little bit? You're fantastic. We're live. Everybody's going
to be excited about it. So something really big happened to me yesterday, like really, really
earth shattering. It involves a financial, something didn't go in my favor. We'll put it that
way. Like this is a really big deal. And I was on a coaching call yesterday and like he was talking
about meditation and I was like, can I tell you a little story? I told him quickly about what
happened. And I'm like, this is what meditation does. I am okay. And the truth is I am okay.
Like 10 years ago, I would have been walking to the gas station and buying cigarettes and outside
smoking. I would be passive aggressive, not sleeping. And I can't explain like how meditation
does it. There's people that can explain it better than they can. But it just like, it just has taught
me that, I mean, it's helped me be okay. Yeah. No, to be clear, I want your depth
and the answers like this. So I know that it's some podcasts and interviews, like it's kind of
short and I want to keep it high level, but know that this is the depth where the implementation
comes into sight. And it's like, oh yeah, I can relate to that. I can see how that applies to my
life. So thank you for it. It will eat into how much we can talk about your vision, but Matt,
we can always bring it back. If there's more we want to dive into. So meditation for me is also
my secret weapon. And I call it prayer. I don't care if somebody calls it a banana.
You know, it's the same thing, the process of, and I like to walk when I meditate. You know,
some people say you have to be on your knees when you pray. And I get what people want to do with
their own constraints, but the idea of getting centered, the idea of tuning into myself and what
are their powers else exist out there. I have never been able to, I know the value of that source.
I should say that I don't need to worry. And if I find a better source someday, awesome. But yeah,
it's huge. It's super powerful. Thanks. Yeah. I, you know, like I can't explain exactly how it's
working. People say like, my mind's too busy to meditate. I say this with compassion. My mind is
busy 99% of the past 10 years when I've been meditating. I don't know if I'm doing it right.
Thank you. Yes. Like, but something happened over the past few weeks. I've noticed myself
observing myself and I'm observing myself as like, I think this is pretty vulnerable, but like,
I observed myself like with so much compassion, like I'm looking at myself and like, look at that
like beautiful human that's sitting there, like doing his best to try to navigate life. And it's
just, I can't explain how it's doing this, but it's, it's teaching me I will be okay.
I'll double down on that with you. Cause I think enough people, I think too many people shy away
from, and they call it woo woo, or frou frou. And they don't, you know, if that's you, if that's where
you're still at, you're still uncomfortable with the superpower that you have to deprecate it or
put it down, then maybe you're not fully owning the opportunity to really embrace it. So here I was at
Flow Research Collective working with Steven Kotler's team. And I can't remember his name,
but one of the, one of the leaders in the company wrote an article about finding happiness with
yourself. And he talked about waking up in the morning, hugging yourself and telling yourself,
I love you. You know, there's not too many levels of woo farther and higher up than doing that.
And I was like, you know what? I love you. You know, and I kissed myself on the shoulder and I was
like, how do I take this up a notch? And it's amazing what happens when we embrace a full
appreciation of oneself without self-angra, what is that called? Putting ourself above others.
That's not, those things aren't connected to each other. I still love everybody else too, but
I'm also grateful that you mentioned that because I don't think people can achieve their full
visions and what they're meant to do if they're worried about, you know, like feeling like they
can appreciate themselves. Yeah. And then the third thing, I kind of started off with this specific
book, but the third on the last two are more general and then journaling, honestly, like
journaling, like I did a podcast episode the other day about this and just like, I said three
things just for simplicity, I won't go there, but these things are so accessible. Meditation,
meditation can be one minute journaling, journaling you can do anywhere. You can make it a paragraph,
you can make it two sentences, you could type it, you could write it, you could even voice note it
to yourself. Journaling helps me sort through my mind in such a productive way. Like I literally
see like, I don't want to call it busy, just like there's chaos, you know, it's not necessarily even
uncomfortable. It's just like, I need to get this out of here on the page and I start writing it
down. But the thing is, and I'm not projecting that you have to do this, I think there's so much
power in just getting the thoughts out of your mind. But now what I've done for the past year or
so, I set like weekly goals, I go back and review my journal each week, and kind of roll that back
into a monthly goal review. But the thing is that I've noticed when you, you know, like you get to
assess your life, like on Mondays and Tuesdays, these problems that feel like they won't ever go
away, they do. Like, and you start to see that I realize that. Very consistently by Wednesday or
Thursday, these problems are gone. And I think a lot of us strive to take better care of ourselves.
I am no better. I mean, I'm no special than anybody else. I struggle, you know, on the weekends,
I indulge. I like wine, I like desserts, I like pizza and buffalo wings and all that stuff. And
I'm 41 years old. And this has been a problem for like, like, I've always felt better when I'm
eating better. But like having this like, really like noting down like, you know, Mondays, I feel
more anxious or I feel more bloated. Why did I do this to myself? It's helping over time. But I
think health is like, I'm blanketing this into health, but it's like a, it's a lifelong process.
And I think like, the kinder you can be to yourself and realize that we are all harming ourselves in
some way, it's allowed me to just like, start to like, like, wow, Matt, like you have like a year's
worth of journaling here, that proves that you like feel better on a Monday when you like, eat like a
lot more vegetables than pizza over the weekend. And that's really helped, you know, and I'm
love that when I sleep well, I feel better, you know, it's just, it's helped me really reflect on
my life. So very good. There's a there's a journaling. And there's that appreciation for
the journal, right? You're actually utilizing it to make sure that you are seeing the progress and
great friend of mine when I was going through my first divorce, said Jackson, you know, you can't
watch a tree grow. And he was referring to my changes and how I had evolved as I was striving
to save my marriage. And I was really grateful for that analogy and that thought process of okay,
I'm not going to be able to see this on a daily basis. But that's also where the journaling and
documentation process can really help understand that we are improving much more than we often give
ourselves credit for or than sometimes others give us credit for. And it's, it's important to
have that peace of mind with ourselves if we're going to go and achieve great things. It's a very
important reality to, to be aware of. So, Matt, thank you. You've already given us an incredible
amount of wisdom and we're gonna be bringing you right back on. We're gonna dive into the vision,
everybody. We're gonna be talking about how to learn your own worth and how to advocate for it,
so we can maximize our lives together. All right. Welcome in to Vision Pros Live with Jackson
Kalam. I'm your show host. We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest
leaders who are building fantastic visions out there.
Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome in to another episode of Vision Pros Live. I just saw that edit
typo on sponsored by that's funny. Sponsor Ray is what it said. I don't think that's any language,
though. Anyway, I'm a show host, Jackson Kalam, founder and CEO of First Class Business. I'm
excited to have Matt Gerlach on our stage today. And, you know, he's got a depth of wisdom centered
around, I would, I would sum it up as far as just being super self-aware and that skill set of being
able to know who you are, know what you want and being dedicated to finding it. I've been blessed
tremendously in my life by discovering the same thing and in many cases, rediscovering who I was
because of situations, traumas, adversities that you face in life that make you start to lose sight
of the things that are most important. So he's got a journey and story related to that that really
touched my heart when I was reading through it on his website. So feel free to check that out.
We'll, of course, have in the show notes, the action steps you can take with him and his mission.
Before we bring him back on stage though, a couple of sponsors that I want to mention,
people who we work with. These aren't even paid sponsorships. I just like to put resources up
here that I know you guys will benefit from. So one is Matt, I said Matt, Dave Morrow, Dave Morrow
from the Hard to Kill podcast, hardtokill.org is the organization. He's helping a hundred thousand
veterans lose 2 million pounds collectively. And why is he doing that? Well, they're helping
and why is he doing that? Well, there's an incredibly high suicide rate of our veterans
because they come back and I don't want to actually define them because there's a lot of
reasons that contribute to it. But one thing that happens to all of us is when we start to gain weight
or we start to lose sight of ourselves physically and not to feel good about ourselves, that toys
with our mind just as much as anything else in life can. But these soldiers, their identity is
often based on how in shape they are and how superhero they've become. And so I love that he
leads this mission having fought the fight, having been in the war as well, understanding that
he knows what it's like firsthand to go through the challenge and problem. And I see him doing
so much good to help people become look good, feel good and do good. That's his mantra. I was like,
I want to share Dave's mission with the world to a greater extent. And then there's Peyton Childers
with Magic's Productions. Peyton produced, in fact, you're looking at it right now,
our event, First Class Networking. He came in to do the AV for it and he allowed our event to
have a series of cameras set up that were all connected and he ran it like a production studio.
And this was just a normal 20 to 30 person event. And he was able to capture the visuals for,
for B-roll purposes. He was able to stream it live to YouTube so that people could participate
in it if we had wanted that. His creativity and genius related to event management and
providing that audio visual setup is second to none. And he's got the hospitality skills of a
40, 50, 60 year old superstar. And I highly recommend again, checking out what he's up to.
And he just recently got into producing podcasts as well. So if you're looking for something to
help out with launching a podcast, some on ours and absolutely check out what Peyton's up to.
Then there's the Water Project. The Water Project is a cause that I will never rock this microphone
without talking about a cause that's much larger than what we are. I've never been thirsty in my
life. Literally, I've always had access to clean drinking water. So when the Water Project came
across my desk and I was like, wow, like I didn't know there was millions, I never thought about it.
Millions of people who don't even have access to clean drinking water. And what they're doing is
they've created this program kind of like a Kickstarter campaign. You actually get to pick
the community that you're helping. And when you contribute even just five to $10 to that campaign,
they will keep you updated on that campaign coming to fruition. And so you actually get to see the
generational impact that you have. I like to meditate on this and think about how, you know,
one, you're going to see this picture of these kiddos. It looks like they're celebrating
Christmas Day, like my children, but they're celebrating access to water. You get to have
that type of impact and imagine their parents and how they have to leave work to go get water
sometimes. Or these kids have to leave school in order to go get water for the community.
The grandparents, you know, have hunched backs because they have to carry this water three to
five miles. Like it's insane what people have to go through. So my hope is that if you're not in a
position where you can help financially, that you spread the word about this. Maybe tell us
something else about it. And if you know of a cause that you'd rather see as support, then give us a challenge
of dropping it in the comments. Allow us to help. There's 8 billion people in this world that we can
help out. And it's important that we all step up and do that if we have the capacity to do so.
So without further ado, Matt Gerlach, welcome back to Vision Pros Live. Super happy to have you here
today, man. Thank you. Happy to be here. Absolutely. So Matt, if you were to define,
based on the audience you serve, what's your vision for the people that you're serving?
The vision for the people that I'm serving, I would say to
live the life that they want for them. Like to live the life that they want, to live the life
that they want, that they likely don't yet know they like, that they don't yet know they want.
The people that I work with, a lot of them are held back by trauma and limiting beliefs around
what's possible for them. So like when you're asked what you want, it's very hard. When you're
asked what you want for your life, it takes a lot of work. And that's what I work with my clients on.
It's helping them like really strip down the beliefs. If nobody else was in this room,
what would you want for yourself? And it sounds for a lot of people out there, like I have a lot
of people in my life that can answer that question a lot easier than I could have. And I'm 41, I might
have mentioned that earlier. And it's like, I didn't know what I wanted for my life until probably
about three years ago. And I've been working with therapists and coaches and for a long time. And I
just was really held back thinking a lot of limiting beliefs. Like I'm too old to start anew.
Like really the biggest, most damaging thought was what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me?
And the biggest, most damaging thought was what's wrong with me for not being happy? Like I had met,
I had met and exceeded most measures of normal societal and external success. I was always a
really top performer at work, making a lot of money. I had gained freedom at work a lot just
because of my success and performance, but it wasn't enough. And I help people, I help people
and I help people who are struggling. I help people who are struggling to find their way back
to their normal lives. And more than that, like I say this with compassion, but like so many of us
think that in order for us to have a job that feels good, it won't pay good. And that's not the case.
Like you can, you know, I'm just kind of making this up, but like, I hope this makes sense. But
you know, get in your community and teach people things like there are people that will pay the
money for services. I will back you up on that big time. When I met Josh Rossi of fulltime
photographer.com, we, I was at video power marketing and we were running Facebook,
YouTube ad campaign, sorry, for, for people who could spend more than $10,000 a month on YouTube
ads. I mean, these were people who were crushing it. And so here he comes and he was coming to our
coaching program, if I remember correctly, and he, he wanted to run his YouTube ads with us.
And I'm sitting there kind of scoffing, like, there's no way this guy's crushing it. He teaches
photographers how to be a photographer. Everybody with an iPhone thinks they're a photographer,
you know, like how is he going to win with this? And so I'm, I'm talking to Jake about that a
little bit and Jake knew a little bit better than I did, but he was good at putting up with my,
my, my lack of confidence in that regard. And he comes in and man, I ate crow so fast. He was,
he was doing five figures per week on one podcast, one webinar, two and a half hour webinar.
He just did one of them per week. And, you know, I was like, what, how is this possible?
You know, every, there's so many articles online and people how to be a great photographer.
And in his case, you know, what we learned was, you know, what all of that noise that's created
in that red ocean has created a reality where those who wanted the absolute success, those who
wanted to succeed were so sick of that, that they would pay him in a heartbeat to solve the problem
because he knew what he was doing. And so it was very lucrative for him. And that's just teaching
photography. There's so many other things that we can teach. So that's, that's point number one,
you're 100% correct. Moving into what our passion is unlocks a possibility for profitability that
others in your life are going to be uncomfortable with. And they might be scared for you. So they
might try to stop you, but it doesn't make you wrong by pursuing it too. We, hopelessness comes
in many forms, but if somebody is hopeless, it's very, very hard to help them find hope. And that
may be the hope of a new career, but that may be, you know, the hope of survival. There's a,
there's a lot of layers of that red fern grows. One of the dog dies, the other dog dies right
after, because it just cannot get over the reality of that situation. It had lost hope on the purpose
of life. So I'm super grateful that you bring it up. A lot of us are trapped in hopelessness and
areas of our life that we may not even be willing or ready to acknowledge yet. And it sounds like
you're kind of standing for that, which is pretty cool. So what do you, what is your vision for
yourself? My vision for myself is I want to enjoy my life so much that nothing that I'm doing feels
like work, you know? And I know that sounds a little weird because like we are all doing parts
of our, like, I just, you know, like accounts payable. A lot of us don't enjoy that, but like,
that doesn't feel like work when every part of, when it's part of, when it's 10% of your life
only or five or 1% of your life, you know, like I want to be enjoying so much of my life that the,
that the unfun parts like don't even feel like work. And I'm not far from that right now, you
know? I've, I've been in, you know, I've been in doing traditional business type work for the past
20 years almost. And moving into this like coaching mentor type role, I started a podcast,
writing a book, I'm about to start getting on stages and speaking about my story inspiring
others. Like, this is, this is like nothing I've ever imagined before. Like I, I've been in
before, like I, I didn't know life could feel this good. And what's weird about it too, is it's like,
life is challenging too. This is, this is not easy. Like, it's, it's, I mean, like everything
that I've taken on, like probably one of the hardest things that I've done. It's like when I
started posting on Instagram, like every day, and it's like, you can look back to like my videos a
year ago, they were horrible. Like, I mean, they're still not amazing. Like I'm learning.
I'm laughing because I have the same thing on my side.
Yeah, like, you know, I mean, so it's you, but you get used to being a novice, and you get to
start realizing that every single person who's where you want to be also started off as a novice.
I'm kind of like, rewinding a little bit to what you were saying about the photographer thing.
We're at the place like, you know, being an entrepreneur, where like, you know, you do hire
certain people, like you hire like a private coach, there are certain things that I learn on my own,
because maybe they're a little easier for me to kind of self teach myself, but like, I can also
supercharge things and learn them faster and get help to become adept faster. But, um,
absolutely.
I want to feel so good and helping others and showing people that life does not have to feel
work, the work part of life does not have to feel miserable. And I care so much about financial
and quality, about people making enough money to survive in today's life. And like the cost of
living is just astronomical, no matter where you turn your head. And like, we need to learn how to
advocate for our own worth. And I do believe that a lot of us that work in corporate or work for
somebody else, our hands are tied by the amount that they are valuing us. So I'm a big proponent
of entrepreneurship and having started myself as services, my bit, my job that I, my, my company
that I'd started was a services firm, a sales services firm. And like, I mean, I'm not,
entrepreneurship is not for everybody. You have to be self-starting, you have to be, you know,
driven, you have to be willing to learn, you have to be willing to not be good. You have to take
feedback, you have to be willing to grow, you have to have like the ability to take on some risk.
But like when you're, but like when you starting, when you are starting a services company, I mean,
you literally only need a computer. In a lot of cases, a photographer needs a computer and a
camera. Like you're not having to buy a warehouse full of merchandise. Right. And I'm a huge
proponent in teaching people how to make enough money for themselves that they aren't like worried.
Like my dog had had back surgery a year ago and it was like $15,000. Like it's, it would have been
it would have been really hard. I would have been, I mean, luckily insurance covered a lot of it,
but like it would have been really hard. I mean, I grew up like that where like we,
we couldn't take the pets to the doctor sometimes when they needed to go. And none of us should have
to live like that. I love that. There's a, there's a lot of opportunity for all of us to,
to dive into it or to figure out how to dive into it. And I think each person's course is a little
bit unique, but I love that you brought up account payables. And I'm currently handling payroll for
our company. Right. And so normally I would have this handed off to see if I know some great ones,
Cameron, Kinley County, I got to give you major shout out because you're awesome. But right now
I've taken that process back on and it's a very different feeling. These days we've got
20 team members. And as I was going through and making some payments yesterday and found myself
in a position to give a couple of raises, you know, and little raises, very small aspects of
gratitude, you know, just to show the team that, that I care about their contributions and being
able to talk to my team members about, Hey, what are your needs? What's going on in your life right
now? There's a lot of wonderful emotion that comes with that good, bad, and ugly, but it is far from
like a system. It's far from like something mundane. There's, there's a lot of challenges
that come with that, but there's also a lot of rewards that come with it too. I couldn't have
realized that, you know, 10 years ago, my entrepreneurial path, I couldn't have seen that
that that could be something that you enjoy because it didn't, it seemed like something that was just
tactical. I love that you brought that up. Let's dive into dark subject. What is the worst leadership
experience that you've ever had?
I worked with a leader at a job some time ago and that person was very, was very tight with money,
you know, didn't take care of people. And I think that they thought that, you know, they were often
getting a bargain by like negotiating down. And I think it's really funny because like a lot of
times, like we don't really know what the job looks like, you know, like we don't know what an
A player looks like. So it's like, we think that like, Oh, like, you know, this consultant asked
for $4,000 a month, I got them down to 3000. And ha ha ha, like, what a good deal.
We were that way. We were that way when I was running my first startups. Absolutely. We haggled
people down the wire.
And yeah, and it's like, and I've seen this like where it's like, that person comes on board and
they're performing at a C level, no one knows any better. And like, good for the consultant, you
know, like for, I mean, I shouldn't say it like that. Like, it's not funny. I mean, it's just like,
but that is the reality. And you know, I think that like, I am a firm believer in taking care of
people. You know, I had an employee recently who went on maternity leave, this is my first time
with, you know, dealing with this. And I, I wish I could have given her more, I gave her three
months off, and I felt kind of bad about that. And then I learned that like, that's like twice
what most people give. But I worked for a company once that gave six months. And I was like, that
was kind of my North Star that I was like, I wish I could do that. But you know, I'm like, kind of
a one man show.
Well, you're not there yet, but you're, you're gravitating towards it, right. And that person
too, if that person, you know, the healthy relationship appreciates the process, you know,
of trying to get there as well. And so the fact that you want to get to abundance, while we can't
justify that and say, Oh, I'm just going to make people make them think I want that, that doesn't
work. But when you're striving to move towards that reality, and if they're part of the team,
well, it's a team process to get there. So I love that, I love that you gravitating towards it. I
love that you bring it up as one of the worst leadership realities. I think we have to call
out most of corporate America. I think we have to call out most small business owners. How many
times do we ask the question to the provider? How much does it cost to work with you? And the
underlying reality of that backhanded question is, what's the least amount I can pay you? You
can't recruit LeBron James, asking that question. You can't recruit the best talent, the best
talent then has to figure out diplomatically how to say, wow, thanks for disrespecting me.
It's not healthy.
I mean, even this morning, my assistant, she like we're contracted for 44 hours a month.
And she was like, I need to let you know, I worked 60 hours this month. And like, I think she thought
that I might like, I mean, she knows that I'm fine. But like, I think she knew, I mean, I think she
thought that it might not be like as fine as it was. I was like, girl, you did a lot, like,
this is not a problem. I mean, I, and I mean, I saw her time tracker, like, I mean, it was fine.
And I've seen people before where it's like, you know, I mean, you work 60 hours, you know,
can we like meet in the middle? Can I pay you, you know, 52 hours? I think that would be, and
it's like, she, I mean, I'm excited to really my motivation, like one of my, I have like two people
that are really, really supporting me on my team right now. And one of my like big motivations,
I vocalized with them over the past couple of days, like, I'm ready to grow. I'm ready to
invest some more money into getting business growing a little bit more, because I want to
give them more money. Like, I don't like that. Like, one of them is my friend, she's like taking
this job on. She's like, I mean, I'm really grateful that she's even touching what I'm doing
for the amount that I'm paying her right now. But I love taking care of people. And it's, it's my
dream. I mean, I want to have like, in my, you know, for my, I call it a mentorship business,
like I really looking down the, you know, looking in the pipeline in a few months, I really hope to
have, you know, a few really high end one on one clients, a couple of mastermind groups that I'm
working with, and some sort of like lower ticket, like more attainable, weekly meeting type
situation. So I'm calling it a mentorship group. And I mean, I like I want to, I mean, I live in
LA, I mean, I need to, my partner and I are doing surrogacy right now, life is very expensive.
But I mean, I mean, but I have noted an amount of money for myself, that like, if I made this
amount of money, like everything else can go to charity, everybody else, like that's not
noticed for myself. And, and I don't I mean, it's not like a tiny amount, like I mean, I would live
a nice life, I wouldn't be buying a boat, or anything like that. But like, I would be able to
go on nice vacations and things like that. But my dream is like, I would love to have a nice,
you know, three or four people that are just like, supporting me so well and making several
hundred thousand dollars a year for doing that. Because I want to, I know what it's like to
make the life changing amount of money and I, I come from, you know, a very blue collar family,
money was a huge issue. I, it would be my biggest honor to help people not have to feel that way.
Absolutely. It's huge. And the book that I'm super grateful that I finally read, I regret
not reading it eight years sooner when it came across my desk is the E-Myth. And the E-Myth does
an excellent job of helping to see that there are lots of procedures, resources, templates and
people that are required in order to move these types of mountains. And of course, gamifying,
taking care of people, incredible concepts. So what's the most important thing that you
do in your life? And what's your, what's your best leadership experience ever?
Can I go back to that book real quick?
Of course you can. It's
I mean, it recently came across my desk three or four months ago and I read it and my partner
read it too. We were both like, wow, this was, it was a very, very good book and entertaining for
anybody that wants to read one of the best entrepreneurial books I've ever read, probably
in the top three. Very, very good.
Absolutely. And listen to it on Audible guys. It's, his name is Michael Gerber and he sounds
like Michael Douglas, which makes it very entertaining to listen to. So I highly recommend
consuming that at least once. Thank you for that. So yeah, what's your best leadership experience
that you've ever had?
You know, I'm going to go the opposite. I mean, yeah, I've had a couple. I'll just go with what
first came in mind. I worked with a very generous woman when I moved to New York in 2010. I
that like, it was my first foray into entrepreneurship. My whole, this past 15 years have been spent
randomly in the baby product industry. In 2010, this was like a very booming industry because,
and it was largely started in New York, like, because even rich people like in New York
lived in pretty not that big apartments and didn't want to look at like a Winnie the Pooh,
like in their living room.
That makes sense.
Like more design. So I worked for a company named Aiden and A. We really, we created a
massive category of swaddling blankets. We brought it was like, so swaddling was made
mainstream because of this woman who owned the company. And she's an Australian and brought
muslin to America in a big way. And I was, you know, 27 years old. And when I moved there,
my pay doubled. I went from like making about $70,000 a year to about 150. I had a very
lucrative comp structure that was just like so nicely set up. I think it was like, if you hit
your goal each month, I think you got $3,000 extra just for hitting your goal. I might be wrong.
Maybe it was a thousand or something, but I think it was, I think it was more than a thousand.
Substantial.
Yeah. And, and it was like, rather than like, like, I mean, this, I mean, I mean, as a sales
leader myself, like, I do think that when you have this like annual goal, it's really hard
for people to get excited about this. And at this company, it was a monthly goal each month.
You restarted over, you got your commission based off what you sold. You got the 3000 bucks,
I think it was a long time ago, but I was like 27 years old. Sometimes like, I think I got like,
you know, some like $15,000 checks, like, and that was a ton of money. Yeah. And holiday parties
were like nice, you know, probably like, and this was a while ago, but dinner was probably still
like 300 bucks a person, tons of alcohol. We got iPads and just really felt taken care of. And,
like, and it was just so much more than what you have to do. And that's why, like, I like working
in entrepreneurial companies. I like working for founders. I like working for myself now, you know,
because there's not, I mean, this is the thing about corporate America, like that I learned
recently, not that recently, but I really absorbed recently, the fiduciary duty of a company, like
the number one priority of a company, of a corporation is the fiduciary duty. So a company
is laid out where the stockholders, the shareholders, they are more important than the employees.
They're more important than the people that are owed money. These people are laid out in the bylaws,
I think it might be. They are the most important people in this organization. And that's why
the common folk is not taken care of very well in these organizations.
Wow. That's a, that is interesting. That's high level, high level thought process to consider.
You go into government, you can be the president. We could use that. I'll leave that where it's at.
Jumping into an ultra serious question. You can of course have fun with it still, but my favorite
question, if this was the very last chance you had to share a powerful lesson with the world,
what powerful lesson can other visionaries learn from your experience?
Introspection. Like the answers are inside of us. And so I didn't really get a chance to like say
much about my story, but in 2017, I was living in New York. I had just started my consulting business
and I was like literally dying. I had anxiety and depression that were so bad. I could barely
function. I was numbing it with drugs and alcohol and cigarettes, which was absolutely making it
worse. It wasn't like crazy. I mean, I was like more than functioning and it wasn't like I was
waking up and drinking or anything like that. But like in the evenings, I certainly was to deal with
the stress of it all. And it led me down a path of realizing that I had childhood trauma that hadn't
been ever dealt with. A lot happened at school. I was very bullied and ridiculed. I was very
fueled. I was fat and made fun of and just like really had a hard life at school and at home.
There was a lot of chaos and a lot of things happened that shouldn't have happened. There was
a lot of things said, some physical stuff that really shouldn't have happened. And I just kept
it all with me. And I never dealt with it because I thought that I wanted to protect my caretakers.
I didn't want to acknowledge that the truth of it. Introspection has changed my entire life.
Like I started this off by saying like, you know, something really crazy happened and I'm okay.
I think anxiety in its most simplest form is that your internal needs are not matching your
external environment. I know some of us have much deeper anxiety than that, but a lot of us who are
suffering from anxiety, it is just like that we're in a horrible relationship with somebody who is
treating us poorly. And that could be professional, could be personal, could be,
you know, romantic, and we need to get out of it. Like it could be, you know, our passive or not
passive aggressive, our aggressive, you know, mother-in-law that lives upstairs from us and is
just constantly making us feel bad. Oh, you're eating pastries again. Like, you know, whatever
it might be. Like these things are harmful to us. And me learning to be honest about my feelings,
introspecting has changed everything. And we don't chase our feelings. Like it's not like we're
saying like, I'm hurt and I'm going to tell everybody how hurt I am. No, not exactly. It's,
it shows you a direction. It shows you where to start working. You know, like I'm constantly hurt
by men. Like, well, the net shows you that there's some trauma that you need to start working through
with your trained professionals that can help you with that. It's not necessarily like blow up at
everybody. Although that's appropriate sometimes. Sometimes you need to set some boundaries, but
like I was lying to myself for so long about my feelings and just afraid to admit like what I
needed. And by learning to admit what I'm, by touching the stove and saying, this is hot,
I don't want to keep my hand on it. My life has changed in every way. I literally don't suffer
from anxiety and depression very much. Hardly ever. I almost want to say no, but yesterday was
a little much. Sure. Sure. I get that. Well, and life's challenges, you know, even if we get to
the point of, I get, I'm not, I'm not Buddha. You know, I'm not Muhammad there in Jesus, but
I have found that throughout my life, as I've gravitated towards learning those principles,
we gain strength, right? We're still going to have adversities that come and adversities are there to
help define who we are becoming. And that's a hard concept for some people to grasp. If you're in the
beginning stages of going through trauma, your anxiety is super, super high. There's a great
Ted talk on anxiety. I'm sure if you just looked up how to overcome anxiety, Ted talks, you'd find
several of them, but one of the ones I watched recently talked about how anxiety is treated as
a symptom and as a disease, um, rather than really realizing that it's part of our, it's also healthy
too, to have there's certain warnings that it gives us. And I love that you kind of keyed in on
that. You said, I had to write down anxiety is our internal, um, what's going on, not, not matching
the external reality that we're facing. And I was like that it's that detector. It's that siren of
something's off here. So thank you for sharing that. And yeah, introspection, self-awareness,
amazing. And hearing you say that back to me, like also, I mean, thank you for reflecting that back.
It's, it's also that it's also an image, like if you are alarmed by something, it is, I mean,
if your knee, like if you're feeling unsafe and you actually are in a safe environment
and you don't feel unsafe, that's a great signal that there's trauma in your past that is,
that's in your nervous system that that is preventing you from feeling safe in safe
situations. It's like the disease to please, you know, it's like people that are always hyper
vigilant because something needs to be processed. And I want to make it very clear. I don't think
these things are necessarily easy. I think that working with, well, they're simple ish and
like work. I mean, the point that I'm making is like, you need to work with somebody a lot of times
to accomplish a lot of this. And I like to say that like, by setting boundaries, like there is an
immediate payoff. You're getting yourself out of a situation that is harming you. So that's why I
said it's like, correct. Simple can be very hard, you know, 10,000 steps per day, 100 pushups,
100 setups. Yeah. How many of us do it? You know, there's lots of ways, 10 minutes of walking.
So it's not always easy just because it's simple. And I appreciate you sharing that.
Now let's look at, we talked a little bit about worth. We can dive in a little bit further on
that. We've got a few minutes left. I do want to make time for how do you advocate for your worth?
So if you want to define it first and then dive into how to, the floor is yours.
I mean, you can work with me and I will help you advocate for your worth. That's really what I do.
I help people to learn that they're worthy of whatever they believe they are. But I think that
like, there's a lot of things you can do. There's one little like tool that I use a lot. There's a
couple of things that I want to mention, like I think journaling is really powering, you know,
and making a belief stack, where you're writing down 50 things about yourself that you believe
like, you know, you're thinking for yourself, like, I deserve this raise at my job. I deserve
to make $300,000 a year. And if you write down 50 things, 50 reasons why that's true for yourself,
you're going to, I mean, you're going to see some changes in yourself. Like in those, I mean, I
have lists all over the place of compliments I get, things that like I like to write down to look at
when I'm when I'm questioning myself, but it's a practice. All of this is a practice. And you're
not just going to like read a book and be like, Oh my god, my self worth is perfect. But you
practice, you know, and you get yourself out of situations that aren't good for you. And you set
boundaries and you realize that you're able to advocate for yourself and you're getting and
you're valuing yourself, you're, you're taking care of your worth. And the other thing you
know, Mel Robbins, I really like something that she did that, that really stood out to me right
now. And you asked that she has like this high five habit book. And really, it's like looking
at yourself in the mirror in the morning, and giving yourself a high five in the mirror. Like,
I wish that I mean, I think everyone expects there to be some like massive, like, some massively
complicated tool for a lot of these things. But a lot of it is these simple tricks, you know, just
like any way that you can start to like get negative energy, negative people, negative thoughts
out of your life, and bring more positive thoughts, positive people in your life. They that is that is
a lot of the secret. But I work with people on this all the time help them change their lives
by learning that they're worth it, especially working with high achievers that you've proven
yourself, you know, you're a great parent, you're a great employee, you're a great son, a great
daughter, you're, you know, a great partner to your, I mean, to your, I mean, to your part, like
you're doing all of these things right. And you, you're able to do more. I mean, like you, like
you are qualified to get yourself to a new level of worth that matches what you want for yourself.
And I help people with that.
That's awesome. And I appreciate you sharing many of the little tricks, little subtleties that we
can practice, what it will do for those of you. And, you know, just try and experimenting with
these realities, journaling, you know, and then using, there's so many ways we can journal to,
you can journal your negative thoughts, you can also journal your positive thoughts, you can
journal the things that you're upset about and got robbed from you, or you can journal the things
that you're grateful for. The, what you choose to write also has a massive impact and power
on how you feel, or at least that's how it's been for me. This is Mel Robbins' other book,
or one of her other books, The Five Second Rule. She is quite an amazing teacher and loves to
create simple frameworks. You also talked about this, this list, these write these lists of
what I deserve and what I want out of life. Again, very powerful manifestation exercises
that I am, I'm probably going to dive into both of those today myself, depends on if I can fit it
in with my bike rack, but it would be fun. So as we, as we get ready to wrap up, again, I think
the audience, everybody for being here with us today, we'll have in the action steps below the
video, the ways that you can connect with Matt. He mentioned an episode or podcast he was on,
I'll ask him if you can send me the link for it so I can include that in the show. And I'll
send you the link for it so I can include that in the show notes and the resources, of course,
will be down there. If you are a visionary yourself and you're feeling inspired, like you want to be
on the stage and come and talk to us, then you don't have to be Mel Robbins to come onto the
stage. You can be somebody who's not known, that doesn't have a website, doesn't have a presence
like Matt and Mel do, but if you've got a vision of serving others, we want you on the show,
come talk to us about it. And by the way, Mel, we would still be very happy to have you on the
show too. So Matt, any final thoughts you want to share before I wrap up?
No, I mean, I really enjoyed this conversation with you and just, I just, I just want everybody
out there to know that, you know, the only thing that's standing between you and the life that you
want is, is, is your belief. Like nothing has changed about me. I am not, I'm not maybe a little
bit smarter than I was 10 years ago, because I've like done a lot of reading and learning, but like,
I am far from the smartest person in the world. Like I grew my business to where it was making
a million dollars a year for me. Now I'm moving into this purpose driven work. I mean, I, I,
my partner and I have started our surrogacy journey. Like I am just, I cannot believe that my life is
where it's at today. I mean, five years ago, I would have bet a million dollars that I wouldn't
have even lived to be 40 years old. And it is like, it is absolutely possible to change your lives.
And if something isn't feeling right, like it's probably not, you know, so like investigate,
introspect life doesn't like life, like life's not easy, but it's not, it shouldn't feel hard
all the time. Like there should be a lot of joy in it. So anyway, and I love that. I know that,
I know that there's people out there who are going to hear that and gravitate towards it.
And if you know somebody that's struggling with that, maybe just send them this particular episode,
you know, send it over and say, Hey, I heard this thing from Matt about this book called Untamed.
He talks about meditation and you know, let them know what you got out of it. And then that makes
it easier for them to say, okay, if they got something out of it, maybe I will too. Fantastic
advice. And you got one more thing to say, I can tell. Yeah. If you go to my website, I've,
I've distilled literally like what I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and tens of
thousands of hours learning into a six step guide to start building your dream life. And if you
download the guide, you can schedule the free 45 minute strategy session with me where I'm happy
to walk you through it and help you start building that life that you always dreamed of, but had
trouble articulating. So I'm here for you. I would love to get a chance to connect with anybody who's
interested. So thank you very much for the time today. And I'm great to, I'm grateful to have
spoken with you all. Yeah, absolutely. We appreciate you guys and we'll see you on the next episode
of Vision Pros Live. Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned into Vision
Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move
forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to
participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time
building out your vision and becoming a Vision.