No! Don't go in there! Daddy's working.
Jonathan: You're listening to the show for dadpreneurs who want to have it all. Each week you'll see how you can have harmony in the four pillars of purpose, family, faith, fitness and finances. Welcome back to another edition of Daddy's Working podcast. I'm so glad that you're here and today I'm excited.
I’ve got to tell you, I am so excited because for many, many years Cupcake has been embarrassed when I tell people, yeah, I only work 20 hours a week. She just scrunches down and tries to disappear. She's like, Don't tell my parents that. Don't tell my parents that. And I was proud of it and then she made me feel ashamed. I don't know why I let her make me feel ashamed, I guess because I've been married to her for so long. [01:09.5]
But then I met this guy and he told me, “Dude, 20 hours! You're working too much.” And I'm like, What? What? Are you serious? I mean, this guy, I think he actually works less than me and he probably makes 10 times as much as I make. And—and—even better, I love to brag about how many days I've been on the mountain. I was only on the mountain 22 days this year on my snowboard. This guy has had 132 rounds of golf over the last year. Still killing it in business. Mr. Matt Hudgins. What is up, brother?
Matt: Jonathan, how are you, buddy? Good to see you. Thanks for having me. I'll try to do my best. Now I feel guilty already. If they could see this, I'm blushing already, right? Don't tell my wife that. Come on, man.
Jonathan: Yeah, I [missed the mark? 01:54.4].
Matt: I think she’s not going to like me either.
Jonathan: That's it. Yeah, Cupcake is not going to like anybody. No, she's going to be like, There's other people like you? I think she thinks I'm an alien. I'm like, I'm proud of this. This is a lifestyle by design. So, man, tell me something, Matt. How do you manage to play so much golf? [02:11.5]
Matt: It's actually really funny. So, you and I are both in Strategic Coach, Dan Sullivan, all that kind of stuff, So I didn't come up with these concepts, but apparently I did because I started this when I was a kid. I believe in … Dan Sullivan calls it “unique ability.” I call it my A+ activities. I'm only really good at two or three things. Right? And you don't want me doing much of anything else.
So, I have fully embraced this concept of A+ activities and that's what I do, and I outsource the rest. I’ve got my wife, Patti, who's great. She's kind of my executive assistant. I've got four other virtual assistants, so I've got a whole system in place.
I can tell you one of my favorite stories just real quick. I'm in first grade. I don't know if it was English class reading class, whatever it was, in first grade and I had a whole team of four or five girls doing all my homework. Right? I'm in the top class making all A's because outsourcing and delegating my homework. Of course, I got in trouble and got busted, and got moved to the lower reading class in first grade. My point being, I was already delegating and outsourcing when I was in first grade. [03:09.1]
Jonathan: It’s in your DNA, homeboy. That's what it is.
Matt: It’s in my DNA.
Jonathan: So wait a second now. You said, and I'm curious as to how this works, you said Patti, your wife, is sort of like your executive assistant. Does she know that?
Matt: She definitely knows that. She's like the king organizer. She’s like the team mom for all the school and soccer teams and all that stuff, and she loves organizing and getting stuff done. That stuff drives me nuts. I mean, let's just talk about travel plans. Oh my God, there's no way I want to book a travel plan. She loves that. Oh, let's pick out the hotel and which hotel and the flight and da-da. Ugh, drives me nuts. But that's her A+ activities. To her it’s she used to do it for a soccer team of 20 girls.
Jonathan: Wow.
Matt: That was really cool.
Jonathan: Yeah. The reason I'm asking is because I work with Cupcake and if I ever called her my assistant, she'd smack me, so I was curious. [04:00.0]
Matt: What's a better term? What do you mean? My partner? I don't know.
Jonathan: That's what I call her my business partner or, I don't know, it depends on the day.
Matt: Okay. You might be right. I might be getting in trouble after this. You might be right.
Jonathan: Depends on the day of the week. But, cool, man. I find it fascinating and this is no B.S. This is no B.S. I find it fascinating that you are one of the only people in the world I've ever spoken to and you were bashful about it, and I was like, Be loud and proud about that. There's two of us in the world. But the idea of working less and making more, you were sort of proud about working 20 hours when it was just you and me, but then I'm like, We’ve got to tell everybody about that, and you're like, No, no, it’s a no. Let's not do that. Why not? Why not be proud about it?
Matt: It's really funny that you say that. I think it's almost like the … what do they call it? The imposter syndrome, right? There’s a bunch of entrepreneurs who are successful who have what they call this imposter syndrome, like, Oh my gosh, any day now they're going to figure out that I'm not as smart as I look, or any day now they're not … it's all smoke and mirrors. [05:05.7]
I mean, I know it's not. I'm actually really good at what I do and really smart at what I do, and effective at what I do. But there's this something in the background. I call it a little voice in my head, a little voice in your head that I think hurts. Not hurts. Talks to all of us as entrepreneurs. Right? I think one thing being in these coaching programs has helped me is to quiet that voice in my head.
Yeah, so most people have this story of a struggle, and it's a struggle to get your business going and it's a struggle to work, and kick and scream, and I don't think it is. This goes back to my whole philosophy that we talked about a little bit. It’s because I don't think it is.
I think being successful in business is simple. It's about a mindset. You’ve got to have the mindset that it's doable, right? And it's about some core business concepts, some core business principles that you have to apply. That's all it is. Whether you are a podcast king, a real estate guy, an investment advisor, an industrial engineer, a dentist, that's all it is. It is not difficult. [06:01.8]
We've had people that have been successful. There are more people that are making more money than me that work less than me. I know that for a fact. There have to be.
Jonathan: I want to meet those people.
Matt: That’s what I’m saying.
Jonathan: Figure out what I’m doing wrong.
Matt: I believe in cutting and pasting. What do they call that? Modeling, right? I'm just a modeler.
Jonathan: Yeah.
Matt: Tell me how to do that.
Jonathan: You said you've been doing this since first grade. But, seriously, how did you figure out that you had these voices that were holding you back? And what did you do to keep them at bay? Because most people just become a slave to the voice.
Matt: Right, and I think that's exactly right. I will tell you that here's where … How do you say that? The more organized you are and the more … How do you say that? It's about the journey, not the result. If I know I'm doing the right things and good things are going to happen, that to me quiets my voice, and I started realizing that kind of early on, but you can even go back to some of my other coaching programs. I've been in other things besides Strategic Coach.
But it's the weird thing about us entrepreneurs. We are doing what we do because we want our own freedom of time and I don't want anybody telling me what to do or how much money I can make. [07:06.6]
But the truth of the matter is that the more organized I am, the more free time I have, right? So, if I have to get down to business, like we've talked about this and how focused you are—I guess Sullivan calls it a focused day. I call it the day before you go on vacation, how much you get done, right?—you get stuff done. You want to go to the mountain, go do your snowboarding, you're going to get some stuff done the day before you leave town. Right?
Jonathan: Yeah.
Matt: And the concept was, well, then I can't do that every day, but if I do that a couple, two or three days a week, I think I can get everything done.
Jonathan: Yeah, in business.
Matt: In business.
Jonathan: You just want to play. Let's just call it what it is. I want to play. This is what I have to do to go play.
Matt: This is true, but here's what we call that, right? So, when I do play my golf, which is my little thing. I golf and run. By the way, I'm super dad, too. I've got two daughters growing up now, but I was super dad and all that stuff, too, so I made time for the family, for sure. That was one of my main priorities. [08:00.2]
But the idea being that I try to combine them. You talk about I play golf with centers of influence, people that send me clients, so now that's an action. I enjoy golf, but it's also a relationship-building activity. You and I would call that no better time than to spend four hours with your best client. It'll have been four hours with somebody who's going to send me a referral or four hours with a guy that I want to be my client. So, I try stacking. I think you called it stacking before on one of your podcasts.
Jonathan: That is … I was just about to say it. This guy knows the show, ladies and gentlemen. Now you know why he got invited on. But, yeah, that's it. It's stacking. What are the activities that you can stack together? I tried to do the same thing when I'm in Park City and I know anybody's around there, any of my clients or anything, I'm inviting. I'm buying a lift ticket and I'm spending the day with you because we're going to bond. We're going to hang out and we're going to do more business together.
And it's not that it's that intention that I'm here to grub business from you. It's just a natural thing that when you like people and they like you, you're going to do business together. And who's better to do business with than people you like and who share the same activities and share the same interests as you? [09:09.0]
Matt: Absolutely. That whole people do business, people they know, like and trust, and spend time with. Right? If you have dinner with people, lunches with people, watch football games with people, go to football games with people, play golf, I mean, that's bonding, strengthening of the relationship. You do business with people you like, you have a good relationship with.
Jonathan: You don't have any guilt about playing golf. You're working.
Matt: I'm working. That's a focused activity, right? Because Dan Sullivan called that a focused activity. I'm strengthening the relationship.
Jonathan: Yeah. You know what? I'm going to start using that. Whenever I get somebody on the mountain, I'm strengthening my body. I'm strengthening the relationship.
Matt: I’ve got to tell you, that is one of the biggest things that quieted my voice. So, my voice was always, if you're doing one thing, I should be doing something else, so if I am playing golf with a client, I've got a voice that said I should be back in the office doing this. If I'm in the office doing this activity, there's a voice that says, You shouldn't be doing this other activity, spending more time with your clients. [10:01.1]
So, part of what I mean by getting organized, which is if I know that this is a client day when I’m spending time with clients, now my little voice is quiet because he knows tomorrow is what I call it the “homework day.” The homework and prep work day. That's what I'm supposed to do tomorrow, but today is a client day, so today I'm going to my meetings. I'm playing golf. I'm going to lunches. That's what I'm supposed to do on my client day.
And then, the voice is quiet because he knows tomorrow is the follow-up. Anytime you have meetings, you have all this follow-up work to do and homework to do or prep work to do for the next meeting, but that's a different day or a different time-blocking if you'd rather deal with time blocks.
But, honestly, that has really helped my voice. It's knowing that I've got this organization of there are certain activities you do, and when you're doing that activity, it's okay that you're not doing the others. Does that make sense or am I kind of crazy?
Jonathan: Oh yeah. No, what I like to say is discipline is freedom, and what you're saying is by being disciplined and knowing that there are certain types of days, you are free of that voice, that monkey on your back, because you know you're doing what you're supposed to do. [11:04.4]
Like yesterday, for instance, I decided to hang out with my dad instead of … I blew off a meeting that I had and it was a mastermind call, but it was like I could feel guilty about that. But I decided that that was my family day, dudes’ day. Right? So, that's all it is. And tomorrow I'm going to be talking to Matt and talking to Bob and talking to everybody. Today I’m with Dad. And I agree with you because I know what my week looks like, and so, that allows me to be free in that I can bounce around in different things, as long as I'm hitting my targets for the week.
Matt: Right. Exactly right. And it's funny, so you and I both … Dean Jackson is one of the gurus I follow and listen to his podcast, and I think you may know him personally as well as that stuff. And he had something that said. He always said he wanted to have it where he could just wake up and say, What do I want to do today? But then, he changed it. Now he does this whole podcast, “Procrastination Priority” or something like that that I listen to, and I give him full credit. [12:02.6]
He was saying, What can I do today, so tomorrow I have more freedom? So, he said, when he started asking that question and started scheduling stuff—he was anti-scheduling apparently—he was like, Oh my gosh, when I started thinking, Gosh, what am I going to do today, so tomorrow is my free day? Anyway, I kind of took that to heart.
Jonathan: That's it, too, and you talked about this and I want our listeners to focus in on this because it's super important, and I think that we all want to be happy and happiness to me comes in that pursuit of that freedom. So, it's not actually the freedom at the end of the tunnel. It's that every day you're doing something to give yourself that freedom, and so enjoying the journey, as you said earlier. Because where do we spend most of our time anyways? It’s the journey. When we get there, it's like, Okay, what's next?
Matt: Right, and that's great. You talk about family and it's really funny. So, my girls were travel soccer players, so we’d go all around the country playing in these fancy soccer events and I was a coach. I got coach-certified and all this kind of stuff, and I arranged my schedule that every day at four o'clock I was coaching soccer practice. I'm at soccer practice. I'm coaching soccer right now. I wasn't the head coach. I was one of his assistants, but that was my quality time with the girls, but I arranged to schedule it. [13:14.8]
Look, we can talk and do as much business as you want, but I’ve got to be there at four o'clock. We don't do any work after four o'clock. I might call you back at seven o'clock later on tonight, which is part of the freedom we have as business owners or entrepreneurs. But at four o'clock on a Tuesday, I'm out of here. There is no meeting.
So, you talk about scheduling but also prioritizing the family. That's what I mean by my joke that I was super dad. I play all this golf, but I was super dad first. Let me play my golf and then I'm super dad the rest of the day or let me play my golf once a week and then I’m super. Anyway, sorry.
Jonathan: Was it always like that, Matt? Was it always that you knew getting into your business that you were going to do this prioritizing of family first and then the business second, or did this just happen over the years?
Matt: That's a great question. The answer is I knew it in advance. How do I say that? I knew it in advance. I didn't know I could do it in advance. [14:05.7]
We're all shaped by what happens in our own childhood and that type of stuff. And so, it's really funny that … here's the deal. I love my parents and they're awesome, all this kind of stuff, right? I was a travel soccer player and, as soon as I was 15, my mother quit coming to the soccer games. When I was 16, my father quit coming because I could drive. And so, I had this thing in my mind my entire life—man, there's going to be an adult at every single one of my kids' sporting events. It doesn't have to be me and Patty, but there's going to be an adult at every sporting event that my child ever participates in.
I knew that from that experience from childhood. Again, I love my parents. They're awesome. I don't mean that in any disrespectful way. But I made a promise to myself that I'm going to be it. If not me, then Patty. We have two kids we've got to divide and conquer, but that's just what we're going to do. If that means you’ve got to not play golf, that means you've got to leave at work early, then that's what that means.
So, I did make that decision consciously early on. Didn't know I could do it. Didn't know I could pull it off. But sometimes you’ve got to work at 10 o'clock at night just to make that happen and you’ve got to be willing to do what you’ve got to do. [15:07.2]
Jonathan: Tell me more about that. What do you mean that you didn't know you could do it, you didn't know you could pull it off?
Matt: It's really funny. When you work for somebody else, it depends on who you work for. If you work for somebody and it's face time, you've got to be at work at 7:30 AM and you've got to be there until 5:00 PM, right? Because it's face time, how much time I spent in front of you. Versus, is it results? As long as I get my work done, why do you care how long I'm here? If I'm more efficient than the guy next to me, is that my fault? Have I got to sit here and twiddle my thumbs until, whatever, five o'clock, six o'clock? I didn't think so.
So, I had a very accepting [boss] in my first job. He was very much … My guy, Tom Ascott’s guy. Anyway, love him to death. My first three bosses were awesome. That is, man, as long as you get your stuff done, it doesn't matter, and if you can't get it done and you need to leave to go to your kids, then work tonight or come in early tomorrow morning, because, Matt, I need that thing done by three o'clock tomorrow. Whatever you’ve got to do to get it done by three o'clock tomorrow, that's up to you. [16:03.7]
So, I have been fortunate to have been able to do that. But that's what I mean in the sense of I didn't know that I'd have a good boss. What if I had a boss that said I had to stay until it was six o'clock every night? I didn't know.
Jonathan: You would've quit.
Matt: I probably would've quit.
Jonathan: That's our thing, too. We have our son, and when he came home because Hudson is adopted, when he came home, we made a conscious decision that everything was going to be that we're the father and mother team. We're the Mommy-Daddy team that's going to be at the events, that's going to walk him to school, that's going to pick him up, and we make an effort to always be. And I love it. I feel proud about it. I'm in a room full of women and I'm like, Those dads are out working and I can be here.
Matt: Right. It is awesome. You're exactly right.
Jonathan: It feels really good to design your life with some intention.
…
Well, guess what? Time is up for this week. I know you were just getting into that and I don't blame you because it was just getting good, but we're trying to keep these episodes under a half-hour, so we slip it up into two. We'll be back next week with Part 2 of this interview. Make sure you tune in then. [17:13.7]
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Thank you. Daddy's out.
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