No! Don't go in there! Daddy's working.
Jonathan: Yes, yes, y'all, it is another edition of the Daddy's Working podcast. If you were listening last week, then you heard Part 1 of the interview and I left you hanging. But we're here and we're ready to rock and roll. So, let's dive back into Part 2 of the interview.
…
So, all right, let's talk a little bit about fitness, man. Are you still doing the 75 HARD?
Matt: I’m in, man. I’m in. I weighed myself today. You're the one who got me onto this 75 HARD. I think we should tell the whole world about this whole thing, right? I mean, I'm awesome. I'm in. I think I'm three weeks in or three weeks and two days, and I've lost … it's like 7.8 pounds, whatever. [01:01.3]
Jonathan: Wow.
Matt: Let's call it seven or eight pounds. I'm all in, man. It’s awesome.
Jonathan: And so, what motivated you? I mean, we just met at Strategic Coach. We’re talking and the next thing I know, you're telling me, I'm on this thing. What motivates you? Because to most people it sounds like hell.
Matt: Right, that's hilarious you said it. So, it was the right place, right time. I think that I was looking for something. I've always been in pretty good shape, always been active. I play golf. I run. I walk. Not really much on weights and stuff like that, but pushups etc. It's always been in decent shape. I don't have a belly or anything like that. But I'd also noticed that I'd gotten a little bit out of shape and this is kind of full circle.
I've got a tremendous willpower, right? I think in order to be successful in business, you’ve got to have a tremendous willpower. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. You've got to be willing to do what others aren't. Right? There's a whole bunch of things that I got about that.
So, I'm like, Man, I'm pretty successful in business. Why the heck am I not in the best shape of my life? I really have no excuse. I've got the business I want and it could always be better. We can always be better. We can always make more, take more time off. But I've got a pretty good business that I like. I’ve got pretty good freedoms. I’ve got a great family. Why wouldn't I be in the best health I could be in? I don't have any excuse. [02:11.3]
So, I was having that going through my head. When you brought up 75 HARD, it was just the right amount of a challenge that it's like, I've got tremendous willpower. I can do this. I need this challenge. It's like I used to run a half marathons, never full marathon, half marathon, and I needed that because I needed that goal to say, Hey, I'll run a half marathon, and Thanksgiving, I’ve got to start running and get in shape. My knees are a little bad and all that kind of stuff now as we get a little older, so I don't like to do that anymore, but then you are in the right place at the right time. That's what I'm telling you.
I think it's a combo. I don't know if it was a coach exercise or not, but it said, look, if a year from now you can have everything you’ve ever wanted, what would you want? Right? And one of those things we would all say is be in better health. And the point of that exercise is, if you want that a year from now, why not start now?
Jonathan: I love that.
Matt: I don't know.
Jonathan: Why not start now? Yeah, right, it’s trickery, those exercises sometimes. [03:02.9]
Matt: It's trickery, those exercises, right? I was actually talking to my friend of mine this weekend. I went on this golf trip here with some other guys and, oh, nobody has enough time. Nobody dah, dah, dah, dah. It's like get up 30 minutes earlier or 45 minutes earlier. I think these are 45-minute workouts on the 75 HARD. Well, that sucks. Then go to bed 45 minutes earlier. I don't know what to tell you. I got the same amount of time that you do. There's a joke we used to say that we all make choices. We all make choices.
Jonathan: Absolutely. I liked that you said that it was a little bit of a mental challenge, like, okay, I’m mentally tough. You have to be, to be in business. How did you cultivate that mental toughness?
Matt: Now, that's actually really interesting. I don't know if those are born or developed. I think they can be developed and it's always been … How do you say it? I used to say this to my girls. You talked about family and faith, and this comes right to it. I used to always tell my girls from the time they were born, as part of the prayer and putting them to bed, I’d have this little saying, You could do anything you put your mind to. You could do anything you put your mind to. So, I've been telling my girls that literally since they were born, so it's hopefully a good voice in the back of their head. You can do it. [04:08.6]
So, I've always had this belief that you can literally do anything you put your mind to. Anything. And that's work. That's personal. That's physical. That’s mental. I've just always had that belief that you can really do anything you put your mind to, that most of the time we're our own barriers. We're our own blockade to business, our own blockade to health, our own blockade to relationships. I truly believe that you can really do anything you put your mind to. So, did you develop that?
I’ve got all kinds of experiences of how. Then it's self-feeding. We had this challenge and we overcame it. We had this challenge. The first time you run a half marathon, the first time you run the Peachtree here in Atlanta where everybody runs a Peachtree. Right? You have these little [challenges]. Oh, I did that. That just builds upon your success and I think we almost forget that. I know I got long-winded. But you almost forget that.
I might've almost been in a state where I was almost forgetting that you could do anything you put your mind to. So, when I get a little bit out of shape, it's like, man, this is ridiculous. Just set a goal, right? [05:04.3]
Jonathan: Just do it, man.
Matt: Just do it. Hey, that's a great slogan. I don't know who did that, yeah.
Jonathan: Somebody better write that down. Alright, interestingly, we both met in Strategic Coach and I talk about coaching all the time on the show, and you said that you've been through other coaching and other masterminds. How did you get into coaching and masterminds? Is it something that you grew up with or is it something that you developed as an entrepreneur? How did that happen?
Jonathan: Yeah, and I think that's another one that I think was … always had that interest, kind of the self-help interest and all that kind of stuff. I've always been that kind of looking or seeking the self-help or self-improvement type stuff. And the reason I've been at it is, again, I call myself a modeler. There are other people that have been successful, done what you want to do, and why don't we just copy them or model ourselves after them?
So, one of the personality traits that I have is kindergarten, going back to kindergarten. I could never color in the lines, right? In kindergarten, you’ve got to color. I could never color in the lines, but I'd got the right colors. But I'm never … Why? Because I'm in a hurry to go outside and go play. [06:09.5]
But if you look at that now in that I want to know, Jonathan, how you run your business, and the systems and processes, but I can't color in the lines. I can't do it exactly how you do it, so I'm going to make my own modifications. That's our Kolbe. Whenever we do Kolbe in Strategic Coach, I’ve got this. I think it's the second number and it's like I want to know what you do, Jonathan, but I can't do it exactly because I don't know how to color in the lines, but I'll modify it for me to work.
So, all this … I remember reading the Ted Turner biography. Just I wanted to learn about Ted Turner, and how he's a big guy here in Atlanta and how that works. Coca-Cola is a big thing in Atlanta, how those guys made it, because I'm modeling, because I'm learning and because I'm learning from their mistakes or from their benefits. Right? I even do that today. That's why I love these podcasts that we talked about. How do they do it? What are they doing?
So, yes, I pursued it a long time, and that leads to doing coaching programs and being in coaching programs. But it's also like a personal trainer. I've had a personal trainer before. I've done training for half marathons. I just like little challenges and a little growth, if you're not growing, you're slowing kind of stuff. [07:11.6]
Jonathan: Yeah. No, I love it. I don't know if you listen to any Earl Nightingale.
Matt: Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. I have all that stuff, too.
Jonathan: One of my favorites, and today I was listening to him on my morning walk and he said if you're not growing. He put it a little bit differently. If you're not growing, your decay. I love the idea.
Matt: Okay. That’s harsh.
Jonathan: Yeah, it is, right? You think of rotting away and it's harsh. I'm going to start using that. Let me play devil's advocate because I'm with you. I love the constant growth. But would you say then that you're never satisfied? Because if you're always growing, you're always pursuing the next goal, are you miserable and never satisfied, or how do you find harmony there?
Jonathan: That's a great question and I think it is a delicate balance. You're exactly right. You're always striving for more, but then another concept. You're always, Hey, I'm better off than I was, right? I think coach calls it staying out of the gap, right? [08:09.8]
So, absolutely, yes, I always want my business to be more successful. I always want to make more, take more time off. I always want to be a better golfer, always want to lose weight. I always want to be a better runner, always want that. That's just who I am. But what I did, what I have learned, and not just in Coach, but other programs as well, is appreciating where you are. If you look at where I live and my business, gosh, who do I hang out with? People that are more successful than me, so I could say I'm a loser, right? And then, I could hang out with another group and say I'm the most successful person of that group. So, it's the framing and referencing.
There was actually a podcast I was listening to just this weekend called The Happiness Factor and that's what they were talking about. The silver medal winner is the most dissatisfied person in the world—they were talking about the Olympic Games—because that silver person is saying, Darn it, I could've had the goal. This is terrible. But the bronze person is the happiest because the bronze person is saying, Man, at least I got a medal. At least I got a medal. [09:05.3]
So, the point was, it's how you frame or how you reference the equation, right, determines how happy you are or dissatisfied you are. So, how do you answer the question? Yes, I'm always looking for that gold medal because I don't think I have it, but I'm also appreciating that at least I got the bronze. And I think you kind of balance those two out on an ongoing basis.
And I don't know if it's a characteristic of me or an entrepreneur. It’s not exactly it, but the manic depressive. I have really good days and I have really days that, Ugh, this is terrible. I know, whatever. I'm not a manic depressive by the clinical definition of it, right? But I have really, really good days. You can see I'm hyper. This is a good day. I could go aroo. It might be tomorrow or a week from now and it's like, Oh man, I didn't get that. Ugh, life sucks. I'm terrible, yada, yada, yada. But they’re just shorter and fewer than they used to be.
Jonathan: That, right there, that's experience right there. And I had that highlighted to me recently. Kory from Coach brought that to my attention where the last quarter before I met you was one of the worst quarters of my life, I think I told you, and it was because I said yes to everything. So, I'm like, Oh, collaboration. Remember they were talking about collaboration? [10:08.5]
Matt: Yeah.
Jonathan: I’m like, Collaborate, collaborate, I'm saying yes to everybody, and I said yes to everything. I did everything, and I was so rundown, tired and felt bad, and 75 HARD was what pulled me out of it. It was like, All I'm going to focus on this quarter is my fitness, and then everything else worked out. But, yeah, I was in that hole, but I pulled myself out of it really quickly and Kory mentioned that on a call, and she was like, Do you notice that it took you, like, a week to diagnose and fix that?
Matt: Right, right.
Jonathan: I mean, when we're young in business and early on, it's like we can fall. I remember my first big ball was two years, bro.
Matt: Two years?
Jonathan: Two years when my first real estate business failed. I had to dig myself out of it. And it took me 10 days to get out of this one. I’m okay.
Matt: That's much better, right? You're getting much more efficient.
Jonathan: Yeah, right, the efficiency. Yeah, I pull myself out of the gap. Yeah, that's the whole thing. [11:04.8]
So let's talk a little bit. One of the things that I thought was super interesting when we were chatting at Coach was how you help business owners make more money, which is awesome—everybody loves to make more money—but you also help them keep more of their money. So, how did you get into this?
Matt: It is literally firsthand experience. If you look back at my background, I've been dealing with business owners since I was 21 years old, and so you’ve learned by experience and helping those clients, and then you’ve learned because I've had my own business for 13 years, and I think I told you this.
I’ve got this business for 13 years. I've got a coaching business for another four or five. I've done real estate. I don't know if I told you that, so I did real estate with spec homes and flips and rentals, and stuff like that. So, I've had three six-figure businesses that I've been successful at. Not because I'm so great and wonderful, but because I'm a really good modeler in finding somebody that I can copy and emulate or modify their program. [12:00.8]
So, along the way you start realizing what high-net-worth individuals do to make money and be successful. My skew is I'm only exposed to people that are successful, right? Woe is me. I only deal with the successful people. It's the strength. I get dinged for that from my buddies sometimes. I have a warped sense of reality because I only deal with successful people. I'm like, Wow, I guess that's better than the opposite.
But my point being, when you deal with a successful guy, whatever the business is, how did you get there? What did you do there? What are your bottlenecks? And then, all these guys are successful. Hate to pay taxes. So, you start learning and strategizing, finding good CPAs. And I'm getting on my little soap dish, right? So, everybody could make more money. Again, the simple mind shift and some core business principles. I know them. I've been around them.
And then, there's this whole tax planning. Most of your CPAs are very much form-fillers. They’ve got 500 a year. They're just worried about getting the tax. They're not proactively giving you tax advice. But then, there's also this wealth of experience that it's like I’ve just been around so long and seen it for so long that I'm an old man now. Not exactly. [13:05.4]
Jonathan: You're looking pretty good, brother.
Matt: I’m in this 75 HARD thing, you know. So, my point being there are two sides of the business, right? I have clients come to me that feel stuck and stressed out, and the business is causing them stress and they're not as far along as they should be, and they're paying too much in taxes. Right?
So, what does that say? A couple of things. You're paying too much taxes when you must be doing something, right? There are some strategies that we can do to reduce your debt, right?
Jonathan: Yeah.
Matt: And I’ve got guys coming to me saying, Look, I make a bunch of money, but I don't have anything to show for it. I'm paying too much in taxes, so I don't have any investments and I don't have any real estate. I don't have any stocks and bonds or retirement. And so, again, that's, that's more of, well, let's teach you how to keep it. If you're really good at making the money, there's probably some. I call them “fix the cash flow leaks.” I've got a little white paper on how to fix the cash flow leaks.
And there are the most common places that people are leaking their cash flows and there are the most common 10 tax saving tips for business owners or common places. So, I know that this is where the most common are, and we can go check those off and start plugging the leaks, plugging the holes, paying less in your taxes. I mean, pay your fair share, but no more. [14:10.4]
And then, the same thing on the business side. There are certain core fundamentals, right? You need more leads. You need more conversions. You need more transactions. Again, I oversimplify things because that's what I do, right? I take the complex and I make it simple. So, it's a simple process. I've been around it. I do it, and so, that's what I do and it's like, Man, teach you how to make more money if that's your problem. Let's do it. Paying too much in taxes? Well, let's see what you're missing. You don't know what you don't know.
Jonathan: That's it. Who, not how can I help, right? Who, not how.
Matt: Who, not how. That's exactly right. Literally, there's somebody who's figured this stuff out.
Jonathan: And there's got to be somebody we can model, right?
Matt: I'm always trying to find somebody. In my business, it's fortunate I get to talk to a bunch of CPAs, right? So, there are always CPAs that have good ideas. Here's a tax-saving tip, a tax-saving tip, or a bad idea. Good CPAs and bad CPAs. Fortunately or unfortunately, I've seen them both and dealt with them both. I know what the signs are of them both. [15:00.7]
Jonathan: So, what are some of those fundamentals? Because you talked about this at the beginning of the [episode]. We might split this up into two episodes. At the beginning of the interview, you talked about just doing the fundamentals? For anyone listening out there who wants to make more money, what are some of those fundamentals that are probably unsexy and boring, and they're going to say when you say the, Oh, I know that already, but nobody does it?
Matt: There are three things you need in a successful business. You have to attract clients and prospects. That's number one. You have to deliver a wow result. You have to really deliver your service, your product, whatever it is, wow result. And then, you have to do what I call servicing and scaling, right? You want to keep them coming back. You want to get referrals from them, right? Those are the three key elements of a successful business. Attract, deliver, scale, and service.
There are all kinds of little sub categories, so here's one of the subcategories that goes into that. I wrote a little book—I'm going to give myself a little plug—45 Minute Business Breakthroughs: How I Find $10k in Any Business in 45 Minutes. [16:05.2]
Jonathan: Nice.
Matt: In here, it talks about five ways to grow your business. Number one, you need more leads. What does that mean? I need more at bat. If you're a real estate agent, you need more opportunities. If you sell cars, you need more at bats. You need more opportunities. So, number one, you need more leads.
Number two, you need more conversions. So, once I get in front of those people, how good am I at closing the deal or getting a deal done?
More transactions is number three. So, can I get that person to do more deals with me? I'll even go further. Send me referrals is another way to increase transactions, right?
The fourth way is pricing. So, pricing, you think of raising your prices, which is a lot of people undercharge, but it also could be bundling. If I add value, its perceived value, I can charge more for it.
And then, five is profit. Increase your profit. And some people think that's cost cutting and stuff like that. I don't view it that way. I view it as utilizing your resources the best you can, and that might mean, I'll give you an example of that, hiring a virtual assistant. That sounds expensive. I've got to hire a virtual assistant or an assistant. I need hiring an assistant, right, whichever one that sounds expensive. But it isn't expensive if that person frees up your time so you can make more sales or frees up your time so you can go spend more time with your kids? That's well worth it. That's an investment. That's not a cost, right? [17:20.4]
Jonathan: Yeah. I've got a buddy. He leads the mastermind, but that was one of the breakthroughs and I'm thinking about it now. It's like we need a person on the ground here. We don't need a virtual person. And so, me and Cupcake talk about it and we're like, Oh man, hire somebody, benefits, all that. That's expensive.
And Mark, Mark breaks it down like, What do you mean it's expensive? What are you going to pay him? All you're going to risk is two or three months’ pay. So, you're thinking of a $45,000, $50,000 or $60,000 a year salary? No, we're talking about three months’ worth. Can you risk us three months to see if you get that result? If you don't, you're a moron.
Jonathan: Absolutely, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. And that's a great way to view it. You're exactly right. We're not spending the whole year with them. We're going to give them a three-month, six-month trial period, and if it doesn't work, I need to find the next contestant and we move on. It’s … what do they say? Hire slow and fire quick. Right? [18:10.0]
Jonathan: Yeah, that's it, brother. All right, so we're rounding towards the end of the interview and it's gone way too quickly. What didn't we talk about? Because you're actually a listener of the show. You might even be a fan, my only fan. Right? So, is there anything that we didn't touch on? Anything at all that you want to talk about?
Jonathan: No. I mean, my thing and we talked about this offline before, my passion is I truly believe it's very easy for everybody to be a successful business owner. I know it's not. I know it's not, but I believe it is. I believe it is with the mind shift. And so, that's my goal. That's my passion. It's like, look, if you're a real estate agent, you can be a successful one.
It's key fundamentals. If you're a … I've got a dentist. A dentist. They always want more patience and more time off. We can do that. They're really simple concepts that you can follow and you can print. And if you want, again, what do I say? You can do anything you put your mind to, right? I truly, firmly believe that. I have experience in that in my own life, my clients' lives, my friends’ lives. [19:12.8]
It's kind of a passion, I don't know. Now I'm getting on my soapbox, but it's like success is inevitable if you do the right things. That's something that I got. Success is inevitable if you do the right things. You're going to lose weight if you exercise more and eat less, by default.
Jonathan: I love it. I love that. That's great. So, I know that you have a website for everybody to visit you at 10XProfitBlueprint.com. What happens when I go to 10XProfitBlueprint.com?
Matt: Yup. It's a great little website. We've got little videos on there. You get your little … Hold on, I was going to tell you.
Jonathan: Little? Little is on the tiny side.
Matt: I've got a great video called The Three Biggest Lead Generation Mistakes Small Business Owners Make and How to Overcome Them. So, you give me a little email. You get to watch a couple of videos. It talks about those, the five steps that I mentioned, more leads, more conversions, more transactions, higher prices, more profits, how to build a million-dollar business, so I have this whole online course that you can get involved with. [20:14.0]
But the gist of it is come, watch a couple of videos, educate yourself. And if you decide where it goes from there, you'll be at least better off.
Jonathan: 10XProfitBlueprint.com for Matt’s little videos, and all you have to do is give your little email and you'll get a little education.
Matt: You’ll need to call and ask him, just a little quick for Jo.
Jonathan: Yeah. And for the record, ladies and gentlemen, I'm talking to Cupcake because I want to get on the phone with Matt, because I know he can help us. So, he's a guy that you should know. That's why he's on this show. That's why I brought him to you. I love this guy, and we will be back in your next time. Thank you, Matt, for being with us.
Matt: A pleasure. Thanks for the invite. I really enjoyed it.
This is ThePodcastFactory.com
