Episode #26, Part 1 - Multiple Paths, One Unique Upbringing: An Interview With Matthew Roda

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Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

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determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

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This is Speaking From The Heart.

Joshua: 00:00:11

Welcome to part one of episode 26 of Speaking from the Heart, and

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yes, it is another two part episode, and I am really enthralled to

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share Matthew Roda with all of you.

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Matthew is the founder and co-owner of rodamarketing.com, which

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is a digital marketing agency that serves clients nationwide.

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He's also the co-owner of signer57.com, S I G N E R 57,

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and that is a pro-America and pro freedom apparel and lifestyle brand.

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He's also the founder of thebattlefieldalliance.com.

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He has a published book called How to Take Down Goliath and Unleash Your Inner Hero.

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He has a loving and beautiful wife, Helen, which we will certainly talk

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about a lot more in part two about her influence over Matthew's life,

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and they also have four children: Caroline, Amelia, Lily, and Miles.

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When he isn't spending time with family, or working on all these different

Joshua: 00:01:10

businesses that he has, you're going to find him in gyms or even running

Joshua: 00:01:14

the trail, and that is something that we really get into during part one,

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not only talking about the businesses that he has started, but why he has

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started all these numerous amounts of businesses in which all add

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different value, but I will say this.

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This sets up the premise for what we'll eventually talk about, which I

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will share with you on the other side.

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But until then, let's go to the episode.

Joshua: 00:01:41

All right.

Joshua: 00:01:41

We're here with Matthew Roda.

Joshua: 00:01:43

Matthew, thanks for sharing your heart with us today.

Matthew: 00:01:45

I appreciate being here, man.

Matthew: 00:01:47

I'm excited to share one's journey with you, man.

Joshua: 00:01:49

Absolutely.

Joshua: 00:01:50

This has been a journey, and I know all about that when it comes to all

Joshua: 00:01:54

the things that I'm doing, but when I'm looking at your bio, I almost ran out

Joshua: 00:01:59

of breath because of how much you're doing, and the audience heard a lot

Joshua: 00:02:03

about specifically what you're doing, so my very first question is, when you

Joshua: 00:02:09

have all these things that are going on in your life right now, what do you

Joshua: 00:02:13

say is the most important thing, if there was an important thing, that you

Joshua: 00:02:17

enjoyed doing the most and why is that?

Matthew: 00:02:20

It's an extremely easy question for me to answer, and as you kind of

Matthew: 00:02:23

got about three quarters of the way through the question, I got my angel

Matthew: 00:02:26

bumps, and people call 'em goosebumps, but someone I'm very close with and I

Matthew: 00:02:30

love and admire calls 'em angel bumps, so I now refer to 'em as angel bumps,

but, family: 00:02:33

answers family first.

but, family: 00:02:37

I love building businesses.

but, family: 00:02:39

I love helping people succeed in business.

but, family: 00:02:41

I love fitness and nutrition, all the stuff that you read on my bio,

but, family: 00:02:44

but without family, all that would just kind of crumble around me,

but, family: 00:02:48

and it would mean very, very little to me, so what do I love the most?

but, family: 00:02:51

Family.

but, family: 00:02:52

What do I love doing the most?

but, family: 00:02:53

Spending time with my family.

Joshua: 00:02:55

That's an awesome answer because for me, I don't have that family other

Joshua: 00:02:59

than my parents and things of that nature.

Matthew: 00:03:00

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:03:00

I'm a single guy and hanging out there, so, I know that

Joshua: 00:03:04

for some of us that are listening to this, it can be challenging

Joshua: 00:03:08

to maybe have that inspiration-

Matthew: 00:03:09

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:03:09

-And I love hearing that.

Joshua: 00:03:11

With that said, I had a guest on a while ago that we talked about his

Joshua: 00:03:17

gym and we talked about fitness.

Joshua: 00:03:19

My question to you is, since you do a lot of fitness also as part of your endeavors-

Matthew: 00:03:24

mm-hmm.

Joshua: 00:03:24

What do you say is the most important advice to somebody that is

Joshua: 00:03:28

starting out, maybe it's been a few years, and maybe that person is me

Joshua: 00:03:33

who's asking to do that right now.

Matthew: 00:03:35

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:03:35

And you're trying to get that momentum going, what do you say

Joshua: 00:03:38

to them to help jumpstart or really defibrillate that opportunity for them?

Matthew: 00:03:44

Yeah, so I think the most important thing to start with is know

Matthew: 00:03:48

why you want to accomplish that or why you want to start doing that, because

Matthew: 00:03:51

without that purpose and vision of who you want to become and why you want

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to become that person, you're going to start down the path and then the smallest

Matthew: 00:03:59

little headache or hiccups just going to completely derail you because you

Matthew: 00:04:02

don't have that strong purpose pulling you, and then once you know why that is,

Matthew: 00:04:08

for me, it's creating daily disciplines and it's sticking to those disciplines

Matthew: 00:04:12

whether I'm motivated to do them or not.

Matthew: 00:04:14

It's just a matter of, "Hey, you know, for me it's working out twice a day."

Matthew: 00:04:18

As an example, this afternoon, like four o'clock rolled around,

Matthew: 00:04:20

I really did not want to work out because my family was gone.

Matthew: 00:04:23

I was just hanging out on the couch, working with my laptop and I was like,

Matthew: 00:04:26

"Oh, I just want to stay on the couch and continue to work", but I knew I

Matthew: 00:04:29

wouldn't be as happy with myself come later tonight, knowing that I just made

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a decision not to work out because I felt like in the moment I didn't want

Matthew: 00:04:37

to work out, so it's know why you want to become that person and have that

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vision of who you know you can be, and then create daily disciplines that you

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know you can stay consistent with, and then obviously the finisher there is

Matthew: 00:04:48

stay consistent with it no matter what.

Matthew: 00:04:50

Just do not allow yourself to derail your own efforts because that's your

Matthew: 00:04:53

biggest enemy will be you on that journey.

Joshua: 00:04:55

That leads into a great question that I thought of as you were

Joshua: 00:04:59

saying that, so with that level of consistency, I know that you said family

Joshua: 00:05:04

is a big important factor for that.

Matthew: 00:05:05

Yes.

Joshua: 00:05:06

So even with all of that said, what drives you to do all this, because

Joshua: 00:05:10

obviously you could work on one of these things and say, "This is where I'm

Joshua: 00:05:15

going to spend my time in", but you're spreading yourself so that you can make

Joshua: 00:05:19

as much maximum impact as possible.

Matthew: 00:05:22

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:05:22

So what motivates you then?

Matthew: 00:05:24

You just said the word, which is impact.

Matthew: 00:05:26

I live my life on a daily basis to plant as many seeds of positivity as possible,

Matthew: 00:05:32

and I do that by what I consider living a life where I'm leading by example and

Matthew: 00:05:37

I'm doing my best on a daily basis to lift others up, so the more I can have my

Matthew: 00:05:40

hands in multiple things, and again making sure I'm executing on those things to a

Matthew: 00:05:46

degree of where I find self-satisfaction in it, but also creates some kind of

Matthew: 00:05:51

success whether it's a feeling that I get that generates from what I'm doing

Matthew: 00:05:55

or financial success or helping others success, whatever that definition of

Matthew: 00:05:59

success is in those endeavors making sure that it aligns with my purpose.

Matthew: 00:06:04

When it comes to fitness specifically, I want to be around as long as

Matthew: 00:06:08

humanly possible for my family.

Matthew: 00:06:09

I got started late, you know, we had our first child.

Matthew: 00:06:13

I was 35.

Matthew: 00:06:14

We just had our third and fourth, third twins that are going

Matthew: 00:06:16

to turn one in three weeks.

Matthew: 00:06:17

We just had them last year, so I was 40 when they were born,

Matthew: 00:06:20

or I was 39, about to turn 40.

Matthew: 00:06:22

I'm kind of late to the game in terms of fatherhood, so I'm going to be the

Matthew: 00:06:25

60 year old dad who has like kids like just finishing high school, and I'm cool

Matthew: 00:06:30

with that and I embrace that notion but I also know with that comes by standards

Matthew: 00:06:34

of like you live to a certain age and most people die at a certain age.

Matthew: 00:06:38

I want to make sure I extend that as far into the future as possible

Matthew: 00:06:40

because I want as many years on this earth with my families.

Matthew: 00:06:43

I'm able to be blessed with.

Joshua: 00:06:45

I'll say this.

Joshua: 00:06:46

My parents also had me late.

Joshua: 00:06:48

I was the last child of really three kids.

Matthew: 00:06:51

Mm-hmm.

Joshua: 00:06:51

I had a half sister.

Joshua: 00:06:53

I also have a fully related sister, but they had me late too, and I know

Joshua: 00:06:58

that for them, especially as now, I just turned 36 earlier this year.

Matthew: 00:07:03

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:07:03

I know it can be very tough for us to take care of my parents or get

Joshua: 00:07:07

involved, especially as more recently they had a lot of health issues that

Joshua: 00:07:12

related to what they were going through.

Matthew: 00:07:15

Yep.

Joshua: 00:07:15

Even with that said, being a fitness person that you are I almost

Joshua: 00:07:20

want to call you a fitness expert just looking at you, you make me feel like

Joshua: 00:07:23

my muscles are quivering and I need to work out, it's like, "Let's do this."

Matthew: 00:07:27

Yeah.

Matthew: 00:07:28

No, I'll never preach to you, but yeah.

Joshua: 00:07:29

No, no, absolutely no.

Joshua: 00:07:31

Please preach to me because my gym owner, that buddy that would probably

Joshua: 00:07:35

be listening to this and say, "Yeah, you need to listen to him.

Joshua: 00:07:37

You need to get back in here right now."

Matthew: 00:07:39

Yep.

Joshua: 00:07:40

Even with that said, being a fitness expert, I see that especially in

Joshua: 00:07:44

America, which most of my listeners are from, we're really worried about as we get

Joshua: 00:07:50

older, there's a lot of health issues and I feel like even as a society, we're still

Joshua: 00:07:55

battling a lot of those health issues too.

Joshua: 00:07:58

I actually suffer from obesity as a result-

Matthew: 00:08:00

yeah.

Joshua: 00:08:01

Because of just poor choices that I've made, so I'm

Joshua: 00:08:04

just one of those statistics.

Matthew: 00:08:05

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:08:05

So, with all that said, what are your thoughts about this big

Joshua: 00:08:09

epidemic, especially in America, maybe even some parts of the

Joshua: 00:08:12

world when it comes to overeating-

Matthew: 00:08:14

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:08:14

Even having poor choices when it comes to food options, what is some

Joshua: 00:08:18

of the advice you would give to a client of yours that is working with you?

Matthew: 00:08:22

Yeah.

Matthew: 00:08:23

I would say the best thing I've ever done with, in regards to my relationship

Matthew: 00:08:27

with food is I've started viewing it as fuel, so to me, what I'm putting in

Matthew: 00:08:32

my body, yeah, and I eat, so I'll give you a real quick breakdown of what I

Matthew: 00:08:35

eat on a daily basis 95% of the time.

Joshua: 00:08:37

All right, I'm ready.

Joshua: 00:08:38

I'm going to write this down because I know that's going to help me.

Matthew: 00:08:41

Yeah, yeah.

Matthew: 00:08:41

Ground beef.

Matthew: 00:08:42

I eat a ton of ground beef, probably like, half a pound to a pound a day

Matthew: 00:08:46

crushed up and I put salt all over it.

Matthew: 00:08:48

Feta cheese.

Matthew: 00:08:48

To me it's delicious, like I look forward to it.

Matthew: 00:08:51

Then I'll eat yogurt, so whole fat yogurt with peanut butter granola on it.

Matthew: 00:08:54

It's like my favorite snack in the world, so I look forward to that.

Matthew: 00:08:57

I eat like two bowls of that a day, one bowl sometimes, but depending

Matthew: 00:08:59

on how intense my two workouts were, sometimes I get two bowls in.

Matthew: 00:09:03

Then my wife is wonderful.

Matthew: 00:09:05

She cooks almost every night of the week, so I have like a homemade meal

Matthew: 00:09:08

and it's nine times outta 10 it's pretty darn healthy, and if there's a

Matthew: 00:09:12

piece of it where I don't need a thick creamy pasta tonight because it's not

Matthew: 00:09:15

fuel, I'll say no to that and then I'll choose beef again, or I'll have

Matthew: 00:09:18

some chicken or something like that, like a lean protein, and then fruits.

Matthew: 00:09:21

Sometimes it's blueberries with honey, sometimes, right now watermelon just

Matthew: 00:09:25

came in season, so I crushed a huge bowl of watermelon before this podcast,

Matthew: 00:09:28

like it's fruits, so, I would say when you look at food as a source of energy

Matthew: 00:09:35

for your body to then go out into the world and do the good that you want to

Matthew: 00:09:39

do, you have to be operating at your own peak level, and in order to do that,

Matthew: 00:09:44

you have to give your body peak fuel.

Matthew: 00:09:46

I used to yo-yo with my diet, until I got pretty serious about it which would be

Matthew: 00:09:50

like Monday to Friday, pretty disciplined.

Matthew: 00:09:52

Saturday, Sunday, like completely off the rails, cheeseburger, subs, ice

Matthew: 00:09:56

cream, chips, like as much chocolate as I could find, like I love candy.

Matthew: 00:10:01

I love the sweets.

Matthew: 00:10:02

I love sugar, unfortunately, it's a drug.

Matthew: 00:10:04

I say no to it because I don't want to give it control over me.

Matthew: 00:10:07

It's kind of like a struggle for power in some ways, and it's like, "Am I going

Matthew: 00:10:11

to let food win and be more powerful than me, or am I as the human being and like

Matthew: 00:10:15

the one in control of my destiny, my fate?

Matthew: 00:10:18

Am I stronger than food?", and when you'd look at it like that, for me

Matthew: 00:10:21

it's kind of giving food, the middle finger, sometimes it's being like,

Matthew: 00:10:24

you're not going to take me off my path because would it taste good right now?

Matthew: 00:10:27

Of course, for the next 30 minutes I'd be salivating over a cheeseburger sub.

Matthew: 00:10:31

It would taste so delicious, but an hour later I'm going to be like, " Ugh.

Matthew: 00:10:35

I didn't need that and it didn't fuel me in any positive way."

Joshua: 00:10:38

Yeah, and I know that I've made those choices myself: "Oh, that

Joshua: 00:10:42

cheese steak looks really good smothered with onions and mushrooms and cheese-

Matthew: 00:10:48

Yep.

Joshua: 00:10:48

-And the sauce.

Joshua: 00:10:49

Oh, yeah, I know what you mean because those can be all tempting aspects.

Matthew: 00:10:54

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:10:54

And, it's encouraging to hear you talk about operating at

Joshua: 00:10:58

your peak flow, because I talk about that with many of my clients that I

Joshua: 00:11:02

have relating to life coaching where-

Matthew: 00:11:04

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:11:05

-Where they're looking at essentially changing their perspective

Joshua: 00:11:09

and sometimes that perspective has been with negative fuel, so they're

Joshua: 00:11:13

essentially not feeding themselves with the thoughts that are necessary, and

Joshua: 00:11:17

I try to work through them that not only is it something that you can help

Joshua: 00:11:22

establish good goals so that you're helping yourself get back on that track,

Joshua: 00:11:25

but you also have healthy relationships.

Matthew: 00:11:27

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:11:28

But, that makes me want to pivot on what you also do.

Joshua: 00:11:31

I know that you run a digital marketing agency firm, and I had a guest-

Matthew: 00:11:36

Correct.

Joshua: 00:11:36

Before that talked about fractional CMO and all those great things

Joshua: 00:11:40

that he works in that sort of business.

Matthew: 00:11:43

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:11:43

Tell me, What makes you stand out from many digital media

Joshua: 00:11:48

companies, because I'll be honest.

Joshua: 00:11:49

Yeah, I can give a shout out to my media company right now.

Joshua: 00:11:52

Unfortunately, it's not you; maybe you can make a case to me to switch, but

Joshua: 00:11:55

I think that all of us bring a unique flair when it comes to marketing,

Joshua: 00:11:58

and I'm just kind of curious what's the backstory with that for you?

Matthew: 00:12:01

I love your question and I enjoy answering this question because

Matthew: 00:12:04

I always say you could walk outside, throw a rock and hit an agency at

Matthew: 00:12:08

this point, a marketing agency.

Matthew: 00:12:09

When I started this business in 2010, I learned everything in San Diego where

Matthew: 00:12:13

I moved after college, brought that skillset and knowledge back here, started

Matthew: 00:12:17

the business with my brother in 2010.

Matthew: 00:12:19

There was like one or two agencies locally that we were competing with, but it was

Matthew: 00:12:22

kind of like the wild west out here.

Matthew: 00:12:24

Now all of a sudden, everybody's a digital marketing expert and I respect that and

Matthew: 00:12:27

more power to the marketplace for creating that need and then having professionals

Matthew: 00:12:32

want to help other businesses grow, so I'm all for healthy competition.

Matthew: 00:12:35

What I've always said differentiates us because, all the techniques

Matthew: 00:12:40

are generally the same.

Matthew: 00:12:41

You run Google ads, you do SEO, and as long as you do the right things,

Matthew: 00:12:44

you're playing the game properly.

Matthew: 00:12:46

You got to post on social media.

Matthew: 00:12:47

You got to be responsive with your reputation management, like you got to

Matthew: 00:12:50

do email marketing to nurture the leads.

Matthew: 00:12:52

There's nothing groundbreaking that I can share in terms of like, here's a strategy

Matthew: 00:12:56

we implement that no one else does that gets all the results, but I can't share

Matthew: 00:12:59

it with you because it's our secret sauce.

Matthew: 00:13:01

The reason we've succeeded for 13 years now and grown every single year except

Matthew: 00:13:05

one, we had a little bit of a dip, but 12 out of 13 years we've grown incrementally.

Matthew: 00:13:10

It's the relationships that we build with our clients;

Matthew: 00:13:12

point blank, plain and simple.

Matthew: 00:13:14

We treat our clients like family from day one.

Matthew: 00:13:17

They know that their success is our success, that we're in it for the right

Matthew: 00:13:21

reasons, because if we don't help them make money, they're not going

Matthew: 00:13:24

to continue to pay us money, so, like selfishly, but not really because our

Matthew: 00:13:28

intent is pure with that conversation is we want to help you succeed.

Matthew: 00:13:32

We want to be your partner for the next 10, 15 years, and we want that

Matthew: 00:13:35

partnership to kind of overflow from just a service provider into friends and

Matthew: 00:13:42

those are the clients that we have that we enjoy working with the most are the

Matthew: 00:13:45

ones that I've got on my cell phone that occasionally we text back and forth.

Matthew: 00:13:49

They invite us to their Christmas parties, like it's a genuine

Matthew: 00:13:51

relationship that we've built with them as opposed to just, "Here's a check.

Matthew: 00:13:55

Here's your tasks that we completed.

Matthew: 00:13:58

Good luck out there.", like we really intertwine ourselves

Matthew: 00:14:01

interpersonal lives as well.

Joshua: 00:14:03

When you're saying that you treat them like family and you're

Joshua: 00:14:06

intertwined them and you're actually interacting with them, does that mean

Joshua: 00:14:11

you're sending thank you cards in the mail and saying, "Hey, congratulations,

Joshua: 00:14:15

thanks for your business," or, "Hey, I know that you're having a kid.

Joshua: 00:14:19

Good job with having that kid."

Joshua: 00:14:21

I mean, obviously it's not like that, but-

Matthew: 00:14:22

Yeah, so you bring it up, like, I have to write this tomorrow.

Matthew: 00:14:25

We just got a new client and it's a buddy of mine who's been friends

Matthew: 00:14:28

on Facebook for a couple years.

Matthew: 00:14:29

We hired his firm to do some stuff for some of our clients

Matthew: 00:14:31

and they just hired us.

Matthew: 00:14:33

It's a handwritten thank you note just again the extra mile.

Matthew: 00:14:36

We know they're having a birthday.

Matthew: 00:14:37

It's happy birthdays.

Matthew: 00:14:38

It's they had a kid, it's all the best sending flowers, like we just

Matthew: 00:14:41

had a, and she's not even a client anymore, but she's a good friend

Matthew: 00:14:44

of mine, she was a client of ours.

Matthew: 00:14:46

Her father-in-law just passed.

Matthew: 00:14:48

It's sending flowers to her because it's human to human, like

Matthew: 00:14:51

that's the right thing to do.

Matthew: 00:14:52

Whether or not she ever comes back and pays us, I don't really care.

Matthew: 00:14:55

It doesn't make or break our business, but that friendship means something to

Matthew: 00:14:59

me and letting her know that we genuinely care means something to me, so it's

Matthew: 00:15:02

those extra ways, extra touchpoints that are outside of business that let

Matthew: 00:15:07

those business owners know that we're not just in it to collect a paycheck.

Matthew: 00:15:11

It's kind of like your show, Speaking From The Heart.

Matthew: 00:15:13

It's a heart to heart connection, and that's, to me, service-based business,

Matthew: 00:15:17

product-based, business friends, family clients, whatever, like if you

Matthew: 00:15:21

connect heart to heart, it's worth it.

Matthew: 00:15:24

It's genuine and it's worthwhile.

Joshua: 00:15:27

Matt, I'm touched by that, because even for myself, I often think

Joshua: 00:15:32

about what can I do to make an impact without feeling like I'm intruding or-

Matthew: 00:15:36

mm-hmm.

Joshua: 00:15:37

I'm making a negative impact on that person.

Joshua: 00:15:41

I'm just curious, have you ever had somebody say, "Why are you doing this?

Joshua: 00:15:46

Why the time?

Joshua: 00:15:47

Why the effort?", because I'm sure that there are skeptics

Joshua: 00:15:50

out there that are essentially saying the direct opposite of you-

Matthew: 00:15:54

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:15:54

And saying, "Well, that's not making your bottom line look any better."

Joshua: 00:15:57

I know you said that it's been growth 12 out of those 13 years,

Joshua: 00:16:01

but, I guess my question is why is this motivation coming from you?

Matthew: 00:16:05

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:16:05

In other words, why are you doing that from your heart?

Matthew: 00:16:08

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:16:08

To actually ask you the literal question of this show.

Matthew: 00:16:11

Yeah.

Matthew: 00:16:11

It's the right thing to do, and I maybe I was born and raised, I'd say more

Matthew: 00:16:15

raised that way, but born intuitively with that instinct to do that and live

Matthew: 00:16:18

like that but also then raised by my parents with the very solid upbringing.

Matthew: 00:16:23

Respect each other.

Matthew: 00:16:24

Do what's right even if no one's watching, do it, like all those, what I call like

Matthew: 00:16:30

fundamental good human being qualities I was raised to kind of embody and to be

Matthew: 00:16:34

proud of more so than sports victories or good grades., it was like be a good

Matthew: 00:16:38

person is like number one on the list of things my parents wanted all four of their

Matthew: 00:16:42

kids to grow up to be, and again, I say selfishly, but I know that's not it, but

Matthew: 00:16:46

it makes me feel good, like, why do I do it?, Because it makes me feel good and

Matthew: 00:16:50

then because of that, then I instinctively believe that they also feel good, and

Matthew: 00:16:54

then when they extend opportunities, like our one client who's been a

Matthew: 00:16:59

client for years, she's an audiologist.

Matthew: 00:17:00

If one of our kids has an ear ache, she'll come over, pick up her kids from

Matthew: 00:17:04

school, she'll come over to our house with her kit and look in their ears to

Matthew: 00:17:06

see if we should go to the ER if they need some drops or whatever, and she

Matthew: 00:17:10

invited us to a Christmas party on the Strassburg Railroad, like all six of us.

Matthew: 00:17:14

It's just, it feels good, like why do I do it?

Matthew: 00:17:17

Because it feels good and it feels right, and that's, I operate every

Matthew: 00:17:20

part of my life like that whether it's relationship with my wife, my

Matthew: 00:17:23

kids, this conversation with you.

Matthew: 00:17:26

If it feels right and it's a good intention, go all in on it.

Joshua: 00:17:31

I often say to people too, that it's not just about having the

Joshua: 00:17:36

touchpoints, meaning, "Well, I'm going to get out my phone, make sure

Joshua: 00:17:40

I schedule some time to follow up with Matt because I know I need to.

Matthew: 00:17:43

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:17:44

It's about the random times.

Joshua: 00:17:46

It might be eight o'clock at night.

Matthew: 00:17:47

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:17:48

It might be doing it three o'clock in the afternoon

Joshua: 00:17:51

on a Saturday and saying, "Hey.

Joshua: 00:17:53

Are you okay?

Joshua: 00:17:54

I haven't heard from you in a while and I want you to know that

Joshua: 00:17:56

you are being thought of right now and that's really important too.

Matthew: 00:18:00

Absolutely.

Joshua: 00:18:01

I know that I struggle with that.

Joshua: 00:18:03

That's something that I'm working on myself personally, and that has

Joshua: 00:18:06

helped me so much with just fostering some of the friendships that I have

Joshua: 00:18:11

maybe tainted or have created some of that toxicity because let's face

Joshua: 00:18:15

it, we're both humans and we do that.

Matthew: 00:18:18

Yep.

Joshua: 00:18:18

It makes me think of this, so when you were talking about your

Joshua: 00:18:22

parents in this upbringing, I know you started an apparel; a lifestyle brand.

Joshua: 00:18:28

I want you to talk about that, but I want you to wrap it into: did your parents

Joshua: 00:18:32

have any influence on this in terms of indirectly of why you started that,

Joshua: 00:18:37

because when I was reading this and looking at your website, I'm thinking,

Joshua: 00:18:40

"There has to be a reason also to venture into this", because, I mean,

Joshua: 00:18:45

doing fitness that we've talked about so far, talking about being part of

Joshua: 00:18:50

marketing, why all this apparel stuff now, like, it just boggles my mind.

Matthew: 00:18:55

Yeah.

Matthew: 00:18:56

I can't take credit for having started Signer 57.

Matthew: 00:18:59

That's my buddy Jeff, my business partner.

Matthew: 00:19:01

He started it probably like six months, and he was running with it.

Matthew: 00:19:04

He is an immigrant from Canada, who's now like a legal citizen of

Matthew: 00:19:07

the us but that was, I should know this, but I think like maybe seven

Matthew: 00:19:10

or 10 years ago, he became a citizen.

Matthew: 00:19:12

He really deeply appreciates what America stands for and

Matthew: 00:19:15

the freedom that it offers him.

Matthew: 00:19:17

That's why he started it and he also is a patriot through and through and like

Matthew: 00:19:21

he can't stand to see kind of like the direction part of the country's heading

Matthew: 00:19:24

in and some of like the overall messaging being shared and all that stuff, so this

Matthew: 00:19:28

was his planting his flag in the sand and being like, this is what I stand

Matthew: 00:19:32

for and I want the world to know it.

Matthew: 00:19:33

I saw him posting about it a couple times and through a group that I'm

Matthew: 00:19:37

part of, Apex, I reached out to him.

Matthew: 00:19:39

I was like, "Hey, Jeff, like, can I get in on this business?

Matthew: 00:19:41

It embodies who I am.

Matthew: 00:19:43

The vocal, I want to be vocal about my pride in America and being a good

Matthew: 00:19:47

dad and father and like just that true patriot.", and he was like, "Yeah, dude.

Matthew: 00:19:50

Let's join forces and let's do it."

Matthew: 00:19:53

Did my parents have anything to do with that?

Matthew: 00:19:56

Neither of my parents were entrepreneurs.

Matthew: 00:19:57

I had no business owners in any of my family, like extended family, so

Matthew: 00:20:00

I never got the bug from any of them.

Matthew: 00:20:02

I had to learn it on my own when I went out to California and I realized

Matthew: 00:20:05

there's a whole different world out there besides the nine to five, but I think

Matthew: 00:20:09

again, why do we have that relationship with our clients heart to heart?

Matthew: 00:20:13

I think that's a lot to do with how I was raised and how great my parents are and

Matthew: 00:20:17

were but same thing for the apparel thing.

Matthew: 00:20:20

Directly, no, but indirectly, yes, because they raised me to be a strong,

Matthew: 00:20:24

independent human being and think for myself, and they encourage that.

Matthew: 00:20:28

For me to now like plant my flag and say, I'm pro-America, I'm pro freedom,

Matthew: 00:20:33

I'm pro making your own choices.

Matthew: 00:20:35

I'm pro Constitution; like all the above.

Matthew: 00:20:39

I love saying that, and I said that during the beginning of COVID and through

Matthew: 00:20:42

COVID and, and I took a lot of arrows for it from people being like, a lot of

Matthew: 00:20:46

negativity was spewed at me and I was fine with it because I know who I am.

Matthew: 00:20:50

I know I lead from my heart.

Matthew: 00:20:52

I know I live with good intentions.

Matthew: 00:20:53

I know I want what's best for everybody, and if my message is perceived by others

Matthew: 00:20:59

in a different way, that has more to do with how they're perceiving my message

Matthew: 00:21:03

and what they're doing with it internally than the intent that I was sharing it.

Matthew: 00:21:06

My parents indirectly have a fingerprint, a solid print, on

Matthew: 00:21:11

everything that I do in my life.

Joshua: 00:21:12

I love the fact that you said just now that these are the things I believe

Joshua: 00:21:17

in, I'm standing with them, and this is an easy question then to tie into all

Joshua: 00:21:22

this because you're absolutely right.

Joshua: 00:21:25

There are people out there that would absolutely vehemently tear you down, and

Joshua: 00:21:30

here at Speaking At The Heart, we don't judge based on any of that, because I

Joshua: 00:21:34

think everybody, no matter what your background is, it's truly important for

Joshua: 00:21:39

you to see your true version of yourself.

Joshua: 00:21:41

That's the mission of Your Speaking Voice, the business that I started earlier

Joshua: 00:21:45

this year, I think we're all entitled to that, so I work with everybody.

Matthew: 00:21:49

Absolutely.

Joshua: 00:21:49

And obviously I don't condone violence or anything of that nature,

Joshua: 00:21:53

and I know that for many people, they often think that that's the answer, so

my question is this: 00:21:57

when you are getting that hatred, especially with representing

my question is this: 00:22:04

what your business partner, Jeff had started with the apparel business, does

my question is this: 00:22:08

that make you feel like sometimes you take a step back and say, "You know,

my question is this: 00:22:13

I don't know why I made this decision.

my question is this: 00:22:14

I really don't think this was a good idea.", or do you have any self-doubt?

my question is this: 00:22:19

And if you do, what's the script that you run through, or what are some

my question is this: 00:22:23

of the talking points that you give yourself, or maybe you have somebody

my question is this: 00:22:26

else that you talk to about this that kind of puts it back into perspective.

my question is this: 00:22:31

Can you walk us through what that is because for my audience, I think

my question is this: 00:22:35

it's really helpful to learn about what some people do to process

my question is this: 00:22:39

that, because some of us don't even have a structure to begin with and-

Matthew: 00:22:42

Mm-hmm.

Joshua: 00:22:43

I think it's really thoughtful and considerate to hear you say this, and I

Joshua: 00:22:49

really want to hear your thoughts on that, so I'll give you a few minutes for that.

Matthew: 00:22:52

Does it cause me to doubt the decision I've made, does like the

Matthew: 00:22:55

negativity and call it hate, because some of it was very hateful that spewed at me

Matthew: 00:22:59

for two and a half years when everything was pretty public eye, and everybody was

Matthew: 00:23:03

agitated by everybody and no one was, everybody was the enemy of everybody.

Matthew: 00:23:06

It was just a bad spot to be in.

Matthew: 00:23:09

No, I never like, to me I'm very self-confident, like I know what I

Matthew: 00:23:13

stand for, why I stand for it, and you can't sway me off that path.

Matthew: 00:23:18

You would have to take like a tractor trailer and like blindside

Matthew: 00:23:20

me for, to knock me off my path.

Matthew: 00:23:22

That being said, did it affect me?

Matthew: 00:23:25

Yes.

Matthew: 00:23:25

Did it majorly affect me?

Matthew: 00:23:28

On a handful of occasions.

Matthew: 00:23:29

I'm very transparent, like there was one or two times I went and like, I was

Matthew: 00:23:32

showering and I just started crying, and it was because I can't believe people

Matthew: 00:23:36

are saying these things about me, like people I went to high school with direct

Matthew: 00:23:39

messaging me saying like, you're this, this, this, and that, and I'm like, 'No,

Matthew: 00:23:43

I'm not, I can't believe A, you think that B you're taking the time to send

Matthew: 00:23:47

that to me," and I'm very good at, I kind of walk around and like live with

Matthew: 00:23:52

like what I consider like a force field bubble around my energy field, like I

Matthew: 00:23:56

allow in what I want because it feeds my soul, it feeds my purpose, and if it's

Matthew: 00:24:00

negativity and it's not helping me grow and it, I'm not feeling fulfilled by it,

Matthew: 00:24:04

I'm very good at deflecting and just not letting that energy get into my space.

Matthew: 00:24:08

That being said, when it's constant and it's vile and it's like you have to open

Matthew: 00:24:13

up the message; you don't have to, but like you see a message, you open it up.

Matthew: 00:24:16

It's kind of like, oh, I just saw it, like, I just absorbed it.

Matthew: 00:24:18

Whether or not I wanted it, I just got it.

Matthew: 00:24:20

It did seep through, like some of it made its way through, and, you know, I'm like

Matthew: 00:24:25

a, I am a sensitive human being, like I sense my way through the world, like I

Matthew: 00:24:29

used my feelings to make decisions and stuff like that, so being wired in such

Matthew: 00:24:33

a way that it definitely had a couple times where I was just like, "This sucks."

Matthew: 00:24:38

I want those people to know my intent and like how do I express that, and after the

Matthew: 00:24:42

one like pretty big cry session in the shower, I reached out to one person that

Matthew: 00:24:46

was an online enemy of mine for like two years, and I did my very best to like,

Matthew: 00:24:51

I know we disagree, like I tried to like extend the olive branch and like let 'em

Matthew: 00:24:55

know that like I want what's best for them and like, I know they don't agree

Matthew: 00:24:58

with my views and how I'm sharing a message and stuff, but like, I think you

Matthew: 00:25:02

know me as a human being like, embrace the good in me and even if it's, there's

Matthew: 00:25:06

a little bit what you consider bad, is that really worth saying all this negative

Matthew: 00:25:09

stuff and try to navigate those waters to no, you know, avail, but that made me

Matthew: 00:25:13

feel okay, and that's how I process it.

Matthew: 00:25:16

If I don't let stuff stick in me, like that negativity, if it

Matthew: 00:25:19

gets in me, I meditate every day.

Matthew: 00:25:21

Starting this year I started to read the Bible once every day I read a devotional.

Matthew: 00:25:25

I'm always outside with the dogs walking, getting sunshine and fresh air, so I just

Matthew: 00:25:29

constantly pour good content in, and feed myself good content, so in those rare

Matthew: 00:25:34

moments that negativity does accidentally get to me, it's quick in and out, like

Matthew: 00:25:39

I don't wake up the next day with it.

Matthew: 00:25:40

I don't carry it with me for days or weeks at a time.

Matthew: 00:25:44

I'd be lying if I said it never got to me, because of course it does.

Matthew: 00:25:47

We're all human, but I've done a pretty good job creating some thick

Matthew: 00:25:50

skin over the years and still being kind and caring and sincerely wanting

Matthew: 00:25:54

what's best for everybody else.

Joshua: 00:25:57

Wow.

Joshua: 00:25:58

I am blown away by that answer because many people would be, "Well, I'm just

Joshua: 00:26:04

going to just delete them and not have anything to do with it," or, "I'm going

Joshua: 00:26:08

to hit the delete button on this message.

Joshua: 00:26:10

I just don't want any of that negativity," or they isolate themselves.

Joshua: 00:26:14

They ghost.

Joshua: 00:26:14

That is a really popular concept nowadays where you just don't hear from them ever

Joshua: 00:26:19

again because you really offended them and they don't want to say anything back.

Joshua: 00:26:24

This leads into something that I saw on your website that directly feeds into

Joshua: 00:26:28

this, and it's one of your favorite quotes, and it's from Stephen Covey,

Joshua: 00:26:32

where it says "What you do has far greater impact than what you say."

Matthew: 00:26:37

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:26:37

Can you tie that into what you just said, because I think that has

Joshua: 00:26:40

some big ramifications for my audience.

Matthew: 00:26:43

Yeah.

Matthew: 00:26:44

It's living, it's leading by example.

Matthew: 00:26:46

I could get online and share all the motivational quotes and I could say all

Matthew: 00:26:50

the right things and I could inspire people with my words, but if I always

Matthew: 00:26:54

say if there was a fly on the wall watching me live my life on a daily

Matthew: 00:26:57

basis, do my actions match my words, and if they don't, and all I'm doing is

Matthew: 00:27:02

sharing words, I have no substance to myself and I don't believe in myself, so

Matthew: 00:27:06

therefore I'm not succeeding in the ways I am and being fulfilled in the ways I

Matthew: 00:27:10

am, because I look in the mirror and I go, "You're not who you say you are.

Matthew: 00:27:14

You're not tapping your potential and you're kind of coasting through

Matthew: 00:27:16

life," and I couldn't do that, I have that accountability mirror.

Matthew: 00:27:19

It's way too, like daunting for me to stare at every day.

Matthew: 00:27:22

I just don't let actions, they're very, I take it very seriously, like my

Matthew: 00:27:29

actions speak for who I am, and that's why I say these people are like, back

Matthew: 00:27:34

to the other question, like two years of like, "You're this, this, and that."

Matthew: 00:27:36

I'm like, "Okay, because I said these words, but if you would watch me live

Matthew: 00:27:40

for a week or two days or whatever, like, you'd see that, like how I interact

Matthew: 00:27:44

with people is not what you're saying I am.", and there's a disconnect, so

Matthew: 00:27:48

for me, I don't care how people, what they say they do or how they talk

Matthew: 00:27:52

or messages they put out via words.

Matthew: 00:27:54

I want to watch what you do and how you do it on a daily basis, and I'll base my

Matthew: 00:27:58

judgment on your character based on your actions a hundred percent of the time.

Joshua: 00:28:02

I want my audience to have a vivid picture of what I'm watching right

Joshua: 00:28:05

now, and I want the audience to really see this because it's really important

Joshua: 00:28:09

for what is really the mind picture that we're drawing, so for my audience,

Joshua: 00:28:14

this is what I'm looking at right now.

Joshua: 00:28:16

I'm looking at Matt, who's like muscular, fit, has his life all together, because

Joshua: 00:28:21

I could look at it from thinking his life is all together because of the many

Joshua: 00:28:25

things that I seen, and I'm thinking, "Man, this guy's really accomplished",

Joshua: 00:28:29

and now when I hear this and I'm listening to it and I'm thinking, "Oh my God.

Joshua: 00:28:33

He's just as human as me.

Joshua: 00:28:35

He has broken thoughts and things that break him down too,

Joshua: 00:28:38

and he cries just like I do."

Matthew: 00:28:40

Mm-hmm.

Joshua: 00:28:40

"I never met another male that cried.", you know, it makes me think

Joshua: 00:28:43

of that, and that's the old stereotype that we have about what we think we

Joshua: 00:28:48

need to be really tough, and it's not really true, because we have to keep

Joshua: 00:28:52

pushing through, which leads into, another question I have for you then

Joshua: 00:28:56

is with all of that going through your head and you're thinking, "Wow.

Joshua: 00:29:01

I am doing this stuff and I am making a difference."

Joshua: 00:29:05

What would you say to someone else that's going through something

Joshua: 00:29:07

similar and they're taking these messages, they're probably at the

Joshua: 00:29:10

same place as you, and they're like, "I don't know how to handle this.

Joshua: 00:29:14

Is there any advice yet you would give to somebody that is listening

Joshua: 00:29:16

to this that might be helpful?"

Matthew: 00:29:18

The person who's doing the right stuff but getting hated on for-

Joshua: 00:29:21

Yes.

Matthew: 00:29:22

His perception?

Joshua: 00:29:23

Yes.

Matthew: 00:29:23

Um.

Matthew: 00:29:25

Man, it sounds oversimplified and it's almost like it can't be that easy,

Matthew: 00:29:29

but for me it is know who you are.

Matthew: 00:29:32

To me it's as simple as that.

Matthew: 00:29:33

If you know who you are and you operate from a place of integrity,

Matthew: 00:29:37

and again, you just know who you are.

Matthew: 00:29:39

What others think of you means nothing to me.

Matthew: 00:29:41

This podcast could be over and I hope it's not the case, but you could, you

Matthew: 00:29:44

know, call your buddy and be like, I just talked to him, this pompous

Matthew: 00:29:46

asshole I've ever met, and like, that's not the case, but like if that would

Matthew: 00:29:50

be, that happened, and your buddy's a mutual friend of mine, he calls me.

Matthew: 00:29:53

He is like, "Dude, Joshua just said-", and I'd be like, "That sucks.", but I

Matthew: 00:29:56

like, going to the next moment in my life because I would be like, I didn't intend

Matthew: 00:29:59

to become, you know, that, and I really was speaking from my heart, and if it

Matthew: 00:30:02

was misinterpreted or I just shared it incorrectly or whatever, that's life, I

Matthew: 00:30:06

move on from it, so no matter what people say about me, so long as I can look myself

Matthew: 00:30:11

in the mirror every morning and know the kind of person I am, and know what my

Matthew: 00:30:14

intent is and purpose is on this Earth, it really rolls right off my shoulders

Matthew: 00:30:19

and to the listener who might hear that and go, "Good for you, like, that must

Matthew: 00:30:23

be nice.", it takes years of building who you are and becoming that confident in

Matthew: 00:30:30

yourself and being able to say, "I know who I am, I know what my purpose is."

Matthew: 00:30:34

That's not something you wake up tomorrow, you read a Facebook post and

Matthew: 00:30:37

you're like, "ah, I know who I am and I know my purpose, and now words don't

Matthew: 00:30:40

roll, like all the negativity will roll right off my shoulders like Matt

Matthew: 00:30:43

talked about last night, "oh, life is much easier now.", you're delusional

Matthew: 00:30:46

if you think that it's that easy.

Matthew: 00:30:47

For me, I started this self-awareness kind of self-development journey I feel

Matthew: 00:30:52

like when I was like 15, 16, when I started going down a rabbit hole of drugs

Matthew: 00:30:55

and making all the wrong decisions till my early thirties, it was 16 years, but

Matthew: 00:30:59

during those years, decade and a half where I was making a lot of bad choices

Matthew: 00:31:04

in life, I was still doing the inner work and I was still analyzing myself and I

Matthew: 00:31:08

was still very good person in terms of loving others, caring for others, being

Matthew: 00:31:11

generous, like all the human qualities that I should have, I still had, but I'm

Matthew: 00:31:15

talking 20 years now of like, being on this journey where I can say, You know,

Matthew: 00:31:19

to you, when you ask me that question, "why doesn't it affect me?", because I've

Matthew: 00:31:22

spent two decades of my life doing the work, and because of that, I'm extremely

Matthew: 00:31:27

confident in who I am and what I bring to this earth, and because of that, someone's

Matthew: 00:31:32

fleeting opinion of me, how could I possibly let that impact who I am or like

Matthew: 00:31:36

the energy that I exude on a daily basis?

Matthew: 00:31:38

I've spent two decades of owning my energy and building my purpose.

Matthew: 00:31:42

What someone thinks about a 30 minute conversation and wants to

Matthew: 00:31:45

label me something, feel free.

Matthew: 00:31:50

I had to break this episode into two parts because as soon as he said about

Matthew: 00:31:54

his drug addiction, I knew that we were going to have a longer conversation

Matthew: 00:31:59

as a result, so that's why we broke it into that pivotal moment where you are

Matthew: 00:32:05

going to have to wait for part two of this episode to learn a little bit more.

Matthew: 00:32:10

I want to share with you what I learned so far in this interview, that I think all

Matthew: 00:32:13

of us can take back and even think about: "What are some of the things that we can

Matthew: 00:32:18

do in our lives?", and I love that Matt talked about what you want to accomplish.

Matthew: 00:32:23

It's about having those daily disciplines, and it's not just about the gym aspect,

Matthew: 00:32:28

which we focused on quite a bit in our first part of the interview.

Matthew: 00:32:32

We talked a lot about even the things that are fueling ourselves.

Matthew: 00:32:37

When we have that fuel that helps us to keep on going no matter what,

Matthew: 00:32:42

those are the things that help surround us with good, positive vibes.

Matthew: 00:32:48

Those are the things that help us to keep moving towards our goals, and I

Matthew: 00:32:52

know for many of us trying to have that consistency is something that if you

Matthew: 00:32:58

think that you can do it all by yourself, great, but I'm going to tell you that

Matthew: 00:33:03

there will be one point in your time, whether that's 30 days, 60 days, 180

Matthew: 00:33:09

days, 365 days, it doesn't matter how long it will take, it will happen where

Matthew: 00:33:15

you going to need help and trying to get that discipline will help you if you

Matthew: 00:33:20

have the right things surrounding you, and a lot of people struggle, especially

Matthew: 00:33:25

when I meet with certain clients that come through my business about having

Matthew: 00:33:31

the need to continuously discipline yourself; to have yourself so that you

Matthew: 00:33:36

keep on stepping forward, and I love that Matt talked about his parents and

Matthew: 00:33:41

his upbringing about doing things right.

Matthew: 00:33:44

I think that helped so much to accelerate those disciplines growing

Matthew: 00:33:48

up, but as you'll learned in part two, there was actually so much more to

Matthew: 00:33:52

that conversation that I didn't even realize at this point when I hit the

Matthew: 00:33:57

the stop button and thought about what I had learned at that point from him.

Matthew: 00:34:02

I think it all comes back to the fact that we all learn different things when

Matthew: 00:34:06

we're growing up, especially as a kid.

Matthew: 00:34:09

Those are the things that we carry forward.

Matthew: 00:34:11

Those are the things that pushed us into creating some of the

Matthew: 00:34:14

things that are consistent patterns that we do throughout our lives.

Matthew: 00:34:18

Those are the staples, and we have to remove those staples sometimes

Matthew: 00:34:23

because when we get older, we realize that that's not really the

Matthew: 00:34:27

best thing that has helped us now.

Matthew: 00:34:30

I have often read from a few authors about the need to make sure that you are

Matthew: 00:34:35

not doing the same things that you were doing as a kid into adulthood, because

Matthew: 00:34:40

when you're an adult, things change.

Matthew: 00:34:43

The same things that you do growing up is not going to be the same

Matthew: 00:34:48

things that you do in the present.

Matthew: 00:34:50

For example, would you cry to your mom saying that you lost

Matthew: 00:34:55

your job and ask her to intervene?

Matthew: 00:34:58

Would you ask your father for a hundred thousand dollars so that you can have

Matthew: 00:35:03

a really nice six months off from work or even put a really nice down payment

Matthew: 00:35:09

down on a house that you're thinking about buying so that you don't have to

Matthew: 00:35:13

worry about it, and never pay him back.

Matthew: 00:35:17

Does it make sense to have a friend in which you are continuously

Matthew: 00:35:21

asking them, "Let's go outside and play ball," but also shirking the

Matthew: 00:35:26

responsibilities of taking care of kids, taking care of chores, taking

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care of your overall responsibilities that you have in your life?

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I think for a good majority of us, the answer would be no, and if you

Matthew: 00:35:40

are one of those ones that are saying yes, I have a question for you.

Matthew: 00:35:44

Have you talked to Matt lately and realized that maybe you could

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be creating some of that value that he's doing as a result of

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realizing what that potential is?

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I love the fact that he got into talking about what America really means, and

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I know that I have some listeners overseas and you might often hear about

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country pride and having nationalism and having things of that nature.

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I'm not here to talk about that.

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What I am here to talk about though is Matt's sincerity.

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The conviction that I heard from him about this and what that apparel company that

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he had with his co-owner, Jeff, really helped to establish for not only for

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the things that he's doing now but what has set him up in the past to become who

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he is and that was really inspiring to hear because, sometimes, we feel that we

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have to meet these other expectations.

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We have to push ourselves into what society really is, and I always say to my

Matthew: 00:36:45

clients, "Is it about what other people think or is it about what you think?",

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and that's the biggest distinguishment that we have to make for ourselves.

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We don't always have to think about the things that are happening in our

Matthew: 00:36:59

lives right now as things that we need to appease somebody else, and I

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lived that life for a very long time, and I will tell you that got me down

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to the paths that I had gone through in my own life that were very toxic.

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They were not appreciated.

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They were things that were definitely holding me back from seeing what I could

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potentially become, and I'm still sitting here today thinking, "Why did I ever

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think that way?", but when I heard Matt start to share a little bit more about

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him and his sensitivity, and realizing that I wasn't looking at that muscular

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guy that was on my screen, I started to realize a lot more about even myself.

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For those that don't know me and have never met me in person, I am overweight.

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I have been overweight for the longest time, and that was because of poor

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choices that I've made growing up and I continue to make as an adult, and I

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know that I need to continue to try to change my mindset with it when it comes

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to that, so for those that are struggling with weight, and struggling with body

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image, I know that struggle is real.

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When Matt was talking to me about his human-centric approach of just being

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there to cry, and that sometimes we need the things to feed our soul so

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that we don't cry so that we can feel better about it, I often think about

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the fact that, "Hey, I'm a male.

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I'm supposed to be not crying", and that seems to be the stereotype that even to

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this day still is part of our psyche.

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I'm here to tell you that that's not true whatsoever.

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You have to read good content and you have to fuel yourself by reading that

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good content in order to be able to realize that you can start the process

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today, and Matt was adamant and it takes years to get to that point, and

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I think that we all have to remember that this is not a journey in which

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you do something for 24, 48, 72 hours and say that you are now transformed.

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Sometimes habits take a long time to fulfill.

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That means having something that you actually do consistently over

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and over again becomes a learned habit when you realize that it

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creates so much opportunity, so much value, so much success.

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Those are the things that are often difficult for us to overcome in

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our own mind, and we have to push ourselves to understand what that

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important level of responsibility is when it comes to feeding that.

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Sometimes even drugs create that.

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I know that for many of us, we struggle with the vices that we have, and I

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think that when you realize that you have control of what you put into

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your body, it isn't just the food.

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It isn't just the physical activity that you exert on the outside, maybe with

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a trainer or maybe with somebody else, but when you start to realize that you

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can market yourself differently and you can start to realize what your true

Matthew: 00:40:08

being is, if you're willing to accept the responsibility of changing that

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mindset, the possibilities are endless.

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I've shared that in so many different episodes now with so many different

Matthew: 00:40:21

guests, but the point is, we have responsibility for those choices, and

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if we're able to take those choices and we're able to push it into the next

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level, and you're realizing that you can create something of value that you enjoy,

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you can do anything you want, and Matt certainly explained that in this episode

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about the importance of being able to do as much as you possibly can with the

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time that you're given on this earth.

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I have to say that when we get to part two, you are going to be surprised about

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what Matt shares with me and how this journey actually started from something

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else that I would've never imagined but until then, thanks for listening to

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episode number 26, part one of Speaking From the Heart, and I look forward

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to hearing from your heart very soon.

Outro: 00:41:14

Thanks for listening.

Outro: 00:41:15

For more information about our podcast and future shows, search for Speaking From

Outro: 00:41:19

The Heart to subscribe and be notified wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Outro: 00:41:24

Visit us at www.yourspeakingvoice.biz for more information about potential

Outro: 00:41:31

services that can help you create the best version of yourself.