Intangible Balance Sheet Episode 17: Matt Gilbert

Welcome to another Intangible Balance Sheet episode. Today Matt Gilbert joins us to share his story of growing up as an aspiring entrepreneur of mowing lawns and selling firewood to founding and selling three different businesses. We unpack some of his "tribal knowlege," hopes for his family in the future, as well as what he sees for the next chapter. 

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JOSH KLOOZ, CFP®, MBA
SENIOR WEALTH PLANNER

Phone 281.719.0036
Text 281.699.8691
Fax 281.719.0156
 jklooz@carsonwealth.com

1780 Hughes Landing | Suite 570
The Woodlands, TX 77380

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JOSH KLOOZ, CFP®, MBA
WEALTH ADVISOR

Phone 281.719.0036
Text 281.699.8691
Fax 281.719.0156
jklooz@carsonwealth.com

1780 Hughes Landing | Suite 570
The Woodlands, TX 77380

Music by bensound.com

Transcript

Joshua Klooz  0:01  
most people are aware of their own financial balance sheet.

As soon as we buy our first car or house, we become aware of it. If you're of a certain personality type, you may track it quite a bit. But I'd submit to you that we're also unconsciously aware of another balance sheet. And this one is sometimes tricky to measure and even harder to manage. Sometimes we often find it hard to put into words, but it's real nonetheless. I call this our intangible balance sheet. What I mean by this are those life principles, experiences, memories and stories that given any amount of money, we wouldn't drain. They're the memories that bring tears of joy to our faces, because we simply can't imagine life without them. We feel fortunate to have had them. It could be our first jobs, proposals, wedding days, burrs, struggles, anxieties, or fears, and maybe even some hindsight. It's all those things that melt into a memory that bring a distance stare to our face, and maybe even a smile.

We feel lucky to have had them because they're what has made us us. So that's what I'm talking about when I talk about the intangible balance sheet. It's those moments in life that may be financially irrational, but which are indispensable parts of who we are. So, these episodes are focused on the stories that bring us joy, happiness, fulfillment, and ultimately may hold unnecessary keys that will direct the future for our family, friends, and maybe even neighbors. So listen in with us as we discover some of those stories that are meaningful to our guests. And maybe you'll even uncover hidden value on your own intangible balance sheet.

Welcome in again to the wisdom and wealth podcast and another intangible balance sheet episode. I'm Josh Klooz, the senior wealth planner here for Carson wealth in The Woodlands, Texas. Our guest today is Matt Gilbert, a founding partner of Gilbert in party transaction advisors. I'm so excited to dive in and learn more about mass intangible balance sheet. But Matt, welcome to the podcast. Hey, thanks for having me, Josh. I really appreciate you inviting me.

Pleasure is ours. And so Matt, you help people through Gilberton party unlock value on their balance sheet, I think pent up value is is the term I think you guys use. And the goal of this podcast is to encourage our guests and our listeners to unlock value on their intangible balance sheet. So similar, but once once you know tangible and in a business and once kind of built up over a period of years, you know, spiritually and lived out through your life principles. But I'm curious to dive into some of the stories for tablesetting. Could you tell us a little bit about your background and in how you grew up? Oh, yeah, we're gonna go way back then. So I grew up in West Texas, kind of in a cotton farming community.

Matt Gilbert  3:06  
However, we were not involved in farming at all. And so it was interesting to be the outsider, kid in that community. I got to do a lot of cool things with friends and, and whatnot, but we didn't really understand it. And so if you fast forward all the way to today actually have a farm.

Because, you know, those early experiences were very formative. And I just always felt like that was something that was in my blood.

You know, we didn't have it. In hindsight, we didn't have it bad at all. It's fantastic upbringing. While I was going through it, I thought it was pretty lousy.

You know, I think that's a thing most kids probably feel.

You know, we were probably

one of the families that wasn't as fluid as everybody else in at least in my circle. And so when I was in junior high, I asked my dad for the lawn mower and the edger and the weed eater. And I went out and started, you know, kind of making my own way in the world.

He advised me a lot and there was a very formative moment there. I got to the point after two or three years of doing that moment and engine stuff,

to where we were making significant money I was, I was in junior high headed into high school, had bought cars and trailers and pay cash for everything you know, and was money was good. I learned I learned a lot there. You know, we would go out, I say we, I would go out and knock on doors and door to door sales, to get clients. You know, walk them around their property, talk to them about what we can do to help them, convince them that we're the right team to do it.

And, and then you know, in mowing season is only so long, you know from spring to fall. And so I would circle back around and shovel snow, sell firewood, all kinds of stuff for my years in Junior High in high school. And there was a moment.

And I was like, No, ma'am, you know, I'd like to talk to you about that pile of firewood. I said, if you would let me come in and do this to every one of your rental houses or your transition houses

for the very first service. And I'll trade that service, I'll do it at no charge, if you'll allow me to take Pharaoh and she thought about it. And she made a call or two to make sure that you know, owners moving.

But if they did, they would have taken it right didn't seem like an asset to anybody. So she made the made the deal with me. And that summer, we ended up with a mountain of firewood over at at our staging place. And then from then on, I began to trade the first service for the pile of firewood. And then in the in the wintertime we would look pickup trucks up with firewood we'd go door to door selling, selling the firewood for about 10x what it would have what we would have been paid to do that long. And so credible, all of those pieces kind of coming together. You know, in the springtime, people want to change out dead plants or or spruce up their yard, you know, so all of this was we claimed swimming pools, we fixed fences, you know, as we began to meet the needs of our clients basically. And so those formative years for me as a teenager, of just figuring out how to how to talk to adults how to talk to people who have a need that and the means to you know, have a have a third party take care of that need. You know, I just began to learn how to interact on human nature from a sales standpoint. And then of course, there's quality control and follow up and collections and, you know, all kinds of safety. I mean, it all it all kind of fit in there. And so that that was a really formative experience. And I tell that story a lot to youngsters and people that we speak to. But literally it

the principles that I learned there I have applied every day in my life since work life. So you mentioned your crew, did you ever have to fire somebody? How did that go? Yeah, so.

So here's what I have. I have to back up before I answer that. When I first started this, I didn't have a driver's license. So I would have to hire my older friends who had pickups or one guy had a station wagon and a trailer. And I would have to go sit down with their parents and say, Hey, I'd like for Timmy to work for me. And the reason I want him to work for me, number one, we're friends. And number two, I need that truck. So you have to allow him to work for me and use the vehicle that you're paying for as a work vehicle so that he can move firewood and pull lawn mowers and take stuff to the dump and bring wood back for fencing or whatever. And so I had to convince the parents that I was a decent employer. You know, nobody ever asked me about insurance or anything like that, thank goodness. And then when it comes around, you know if Timmy does a lousy job or or cusses at the old lady or doesn't show up or you know, then I gotta go firing. Well then I gotta go back to the parents and explain, you know what's going on here. So I learned I learned a lot of lessons they're dealing

With because I was hiring my friends. Yep. And I was accountable to their parents. And my dad was, you know, particularly heavily involved in coaching me,

Joshua Klooz  10:12  
you know, through all that not letting me take shortcuts and not letting me be, you know, skirt, the accountability or anything. So between that and giving, oftentimes a free service to gain a relationship or to show our value, you know, those things just are irreplaceable for how, you know, my career has gone since then. That is amazing. So one of the themes that we talk about a lot is the idea of Earned success. And I get the term from Arthur Brooks used to run the American Enterprise Institute. And it's just the idea that, hey, I'm valued for what I'm doing, and I'm dependent on, and it's not so much the transaction that we get gratification from it's the it's the idea that someone else needs us. Um, so it sounds like you got that pretty early.

Matt Gilbert  11:04  
Yeah, you know, it was kind of self inflicted, I would say, you know, I had friends working in McDonald's and get them all in places like that, and they weren't in the weather, and other friends who worked on the family farms. And, you know, this, it was a working community. There were a few kids who, you know, who didn't, they sat around, played video games and stuff. But for the most part, you know, by the time you're in seventh or eighth grade, and that community, you're expected to be working. And so, you know, we learned an ethic, and we learned a way of dealing with, with our peers, who were generally adults when we weren't, and things like that. So, you know, I look at my kids, I have four daughters, and I'm incredibly proud of how they turned out and the lives that they make for themselves, and all that, but they didn't grow up in their kind of environment, they didn't grow up in that kind of community. And so to see the differences in kind of how the path that I had to take versus the paths that they got to take

is, is an interesting contrast, and, you know, an opportunity and parenting and those kinds of things.

Joshua Klooz  12:12  
Yeah, absolutely. One of the other things that I always find fascinating. Do you remember and I'll go ahead and ask you, and if you don't remember, it's fine. But do you remember the first person that it stood out to you like, man, that person really enjoys what they do? And I've got a follow up question to this one. But you remember that first person that you did just stands out to you of like, gosh, that's really cool.

Matt Gilbert  12:36  
Yeah, I think it was a junior high coach. It was just passionate about, you know, his players and in the sport, and he was also a teacher, he was also a history teacher. And you can care less about history. And what happened in the classroom.

When I was in the class, that he didn't care if we learned any of that, when we were in practice, or on the field, I mean, a switch flipped in him. And he was just so passionate about teaching the game that he loved. And yeah, I totally remember that. When When was the first time that you realize there was a difference between working for yourself and working for somebody else? Because your experience is very unique? Yeah, it was, it was those same years, I was probably in again, maybe, maybe early high school years. It's no, you know, in West Texas. And so in the winter, I decided to go to Western sizzlin and get a job.

And I was either on the schedule as a dishwasher, or I was on the schedule as the cheese roll maker. And I learned very quickly, in that I had already had my, you know, kind of lawn care business up and running for many years. And I learned very quickly there, that trading my time for a few dollars, just wasn't gonna get me where I needed to be in life. And that's probably the last real job I ever had. It it's, you know, $7 an hour, and then the government's got their hand in there for some of it, you know, who's FICA? And

Joshua Klooz  14:20  
how do I find it?

Matt Gilbert  14:22  
You know, all those things. It did not take me long. I probably worked there six months through the cold months.

But it did not take me long to figure out the, you know, for me, and I think there's a different path for everybody. But for me, you know, I wanted to be in control of, of the deal, and the profitability of the deal and how those profits got distributed. And, and so I went right back to what I knew and have kind of been doing that ever since in different iterations.

What would you say professionally was the next

or

or even personally was the next formative experience in life. Yeah, there was a big one. So

oil field companies. And he gave me a shot. And, you know, a couple years later, we were doing millions in revenue, and had employees and, you know, trucks and, and all kinds of stuff. And so, you know, I think the Lord's really taking care of me kind of had a hand on my life, but there's also this element of, I gotta get up and go, I gotta get up and go get it. Right. Can't it's not going to hand it to me. And I'm not going to find it at a job. I mean, I've always kind of felt that since I didn't get to go to college. You know, I've always felt like, I've had to work harder than others to achieve a certain thing. And there was something to prove. And now I'm a little older, that's that none of that was probably true. But it drove me. Right. And, and then having to buy diapers and formula, and, you know, do something with a kid when all my friends were playing baseball and goofing around and fishing.

You know, those? Those were different experiences as well.

Joshua Klooz  17:36  
Yeah, absolutely. So for for our listeners that may not be in, you know, as as attuned to the local industry, explain what environmental all entails.

Matt Gilbert  17:47  
Yeah, at that time,

we were we were handling waste for in the Houston area industrial service businesses. So that waste is generally put in 55 gallon drums or, or very containers called totes. And, and that was a small enough package that I could go around with a few 100 Or a few $1,000. And kind of broker the waste from whoever created it, to wherever it needed to be disposed of. That grew into us having a soil remediation business. We had a tank cleaning business, we had an industrial labor business, we had a hazardous waste transportation and disposal. Business that morphed into a recycling thing. And so from that very little beginning, I was stayed in the environmental business in and out buying and selling companies for several decades. But it's it's handling, in our case, mostly industrial, and hazardous waste, or contaminated soil where spills or pipelines or things like that have had issues. Yeah.

Joshua Klooz  18:57  
Are there any difficulties along the way? That you encountered that that are formative as well?

Matt Gilbert  19:05  
Yeah, there's lots of difficulties. You know, not not having been formally trained in accounting, and running organizations with hundreds of personnel and multiple states and different divisions and locations and a tax return in each state and partners. You know, and then buying and selling companies, there's, we sell a company, that's a tremendously complex transaction, whereby a buyer company, there's a lot of risk, you know, and did we do our due diligence, right, and, and the accounting side has always been something that that I knew, I didn't, I didn't, you know, I just don't have the formal training and I don't I didn't have the chops for so. I do accounting and to this day, I do even math for

My daughter's in school, like come home with math homework, I go, Look, I can tell you the answer. But I can't get to it the way your teacher wants you to get to dry. So I'm going to, we're going to figure out the answer my way. And then we're going to get on YouTube and watch videos to figure out how to do it joy, the school wants it right. And I kind of do that in business. Still, so one of the things I've always had to do is I've had to surround myself with really strong accounting people. And I learned very early from, from the accounting thing, that, hey, if you don't understand marketing, go surround yourself with really strong marketing, people don't understand regulatory issues, get a couple of supers don't try to be that guy that figures it all out for himself, I think he can go further faster, or at least I was able to, by, you know, really attracting fantastic talent, and incentivizing them to see the vision that I had for the business, and jump on that bus and help us get there. So, you know, I've been fortunate that

the all of my ventures have been really very collaborative with partners and key employees carrying much of the load so that myself or a partner, you know, we were able to trust that we could spread that load over multiple shoulders, rather than just carrying it on our own shoulders. Absolutely do Is there a time that stands out to you, where you remember whether it was a mistake, or whether it was just a pain point, there's like, Hey, I've learned about as much of this as I want to be an expert in but I really need somebody to manage this. For me it was there a pivot point that stands out to you. Yeah.

There's to the, you know, the personal and this is why all that stuff we've been talking about going on, I'm still trying to be a father and a husband, and, and whatever. And so, you know, when you're giving attention to one, the other ones are lacking attention in this, this tug of war between personal and professional. So you know, as a parent, in hindsight, you look back and you go, Man, I wish I could have a do over and, you know, some of those things. And then as a business person,

is good enough that that task will be handled, and I can turn my attention. And oh, by the way, if it's 80%, the first time, once they've kind of figured it out, they get better, and eventually they surpass my 100%. Right, but having the the trust, to let people you know, have that professional growth and all that in a small family owned or just a smaller business. You know, now those people are my clients, and I see that, that it's pretty rare, when a business owner or shareholder, you know, lets that much trust out of the gate and, and grows a management team to, you know,

probably regulatorily, in the environmental days, that's just over my head. And, and so I had to put together teams of people who understood that better than I did, and, and could counsel us, and then we make business decisions off of that council. And so one of the things that I've learned to do is to kind of have an ATM and a beat team working on regulatory issues. And if they conflict with each other, then then something's wrong, we're not moving forward, and they don't really know each other exist, you know, in the beginning, so they're, they're working independently, and they come in and wait a minute, you're not saying the same thing. I don't want to go to jail. You know, let's put the brakes on this idea until we we figure out what's accurate here. And so those regulatory things are probably, and then Accounting has always been that way for me too. You know, the tax code. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's fine print double sided.

Joshua Klooz  24:12  
Drop it on your foot. Yeah.

Matt Gilbert  24:15  
And, and so tax advice has been the same way for me, my whole career is you can go through, you know, I'm in Houston, you can go around town and find somebody to tell you what you want to hear from a tax standpoint, all day long. But the truth is, is you know, what do we need to do in order to comply, pay the least, and be able to move our business forward. And that's always been a struggle for me as well. As you know, I there may be the best tax advisors in the state with a big huge firm and a giant name, telling me one thing, and then the second best tax advisor in the state with a big huge firm and a giant name that everybody knows telling me that exact opposite on a tax issue. Like, you know, why is it this complicated. And so those have been, you know, things where I'm not either not willing or not capable of figuring out the issue on my own, and we've got to trust somebody else to help guide us. And I've learned that, you know, trusting one resource on something that big, probably isn't the right thing to do. I like to have a couple of teams working on it. But then I've also learned if you get too many opinions, it just becomes muddled. And ultimately, the decision is mine or the shareholder group that I'm a part of. And, and we can't study it to death, we got to study just enough to make a decision and move on. Yeah, I don't know if that

Joshua Klooz  25:46  
answered your question. No, it absolutely does. In fact, one of the things that I think comes through is you're an incredibly motivated individual. But also the thing that comes through is you seem incredibly content. And I really admire that about you. In one of the themes that we talked about in this podcast, again, is the what Arthur Brooks in his book, from strength to strength talks about called the happiness portfolio. And he says that, you know, studies have shown that a person's happiness can depend somewhat on their genetics, somewhat on big life events, and also on their habits. And we can really only control the habits. And within that he talks about, there's four quadrants to your, to your habits, get to the happiness portfolio, and it's your faith, your family, your friendship, community, and then meaningful work. How are you able to keep those four things in imbalance? Or have you found a way? That that helps?

Matt Gilbert  26:50  
Yeah, I think it's, it's maturity, right? I wasn't always in the spot that you find me in today. There has been a lot of struggles that form my character, struggles, frankly, that some of them I wish I didn't have, rather have a lesser character, I guess. You know, but But you said faith, family, friendships and work endeavors. Right. And, and I would say, the first two are definitely in the proper order. You know, my faith, above all else is important to me. After that, is my family. And then probably third for me is, is work endeavors and business things. And then fourth would be other relationships. And most of those other relationships are either faith family, or work related. Because that's where I spend all my time. And so, you know, how do we keep those in balance? I don't, I don't think they've ever been in balanced, I think one always is screaming loud, I need your attention. And the others kind of have to allow you to give your attention there. And so your attention is always just kind of moving around. You know, as as you get older, three, my daughters are grown and, and I've got grandkids, and they're out with their own careers and things like that. And so they need less of me. You know, at least certain most of the times in their lives, they may have crisises, or something like that, where they call on me, and I have to drop everything and help them deal with but for the most part. You know, I think that faith component drives what happens in the other three quadrants. Its, its, you know, its integrity, its servanthood its giving back. Its wisdom, you know, and there's continual learning in there. One of the things that all businesses have all entities have all families have, is this thing that I call tribal knowledge. Right? It's not written down. It's not, you know, really well communicated, but everybody knows the rules. And, and so part of, you know, part of that is, my tribal knowledge hasn't always been but definitely is, at this time, driven by the faith. Right. And, and, and so everybody, like, I have a lot of friends who cuss like sailors, when they're around me, they don't cups. And it's and I recognize that they're trying to respect who I am and what my tribal rules are. When they're around me, and I appreciate that and it's their character. I love those guys, people. And I know that cuts like sailors and that's okay, I love them anyway, and I cuss occasionally I'm not perfect, but, but everybody knows As you know, that knows me very well at all that you change your language when you're around Matt. And that's just what I would call a tribal rule. So, again, I don't even know if I got anywhere near your question and answer

Joshua Klooz  30:14  
no. Absolutely. So side note, I don't know how singulars became the colloquialism as an infantry officer. I don't know whether to be offended by that, or just Anyway, whatever. But but agreed, but no. So a couple things, I think would, I'm really curious about, I plan on working, you know, to the day I die, right, like, I love what I do. But there, probably realistically speaking, will come a point where the market may not value what I have to give anymore. And so meaningful work for me will have to shift at some point in my life, right? Have you given any thought about that, to that, and what that looks like? Because I truly believe that, you know, it's just woven into the way our Creator made us. We want to feel needed, we want to feel like we're contributing? What does that look like for you?

Matt Gilbert  31:13  
Win? Yeah, I'm gonna take two steps back and then come forward. You're certainly the listeners don't know this. So the first company that that we the first real company, we had the environmental one that I told you about it earlier. And the last one that I was the CEO of both of those businesses, which sold to public companies, to other businesses that I was a founder, co founder of in the middle, were grown and sold to private equity buyers. And to make those businesses what they were we acquired or vendors and, you know, smaller companies and other geographies and things like that to grow those businesses and make them what they were. And so each of those four exits came with a noncompete. Right? Every time I bought a company that that seller was agreeing to a non compete. And so for me my whole career, and you're talking, those four business creations and exits came over a 29 year period. My whole career has been constantly changing, because of the rules placed on me by the buy and sell purchase agreements, I can get an environmental anymore, I've got to go do something else. So we started a construction company, and competing with construction anymore, we gotta go do something else. So we started a m&a advisory firm. And the whole reason we started this firm, seven or eight years ago was to, to kind of give back, you know, Brett, and I have this strong desire to be servants. We also have done something multiple times that most people only do once in their life. And we've, personally, the mistakes that were made in my four transactions, if, if I knew, then what I know now would probably put eight more fingers in my pocket. So I'm applying that wisdom to our clients and in the future, all this collective wisdom through those business experience. And then I gotta tell you, my family experiences. You know, the owners and founders and shareholders of businesses are our clients. And they have families. And they struggle with the same thing that I struggled with, you know, the business needs attention, so the family doesn't get it, the family needs attention. So the business doesn't get it for decades. We just relate to each other really well. And then and we become friends. And, you know, so the future for me has just kind of recently, maybe shown up, I've kind of recognized. And there are two companies who have asked me to mentor their management teams. And so I started doing that. And the results have been off the charts for both of them in different ways. Because they need different things. And it's been incredibly fulfilling to me. So I've done that a little bit in the nonprofit world. We've turned around some entities that including a church, including a medical nonprofit for children and things like that. So you know, being in that decision making loop and kind of visionary loop and then how do you build a stairway to reach that vision? As is where I spent my whole life. And I just feel like, you know, certain ones of those skills can can help other folks. And and I just love contributing But it's just it brings me a lot of satisfaction that all that toil that I went through for three decades, you know, is valuable to somebody for their next three decades. And maybe they can sidestep some of the issues that that we went through because of the mentoring or the advice. All right, that

Joshua Klooz  35:21  
there's tribal knowledge within you bridge, you were the bridge of that to that, that family or that business. And then within that tribe, it gets passed on. So maybe far longer than 30 years that they were really neat.

Matt Gilbert  35:38  
It's just super fulfilling to I think, number one, I have to be receptive to it. Because I see some of my peers and people I work with that are pretty closed off to two things. And I'm almost inviting it, I think, with my spirit that I want to help everybody, I want to be a servant, I want to I want to, you know, roll up my sleeves and, and participate. And I don't know what that'll get me. But it brings me a lot of personal satisfaction. And oh, by the way, usually it leads to a relationship somewhere else where you know, it, we could send an invoice or we could, you know, move into the next iteration of a deal. So, to me, it's it's something I wish I would have figured out long before. And, you know, been applying way back even in my 20s and 30s.

Joshua Klooz  36:37  
Absolutely. So I want to be respectful of your time, and I'm coming up on the end of my hour here. So there's a ton of things I want to ask though. When when you think about some people will call it your ethical will meaning and okay, I want to pass on all of my beliefs to my, to my kids into my grandkids, obviously, you're 53 Lord willing, you know, you've got, you know, 50 years ahead of you, because they're gonna figure out how to keep us alive way past our 100. But what's in that, you know, if you had to write down like, Hey, these are the things that I want my grandkids to live by? Or these are the things that have served me well? What would be in it today?

Matt Gilbert  37:21  
Yeah, that's such a wonderful question. I will, I will answer like this. On my birthday last year, I that been on me for five or six, seven years. And before I had grandkids, it was kind of to my daughters and their husbands. Right, because their husbands didn't, they came from another tribal culture, and they didn't really know my and, and so what are they going to become? And so that was known me for a long time. So last year, at my birthday, I finally said, you know, I'm gonna do something about this. And I decided to sit down and write for 30 to 40 minutes every day,

in four different quadrants, very close to the four quadrants that you just mentioned.

So every single day, for for over a year, I have written a journal entry to them that that hits on each one of those four topics. Just my thoughts of that, with them in mind. And as we've gotten grandkids, we have, we have four grandkids now. You know, it's it's a different group of people in mind as well. So the thoughts are kind of changing. And you can see that and my wife wants to turn it into a book that we give to them at Christmas or Valentine's Day or something one of these years, but there's there's literally about 375 entries in that book of my thoughts about them and what I wish we don't live together, you're not with me at work, you're not you're not in with me at church, we live in different communities. So you don't know me, and this is what I want you to know, or what I want to impart on you. They might never read it, it may never, I might die today, and nobody knows it's on my computer unless they watch this podcast or talk to my wife, and go grab it, but I think it's at some point, it's gonna be really cool to kind of turn that over to and maybe they put it in their coffee table or something and every now and then, it's got, you know, I'm all over the board here. Sorry.

Joshua Klooz  39:24  
No, no, this is perfect. You

Matt Gilbert  39:26  
know, when I it took me it took me 35 years or more to figure this out. And, and even at 54 years, I don't practice it. 100% But when you have a problem in your life, like a big problem, like something that's perplexing you and you can't sleep and you're not sure what to do and whatnot, we're always trying to figure it out ourselves or we're trying to turn to our friends or a family or a mentor, somebody who's been through that problem. Say hey, what can you give me some advice or whatever? The truth is, you can turn to the Bible and you can find the best advice there is on most top Eric's right there. And, and this is probably a terrible analogy. But at some point, I would love to see my kids and grandkids and others, turn to that coffee table book and go, Hey, you know, what my dad would have done? What would pop off have done? Let's see, I bet it's in here, because he wrote us a lot.

Joshua Klooz  40:21  
And I'm sure there's a glossary, make it a little bit easier.

Matt Gilbert  40:25  
Somebody else? Or something to pull it all together? But yeah, so it's, I think it's important and you reach a certain stage in life, you're probably not there in your 30s. But you reached a certain stage in your life where you start thinking about, you know, what was it all about, you know, was I just here to pay the bills for us to, you know, eat out and have Christmas? And, you know, go on vacations? Or, or was there something bigger? And a lot of people want to leave stuff, you know, and we have stuff, we've accumulated a lot of stuff. But I don't, I don't think it's about the stuff, I think it's about the principles behind what it took to accumulate, assemble, manage, and enjoy the stuff in such a way that you are honorable, and, you know, and that it brought value to the world.

Joshua Klooz  41:22  
Yeah, I, at risk of going a little bit too deep on and theologically, but I think we were, we were given the Dominion mandate, right? From from day one. And not everybody knows that. And the stuff can have dominion over us, or we can have dominion over it. To your point, and in the teaching of having dominion over this stuff, is how we gain meaning in many of those relationships is so much fun. You know, I'm nowhere near where you're at right now with with stages of life. But you know, I have four kids on my own and, you know, ages nine to 18 months. And that's it, like it's a ton of fun. But I probably woefully describe what I'm trying to describe to you to them, and they roll their eyes at this point, they are just like, Okay, let's get on to something else. But eventually it will stick

Matt Gilbert  42:22  
lesson at those ages, all of those ages, I think, because it's it will splinter off into so many fantastic conversations is if you can begin teaching them probably through their own little accounts, how compounding works. So it's compound interest. It's compounding relationships, it's compounding, you know, your influence, it's compounding everything. Well, the easiest way to do that with kids is with a little, you know, a little town of some sort where they can watch compound interest works. And see what happens when they pull from that account. And the compounding reverses or slows. And when they invest in that account, the compounding accelerates. And then you can do that, in all four of those quadrants. You mentioned with your faith with your family, with your friends, and with your business that applies. You know, so Well, I think, the formative years, that that's something that has really served my kids well as they, they understand a lot of things, having grown up in this house, the way we just we did life unconventionally, when they were growing up, and so to their in laws, and to their employers and to their friends. You know, they're having, especially when you get to college for the first time you're out of your parents house, and you look around while everybody else is raised and live. And you go, Wow. You have to ask yourself, why are we different? Do I like that we're different? Do I want to go that way? And conform? You know, and so those were a lot of really cool conversations with my kids, as they entered those college years and early, early years of being married, their spouse asking those questions. And a lot of it, I it took me years to figure this out, but it kind of went back to that principle of compounding in all aspects of your life. And so maybe just give that some thought give

Joshua Klooz  44:31  
absolute absolutely no, I love the idea of compounding because it is totally applies. Like we assume that can only happen in the world of finance, but it happens everywhere. Everywhere.

Matt Gilbert  44:44  
And it can spiral out of control in a negative way too. And it has to be managed.

Joshua Klooz  44:50  
Absolutely. Matt, thank you so much for your time today. If listeners want to get in touch with you in to buy your future book I'm just kidding. But no, if there's a

Matt Gilbert  45:03  
workbook to finish,

Joshua Klooz  45:09  
how would our listeners get in touch with you? If they wanted if they had a further question?

Matt Gilbert  45:14  
The best way is to email me, I assume you'll put the email in the show notes or something, but but it is, um, Gilbert at Gap dash advisors.com. That's portal advisors. Excellent, easy, easy, I respond to my emails quickly. Call me. I don't know if you want me to put my phone number out there. But that's fine text and phone. And look, I I'm at a point in my life where I just love to serve. And so I love to, I love to have opportunities to serve, I have to be pretty judicious in the ones that I accept. But oftentimes, opportunities are brought to me that I can't accept. And I know somebody who's way better than me, and would love to help with that. And so being a facilitator of those things is really important. So if anybody wants to talk, I just encourage a call, you can catch me on LinkedIn. I don't check out as often, but when I do, you know, I usually just throw out my email address and say, or my phone number, and say, let's move to another medium. But yeah, please reach out because I'm, I'm all about helping people. Take it to the next level.

Joshua Klooz  46:26  
Thank you so much, Matt, for your time. It's been

Matt Gilbert  46:30  
great, Josh. Thank you.

Joshua Klooz  46:33  
Thank you again for joining us for this week's conversation. We trust that your time has left you both enriched and inspired to better invest your own intangible balance sheet. As always, we wish you and your family continued truth, beauty and goodness on the road ahead. The opinions voiced in the wisdom and wealth podcast are Joshua Klooz For general information purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. investing involves risk including possible loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. Guests are not affiliated with Carson Wealth Management LLC. To determine what may be appropriate for you. Please consult with your attorney, accountant, financial or tax advisor prior to investing. Investment Advisory services are offered through CWM LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. Alright, dress locally a 7080 US landing Boulevard Suite five Saturday for Woodlands, Texas 77380

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