You Can't Afford Me
You Can't Afford Me
Conquering Change: Matt Dira's Transformation from Golf Pro to Peak Performance Coach
Embarking on a professional transformation often means facing our fears head-on, a journey Matt Dira knows all too well. From the lush greens of the golf course to the boardrooms of business mastery, Matt joins us to unravel the narrative of his evolution into a peak performance coach. He shares candid tales of leveraging the social fabric of golf to forge connections that would later serve as cornerstones in his entrepreneurial pursuits, offering a masterclass in navigating the transitions from financial coaching to insurance with the finesse of a well-aimed putt.
Harnessing the power of words often spells the difference between stagnation and success. This episode weaves through the stories of spoken aspirations that have materialized into tangible achievements, with a nod to the mentors who urge us on. Insights into how a resilient mindset can be cultivated, likening our thought processes to a vessel that needs constant cleansing, set the stage for a deeper understanding of the influence that our digital diets have on our mental state. These narratives serve as a potent reminder that our daily media intake can significantly shape our outlook, just as nutrients feed our bodies.
Finally, we take a heartening look at how setting goals and recognizing daily triumphs can generate momentum, even when the odds seem stacked against us. Matt Dyer provides practical advice on engaging audiences through meaningful content and the vital role that accountability plays in reaching our aspirations. He also introduces the Legacy Vending Machines Entrepreneur Program, highlighting how entrepreneurship can blend profit with purpose, leaving a lasting impact on the community. Join us for this inspiring episode filled with actionable wisdom for anyone looking to elevate their personal and professional life.
www.themrpreneur.com
Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Are one-on-one coaching Taylor's strategies to your unique business goals. Dive into interactive workshops fostering skills essential for success. Looking for an inspirational speaker for your next event? Look, mr Pernumer, to elevate your gathering. Visit wwwdmrpnurcom to learn more and embark on your path to entrepreneurial success. Mr Pernumer, empowering your entrepreneurial spirit.
Sam:Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the you Can't Afford Me podcast. Now, today, guys, we're going to talk about greatness, we're going to talk about success, we're going to talk about leveling your life up. And I got the guy here today. I was actually introduced to this gentleman by my best friend, javon Coker Shout out, javon Coker and we started connecting online. I think we initially started talking about a project that he had, but after digging into his stuff, you know it was evident we need to have this guy on the podcast. So we got Matt. Give me your last name again, I will screw it up Daira, matt. Daira is in the studio today. How are you doing today, buddy? I'm good man. Thanks for having me. Absolutely, man. So first, give everybody an overview of who you are and what you do.
Matt:Yeah, matt Daira, I'm from here, from Richmond, virginia, born and raised just outside of Pittsburgh.
Sam:Oh yeah, you're a Steels fan.
Matt:Yeah, man, yeah. Somebody just texted me this morning about the Jesse James catch.
Sam:Do you remember that? Oh my God, yeah, yeah. So they stopped right at the one yard line yeah, the whole complete the catch thing.
Matt:So apparently there's a new rule. I think they're calling it the Jesse James rule.
Sam:Good they should, because they got the Tom Brady rule. They do, they do.
Matt:So I think Steels fans are still a little bitter about that Not little.
Sam:They are massively bitter about that, yeah.
Matt:So yeah, born and raised up there, folks still live up there. I came down I can't, but I've been here longer than I've been, longer than I've been there, gotcha. So I got here 010101. So this is home now. I met my wife here. We still live here with our kids and what I do for a living is, I mean, I do quite a few things, but we met because I'm through Javon. Javon and I knew each other through the insurance business. That is a big part of what I do. I help people with disability and life insurance. I do financial coaching and I do what I call now, as I'm a peak performance coach for high performers Nice, and you know it turns out to be mindset and health and wealth.
Matt:That's a lot of what we talk about with our clients.
Sam:Love it, love it. So let's go back before you became an entrepreneur. You were just a young lad and, around the Pittsburgh area, how are you doing before you kind of set out and built your own brand?
Matt:Well, I moved to Richmond as a golf professional.
Sam:Oh, hold on now.
Matt:I knew, you didn't know that. Now, let's be clear Not a playing profession, not a playing professional, but I was. I mean, it's just you check a box, that's what it? Is, and I accepted money to teach, okay. So I loved golf, loved it.
Sam:I said in the past tense, we still love golf Still love golf.
Matt:I don't play as much anymore. If no member at a club, I just don't. We don't use it.
Sam:We got to change that man. No doubt about it. No doubt about it.
Matt:So connected in the golf community. I came here to Richmond to work at a club. That's a club professional and then I traveled back and forth between here and Florida for a few years doing I mean I went to a club in South Florida. I had really lucky. I had some of the best jobs in the country, sounds like it yeah. And I met some people that frankly I had no business meeting and a lot of good stories.
Sam:Did you fix Charles Barkley swing? Was that your? No, no, it was not my doing.
Matt:It was not my. I don't want to put. I don't want to put that out there. But I met some really cool people that I didn't have any business meeting.
Sam:Yep.
Matt:Just some and what it? What it exposed me to was extreme wealth, funding, extreme financial wealth. And then you've realized you get to know them personally. And then then you realize, like what they do, yep, and you're like holy cow, like I don't know that guy, like that, when most of the world would know these people as for what they do. I just knew them. They're just a member of the club Yep.
Sam:So let's, let's park right there at golf for a second, because the main reason I picked up golf I had I was at a town hall meeting for Petersburg. I invest a lot of, I buy property in Petersburg area and we were at a town hall meeting for Petersburg. Two thing it was that meeting and then something after that. So in that meeting one of the guys on the panel stopped and said I want to let you guys know right now if you're not golfing and you're in business for yourself, you're leaving a ton of money on the table. That's true. So I was like okay, I've heard this before, but now this isn't a little closer to home.
Sam:The following week I I changed some stuff up, one of the business models with one of my other companies and I reached out to my mentor and I was like hey, man, I know you're busy, I got to get some time with you in the next week because I'm making some major changes and I got to run this stuff by you. He immediately hits me back and says yeah, man, for sure I had. I was actually going to be golfing with somebody tomorrow. He had to pull out. But you know, if you golf, you got me for four and a half hours, like let me know, and I was like uh, like I'm a golf man.
Sam:He was just like all right?
Matt:well, you know, I'll see you whenever.
Sam:So I was at that moment. I was like, okay, I can't, the universe is talking to me at this point I need to get serious about golf. And just before I even set out on the course for the first time and I just took pictures like as I got. You know, you got to get the swag right. You get an outfit and everything together, getting some of the gear, and I'm just taking pictures and putting that stuff on social media. I'm starting to get contracts just by talking about golf on social media before I even started playing. So, delvis, into that world, like what is it that you've seen? Like, obviously, like you're saying, like you're meeting people that are extremely successful that you don't know them outside of the golf world, uh, in those endeavors. But talk to us about the conversations that you saw happening on the golf courses.
Matt:I mean back then. Uh, I mean this was back in like oh one and oh two, and you get to know people. This is like the tiger hype too. For sure, yeah, for sure, and golf seemed at a pretty high peak at that point too. But the but, it was just relationships, and I noticed like I would get close with these, with with the members, um, so I mean, a lot of them are still friends today.
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:So I will get close to these people and then, and then you, and then you realize what they do for a living, like, oh my gosh, like there's so much more here to just this dude who loves golf. Yep, um, I play with them. And then when I left the, the, the golf business, guess who hired me? It's a member. So I got introduced to, uh, basically the entrepreneurial world because of those connections. Otherwise I wouldn't have even thought of it Wow. So that's how it'll happen for me.
Sam:So how did you make that transition from you know being in the golf space to now helping people track their journey to success?
Matt:Like how did you make that transition Really slowly?
Sam:And what? Let me start with this what made you want to get into that space?
Matt:Well, I knew, uh, go back to when I was traveling back and forth between Richmond and West Palm Beach, florida, like I would pack everything I owned in my Mazda millennia and drive south in in, uh, october and I would drive North and April with everything I owned. Um, and I come from pretty traditional background. I knew I wanted a family. I didn't have one at the time but I knew I wanted it and work in the amount that I was working and in two different places. It's not ideal. Not ideal for what, the way I saw my life going, even though that wasn't an option then. Um, so you know, I just kind of put it out in the world Like I don't, I don't know that I want to do this when I'm 40. And I'm 25 at the time. So, you know, you put it out there in the world be ready for what, what what happens.
Matt:And the guy who I was working for at the time, who still is a really good friend and a mentor. Once I put it out in the world he didn't hesitate to get me out of there. And at first I was like man, that's harsh. He's like, well, if you don't want to be here, let's get you where you want to be. So that kind of started me down the road of all right, what do I want to do? And then once a few members heard that you know, there there were some other things coming, my like I was going to do something else. Then I had a bunch of things to do, a bunch of opportunities, and then it was just deciding what opportunity you want to take. And for me I just went down. I went down the financial path.
Sam:So you, you touched on something. I'm actually about to do a solo episode just on this topic. Um, you got to hit on the power of the spoken word and I fully believe a lot of people won't put things out into the ether, out into the universe, because they're afraid.
Sam:I think a lot of people are actually afraid that what they want may actually come true, because they've realized the amount of work that it's going to take to get them in that position. Um, a lot of people may see it as as corny or goofy or things like that, but everything that I've accomplished in my life that's reached some level of stature all started with power of the spoken word. Um, so kind of speak on that for us, like, have you seen that evident in your life? And for those who were skeptical and and you know, they say like, oh, I don't believe in that stuff. What would you say to that person?
Matt:Yeah, I think the reason people are afraid is what you said how, how, the amount of work, but who they have to become in order to get what they want is the scary part. It's that journey, like it's really easy to see the successful person in the field that you want.
Sam:Yeah, I want the house.
Matt:I want that, I want to be on the stage, I want that money I want. But you don't see what the guy or girl had to do to get there and it's brutal and it's relentless. The disappointment and the negativity that can get into your mind when you're trying to do what we're trying to do. Okay, if you're not really really strong mentally, it will overwhelm you.
Sam:Yeah, this isn't for the faint of heart.
Matt:No, it's not. It is not. So I often use the the analogy of a muddy cup. So if you got a glass of water, it's filled with like muddy water.
Sam:Yep.
Matt:You, that's, that's your brain, right. And if you, if, if you don't fill it continuously with clean, crisp water, it will remain muddy. But if you keep pouring really good, clean water into this glass and just run it and run it and run it, eventually that that muddy glass will eventually be clean, pure water. But you got to keep pouring into it. So I'm really aware of what I put into my brain, not to say that some mud doesn't get in there from time to time, like I'm a human being, and that happens. But I'm really aware of what, what I'm getting now for us in for in 2024.
Sam:Mm-hmm.
Matt:It comes from social media. Oh and the people that were around. But we're on social media a lot, yep, and if you're not really careful, the mud's gonna get in there. I was telling somebody this morning if you scroll through my social media, it's nothing but motivation, business Fitness.
Sam:Yes, golf, some sneakers. This is golf, it's some sneakers, for sure.
Matt:But it's all things that fill my cup with clean water. Absolutely there was.
Sam:There was something I saw Last night got this quote I'm gonna pull up while you're talking.
Matt:There was something I saw last night that I didn't like. It was this I don't even know how I started following this page, but and then last night it hit me like this is negative Yep, I need to get this negative out of my brain. And I and in this morning I hit on follow Yep because it was just I don't know how it got there, I but it got there.
Sam:It was somebody that I Just recently started following on Facebook and I'm very strategic about the people that I add his friends on social media and From this ladies profile it seemed like she was in the space where I'm like, okay, this is interesting, this may potentially be a client. Later down the road I may hire her, or something like that. And then I start. We connected, became friends and then for the next two days like I'm seeing this crap come from a page and I'm like I want nothing to do with this.
Sam:So I immediately unfriended her. But to this point, what you just said I literally just saw this this morning. I had to get screenshot of it. Your diet isn't just what you eat, but also what you watch, read, who you follow and who you spend time with.
Sam:That's a powerful statement it is yeah but a lot of people don't have the discipline to say you know what, I don't need to see this crap on my news feed anymore. I'm gonna unfollow this person. I even if it's somebody that you personally know like I've had people that I considered very close friends at some point in my life and they were just whining and complaining and bitching every single time I went on social media.
Sam:I'm like I don't. I don't need this energy if you're not here to add to my cup and you're pulling away from it. Yeah, I got no time for you.
Matt:I tell you another thing too. Like the people in our lives Mm-hmm, sometimes they're muddy water oh, absolutely, and it's really really hard. If the, if the people you talk to the most are giving you muddy water, you better be that clean water, yep, and you better pour on to them. Otherwise, now we're just pouring muddy water on muddy water and we're all in trouble.
Sam:But there's only so much time you, as the clean water, can spend in that circle. Because eventually it's like the comparison of you know, if I have a dead battery in my car, or somebody comes up to me, I'm in the parking lot and they're like my battery's dead and I give them a jump and ten other people see that I'm able to give them a jump and just a line starts for me. Then I've jumped in people's car. When it's time to start my car up and leave my car, is the batteries drained on on my car. Yeah, so it's like if you're constantly giving that out all the time and no one's feeding into you or you're not allowing those things into your life, that's gonna feed and build you up. There's all. There's only so much you can do. Yeah, I saw that. If your friends, if the people in your circle aren't uplifting you, you don't have a circle, you have a cage.
Matt:Oh, Wow, you heard the story about. I think it's crabs or lobsters.
Sam:Yeah, you heard this story.
Matt:Abs pulling down in a bucket yeah yeah, yeah, for for the people listening who haven't heard this story, you put crabs in a bucket and, very, leave. There's gonna be one who tries to get out Yep, and then the other crabs will see him trying to get out of the bucket and they will pull him back down Yep. If the crab persists and continues to go out, they will kill him. So be very careful who you got around you, because sometimes these crabs now they don't. They don't know, they think they're saving him.
Sam:Yep.
Matt:They think they're doing this crab good by pulling him back down with with them. Like the herd mentality Yep Meanwhile now.
Sam:They're all boiling in a pot.
Matt:Sometimes you just got to have a bay on you. Yeah, you got to get out of the bucket.
Sam:Yeah, so talk, talk to us about If someone's let's, let's take a night, let's create an avatar, or somebody. Listen to this. Let's say somebody's been working a job that they cannot stand for the last five years. They've made the decision to go out on their own, whether that's starting up their own brand, their own business, whatever it is and they've been on this journey for the last six months. What would be some of the first key pieces of advice you would give to someone who's on that success track?
Matt:Well, it's hard for me to give advice until I know what you want. Yeah, and I. I think it's hard, for I think a lot of people Don't really know what they want. They just know they want something different facts. Like you, mentioned this avatar who was working at a job he didn't like. With that, they know what they don't want? Yeah, but do they know what they want? So a lot, of, a lot of the conversations I have with people are well, let's figure out what you want to do.
Matt:Yeah what do you like? Let's design it instead of just falling into it.
Sam:So let's do that. How do you typically peel those layers back for someone? Because One of one of my favorite youtubers got in, casey Neistat. I love him because he's in my industry, like with marketing and filming and things like that, but very motivational guy. He said how he figured out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life is that he worked crappy jobs and Every moment at that job he's just thinking about what he would be doing if he wasn't stuck at that dead-end job.
Sam:So for a lot of people and it's taken me years to figure out like you know, I'm a serial entrepreneur. I won't open probably 10 different businesses at this point. At some point I realized it wasn't that I was passionate about X business or Y business, I'm just passionate about business development in general. I love being able to start something from concept and take it to six, seven figures and see this thing grow. So for someone who doesn't know what they want to do, what are some exercises or things that you walk through with them to kind of help them figure that out?
Matt:Goal writing, goal writing, I think, just getting things down on paper, not in your head, and and I would go even further it has to be you have to physically write it. Absolutely don't type it, yep, uh, even even typing in your notes, don't do it.
Sam:Just write it right. I mean that happens when you physically put pinned the paper.
Matt:Yeah, and then. So that's part of the exercise I take everybody through it's right down your goals. I've written my goals on twice a day, every day, since September of 2017. Wow, and I'll go back and look at that stuff, the stuff that I want to accomplish then. And I did all that and then. But now it makes me think Well, how was I thinking so small? Yep, and it's, and it continues. The stuff I write now I promise you in five years or ten years, and then a look I'm like well, how was I thinking?
Matt:so small, even though I'm consciously thinking let's think bigger.
Sam:Yep, if your goals don't scare you, they're not big enough.
Matt:No doubt, yep, yeah. And then I have some people who say, well, I don't know what I want to do, I don't know what my goals are. I say, they'll write that down. I want to figure out what my goals are. Yeah, that's a goal. And I just think, if you continue to write Um daily, just twice a day, first thing in the morning before you go to bed, if you write those things down to whatever's in your head, eventually some things going to pop out on there. They're like oh, yeah, that's that feels right. And you're going to write some things down, you may in that same thing that you think feels right. In a month it may disappear, you may stop writing it down. Well, it really wasn't that important to me.
Sam:Yep.
Matt:So I think that's the really good way to get into inside your own self To decide what you really want to do.
Sam:I've said this a couple times on this podcast where, years before I met my wife, a mentor had encouraged me to write out the characteristics of my ideal mate, and my wife hit 99% of that Well before I met her. But the biggest thing that came from writing that list was it showed me the type of person I needed to be to attract that type of individual into my life. So like it kills me when someone's like, oh, I want somebody in good shape and they don't smoke, and things like this, well, meanwhile you're 200 pounds overweight and you smoke two packs of cigarette, you're you're not going to attract that person into your life no chance of the things that you're doing.
Matt:I believe that I've heard that before. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't do that. Yeah, I got really lucky.
Sam:I was gonna say you got lucky, I got really lucky.
Matt:But yeah, I totally believe that and we were talking about it earlier Like, for you to to reach your goals, you're gonna have to become somebody who you're not now, absolutely. So how do you like, how do you become that? How do you become that person? And, and for me and for many others, it it comes down to tracking. Once you figure out what you want to do, what are the things that that person would do every day To to get there, and then you start tracking that stuff, and when you start tracking, your level of awareness goes up. Yeah, big believer in tracking, I mean, dude, I won't go back to college. We tracked our workouts in college, yep, and we, we did this. This is old school, but we did this program in college called bigger, faster, stronger, and every time you went in the gym you broke a personal record, every single time. So, um, so now, when I when I track, I mean I'll track here, I track my money. I still track my workouts, I track, I track. It. Was I patient with my kids today?
Sam:Yeah like.
Matt:Those are things I write down every day and, man, it's amazing what you'll do to get that check mark.
Sam:Yeah, yeah, man, that's powerful, because I haven't thought about that.
Matt:And then the compound effects are twerking. So if you, if you, just if you say I'm going to be patient with my kids today and they set you off a little bit, that checkmark is looming, like I really want that checkmark. And you I'm not perfect, don't know what I'm not saying, like I'm still a human being, but because I'm aware of it, I have a better chance of succeeding that day. And then, when you start stacking these wins, you're, you're a stealer fan. You heard Mike Tom and talk about stacking wins.
Sam:Yes, sir.
Matt:That's what I'm talking about. You start stacking wind Now. Now you're uh, you're way closer to getting what you want, and you become a different person based on what you do every day.
Sam:Yeah, and your habits and it's getting. It's that 1% every single day, like 1%, and I'm sure you've heard the metaphor of like a penny doubled every day over the course of like 30 days, Like if someone just took you, you would think like, oh, a penny is not only going to be so much. I think it ends up being like four million, Like some crazy number.
Sam:Um, but it's those 1% wins Like that makes me think of. Unfortunately, I didn't, um, I didn't cherish Kobe Bryant enough when he was here with us on this earth Cause I'm a big Sacramento Kings fan and he just knocked us out of the playoffs, like in our prime. I mean, we had Vladi D va, chris Weber, jason William, like we had the squad, mike Bibi, and Kobe just knocked us out every year in the playoffs. But hearing that mom of mentality and like his focus was just have you seen the? Uh, it's a special on Netflix? It wasn't. You know, we had the dream team for the Olympics and the redeemed team.
Matt:I saw that I did.
Sam:And dude anybody who's listening to this if you haven't watched that, go watch that tonight. But the fact that Kobe was able to change the dynamic of that entire team, where I'll never forget this portion of the stories. When these guys you know at this point they're in Germany or something like that they're I mean mostly, he's got like 18, 19, 20, they're young professionals, um, and they're going out in their party and they're not coming back to the hotel till like 4am. Who's on the? Who's on the elevator? When they come back, kobe, he's in full sweats, got his gym bag and everything. They're looking at him like probably where you finna go, he's like going to gym.
Sam:They're like oh, we just came back from partying like going up, going up to sleep, and they're looking at each other like man Kobe's maniac. And then, slowly but surely, all those players start to buy in and convert. And it was just Kobe originally going to the gym at four or five.
Sam:AM. But then the average LeBron started doing it, D Wade started doing it, Like all these other players, started buying in and cause, ultimately, for a long time, like the U? S was laughing stock for the men's basketball in the Olympics and that was that redeem team that brought it back around. And it was because of that mentality that Kobe brought was just getting 1% better every single day. If you smoke, focus on the small things, whether it's, you know, with your, with your physical health. You know, my original goal was man, just get your ass in the gym for 30 minutes a day, three days a week. When it came to education, man, just read for 15 minutes a day on the commute to work, just listen to a podcast instead of Drake. And it's like when you make those small incremental changes, you look back a year from now. Your life's completely different.
Matt:Totally yeah, kobe changed the culture. Yeah, but I don't think, I don't think we need to be like Kobe, no no, I don't think anybody can yeah. Cause, the, the level of work and and the commitment, the commitment, the, the intensity. Like most people, including me, I'm not up for it man. I'm not like I'm exhausted. If I'm exhausted at the end of the day and I don't work as hard as Kobe did, like it's not in me.
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:Um. So I think people get fooled a lot Like, oh, I need to, I need to grind all day, I gotta, I gotta get up at that four and go to the gym and ice bath and sauna. And no, you don't, no, you don't, you don't have to do that, especially somebody who is doing nothing. Now, if you tell them you got to get up at four, 30, you got to go to the gym for an hour, you got to meditate, you got to uh, you got to write your goals down. You got to sauna, you got to ice bath.
Sam:That'll last four days.
Matt:You know they're not going to do it. Yeah, Uh. So just doing something, just trying to be consistent, Cause if you can do something every single day and then give yourself some space too to screw up, because we're human beings, absolutely. If you could do something, then you're going to start building some confidence.
Sam:Yeah.
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Matt:And then what you can accomplish becomes higher, because you got more confidence in yourself.
Sam:So where, where did that confidence come from for you, for?
Matt:you. Uh, I think just consistency. People think I'm really, really disciplined. I hear that a lot. I wish I was disciplined as you. It's just I what. It didn't start like this and it becomes a habit. It became a habit yeah. Uh, so I think that I mean it's now. If you take somebody who's doing nothing, say physically right now they're not working out at all and they come with me for a day Like they're just going to be overwhelmed, it's just too, it's too much.
Sam:Yep.
Matt:But then, on the other side of that coin, I could go with Kobe and I won't make it. Oh yeah, I won't make it. No, so there's, there's levels to this and there's levels to everything. I just want people to start and do something small and do something consistently. That way you start gaining confidence.
Sam:When you hear the word success, what does what does that mean to you?
Matt:I'll tell you what it doesn't mean Money, I think. For a long time I chased money.
Sam:Yep.
Matt:Thinking that was it Money and kind of recognition. And then once you get that you realize this is not it, this is not it, man. So now don't get me wrong Money does bring happiness.
Matt:Let's be clear, don't get me wrong. I like money and I like nice things and it's great. But once you get it you realize that's not the thing that I was chasing. So for me it's really abundance, like I wanted abundance of love, I wanted abundance of laughter, I wanted abundance of money, I wanted abundance of health, I wanted abundance of relationships. That's what it means to me. Yeah, yeah, cause if you are rich financially but you're out of shape and you can't move around the way you want to move around, you're broke.
Matt:If you are rich financially and you don't have anybody to share it with, you are broke. So what I take myself through about every 90 days and what I help clients with is something I created called wealth mapping. And so I created like a wheel, and there's eight spokes to this wheel and I get through questions, I get them the rate every part of their life, these eight parts of life that I think are really, really important. Finance is one of those. And so then at the end we connect the dots on this wheel and it's eye opening, because a lot of times there's a big dent in the wheel, okay. And then the way I say it is like look, this is your wheel. If you're going down the road of life on that wheel, it's going to be really bumpy, okay. So the idea is to get the wheel round, and when the wheel is round, life's a lot better, and that that's wealth. That is wealth to me. Now here's the here's the other thing If the wheel is round but small, you'll get there smoothly, but not fast.
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:Okay. So I want to get there smooth and fast, okay, and then I can learn a little bit more about the person. If there's 10 out of 10 on that wheel the whole way around, then we're not thinking big enough.
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:I find the people who are really succeeding in an area of life they don't give themselves 10s.
Sam:Yeah, Because you never. You never wanted to be a completely smooth ride Like we always want to be.
Sam:That's another reason why I picked up golf is because, like not to pat myself on the back too hard, but like let's take my media firm, for instance you got to a point where I'm like you know, I know what I'm doing here. Like if a client comes to me, I know exactly what type of content needs to be created. I know how to get them results. I need something else to challenge me and it was golf. Like I see, like coming in as a complete rookie, having no idea having to even hold a golf club and learning the terminology and all these different things like the golf course etiquette like there's just so much for you to learn. I love the idea of coming in completely green and being able to take it to the next level.
Sam:Same thing with, like real estate. When I got involved in real estate investing, you know I've heard stuff here and there, but like I wasn't an investor, I didn't know the ins and outs of that. So, like I love just coming in and like being able to challenge myself and say you know, how is it that we can get to the next level. And it wasn't until I started thinking like that where I truly realized like we're happy in this lives that it's not in the final destination to send the journey, and I would hear people say that all the time, like man, cherish the journey. It's not in the destination. I'm like that's a bunch of bull Like no.
Sam:I'm trying to get here. I know I'll be happier once I achieve these things, but once you really start to break it down and realize the things that are coming together to turn you into the person that you've always strived to be, there's joy in that process.
Matt:Yes, the challenges in life when you're in the middle of it seem overwhelming oh yeah, and to use a golf analogy, when I've played my best golf, when I hit a bad shot, I look forward to the challenges that that next one brings me. When I played my worst golf, I hit a bad shot and I focus on the bad shot. And what do you do?
Sam:You hit another bad one.
Matt:It's just like life, life likes the same way, so I'm going to stage my life now where my kids are 14 and 11.
Sam:I'm trying to get there, man. I'm at almost four and almost three, don't rush it.
Matt:So recently, like Facebook will pop up memories right, and I'm seeing my children much younger and it seemed like a really simple time. Yep, okay, but if I transport myself back to my thoughts at that moment, it seemed really complex. Yeah, now it seems really simple.
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:So I don't want to, I don't want to rush it, but I think things just are different and the good old days are always going to be the old days. Yep, so, if you can. And then, when my kids are like 30 and 40, what are the good old days going to be? The challenges that I'm going through right now? Something will pop up on Facebook, if it still exists.
Sam:Yep.
Matt:And I'm going to look at that picture like man. That's awesome, Yep. But if you ask me today, it's hard. Yeah, it's hard. There's challenges and it's overwhelming and it can be if you let it get you. So it's really about perspective.
Sam:And as entrepreneurs like we I'm, I'm probably this has probably been one of the biggest things for me to overcome is like I'll always feel like I'm behind, like I didn't become an entrepreneur until I was 30 years old and you know, you see stuff with some kids 22 years old and exploded. Now his company's selling for $100 million and it's like man, if I had just gotten the information five years earlier, like where would I be today? And that's a bad way of thinking. Because bringing up Javon again I hope Javon's listening to this episode because you're getting a lot of shout outs. Man, he stopped me from time to time and been like bruh, do you realize what you put together?
Sam:There was a point in your life, dude, you were about to sleep in the back of your car. Since then, you've owned and built two brand new homes. You met the love of your life, you got two beautiful kids. You own a flourishing business. You have several other companies, your credit score is where it needs to be, you own investment property. You have staff working for you. Like, dude, you've won. You have won. Like, I know there is much more that you want to accomplish, but you need to stop and relish in this moment. So I think last time he and I had that conversation, I literally erased everything on my whiteboard and I went back from the start of my journey as an entrepreneur in 2014 to where I am today in 2024. And when you really map that out and look at that transition, you're like holy crap, I'm living the life today that I dreamed about 10 years ago.
Matt:Right. And now your dream is further yeah. So a couple of things about that. I think, if we write down our successes every day, even if it's a terrible day, you start writing down the things that you accomplished and think, wow, we're really. Really wasn't that bad. Yep, even in the midst of God man, that was. It couldn't have gone worse. Yeah, something went right, because there are going to be those moments. Yeah, I happen to be in a season where things aren't going great, like there's some stuff happening, so I make it a point like every day we're going to what went well today, yep, well, it worked out.
Sam:Yep, and that's just a season. We know what the dips is just like. With stock market or whatever, there's always dips, but that dip can be corrected.
Matt:Yeah, and then what you're talking about? You're living the life that you dreamed of from five or six years ago.
Sam:Yep.
Matt:Okay. So I have an analogy here. Picture yourself on a kayak or a rowboat in the ocean, okay, and your goal is to get to that horizon.
Sam:Yep.
Matt:You're going to paddle late, crazy and not going to catch it. No, no, because, because what, as far as you could see five years ago, is where you are now. But now you can see further, but the horizon hasn't changed. Yeah, so you keep paddling, okay, and the people who are the most satisfied and happiest are the people who, yeah, they're paddling late, crazy, but every now and then they turn around and look and see how far they came.
Sam:I was just about to say that.
Matt:Yeah, and if you don't all you do like man, I should be further Yep.
Sam:But I mean you turn around and realize how far you've truly come. You're never going to catch it, yeah.
Matt:You can't catch it.
Sam:That's awesome. I like that let's. Let's transition because I want to talk about the marketing component in your social media presence. So one you do something that I find very interesting, that I've seen work for a lot of influencers on social media you give away something free. You have a free ebook that if people so what do people have to do on social media to get your free ebook?
Matt:Text the number of map Mm. Hmm, there are. Text the word map to a number. It's also on my website.
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:You could just give. You can give us your email and we'll you can download it for free.
Sam:So talk to us about the benefits of that. What has that done for your brand? By giving something out for free.
Matt:Well, I think people, people want information. Mm hmm, so we give information, but that start to dialogue. Yeah, like, yeah, we're going to get you the information, but ultimately I want to have a conversation. Mm, hmm, like, all right, how'd you find me? Thank you for finding me, how'd you find it?
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:And what is it that you're looking for in this book? Like what drew you to the book, what are you going through right now? Mm, hmm, and like what we were talking about earlier, it's not information they're looking for.
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:They think they are, but what they want is somebody to keep them accountable.
Sam:Mm, hmm.
Matt:Because the information is all there. We all have the information. Yeah, you, I use fitness a lot because I think we all kind of understand, because we know what we should do. Yeah, we shouldn't eat the French fries, don't eat fast food, and exercise, move your body. Move your body. It's pretty simple and that's it, thank you. How many people aren't shaped? No, no, it's just not. Recently, I heard, I heard I don't know the numbers, but the it is statistically more likely for you to be a millionaire than to have abs.
Sam:Yep, I saw that. It's insane.
Matt:Yep and to have both is your anomaly. It's less than 1%.
Sam:Yeah, it's less than 10% of the population and maybe even smaller than that. That has six pack.
Matt:Yeah so it's information and discipline Like we all have, like we have the information. Yeah, we know how to do it.
Sam:See, the problem is most people were. We're still seeing out information, hoping that there's a shortcut mixed in there, it's just not there, man. There's nothing in life that you're ultimately going to want for long term. That's going to be accomplished through a shortcut.
Matt:No, there's just no such thing. I'm guilty of it. Yeah, I'm guilty of it. Yeah, I'm guilty of it. Oh, hey, look, this is a return that sounds too good to be true. Yep, I'm gonna do it anyway. Yep.
Sam:That's how people get locked in the time shares and stuff like that, yeah.
Matt:Yeah, so you get burnt. I believe you got to have some core principles in your life, whether they're financial or otherwise. You got to have an. In every problem that I've had in my life I've gotten away from those core principles Financial or you know, I'll do another cheat meal, it's no big deal, I'll do it twice this week instead of once, and it's just so easy to get out of routine and out of rhythm. Absolutely, and I do not have an addictive personality, but I have routines and it's real easy for me to fall in or out. When things are going good, the routines are great, yeah, but you can get in bad routines too. Not all routines are good.
Matt:Oh yeah, so I just got to be super aware of what you're doing. Is it getting you better? Is that really what you want?
Sam:Yeah, and it's once you've identified those things, like typically for my team here we'll do like a quarterly goal.
Sam:And like, I think this next quarter, if our, if our team hits it, then we're all taking the day off and we're going to Kings, dominion or something like that. But what I always do is I work backwards. So here's the goal Now over the course of the next three months, what are the tasks that we need to execute on a weekly basis to achieve this? And it's like when you start breaking it down and bite size chunks like that, it's really easy to tackle anything.
Matt:Like what's the?
Sam:easiest way to eat an elephant one bite at a time. The first bite, yeah, yeah, I try to attack the whole thing.
Matt:I approach it the same way. I mean I go, I take it, I take it even a step further. What I want to accomplish this year what. I got to accomplish in a quarter and a month and a week and a day, and then you could go further. You could do this hour and I think when you do that, wow, I want to get 100 new clients. What are the needle movers to get you there? What's the activity that needs to happen? Oh, I need to make. I need to make 30 phone calls today.
Sam:Yeah, you can do that.
Matt:But then. So what I've done that I've found is really, really helpful is because life happens on day to day, Absolutely. So what if? What if I didn't get to my 30 today? Am I a failure?
Sam:No no.
Matt:So mentally, what I've done is I've taken the averages. So if I need 30, a day, next day.
Sam:Hey, I need to do 40 because I was short the day, but I never let it go past a week.
Matt:Yeah, the week is my is the end. Okay, Because if, if then you could, you can get so far behind. If you go past the week you'll never catch up. So if you only made seven for the week and you needed 150, you're not catching up? Yeah, no no, but if, if you, if you only made seven today when I got four more days to make up for it yeah not one day, but you know you'll do it. So it gives a long enough runway, but yet short enough that you can still do it.
Sam:I like that. I like that Staying on track with consistency, because I want to. A lot of my audience members are going to want to hear like delving a little bit more. On the social media side, You've built a nice sized platform for yourself. What and I think I know the answer to this and this isn't a dig or anything You're not doing anything complicated on your social media. Most of your video work is pretty basic, which I've always said it's content over quality. If you're saying the right things that people want to hear, that's going to get engagement. What was the goal for you when you started building this brand? How consistent have you been? What are your goals that you have for your platforms?
Matt:Well, most of most of my revenue comes from social media and revenue, I mean, like my clients come from there, they find me there. It's pretty rare for me to talk to somebody in the same city that I live, but that's really only happened since COVID. The world got a lot smaller over COVID. Before that, everybody I spoke to I drove to or they drove to me.
Matt:It's so COVID changed. They had made the world smaller for me. I got more active on social media. I had zero social media. I went from nothing to a bunch. I mean I started my own, the Facebook page, in like 2019.
Sam:Wow. So you're, I don't think I've dug all the way in your Facebook page with your Instagram what you said in like 56k, Something like that.
Matt:Yeah, so I started the Facebook page. That was the first thing I did, because I had zero I had. If you search my name on Facebook, it didn't exist. You might see me on like my wife's page or something, yeah, but I didn't have one. And then I did that, and then, and then Instagram is where I got. I got aggressive.
Sam:Yeah, yeah and consistent. So how, when you say consistent, to find that for us, how many pieces of content are you putting out on a regular basis, like weekly?
Matt:Every day, every day. I have a goal to post twice a day, and then stories is yeah, yeah, you got to have something. I don't. I don't think there's been, I'm sure there has, but I don't think there's a 24 hour period that goes by without a story, because stories last for 24 hours. I think there's always a story on mine, I'm sure. I'm sure there's someone's clicked on it. There's been nothing there, but 99.9% of the time there's something.
Sam:Yep, and once you're getting the habit of that too, like you don't even think about it Like every single morning when I go to the gym I do the same thing on my storyline.
Sam:I start with a shot of my feet. I scroll up, you see the gym sign. I scroll back down, I go in and I get my workout and then I'll pick like some song that I'm feeling that morning. A couple things there. One I'm just trying to show my followers hey, if I can be consistent, you can be too. Yeah, but it's just like people want to follow you along your journey.
Sam:I always think when I first got my start different era in terms of like the way content was coming together I did a daily vlog, so for five days a week. That's how they came. A professional videographer. I had no editing skills, had no professional gear. I went on Craigslist, got a point and shoot Sony camera for 50 bucks. I got a MacBook Air on sale and I had to go with MacBook Air because it was cheaper than the MacBook Pro. But I knew it came with that movie. So I'm like, if I got a camera and I got a computer that has the software to edit, I can figure out how to do this. So for me, the quickest way to learn was to make a movie ultimately every single day, and then I had a hard deadline on it because the next morning that video had to be up. So five days a week for 12 straight months I just filmed myself show people what it was like in the day in the life of an entrepreneur. And after a year I got some pretty serious editing skills and I could move on from my movie and I was able to go on Premiere Pro and DaVinci and all these other software tools.
Sam:But, like in terms of social media, like, I probably put out somewhere between two to four pieces of content a day, not including, like your storyline on various platforms. I don't even think about it, dude, it's like automatic and it's like based on the people that I follow in the algorithms and stuff that's coming up. I get a lot of my content based on other people's content. I'll see something I'm like oh, I like that. How can I put my spin on and make it my own? So it gets real easy to do this. I know a lot of people look at our brands and they're like, oh well, you guys have the time or you have the knowledge. People put that together. Now anybody can do this.
Matt:For sure. I think people get overwhelmed, yeah, and I think a lot of people think they need all the stuff before they start.
Sam:Yeah, no, you don't need that, you don't need Jack I mean, now we got an iPhone.
Matt:Yeah the iPhone's all you need.
Sam:That's all.
Matt:So many free services to absolutely like. You mentioned how simple a lot of things are online, so I use a free service called Opus, I think is the name of it. It's free for a little bit. Then you can upgrade, of course, like anything else, but it's a free service where you film a video or like we'll do a podcast and it's there's cameras. Then you just put it on YouTube. You put the YouTube link into Opus and it instantly gives you 20 reels. Yep, you got to look at them.
Sam:Yeah, you got to look.
Matt:you just can't pop them out. You got to look at them, maybe clean them up a bit, but it's better than sitting there. I mean AI's changed it, oh, absolutely.
Sam:Where we are with AI right now and where we'll be just 12 months from now is going to be insane. Like there was a news story Tyler Perry was about to put another 800, some million dollars into his studio to expand it and then he got what do you call it? Somebody showed him this new AI system that, ultimately, you can just write a script and it will create the video for you where you say like, hey, I want this shot to be on the 35 millimeter lens and it's a fly in and it goes past this apartment building. There's a Doverman pincher in the window and he's like wagging his tail, and then it cuts into this woman on the side of the street who's like crying. Put in, that script took 10 minutes. A video comes out that looks exactly the way you scripted it out.
Matt:But it's an AI video.
Sam:It's an AI video. And he looked at that and said, wow, the game's changed. There's no need for me to invest $800 million into my studio when technology like this exists. We don't have to build sets for X, Y and Z anymore, we're just going to be able to use this through an AI system. And for me and I've screamed this on so many different episodes and content that I put out being an early adopter, like right now, I don't think it's being an early adopter at this point, but still the masses have not bought in all the way to AI. You need to figure this thing out now, because I see in every aspect of your life I don't care if you're an entrepreneur or an employee, stay at home, mom, whatever AI is going to be involved in some component of your life, and the sooner you can figure it out now, the more time you're going to save yourself, the more productive you can be and, ultimately, the faster you're going to get to your goal.
Matt:I think it helps you with creativity too. Absolutely, because how many people get me included, get bogged down and gosh, how do I do that? Yep, you don't got to figure out anymore.
Sam:I go and chat with you, give me a list of 20 ideas for an entrepreneur video, yep, and just work off of that.
Matt:Yeah. Yeah, it helps the creativity. It's like you were saying you get a lot of your content from watching another content. Yep, that's a good idea, but I have different thoughts.
Sam:Yeah, and there's, yeah, there's no such thing as original thought anymore. And I'll. I'm famous for doing this Like because I remember Gary Vee saying this years ago that's probably eight years ago. He would say hey, if you're struggling with content to come up with and you're like in this space, you're an entrepreneur, you're motivational speaker, whatever it is, go in the comments of my video and see what questions other people are asking me. I don't have time to respond to all these, but you can look and see hey, 10 people have asked the same question.
Sam:This seems to be something that people are very much interested in. Then you make your own video based off of that. So it's like the content is there. Like to figure out this stuff is so simple. It's just making that that effort. As we wrap this up, I want you to leave the audience with with one thing For someone who may have heard this episode and said you know what this is it. This was the thing that that got me to move in the right direction. What would be the top three things you would say to somebody to not only get them started, but keep them motivated throughout the process?
Matt:One is just to start. You don't, you don't need anything but your feet to get going, Absolutely Just if you want to go to the gym you don't even kind of work out, yeah. Just drive to the gym. Most of them have free coffee.
Sam:Terry Crew said that he was like when he first started working out. He said what he initially did was just drive to the gym. He wouldn't work out. He just wanted to get in the habit of getting there.
Matt:Yeah, then your body just goes there. And then for me, what I want to, there's not every day I'm pumped up to be there. This doesn't happen, but once I'm there, I'm like well, I'm here, I don't want to waste this time. I might as well work hard, and that's how I got through college.
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:Uh, I got through college basically because so we had an attendant Paul. I played on the football team at school and we had an attendant policy, so if we missed the class we had to run three miles. It happened in one time.
Sam:It was at six AM, I didn't want to get up at six.
Matt:One. I don't want to run and I definitely don't want to get up at six AM, so I went to class.
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:Then me sitting there was like well, I'm here, our minds will pay attention instead of doodling, or whatever. We didn't have phones then.
Sam:So that wasn't an option Less distractions.
Matt:But I mean you, you can get distracted, oh yeah, and then I'd have to study more at night. Well, I didn't want to do that. I'd rather do what I want to do at night. So then I found like if I just am focused during the hour that I need to be, I don't really need to study. So just show up, you're there, try, just try, cause for most of us, trying is enough. Yeah, effort is enough.
Sam:You're probably better than 50% of people in the room If you just try higher than that cause I don't think people try. Yeah.
Matt:I don't think people are trying, so it just start. You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to have all the equipment, you don't have to have the office like you have here. You don't have to have anything.
Matt:Just start. Another thing this is maybe a little off topic. It doesn't have to be perfect. Like you talking about video, I don't watch the video. If I shoot a video, it's one and done, amen. I am not watching it because if I watch it, I am now going to critique myself harder than anybody else is going to critique me and I'm going to oh, I could do it better. And the first takes usually the best one anyway, cause you're authentic, you're real, it's true, you uh and you get into paralysis of analysis.
Matt:If you start like looking at this. I didn't like that face I made.
Sam:Well, that's your face. Oh, I need to do T shirt, or like. The biggest thing I hear from people is like oh, sam, I'll start doing video marketing once I drop 20 pounds. Nobody cares, nobody cares. Only you, only you.
Matt:Yeah, so uh, don't watch it, just record it, send it, and then the reality is at the beginning. No one's going to see it. Anyway, it doesn't matter, you're the only one watching it, your mom, your mom might see it, and mom loves you anyway.
Sam:Just push, play and look at my baby doing this Right. Still, my mom comments on everything I give.
Matt:I know, as soon as I send it, mom hit. She likes it immediately.
Sam:Yeah.
Matt:Immediately.
Sam:Awesome man. Well, hey, this has been a very powerful conversation. If people want to follow you, they want to get in contact with you. How can they reach, reach out to you?
Matt:On Instagram uh, the Matt Dyer. Uh, also matt. Direcom is a good place to catch me. To Facebook, matt Dyer. Just M-A-T-T. D-i-r-a Good stuff.
Sam:Appreciate you being here, buddy. Thank you, man. Appreciate it Absolutely and we'll see you guys on the next episode. Dream of launching a business that combines innovation with social impact. Legacy vending machines Entrepreneur program is a gateway to make it happen. I'm Sam Anderson, co-founder, inviting you to join a movement reshaping the future of vending. With personalized coaching, access to prime locations and a unique model that supports nonprofits, we empower you to start a profitable vending operation that truly gives back. Whether you're new to entrepreneurship or looking to expand, we're here to guide you every step of the way. Be more than an entrepreneur. Be a legacy builder with legacy vending machines. Apply today to take the first steps towards a business that makes a difference. Visit our website now at wwwlegacyvendingco. Your legacy starts here.