The Making of a Whole Life Millionaire: Matt Aitchison on Wealth, Happiness, and Hospitality

Meet Matt Aitchison, a maverick in the spirits and hospitality industry who's turned his passion into prosperity, and he's spilling his secrets on how you, too, can cultivate wealth that resonates with every aspect of your life. From the grit of entrepreneurship to the glory of passive income, Matt's story is a masterclass in pivoting from active business management to strategic investment, all while maintaining a lifestyle that keeps family and travel at the forefront. His tale is not just one of financial acumen, but also a candid reflection on the humility required to realign ambitions with true happiness, carving out the path to becoming what he dubs a 'whole life millionaire.'

Venture with us through the intricate world of commercial real estate and hospitality, as we lay bare the mental gymnastics of transitioning from a scarcity to abundance mindset, especially when dealing with a hefty capital surplus. The chapters unfold my own narrative of careful wealth cultivation, underscored by a sense of urgency to capitalize on opportunities without compromising on values or vision. We pull back the curtain on how the Tahoe hospitality market's unexpected boom during the COVID-19 pandemic offered a lesson in adaptability and leadership—essential qualities that can turn a crisis into a lucrative pivot.

Wrapping up, we emphasize the profound impact of living with integrity and setting the bar high in both personal and professional spheres. Life's richest rewards stretch beyond the balance sheet, reaching into the fabric of our relationships and the legacy we leave behind. Listen for an inspiring blend of authenticity, self-awareness, and the heartfelt quest to seize every moment. Join me and Matt as we share the philosophies and actions that define a 'whole life millionaire'—someone who leads not just with their wallet, but also with their heart.

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Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

If I'm going to save this thing, I'm going to have to potentially clean rooms and help my team do laundry and figure out how I can make sure that I don't go bankrupt on this thing. Now the ego in me was like I'm a millionaire and I have earned the right over the last decade to never have to do this shit ever again. What the hell am I having to do? Going in and doing these things? Going in and doing these things and many people in the context of this conversation might be going. I'm an attorney who makes X amount of dollars per hour. Like who the hell do?

Speaker 1: 0:30

Why would I have to go and try and figure out this AI thing? That's because it's what's required and I always, often ask myself is what is it that is required to get the outcome that I want? And if you can check your ego at the door and answer that question honestly and create a plan around what that looks like and lean into that, then you're probably going to find a way to course correct, to make adjustments, to optimize and oftentimes come out 10 times stronger than if you were to just say, no, I'm good, I don't need to learn that. Hey guys, welcome back to the show I have today for you. Another wonderful guest, matt aitchison.

Speaker 2: 1:23

Matt is a spirits and hospitality investor. Got to take a deep breath. Syndicator, sought after speaker throughout the real estate industry. I met him through GoBundance and Matt and I are going to talk to you today about becoming whole life millionaires, running well-rounded businesses, traveling and spending time with your family. Matt, welcome to the show, my man.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Brother, it's always great spending some time with you, man, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:46

So, matt, what is the most exciting thing that you're working on right now?

Speaker 1: 1:50

I'm in an interesting space because I just sold three of my boutique hotels and so I'm sitting on a bunch of dry powder and more cash than I've ever had in my life, which is interesting and new right, I've been this scrappy entrepreneur for the last decade or so and seeing a nice little exit there was great. So I'm looking for my next hospitality asset in terms of hotels. I use some of that capital to invest into a spirits and distillery company and bolting that as another vertical into my hospitality brand. Kind of off the core tree trunk of hotels, bringing in alcohol and spirits is something that's fun and been a passion of mine. I enjoy traveling and experiences, as well as good food as well as good spirits. We're relaunching the bourbon on that front, learning all of the ins and outs of the alcohol industry and just how crazy and challenging and old fashioned that space is.

Speaker 1: 2:45

But and then right now, the commercial real estate side of my business I have my core focus and tree trunk of hospitality assets which are not passive at all. That's where I trade my time for money, but then building wealth in the process and looking for more of I call my coupon clippers or the mailbox money assets that are much more passive in terms of real estate. So I own some retail strip centers and medical plots and have syndicated invested in different apartment buildings and laundromats and the focus right now is I got a clock ticking on my 1031 money. If I don't want to pay Uncle Sam a bunch of money, I got to figure out how to play some capitals building the hospitality business and brand, in addition to trying to find a commercial real estate asset that kind of meets my criteria.

Speaker 2: 3:29

I definitely want to come back and ask you about what I call like the lie of passive income in real estate, and you hit on it exactly like you have investments which are in real estate, but they're certainly not passive. But I want to touch on something that you said first, which is you're sitting on all this dry powder and you've come from a place where you're a scrappy entrepreneur or have been in the past, and so is there a mental shift that's gone on for you now from scrappy back against the wall entrepreneurship to I have a bunch of money that I need to place somewhere, and there are many voices in the world that are telling us this is the worst time ever to have a bunch of money and need to place it somewhere. What's the mental or the thought process that's going on in your mind with that transition?

Speaker 1: 4:12

Yeah, it is interesting. I'm a very mission driven person. I think a lot of entrepreneurs can relate to that. Right, I'm always having the next mountain to climb. Always you cross one milestone and you're looking to the next one right away. Always you cross one milestone and you're looking to the next one right away. And so for me that's been a challenge, mentally and physically, of going on. What's next? Right, and that focus has been great. It's created a lot of space for me to, and I've already built my lifestyle around spending a ton of time with my wife and a ton of time with my girls, and we homeschool and we travel a lot, and I'm sure we can talk a little bit more about how the lifestyle ties into my business model.

Speaker 1: 4:48

But, that being said, I do well under pressure and when I am sitting on a lot of this cash right now, I've noticed I've gotten a little soft in the sense of, like, my urgency. The mission that I've been driven by for the last decade is close that chapter and I'm going. What's the next chapter that I'm been driven by for the last decade is close, that chapter and I'm going. What's the next chapter that I'm going to write? What's this next season going to look like for me in my career. It's an interesting space to be in. It's been a good thing, but also a really challenging thing, and it's forced me to peel back the layers of the onion and relook at my five-year vision statement and see what ground I've covered and what North star I'm moving towards, and has that shifted at all, based on my priorities and where I'm at in life. So that's been, that's been an interesting reflective time and what's weird is I have more money accessible and liquid to me than I've ever had before and yet I've felt like my mindset around money be a little scarcity based a little, which is interesting for me because I'm a very abundant based guy. When I had nothing, I was always thinking big, always thinking abundantly, and now that I've got all this cash, I'm like oh, I got. This.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Next move is, I feel like, such a critical part of my journey, because when you have nothing to lose, you step a little bit differently, whereas now I've got two daughters, I've got my wife, I've got a lot of different things that I could. Potentially, the risk level is higher now. So I'm approaching that a little bit differently and really trying to lean on counsel, lean on good friends, lean on good mentors to help me navigate what those next steps are. And at the same time, I also know that worst case scenario is, if I can't place this capital in my 1031 exchange, I pay the government some taxes. I sit on some cash. As much as that would pain me to give the government taxes and manage how that gets spent. That's the worst case scenario.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Real estate deals and investments. One of my favorite quotes that one of my early mentors taught me is real estate deals are like buses there's always another one coming around the corner. So just having a good, clear buy box, not straying away from your criteria, and making sure that we're leaving no stone unturned, we're putting our best foot forward every single day, but we're also not going to force a round peg into a square hole just because we feel like we need to, because that's when you end up trying to take two or three steps forward and you force something that you shouldn't be and you end up taking five or six backwards. So I'm just trying to be cautious and patient of that, but also leave metaphorically, leave it all out on the floor every single day.

Speaker 2: 7:10

Yeah, we talk about that in the law firm all the time is like when it's been a couple of days or maybe a week since the phone has rang with a new client whose case you think you can help with. Then the ones who are on the outskirts they who are on the outskirts they start to look a little bit more attractive. But if you're paying really good attention to what is the sweet spot in my strike zone and I'm only swinging at those pitches and you're able to be patient and wait for the next deal to come through, then that's the key to long-term success, right, that's the key to not getting overextended and grasping at a deal in 2023 that's maybe at the top of the market or maybe subject to real interest or risk or all of those things.

Speaker 1: 7:46

Yep, yeah, 100% my mindset. I'm 35. My mindset fortunately that was driven into me at a really young and early age was most people have the microwave mindset. They want something quick, they want something easy and on the society and world we live in today, right, we reaffirm that every single day with fast clicks of a button, with Amazon showing up with a package same day.

Speaker 1: 8:08

But I also think that the, in my opinion, the best and the greatest things are created in the crock pot and it takes time for ingredients to fuse together to put out that dish at the end of the day, everything that I'm doing is very patient, very long-term thinking, whether it's relationships, whether it's my business, whether it's wealth building and investment. So I know that in this kind of season and moment of time that I find myself in my grand timeline of however long I live, it's a small window of time that does not require me to take any unnecessary risks, that I don't have to if it's not calculated and I've done the proper due diligence to mitigate downside and hopefully capture upside. So I'm trying to be patient right now, but at the same time there's still that sense of urgency of trying to find some opportunity out there.

Speaker 2: 8:57

At the same time, you're talking about your buy box, but you've really done a lot of different stuff. You mentioned real estate, strip centers, medical plazas, laundromats I know you were flipping houses for a while and I have a distillery or a spirits company and so at a really high level, matt, like what is your, what is inside your buy box?

Speaker 1: 9:14

So it it really. I've got two different verticals of kind of commercial real estate that I focus on. One are the cash flowing assets that are more passive, and really in commercial real estate there's a lot of different asset classes that you can look at. Obviously Some are more active, some are very passive, and then there's a spectrum of everything in between, like my hotel assets. Those aren't just real estate passive income assets. Those are operating businesses with employees living, breathing organisms that have people coming and going every single day, whereas my triple net medical plaza I get maybe three or four calls a month from my property manager if something happens, I'm sorry, a year if something happens, and other than that I'm just collecting checks every month. So I've got a buy box criteria for what I'm looking for on my really passive income coupon clipping assets, which is going to be a seven cap or better, depending on what type of asset it is. If it's a retail center, it's going to be really based on location. If it's a medical plaza, it's going to be based on demand and demographics in that certain market and ideally I'd always love to be able to capture some upside instead of just grabbing something that's stabilized at market and then, obviously, on the other side of things anything that I'm going to be actively involved in we really want to capture something that has massive value at an upside, because we know that's what my team and my employees are great at. That's where I get the highest ROI on their skill set. That's where I get to put them in positions to win and exercise their unique powers and skills.

Speaker 1: 10:46

There's two different verticals in that kind of bucket of commercial real estate that we're focusing on and looking for the value add opportunities that got some hair on them, that are a little messy and sticky, but we feel confident with our team we can go in and capture that upside and stabilize those assets.

Speaker 1: 11:01

And then there's the other ones that are more of just hey, this is perfect, set it, forget it some basic maintenance in terms of overseeing the financials, the team and the operations of the asset. And I always have whether I've got a 1031 going or not, I'm probably buying at least one a year, if not more, and always got lines out in the metaphorical fishing ponds of deal flow in different markets and just always trying to build relationships and cultivate opportunities. That whether it works for me and my buy box criteria the beautiful thing about being in a community like a GoBundance or I've played in different private equity worlds. I've always got people that are looking for opportunities. So if I can be the one who finds the deal and finds the opportunity, there's a great way to either make a fee off of that or to leave your fee in and take a sliver of the ownership of that asset. So constantly, always trying to churn and look for opportunities.

Speaker 2: 11:53

Think about the allocation either of your time or of your capital in between these active deals and the passive deals, and accounting for the fact that an active deal might take longer to operate and, almost, as always, more time and capital intensive than you thought it was on the front end. Like, how do you account for that?

Speaker 1: 12:11

I've been through enough now and got my teeth kicked in enough times to know when I'm being, when I think a lot of people romanticize real estate of oh, it's going to be passive, oh, it's going to be easy. Oh, it's going to be really profitable. And while that can be true, it's going to be passive. Oh, it's going to be easy. Oh, it's going to be really profitable. And while that can be true, it can also be the complete opposite.

Speaker 1: 12:28

And so I've just been in and out of enough deals to know what to look for and how to mitigate my risk and downside and to be I'm a big believer in overestimate things that most people underestimate, and usually that's budgets and timelines. And I underestimate things that most people overestimate, which is maybe rent increases or it is the value of the asset at an exit price point being X versus where you could probably be a little bit more conservative and have it be Y. So I try and be very I try and poke as many holes in the deals and the opportunities. And again, if there's real upside there and it's going to require a lot of time, energy and resources that go into it I've got a criteria that either makes sense for our team or doesn't, and vice versa, but something that's going to be very passive. We've got pretty good systems and staff now that when we put something on their plate, they know exactly how to go and tackle those opportunities, without it totally bogging me down as the visionary now of my organization.

Speaker 2: 13:28

And getting your teeth kicked in on deals. You were in hotels and strip malls during COVID, so what was that?

Speaker 1: 13:34

like man. If you would have asked me March 17th of 2020, when they shut down all hotels in Lake Tahoe, I was like shit, dude, I'm going bankrupt. What the hell was I thinking? Going into hotels, because really I had no right going into hotels. If you would have told me 15 years ago, when I first started investing in real estate, I bought my first property when I was 21, that I would own hotels, I'd be like you're crazy, man. That's wild. But I had an opportunity that fell in my lap and I thought it was going to be a passive income real estate play. It ended up being a very active and time, labor and capital intensive process and when 2020 came around, I was just like man, I'm going down.

Speaker 1: 14:13

And it reminds me of that statement of people think you're crazy until you're successful and then you're a genius and also the very fine line of being successful and oftentimes being lucky and being a failure. And if things would have went completely different in COVID, I would have been a complete failure and an idiot. But because COVID ended up being the way it was and Tahoe ended up being a market and a region in terms of hospitality that ended up like tripling, I didn't really do much to capitalize on those extraneous factors. I just happened to be the one who took the risk. I operated well and smart and I leaned in when I needed to right. We had all hands on deck to make sure that we didn't go under.

Speaker 1: 14:58

But I got lucky at the same time, just because I took the risk and we worked really hard and those factors ended up being in my favor. So it was very challenging times, but I would say it was one. Financially, it ended up being the greatest thing that happened to me. And two, it also ended up being probably one of the greatest skill building and leadership opportunities that I would have never had if I wasn't in hospitality, because it was a very trying time, not just from the asset management perspective but the people perspective of it and my staff and my team, and then obviously just the industry as a whole. Very interesting to navigate during those times.

Speaker 2: 15:34

You have this concept of the K-shaped recovery, where for some people, it was the greatest financial time of their lives and for some people it was not, and, of course, you have to account for survivor bias in all of these storytellings, but it strikes me like it's the same existential crisis that lawyers are facing now with AI and feels like we've been on the brink of a recession for 18 months now. Right, you developed a skill set during that time and took advantage of the opportunity that was presented to you, rather than saying, as some lawyers are saying, ai is going to come and take all of our jobs and people won't need us anymore. And so what are some of the takeaways that you have from how to develop a skill set and which things to learn that you think you could impart to somebody who's thinking I'm going?

Speaker 1: 16:18

to get crushed by the coming technology. Yeah, I think, at the end of the day, there's always going to be risks around every corner in every industry, and that's where I have always a healthy sense of paranoia that there is always something around the corner that is going to be a threat to my business, it's going to be a threat to my career, it's going to be a threat to my livelihood, and the only person it's going to be a threat to my career, it's going to be a threat to my livelihood, and the only person who's going to fucking save me is myself. So if I'm going to be the poor, woe is me. Type of mindset and attitude we've already lost, although those lawyers that are already saying that have already lost Now the lawyers that are going man, this is a threat to us and I need to understand more about how AI really is going to impact my industry. I want to understand the potential risks and threats that it poses to me. I also want to know all the potential upsides and benefits that it's going to present to me as well, and I think when I was going through that time, it was one of those things, and I think the biggest killer for a lot of people is their ego.

Speaker 1: 17:13

For me it was like man, I'm going to have to go to my hotel seven days a week. If I'm going to go ahead and save this thing, I'm going to have to go in and sit down with my staff every day. If I'm going to save this thing, I'm going to have to potentially clean rooms and help my team do laundry and figure out how I can make sure that I don't go bankrupt on this thing. Now the ego in me was like I'm a millionaire and I have earned the right over the last decade to never have to do this shit ever again. What the hell am I having to do going in and doing these things? And many people in the context of this conversation might be going. I'm an attorney who makes X amount of dollars per hour, like who the hell do? Why would I have to go and try and figure out this AI thing? That's because it's what's required and I always often ask myself is what is it that is required to get the outcome that I want? And if you can check your ego at the door and answer that question honestly and create a plan around what that looks like and lean into that then you're probably going to find a way to course correct, to make adjustments, to optimize, and oftentimes come out 10 times stronger than if you were to just say, no, I'm good, I don't need to learn that.

Speaker 1: 18:25

And a perfect example is one of my buddies. He had a valuation on his media company for about a hundred million bucks During COVID. It dropped to $20 million and he said $100 million company, why should I have to jump back in and be doing 20, 50, $100 an hour work when I'm a priceless type of guy in my organization? And he leaned back in and he worked and did whatever he needed to do to keep things one afloat and then two. In that process he learned new skills, he learned new things about his company.

Speaker 1: 18:56

He learned new ways to navigate what was a post-pandemic type of era and he ended up selling his company for $400 million. And he said I wouldn't have done that if I allowed my ego to tell me I don't need to go back in and work with my team like that. And I think that's a mindset that a lot of people are figuring out how to navigate right now and there's so many changing parts of industry, of the economy, of new technologies coming out and if you don't lean into adapting, adopting and pivoting accordingly, you're either going to get eradicated and wiped out or you're going to find a way to 10X and utilize this new landscape to your advantage.

Speaker 2: 19:56

I love that leadership lesson because so many of us are focused on elevating ourselves to the highest and best use. Right, I want to push down to the lowest common denominator, the lowest salary, all of the tasks that can either be automated or done by somebody else. Right, and that's the goal of running a thriving organization is to maximize the value of your time. But in times of crisis, you have to be able to step back in, and the team needs to know that you have to be able to step back in. So I don't know that I've told this story before, but I was out at a corporate event one time and there was some issue with the wait staff somewhere and there was a team member who couldn't figure out what to do.

Speaker 2: 20:36

And I'm like just go ask your boss. So no, he's too important. I can't take that problem. Who the hell is going to solve it? Right, if you're not willing to step down and solve some of these crises in your organization, then it's a complete failure of leadership. And if the team knows that there are problems that they just can't bring to you, they're like what are we doing here? So I love that servant leadership and the willingness to go back in and wash the bed sheets and the towels and all of that stuff.

Speaker 1: 21:01

Yeah, I think a good question that I often ask my team, I often ask myself and I would propose this question to anybody else that's in leadership is what does it take to earn the right to X? What does it take to earn the right to never have to step back into your company again? Is that a very strong org chart full of great leaders in your leadership roles? Is it really strong SOPs right? What does it take to earn the right to go on a vacation with your family for a month and not have to look at or touch your business at all? There's an answer for that.

Speaker 1: 21:30

So I think it's just. What does it take to earn the right to get whatever outcome it is that you desire and if you're honest and truthful with yourself about what the answer is, whether you want to do it or not. That's a decision you can make after getting that clarity. But I think that's a really good question that will help people get clarity around getting the outcomes they desire and creating plans to go and execute on. That will get that and bring it to fruition.

Speaker 2: 21:53

About whole life millionaire.

Speaker 1: 21:55

What does that mean to you, when I went to the first GoBundance event, before it was really even called GoBundance formally. I knew I wanted to be a millionaire, I wanted to be wealthy. I was young, I was chasing money and I got into that room and I saw two different types of millionaires. I saw the millionaire that was both were financial killers. Everybody in the room financially checked the box. They had a lot of commas and zeros in their bank account. Their balance sheets look nice and sexy.

Speaker 1: 22:20

But then there was two differing types of individuals that I would categorize in that one was a whole life millionaire and one was the bankrupt millionaire. And the bankrupt millionaire was the one who had the financial abundance but they were bankrupt in their health. They were bankrupt in their relationship with their wives. They were estranged from their kids. Nobody really looked at them as true leaders. Right, they held a title but at the end of the day, if nobody was getting a paycheck from them, they probably would have thrown up the peace sign and bounced out.

Speaker 1: 22:47

And I knew I didn't want to be that person. But then I saw these other guys that, as intentional, as purposeful and as badass as they were in their bank accounts and their businesses, they were even more so in their relationships with their wives and how they showed up and engaged and led and parented their kids, how they engaged with their community and charities and causes, things that had nothing to do to benefit them whatsoever. They were fit, their health was a priority. Living life to the fullest, maximizing all areas, or the whole pie of life, was a priority, and they all took that with daily purpose and intention at the highest of levels, and to me that resonated a lot, and so that, for me, is what a whole life millionaire is is somebody that has created and lived a life that goes far beyond your bank account or your balance sheet and what dollars can buy you, because at the end of the day, wealth and what that definition means is really different to everybody, right?

Speaker 1: 23:45

Like my definition could be. This is what wealth means to me, and I could ask you that same question and your definition could be different and everybody listening to this podcast could have their own definition of wealth. Somebodies might be traveling in an RV around the country and living off of $5,000 a month, I don't know, but living to the highest and best of every category in your life and your priorities that matter to you, and, again, categories could be different. Mine could look like X, y and Z and yours could look A, b and C, but getting clarity around what those things are and playing full out every single day in those areas of life is what I consider a whole life millionaire.

Speaker 2: 24:23

I think it is that takes somebody down the path towards whole life millionaire or towards bankrupt millionaire.

Speaker 1: 24:28

Values. At the end of the day, I think it all, everything I think succeeds and fails on values and leadership. So having really strong core values and tenants that you live and operate off of. We have our core values in our house. I talk and review my core values with my kids every day. I have the same thing in my business when we acknowledge and reward based on values, alignment, and we either separate and or punish based on misalignment of values.

Speaker 1: 24:57

And I think when you look at a lot of people where you're like man, that guy is so wealthy or oh my gosh, she's got this massive business, but they suck as human beings and they have crappy values. I don't care how wealthy you are, I don't care how much money you are. Maybe other people do, but I don't and I don't want to associate with those type of people. And I also know that by having clear values and one living those and being in alignment with those and in congruency with those, you create so much room and space for other people, other businesses, other relationships, other experiences, other conversations to be attracted to you because of that, and also it repels the people who aren't.

Speaker 2: 25:37

Yeah, I'm really glad you said that piece about living the values, because I know that your daughters are young and you can talk to them until you're blue in the face about what the family's core values are, but at the end of the day they're watching you. So just recently my son is eight. He's playing kid pitch baseball for the first time and we're getting blown out. It's 16 to one in the last inning and the coach on the other team is sending runners every single overthrow still sending the runners right. So during the last inning my kid hits a little dribbler to first base. Coach's kid picks it up, showboats his way over to first base, waits for my kid to get near first before stomping on the bag.

Speaker 2: 26:15

Coach erupts Don't do that. That's not good fucking sportsmanship. We don't play that way. I'm like bro, what have you been teaching him through the way that you've been running this game? The entire time you guys are up 16 to one, sending a kid on a triple because the outfield has taken too long to run, and so you can say all of the things that you want about what your core values are, but especially when you have kids who are below, they don't care, they're just watching what you do. So kudos to you and your wife for doing a great job bringing up your girls.

Speaker 1: 26:43

Yeah, I mean, I think I I have been that guy. By the way, I have said one thing and yapped it out of my mouth, and my audio has displayed this, and my video and the actions in my life were completely not aligned with that and that, and I can also say that by being out of alignment with my audio and my video and my values and how I actually lived and lead my life, that's what got me expelled from high school. That's what got me arrested in college. That's what led to me doing things and getting results that I felt terrible about. I can also say on the other side that when I was living in congruency with my values and being really clear on what those things were and those standards being so critically important to uphold in your life, and to not just say one thing to my kids but to live that every single day, hey, this is how a man should treat a woman. If I'm not shown that in the kitchen every night, when I'm hanging out with my wife and we're decompressing after the day, or if I'm saying this is how you treat people and I'm not holding the door open for people or being disrespectful on how I talk to them, they're not going to buy into that shit, right? So that congruency is so important.

Speaker 1: 27:54

One of my favorite quotes and I say this to my girls all the time is I'm a loving person, but my standards are not. And we have standards in our family and we uphold those standards. And the second I bend on those standards and allow you or myself or anybody else to operate below that bar. They're not standards anymore. I'm just giving you lip service. It's actually not that important. So I'm being tough on you right now. I'm holding you accountable to this standard, because that's how critical it is to have integrity around the things that we say are most important to ourselves.

Speaker 1: 28:25

So I just think that, like, what you brought up there is just such an important piece, whether you're a business owner and you're doing it with your employees or you're just doing it with yourself, like we all know, when we're out of alignment with the things that we tell ourselves and what we actually are doing, and you feel that turmoil, you feel that friction deep inside your soul because you're just, you're lying to yourself and it's not hurting anybody, but you right. But then you bring that into your workplace, you bring that into your marriage, you bring that into other areas of your life and it then becomes evident Now that ripple effect is starting to have impact on other relationships. So it starts with you first. You got to live in integrity with yourself first and alignment with your values first and live it and lead that every single day. And that really starts to compound in a really powerful way.

Speaker 1: 29:09

And it's great right, because now people know like those standards don't bend, they don't break, they stay there. And while I'm a loving person and I can love you, my standards are ruthless. And if you think I'm going to bend the bar or lower the bar for you, you're wrong. And now it's just a standard that everybody knows to operate at or above the bar.

Speaker 2: 29:27

The workplace into it. Also because I think so many of us can get into this trap of telling our teams the way that they have to treat the clients, and because we want to get the good Google reviews and we want to get the recommendations and the referrals and all that, but then we get off the phone with the client. We go that asshole wants me to do blah, blah, blah. Right, you've got it and I've done that too. You've got to watch what you're saying in back of the house. We're going to talk about the client the complete opposite way. I think that's a trap that so many business owners, and especially law firm owners, fall into. Before I lose this thread, and because you brought up, being expelled from high school and arrested in college, I'm curious. I know that you're doing a new podcast, the King's help me, king's Council. It's not right, king's.

Speaker 1: 30:14

Table. Yeah, the King's Table, yep.

Speaker 2: 30:17

King's Table with Aaron Uchistegi, Mike Ayala and Ashish. I'm not familiar with Ashish, but so you have a history. Aaron has a history of being in federal prison. Mike has a history. I'm curious if you think that there's something to survivor bias of getting in trouble really young and figuring it out and then having that propel you to the great success that the three of you have had. Is there any common thread between early criminal history and hyper success now?

Speaker 1: 30:50

I don't know if I've ever connected any dots with that. To be honest, I think again, what it comes back to is values and leadership. If I didn't have good leadership around me that had good values, I would have just never been exposed to it. I'm a big believer that we grow into the conversations and the environments we put ourselves in, and when I was hanging around in certain environments and in certain conversations that consisted of drinking, smoking, fighting and stealing nine of those people, I became the 10th. And when I started hanging around people nine other people that were abundant thinkers and had good values and were taking action and were holding each other accountable and having tough conversations, I became the 10th of that too. So I don't know when I go and look at it. I'd have to peel back some of the layers to their experiences, but I know, at least from my own, it was a big part of environment and a big part of the conversations that I was participating in every day. Obviously, I had to do some major auditing and editing of the environment and the conversations and relationships that I was in proximity to. To answer your point on, I want to be the person that is, that person 24-7, 365, no matter who I'm around, no matter who's listening in to me or not, because that is when I'm the most powerful person. It's when I'm the most organic version of myself, which therefore mirrors in my conversations and the people I surround myself with, the cool experiences I have right, when you're one person to the customer and then you go, when you're in private, you start talking some shit One, anybody that just saw and experienced that is going to think, oh, this dude's two-faced right.

Speaker 1: 32:28

If he would do that to our customer, I wonder what he's saying about me behind my back. When we're having a conversation, all of a sudden we get off the and he's like that, whatever, blah, blah, blah. And so I think one from a company culture standpoint, that is very dangerous because you're setting a precedent and you're creating a space that is acceptable, especially when it's coming from the leader. So I would be very cautious and check somebody to say if you do that, at the end of the day, I think you're a shitty person. Honestly. Either that or you got some really major, deep rooted trauma or work to do on yourself. If that's what you say one thing to somebody and you go and do another thing or say another thing behind their back. That's an integrity and or a values issue in my perspective. That being said, we're all humans.

Speaker 1: 33:14

I'm not going to judge anybody for being that person, but if you can say, oh, maybe I am that person, maybe you need to create a little bit more awareness and accountability around how you act and talk and treat people, whether they can benefit you or not benefit you at all. Me around, like the Truman Show, I'd want people to say, hey, who he is on stage and who he is on his podcast and who he is at home with his kids and who he is at the gym and who he is in his business is the same, matt, everywhere he goes, and that's something that I can proudly say. I wasn't always that way, but I can proudly say I've done a significant amount of physical, spiritual and personal work on myself that has allowed me to lean in, to find that person and to proudly become that person. And I know that person is not going to resonate or align with everybody and I'm not here to do that, and I've gotten more comfortable with that as well.

Speaker 1: 34:03

I used to be a chronic people pleaser and now it's, most importantly, driven by one of my values and the person that, yeah, I would love to impact and make a difference in a lot of people's lives and it's why I do the podcast and it's why I do a lot of what I do. But, most importantly, it's would my wife and my daughters be proud of if they were to follow me around every single day and see who I am, how I treat people, how I talk, how I show up and what I actually do. That's most important to me and that's really what leads and drives a lot of how I move and step on a daily basis.

Speaker 2: 34:35

And your girls probably do have a lot more exposure to you than most kids have to their parents because you're homeschooling them and traveling the world with them. I'm always curious of this for guys like you who you have the mailbox money, you've exited the other deals and you have the big pile of capital. What is it that keeps you moving forward? Is it legacy pile of capital? What is it that keeps you moving forward? Is it legacy? Is it desire to give back? Is it leaving the kids something extra? What is it that keeps you grinding in the business?

Speaker 1: 35:01

It's interesting. I know for a lot of people generational wealth is a big thing. I'm not as motivated or driven by that. I'm sure that might change as I get a little bit older and I've maybe experienced more of life and seen things unfold. But right now, for me, when people ask me what is your definition of success?

Speaker 1: 35:20

If I were to get to my deathbed and I were to watch a video of my life playback, my definition of success is not going to be how many commas and zeros I have in my bank account. It's not going to be how much money I leave to my kids. It's not going to be how many articles I was mentioned in or how many trophies I have up on my wall or shelf. It is literally my definition of success is going to be if I were to watch that video and say, damn, that was a hell of a fucking ride. The highs, the lows, everything in between.

Speaker 1: 35:49

I played full out. Every single day. I went after the biggest goals and dreams that I thought I could achieve, and then some. And if I lead with that every single day and I leave everything metaphorically on the court of life every single day, I can feel like I one did it for myself, selfishly. Two, I displayed it for my kids and my family to hopefully create, beyond money, some type of foundational values and discipline that will serve them and their life going forward.

Speaker 1: 36:16

And three, that in that process, by being the best own success story and version of myself, it will have a natural ripple effect and compound effect on other people around me who are in proximity to me. And so that's really what drives me every day. To be completely honest, it is to get the most out of every single day, and, as cliche as that might sound for people, when I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs, if I had a billion dollars in my bank account, I'd be fucking going insane if I didn't have a mission to go out. And my mission is to go out and be the best version of myself every day, and that's what makes me wake up every day and put both feet on the ground. Thank God for being six feet above it and continuing to play full out and get the most out of myself.

Speaker 2: 36:58

Curious if there's a time in the last year that you would look back on and go shit. I missed that opportunity to play full out.

Speaker 1: 37:04

Yeah, every day I feel like that.

Speaker 1: 37:06

I think we are our own biggest critics, right? I think that in hindsight it's always easier to connect the dots than it is in the moment and or looking forward to see those silver linings or those lessons. But to be completely honest, if I were to really give myself a grade and judge myself, I would say I'm 90% better. Now, my results aren't always where I want them to be, but my effort every single day is a true quality effort, but my effort every single day is a true quality effort.

Speaker 1: 37:34

Now I will say that there are certain times where maybe you're not as dialed in, You're not what I call weaponized, or maybe in flow state, right, You're not as dangerous as you are in some days as you are in the next. But for the most part I've tried to create awarenesses and rhythms and routines and habits and accountability around all those things that at least have me at 90% or better. Most of the time. We all get in funks. We all get in those seasons where you just don't feel like you're that bad mofo that you can be and want to be. But for the most part I feel like I lead and live most of my days with a really high quality effort that I can feel good about.

Speaker 2: 38:13

Love and I want to honor you for being authentic and highlighting the feelings of scarcity and the feeling that there is a 10% of the time when you are not not firing on all cylinders, because I think a lot of guys go on podcasts and they just bullshit their way through it. So I want to honor you for that and thank you for that. Matt. Your podcast is a millionaire mindcast. Where else do you want to direct people?

Speaker 1: 38:34

Yeah, obviously they can. The podcast has been going seven plus years strong and three episodes a week. That's something that they can always check out millionairemindcastcom, or obviously on all the main podcasting platforms. Been in the top 25 to 200 podcasts in entrepreneur and or business for a long time now, so that's pretty cool. Or on social media at official Mattie A is my handle. Across all the platforms People can say what up to me there. Or they can check out highmark distillerycom and see some of the cool spirits and stuff that we got going on over there.

Speaker 2: 39:03

Oh man, I appreciate you hanging today.

Speaker 1: 39:04

Brother, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2: 39:06

Yes, sir.