Matthew Strunk: Success and The Golden Prison - Finding Fulfillment and True Success

The headlines say “successful exit.” The heart says “now what?” That tension drives this candid conversation with coach, investor, and IllumiShift founder Matthew Strunk—who went from a one-day college stint and chaotic family business shifts to Inc. 5000 growth, multi-million-dollar sales, and a sobering realization: achievement without alignment feels like a golden prison.

We unpack the messy middle most people skip. Matthew shares how a childhood shaped by volatility hardened his work ethic and defense systems—then quietly taxed his relationships, mental health, and sense of self. He explains why shipping early beat perfection, how “fear as fuel” powered massive results but collected interest as burnout, and what changed when he swapped the chip on his shoulder for a mission rooted in love, service, and truth. If you’ve ever reached a milestone and felt nothing, this story will feel uncomfortably familiar.

From there, we dig into the “purpose paradox”—why behavior change requires meaning, and how meaning gets muffled by modern noise. Matthew lays out the Hidden Path behind IllumiShift: a practical, values-driven framework to help high achievers who feel stuck reconnect to what matters. We talk vision and legacy exercises, clearing distractions, choosing simpler living to reduce pressure, and building a life that fits on the inside, not just on a spreadsheet.

If you’re navigating success with a lingering sense that something’s missing, you’ll leave with language for what you’re feeling and steps to realign: check your fuel, create space to listen, act on small truths, and measure progress by presence, not just profit. If this resonates, follow, share with a friend who needs it, and leave a review with the one shift you’re committing to this week.

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Chapters

• 0:56 Meet Matthew Strunk
• 1:26 Dropping Out And First Ventures
• 2:21 Military Stint To Marketing Success
• 3:49 Risk, Shipping Early, And Learning
• 4:33 Childhood, Father’s Illness, And Impact
• 7:37 Work Aversion And Entrepreneur Identity
• 10:47 The Success Trap After Exits
• 13:08 Relationships, Distraction, And Tradeoffs
• 17:05 Birth Of IllumaShift And The Hidden Path
• 20:39 The Dirty Secret Of Success
• 25:51 Fear As Fuel vs Love As Fuel
• 29:31 The Purpose Paradox Explained
• 33:08 Coaching Intake And Vision Work
• 35:55 What Matthew Wants From Life
• 37:45 Retreats, Simpler Living, Next Steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:37

Welcome back to one on one with Mr. U. Of course. I'm your host, Mr. U in studio with us, coach, investor, advisor, and founder of Illuminship, Matthew Strunk is in the house. Matthew, good morning. How are you, man?

SPEAKER_00: 0:49

Doing all right, man. Yeah, all good. I'm doing well. Doing well.

SPEAKER_01: 0:56

Good to see you, brother. Customarily, we have our guests come in and kind of share a little bit about their childhood, their background. Where's Matthew from? What was life like for you? How'd you get from there to where you are now?

SPEAKER_00: 1:08

Yeah. Um, yeah, I grew up in Pennsylvania, small-ish town, Cootstown, about an hour north of Philadelphia. Um shit. How did I get from there to now? You know, it's a that's a deep question, I guess. But yeah, you know, fast forward, I guess uh, you know, went to school. Uh, I went to college for one day, and I dropped down. So it was yeah, I was already on the verge of like, I don't think I want to do this. Yeah. Yeah. And I couldn't find the class and it just kind of pissed me off. And I was like, all right, I'm just gonna drop out. I'm just gonna do a business instead. Yeah. So I pivoted and decided to start a business instead. And and uh that was an experience in itself. Uh, it did not go overly well, but that's all right, you know, learning experience. And uh yeah, did that and just kind of floundered around a little while, and then uh I ended up joining the military for a stint. I was in the Air Force for a few years, and yeah, I was kind of in between jobs, and then I started a business um in digital marketing for car dealerships and things of that nature. And that was my first company that actually worked, and you know, from there we were Inc. 5000, fastest growing companies, like all that kind of stuff. And then I started a bunch of other companies, I've sold companies, um, and did all the things I always thought I wanted to do. And yeah, that leads me to this moment, which is post a lot of those exits. And yeah, man, just uh trying to get back now with through coaching and whatnot.

SPEAKER_01: 2:38

I love it, man. I'd love to hear one or two key things that you feel like you it's key areas of your growth where you learn from that. Because I talk to people all the time in the ministry my wife and I had together in some areas where I coach as well, and you'd be surprised how many folks have walked through stuff like what you just named and they didn't see their part in it whatsoever. It was just life happening to them, they didn't grow from it whatsoever. It was like just something that happened. What are one or two areas you felt like you grew from those situations? What did you learn about you that wasn't good that you corrected, you self-adjusted? Go ahead and share that real quick if you can.

SPEAKER_00: 3:16

Yeah. Um, so I guess a couple things. I I realized that I guess a strength of mine is the willingness to take risks, which became clear when I dropped out of college to start a business, I guess. It also got me into some trouble that time because sometimes I would just, you know, bet the bet the farm on it. But um, so but I think the growth takeaway there though was having the confidence to move forward, even with a half-baked vision, because I think other times it's easy to just get paralyzed because you're like, oh, it's not quite ready. It's like, nah, shit. I just ship it and then I'll figure it out as I'm going. So that's where actually worked out pretty well for me is just get started. Um it's probably a big one, actually. Yeah, shipping things based off of basic assumptions and then you'll kind of react to it after you get going, if you would. Uh, that's probably the biggest thing from all of that, I think I learned. Um, the second thing, I guess I would say, is it became apparent how much my childhood affected how I acted in my adulthood. You know, I know you we hear that all the time, right? It's like, oh, you're it's probably your parents, you know, that kind of stuff. But yeah, it's when I reflect back, it's very clear how my early adulthood especially was influenced from my childhood, you know, like growing up with my father and things like that.

SPEAKER_01: 4:41

So I think that that's probably one of the most powerful parts of your story. I want to talk about what you're doing in business and in coaching and in life. We're gonna get there for sure within the amount of time that we have for this show. But I want to touch on those two points that we talked about in the pre-interview. I thought was so astounding. One was the challenges you had with your dad. I mean, uh I'll spearhead in a lot of men's groups slash movements, if you will. These are kind of things that I hear, like it's almost like it's universal, like everyone seemed to have the same kind of challenge. So I want to ask you about that. I also want to ask you about your growing up because you said you grew up, you grew up kind of poor, but you didn't want to work. I'm like, how did you sell it to your family? Yeah, you come across waters from different parts of the world to come to America for the American dream, but it's really all about getting their foot in the door and working. And you grew up poor in this country and you said you didn't want to work. So I want to hear about the bad and your mindset on how you kind of step out of the I don't want to work realm into the entrepreneurship realm. So that's a two-part question there. Hopefully, you got both of them.

SPEAKER_00: 5:45

Yeah, man. No, I got it, I got it. Uh, yeah. So, you know, growing up, um, you know, we didn't we didn't have a ton of money. It was just my my sister, myself, my mother, father, and it was all it was all good. You know, there was a time I would have told you that I was blessed with like the best dad on earth, you know, like he would run outside with me, play games, you know, go sprinting down the alley, play basketball, like all the things that I think you kind of want with the dad, you know, showing you how to do different things, like all this stuff. I had a very high opinion of him. Uh, but unfortunately, he had a kind of a mental condition that progressed and got kind of worse. And it was like more of like a bipolar disorder, schizophrenia kind of tendencies. And uh yeah, that that's what made it difficult. You know, my parents got split when I was around 11 years old or so. And at that age, which is obviously a tough age for for boys and growing into young men, uh, it was tough. And my father was going through a tough time as well. But because of his kind of mental state, it led to some pretty tough times. Like, you know, example might be I'd be sleeping in my bed, and my door would get to my bedroom, would get kicked, not just open, like down off the hinges, broken at two in the morning, and I would be getting screamed at about something that never happened. To him, it happened, to him it was real, but it it wasn't. And that was really a mind trip for me, you know, and my sister growing up. It's like, so every day you never knew what version you were gonna get. Like, is it the version that's just gonna blow up on you for something that never happened? Is it the version that's gonna play basketball with you outside? Like, who knows? So every day was just you were waiting for the shoe to drop, you know. Um, and yeah, so that that was definitely tough. And and I think, you know, as a as a child, I mean, I think you're pretty resilient. You build defense mechanisms to get through those times, you know. Um, but those things you build hang with you into your adulthood and you don't necessarily realize it, you know, and and it causes uh pain and suffering and other things for years and years if you don't address it. And and I'd say that's definitely true for me because I would have told you that I got past it, you know, uh, especially because I used to justify it by saying like people other people have it like way fucking worse than me, you know. Part of my French, like they have it way worse than I do. So who what's my right to complain? Like he only emotionally abused me, like there's so many worse things that could happen, but that's you know, a flawed way of thinking, obviously. Um so yeah, so I would say that's in a really quick nutshell, kind of my experience growing up with my father. Uh, and we had a family business. So my grandparents started a business that he worked for. And uh as a child, um, I would work with him all the time. So I was working all the damn time when I wanted to be playing with my friends, you know. So I I even remembered like I would be with my mother for her time, which was like the good times because I didn't have my dad then. And like he would just come in his box truck, grab me, and take me to work, like in the middle of summer. Like I got kidnapped, you know? Just like, and I tell you that because it segues into the second part of your question, which is growing up poor, growing up in those tough times. And when I became a young adult, I did not want to work so badly. And the reason why is because work to me was horrible, because it means I was working with my dad because I had to work in the family business. Oh, okay. Who knows what was going to happen during that moment? And it was against my will. You know, I feel like my choice was always taken from me because I always had to do what I was told, even if I didn't want to. So when I was 18, it was like, you know what? Screw all of that. I'm gonna do what I want to do when I want to do it, how I want to do it. Like, I'm tired of being told what to do by someone who's all over the damn place. And you know what I want to do? Not work. So, entrepreneurism was my way to do that. I was like, you know, I'm gonna start my own thing. And then when that blows up, I'll just be sitting back doing whatever the hell I want because it's just that easy, and it's not that easy, but but in my mind, that's what I thought. So, so that was the uh the transition. That makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_01: 10:05

Like so many professionals and entrepreneurs, and you name it, we do all we try to do everything right. We try to make sure that we cover all of the bases and we uh uh chase the milestone, we make money, we uh do it even at the expense of our own family and our own uh personal health, self-care, things like that. When did you realize that you were kind of in the quote unquote trap, the success trap?

SPEAKER_00: 10:34

Yeah, man, that's a good question. I think I didn't realize it truly until a few years after selling my first company, probably. So I had started a couple companies, and now mind you, I knew I was already struggling with like depression type things. I was gaining a ton of weight, you know. I we just had our first child, like there was a lot of shit going like at the same time, and it was just really hard. But my childhood taught me how to block things out, you know. So it's just it is what it is, man. Stop your bitching and keep moving forward. So I just kept moving forward, and I had ended up selling one of my companies for a pretty good exit size. Um, and I remember thinking, cool, like now I can breathe a little bit. I have another company that I just kind of would run on the side. Um, but then I ended up selling that one because I still felt like not so great. And then I saw I sold all those companies and I had all this money and I was working a really cushy job at one of the companies that acquired us, and I was still kind of miserable, you know. And then I was like, I need to do something else. So I started another business and I started another business, and I was just like flailing around almost starting companies. And then one day I was just like, why am I doing that? Like, what am I doing this for? You know, like eight years ago, I would have told you it was for freedom and I could do what I want, and you know, all those things, but why am I doing it now? You know? And that's when I realized I'm kind of in this trap of just going through the motions because it's think I think it's what I'm supposed to do. It's what makes me valuable as a human, it's what makes me feel like I'm enough. So I'm just gonna keep doing it, you know? And and then eventually I realized, like, wait, like, why am I doing this? You know, and I kind of felt trapped in a way, like I built a golden prison almost in of sorts. And yeah, that's probably when I first started to realize, like, wait, I'm just going through the motions because I think I'm supposed to, and I don't actually know why I'm doing it. So that's where I stopped and reevaluated. I love that experience.

SPEAKER_01: 12:41

Pretty transparent, man. Thank you for sharing that, man. Yeah. Uh, one of the things that I noticed, I'm sure it's not just with entrepreneurs, let's be honest. I'm sure it's going on with C-suite level employees and CEOs and founders alike. Uh there's always uh a component where the relationships really, really suffer because of the drive that we as entrepreneurs have to have to meet this goal that I'm not even sure if it's even a good goal, but it's still nonetheless, it's our goal and we it's what we're going after. Where uh where did you land as as it takes into relationships? Where did you land in that when you were going through this process and you're learning about or kind of figuring out, you know what, maybe I shouldn't be doing this, kind of questioning your why and revamping that and getting a new why. Where were your relationships? How did they get impacted from your quest for entrepreneurship? You don't mind me asking.

SPEAKER_00: 14:21

No, I don't mind. Um, and that's a good question. I I think I would say that a lot of my friendships kind of got pushed to the back burner because there just wasn't a lot of time for that. Um, especially because I had gotten married and had our first child. So that kind of took over all those things. Um, I wasn't really spending a lot of time with family. Basically, all of my time was spent either working or with my wife or child. Um, and I tried really hard to let it not affect our marriage and all that stuff. And I like to think I did a pretty good job, but the truth of it is I was still always in my head, you know. I'm sure you've been there too, where you're with your family, you're just like playing with your child or whatever it is, and then you're just like, all right, well, I probably should put together that proposal for so-and-so because I have to get the you're like, ah shit. You're like, oh, I gotta get I gotta get back to where I am, you know. So so my relationships were thin, I guess, is what I would say. And I was very distracted um as a result, and yeah, I I think it was tough because I realized as much as I tried to balance those things, like balance is kind of a tough word for me to believe in. I don't know that there is a balance per se. Um, and there's all opportunity costs everything, right? Like you got if you're doing this, you're not doing that. So I'd say that's kind of where I was at.

SPEAKER_01: 15:46

So that's that's transparent. I love it, brother. I love it. Uh so you founded your own company, Illuminati, I believe is the name of the company, and you have some central concept that you have been that you created and that you're using in the midst of the break into how you started this company, what was the purpose of it, the goal, and these concepts that you created, how did they come about? Kind of kind of gives a little bit of a history lesson, if you will.

SPEAKER_00: 16:13

Yeah, definitely. So a LumaShift uh was the result of me trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Because, you know, back when I was what I would say broke and you know, just trying to figure out life, I would probably tell you that I felt stuck, trapped even. I felt lost. Like, this can't be life, man. Like, there's gotta be something more to this, you know? And then I chased after the success and all the things I never had growing up, you know, because it's like I'm guessing it's that, right? That's probably what I'm missing is the money and the nice cars and all that stuff. So I'll go after that. And I started these companies, and when they started to be successful, and I started getting the recognition and you know, local awards or Inc. 5000 awards, and then I sold companies for millions and like did all the things, and then I still felt lost and stuck and trapped. And I'm like, what? Like both sides of the coin, why do I still feel this way? Like, that doesn't make any sense to me, you know. So I decided like my job now is going to be to figure out why that's the case. And maybe I'm just broken. Maybe it's the way I'm wired. I don't know, maybe it's something like what who knows? So I went down this path. I tell you, it probably took you're you know, maybe two years, call it a two-year path. And I spent more money than I care to admit on therapists and coaches, and you know, I'm looking at all these different spiritual frameworks, you know. Um, because growing up, my my father was, you know, was Christian. That's kind of what we did. I was like, you know what, everything's on the table. Like, I'll go pray to a tree or something. Like, I don't know, like, let me just see what is right. I'm like, I don't know. Yeah. And um, yeah, so I went down this path, and I ended up having a breakthrough, and it came in in the most unexpected way. And ironically, what I had I had found was the answers I was looking for about why I feel the way I do, and about life in general, like all the things I've been trying to find out there, they were just inside me the whole time. I just didn't listen to myself. And when I finally gave myself that space, I started to gain clarity and I started to feel like I had meaning again. And a lot of things started to be more effortless when I let go of some of those old things. And during that process, I thought, you know what? It would have been damn nice if there was someone who's done all that schmutt that I could have like consulted with or something, because it was real difficult for me to go through it. And that's where the idea of Illumina Shift came in mind was like, all right, let's put together a framework where, yeah, it's gonna be personalized, but let's put up guardrails where we can kind of help take people through a transformation that they feel is necessary and give them that framework to go through and experience it themselves. And that was the idea behind it, and that's where we came up with uh the hidden path was the concept. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 19:28

That sounds awesome. That sounds awesome. And that's the system that you kind of created to kind of help people uh kind of get realigned, I guess you could say.

SPEAKER_00: 19:39

I mean it's in my uh yeah, I think that's it now, or I think that's well said, yeah, because it's to help people who feel stuck. Um, you know, maybe you're successful already. Uh, maybe you have that job, you're making six figures, maybe you have millions, maybe you're worth a hundred million, doesn't matter, but you still feel like something's missing. This is where this is the framework and the program was built for that person in mind who just feels stuck in life no matter what they do, even though they do it all right, it just they feel stuck. And the realignment part comes because I think the reason you feel stuck oftentimes is because you're living a life out of alignment with who you actually are and what actually matters to you. Um, but figuring out what that is could be really hard in the modern world that we live in because there's just noise and distractions all over the damn place. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 20:36

I gotta ask this question because this is something that I've heard this from multiple guests that come on our show and they said one guy comes from I won't call his name out. He knows who he is if you're listening, but one of the one guy's come on out of several, at least a dozen, where they've made millions of dollars. They sold companies for millions of dollars and they had it in their hand, they had one, three, five, ten million dollars in their hands, and it was all gone. Yeah, I want to get into what you call the dirty secret of success. People might say, you know what? I believe biblically that money answers every issue that you have. I believe that biblically. I'm not saying we love it, I'm not saying that we worship it, I'm just saying that I believe it solves most any problem that you have for the most part. However, you're talking about how you had it all and still felt empty. Can you kind of take us back into time a little bit, into that space where you had done all these things where you sold a company for millions of dollars and you still felt like, wow, what do I have? Why do I still feel like this? Can you kind of tell the listeners and the viewers how you felt, what was going on around you with the people around you? Kind of give us a little picture into that uh space and time if you can. I know it's a pretty deep question, but if you don't mind.

SPEAKER_00: 21:57

No, I love it. Yeah, I like deep questions, so that's good. Um yeah, I would say like a few things. Like I think when you first start out, at least for me, um, you have these visions of like, man, one day when I have millions, you know, and I got financial freedom, I do whatever I want, like it's all perfect. Um, you like you have these grandiose visions. But the path to get there is very difficult. It's like it kind of takes the zing out of it a little bit, I guess, because it's like not like you won the lottery and you're like, oh, I got millions the next day, which apparently also doesn't work out well. But uh it's like like, yeah, you sell it and you make millions, you're like, yeah, no shit. Like I just traded my soul for the last so many years, you know. And it's like it just doesn't, I don't know, it doesn't feel like that big for me, that big wow, I made it. It's like, no, you like slowly grind it out, and then like you're making it over the period of 10 years. So by the time you get there, it's just almost like you've already lost all of that like energy around the exit, I guess, if that makes sense. Uh, and then for me, it was like I also felt like I lost meaning, the little bit of meaning I had, because at least when I had the the company, I had all these employees and clients and revenue. And I was like, in my mind, that was how I was validating who I was, I guess. You know, like my identity was tied to it. So selling the business for millions, sure, you're on the other side of that, but then who are you now? And then you're like left sitting with that question of like, well, who am I? You know, now that that's all gone. And that's an uncomfortable question to have to try to face, I think. Um and that's part of the reason I think that I started more companies was because I didn't want to be in that silence because, like, oh, I don't like this. Like, let's just go, let's go do it again, you know. And then eventually it just caught up with me. But so yeah, I I guess in that moment it was like I've worked really hard to get to this point over a very long period of time. And I guess you kind of resent it to some extent, you know, like because it feels very much like you earned it at that point.

SPEAKER_01: 24:21

Heavy cost, heavy cost, like I got two concepts that I want to briefly kind of share, and then we'll have time for a couple of questions. Well, a few more questions after that. Okay, purpose paradox and the idea of fear as fuel. Kind of break it down for those that are listening and watching us. What does that mean? The purpose paradox and fear as fuel.

SPEAKER_00: 24:44

Yeah. So I'll start with fear as fuel, just because I think it probably segues from our previous point a little bit, um, which is in life in general and business and everything else, um, what I've kind of identified is like you can almost boil it down to like you know, fear and love. Like some people call it dark or light or whatever it is, but like, you know, even like emotions like uh peace and happiness and all that kind of feels like a love type of emotion, and you know, anger and anxiety and stress is fear-driven kind of response. And what I've found from in hindsight is that I built my companies off of fear, I used fear as fuel, and fear as fuel is very effective to achieving outward success, I guess I would say.

SPEAKER_01: 25:39

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 25:40

Um and so it's a powerful fuel source. So I had a chip on my shoulder. I had to prove to everyone from school that I wasn't a weird kid with the weird dad that was broke and all these things. It's like, no, I'm gonna prove to you you're you're wrong about me, even though they're not actually thinking about me at all, you know. But in my head, I'm gonna prove to you that I am worth it, I am enough. And a middle finger to everyone who thinks otherwise, I'm gonna show you what's up. And that's a fear-driven response, you know. Um, but it kept me up late. It kept me cold calling after like the last seven people told me to pound sand. I just kept calling because I gotta prove these people wrong. I cannot fail. And that's fear as fuel. Um but the fear as fuel, the thing I would say is I wasn't aware of that the whole time. And because I wasn't aware of that, I wasn't aware of what it costs. I think burnout and a lot of those types of symptoms is the result of using the incorrect fuel source for to build something sustainable. Um, so it's like taking a loan against your soul. It becomes due with interest at some point. Oh, you betcha. It's profound. Yeah. Yep. So just having that awareness of like what's driving my actions right now? Like, am I doing this because I love it? You know, am I doing it because it's something I want to do, or am I doing it because of fear? And that might be okay, but be aware of it at least, so you know what you're burning in the process. Um, yeah. So that that's fear as fuel. And I would tell you as a quick caveat to that, or to expand a little bit, love as fuel is another type of fuel source. And love, whether that's you're just doing something you love to do, whether it's you're doing something in service of something you love, that is just as, if not more, powerful. Um, but it comes without a lot of the side effects, like burnout, anxiety, all those types of things. And I've noticed that because I've seen entrepreneurs who are driven by love and they can grind out 90 hour weeks and they are fine, man. Like they ain't burned out. But I might be working 30 hours a week doing something I hate because I'm trying to prove someone wrong and I'm burned out on my gourd, you know, because that's like so that's fear as fuel. The the second concept, uh, the purpose paradox came to me where I would get frustrated when I was trying to make like lifestyle changes. Um, I mean, how many times have you started a diet or start exercising or sleep or people or careers, whatever it is? You go to make these changes, maybe you start to see some traction, but then something happens and inevitably you slip up and you fall back into your old patterns, you know? And it used to drive me insane because it's like when I was eating well or exercising, I felt objectively better. Like my life was better. So, what more should I need than that to continue going? Like that just didn't make sense to me. And what I found was habits and lifestyle changes that aren't tied to something bigger than you are really hard to implement. Um, you know, so whether that's identity or purpose, and that's where the purpose paradox concept comes from, um, it becomes really challenging. So the paradox though, is that in order to find purpose in today's world, you need to first clear the distractions and remove some of the noise that is clouding your vision because it's very hard to get clear on what it is that you're trying to accomplish. Yeah, but to make those changes requires purpose, but you don't have that purpose yet. So that's the paradox, basically. It's a loop. You need change to find your purpose, but you need purpose to make that change. So what do we do? You know, that idea.

SPEAKER_01: 29:38

We got time for a few more questions. If I was your brand new coach, what's the very first and maybe the most important thing we need to tackle?

SPEAKER_00: 29:53

That is a good question. I guess I would probably ask you, um, I think you're gonna probably be the better source of that, which is why are you why did you seek coaching in the first place? I guess, you know? Um trying to get quick. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like what do you why do you think you're here, first of all, you know? Um, but one of the first things I always do with new clients is to um uh go through like a vision exercise of sorts and trying to identify core values that they have, uh, figuring out legacy concepts that they have, like asking those questions. Um so it's kind of like this whole evaluation of sorts. And the purpose behind it isn't so much for me to see the answers so much, it's for them to have gone through the work. Because so far, I don't think anyone has ever completed it all, which is I feel I find it's interesting. Yeah. Like, and it's not even because it's like so much, it's not like huge. It's like we get on our call after they do it and they go, shit, man, that was tough. Well, what was tough about it? And like you know, you you ask this simple question, and you know, I don't I don't know the answer. And it just like got gets me thinking. And and then all of a sudden it starts to open doors to maybe what they didn't see on the surface behind why they are seeking support. Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_01: 31:23

Um as a coach, I'm gonna stay on that as long as I have to because I know that that's where honestly, that's where the treasure is, that's that's where all of the uh barriers of entry. Yep, that's that's where they all are. So we're gonna stay there as long as we have to. I love it, love your answer. Last two questions for you, and I'll get you out of here, man. What do you want from life? What does Matthew want from life? Yeah, Matthew had it all for a little while. He pivoted. What does Matthew want from life?

SPEAKER_00: 31:54

I want to live a life that is aligned with my truth. I want to be authentic, I suppose, is what is what I'm saying. So I want to live a life aligned with my truth, and that is a life where I lead with love and give love everywhere I possibly can and help everyone around me as much as I can. Because at the end of the day, I think we're all in this together, and it's not me versus him or she versus no, like, dude, we're we're in this together. So if there's something I can do to bring you up, I'm going to do it. Um and yeah, I think I I'd say that. Live a life, align with my truth, and spread love anywhere I possibly can and bring each other up.

SPEAKER_01: 32:53

I love it. I love it. I probably love it. Question for the episode. Everybody that comes through gets asked this question. We call it the CMV question, career, mission, and vocation. Just as an exercise, a theoretical exercise, if you will. I remove everything you've done career-wise, mission-wise, even your hobby, vocation off the table, just for a moment. What do you think Matthew Schunk is doing right now, most likely, outside of all the things he's already done? So those things can't count. Maybe something that you haven't done, maybe just thought about it, but never actually accomplished it. What do you think you're most likely doing right now?

SPEAKER_00: 33:26

Oh, that's such a good question, you know. I would say it's kind of cheating because I'm like seg I'm starting to do it, but how long can my answer be? What would you want to do? A few things. Um I would probably live more simply. Okay. I think that's something that I wish I would have learned earlier on. Is lifestyle inflation's a thing. So I would live below my means more simply. And I would probably spend time trying to organize like group programs. Group programs, okay. And retreats is actually something I'm interested in. About careers, hobbies, or vacation. Yeah, I think that's counts. Yeah. Running retreats, you know, for like helping us and you know, men, women, but I think for men too, specifically, like, because there's such a stigma still, I think, around it. Getting us some damn space so we can work on ourselves. I think facilitating that process is something that interests me. Um I love it, though.

SPEAKER_01: 34:48

That sounds awesome, man. I love it. I'm I'm doing something a couple of things on that on that level. One in our uh local uh spiritual community, but also one with the with our podcast, the men's round table podcast. So I love that you're doing or one of something like that. Is it that's something that's getting ready to happen, or you just thinking about it, or this is gonna be uh set in motion soon?

SPEAKER_00: 35:08

It's it's on the roadmap, I'd say. Yeah, right now yeah, I'm trying to get into creating more content at scale first, but yeah, I I that's definitely on the roadmap.

SPEAKER_01: 35:18

I love it, man. Matthew, you've been a fantastic guest, man. Thanks for jumping in here, man. All you guys that are watching. Well, if you're listening as well, you can still hear it. But here's how you can reach Matthew and all the resources he has www.illumashift.com. That's I L L U M I Shift.com, Illumashift.com. You can check him out. I'm sure you can contact him there as well. Anything regarding coaching or any question you have about all things invention and founding your own company and hearing his story some more, I'm sure you can reach him out there. And of course, if you want to get to me, that QR code in the upper right-hand corner of your screen is my link for you. You can reach out to me there, stay in contact, reach out regarding our podcast work or any kind of uh coaching opportunities that you may need from me as a high performance coach. I'm definitely happy to help you do that. Uh, but beside that, man, uh any closing thoughts, Matthew, before we get out of here, man. The floor is yours for about another minute. You got it.

SPEAKER_00: 36:17

Um, yeah, I think, you know, first of all, thanks for having me on. It's I appreciate what you're doing. I like what you're doing with the men's group. Um, closing thoughts, I guess. If there was one takeaway, I would probably encourage people to take with them. It is to increase your awareness in your life as to what is driving your everyday actions. Just try to actually be aware of it instead of just going through the motions. Ask yourself, why am I doing this? I think that's a good takeaway to have.

SPEAKER_01: 36:49

I think it's fantastic. That's Matthew Stroke, the founder of Illuminati. Mr. U. We're out. Thanks again for watching and for listening.