Untitled Episode

Have you ever wondered what it takes to trade a stable 9-to-5 for the roller coaster of entrepreneurship? This episode features Matt Granados, an inspirational entrepreneur who transformed a teenage dream of DJing into a successful business empire. Matt's tale is a raw and honest depiction of the entrepreneurial journey, moving beyond the sparkly veneer of social media to showcase the hard work, intentionality, and resilience that's essential for true success. He shares pivotal moments when he chose the path of risk and passion over the predictability of formal education, and why that has made all the difference.

We get personal as we dissect the entrepreneurial lifestyle, emphasizing the significance of finding a balance between relentless professional ambition and the nurturing of personal life. I open up about the LifePulse planning method, which has been my compass through life's unpredictability, ensuring I remain true to my core values while pursuing my goals. Together with Matt, we address the stark differences between freelancing, starting an online venture, and the full spectrum of entrepreneurship. Our conversation takes a deeper turn as we explore how profound personal experiences, such as dealing with a family health crisis, can catalyze a shift in perspective, reinforcing that success isn't just about the climb but also about the view and the people you share it with.

This episode isn't just about climbing to the top; it’s about staying there without losing sight of what matters. We tackle the concept of transitioning from being a high performer to an optimized performer by identifying and addressing Personal Performance Gaps. You'll hear how stripping away the distractions and focusing on the present can lead to sustainable productivity and fulfillment. As we conclude, I share insights on our initiative to welcome 100 architects into our training program, spreading our philosophy on how to thrive in both business and family life. Join us for a conversation that will challenge you to look within and align your entrepreneurial drive with life's most precious connections.

Transcript

Matt: 0:00

And there's a three-letter word that comes into play every single time when people fall apart it's E-G-O.

Kristin: 0:05

Ego.

Matt: 0:07

And that's all it is. You're not providing for your family. If you're providing for your family, you'd be with them. If you're providing for your family, you'd be helping them. You're feeding your ego, and your revenue is what's for dinner.

Kristin: 0:19

Hey Goal Achievers, welcome to Elite Achievement, your go-to podcast for service-based business owners who want to achieve their goals and grow their businesses. Today's guest is going to challenge your thinking around what it means to be a successful entrepreneur. Matt Granados ventured into entrepreneurship at a young age and achieved his first multi-million dollar business in his early 20s. Matt values family above all and demonstrates that achieving goals and success doesn't require sacrificing family happiness. Get ready to learn how to navigate the life events that will inevitably come up, how to find more joy as an entrepreneur and how to optimize your performance so you can stay motivated to achieve your goals. Welcome, matt.

Matt: 1:11

Hey Kristen, Appreciate you having me.

Kristin: 1:13

Thanks for taking the time to be here with us today, matt, and I am really curious to dive into your experience as an entrepreneur. So start off by telling us more about your entrepreneurial journey.

Matt: 1:27

So my entrepreneurial journey had to have started. Man, it was young. It was the days of going to shovel snow, cleaning up around the house, weeding yards for people. Basically, what do you have to do and what will you pay me to do it? That's kind of where it all started. Where it became a reality I'll never forget it was when I was 15 and I was working as a DJ for up in the Northeast bar and bat mitzvahs for sweet 16s, weddings, you name it, and I was doing a graduation party and I was doing it by myself, right. So my boss was not there, and I'll never forget. He said, hey, make sure you collect the balance and they can just write that check directly to you. I said, okay, that makes sense. So he gave me a contract that had a balance of I think it was something like $150, which was great for me at 15. Right, I get to make that in four hours at 15. And then I went and I explained it to my dad. I said, but what's the balance? Because this number up here says 1500. So what's the difference? And my dad explained it to me.

Matt: 2:34

And my dad was an entrepreneur, he was a dentist his whole life, so he had to learn how to fix a seat, then learn how to run a business, but he really took the business side of it way more seriously than most dentists actually do. So he explained to me the fact that, hey, he took the risk, he bought the equipment, he got the job All you really did. You just showed up and I said so if I buy my own equipment, can I keep all of it? And he said, yeah. So he let me take a loan out from myself and set me up as my own little bank that I had to pay back with interest and bought my own equipment. And at 15, we started Explosive Entertainment. And that was the start of realizing wait a minute, why not do this more often? That's how we paid our way through school, started having some friends DJ with me. All of a sudden we can actually leverage and we can scale. And then, going from school, college into the real world, it was either go back, spend $60,000 to $100,000 on going to get my MBA which I wasn't good at school anyway Still I'm not, it's not my strength or take that money, invest in some crazy idea and see what happens. And that was our first business. And that business was able to get up and do its first million in its first year of operating, and that's when I sat back and said, why would I ever do anything else?

Matt: 3:59

I thoroughly enjoy the challenge, the chase, the creativity that comes with entrepreneurship and I always tell this to people because I say, when people come to me, I say I really want to be an entrepreneur and I say, well, that's not a good enough reason to do it, it's you got to be an entrepreneur.

Matt: 4:19

It's almost like it's a type of personality, like it's got to be. Like somewhere in Myers-Briggs they got to fix what they're doing and add entrepreneur because there's an element of risk that you're comfortable with. There's an element of challenges, of uncertainty, of frustration, of disappointment I mean you name it. It's like you live your own little life inside of a life, except for you're risking everything to do it. And for what purpose? And the purpose I have found the only valuable one is not the money that's nice, but it doesn't always work that way is the freedom that comes with it, and that's what I think has always made it okay to suffer the way an entrepreneur has to suffer and survive, the way an entrepreneur needs to survive in order to live this lifestyle that has been glamorized over social media but in reality, in the trenches, it's brutal.

Kristin: 5:11

I am so thrilled you brought up that point around the lifestyle being glamorized on social media, because I think it's so easy for us as entrepreneurs to scroll and then we start comparing and well, my business isn't as good, or why am I not doing that? And we're not often going on social media talking about the risk or the disappointments or the frustration. So how have you been able to stay focused on what you want to build and your purpose with all the ways entrepreneurship has been glamorized? In other words, how do you silence all the noise and stay focused on what you want to build?

Matt: 5:46

I found you can't silence the noise because you have to hear a better song. Meaning it's not what it looks like. And when you sit there and you see people with expensive cars, nice homes, amazing vacations, you name it the highlight reel that is social media. It's really easy to get sucked into any of those desires of other people's. What I've come to find is I spent a lot of time getting to know people and what I learned was the more I met entrepreneurs who were true entrepreneurs. They didn't brag about the money. They would brag about the way they've overcome something, and brag is the wrong word. They would want to talk about how they overcame something. They would brag about the way they've overcome something, and brag is the wrong word. They would want to talk about how they overcame something. They'd want to talk about a risk they took, regardless of if it paid off or not.

Matt: 6:35

And I started realizing that this concept of entrepreneurship is not about who has a bigger boat or a faster car, because unless you have the biggest boat or the fastest car, there's always one bigger. What is it you're trying to chase? And if you don't enjoy the chase, the finish line is not going to be worth it, and that's what I've come to find with entrepreneurship. So it is not for everybody. Freelancing is different than entrepreneurship, right? Starting an online business is different than entrepreneurship. It's not any less impressive. Does that make sense, like it's not? Like if you can provide a service and you could sell your knowledge and create a course and sell it, don't? I mean, we do that in our company, right? I'm not belittling that, but that doesn't necessarily mean the grind of a full entrepreneurship, of wanting to grow yourself but also grow others along the way, bring employees in and build out a business, is something that is made. I think people are are are prepared to do by who they are more than by the things they like.

Kristin: 7:38

Hmm, yeah, how do you think people can uncover if they are the type of people to be true entrepreneurs?

Matt: 7:47

I don't want to discourage anyone to not take that path. I just want them to know what path they're taking. If they're taking it, does that make sense? So I don't want to say that you can't. There's certain people who can't be an entrepreneur. You can be one, it's just it's very challenging. So what I would want to do is and when someone does say, I want to start a new business, there's sometimes where I'll work with clients and I'm working within an organization what do you want to do, man? I'd love to start my own business. Okay, hold on a second. Why? What is it you want? Well, I just want the freedom. Okay, define what that means to me. And if somebody comes to me saying they want to be an entrepreneur, I just ask questions. If they like the chase, if they like the challenges, if they like the risk, if they like the uncertainty, all the things that someone who's not an entrepreneur would have no interest in, then we can have a conversation. If they just want the freedom and the flexibility, I sit back and, like one of our large clients that I think of right now that was a big thing A lot of their employees. I just want to be able to work from home and not have to come into an office every single day. And then, boom, covid hits and I called them back. I said you still want to be an entrepreneur? No, I'm good. Yeah, because you get a check every two weeks. I don't, and that's what's happened.

Matt: 8:59

In today's world is there's flexibility and freedom that's not just through the entrepreneurial path. There's other ways around it and, like I said, I'm never going to discourage someone from being an entrepreneur if they truly want to do it. Right, I love this, I think everyone. If you feel like you can handle that and you feel like you're created to do this, then do it. But at the same time, it's that over glamorization that just drives me nuts. Think about why you want to do it. What's the end result you're looking for, and is entrepreneurship the only path? That's a foolish thing to assume. So let's think what are the other paths of that? I want to be able to travel wherever I want. Well then, find a different job, change your lifestyle, spend less. There's different ways to become wealthy. It's not about making all the money in the world. It's about making more money than you spent. If you do that, you're richer than most people in this world and it's that reality check that I think we need to sometimes sit back, even as entrepreneurs.

Matt: 9:50

We get into these groups that give us the minimums of what we should be earning and making and how big we should be or how small we should be, and then we hit these benchmarks and I'm like, well, there is no real difference between this level and that level. And in fact I'm at this level. I'm meeting these people. They're making a ton of money top line revenue but they're making no money profit and they're miserable and not everybody. But so it's not as cool up top as we think it is from the bottom.

Matt: 10:14

And then you get there and you go. Why am I doing all this? You tie that into what I deal with with my daughter, with her medical conditions and times that we thought we were going to lose her, and times we did lose her and she came back to life. You could go through all those different personal things and you go. Why am I doing this? And once I realized that it was probably about three or four years ago. Life became so much more joyful, peaceful, less stressful and we're still doing really big things, making massive impact, so it doesn't have to be as difficult as we tend to make it.

Kristin: 10:48

Yeah, I think there's a lot for us to unpack in what you just shared. Matt, you mentioned it's not as cool up top as we think it is when we're at the bottom. So how did you navigate? You got to that top. You had that realization. How did you navigate? Changing your business, world, your life, so you could find more joy and still make a massive impact.

Matt: 11:14

No, that's huge. So fate's a big part of it for me, right? But as I was navigating it, when I would see what I thought was going to be awesome, I would not look at it with a critical eye, but with an honest eye. So I didn't let my own glamorization of what it would be like to cloud what I'm actually seeing. So a lot of times it's like, man, if I could just be at that area or that level, it's going to be amazing. Then, when you see it, a lot of people don't want to be let down. So because they don't want to be let down, they just accept it for being as good as they thought it was, versus actually looking at it.

Matt: 11:49

And I remember one time in particular, I saw a gentleman who had what I would say was more money than I ever thought you would ever need, and he had people around him the whole night, the whole night hanging out and everyone seemed like they were having fun, and he kept getting more drinks coming to his table and bottles to his table and having all this joy and fun. And then, at the end of the night, I'll never forget this image because it was him and his bodyguard walking away by themselves. And this individual, who had all the money in the world, was leaving with the one person he paid to come hang out with him and I said that's not what I want, so there's no money in the world that's worth that feeling right there and that's why I always ask people what is it you want? We have to figure that out first, then we can figure out the path to get there.

Kristin: 12:40

Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned, too, that you have a daughter who you've had very scary. You have a daughter who you've had very scary, scary moments with. So, as an entrepreneur, matt, how do you navigate life events that?

Matt: 12:59

happen when you're the entrepreneur and you're in charge of making the business run. Yeah, so it's hard, would be the first thing I want to say. But it's possible. It takes intentionality and it takes structure, and that's not just for my life, that's for all of our lives. And the way I describe it as an entrepreneur or anybody who is in business in general, is if you have intention, that's kind of like the vehicle, and you have structure, that's kind of like the route. And if you have a route with no structure or, I'm sorry, if you have a route with no vehicle, it's a wasted opportunity, meaning it's a path we could go, but we have no way of getting there. If you have a vehicle with no route, it's a waste of energy. A lot of entrepreneurs have a vehicle with no route and if you drive long enough, you might get there, but if you run out of gas, you're where you are, but if you run out of gas, you're where you are.

Matt: 13:47

So what we do and this is kind of where LifePulse started was my wife came to me and said Matt, I knew marrying you was going to be hard, but I didn't realize it was going to be this hard. You're insane. A new idea. Every other day. I come with you with a problem. You have a business plan for me. I didn't want to do that, but how do you function? I'm like well, it's easy.

Matt: 14:07

There's these nine questions I ask myself every single week and that's how I operate. What are your nine questions? She's like what are you talking about? I'm like what do you mean? You don't have your own set of questions. And we got together. She saw it. She's like can I make this look better? So she made it look very nice. She brought it, we got it printed for just her and I to start using, and we call that the LP. And that's how we process every single week. Every single week, we do the same exact thing and we live our life seven days at a time, no further, no shorter, a day's too short, a month's too long, Seven days at a time.

Matt: 14:48

Specific structure that we use that we call reverse planning, which is basically you list what you want to do this week, then you list what you said you were going to do this week and then you only do what is actually important and because of that you can function in a way that actually gets you to live the life of fulfillment that you want. In all of this there's a principle that we live by and we call it the 80-20 principle of planning. 80-20 principle of planning simply states this 80% of your life you can plan, 20% you can't plan. However, if you don't take care of that 80, the 20 feels like 100. So let me explain how that works. I can't help a client, I can't help a listener of yours predict what's going to happen in that 20. But I know they can, within good reason, predict what that 80 is going to be like If that 80 is not taken care of. That's where the overwhelm comes in, when the 20 gets out of whack. So let me explain our past situation, like you said, with Natalie.

Matt: 15:43

So when Natalie, she has a rare disease called Pyrox D1. She's the 17th person to ever have it. Youngest, by far most aggressive. There's no cure for it. She's in a wheelchair and the best way to describe it is her muscles just don't work. She has complete mobility, but no strength and gravity is heavier than she can handle. So, all of that being said, it's very difficult to watch her, but mentally she's all there, which makes it a joy to be around her, but from a parent's perspective sometimes does make that even more challenging. She knows what's happening, she gets what's happening and she can express what she's feeling. So the last five weeks Natalie's been sick and we have a little baby. Teddy's turned one actually in about a week and a half and Teddy is at the stage where his teeth are coming in, so he's putting everything in his mouth. He's basically going and licking every door handle he can right.

Kristin: 16:39

Like, if you want to live.

Matt: 16:39

Teddy's life right now, go lick door handles, which means he's bringing in a new sickness twice a day somehow, right? So when Natalie gets sick, her muscles can't clear. So anything that has to do with any type of mucus which is all upper respiratory infections she can't clear, which leads to infection, which leads to pneumonia, with all of that. When Natalie gets sick, we almost always jump into the ICU. So, kristen, when you and I were talking, I was coming and going, I think, from the hospital and what happens is a lot of times, like you'd said, because you're a caring person, everyone's like hey, do you want to reschedule? And I say the same thing every time. I said we can't Because until yesterday Natalie was still homesick and we would never have been able to have that first conversation which will lead to this, been able to have that first conversation which will lead to this, and the reason I share all that is Maria and I do everything we possibly can to make sure our 80% is taken care of properly. So when that 20% comes, which is inevitably going to come, ours is just very clear. When it happens, we can handle it because we got our 80 in control.

Matt: 17:45

When we don't have our 80 in control. It is a bad, bad situation. Natalie's sickness is no worse or no better, but our relationship suffers, the rest of the family suffers, our business suffers, people around us suffer. Does that make sense? It's like our suffering gets multiplied more than it needs to more than it needs to. So a long way to answer that question is I make sure that we plan out our weeks effectively every single week. But the most successful individuals have a system before they need it, not when they need it. Too many people rab for a life vest after they're already in the water. What I try to do is have a life vest either within arm's reach or even around my neck before I jump in.

Kristin: 18:30

Thank you so much for sharing your story, and I had no idea, matt, that Natalie has a disease that you said 17. She's one of 17 people navigating this.

Matt: 18:43

I always like to say she's the 17th, there's probably 24, I think right now. And what we did is and this is a great example as an entrepreneur, right, if you don't mind me, keep going into this. This is what I mean by how entrepreneurs act and react, how it's just naturally kind of what we do. When we found out about Natalie's condition, they brought the geneticist in, they brought neurologist in and they had an administrator or lawyer also in there and they said here's what she has. She has pyrox d1. It's a strain, it's a very, very rare mutation. And that was the end of it. And I said well, wait a minute. So thank you for the problem. What's the solution? Like, what are we going to do about this? And they looked at me and they all looked at each other and no one really wanted to say it to me. And I said, well, look, whatever you guys are thinking about saying, just say it. And they said, well, natalie has to outlive science, meaning there is no answer. She needs to live long enough for science to come up with an answer. And I looked at my wife and she knew right away. I was like, well, that's not an acceptable answer. I'm not saying you're lying. I'm not upset that you gave me that answer. I'm just saying we're not accepting that answer. Entrepreneurs don't accept status quo and that's just the natural, like it's. Just if it's not where it should be, it's not okay. So we're going to do something to change it, and what I did was we went and we started a foundation it's called Take Part Foundation where we raise money for rare pediatric conditions and we help find genetic testing and we help other families tell their story.

Matt: 20:17

Now, where did all that come from? Three major problems. We dealt with that. There was no solution for Number one doctors and medical information can't get passed back and forth because of HIPAA. However, I own all of it, so if I have it, I own it. I can share it with whoever I want. There is no HIPAA laws around me sharing my medical records and because she's under 18, they're my medical records.

Matt: 20:38

The second thing was genetic testing. If we don't have enough people tested, the way genetic testing works is they take the testing and they have to compare it to the other genetic testing. They've had to go wait. There's an abnormality on this Pyrox D1 gene. Why does that look different? And then the third one was research, and we found that there are many. We call them dungeon doctors. There are doctors in the basements of many of the universities who take a piece to their salary and put it towards their testing and they're funding their own research and they call it Death Valley. And that's where all these great ideas go to die, because the doctors have a viable option and they don't have enough money for it.

Matt: 21:14

So as I'm talking with these doctors, they said hey. I said how can we help? They're like look, we don't want to burden you. I said no, you don't get it. The burden is sitting here and watching her potentially not live a full life because no one's doing anything.

Matt: 21:26

I said what do you guys need? They said well, we don't want to ask. I said no, what do you need? They said we need money. I said I can work with money. How much do you need? And they said 20 or 30. I said 20 or 30 million. Can't work with that much money, but we can get started. I say excuse me. I said here's a credit card. Just keep going. You're the only doctors in the world studying this specific gene. Do not stop it for $20,000. I'll figure out a way to fix it. I said but walk me through this a little bit, why would you be $20,000 away? And that's when they explained how they pulled the budget to make it work. I said, well, how much would you need if you could get as much as you wanted? They said, well, we really need to get published. I said what's it cost to get published? They said probably about quarter of a million. I said I could do quarter of a million.

Matt: 22:18

So we started having a conversation. I started asking some mentors of mine we were going to raise some money and then on that call he looked at me. He said mad. He goes. How.

Matt: 22:24

How common is rare? I said I don't know. Natalie is one of 17. He goes no, no, how many people have a rare condition? So I quickly just Googled it and there were three stats that popped up. Number one was that 95% of all rare conditions have no FDA approved treatment. I was like that's not good, that doesn't make sense. Number two 35% of them don't make it past the age of five. Natalie was four at the time. And the third one was that there's 30 million people in the United States with a rare disease. That's 10%, and that's where the entire tagline came for take part of rare is more common than you think, so anyway.

Matt: 23:02

So the reason I'm sharing all that story and this concept of an entrepreneur is that's what I mean by how entrepreneurs think. We see a problem, we want to go find the solution. And when we find the solution, that's when we can say is there a market or not? And if there's a market, we keep doing it. If there is no market, we offer it to whoever needs it. And we're on our way because we like finding the solution. We like providing that for people.

Kristin: 23:32

Have you always had this strong of a mindset or are there certain practices, activities you do, Matt, to keep your mindset strong?

Matt: 23:43

Yeah, I've always had faith. It just wasn't faith in anything particular, and it wasn't until I found what that faith needed to be locked into, of just that ultimate source of power, energy and direction, that it was put to a whole different level. And where that came from was taking that understanding of okay, where does this faith come from? And how do I boil it down to the only answer that is unable to be not disproven, if that makes sense, the only answer that you cannot push a hole through. And that's where really, the strengthening of that mindset came. But that skill set, if you want to call it that, has always been there. That willingness, that optimism, that futuristic focus, the fact that, hey, I know it's bad now but I can fix it later, has always been a part of who I am. And as a young entrepreneur, that's a good thing. As a wise entrepreneur which I'm not saying I am, but as a wise entrepreneur, that's also an extremely dangerous thing.

Matt: 24:50

My willingness you ask an entrepreneur, how did you do this year If they had a bad year? They don't say they had a bad year. They say we're going to have a better year next year. Right, but no, how was your year this year. I don't want to talk about, well, a better year next year. Well, we're in debt, but we'll make it up later. We'll make more money later.

Matt: 25:04

We're always future focused, we're always future focused and again, that's very helpful in the business world and the entrepreneurial world, but what I found is that's not very helpful in your marriage, that's not very helpful with your kids. That's not very helpful when it comes to taking care of your body. There's an element of being in the presence that most entrepreneurs are super uncomfortable with, including me. That is extremely detrimental to the well-being of every other part of life. Besides the business you started. That isn't really as valuable as you think. And again, I'm not knocking people, I just I just I feel like there needs to be truth that's shared so that, for all of us who are feeling what I'm saying, you're not alone. Everyone else is talking about how great it is and I'm sitting here going no, it is great, it's worth it, but it's not as glamorous as you think.

Kristin: 25:54

Yeah, I think that's really interesting how you're talking about the importance of being in the present and I, you know, before we recorded this podcast, I was on the phone with my own coach and we're going over the results for my strength finder and, of course, futuristic is one of them, and I'm like, yeah, it's visionary, right. I love helping people think really big and then breaking down their visions and action items and helping them execute. And I hear you, matt it's. I do have an element where I struggle and that makes a ton of sense that that futuristic thinking can be really really great in business, not as great when you're trying to be present with your family or focusing on your health, like, oh, I'll get to it tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow, it's. Yeah, there are some things where tomorrow it's not good enough.

Matt: 26:37

Yeah, and I think it comes. I was talking with a client, uh, I don't know this week at some point and we were having a conversation about just that mindset of like, hey, you never know, tomorrow might never come. You got to do it today, you got to do it today, you got to do it today. And this is somewhat on the inverse of what we're talking about. And the answer is, yeah, you got to do it today. And what was happening was they were filling up their day too much. Right, it was nonstop, it was unsustainable, and the one thing we do is we take high performers and turn them into optimal performers. I always tell people I'm not impressed by high performers anymore. It's not hard to be a high performer. What a high performer does is they can run a sprint. What an optimized performer can do is they can run that same sprint pace for a mile, for a marathon, for an ultra you name the distance. They can stay at that pace sustainably and they have ways to re-energize along the way. So I'm having this conversation and I said look, I said we have to live life like tomorrow. We don't know if tomorrow will come. That's absolutely true, because we don't know if tomorrow will come. However, if tomorrow won't come, what would you do today? It wouldn't be grind more and work Right.

Matt: 27:52

If you were told today's the last day you have to live, you would probably spend time with people you care about. You probably wouldn't try to get one more client. But that's what I mean by going through and when someone says something, I look through it and go wait a minute. I get the fact that we have to work. Hey, got to take action today. I'm all for that. You have to take action today, yes, but you're only taking action for today because you think tomorrow's coming. That's the only reason you would. It's the fruit of the action you take coming later. But you have to have this healthy balance of, yes, take action today but also recognize tomorrow's coming. And in doing that, how do you maximize the time that we do have? And that's where that concept of intentionality and structure comes into play, that you have to have the intention, you have to have the structure and with that intention and structure, you have to know when to turn things on and turn things off.

Matt: 28:48

Turn work mode, when are you done your work day? If you don't have a clear system that will show you when you're done, you will never be done and you will live a life with regrets. It's inevitably going to happen. But when you have a way to shut off, and what do we do? We blame it on our phone. I'm just so connected now. Well, that's by choice. It on our phone, I'm just so connected now. Well, that's by choice. Shut your phone off. Go buy a flip phone. That's okay. But if your issue is really the fact that the device is the fault, number one, you got to examine yourself a little better. Number two shut it off. It's as simple as that.

Matt: 29:20

We have rules when we start getting a little too sucked into the work, because we can and we can justify it by how we're helping people and how we're doing this and how it's helping our family we have a plug-in rule, which means our phones have to be plugged in and the cord can't be any longer than three feet. You want to go be on your phone? Go, sit in the corner like a child. The kids will see. There's times where it happens I'm sitting on my phone, I'm plugged in because I have to do one thing or another, and then I realized after a couple minutes of doing it, if I don't have to do this. I look like a fool. It's like the new dunce cap, yeah, so.

Kristin: 29:54

That's great, that's great. Well, I'm curious. Let's talk more about this concept of going from a high performer to an optimized performer. So I know there's a lot of high performers that listen to this podcast, and so how can they transition to become an optimized performer?

Matt: 30:12

Yeah. So the biggest thing to recognize is we all have these things called PPGs, right, when you work with companies. It's personnel performance gaps, it's a sum total of every individual along the team's gaps. And that's what we do. We work with very few individuals. We work with companies and the individuals we work with are within the company, if that makes sense, that's just our business model. So these PPGs, if you're an individual, just change that first word from personnel to personal. Same concept, it's just all the different gaps that are happening In this.

Matt: 30:47

These gaps form kind of like a pothole. The way potholes form is water gets into the asphalt, Pressure goes up and down because of the heat and the cool, expansion, contraction and eventually sometimes just the weight of gravity will cause that pothole to sink. But what tends to happen is if you're driving and you're driving fast enough, at a high enough speed, as a high performer would be in a high performance car going very fast, with no one in their way when you hit that pothole, depending on the speed you're going and the depth of that pothole will determine the damage that you experience you could spill your coffee, you could pop your tire, you could bend your axle or you could totally flip the car. That's why I want to make sure high performers are recognizing that they have holes and cracks in their surface, underneath the surface. They don't see yet that we have to expose, bridge and sustain those bridges. So that's the understanding behind. Why is it so important to what I'm about to answer? Why do you, as a high performer, have to take the time to recognize what are your gaps? What are the gaps you're experiencing? How do I expose them, bridge them and then sustain that bridge? Because these gaps that you're going to experience are not meant to be filled. They're meant to be fulfilled. There's a big difference. You throw knowledge at it and fill them in. That's not going to work. You'll spend your whole life filling in the Grand Canyon versus building a bridge right over it. That's the key to this.

Matt: 32:18

Optimal performers take care of that 80% properly. They remove all unnecessary distractions so that they are not putting out any extra stress than they need to, so they can stay at that high pace without living that life of regrets that brings distractions to them. When you look at somebody who's a high performer, what brings them down A gap surfaces? They hit it, going 100 miles an hour and, all of a sudden, that relationship of mine turns out there was an affair on the side and now I have to focus on that Turns out financially. I didn't do what I said I was going to do and now I have to focus on that. My kid I didn't pay attention to them. Now they're older, now we're dealing with some more serious stuff, so now I'm focusing on that. You know what I mean. All this stuff that we don't take care of in the meantime. We'll get to it later, I'll get to it later. I'll get to it later.

Matt: 33:15

We do the wrong things for the right reasons, meaning it's the wrong action. Right reason I got to work now so I can spend time with my kid when I retire. It's like or spend time with your kid now so they want to be with you when you're retired. What makes more sense? And because of the way the culture has told us to go, go, go, the amount of effort you put in is really what matters. And the answer is not the amount of effort you put in is what matters, it's the amount of output you create is what matters.

Matt: 33:44

We are a result-driven, not only society but species from a natural level. But yet the world has told us. You need to show up, you need to be there from this time to this time. You need to do this and you need to be busy. No one is successful because they're busy. Busyness is not something to be proud of. In fact, as you grow as an entrepreneur, you will learn the busier you are, the worse of an entrepreneur you are Now. That doesn't mean your days aren't full. I'm talking busy. You're just getting things done that you don't need to be doing, and that's where this whole concept comes from of an optimized performer is the fact that you are able to go at that high performer's pace forever without getting derailed.

Kristin: 34:36

So you've got your 80% taken care of. You're outsourcing, delegating. You build up a team, so you're doing the important work. Yes, you build up a team, so you're doing the important work. Yes, but I want to understand more around this concept. You were saying Spend time with your family now, so they want to be with you when you retire. Yeah, and we talked already about one of the challenges of being an entrepreneur is there is no regular paycheck. That's coming every two weeks, and so I think that sometimes entrepreneurs have this thought that they got to work really hard and they got to do more. They got to do more to earn the revenue. So how do you balance needing to drive revenue, earn that income, with also wanting to take the time and spend it with your family?

Matt: 35:21

So you recognize who you are. You have to understand where's your identity.

Kristin: 35:30

And when we talk about it, we talk about a purpose versus passion.

Matt: 35:32

Passion is what we are told to chase, but what the definition of passion is, if you look it up, is a strong and uncontrollable emotion. Purpose, if you look it up, is the reason for which something exists. Passion is in the future and that's where you find it. Where do I want to go? What do I want to go? Where do I want to go? Your purpose is in your past, Meaning what have I done since I was a kid? That has energized me to continue to move forward? That when we do our purpose exercise. It's a seven-question exercise. It's called why? Areion exercise. It's called why Are you here?

Matt: 36:06

It's to figure out literally why are you on this planet, and it usually boils down to an X Y statement. I do this so I can help others do that. But every human's here. No human is here for themselves. You can see how we interact. You can see how we function.

Matt: 36:21

I don't care what your belief system is. Watch how humans work and watch how society works. There's an element of community that comes with humans. So, with all of that, I want to make sure that we are understanding what is our identity and, when we understand our identity, our purpose. I'm sorry, there's three parts of it that we get to see. There's your identity of who are you. There's your calling on what are you actually called to do? And then there's your assignment, and that's what you're doing today. But your assignment changes all throughout your life and we have to be okay with that. What we do as entrepreneurs is we misunderstand and we misidentify our assignment with our identity and when that happens, you think you're protecting yourself by making that next sale. And there's a three-letter word that comes into play every single time when people fall apart it's E-G-O.

Kristin: 37:20

Ego.

Matt: 37:22

And that's all it is. You're not providing for your family. If you're providing for your family, you'd be with them. If you're providing for your family, you'd be helping them. You're feeding your ego and your revenue is what's for dinner. Is this worth it?

Matt: 37:43

I had this happen. I was with a couple people and I said man, I'm trying to provide for my family and fortunately I had a good enough friend who sat back and said what's your definition of provide? I said I'm going to go make money. I'm going to bring home money so my family can eat. I'm going to provide. And he looks at me and he goes what's Maria's definition? I said I'm going to provide. I said I have no idea. So I went asking her with an arrogant way. I'm assuming she wants me to go make money, bring home money, so she can then go do what she wants to do with money. And Maria, by the way, is more competent and can make money probably better than I can. She just likes staying home with her kids, to be with them. She just loves them, I think, maybe a little more. But all that being said, what I've come to find was, when I asked her how she wants me to provide, she said I want you to be present, I want you to be here, I want to have dinner as a family. I don't want you traveling like crazy. I'm like, yeah, but you get what I do, I speak, I consult. She goes okay, well, you get what I want here. So, mr Entrepreneur, go figure it out.

Matt: 38:51

And that's the reality of it is. As an entrepreneur, it's like, oh, I have a good product, I need to go sell it. No, as an entrepreneur, you get the chance to live the life of freedom, and with that freedom comes different choices you get to make and you have the ability to choose work over your family. But don't think that's a condition, that's a choice and you've made that choice. And when you make certain choices that go against the natural truths of the world, it hurts, it ends poorly. So you neglect your family. I can tell you where you're going to end up. So A lot of us skip things for our kids because we need to go do this.

Matt: 39:31

And now there's times where that does happen. There's times where I miss things. Right, I'm missing a basketball game for my son, who's five next week, and I'm I'm. I hate it, but the decision is made and it needs to happen. It's very rare, but it's happened.

Matt: 39:44

With that being said, I want to make sure that my kids know who I am now and my wife knows who I am now, so that in my later ages of life, when we're retired and we're supposed to go on vacations with each other, my wife and I we're supposed to enjoy each other's presence, my wife and I we're not just getting to know each other again and that's not taking. That doesn't take a ton of time. We talk about this. We have a book called Motivate the Unmotivated and one of the things that we do. We have a whole program that's called Motivation Management and when we bring people through this, I have this conversation with them all the time because I think it's so important.

Matt: 40:22

When you're talking about pouring into people is the biggest reason why people don't take the time to properly train or motivate people is what? I don't have time or I can't make the investment, whether it's financially or time. I say the same thing. I say you're going to invest either way. You either invest up front or you invest forever. What's cheaper? The answer is to invest up front. So if I was to avoid being with my family and I was just head down into business, just grinding it out which we should talk about the word grind too, so we can get that out of people's vocabularies but I'm in there and I'm just grinding it out, grinding it out, grinding it out. What happens is I'm still investing in the arguments with my wife, I'm still investing with my kids, trying to tell hey guys, I got to finish work. I'm still investing the time to at least push them away and I'm going to be trying to make it up in the future. And I don't want to make it up when my kids make bad decisions as adults. I'd rather be there when they make bad decisions as a kid, because when they get older, it's not that the decisions get worse, it's the repercussions get worse. Same with the spouse I want to make sure that we are enjoying ourselves, even in the hard times, so that we can get where we want to go when it's supposedly time to calm down a little bit. So that's the biggest.

Matt: 41:50

The philosophy behind what we do is somewhat counterculture, and the reason why is because culture is breaking us and we as entrepreneurs or me as an entrepreneur is not going to sit back and say, well, this is just what they said to do. That's never been how entrepreneurs work is. I focus on the fruit what's coming off, the actions and what they told us to do the last 10, 15, 20 years, especially in the culture of work. It's completely wrong and that's why we're not getting the results we get. When we come in, we flip the entire thing upside down.

Matt: 42:21

It's not our job as a company to bridge the gaps to all of our people. It's our job as a company at this point to equip our people so they can bridge the gaps back to us. We need to properly equip our people so they can overcome their personal performance gaps and come back to the company. There's no way a company can do that for every individual. So what do companies do who are large? They talk about how you got to fix the collective by getting the individual to merge with the collective. That's not how you fix the collective. The way you fix the collective is you equip the individual to thrive and you show them each how to thrive in their own way, and then the collective rises together. That's how you solve anything that has to do with multiple people working together. But yet what society and culture has told us recently is do the exact opposite.

Kristin: 43:19

Absolutely. Wow. Well, so many mindset shifts throughout our conversation today, and I think that that's such a great point, matt, around you're either going to, you're going to invest either way. So you either get to invest upfront or invest forever in what is truly cheaper and when you look at it from that perspective, it's much cheaper to invest the time or the money right now upfront versus that long-term. And I can tell a lot of the work that you do is very purpose-driven, and I think that that's one of the big themes throughout our conversation today is helping our listeners connect back to their why and why are they doing the work that they're doing? But also, you give us permission to challenge a lot of the things that we've been taught, challenge the ways that we've been taught to build a business, or challenge the ways that we've been taught to work, and I think that that's really exciting to give our listeners the chance to pause and ask some of the reflection questions you shared with us today.

Matt: 44:11

Yeah, no, it's what we tend to do, and yet we give in real easily.

Kristin: 44:17

That's absolutely Well. As we wrap up here today, I'm curious what is a goal that you are working on in your business right now and you're excited to achieve this year?

Matt: 44:28

I am excited we are looking to bring on 100 architects. What an architect is? It's an individual who comes through our training and gets certified so they can then take it into their company and they don't need us to do it so they can take it, run with it and move on. What I've come to find is a lot of people in my industry and Kristen, you and I have talked about this on our last call it's like, hey, we want to actually help you to an extent that you don't need us anymore, like we shouldn't be needed. It's not like I'm going to give you 50% of the answer, so you're always coming back for more and I found that when we do that, those relationships last forever and it's not because they need us, it's because they enjoy doing the work with us.

Matt: 45:08

That's a different situation. So we're looking at 100 architects go build, and that's what we do. We take all the solutions we found, all the different gaps we bridged in the past. We have an entire database and we sit there and say, okay, here's what you need to do to get where you need to go, and then we give the blueprint because you need to let the individual do it, not you do it for them and that's the system we create by asking questions. So that's a big goal. 100 is a very big goal, where we bring them through the training and then actually walk them through 90 days of their own individual goals and if they can accomplish the actions that we set which really they set, they have proof of experience, they have proof of success and that's all you need to be able to teach. You don't need a very nice piece of paper on your wall. You need experience and you need knowledge, and when you use experience and knowledge together at the correct time in the correct way, that's called wisdom.

Kristin: 46:17

Great Proof of experience to teach. I think that's also going to help a lot of people, because I know that there's sometimes the imposter syndrome that will creep up, and I think that that's a really brilliant reminder that all of us are probably far more equipped to teach than we give ourselves credit for.

Matt: 46:33

Yeah, and one way that we teach people to do that is we have these things called weekly wisdoms, where every week we send out a video and you can get them on. It's free. We get them on our website if you want, but when we teach people who were coaching is, hey, I want you to go and think what happened last week and from what happened last week, what did you learn and how are you going to use that to do something different this week? Because that's what it takes to be wise it's taking experience and using it, and few people realize you don't need to be wise to be able to do that. You do that in order to become wise.

Kristin: 47:09

Sure, yeah, you get wise through that process. Well, matt, this has been such a fun conversation. Thank you for sharing all of your entrepreneurial wisdom that you've gained throughout the years. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you? The work you do at LifePulse, maybe, if they're interested in becoming an architect, where can they go to find out more?

Matt: 47:30

Yeah, so you can find us on any of our social media, which is just at LifePulse Inc. That's our handle, linkedin. I'm big on LinkedIn. You can reach out to me directly or you go to our website, lifepulseinccom. If you're at all interested in jumping on and getting any of the weekly wisdoms, you can email me, mattg at lifepulseinccom. Just let me know which episode you're watching or what podcast you heard me from, and we can connect from there and get you access to that. So mattg at lifepulseinccom will automatically get you into that list and any way you need, like I said, I love, kristen, what you're doing right here and kind of your philosophy, how you're helping your people. I mean, I just I want to share the foundational structure that we've discovered by finding other things and piecing it all together. It's not even ours. I mean, it's truth is not anyone's. We give that out. We just got it in a weird package that seems to work really well. So we like to share as many people as possible.

Kristin: 48:30

Well, thank you so much for your time today, Matt. I really appreciate you coming on the show.

Matt: 48:34

Happy to Thanks Kristen.

Kristin: 48:36

You bet With that. Goal Achievers, keep celebrating your weekly wins, your lessons learned and identify your priorities for next week so you can consistently pursue progress in the direction of your goals. Hey, goal Achiever, congrats on investing time in your growth and finishing another episode. If you are left craving more goal achieving and business growing wisdom, visit my website, kristinburkecom, and check out the resources page. Here you will find my popular breakout plan, which has helped hundreds plan, prioritize and progress towards their goals. Vision prompts to help you draft your vision and a mid-year goal check-in to help you reconnect and reignite your passion for your goals. Together, let's close the gap between the goals you set and the goals you achieve.