Overcoming Imposter Syndrome with Dr Barrett Matthews

"You know that feeling where great things start happening to you, but you start to question, man, do I really even deserve this?" - Doctor Barrett Matthews

As Reachers, we all struggle when things aren't going our way. But even tougher sometimes is when things ARE going out way and we feel like we don't deserve it.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Unleash strategies to conquer imposter syndrome and boost your confidence.
• Unlock the secrets to effectively monetizing your podcast and turning your passion into profit.
• Master the art of communicating effectively to captivate your audience and build strong connections.
• Harness the power of service to propel the growth of your business and leave a positive impact.
• Explore the art of crafting a solid exit strategy for your podcast to ensure a graceful transition and future success.

Thank you for your support!

Transcript

0:00

This is super relevant and I hope that everyone's tuning in really closely here. This is about overcoming imposter syndrome, right? So many of us feel this guilt or this whatever about being successful. And I love what you're saying. Ask for it. Connect. And then when the moment arises, don't think, Oh, do I deserve this? You just go for it. You, you ordered, you ordered the food. Now eat it kind of thing. Right. And I think that's a great way of putting it. Yeah, you've, you've, you've done the thing. Step into it. Stop thinking, do I deserve this? Is this right? No, no, no. Just go for it.

Brunson Smith: 1:03

It's Dr. Barrett. Thanks for coming on the show, man.

Barrett Matthews: 1:07

Man, I'm glad to be here. It's great to see you again, man.

Brunson Smith: 1:10

Likewise, likewise. Well, I kind of want everyone to hear about the Doctor story, because when you told it to me, I was like, this is the craziest story, so how did you go from Barrett Matthews to Dr. Barrett Matthews?

Barrett Matthews: 1:22

Okay, here we go. So I, I used to host an online radio show. It's called the Black CEO Morning Show. And one of my co hosts was Dr. Ruben West. And we have several other co hosts on there. And then we had one guest, his name was Dr. Clyde Rivers. And he has an organization called iChange Nations, and they promote. Civility all around the world. He just want everybody to be civil all around the world. It's a great organization. He does great work and then Dr. West who is a speakers coach? He did an event called black belt speakers because you're training in martial arts. He actually is a black belt martial arts actually like a really really award winning Martial artist, but he also trained speakers now He did this event called black belt speakers. Now. I'd been to the event before but he asked me, you know You If I was coming to the next one and I thought about it. I said, yeah, I'm coming. He confirmed with me that I was coming. So I said, yeah, I was coming. So I went there and it was totally different than the time before. This one was more like, it wasn't as much speaker training as it was kind of like an award ceremony. A lot of people were getting awards. And I remember sitting next to a friend of mine, Dr. Kinet Thigpen. And I asked her about an award. She said, yeah, we all kind of knew we were getting awards here. That's why we came. I said, oh, okay, cool. So they called her up. She got her award. And then they Dr. West, he gives up and he starts announcing this distinguished leadership award. And then he was, he was talking about the person getting an award. They've been active in a lot of things in leadership and they've been meeting a lot of people and so forth. And Dr. Rivers came up with them. And the person who got the award was me. And

Brunson Smith: 3:04

Oh.

Barrett Matthews: 3:05

I was shocked. And my friend, Gannett, she said, You didn't tell me you were getting an award. I said, I didn't know. I didn't know I was getting an award. Then, a little while later, I got another award. I, I, I, this was, that's, now I understand why Dr. West was confirming that I was coming. But, that's what, what happened. So, later, I That day I got a chance to sit with Dr. Rivers. We all had like, we had like 10 minutes to meet with him. And my 10 minutes ended up being 20. They literally had to pull us apart because we were just having that good of a meeting. And he, he was a visionary, really great stuff. Then we, we talked some more that, that night at the bar and he was telling me about the awards that I should get a press release done and so forth. And then I'm from the DC area. He was in D. C. He told me he was going to be in the area, so I met him in the lobby of the hotel. He was standing there. We talked for a while, and he said, I want you to write a book. And I thought, you know, I'd written a couple books before. I can write another book. He said, I want you to write this on execution. I said, okay. And he said, but I also want you to put more of an international feel to it. To let people know about doing business in other countries. And I said, okay. And he says, and it might even be, you know, an honorary doctorate in there for you. And I'm like, okay, you know, and he kind of looked at the expression on my face and he goes, you don't know who you're talking to, do you? And I said, I guess not. So long story short, I wrote the book and I sent him copies of it when he said he was going to distribute the book to different leaders all around the world that he meets with. And I'm, you know, I'm just flattered. I'm just like, wow, thank you. So COVID comes and around, it was April, 2020. I'm walking around my block, just getting some air, and my phone dings. And I look at my phone and it's a diploma, the one you see over my shoulder right here. And basically it says that I have received an honorary doctorate degree from the school in which he is the chancellor. I did not know who I was talking to.

Brunson Smith: 5:09

Oh my goodness.

Barrett Matthews: 5:11

He was the chancellor of the university. It's in Africa. He's the, he's the, he's the chancellor of the university. And then it dings again a couple minutes later and he made you see the plaque above that one the certificate above that one And he made me a world civility ambassador With his organization. I changed nations and that's pretty much how I became a doctor

Brunson Smith: 5:33

Wow, that is just wild. Well, and it,

Barrett Matthews: 5:36

it is it even gets further with

Brunson Smith: 5:37

the way that you've focused on giving, right? And that's something that I've, you know, from our conversation, it became really evident to me was that you've just, and I think, and I, I'd love to actually hear some of your thoughts on this and how people can grow a business through giving. But I, that's what I noticed. It was, it was so profound. It was like Barrett just is always seeking to serve and good things seem to find him. Do you have any, you have any more thoughts on that?

Barrett Matthews: 6:04

I I mean, I I agree that that's I, you know, there's different ways you can lead. I consider myself a servant leader and because I realized that as long as I focus on giving, God will bless me. And I'm not worried about the other things because God will take care of me because that's what he wants me to do. And that, and it's funny because prior to that event where I met with Dr. Rivers, And at the Black Belt Speakers event prior to that I had prayed that God would put me in position to make an impact in the world And then these things start coming and even still Dr. Rivers has been named a king now in a certain region of Ghana and he Asked me to be one of his royal advisors. So i'm actually royalty now. I'm a royal advisor to a king So it's like these these this is something I never dreamt would happen But I'm just serving and it's doing, doing what I'm, what I'm supposed to do, man. It's not, it's not about, you know, what can I get out of it? Because I'm just really just trying to make sure I don't mess it up. I just want to do the right thing. Let's do the right thing. Cause it's not something that I, I never, I never thought I would be in this position, but I'm stepping into it and I'm loving the opportunity to serve more and more people. Cause now I'm not just serving clients. I'm serving countries. And it's, it's a, it's a really big difference, but I think everyone should take an approach to, you know, figure out how they can serve others. That's

Brunson Smith: 7:40

100%. And I think that's, you know, it comes back to this concept of as long as the well is poison, it doesn't matter how much water you pull. It's always going to be bad. And people that have a what's in it for me mentality, sooner or later, no matter what kind of face or mask or show you put on, people are going to not want to be around you. You're, you're going to, you know, But if you pull from service and you're like, Hey, listen, money aside, I will do what's right for you because it's the right thing. I think that's something that I hope my listeners are really tuning into right now that you just said it's give first and crazy things happen in ways that you can't expect. You couldn't predict. Next thing you know, your royalty in Ghana, right? Like there's things like you, you couldn't have, you know, you could have written that up even, but it happened.

Barrett Matthews: 8:28

right. But you've got, you've got to be ready to step into it when it comes. When the blessings come, you've got to be ready to take hold and step into those things because I always say, you know, God gives us blessings and gifts. If we don't take advantage of them, he'll give them to someone else. And then we don't have that opportunity anymore. So you have to be ready to step into it. And yes, it's going to be uncomfortable. It may be scary, but As long as you take that first step, you know, the rest will, the rest will follow. It'll be fine.

Brunson Smith: 9:03

When you say be ready to step into it, what does that look like for you? What does it mean to be ready to be

Barrett Matthews: 9:09

Well, what I mean is this, when I, when I was first asked to be an advisor to the King, I was like blown away. I was like, me? Cause you know, there's that doubt that comes at night. Me? Why, why me? And that came with it. But I had to keep reminding myself, this is what you asked for. You know, this is what you prayed for. And now it's coming to fruition. So if you prayed for it, step into it and everything else. And it is funny because I decided to step into it, haven't had a problem. See that. What happens is a lot of us are led by anxiety and when it comes, when it, when we get a position or an offering to do something like this, anxiety makes us push back or push away from it. And because we're thinking, well, what if this happens? What if that happens? And it's funny, one of my mentors Dr. Myron Golden, he says, you know, anxiety is the biggest cause of procrastination. And he also says that anxiety is also something that's make believe. We always say, what if this happens? It's not happening. We made it up in our head. So I had to tell myself, look, stop worrying about, can I do this? Can I not do it? I was chosen to do this. So that means that people believe I can do this. That also believes that God is answering my prayer so God believes I can do this, which is even more important than what the people believe. So I stepped into it, but I had to get my mind ready to do that. And I've had people ask me, so are you going to do it? Are you going to do it? I said, I have to do this. This is what I was called to do. I have to do this and I'm like, so excited about, you know, what's to come with it, the things that we're going to do, the lives we're going to help and, you know, the changes we're going to put into place that make things better for other people. So I'm just excited about this, doing that and stepping into that.

Brunson Smith: 11:08

I, I love that. And this is actually, you know, it's funny. This wasn't necessarily what we planned about talking today or what we planned on talking about today, but this is super relevant. And I hope that everyone's tuning in really closely here. This is about overcoming imposter syndrome, right? So many of us feel this guilt or this whatever about being successful. And I love what you're saying. Ask for it, connect. And then when the moment arises, don't think, Oh, do I deserve this? You just go for it. You, you ordered, you ordered the food. Now eat it. Kind of thing. Right.

Barrett Matthews: 11:40

it. Great way of putting it. I like that. It's a great way of putting it. Mm

Brunson Smith: 11:46

You've, you've, you've done the thing. Step into it. Stop thinking, do I deserve this? This is right. Right. No, no, no. Just go for it. And I think that that's so critical. And I've suffered a lot with imposter syndrome. You know, who am I to do this? Who am I to do that? You know, I'm sure for you, who am I to be the royal advisor? You asked for it. Just go for it. And in, in my, in my own theology, there's a really cool phrase. And it's, you know, God will, will shape the back to bear the burden. I know some of our listeners, you know, they all believe their own way, but the universe, whatever you want to say, but I really do believe things will be shaped. your back will be shaped to bear the burdens that are put on it. And so I love that. Step into it and just go for it and stop worrying about whether or not you deserve it or whether or not it's, you know, you can do it. It all comes together. So well, let's, let's kind of shift gears here a little bit. So I want to talk a little about one of your other great gifts communication and, and speaking specifically. As you've done, I mean, you've, you've had an extensive career in this, But I'm kind of curious if you were talking to someone who's let's just say they've got 50 episodes published on their podcast and they're trying to really level up their skills in speaking and communicating, what kind of things come to mind that would really help them move in that direction?

Barrett Matthews: 13:00

One thing is don't be afraid to invest in yourself what I did. I Invested in training from from speaker coaches. I Literally in one year went to three separate speaker coaches And I did that because I know they all taught different things one taught me how to You my my presentation and how to pull presentations from almost anything in life and how to convey it succinctly. Another one told me how to own the stage and how to just make the audience want to pay attention to me no matter what I was doing whether whether it's a two minute presentation or two hour presentation. The other one taught me how to sell from the stage how to make money from the stage So I did that all in one year because I wanted I knew they taught different things and they were all successful So I wanted to learn from each one of them and put that into what I do So I tell people if you want to really get better at speaking Go to people who are doing and doing it well and learn from them But be willing to invest in yourself, you know You can't expect people to invest in you if you're not willing to invest in you

Brunson Smith: 14:11

I love that. As far as it, let's just say, you know, we've got coaches, is there any particular programs? I mean, Toastmasters, any of those, do you recommend any of those? Or do you specifically say, Hey, go find an actual mentor.

Barrett Matthews: 14:24

I mean, I, I always recommend Toastmasters to people. I, I've never gone through Toastmasters, but I know several people who have because one, one of the things that one of my coaches taught me is that if you have an opportunity to speak, speak. So, when you're, when someone says to you, hey, is anybody here that wants to say a few words? Raise your hand. Get up and speak because you never know what's happening. I remember doing that on conference calls because I remembered that I was on conference calls and the person at the end and we've all done this for a person at the end will say Hey, does anyone have any questions or comments at the end? I might not have had any comments or questions, but I did give I did say hey, I want to thank you And I I want to say this I want to say that whatever about what I heard Because i've had this happen a few times Someone has said to me Hold on, you're Barrett Matthews. Weren't you, I remember you on the call, on the conference call, because I said that so you never know what you saying, that's a few words, may do to someone. It may inspire them to want to talk to you further. It may want to, it may make them want to follow you for what you're doing. So by you getting out there and spreading your, spreading your message no matter how big or how small it is on a platform when someone gives you an opportunity, take it. That don't hog it take it just take the opportunity. I remember someone talking about the the clubhouse app And when someone invites you on clubhouse to say a few words Say a few words And then make then leave some something of a of a mic drop statement and then leave Because as you know on clubhouse people can follow you and then they can decide if they want to get together with you But if you hog the whole mic when it wasn't your clubhouse, it leaves a bad impression on people. So make sure you give, you know, succinct points, speak, and get off of there. But as far as your question, Toastmasters, any other types of speaking organizations that give you an opportunity to not only hone your skills, but an opportunity to speak. I strongly suggest taking advantage of it, because that's the only way you're going to get better is by doing it.

Brunson Smith: 16:37

I love that. I love that. And something, you know, that I've learned as well is that As you, as you kind of open your mouth, sometimes words will appear, right? And that's, you know, for those that are a little bit hesitant and have some communication skills, I love that. It's just like, just talk. Just get yourself out there and get those repetitions in.

Barrett Matthews: 17:00

And one thing, the more you're around people who really know what they're doing. Like I mentioned, I, I studied under Dr. Ruben West. Dr. West, he did one thing that made me very well, very aware of verbal fillers, like ums and ahs and so forth. Because what we would do, we'd have all these people in a room, maybe 50 to 60 people in a room. And if you're speaking. And you say, and the whole room would go

Brunson Smith: 17:29

Oh

Barrett Matthews: 17:29

you say the whole room goes so you become very aware that you're, that you're saying it because now you don't want the whole room repeating it.

Brunson Smith: 17:40

That's the course I need to take. I am so bad about my ums and ahs. Oh. It's funny. Well, this is, this is another thing to do too. If for those listening at home right now, if you ever put your, your your audio into descript or anything that transcribes what you're talking about. It's so funny. Cause I, I have almost a metric now. How many ums and ahs does the script say I have? And it's, it's hilarious because it's always a ton, but I've, I'm becoming a little more aware of it, a little more careful. And it's funny, I'm seeing that number get a little smaller each and every time. So yeah, that's definitely, I mean, in some ways that's one way. So for those of you that are, that are listening to maybe even edit your own audio yet, you're, you're going to know you're going to know for sure. So that's wonderful. Another question I had for you, how do you, how do we really create an awesome strategy podcasts? We're going to kind of kind of shift gears over to the podcasting space. Same situation. We've got someone who really wants to become a pretty good podcaster. Their goal is not just to grow and be large. And that's my audience, hopefully, right? I hope you're all listening. The goal is not to get tons of likes. The goal is to make conversion. We can have a small audience, but still kill it anyway. So for someone in that situation, you talked a little about, about kind of an exit strategy. What kind of advice would you give someone in terms of here's how to prepare for an exit? Here's what exiting should look like in terms of podcasting. What thoughts do you have there?

Barrett Matthews: 19:19

well, as far as your podcast, if your, if your goal is to, to convert and make money with it, you have to embrace sales. That's the one thing you have to, I hear people say, I don't like sales. And I always tell people when they say that to me, I said, you're lying. There's not a person on earth who has made a sale and said, I hated that. So you, you don't hate sales. You may hate. Rejection. And I get that nobody likes to be rejected, but no one hates sales. So first change the language around that. Now, if you can embrace the fact that sales are good, because there's nothing that you have right now without sales, then you can go into it, into your podcast saying, okay, I can use this as a method of which I can make sales. If you have a product or service and I've had people ask me this before brunch and they go well Can I sell on my podcast and I say you better? It's your podcast. It's yours. You better sell what you do on your podcast Now this does not mean you stuff it down their face every chance you get You give them a lot of value give them tons of value and then you can make an offer To get people to, to purchase something. What else you can do is have guests on your podcast who may have a product or service and you can be an affiliate of theirs. That's another way to make money. A lot of people make money just doing that all the time on their podcast. You can also have guests on your podcast and make them affiliates of your products. So when they leave, they can offer something, but you can, you can, you can always find a way to do that on your podcast. Now. Another thing you can do is have sponsors. Have people that run ads on your podcast. Now, some of the podcast hosting sites do dynamic ads, where they will put sponsors in your podcast, and you can make some money off of it. Then you can actually go out and get sponsors. Now, the, the populace in podcasting would have you do a method that I really don't think works for most people, which is You get a certain number of downloads on your podcast and you'll attract sponsors. This is true, but the number of downloads you have to get is kind of ridiculous because most people aren't going to get that. And you're talking Joe Rogan numbers and stuff. Most people aren't going to get that. But here's the thing. Most of us, we know people who have businesses. Talk to the people that you know who have businesses. Ask them, Hey, would you like to be a sponsor on my podcast? You can have a season. I'll put commercial on my podcast for a certain period of time every week for a certain number of time. And you pay me for that. It's a lot less than they pay for radio in most cases, and they can still get, get people's eyes and ears on what they do. Another thing instead of sponsors is partnerships. Now people like to think that's the same thing. It's totally different. For instance, A sponsor, I may be running a commercial for them on my podcast every week. A partner, not only am I running a, a, a commercial for them, I'm listing them as a partner. In my emails, in every communication, if I'm speaking on a stage, I'm listing them as my partner. I may have a banner up for them, because my job for that partner is to get them clients. Not just to give them exposure. I'm looking for clients that I am working for them. So I, so what they're going to invest to do that is going to be a lot more than what a sponsor would. But these are other ways you can make money. Now you can do all of these. You can be all of these on your podcast to make money and make it so that it can just cycle itself so that you can have it working for you. Now, and that's to your question about exiting. You can also, cool. Have other, and I know this may sound strange to people, but you can have other hosts of your podcast. If you brand your podcast to where it is an entity in itself and it doesn't revolve around you, if it's the entity of itself, so you can have other hosts for the podcast while you can go do other things. You can make it your job just to go around finding partners while the other person hosts the show. And it just takes out some, some time that you have to host the show. You can have that other person find the guest or whatever, however you want to do it. But the thing is, you can focus on other things, like making money for the podcast, while other people are hosting the podcast. It doesn't necessarily have to revolve around you. It can be the brand of the podcast itself. So, those are ways that you can, you can actually convert. And you can, you know, one, one other thing I forgot to mention. You want to do video. You wanna do video, and I say specifically YouTube, post your episodes to YouTube, but why is that important? As I mentioned, the populace would have us believe we have to get a lot of downloads, our audio downloads. Here's the problem with that. I could get a hundred thousand audio downloads and I don't know how to follow up with one of them because I don't get any information from them. I can have a YouTube channel. And if Brunson subscribes to my YouTube channel, I get a notification saying Brunson Smith subscribed to your YouTube channel. So now I can reach back out to Brunson and say, Hey man, welcome to the podcast. Hey, I got a free gift for you. Click here to get it. Once he clicked there, I can have a landing page. I got his information. Now he's in my cycle. I can follow up with him. Whereas I can't just do that with audio. So I'll be honest. I would rather have a hundred subscribers on YouTube than a hundred thousand downloads on audio. I know that sounds crazy because they're teaching get the downloads but I can follow if I can follow up with someone I can make a sale.

Brunson Smith: 25:02

Yeah, yes

Barrett Matthews: 25:04

yeah, so in answer to your question that's what I have for them.

Brunson Smith: 25:07

Yeah, it's again. Do you want likes or do you want dollars? And that's I think the question people have to ask themselves is that

Barrett Matthews: 25:13

I like dollars.

Brunson Smith: 25:15

exactly. Right. And that's, I spoke to Josh Tapp about this and that's what he taught me early on as well as, Hey, listen, you can be famous or you can be rich. So pick one.

Barrett Matthews: 25:23

pick one,

Brunson Smith: 25:23

some people can do both. He's like, but really you got to pick one strategy or the other.

Barrett Matthews: 25:27

Yeah, I learned about partnerships from Josh and from Justin Shank.

Brunson Smith: 25:31

yeah, okay, yeah, exactly, exactly. Exactly. Well, thank you so much Barrett for coming on the show, sharing your insight. For those that want to get in touch with you and want to learn more about it's boss media, correct?

Barrett Matthews: 25:45

Media Boss, Media Boss

Brunson Smith: 25:46

Media boss. Excuse me. Media boss pro. What's the best way for them to get in touch with you or learn more about what you do?

Barrett Matthews: 25:53

They can simply go to MediaBossPro. com. It's real simple. Or you can hit me at Dr. Barrett Matthews on LinkedIn as well.

Brunson Smith: 26:00

Awesome.

Barrett Matthews: 26:00

a time to talk. We can schedule a time to talk.

Brunson Smith: 26:03

Awesome. And I'll put a plug in here. Bear is just one of the most genuine guys you'll talk to. I mean, if you want someone who's just like, feels so human, this is your guy. So big shout out to you on that and just massive props for.

Barrett Matthews: 26:17

Same to

Brunson Smith: 26:17

being just a good human being. I think that's,

Barrett Matthews: 26:19

you, buddy.

Brunson Smith: 26:20

thank you. Thank you. Yeah. That comes through very clear with everyone that meets with you. So thanks for listening everyone. And thanks for coming on the show.

Barrett Matthews: 26:30

Thank you, man. Appreciate you.