Imagine being able to take your talents that you have went to school and learned from your parents all your life and being able to work on activities that generate you not only money, but lifelong happiness and freedom. In Part 1 of this 2-part interview, our guest Matthew Roda shares how his influence with the marketing and fitness industries were shaped by his upbringing, but how it ultimately fueled his life up to the present. The exciting conclusion will leave us all asking this question: what was the true motivation behind all the success he has achieved?

Guest Bio

Matthew Roda is the founder and co-owner of RODAmarketing.com - a digital marketing agency that serves clients nationwide. He's also the co-owner of Signer57.com - a pro-America and pro-freedom apparel and lifestyle brand. Matthew is also the founder of TheBattlefieldAlliance.com. He has one published book called "How To Take Down Goliath & Unleash Your Inner Hero". Matthew has a loving and beautiful wife, Helen, and four precious children - Caroline, Amelia, Lily and Miles. They also share their home with their two energetic dogs Athena and Buddy Boy. When Matthew isn't spending time with his family, or working on his businesses, you can find him in his home gym training, or out running trails.

Matthew's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/917680869527118

Matthew's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/matthewroda

Matthew's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebattlefieldprojectpodcast

Matthew's Website: https://matthewroda.com/

Visit Our Website: https://speaking-from-the-heart.captivate.fm/

Visit Our Business Website: https://www.yourspeakingvoice.biz

Support The Mission Of The Business! Donate Here: https://speaking-from-the-heart.captivate.fm/support

Intro/Outro By: Michael Dugan, Podcast Host: Voice4Chefs

Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

This is Speaking From The Heart.

Welcome to part one of episode 26 of Speaking from the Heart, and

yes, it is another two part episode, and I am really enthralled to

share Matthew Roda with all of you.

Matthew is the founder and co-owner of rodamarketing.com, which

is a digital marketing agency that serves clients nationwide.

He's also the co-owner of signer57.com, S I G N E R 57,

and that is a pro-America and pro freedom apparel and lifestyle brand.

He's also the founder of thebattlefieldalliance.com.

He has a published book called How to Take Down Goliath and Unleash Your Inner Hero.

He has a loving and beautiful wife, Helen, which we will certainly talk

about a lot more in part two about her influence over Matthew's life,

and they also have four children: Caroline, Amelia, Lily, and Miles.

When he isn't spending time with family, or working on all these different

businesses that he has, you're going to find him in gyms or even running

the trail, and that is something that we really get into during part one,

not only talking about the businesses that he has started, but why he has

started all these numerous amounts of businesses in which all add

different value, but I will say this.

This sets up the premise for what we'll eventually talk about, which I

will share with you on the other side.

But until then, let's go to the episode.

All right.

We're here with Matthew Roda.

Matthew, thanks for sharing your heart with us today.

I appreciate being here, man.

I'm excited to share one's journey with you, man.

Absolutely.

This has been a journey, and I know all about that when it comes to all

the things that I'm doing, but when I'm looking at your bio, I almost ran out

of breath because of how much you're doing, and the audience heard a lot

about specifically what you're doing, so my very first question is, when you

have all these things that are going on in your life right now, what do you

say is the most important thing, if there was an important thing, that you

enjoyed doing the most and why is that?

It's an extremely easy question for me to answer, and as you kind of

got about three quarters of the way through the question, I got my angel

bumps, and people call 'em goosebumps, but someone I'm very close with and I

love and admire calls 'em angel bumps, so I now refer to 'em as angel bumps,

answers family first.

I love building businesses.

I love helping people succeed in business.

I love fitness and nutrition, all the stuff that you read on my bio,

but without family, all that would just kind of crumble around me,

and it would mean very, very little to me, so what do I love the most?

Family.

What do I love doing the most?

Spending time with my family.

That's an awesome answer because for me, I don't have that family other

than my parents and things of that nature.

Yeah.

I'm a single guy and hanging out there, so, I know that

for some of us that are listening to this, it can be challenging

to maybe have that inspiration-

Yeah.

-And I love hearing that.

With that said, I had a guest on a while ago that we talked about his

gym and we talked about fitness.

My question to you is, since you do a lot of fitness also as part of your endeavors-

mm-hmm.

What do you say is the most important advice to somebody that is

starting out, maybe it's been a few years, and maybe that person is me

who's asking to do that right now.

Yeah.

And you're trying to get that momentum going, what do you say

to them to help jumpstart or really defibrillate that opportunity for them?

Yeah, so I think the most important thing to start with is know

why you want to accomplish that or why you want to start doing that, because

without that purpose and vision of who you want to become and why you want

to become that person, you're going to start down the path and then the smallest

little headache or hiccups just going to completely derail you because you

don't have that strong purpose pulling you, and then once you know why that is,

for me, it's creating daily disciplines and it's sticking to those disciplines

whether I'm motivated to do them or not.

It's just a matter of, "Hey, you know, for me it's working out twice a day."

As an example, this afternoon, like four o'clock rolled around,

I really did not want to work out because my family was gone.

I was just hanging out on the couch, working with my laptop and I was like,

"Oh, I just want to stay on the couch and continue to work", but I knew I

wouldn't be as happy with myself come later tonight, knowing that I just made

a decision not to work out because I felt like in the moment I didn't want

to work out, so it's know why you want to become that person and have that

vision of who you know you can be, and then create daily disciplines that you

know you can stay consistent with, and then obviously the finisher there is

stay consistent with it no matter what.

Just do not allow yourself to derail your own efforts because that's your

biggest enemy will be you on that journey.

That leads into a great question that I thought of as you were

saying that, so with that level of consistency, I know that you said family

is a big important factor for that.

Yes.

So even with all of that said, what drives you to do all this, because

obviously you could work on one of these things and say, "This is where I'm

going to spend my time in", but you're spreading yourself so that you can make

as much maximum impact as possible.

Yeah.

So what motivates you then?

You just said the word, which is impact.

I live my life on a daily basis to plant as many seeds of positivity as possible,

and I do that by what I consider living a life where I'm leading by example and

I'm doing my best on a daily basis to lift others up, so the more I can have my

hands in multiple things, and again making sure I'm executing on those things to a

degree of where I find self-satisfaction in it, but also creates some kind of

success whether it's a feeling that I get that generates from what I'm doing

or financial success or helping others success, whatever that definition of

success is in those endeavors making sure that it aligns with my purpose.

When it comes to fitness specifically, I want to be around as long as

humanly possible for my family.

I got started late, you know, we had our first child.

I was 35.

We just had our third and fourth, third twins that are going

to turn one in three weeks.

We just had them last year, so I was 40 when they were born,

or I was 39, about to turn 40.

I'm kind of late to the game in terms of fatherhood, so I'm going to be the

60 year old dad who has like kids like just finishing high school, and I'm cool

with that and I embrace that notion but I also know with that comes by standards

of like you live to a certain age and most people die at a certain age.

I want to make sure I extend that as far into the future as possible

because I want as many years on this earth with my families.

I'm able to be blessed with.

I'll say this.

My parents also had me late.

I was the last child of really three kids.

Mm-hmm.

I had a half sister.

I also have a fully related sister, but they had me late too, and I know

that for them, especially as now, I just turned 36 earlier this year.

Yeah.

I know it can be very tough for us to take care of my parents or get

involved, especially as more recently they had a lot of health issues that

related to what they were going through.

Yep.

Even with that said, being a fitness person that you are I almost

want to call you a fitness expert just looking at you, you make me feel like

my muscles are quivering and I need to work out, it's like, "Let's do this."

Yeah.

No, I'll never preach to you, but yeah.

No, no, absolutely no.

Please preach to me because my gym owner, that buddy that would probably

be listening to this and say, "Yeah, you need to listen to him.

You need to get back in here right now."

Yep.

Even with that said, being a fitness expert, I see that especially in

America, which most of my listeners are from, we're really worried about as we get

older, there's a lot of health issues and I feel like even as a society, we're still

battling a lot of those health issues too.

I actually suffer from obesity as a result-

yeah.

Because of just poor choices that I've made, so I'm

just one of those statistics.

Yeah.

So, with all that said, what are your thoughts about this big

epidemic, especially in America, maybe even some parts of the

world when it comes to overeating-

Yeah.

Even having poor choices when it comes to food options, what is some

of the advice you would give to a client of yours that is working with you?

Yeah.

I would say the best thing I've ever done with, in regards to my relationship

with food is I've started viewing it as fuel, so to me, what I'm putting in

my body, yeah, and I eat, so I'll give you a real quick breakdown of what I

eat on a daily basis 95% of the time.

All right, I'm ready.

I'm going to write this down because I know that's going to help me.

Yeah, yeah.

Ground beef.

I eat a ton of ground beef, probably like, half a pound to a pound a day

crushed up and I put salt all over it.

Feta cheese.

To me it's delicious, like I look forward to it.

Then I'll eat yogurt, so whole fat yogurt with peanut butter granola on it.

It's like my favorite snack in the world, so I look forward to that.

I eat like two bowls of that a day, one bowl sometimes, but depending

on how intense my two workouts were, sometimes I get two bowls in.

Then my wife is wonderful.

She cooks almost every night of the week, so I have like a homemade meal

and it's nine times outta 10 it's pretty darn healthy, and if there's a

piece of it where I don't need a thick creamy pasta tonight because it's not

fuel, I'll say no to that and then I'll choose beef again, or I'll have

some chicken or something like that, like a lean protein, and then fruits.

Sometimes it's blueberries with honey, sometimes, right now watermelon just

came in season, so I crushed a huge bowl of watermelon before this podcast,

like it's fruits, so, I would say when you look at food as a source of energy

for your body to then go out into the world and do the good that you want to

do, you have to be operating at your own peak level, and in order to do that,

you have to give your body peak fuel.

I used to yo-yo with my diet, until I got pretty serious about it which would be

like Monday to Friday, pretty disciplined.

Saturday, Sunday, like completely off the rails, cheeseburger, subs, ice

cream, chips, like as much chocolate as I could find, like I love candy.

I love the sweets.

I love sugar, unfortunately, it's a drug.

I say no to it because I don't want to give it control over me.

It's kind of like a struggle for power in some ways, and it's like, "Am I going

to let food win and be more powerful than me, or am I as the human being and like

the one in control of my destiny, my fate?

Am I stronger than food?", and when you'd look at it like that, for me

it's kind of giving food, the middle finger, sometimes it's being like,

you're not going to take me off my path because would it taste good right now?

Of course, for the next 30 minutes I'd be salivating over a cheeseburger sub.

It would taste so delicious, but an hour later I'm going to be like, " Ugh.

I didn't need that and it didn't fuel me in any positive way."

Yeah, and I know that I've made those choices myself: "Oh, that

cheese steak looks really good smothered with onions and mushrooms and cheese-

Yep.

-And the sauce.

Oh, yeah, I know what you mean because those can be all tempting aspects.

Yeah.

And, it's encouraging to hear you talk about operating at

your peak flow, because I talk about that with many of my clients that I

have relating to life coaching where-

Yeah.

-Where they're looking at essentially changing their perspective

and sometimes that perspective has been with negative fuel, so they're

essentially not feeding themselves with the thoughts that are necessary, and

I try to work through them that not only is it something that you can help

establish good goals so that you're helping yourself get back on that track,

but you also have healthy relationships.

Yeah.

But, that makes me want to pivot on what you also do.

I know that you run a digital marketing agency firm, and I had a guest-

Correct.

Before that talked about fractional CMO and all those great things

that he works in that sort of business.

Yeah.

Tell me, What makes you stand out from many digital media

companies, because I'll be honest.

Yeah, I can give a shout out to my media company right now.

Unfortunately, it's not you; maybe you can make a case to me to switch, but

I think that all of us bring a unique flair when it comes to marketing,

and I'm just kind of curious what's the backstory with that for you?

I love your question and I enjoy answering this question because

I always say you could walk outside, throw a rock and hit an agency at

this point, a marketing agency.

When I started this business in 2010, I learned everything in San Diego where

I moved after college, brought that skillset and knowledge back here, started

the business with my brother in 2010.

There was like one or two agencies locally that we were competing with, but it was

kind of like the wild west out here.

Now all of a sudden, everybody's a digital marketing expert and I respect that and

more power to the marketplace for creating that need and then having professionals

want to help other businesses grow, so I'm all for healthy competition.

What I've always said differentiates us because, all the techniques

are generally the same.

You run Google ads, you do SEO, and as long as you do the right things,

you're playing the game properly.

You got to post on social media.

You got to be responsive with your reputation management, like you got to

do email marketing to nurture the leads.

There's nothing groundbreaking that I can share in terms of like, here's a strategy

we implement that no one else does that gets all the results, but I can't share

it with you because it's our secret sauce.

The reason we've succeeded for 13 years now and grown every single year except

one, we had a little bit of a dip, but 12 out of 13 years we've grown incrementally.

It's the relationships that we build with our clients;

point blank, plain and simple.

We treat our clients like family from day one.

They know that their success is our success, that we're in it for the right

reasons, because if we don't help them make money, they're not going

to continue to pay us money, so, like selfishly, but not really because our

intent is pure with that conversation is we want to help you succeed.

We want to be your partner for the next 10, 15 years, and we want that

partnership to kind of overflow from just a service provider into friends and

those are the clients that we have that we enjoy working with the most are the

ones that I've got on my cell phone that occasionally we text back and forth.

They invite us to their Christmas parties, like it's a genuine

relationship that we've built with them as opposed to just, "Here's a check.

Here's your tasks that we completed.

Good luck out there.", like we really intertwine ourselves

interpersonal lives as well.

When you're saying that you treat them like family and you're

intertwined them and you're actually interacting with them, does that mean

you're sending thank you cards in the mail and saying, "Hey, congratulations,

thanks for your business," or, "Hey, I know that you're having a kid.

Good job with having that kid."

I mean, obviously it's not like that, but-

Yeah, so you bring it up, like, I have to write this tomorrow.

We just got a new client and it's a buddy of mine who's been friends

on Facebook for a couple years.

We hired his firm to do some stuff for some of our clients

and they just hired us.

It's a handwritten thank you note just again the extra mile.

We know they're having a birthday.

It's happy birthdays.

It's they had a kid, it's all the best sending flowers, like we just

had a, and she's not even a client anymore, but she's a good friend

of mine, she was a client of ours.

Her father-in-law just passed.

It's sending flowers to her because it's human to human, like

that's the right thing to do.

Whether or not she ever comes back and pays us, I don't really care.

It doesn't make or break our business, but that friendship means something to

me and letting her know that we genuinely care means something to me, so it's

those extra ways, extra touchpoints that are outside of business that let

those business owners know that we're not just in it to collect a paycheck.

It's kind of like your show, Speaking From The Heart.

It's a heart to heart connection, and that's, to me, service-based business,

product-based, business friends, family clients, whatever, like if you

connect heart to heart, it's worth it.

It's genuine and it's worthwhile.

Matt, I'm touched by that, because even for myself, I often think

about what can I do to make an impact without feeling like I'm intruding or-

mm-hmm.

I'm making a negative impact on that person.

I'm just curious, have you ever had somebody say, "Why are you doing this?

Why the time?

Why the effort?", because I'm sure that there are skeptics

out there that are essentially saying the direct opposite of you-

Yeah.

And saying, "Well, that's not making your bottom line look any better."

I know you said that it's been growth 12 out of those 13 years,

but, I guess my question is why is this motivation coming from you?

Yeah.

In other words, why are you doing that from your heart?

Yeah.

To actually ask you the literal question of this show.

Yeah.

It's the right thing to do, and I maybe I was born and raised, I'd say more

raised that way, but born intuitively with that instinct to do that and live

like that but also then raised by my parents with the very solid upbringing.

Respect each other.

Do what's right even if no one's watching, do it, like all those, what I call like

fundamental good human being qualities I was raised to kind of embody and to be

proud of more so than sports victories or good grades., it was like be a good

person is like number one on the list of things my parents wanted all four of their

kids to grow up to be, and again, I say selfishly, but I know that's not it, but

it makes me feel good, like, why do I do it?, Because it makes me feel good and

then because of that, then I instinctively believe that they also feel good, and

then when they extend opportunities, like our one client who's been a

client for years, she's an audiologist.

If one of our kids has an ear ache, she'll come over, pick up her kids from

school, she'll come over to our house with her kit and look in their ears to

see if we should go to the ER if they need some drops or whatever, and she

invited us to a Christmas party on the Strassburg Railroad, like all six of us.

It's just, it feels good, like why do I do it?

Because it feels good and it feels right, and that's, I operate every

part of my life like that whether it's relationship with my wife, my

kids, this conversation with you.

If it feels right and it's a good intention, go all in on it.

I often say to people too, that it's not just about having the

touchpoints, meaning, "Well, I'm going to get out my phone, make sure

I schedule some time to follow up with Matt because I know I need to.

Yeah.

It's about the random times.

It might be eight o'clock at night.

Yeah.

It might be doing it three o'clock in the afternoon

on a Saturday and saying, "Hey.

Are you okay?

I haven't heard from you in a while and I want you to know that

you are being thought of right now and that's really important too.

Absolutely.

I know that I struggle with that.

That's something that I'm working on myself personally, and that has

helped me so much with just fostering some of the friendships that I have

maybe tainted or have created some of that toxicity because let's face

it, we're both humans and we do that.

Yep.

It makes me think of this, so when you were talking about your

parents in this upbringing, I know you started an apparel; a lifestyle brand.

I want you to talk about that, but I want you to wrap it into: did your parents

have any influence on this in terms of indirectly of why you started that,

because when I was reading this and looking at your website, I'm thinking,

"There has to be a reason also to venture into this", because, I mean,

doing fitness that we've talked about so far, talking about being part of

marketing, why all this apparel stuff now, like, it just boggles my mind.

Yeah.

I can't take credit for having started Signer 57.

That's my buddy Jeff, my business partner.

He started it probably like six months, and he was running with it.

He is an immigrant from Canada, who's now like a legal citizen of

the us but that was, I should know this, but I think like maybe seven

or 10 years ago, he became a citizen.

He really deeply appreciates what America stands for and

the freedom that it offers him.

That's why he started it and he also is a patriot through and through and like

he can't stand to see kind of like the direction part of the country's heading

in and some of like the overall messaging being shared and all that stuff, so this

was his planting his flag in the sand and being like, this is what I stand

for and I want the world to know it.

I saw him posting about it a couple times and through a group that I'm

part of, Apex, I reached out to him.

I was like, "Hey, Jeff, like, can I get in on this business?

It embodies who I am.

The vocal, I want to be vocal about my pride in America and being a good

dad and father and like just that true patriot.", and he was like, "Yeah, dude.

Let's join forces and let's do it."

Did my parents have anything to do with that?

Neither of my parents were entrepreneurs.

I had no business owners in any of my family, like extended family, so

I never got the bug from any of them.

I had to learn it on my own when I went out to California and I realized

there's a whole different world out there besides the nine to five, but I think

again, why do we have that relationship with our clients heart to heart?

I think that's a lot to do with how I was raised and how great my parents are and

were but same thing for the apparel thing.

Directly, no, but indirectly, yes, because they raised me to be a strong,

independent human being and think for myself, and they encourage that.

For me to now like plant my flag and say, I'm pro-America, I'm pro freedom,

I'm pro making your own choices.

I'm pro Constitution; like all the above.

I love saying that, and I said that during the beginning of COVID and through

COVID and, and I took a lot of arrows for it from people being like, a lot of

negativity was spewed at me and I was fine with it because I know who I am.

I know I lead from my heart.

I know I live with good intentions.

I know I want what's best for everybody, and if my message is perceived by others

in a different way, that has more to do with how they're perceiving my message

and what they're doing with it internally than the intent that I was sharing it.

My parents indirectly have a fingerprint, a solid print, on

everything that I do in my life.

I love the fact that you said just now that these are the things I believe

in, I'm standing with them, and this is an easy question then to tie into all

this because you're absolutely right.

There are people out there that would absolutely vehemently tear you down, and

here at Speaking At The Heart, we don't judge based on any of that, because I

think everybody, no matter what your background is, it's truly important for

you to see your true version of yourself.

That's the mission of Your Speaking Voice, the business that I started earlier

this year, I think we're all entitled to that, so I work with everybody.

Absolutely.

And obviously I don't condone violence or anything of that nature,

and I know that for many people, they often think that that's the answer, so

when you are getting that hatred, especially with representing

what your business partner, Jeff had started with the apparel business, does

that make you feel like sometimes you take a step back and say, "You know,

I don't know why I made this decision.

I really don't think this was a good idea.", or do you have any self-doubt?

And if you do, what's the script that you run through, or what are some

of the talking points that you give yourself, or maybe you have somebody

else that you talk to about this that kind of puts it back into perspective.

Can you walk us through what that is because for my audience, I think

it's really helpful to learn about what some people do to process

that, because some of us don't even have a structure to begin with and-

Mm-hmm.

I think it's really thoughtful and considerate to hear you say this, and I

really want to hear your thoughts on that, so I'll give you a few minutes for that.

Does it cause me to doubt the decision I've made, does like the

negativity and call it hate, because some of it was very hateful that spewed at me

for two and a half years when everything was pretty public eye, and everybody was

agitated by everybody and no one was, everybody was the enemy of everybody.

It was just a bad spot to be in.

No, I never like, to me I'm very self-confident, like I know what I

stand for, why I stand for it, and you can't sway me off that path.

You would have to take like a tractor trailer and like blindside

me for, to knock me off my path.

That being said, did it affect me?

Yes.

Did it majorly affect me?

On a handful of occasions.

I'm very transparent, like there was one or two times I went and like, I was

showering and I just started crying, and it was because I can't believe people

are saying these things about me, like people I went to high school with direct

messaging me saying like, you're this, this, this, and that, and I'm like, 'No,

I'm not, I can't believe A, you think that B you're taking the time to send

that to me," and I'm very good at, I kind of walk around and like live with

like what I consider like a force field bubble around my energy field, like I

allow in what I want because it feeds my soul, it feeds my purpose, and if it's

negativity and it's not helping me grow and it, I'm not feeling fulfilled by it,

I'm very good at deflecting and just not letting that energy get into my space.

That being said, when it's constant and it's vile and it's like you have to open

up the message; you don't have to, but like you see a message, you open it up.

It's kind of like, oh, I just saw it, like, I just absorbed it.

Whether or not I wanted it, I just got it.

It did seep through, like some of it made its way through, and, you know, I'm like

a, I am a sensitive human being, like I sense my way through the world, like I

used my feelings to make decisions and stuff like that, so being wired in such

a way that it definitely had a couple times where I was just like, "This sucks."

I want those people to know my intent and like how do I express that, and after the

one like pretty big cry session in the shower, I reached out to one person that

was an online enemy of mine for like two years, and I did my very best to like,

I know we disagree, like I tried to like extend the olive branch and like let 'em

know that like I want what's best for them and like, I know they don't agree

with my views and how I'm sharing a message and stuff, but like, I think you

know me as a human being like, embrace the good in me and even if it's, there's

a little bit what you consider bad, is that really worth saying all this negative

stuff and try to navigate those waters to no, you know, avail, but that made me

feel okay, and that's how I process it.

If I don't let stuff stick in me, like that negativity, if it

gets in me, I meditate every day.

Starting this year I started to read the Bible once every day I read a devotional.

I'm always outside with the dogs walking, getting sunshine and fresh air, so I just

constantly pour good content in, and feed myself good content, so in those rare

moments that negativity does accidentally get to me, it's quick in and out, like

I don't wake up the next day with it.

I don't carry it with me for days or weeks at a time.

I'd be lying if I said it never got to me, because of course it does.

We're all human, but I've done a pretty good job creating some thick

skin over the years and still being kind and caring and sincerely wanting

what's best for everybody else.

Wow.

I am blown away by that answer because many people would be, "Well, I'm just

going to just delete them and not have anything to do with it," or, "I'm going

to hit the delete button on this message.

I just don't want any of that negativity," or they isolate themselves.

They ghost.

That is a really popular concept nowadays where you just don't hear from them ever

again because you really offended them and they don't want to say anything back.

This leads into something that I saw on your website that directly feeds into

this, and it's one of your favorite quotes, and it's from Stephen Covey,

where it says "What you do has far greater impact than what you say."

Yeah.

Can you tie that into what you just said, because I think that has

some big ramifications for my audience.

Yeah.

It's living, it's leading by example.

I could get online and share all the motivational quotes and I could say all

the right things and I could inspire people with my words, but if I always

say if there was a fly on the wall watching me live my life on a daily

basis, do my actions match my words, and if they don't, and all I'm doing is

sharing words, I have no substance to myself and I don't believe in myself, so

therefore I'm not succeeding in the ways I am and being fulfilled in the ways I

am, because I look in the mirror and I go, "You're not who you say you are.

You're not tapping your potential and you're kind of coasting through

life," and I couldn't do that, I have that accountability mirror.

It's way too, like daunting for me to stare at every day.

I just don't let actions, they're very, I take it very seriously, like my

actions speak for who I am, and that's why I say these people are like, back

to the other question, like two years of like, "You're this, this, and that."

I'm like, "Okay, because I said these words, but if you would watch me live

for a week or two days or whatever, like, you'd see that, like how I interact

with people is not what you're saying I am.", and there's a disconnect, so

for me, I don't care how people, what they say they do or how they talk

or messages they put out via words.

I want to watch what you do and how you do it on a daily basis, and I'll base my

judgment on your character based on your actions a hundred percent of the time.

I want my audience to have a vivid picture of what I'm watching right

now, and I want the audience to really see this because it's really important

for what is really the mind picture that we're drawing, so for my audience,

this is what I'm looking at right now.

I'm looking at Matt, who's like muscular, fit, has his life all together, because

I could look at it from thinking his life is all together because of the many

things that I seen, and I'm thinking, "Man, this guy's really accomplished",

and now when I hear this and I'm listening to it and I'm thinking, "Oh my God.

He's just as human as me.

He has broken thoughts and things that break him down too,

and he cries just like I do."

Mm-hmm.

"I never met another male that cried.", you know, it makes me think

of that, and that's the old stereotype that we have about what we think we

need to be really tough, and it's not really true, because we have to keep

pushing through, which leads into, another question I have for you then

is with all of that going through your head and you're thinking, "Wow.

I am doing this stuff and I am making a difference."

What would you say to someone else that's going through something

similar and they're taking these messages, they're probably at the

same place as you, and they're like, "I don't know how to handle this.

Is there any advice yet you would give to somebody that is listening

to this that might be helpful?"

The person who's doing the right stuff but getting hated on for-

Yes.

His perception?

Yes.

Um.

Man, it sounds oversimplified and it's almost like it can't be that easy,

but for me it is know who you are.

To me it's as simple as that.

If you know who you are and you operate from a place of integrity,

and again, you just know who you are.

What others think of you means nothing to me.

This podcast could be over and I hope it's not the case, but you could, you

know, call your buddy and be like, I just talked to him, this pompous

asshole I've ever met, and like, that's not the case, but like if that would

be, that happened, and your buddy's a mutual friend of mine, he calls me.

He is like, "Dude, Joshua just said-", and I'd be like, "That sucks.", but I

like, going to the next moment in my life because I would be like, I didn't intend

to become, you know, that, and I really was speaking from my heart, and if it

was misinterpreted or I just shared it incorrectly or whatever, that's life, I

move on from it, so no matter what people say about me, so long as I can look myself

in the mirror every morning and know the kind of person I am, and know what my

intent is and purpose is on this Earth, it really rolls right off my shoulders

and to the listener who might hear that and go, "Good for you, like, that must

be nice.", it takes years of building who you are and becoming that confident in

yourself and being able to say, "I know who I am, I know what my purpose is."

That's not something you wake up tomorrow, you read a Facebook post and

you're like, "ah, I know who I am and I know my purpose, and now words don't

roll, like all the negativity will roll right off my shoulders like Matt

talked about last night, "oh, life is much easier now.", you're delusional

if you think that it's that easy.

For me, I started this self-awareness kind of self-development journey I feel

like when I was like 15, 16, when I started going down a rabbit hole of drugs

and making all the wrong decisions till my early thirties, it was 16 years, but

during those years, decade and a half where I was making a lot of bad choices

in life, I was still doing the inner work and I was still analyzing myself and I

was still very good person in terms of loving others, caring for others, being

generous, like all the human qualities that I should have, I still had, but I'm

talking 20 years now of like, being on this journey where I can say, You know,

to you, when you ask me that question, "why doesn't it affect me?", because I've

spent two decades of my life doing the work, and because of that, I'm extremely

confident in who I am and what I bring to this earth, and because of that, someone's

fleeting opinion of me, how could I possibly let that impact who I am or like

the energy that I exude on a daily basis?

I've spent two decades of owning my energy and building my purpose.

What someone thinks about a 30 minute conversation and wants to

label me something, feel free.

I had to break this episode into two parts because as soon as he said about

his drug addiction, I knew that we were going to have a longer conversation

as a result, so that's why we broke it into that pivotal moment where you are

going to have to wait for part two of this episode to learn a little bit more.

I want to share with you what I learned so far in this interview, that I think all

of us can take back and even think about: "What are some of the things that we can

do in our lives?", and I love that Matt talked about what you want to accomplish.

It's about having those daily disciplines, and it's not just about the gym aspect,

which we focused on quite a bit in our first part of the interview.

We talked a lot about even the things that are fueling ourselves.

When we have that fuel that helps us to keep on going no matter what,

those are the things that help surround us with good, positive vibes.

Those are the things that help us to keep moving towards our goals, and I

know for many of us trying to have that consistency is something that if you

think that you can do it all by yourself, great, but I'm going to tell you that

there will be one point in your time, whether that's 30 days, 60 days, 180

days, 365 days, it doesn't matter how long it will take, it will happen where

you going to need help and trying to get that discipline will help you if you

have the right things surrounding you, and a lot of people struggle, especially

when I meet with certain clients that come through my business about having

the need to continuously discipline yourself; to have yourself so that you

keep on stepping forward, and I love that Matt talked about his parents and

his upbringing about doing things right.

I think that helped so much to accelerate those disciplines growing

up, but as you'll learned in part two, there was actually so much more to

that conversation that I didn't even realize at this point when I hit the

the stop button and thought about what I had learned at that point from him.

I think it all comes back to the fact that we all learn different things when

we're growing up, especially as a kid.

Those are the things that we carry forward.

Those are the things that pushed us into creating some of the

things that are consistent patterns that we do throughout our lives.

Those are the staples, and we have to remove those staples sometimes

because when we get older, we realize that that's not really the

best thing that has helped us now.

I have often read from a few authors about the need to make sure that you are

not doing the same things that you were doing as a kid into adulthood, because

when you're an adult, things change.

The same things that you do growing up is not going to be the same

things that you do in the present.

For example, would you cry to your mom saying that you lost

your job and ask her to intervene?

Would you ask your father for a hundred thousand dollars so that you can have

a really nice six months off from work or even put a really nice down payment

down on a house that you're thinking about buying so that you don't have to

worry about it, and never pay him back.

Does it make sense to have a friend in which you are continuously

asking them, "Let's go outside and play ball," but also shirking the

responsibilities of taking care of kids, taking care of chores, taking

care of your overall responsibilities that you have in your life?

I think for a good majority of us, the answer would be no, and if you

are one of those ones that are saying yes, I have a question for you.

Have you talked to Matt lately and realized that maybe you could

be creating some of that value that he's doing as a result of

realizing what that potential is?

I love the fact that he got into talking about what America really means, and

I know that I have some listeners overseas and you might often hear about

country pride and having nationalism and having things of that nature.

I'm not here to talk about that.

What I am here to talk about though is Matt's sincerity.

The conviction that I heard from him about this and what that apparel company that

he had with his co-owner, Jeff, really helped to establish for not only for

the things that he's doing now but what has set him up in the past to become who

he is and that was really inspiring to hear because, sometimes, we feel that we

have to meet these other expectations.

We have to push ourselves into what society really is, and I always say to my

clients, "Is it about what other people think or is it about what you think?",

and that's the biggest distinguishment that we have to make for ourselves.

We don't always have to think about the things that are happening in our

lives right now as things that we need to appease somebody else, and I

lived that life for a very long time, and I will tell you that got me down

to the paths that I had gone through in my own life that were very toxic.

They were not appreciated.

They were things that were definitely holding me back from seeing what I could

potentially become, and I'm still sitting here today thinking, "Why did I ever

think that way?", but when I heard Matt start to share a little bit more about

him and his sensitivity, and realizing that I wasn't looking at that muscular

guy that was on my screen, I started to realize a lot more about even myself.

For those that don't know me and have never met me in person, I am overweight.

I have been overweight for the longest time, and that was because of poor

choices that I've made growing up and I continue to make as an adult, and I

know that I need to continue to try to change my mindset with it when it comes

to that, so for those that are struggling with weight, and struggling with body

image, I know that struggle is real.

When Matt was talking to me about his human-centric approach of just being

there to cry, and that sometimes we need the things to feed our soul so

that we don't cry so that we can feel better about it, I often think about

the fact that, "Hey, I'm a male.

I'm supposed to be not crying", and that seems to be the stereotype that even to

this day still is part of our psyche.

I'm here to tell you that that's not true whatsoever.

You have to read good content and you have to fuel yourself by reading that

good content in order to be able to realize that you can start the process

today, and Matt was adamant and it takes years to get to that point, and

I think that we all have to remember that this is not a journey in which

you do something for 24, 48, 72 hours and say that you are now transformed.

Sometimes habits take a long time to fulfill.

That means having something that you actually do consistently over

and over again becomes a learned habit when you realize that it

creates so much opportunity, so much value, so much success.

Those are the things that are often difficult for us to overcome in

our own mind, and we have to push ourselves to understand what that

important level of responsibility is when it comes to feeding that.

Sometimes even drugs create that.

I know that for many of us, we struggle with the vices that we have, and I

think that when you realize that you have control of what you put into

your body, it isn't just the food.

It isn't just the physical activity that you exert on the outside, maybe with

a trainer or maybe with somebody else, but when you start to realize that you

can market yourself differently and you can start to realize what your true

being is, if you're willing to accept the responsibility of changing that

mindset, the possibilities are endless.

I've shared that in so many different episodes now with so many different

guests, but the point is, we have responsibility for those choices, and

if we're able to take those choices and we're able to push it into the next

level, and you're realizing that you can create something of value that you enjoy,

you can do anything you want, and Matt certainly explained that in this episode

about the importance of being able to do as much as you possibly can with the

time that you're given on this earth.

I have to say that when we get to part two, you are going to be surprised about

what Matt shares with me and how this journey actually started from something

else that I would've never imagined but until then, thanks for listening to

episode number 26, part one of Speaking From the Heart, and I look forward

to hearing from your heart very soon.

Thanks for listening.

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