In this podcast, we delve into the intricate journey of Ian Matthews, a speaker, consultant, and co-founder of Autogral, a marketing agency dedicated to empowering dealerships. The salient theme of our discussion revolves around the significant internal transformations that individuals must undergo to achieve external success. Ian shares poignant anecdotes from his upbringing, illustrating how the dual influences of discipline from his father and nurturing from his mother shaped his character. He emphasizes the importance of resilience and learning from failures, asserting that true growth often emerges from overcoming obstacles rather than succumbing to them. As we explore the dynamics of entrepreneurship, we underscore the necessity of taking decisive action and remaining grounded, particularly in the face of adversity, to foster both personal and professional development.

Takeaways:

• The podcast emphasizes the importance of authentic conversations among individuals who strive for impactful change in their communities.
• Ian Matthews shares his unique journey, detailing how personal challenges shaped his entrepreneurial spirit and leadership approach.
• Listeners are encouraged to embrace failure as a crucial part of the entrepreneurial journey, fostering growth and resilience in their endeavors.
• The episode discusses the transformative power of taking action and how it can alleviate anxiety and lead to profound personal and professional growth.

Links referenced in this episode:

• autogral.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Autogral
• Jeff Weiler

This is Adam Marburger.

And this is humans that build real conversations with real people.

Not just about what they've built in the world, but what had to be built inside them first.

No hype, no shortcuts, just humans doing the work.

Humans that build real people.

Real work.

What's up, everybody?

Adam Marburger here.

I'm your host of Humans that Build.

This show's designed to share stories from individuals doing amazing things, but most importantly, making an impact in this world that we live in.

I'm here with a very special guest.

I'm here with Ian Matthews.

I'm going to go before I.

This is the only time I get real scripted.

I'm going to read off a little bit of his bio here and then we're going to hear some amazing stories.

And I know you're going to love this show right here.

So today I'm joined by Ian Matthews.

Ian is a speaker, consultant, leadership coach, and the co founder of Autogral, a creative driven marketing agency.

Helping dealerships, brand execute marketing.

Basically taking from idea to execution.

That's probably a great way to state it right there.

Welcome, Ian.

How are you, my brother?

Doing well, sir.

How are you?

You know what?

No complaints.

Are you, you know, at home in the office or where are you in the country today, my friend?

Yeah, I'm at home in the office.

The wife was actually traveling over the last couple days visiting clients, so I was on daddy duty with, with our one year old the last couple days.

So excited to be here today.

Gotta love daddy duty.

So let's, let's start.

I mean, I, you know, this show is all things entrepreneurship, all things impact, all things making a difference.

So, you know, take us through your journey.

Tell us, tell us a little bit about your upbringing.

Because, you know, what got us here is not going to get us there, but where we are right now, there's a story that led up to that.

So let's talk about the early days of Ian Matthews.

Tell us about your childhood.

Tell us about kind of, you know, what did growing up look like for you?

Yeah, you know, I always say that I am, at least in my eyes, one of the most grateful people on earth to be raised the way that I was raised and to have the challenges that I had, you know, in the early years, was born in Ohio at the same hospital my father was in Newark, Ohio, which is about 30 minutes east of Columbus.

If you know the area, it's Newark, Ohio to you.

Bounced around a bit and ended up in Cincinnati.

And, and in the younger years I always say my father was a man of discipline.

He was total nature in raising me and my mother was total nurture.

The attitude at times, the diligence, some of the willpower for my father and then of course, the empathy and love for my mother, who passed over a decade now, which is actually hard to believe.

So we'll get into more of that.

Cause that's a big part of the story.

Have a younger brother who's 31 now at this point, it's hard to believe.

I still see the kid as like 14 year old Eli.

He's in a band, lead singer.

They're actually getting some pretty big gigs and shows across the country.

So he's one of those examples of somebody that was like, oh, this will just be a hobby, it'll be a flame that burns out.

But he stuck with it over the last couple decades.

Maybe you can have him on the show one day to talk about that.

You know, graduated, having played football and wrestled for 12 years.

So I know, you know, with.

With you being a black belt and all, I wouldn't say that I was a black belt in wrestling, but a lot of the fundamentals and disciplines I learned during those years of my life, you know, for any of the viewers out there, I would say if you have a young boy, get him into some type of combat sport, whether it's judo or jiu jitsu or karate even.

Certainly wrestling at a younger age can turn young men into real men, can turn boys into men.

I know there was a lot of young men that I wrestled with that probably would have ended up in jail or dead otherwise had they not had the discipline of wrestling through those years.

So my coach is pretty famous.

Ron Masonic, the late Ron Masonic started a lot of things in the state of Ohio, and Ohio as a state is one of the top three to five states in wrestling, regardless of the age group.

So learned a lot there, you know, went to college at Ball State and I went for nursing of all things, you know, because I found out you could make 40 grand a year salary.

And to me, that was the riches.

You know, I had everything I need growing up.

Didn't have much of what I wanted.

Grew up on welfare for many years, you know, helping my parents pay bills, pushing carts at Kroger at the age of 14 and a half, you know, you weren't allowed to get hired until you were 15.

But if anybody knows me, I'm not going to take no for an answer.

So I somehow got a job at 14 and a half, which I think at the time was actually illegal, but, you know, we did it.

And I learned a lot from that.

And after about a year and a half in college, dropped out.

I ended up getting into some trouble with the law.

You know, spent some time in jail, focused more on throwing parties than going to school.

And at the time, my parents were in the middle of a divorce, you know, so at that time, I decided to move back with my mother and my little brother in about a 550 square foot apartment in southwest Ohio.

And I remember I was looking for jobs, and I got a job at a restaurant.

You know, I got a job at a server at a.

At a casual fine dining restaurant in Westchester, Ohio, at the age of 19 or 20.

They weren't hiring anybody under 21.

So, you know, there's a track record here of trying to get a job before the world tells me when I'm allowed to do so.

And I remember I had a schedule that had me on a bunch of lunches, and over the course of three days, I made $6.17.

I shouldn't have been home yet.

My mom's sitting on the couch crying.

She's got bills laid all over the floor, all over the couch.

And, I mean, this wasn't anything abnormal.

You know, we had had severe financial challenges growing up.

So, you know, building wealth, earning, you know, increased income, God forbid, like starting a business, employing people, being a productive member of the economy was not a real thing.

And I walked in and I sat down next to my mother, and I said, mom, everything's going to be fine.

Put these bills away.

We'll get it taken care of.

I didn't have an answer.

I just told her, we got this.

Don't worry about it.

And she's like, all right.

So we stuffed everything in a shoebox.

And, Adam, I remember to this day.

You know, there's points in your life where you make a decision, and it's almost as if God paints a picture in your mind that you can hold on to.

So you remember with total clarity how you felt in that moment.

And this was one of those moments.

I walked out back of this tiny little apartment.

I sat on the back patio, which is, you know, no bigger than a storage closet.

And at the time, I smoked cigarettes, and I lit a cigarette, and I looked up to the sky, and it was a mildly cloudy day.

I remember the shirt I was wearing.

I remember the temperature.

I remember the direction of the breeze.

And I look up and I Say, F this.

F this.

I will no longer allow my circumstances, my upbringing, to dictate my future or the future of the people that I love.

And at that point, at that very moment, on that day, that Tuesday late morning, I made a decision that I would begin taking massive action in my life, that I would protect anything that I could at the table that I was sitting at at any given time, and that I would be the producer in my family and in my group of friends, colleagues, associates.

You know, I didn't have colleagues and associates then, so it was just a bunch of kids.

And I put on a shirt and tie, and I had.

I had been a greeter at a dealership when I worked in college for a few months, and I did a Google search, and I'm like, where are there some dealerships around here?

And Jeff Weiler popped up.

Got a job two days later, and in my first three days, sold six cars.

Adam I didn't know how the car business worked.

I didn't know what commissions were.

I didn't understand draw.

I didn't understand any of that.

So I was just selling cars, and I was grand.

I told people what we coach people to say all the time is like, I'm new.

I don't know much.

My job is to help you just make decisions, save you time in the process.

We'll do this together.

Ultimately, it's your decision whether you buy a car, and I'm going to force you to do anything.

You're a big boy.

You're a big girl.

Let's do this together.

Follow me, right?

That's about all I knew.

And I remember at the time, my high school girlfriend and I went to an Ohio State game a few weeks later that was already predetermined because God knows they wouldn't have let me go had it not already not been scheduled.

And I remember walking to the atm, and I don't think I had had more than like, $200 in my bank account at any time in my life, right?

I go to the ATM and I go to pull out $100 to go and get a drink at the tailgate, and I look at my account balance, and it's like $2,200, and I about shit a brick.

I'm like, I honestly thought someone made a mistake.

I'm like, somebody put money in my account.

This has never happened to me.

Before, how did this happen?

And I felt like a baller.

I pulled like 400 bucks out and we had a good time.

And granted, I'm still a kid, right?

I'm 20 years old and I got to work on Monday and I asked my manager.

I'm like, hey, you guys, you guys didn't accidentally put money in my account.

He's like, that was your commission, bro.

And I'm like, my commission?

And he's like, yeah, like your commission for selling cars.

And I'm like, I didn't, I didn't know I made money on them.

And I thought it was just like, you know, this draw thing, which I didn't even ask him about.

And that, that's kind of what began.

Like.

Let me, let me, let me ask you this again.

Yeah,.

We have similar paths.

You know, the retail automotive industry is a blessing.

And so I'm intentionally going to ask you this question here because we're right at the right, perfect time for me to ask this.

Do you think that everybody should sell cars?

Like maybe even for a year, the education.

See, I'm a college dropout.

I dropped out of college because I was in my microeconomics class and it's the 20th of the month.

It was like, I don't remember the exact, but it was over $7,000.

And I'm sitting here asking myself, what am I doing?

So I dropped out.

My mom wasn't excited about it, but I dropped out and I chased a career in automotive.

Right.

But what I learned along the way, I learned business, I learned entrepreneurship because I believe car dealers are the most entrepreneurial people in the plan planet, you know, so do you.

What are your thoughts on should everybody.

So is it for everyone or is it for a select few?

You teed that up really well, by the way.

No, I'm curious.

I ask everybody this that's in the business.

If you're going, if you're going to be in a trade or you know, a profession, like, like a doctor, an engineer or something.

No, I don't, I don't know that it would serve you the best.

Those, those tend to be more introverted people doing introverted professions.

But if you are in an extroverted profession or a customer facing profession or you have any desire whatsoever to be in that type of industry or vertical.

Absolutely.

I mean, you learn so much.

I mean, it's everything from the ability to effectively communicate to another human being, which is like a Dying breed nowadays.

So much so that I'm raising my children to be lethal communicators.

Because I believe that human capital in the form of communication and engagement will be at a premium once we realize that AI is not going to live for us.

To the wins and losses.

I mean, hero to zero.

Zero to hero.

12 Chances to make a year.

I mean, it's a beautiful thing.

It teaches you resilience.

It teaches you how to be less emotional in your communications because you can't take not selling or closing a customer personally.

Right.

People have their.

I mean, they're just working with a team, discovering what a good leader is or what a bad leader is, you know, because I, there's, there's both in this industry.

There's exceptional leaders and there's people that have the potential to be a leader that have not been led yet.

And there's people that just see themselves as a desk manager.

Or I just pencil deals, or I just buy inventory, you know.

No, you, you, you are appointed into a position to lead other human beings, take that reality as such and act upon it.

And it just, it's.

Yeah, you should sell cars.

It's, you know, here to me, like I talk to my kids about this.

I think that you should sell cars for a year.

You know, I mean, I think you should sell cars.

I think everyone.

And I'm going to challenge your thought a little bit.

I mean, I agree with what you said, but then I also disagree.

I think that introverts should get out of their comfort zone.

You know, some of the greatest salespeople on the planet.

Grant Cardone is an introvert.

You wouldn't know it.

You see his videos, his marketing, and it works.

But he's an introvert.

Yeah, right off as an extrovert.

So it's, I just.

The car business lays a foundation like what you talked about, like every month.

It's zero to hero.

It's a new month.

You're going back, you're hitting the reset button.

You're dealing with so many different personalities.

I just think it puts you in a position to win in the real world.

So let's, let's talk about this for a minute.

So, you know, there's a bit entrepreneurship and small business owners, you know, and I, on this show, I don't like to get political.

I, you know, I don't.

My life changed.

I'll tell you this, Ian, you know, we can, we could take this conversation so many different ways today because you and I were in alignment on so many things.

I found myself A little bit, like, depressed during the winter.

Like, I found myself off.

And I'm sitting here thinking, man, like, my relationships are good, my businesses are healthy.

Like, what is going on?

And I found out what was going on.

It was.

I kept going down these rabbit holes on social media, following all these politicians, this.

And getting into these Epstein files.

And then this.

There's the Charlie Kirk thing, put me off into the deep end.

And then all the fraud, the Somalian fraud in Minnesota, where there's just no justice for anything.

I found myself in this dark depression.

So here's what I did, Ian, and I'm going to talk about.

There's a reason I'm bringing this up because I'm going to land the plane on.

Small business owners make the world go around.

We are small business owners are the ones making things happen.

It isn't our government.

Is it politics?

Here's what I decided, Ian.

I stopped several months ago following all politics.

I stopped getting involved in the things that I can't control and started focusing on my business.

Happier, brother.

Like, I'm so much happier.

I'm more productive, you know, now when people try to engage, I just don't even.

I don't even go there.

But my point to this is because I want to celebrate you because you're a small business owner.

You're making a difference in your community.

You're a cheerful giver, you have a huge heart.

You're making things happen in the automotive industry.

But I'm going to tell you, entrepreneur, it's not all unicorns and rainbows.

Entrepreneurship is a sexy word that we like to use, but it's not all unicorns and rainbows.

So when did you make that decision to shift from a safe.

You had a safe existence as an employee.

Your needs were met.

You were making money.

Why go to the dark side of entrepreneurship?

What was that thing that just said, hey, I'm doing this thing.

I want to hear that story.

God.

Early on, I didn't know it, but I believe that he blessed me with a very high level of awareness, both personal and spatial, as well as discernment and being able to project certain things that others may not see.

That's the biggest piece in hindsight.

At the time, it was very material and artificial.

I loved being led.

My father was a very strict disciplinary.

My wife can attest to this.

Sometimes we're out in public and I'll go to the bathroom in a restaurant or I'll be out of eyesight and somebody like, hey, is he in the military?

Like, it Happens quite frequently.

And I've never been in the military, you know, so I credit that to how my father raised me and the things that I learned as a wrestler.

And just overall my mentality that again, was given by God, it's not mine.

And I always saw opportunity in things.

So I would see something and I'm like, ah, this could be a little bit better, or I would notice something that nobody else noticed.

And I'm like, why isn't anybody capitalizing on it?

And, and as a 19 or 20 year old, it seemed like I was like, what does, does everybody not see this?

Like, do I have a certain lens on right now?

And we're not talking like, you know, like, like grandiose things, we're talking small things.

We're talking the bricks in the house, not the house.

Right.

I noticed that the bricks were a little off or they could have been placed better or, you know, and it all kind of began there.

And I started to see opportunity to take, take action towards these things, you know, And I started businesses when I was younger that failed miserably, got punched in the mouth, you know, cost a lot of people money that they invested in things like that.

My friends, my family, you know, it was, it was not a good situation, but I obviously learned a lot from that.

And I'm sure you can attest you're going to learn more from your failures than you do your successes because you see what to do and what not to do, hopefully, if you're able to discern those things.

And you know, I, the material side is like, I, I just was always on a hunt for a good leader and I never found one man.

I had an incredible coach.

My father was, was, was great leading me to the things that I needed to do and forming my mindset around doing and achieving and succeeding.

And I just had never found a really good leader and, and it hurt me.

You know, I had 19 jobs before starting autogral and I started Autograph when I was 26 years old, you know, so that, I mean, you do the math from working age to 26.

I mean, Grant, I had been working for 11 years at that point.

But we're, we're talking a different job every, every six to ten months, just trying to find a great leader because I would see these things and I'm like, why is the boss not see this?

Why does this person not like, seemingly not care about what could be better here?

Like, why do they, why do they talk to the staff that way?

Why do they, why do they think they're special, you know, they're not.

And that was the driving force behind doing something on my own is that I was like, all right, well, if I can't find a good.

And along that route, I did have good mentors, and there were people that I was put in their path that I learned from for a short time.

But I never worked for any of them until my last dealership.

Lisa Kreider, who was the general manager and part owner of the last dealership I worked at prior to starting Autograph, was like my first and one true business mentor in automotive.

I learned how a very successful, very profitable dealership ran from top to bottom and everything in between, which gave me the ability and confidence to be able to successfully consult for dealers today, regardless of the brand or the scope or scale that they're at, because I learned how to do it the right way.

And when we broke off and started the company, we felt that we could expand what we did for one location, multiple locations.

And the inception behind it was there's a lot of these single points or small groups across the country that don't get the same TLC that the large groups have.

And it makes sense, right?

We're in an industry where it's, what did you do for me yesterday?

What did you do for me today?

You could underperform for 30 days and be on the chopping block.

And it is what it is.

You've got to stay on top of things.

But I just.

As a marketing director of the store, I saw a lot of holes that the smaller dealers weren't receiving.

And it frustrated me because I felt that they deserve the same amount of attention and care that the big guys did, regardless of how much money they're spending.

Because to them, for their percentages of what their expense ratio is, it's the same expense to them.

Yeah, it's smaller dollars and cents, but to their perspective, like, it's the same, right?

You spend the money and you expect to get a return out of it.

You expect to have the phone picked up.

You expect to be able to.

To have a partner be proactive to your needs over time when you grow and build a relationship, because you're listening rather than talking or pushing an agenda.

And those are the things that frustrated me.

And ultimately why we decided to do this thing that is Autogral to where we're at today.

I hope that answers.

Yeah, well, no, very well.

Because I want to talk to you a little bit more about Autograph, but I want to talk to you about failure first.

For a Minute.

So you had said that you had multiple failed, obviously a lot of different jobs, but you had failed businesses.

What was your favorite failure?

What lesson did you learn from your favorite.

What was your favorite failure?

What was it, and what lesson did you learn that you carried forward?

My favorite failure was when I started a company when I was out of college, and it was to basically try and get more of the student body to engage with small businesses at the college that I went to because it was out in the middle of nowhere, and it didn't seem like the college or university had any interest in including the local economy with the new student body that had shown projections to increase considerably by double digits year over year.

So I looked at all the data and I was like, dude, we need to get small businesses involved.

And ultimately, the whole thing fell apart.

Like I said, it was the biggest failure that I've had in a business sense, and it was the biggest risk that I took.

I thought that optimism and sheer willpower could get the job done.

I didn't know a damn thing.

I was a child in the world of business at the time.

So I made a lot of mistakes, and I learned from the pain of those mistakes.

And those are the things that I think you make some decisions in life, and there are some things that scar you, and those scars can be good because they stick with you forever.

And it's a subtle reminder, regardless of when you made that mistake, that I'm not going to make this decision again.

I'm not going to do that again.

I'm going to see this next time before it comes into my lane so that I don't hit it.

And it was just that because I desired it a lot doesn't mean it's going to happen.

The world, as you know, rewards results, not effort.

So I thought the world could reward effort at that point.

And, no, it punched me in my mouth and knocked a few teeth down my throat and taught me the lesson,.

You know, for the younger viewers and listeners out there, I make this statement all the time.

If you never go, you'll never know, and you're going to fall on your butt.

And, you know, we don't celebrate.

You know, you see, and I talk about this a lot on my show on cbt, which you're very familiar with, Ian, that, you know, we look at these fighters and they get their hands raised.

You know, we celebrate that.

Oh, that's amazing.

Wow.

That person, what a great knockout.

But we don't look at what it took to get there.

We don't see the 12 week trading camp.

You know, we don't, you know, you see the wins as an entrepreneur, but you don't see the massive failures.

And a lot of times I think as business owners we forget like whenever we're being challenged or we're in a plateau or we're in a season where it's not all unicorns and rainbows.

Instead of pointing fingers, it's good to really analyze things, bring the team together, study.

Like we're in a moment right now where we can get better.

This is an opportunity.

We're in a season of opportunity.

Right.

It's important to celebrate sometimes the plateau because it's time to get better, you know, And I'll tell you, Ian and I know you know this, starting a company is not the easiest thing.

So let's Talk about age 26, you're now an entrepreneur.

You know, we go from the employee to entrepreneur.

What it looked like when you started out, I mean, because I'm sure what easy.

Because you gotta fake it till you make it.

You gotta find clients, you gotta get revenue.

Because now you gotta, you got a good sized company.

Let's talk about where you were, where you are.

I'd love to hear that.

Yeah.

So we actually had a third partner.

So when we started the company, this was an individual that was a reseller in the market.

It was all, we'll do this one thing for you.

So you had a lot of disjointed mechanisms and a lot of bolt on solutions that didn't interact and live within a centralized ecosystem.

And that was very frustrating.

So we had had conversations and this individual had actually resold us some services.

So I had worked with the providing company, I think for 12 or 14 months.

At that point we saw some decent success.

So when we decided to do this thing, the pretense was I've been in the game for a while, I've got some contacts, I love what you do.

Let's put a company around this.

We delivered the philosophy, the execution, the operations and the assets.

And it was a partnership for the contacts and the repertoire that had built to that point, which is where we got our first leg, our first few stores.

But I'll never forget our very first deal, I think like a month in, month and a half in.

I was talking with Mark Chasey, great general manager of a Stellantis store.

Made an exit recently.

First dealer to ever cut us A check.

And I'm walking around my backyard on a Saturday morning at 9 o'.

Clock.

We were on the phone for I3 hours because he was making this big decision on a couple kids with an idea and a guy that said we could get a job done.

That's all it was.

We didn't exist.

So I've got to give a lot of the credit.

You know, we eventually would have found our first client, but it was him.

So I've got to give credit to Mark Chasey for taking a chance on us and saying, you know, you'll do this, you'll do that.

What's this?

I mean, he was very inquisitive and he had to be.

He was, he was committing, you know, six figures a year for us to essentially be his marketing department.

You know, it's a big commitment for somebody that doesn't have a company or any track record or credit to success.

And I remember getting at the end of the conversation and Mark goes, all right, so when do we get started?

And in my nature, I go, Monday morning.

And he's like, okay, are you.

Are we doing this through Zoom?

I'm like, no, I'll be at your store 8am sharp.

He's like, okay.

So I couldn't afford a plane ticket at that time.

We didn't have any money.

And I got in my car and I drove 11 hours through the night.

I think I left at like 9pm on Sunday night, drove straight through and arrived at the dealership at 7:45.

Shook his hand for the first time at 7:50.

And the rest is history.

It began from there.

Slept in my car.

There was no hotels available.

The one hotel that was available looked like it had bedbugs because the.

It just was not good.

There's a post on LinkedIn that I post about once a year as a reminder, a little more detail of that story.

But I changed my car or changed my clothes in the parking lot, got down to my underwear.

No cares at all.

Like, what do I got to lose?

Nobody knows me.

I'm just going to get this done.

You got to admit.

Do you look back on those seasons?

It's like just really.

Because yesterday Paul Brown was in my office, shoot some content.

And we're talking about, like the journey.

Because sometimes, like, you forget.

You forget your story sometimes, unless you're on a podcast like this and somebody like myself asks you, right, you get reminded of your story.

But I remember being in Courtyard Marriott sharing a room with Paul, like, like we used to, like, like, like literally, like getting Ordering up in Michigan, getting some jets pizza.

You know, every now and then we get a bottle of wine and drink out of a plastic cup, eat pizza, watching tv, sharing a room in a Courtyard Marriott.

Like now they see all the cool stuff, but like, yeah, they didn't.

I didn't really show.

No, those aren't selfies that you want to take.

My business partner, Nick Schmidt.

You know, the first night we stayed in a hotel together, same deal, got two queen beds.

And you know, we obviously had known each other for a while, but we had never liked.

Stayed together overnight.

And, and he tells the story.

He's like, yeah, I tried to go to bed and Ian's over there with the sheets over his head, watching the office on his computer, giggling, eating Cheez.

Its like it was Big Daddy in the Frito scene, you know, Trying to be.

Yeah.

So I was like, yeah, that's, that's.

I like to eat a little bit.

So, yeah, those.

Do you look back though, in those moments, like, I love where this is headed.

Because like, like, like right now you have an established company.

I've got it.

We're scaling, you know, now like, it's different.

Scaling is different.

Like we always scaling.

Sexy work too.

Everybody's like, well, you know, like, literally systems process.

Like, I can walk away and my company's running better without me than with me.

Like, I'm working on it, not in it.

But I will tell you, I was all in it 24 7, probably for five years.

Like, but, but those moments going back where you're thinking, okay, let's get the cheapest flights, cheapest hotel rooms, cut and cost everywhere, faking it till you make it, like you look back, it feels damn good, doesn't it?

I mean, when you look back, like those moments right there, those are special.

Like, you really.

You don't really think about how special those moments really are, you know?

Yeah, it does.

It's.

They should always serve as reminders, you know, because in the words of Gary Vee, looking back, f's up your neck, I know that he's talking about your mistakes.

Trying to hold you back is the enemy trying to keep you from growing.

But those times can't be forgotten because that's how you ground yourself.

And especially as you grow a company and you begin working on it rather than in it, which I'm in the same boat with you.

We made that decision at the beginning of this year that we would remove ourselves from daily ops, appoint a general manager and let the team get the job done.

And they're Doing incredible.

So I'm there with you.

But those should be reminders because I think the people that get too big for their britches and they forget that especially they're communicating with their own team, it creates a lot of friction and turmoil within a business that they can't see.

And this is something that I teach a lot in my leadership.

Coaching with owners and principals and managers is that there has to be a certain level of empathy and discernment and humility when growing or leading people.

Because it's not about the leader, it's about the team.

It's not about what you know, it's about what they can absorb, digest and be able to reiterate.

Because you're always going to have dilution, right?

Initially when you try to step away and scale a company, there's a level of dilution.

You cannot create yourself in a petri dish to take over your responsibilities.

Oftentimes it needs to be several people.

Unless you can find those very special individuals that are able to perform at your level, you know, within a 70 or 80% degree.

And then to your point, eventually excel and do better than what you could do.

But it helps to stay grounded and it's good to remind yourself of those things.

I agree.

And I think success too, like I always, and I hear I'm a work in progress.

I tell everybody I'm just a gigantic work of progress.

I'm just, I'm trying to figure it out.

But like I think true success in business isn't measured in revenue dollars.

I think it's more of, of your systems, it's more culture.

Can you walk away for six weeks?

Can the business thrive without you?

I used to think I had to, I was such a control freak, you know, bring it in like, and I'm a huge EOS guy, like entrepreneur, operating system.

We, we, we run our companies based off the book traction.

I just, it's what we do.

And you know, understanding that I'm a visionary and I'm not an integrator, I was a visionary and integrator.

I had to be the integrator for so long.

And me being an integrator held my company back.

I was the reason my company isn't to where it is today.

Like I got out of the way that rhymed.

It was pretty dang good, you know, bringing you know, James Mercer in to run the day to day operations and then Rob Johnson shortly after.

Like now I can do what I do.

Like I like marketing, I like social media, I like bringing leads and then getting the Leads to my team to serve like now the company.

It's like, it's like that ah moment.

Like I was the reason, like sometimes being self aware is freaking huge, is huge.

You know, you said humility and that's why I went there because like I had too much ego getting in the way, thinking I had to be in every meeting, I had to be in control of everything.

I have to, no, no, get out of the way, homie.

Like I had to tell myself like, dude, you're not the best at everything.

You know, I mean, it's a tough pill to swallow.

It's tough taking your own medicine sometimes realizing that you need to get out of the way.

I'll add to that.

And this, this is kind of in the ego realm because you know, no offense anybody out there, but a lot of business owners have an ego.

There's a lot of strong egos in the automotive business.

It's just the reality of what it is.

And that's fine.

But what leaders need to do, operators, business owners, is when they are.

And the problem with ego is a lot of people, they're not aware that they have a strong ego.

That's the problem with ego is it's a silent thing.

It's screaming loud to everybody else in the room, but generally from the person that's coming from, ultimately they need to be made aware of it.

And eventually you get to a point at scale, there's a fancy word again where it's like, oh, it's not about what I know or how I can do it or that I know I might be the best for this individual project or even this phone call or this email or this meeting.

And it's the challenge of separating the knowledge that you have to the individuals that are going to carry it forward.

Because to your point, you can't do all of it.

It becomes too much once you get into the multi millions in revenue, it's impossible.

You just can't do it.

You do drag the company down.

You minimize the velocity in which a company can actually grow and do it with stability without diluting the value you're delivering to the client.

So for you to be able to make that separation, you have to put the ego aside because it's no longer your win, it has to be the team's win, right?

But the failures need to be owned by everybody.

And if someone else fails, you have to look in the mirror and be like, well, did I fail them?

Right?

Did I fail them?

I think Danielle Delgado, that you had on the show one of the Things she said is, what was it?

Who loses if you don't win?

I had heard that before, but when she said it, for some reason, it was just like, it hit me hard and I'm like, damn, she is so right.

Who loses if you don't win?

That's the sign of true leadership and letting the ego go.

I implore anybody out there that if you're watching this and you think like, damn, that might be me, I might have an ego.

And you're not on a spiritual journey, get on one, read your Bible.

Because in the relationship with Jesus Christ, there's no room for ego.

Because you soon learn that it's not about you.

And even your successes and who you are as a person is not your doing.

There's a higher power that has allowed you to get to that point.

And when you start to do that, the ego, the pride, those things still want to sneak up on you.

Sometimes that one on the shoulder is telling you that it's all you and it's all up to you, but it's really not.

So that's the only advice that I have.

If somebody has ego or they're their living and their pride, having a relationship with Jesus Christ will, will help you get rid of that.

I agree with that.

100.

So I'm gonna.

I do something with every guest.

That was wonderful, by the way.

Thank you.

I do something with every, every guest.

I kind of put, put you on the spot.

I like to throw these, like short sentences out there and then you finish the sentence.

So I'm gonna start with, with this one here is, you know, kind of as entrepreneurs, there's times and places where we get stuck and we sometimes hit a wall.

Like, for instance, I hit a wall when I'll ask you, I don't think.

About God or talk to him.

Okay.

How often does that happen to you?

Well, I'll just ask you.

You're a spiritual guy.

It's fleeting, you know, it's like anything.

At first I was like, oh, I've got to like, start setting aside time for that.

And when I did it that way, it didn't happen.

I'd notice after three, four, five days, like, I just kind of feel like.

And I didn't know why.

So the, the more I pray and the more I ask God for discernment and the more that, you know, I.

It's not like, oh, do I, do I go and try and fit this 35 minute workout in.

Let me pray about it real quick.

Like daily action items.

No, but if, if I'M about to make a decision that can affect the future reality of my company or my family or myself.

I pray about it, and when I don't do that, I get caught being busy in the day to day.

Got three kids, you know, the company, working out, getting to.

I mean, there's just a lot going on.

We're a blended family, you know, so we've got other parents involved.

We just.

There's a lot going on.

Travel, business, work, people leading, coaching, all that.

It's easy to get busy and to not take a moment and pause.

And that's what I've found is when I get real busy, I tend to not be as disciplined as I should be in prayer.

And that's something that I work on every day.

I love that.

All right, let's talk about change for a minute.

Why?

Difficult topic for some.

A lot of us are comfortable with being comfortable.

Right.

So let's talk about change.

So in your life, in seasons, when you've had to make a decision to go from here to there, the first thing I changed was.

How I think about things.

Okay, how I think about things.

So how did you used to think about things?

So if you compare the Ian Matthews today compared to The Ian Matthews 10 years ago, what's the difference in your thoughts?

Looking at every juncture with realism rather than optimism.

Granted, I'm an optimist.

I believe things can always get better and do better.

But I was very romantic about how I viewed things.

I looked too far into the future and it was like, oh, if this happens, this is going to come up next, or if that happens, then this is what my life's going to look like.

And I got so energized by that, it was almost an addiction.

That's what got me into trouble in my first business, is I saw what would happen almost like a mental vision board, if everything worked out just as it should to my specifications.

And I looked at everything like that.

Every opportunity was just like total optimism around.

If this all happens, this is what the result.

And I got too lost in the future outcome.

And I didn't spend enough time in the day to day doing the brickwork.

Right.

I focused on what that perfect house would look like.

I didn't focus on laying each brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid and then getting done, taking 10 steps back and realizing, damn, I built a pretty good house here.

I was focused on the house and not the bricks.

Love that.

That's good stuff.

Now I want to talk about non negotiables for a Minute.

And I'm sure we could go into ours because you're very structured, you're very disciplined.

I love the fact that we have a lot in common when it comes to grappling.

I think what you said earlier, I agree with.

Not only should young boys, young men wrestle, I think young girls and women should too, because it really teaches you that grit.

And I tell you, women's wrestling, Sylvia's daughter, Avery, she's getting into it and she did a good job.

I mean, it's, it's, it's legit.

So that's another topic.

We'll have to come back for another podcast.

Talk wrestling.

Let's do that.

So here, the last thing.

Let's talk non negotiables.

So now I don't get emotional when things happen.

Okay.

And I always.

Take action.

Okay.

I love that.

You know, let's talk about action for a minute.

You know, I say this so this will be a good way to sound off on this show because I, you know, we're coming up here towards the end of our time for this segment.

It's, you know, we, Ian, we're almost at the 45 minute mark and we just, I feel like we just started talking.

There's so many little ways.

But I want you to kind of sound off on how people can follow you, how can people see your story online, et cetera.

How do people do business with you?

Before we do that, especially to my young viewers, my young listeners out there, Ian said something very profound.

Now, he always takes action because there's a lot of great ideas you're going to have.

Most people will have an idea and take zero action on that idea.

And it's just always an idea.

And the last thing you want to do is be 55, 65, if, God willing, 75, 85.

And you look back and say, I should have done that.

I should have taken action there.

I should have cut that relationship out sooner.

Action is the most important thing we can do.

We must take, as Grant Cardone, say, 10x action on everything that we do.

So, Ian, I'm glad you brought that up.

So how do people.

First of all, thanks for spending time with me here.

You dropped a lot of wisdom on this segment.

How do people find you?

How do people follow you?

How do people do business with you?

What's the.

What does that look like?

Yeah, you can find me anywhere.

Ian C. Matthews, with the exception of TikTok, I do not have a TikTok.

LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, go to our website, autogral.com and it's going to have all of our business information.

I'm good with direct messages.

So if anybody wants to reach out, if you have questions, if you want to have a conversation, whether about life or business, you guys can do that there, or just call the office and they can route you to me.

I love it.

Now, one thing, Ian, let's make this clear.

One.

One T and Matthews.

One T and Matthews.

That's why I added the C, because there's a lot of people with.

With two T's, and those tend to come up first in search.

So, Ian C. Matthews, if you type that in, I'm the only one on any social platform, so you'll find me very easily.

You're a very brilliant man, Ian.

I'm grateful for you.

Do you want to leave the viewers and the listeners with any final parting words of wisdom?

Yeah.

Taking action is scary because, like me, you are thinking about the future outcome.

You're thinking of all the negative things that could happen.

You're thinking about what you could lose.

You're too focused in the future, and you're not focused enough on the right now.

It's where anxiety comes from.

Anxiety is just the inability to take action.

You get lost in your thoughts.

You're thinking of negative outcomes.

And when you start taking action, you soon learn to realize that, like, it's not that bad.

You're going to fail, it's going to happen.

But it's a callus.

I like describing it as a callus.

And eventually that callus gets so tough that you don't really even feel the pressure anymore.

And when you begin taking action and you can not be emotional about outcomes and just know there's going to be another chance even if you win, if you have the biggest win in your life, it's not going to be the last win, and there's going to be losses after that.

The same thing with losses.

It's binary.

If you lose today, you could win tomorrow.

It's one of the things the car business taught me is like, yeah, you could have a bad day.

You could have three customers, bad credit, you know, not the right vehicle.

And then the next day, you could have a hat trick, you know, so, you know, repetition creates discipline.

And taking action is something that everybody should do.

Start small at first, but get uncomfortable and just know everything's going to be fine.

You're not going to die, you know, you're not.

You're not going to be a detriment to your life or others.

Like, take action.

You'll certainly soon realize that eventually you'll get to the point where it becomes more comfortable to take action in all the best ways.

And then you just need to step up those, those decisions and take bigger and bigger decisions and, you know, build up muscle memory for the small ones.

Wow.

Love it.

Loves good stuff.

Well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Humans to Build.

Hopefully you've enjoyed this conversation as much as I have.

So, Ian, if you would stay tight here in the studio.

I want to talk to you off air for a minute, Ian, and we'll see you next time with another action packed episode.

Thanks for joining Humans that Build.

Real people, real work.

See you next time.