Episode 13: Skill, Timing, and the “Luck” You Create: Lessons from a Global Brand Leader Matt Wemple

Summary:

In this rich and wide-ranging conversation, Lori sits down with longtime friend and Coca-Cola Senior Director, Matt Wemple, to unpack a career journey that’s anything but linear. From aspiring rock star to law enforcement hopeful, to discovering his calling in consumer packaged goods, Matt shares how a life-changing experience at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics sparked his pivot into global brand leadership.

Matt opens up about the power of timing, skill, and luck in shaping opportunities, and how he navigated setbacks, detours, and doubts to rise inside one of the world’s most iconic companies. Today, he leads Coca-Cola’s commercial strategy for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America, a once-in-a-lifetime role that combines his love of sport, brand building, and global connection.

This episode isn’t just about career moves—it’s about values. Matt reflects on his father’s influence, his commitment to service and mentorship as a board member of Stoked, and the belief that true leadership means producing more than you consume.

If you’ve ever questioned whether you’re “behind,” or wondered how to keep pursuing joy while chasing big goals, Matt’s story will remind you that your path doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Timing, Skill, and Luck
• Why success often requires all three—and how to recognize when opportunity knocks.
• Permission to Pivot
• Career shifts aren’t derailments; they can be the training ground for your defining role.
• Produce More Than You Consume
• Why service and contribution are at the heart of sustainable leadership.
• Create Your Own Playbook
• You don’t need an Ivy League résumé to lead at the highest level.
• Leadership Is Service
• Mentorship, allyship, and community impact matter as much as titles.

🔎 Mentioned in the Episode:

• Matt’s pivotal experience at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics
• Leading Coca-Cola’s FIFA World Cup 2026 strategy across North America
• Stoked nonprofit: mentoring youth through board sports Learn more >
• The mindset of “produce more than you consume”

✨ Reflection Prompts:

• Where in your career have timing, skill, and luck intersected?
• What “pivot” in your life once felt like a setback but turned out to be a stepping stone?
• How are you producing more than you consume in your leadership and life?

🧠 Who This Episode Is For:

• Professionals navigating career pivots or unexpected detours
• Leaders seeking to align ambition with values and service
• Executives striving for impact beyond the title
• Anyone inspired by stories of resilience, reinvention, and JOY in leadership

📩 Want to Go Deeper?

• Learn more about Stoked: stoked.org
• Connect with Lori on LinkedIn for more leadership insights
• Book a Leadership Strategy Call with Lori: loripine.com

🎧 Subscribe to The JOY CEO Podcast

⭐️ Leave a review to help other joy-centered leaders find the show

📲 Share this episode with someone navigating their own pivot

Lori Pine 0:00

Hello and welcome to the joy CEO podcast. I am so glad to have you here today, and joining me is my dear friend, Matt wemple with the Coca Cola Company. Welcome, Matt.

Matt 0:12

Hello, Lori, a pleasure to be with you and your and your fan base.

Lori Pine 0:15

Oh my gosh. So Matt, you and I go pretty far back, like maybe 15 years ish, yeah, pretty far back. And so I do have some skinny on Matt, because I go back with him so far in his career, he was just kind of like a regular kind of guy, and now he's kind of pretty fancy. So what a privilege to have you with us today and we get to hear your story. It's quite a story, and I can't wait to dig in.

Matt 0:44

Yeah, thank you.

Lori Pine 0:46

Yes. So you've had some pivots along the way, and I love a good pivot story, like when we're in college and we think we're going to have this one career, and we're studying that career, and then, boom, I change. Let's get started. Tell us what happened

Matt 1:04

these I don't know it's funny because it's like, I don't see any of it as pivot, yeah, I didn't sit there one day and go, geez. Like, I really need to change things. There have been goals I want to achieve. And the like, what I want to achieve has it evolve. And when that changes, then, of course, like the approach needs to change. So I guess you see like a pivot in those times. But it's not like very, very deliberate path. It's much more deliberate, closer to now than it was in the past. And same with like, entirely in deliberate I say this all the time, like I had no rudder in the water when I kind of was going out in the world. I knew early on, early on, I wanted to be a rock star. Had the band, had the long hair, had the metal. You know,

Lori Pine 1:51

Matt 1:58

and hundreds of teenagers in the Albany area, if maybe dozens, actually. And then

Lori Pine 2:04

let's clarify

Matt 2:04

Lori Pine 3:55

Wow.

Matt 3:55

I got to work in what they call venue operation, and I was a supervisor there too. I had the privilege of, like, leading some folks, but really went into even that would like no expectation, no one, not even like a full understanding of what it meant. Again, my my focus in my life was in law enforcement, in this other career, that CPG and beverage world, like career I wasn't really diving in. I wasn't making myself an expert. It wasn't where I put my chips. So I get up there and I have, like, this life and career altering experience. I'm working with hundreds of some of the most interesting and talented people you'd ever meet from all over the world, in a really cool place, Vancouver, at a time where the nation and the city are at a super high point of pride, right? The Olympics are in their town, and so I'm like, see, and then I'm also seeing what Coca Cola CAN DO and DOES, or, and a lot of major brands do very well when they put their mind to it, when it's a key initiative. And like, it blew me away, all of those things combined I'd never been exposed to. Yeah.

Matt 5:00

And now that I had, I was having doubts about my law enforcement career, right,

Lori Pine 5:05

right.

Matt 5:05

Started like my head turned career wise, I should say so. I remember very distinctly, I think we chatted about this, calling my father from a hotel room in Richmond, BC, and saying, Hey, I think we, you know, one of, like, I might, might skip a generation. I would law enforcement thing, like, I'm really interested in a career in this world, and I was so worried he's gonna be disappointed or let down. And I, like, distinctly remember him also saying, I think that means I've done my job.

Lori Pine 5:35

Wow, I think that means I've done my job. What? Affirmation?

Matt 5:42

Yeah, affirmation. And I get the chills thinking about that moment too, because, like, had all the pressure on, like, a 28 year old and could ever put on themselves, like, have to have this hard conversation with dad, but, and then it was just all gone. Immediately. All the pressure was gone. It was very emotional and and by the way, caveat, like, I want to say there's like law enforcement career is still incredible, of course, an incredible privilege, and incredible women and men who serve and do that work. Dad's point was, we've done that for many generations. Maybe it's time for the wemples to kind of do other things,

Lori Pine 6:16

giving you permission to pursue something that clearly was lighting you up. He could hear it, yeah,

Matt 6:24

yeah. 100% Yeah. So yeah. It was like, Wow, awesome. And then like, Well shit. Now I gotta do something with that decision, right? If I chosen to take this, you know that CPG and professional world career, seriously? What does that mean? I gotta go figure that out now. And you know, you have all the mental stress that one puts on oneself, like, like, I'm now eight or nine years behind all my peers because I've been exploring it took me a while to get through school. Now I'm four or five years into a career, deciding on the career, right? So I'm a little behind and don't know what to do. So from there on, I had to, had to make a lot of decision, right?

Lori Pine 7:06

So let's go back just a little bit, because I want to just explain a little bit to anybody who might be listening and who's never been to an event like the Olympics, just the magnitude of what you're dealing with and the sheer intensity and excitement to walk into an experience like that. I I've been to two Olympics entertain customers. One I would, you know, was entertaining customers. The other, I too, was doing some venue operations working when I was with Anheuser Busch. And it is so impressive to see a brand come to life in that sort of sheer magnitude of what they can do when they truly partner that strategically with an asset like the Olympics. And it really is life changing. It changes you when you experience something like that, to feel that energy, to feel that vibration, to see, you know, your customers experience that, and to see the brand through that lens. And I mean, I was young and impressionable, and just like you are so to be 28 years old, and to be in the mix of that and the throes of that, I can imagine you would say, I want a career with with this, with this energy, this, this brand, a company that does these sorts of things. Hell yes, I'm in right, like that. Hell yes. Energy,

Matt 8:39

yeah, yeah, exactly. And, you know, the brand like because of the way these incredible partners, incredible business and event in nonprofits like FIFA, like the Olympics, IOC, etc, and the local operating committees, because of the way they structure. You know, what a fan experience actually is. We kept brands to take it seriously. Get to be the experience when it's not competition time, you know, prior to a match or prior to speed skating event or, you know, a track and field event like we are the experience we can help augment and enhance the incredible time that all these fans are going to have cheering on their countries, their favorite athletes, or whatever, and that's an incredible privilege, but it's also like a huge responsibility, and so getting it right is, like, wildly important, right?

Lori Pine 9:29

Yes, to bring that creative genius to the partnership, to the fan base, to the customers who are all going to be a part of it. So as you think about like a career in that it's Wow, fun, exciting and some pressure.

Matt 9:45

It creeped me

Lori Pine 9:47

so you didn't have this story kind of playbook. CPG, start, you know some people that we work with in CPG, they went to Duke, they went to Kellogg. They got there. Undergrad, they got their MBA. They were just meant for brand work. Neither you or I did that, which kind of is what makes us kindred spirits. It's what made us like love each other at first sight. You know, both of us came from humble beginnings, went to a state school and had really great work ethic and just earned our way through the ranks. And in this is what kept happening with you. And even though you had this idea that you were behind, you really weren't behind, and you made up for some lost time. So let's talk about that. What happened next after Vancouver?

To be fair, I still feel quite behind, which I've come through therapy and coaching a really it's a really good motivator to be slightly dissatisfied all the time, right? Yeah, you got to calibrate that, though, when you're leading people and helping other people out. But yeah. So I like, Okay, now what I there was another thing going on in my life where I needed to get back in the East Coast, not to bore you with details, but so I started to look for jobs with the bottling system in the East Coast. Yeah, while I was in Canada, and things changed about the companies that we all worked for, yeah. So this is, we want to put this in the luck bucket, okay? Because, like this, Bocconi always used to say timing, skill and luck, and there's varying degrees of which in those three you can control, and luck is the one you really get. But So the structure of the companies we worked for change, which meant I moved out east. I was working for bottler, but the bottler and the company were all one thing at the time, after what we call like the CCR days, Coco impressions was formed. Why does that matter? That matters because what would have been taboo, or maybe not even like supported in the past, John's, where you're working for the bottler, going to the bottler, going to company, company with a bottler, like, wasn't super supportive. It was nothing official or policy at the time. But I think it just wasn't like, as as widely accepted as it was when the company in the bottle system, or one big thing. So I met the modeler in New York City, having an incredible job, incredible time still figuring out life and all that stuff, you know, I'm like, 30 or 29 now, and an opportunity to go into national sales arise, and I'm like, all over it, right? And this is where you and I met, where I got to be on the like, the national level sales team and manage customers and PNLs and execution in a smaller channel, right? But being in a smaller channel that afforded me the opportunity to have my hands on every part of it by default. We all had to right? We didn't have, like, a huge marketing support team and a digital team and all that stuff. We figured a bunch of stuff out ourselves, which was awesome. Now I'm getting, like, PNL and national customer management experience, like, almost like a business owner or GM type role for each of those customers, and learning a bunch about the how our bottling system and our company system work together, like things I just wasn't exposed to in the past, like the actual way our business works. I'm getting to see firsthand, but I'll be honest, like I perceived some opportunities, I think, you know, I wasn't supported in preservative opportunities very fairly. Didn't have the experience, sort of, the degree, pedigree like that, that background that would make me the obvious choice for some of the things I really wanted to do. And this is where, like, life changes from where you're, you know, hard work and determination and telling people you're a, you know, you're a hard worker like that kind of runs out at some point. You've got to also have the credentials to be in some of the higher risk, higher importance roles. So I left the company and I found a couple roles in a row that helped me get the experience I needed, and some and some bruises, I'm not going to lie, to be considered for the types of things I want to do back in our, you know, corporate CPG environment that was global work and digital work and so. And I remember conversations I had like folks who were traditionally tacticians are never really seen that strategy. This was this quote that hit me, and I'm like, it pissed me off so bad, Laurie. I was like, No, you know, but anyway, the fact, or the perception that fact remained, so now I've got to go get some other better rebrand myself a little bit, and I do about three years of work at some consultancy. They had kind of changed or evolved through acquisitions. And right near the end of my time at the second one, this role was posted back at Coca Cola, and I've always wanted to get back to, like, I left with the intention of getting back to corporate. Didn't know if it was going to be the company or a different one, but I knew I was going to boomerang. I just needed to get some more stuff in my backpack to, like, make me a better student, better, better, better soldier, and all that good stuff. So this role got posted in digital business development, or E commerce, business development, Coca Cola company. And I swear to God, I wrote, I read the description, and I was like, that's the job description I would have written if you'd asked me what I wanted to do before I left. But I, like, never would have gotten an interview had I not gone and gotten that other experience. And so by some diligence and some luck.

Uh, got an interview and got the job, and I'm now, I'm back at Coca Cola, and got to shape the early days of how we would do e commerce, sort of outside of Amazon. How could we imagine working with everything but Amazon? Because that was really well defined and on its own path at the time. So we built the we built the strategies, then we built a team. We'd later see that all that work turn into individual vertical, that giant team, not giant, but like, you know, substantial teams are are leading even through today. Then I had the chance to interim lead the Amazon business. That was an incredible privilege. Learned a whole bunch there, and then from that point, pivoted on to leading a channel of business, pulled back together component parts of the natural channel and and rebuilt a team to serve it, and was lucky enough to hand that off. Incredible, incredible, incredible folks here about a year ago. And to your point, I've now pivoted back into the world of sports marketing, sports venue execution and commercial rights execution. So, you know, I think I've always had my eye on this to get to hear sort of where I wanted to be to like at the level of seniority and responsibility that I have in mind. While it may look like weird divots and fortuitous, I've kind of been building, not only the knowledge expertise, but like, the allyship and the support to be given opportunities like this, and then who knows what, from here, like we get all the way through next August, we've got to figure out what's next as a team and as individuals.

So okay, there are so many good nuggets. I'm like, sitting on my hands waiting to, like, dig into so much of this. Yeah,

you can tell me, please tell me to be quiet.

No, not at all. So, right, so we've got to have, what did Steve piconi Say? Tactics, skills and luck,

skill, timing and luck.

timing and luck.

Number one's all on you. Number two is half you, half the world. And the third, if you do the other two fairly well, you're probably gonna get that's what I took away from him.

And the universe, I believe, wants to give us everything we ask for it we just gotta ask like we've just got to put it out there that this is what we want. And so what I love about what you're sharing with this audience is you knew what you wanted. You were a little bit backed into a corner getting a little bit pigeonholed, if you will, saying, you know, you only have these sort of skills. And it riled something up inside of you enough to say, That's BS, I'm not going to settle for that. And you had the courage to say, I'm going to walk away. Get the skills, the experience, the expertise that I know that I need to prove my chops, to come back and show you just really what I'm made of. And you went and did that. You know this scrappy kid from Albany, I love it, right? And so you did exactly that. And you come back, and there's this made for you role that you just crush. And so you come back, you do the role, you're a director, then you're promoted, and you're promoted, and before you know it, you're a vice president of the Coca Cola company. I mean math that that's incredible. Some people have an entire career, 35 years, and never get to that level.

Sure, can I? Can I correct you on them? You had a good run? Would do that part again, but it's technically, Senior Director. There aren't vice president,

Senior Director, which really, in any other world, is a vice president. It's that equivalent, but that's the level that you rose to, and those were the rooms that you were in, those were the conversations that you were having. That was a high level strategy that you were doing, the thinking that you were doing, because you had the skills, you knew the right thought process to move the business forward. You had some timing and May, yes, maybe you had some luck. Yeah, yeah. And so all the while, life is happening. So before we get to the role you're in now, before we talk about that, life's happening, there's some pretty high highs and there's some pretty low lows. You had met your wife back in your early, early days, early 20s, when you're working at Target, right? Do I have this story? Right?

20,

yes. 20,

yes.

Okay, so 20, you meet her, and then you part ways, only to come back around and like this fairy tale story. So what I love most about Matt, and for anybody who follows Him on LinkedIn or Instagram, Matt is a true ally in every sense of the word, whether you work for him, whether you might happen to be the one and only who's married to him, or you're a friend of his, like I am, or. You're one of the many organizations he volunteers for because he is an advocate of volunteering, but Matt is an ally. He shows up and supports and his wife is an equestrian, and he is cheering her on all the time. So Jamie, we're giving you a shout out for all that you're doing with your horse and your equestrian work, but let's talk just a little bit about, you know, kind of you leave the city you're now in the suburb you live not that far from me, here in the Hudson Valley, loving that. It brings out this side of you that you've always loved, and started when you were 15 years old with your dirtiest job ever.

I love this. I love that I come I did not think you were gonna actually bring this up. That's awesome.

Yes. So dirtiest job ever for Matt wemble, was

I landscaped for, I think, four or five summer seasons, and then we did some stuff, like before and after cleanups and things like that. But, you know, around the capital, Schenectady County, Capital Region, area I was it was like, I don't remember what the age for, like, to legitimately get a working work permit is. Like, you can get a work permit a year early, that earlier than the legal working age. I, like, forged my dad's signature. I don't know. I hope statute of limitations has run out, but I don't think they're coming for me. But because I was just, like, getting playing a double absolute vanity was getting, like, tired of getting clowned on for machines I had on and, like, there wasn't budget in our family, like, to have lavish like, things like clothing and things like that, and and frankly, Dad supported my hockey addiction, so we had to make choices. Okay?

So all your money went to hockey gear, face mask, the whole training ice time, right? And not the Bougie, you know, $100 sneakers.

Yeah, I want, yeah, exactly,

yeah.

And I want, so I, like, really wanted to be able to pay for my own things. In general, I also, like, sought independence, very, very young age, and I don't know what triggered that, but, like, financial, mental, social, like, always craved being a bit autonomous, which kind of lead that'll come back and lead into where myself, the organization I represent as a board member, stoked and a number of people around me had when it comes to, like, future freedom, right, being an autonomous person into your later years. So anyway, yeah, got this job at like, 15, and like, wild amount of responsibility, by the way, like driving one of the trucks and like, like doing bad installations and things like that. And we would work, you know, after school, have an hour change, get into your your sloppy gear, you go out and dig holes and, you know, install and rip out plants. And, you know, wasn't as much like lawn mowing as it was like building and curating lawn and landscape design. God, I learned so much. I mean, 4am it was sometimes, you know, we did fall and little bit of winter work, so it was like 4am and cold. Couldn't feel your hands under your gloves. And I'll never Lori, I'll never forget, like, I'll refer to myself as an idiot. Mean, like, literally, every era of my life there's, like, these dummy moments, right, which I think everybody has, but, yeah, I'll never forget I got a pair of leather gloves. I've got my ponytail tucked up into my hat because, like, the owner didn't want me to upset the rich people would like be looking like a hippie or something. He gives me these gloves. I got my ponytail tucked in. And he's like, we're gonna move all those rocks into this thing. Gonna take five loads, bring it over to this other area. I was like, great. Like, the only thing he told me was, like, don't get your finger under one of those. Oh, no. Like, don't even know what he means, really, I pick up the first one. It's like 30 pounds. I put it on the bed of the truck, and I immediately go, Oh my God. I like, popped the end of my finger inside the glove because I dropped the rock. But I'm like, so now I know what he means and what he meant, and I'm like, I can't lose this job, but I can't, I can't embarrass myself to this guy. I can't have, literally, like, broken the only rule he gave me. I just let it sit inside and just, like, like, like, just roughed it out. You know, the guy who got me the job, same age in high or middle school, he kind of knew, so he was helping wheel a couple things, and, like, end of the day afterwards, like, pulled it out, and it was like a mess. Did what I had to do, yeah? So, like, that was, like a character defining moment. Like, first of all, listen to the people who give you advice, if you don't understand it, ask for clarity,

clarifying questions,

and if you still fuck up, it's yours to own. Power through it. Power through it.

But this job, in general, he gave you something that you still value to this day and is it?

Independence work ethic

and getting your hands dirty?

Oh yeah, yeah, thank you, yeah. I super value, like manual work,

yeah?

Or manual anything like being creative, to play the guitar, I get to work out like, as you alluded to, right? I've never lived in like, a house with things and take care of, you know, prior to this era, going to apartments and condos and things like that in the city and like, I can long for the Sunday morning at 530 where there's like, a little project to do, not only because it helps me with whatever I've been thinking about all week. Like, I'm a huge proponent of, if you're stuck on something strategy wise, or on a relationship or whatever in your day job, like, go take a shower or go for a walk or a run. Like you just literally distract your brain by doing things, physical things, and the really awesome part of your brain kicks in and it just spits out the answers you need. Like, I've seen this over and over and over again, like when we let our subconscious mind do what it's designed to do, instead of, like, trying to control everything all the time, it's, it does wonders. So it has that value. And then it's just, like, so cool to see have like an idea, and then like, a few weeks later, there's like a thing in the world, you know, it's a physical thing.

Like, you created the thing,

yeah, yeah.

You took it from blah to Ta da,

yeah,

yeah, that's so fulfilling. And I don't ever want to lose like, that type of thing in my life, because the work we do, like, we might not always see, like, right? I'm definitely going to see people in a concession blind and 16 stadiums next summer, you know, buying all types of refreshments, especially our brands. But like, I'm not, I'm not building the stadium, right, right, right, right. So we'll see the output of our strategies and our and our types of work, but we don't necessarily get to see a flower bed, and that's like, so fulfilling.

Okay? So great. Segway into your current role. So just about a year ago, you're humming along, you're taking care of the natural channel, you're you've built out this, you know, kind of digital, e com world, and an opportunity arises, and it brings you full circle. Let's talk about that.

For sure. It was around like, what's your next steps time in that role? I think in the total it's pretty interesting. From the E commerce early days, where I first came back to the company, to one, you know, I moved on from the retail organization, it was kind of all one big thing with like, five or six different distinct facets, because we, I want to say reorg, but we've evolved the way we did that part of our business, because it's the emerging channels area. It needs to constantly evolve. So in some regards, there was completely different work. In many regards, it was like, a lot of the same teams, lot of same people, lot of the same work, just with different approaches. So I, I was in the period where, like, it was a good time for me to explore something, not just a step over, right, something very new, and something that would be, that would be that would shape me further right, and stretch me and grow me into new areas. So this opportunity on the FIFA World Cup 2016 pops up. A couple of people kind of mentioned the opportunity to me, and I looked into it, got to meet the team and obviously pursue it, land it. And it's like, clearly, one of the best decisions I've ever made career wise. You know, it could look from the outside like you saw, like a hard pivot. In my mind, it's like this journey back to the world of global sports, where brands and sports and fans and cities and all this cool stuff in the world intersect. And, like, I get an immense amount of value out of the fact that I'm like, at the table. I'm like, really humbly, very honored to get to work on this. That's part of the value for me. And the equation of the role is just like what we get exposure to. I mean, for the value of that, right? Like, not because exposure to it may be another job or something like that. It's literally just getting to be part of it is, like gold,

yes. And I've been watching you all summer on your social channels, and you have been doing some really cool things. You've been all over the place, touring stadiums, checking out these venues, all these operations, and so let's just sum this up a little bit. You really have taken everything you've learned since Arizona, maybe even before Arizona, maybe all the way back to being 15 years old and almost losing a finger in the frozen trenches of landscaping and taking everything you've learned along the way Arizona on a truck, you know, delivering to convenience stores, working in a target to Vancouver to, you know, working your way through Coca Cola and.

Pivoting out to consulting, back to Coca Cola through the E com channels, and now here you are to lead this FIFA World Cup commercial strategy. And how do you bring it to life when it comes to North America, US, Canada and Mexico. So all eyes are going to be on this major retailers, Coca Cola is number one market. And what a privilege. It's like, it's like, all these years have been your clutch game where you've been practicing, throwing your free throws, throwing your free throws, throwing your free throws, and now you're like, ready to go to the big time when you're going to be on the free throw line, and there's going to be 10 million people watching, yes, and you're going to know how to how to do it, because you've been doing it all this time. You're ready.

Yeah,

I love it for you.

I love the way you summed it up. And I think that the biggest privilege of it all is, not only are we going to know what we need to do, and I know what we need to do, we are in a position, again, very luckily, luckily and gratefully, to enable lots and lots of other people to know what to do. Right? This is the this is the culmination. And the magic of our work is we've got to mobilize 1000s of people easy to make sure that during this incredible event and spectacle next year where people are traveling 1000s of miles away from home to come see maybe one, maybe two or three matching in a far away land to support represent their Country, right like they're going to be served our beverages, and we've got to represent our brand to them while their teams are representing their country, and the entire collective of this cool event space is that we give an experience to people, and in our end, we can get 1000s of people ready to make sure the fans experience is something they'll literally never forget, right? A tournament coming to free country to North America is a once in a lifetime thing,

and that's what makes a brand, a brand, and not just a commodity that sits on a shelf, the work that you're doing. That's what brings it to life, in people's essence, exactly what you're doing

all the time. I when I talk to customers, I can be a little like, I negotiate and like, you know, internally, like, I'm serious and I'm proud of what we do. So I have like, expectations, and I just try to ground that sometimes in my story about what it's like to work at a brand like Coca Cola, specifically Coca Cola. And I'm saying this, like, not as a representative of everyone who works here, but in my experience, right? There's the period that told you about where I worked at Coke, and then experience, right? And like, you're on an airplane, and inevitably, you're inevitably, you're talking to the person next to you, and the conversation goes to, what do you do for a living? Right? And in periods where I didn't work at Coke like, I'd be like, well, you know, I work for a company that measures, you know, business intelligence and, like, sleep, like the eyes Jack, yeah, they're like, checking the following. They're like, playing with the screen. I The periods of my life where I say I work at Coca Cola, that reaction is so different. Yeah, the eyes light up, the shoulders come up nine times out of 10. They don't say, like, Oh, I like orange cream, you know, it's really a cool innovation. Or they don't really talk about the product I like, you working the competitors they like. Immediately launch into a story about their family or something that's culturally relevant, and we've been part of this, like, human experience. The brand that I happen to work at has been part of this human experience globally for over 100 years, and there's like, some magic in that, right? That means the brand and the company has been doing a lot right for quite a while. Yeah. So it's a privilege. It's a Connor to, you know, even though you made the slogan, sort of sales guy, I'll never forget, when I left target to go work at Coke, one of the people I had to tell they said, Are you gonna go slept? Pop, to those guys, right? And the idea that, like, Okay, you could look at it, it's your choice to look at it. And like, we're slept and pop, or what we're doing is trying to make sure we're part of the human experience for the next 240 experience for the next 240 years, right?

And you know that viewpoint fits so nicely into your value proposition, which is really about serving people. And do you want to talk a minute about the people that you really have passion for and that you spend time with and dedicate some of your your heart and service to

Thanks for making time for that. I think like, yeah, at the end of the day, I'm driven by this, like haunting, you need to produce more than you consumed. And it's like a principle. It's like the only thing I'd say my goals are like to have produced more than I consume. I say it in. Past tense, because it's like, that last breath. It's lucky enough to be cogent during it. We have to take stock of what we've done with our lives. It's starting to get very serious on the joy podcast. But like, I get really, like, intense about, like, is there enough time to do what it is I need to do, and then the enjoyment of life and the serving people, you know, equation. How can I make sure those things interrelate? How can they be a self serving cycle so that the job I have enables me to do things I love and care for, so that when I come back to my job, I've got the energy I need to be awesome at it, and then I can go keep doing all those it's like the purpose and service cycle. So throughout my life, I've had great role models. My father being the biggest one, I look up at his little shadow box I made in his memory. There's like, this crazy long list of things Ray wemple did in the world that like that exist now, but only for him and a lot of other really important and passionate people's efforts. There's a hockey rink with his name on it. There are union benefits for police officers in New York that were built on a framework he built when he was, you know, young. There's so many things that he did because he just thought that, like, serving people was the purpose, and like, as a police officer, that was his entire mentality. It wasn't a day job, or wasn't like a nine to five or it was like, I want to be a cop so I can serve the community, and this is how I know how to do it. But he retired, he went right back into serving the community via his, you know, retirement job and be sort of that on top and charitable work that he did and organizational work. He was the president of our, you know, Hockey Association and things like that. And through all of this, I got to meet other people like him who led those organizations as well all the parents who were involved in forming the high school hockey team that we built as parents and players when we were 14, 1516, years old, the nonprofit that we run in the name of a friend of ours, who we launched shortly after high school, that rewards the graduating Senior from that high school hockey team we built 20 years ago, you know, and the ability to fundraise for it and run a scholarship that rewards the graduating senior who most embodies the characteristics of our friend of ours, like I said, who we lost in high school, like all of those things, and the people we've met along the way have been my role models for service.

So short story on that, and like my I think the thing that drives me is that there has to be a purpose to all of this, and that I need to give back more than I've taken and done a bunch of different things, volunteer wise, in the community and with Red Cross and all this other stuff. But right now, I'm super, super focused on one organization, the board member of an organization called stoked. We are in our 20th year. We're in the middle of this incredible, almost relaunch of what stoked is at its core in New York and LA. We've Mentored Youth of promise, youth from at risk areas, through the medium of board sports, surf, ski and snow. So we'll literally get 60 kids, 1520 mentors on a bus. We go from the Bronx to Bel Air here in New York, and ride with kids and not only teach them the functional skills of snowboarding, but like the value of an interpersonal relationship with an adult, the ability to ask questions freely and without judgment in a safe environment, the fact that like safety and exempt when someone cares about you. These are all incredible effects of mentorship, but the core of the model is that. And then the in school piece. We're also bringing program to New York City and LA schools, which is at you know, it needed now more than ever. And so the core of that is now evolving to not just mentoring youth, but creating the legions of mentors, while we also not only operate a great nonprofit, but we're building a profile platform to enable other nonprofits to flourish. So that's all part of the board and the staff redesign of stoked 2.0 and where you couldn't be more stoked. I love it, to be cheesy, to bring it to life.

I love it. And you and I have had many a dinner and lunch over with conversation about stoked. And it really is just tremendous. And you light up every time you talk about it, and you talk about the kids and the impact. And I do believe, Matt, that you give more than you take in this world, and that's just what makes you so incredible and special, and really just a privilege like you are joy and what you bring to the world. So I know that FIFA World Cup 2026, is in great hands with you leading it for the Coca Cola company. It's going to be incredible. I think we're taking away so many nuggets today of what you've taught us and imparted on us. So thank you for being with us. What a privilege. Where can we learn more about stoked,

stoked.org

stoked.org Okay, handle. We will list that in the show notes

and all the stoked social handles, I'd say stoked org on Instagrams with Great one. We've got an incredible program director named Q of New York, and keep an eye fresh. There's, like, so many good things we're producing and so much more to come.

Okay?

And I'd say, like, Can I leave your listeners with like, one thought, which is, be really good to yourself.

Yes, be really good to yourself. Be kind. That's where the joy is, yeah,

that's where the joy is, yeah,

that's where the joy is, all right, my friend, what a privilege to talk to you today. Thank you so much for your time.

My pleasure. Lori, you.