How to Get Free Money (Legally!) with Matthew Lesko | The CJ Moneyway Sh$w

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Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show. Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show, powered by the Believe Network, where we break barriers, build legacy, and teach the game brick by brick. Today we're stepping into a lane most people talk about But almost nobody understands because today's guest has spent his life doing what politicians won't, what bankers can't, and what Google don't tell you unless you dig deep. You've seen him on TV rocking the wild suits with question marks all over them, but behind the colors is a mind sharper than most CEOs. The legend himself, Matthew Lesko. For decades, Lesko has been uncovering the loopholes, the hidden programs, and the free resources that can change a family, a business, and a whole community if you know where to look. Most people don't know this. Billions of dollars sit untouched every year. Grants, assistance, startup funds, community programs, money designed to help people rise, but folks don't apply because nobody ever showed them the blueprint. Well, today that changes. On this episode, we get into: See I, the truth about free government money. See I, everyday people never claim what belongs to them. See I, the wildest success stories from folks who follow the blueprint. See how Lesko built one of the most iconic brands in financial education and the Moneyway mindset it takes to turn information into opportunity. This ain't a scam. This ain't a shortcut. This is strategy. The kind you can use today to build something real for your family. The money's out there. It's your job to find it. Matthew Lesko. So lock in. Take notes and welcome the one and only Matthew Lesko to the CJ Moneyway Show.

What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show in association with Believe Network, the podcast that brings you stories behind success. But today Today, you all, I'm not gonna talk long because I got my man Matt Lesko in the building, the question mark guy, government guru, financial educator. I got the real deal on the show today, man. Get to chop it up with my man Matt out there in the capital of Washington, DC. We both don't know what's going on, but we gonna keep it moving on the CJ Moneyway Show. Matt, man, welcome to the show, man.

Oh, my pleasure. Fun to see your energy.

I told you, man, I knew coming in I had to match you, man. You know, I've been watching you, man. I've been keeping up with you. So, so, man, let me ask you, man. Engaging entertainment and bold questions. You've been rocking question marks for decades. Was there ever a moment you didn't want to stand out, or were you born to just be unforgettable?

Oh God, I'm not that way normally. It's just that I believe in what I'm doing. In other words, people say, oh, I should be a salesman. I can't sell something that I don't believe. This is my heart. This is not sales. And I was so afraid when I got out of college. I went to Marquette University right out near you in Milwaukee. Then this is back in the '60s. For business school, it was like salesmen is really about. I just couldn't see myself as a salesman. And now I'm probably one of the biggest hucksters in the United States because I don't sell. I'm trying to educate.

Yeah, you are. You are. You are. I'm a testament to you all. It's the real deal. I just got a thing today where they was giving out grants and they showed the winner of the $1,000, $5,000, $500 grant. This thing is real. I got the real deal on the CJ Moneyway Johnson Show today. I'm excited. Hey, so Matt, man, let me ask you, man, if you could give one grant to your younger self, what would it be? And what wild idea would young Matt fund?

Well, if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't do anything that costs money. I think that's a trap. I got an MBA after the war. It was a Vietnam War. I was a Navy because I couldn't get into grad school and I didn't want to be drafted. It was a draft back then. I came out, MBA school, started getting money, how to start business, and they all failed. Every time I got money to do something, failed. And then I started starting businesses without money, and they're the ones that succeeded. I still do that now because you don't know what works. Nobody knows what works. And to me, Google is the worst thing in the world to try to get help in because Google is there to sell money. People, if you're looking for help in Google, they're going to tell you what's good for them, not what's good for you. They're there to sell you something. Google has to make money from you to give the advertisers so they keep on top of being the most richest country in the world. Okay, and if you have money, that's fine, go to Google and spend your hard-earned money up. But if you want to create income, you want to be an entrepreneur, you don't need money. You need a customer. That's the only thing you need, and that's the important thing. And what the government has is free mentors to help you think through something, to help you get money or not money or anything you have, instead of going to Google and trying to find out how to get money and help for what you want to do, because you just find people want to get money from you. But what you wanna find is how to get help that gives it to you for free. And see, 40% of everything in our country is organizations giving away free money. 40%! Google represents the 60% that wants to sell you stuff. And they're selling you help, they're selling you money, they're selling you everything. But that's only 60% of the economy. 40% of the economy is people helping each other. And those people that help you are from the government or from the nonprofit organizations. They're the people that get money, have money to give to you, have services to give to you. The first thing I would do is, uh, well, can you go online? I'll show you a website.

Yeah, I can go online.

Okay, why don't you go to findhelp.org?

Say find help. I help.

.org.

Okay, I may not know.

You want it?

Yeah, I'm on it.

Okay, it should ask you for your zip code up in the left-hand corner.

Yep, that's what it's asking me for.

Okay, got a great radio voice. Thanks, man.

Okay, I'm in there.

Okay, now And there's another block that you could put a title in. Put business.

Okay, business. Don't slow down on me now, computer. You know, it always want to act crazy when you doing something. Okay, I'm in there.

Okay, do you see a listing of organizations at all now?

Yeah, yeah, got Veterans Business Outreach Center, right? Small business loans. Okay, I see what you're saying. Okay, okay.

There's probably, I don't know, 20, 30, 40 organizations there.

Yeah, yeah, right.

That all they do is help you start a business. They're all free. They're going to give you free money or free information, uh, free consulting. They're mentors to help you start or expand any business you want. So you have a podcast now and you want to know, how am I going to grow this? You make an appointment with those people, tell them, hey, I need help expand my podcast. Make an appointment. Getting information is about talking to people. It's not about going on the internet. It's all about talking to people. See, that's what I'm trying to do. Now you go up and go backwards to the arrow back, so you go back, and let's look for something else.

Okay.

Let's put in like rents, okay? You need money to pay rent.

Wow. Yeah, okay.

How many you got there?

I got 59.

Okay, so you have 59 nonprofit organizations and government offices that help you pay rent for free. Every person in this database is free. Every person will give you either free money or free help. Nobody knows what the hell— I mean, I'm doing a shitty job.

Wow.

So, help is out there for everybody. And see, what really pisses me off, the rich people are out there. Elon Musk, he gets $6 million a day from the government for his business. $6 million a day, um, and it's there for everybody, um, but you have to go over through the hoops and you can't use Google. The hoops are understandable. They're not understandable if you go to Google. You just get overwhelmed with 2 billion websites and talk to people that want to get your money and you don't have any. They have to stay away from that.

Let me ask you a question, Matt. Man, this wasn't something I had on my questionnaire, but like what you say, you know, you say it's free money out there, then you gave me website, and I appreciate you for that. And I'm gonna put that in the keynotes too, because that opens up a lot. But like today, I went to the bank, right, because they do an outreach community. You got this bank called Old National Bank, and you know, they giving out, you know, money and stuff for the community or whatever. But I didn't want a loan, I just wanted to build a relationship or whatever. So I opened up a business account. And but they have these other programs too, like grants and things of that nature. So I guess my question is to you, like, with bank grants and, you know, programs that they have, are they good to utilize as Oh, absolutely.

Anybody gonna give you a grant, you grab it. Okay, okay. The banks, the commercial banks that do that, they'll do it either like on housing, they'll do it because, you know, you're gonna get a big loan and that's a lot of money for them for the next 30 years. So they'll give you, you know, $10,000, $20,000 if you're lucky to do that. And then there are banks though that are called community development banks, and this may be one that you have, and they get government money to give out as grants. So the community development grants or loans are really the best if you want to go to commercial because they have you, the community, in mind. They don't have investors in Wall Street that have to keep payments on their yachts and stuff like that.

Yeah, I just wanted to ask the guru, man, you know what I'm saying? I just did that today because like you say, with my podcast, I'm expanding. You know, I got, I got Matt Lesko on the show, man. Come on now, you know what I'm saying? Hey, I must be moving up in the world or something, man, 'cause God is good, I tell you. Hey, so Matt, man, let me ask you, man.

Uh-huh.

You help millions find free money.

Yeah.

What's the craziest thing you've ever seen someone use a government grant for?

Oh God. I got so many. I mean, there was a, somebody got a grant for learning how to make bread out of human waste. And it's again, and actually it was for, and it was legitimate in a way. They're trying to try it. Oh man, it was NASA and they were trying to figure out if they could take human waste and make food. And I was telling somebody about this and they said, yeah, they're gonna call it pooper nickel.

Oh my God, man, you talk about, and people talk about chitlins. Hey, you're talking about making some human. Oh, now that is a good one, man. That's a good one. Oh my goodness. Needless to say, I know that that didn't sell, did it?

No, I don't think they ever—

you say just the thought process of somebody wanting to grant to do that, I tell you about burning some money.

Like that. That's right. You have to look. There's help to do that. And if you have an idea And while I look for money at it, boy, if somebody could figure out how to get $20,000, $30,000 to do that, you know, there's got to be something for you and your idea. And the key to that is finding people. So those organizations that— and Find Help, they're people you talk to. And the way to do that is not just call them up and ask for money. You call them up and ask for help. And because you may need money, you may not, you know, because like for a business. I mean, you have a podcast. Well, the government buys more podcasts than anybody else, so they could buy, you know, $100,000 worth of podcasting from you instead of you getting a grant. You got a customer. My sister was framing plaques for the government out of her garage, did $1 million framing awards. So she was a framer, uh, government contracts. So that's it. That's why you don't want to say You want money, you want help to grow your business, you want help to start a business because you want to learn what's out there that may be able to help you. It may be a grant, it may be this, maybe that. You don't know. The world's too big. I mean, like training, they'll train you for free to start a business. So that means you don't have to do anything. Yeah. Get paid while you're training. And so there's just too much stuff out there. You want to hire an employee? Well, there's money to hire an employee. Money to train an employee in your business. And that's all free from the government. Most of it is state, that's local, because see, that Find Help is a good entrance into finding the local stuff because that's where it is. Anything from housing to paying your bills, and like most people are in debt, don't know what to do, and it's going to get worse. And there's, if you go to Find Help again and put in financial assistance. Are you there again? You want to try that?

Oh, you want me to go back? Okay, so go back and put in financial assistance.

Financial assistance.

Okay. Oh, 279.

See, now who would have thought that in your zip code there's 279 organizations that giving out financial assistance? Now you have to call and see if you're eligible. That's it. Don't get excited, "Oh, I'm just going to go and fill out an application and fill them all out." No, that's a waste of time. You want to talk to somebody there to see if this is relevant to you. And if it's not, then you ask them, "Where else can I go to get money that I need that would help?" Because they're in that business. They're helping people like you all the time. So, they know. And then you go to Google and you get overwhelmed. You get eaten up by the sharks before you get out of there, man.

I bet this alone, man, was a help. So you heard what my man Matt said, so take heed to what he said. He said forget Google because you paying them because they want to keep the sponsors and everything. Go to findhelp.org and that's where you can get a lot of your problems solved. And listen to my man Matt and join this community because it's a great community. Trust me, they are on the ball. So Matt, let me ask you this, man. Ah, what's more misunderstood, how government money works or what you actually do for people?

Yeah, well, first of all, 80% of the free money the government gives out is not even called grants. So you don't want to go and ask for a grant because you're missing 80% of the money. The little we know about government and government money is going to hurt us. So pretend you don't know anything and just say you need help with this problem. I need help paying bills. I need help starting a business. I need help finding home or whatever, or getting healthcare. That's what you do. And you talk to people about doing it. People think the applications are too complicated. They're not. There are complicated applications, but 90% of them for individuals are just 2, 3 pages, fill in the blanks. And they'll help you fill out the application. But you go to the internet, they'll tell you how complicated it is and you better hire me to do it. And it's silly to hire anybody to fill out an application when you don't even seen the application yet. So you find an application and you have to do that by talking to people that are in the business to helping people like you. It's really a phone because the internet now is just full of crap and junk and people want to get your money. You can't get in that swimming pool because it's really a swamp.

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They talk about cleaning the swamp, huh? That's swamp, huh?

Right.

Hey, so let me ask you real quick, Mac, on top of that, you know, like you say, hiring people or whatever, because you know Fiverr and all these other apps, they good for having people that write grants, you know, grant writers. And so, you know, is that a good idea as well?

No.

Okay. Okay.

You have to find out where the grant is for you.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and you're the best one to find it. When you get a grant and you're afraid of it, then you hire. Okay. Hiring a grant writer before you've seen the grant is sort of like buying a prom dress before you get invited to the prom. Yeah.

Yeah.

You can't get that invite the right way. You want to see what's— and you're going to be the best to judge that because you know what you want to do better than you can explain to anybody else. And you will see opportunities better than anybody else. Somebody fighting a war for you. Well, you know, people who are fighting for their own life win those wars, not the hired guns. But if you need help filling out the form,, then that's good. But tell you the truth, the people who have the forms will help you fill them out too.

Mm, I like that. Don't get mad at me, grant writers, for asking my man that question. I just wanted to know. Probably any grant writers probably listening to me like, I can't stand CJ Moneyway for asking that show, messing with my money. And so let me ask you, Matt.

Uh-huh.

We've got billionaires out here pitching products. And you're out here pitching free money, right? Do you ever feel like the world still doesn't get how powerful this information really is?

Every day. Every day. Because I think we have a bad idea about what government is. We never use it. We read articles or information about how the government screws up every day, and they do. I mean, I screw up every day too. Yeah, the news News is something unusual. So if it's usual, they don't tell you the news. So that's why there's a lot of good things happening with the government, but you never hear about it because that's usual. The unusual thing, you know, they stole this, they did this, so they screwed up. So you hear about all the bad stuff, so you think, oh, I don't want anything to do with that. And you're crazy because you're missing a hell of an opportunity. It's the biggest source of free money in the health and information in the world. And we're the richest country in the world and we have more poor people in this country than any other developed country. I mean, we live in a— we have more millionaires and more people in poverty. Now, that's a mortal sin, I think.

It just don't seem right. Don't go hand in hand, you know. I'm a big rap person, Matt, and I, you know, I love Tupac, God rest his soul. And he said something, he said, "We got money for wars but can't feed the poor." It make you think about it. We got all this, and like you say, we got people out there in California where it's becoming a hazard and an issue where people out there sleeping on the streets. We talking about California now. I've never been to California myself, but I know what California is. That's the sunshine— not the Sunshine State, but that's the Golden State. You know what I'm saying? It is what it is. Hollywood.

Exactly. It is. And now with Trump's new budget, it's taking money away from poor people and giving it to billionaires.

Come on, man. I know, Matt, and neither one of us want to go to alligator Alcatraz or whatever, but it is real out there in the field. And me and you, we talked, and so we know how this is, man. It really don't make sense. So let me ask you this, man. Let's do this, Matt, real quick. Let's say we're playing Let's Go Jeopardy.

Uh-huh.

What would the categories be? Stuff you're missing out on, free money for hustlers, grants gone wild, maybe? Which categories would this be for you?

It's what you're missing, you know, because you live in this country. As long as you live in this country, you're eligible for over $18,000 of personal grants every year. That's how much government gives out, and it's going to be more this year. It's going to be more next year. And because you don't know where or how to apply, you're going to leave it to somebody else. So you're leaving things on the table there because of something in your head. You think it's hard. You think it's not for you. You have to get over that. And the way to get over that is don't look at the media when you're doing this.

Don't Google.

Talk to people in that. Go to findhelp.org. You know, put in your question. Well, you need to fix up your house. Well, you put home repair and you'll find 100 organizations or more that will help you for free with home repair. Now, the work is up to you at that point. You have to start calling. It's like getting a job. Okay, all these people are hiring. Whether they're going to hire you or not, you got to figure that out. Yeah, knock on their door, ask them, and if they don't hire you or they can't help you, ask them, where else can I go? Because they're more likely to know the other people that maybe help people like you, as everybody has their own requirements. So you have to—

yeah, I like that, man. So y'all heard what he said. Number one question is stuff you're missing out on. $18,000 a year that they giving out for individual grants that we missing out on. And somebody else is getting it. And like we said before in the last segment, because the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poor, y'all better wake up and open y'all eyes and listen to my man Matt. Matt, have you ever gotten in trouble with the government for sharing too many secrets, or do they secretly love you?

No, sometimes they don't because I'll make their phone ring too much.

I bet.

But I go down and answer the phone for them. I'll help on anything like that. Everybody— because the rich all use this, and I want to make sure the average person on the street knows they live in a country that is trying to help them, but they don't know how, and they don't know how to use it or what to say. And it's my job to try to educate people about this country has nice people in it that want to help you. 40% of everything in our country is is people whose job it is to give you money or help to solve your financial problems or to grow in America. You have to learn how to use this system because it's not going to come to you.

Yeah, so it ain't gonna come to you. You gotta go out there and get it. So, Matt, man, let me ask you, I only got one more question for you, but I do have a game that I've been playing on the CJ Moneyway Show. It's been a fan favorite and also guest favorite. It's called the Quick Fire Round. I'm gonna ask you 5 questions and you tell me the first thing that comes to your mind, okay? But before we get there, man, let me ask you this, man. What's one government program that sounds too good to be true but is actually 100% legit and underused?

I think it's if you go to careeronestop.org, careeronestop.org, put in your zip code and make an appointment with a counselor there. They'll show you how to get anywhere from maybe $8,000 to $10,000 to $40,000 to train for a new career without a degree. And for a career that's $100,000 a year, we need so many people but trained not with degrees, we need them with skills. And so the government has money to pay you while you're learning a new skill to get a high-paying job.

Wow. That's good.

Real stuff.

Yeah, now that's some real stuff right there. Something a lot of us didn't know about. So Matt, man, like I say, man, I appreciate you coming on, man. It's been a joy, and I know that you are busy, man. So Matt, where can we follow you at, man? Where can we find these— find Matt, uh, Let's Go at, man, social media-wise?

Uh, letsgohelp.com. Let's Go Help, H-E-L-P dot com, L-E-S-K-O Or you can watch me on YouTube. I do a couple of videos every day. Matthew Lesko, youtube.com/MatthewLesko.

Yeah, you gotta check him out on YouTube, man. He funny, he live. He had me— when I've been watching him, I had to bring my energy up because I did not want to slack. I tried to get me a jacket like Matt, but they didn't have none of that Burlington. But I'm gonna find me a grant and go find me one. Hey, next time you see me, man, I'm gonna have me one on. I said, I got this from that grant money. Hey, so, Matt, Matt, you ready for this quick fire round real quick?

You bet.

Okay, let's try.

All right, craziest costume you've ever worn outside of the question mark?

A G-string.

Come on, man, not in DC.

It was, uh, I don't know, it was an artist exhibit or something like that. Yeah, I said I ain't gonna show Oh my goodness, man, come on, man.

He said G-Stray, ah damn. Good one. Most ridiculous myth about free money.

Most ridiculous myth is about that you make too much money to get it. Mm. There's 750,000 programs and for all ages, all incomes, everybody's eligible.

So like the free lunches, you're like, oh, y'all make too much money, your kid can't get free lunch, y'all got to come up with $5 a day. Yeah, that's been going on for a long time. Matt, uh, your dream grant you wish existed but doesn't yet?

Oh God, Erica, we need more individual help with people. A grant to pay people to help them do what I do. People should not have to pay me. We should have one source that is free to everybody that shows you all the government grants and services and benefits that you're eligible for. I should not be in business. So they should put me out of business. I've been waiting for 50 years and they got—

Hey, now that's real talk right there. That's real transparency. He said that they should have this for free and y'all shouldn't have to be paying him for this stuff that the government should be doing. Now that's honest, real talk right there. Appreciate that answer, man. So, Mac, favorite government program nobody talks about?

Favorite government money? Your congressperson, your elected official, that's your lobbyist. Anything that happens with you in the government, they mess you over, anything like that, you don't hire an attorney. You don't do anything except call your senators or your congressmen, and you could find who, where they are at commoncause.org, commoncause.org, and they will fight for you for free because then you'll vote for them. And particularly getting money, if you can't get money from an office and you think you got screwed over, you call your congressman, senator, they'll find out for you. And because if they get you the money, you'll vote for that son of a bitch no matter what they do.

Yeah, yeah, because you did something for me.

Exactly, right?

You know, just like a lot of us was bamboozled that we thought that he gave us them stimulus checks back then. He really didn't, but he just signed his name on there because they really didn't want to give us that, uh, back then. Hey, Matt, we gonna talk in code, man, because we don't want to go to Alligator Alley, man. I know I don't. Not in no damn G-string. I know you don't. Hey, so bad. Hey, if the Let's Go brand, man, had a theme song like Green Acres back in the day, you know what I'm saying, had a theme song, what would it be?

There's a song I wrote a couple years back. I hope I remember. Uh, hey, hey, hey, I'm on vacation every day because I love my occupation.

I like that. Hey, hey, hey, every day I'm on vacation because I like my occupation. Hey man, I probably sound just like you saying that, man. Hey, I appreciate you. Hey, Matt, man, give us one last nugget, man, before we get out of here, man. One of us that we can chew on.

Okay, remember one thing in life I feel now is that your heart is smarter than your brain.

Mm, your heart is smarter than your brain. Hey, y'all heard it from the government guru. I'm gonna put this out here again because I'm going to get on this tonight and go through this stuff myself. Findhelp.org. Again, find help.

Yeah, that's findhelp.org. Then I'm at letsgohelp.com.

Let's go help.com. Yeah, holla at my man. No, no, don't look at his jacket. Don't think about him talking about he had on the G-string. My man making real moves and out here helping people like myself and us. To make these power moves as well. I thank you for coming on, Matt, man. Hey, to my audience, you have been listening to the CJ Moneyway Johnson Show with my man Matt. Let's go up there in Washington, DC. I'm gonna come up there, we gonna holla, and we gonna go in front of the White House and just look at it. We ain't gonna protest or nothing because we don't wanna— we don't wanna— we don't wanna get in no trouble, you know what I'm saying? We don't want no smoke like that. We just want this government money, man, and keep it moving. Until next time. This your boy CJ Moneyway. We out of here. Peace.

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