Matthew Fornaro on Business Law, Leadership, and Entrepreneurial Success

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Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show podcast, the podcast show where we unlock potential one dream at a time. Today we have another guest whose journey is truly worth hearing. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the Moneyway experience.

What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show in association with Believe Network, the podcast that brings you stories behind the success. Today we are excited to welcome Florida business law attorney Matt to the show. Hey, how you doing today, Matt?

Good, I'm happy to be on the CJ Moneyway Johnson Show.

Thank you for taking your time out on this Saturday evening, man, to come join me, man. So Matt, so tell us a little bit about yourself, man, about your background.

Sure, so I live in Broward County, Florida, in South Florida. I'm a business law attorney. I've been practicing for over 20 years. I am married, I'm a father of two, and I like to hang out with my family, and that's about it in a nutshell.

Oh, okay. So, so Matt, you talk about complex commercial litigation. What does that actually mean?

Sure. You know, a lot of people throw around that term complex commercial litigation and you're like, what the— what does that mean? It just means commercial litigation is essentially anything that deals with contracts or people owing other people money. It doesn't deal with like personal injury. It doesn't deal with car accidents. It doesn't deal with medical malpractice. It deals with contracts and people owing money. So complex commercial litigation is when it's more than just cut and dry, you know, you borrowed $50 from me, you owe me $50 kind of thing, is when it gets complex because there's more parties involved, there's more money involved. There's more issues involved. And that's why it's called complex commercial litigation, because there's usually more than two parties, or there's a lot of money at stake, or there's a lot of facts and a lot of paper and a lot of electronic stuff to sift through to get to the answer.

Oh, okay. I mean, yeah, because I never knew that. So that's why we got you on the show, man, to give us some of that lingo.

So I'm here, I got the window.

You want the window?

I got it.

Hey, so Matt, So what made you become a lawyer, man, and what inspired you into helping other businesses?

Sure. So when I was growing up, I always liked watching like The People's Court and shows like that. Yeah, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer when I was younger. I just didn't know what kind I wanted to be. So I went to college and I went to law school, and when I graduated, I started working at a small litigation firm that did complex commercial business litigation. And then I worked at two big Am Law 200 law firms where I did that and I did some other litigation too. And I was always representing the big guy and big companies and insurance companies and banks. So I decided at one point I needed a change. So I was either going to move to one of the 10 biggest law firms in the world or I had to do something different. So I decided to do something different and go open my own practice. So when I did, I wanted to focus on helping like small businesses and medium-sized businesses with my experiences and my skill set because I thought that that was lacking, particularly in the area where I am. And I feel that because growing up my dad had a small business himself and I saw that the issues that he faced and very, you know, like, you know, not just run-of-the-mill business stuff where a good business attorney would be able to have helped him do a lot a lot of things. So that's why I wanted to put myself in that position to be able to help small and medium-sized business owners with their legal needs, and that's what I did.

Oh man, that's, that's cool. Sometimes, you know, like you say, in life we grow up, we see things, and so if you feel like you can make a change, then that's what you do. Go out there and make a change for it. So Matt, man, tell us, man, with your involvement in so many different areas of law, such as construction law, intellectual property law, Could you explain the differences between these fields?

Sure. You know, they all fall under the umbrella of commercial litigation because, like I said, it involves either contracts, people owing people money, or things like that. It doesn't involve, like, personal injury, doesn't involve medical malpractice, it doesn't involve fighting over a will or stuff like that. So under commercial litigation, there's a lot of different areas and there's a lot of or sub-areas, and there's a lot of sub-areas that I practice in. So some of my focus is on specific subcategories, which is like construction law, which deals with whether residential or commercial construction, whether it's on the side of the contractor, the owner, the subcontractor, the material man, whatever. There's always, you know, issues going on in any construction project. A lot of the time, unfortunately, you know, lawsuits are filed. Then, for instance, like intellectual property, you know, intellectual property is just like personal property. It's a business or a person's property that they need to protect. So I help businesses protect their intellectual property by pursuing litigation to either defend them against when they're accused of doing something or go after someone else who may be misappropriating their intellectual property. Then, you know, the— and the rest of it's just all, like I said, it's all a subset of the concept of commercialization, of either there being a contract at issue or someone owing money or something like that.

Oh, okay. So Matt, man, given your expertise across various types of law and serving on, on law bar boards and things of that nature, how do you manage your time effectively?

You know, I try to manage my time effectively by having a pretty consistent schedule of, you know, like I want to obviously do work and do other things and have a life outside of work, which I think I do pretty decently. And it's just a matter of scheduling things and following systems and making sure that everything's in order. And you're not just like doing it by the seat of your pants. You kind of have like a schedule in place and you kind of follow your schedule and you make sure that you stay within your lanes. You don't go outside your lanes and try to do crazy stuff and just go through and do it. And that's how you can accomplish, you know, I think as much as I accomplish on a regular basis by just being as efficient as possible. And sticking to your plan.

Okay, so Matt, I gotta ask you this question, man, because I see that you, uh, worked at Florida State University. So last year, I want to see how involved you were. So last year when you guys went, what, 13-14-0 and didn't make the championship, national championship game, what was your feeling about that, man?

Well, you know, I mean I kind of deep down understood why. I mean, they would have been killed in the playoffs, which they were killed anyways. So yeah, and this year it's just been spiraling out of control from the first game.

Yeah, I know what you're saying. They lost their quarterback or something last year.

Yeah, they lost their quarterback. Apparently they lost their mojo too. They aren't too good.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, there's a rivalry game against Miami. Miami probably gonna crush them. That's their biggest rivalry game of the year. Historically, that's their biggest rivalry game of the year.

Yeah, that interstate game. So let me ask you, Matt, so working at Florida State University, how has it shaped your career?

Well, what I do is I, I actually volunteer at Florida State University for the Jim Moran entrepreneurial program because I was actually a member of it previously, and then I got to come back as an instructor for it. So it's very cool, it's a great program. It's probably— the Jim Moran Institute is probably one of the top entrepreneurial programs run by a college in the country because it's not just a business thing, it's an entrepreneurial thing that it's focused on. So I think it actually is actually spinning off into its own college if I'm not mistaken, but, or, but, or forming its own program. But yeah, I'm an instructor for the business law unit during the Jim Moran Executive Program session that goes on like each semester. So it's based in different parts of Florida. I happen to be in the Fort Lauderdale area and, you know, I just come in and talk about business law and how it applies to small businesses to the people who are in the cohort, and you know, it is what it is. It's pretty cool.

Mm-hmm. Well, yeah, I've been to, uh, Florida, been to Fort Lauderdale, man. Very, very beautiful. Love the beach out there, the little strip with all the restaurants and everything. That, man, is real cool. So, uh, so Matt, I only got a couple more questions for you, man. So what's one common mistake you see businesses make and how can they avoid it? Sure.

You know, businesses— a lot of people just want to get into business as quickly as possible and don't really plan out what they're doing or really think ahead. So one of the biggest issues that a lot of businesses have, not just little businesses but big businesses too, and not just unsophisticated business people— what sophisticated business people do is they don't plan enough ahead. So they don't have like a written business plan. Talks about what they're supposed to do, how they're supposed to do it, what it is their business does, how they get money, how they make money, how they spend money. It all should be in a written business plan. So a lot of businesses just skip that step and go online and try to incorporate. And then when they do that, they also skip the next step of having corporate bylaws if they're a corporation, or an operating agreement if they're an LLC. So if you don't have those documents, you don't have those agreements in place, you're going to put yourself at a deficit very early on in your business because they're necessary to effectively run a business because you're going to need them at some point in time because they're your governing documents. You're going to need them. You're going to have to borrow money. You have to rent property. You're going to have to sell something. Or if you're sued, you're going to need them as well. So that's probably The biggest thing that business or biggest business mistake makes initially is that they skip those steps.

Mm-hmm. So my final question to you, man, like I said, I appreciate you coming on the show today, man, giving us your expertise in this. So finally, what's the best advice you would give to new business owners?

I would say, look, take your time. Don't rush into anything. Plan ahead and make sure that you engage professionals to help you. Like, have an accountant, a banker, a web person if you're doing internet stuff, a business law attorney. Have a group of people who you can count on to help you in your business, who will guide you so that you can just focus on running the business, and they'll take care of all the back office stuff and all the collateral worry stuff. And then once you focus on your business, it's either gonna succeed or fail because of the merits, not because of technicalities. So that's my advice, is to get your people on board. And then when your people are on board, they'll make sure— like, for instance, you have your business law attorney on board to make sure all your documents are great. You have your accountant on board, they'll make sure all your financials are great. You have a banker on board, they'll make sure you have plenty of money. So take your time, set up a team, and then proceed forward.

Um, I appreciate— thanks for the advice. So is there any last things that you would like to share with us? Anything that, you know, you feel like we may need to know as far as business-wise before we leave today?

Sure. I mean, if you need assistance or whatever, you can go to my website, which is fonerolegal.com, which is my last name, legal.com. I've got tons of videos on there. I've got podcasts on there. I've got white papers on there. I've got blogs on there that should answer many of your business questions. And it's also got my contact information, all my social media on there. So feel free to check it out. If you still have any more questions, just email me or give me a call.

All righty then, you heard it from my man Matt. He say check out his website. He got a lot of stuff on there that can help out small businesses, big businesses, anything you want to do. He say he got a lot of information on there. Hey, you have been listening to the CJ Moneyway Show with your boy CJ Moneyway. We out of here. Peace.

Thank you for listening to the CJ Moneyway Show. The Corwin CJ Moneyway Johnson Show. Don't forget to share this episode with your friends, leave a comment, and drop a review. Be sure to tune in every Tuesday and Friday for more inspiring journeys. Who knows, your story might be next.

You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy! Just use Indeed. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites. With Indeed Sponsored Jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates, so you can reach the people you want faster. According to Indeed data, Sponsored Jobs posted directly on Indeed have 45% more applications than non-sponsored jobs. Don't wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/kidsandfamily. Just go to indeed.com/kidsandfamily right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring? Indeed is all you need.