Production Mastermind - Creating Stress Free Wealth with Matt Plumer

Now we're good to go. Okay. How to create stress-free wealth, right? How to create stress-free wealth. I mean, does anyone want to be like stressfully wealthy or like we want this wealth to be on easy street? Yeah, we want it to be smooth and a simple process. And my promise and commitment to everyone here today is to help you build a healthy relationship between your business finances and your personal finances that empowers you and gives you confidence to go build stress-free wealth. And so my world in my, my, my role in this world of real estate did not start out as a financial coach. It did not start out as being Profit First certified. I didn't even know what Profit First was the day that I heard it or the day that I started in the world of real estate. And in all reality, my wife and I's transformation into the world of real estate all started about, uh, what is it, 14 years ago when we were on the marriage counselor's couch. I was 300 pounds, alcoholic, addictive sports gambler, smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day, fast food twice a day. And thinking it was all Melinda's fault. And I was asked a very specific question that afternoon, that spring of 2012. Could you get— Matt, could you go 90 days without a drink? I was not there for alcohol counseling. I was there for marriage counseling. And he asked me a very specific question. Could I go 90 days without a drink? And I was like, I can do whatever I want. However, She will still be the same person that she is today. I was looking external, not internal. External, not internal. Who's been there? Oh, it's the rates. Oh, it's the buyers. Oh, it's the sellers. Oh, it's my wife. Oh, it's my sponsor. Oh, it's eXp. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, internal, not external. And so that sent us on a journey over the last 15, 14, 15 years. Lost 100 pounds, became sober, broke a sports betting, uh, gambling addiction, broke a smoking addiction, all inside of 18 months. Led us to a couch again. I'm like, why are we still stressed? I mean, literally, we just saved our marriage and saved our life. What is going on? And I realized we started having conversations around our money, and I'm like, holy cow, we are $551,000 in debt. House, cars, timeshares, credit cards, student loans, taxes, personal loans, all of it. We owed everybody. And I'm like, this is a massive mountain. How can I treat this like I did weight loss? How can I treat this like we did our marriage? Or just one little bite at a time? Got exposed to Dave Ramsey, a friend of mine who I just hung out with last week. I played— I've known Jim for 15 years. He gave me, in 2011, gave me The Total Money Makeover. And like most people, not ready to hear the information, sat, and it was an incredible $14 coaster on my coffee table dust collector until I was ready to receive the information. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Read the book, went into Financial Peace University. 15 years later, I got to play golf with Jim for the very first time last week. Very cool. And on that journey, I realized that paying off the debt was going to be just like losing weight. And over the next 40 months, we eliminated our debt. We sold out, we sold the house, we short sold stuff, we negotiated, we made money, we reduced the, the water, reduced our lifestyle, lived on nothing, and did our debt-free scream on the Dave Ramsey Show May of 2027, 9 years ago, literally on Friday. Friday was our anniversary, May 1st. Now, on that journey, I realized a few things. One, we could live on literally nothing. We could figure it out. We could get from A to B. So I want to, I want to ask you in this season, this group of baller real estate agents, what is the thing that you have to do to get from A to B? Like, you might have inflated something that if you just reduced everything, you could get from May 1st to May 30th. Like, is it a subscription? Is it, um, you know, is it leverage? Is it like, hey, we don't go out and eat at restaurants. Where do we need to lower the water because our boat keeps hitting the bridge? And the easiest way is to lower the water so the boat can go under the bridge. That's number one. Second thing is, where do I need to raise the bridge? Go make more money. Where can I start lead generating? Where can I get into my database? Where can I do all of the free things that we can as real estate agents to go raise the bridge over the next 90 days while I am lowering the water? For me, that was the world of real estate because I'm like— and this was in 2017, gang, okay? I'm not saying this at you, I'm saying this with you. Real estate agents had it pretty easy in 2017, '18, '19, and '20. Fair? Like, we only had to put a house for sale sign in the front yard, have some pictures, and it was going to sell. So I'm like, agents make money. I like the lifestyle I see on real estate, on Facebook. I'm gonna go be the world's greatest real estate agent in Northern Virginia. Little did I know what it actually took to sell a house. However, I sold a first house, my first house in 90 days. I was on a team. And I went around the Market Center that I was in, in Reston, Virginia, and I would be like, hey Ryan, what do you do with your next check? Hey Aaron, what do you do? Hey Katie, what do you do? Hey Ben, what do you do? And I didn't hear on average hire a coach, get into an ecosystem, create a marketing plan, hire, hire an admin. I heard pay last year's taxes and next month's car notes. And I'm like, I just solved this problem for me. The world doesn't need another real estate agent in Reston, Virginia. The real estate industry needs a financial coach to help them on this journey of paying off debt and paying themselves first. Day one, I knew I wasn't going to be a real estate agent. I interviewed hundreds of agents. I had thousands of discovery calls. I created a coaching business and coaching model around it. And so I actually— and so what I am going to share with you today are some of the key takeaways and nuggets along that journey so that you can start your financial transformation. And if you are ready, type "yes" in the chat because we are going to go get absolutely after it to create your own financial transformation on your way to stress-free wealth. Okay? So, here is a couple of things. And I'm going to just— is it okay if I don't share slides? I can just like— I mean, there's 3 people in the world that use Google Meet and Lars is one of them. So here we are. Um, it'll be a little easier than bouncing back and forth. All right. The 2 things that cause the most stress. Here's what I found out to be true, right? And again, this is not at you all. This is with you all. Real estate agents don't make as much as they think. We all spend more than we care to admit, which generally leaves us behind on taxes and/or retirement. And the two things that cause the most stress and anxiety is inconsistent income and financial disorganization. So, Katie, if we solve those two things, is it fair to assume that we'll be able to figure the rest of it out? If we get rid of inconsistent income and we're selling 1, 2, 3, 4 deals a month, Right. We're building, we're selling 2 deals a month and we've got 50 people on our rev share group, or we use revenue share to help offset the down months. Can we start to figure this out to stabilize the present, to structure the future? Yeah, I believe that to be true. Then if we look at the financial organization, when eXp pays us What happens to the money? Where does it go and what happens to it before we spend it? I believe most men— and what happens is most agents, it goes into an account and then everything is spent out of that account. Well, if you're making $20,000 a month and $20,000 comes into your, your one account and that's where you pay your coaching, that's where you pay your fees, that's where you pay your travel and all that stuff comes out. Aaron, if $20,000 comes in a month, how much money is Aaron going to spend if $20,000 comes into one account? $20,500, right? On business and/or personal, right? Because agents don't make as much as they think. So the next thing I want you to understand is like, hey, when eXp writes me a check for $10,000 because I sold a $400,000 house and I get $10,000, that $10,000 is my business's money. It's not my personal money. At best, you're getting 40 to 60 cents of the dollar. At best, to start. Who just realized they got to go sell more houses? I got to go sell more houses. Yep. Okay, cool. So when the money comes in, whose money is it? Well, if we look at the lens of, of a profit and loss statement that you may or may not get from your bookkeeper, who gets the money? Well, if we look at it, the revenue comes in, it's a list and pages of expenses, and then the bottom line says net income or net profit. Where's the first place we look on a profit and loss statement? Bottom right. Great. Made $500 grand. Great year. Spent $200 grand.

Fine.

$300,000 net profit. Cool. Two questions. Where's the $300 grand? Where's the $90 grand we owe the government on the $300 grand we just made? And this is the emoji I get. We don't know. It's because it's backwards. We got to flip it. And we need a banking system to do it. Revenue in, who gets the money? Who's the most important person? Right? If I bring this back up here, share. All right. We'll just leave it here because you guys can see this, right? Is this actually going to go? Maybe not. Stop sharing. The first thing is we have to budget the money. We have to plan it. Plan the money before you spend it. Now, who gets it? Katie, who's the most important person in your entire real estate business? Katie. Katie's the owner. The owner needs to get paid first. Now, Aaron, are you a solo agent or are you in production? I am. Perfect. Did you sell the house? I did. So you need to get paid for selling the house. Absolutely. Aaron gets paid as the owner. Aaron gets paid as selling the house. Now, Who needs to get the money? The government needs its money. Just like Ben started out with, he had $18,000 because he took a percentage out of every check and set it off to the side. So he owed the government. And now we're left with the money. If we take 10% for profit and 50% for owner— or 40% for owner's pay and 20% for taxes, we're left with about 30, 25 to 30% for expenses. That's the number we can go and hire our coach and go to eXpCon and hire a bookkeeper. And we use that money, what's left, to go do the stuff. And we have a cash flow plan and a cash flow budget on our business side to go organize that. And the same thing applies to the 40 to 50% that comes home, because there's only 3 things that you can do with money once it comes home. You can give it, you can save/invest it, and you can spend it. So when that 40 to 60% comes home and you make $20,000 a month, that's $8,000 to $12,000. What am I doing every month with $8,000 to $12,000? Shake your head yes if you're starting to get this. I made $20,000, paid myself somewhere between $8,000 and $12,000.

Hey Matt, can you share your screen with these slides? Cause it was coming through. I think Lars Hedenborg made you co-host, but I think being able to see some of those percentages is really helpful.

Yeah. I don't have the percentages, but I think I can— hold on. Now I can share it. One second. Okay. Perfect. We get to budgeting, right? Plan your money before you spend it. Right. When $20,000 is coming in, it's the 4th of May. How much money are you making the rest of May? I'm making this on this day, this on this day. Great. What's going to happen to that money before it comes in? This is going to go here. This is going to go here. This is going to go here. How much is going to come home? Great. I'm going to pay my mortgage. I'm going to go out to eat. I'm going to buy groceries, I'm going to buy health insurance, or I'm going to buy life insurance. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to service debt. I'm going to save for next month. Write this down. Add age to money. Write this down. Understand my path of money. What is my path of money? I think that is a very powerful question for you to ask yourself is what is my path? What is my path of money? When the money comes in, what is the map on how it gets to me? And once it gets to me, how do I add age to it? Now you ask, what's add age to your money mean? If you pay yourself, you make $20K and you pay yourself $10K, how much of the $10K can you add to next month? Because you don't know how many deals you have closing next month. And so now it's just this race to fill up some potential bank accounts or your spreadsheet or whatever it might be so that we can stabilize the present to structure the future. And, and all we're doing is we're going back to the original thing that we talked about. Was if we solve inconsistent income and we solve financial disorganization by stabilizing May and June and July, can we start to then go structure 2027, '28, '29, 2040, 2050, and beyond. Because we focus on, we focus on what we can focus on, but we always add age to our money. Now, whether that's something you want to save for in the future or you want to invest in, doesn't matter. But if we can understand our path of money and we can add age to our money all through a budgeting framework, cash flow planning, budgeting for my nerds, Cash Flow Planning for My Free Spirits. Got to come up with a sexier name than Budgeting for My Free Spirits. We then get to a process of banking because as we were talking, if all of the money comes into an account and all of the money comes out of an account, we're going to spend the maximum amount of money. So we need a banking model and a system that allows us to organize this. So everything in every role we have for money— owner, owner's pay, taxes, operation expenses, payroll, savings, events, training. New hires, all of these things. If they all have a role in our business, should they all have their own bank account? I believe the answer to be true, yes. Now, when you're banking with, um, Chase, Wells Fargo, US Bank, credit union, Can you walk in there or can you call them and say, hey, I need 8 bank accounts opened today? Probably not. Can you then say, hey, I need no minimums, no fees, I can transfer money in and out of my— at will? They're going to look at you like you're a little crazy. So we need to shift our methodology to potentially cloud-based banks. Isn't that interesting? It's kind of like the franchise models 12 years ago. This is how real estate agents operated. They operated in the world of Chase and Wells Fargo, and now look at the world of real estate. I mean, nobody's opening up a brick-and-mortar business anymore. Doesn't matter. So I partnered with— and again, um, I partnered with a cloud-based bank that allows us to open up 20 bank accounts day one. It's called Relay Financial. And I'm going to send— Ben, I will send you the link for people to register for Relay. You're going to set up 18 bank accounts, business bank accounts, and 2 savings accounts as soon as your application goes through. You need your EIN, some articles of incorporation. You can do sole proprietor or as a business. However, within 24 to 48 hours, you can have the access to all of the things, up to 20 bank accounts, and you don't talk to anybody. And then the same thing on the personal side. Ally Bank and SoFi are my two favorite personal banks because you can set up this system that serves you, not the bank. You know, we have a— we have— my wife and I, we've been doing this for 10, 12 years now, and our checking account has whatever it has in it from the— for every single month at the beginning of the month. And that number generally doesn't go up or down very much. But if we pay ourselves more, the rest of it just goes into a savings funnel. That goes for my wife's anniversary trip, or my wife's birthday trip, our anniversary trip, a golf club fund, or an account. Hey, I want to go play this golf course account, right? Shadow Creek is— I live in Las Vegas. Shadow Creek is the most expensive golf course in the world to play 18 holes of golf on. It's $1,250. It's ridiculous, but it looks like you are on a pillow-covered, um, grass in North Carolina with pine trees in the middle of the desert in Las Vegas. It is one of the most gorgeous places on Earth. And so saying it out loud, Lars is like, dude, you're paying $1,250 to play golf? And I'm like, no, I'm saving $150 a month so I can go play it every November. And it's like paying a light bill because I forget about the money, but I know I've got the money set aside over here. Our taxes are no different, our profit is no different, our trips are no different. And then when you're also saving and investing for the future, you need a system that has I mean, we probably have— I bet we have two dozen different types of accounts for assets between business and personal and investing. Now, do you have to start out there? No, but we start to organize the money, so we start to take disorganization off the plate. So we need cash flow planning, right? We need a path of money. We need to add age to money. And we need to put all of that stuff in a banking model so that we become organized. So now we got a budget and we got our bank. And the last thing is, now we look at bookkeeping. And we're going to wrap up in 7 to 8 minutes. And then I want to make sure that we do a mastermind and ask Q&A and all that stuff. Okay, now bookkeeping, up until 6 months ago, even maybe 3 months ago, bookkeeping has always been a reactive thing. Right? What do you mean reactive? Well, well, let's talk about it. When we were— when anyone here who uses a profit and loss statement, Anyone? Okay. All right. Kind of cool. So what is a profit and loss statement? Or when you have a bookkeeper, right, they're going to give you a profit and loss statement and they're going to give you a balance sheet. Is it accurate or is it not accurate? That's TBD. Here's the most important thing. When do you get it? Right. We're in— we're in May. We all just finished April. If you have a bookkeeper, you're going to get a profit and loss statement somewhere. If you get one every month, you're going to get it somewhere between the 10th and 20th, generally speaking, of May for April. And for the most part, I'll use— I'll use some props here. You're getting data. If you haven't looked at this because you haven't done a budget, or you haven't had a banking model, you're getting data on your phone or on your computer on the 15th of May that happened in April. Can you change anything? No. And now you've got 15 days to make any changes for June. If you're in any type of an agreement, do they mostly have a 30 or 60 days notice? So now you're getting information that happened 30 to 45 days late after the fact, and you can't make any changes because you're not looking at it on a regular basis until something that affects in June or in for July. So like Ben, what you and I were talking about, your first thing when you hired a coach, when you started real estate or you, or you hired your first coach in Lars's world, they said, hey, you got to cut $2,000 a month. Well, if you're not looking at this, you're getting that data 30 days later, and then the changes happen 30 days later, you're 90 days before you even see a savings while you're paying $1,500, $1,500, $1,500, or $2,000 for coaching or whatever, whatever it is, doesn't matter. And so now it just takes so long to get this wheel turned, that frustration and Everything just like, it's like a cog in the wheel. And so when I want you to flip the script and to look at the world of bookkeeping or accurate financials, how can I make it a proactive versus a reactive approach? And that's where either you bring AI into the equation, one, or two, you hire someone that is bringing AI into the equation, which is what really started this conversation between Lars and I. Because 3 weeks ago I told him I started a bookkeeping business. He was like, you gotta tell me about that and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, hey, we're using AI and, you know, I'm moving from this model to this model. And I, I was seeing something in the market that I was always referring it out to somebody, but then I would get on a coaching call with Ben be like, hey man, send your profit and loss statement. And you're like, here. Oh, I haven't even looked at it. 30 days after he got it. And so I was like, I, I was like, how can I solve that problem? And so I want to make sure that you guys— I want to just encourage you all, right, these forward thinkers, to when you are hiring a bookkeeper or you are doing it yourself, I, I really don't want you to do it yourself. Like, Don't hire me, but don't do it yourself. Like, that's when I was always talking to people about eXp, like, don't choose eXp, but you gotta move from where you are because where you are doesn't work, right? So if you're not using a bookkeeper, how can you start to use AI? Or if you're using a bookkeeper, how can you start to look at it from a proactive versus a reactive approach? Because the more that you can get on top of this, of your business financials, is going to help you put a downward pressure on your tax liability. It'll help you put a downward pressure on your expense spend so that as you go, it'll help you reduce the water so you can get— when you go raise the bridge, look who has more money. And did you actually have to go sell that many more houses? No, I just started from 30% saving taxes down to 10%. I took— I started at 1% profit and now I'm at 15% profit 3 years later. And now for the next 20 years, you just have to go sell 2 to 3 houses a month because you're paying yourself 40, 50, 60 cents of every dollar. The business is running lean. You've got the right tax strategy, you've got the right financials, the bean counting inside of the, of your business. So now you can go have tax planning with the right CPA. You're not by default, you're hiring the CPA by design. And so all— and then now all of this gorgeous money that's coming home because you're paying yourself first. We give 10%, we invest 20%, and we live on the rest. We pay off our mortgage and then we don't have a house payment. And then we save for kids' college over and over and over and over and over. And at some point we can throw this thing in the freaking ocean and we don't have to do any more TikToks and we don't have to send any more emails and we don't have to dance. And we can just go be and go live because we have what is called money. And money gives you options and money gives you freedom. When you have a cash flow plan and budgeting, when you have a banking model and you have optics and clarity, accurate optics and clarity inside of your business financials, that allows you to go build stress-free wealth. And I've got one quick little thing here, and then we'll wrap for Q&A because I want to, I want to make sure I honor and serve you all. Um, and because we started a little late, I know we're kind of probably crunched on time a little bit. However, um, I do have this, uh, 3-part money system, How to Fix Your Cash Flow in 15 Minutes. That talks through the logistics of budgeting, banking, and bookkeeping that you can have and read through. It's about a 10— it's about a 15-minute read, 5 to 7 pages, and you guys can all download that. I'll send it to Lars for the replay or Ben so you guys can get that. So, and I'll send this out. Ben will send it out. He'll send the banking information out so you guys can start building this process. Of your own system to actually go build stress-free wealth. Questions, thoughts, ideas? This is not about now. I want to make sure that I serve the winners that showed up here. Ryan, question. Hey, Matt. Awesome. Thank you.

What was the—

you referenced a cloud-based banking platform. I think it was 2 or 3 in the convo. Yep. I'm gonna— yeah, so Relay Financial, and I'm actually, um, uh, let me do this. Let me go to my chat here. Where's my chat? Where's my chat? It's over here. Here is the link to apply for the Relay Bank, and Ben, I'll send this to you so you can kick it out to everybody. Um, It's world-class. I love it. Every one of my coaching clients is on it. It's just, it's awesome to automatically set up something with 20 accounts, no minimums, no fees. And the other two, Ryan, were SoFi, S-O-F-I, SoFi and Ally Bank. And those are, those both are very well, you know, known. I mean, those are, you know, if in the world of sports, like SoFi Stadium is literally where the Los Angeles Rams play. So like, It's a big deal. That's cool. So you like Relay? Relay for the business. Relay for the business. Cool. Can you send that link again? I put it in the chat and I'll send it. I'll give it to the team so they can send it out in an email replay.

Yeah, thanks. You could just text it over to me. And you know the funny thing about a talk like this? I traveled to speak at an event this morning, and I started out like, guys, this is like what I'm just about to talk to is the least sexy topic in the world. And that's like this topic, like agents. I feel like, you know, like Matt said, kudos for you guys for showing up. Over 2,000 agents were invited to this call. Over 2,000 agents. So I'm going to send out those links, Matt, to all the agents and the free workbook and all that. Um, but this is like, this is like the, the, um, what's the expression? Like, you don't get to be in business unless you track your numbers in a normal world, you know? Like, we have money coming in and we're spending money. Like, I don't know how the principles of business have escaped real estate, you know. And I get it, most of my presentation today was about instant gratification and distraction and, you know, how the hard things sometimes, like, you know, we just don't want to do it. We want an easy button, and I can just sell more homes, get more leads, or spend more money. But we just ignore the fact that we're going backwards every year. And so I just, I love your story and I love the fact that you've, you know, you're putting your flag in this mountain and you are not sexy at all, Matt. I will tell you that.

I know.

And I love you.

I mean, sometimes I have nice cool t-shirts, but that's about it. Like, yeah, but it's not very sexy. I mean, chicken. And again, I lost 100 pounds and people are always asking like, how'd you do it? I'm like, you do not wanna know. It was chicken, brown rice, broccoli, and 2 protein shakes a day for a year. And I lost 100 pounds. Yeah.

And tracking and probably tracking everything you put into your mouth for an entire year.

Yeah. And it started out like that, Lars, but like over time and like I hired Shannon Sheplack, uh, 6, 8 months ago to to be my health and fitness coach for a season. And we started out with the tracking and the macros and stuff. And now 6 months later, I haven't opened up the app in a month, but I've eaten 95% of the same stuff 5 days a week.

Yeah, it's part of your DNA now.

And now it's just, I mean, you know, I remember the day I became sober, which was May 19th, 2012. I have stopped counting the days and the years and stuff. Like it just doesn't matter. Like, you know, yeah, right on. It just, it just, it just no longer— when, when you start, when you don't track the numbers anymore, or sorry, when you don't track the days, you've, you've created the habit, right? You've just created the habit. So, um, this is not sexy, I will promise you this. Um, everything you want, and this is cliché, but everything you want is on the other side of a budget. Like just planning your money before you spend it. EveryDollar is a great app. YNAB is a great app. Monarch is a great app. Like, and then obviously AI, you know, you can probably put a lot of this into Claude. Now what Claude's not going to allow you to do is say, hey, oh, hey, I spent— is track the— hey, I'm going to spend $1,000 on groceries. And then give you the data that says, and interact with your bank account that says where you are to the day of the month. That's where I like go into the budgeting apps and do that. But like, gang, I mean, I'm away from my wife right now for about 15 days on an East Coast tour, right? I'm starting in Philly, down to Jersey, and we're texting back and forth as the month flips. She's like, hey, I went in and updated the budget. We had a couple of things, some things need to get changed. And like, we're reading now from the same sheet of music. That it took years to build that. And so it's the thing that I just love talking about the most, um, especially with couples and real estate agents, is like, like, we can, we can eliminate so much of the unnecessary stress by just like writing down the facts, admitting what's true, where do we want to go, and how are we going to get there, being intentional and making decisions along the way.

What have you learned, you know, in coaching more intimately one-on-one, like for someone that's not where they want to be financially at this season in their life and they keep ignoring it? What kind of psychology is behind that? Like, is it just too tough to face at this? Like, what encouragement could you give somebody that feels like, man, It'd be nice that, you know, great that Matt did it, but I'm, I'm whatever, you know. Is there anything you can, you could say with encouragement there?

Yeah, so like, you know, the 3 steps to a transformation, and that's all there, there is some, some stuff there for transformation when the wheel is going in the opposite direction. And just like, think of a merry-go-round. We all either have kids or we've been on a merry-go-round where it's going clockwise, right? And that's in our world, that is truly going in the wrong direction sometimes, right? If it's, if we're not where we want to be, the amount of energy it takes, it'll never be harder than it is today. And every day will get easier, but we have to create opposite and equal and opposite momentum going in the other direction to get the wheel to start going this way, right? And I just want to encourage you all to write down all of your facts. It's never my job to tell Lars what to do with his money. It's only my job to help Lars understand what's already happening to it and just ask one simple question. Based on what you want, is that okay? And self-discovery— and Lars knows as a world-class coach, self-discovery is one of the greatest things that we can, we can experience on a coaching call is when, when the person self-discovers that they're going and they, they're going enthusiastically in the wrong direction. And write down all of your facts and just admit it for maybe the very first time ever. This is reality. And it's okay to be where you are. It's not okay to stay there. It's okay to be where I am. It is my biggest fear in life is I'm in the same place 12 months from now. It's not okay to stay where you are. Right? Lars made that— but you made a huge pivot however many months ago. It's okay to be where you were. It's not okay to stay there. Like Lars made a decision to go a different direction, to do something else. Cool. Awesome. Great. He's going to be— him and his family and everybody in his world is going to be better for it a few years down the road. So if you're in that season and you're like, you're selling real estate and you're selling 2, 3 deals and you've got some debt piling up over here, like, I can't tell— I can't share how relieving it is to actually write down all of the facts. And then no shame, no blame, no guilt. It's just the facts. Now, what decisions you have to make to start checking the first thing off the list? I'm going to go and walk 1,000 steps around the block right now. No phone, no audiobook, no anything. Leave the phone. 10 minutes around, reset. And then what's the next thing? And then what's the next thing? And then what's the next thing? And then I'm going to shoot 5 text messages out, and now I'm off and running. And then you just making those daily steps every single day. I can't express how fast it can change if you just keep moving. I lost 100 pounds in a year. I mean, that's a, that's, that's an And I just didn't stop, right? And, and a lot of you know this or you've experienced it. We've had good runs, but why haven't— why have the runs stopped? Because we stopped doing the thing that got us the wins. Self-sabotage. Write down self-sabotage, circle it, and then put a big red X through it that you're never going to let self-sabotage happen again. You don't have to land on your own grenade. You can pick it up and throw it away. There's plenty of time left. So awesome, Matt.

I talk to a lot of agents and, um, and, and, you know, some of them are newer agents, which we might have some newer agents on the call here, and What I hear is, well, I need to spend money to make money. And I come back with this great quote that, you know, I think is in the book, but profit is a habit, not an event. But so many people think, well, in business I have to spend the money, I've gotta buy the leads and then I'll, you know, cash out and make the money. What do you tell people, your coaching clients and stuff, when they say, hey Matt, I have to spend money to make money?

I mean, I always lean on, you know, it's who's the most important person in your entire business and who should get paid first and who's not getting paid first. Is that okay? No. Start there. And then I learned this lesson is like you have to spend money to make money. In the world of real estate, that just is not true. There are some businesses where that might be true. Like, if you want to own a landscaping business, you have to have a lawnmower. If you want to be a real estate agent, you need a telephone that you already have, and you need a list of people that you already have called Facebook. You don't need to spend any money. You need to spend time, and time costs no money. It doesn't cost anything. So I just— I just— that's an axiom that I would just— that's a sacred cow that I would just slaughter immediately. And then, um, you know, I go back to a lesson that I learned that I was going through Financial Peace University and doing our first budgets, and you know, exposing myself to, you know, what the Bible says about money. Tithe your first, you know, bring your first fruits into the storehouse. I didn't know what that meant, so I would be like, I did my budget and be like, here's how much our mortgage is and here's how much our debts are. And, you know, I got down to the bottom and there was $100 left and I was like, great, we made $12 grand, I'm going to take $100 to Cornerstone, and felt amazing for it. Until I showed my mentor the budget and he was like, I think you might have it upside down, kid. I was like, what are you talking about? He goes, what if you gave the first 10% to the church? And then he showed me and walked me through what the Bible said. I was like, oh, interesting, let me try that. And then guess what I did? I made more money. I'll be darned, shocking and weird how that works. So if we pay ourselves first, or we bring money into the store, or we bring our first fruits into the storehouse, we are rewarded for it. Maybe in money, maybe in possessions, maybe in relationships, but we're— we are rewarded from it 100%.

Yeah, and I'm the textbook for what Matt is talking about here. When I joined Lars, um, you know, years ago, I was in a really tough spot financially. And just doing those small things— I remember the first time I paid myself first, it was very, very small. And incrementally over time, I got that built up from, you know, the 1% to the 10% to the 15%. Um, and it's— so it takes time. It's not like you're gonna snap your fingers and your finances are going to be changed. But I will tell you here, sitting in my seat now, I have plenty of business reserves. I have plenty of personal reserves. And it's because I took those steps that Matt is talking about back in 2019, 2020 is when we really got it started. So you're going to be getting money and you're going to be spending money for the next 5, years at least, start to do what Matt's talking about and take his free resource if you're not going to take his coaching. And I think just getting that mindset is going to be powerful no matter where you are. You could be really far away from, you know, is it that free? Or you could be really close to being debt-free, but you have to start somewhere.

Yeah. And I mean, like, here's the other beauty. I mean, when you have a financial system or you have a business model and a business system, we're going to fall down, we're going to skin our knees, but we're not going to have to, like, cut off a leg. Like, you're going to— you can always get right back up. And keep walking again. And when you get back in the, in the, the world, like, okay, do a budget, do this. And I think everyone can start, you know, where do you start now as we wrap up? Write down, I think the, the very first thing you do is how much money have you made January, March, January, February, March, and April. One sheet of paper. How much money have you made? Turn the piece of paper over. How much money have you spent? Just look at the numbers. That's reality. Now, how much money's coming in in the month of May? What are you gonna do with it? Because if you're not doing a cash flow plan budget, that's the reason why the numbers That's, that's the reason why you spent that much money is because it's been out of default, not design. Now, next 4 months, make the money that you're going to make and spend it on design and watch what happens 9 or 120 days from now and look at the 2 numbers and look at the delta. And let me know if it's a little bit more fun to eat chicken, brown rice, and broccoli. Because I promise you, you go do that, you get to have the cheesecake at the end of the dessert, at the end of the dinner. Full circle. I love it. Cool.

Matt, thank you for coming on. Lars, thanks for having Matt on. He's not a, you know, a typical kind of, uh, uh, you know, speaker that we have on here talking about production, but it is so important that we get our finances in order because that elevates everything. And, um, and so it's been great, Matt. Thank you very much. Um, everybody, we will see you next Monday.