In this candid, conversational video, Matt Ragland explains why he left his director role at the startup Podia to become a full‑time creator and coach. He reflects on his journey from early, unsuccessful attempts at blogging and freelancing to building a YouTube channel that now exceeds 50,000 subscribers and an expanding email list. Matt describes the services he now offers—one‑on‑one and group coaching focused on creator entrepreneurship, productivity, and project focus—while acknowledging the financial security he left behind and the family responsibilities that motivate his new path. He frames the transition as a natural evolution, emphasizing the importance of letting go of past comforts to pursue greater impact, and ends with a call to action for viewers to subscribe, like, and join his email list.
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Hey. Gosh! Start it, Matt. Yeah, it's me, the one and only. I've been so excited to talk with you. The beard looks really good. I thought we couldn't grow one. Thanks. It's really just a kind of awkward 6-week-ish growth period, and, you know, after that it kind of fills in. It's better on video than it is in person, so that's kind of been working out. Nice. That's awesome. It's so good to see you. What are you doing here? Is it true that you, me, us, director at a successful startup now? Oh yeah, you mean Podia. That was a great job. I really loved being there. Nice! Yes! We did it. 5 years, so much hard work at— wait, was a good job? Enjoyed being there? Past tense? Yeah, I work for myself now. I'm really excited. There's just— it's only been a couple of weeks, but I have so many ideas and— What? Did you get fired? Because there was that time that we almost got fired. Did you actually get fired this time? No, I quit on my own terms. Okay, we're gonna have to backtrack. I'm gonna have to backtrack. Can you fill me in a little bit what you mean by working for yourself? We've tried the blog thing, remember? We talked a little bit about YouTube, but A lot of YouTube. The channel is doing great, over 50,000 subscribers. My email list is growing. There's just a lot of great things happening. I'm doing coaching, both one-on-one and in groups, for not just creators but also people who are looking to like take, take the next step in terms of their own career and productivity and getting more projects done and just focusing on the work that matters, like removing distractions. You know how hard we worked for this. This was the big goal. This is what we— I— this is what I worked for, and you're just gonna throw it all away? You were a director at a successful startup, and now what? I know, and the people were awesome. They were very kind and supportive, and we did a ton of great work together. You know how much money you were making, right? Yeah. More money than I've ever made in my life. Oh my gosh. Okay. More than we made in 3 years combined not too long ago. Look, I don't want to rain on your parade, but we tried this already, remember? 2013? We're gonna blog and build websites, do the freelance thing? How did that work out for you? I'll tell you how it worked out. You're a substitute teacher, you worked at UPS, the store, not the truck, the shirt, not the shorts, and you're an Uber driver. That's, those are all the things that you had to do in addition to trying to make it work with the blog. Sounds weird, but I wasn't ready then. Everything that I've, you know, learned and done at ConvertKit, at Podia, on the YouTube channel even, you know, during the failed, you know, blog podcast experiments, like early on when we started all of this, everything is built to this point and made me the kind of person and creator that I am to believe this is the right decision at the right time. We just had a kid, man. Wake up. We have two kids? I have to trust that everything that I've learned, everything that I've done, has led me to this point where I'm becoming the next version of myself. Like, this is, this is natural. This is good for me now. And Sometimes the good things are the toughest things to let go of, but I know if I just hold on to those good things and cling to them and believe that that's as good as it's ever gonna get, then I won't be able to achieve the great things that I believe that I'm capable of. Wow. I never could have said that, much less have done it. We're growing up, old buddy. I remember wanting this when I started the blog in 2010. I guess I kind of gave up on it. Now here we are, 10 years later. Overnight success. All in the middle of a global pandemic too. Wait, what? Hey, it's me, startup Matt, back. I'm gonna do the outro because I don't know if 2020 Matt is in his right mind right now. Obviously this is a direction that we, I am going, but please subscribe to the channel. Give this a like, boost his spirits a little bit, and if he's going to be delusional, you might as well support his delusions. The channel has all kinds of stuff about like bullet journaling and productivity and how to help you do, do more of what matters or something. I thought, I thought being a director mattered, but I guess I was wrong. You could also sign up for his email list, and apparently he thinks he can coach now. I told him that coaching like this, this, you know, like coaching people in this way is different than coaching middle school lacrosse, but you do one, you do the other, I suppose. Anyway, he won't listen to me. Guy grows a beard after he turns 30 and thinks that he knows everything. So please help him, I mean us, out. I would really appreciate it personally.
