Matt Plapp joined 7 Figure Agency after meeting Joshua Nelson at a 2017 conference. His agency doubled from a handful to nine-ten employees, pushing him to seek mentorship. He now leaves work at 5:30 pm, keeps his phone in the car, and credits the community for scaling strategies and client acquisition.
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Hello everyone.
My name is Esteban Baez. I'm here with 7 Figure Agency, and today I have with me Matt Platt.
What's up?
There you go. So Matt, thank you so much for joining me here.
Thanks for having me.
We're talking about 7 Figure Agency. Yep. Tell us the story. How did you come into 7 Figure Agency?
Do you know my story at all?
I don't. No, I don't.
So 2017, I'm at Traffic and Conversions in San Diego.
Okay.
And I'm sitting, waiting to watch the session on this guy talking about writing a niche book. Okay. Had no clue the guy I was talking to for 20 minutes next to me was the guy going on stage. That was Joshua Nelson.
Really?
And so we talked for a couple minutes, went up on stage. I was like, fanboy, just talking to that guy. So I'm taking notes and then forgot about it. And in the summer of 2020, I was looking for a mastermind group to get involved with because my group I was with, one with a guy named Billy Jean Shaw out in California, and that had kind of disbanded. And so I was looking for a, a tribe to be involved with and get around like-minded people. And I remember Josh looked him up, saw the 7 Figure Agency, and applied to come to the event in July of that year. It ended up getting canceled, but I applied.
Okay.
And I got an email back within like 20 minutes that said, Matt, I love what you're doing in the restaurant space. I don't know if you remember me or not, but we talked at TNC a couple years ago. I'm like, right, this dude remembers me. Right. And so I loved it because that's, that's pretty unusual that somebody would, would pay attention at that level. And then the event didn't happen.
It sounds like that impacted you.
Yeah, it did impact because it showed me that he gave a shit.
Okay.
That's, that's, that's different in business a lot. Nowadays you don't have people that care at that level.
Yeah.
And so that event got canceled because of the pandemic. Uh, but then he had one that December and that fall I joined because I looked at it and said, okay, I can continue to run around my employees.
Right.
Or I can get around people that are doing what I'm doing as a CEO.
And so you didn't have a coach at that time?
I didn't have a coach because Billy had gotten out of the business.
Okay. So Billy was your coach?
He was my coach from 2016 to 2019.
Okay.
And then 2020, for about 6 or 8 months, like my agency had doubled and I had went from a couple of employees to like 9 or 10. And you find yourself talking to— you're only hanging around your, your employees or your family and you're not having the tough conversations. Like, like I had a conversation with a friend of mine, called me today, who's in this business.
Mm-hmm.
And he's having trouble at home because he's working too much and not giving his wife attention. He is like, how did you balance that? You've been married 25 years. I'm like, well, you don't know what to do. He's like, what? I said, I leave my laptop at home or at the office.
Okay.
And he is like, what do you mean? I'm like, I don't take it home with me.
Yeah.
Because if I take it home, I pull it out on the sofa and I'm ignoring her.
Right. And so, so you close your day.
Yeah.
You end your day. At what time do you end your day?
Typically 5:30 or 6 after the gym. Okay.
And then I'll go home and close it.
That's it for a couple hours. I try at least 3 to 4 nights a week so I don't just ignore my wife. And I do it by leaving my laptop at the office and my phone in my car.
There you go.
Otherwise I'm like a little 10-year-old and I'm on it.
Yeah.
But that phone call I had with him today is why I'm in this room, because there's people in this room that are on the exact same journey I'm on, either ahead of me or behind me. And whether you know, ahead of me or behind me isn't revenue. You always say you can be broke in a lot of places.
Yeah.
And it's like people are ahead of me in scaling their company, how they treat their employees, how they onboard clients. And so you can always find a good tip.
And that's why you're here.
That's why I'm here, baby.
Wow. So what would you say to someone that's on the fence?
The fence about becoming part of—
becoming a member?
Yeah. Oh, hey, get off the fence. Knock the damn fence over. Get a chainsaw and cut through it because You're only gonna grow it as far as you can, as far as the advice you can give yourself. And that's why I find a lot of, I've got a lot of friends in small business and especially in the restaurant niche I'm in.
Yeah.
Restaurant owners spend all their time at the restaurant, right? Working in the business and they wonder why they never grow because they don't get out of the business to really work on it.
Right.
7 Figure Agency is an opportunity to be around people that are just like you, that are on the same path as you.
Yeah.
And we all had the exact same problems.
So this is it.
This is it, baby. Don't just, just go through the fence.
Love it. So when you're not working, tell us about what you do for passion. Do you have a passion project, passion work that's not related to business?
Not really. Not really. I shoot basketball a couple days a week. I work out 4 or 5 days a week. I run once or twice.
Hobbies?
Any hobbies? No hobbies.
No hobbies. Buy shoes?
No, I just wear them.
Those are really nice.
I got, I got, I got nice ones, but, uh, one of my employees made these for me as a gift. Really? Hand panties, but he's done 2 pair for me.
That's—
they're really nice. So I'm in a weird place. My hobby is my business.
Okay.
Now I do work a hell of a lot, but I also enjoy it. You know, my kids are grown. My kids are 20 and 22. My son works for me full-time. He's our head trainer at our company for nutrition and fitness.
Nice.
And my daughter's an intern in college for us. And then my wife takes care of the house and keeps me going the right path. Good.
