026: Creating a 9 Figure Business with Matt Manero

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Matt Monero, author of youf Need More Money, had every reason to fail and not become the hundred million plus company that he is today. Abandoned by his birth dad at 6 months old and raised with a stepdad who called him stupid and an idiot, Matt learned the power of emotional intelligence and personal development to dream big and ultimately create big. Throughout hardships and life lessons, Matt has used his gifts of solid intuition and good old hard work to continually level up and create everything from nothing. Join us today as Matt shares. Today, I've got Matt Monero here, author of the new book you Need More Money. And Matt, I'm so excited to talk to you today because I read that you stated that life begins once your yearly income reaches over $150,000. It gets better at 250,000 and then it starts getting really good at 500,000. I read that and I thought, I like that he made that statement. Statement, I've got to know more and where that came from. So thank you for being here today.

It's my pleasure. You're starting with one of the most controversial topics.

Of course, of course, of course. Because I probably, a lot of my audience probably just said, okay, I'm not even there. I need to understand more. And then I'm sure there's a lot of people listening going, okay, well, how did you even get to that? So, Matt, just even looking through a Google search or looking at you online, you look like this highly successful person. You've got success everywhere, and that's hugely evident. But I know that it wasn't always like that. And I would love to dig into a little bit about, you know, who you were before that and what even got you to that place.

Yeah, let's go there. Let's go.

Awesome.

I mean, look, I don't spend a tremendous amount of time thinking way back, but when I do it, you know, it's. I have a real sense of loneliness when I really think back. I mean, my birth father split when I was six months old. He left my mother and I high and dry. He was gone. I Never saw him or heard from him again. My mother remarried to. Who is my father today? My adopted father. He was very tough guy, very negative guy. And I think I began at a very early age to develop this sort of outsider chip on my shoulder kind of mindset. I think that fueled me very well in business, but in a lot of other areas of my life, I think it hurt me. It hurt me from finding a mentor. It hurt me from digging in on a powerful network. Heck, to be honest with you, I think there were times where it made me sort of an isolationist in relationships, too, because I just remember being hurt and alone as a young kid. So I turned that into fuel in the business world, and it proved very well for me in a lot of ways. And then in about 2015, when I really began to dig in and sort of find out where was all this fire, this fuel coming from, I recognized that it was burning off. Natalie. I didn't have that same ambition once we started to really hit some of these big business goals. And I decided to torch the whole thing and burn it up and rebuild it on mission statement and core values and try to get myself happy. And like we were talking about before we went on, I'm now in the finishing stages, which is getting my body and my health back.

Yeah. Okay. So I want to back up a little bit.

So.

Because I hear this a lot, and then people tend to skip over it. But like you said, some really important. Like your birth father left when you were six months old, and then you had this other father figure that became your father, but he was negative, and he was sort of that role model that you had. What were the beliefs that you started forming about yourself, about men or success or because of those two experiences, growing. Go back to when you were growing up.

Oh, we're going to have fun today.

I love it.

I can tell it already. My adopted dad used to call me stupid and idiot and retard every day, my life. And I don't want to belabor the point or spend as much time on it as maybe some people do, but I immediately had to create power sources to overcome that extreme. Some people, I suppose, would call it abuse or negativity, and I was able to do that. I began to find positivity in situations that most people may not find positivity in it.

So. But when someone's calling you that, like, I'm just picturing. I picture my daughter right now being age 11, you know, like somebody like, what was your mom saying? Did she know that happened? Did you like, did you believe these things about yourself or did you just know this was him and he's wrong?

So, you know, my mother is my biggest fan. She always was that. My adopted dad's behavior towards me and then eventually to my sister. My sister's eight years younger than I am. Technically, she's my half sister, but, you know, we never look at each other that way. But my father's behavior towards us created hate in my mother. And they ended up getting a divorce when I was 18. So they were married about 10 years or so, maybe 11 years. It created massive fights in my house. Just kicking and screaming and things that would make you run to your room and just close the door. And as a young boy, wanting to protect your mom, you know, I really began to develop a lot of anger and hate towards this guy. Yeah, you know, stuff like run downstairs, hit him with a baseball bat, and stop it from. From happening again. Those were mindsets that were beginning to be built in my head at 8 and 9 and 10 years old.

So you became this protector, like I need to protect.

Yeah. But at the same time, if you don't do it, you begin to feel like a weakling in some areas too. If you don't act on that vicious behavior, which I didn't, you kind of begin to feel maybe like a wimp, like maybe you should have. And you're getting some things out of me that we've never. I never really talked about, maybe not even dealt with, but there is an element of you're caught in between. So you begin, for me, at least, I began to develop this very passive aggressive behavior in general, where on one hand, I'm sort of a nice guy, but you poke the bear and the bear comes out real fast. 0 to 100. Real fast.

Yeah. Interesting. Which I would imagine that's kind of how you are in business now. I'm just taking a wild guess.

I think I was that way, Natalie, in business, there's no question that for the first 20 years of my business, I ran it with an iron fist. And. And we did achieve, in some people's eyes, very high levels. But I wasn't satisfied with it until I really fixed a lot of this stuff. And I can tell you that today I am no longer that guy. I no longer rule with an iron fist. I'm interested in culture. I'm interested in core values, mission statement, catalyzing statements. I'm interested in helping people get their piece of the American pie like this business was able to give me. But there is no question that That I was a tyrant as a, as a business owner for most of my career.

Okay, so some questions about that. So first of all, so you did become successful even during the tyrant stages, but you went from growing up believing, you know, you're hearing I'm stupid, you're an idiot, retarded. Your words that you're saying that your, your stepdad was using, did you believe those things about yourself or no?

I suppose only on one front and that was on the academic, academic front, that I wasn't that smart. I definitely did believe that. And that carried through my academic career in high school was a, you know, dismal. I only got into one college, a college to where I ended up going to be a chef. I thought that was the career path I was going to go on because that was the only place I got into. So there's no question that I definitely, you know, from an intelligence standpoint thought that I wasn't academically smart. But I did know that I was emotionally very intelligent. Because of those experiences, I knew I could read people. And it's one of my superpowers. I think that I hope that doesn't come across as.

No, I love. Makes sense. Yeah.

I'm very, very, very good at reading people very quickly and there are times where I think I actually know more about the person than the person knows about them because I can just quickly see into their pain points. You know who Grant Cardone is?

Yes.

So Cardone and I are good buddies and I think one of the reasons that we're good buddies is because I might be one of the only people who just sees this hurt 10 year old kid.

Yeah.

Every time we're together, I don't see a guy with a big jet and all that sort of stuff. I just see a guy scraping and fighting to be something and I can totally relate to that.

And I love that you just said that because. Okay, that's really actually cool because there a lot of people that are successful, they are intuitive like that because it really is a people thing. It's about reading people and understanding and you had to learn that early. And I love that. And everybody really is that young 10 year old kid, you know, and somehow along the way we were trained to, to become something else. So I love that. So you, you knew deep down that you were destined for something more obviously. So talk to me about phase one, the tyrant years. Like how did you end up creating what you created then and then what was the switch when you switched your leadership style?

Yeah, man, I don't Know that that was even phase one. I mean, that might, you know, that may have been phase two or phase three. I mean, I was always working as a kid. I was always an entrepreneurial kid, shoveling snow and mowing lawns, walking dogs. I always knew that, you know, I knew how to make money. I always had confidence in myself in that regard. And then after college, I never went into the chef world. I did go into the hotel business for a little while. I didn't like it. I moved out to California. I rode a bicycle from the Golden Gate Bridge all the way down to Mexico. All the way. That was fun.

Yeah. Interesting fact. Yeah, interesting.

And then I ended up working for a moving company, which is how I put myself through college. And I moved this guy into this big mansion in Newport beach on Lido island, if you happen to know where that is. And the guy took a liking to me and he's like, what are you doing moving boxes? And I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing moving boxes. I'm like, trying to figure it all out. And he's like, you got to go meet my son in law. He runs an equipment finance business. And I did, and the guy hired me on the spot. And that's how I learned this business that I ended up building for myself 23 years later. So I guess the tyrant weighs in. All frankness was me burning off this jet fuel that I had this pain, my business as that tool, which was wrong and unfair to a lot of people. But I just had to get the business to 100 million bucks. $100 million a year. That was my goal from the very beginning, and I was able to do that. And once I got there, that's when this sort of transformation begin to happen.

Okay, I want to back up right now because $100 million a year is a lot of money. A lot of money. And to you, that might not feel like that, because it's like you just knew you were going to create that. How did you even get the vision for that? Because I think so many people are stuck with one, like, how do I even start my own thing? And then. And then it's like, how do I get to six figures? Or how do I get to a half a million or a million even? But you rarely hear like, I'm going for a hundred million. It's not even in people's scope. So how did you create that mindset and belief to even go for that?

Well, I believe there's only two reasons that people should go into Business, period, end of story. The first is that there is a big enough problem that their solution fixes. That's one reason a person should go into business. The second reason is because there's so much market share. The market share is so big that you can grab scraps and crumbs. And those scraps and crumbs can produce a very nice business. Now, my business is the second of those two. Equipment financing doesn't solve this huge problem, but yet it's dominated by large publicly traded banks. And so I said, if Wells Fargo is there and GE Capital is there and bank of America is there, I know that my hustle can out hustle those guys. And if Wells Fargo, which is true, Wells Fargo is doing 3 billion a year in my space, I can get 100 million from them and they won't even know who we are.

But did you decide on this hundred million before you even were doing this? At what point are you like, I'm going to go to 100 million?

No, no. There was a long stretch of struggle. I always had the idea of 100 million, but I didn't realize that it was going to be as hard as it was and it was going to take me as long as it did. So the reality is it took me about 18 years to get the business to that goal. So it was started with that goal in mind and it took us 18 years to get there. And I think people forget that.

Yeah, no, and I want to know about that. So like step one, like do you remember what your first goal is? Did you always have a vision and a goal for a number?

Yeah, I mean, step one was not answer to anybody. Right. I don't want to take orders from anybody. That was very important to me. So that was for me, step one. Step two was make sure that I was in the right platform again, going back to that two lines of business formation. And I knew I was in the right platform. For me, the step three was survival. Literally. Can we just keep the doors open? And where I missed Natalie was that I could have made the success much faster if I was open to letting other people help me. But I think going back to the upbringing, I was so terrified of opening up to other people. Whether it was a mentor or a coach or, or even a father figure or even a friend's father who might want to help me or an old uncle who might want to help me, I was closed to all of those people. And so I absorbed a tremendous amount of business pain for way too long before I begin to open up and ask for help, which I did at year 15. I asked for help, I hired a coach and within three years we finished off the goal.

Wow. When you said you hired a coach, was it somebody for personal development or business specific?

It was a specific business coach. I hired the best possible person in our industry and he believed in me from the very beginning. We built a three year strategic plan and we just crushed it. And I never looked back after that. And so like today we'll do probably 170.

Wow. Okay. Yeah, I'm still on this 100 million. 170 million. Because I think so many people don't even go to that in their minds. And I think it's just, I'm interested in how you even got to that. Like, I know you said that you looked at the, the competition or you looked at what else was out there so you knew you could get that scraps. But did 100 million seem like a lot to you or did that just seem like this is if I set my mind to it, I'm going to do it?

Well, I think it's important to understand what our business is to that translates to those numbers. I mean we finance trucks, right. So we finance relatively suppose in some capacities of what we do. They're high ticket items. We happen to finance a niche of a niche in trucking. So we finance very good credit customers who buy used equipment. So our average transaction size in this office is $40,000. So if you take 150 million and you divide it by 40,000, that gives you the number of transactions. So it's not like it's dollar for dollar. Right. Each sale we make is an average of a $40,000 sale. But it's still thousands of deals getting done per year.

I know that somebody listening is thinking, well, okay, well I'm not in the truck finance truck. But I don't think it's that because just with that mindset, I think no matter what industry you chose there because of that, I think that's what's in the gap for so many people is not even having a vision big enough like that.

Yeah, and people choose the wrong platform too. Natalie and I talk about it in my book where a lot of people have ambition and most people will climb hills. They just pick the wrong platform. You know, they just, they're in a business that never has a chance to benefit. Their hard work and their ambition and their smarts just because it's a bad business. I mean the printing, I mean the businesses go on and on and on of what very Difficult to be in. But in my book I use the example of the guy who works at Subway sandwich shop but has dreams of owning a Lamborghini. Well, it ain't going to work, buddy. You're in the wrong platform. So a lot of people pick the wrong platform to try to get rich.

Yeah. So how do you suggest people figure that out?

Follow the money. The litmus test that I reference on determining the right platform is there must be someone in that space who's living the lifestyle by design that you want to live. And you must pitch your wagon to that person. What are they doing? What are their habits? What are their business practices? Who is their network? How are they doing the business to achieve the results that you want to achieve? And unfortunately, most people never look at it like that. They're like, well, my brother seems to be doing okay. Well, how do you know he's white? Because he's got a big house, he's got a couple cars. How do you even know that those aren't mortgage to the eyeballs? I mean, who's winning at the platform that you're choosing to get into? That's how you know it's a decent platform. Get to know that person.

This is gold because people study the how, like the steps. But I don't know how many people actually study the habits. And that's interesting, like not the industry itself, but the people doing it, what are they doing?

I think you're a perfect example. If someone wants to be an influencer in the fitness and nutritional world, they should follow what Natalie Jill is doing. But don't follow the guy who owns a gym that's barely covering payroll every week. That guy isn't going to give you guidance. But, but you could, so. And we also follow people that aren't in a similar business. A lot of people follow, you know, motivation guys. Well, that's great, but that motivation is for their niche and their platform. Who's that person in your space? That's the person we need to hitch the wagon.

I love that. Okay, so I want to back up to that quote. So you said life begins once yearly income reaches 150. Can you, can you talk? I know that is controversial, but I'm curious where that came from. Why did you decide that number is where it begins?

So, you know, my book is my story of the tragedy we went through with my brother in law. My wife's only brother got sick at 46 years old and he got, he was diagnosed with stage four cancer. By going to the doctor, we just thought he Was sick. He was going to the doctor to get a shot, and he ended up in the emergency room with stage four cancer.

And for those of you that don't know, stage four is like. That's like the end of the rope right there with that. There's not like a. There's not a lot of opportunities at stage four.

So we were rattled. I mean, my wife was just insanely crazy in love with her only brother, and I was, too. And so it was a shocking thing. But what added insult to injury was we quickly found out that he had no health insurance, no life insurance, and a hundred bucks in a bank.

Oh, my gosh.

And so when I began to write this story to sort of cleanse our family about it, I began to research and realized, well, it wasn't just John's story. This is like an epidemic. You know, how many people in America are so underprepared for surprises? And so I began. As I began to write the book, I said, I'm just going to go ahead and write my version of how I got more money and why I needed it. And those milestones that you referenced, 150, 250, and 500, are my personal milestones that I went through that said, well, wait a minute. 50 grand didn't help me at all. 150. I started to have a little breathing room. 250. I began to say, like, wow, I actually got something here. I think I could really scale this thing. And at 500 grand a year, I began to say, all right, this is, like, pretty good living now.

Yeah.

And so I just wrote about it in the book. By the way, the publisher made me take those three things out. They said it would alienate the American public. That criteria you and I are talking about is not in my book. The publisher made me take it out.

Yeah, and I understand that. But I also understand, and for those. If anyone is listening, like, offended by that, I just want to share that I'm a fan of leveling people up versus leveling down to make people unoffended. So I'm all for people from wherever they are reaching bigger and going for goals. So maybe 150,000 feels like this intimidating number to you if you're listening.

But.

But at the same time, why not? Like you just said, you came from a place where you were raised by your biological dad, left when you were six months old. You had a stepdad calling you a retard, an idiot. It's stupid, all these things, and you still created a vision to make a business achieve Over a hundred million dollars a year. And you did it. You went well over it. So having a vision and ambition and going for it is absolutely the way to get things done. So I'm a fan that you have that. I don't like that your publisher took it out, because I think it's very encouraging that people can reach for a vision and a dream.

Well, people just need to run some math, too, Natalie. I mean, if you're living in California, if someone's living in California or New York City or LA or Miami, you can just run the math backwards at 150 grand a year after you take taxes in California, federal and state. So that's about a 50% hit. You're left with 7,500 bucks. If you. 75,000. If you divide that by 12, you're left with $6,000 a month. Well, put a car, put a house. I mean, before you know it, you're broke. So 150 is the real number. Here's something that is in the book that's fascinating and people don't realize this. When I graduated college in 1991. To be in the top 1% of earners, you need to make $100,000 a year. Take a guess what that number is today. To be in the top 1%.

I don't even know.

It's 384,000. Wow. So people need to understand that the money has moved, and a lot of people are still chasing these old numbers of like 75, 100 grand is good money. Well, show me where it's good money, because it ain't even good money in Omaha, Nebraska.

So speak into that for a moment before we keep going on. Like, if somebody is listening, what would you tell somebody? Whether maybe it's a family member or friend or somebody you meet that is struggling and is at the $50,000 a year mark. What would you tell them on what something they should do right now to start leveling up and dreaming bigger. What would you tell them?

I give the roadmap in the book to? The first thing everybody needs to do is understand their value proposition. If you're making $50,000 a year, something is wrong. It could. So maybe we're young and we're just getting started. Big thumbs up. That's awesome. Probably if you're 21 and you're making 50 grand, super thumbs up. Right? That's awesome. But, you know, if you're in your 30s and you're making that, you're doing something wrong, you're not bringing value to the organization. You're not skilling up, you're not training yourself. You're not working on your mindset. Because any company would reward someone with larger than that amount of salary if they're bringing real value. So take a look at yourself in the mirror and say, am I really giving it 110%? Am I bringing the company value that is deserved of more money? And once we move in that direction, we will then have the guts to ask for it.

Yeah, I like that too. And I also want to point out, you know, that one of the first things I have people do with fat loss is get on the scale and they never want to. It's like I don't want to face the music, but it is that facing the music and the reality that helps them get to that next level. So I like what you just shared there because that's reality. So if you are making a lot less than the medium and you're not happy, it's time to maybe look at that and consider that something's wrong, just like you said.

Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. I mean, I'm very empathetic to people on their income. I'm not judgmental about it at all. I'm just the deliverer of data through this book in which people need to be open to it and recognize that they're probably underperforming in their value proposition and therefore they're underperforming in their financial world. And my whole argument in the book, Natalie, is the reason we need more money is because we don't know when two planes are going to hit skyscrapers or regulation is going to change or a competitor is going to come into our marketplace or that you're going to go to the doctor to get a shot and you leave with stage four cancer. You don't know what's coming around the corner. So we got to push.

It's about being prepared and always knowing. Have you had failures along the way in business? And I'd love to know maybe what the biggest one was that you had and what you took from that.

I mean, I've had tons of failures in business and in other businesses that I've started. I mean, you know, when I started this company, I started with nothing in a one bedroom apartment with a phone and a folding table. Six months later, I was down to my last forty bucks on a Shell gas card. My car had been repossessed. I mean, I was down and out. I bought 40 bucks of milk and Frosted Flakes and I went back to that dump apartment and Said I'm going to change this. This isn't how finishes for me. So I mean, I think my biggest. I have two primary regrets as it relates to business. The first is that I waited too long to get help from people who were willing to give it to me. Right. You know the old saying that the teacher is always there, is the student.

Yes. The ego takes over. We think we know we don't need help.

I think for me it was self esteem rather than ego. I think I was just so afraid that the next father figure was gonna treat me like that and I had my fill of it. You don't need two people in your life doing that to is enough.

No, absolutely not.

So I think that kept me. The second thing is that I let my business overcome my health. Right. The long hours, the work. I lost all focus on balance as it relates to health and I ended up putting on way too much weight. And just now am I getting legit of getting serious about getting it off?

What would you tell that person that was sitting there, you said with the $40 in the bank that was really wanted to change, like knowing now what you know, what would you tell that person?

Yeah, I would tell that person to spend a lot more time skilling up and getting great at something. For me it was, you know, I found motivation in tapes. I found motivation in books. I used to go to this place called Half Price Books here in Dallas and I would walk to the clearance rack all the way in the back and I would buy like, you know, Tony Robbins personal power for $0.99, the entire 20 video set. And amazingly, Natalie, when I would open it and put it in my cassette deck, like the previous owner would have only listened to like half of the first tape.

Wow.

No one ever got through the tape sessions. And I would listen to them incessantly. That's where I got my mentors. Through books and tapes. I would tell people to really spend time in mindset development, positive mental attitudes, skill development, and then find a platform that you have an innate ability and that through your work ethic will produce a reasonable result for the effort that you're going to put in. The problem with most people is like I said earlier, we want to climb hills, but we end up looking back saying I should have climbed a bigger hill. That hill was too low. I was capable of so much more.

Yeah, that's pretty powerful.

I look at it in my Dog on business. I'm like, why didn't we say why did we get to 500 million faster? You know, I mean I'm, I'm not even content with where we are now. I'm saying, my gosh, we should have been here 10 years early.

Yeah. I'm so fascinated with this. When I do interview people in these levels of 100 million and higher or the 500 million or even higher, like this vision that they had for that when I think so many people that is exactly what's in their gap as they don't dream big enough so they don't even attempt that hill that's high. So because that is a ginormous vision that people don't even ever believe, they put their own self and post, stop it. They can't even go for that.

I think it's reasonable. But I'm a competitive guy and I've always looked at somebody else and said, well, how does that guy have it? And I don't? What is that guy doing that I'm not doing? Why is he or she more successful than I am? I think I've purged that mindset now and come through that now. But certainly it was a huge motivation for me. I just wish I had the guts and the self esteem to ask that person early on, hey, what did you do right? Can you walk me through it instead? Almost be jealous of that person.

And, and that's the key right there. What you just said is that people want to have hate or jealousy or opinions, but they don't actually ask for help. And you did. You're like, I want to know what they did.

Yeah, I never really was against other people's success. I've always actually been happy for other people's success. I was just mad that I wasn't getting my piece and they were, you know, and that always. I used it as fuel and it motivated me for a long time. I'm, I'm out of that phase now. As I come closer to 50, I'm looking, how do I help more people? How do I help people with exactly what we're talking about here today? How do I get them through this stuckness that so many people are in? Because time is not our friend. No, the only thing time is good for is compound interest. The rest of it, it kicks our butt. It kicks it our butt physically. It kicks our butt financially. It kicks our butt. The longer we wait to call that person that we know we should call and maybe say I love you or I'm sorry, time marches on. It doesn't help those situations.

No, you're right, it doesn't. Yeah. So would you say that? Is life more urgent to you now that you have that realization, like, do you take things like I got to.

Do it now, you know, I think I just need to be present. I think what I focus on now is just being in the moment and enjoying it. I got three boys. My wife and I are married 19 years. I just want to be in the moment more because I have so much magic that's going on around me. I want to be present to take it in more. Whereas before everything was for the next step, no matter what we just achieved, I had to get to the next step. And I'm beginning to realize that being where I am is really a key component to happiness, not really the next step.

Wow. That's also powerful. Yeah. Because a lot of people don't realize that till it's too late.

I find a lot of people get that though. I mean, I just, you know, I look around, I see people very, very happy and very content. And I'm working through that to find that happy place. Because I used to call it a constant state of pissed offness in my office. I was just always a little disgruntled and a little pissed. I'm trying to purge myself from that mindset.

Yeah. Okay, so you just shared that you've been had days where you're pissed off and upset, but are there days where you have self doubt about what you can accomplish too?

No, no, never.

How do you. How did you get rid of that or how did you make that not enter your life?

You know, I put myself in so many uncomfortable situations. Whether it's growing a business or calling on difficult customers, writing books, speaking. You know, I put myself in tough spots where I now have confidence in what I do, has a probability of success. And then I really don't do things that don't have a probability of success. Like one of the guys in my office did a big tough mudder race this past weekend. It was a half marathon with 35 obstacles. And this guy's in unbelievable shape. He said it was one of the hardest things he ever did. I'm not going to do that. Okay. I know that that's not going to go very well for me. Something's going to get pulled, something's going to get broken, something's going to get torn. It's not a good place for me. But I would do the sprint triathlon, no problem, something like that. So I just know in the areas that I'm putting my attention that I have a high probability of success and that fuels me to do more of it.

Yeah, no, that's good. I'm curious about some of your habits. How do you start your day? Do you start your day the same way? Do you change just what you feel like? Do you have routines, habits?

Yeah. No. Now through this 50 by 50 deal. It's a 6am workout and then I follow it with a cold water swim. So I love cold water. The colder the better. In Dallas, my pool's down to about 60, 62, 63 right now. That's a good temperature for me, but even colder. Last year it got down to 43 degrees. I was still in it. Every day I swim cold water and then I'm usually in my office. I take one of my boys to school and then I'm usually in my office by about 8:30. I worked hard till 4:30 and then I go home. I'll enjoy time with my children. Sometimes maybe I'll put another 20 or 30 minutes on the treadmill. We try to do a family dinner night almost every night. And then about 9 o' clock I'm back on the laptop and I'll work till 10 or 10 30, just finishing up loose ends, preparing for the next day. I'm usually in bed by 10:30 or 11 and I'm up again at 5:30 the next morning more.

Wow, so you're pretty routine.

I think it's pretty routine. I have that down. But I think it's a huge problem for most people, wouldn't you agree? Most people wake up and they're like, what are we gonna do today?

So what I find is most people grab their cell phone first thing in the morning and then it's just this gamble of whatever's coming my way. So there is no vision.

What a low value activity.

Yeah. Yes, totally. And I will own that as much as I know the importance of morning routine. And I will say I do my morning routine four or five days a week, but there's like two days that I'm guilty of grabbing the cell phone and then I remember exactly why you tell people not to do it. So I'm just owning it. That yes, it's a huge distraction, but when people are regimented with a schedule, it's very effective.

Yeah, I mean, look, I just did a podcast episode on why I'm starting to hate social media. I was in business 20 years before I ever made a Facebook post. So like, you know, it never contributed to my business. And I think it's stealing a lot of success from a lot of people because unfortunately, even if we just scroll through our feeds, we're not looking at what we want anymore. It's. We're looking at what's presented to us and we're having to make a decision of is this important that someone else is doing this. We don't control it anymore. So over the last couple months I've spent a lot less time on it because I only want to control the information that I take.

I think that's so important. Yes. Because I think a lot of people mastered like not watching news or the TV and the social media is just as bad.

Yeah. Unless you can control your feed and just take in what it is that you want. But you know, somebody else seems to be doing a very good job of pushing all kinds of counter information to me which, you know, I've got three boys and you're referencing your 11 year old daughter. I mean we as parents have to be viciously careful about what images and stuff are they being able to see without us having any idea that their minds are being flashed with this stuff.

Yes, very true, very true.

It's a big deal. I mean it really is a big deal. Our children are becoming aware of things much earlier than I would.

Yeah, it's very true. And we can't micromanage all of it. But you're right, it is important as parents, especially if we're doing those habits, if we're scrolling social media. That's what they learn.

Look, isn't it much better though when we're on our own path? Right. When we just say this is where I want to go and nothing's going to get in the way and I'm going to control the information I take in, the activities, the movement, the people, the energy, the money, all that I want to be in charge of, I don't want somebody else to have control over.

It's super important. I love that you just shared that. I'm curious about staying on that path of what you let in. Who do you surround yourself with? Like what kind of people do you let in your life? Like your friends? And are you, do you have rules around that?

Yeah, I do talk about this in the book I call it the doorman principle in which I look at my life as if there was a doorman in front of it. And the doorman has to approve or disapprove of the people that get in. And the doorman's only criteria is the other person's core values. What is their alignment in life? What do they stand for? My number one core value in my life is to be a better father to my three boys than My father was. To me, that is an initial impact. I don't hang out with alcoholics. I don't hang out with drug addicts. I only hang out with pure, balanced people to the best of my ability. And if I recognize that that's not the case, then I spend almost zero time with that person. Some people might take it judgmental. I just talk about it as alignment. It doesn't align with who I want to share my energy field with. So I'm not going to do it.

Yeah, that's good. That's good now. Okay, so this is a question that I've asked everybody, and I'm just. I'm dying to know this. So are there, like, if somebody is at their own rock bottom right now, and maybe it's not a rock bottom, maybe it's not as bad as when you had the $40 to your name. Maybe it's just, you know, a business failure or their marriage fell apart or something has shifted in their life. Are there. I would love to know, like, what would from your perspective and all the success you've created and what you've written and what you know, are there. Is there some advice and three pieces of advice that you would give them to be able to shift out of that?

Well, I would say that this may be different than other people have told you. I would tell that person to absolutely embrace that moment because, you know, if you really do have ambition and gumption and backbone, you will pull yourself out of that and you'll look back on it just like I look back on mine of the $40, and I know, you know, you had a rock bottom moment as well. And you probably look back on that and say that that was actually an important part of my life because it catapulted me to never go back to that position. And so I would challenge the person to actually almost the worst things that happen to me, I will often put a smile on my face and say, I know it can't get much worse now. It's a little different for me now. But as we were building the business, especially through 08 and 09, the economic downturn, there were days where I was like, oh, my God, it can't get worse. And guess what? An hour later, it got worse. And two hours later, it got even worse. And it got worse and it got worse. And then eventually you have to begin to say, this has got to be up from here. Right? And eventually it will turn up if you're doing it. I mean, if you're just a victim, all the Time, it's not going to work for you. But I'm not a victim and I don't believe most people really are. Most people just, they just need a good kick in the pants to get moving in the right direction again. Because sometimes we won't. Most of the time, Natalie, we won't do it ourselves. So look for help, get it, and then don't be so afraid of the bad times. I mean, I look back at my old man, by the way. He and I have a good relationship today.

That's interesting you just said that. I would think you would have said you don't talk to him anymore. Was that.

I don't want to. I never, ever, ever don't want to talk to anybody.

So you have a good relationship now. Was that, did that healing, how did that healing happen? Was that you, Was that him? And did that impact the changes in your business by healing that?

No, there were no. I just began to look at my. The way my dad treated me as a gift. It made me very thick skinned. And in business, especially at the scale that we're at, it's not nice. You know, we're playing in deep waters now and people are ruthless. And I have a very thick skin when it comes to business. And I look at that. A lot of my success I actually attribute to my upbringing because I learned very early on that people who should love you and treat you with kid gloves don't. And that's a very powerful point for me too, because when I think, when you realize that and you can give someone that hand up where you can tell them that you believe in them, God, you never know what that simple statement might do to that person. It might be the moment where they catapult out of the bottom and get back on track.

Wow. And that is some serious personal development, by the way, that you said you were able to recognize that as a gift. So I acknowledge you for taking that on and learning that because I think most people do. A lot of people do walk around as victims of life versus looking at things happening for them. They look at them as happening to them. I acknowledge you for even being able to shift and view that. And I believe that it has a lot to do with your success.

Thank you for saying that. What would you say when you look back on that low point for you, Natalie?

And I've had, other than that one, rock bottom. I've had several points in my life And I would 100% agree with you. And also interviewing the amount of people that I've interviewed, knowing that There always is a gift, and it does. Take not being a victim of it and not enrolling other people in your victim story. Because that's the other thing is when I always said in fat loss, and some people don't want to work with me because of it, and that's fine. I get it. But when someone wants to give me their excuse or their victim story, I won't add fuel to that. Because me adding fuel or validating a victim or excuse story does not help people get better. It just doesn't. It's like it happened. But let's find a solution. Let's find another. Let's find the gift in it. Because as soon as we start surrounding people with, you know, our victim story and they start encouraging it, and now we're all stuck.

Does anybody say, geez, Natalie, you're a real hard ass. I mean, I was trying to pour my heart out to you, and you didn't go there with me.

Yes, they do. And I say, good, and that's what I why I'm doing this for you. They do that. Yes, every now and then. And I'm happy to listen. I love listening to people's stories and acknowledging what happened. But it's also, okay, what was the gift in it? Because if we stay stuck in victim story again, again, we. We're not leveling up. We're staying at that stuck spot.

Victims don't achieve. I hate to. I don't want to be cliche or I hope it doesn't come across as judgmental, because I'm not trying to be judgmental. But people who stay in a victim state are never the people.

No. And I have all kinds of empathy and compassion for that. Absolutely. As I'm sure you do, too. It's. But as somebody on the other side, saying, and I would want someone to do this for me too, by the way, is like not dismissing it, but like, okay, let's find a solution. Let's find the next level. Versus, like, yes, that's sucks. That's awful. Let's give up.

Yeah. Yeah. I think what you just said is important. To use the word dismiss. I think it's really important to not dismiss where that person is like, I'll get over it.

Well, yeah, no, not that. I wouldn't say that. Yes.

I used to say that all the time. I used to be like, you know, get over it. Put your pants up. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Quit whining. It doesn't work. No work in life. It doesn't work at home. It sure as heck doesn't work in business.

No, but there's the and. There's the and like this is it. And now that stinks. If that happened. What's the gift?

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, this is awesome. Where can people find you? Where can they get your book? Where can they learn more?

Thank you. The book is you need more money. It's on Amazon. I read the book on Audible too. The publisher was Penguin, so anybody can get it on Amazon.

Amazing.

And then it's Matt Monero on all social media platforms, although he's not on.

Social media all the time as he said.

Well, we still push out a lot.

Of content, put the good stuff out there, but definitely get his book. Lots of good lessons in there. And thank you, Matt.

Natalie, thank you for pushing me on some of these topics. I enjoyed it. I know you used the word clear. I don't know whether we cleared a little bit or we just talked about it. I appreciate it. I feel like I love it. I really do.

Thank you. Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful pool so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejofit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.