Transcript of You're Not Burned Out - You're Bored Out: Mitch Matthews on Reigniting Your Fire

Here I was in the green room with so many of my heroes. It was this huge feeling of both excitement and absolute horror. That rushing feeling of, "I do not belong here." I went over to a quiet corner in this green room and I just sat down and I prayed and I was like, "Lord, I need some help." What lie am I believing? And I heard a simple phrase: learn from, don't compare to.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. Today I've got the guru of gurus, the coaches of coaches, When you're ready to build a business without blowing up your life, you call him. He's known for helping high-capacity humans be at their best, lead at their best, and live at their best. Please join me in welcoming the clarity finding, the plan building, the accountability driving— my God— Mr. Mitch Matthews. Mitch, how you doing today, brother?

I'm doing better now, Mick. Oh my gosh, please come introduce me to any room I walk into. Are you kidding me? Holy Holy cow. I'm supposed to be able to focus now. I'm all excited. Oh, I love this, bro.

I'm honored to have you on. Uh, you know, I had the distinct honor and pleasure of, of you interviewing me on your podcast, and I felt like we became like long lost brothers and best friends, man. Like, I've been a huge fan of you for a very long time. And so I'm honored to have you on, bro. I'm honored to have you on.

I, I love it. And I'm, I'm with you. I know you've been doing your podcast for a long time and I'm sure like me, I love every guest I've had, but some are just a standout. And your and I conversation for Dream, Think, Do, one of my favorites. And I, as I recorded it, I'm like, oh, our Dream, Think, Doers are going to love this. And it was absolutely true. You so delivered. And we heard from so many people like, oh my gosh, more Mick, more Mick. So we're going to have to have you come back, man. I felt like we were just getting started.

Hey, I, I'm there whenever you need me, man. But, but today it's about you, Mitch, man. Like I said, I've been a huge fan of, of all that you do. You know, you help high achievers get clear, build plans, and achieve more, right? But I always love asking my guests like, what's their because? Their true purpose, that deeper thing that gets them going. Mitch, because you help so many others and, and the world doesn't know all the things that you do behind the scenes that you that you don't want credit for, that you don't ask credit for, but the wonderful human being that Mitch Matthews is, man, like, what's your because? Why do you keep doing the things that you do?

Uh, I love it. And I listen to your podcast, so I knew this question was coming, my man. But I, and I think it's such an important question to ask. I love that it goes beyond the why. And, uh, you know, I was thinking even as I was walking my dog this morning, I was telling you before. Um, I'm like, all right, I think I know what my because is, but I had to add for today. Like, as I was thinking, like, what's my because for today? And part of my because is the same every day. And it's to love God, love my family, love others well, and in that order, right? Like, I have to check myself. Do I love God? And I know God loves me. So that's easy, right? Am I loving my family and doing that well? And then now from the overflow of all of that, can I love others? So that's, that's at the core and that's something that's every day. Uh, but I've also learned sometimes you gotta boil it down, especially when it comes to what you're doing in life, in your career, in your business. And I don't know about you, but I need it simple, Mick.

I gotta keep it simple.

Yes.

So I've realized that one of the reasons I'm on the planet is to help people figure out why they're on the planet and to encourage encouragers. Like, I just, I realized, like, if I'm doing that, if I'm in that zone of helping people figure it out, if I'm in that zone of encouraging encouragers, I'm pretty much an unstoppable force. But if I get out of that, man, I tell you what, I lose energy almost immediately. So I just realized, man, stay in my zone, stay in my zone. And it took me a while to figure that out. And I love helping figure that, helping people figure that out. But boy, that's, that's really when you boil it down, that's kind of who I am and what, what I need to be every day.

When did you realize that, that passion of, of helping others, uh, in particular helping like high achievers continue to be high achievers? When did you realize that that was your God-given mission or talent?

That was my jam. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, it's, it's funny because, and, and I help people to do this and I always say there are clues. Everywhere, but you gotta get curious, right? You gotta get curious and you gotta look for those clues. 'Cause God is good. I, I think that God wants to talk to us about everything. And it, it's funny 'cause a lot of my coaching clients, a lot of my audiences, we don't talk about faith, but I talk about faith a lot. So, uh, a number of my coaching clients are very open to that as well. But I always say like, you know, God loves us. And, and God is wanting to speak to us all the time, but he rarely uses billboards, right? It's usually, it's those little signals. It's those little signs. And, uh, when you start to look back and look for the clues, they're everywhere, especially when it was for me and helping people figure that out. Like, I, I was a very intense kid. I was actually a worrier, Mick. So like I would worry myself sick. And, uh, even, even to the level of like compounding the doctors and being sick for weeks at a time.

But I realized, uh, you know, one of the things that would bring me out of that worry would be to help a friend, to encourage a friend. If I, if I was thinking about what people thought about me, or if I was thinking about how I was doing in that class, or if I was worried about how I was going to do on that test, I would spiral. but if I thought about how my friend was doing and wanting to encourage a friend that was going through something, all of a sudden I had energy, right? Um, and, and as I grew up, I found that I had a lot of success. You know, initially I started to work for a bike shop. I grew up in a small town in Iowa and I was really into bicycles. I always, I have to clarify that cuz it wasn't, I wasn't cool and into motorcycles. I was into bicycles, like push bikes. Right. But I loved it. And I started working at a bike shop. And what was funny was, is I was really good at selling bikes, but it wasn't that I knew all the information about bikes.

I really did like bikes and I did know a lot, but I was at my best when I would get curious with a customer and say, well, what kind of riding do you want to do? Like, what kind of, where do you want to go? What do you want to do with this bike? And then I couldn't help myself, but get excited helping them find the right thing. and I could sell the shiznits out of that, but I, I was at my best when I was helping them figure out what they wanted with their bicycles, you know? So that was a clue. And then when I started to get into the corporate world, same kind of thing. I, I was in sales, really good at sales, did very well in business to business sales and pharmaceutical sales, but I was at my best when I was actually, you know, on the pharmaceutical side, working with doctors, figuring out how they really wanted to care for their patients, figure out what they really wanted for their patients. And, and even like Mick, you understand this. It wasn't just about the doctors. It was connecting with the nurses.

It was connecting with the receptionist and I would know stuff about them and their life and their kids and their dreams and the things they wanted to do. And man, I had access to everybody and it wasn't out of manipulation. It was out of connection. And a big part of that was just having these deep conversations. Like people would always say, why am I telling you this? You know, but I, I'd wind up knowing what they wanted to do or what that next chapter might look like for them. And so it was just a natural fit when I got promoted into a bad fit job in the pharmaceutical world that woke me up because almost immediately I knew it was a bad fit. And it was a great wake-up call too, because I knew I wasn't supposed to spend the rest of my days in pharmaceuticals. So that bad fit job woke me up to say, hey, I need to do something new. And for me, we were living a sitcom life, which meant single income, two children, oppressive mortgage. So I couldn't just quit my job. Um, and so I had to start building something on the side and that's what I started to do.

I started to coach and speak on the side of that pharmaceutical bad fit job and things blossomed, things took off and the rest is history. That's where we're at right now.

Yes, sir.

That was 25 years ago. Crazy.

Yes, sir. I love everything about it, man. And that's a great segue into like this next segment that I like to call the unplugged truth. And he talked about this job that was not a great fit. And to me, this is an unplugged truth that most people have to realize. Like Mitch was able to look in the mirror, right? And, and have that conversation with himself, but then also put action behind it. And, and Mitch, I know that, that you feel this and you teach this and coach this as well too. The biggest separator between great and exceptional is usually just action, right? Like, like you've gotta be able to visualize a lot and, and I'm not knocking the, the power of visualization because I think it starts there, right?

It does.

But a lot of people can, can visualize. It's the action that, that really makes it happen. Talk to us a little bit about that and, and how you do things and, and the Authority Bridge and some of the things that you're doing there, because I love, every single thing about what you do and how you coach and how you get people to next levels.

I love that. Thank you so much, Mick. Well, I want to give credit where credit's due. God is good, and I married up, Mick. My wife is brilliant. She's a Spitfire. And I can tell you, I would love to say when I got promoted into that bad fit job, I confidently said, oh, this is a bad fit, therefore I need to find something that's a great fit for me. I'm going to build this business and it's going to be amazing. That's not how it happened. I'm very proud to say that I was humbled by that experience. And there was a few months of it was really starting to impact me. And my wife saw it. She said, hey, I'm concerned your, your fire is going out because not only was a bad fit, there was a lot of pressure. To it. And it was kind of like we were talking about before, it was outside my zone from day one, from minute one, it was outside my zone of genius. And so I was, I was losing that energy. I was losing the fire. I was losing the focus. And on one particular hard day, I came home and my wife laid down this magazine in front of me and she said, this is what you do.

And I looked at this article and it was about an entrepreneur who'd had this huge success in air, in the airline industry of all things. And I'm like, none of this makes sense. And she's like, no, not that article. And then she pointed to the sidebar and this sidebar was all about this entrepreneur's coach. And she's like, that's what you do. That's what you've done since the day I've known you. You always come alongside people. You help them get more clear. You help them get more confident. You help them take action. She's like, that's what you do. We gotta figure out how to do that. Because I didn't even know it existed. Like I didn't, to coach, I'm like, that's what I'd always done, but I didn't know that was a role. I didn't know you could get paid for that. And so what I did was I started to experiment and that's, that's what I always say is it, you know, this story is so important to me because it's the reminder that even talented people, I like to put myself in that category, at least, you know, relatively smart, talented people usually need somebody else.

To help them see from a different perspective. And I absolutely did. I needed my wife to kind of dial up that wake-up call and say, hey, this is it. Like, we didn't know exactly even what it was yet, but she's like, she saw the clues and she pointed to that and encouraged me to take that step. And then like you were, you're speaking to the, the authority bridge is something we do now. I just realized over the years as I've been coaching, entrepreneurs and executives and leaders. But I've also been coaching other coaches and speakers because our business really did take off. I was able to build it on the side and launch a full-time coaching and speaking business that was able to surpass my income. And I was able to do that, thank you God, in 5 months. And we haven't had to look back, which is amazing. And in a relatively short period of time, I really had a lot of coaching clients, speaking, or excuse me, executives and leaders. But other coaches and speakers started to take notice saying, hey, show us what you're doing. And we've been doing both ever since.

And we've been able to help countless executives and leaders and entrepreneurs, but we've also been able to help thousands of coaches and speakers. And what's interesting is a few years ago, uh, God put it on my heart. To think back through, and you've probably done this exercise, but God really prompted this exercise of saying, think back through your favorite clients, the clients that have had the most success, the clients that have been amazed by their own accomplishments and experiences. And I started to do that. I took a Saturday and just thought through and listed them, and I started to realize there was consistent kind of through line, and that was kind of this crossover of my executives and entrepreneurs and leaders. They were starting to get curious about this whole coaching thing that I was doing in the other part of my world of coaching and helping coaches and speakers. And a number of them just started saying, hey, could I get a little bit of that?

Yeah.

Teach me how to coach. It'll make me a better leader. It'll make me a better manager, but maybe I should actually sell some coaching on the side. I should do some speaking. And, you know, they were, they were getting that. People were saying, you're amazing at this. You should, you should be a coach. You know, like so many of my leaders were like, you should be a life coach. You should be a coach. And they were like, I don't even know what that was. You know, that they were kind of like me a number of years ago. And, and so when I thought about that through line, a number of those favorite, favorite, most successful clients. Or clients that were executives, entrepreneurs, founders, leaders that I also helped to co— become coaches and speakers in most cases on the side. We call that the authority bridge. And, uh, they were able to add that without blowing up their life. And what they found, kind of like me, was it lit the fire again.

Yeah.

It brought additional revenue, impact, income. Um, but they also started to feel that satisfaction again. Um, and, and it's been so amazing to get to see people do that, walk that out without, without starting from scratch and without blowing up their life.

No, I love that. And I love the fact that you added impact in there because for me, one of the things and like my best friend in the world is, uh, celebrity chef Robert Irvine. Right.

And, um, so cool.

He, he challenged me several years ago about the focus of impact, right? Because as entrepreneurs, As leaders of households, right? Like we always wanna make sure the revenue is there first, right? Like we have mouths to feed, whether it's our personal home, whether it's our employees, our teams, all of that. And he said, Mick, but if you focus on impact, I promise you everything else follows. Like everything that's supposed to happen, God blesses those who are truly impact first. And, and I love that you said that because I think that that's where a lot of people go wrong because just like you, you know, I work with a lot of high-power executives, a lot of Fortune 100 companies. And the first thing that I talk about with them is culture and impact. Because as a CEO, as a C-suite member, you don't run your business. Culture does, right?

Yeah.

And, and your job should be shaping culture. And in order to do that, you have to make impact. And so I'd love for you to talk a little bit about why impact is so important and is a centerpiece of everything that you do as well?

Yeah, I love this. And such a great question and such a fun topic, an important topic. And for me, this was reinforced by a conversation I had recently with a French neuroscientist. How about that? Right? Her name is Anne-Laure Lecomte. And I don't know about you, Mick, but sometimes I have guests on that I have to really practice their name. And so now, like, she was a guest on my podcast, so I had to work hard on that one. So now every time I, I can throw out her name, I do, because I feel so good about it. Right. But Ann Lor, um, she's a, she's a neuroscientist who used to work for Google.

Okay.

And one of the things that's interesting about Ann Lor is that she quit Google. She had a great job at Google and she quit because of what she thought was burnout. She was tired. She was frustrated. She didn't feel creative anymore. She didn't have that spark. She didn't have that light. She didn't feel like she was having impact. And what's interesting is, is that as she quit Google because of what she thought was burnout, she started to go back into research, studies, all these things. And she started to realize something. She started to see this pattern with a lot of successful people is they were having kind of all the symptoms of burnout. But she started to realize it wasn't burnout at all. It was something she called bored out. And what's interesting about bored out is the symptoms are very similar. Fatigue, frustration, you don't feel as creative, you don't feel on fire, but it's not from actual burnout in, in regards to fatigue. What's interesting is, is bored out is something that happens to high achievers, our kind of clients, those people who deliver. No matter what. And as you well know, and as your listeners know, high achievers figure out ways to get stuff done.

They figure out systems, they figure out processes, they figure out the 1, 2, 3 sequences to make things happen. And we do that and we deliver those things over and over. But within that, we can start to become bored. We're still achieving. We're still hitting our numbers. We're still getting the results. We're still leading our teams. But we're starting to get bored and that starts to show up as fatigue. And what she realized was she's like, oh wait, if I can correct being bored out, we can reduce this, these symptoms of what people think are burnout. And she actually confessed on my podcast. She's like, after I realized that, she's kind of like, I kind of wished I didn't quit Google. She's like, they've done pretty well. I was like, I've heard of them. I think they are doing okay.

Right.

But I said, okay, well, how do we solve the bored out problem? Because I totally see it, the high achiever that man, they're, they're hitting it, but they're starting to wear out, you know, delivering every day. But those same systems that they're managing, they're taking care of are kind of boring them. Right. And she said, the good news is it can be solved with a 15-minute solution. And that is the injection, the intentional injection of a little bit of novelty.

Wow.

Go in to learn something intentionally for 15 minutes. It doesn't take, you know, burning down your life or moving to the other side of the planet. Like, hey, if you wanna move to Fiji, go for it. Right. But what's beautiful about overcoming being bored and bored out that, that, that very same thing that causes the sensation of being burnout is just the injection of some novelty. Learn something new. Intentionally go meet with somebody that inspires you or you see as creative, or, or maybe they do something you don't understand, or lean into a new hobby or maybe an entrepreneurial adventure. You know, I, I, I'm not a huge fan of the side hustle language because I don't know about you. I want systems across the board. I don't want to hustle. I want to deliver, right? Yes. And—

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She's, you know, she said, hey, go experiment with that. Don't, don't tear down everything, but start small and experiment. That injection of novelty, something that's going to bring back the fire. And I, I thought back to my bad fit job and I was like, that's exactly right. I, I started to learn about coaching. I started to learn about speaking, and that thing relit my fire. And as I thought about our Authority Bridge clients, that's so much the case where just that injection of some new skill sets, some new strategies, whether it's how to be a coach or how to be a more effective speaker, or kind of the entrepreneurial aspects of that, that's the thing that lights people up. It helps them bring back the fire. But also when it comes back to impact, you're exactly right. Leaders are often impacting people, but sometimes as you do that over and over and over again, you can start to become bored out even though you're impacting, you know, a large group of people. But with our Authority Bridge experience, oftentimes people are getting to impact in a new way. Uh, whether it's coaching one-on-one and they're like, they see the light bulb turn on for somebody.

They, they help them to achieve something they hadn't thought possible, and all of a sudden they're feeling the fire again. Or, you know, I've got one executive that's in the Authority Bridge, uh, program. He's an incredible salesperson. He's the VP of sales for his company. He's really good. He's had a lot of success, but he was starting to lose that fire. Nobody knew about it, but he knew it. He was starting to feel that bored out. And so we just got him, you know, a little bit of strategy and a little bit of entrepreneurial know-how to start selling some speaking. And he, but he was doing speaking from time to time, but he wasn't getting paid for it. And I was like, just wait for the impact when you get paid well to do it. Because, you know, yes, you can still have impact when you're doing it for free, but when you show up and you've been paid $20,000 to do it, just watch how they take care of you. Watch how people are a little bit more on the edge of their seat because they are a lot more intentional with your intro.

They're, you know, they take care of you through and through. And I said, what's beautiful about something like that is you can have more impact and experience more income as you do it. And it's a win-win. It's not, it's not manipulation. It's not abuse. It's a beautiful win-win. And so that's what we love to see with people with the Authority Bridge is they have that impact, the kind of cure the bored out. Symptoms they've been having and they get some more income, uh, as a part of it too.

Amen to that, brother. Amen to that. I'm gonna move us to what I call the hot takes. Yes. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you praise. I'm gonna do a confession and all that right here in this hot take. So Between you and my other mentor, Daymond John. Mm.

Come on.

You both taught me something critically important. Like Daymond taught me, Mick, whenever you start a company, a new company, always build it with the intent to sell because it's gonna help you make better decisions whether you sell it or not. Have that framework in mind because you're gonna make much better decisions on and in the business. And then you taught me and challenged me, and you didn't know this. And so this is me giving you praise and thanking you for something that's happening right now. You always say dream bigger, think better, right? Do what you were put on the planet to do. Well, I took those words very literal because I'm always gonna dream big, but you told me to dream bigger. Right? I'm always gonna think and be clear, but you told me to do it better, to be more clear, to think better. And so when I started my new AI company about a year and a half ago, I was like, I took Daymond's advice. I'm gonna build it to sell, even if I'm not. And I was like, this can be a $50 million company. And then Mitch freaking Matthews said, but dream bigger.

Think bigger.

Yeah.

And now this company has a 9-figure valuation, bro, because—

come on, Mick—

because Mitch Matthews taught me how to visualize it, where to be clear and where to focus. And I wanted to give you praise on that because the hottest take I could give you is that what you say, not only does it work, I mean, I know you know that, but it's true. And so everybody that's watching this, listening, I, I, I'm gonna tell you one, MitchMathews.com, go there, but subscribe, follow, follow the podcast because the nuggets that Mitch gives, and he's giving them for free unless he works with you exclusively. And, and, and you can get that on the site too.

Right.

But he's gonna give you so much that if you just implement and, and Bitch, you know, this is why you're a coach, right? Because the hardest part is the implementation. Most people know what to do.

The doing.

I promise you, most people know what to do, but it's the accountability, the implementation, and that power to just keep going when life is gonna get hard, when the business is gonna be right on the brink of that next step. So this is me giving you your flowers, bro, because it worked. It worked, buddy.

I am honored and I love that. Oh, come on. I am an encourager. You're like a ninja level, black belt level encourager. So that, that means the world to me. And I'm so excited for you and your AI company as well. I've been watching you grow that thing and I've been blown away, my friend. You're killing it. And you're also, talk about impact. You're impacting so many lives, um, in a beautiful way and, and leading the way. And I think given a lot of hope too. So well done, but thank you so much. That, that goes deep in my heart, my friend, and I, I receive that fully.

No, it, it, it's all you, bro. And, and again, you talk about the power of visualization, of dreaming bigger, not just big, but bigger. And, and everybody that's listening, that's watching, you are a high achiever and you know it. Yep. But usually there's two things, and I'm gonna let Mitch break it down for you. There, there's two things that are Or limiting where you can go when it's causing you to either feel stuck or that you need help. And, and both are okay. Right? Like, it's okay. Like, I get help all the time. Like, I, I believe in hiring accountability partners and hiring coaches and hiring people that can help me and my companies and even me personally get to that next level. Mitch is gonna give you a masterclass because most of the time you just gotta dream bigger than you think. And then the second part of that is being intentionally clear with what you need to do, the processes, the framework, the steps, because we're usually just so distracted. Mm-hmm. That we don't give enough time, energy, and effort and clarity into making it happen. But Mitch, I don't wanna steal your thunder because this is your domain, your world.

I'd love for you to break down for those that are listening or watching and it's like that next step.

Yep.

Right. The floor is yours, brother.

I, I love this. So, uh, there's a couple of things and I'm glad we have 4 hours together cuz we're like, we can, we can spend, we can spend hours on this. But, uh, a couple of things with that. What I, what I love is you're right. The, the action of dreaming, uh, is so important. And then to go even further to dream bigger. Right? Like to say, hey, what could we do? And then to go into what if we did this, right? But I will also say there's a cautionary tale with the word dream. In fact, I just had a TEDx talk on this and I talked about the fact that, you know, my podcast is called Dream Think Do, right? I talk about dreaming a lot, but I have a love-hate relationship with that word because the word dream, it's interesting, but the word dream can shut a lot a lot of people down. Like some high achievers don't like it because it feels too touchy-feely. Some people feel like it's a little overwhelming. We have something we call semantic interference that happens with a word like dream to be able to go, our brain starts to get wrapped around, wait, is that a dream or is it a goal?

And like you said, we get distracted even by the semantics of the word. So I always say, hey, if the word dreaming or dreaming bigger, whatever, if that, if that throws you off, That's okay. Throw it to the side. You don't, you don't have to say that, but to be able to say, what's something you want to experience more? You know, a lot of times when I work with high achievers, entrepreneurs, executives, they are amazing at goal setting for their organization, for their teams. They, like, if I ask them, hey, what are, what are the goals for your group right now, for your organization, for your specific team? They can tell me boom, boom, boom.

Yeah.

But I say, hey, what about you? Like, what are some of your goals? What are some of your dreams? Sometimes they're just like, I don't know. You know, and these are wildly successful people, but when you ask about their own goals, their own dreams, that's harder. And it is, it's harder for a lot of people. So an easier word to at least start the conversation oftentimes is, hey, what do you want to experience? More.

Hmm.

And what's interesting about that is it helps us get to the dreams. It helps us get to the goals, but that's just an easier word to get our head around. Because if somebody says, hey, I want to experience more freedom. All right. Tell me more about that. Why is that? Well, I want to travel more with my spouse, or I want to have more impact in the world. And right now I'm just, I've got too much going on, or I'm just overwhelmed by my schedule. I need more freedom. It's like, okay. Well, that's a starting point, right? And then we can start to dissect that down to say, hey, how can we get a little bit more freedom? It's not overnight change, but how can we, how can we start? And, and so my first thought on that is if you have a, if you have trouble for whatever reason with the word dream, chuck it. Start with an easier word. What do you want to experience more? What would you like your organization to experience more? What would you like your team to experience more about you? Specifically, what do you want to experience?

Yeah.

By the way, this really works well with kids too. So I know a lot of high achievers that struggle to encourage their kids to goal set or get clear on their dreams. And their kids are like, I don't know. Like, I don't know about you. I have, I have a couple of high achievers as sons. And sometimes when I talk with them about their dreams, they're like, dad, come on, bro. You know?

Right.

But if I say, what do you wanna experience more? It's like, hey, I wanna, I wanna try this. I wanna, you know, I saw somebody do this and I like what they're doing. Like, I wanna, I wanna experience that, right? So the experience word can help that to get started. The, the other thing that I would say is what's interesting, especially with high achievers, people who have been successful for a long time, they know what it's taken to get them successful with their team within their organization. But oftentimes when they start to think about doing something on their own, it feels a little bit more like they're on a high wire because now they're visible, right? People are seeing them as successful. They got a track record. So to go and try to do something new feels more precarious. Like if, if, you know, they're lazy, like I, I can speak to that person because they don't listen to your show. Like lazy people are not going to listen to your show because you're going to annoy the shiznits out of them. You got high achievers, you got rock stars that listen to this show, right?

Yeah.

But if you've achieved and you go to try something new, big or small, it does feel like you're stepping out and people are watching.

Mm-hmm.

And in some ways they are, right?

Yeah.

So I always say find small ways to start experimenting. You don't have to, you don't have to burn everything down. You don't have to make big pronouncements that you're doing something. Just start experimenting. 'Cause with those bigger things, like you thinking about a $50 million company and now we're talking 9 figures. I think you're headed to 10 and beyond, right? There's a good chance you knew what maybe the first few steps would be, but there's also a commitment. There's gotta be that commitment to experiment to figure out the rest.

Right.

Because I guarantee you, you didn't know everything you needed to know to get your company to 9 figures. You had to say, okay, I think this is where I start. And I think maybe this is who I need on my team. And I think this is our, our first step, but let's experiment. So it's, it's giving yourself the permission to experiment and, and know that first and maybe second step, and then commit to saying, I'll, I'll figure it out as I go. Like, like a scientist walks into a lab and puts that white coat on and says, I'm gonna experiment. If an experiment doesn't go the way they thought, that's not failure. That's learning. So we have to give ourselves the same permission to put that lab coat on and start experimenting. So that's, those are, those are a couple of things that I would say. And it's funny because I know with your folks, they would be the first person to give somebody else this advice, but often maybe they, they don't often give themselves permission to do the same thing. So I say, hey, give yourself permission to give, you know, to do the same, the same things you would maybe suggest for somebody else to do.

I love it. I love it. Mitch, you've been gracious and, and I, I wanna make sure I'm cognizant of your time and everything that you have going on too. But I, I've always wanted to ask you this, you know, you talked about, you know, the Authority Bridge and how that was kind of how you started everything as well. But was there a room? Was there a moment? Was there a conversation, a meeting, a lunch, a dinner? That sparked that change for you? Like, I can always go back to that very first meeting that I had with Damon, and I could say that changed my life, right? Yeah. Like that was the moment that everything became centralized for me.

Yeah.

Was there a meeting, was there a room or anything that you remember that was like the catalyst of, I got it now? Yeah.

Well, it's, it's funny cuz I don't know about you, Mick, but I'm kind of a slow learner, so I need a lot of rooms and a lot of experiences. Yeah. But the one that stands out to me, it's It's interesting. Uh, you know, there's, there's a number of those clues that get left and I think God is gracious and he gets you what you need when you need it. But sometimes you feel like that information's a little late, you know what I mean? But it's, it's always on time, but it sometimes it feels a little late. And I, I, one example of that for me was, uh, I was asked to speak at a Brendon Burchard event and, uh, you know, it was years ago. And, uh, I didn't have the podcast yet. And here I was in the green room with so many of my heroes, like these people that I'd grown up reading their books and now they're sitting next to me or, you know, they're at the buffet. And it was this huge feeling of both excitement and absolute horror. Um, because here I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm meeting my heroes.

This is incredible. I'm realizing they're straight up human, like they are cracking jokes. They are being funny. They're also telling stories of being scared in their business or feeling tired. And Brendan was actually sick. And so everybody was kind of like working to support him and encourage him and all these things. Right. So it was amazing and inspiring, but also horrifying. And I can say that, you know, probably all of your listeners have had the experience of You know, what we now know as imposter syndrome, that, that rushing feeling of I do not belong here. Somebody's going to figure this out. I'm going to get kicked out. Like, how am I ever going to perform at the level of my heroes? You know, and I was seeing this just session after session after session. And, uh, you know, speaking of God getting us what we need when we need it. Um, it did feel a little late, but I will say that I felt my heart racing, especially as my time on stage was approaching. And I went over to a quiet corner in this green room and, um, I just sat down and I prayed and I was like, Lord, I need some help.

How can I look at this situation? What lie am I believing?

Okay.

Right now. And what I love is God, God is huge, right? Like God is a God that can create universes, but he also knows how we need to hear from him. Yeah. And I heard a simple phrase, learn from, don't compare to.

Mm.

And I'm like, okay, that's like 5 words. Like, I think I need more than that. Like what? But then I started to think, oh wait. What am I learning from these guys? You know, Mark Victor Hansen was, was speaking and I just watched him own the room, like in the palm of his hand. And if I was comparing myself to him, I was screwed. But I was like, what did he do? He actually walked up there comfortable in his own skin. He walked up there not trying to impress anybody, but actually loving people well. Like Brendan got up and told a story I've heard multiple times and probably almost everybody in the audience had heard multiple times.

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Times but they freaking loved it.

Right?

Like, okay.

Right.

I'm not gonna compare myself, like, don't compare myself to Brendan. Like, boy, if I do that, I'm in real trouble. But what can I learn from Brendan? Like, again, mm-hmm. In some ways, Brendan was that kid that grew up in Montana, right? Like Butte, Montana, for crying out loud. Like, he looked sharp, like he was dressed in a suit, but I knew he was actually sick. Right?

Mm-hmm.

But he wasn't trying to impress anyone. He was showing up. He was warm. He was authentic. He actually confessed to the audience like, I'm sick, but man, I'm gonna, I'm finding a way to be in this room because I love you. Like you could feel it. And all of a sudden I went from comparing to learning and I could feel that shift in my heart. And I still was humbled. I still was honored to be in the room. I still was blown away. By everyone. But when I shifted into learning, I moved out of fear and moved over to love. Mm-hmm. And I, I found myself loving these people even more, but also looking forward to getting to that audience so that I could love on the audience, not perform, not try to be better than my heroes, but just to love them well in the moment that we shared. And that made all the difference. So. God is good, gave me a 5-word phrase that shifted everything. And I can tell you, even getting ready for this show, Mick, like you've had amazing, like you yourself are amazing and you've had incredible guest after guest on the show.

It can be a little, you know, overwhelming at the thought of coming on and joining you. So I had to lean into that same phrase today, learn from, not compare to, and it helped set me free and it made me look forward to this conversation even more. So. If that helps anybody else, because as we get called up, I always say imposter syndrome is not the best name. It's more winner's syndrome because you only experience winner's syndrome when you're stepping into something bigger.

Right.

Um, so imposter syndrome, I think is, it's better termed as winner's syndrome. So when you start to feel that, when you start to hear those doubts, say, hey, thank you. I must, I must be stepping into something bigger. Now let's go do it. But as you do it, learn from, not compare to. It'll help to bring some freedom too.

Freaking amazing. Freaking amazing, man. I'm gonna get you outta here with my rapid-fire Unplugged Five. But before I do that, I wanna make sure that everyone again, watching, listening, MitchMathews.com, go there, check everything out. Mitch has an amazing podcast. So do me a favor, Drink Think Drink.

Drink Think Drink. Hey, that's a different show, but I think that could be fun too.

Right, right, right.

I would listen to that show.

Drink and Do. I think Mitch and I might just have a new podcast together, Drink and Do.

I think I might go see if that domain is available. I love that, Mick. You're an idea factory.

Dream. Think Do Podcast. Definitely go check that out for sure. I love it. Mitch, rapid fire top 5. You ready?

Yep.

Let's do it.

All right. So I know you're from Iowa.

Yeah.

What's like a, what's a dish, a food dish that Iowa's known for, man? Like, I don't know the answer to this.

It, it's, it's great. Like, so what's funny about Iowa, I used to live in England too, and there's a lot of similarities between Iowa and England. You wouldn't think so, but it's that fish and chips. Um, Uh, not, not fish and chips. It's one of those things where, but you, you might think so, right? Like we don't have, honestly, if somebody offers you fish in Iowa, eh, right? We're not real, not real close to big bodies of water. I will say, but you know, um, what's funny is we're not always famous for a lot of food, but, uh, that food, once you have it, you're like, oh, that's pretty good. Um, and I would say Iowa's famous for a number of things, but one of the things, of course, corn on the cob at the end of the summer. Now, Most like Iowa, you know, our biggest production of, you know, in agriculture is corn and it's hogs, right? So I'm going to say a corn on the cob. But what's interesting is most of the corn that gets grown in Iowa is not what we eat, is what livestock eats. But there's still some of the best sweet corn in the world grown here.

But you got to put that with a pork tenderloin and the best restaurants in Iowa will serve up a breaded pork tenderloin the size of your head, my friend. So you get, you get a cob of sweet corn and a pork tenderloin sandwich. Um, you come up to Iowa, we'll have that this, uh, this, you know, at the end of the summer. Change your world, my friend. Change your world.

All right. We're gonna have to talk about it. Cause I don't like pork and I don't really like corn, but I will do it. I admit it. I will do it.

Just trust me. Give me an afternoon and we'll do it at the Iowa State Fair. I'll tell you what, that's a whole other experience as well.

There you go. All right, next question. This is tough because you're representing all of Iowa right now.

Represent!

Hawkeyes or Cyclones? Iowa or Iowa State? I know where you live.

Here's the thing, you know where I live, but, but, uh, a little-known fact is we have a third state school called the University of Northern Iowa. Uh, that's where I went. Um, uh, and it's the UNI Panthers. Uh, that's also— we have a number of very successful graduates, but one of most famous graduates, uh, was Kurt Warner. Um, and I was actually at, at school with Kurt. I was hall president at Rider Hall. He was our secretary. So Kurt and I got to hang out a little bit. Kurt's— Kurt is one of the most amazing humans, and he was back then, and he still is to today. And he was that same quarterback for the UNI Panthers, and they had one of the most wildly successful years thanks to Kurt. And his leadership. But I appreciate the Hawkeyes. I appreciate the Cyclones, but I'm Panther all the way.

Okay. I like it. Go U and I go. I love it. I love it. I love it. What's one book that you're reading right now that you recommend everybody else read?

I am reading. I like to read. I like to listen to books quite a bit. One that I'm fully enjoying is a book by Mark Batterson. He's a pastor out in Washington, D.C., super innovative, great communicator. But he wrote a book. His most recent book is a book called Gradually Then Suddenly. And it's a fantastic book. And he basically chronicles the number of what look like overnight successes. And he breaks them down to show how, you know, as we all know, that overnight successes most of the time are 10 to 20 years in the making. And Mark not only inventories a number of those, but, but also walks you through a formula that helps you move through the gradually more confidently, uh, and more efficiently, but also how to handle the suddenly when it comes. And so I'm, I'm enjoying that book right now.

I love it. I love it. Great stuff, man. Last question for you. As the story of Mitch Matthews is being told, what's one word that you wanna make sure is used in that book to define you?

I, I love it. And I will say, speaking of books, I, I, we did create a gift for your audience. And, and speaking of books, it's, it's, it's, it's training called Make Time for Your Next Chapter. And so when you said book, that reminded me, and it's a $97 course, but we, we're going to give it to your folks for free. So they can go to MitchMathews.com/time. And it'll pull up this course, Making Time for Your Next Chapter, and they can use the coupon code Mick and they'll get it for free. So speaking of books, speaking of chapters, and it's something people have really been loving, but we wanted to get it to your folks for free. So MitchMathews.com/time. And they can use the coupon code Mick.

Love it.

You know, it's interesting. I've been thinking a lot about words lately, and one word that's been bubbling up for me is generous. And it's really an interesting word in that I don't know about you, but like, I want to be generous and I just turned 56, Mick. And so, yeah, right. And it's, I think I'm older than you. I think we're quite, quite a bit older than you. Um, but it's that thing of being able to say, what, what is this chapter? What does this season look like? And I, generosity and, and being generous has been bubbling up. But one of the things that, that as I've been thinking about it, praying about it, is in order to pour out, you also need to make sure you're getting poured into, right? And in order to be generous, you also need to take care of yourself and make sure that you've got effective systems and that you're generating the very things that you then want to pour out. And so I think generosity is something that I've been working on, but to also put, you know, kind of prosperity and making sure that, you know, I am living abundantly so that I can pour out from that abundance.

And, you know, it's one of those, I don't do it perfectly every day, but boy, the more I focus on it, The more it happens. So, uh, yeah, that's, that's, that's kind of a word that I'm working on in this chapter.

I love it. I love it, Mitch.

I have to ask though, what's one of your, what's one of your words right now? I'm Mick. You are fascinating. So what's, what's a word you're focused on right now?

Right now it's impact.

Uh, come on.

I, I think the more I continue to go deeper and not wider. It's because I want to make sure the impact is made and, and I'm not gonna be satisfied until the fruits of impact are shown. Um, and, and you know this better than anyone, Mitch, like sometimes that fruit of impact is 12 months, 18 months, 24 months. But I wanna make sure I'm delivering till it's shown.

For sure, buddy. You're living that. Like I can say you're, you are living that. I love it when I hear somebody say that, but also like, oh yeah, that's, that's right where they're at. So.

Yeah.

I love that that is your word. Cause that makes sense. That is how you live, my friend. That's a beautiful thing.

Yeah. I love it. And, and for the viewers and listeners, again, MitchMatthews.com/time, right? Use the code MIC, M-I-C-K. Definitely Mitch has given us a huge gift and I wanna make sure that everyone that's a loyal follower of Mick Unplugged is getting their fair share. I'm also gonna share that on socials as well too. So thank you. Follow us on social. I'm gonna tag Mitch and do us a favor. Here's what we're gonna do. I want you to tell us, Mitch and I, I don't care if it's Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever. Tell us what you got out of that.

Yeah.

Right?

Like, because we, we love feedback. We wanna make sure that we're delivering for everyone, but tell us what you got out of it. And who knows, we might create a little movement together, Mitch and I, uh, based on this. So. So go do that. Mitch, brother, I appreciate you. This was amazing. The conversation was great from the journey from the, the bad fit job to, to building this empire that you've done, uh, talking about impact, talking about clarity, conviction, bro. I love you, brother. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

I love you too, man. This is, this is great. You are a gift to the world and I'm grateful. I'm grateful to know you, get to spend time with you and get to be a of this mission with you.

Absolutely. And to all the viewers and listeners, remember, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.