Tom DuFore: 0:01

Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I'm your host, Tom Dufour, CEO of Big Sky franchise team. And as we open today, I'm wondering if you have tried to talk yourself out of starting something new or doing something different. And why'd you do that? Maybe you were scared of failing or not having all the answers ahead of time? Well, our guest today is Mitch Matthews, and he shares with us how he helps people give themselves permission to start. Now, Mitch is a success coach, speaker, and creator of the top 1% podcast, DreamThink Do, where he helps high-achieving leaders and entrepreneurs dream bigger, think better, and do more of what they were put on the planet to do. He's worked with organizations like Nike, NASA, and Disney, and he's the creator of the Authority Bridge, a proven process that helps professionals turn their experience into a coaching and speaking business they love. And by the way, before we jump right into it, just a quick heads up. My microphone, when I recorded this with Mitch, unfortunately had selected the wrong microphone to record. So it recorded off of an internal computer mic, and my audio is just okay. We did our best to make it better in post-production, but just give you a heads up, it's still a fantastic interview. You're gonna love this. The content Mitch provides is fantastic. So let's go ahead and jump right into it.

Mitch Matthews: 1:32

Tom, it's an honor to be here. I'm excited to have this conversation. I'm Mitch Matthews, and I'm the CEO of Matthews Training International.

Tom DuFore: 1:40

Excellent. Well, I'm so glad for you to be here, Mitch. And with your training business and coaching expertise that you have, I thought it'd be great to have you on to talk about a couple of different ideas and topics. One in particular is this idea and subject of having permission, permission to do something new, maybe new business, new venture, new career, new something, feeling like you have permission. So I'd love for you to talk a little bit about this idea.

Mitch Matthews: 2:10

Yeah, I love it. So I love talking about permission. As an executive coach, I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and founders and high-level leaders. And we talk a lot about this, that we, at least in the United States, often live in what I would call a permission-based culture. Like we have to wait until someone gives us permission. You know, we get invited to go to a school, we get invited to be a part of a team, we get invited to a specific role. So we have to wait till somebody taps us on the shoulder and gives us permission to begin. And what's interesting about that is that is often what makes cultures and societies work. But if you look at some of the biggest revolutions, some of the biggest breakthroughs, some of the biggest innovations, they often came from people who just gave themselves permission to start, to do something different. They didn't wait till they got tapped. They said, Hey, what if we did this thing? And that's why I love your podcast. I love what you're up to, because I think oftentimes it's, you know, for the successful executive, it might be to start that side business. It might be to launch a franchise, it might be, you know, giving themselves permission to do something completely new. And it doesn't have to be starting a business. It certainly doesn't mean, you know, giving yourself permission to quit your job and move to Fiji. Although if you want to do that, that's fantastic, right? But oftentimes it, you know, really embracing permission and understanding it, it can start small. It can just be able to say, you know what, I'm going to own 15 minutes of my day today. I'm going to start something different. I'm not going to wait for somebody to tell me to do it. I'm just going to do it. I work with high-level leaders all the time. I'm kind of expensive, Tom. So I only get to work with those folks that are wildly successful. And you might think those people are completely in control of their own schedules, but often they're not. And they've been elevated to a level where a lot of their schedule is kind of dictated for them or, you know, assigned to them, even though they're at the highest level within their organization. So sometimes it starts with giving yourself that permission to just say, all right, this 15-minute commute. I own this. Nobody else gets to decide what I do. So I'm going to do it. I'm not going to check email. I'm not going to check social. I'm going to, you know, one of my executives just did this recently, and that's where we started was his commute, because that was the only thing he really felt like he could control on any given day. So we said, I said, what are you going to do with your 15 minutes? And he's like, 80s rock, baby. 80s rock. So it can start, you know, with something small, but again, blossom from there.

Tom DuFore: 4:50

That's a really interesting thought process. And I guess for someone coming in, I love this example of the commute home. Are there other maybe examples or starting points? What about a new hobby? I mean, certainly you mentioned franchising a business. You know, I'd love a few examples if you don't mind sharing.

Mitch Matthews: 5:08

I love it. I'm I'm a big believer in small steps of faith as opposed to big blind leaps of faith. And I've got a podcast called Dream Think Too. And so I've gotten to do 400 plus interviews with people who have been dreaming bigger, thinking better, and doing more of what they were put on the planet to do. And that takes a lot of shapes, a lot of forms. So I get to talk to entrepreneurs, extreme athletes, best-selling authors, Oscar winners, the whole deal. But one of my favorite examples of this permission and permission to start small is the story of Sean Askinosi. And Sean was a wildly successful, pretty much unbeatable trial attorney. He was incredible in the courtroom, had a high, high value for justice, and was very good at delivering that. Deep down, he started to lose the fire for the courtroom. Now nobody knew it because he was still winning every day, but he was starting to lose that fire. And so what he did was he he kind of what we're talking about right here, he knew that maybe he could just introduce a little bit of novelty, something new, try something different. He wasn't gonna burn it all down. He could just experiment with some things. And so he took a cooking class. And what's interesting, Tom, is that he figured out very quickly he's terrible at cooking. Horrible. But one particular night, they did chocolate. He was actually pretty good at that and really enjoyed it. And his chocolate came out pretty tasty. And so he kept experimenting with that. He took another class just on chocolate chocolate alone. Didn't make any big deal out of it, didn't post it on social, didn't get on LinkedIn and say, hey, I'm a chocolate expert. He just kept learning. And what's interesting is as he kept experimenting with making chocolate, he also started to investigate the industry a little bit and started to realize that some of the some of the industry is pretty whack. There was a lot of injustice within the industry. And so he and his daughter, she kind of got on the train and they decided to take a trip and visit some growers, Sococa bean growers, and really connected. And so he kept experimenting, really kind of perfected what's called small batch chocolate making, and created a bar from a particular type of bean that was really good, and decided to kind of pursue his heart for justice and kept his books open, started to sell the small batch chocolate, but let his growers know exactly what his profits were and gave them a share of that. And he did it as a side project, you know, really limited his time on it, but enjoyed it. And what's funny is for a time it really brought back his passion for the courtroom. But he also realized he was really good not only at making chocolate, but selling chocolate. And uh now he has Askinosi chocolate based in Missouri, right there in the middle of the United States. Oprah now says it's one of her favorite chocolates. And what's great is he is revolutionizing the chocolate industry, but it all started with a little experiment of giving himself permission.

Tom DuFore: 8:11

That is a fantastic story. And I think one that the audience will really relate to, trying something new. I think that's wonderful.

Mitch Matthews: 8:19

Well, it's interesting. I had a conversation with a neuroscientist. She was French. Uh, her name was Anne-Laura Lecoomf, which I say that name because I had to practice that name, Tom. I don't know if you've ever had a guess where you're like, oh man, I don't know how to say that. But Anne-Laura Lecoomf and Anne Laura came on and she talked about what's interesting is she was an executive at Google and she quit her high-level job and she identified exactly why, and that she was experiencing what's now called bored out. Not burnout, bored out. And she experienced it at a level where she's like, you know what, I'm gonna study that. And she dove into this thing, and being bored out has very similar symptoms to being burnt out fatigue, frustration, easily, you know, agitated, all of those things. But what's interesting about bored out, and this hits, and this is why I bring it up because of your audience, it tends to hit high achievers a lot more often because being bored out comes from doing the same thing over and over, right? You're delivering excellence and often often delivering it at a high level consistently. She said, What's interesting is as you continue to do that, you'll start to experience bored out, meaning, you know, you have to keep these rhythms, you have to keep these sequences, and you start to get bored. And that feels like fatigue. And what's interesting, I said, Hey, how do you how do you solve being bored out? And she said, the beauty of being, you know, overcoming being bored out is exactly what we were just talking about, an injection of novelty. And it's these little experiments, exactly what we're talking about. She said that oftentimes it's just changing up your schedule a little bit. It's learning something new. It's going having coffee or a meeting with someone that maybe doesn't immediately benefit your career or, you know, whatever it is might that, you know, might be your business, but it's just somebody that's interesting, somebody that where you can have a you know, dynamic conversation about something you're excited about. She said just an injection of novelty can help to bring back that fire, that the fire to that thing that you are really good at.

Tom DuFore: 10:31

It makes me think of that shiny object syndrome and wonder if maybe there are some crossover parallels there, you know?

Mitch Matthews: 10:39

Well, it's that it's intentional injection of novelty versus accidental. I think that's what happens. She talks about being bored out. What a lot of people do as they're bored is then they just start to doom scroll or they start to, you know, dip into things that are not healthy by accident, right? Whereas when we are intentional about injecting novelty, oftentimes those will be healthier choices, right? Those will be things we would choose for ourselves in the wide open, the things that we would be comfortable with being on the front page of the paper, all of those things. And a little intentional injection of novelty can make all the difference.

Tom DuFore: 11:17

That's really, really well said. Well, that makes me think now, okay, so for the founder, the leader of the organization, many of our clients, we help them franchise their business. Now they're franchising. And it made me think of this idea of bored out even within a franchise system. Now you're coaching essentially business leaders on your system. And now maybe these franchisees, after years of success, maybe they're in a similar situation. So maybe a franchise that's coaching franchisees. Yeah. Well, maybe what are some ideas or thoughts to maybe help keep some of their franchisees engaged as they're helping coach them and guide them through the evolution of growing a business?

Mitch Matthews: 12:00

Absolutely. Well, what's interesting is especially when it comes to coaching, because that is definitely a passion for me. I've been a coach since 2002. And then we've been helping coaches and speakers build businesses since 2006. So this is definitely a passion topic for me. So I love, I love what we're getting to merge into this. But when it comes to coaching, especially in this kind of scenario where you've got basically a rule book, you've got a playbook. You know, any franchise, in order for it to be successful, you need to have repeatable tasks. You need to have sequences that work, you need to have policies and guides that would that would help to take people through and and you know increase their chances for success. That's a beautiful thing. That's what people pay for. What's interesting, though, is we also need to introduce or inject a sense of ownership, right? You know, we want to bring a ton of value by presenting all the answers. That's a great thing to do. I would imagine that's what a lot of your very successful franchise do, right? But what's interesting about that is that I believe we have something, everyone has something called the intellectual, we call the intellectual immune system. And that is basically our body and our intellect are similar in that we both they both have an immune system. Now, the the body's immune system, that's something medical. The intellectual immune system is more metaphorical. But if you understand how the body's immune system works, the body immune system, you know, works great in that it keeps unhealthy things out of our body. Like I was just recently on a plane, there was a little kid in front of me, obviously had a cold or something because there was ooze coming out of every orifice and the coughing and sneezing and all of that. So I was praying and hoping my intellect or my immune system would work and keep me healthy, right? But if somebody needs an organ transplant, their body's immune system will work against that, even though they might understand they need it, even though they might have a great surgeon, even though they might have a great match, their body will shut down that transplant because it came from outside them. And I believe that our intellect does something similar. We tend to shut down things that come from outside us, even if we might think we need them. So oftentimes, you know, I always there's a bunch of research on this, but I you don't need it because everybody's probably had that experience of maybe receiving some great advice from a mentor or a relative, or maybe they read the seven habits book or the five principles book, and they're like, Oh my gosh, Stephen Covey, did you have a camera in my house? I needed this so much. But two days or two weeks later, you can't remember habits five, six, and seven, or principles two, three, and four, all of those things because our intellect starts to shut those things down to say, eh, not quite me, or they didn't walk in my shoes, or it's not quite my scenario. And so what's interesting about overcoming the intellectual immune system, especially when you have information that you want to pass along that is valuable, that in fact will increase somebody's chances for success, is to inject or at least invite a little bit of ownership. Because what's interesting about ownership, when an organ comes from inside you, you're in a intellect, or excuse me, your immune system doesn't shut it down. But when an idea feels like it's your own, you don't shut it down, you run with it. So to be able to say, hey, this is what's worked, this is what we recommend, these, you know, this process has, you know, proved successful. How do you want to apply it? Where do you connect with this idea? How do you make it better? How do you want to tweak it? You know, all of those things and invite just a little bit of ownership. And what's interesting about that is oftentimes you will see the walls come down, you will see people be more open, you will see them start to engage as an owner as opposed to just a participant. You'll probably see less rejection or pushback and more uptake and success.

Tom DuFore: 16:02

That's really interesting. And in the franchise world, there's always this push and pull where there's a system and a process to follow, but you have this group of owners where they buy in, they're investing their money, their time.

Mitch Matthews: 16:15

They probably achieve success in some other areas. So they come in pretty competent and probably pretty confident. So yeah, absolutely. So they they get these things, but often are like, well, is that really going to work for us? Or they want to inject some ownership. So it's like, why fight it? Be able to make room for it.

Tom DuFore: 16:36

By way of helping make room, I always like practical application things. So what are some ideas?

Mitch Matthews: 16:41

Absolutely. So, you know, the beautiful thing about coaching, which you well know, you know, the power tools in the coaching toolbox are questions. And questions are a great thing because they can immediately invite a sense of ownership and a sense of kind of being able to say, ah, this idea, you know, it's mine, or I feel a sense of connection. You know, I do this actually as a speaker, you know, part of my day job is to go into organizations or speak at conferences and share ideas. And of course, I get paid well to do it, which is a true honor and a blessing. But boy, I don't know about you. I don't want to just get a paycheck. I really want to move the needle. And so I want people to take the ideas that I share and not only say, oh, that was interesting or that was curious. I want them to go, oh, we could use that. And this is where I can apply that. So I always try to inject questions. So with every story, every strategy that I share, I'll throw in a question to say, okay, where could you use this? How could you make this better? How might you need to tweak this to make it your own? You know, in your the scenario you just shared, to be able to say in a monthly call, where could you invite more ownership? Saying, hey, of these principles or of this, you know, this sequence or these strategies, what's working for you? How are you guys making it work? Right. So it's it's basing it, you know, bringing it back to what you're offering, right? That the procedures, the SOPs, the sequences, but to be able to say, hey, how are you guys doing it? What's working for you? What's clicking? What are you trying right now? Right. Getting them to verbalize how they're actually utilizing it, getting them to talk about how they own it really does help to seed that ownership, but also helps to open them to even more experimenting and implementation.

Tom DuFore: 18:38

For someone that's listening into this, how can they learn more about what you're doing? You mentioned your podcast, your speaking, your coaching. How can people connect with you and learn about what you're doing and make that connection happen?

Mitch Matthews: 18:50

Then go to mitchmathews.com. Uh, that's kind of where everything can start. Uh, we've got a lot of free resources there. My podcast is called DreamThink Do, which is also a great way to continue our conversation as well. But yeah, a lot of a lot of resources, especially for leaders, executives, entrepreneurs to help them to further the their impact and their revenue as well.

Tom DuFore: 19:12

Excellent. And we'll make sure we include all those links in the show notes for quick access for people who might be on the go and want to reference back to this. Well, Mitch, this is a great time of the show. We make a transition and we ask every guest the same four questions before they go. And so the first question we ask is have you had a miss or two on your journey and something you learned from it?

Mitch Matthews: 19:32

I love these questions. These are great questions and great conversation starters no matter what. So there are that's a long list, Tom, of misses. But, you know, the beauty of it is if you treat life like an experiment, there really is no failure as long as they're learning, right? You're moving forward. But I know for me, you know, as we were growing our business, you know, one of the things where things really shifted for me is when I started to teach from the journey, not the destination. I'm actually a recovering perfectionist. So, you know, my tendency is to wait until I felt like I had everything perfected. I had every duck in a row, everything was in its place, everything looked perfect. That's what I could teach from it. And I realized one, that's never gonna happen. And two, it's one of those that people really don't want to learn from perfect people. They want to learn from that journey. And people are a lot more open to celebrating the wins along the way if they know about some of your losses as well. And as I coach leaders and executives and entrepreneurs, you know, sometimes it's to help them, you know, to be a better leader. Sometimes it's to help them launch their own coaching, speaking, consulting business. I think the same rule applies that oftentimes we can bring a lot of value by teaching from our journey, not waiting until we have it all figured out, but to say, hey, this week, this is something I'm learning. And what's really interesting about that is, you know, whether you're building a brand, building a business, building connection with your team, as people know your story and they know a little bit more about how you think, it's incredible what that can do to a sense of trust, what that can do to a sense of connection, what that can do to a sense of loyalty, whether we're talking about a team member, whether we're talking about a customer or a client, being able to teach from your journey as opposed to waiting for that perfect destination, it can be a game changer. And I know it changed our business as well and it made things a lot more fun. So I'm grateful for the misses because as we started to correct that, it made all the difference in the world.

Tom DuFore: 21:41

Well, let's look on the other side.

Mitch Matthews: 21:42

Let's talk about a make or to a highlight. Yeah, I love that. Well, what's interesting is, you know, on the flip side of that, that is something that, you know, we've been able to actually help a lot of our clients to do as well. In fact, I was just working with one of my executives who is building a speaking business. On the side, but he's really, really happy within his organization. And we started to initiate this very thing. He started to teach just once a week on social media, just on something he was learning from his leadership and life journey. And at first he felt a little naked, you know, kind of putting it stuff, you know, some of his thoughts out there. And it was just these little pearls, whether they were wins, whether they were setbacks, and sharing what he was learning along the way. And, you know, he knew this potentially could build, you know, this side business of speaking. But what's interesting is it also really gave a lot of people, you know, insight, encouragement, and connection. So much so that what's interesting is he was just pulled aside by a couple of the executives saying, hey, I don't know if you know this, but the CEO's getting ready to retire and everybody's talking about you. And, you know, he's just been doing this, this teaching, you know, just putting these kind of insights out for about six months, seven months. But everybody started to see him in a different way. And what I love about this is, you know, he's building this side business of speaking, but again, teaching from your journey, helping others, inspiring, encouraging, and and not from a place of perfection or saying I've got it all figured out, but just by trying to put some value out in the world, just trying to help others, doing things like this podcast, right? It's that thing of it's amazing. You never know the ripple effects of being able to do something like that. And he's found a tremendous amount of satisfaction from it as well. So we'll see what happens, whether he gets elevated into that CEO role or not. But it's one of those things where he gave himself permission to start and start small, and it's made a big difference.

Tom DuFore: 23:38

Oh, that's a great story and a great example that you share there. Just getting started on something, right? And you just don't know what it might lead to that you had in your mind this idea or this vision of what it was going to serve for you, but little did you know it was serving a purpose for others or changing, in this case, the perception of him to his coworkers and people he was associating with. Well, the next question we ask, Mitch, is have you used a multiplier to multiply yourself personally, professionally, or organizations you've run?

Mitch Matthews: 24:11

I love this conversation because I've had some multipliers that we've tried to use that have not worked and gone down in flames, right? We're doing experiments all the time. And we say it that we put a high value on experimenting. We also try to limit the risk each time, right? So one of the things that we have done in the last few years is be able to take what we've learned and then put it into online training. That has been a way, that has been a true multiplier for us. In fact, you know, for a number of years, we were doing these small boutique trainings, specifically in the coaching industry as an example. But we took those concepts online and started to deliver them in online courses in 2011. And we've been able to help thousands of coaches since and and generate revenue in the millions of dollars. And it's one of those things where the beauty of something like that, I used to actually think you'll you'll appreciate this metaphor, but I used to think that doing something like that might dilute the value, right? Like to take what you do one-on-one, or it's like I was doing these intimate six-person, eight-person trainings, and to take that and put it online might dilute the value or dilute the authenticity or dilute the connection. But I recently was thinking about a few years ago, actually in high school, so it was about 30 years ago, you know, I saw a concert, U2, Joshua Tree. And I'll never forget at one point in the concert, Bono, a very, you know, famous lead singer and incredible voice of U2, stepped out on stage and strummed an acoustic guitar. And we were in an auditorium, I think, of probably 25,000, 30,000 people. And what's interesting about that is that you know, a guitar is a beautiful thing, but in and of itself it's not that loud. Like I'm in my office, if I strummed a guitar, you'd be able to hear it. But if we were in that auditorium of 25,000, 30,000 people, if he strummed the guitar from stage front row, maybe a few rows back, we'd be able to hear it. Nobody else, right? But he strummed that guitar because it had an amplifier, right? And that amplifier allowed him to connect in a very authentic, deep way with 25,000, you know, 25,000 to 30,000 people. And it was one of those where we were all on stage with Bono. And I think, you know, something like online training allows people to do that. If you do it right, to be able to maximize your impact, you know, connect with a whole lot more people and truly have that authentic connection, but also be able to, you know, not, you know, it's that thing of being able to create it once and and uh sell it forever, to be able to do that and and multiply not only the value, but the the connection and the authenticity makes all the difference.

Tom DuFore: 26:55

Excellent. Well, and Mitch, the final question we ask every guest is what does success mean to you?

Mitch Matthews: 27:01

I love it. I I love that you asked this question because I think this is so important for everybody to identify. And it is a deep question, right? Because I think most people walk around adopting other people's success, right? Or or basically just assuming a default definition of success. But for me, it's the to be able to have the freedom and the focus, to be able to do the things I put on the planet to do and love the people that I put on the planet to love and support. So to be able to have that time, you know, to be able to have a business so that I can have the flexibility and to, you know, be able to support my family and love my family well, walk out my faith, you know, serve in the places I I feel called to serve, to be able to do that with freedom and focus, that's that's my definition of success. And what's beautiful is there's numbers behind that, there's rhythms behind that, there's a calendar behind that, all of those things. But to say, if I, you know, if I'm focused on the right things, I'll be able to have the freedom and the focus to be able to do those things.

Tom DuFore: 28:04

Well, and as we bring this to a close, Mitch, is there anything you were hoping to share or get across that you haven't had a chance to yet?

Mitch Matthews: 28:10

No, I what I what I love what you're doing, especially with being able to support people that are either, you know, thinking about investing in franchises or franchising their ideas. I think that is so important. And especially when it comes to taking your ideas and being able to multiply the impact. I think so often people tend to devalue what they know, right? It's I always say it's a little bit like a fish swims in water, but doesn't think about the water. And I I love the fact that you're helping people take what they know and be able to actually start to recognize the value of what they do day in and day out to be able to be able to transfer that, you know, and make it something that then is portable so that others can be able to learn from it, apply it, grow from it, and that everybody can win, win financially, win from a satisfaction standpoint, and win from a legacy standpoint as well. So I will say we do have a course as well that we charge $97 for, but I think your people would love it. It's it's called Making Time for Your Next Chapter. And it's a $97 course, but we've made it so that you can go to MitchMatthews.com backslash time and just actually use the coupon code multiply your success, just make that one word, multiply your success, and you'll get it for free. And it's something that will help people to kind of figure out what their next chapter might look like and make some time to do it.

Tom DuFore: 29:38

Mitch, thank you so much for a fantastic interview. And let's go ahead and jump into today's three key takeaways. So, takeaway number one is when Mitch talked about having permission. And he said, very often, culturally, as Americans, we are used to having to wait for permission to do something. And he said, just give yourself permission to do it, to try it, to take that step. Takeaway number two is when we talked about this idea of being bored out instead of burnt out. And I thought this was an interesting idea. I had never thought about this. And he said that high achievers, it's most common for them to experience bored out instead of burnt out, where you have to have these rhythms and keep up this activity to keep things going. And so he said, think about being bored out and being more intentional about what you're looking to do, to find some novelty or incorporating something new to help reduce that being bored out. Takeaway number three is when he talked about the intellectual immune system. And I really liked this idea. He said it's metaphorical, but he said it's important to keep your intellectual immune system healthy. And he said that a healthy intellectual immune system, which this happens to all of us, our minds start to shut down when we start getting advice or ideas from others instead of it being our own idea or advice. And I loved how he gave some suggestions for those of us in franchising or thinking about franchising our business and coaching calls that you would have with your franchisees. And he said, think questions you can ask, things like where can you take this? How can you make this better? What's working for you? How are you all making this work? What's clicking, what's not, what are you trying or not, and so on. And now it's time for today's win-win. So today's win-win is really the theme of the episode to give yourself permission to take a first step. I know we run into this. If you're listening to this, you're thinking about franchising your business. Give yourself permission to take that first step. Give us a call, follow up with a conversation with us. We'd love to talk about it. If you're in the midst of franchising and you're looking at maybe trying some new marketing or trying to train your franchisees in some new way, be willing to take that first step. He said, a lot of times people or sometimes people devalue what you already know. So trust yourself. And I thought that was great. And he shared, for example, he puts a high value on experimenting and limiting his risk along the way. I thought that was a nice little summary there. And so that's the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please reach out and connect with us at BigSkyFranchise Team.com where you can schedule your free, no obligation consultation. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.