Latest / The iDesign Lab Podcast / Matt Williams Story: Resilience in a Snack Bar
Transcript
- 0:00Voice Over: This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design.
- 0:05Voice Over: Curator of interiors, furnishings and lifestyles.
- 0:09Voice Over: Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott, idesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends.
- 0:25Voice Over: Idesign Lab provides industry insight, discussing the latest trends, styles and everything in between to better help you style your life, through advice from trendsetters, designers, influencers, innovators, fabricators and manufacturers, as well as personal stories that inspire, motivate and excite.
- 0:43Voice Over: And join us on this elevated, informative and lively journey into the world of all things design.
- 0:50Voice Over: Today, we're joined by Matt Williams, a true example of resilience and reinvention.
- 0:54Voice Over: After a wake-up call in 2010, matt embraced sobriety and founded FroPro Snack Bar, a company focused on healthy living and supporting the recovery community.
- 1:04Voice Over: Pro Snack Bar, a company focused on healthy living and supporting the recovery community.
- 1:08Voice Over: Now, as a recovery coach, matt mentors men, empowering them to overcome challenges and build fulfilling lives.
- 1:13Voice Over: With a background in teaching, personal training and behavioral health, matt's journey inspires us all to embrace purpose and transformation.
- 1:20Voice Over: Let's dive into his story.
- 1:24Tiffany Woolley: Today we'd like to welcome Matt Williams to the iDesign Lab podcast, who is a true testament to resilience and reinvention, and we look forward to diving into an awesome conversation together.
- 1:38Scott Woolley: So I think the first thing I want to ask is tell us a little about yourself.
- 1:41Scott Woolley: You've got an amazing company that we'd love to talk about.
- 1:45Matt Williams: You've designed.
- 1:46Matt Williams: Yeah, no, thank you for having me on the show.
- 1:48Matt Williams: It's great to be sitting down with you both, as we met years ago through a mutual friend and it's crazy how time flies.
- 1:55Matt Williams: But my name is Matt Williams.
- 1:57Matt Williams: I'm the creator and founder of FroPro Snack Bar, which is an organic peanut butter snack bar that is sold in about 36 states, which is a organic peanut butter snack bar that is sold in about 36 states.
- 2:07Matt Williams: Grocery stores, retail pretty much, you name it gyms, juice bars, doctor's offices and started from a little idea in a kitchen, in my kitchen, with a little kitchen maid and a perfect tray brownie cutter.
- 2:18Tiffany Woolley: One of those, one of those things.
- 2:40Matt Williams: My kids were obsessed with that thing.
- 2:41Matt Williams: Yeah, so, yeah, just something that I started making for myself, had a lot of people that were super supportive and gave me a chance, our mutual friend that introduced us being one of them.
- 2:49Matt Williams: And yeah, it's crazy how much as we were before the show was starting, just talking about how much time has passed and what's transpired and all the good things.
- 2:59Scott Woolley: So what made you think of Snack, did you?
- 3:04Matt Williams: feel there was a need for it.
- 3:05Matt Williams: Well, it's funny, most of the brands that are out there, it's somebody that creates something where they think there's a need for it, and I always share that.
- 3:14Matt Williams: I didn't create FroPro to be a business.
- 3:16Matt Williams: I was making it for myself.
- 3:18Matt Williams: I was bicycling around town as I had lost my driver's license due to my poor decision-making.
- 3:26Matt Williams: Around town, as I had lost my driver's license due to my poor decision making, and in the and as a result of that, everywhere I went, I had these little peanut butter snack bars and my backpack with my change of clothes and you know all that stuff that I was, you know, out for the day with right and would share it with either my clients, the clients kids that I was either, you know, training, training yeah, that I was either training or tutoring in school and it just kind of went from sharing it with certain people to having the opportunity to share it in a friend's gym that I was training out of, and their clients, which led to one lady that happened to be there asking what was in the product and then giving me kind of some coaching and the fact that the ingredients I used were good but they could be better.
- 4:09Scott Woolley: And.
- 4:10Matt Williams: I took those suggestions and kind of reformulated the product so it would be plant-based, because a lot of people have trouble digesting dairy, and brought it to her and she said this is great, make me 100.
- 4:22Matt Williams: And I had never done that.
- 4:24Matt Williams: I had a tray.
- 4:26Tiffany Woolley: So did you do that in your kitchen?
- 4:28Tiffany Woolley: Or did you go to one of those cooking?
- 4:30Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, no, I was.
- 4:31Matt Williams: I literally was doing everything out of my little kitchen at home in Boynton beach, where I was living at the time, a little one bedroom with with my girlfriend who's now my wife, chelsea and, uh, figured out very rudimentary packaging, essentially glad press and seal wrap right I would cut and wrap the bars in.
- 4:50Matt Williams: I put a little sticker on it and did the?
- 4:52Scott Woolley: did the product change in taste or consistency when you changed the?
- 4:57Matt Williams: not not entirely um plant you were happy with the second sort of yeah, I mean as long as it tasted good and tasted good, and I think everybody says, well, why does your bar stand out?
- 5:07Matt Williams: One of the main reasons our bars stand out is because it's good.
- 5:09Tiffany Woolley: They do taste good yeah.
- 5:11Matt Williams: The actual product, what goes into it.
- 5:12Matt Williams: We know the ingredients.
- 5:13Matt Williams: We manufacture everything in-house since we started to today, we don't use a co-packer and some people have their thoughts on that, thoughts on that but we have an amazing facility, an amazing team, but in starting the product, in changing and listening to people that were, I would say, more well-versed in the industry, in food production and how people are able to eat, and nutritionists and all of that, I took suggestions and ran with it and the result was delivering 100 bars to this woman and her juice bar before juice bars exploded down here Right.
- 5:44Scott Woolley: So she had a retail location that she was selling them then Yep.
- 5:48Matt Williams: She asked for a hundred bars.
- 5:49Matt Williams: I gave her a hundred bars.
- 5:50Matt Williams: I didn't know what to expect.
- 5:52Matt Williams: I didn't know what to charge her because I had again, I didn't create it to be a business.
- 5:56Matt Williams: She basically said when I sell out of these, this is what I'll pay you.
- 6:00Matt Williams: And cause he asked me she's like, what did this cost to make?
- 6:02Matt Williams: And I was like I have no idea.
- 6:03Matt Williams: You told me to do it, so I did it, right.
- 6:06Tiffany Woolley: I love the look.
- 6:06Tiffany Woolley: She told you to do it.
- 6:09Tiffany Woolley: Yeah right, trial by error, exactly.
- 6:12Matt Williams: Yeah, I had no clue what I was doing and still sometimes feel like I don't.
- 6:15Matt Williams: But, what was great about it?
- 6:24Matt Williams: Is I cool?
- 6:25Matt Williams: How long ago is this?
- 6:25Matt Williams: How many years ago?
- 6:26Matt Williams: This is in 2011.
- 6:29Matt Williams: 2011, okay.
- 6:30Matt Williams: Yeah, so it was just.
- 6:31Matt Williams: I dropped those bars off, ran out of there.
- 6:33Matt Williams: Three days later she called me.
- 6:34Matt Williams: She goes.
- 6:35Matt Williams: Hey, I need 100 more.
- 6:36Matt Williams: I sold out and she'd put them at you call point of sale.
- 6:39Matt Williams: She put them right by the register because people were going there for smoothies, juices and other healthy items and mine was an add-on and at the point of sale it's like hey, would you like this healthy snack for later?
- 6:52Matt Williams: It's not a meal replacement.
- 6:53Matt Williams: It didn't take away from their business because they were selling essentially a meal.
- 6:57Tiffany Woolley: Right.
- 6:58Matt Williams: And mine was just a snack for later and I call that an impulse item, correct Impulse item, point ofof-sale item, whatever it is.
- 7:05Matt Williams: And it worked.
- 7:06Matt Williams: And she ordered 100 more and introduced me to another person who had a juice bar in Delray, which introduced me to another person, which introduced me to another person and that's how it started.
- 7:16Scott Woolley: So now you're making all these bars at home in your cellophane, kind of wrapping them, correct?
- 7:19Scott Woolley: So at what point does a light bulb go off going?
- 7:23Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, what was my question?
- 7:24Tiffany Woolley: It was like when did that design decision become like let's create a business or let's do this and take it more?
- 7:31Scott Woolley: seriously Like we've got something here.
- 7:33Scott Woolley: Did you make or think about that, or did someone kind of plant the seed?
- 7:38Matt Williams: or push you.
- 7:38Matt Williams: Well, the initial idea when I was taking it around, one of my client's mothers was like I think you have something here, and I was like I don't know what you're talking about, because I didn't call it anything.
- 7:50Tiffany Woolley: It was just like the bar, yeah, and I made it and it was frozen protein fro pro.
- 7:53Matt Williams: And she's the one that bought the first website with my credit card.
- 7:56Matt Williams: I was like super nervous because I didn't really have any money at the time.
- 8:00Matt Williams: I was just starting over at 28.
- 8:02Matt Williams: And that's kind of how it started.
- 8:04Matt Williams: So, with getting to that point of like either taking it seriously, what I did know is that I didn't want to be making the bar in my house Because in Florida, with all the green markets and all the pop-up things, you could have a product under the Cottage Act which allows people to know that if you purchase this product.
- 8:25Matt Williams: It's made in someone's home and some people are cool with that and others are not.
- 8:28Matt Williams: I wanted it to be a little bit more legit, so I found essentially a commissary kitchen Right, I've heard that where they're all sanitized Rent space Locally, Locally.
- 8:39Matt Williams: this kitchen was out in West Boca at essentially where the old post office was off of Clintmore and 441.
- 8:45Matt Williams: It was tucked back as west as you could go.
- 8:49Scott Woolley: Were they doing similar type products or were they a bakery?
- 8:53Matt Williams: It was actually a juice company at one time and I knew the guy that owned it.
- 8:58Matt Williams: He had the space used for certain like at certain times, and then the times that he wasn't using it.
- 9:05Matt Williams: So I didn't get in the way.
- 9:06Matt Williams: I rented space from him and I was there for a couple years and then I actually moved right down the road from here in Boynton, right off Congress and that industrial development.
- 9:17Matt Williams: Oh, just right down the road, I forget the side road and I moved there and then in 20.
- 9:22Tiffany Woolley: Were you still mixing the concoctions there?
- 9:24Tiffany Woolley: Yep Still doing using using you know tabletop mixers, right, right, I know they have those industrial sizes and yeah, not like we hadn't graduated to that until about a couple years ago okay the hobart mixes.
- 9:35Matt Williams: Yeah, got the big hobarts, but we, you know, we went from like a tabletop to a slightly bigger, as much as we went to the biggest one that you could keep on a stainless steel table without it crushing under its weight.
- 9:46Matt Williams: Right, and I had went from the essentially the little cutters and like the little metal trays or perfect brownie, the perfect brownie mixer thing, to a food mold company that I had connected with from a food show out in Chicago that essentially had imprints of our product in a silicone tray, right, and you'd make the product, put it in there and then we'd freeze it.
- 10:09Matt Williams: And you know, at one point we had, I think, like 16 deep chest freezers that you could stack the product in.
- 10:15Scott Woolley: So was it a frozen product.
- 10:16Scott Woolley: It started out that way, yeah.
- 10:18Matt Williams: It started out that way and now we necessarily didn't need to.
- 10:22Matt Williams: And everyone says, why would you go into the cold space?
- 10:24Matt Williams: And, to my own ignorance, I don't know why I did.
- 10:27Matt Williams: But what was great about being?
- 10:28Scott Woolley: in there.
- 10:29Scott Woolley: What was your reasoning for?
- 10:29Matt Williams: thinking behind that.
- 10:30Matt Williams: I'm just a dessert guy.
- 10:31Tiffany Woolley: Right, he liked it chilled.
- 10:33Scott Woolley: I like it chilled Because it limits you from a retail standpoint?
- 10:37Matt Williams: Sure, I didn't know that, though you know, I had no clue.
- 10:40Matt Williams: I just said I like my food cold, and you know, there are people that you know, some mutual friends of ours, that know that kind of play devil's advocate and they're like, really, a cold bar in Florida.
- 10:49Matt Williams: Isn't that a pretty stupid thing?
- 10:51Matt Williams: And I said maybe it is.
- 10:52Matt Williams: But what's great about it is the category that we're in now.
- 10:56Matt Williams: The only other products that are there are maybe five or six, compared to if we're on the dry shelf there's dozens, you're right.
- 11:03Tiffany Woolley: Compared to if we're on the dry shelf, there's 300, 400 that you can choose.
- 11:06Matt Williams: And it sits.
- 11:07Matt Williams: You listen to any nutritionist or you listen to anybody that back then the only one really doing it was Perfect Bar.
- 11:15Matt Williams: Rx Bar had just come out too.
- 11:17Matt Williams: But what was interesting is that you go into the grocery store and a lot of people say don't go in those middle aisles, don't shop where stuff is sitting on the shelves for too long.
- 11:32Matt Williams: You shop.
- 11:32Matt Williams: The peripheral staples are in the middle, correct?
- 11:33Matt Williams: And they say, quote unquote, the fresher of the foods are in the refrigerated or on the outside.
- 11:39Tiffany Woolley: That's so true, wow, so I didn't.
- 11:41Tiffany Woolley: That's just another positive, then, on your so.
- 11:43Matt Williams: So I had no clue and that's how we started and I had many people say make it shelf-stable.
- 11:49Matt Williams: I'm like it is shelf-stable.
- 11:50Matt Williams: And one thing we did run into that was a problem was we basically said it's best served chilled, but it doesn't have to be.
- 11:56Matt Williams: And when you tell a buyer that and they hear that.
- 12:00Matt Williams: Oh, it doesn't have to be in the refrigerator.
- 12:02Matt Williams: Oh, that's not my category.
- 12:03Tiffany Woolley: You've got to get out of here.
- 12:04Tiffany Woolley: You're confusing them.
- 12:04Tiffany Woolley: She's the stuff you learn when you're out there, right?
- 12:06Tiffany Woolley: And?
- 12:08Matt Williams: people still to this day.
- 12:09Matt Williams: Well, I accidentally left my bar in my gym bag, or I left it in my golf bag, or it was in the car.
- 12:17Scott Woolley: Does it say on the bar that it has to be refrigerated?
- 12:19Scott Woolley: No, it just says best're chilled, that's okay.
- 12:22Matt Williams: So there's nothing in the bar that can spoil even the products that we do put into it.
- 12:25Matt Williams: Freeze-dried anything, what's your shelf life.
- 12:28Matt Williams: So in the refrigerator we say three to six months, in the freezer six to nine or longer.
- 12:35Matt Williams: In the refrigerator it can last up to nine months.
- 12:37Matt Williams: That's a short shelf life Compared to our competitors.
- 12:42Matt Williams: It's seven to ten days, really yeah, so we can be in the refrigerator for a period of time.
- 12:47Matt Williams: So when we produce we put a nine-month, essentially best eaten by nine months of production.
- 12:52Matt Williams: But there's no dairy in it, correct.
- 12:53Matt Williams: No dairy, yeah, no dairy.
- 12:54Matt Williams: No soy, no egg, yeah.
- 12:57Scott Woolley: So what's the reason?
- 12:58Scott Woolley: Just because you like it, chilled Selfishly, yes, okay.
- 13:01Tiffany Woolley: But I love the idea because now that we are more paying attention than say we were in 2014 when you were starting.
- 13:09Tiffany Woolley: I mean, we are all about shopping the perimeter and we are about wholesome ingredients.
- 13:16Tiffany Woolley: Now we're all more mindful, I feel like, than ever.
- 13:19Matt Williams: Yeah, I want to say we were ahead of the trend before it was a trend.
- 13:22Matt Williams: Yes, without a doubt, but, like it wasn, wasn't intentional and I don't want to say what point did you put packaging or did you?
- 13:26Matt Williams: Have to create a logo and design a packaging and so forth so it was interesting as my two older brothers my oldest brother was in, he's a professor and he taught marketing and he taught kind of that thing so I actually had exposure to people that were essentially doing projects for free.
- 13:42Matt Williams: So one of the initials was like he had one of his students.
- 13:45Tiffany Woolley: He gave it to his class to do.
- 13:46Matt Williams: He basically said hey, create a logo for this company.
- 13:48Tiffany Woolley: I love it.
- 13:49Matt Williams: And that was our first logo.
- 13:50Matt Williams: There's been many iterations since the packaging went from obviously plastic wrap to Uline, which you're familiar with essentially a package you could open and you could essentially open and close which was our next, but why we changed from the open and a close to a completely sealed was.
- 14:11Matt Williams: We were still relatively new.
- 14:13Matt Williams: We were in, I believe, one of the local stores we're probably like 10 stores in and the Department of Health was at that store and asked the owner what is this product and why is this missing on this product?
- 14:27Matt Williams: She says oh, that's Matt, he's great, call Matt.
- 14:30Matt Williams: And I had the Department of Health.
- 14:31Matt Williams: This guy called me and he goes your product is not suitable for stores and I need you to pull off all your products.
- 14:36Tiffany Woolley: Oh geez.
- 14:37Matt Williams: What was the reason for that?
- 14:38Matt Williams: Because of the ability to open and close said product.
- 14:43Matt Williams: So what would-.
- 14:44Scott Woolley: Well, I could tell you that there's a little bit of what payola that takes care of that with.
- 14:49Matt Williams: Yeah, that was my first exposure, but what was great about it is they were very kind.
- 14:53Matt Williams: They said we understand your.
- 14:55Matt Williams: This is a learning experience and we understand that you're learning this process as you go and we're gonna help you out here.
- 15:02Matt Williams: Fortunately, at that time we're only on essentially in 10 stores with in some shelves and we weren't doing a ton of volume yet and I was able to pull off the product um essentially repackage it re essentially give the, give the stores their money back, but they're like we want we want the product, which is a great feeling right, and so we then, um, were able to take our packaging and do essentially a heat seal which sealed the package completely, and it was a tearaway strip and, and since then we've moved to a full machine, a flow wrapper that you know it looks like, if you remember the I love lucy, it's like a full conveyor belt bar, goes in, wraps it, dumps it and we overcame an obstacle yeah, yeah.
- 15:45Matt Williams: All the things that you overcame an obstacle, yeah, yeah, all the things that we overcame were learning situations Like it wasn't.
- 15:49Matt Williams: Hey, we should do this because we knew what we were doing.
- 15:52Scott Woolley: You'd be surprised how many people would just give up and say oh, the Board of.
- 15:56Scott Woolley: Health.
- 15:56Scott Woolley: The Department of Health just came down, had me pull the product.
- 16:00Scott Woolley: Oh yeah.
- 16:02Matt Williams: Scrap this idea, and I've heard that over the years.
- 16:03Matt Williams: Product oh yeah, let's scrap this idea, and I've heard that over the years.
- 16:05Matt Williams: I'm sure you've talked to people that are entrepreneurs, oh, yeah, you guys have been successful in a lot of things that you've done, and a lot of the times it can be very devastating and it can be very like, oh, this is a stupid idea, I failed.
- 16:16Tiffany Woolley: No, you can never go.
- 16:17Matt Williams: Right, and there are days like that though.
- 16:19Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, you know we have days where we're like what are we doing?
- 16:22Matt Williams: This is ridiculous.
- 16:23Matt Williams: Like this is so expensive.
- 16:26Scott Woolley: So time-consuming so do you have your own facility now that you're packaging?
- 16:30Matt Williams: Yeah, we're 1200 Clinton War Road, we tell people to drop by.
- 16:34Matt Williams: You know, as long as we're not in active production, even though we have the hairnets and people can like the Department of Health can come any time and they have in the middle of anything they want.
- 16:41Matt Williams: But Health can come any time and they have in the middle of anything they want.
- 16:44Matt Williams: But, yeah, we tell people to come by and see it.
- 16:45Matt Williams: You want to see the product, you want to see the raw materials.
- 16:48Tiffany Woolley: I love that.
- 16:48Matt Williams: Everything's right here.
- 16:49Tiffany Woolley: We don't hide anything.
- 16:50Matt Williams: We're very transparent, like that's what I think one of the cool things about our product is is not only can we have people and we feel confident in what we do and how we operate in our team, but we tell people come by you want to see the one line that kind of.
- 17:04Matt Williams: So we have a giant Hobart mixer and we mix, you know, a very.
- 17:09Matt Williams: It becomes very heavy, which is so funny when you think about where we started.
- 17:12Matt Williams: But you know we mix this huge product.
- 17:14Matt Williams: It goes on to one machine that we invested in two years ago, which essentially it's called a slab machine, and it you dump this what looks like cookie dough, right, essentially say like the dough or the bar material.
- 17:26Matt Williams: It flattens it.
- 17:27Matt Williams: One thing we customized that we always thought we, we thought was cool is our bar says our name our name on it, yeah and from the molds.
- 17:34Matt Williams: It was like well, how do we do that?
- 17:35Matt Williams: And the machine company basically said well, we can create a stamp.
- 17:40Matt Williams: Yeah, that stamps the product.
- 17:42Matt Williams: So it literally gets rolled twice, stamped carbon fiber cuts it into sections and then it goes through another cutter which you can make the bar as big, as small as you want Dimensions are really cool and then it drops onto a cookie tray.
- 17:56Matt Williams: Cookie tray goes into the rolling rack, sits in the chiller for a little while and then it goes right on the machine, gets packaged and then into the boxes and out to the customer so what's the whole time like frame go to like from the time it's in the mixing, or even just the ingredients, yeah, so what?
- 18:12Matt Williams: we like to do is we like to produce on one day, so make as many as we can on one day, and the next day run the machine.
- 18:19Matt Williams: So could we do it in the same day?
- 18:21Matt Williams: Absolutely.
- 18:22Matt Williams: But what it's nice is it gives it a little break and we have the capability of running 24-7.
- 18:28Matt Williams: As of right now, we don't do it because we're at a certain level where we're at that plateau of we're ready to punch through, we're ready for more territories, we're ready for more retail opportunities.
- 18:40Matt Williams: We have the full capability to run 24-7.
- 18:42Matt Williams: We just haven't done it yet.
- 18:45Scott Woolley: So do you have a staff now that just handles that, or do you do it yourself?
- 18:48Matt Williams: Absolutely amazing team.
- 18:49Matt Williams: There are days that I do jump in because I miss it.
- 18:51Matt Williams: I bet I do.
- 18:53Matt Williams: My wife, chelsea, is the CEO.
- 18:55Matt Williams: She runs the show.
- 18:56Matt Williams: I think it was two years ago.
- 18:57Matt Williams: We made it a women-owned business because she what we do really well is she sits at the control panel.
- 19:05Matt Williams: She runs everything from the office.
- 19:07Matt Williams: She loves that.
- 19:08Matt Williams: I don't want to say behind the scenes, because she very much runs the show.
- 19:11Matt Williams: We have an amazing director of operations that started.
- 19:14Matt Williams: We've known her since middle school.
- 19:16Matt Williams: She lost her job in COVID and started with us part-time and stuck around and now she is the director of operations right underneath Chelsea, and we've hired a lot of people that have come through South Florida for you know different reasons substance abuse, that get sober and need a job.
- 19:32Matt Williams: That's.
- 19:33Tiffany Woolley: Give them a fresh start.
- 19:34Matt Williams: Essentially a fresh start in a place Because you're giving back to that community, Like you know, like our mutual friend did for me.
- 19:40Matt Williams: Correct you know, gave me the chance and I think it's really important.
- 19:44Matt Williams: We've had people come and go in a week.
- 19:46Matt Williams: We've had people come and stay for a couple months, but it gives people a safe place, a good job where they can show up.
- 19:53Matt Williams: It's a good environment.
- 19:54Matt Williams: We have a great team.
- 19:55Matt Williams: We hate to see people leave and we hate when they want to do other things, but we also understand you've got to do what you've got to do it's life 100%.
- 20:03Scott Woolley: Life's a revolving door.
- 20:04Scott Woolley: People are that's right.
- 20:05Tiffany Woolley: So do you plan on ever branching out and adding to the line?
- 20:09Tiffany Woolley: I know you have multiple flavors.
- 20:11Scott Woolley: So how many SKUs do you have?
- 20:14Matt Williams: Man, we've had so many SKUs.
- 20:16Scott Woolley: Oh really, yeah, so you're changing SKUs.
- 20:19Matt Williams: Yeah, so again, we base everything either off a cacao base, which is our chocolate we don't use milk products, so it's a cacao base which is our chocolate and or vanilla, and then we kind of go from there.
- 20:30Matt Williams: So everything would be called kind of a sweet snack bar, and it's a variation on either of those two.
- 20:37Matt Williams: We know which.
- 20:42Tiffany Woolley: SKUs do better and have done better.
- 20:43Tiffany Woolley: What is the best-selling?
- 20:43Matt Williams: one Toasted marshmallow.
- 20:44Tiffany Woolley: Toasted marshmallow.
- 20:45Tiffany Woolley: Followed Toasted Marshmallow.
- 20:46Matt Williams: Followed by Birthday Cake, vanilla Chocolate Chip and the regular, so how many different SKUs?
- 20:51Matt Williams: Or flavors do you have?
- 20:53Matt Williams: So we expanded, so we had.
- 20:55Matt Williams: When we launched in Whole Foods, we launched with just four, which was Chocolate, vanilla, mint and Coffee, which are the only flavors we had.
- 21:02Scott Woolley: And in the refrigerated section.
- 21:04Matt Williams: In the refrigerated section, right at the checkout.
- 21:06Matt Williams: Yep At the checkout.
- 21:07Scott Woolley: So it's in a little.
- 21:08Scott Woolley: It's in the middle, one of those open-ended coolers, like in between the two.
- 21:11Matt Williams: Yep and sometimes we have multiple locations depending Like.
- 21:14Matt Williams: Whole Foods here has been really good to us.
- 21:16Matt Williams: The Boca location.
- 21:17Matt Williams: We did a special bar for the Del.
- 21:19Matt Williams: I'm going to share this because it's a cool, fun fact.
- 21:22Matt Williams: We did more sales the first week of Delray Beach Whole Foods opening.
- 21:27Matt Williams: We beat water, water, bottled water.
- 21:31Matt Williams: We beat water, which was outrageous At that time.
- 21:34Matt Williams: Beyond Meat.
- 21:35Matt Williams: Those things were like the rage.
- 21:38Matt Williams: We did more than them and it caused a little like wave where National was like what is going?
- 21:45Matt Williams: on with this product and they're like it's their hometown.
- 21:48Matt Williams: Right and you're like that's great, but these numbers are ridiculous.
- 21:50Tiffany Woolley: That's so exciting.
- 21:52Matt Williams: Very exciting.
- 21:53Tiffany Woolley: Well, I know myself.
- 21:53Tiffany Woolley: When I first went to that Whole Foods when it opened, I thought it was so cool.
- 21:56Tiffany Woolley: I hadn't seen that many flavors ever together.
- 21:59Tiffany Woolley: So I was like, oh, I get to grab a few additional flavors.
- 22:06Matt Williams: And it like, oh, I get to grab a few.
- 22:08Matt Williams: Yeah, we additional flavors and it's like not common, right?
- 22:09Matt Williams: So, as as we expanded nationally with them into new territories, we are now just doing the top three flavors.
- 22:13Matt Williams: We started with nine and whole foods and then we went down to six, the top six, and as we expand out of florida, we're doing the top three flavors, which is toasted, mallow, chocolate chip and birthday cake.
- 22:23Matt Williams: Yeah, so, it's yeah.
- 22:25Matt Williams: So, to answer the initial question, how many SKUs?
- 22:28Matt Williams: I think over the years we've had up to 20.
- 22:31Matt Williams: Okay, but we focus on the top five and then we have the other ones and we have fun.
- 22:36Matt Williams: We just launched our first savory bar.
- 22:38Matt Williams: Which people were very curious about Savory, so it's like the it has a cheesy, or herby?
- 22:47Matt Williams: yeah, like people like you think of like a cajun turmeric, right, okay, those kind of things, but we didn't everything.
- 22:53Matt Williams: So who's designing these different flavors?
- 22:56Matt Williams: We've tried so many different flavors.
- 22:58Matt Williams: So when people do offer, I'm sure like people are you like, oh hey, should do this and they offered unsolicited opinions to you.
- 23:05Matt Williams: You can take it with a smile and say thank you, but we try it, we've tried it all.
- 23:11Matt Williams: We've tried different citrus ones.
- 23:13Matt Williams: It hasn't worked.
- 23:14Matt Williams: That was the initial flavor.
- 23:15Matt Williams: They wanted a pineapple flavor for Del Rey because, like beech, and pineapple, but they all have a peanut butter base to it All, a peanut butter base.
- 23:25Matt Williams: We'd had an almond butter line, that was great and it just wasn't.
- 23:28Matt Williams: Essentially, we weren't I don't want to say making money on it, because that sounds terrible, but at the end of the day, it wasn't selling.
- 23:34Matt Williams: It was selling, but the price of almonds went up.
- 23:38Matt Williams: Oh, okay, so your margin wasn't there, and when you sell a bar, that's the same size peanut butter versus almond butter.
- 23:45Matt Williams: Now, if you go buy a jar of almond butter, it's more than peanut butter, and people are like well, why is that?
- 23:49Matt Williams: And it's kind of you can't charge more for an almond butter bar because people don't get it and that that they have to get it.
- 23:56Scott Woolley: So are all your bars the same size.
- 23:58Scott Woolley: Same size, same, yeah, are they all the same price?
- 24:00Matt Williams: Same price, same price, same price, same price.
- 24:02Matt Williams: Yeah, same thing.
- 24:02Matt Williams: And what is?
- 24:03Tiffany Woolley: the price?
- 24:04Tiffany Woolley: I mean God, I don't ever look at the price of like protein bars.
- 24:08Tiffany Woolley: She doesn't look at the price of anything.
- 24:09Scott Woolley: No, that's phenomenal.
- 24:11Matt Williams: You're our best customer, yeah, so it'll retail as low as $2.99.
- 24:16Matt Williams: And then some of the more high-end boutiques, like, if you look, I'll just say like the most I ever saw and it hurt my heart was $8.
- 24:23Matt Williams: Oh jeez but it's like the same thing, like you can get a bottle of water for $0.50 and then you can go to a hotel in Miami and the same bottle of water will be $10.
- 24:31Tiffany Woolley: It's so true.
- 24:31Scott Woolley: Are you in any hotels or spas We've got?
- 24:34Matt Williams: a couple hotels that we've just through knowing people, we've gotten in, a couple like Ritz's and Hilton's, and golf courses are a big deal for us.
- 24:44Matt Williams: So if there are any golf course listeners out there that want to up their game and the snack bar game let me know.
- 24:50Matt Williams: Healthy snacks, yeah, and there is that initiative.
- 24:52Matt Williams: There are people looking for better ingredients and we're going up against some heavy hitters right.
- 24:57Matt Williams: There are a lot of people, and you know influencers and people that have clout whether I'm going to say this in the nicest way, whether they deserve it or not and then they create a product and the product might be full of crap.
- 25:12Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, you're right.
- 25:13Matt Williams: But they have a following and the following will go out there and buy it and that's great and we've tried to channel into that.
- 25:20Tiffany Woolley: It works.
- 25:21Scott Woolley: You have a lot of competitors that you kind of focus on or think about.
- 25:27Matt Williams: I want to say this in the nicest way that we don't focus on them.
- 25:29Matt Williams: Good, I can't You've been successful.
- 25:34Tiffany Woolley: staying in your own lane, I feel like, and it's tough.
- 25:38Matt Williams: I mean, there's companies that have come out after me that have already sold for hundreds of millions of dollars and, you know, I've talked with people in the industry that have given me my time and, like the beverage or food industry, that are like, you know, you think, oh my God.
- 25:50Matt Williams: And you know, I had one guy, you know, sit me down and he's like we spent X amount of dollars on marketing and it was a number that I was blown away by and he said, at the end of the day, we created this awesome brand, he's like.
- 26:01Matt Williams: However, I own five percent right and I said well, five percent of and to grow it he had to do that, yeah, but at the same time, they're a nationally global recognized brand, right, and when they do get acquired regardless if they do or not he'll do fine and he did fine to get to where he is today, right, right.
- 26:22Matt Williams: But you know, you learn the process and it's nice because the industry you can encounter some really I hate to say it shitty people like any business, right, any business, yeah, and you can meet some really cool people.
- 26:33Matt Williams: And you know a recent conversation with a buddy of mine in the beverage industry he goes, everything looks really good on social media, he's like, but behind the curtain, curtain, he goes, it's, it's.
- 26:46Matt Williams: You know, you got to remember and I and I appreciated him saying that because he's done very well for himself.
- 26:48Matt Williams: But you know he too feels the same pains that my wife chelsea and I feel with trying to grow a brand oh, yeah, the same year.
- 26:54Scott Woolley: So is the two of you the owners.
- 26:56Scott Woolley: Do you have partners?
- 26:57Scott Woolley: Yeah, no, we we.
- 26:59Matt Williams: We had a uh.
- 26:59Matt Williams: We had somebody come when we were going to do a safe round and and and have family and friends and people in the community that have always offered.
- 27:07Matt Williams: We looked at doing that.
- 27:09Matt Williams: And then we had somebody that came in that was essentially a unicorn.
- 27:13Matt Williams: He's one of the greatest humans I've ever met and we knew him for a while and he was always just like silently rooting for us and when we ran it by him because we value his opinion.
- 27:25Matt Williams: He's incredibly smart and very successful.
- 27:27Matt Williams: He basically was like yeah, rather than do a bunch of people, why don't you just have one investor?
- 27:33Tiffany Woolley: Wow, and he was like me, here I am.
- 27:35Tiffany Woolley: We were like oh, I love that.
- 27:38Matt Williams: And I ran that by obviously my team and legal and everything and they were like yes, Did he bring anything else to the table besides oh yeah?
- 27:48Matt Williams: Yeah, connections and fun yeah very strategic, very strategic.
- 27:52Scott Woolley: That's the right type and we're super grateful for him.
- 27:54Matt Williams: He's been very generous, he's been very understanding and and knows what it takes to grow a business in this, in this industry, and it takes a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of time and a lot of patience.
- 28:06Voice Over: And we're here for it.
- 28:09Tiffany Woolley: So what does the day-to-day look like for promoting the product, like with social media?
- 28:15Tiffany Woolley: I know you're, like in my opinion, a local influencer.
- 28:18Tiffany Woolley: I mean, you're pretty out there.
- 28:20Matt Williams: Yeah, I want to say it's a very curated look that is run by a lot of really smart women, not me.
- 28:25Matt Williams: And I have no problem saying that because they're really good at making it look good as it is.
- 28:31Matt Williams: We've, over the years, had people come and go.
- 28:35Matt Williams: As mentioned, we have a great team that are really good at PR.
- 28:40Matt Williams: We have a great team that's really good at the channels like the Instagrams, the Facebooks, the TikToks and all of the things.
- 28:48Scott Woolley: Are they?
- 28:48Matt Williams: internal or are you using companies?
- 28:50Matt Williams: Yeah, we tried the company route.
- 28:52Matt Williams: We had some success creatively, performance-wise, let's just say it wasn't the best.
- 28:59Tiffany Woolley: That would make sense.
- 29:00Matt Williams: And it's fine.
- 29:01Matt Williams: You know, some things work, some things don't, and I guess, as they say, it's like hire Makes sense and it's fine.
- 29:05Matt Williams: Some things work, some things don't, and I guess, as they say, it's like hire, hire, what is it?
- 29:07Matt Williams: What's the saying?
- 29:08Matt Williams: It's hire this and fire fast.
- 29:09Voice Over: Yeah, hire quick and fire fast.
- 29:10Matt Williams: Sometimes you're locked into these contracts where you're just kind of you can't really do much until the time is up, and that's been in creative companies, that's been in brokerage houses and I think at the end of the day no one's going to sell the product like I am.
- 29:22Tiffany Woolley: Right, it is true, and even somebody with the in-house passion, people, if they hire you, they want you.
- 29:29Matt Williams: You have a team and sure.
- 29:30Matt Williams: But, you can't be everywhere.
- 29:32Tiffany Woolley: Right.
- 29:33Matt Williams: But I think it's really important at the core of it is we're authentically us.
- 29:37Matt Williams: We don't come off in a certain way, we just are who we are are and we share when it's hard, we share when it's good, and sometimes people would say we overshare, but that's just our journey and that's what we love to be about and be real about it.
- 29:57Matt Williams: Like we don't post every day behind the scenes because, like, not that it's boring, but it's a business and it's running.
- 30:02Matt Williams: You know we have a lot of fun in our team, Like we really love our culture, we really love.
- 30:06Matt Williams: You know, people are excited to come to work and I've heard countless stories of people that hate their job and hate showing up to what they do and working for other people, and we strongly encourage the people that work with us Anytime you want to leave or do something yourself, like we get the entrepreneurial spirit.
- 30:20Matt Williams: We love it.
- 30:21Scott Woolley: We want you to do it, however we can support you.
- 30:23Matt Williams: Let us support you even people that have gone on to start their own snack bars really, which has happened?
- 30:30Tiffany Woolley: wow, yeah, that's so crazy.
- 30:33Tiffany Woolley: It's tough, but you know.
- 30:35Matt Williams: If people want to do it, go for it yeah you could.
- 30:38Matt Williams: You could call a place in california and have your own snack bar tomorrow, if you wanted to.
- 30:42Tiffany Woolley: So true, but it wouldn't be from the same passionate heart.
- 30:46Scott Woolley: I've experienced that in so many different scenarios and businesses.
- 30:51Tiffany Woolley: Well, as you juggle pro-pro, you also have a podcast.
- 30:56Tiffany Woolley: You're in that space too, which I love.
- 30:58Tiffany Woolley: I feel like your niche is kind of wake up the sun, which I feel like it's a lot of successful people's morning routine.
- 31:06Matt Williams: Yep, yeah.
- 31:08Tiffany Woolley: And you know part of when I started I design lab.
- 31:11Tiffany Woolley: My passion was I love everybody's stories.
- 31:13Tiffany Woolley: I feel like everybody has so much to tell and we have so much to learn from people and I feel like it's fun to hear that little niche of what the morning routine is, because it's so important to our successful day yeah, I think you, I think you learn a lot from successful people right, and I've had business owners, moms, doctors, athletes, entertainers, um every walk of life, people that have had, you know, overcome tragedies.
- 31:43Matt Williams: I've had somebody on the show that was at one point pronounced dead, that is living and making the most out of life and I'm open to interview anybody.
- 31:52Matt Williams: I mean you need to come on my show.
- 31:55Matt Williams: It's not as nice as the studio but it's quaint.
- 31:57Matt Williams: But it's really great to ask people and to just drive those same questions.
- 32:02Matt Williams: Some of the questions, the majority of the questions, are the same for everyone.
- 32:06Matt Williams: Some have gone on Some stories.
- 32:09Matt Williams: I've interviewed people.
- 32:10Tiffany Woolley: Multiple times.
- 32:12Matt Williams: Multiple times and we've gone off topic and talked about returning your shopping cart, which I think is very important.
- 32:18Matt Williams: It is Returning what?
- 32:20Tiffany Woolley: The shopping cart when you're done with it.
- 32:22Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, yeah, what.
- 32:22Matt Williams: The shopping cart when you're done with it.
- 32:24Matt Williams: Yeah, yeah, but it's really good to understand what drives people and makes them successful, and everybody is successful in their own right whatever they are.
- 32:30Scott Woolley: So Tiffany told me earlier that you had a podcast.
- 32:34Scott Woolley: The first thing that I think is the podcast must be about Pro pro, must be about your product, because the other thing that I've also realized is that, knowing you and hearing about you today, I'm learning.
- 32:47Scott Woolley: It really seems like your wife is.
- 32:48Scott Woolley: She should be sitting here.
- 32:50Scott Woolley: Yeah, let's talk about it.
- 32:52Tiffany Woolley: Well, you designed it, though she's taking your baby and grown it.
- 32:57Matt Williams: Yeah, I will say that she is forever way smarter than me and way better at running the company in the day-to-day.
- 33:06Matt Williams: When it comes to being a founder, doing this and doing FaceTime and doing the speaking engagements and doing the demos and standing and.
- 33:13Scott Woolley: And dancing in front of hundreds of people.
- 33:15Matt Williams: Dancing in front of people and slinging snack bars.
- 33:17Matt Williams: She's great at it.
- 33:19Matt Williams: But that's like the give and take of the relationship.
- 33:22Matt Williams: It is I could not.
- 33:22Matt Williams: Could I sit at a desk and do what she does?
- 33:23Matt Williams: Sure, she's great at it, but that's like the give and take of the the relationship.
- 33:24Matt Williams: Like you know, I I could not.
- 33:24Matt Williams: Could I sit at a desk and do what she does?
- 33:27Matt Williams: Sure, would it necessarily be the best place for me to serve?
- 33:30Tiffany Woolley: probably not and recognizing that is such a blessing and a gift at the same time.
- 33:35Tiffany Woolley: I mean as scott kind of got pushed into my world of the design world, it's kind of he knows where I need help and where I struggle.
- 33:44Tiffany Woolley: So I'm good at one thing and I feel like there's such a gift and a blessing in knowing our roles and where we're served best.
- 33:51Matt Williams: Of course.
- 33:52Tiffany Woolley: Right.
- 33:53Matt Williams: Yeah, it's truly.
- 33:54Matt Williams: It's like when you have a, you know you guys work together.
- 33:58Scott Woolley: You've been together for a long time?
- 33:59Scott Woolley: Well, for only in the last three, four years, right it's covet well, yeah, kind of.
- 34:05Scott Woolley: Maybe during covert I kind of got involved, but for 15 years or 16 years that we were married I never got involved we never even spoke all day long about her business.
- 34:18Matt Williams: It's crazy and and and it's.
- 34:20Matt Williams: It's interesting to be, you know, in the same essentially office doing things and going to do your own thing and and doing what you do outside of here, and that's what I think works like.
- 34:31Matt Williams: I see my wife all the time, but there are days where we see each other at a time.
- 34:35Matt Williams: But you know, one of our biggest things that we do for connection is at the end of every day we eat a meal and then we go for a walk and I love that we might have talked about something or it needs to be brought up again, or sometimes like it's rare, but they're those walks where we're just quiet and just being outside and just being together I get a charge working with my.
- 34:54Scott Woolley: I'm sure she's a very dynamic woman well, I've I've said this number a number of times on this podcast to other people.
- 35:02Scott Woolley: I've worked with probably some of the most talented people on the planet, from Paul McCartney and Billy Joel and so many different names but no one is more creative than what my wife does.
- 35:13Tiffany Woolley: That's a little biased.
- 35:15Scott Woolley: No but I'm amazed by what she does every day.
- 35:18Matt Williams: Yeah.
- 35:19Scott Woolley: Amazed.
- 35:19Scott Woolley: I mean, like what she does to people's homes.
- 35:23Scott Woolley: I mean I can tell you a quick little story.
- 35:25Scott Woolley: When I first started with her, she was doing a house.
- 35:28Scott Woolley: The people were spending like $400,000 on wallpaper and I was like I said to her one night after dinner.
- 35:35Scott Woolley: I said are you sure you're doing the right thing by picking?
- 35:38Scott Woolley: Because I looked at all the wallpaper she had picked.
- 35:40Scott Woolley: I was like these people are going to this wallpaper is going to go up.
- 35:46Scott Woolley: People are going to freak out.
- 35:47Scott Woolley: They're going to want their 400,000 back because I didn't understand how it all went together because it was wild stuff but when the house was and you know what she said to me she says don't question me and what I do.
- 35:59Scott Woolley: And I stood back and go, okay, and I, for the next two months I was expecting these people to call the office saying you screwed up our house, we want our $400,000.
- 36:12Scott Woolley: Totally the opposite.
- 36:14Scott Woolley: People were over the moon when it was done and when I walked into the house I was like holy crap, this is the most unbelievable place I've ever seen.
- 36:22Matt Williams: I think the best advice that you've probably heard is just get out of the way when you're doing your thing yeah, exactly, and that's kind of the approach.
- 36:28Tiffany Woolley: Well, there is such success in that.
- 36:29Matt Williams: Yeah.
- 36:30Tiffany Woolley: I mean, I definitely have my strong suits, but I definitely have things I need help on.
- 36:36Matt Williams: Yeah, I joke around a lot where, like someone will ask me something, I'm like that's a question for the boss.
- 36:40Scott Woolley: Right right.
- 36:41Matt Williams: Because, like I don't want to give you the wrong answer.
- 36:43Tiffany Woolley: Well, I say that all the time too.
- 36:45Scott Woolley: I say that probably three, four times a day when people ask me you've got to talk to Tiffany about that.
- 36:49Matt Williams: Talk to the boss.
- 36:50Scott Woolley: So getting back to the podcast what is the podcast about.
- 36:54Matt Williams: So it's a podcast based off like rituals routines and consistency and not everybody has to be a morning person.
- 37:06Matt Williams: Rituals, routines and consistency, like what.
- 37:07Matt Williams: Like what do you do every day to make you successful in whatever it is that you do, whether you have a business, whether you're an athlete, whether you're an entertainer, whether you're a mom, and you're running the shit out of everyone else's life, which is typically what moms do and it's and it's cool to just hear everybody's story, right and and everyone's like are you monetizing this?
- 37:23Matt Williams: Are you doing this?
- 37:23Matt Williams: I'm like, yeah, I've gotten some cool things, I'm not getting paid for it.
- 37:26Matt Williams: I just like sitting down with people and hearing their stories and what they came from and what they have done.
- 37:32Matt Williams: And one of the best podcasts was from a good friend of mine that I've known for years.
- 37:37Matt Williams: She had a rough go and she came on the show to talk about what I wanted to ask her and we didn't talk about one of the things, not one question.
- 37:48Matt Williams: I I didn't get to answer or ask any of my questions and she talked about the two years of struggle that she had and it was one of the most downloaded episodes to date.
- 37:56Tiffany Woolley: Wow, and that people because people knew her and didn't probably know she was even knew that there was some, some didn't know she was struggling.
- 38:03Matt Williams: Some did.
- 38:04Matt Williams: But it gave so many people hope because she talked about, like we're talking about, to the point of not wanting to be on the planet anymore, type of struggle when she was like I don't want to be here To what she's doing now and she's a successful woman, and so many people reached out and were like thank you.
- 38:22Matt Williams: Wow, I needed that and like I'm not, and it was truly like it was really good for me to hear that, because I played it for my kid or I played it for my family member and said like everybody has their stuff.
- 38:36Tiffany Woolley: Everybody, everybody, everybody, and it doesn't matter.
- 38:38Scott Woolley: So that sounds like a very personal and rewarding podcast for yourself to do Again.
- 38:43Matt Williams: I hate saying it, but like making the peanut butter snack bars selfishly.
- 38:46Matt Williams: I like peanut butter and I like dessert, so I share it with everybody Selfishly.
- 38:50Matt Williams: I like talking to people and spending time with people.
- 38:53Tiffany Woolley: So it was a good fit.
- 38:53Matt Williams: If I can, share and do it, and people are like you know what's the point of doing it?
- 38:57Matt Williams: Now, yes, is it good to make money?
- 38:58Matt Williams: Sure?
- 38:58Matt Williams: Now, yes, is it good to make money?
- 38:59Matt Williams: Sure.
- 38:59Matt Williams: But I think there's so much in putting out other people's as our friend would say tragedies, turning them into triumph.
- 39:08Tiffany Woolley: Triumph yeah.
- 39:09Matt Williams: It's so important it is, and it's not all the time.
- 39:13Matt Williams: But you know, I go through these phases where I'll have five or six people on the show.
- 39:16Matt Williams: I'll let the episodes go and I don't force it.
- 39:20Matt Williams: It's like we have to do one a week.
- 39:21Matt Williams: We have to do this, we have to do that, and then it becomes not really fun.
- 39:28Matt Williams: Right, and like I want to have fun, like I'm having fun here, I'm sitting down.
- 39:31Matt Williams: I was looking forward to this, because you guys have busy schedules and I was like, man, I don't want to wait.
- 39:38Matt Williams: You know, but everybody's busy and it truly is.
- 39:42Matt Williams: It's really great to get to know people and it's really good to also understand that you know you might be struggling with something and feel like the only one struggling with it, and then hearing that you're not is incredible.
- 39:56Tiffany Woolley: I agree, Considering we didn't touch much on it in this story yet, but you're somebody who's overcome a lot and you've used that transformation as quite a launch.
- 40:08Voice Over: Thank you.
- 40:09Tiffany Woolley: And how do you still give that attention each day?
- 40:15Matt Williams: Well, I was given a lot of suggestions when I got sober in 2010, from the very basics and kind of built off those.
- 40:24Matt Williams: It's like you had to build a foundation first.
- 40:25Matt Williams: As I'm sure you've heard and it's been, I mean, in May will be 15 years of sobriety, which is just wild.
- 40:32Matt Williams: But taking those little things and like those little principles that I learned along the way integrity being one of the most important and just really trying to practice those in all of my daily activities.
- 40:46Matt Williams: Right and and I fall short often Um, I don't always, you know, speak the most eloquently.
- 40:52Matt Williams: Um, I, I, you know, I can, I can have human moments, which you know I've talked about on the podcast, which is tough because sometimes, when you're, I don't want to say in this ego, egotistical way, but when you're the go-to guy or you're always the positive guy, and then you have a human moment and everyone's like, hey man, what's wrong with you?
- 41:11Matt Williams: And I'm like I'm having a moment and I'm not handling this accordingly, but I'm aware of it and I have people in my life that hold me accountable, even Chelsea.
- 41:21Matt Williams: I had a rough patch about a month ago and I opened to sharing about it, when the fact that we were sitting there and like everything is good- right business is good.
- 41:31Matt Williams: Yeah, training is good, my health is good every family's health, like all the good things are good, yeah, but I was just stuck in this like shitty space in my head.
- 41:41Matt Williams: Did something bring it on?
- 41:43Matt Williams: No, because we had just gotten back from like an amazing trip and work and family and everything and I just I wasn't celebrating and grateful for it.
- 41:53Matt Williams: I was focusing Like I say, if there's like 10 things to do and I do 9 out of 10 right, I don't focus on the 90 percent I did right, I focus on the one, 10 percent, that I might have kind of like, yeah, and I sit in it me too and and she, you know she's very, very loving, but like knows when to turn it on.
- 42:11Matt Williams: And she's like, and she basically said, I don't know if I, I don't want to kind of language wise, but she basically at dinner, she's like I don't know who the fuck is sitting across from me because it's not you, and I was like, oh and then and she goes, I love you.
- 42:20Matt Williams: I don't really who the fuck is sitting across from me because it's not you, and I was like, oh, and she goes.
- 42:23Matt Williams: I love you.
- 42:23Matt Williams: I don't really know what's going on with you because all this stuff is great and I was like you're right and I just I was sitting in some things that I wasn't.
- 42:34Matt Williams: I was trying to put it off and blame and it was just my own stuff that I had to kind of work through.
- 42:42Tiffany Woolley: So how long does that process take to work through?
- 42:44Tiffany Woolley: Like when you finally recognize it, I feel like I could get there too.
- 42:48Matt Williams: Yeah, it's a lot.
- 42:49Matt Williams: It's a lot shorter, um than it used to be, um, you know, I, I, if I'm sitting in it longer than like two days, it's a problem.
- 42:57Matt Williams: Um, but you know, I normally realize when I'm not 100% or I'm a little drained and I still, on my own, try to figure it out without talking about it, and try to be like the hero and realize that that's not the place to be.
- 43:12Scott Woolley: But I think most people who are very driven go through that every so often and most people think that people who are very driven or you look at someone who's a person, I'll say an athlete you know, at the highest pinnacle they don't think.
- 43:27Scott Woolley: Most people think well, those, they don't have any problems, they're perfectly fine, everything is great, yeah.
- 43:33Matt Williams: Yeah, you know it's interesting.
- 43:34Matt Williams: I was at this really cool event and this gentleman spoke who's a professional baseball player and he tried to kill himself and he didn't succeed in that, and is permanently scarred but talks about how he was.
- 43:52Matt Williams: The probability of him being a professional athlete is in the single digits To make it to the league that he, to make it to the level that he made it single digits to succeed in that even less.
- 44:04Matt Williams: And he did.
- 44:05Matt Williams: He had done that, yet he was still in pain and still I'm not enough and that's the biggest thing that I struggle with, which I can share about, because I've done like Tony Robbins and all these, like I've read the books and I've gone to seminars and it was a lot more intense when I was starting over, and then I just recently went to one and I still had that I'm never going to be enough, right, and I'm a loser.
- 44:35Matt Williams: I still can tell myself that stuff and no one's telling me that except me.
- 44:41Matt Williams: I know, and that's the wildest thing because, like I wasn't raised that way, my parents were loving my brother, everybody.
- 44:49Matt Williams: But like you get to a place where you're like, why am I talking to myself that way?
- 44:53Matt Williams: I know because the, the, if you look on paper, it's all like you said.
- 44:58Matt Williams: I've overcome a lot, yeah but there are times where it's like I don't know if you guys do like a major project or you work on something and rather than be like so happy that the $400,000 wallpaper worked and the people are like here's another check for being awesome, you're like what's next?
- 45:16Tiffany Woolley: Yes, yes, right, and you're not like wow, that was really.
- 45:20Matt Williams: you know how long we worked on that, I know, but that's the mark of somebody that's constantly going forward.
- 45:27Scott Woolley: I have a lot of friends that are former or professional athletes and I've had a lot of conversations with friends just about this.
- 45:38Scott Woolley: Yeah, you know different aspects and you'd think, okay, you're making nine million dollars a year, you're on, everyone knows your name and you're going through this little situation.
- 45:49Scott Woolley: Yeah, I mean human we're having a human experience, we really are having a yeah, I'll tell you, one of the biggest things with a lot of buddies is when they retire.
- 45:57Scott Woolley: I'm sure that you know the career ends.
- 45:59Scott Woolley: It's a real shock for the average person.
- 46:04Tiffany Woolley: That's another thing in general.
- 46:05Tiffany Woolley: Just yeah, life changes.
- 46:08Scott Woolley: I went through it for many years in running a company, and what I did and it only came about by accident is that I used to ride motorcycles a lot, but I started going on these trips.
- 46:21Scott Woolley: I'd go across Australia Before kids.
- 46:24Scott Woolley: I was just saying this is before kids, but I'd go from one end of South America all the way to the very tip with two other buddies, but it would take 30 days to do.
- 46:34Scott Woolley: Some of these Went across Russia on a motorcycle, but I enjoyed doing it because I was running a business that was so intense with so many employees that that 25 or 30 days on a motorcycle I was able to clear my head and think about life.
- 46:52Scott Woolley: I mean, just imagine.
- 46:54Matt Williams: You went on Walkabout.
- 46:54Scott Woolley: I've talked about this.
- 46:56Matt Williams: We need those moments.
- 46:57Scott Woolley: But I would be on a motorcycle and for days I would think about why are we here, why are we here on this planet, like who am I and why am I here and why is this planet and why are?
- 47:09Scott Woolley: How did this all happen?
- 47:10Scott Woolley: And you start thinking about, like you can't tell anyone you're talking about something like this because it's so deep.
- 47:18Matt Williams: Well, you could probably talk to the right people about it yeah.
- 47:20Matt Williams: I love that question, I do too.
- 47:22Scott Woolley: Back then I wouldn't tell people.
- 47:23Scott Woolley: That's what I was thinking about.
- 47:25Matt Williams: Yeah, like what is it all about?
- 47:26Scott Woolley: Yeah, yeah, and when you really start thinking about it.
- 47:31Tiffany Woolley: Well, and we're so big in our own heads too, I mean, and we're such small morsels you know of a big picture.
- 47:37Matt Williams: Like there's a comedian that talks about I won't say his language, but he's like you know, we're spinning on a ball in the middle of expanding nothingness, Correct.
- 47:47Matt Williams: And then he follows it up with some intense language.
- 47:49Matt Williams: I know, it's true.
- 47:50Matt Williams: Who's the comedian?
- 47:52Matt Williams: I forget it.
- 47:52Matt Williams: I literally Neil deGrasse Tyson is the scientist that was listening to him talk about his bit and was like Well, listening to about his bit and was like we're literally like we're like so insignificantly significant, correct.
- 48:09Tiffany Woolley: I know.
- 48:11Matt Williams: And it's sad to think is you work at a company or you sell a company or you do all this stuff and then it's over and it's like even in today's world like you could be the hottest thing in whatever you're doing, and then something else will come out.
- 48:25Matt Williams: Or you'll stop doing it or you'll retire yourself, and it's great.
- 48:29Matt Williams: Hopefully, you make a lot of money and you're good with that.
- 48:31Matt Williams: Well, look at it from a different perspective, right?
- 48:34Scott Woolley: Sitting on a motorcycle, thinking about one of the trips my grandfather had just passed away.
- 48:38Matt Williams: Right, oh right.
- 48:39Scott Woolley: And I'm thinking about my grandfather, who I had the greatest times as a kid with was born in the early 1900s.
- 48:46Scott Woolley: But every single person, millions of people are gone and have been forgotten about, right.
- 48:53Scott Woolley: So there's going to be a point where I'm going to be gone and forgotten about.
- 48:58Scott Woolley: And forgotten about, right?
- 48:59Scott Woolley: So what does that all mean in the scheme of things?
- 49:04Matt Williams: Right, we're just like Even the people that are very well-to-do, that have their names on buildings.
- 49:08Tiffany Woolley: Right Once they're gone.
- 49:09Tiffany Woolley: Yeah.
- 49:10Matt Williams: There's going to be another person with probably, if not more, that will have their name on the building that you had your name on.
- 49:17Matt Williams: Yeah, I know you will be long forgotten and and you will be long forgotten and that's the whole thing is, you can look at it in a negative way, which is, in 100 years, no one's going to remember any of us sitting here.
- 49:28Scott Woolley: That's correct.
- 49:29Matt Williams: Right, correct.
- 49:31Matt Williams: We'll probably have made an impact on the people that we know and passed down from your kids to their kids to their kids, sure so.
- 49:38Scott Woolley: I was recently having a conversation with my three girls about can they name all the presidents of the United States?
- 49:44Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, there's maybe four or five, me neither but think of a person who was a president of the United States.
- 49:50Scott Woolley: There's so many of them that people today never even heard of before, but he was the president of the United States, yeah.
- 49:56Matt Williams: The most important position yeah.
- 49:58Scott Woolley: Yeah, but all of this thinking for me has made me realize is that we're all on this planet for such a short, fairly period of time.
- 50:07Scott Woolley: You got to make the most of it, you got to enjoy every moment of it.
- 50:10Scott Woolley: You got to overcome all your situations and problems that you because we're here for a reason too.
- 50:16Matt Williams: Yeah, yeah and you're, and, and I think, if you're creating a change or you're doing something that you love and it impacts the community, like that's the biggest thing, like this community helped save my life.
- 50:28Matt Williams: You know, the people in this community, the parents in this community, the certain businesses that were like let's give this guy a chance, like I'll never forget that.
- 50:36Tiffany Woolley: No, and you've given back to this community so beautifully.
- 50:39Tiffany Woolley: I mean you really have.
- 50:41Tiffany Woolley: I appreciate that and it's always a champion of positivity and you know creativity and grace.
- 50:46Scott Woolley: You've got a great reputation in this town.
- 50:48Scott Woolley: I mean you're very well liked.
- 50:51Matt Williams: There was a period of time where that was not the case.
- 50:53Tiffany Woolley: But isn't that?
- 50:54Tiffany Woolley: I mean years?
- 50:55Scott Woolley: ago.
- 50:56Scott Woolley: You turned it around miraculously and wonderfully.
- 50:59Scott Woolley: Thank you, I appreciate that.
- 50:59Tiffany Woolley: And the only one who probably says that now is yourself.
- 51:01Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, accurately and wonderfully.
- 51:02Tiffany Woolley: Thank you, I appreciate that, and the only one who probably says that now is yourself, yeah.
- 51:04Matt Williams: No, there are times where it's like, you know, I definitely damaged a lot of relationships in my addiction and my use and, you know, ran over people that were just trying to be helpful and kind and caring and I wasn't able to receive it.
- 51:17Matt Williams: And you know, I'm really grateful for that now because it is everything to me Right, you know.
- 51:25Matt Williams: And there are days don't get me wrong where I'm like man.
- 51:27Matt Williams: I just, you know, chelsea and I are like let's just move to a mountain where there's a lake.
- 51:31Voice Over: I think we all say that and no one's around.
- 51:32Matt Williams: That's normal too, and she'll respond.
- 51:35Matt Williams: She's like yeah, that would be cool until you wanted to hang out and play pickleball or golf with someone or hike with someone, and then you'd go nuts.
- 51:40Tiffany Woolley: Correct.
- 51:41Tiffany Woolley: Want to have a conversation.
- 51:42Tiffany Woolley: Probably right, I know, I say that to my kids Unless you want to go to the mall and you want to go to, like you know buy something Sure.
- 51:48Tiffany Woolley: Stuck in the middle.
- 51:49Tiffany Woolley: Go to a nice restaurant you know, absolutely.
- 51:56Scott Woolley: I think that's where balance is, the beautiful balance that we all strive for every day.
- 51:58Scott Woolley: Well, it's podcast.
- 51:59Scott Woolley: We're all redesigning our life constantly.
- 52:00Scott Woolley: Yeah, I love, I love that right there.
- 52:02Tiffany Woolley: Well, I was one of my morning routines I started this year was doing catechism in a day I'm catholic and I do it and I was.
- 52:10Tiffany Woolley: I'm like I listen to podcasts all day long like the least I can do is give you know a little bit back, and one of the very first ones on day three was how wherever there is design is a designer.
- 52:24Tiffany Woolley: So god designed the planet, the chief designer, right, the chief designer.
- 52:31Tiffany Woolley: I was like that just made me like more into this journey of podcasting, because we all are constantly wherever there is a thing, an item, a feeling, a routine it's been designed.
- 52:45Matt Williams: Yeah, I love that.
- 52:46Matt Williams: I know that's a great gift.
- 52:49Tiffany Woolley: So that was my little morning tidbit.
- 52:52Scott Woolley: She listens.
- 52:53Scott Woolley: She's a podcast junkie.
- 52:55Scott Woolley: It's been the last month she's been listening to what did you just call it?
- 53:01Tiffany Woolley: It's like church listening to yeah, but they're positive.
- 53:05Matt Williams: Yeah, no, I mean, I listen to, like I said, some of the motivational stuff and podcasts and like little blurbs that I can find online and things that connect, where you're like, oh man, this is great and it's little tidbits and that's how we digest everything right.
- 53:18Matt Williams: Nowadays, for sure Are you, you know if I'm going to walk or my long drive, I can listen to a podcast, you know.
- 53:24Matt Williams: But for the most part I'm not sitting.
- 53:26Matt Williams: I'm always doing something else right, wow.
- 53:30Tiffany Woolley: Movement, yes, which is also a big part of who you are training, personal training, health and wellness lifestyle yeah, it's important, I, you know it's got to listen to your body and train a certain way.
- 53:41Matt Williams: And so are you still training people now?
- 53:42Matt Williams: Yes, I am really.
- 53:42Matt Williams: I, you know, and it's important, you know you've got to listen to your body and train a certain way.
- 53:43Scott Woolley: So are you still training people now?
- 53:45Matt Williams: Yes, I am Really, you know, and it's interesting.
- 53:47Matt Williams: I thought when I was young I was like Frobo's going to do this and then I'm going to stop training.
- 53:51Matt Williams: And my older brother, he's like well, you're going to stop training?
- 53:54Matt Williams: I said, well, yeah, yeah, I guess you're right.
- 54:04Matt Williams: He's like yeah, you're good at it, you're helping people.
- 54:09Matt Williams: Am I training as much as I did when I restarted?
- 54:13Tiffany Woolley: No, no, but there's the balance Like you get to still have that.
- 54:16Matt Williams: And I love it, like it truly is, when someone comes to you right and they want to do a project or whatever an overhaul in the house or just like a minor thing.
- 54:28Tiffany Woolley: Yeah.
- 54:29Matt Williams: They're coming to you for a reason because you're the professional, you're the one they trust you.
- 54:33Matt Williams: Yeah, you're the one right and they know your history, they know who you are, they know other people that have worked with you and they're like well, we want to work with you and you can't help everyone no but you know, when you do it you're not just half-assing it, right?
- 54:48Matt Williams: And?
- 54:49Matt Williams: and there are days I'm sure we're like I don't do this and I have those days too, even though I love it right, but at the end of the day, you're helping someone, you're creating, you're creating an experience and you're designing something that's going to hopefully improve some portion of their life.
- 55:03Matt Williams: And it's true Right, and you know and I've worked with, it's crazy.
- 55:06Matt Williams: I've worked with, I've worked with families, huge families every every kid, adult, aunts, uncles, you know, and you touch it.
- 55:16Matt Williams: You become part of a family, right, and you become part of like the the story a little bit and yeah, I think that's pretty cool.
- 55:22Matt Williams: And the other thing that I got really into was like the coaching and the mental health, substance abuse space, working with private practitioners that are like intensive therapists that I can kind of assist what they meet with these people on in the day to day.
- 55:38Matt Williams: Wow in the day-to-day, whether it's just kind of like performance coaching, right when you're helping them achieve the things that they're talking about and trying to, either whether it's business and life relationships.
- 55:50Matt Williams: The only thing I can't really speak to is being a parent.
- 55:52Matt Williams: Even though I've worked with kids forever, I don't have kids.
- 55:55Matt Williams: So, like when someone's like oh, I don't want to give you advice on that because I might be a little bit harsh in a little bit harsh in certain areas.
- 56:03Matt Williams: how I operate, I know they say yeah, I just I can speak to the experience that I have and hopefully shed some light on it, but if I don't, I'm very clear like I wouldn't be able to help you with that, I don't have the answers for that.
- 56:16Scott Woolley: So do you go to people's homes or do you go to our People meet you at a facility?
- 56:20Scott Woolley: Yeah, they come to our.
- 56:21Matt Williams: So right next to our production facility we do have a fitness facility, so people train there.
- 56:26Matt Williams: It's private training.
- 56:27Matt Williams: You have to work with the trainer.
- 56:29Matt Williams: Three of my friends run their clients out of there.
- 56:32Matt Williams: It's a nice little small family of you know people that get along, work really hard and then Committed people, yeah, and then Committed people yeah.
- 56:40Matt Williams: And then with the other coaching, like I said, work with private practice, Like I've had people reach out and I've been in, you know sober for 15 years and worked with different organizations and done run clubs and done different things.
- 56:50Tiffany Woolley: I love that too.
- 56:52Matt Williams: So when people are like, hey, I got this guy that could use a little Maddie Williams in his life, and I'm like, oh, that's very nice of you to say how do you think I could possibly help this person and kind of work with them?
- 57:05Matt Williams: And there's people that I've been very clear on Like I don't know if I can help them.
- 57:10Matt Williams: It might be something out of my bandwidth, but you know, this person might be able to help them better, and I think that's what a community is right Without a doubt you have to find the go-to, without a doubt.
- 57:19Matt Williams: You have to find the go-to, without a doubt and you have to hopefully be able to say you know, if I can't do it, this person or this person would be good for that person.
- 57:26Tiffany Woolley: I know, and there's wealth of information in letting that go so that person does get to the right one.
- 57:31Matt Williams: A hundred, percent, a hundred percent.
- 57:36Scott Woolley: So what do you see in the future for yourself?
- 57:38Matt Williams: Well, Do you think far out?
- 57:39Matt Williams: Yeah, no, I mean like the grand, like three to five to ten-year plan.
- 57:43Matt Williams: Yeah, Well, like you, have a goal with you know FroPro, yeah, I mean our goal is to be nationally sold in all the Whole Foods, so that would be every Whole Foods in I would say in the galaxy yeah, there might be one on Mars in the next 20 years.
- 57:58Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, who knows who?
- 57:59Matt Williams: knows?
- 57:59Matt Williams: Yeah, who knows who knows?
- 58:04Matt Williams: Yeah.
- 58:04Matt Williams: I would love to just keep expanding ProPro.
- 58:05Matt Williams: I think, in addition to it being an excellent snack bar, the story behind it and what you know we share with.
- 58:08Matt Williams: That is super important, I think will help change and help people along the way.
- 58:12Matt Williams: Personally, yeah, just continue to work out and enjoy, you know, the walks with my wife and traveling and doing really fun things that you know we can do within reason.
- 58:23Matt Williams: That you know.
- 58:24Matt Williams: Allow us to, yeah, do a little bit more.
- 58:27Matt Williams: Yeah, I think you know with yeah for Oprah.
- 58:31Matt Williams: Personally, yeah, I mean, I love it here.
- 58:34Matt Williams: I don't want to go anywhere.
- 58:35Tiffany Woolley: I know we love our home.
- 58:37Matt Williams: Yeah, we love the things about South Florida.
- 58:40Matt Williams: I would love to eventually maybe have, like I said, a house somewhere on a mountain by a lake where I could hike a couple months out of the year.
- 58:50Scott Woolley: Are you from Florida?
- 58:51Matt Williams: I'm from New.
- 58:51Voice Over: York, originally when in New.
- 58:52Matt Williams: York, right outside of New York City, westchester County.
- 58:55Matt Williams: Yeah, I grew up there and yeah, I just love what I'm doing and I look at.
- 59:00Matt Williams: You know, my mom is 84.
- 59:01Matt Williams: She's just starting to think about not working.
- 59:06Tiffany Woolley: Oh, my God, God bless.
- 59:08Matt Williams: Wild right Like she's starting to be like.
- 59:12Voice Over: But working is so good for your brain.
- 59:13Matt Williams: I'm the youngest of three boys and we're all like mom.
- 59:15Matt Williams: You could have stopped working years ago, like when dad died.
- 59:18Matt Williams: You do what you want, but I look at dad as like maximizing and enjoying as much as you can while you can, because, again, am I going to be here tomorrow?
- 59:30Matt Williams: Am I going to be here 50 years from now?
- 59:32Matt Williams: I don't know.
- 59:34Scott Woolley: None of us do.
- 59:35Matt Williams: Right.
- 59:36Scott Woolley: That's why you've got to live every moment and enjoy it.
- 59:39Matt Williams: And not every moment is positive and everybody is like oh you're so positive all the time, not every moment's positive and everybody's like, oh, you're so positive all the time, like not every moment.
- 59:45Matt Williams: I have my human moments, I know, but like while here I feel like I wasted a good 12 to 13 years being a selfish asshole Really in my addiction.
- 59:53Matt Williams: You know, still doing things that I love, but for the wrong reasons.
- 59:56Matt Williams: Right right that, that, coming up on 15 years and being able to just watch other cool things happen and, as my sponsor would say, be a lighthouse and just watch the sunrise, watch the sunset, help people, guide people when you can and just do it that's kind of like it's a good place to be.
- 1:00:17Matt Williams: Yeah, it feels good.
- 1:00:18Matt Williams: I feel good today.
- 1:00:20Matt Williams: That's good, it's a good feeling, that's good.
- 1:00:23Matt Williams: Yeah, how about you guys?
- 1:00:24Matt Williams: What are you guys going to like?
- 1:00:25Tiffany Woolley: I mean, we're going to.
- 1:00:28Matt Williams: How old is your youngest now?
- 1:00:30Tiffany Woolley: Well, we have twins who are 15.
- 1:00:31Scott Woolley: Yeah, okay, they're the youngest.
- 1:00:33Scott Woolley: They're the youngest we have an 18.
- 1:00:34Scott Woolley: They're freshmen in high school right now.
- 1:00:38Tiffany Woolley: And I like I mean I say I'm in denial a little bit because it's going so fast.
- 1:00:45Scott Woolley: Yeah, the whole.
- 1:00:45Scott Woolley: You know Tiffany's all worked up that we have four more years.
- 1:00:51Tiffany Woolley: Now we're down to three and a half.
- 1:00:53Scott Woolley: We've got to pack it all in Travel the world before they want to venture out into the world.
- 1:01:02Matt Williams: So we've been doing that Family time is important.
- 1:01:04Tiffany Woolley: I know as being a working parent and a perfectionist in my own way.
- 1:01:08Tiffany Woolley: I know way I live.
- 1:01:10Tiffany Woolley: It's very hard because I do love what I do and I can't imagine what I would do every day if I wasn't doing what I do.
- 1:01:17Tiffany Woolley: But then it's so hard to find that balance.
- 1:01:20Scott Woolley: She loves what she does yeah you're very good at it.
- 1:01:24Matt Williams: It's interesting.
- 1:01:24Matt Williams: The only reason I ask that is I'm going to visit my mom this weekend.
- 1:01:27Matt Williams: She's 84.
- 1:01:28Matt Williams: And I heard you know Jesse Itzler, no, married to Sarah Blakely Spanx.
- 1:01:34Matt Williams: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
- 1:01:34Matt Williams: So he started and sold several different companies.
- 1:01:37Matt Williams: They were both wildly successful.
- 1:01:39Matt Williams: I follow both of them.
- 1:01:40Matt Williams: But he shared something once.
- 1:01:41Matt Williams: He's like, as we grow up and this is probably not going to help your thinking that your kids are old at this point, but he said if you don't live near your parents or your family and you see them twice a year, and I was like, well, that's about accurate, I see them twice a year and you look at like the median age of how long women or men live, and I was like, okay, yeah, so like women 88, so four years he goes.
- 1:02:06Matt Williams: If you only visit your he was saying his family, if you only see them twice a year, and they have X and you compare it to the median average.
- 1:02:14Matt Williams: So I did the math and like this is a while ago, but let's just say, well, my mom was 80.
- 1:02:18Matt Williams: Most women lived to 88.
- 1:02:19Matt Williams: I was like.
- 1:02:21Scott Woolley: The lowest of any country Right In the United States 88.
- 1:02:29Matt Williams: And my mom's a healthy lady.
- 1:02:30Matt Williams: But it's interesting because he said if you see your loved ones, twice a year and you have eight years left.
- 1:02:33Matt Williams: That means you have 16 visits and I was like I literally yeah, I literally sat there and I was like that's really sad I know and and not that, like me, living next to my mom would be any.
- 1:02:48Matt Williams: You know what I'm saying.
- 1:02:49Tiffany Woolley: Well, sometimes, I've often said, with family who doesn't live nearby, sometimes it's a blessing to not live by, because when you do go see each other depending on the dynamics, of course, it's a celebration, it's a holiday.
- 1:03:02Tiffany Woolley: People aren't just working, where if you're in your everyday routines, your visits just become pass off.
- 1:03:08Tiffany Woolley: They're not truly like time spent.
- 1:03:12Scott Woolley: I talked to my mom just before we walked into the studio.
- 1:03:15Scott Woolley: I love that.
- 1:03:16Matt Williams: No, I say, talking to them is one thing, and it just made me think Spend time with those that you love, if it's possible, because everybody has things going on and kids running around and travels and this and that happening.
- 1:03:28Tiffany Woolley: It's so true.
- 1:03:29Tiffany Woolley: And then?
- 1:03:29Matt Williams: all of a sudden, like they're not there.
- 1:03:32Tiffany Woolley: I know.
- 1:03:33Matt Williams: Yeah, so it's.
- 1:03:34Matt Williams: I mean, I guess that's done by design.
- 1:03:37Scott Woolley: Yes.
- 1:03:37Tiffany Woolley: It is.
- 1:03:37Tiffany Woolley: I know.
- 1:03:38Tiffany Woolley: Well, you got to design to get yourself started.
- 1:03:44Tiffany Woolley: Our business is.
- 1:03:44Tiffany Woolley: We were so into you know, the social life and charity things and building on, you know, to our careers that way too, and the minute we had children, like, yeah, it just all that went away, all went away.
- 1:04:00Scott Woolley: It's focused was on kids, of course, as it should be right.
- 1:04:03Scott Woolley: That's the deal right.
- 1:04:04Tiffany Woolley: So it's kind of all we know right now and it's like they're getting older and they're getting their own little social world.
- 1:04:12Matt Williams: Not fun hanging out with mom and dad anymore.
- 1:04:13Tiffany Woolley: I mean they still like to hang out.
- 1:04:15Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, I'm sure I have a hard time saying no to them when they want to go grow up a little bit, because I feel like it's healthy.
- 1:04:24Scott Woolley: We try to design and create everything that we do around with them.
- 1:04:28Scott Woolley: That's great.
- 1:04:28Scott Woolley: So you know concerts and music.
- 1:04:30Tiffany Woolley: They're big into concerts lately.
- 1:04:32Tiffany Woolley: That's like their thing All right.
- 1:04:35Matt Williams: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
- 1:04:36Matt Williams: Like, you got to make that a priority.
- 1:04:37Matt Williams: Wow, it's a priority to them until they're on to the next thing.
- 1:04:40Tiffany Woolley: Yeah.
- 1:04:40Matt Williams: Yeah.
- 1:04:41Scott Woolley: So we like to wrap out the podcast by asking a couple of design questions.
- 1:04:46Scott Woolley: Go for it.
- 1:04:47Scott Woolley: You've mentioned a few times that you like when you've been traveling.
- 1:04:50Scott Woolley: You like traveling, so let me change a little bit.
- 1:04:54Scott Woolley: Go on where we're going here.
- 1:04:55Scott Woolley: So, in your travels, are there any hotels that you would say were really cool from a design standpoint, that stick out, oh man, or that you thought were like wow, that was a really cool hotel, or really designed, or yeah, we love hearing what people's thoughts are.
- 1:05:15Matt Williams: This is a chelsea question.
- 1:05:16Matt Williams: Um, because I'm gonna just butcher this.
- 1:05:19Matt Williams: I mean, we've been.
- 1:05:19Matt Williams: When we go places, we like to stay like what we can and in the like I've traveled.
- 1:05:24Matt Williams: We've traveled separately, we've traveled separately.
- 1:05:26Matt Williams: I've traveled and lived abroad.
- 1:05:27Matt Williams: So I've been to a lot of really cool places, like in terms of design.
- 1:05:33Scott Woolley: But design doesn't necessarily mean to be expensive.
- 1:05:36Scott Woolley: Oh yeah, no worries.
- 1:05:38Matt Williams: It could be just.
- 1:05:39Matt Williams: One of my favorite places I ever visited was the Alhambra, which is just a wild.
- 1:05:45Matt Williams: I forget the city that it's in.
- 1:05:49Matt Williams: I went three times because I lived in Mexico.
- 1:05:52Tiffany Woolley: Wow.
- 1:05:54Matt Williams: And we went there a bunch and it was just like a cool city.
- 1:05:57Matt Williams: It was like a cool historical building, so like that the first thing I thought of was, like, design-wise, it's like visiting the Taj Mahal.
- 1:06:06Matt Williams: You know what I'm saying.
- 1:06:07Scott Woolley: Yeah, yeah yeah.
- 1:06:08Voice Over: Just the design aspect of it.
- 1:06:10Matt Williams: In terms of feeling man, I mean in terms of feeling like I'm not.
- 1:06:20Scott Woolley: Where were you?
- 1:06:20Matt Williams: living in Mexico.
- 1:06:21Matt Williams: I was living in Cuernavaca, which is right outside of like Were you teaching there.
- 1:06:26Matt Williams: I was a student, so I was living in immersive, in an immersive experience with spanish I hate saying yes, but um, I understand it way better because I don't practice it, but yeah it's what airport do you fly into on the?
- 1:06:41Matt Williams: You fly into mexico city, okay, and then you're about an hour and a half.
- 1:06:45Matt Williams: It's called like the city of eternal spring.
- 1:06:47Matt Williams: I want to say I haven't been there in years, but it always made an impression because it was such a cool place to be.
- 1:06:51Tiffany Woolley: Oh, you guys should go back together.
- 1:06:52Tiffany Woolley: I need to go back.
- 1:06:53Tiffany Woolley: Have you been with Chelsea?
- 1:06:54Tiffany Woolley: No, oh, that would be so fun yeah.
- 1:06:57Matt Williams: And I lived abroad in Spain as well, and you know Madrid was really cool.
- 1:07:02Matt Williams: I want to say like one of my favorite places I ever went was like Portugal, for my 21st.
- 1:07:08Matt Williams: I don't remember a lot of that day or those couple days, but like just the life there was pretty laid back.
- 1:07:14Matt Williams: They lived in homes, you know right by the beach.
- 1:07:18Tiffany Woolley: There was everything you needed Right by the sea.
- 1:07:19Tiffany Woolley: All the food is like decadent.
- 1:07:20Tiffany Woolley: The food is incredible.
- 1:07:21Matt Williams: Like the experiences, I loved it.
- 1:07:24Matt Williams: But in terms of like the states, I, there's certain parts of cal like encinitas, california.
- 1:07:33Matt Williams: I know people, some people don't like california no, how can you not like california?
- 1:07:36Tiffany Woolley: yeah?
- 1:07:37Matt Williams: I just you know that that's such a cool little beachy kind of good vibe town.
- 1:07:42Matt Williams: Um, you know, growing up right outside of new york city like being back in the city.
- 1:07:48Matt Williams: It's nice.
- 1:07:49Matt Williams: I'm not a city guy.
- 1:07:50Matt Williams: My wife loves the city.
- 1:07:51Matt Williams: I'm just like fortunately, we have friends that allow us to stay there because they have homes there.
- 1:07:58Matt Williams: Um, yeah, you know, like those feelings, like, like, like when the seasons are different.
- 1:08:05Tiffany Woolley: Obviously, we're in hot weather all the time down here, but there is something about being, like I said, in a mountain in the carolinas like grow like you know, like in ashville growth park in yeah, oh sure, it's such a cool place that's really nice like anything up there is really enjoyable, so you love that.
- 1:08:24Scott Woolley: My parents had a a home in lynnville ridge and then grandfather mountain.
- 1:08:28Scott Woolley: They had a number of differentville Ridge and Grandfather Mountain.
- 1:08:30Matt Williams: They had a number of different.
- 1:08:31Scott Woolley: they moved around a little bit, I love that it was like a second or a third home for them.
- 1:08:37Matt Williams: Yeah, and I love that there's a bunch of places on my list.
- 1:08:41Matt Williams: I haven't been in Scotland and Ireland, Australia.
- 1:08:44Matt Williams: I'd like to go to.
- 1:08:45Matt Williams: I'd love to go to a certain part of Asia and see.
- 1:08:49Matt Williams: You know, like some of those major cities that you know, just look incredible.
- 1:08:53Tiffany Woolley: They do look incredible, Wild right.
- 1:08:55Matt Williams: I know, but yeah, no, I mean I think you can get a good feeling where, anywhere you go, if you're with the right people, if that makes sense.
- 1:09:01Matt Williams: As corny as that sounds, but like, yeah, design-wise, like my wife and Chelsea and I have a lot of places we'd love to visit at some point.
- 1:09:09Matt Williams: We know that you just have to go do those things.
- 1:09:11Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, you have to make the time.
- 1:09:13Matt Williams: You have to make it a priority and you have to invest in it.
- 1:09:15Matt Williams: We're not very good about that we're okay.
- 1:09:19Tiffany Woolley: No, we're not very good about that.
- 1:09:21Matt Williams: Well, I mean, in another four years, you guys do whatever you want Every trip around a work thing.
- 1:09:26Tiffany Woolley: It makes him feel better.
- 1:09:27Matt Williams: I feel like I totally relate to that, though For years we traveled a lot but work somehow always A day here.
- 1:09:42Scott Woolley: I would disappear or whatever, and it's because I had a litany of different retail products that I've taken to market.
- 1:09:52Scott Woolley: So, depending on where we were, if it was going into a Petco or a PetSmart or a Target in a different city, I was doing that.
- 1:10:02Matt Williams: Listen, I totally get it.
- 1:10:03Matt Williams: I would say, the last major trip we went on for my 40th, we went to Palm Springs.
- 1:10:08Tiffany Woolley: Ooh, I've never been there, yeah and it's the drive there.
- 1:10:11Matt Williams: It's a little creepy interesting yeah, you're like in like that movie.
- 1:10:14Scott Woolley: Like the hills have eyes, like yeah, so you drove, you drove from la yep, drove from la and we got there and we were ending.
- 1:10:21Matt Williams: We were going to end in la per my wife at the, at the one, of course, um, but we went out there and it was really nice.
- 1:10:30Matt Williams: It was hiking, biking, golf, there was no work and it was just like eating heaven quality time, like it is heaven even though I'd wake up early and do my morning routine, like there were days, like it was a lot of sitting around and just kind of, like you said, like the, the clearing yeah and then you know, we were there and palm springs is unique.
- 1:10:51Scott Woolley: It's different did you get to go tour around a little yeah we.
- 1:10:54Matt Williams: We bopped around a little bit, then we said you know what like this has been fun, let's drive to encinitas okay and go visit some friends, yeah, and then make our way to santa monica, and we just did like unprompted which is rare for for us.
- 1:11:08Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, you just let it flow.
- 1:11:09Matt Williams: Right, and that was like the last, like vacation vacation other than like a work, like we were just in Nashville to see family, but also demo at Whole Foods.
- 1:11:18Matt Williams: Like we're going to Asheville for a wedding, we're going early to demo at all the.
- 1:11:22Matt Williams: Whole Foods and staying after to demo at the.
- 1:11:24Matt Williams: Whole Foods.
- 1:11:25Matt Williams: Does it make sense?
- 1:11:26Matt Williams: You're there, I've been to.
- 1:11:27Scott Woolley: Palm Springs a few times for parties.
- 1:11:29Scott Woolley: Yeah.
- 1:11:29Scott Woolley: And I went one time and John, who's in the studio with us.
- 1:11:33Scott Woolley: I took him and a bunch of people.
- 1:11:34Scott Woolley: I won the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year and then they had a big thing in Palm Springs where I was inducted into the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame.
- 1:11:46Scott Woolley: That's awesome.
- 1:11:47Scott Woolley: Congrats, Ernst.
- 1:11:48Matt Williams: Young Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame.
- 1:11:49Matt Williams: That's awesome, congrats.
- 1:11:50Tiffany Woolley: That's a big deal.
- 1:11:50Tiffany Woolley: That is a big deal.
- 1:11:51Tiffany Woolley: Back then it was.
- 1:11:53Matt Williams: Still pretty cool, isn't?
- 1:11:54Scott Woolley: it, yeah, it is.
- 1:11:55Matt Williams: That's a big deal.
- 1:11:56Matt Williams: It is Love, that Nice yeah.
- 1:11:59Tiffany Woolley: Nice.
- 1:11:59Tiffany Woolley: Well, thank you so much for your time today.
- 1:12:02Matt Williams: Of course, and your story.
- 1:12:16Voice Over: Yeah, I love it.
- 1:12:16Voice Over: Thank you for having me Appreciate it.
- 1:12:17Voice Over: Yeah, it's always great to see you both and keep crushing you too.
- 1:12:19Voice Over: The iDesign Lab iDesign Lab's podcast is an SW Group production in association with the Five Star and TW Interiors.
- 1:12:21Voice Over: To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit twinteriorscom.