Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up With Matthew Lesko, The 'Question Mark' Guy and Alex Garrett 11-27-24 Presented By Podmatch

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One Leg Up With Matthew Lesko, The 'Question Mark' Guy and Alex Garrett 11-27-24 Presented By Podmatch · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:01
Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Garrett. All right, well I'm here
0:08
Speaker 1: with the very special guest, Matthew LESCo. Matthew, first of all,
0:13
Speaker 1: thanks for joining the One Leg Up Network today. My pleasure.
0:17
Speaker 1: You know, when I saw your pitch and when I
0:20
Speaker 1: saw what you do, I said, I've got to get
0:22
Speaker 1: you on because it is true. Not many people know
0:27
Speaker 1: that there are so many grants and resources out there.
0:29
Speaker 1: And yeah, here you are, Matt, helping people find out
0:33
Speaker 1: how to get I guess you'd say more money from
0:36
Speaker 1: the government. Right, that's what this is about, a little bit, right,
0:39
Speaker 1: tell us you've been doing this for forty years.
0:41
Speaker 2: Tell us closer fifty. Yeah. Wow. I got MBA and
0:46
Speaker 2: actually computers. That was a computer science professor at everything.
0:51
Speaker 2: I had a computer company that failed. And this is
0:54
Speaker 2: back in the seventies. I'm an old fart and I
0:58
Speaker 2: was looking for a way to make money. So I
0:59
Speaker 2: just became a consultant in Washington, d C. Here to corporations,
1:03
Speaker 2: mostly big corporations, and I would just get them stuff.
1:07
Speaker 2: I mean, they want to start a business or do anything,
1:10
Speaker 2: and because I was here, I would help them do
1:12
Speaker 2: that and I'd find everything they needed. I could find
1:15
Speaker 2: in the government. It just shocked me. And I charge
1:18
Speaker 2: them thousands of dollars. They don't care what they pray.
1:21
Speaker 2: But what surprised me more is that I didn't know
1:23
Speaker 2: the author stuff. I grew up in a small town
1:26
Speaker 2: called Wolfsburg, Pennsylvania, and I didn't know anything about the government.
1:31
Speaker 2: I thought the government was just the post office in
1:33
Speaker 2: the irs and that's about it. And I see all
1:38
Speaker 2: the sources and money and help that is available to
1:43
Speaker 2: anybody just because you're here. You don't even have to
1:45
Speaker 2: be a citizen for a lot of the tuff. You're here.
1:47
Speaker 2: You know, that's it. And the rich use the hell
1:50
Speaker 2: out of it. Man, I was making you know, to me,
1:52
Speaker 2: what I was doing is helping millionaires become billionaires. I said, God,
1:56
Speaker 2: they don't even need the money. The people in this
1:58
Speaker 2: country that really need this stuff, and they don't know
2:02
Speaker 2: and it's not easy. And I was just talking to
2:06
Speaker 2: a podcaster who's a new entrepreneur from Ukraine and he
2:13
Speaker 2: couldn't believe it because he was told that we are
2:16
Speaker 2: capitalist society and we don't have anything for the community,
2:22
Speaker 2: so he would never even think of looking for something
2:24
Speaker 2: like help or something like that. But what it is
2:29
Speaker 2: we are made up our society, our economy is made
2:32
Speaker 2: up two thirds capitalism and one third communityism or whatever
2:36
Speaker 2: you want to call that that help each other in
2:38
Speaker 2: the community, which is to me more of a human
2:41
Speaker 2: right than anything. But we don't advertise that. Nobody knows,
2:48
Speaker 2: and we advertise Google, and people go to Google to
2:52
Speaker 2: try to find things for the community, and you won't
2:55
Speaker 2: because everybody in Google wants to get money from you.
2:57
Speaker 2: That's what capitalism is, providing things for other people for
3:02
Speaker 2: them to pay you. But the community is people that
3:06
Speaker 2: help each other because we all live together in a community.
3:11
Speaker 1: I love the community aspect because and I've said this before,
3:14
Speaker 1: when the government's not there to help, who do we
3:17
Speaker 1: look to our own community? And I think that what
3:19
Speaker 1: you're hitting up is such a relatives, such a relatable point,
3:24
Speaker 1: because we all have our own communities. And yes, it's
3:27
Speaker 1: true the community needs to help out each other as well.
3:30
Speaker 1: So how do you tie both of this together, the
3:33
Speaker 1: government help and the community up with you?
3:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I put that in one basket, because they're both
3:38
Speaker 2: people that give money and help for free. You know,
3:41
Speaker 2: you're nonprofit organizations or churches, things like this are all
3:44
Speaker 2: people that provide help to other people for free and
3:48
Speaker 2: never charge you for anything. And we're not used to that.
3:54
Speaker 2: And so they don't have advertising money like the capitalists do.
3:59
Speaker 2: They have advertising money, so they could advertise in Google.
4:02
Speaker 2: So to me, Google is only a place to go
4:05
Speaker 2: if you need help and you have money. If you
4:07
Speaker 2: don't need help, if you need help and don't have money,
4:10
Speaker 2: you can't go to Google. But we don't know any
4:12
Speaker 2: other places to go. Are you online? Now? Can I
4:16
Speaker 2: show you something? Or if you look at it on
4:18
Speaker 2: a different tab, I want to show you what you seek. Yeah.
4:23
Speaker 2: I want to see your reaction.
4:26
Speaker 1: In real time. People, this is real time find that. Oh,
4:30
Speaker 1: there we go and there we go. Yeah, find help.
4:33
Speaker 2: Let me type it, okay, yeah, put in your zip
4:35
Speaker 2: code okay.
4:38
Speaker 1: Food, housing, goods okay.
4:40
Speaker 2: But go up and no one knows this exists exactly.
4:44
Speaker 2: I know it's the most important thing in the world.
4:46
Speaker 2: I think, Uh, well, go up to the search bar
4:49
Speaker 2: and put disability.
4:51
Speaker 1: Okay, let me do that and.
4:53
Speaker 2: The search on the left hand top.
4:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, real time reaction. I guess good. I got my
4:57
Speaker 1: react to this right disability And there's about there's tons
5:07
Speaker 1: of things.
5:08
Speaker 2: How many how many there's a number on top of
5:10
Speaker 2: that list.
5:11
Speaker 1: There is, let me tell you right here, one of
5:15
Speaker 1: five hundred and thirty nine Doug Gades.
5:17
Speaker 2: Five one hundred and thirty nine Sources of money and
5:21
Speaker 2: help for People with disabilities.
5:23
Speaker 1: Five hundred and thirty nine.
5:26
Speaker 2: Why are you mentioned, man?
5:29
Speaker 1: Man? You know what it is too, is I think
5:34
Speaker 1: for those who are disabled but want to work and
5:37
Speaker 1: don't want to rely on government resources because it might
5:40
Speaker 1: be and about smashing stigmas. How would you encourage people
5:44
Speaker 1: with disabilities to only work but get the resources they're
5:47
Speaker 1: really entitled to if.
5:48
Speaker 2: You will absolutely But see it's more than that. I mean, see, okay,
5:52
Speaker 2: if you any payment, you're entitled to them, whether you
5:56
Speaker 2: want them or not. That's an option you don't have
5:58
Speaker 2: to use it. But also before in addition to paying
6:02
Speaker 2: living expenses, which a lot of this is, there's ways
6:05
Speaker 2: to grow. See. The other thing communities do is help
6:09
Speaker 2: you grow, so you could help more people, so to
6:12
Speaker 2: get a better education, to get the job training you need.
6:15
Speaker 2: I mean, right now, there's programs even people with disability
6:18
Speaker 2: they'll pay forty thousand dollars a year to train for
6:21
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars a year job with no college degree. Yeah,
6:27
Speaker 2: I mean this is the kind of thing that's out there,
6:28
Speaker 2: so it's not just living off that, it's growing. Yeah,
6:33
Speaker 2: you want to start a business, there's an office actually
6:36
Speaker 2: in Georgia. Are you in Georgia?
6:39
Speaker 1: No, I'm in Queens. I just happen to happen.
6:41
Speaker 2: Okay, you know it's funny.
6:43
Speaker 1: And my alma mater of the Viscardi Center if you're
6:46
Speaker 1: familiar with them or not, but the Viscardi Center has
6:48
Speaker 1: jump started a entrepreneurial oh project for people with disabilities
6:53
Speaker 1: to really grow that and let me go to this then,
6:57
Speaker 1: knowing these grants are there, knowing that people can really
6:59
Speaker 1: get their feed off the ground or have one leg
7:01
Speaker 1: up if you want in the business. Fear, why isn't
7:05
Speaker 1: even the media talking about this? Why why is this
7:07
Speaker 1: being from page news? We have opportunities for people to
7:12
Speaker 1: and able body people also, by the way, I will.
7:14
Speaker 2: Say right, oh absolutely no people. It's just a small
7:17
Speaker 2: source a section of it. But know who uses it?
7:21
Speaker 1: Tell me, yeah, tell me about why. The entrepreneurial spirit
7:26
Speaker 1: from your eyes, it's sort of hate to say dead
7:29
Speaker 1: right now, but it feels like it's not inspired. There
7:30
Speaker 1: needs to be more of a spirit out there for
7:33
Speaker 1: building your own business. Shouldn't there be?
7:35
Speaker 2: I believe that's how I grew up, and I always
7:37
Speaker 2: wanted it myself. But what the government does is help
7:41
Speaker 2: you do that. So they help you start that business,
7:44
Speaker 2: whether it's seed money or technology and money, or help
7:49
Speaker 2: you think your idea, help you work on inventions, help
7:51
Speaker 2: you start a nonprofit, you know, help you be a freelancer,
7:54
Speaker 2: help you invest in real estate. All this stuff is
7:57
Speaker 2: able free. And you know that Donald Trump is a
8:02
Speaker 2: billionaire because their government grants.
8:06
Speaker 1: What about the ones that were sort of i'd say,
8:09
Speaker 1: abusing the system back in the COVID era. I mean
8:11
Speaker 1: there was a lot of that going on too.
8:13
Speaker 2: People still abuse it, People abuse the tax system, people
8:16
Speaker 2: anywhere there's money given out.
8:18
Speaker 1: Well, in your forty years of experience, though, I'm sure
8:21
Speaker 1: you advise people and consulted, as you said, on how
8:24
Speaker 1: to do it the right way, not the back doorway.
8:27
Speaker 1: If you will right well.
8:28
Speaker 2: I mean the people want to do it the back
8:30
Speaker 2: doorway aren't going to come to me. Well, they probably
8:33
Speaker 2: will to know it, and then if they lie on
8:36
Speaker 2: the application, and this is I'm not here to be
8:40
Speaker 2: a policeman for this. I'm here to people who need
8:45
Speaker 2: this stuff know about it so they could help them
8:48
Speaker 2: because we have You know, we live in a society
8:52
Speaker 2: that decided we're going to help each other. But nobody
8:55
Speaker 2: knows that. Everybody thinks we're trying to fuck each other.
9:00
Speaker 2: And it's not that at all. We got a third
9:02
Speaker 2: of everything in our economy. Is there that is given
9:06
Speaker 2: out for free to people? I mean a third? Yeah,
9:09
Speaker 2: and then two thirds is the capitalism. But we're trained
9:12
Speaker 2: in capitalism. We're not trained in using the community.
9:17
Speaker 1: No, we certainly are not, and we need to be.
9:19
Speaker 1: I know that Port Washington where I live with my
9:21
Speaker 1: fiance now it's a Port Washington community chess. I mean
9:24
Speaker 1: there are a lot of right well use left the
9:26
Speaker 1: community chest. I just don't think they get exactly enough.
9:30
Speaker 1: I guess you'd say business are enough people inquiring about
9:32
Speaker 1: their community chests, right, So we got to change that
9:34
Speaker 1: as well.
9:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, because they don't advertise. See, the people with the
9:37
Speaker 2: money can advertise on Google. That's why you'll never find
9:40
Speaker 2: the community chess in Google unless you know the exact name.
9:42
Speaker 2: But if you look help for my rent, you know
9:45
Speaker 2: you're never going to find you're going to find it.
9:47
Speaker 2: Every huckster in the world, you know a million of them.
9:50
Speaker 1: You know. I see got a website free dot LESCo
9:52
Speaker 1: dot com, and you've got fifty grands or free government
9:55
Speaker 1: money programs. Do you want to run down that list
9:58
Speaker 1: with me and of the fIF which one should we
10:00
Speaker 1: highlight while we have the time with you today?
10:03
Speaker 2: Well, to me, it's highlighting not a different specific grant
10:06
Speaker 2: because they're different everywhere. You know, what you really want
10:10
Speaker 2: to I want to highlight things like this, you need
10:13
Speaker 2: money for living expenses, This is where you start find
10:17
Speaker 2: help dot org. You need money to start a business,
10:20
Speaker 2: you go to this website. It's called SBA dot gov
10:26
Speaker 2: slash Local Assistance, and that's where you go to get
10:32
Speaker 2: one on one mentoring to start any business. You want
10:36
Speaker 2: to start a nonprofit, if you want to start work
10:38
Speaker 2: on your invention, if you want anything to do to
10:41
Speaker 2: make money, they'll help you for free. Okay. So if
10:45
Speaker 2: you have health problems okay, dental, mental, medical, and dental
10:56
Speaker 2: and pet and oh and dental, they're all free and
11:01
Speaker 2: low costs.
11:02
Speaker 1: So vision, you know, there's a vision.
11:04
Speaker 2: All that kind of stuff. If you go to Needymeds
11:09
Speaker 2: dot org. See all the free stuff is going to
11:12
Speaker 2: be dot org or dot gov. So that's needy meds
11:17
Speaker 2: me meds dot org. And you look for what I mean,
11:21
Speaker 2: there's money to live on because you're recuperating from something,
11:25
Speaker 2: maybe like you from the hospital. There's non profit organizations
11:28
Speaker 2: I give you that. You need money transportation to go
11:31
Speaker 2: to see a doctor and something, they have stuff for that.
11:34
Speaker 2: They have a listing of every government program at your
11:36
Speaker 2: state level, you know, whether it's prescription drugs. They have
11:40
Speaker 2: people that help you fill out the applications to get
11:42
Speaker 2: free prescription drugs. They have people that help you fight
11:45
Speaker 2: your hospital bill or medical bill or anything. People they'll
11:48
Speaker 2: pay your code, pay for you.
11:50
Speaker 1: I mean, you're doing all this work for it. You're
11:54
Speaker 1: doing all this work for us right to find all
11:57
Speaker 1: this out.
11:58
Speaker 2: Well it's there, yeah, but doing any of the real work,
12:01
Speaker 2: somebody else did it. They just don't know what's there.
12:05
Speaker 1: So why do we not as a society look into this.
12:08
Speaker 1: Is this because we're prideful? Is because we're lazy? Like
12:11
Speaker 1: is it a mix of both.
12:12
Speaker 2: Or what I think about? And actually the the guy
12:17
Speaker 2: from the Ukraine I just talked to, Uh, he had
12:20
Speaker 2: no idea because he thought government is capitalism. The United
12:25
Speaker 2: States is capitalism and that's it. And he's sort of
12:28
Speaker 2: always like Russia is No, we don't want to be
12:31
Speaker 2: like Russia. So I think the leaders try to pretend
12:36
Speaker 2: we don't do that because they don't think it's part
12:40
Speaker 2: of who we are, but it is. It's part of humanity.
12:42
Speaker 2: We're fucking human people trying to help human people.
12:46
Speaker 1: You know what's interesting about this is I talk about
12:48
Speaker 1: accountability and holding the government accountable. Right, that's kind of
12:50
Speaker 1: what it seems. And here we are talking about how
12:54
Speaker 1: our tax dollars are actually going to good use, and
12:57
Speaker 1: and that needs to be highlighted to because I'm tired.
13:00
Speaker 1: I'm talking about how the ways the bad ways. Here's
13:03
Speaker 1: some good ways.
13:05
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and that's but but that's true. See, that's right,
13:09
Speaker 2: and that's what makes the news. See, good stuff doesn't
13:12
Speaker 2: make the news, you know the news and motive. People
13:16
Speaker 2: are motivated by bad news. I mean you talk to
13:19
Speaker 2: some presidential candidates and you'll know that they tell you
13:23
Speaker 2: how screwed you are, uh, And so that's what motivates people.
13:27
Speaker 2: So the media you know, has a fire. You know,
13:31
Speaker 2: you know they're going to go down and cover the fire.
13:33
Speaker 2: Uh not people giving up money. Uh.
13:41
Speaker 1: If you're if you're a local agency and you need
13:43
Speaker 1: help to get these grants, what's the best way to
13:45
Speaker 1: go about If you're a local charity, you know, say
13:48
Speaker 1: like the spar Center who get grants, how do you
13:52
Speaker 1: how do they continue to get that? And is grant
13:55
Speaker 1: writing a skill? Are people hiring grant writers today or what?
13:59
Speaker 2: Well grant writer thing on grant writer. If you're an organization,
14:04
Speaker 2: you probably may need a grant writer. If you're not
14:06
Speaker 2: an organization individual like all that on fine help, you
14:09
Speaker 2: don't need a grant writer for any of that stuff.
14:11
Speaker 2: It's two three pages, fill in the blanks and that's it.
14:14
Speaker 2: So the problem with grant writers, see somebody think I
14:17
Speaker 2: need a grant writer to get a grant. That's absolutely wrong.
14:20
Speaker 2: You need a grant writer to get some grants. Those
14:22
Speaker 2: for individuals, you won't be that way. But people go
14:26
Speaker 2: out and find a grant writer, find it costs money,
14:28
Speaker 2: and even if they have money, they'll hire a grant writer.
14:31
Speaker 2: And to me, that's stupid because you don't even have
14:33
Speaker 2: the grant yet. So don't think you need a grant
14:37
Speaker 2: writer until you get the grant application, because otherwise it's
14:40
Speaker 2: like buying a prom dress before you get invited to
14:43
Speaker 2: the prom. You get your invitation.
14:46
Speaker 1: Yet this is a great conversation, Matt, I got to ask,
14:49
Speaker 1: then the application process can be daunting, right, So absolutely
14:54
Speaker 1: in your forty years, if you helped people get worked
14:56
Speaker 1: through those application processes, and I'm sure you're still doing
14:58
Speaker 1: it today at eighty one.
15:00
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely. Uh well, the application problem is that the
15:05
Speaker 2: process is not a problem to me unless you're a
15:07
Speaker 2: bigger organization and it's a large application individual things like
15:12
Speaker 2: on find help that the problem is finding the right
15:15
Speaker 2: office to apply to. That's what takes work, and that's
15:20
Speaker 2: what people will call one or two offices and they say,
15:22
Speaker 2: you make too much money, you do the you're this,
15:25
Speaker 2: you're that, you're for some reason they are not for
15:27
Speaker 2: their back, but look for better job. You have two
15:30
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty places that are there to do that.
15:33
Speaker 2: So it's like getting a job. You don't go on
15:34
Speaker 2: one door and oh, you're hiring today, they say no,
15:37
Speaker 2: then you go. You don't go home and wait for
15:39
Speaker 2: them and change your mind. You know, you've got to
15:42
Speaker 2: keep knocking on doors.
15:43
Speaker 1: All right. Let me ask you this. Obviously, you're in
15:45
Speaker 1: Washington a lot, and we're gonna get to watch the
15:47
Speaker 1: question mark. Brian, Hey, you got to be the question mark.
15:50
Speaker 1: You're in Washington a lot, and typically the Republicans don't
15:54
Speaker 1: like any kind of things like this.
15:56
Speaker 2: They do, oh, they hate.
15:59
Speaker 1: So let me ask you. Under a Trump presidency, are
16:01
Speaker 1: grant's going to be tighter to get or will grant
16:05
Speaker 1: you know, these grants be eliminated, Like what's going to happen?
16:07
Speaker 2: You won't see anything different for a couple of years
16:11
Speaker 2: if you do. And then what they're able to do,
16:13
Speaker 2: and I've seen it, you know, I've been doing fifty years.
16:15
Speaker 2: So they come and go and all the republic coming,
16:17
Speaker 2: and they're going to get a waste fun and abuse
16:20
Speaker 2: and everything else, you know, and they're just pleasing somebody
16:24
Speaker 2: to make it look like they're doing something and they don't.
16:26
Speaker 2: It's baked into the system, you know so much, and
16:30
Speaker 2: don't let that. I mean, what they're able to do
16:32
Speaker 2: is maybe change change the course a little bit. That
16:36
Speaker 2: will make a difference in five ten years or something
16:38
Speaker 2: like that. Yeah, but like at least for the next
16:40
Speaker 2: year or two, Like he's talking about climbing back some
16:44
Speaker 2: of the Biden programs. You're not going to do that
16:46
Speaker 2: because all the Republicans constituents are getting money from that.
16:53
Speaker 1: Well there's a kickback kind of thing with these grants, right,
16:56
Speaker 1: So I think that's what you're alluding to here.
16:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, well yeah, because it's not one person doesn't have
17:02
Speaker 2: all that. And then the same way with the Defense Department.
17:05
Speaker 2: See what the Defense Department does is they put uh
17:09
Speaker 2: places in every constituents a zip code. So they got
17:16
Speaker 2: people that't want to lose their contracts for the Defense
17:20
Speaker 2: Department there and they complained to elected official that they're
17:23
Speaker 2: not going to vote for them. You know, stupid, But
17:26
Speaker 2: that's the way.
17:26
Speaker 1: That's been on infomercials. You've been on TV, I mean
17:30
Speaker 1: doing these podcasts is a little different. But what's in
17:32
Speaker 1: your experience? What was that like being on TV talking
17:34
Speaker 1: about this? Is there a thrilling or you still get
17:37
Speaker 1: when you do these things?
17:40
Speaker 2: This is more rewarding. I mean the TV was more
17:44
Speaker 2: ego rewarding in a way because then people know me
17:46
Speaker 2: and I was I was nobody, barely got through school
17:50
Speaker 2: and all that kind so that was nice in that,
17:52
Speaker 2: but it didn't warm my heart like this does. H
17:57
Speaker 2: and also I used the media to communicate what I'm doing,
18:03
Speaker 2: and at that time there was very little media. You
18:07
Speaker 2: had three broadcast stations and maybe one hundred cable channels
18:10
Speaker 2: or whatever. Now you've got a gazillion things. But it
18:14
Speaker 2: was short time and it was very expensive. I had
18:16
Speaker 2: to hire a camera crew or whatever thousands of dollars
18:22
Speaker 2: to do a one minute commercial, so to say something
18:25
Speaker 2: in one minute, I just had a hitch in the nose.
18:29
Speaker 2: And that's it.
18:31
Speaker 1: And I'm sure this is more personal for you, So
18:35
Speaker 1: I'm sure I could tell you like the person ality
18:38
Speaker 1: and if like this, are you still? Are you still
18:42
Speaker 1: on TV at all? Can we find you anywhere? Or
18:44
Speaker 1: have you quired from that? Oh?
18:45
Speaker 2: I know on YouTube? I got ten thousand videos on YouTube.
18:51
Speaker 1: We're going to link that YouTube page up as well.
18:53
Speaker 1: Great on my feed, because you know, SEO is so important,
18:57
Speaker 1: you want to link everything together.
18:58
Speaker 2: All right. But no, that's why it's now. I mean,
19:03
Speaker 2: instead of paying thousands of dollars, I get an iPhone
19:05
Speaker 2: or used iPhone for two hundred bucks. And I'm in business.
19:08
Speaker 1: Tell me about student debt, because I feel like this
19:10
Speaker 1: is leaning into the student debt situation as well, right, absolutely,
19:13
Speaker 1: the government said they're going to forgive it, but that's
19:16
Speaker 1: been in the courts forever. Can people use these get helped,
19:19
Speaker 1: you know, these websites to actually help them with the
19:22
Speaker 1: student loan debts?
19:23
Speaker 2: Yes, if you have a student loan right now, you
19:27
Speaker 2: want to call the student loan people. Biden was trying
19:30
Speaker 2: to get rid of a lot of the debt and
19:32
Speaker 2: they still do and particularly people with disabilities could get it.
19:35
Speaker 2: And he was starting to send out emails like that,
19:39
Speaker 2: you talk to the people giving out the money. Don't
19:41
Speaker 2: trust me, don't trust anybody else about how you could
19:44
Speaker 2: get out of that. The student that people are very
19:48
Speaker 2: good at that. Maybe you get a bad egg or
19:50
Speaker 2: something like that. So you call again. If the student
19:53
Speaker 2: debt people aren't helping you, you call your elected official.
19:58
Speaker 2: They're the people that could make could happen for you
20:01
Speaker 2: or if they feel the screwed over. Also, there's more
20:04
Speaker 2: programs call it make an appointment with a Free financial
20:09
Speaker 2: counselor UH and that's at hudd Hu d dot gov
20:14
Speaker 2: slash counseling. And these are people know about that stuff
20:18
Speaker 2: because every state have special programs for getting rid of
20:21
Speaker 2: student debt, particularly anybody with a disability, make sure you
20:26
Speaker 2: know about the programs for student debt and disabilities. I mean,
20:30
Speaker 2: Biden is for giving a whole bunch, and you can't
20:32
Speaker 2: rely on them contacting you. You have to contact them
20:37
Speaker 2: and fight the system a little like you trying to
20:40
Speaker 2: fix it. Well, sometimes you have to fight that much
20:43
Speaker 2: to just get what you deserve.
20:45
Speaker 1: All right, spring of fighting. I don't think you're a
20:47
Speaker 1: fighter by nature. But have you ever confronted a politician
20:50
Speaker 1: on the steps of Capitol Hill that maybe people might well?
20:54
Speaker 2: I mean what I get from politicians is they call
20:57
Speaker 2: me because there's consider and called them about a program
21:01
Speaker 2: that they can't find. So I got to tell them
21:03
Speaker 2: where the program is.
21:05
Speaker 1: And now, how did you, in your forty year fifty
21:08
Speaker 1: years sorry, start researching all it? Like, where did you start?
21:12
Speaker 2: What was your It was libraries, that's all we have.
21:18
Speaker 1: You're interested? Like, what made you interested in this this
21:21
Speaker 1: very niche kind of subject?
21:22
Speaker 2: If you agreed I was getting paid to find the answers.
21:30
Speaker 2: It was getting food on the table. Yeah, and that
21:33
Speaker 2: was then I just saw, you know, and then it
21:35
Speaker 2: became bigger than me. And that's better.
21:39
Speaker 1: Bring your food on the table. You know people, and
21:42
Speaker 1: I mean not just disabled people, but able body people
21:44
Speaker 1: as well, do have this mental health issue? Yes, are
21:50
Speaker 1: you could you possibly make the argument that the suicide
21:54
Speaker 1: rate could be down if they went through these government
21:56
Speaker 1: grand programs?
21:58
Speaker 2: Absolutely? We have what is it or eight ninety nine?
22:01
Speaker 2: What's that new mental health helpline? Yes, and I've called
22:06
Speaker 2: it for people and things like that. Yeah, you call
22:07
Speaker 2: them up. Yeah, Yeah, they'll find you an organization locally
22:11
Speaker 2: that will do it for free. Yeah, and people don't
22:14
Speaker 2: know that.
22:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a lot of instead of instead of I
22:20
Speaker 1: guess you'd say morning suicide, we should prevent it. And
22:22
Speaker 1: this sounds like a certain way to get people back
22:24
Speaker 1: on their feet, Right, Matt, Let's get to the sixty
22:30
Speaker 1: six million dollar question here, right, how did you become
22:33
Speaker 1: the question mark guy? And when did you start wearing
22:35
Speaker 1: the question marks around Washington?
22:37
Speaker 2: Well, I guess about twenty years now I've been wearing
22:40
Speaker 2: this stuff, and now I'm into hearts. So I was always
22:43
Speaker 2: in information at a computer background, and I taught computer
22:47
Speaker 2: science and software companies and trying to get information really
22:51
Speaker 2: to business management. So to me, you can make good
22:54
Speaker 2: decisions if you have the good information. So computers for
22:58
Speaker 2: that one. This is before the internet. Uh, but now
23:01
Speaker 2: as I get older, I said, no matter how good
23:03
Speaker 2: your information is, it's still not going to guarantee you
23:08
Speaker 2: that you will be successful without your heart being in it.
23:13
Speaker 2: Your heart is smarter than your brain. You need your
23:17
Speaker 2: heart to be there to make things happen, because no
23:20
Speaker 2: matter what you want to do in life, life is
23:21
Speaker 2: going to beat you up. You're a human, so you
23:25
Speaker 2: got a ticket to be beat up by the rest
23:27
Speaker 2: of the world. And it's not going to leave you alone.
23:31
Speaker 2: So they get through all that, you know, bad stuff.
23:35
Speaker 2: Your heart has to be there otherwise you're going to
23:37
Speaker 2: have to do this. I'm going to find something easier
23:39
Speaker 2: to do. There isn't something easier to do, but it's
23:43
Speaker 2: easier if you want to be there. Yeah, that's what
23:47
Speaker 2: makes it easier to do.
23:49
Speaker 1: You get match your your your screenshot is actually outside
23:53
Speaker 1: of Scotis. That's great. Talk about the leag I guess
23:58
Speaker 1: we could go there for a second. Talk about the
24:00
Speaker 1: legal aspect of all this. Is there a lot of
24:03
Speaker 1: legal rigamarole that people might be turned off by to
24:06
Speaker 1: try and get these grants as well.
24:07
Speaker 2: Well, go somewhere and learn it's easier, that's all you're
24:11
Speaker 2: gonna and you're not going to find it.
24:14
Speaker 1: Sometimes I hear about these programs, Matt, and they don't
24:16
Speaker 1: feel like the person trying to present the program doesn't
24:19
Speaker 1: feel legit. So I think you found a way to
24:23
Speaker 1: make this very legit for people.
24:26
Speaker 2: I don't am I right, I mean I still see
24:28
Speaker 2: people that do take apart my saying Lesco's a scam.
24:33
Speaker 2: I still get that. I work up one day years
24:36
Speaker 2: ago and I saw I used to do a lot
24:40
Speaker 2: of media. I used to xerox my name or google
24:43
Speaker 2: my name every day, and I got fifty websites saying
24:46
Speaker 2: less go to lies. Yeah, and even it's the same
24:51
Speaker 2: thing as they say, but we have.
24:54
Speaker 1: A there is a positive here. There is a positive here.
24:57
Speaker 1: Fifteen thousand members are part of your Less Go Your
25:01
Speaker 1: Less Go Help And when did you When did you
25:03
Speaker 1: start growing that community?
25:05
Speaker 2: Just about two years ago? Maybe three? Now nobody bought
25:09
Speaker 2: books anymore. I had to figure out another way to
25:11
Speaker 2: get this information to people, and it took me a
25:14
Speaker 2: while number of years, And now I see that's what
25:17
Speaker 2: how people want to learn is really by your community
25:20
Speaker 2: and they teach each other. Yeah, it's been working and
25:25
Speaker 2: it's so profitable. I say, we give forty seventy thousand
25:29
Speaker 2: dollars every month back to Can.
25:31
Speaker 1: You trump the alarm? I can hear the alarm in
25:32
Speaker 1: the background.
25:33
Speaker 2: Sorry, really, I thought it stop? Sorry. Yeah, we give
25:39
Speaker 2: seventy thousand dollars just to members and that's the profit.
25:42
Speaker 2: Like forty percent of our profit goes back to members.
25:45
Speaker 2: And I thought you had to be Jeff Bezos to
25:47
Speaker 2: do something like this. I'm so proud of that. I
25:50
Speaker 2: read his story the other day. Facebook is giving one
25:54
Speaker 2: hundred million dollars to businesses to start businesses. One hundred million. Okay,
26:00
Speaker 2: we're not that big, but I looked at their sales.
26:02
Speaker 2: Their sales are one hundred and thirty forty billion. Okay,
26:07
Speaker 2: so they give zero point zero zero seven percent of
26:11
Speaker 2: their sales as a grant. We're giving forty percent every year.
26:16
Speaker 1: Can't You can't beat that. And I've got to push
26:19
Speaker 1: people to that community for help, because we're in a
26:24
Speaker 1: time where everybody's a little unnerved, a little right. Service
26:27
Speaker 1: people move out of the country and here you are saying, no,
26:29
Speaker 1: stay here, the government will work for you. You just
26:32
Speaker 1: got to the way to make it work.
26:34
Speaker 2: For you, right, that's right, we're not trained to do that.
26:37
Speaker 1: I think your end goal also is to tell people
26:39
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter who's in office. The government grants will.
26:42
Speaker 2: Be there absolutely and be having different names or everything eventually,
26:47
Speaker 2: but particularly the next two years, it'll be pretty statistical.
26:51
Speaker 1: Under this economy that's incoming, though, could you say that
26:55
Speaker 1: inflation's going? I mean, are you are you following the
26:57
Speaker 1: economic trends to make all these.
26:59
Speaker 2: I'm I'm an arm chair economist every day. You know,
27:03
Speaker 2: look at that someone in trouble or want to do
27:07
Speaker 2: something that doesn't matter at all to any of you.
27:10
Speaker 2: You know, it is the tools are out there. You
27:15
Speaker 2: got to start looking for the tools to start building
27:18
Speaker 2: what you want to happen. Now, whether it's five, six,
27:21
Speaker 2: four percent, whatever this other stuff is. You know, that's
27:26
Speaker 2: just nibbling at the edge as it doesn't matter. It's
27:29
Speaker 2: just people. The media likes bad news, so they kind
27:33
Speaker 2: of predend this is bad for the average person. And
27:38
Speaker 2: then it's how to know these programs to help you
27:42
Speaker 2: be resilient, to help you take care of the problem
27:45
Speaker 2: if that creates a problem for you.
27:47
Speaker 1: Now, of course, philanthropy will always exist and everything else
27:51
Speaker 1: and an investors will always exist. But I feel like
27:54
Speaker 1: if you're not a charity, you're not going to get
27:56
Speaker 1: that investor. I mean, I've been trying for years, got
27:58
Speaker 1: a sponsorship of this podcast. Uh deal is not happening.
28:02
Speaker 1: Could you say that this government grant program that whatever
28:06
Speaker 1: I look into could actually help fund the podcast? Is
28:08
Speaker 1: that what we're talking about?
28:10
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely, But that's local stuff. You got to start
28:13
Speaker 2: banging on doors locally for you know, start with that
28:19
Speaker 2: SBA dot gov slash. What you're in Brooklyn? You said
28:22
Speaker 2: where it is?
28:24
Speaker 1: I switch between Queens and Port Washington, so it's but
28:28
Speaker 1: is that still three to one one? Uh yeah, three
28:31
Speaker 1: one one area? Yeah?
28:32
Speaker 2: Okay, so uh no, the information see there's a two
28:36
Speaker 2: one one three one one New York. I mean this
28:39
Speaker 2: is where you find the community stuff is by dialing
28:42
Speaker 2: three one one, and so you find the people locally
28:47
Speaker 2: that help entrepreneurs, and you get them because they have
28:52
Speaker 2: they've been helping dozens and hundreds of people, so they
28:54
Speaker 2: know more options than you and I could ever dream
28:57
Speaker 2: up right here, and they'd be local. So you want
28:59
Speaker 2: to talk to half a dozen of those if you can.
29:02
Speaker 1: All right, I wanted to ask also about let me
29:08
Speaker 1: think about this, Matt. I've always I've enjoyed this conversation.
29:11
Speaker 1: We got to do more, especially it's coming in. But
29:14
Speaker 1: there were a couple more questions I had for you
29:16
Speaker 1: while I have you here today. Uh, I understand you
29:19
Speaker 1: also were an author. Tell us where we can find
29:21
Speaker 1: the books?
29:22
Speaker 2: Is also they're not very I've written a hundred books
29:26
Speaker 2: and two New York Times bestsellers, but I haven't read
29:30
Speaker 2: a book in fifteen years or written one.
29:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
29:32
Speaker 2: Now it's all online and it's helped. Yeah, you blog?
29:36
Speaker 1: Are you blogging at least?
29:37
Speaker 2: Or or I don't have a blog per se. I
29:43
Speaker 2: just do two three videos maybe for a day on
29:46
Speaker 2: YouTube and all the uh you know, Instagram and TikTok
29:51
Speaker 2: and all that stuff.
29:52
Speaker 1: And we'll be tagging a lot of this conversation because
29:55
Speaker 1: it was a very lively one, and Matt today, anything
29:59
Speaker 1: that we left on the table, because I feel like
30:01
Speaker 1: there's so much more we can get into today.
30:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I got fifty years banged up, boil up inside,
30:09
Speaker 2: and it's just about helping people. And whether you use
30:11
Speaker 2: me or not, remember it's going to take some time,
30:13
Speaker 2: and you can't just make one phone call, you get
30:15
Speaker 2: a check on the mail. You can't make one website
30:18
Speaker 2: and get a check on the mail. You're gonna have
30:20
Speaker 2: to talk to people. And if you don't start talking
30:22
Speaker 2: to people that are there to help you for free,
30:24
Speaker 2: it's going to take you a lot longer or maybe
30:27
Speaker 2: forever to get the help you need.
30:30
Speaker 1: How many small business have you helped launch through this message?
30:38
Speaker 2: Maybe millions? Maybe I can't keep drugging. It's funny. It
30:44
Speaker 2: sounds like I keep going forward all the time.
30:49
Speaker 1: What's next then for Matthew LESCo?
30:52
Speaker 2: Yes, this and making this better for people, and organizing
30:57
Speaker 2: the information to make sure people are able to get
31:02
Speaker 2: what they need. I mean organizing as this is a
31:06
Speaker 2: website of a community that we organize. It takes a
31:10
Speaker 2: lot now to organize that. And then you have one
31:14
Speaker 2: an organizing And the other thing is how do we
31:16
Speaker 2: get new members? Because you don't grow unless you keep
31:19
Speaker 2: getting new members.
31:21
Speaker 1: And I remember my other question. There have been so
31:23
Speaker 1: many things like gofund being all that to try it.
31:26
Speaker 1: Are as effective as this government grants that you've been
31:29
Speaker 1: talking about. Are they that they can they come?
31:31
Speaker 2: Well?
31:32
Speaker 1: I don't know.
31:33
Speaker 2: To me, if you're looking for success somewhere you don't know,
31:37
Speaker 2: I don't know. Anybody tells you don't know. You have
31:39
Speaker 2: to find out more about an individual thing to see
31:43
Speaker 2: if it's right for you. And the other most important
31:46
Speaker 2: thing about that, you don't know what's right for you
31:47
Speaker 2: until you try it. And so then if you're going
31:50
Speaker 2: to try things, do it without spending money, because it
31:53
Speaker 2: may take a while and you'll run out of money
31:55
Speaker 2: before you find it right.
31:56
Speaker 1: One Well, inspired to look at all of these resources
32:02
Speaker 1: and try and get this podcast going even more. I
32:05
Speaker 1: think you're helping me out big time today with this
32:07
Speaker 1: show the points. How about the listeners too, And I
32:12
Speaker 1: think you've done a good job of that today for sure. Well,
32:16
Speaker 1: I hope so, thank you so much to get the
32:21
Speaker 1: website correctly here.
32:23
Speaker 2: Let's go help dot com.
32:24
Speaker 1: Let's go help dot com. All right, find you there.
32:28
Speaker 2: Thanks Matthew, you've met Alex. Take care.
32:30
Speaker 1: This interview presented by podmatch dot Com.