Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / One Person Away: The Power of Relationships in Business With Matt Harris

Transcript

One Person Away: The Power of Relationships in Business With Matt Harris · The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

• 0:37
  Jennifer Johnson: Every entrepreneur has a unique journey filled with unexpected turns, challenges, and discoveries that shape who they become.
• 0:44
  Jennifer Johnson: Sometimes the path leads you to places that you never imagined, like becoming known as the Pearl Guy.
• 0:50
  Jennifer Johnson: In an industry that you may never have planned to enter, the most interesting entrepreneurial stories aren't just about the destinations, but about the lessons learned, the pivots made, and the persistence required along the way.
• 1:03
  Jennifer Johnson: Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Matt Harris, aka The Pearl Guy.
• 1:09
  Jennifer Johnson: We're going to explore his entrepreneurial journey and experiences that brought him to where he is today.
• 1:16
  Jennifer Johnson: Matt, thank you so much for being with me.
• 1:18
  Matt Harris: I am so psyched to be here.
• 1:20
  Matt Harris: Hello, everybody.
• 1:27
  Jennifer Johnson: Hello, hello.
• 1:28
  Jennifer Johnson: I want to know take us back to the beginning because you were not always known as the pro guy.
• 1:35
  Jennifer Johnson: I want to know what sparked your um interest, first of all, in being an entrepreneur.
• 1:43
  Matt Harris: Well, you know, okay, we're gonna go way, way back now that you asked that question.
• 1:48
  Matt Harris: And I was driving with my dad from Tucson to Vegas, and I had got a uh a scholarship to go to school, UNLV.
• 1:58
  Matt Harris: And my scholarship was not only a full ride scholarship, but they paid for my apartment, my books, and they gave me a salary.
• 2:06
  Matt Harris: Uh so I literally got paid to go to college.
• 2:10
  Matt Harris: And I got this when I was a junior in high school.
• 2:12
  Matt Harris: Uh so we were driving up there, my dad's about to drop me off at college, and I remember this discussion, and he it was for conducting my, by the way, the uh the scholarship.
• 2:23
  Matt Harris: So I was literally a conductor.
• 2:25
  Jennifer Johnson: Like a conductor in an orchestra?
• 2:28
  Matt Harris: Yes, absolutely.
• 2:29
  Matt Harris: I got paid for conducting, and I was in a band before that that like toured the world, and um uh it's uh maybe too much for this podcast.
• 2:38
  Jennifer Johnson: I don't know, but it's all part of your story, Matt.
• 2:41
  Jennifer Johnson: It's all fun.
• 2:42
  Matt Harris: Well, we're driving there to so you asked, so uh so we're going up there.
• 2:45
  Matt Harris: All right, and my dad said, you know what?
• 2:50
  Matt Harris: Music probably isn't gonna make you any money.
• 2:54
  Matt Harris: And I'm like, okay, I'm listening to him.
• 2:56
  Matt Harris: And I said, you know, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.
• 2:59
  Matt Harris: And he said, Yeah, that's the way you gotta go.
• 3:02
  Matt Harris: Uh and uh I thought about that and I romanticized it.
• 3:06
  Matt Harris: I remember on this way to this, you know, driving out to Vegas in the middle of the night in northern Arizona, and uh I always wanted to kind of be an entrepreneur.
• 3:14
  Matt Harris: Now music was my way in because I got paid to go to college for a year, then I got residency, and I don't it always grabbed on me that I just wanted to run my own businesses.
• 3:25
  Matt Harris: And I had tried little businesses throughout you know my life, you know, as a teenager.
• 3:29
  Matt Harris: Uh, but this was my opportunity to like really get into it.
• 3:33
  Matt Harris: So it actually started kind of young.
• 3:34
  Matt Harris: Yeah.
• 3:34
  Matt Harris: Uh and so sure enough, I dropped out uh after a year.
• 3:38
  Matt Harris: Uh and music was great to me.
• 3:41
  Matt Harris: I love music.
• 3:42
  Matt Harris: Uh I always will, but um, but that was the start of it.
• 3:46
  Jennifer Johnson: Really?
• 3:47
  Jennifer Johnson: Well, how did you how did the pearl industry find you, or how did you find the pearl industry?
• 3:55
  Matt Harris: That was not even a thing until I got married 30 years ago, and I was 20, I'm telling you what it is, 25 years old.
• 4:06
  Jennifer Johnson: And uh we're all doing the math.
• 4:09
  Matt Harris: Yes, yeah, yeah.
• 4:10
  Matt Harris: Don't do the math, just move on.
• 4:12
  Jennifer Johnson: I can't math.
• 4:13
  Jennifer Johnson: So it's no.
• 4:14
  Matt Harris: Yeah, move on, move on, move on.
• 4:15
  Matt Harris: All right, so uh it was uh we were we decided to get pearls for the bridesmaids, but neither of us knew how to buy pearls or what the pearls were or how much they cost.
• 4:25
  Matt Harris: And I'm a shopper and I worked at the malls, and I was always like a uh I'm into shopping.
• 4:30
  Matt Harris: I love it.
• 4:30
  Matt Harris: So I'm like, I volunteer to go search for pearls.
• 4:34
  Matt Harris: So I went to LA and we were in Pasadena at the time, so uh, which is close to LA, and in LA they have this famous jewelry mart, like a lot of big cities have, like in Chicago and New York and et cetera.
• 4:46
  Matt Harris: And I started looking around for pearls and asking people about pearls, and it was interesting because a lot of the vendors didn't even really know about them, and they had a hard time telling me what they were or if they were treated or whatever.
• 5:01
  Matt Harris: Long story short, I ended up buying dyed pearls that were eggplant colors that matched the bridesmaids' dresses.
• 5:08
  Matt Harris: But through the whole process, I just thought they were the most interesting, fascinating, neat little thing.
• 5:15
  Matt Harris: Uh, and uh I'm a learning freak, and I realized there's a lot to learn about these, and that's kind of when it struck me that I love pearls.
• 5:23
  Matt Harris: Uh, 25 years old.
• 5:25
  Jennifer Johnson: Wow.
• 5:26
  Jennifer Johnson: And here you are today, the pearl guy.
• 5:29
  Jennifer Johnson: Along the way, what were some of the challenges that you faced when okay, I I know you've had uh a career it was in jewelry.
• 5:39
  Jennifer Johnson: I mean, besides pearls, was it before that that you did something also in jewelry?
• 5:45
  Matt Harris: Kind of, but not really.
• 5:46
  Matt Harris: So uh starting after that, I ended up starting a I was in retail at the time.
• 5:52
  Matt Harris: I ran uh the retail stores for Warner Brothers.
• 5:54
  Matt Harris: If anybody's old enough to remember this, the Warner Brothers studio stores, I ran Hawaii through Denver.
• 6:00
  Matt Harris: So that was my my region.
• 6:01
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh that was a big territory in the 90s, yeah.
• 6:04
  Matt Harris: And I was like 21, and I was in charge of 26 retail stores.
• 6:09
  Matt Harris: So loved retail.
• 6:10
  Matt Harris: Uh, but then I moved to software and uh started a software company and raised some venture capital.
• 6:16
  Matt Harris: And uh it was great.
• 6:17
  Matt Harris: We helped people prepare for exams around the world, uh millions of people.
• 6:22
  Matt Harris: And it was great, ran that for years and years.
• 6:24
  Matt Harris: Uh went into wine distribution after that, bought a 30 acres in Calistoga, California.
• 6:32
  Matt Harris: Yes, to start up my own winery.
• 6:35
  Matt Harris: Uh, I've been all over the map.
• 6:37
  Matt Harris: I've had I've had more careers than people have changed phone cases.
• 6:41
  Matt Harris: And so, no, none of that.
• 6:44
  Matt Harris: And it's just the thing is that pearls were always interesting to me.
• 6:48
  Matt Harris: And I would design some stuff on the side.
• 6:51
  Matt Harris: Uh, and I even, when I was, gosh, maybe 20 years ago, designed uh some pieces and um sold them to Britney Spears, Deborah Messing, some Victoria's Secret models.
• 7:03
  Matt Harris: I actually designed for Deborah Messing for two seasons on Will and Grace.
• 7:07
  Jennifer Johnson: No way, shut the front door.
• 7:09
  Matt Harris: Yeah, Kate Flannery on the office, but it was all hobby.
• 7:12
  Matt Harris: I was just screwing around.
• 7:14
  Matt Harris: Um, but so so no, so but it to answer your question, I moved to Texas eventually, maybe five, six years ago, and I was frequenting uh frequenting jewel jewelry stores, and there's this one store in particular that was really nice, and they had a great uh owner, and I noticed that she could probably do a lot better.
• 7:37
  Matt Harris: Uh, so you know retail for sure.
• 7:39
  Matt Harris: And you know this for sure, it was consignment.
• 7:43
  Matt Harris: So this is a consignment shop, but their consignment was mostly uh furniture.
• 7:48
  Matt Harris: Then they had a jewelry store as part of it.
• 7:51
  Matt Harris: And as I got to know this lady, I realized that the consignment part of the jewelry part was like it's a gold mine, and they weren't doing what they could do.
• 8:01
  Matt Harris: So I went to her and I said, I don't need a job, but what if I took this over?
• 8:08
  Matt Harris: You just let me do what I'm gonna do.
• 8:11
  Matt Harris: And it's like I make the decisions and we'll triple your revenue, and then after that, you pay me 50% of the profits.
• 8:18
  Matt Harris: And she said yes.
• 8:19
  Matt Harris: And so I did that for about maybe two and a half, three years before I eventually made the decision to say I'm all in on pearls, and that was almost three years ago.
• 8:31
  Matt Harris: So did you guys follow that?
• 8:33
  Matt Harris: I have no idea.
• 8:34
  Jennifer Johnson: I think they did.
• 8:34
  Jennifer Johnson: I mean, I totally followed it.
• 8:36
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm sure our listeners totally followed it.
• 8:38
  Jennifer Johnson: What do you think the most important lesson you have learned thus far in entrepreneurship?
• 8:46
  Matt Harris: Ooh.
• 8:47
  Matt Harris: It's probably a lesson that I'm not really good at, even though I know the lesson.
• 8:52
  Matt Harris: Um everybody's got 24 hours in a day.
• 8:57
  Matt Harris: What you decide to do with it is up to you.
• 9:00
  Matt Harris: And if you look at people that have been extremely successful and you say, How the heck did they do it?
• 9:05
  Matt Harris: And it's probably a lot, and because they're using their 24 hours a day.
• 9:10
  Matt Harris: I don't tend to use my 24 hours a day in a way that benefits me the most.
• 9:17
  Matt Harris: And that's something that I'm personally working on right now.
• 9:20
  Matt Harris: I woke up this morning thinking exactly that.
• 9:23
  Matt Harris: Uh, but it's it's not about necessarily the opportunity that comes to us.
• 9:29
  Matt Harris: We seek opportunity, uh, but it's what we decide to do with those hours that makes a huge, huge difference.
• 9:38
  Matt Harris: Are you gonna sit and scroll through whatever online?
• 9:41
  Matt Harris: Are you going to like chase the thing that's over there that doesn't really matter much?
• 9:46
  Matt Harris: What are your priorities and what can benefit your business and take you to the next level, whatever that level is, today?
• 9:53
  Matt Harris: Are you spending time on that?
• 12:22
  Matt Harris: So effective use of time, I would say.
• 12:25
  Jennifer Johnson: Ibrahim Lincoln had a quote, and I'm not going to remember it correctly, but it's it's about it's not the days that count, it's the hours and the day or something like that.
• 12:35
  Jennifer Johnson: Do you know what I'm talking about?
• 12:37
  Matt Harris: No, but I get it, yeah.
• 12:38
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, I mean, we could all look it up, but it's it's something to that effect.
• 12:43
  Jennifer Johnson: Um, how do you feel that your approach to entrepreneurship has kind of evolved over the time that you've had your business and and really just over the years?
• 12:57
  Matt Harris: My approach to entrepreneurship, well, well, that's part of it is managing managing time.
• 13:03
  Matt Harris: Uh but I think the other, here's the gold that I've learned, you guys, if you don't mind a little bit of sharing.
• 13:09
  Jennifer Johnson: We want gold.
• 13:10
  Matt Harris: It's this.
• 13:11
  Matt Harris: This is the biggest thing I've learned about this.
• 13:14
  Matt Harris: All that like completely works out.
• 13:17
  Jennifer Johnson: More like a diamond.
• 13:17
  Jennifer Johnson: It's more like a diamond, not gold.
• 13:20
  Matt Harris: Oh, well, no, it's more like a pearl.
• 13:22
  Jennifer Johnson: Okay, sorry.
• 13:23
  Matt Harris: Yeah, watch out for that.
• 13:24
  Matt Harris: It is this.
• 13:27
  Matt Harris: You're not one book away, you're not one online course away from fulfilling your next goal, you're one person away.
• 13:37
  Matt Harris: And it's people that make things happen in such an incredibly huge way.
• 13:42
  Matt Harris: It doesn't matter what you're doing, what your goals are, you're in on your entrepreneurial journey, and you're deciding I'm gonna get here from here, it's people that make it happen.
• 13:53
  Matt Harris: And I think the biggest lesson I've learned, and once you learn it, you love it and you live it and you do it every day, is meet people and help people.
• 14:06
  Matt Harris: And because when you help them, eventually they're gonna help you or somebody else is gonna help you.
• 14:10
  Matt Harris: It all works out.
• 14:12
  Matt Harris: Uh, and it it's people.
• 14:14
  Matt Harris: I can't tell you how much time I spend just building relationships with people.
• 14:21
  Matt Harris: And um, and you know what?
• 14:23
  Matt Harris: If they can't help me, I don't care because I've helped them and it makes me feel great and it makes the world a better place.
• 14:29
  Matt Harris: Eventually they help me as well.
• 14:31
  Matt Harris: And uh, you've seen me you know post something up on Facebook or whatever saying, hey, I need somebody, I just did this today, I need somebody in Paris to help me in three weeks.
• 14:40
  Matt Harris: I'm going to Paris for the Paris Fashion Week.
• 14:43
  Matt Harris: And I know it's gonna lay in my lap just because I've helped so many other people that it's gonna come back.
• 14:51
  Matt Harris: Uh that's the biggest secret to all this.
• 14:54
  Matt Harris: Don't do it on your own.
• 14:55
  Jennifer Johnson: And you know what, I and I might be wrong in this, but so you, and and this is probably from uh uh meeting someone, I'm guessing.
• 15:03
  Jennifer Johnson: You ended up on Tahitian Airlines.
• 15:08
  Jennifer Johnson: Let's talk to me about that story.
• 15:09
  Jennifer Johnson: How did you end up there?
• 15:11
  Jennifer Johnson: Was it because you met someone and you had a conversation?
• 15:14
  Matt Harris: Two lessons there.
• 15:16
  Matt Harris: Wait, one lesson, maybe two.
• 15:18
  Matt Harris: Let's start with one.
• 15:19
  Matt Harris: So uh so yeah, so I decided, everybody, two and a half years ago, it was March, I'm looking at my calendar, uh, two and a half years ago plus a month or two.
• 15:30
  Matt Harris: I was gonna be the Pearl guy, and I wasn't in the Pearl business.
• 15:35
  Matt Harris: Yes, I was working at the jewelry store and managing it for this lady, uh, and I'd run software companies and this and that, but I was unknown, completely unknown in the pearl world.
• 15:46
  Matt Harris: And I figured I'm 50 years old.
• 15:49
  Matt Harris: If I'm gonna do this, I need to be seen quick, and I need to like ramp it up because I'm not screwing around at 50 something years old.
• 15:57
  Matt Harris: I want to make this thing happen.
• 15:59
  Matt Harris: So with the Pearls and Tahiti and the Tahitian Airlines, it's called Air Tahiti Nui, by the way.
• 16:05
  Matt Harris: Um I heard that there is this convention, well, not a convention, more of a um a meetup in Tahiti that's happening with this big Pearl, or not big pearl, but big jewelry association.
• 16:20
  Matt Harris: And they've got like 30,000 members, and they were going to do a trip to Tahiti, and people would come and they'd learn about pearls.
• 16:27
  Matt Harris: So I texted the girl in charge of it and I said, Hey, I've got an idea.
• 16:32
  Matt Harris: Why don't I come?
• 16:34
  Matt Harris: And the first night I'll do a talk about the history of pearls and get everybody really excited about it, and then that can be like the setup for the rest of your trip.
• 16:42
  Matt Harris: And her response was, um, okay, you know, I'm kind of busy to think about that right now, but like nice idea.
• 16:49
  Matt Harris: So then she was going to a conference, a big uh uh jewelry conference called the Tucson Gem Show, if you guys have ever heard of that in Tucson.
• 16:58
  Matt Harris: It happens every February, it's been gone for like 50 years.
• 17:01
  Matt Harris: And I knew she was there, I was there, so I texted her again, and I'm like, Hey, I really want to talk to you about this.
• 17:07
  Matt Harris: Do you have some time?
• 17:08
  Matt Harris: And she said, No, I'm busy all day, I'm in these conferences, blah, blah, blah.
• 17:14
  Matt Harris: And then I said, Well, where are you staying?
• 17:16
  Matt Harris: And she said, Well, I'm out of town like 30 minutes.
• 17:18
  Matt Harris: I said, I have a car, why don't I come and pick you up?
• 17:22
  Matt Harris: I'll take you to breakfast.
• 17:23
  Matt Harris: That way you can save an Uber and we can talk about this on the way to the conference.
• 17:29
  Matt Harris: And she said, Yes.
• 17:30
  Matt Harris: So I did.
• 17:31
  Matt Harris: Yeah, and so I sat there at Denny's with her, and everybody gives me a hard time about that because they said I should have brought her someplace nicer, but whatever.
• 17:39
  Matt Harris: This was a Denny's.
• 17:40
  Jennifer Johnson: We're not judging.
• 17:41
  Jennifer Johnson: No.
• 17:41
  Matt Harris: You know what?
• 17:42
  Matt Harris: This is a Denny's.
• 17:43
  Matt Harris: I grew up in Tucson that I used to go to all the time, and I take dates there, and uh, it was so special to my heart, this Denny's.
• 17:49
  Matt Harris: So I just want to go to this Denny's.
• 17:51
  Matt Harris: And I pitched her on this, and then she said, Okay, well, that sounds like a great idea.
• 17:55
  Matt Harris: And she calls this guy who is like the uh co-sponsor in Tahiti.
• 18:01
  Matt Harris: Now, I already talked to him and I said, Hey, Fred, what do you think of me doing this?
• 18:06
  Matt Harris: And he said, Ask Aaliyah.
• 18:08
  Matt Harris: And so this is Aaliyah.
• 18:09
  Matt Harris: So when she calls Fred, she goes, I'm sitting here with Matt at Denny's in Tucson, and he suggests that he does a speech about pearls.
• 18:16
  Matt Harris: What do you think?
• 18:16
  Matt Harris: He goes, Oh, yeah, Matt mentioned that to me, and I think it's a good idea.
• 18:20
  Matt Harris: I thought he should ask you.
• 18:21
  Matt Harris: She says, I think it's a good idea.
• 18:23
  Matt Harris: So they booked me.
• 18:25
  Matt Harris: So here I am now flying to Tahiti.
• 18:27
  Matt Harris: Keep in mind, I did not have a speech about pearls in Tahiti or the history of pearls.
• 18:33
  Matt Harris: There's nothing.
• 18:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Let me back up.
• 18:35
  Jennifer Johnson: How long have you been doing pearls by the time this rolled around?
• 18:42
  Matt Harris: A week.
• 18:43
  Matt Harris: Yes, a week.
• 18:45
  Matt Harris: I quit my job a week before, and so here I am like without a speech, and then I'm invited to frick can I say frickin' on a podcast?
• 18:57
  Matt Harris: I think so.
• 18:57
  Matt Harris: Tahiti.
• 18:58
  Matt Harris: Thank you.
• 18:59
  Matt Harris: Uh, and um, I got this planned.
• 19:02
  Matt Harris: So, how does that wrap into air Tahiti?
• 19:05
  Matt Harris: This is all about another piece of advice.
• 19:10
  Matt Harris: Can I give you guys that is ask, ask, always ask.
• 19:14
  Matt Harris: We don't ask.
• 19:15
  Matt Harris: I don't know why people don't ask, but the worst you can hear is no.
• 19:19
  Matt Harris: Like I asked Aliyah.
• 19:20
  Matt Harris: She said yes.
• 19:21
  Matt Harris: So I'm in Tahiti giving this speech, and uh, we invite uh the president of Tahiti along, and um the uh government owns Air Tahiti Nui.
• 19:34
  Matt Harris: Now he couldn't make it at the last minute, but he sent some guys.
• 19:38
  Matt Harris: And one of them was like the VP of marketing, another one was like the we had like the uh uh guy in charge of like fisheries all throughout French Polynesia there.
• 19:47
  Matt Harris: And I get a call from them uh a few days later and they said, Hey, are you gonna be here Monday because we'd like to have lunch and talk about some stuff?
• 19:55
  Matt Harris: Now, I wasn't there Monday, but I said, Yes, of course I'm gonna be here Monday.
• 20:01
  Matt Harris: So I call and I'm changing my reservations.
• 20:04
  Matt Harris: Uh and I met them for lunch, and they said, What do you think about writing an article for Tahiti or Tahiti magazine, the thing on the plane, and we can talk about your trip and your experience?
• 20:18
  Matt Harris: And I said, Great idea, happy to do it.
• 20:20
  Matt Harris: And then I asked, I said, You were at the speech the other night.
• 20:24
  Matt Harris: What if we and I recorded it by the way, always record everything that you do.
• 20:28
  Jennifer Johnson: Good advice.
• 20:29
  Matt Harris: Yep.
• 20:30
  Matt Harris: And I said, What if we took that recording, we put it on all of the Air Tahiti uh airplanes throughout the world, teaching people about the history of pearls?
• 20:39
  Matt Harris: And the guy looks at me, he says, Great idea.
• 20:42
  Matt Harris: As a matter of fact, you can fly Air Tahiti for free.
• 20:45
  Matt Harris: That's gonna be like if if you're good, we'll exchange that for free flights.
• 20:50
  Matt Harris: And that's the way it happened.
• 20:51
  Matt Harris: That's a very long answer to your story, but uh hopefully there's some, yeah.
• 20:57
  Jennifer Johnson: There's there's some nuggets of pearl wisdom in there, but that you asked.
• 21:03
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
• 21:04
  Jennifer Johnson: That was simple as that.
• 21:05
  Jennifer Johnson: I agree.
• 21:06
  Jennifer Johnson: Why don't people ask more?
• 21:07
  Jennifer Johnson: Because we're afraid of the answer.
• 21:09
  Jennifer Johnson: We're afraid of the no.
• 21:11
  Matt Harris: You'd be amazed what you can get by asking, guys.
• 21:15
  Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely.
• 21:16
  Jennifer Johnson: How do you continue to stay relevant?
• 21:21
  Jennifer Johnson: And and I don't know if innovative is the right word in this respect, but how do you continue to stay relevant today?
• 21:34
  Matt Harris: Relevance.
• 21:34
  Matt Harris: Well, in the Perl world, what does relevance mean?
• 21:39
  Matt Harris: I think that it means it's a little bit, it's gonna be very different than a lot of you guys that are watching, but uh there may be some parallels.
• 21:47
  Matt Harris: In whatever your industry is, uh being on top of trends is a big thing.
• 21:52
  Matt Harris: Um and in fashion and within jewelry in particular, it becomes really easy because all you have to do is be on top of trends and comment about things.
• 22:03
  Matt Harris: Now, I have a big social media following, and I've got like 120,000 subscribers on YouTube and which is amazing.
• 22:10
  Matt Harris: Yeah, Instagram's doing great.
• 22:11
  Matt Harris: And so it it tends to be somewhat easy in that whenever somebody wears pearls, I talk about it.
• 22:18
  Matt Harris: So we are about to release a YouTube video about Selena Gomez.
• 22:22
  Matt Harris: I might do that this afternoon, if not tomorrow.
• 22:25
  Matt Harris: Uh we I was interviewed about Taylor Swift, her wedding ring last week by Today magazine, as you think I think you saw.
• 22:31
  Matt Harris: Uh and you know, being a newsmaker or being a commentator in your industry, I think, is probably a big hit in terms of being relevance.
• 22:42
  Matt Harris: Now, can you do that if you are if you own a pickleball court?
• 22:46
  Matt Harris: I just thought of that right now.
• 22:47
  Matt Harris: Uh yes, absolutely.
• 22:48
  Matt Harris: You can get out in the media and talk about pickable and pickleball trends and this and that exercise and how good it is for you, and you know, or maybe uh, I don't know, dating over 50.
• 22:58
  Matt Harris: Maybe you go to pickleball.
• 23:00
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm I'm just throwing out a pickleball court.
• 23:03
  Jennifer Johnson: There'll be someone there for you.
• 23:04
  Jennifer Johnson: But you're right, it's about creating those stories around your industry and and um interjecting yourself into stories, right?
• 23:15
  Matt Harris: And we can all do it, every one of us.
• 23:17
  Jennifer Johnson: You're right.
• 23:18
  Jennifer Johnson: It does not matter the industry.
• 23:19
  Jennifer Johnson: I do that, right?
• 23:21
  Matt Harris: I see you doing that.
• 23:22
  Jennifer Johnson: Mm-hmm.
• 23:23
  Matt Harris: Yeah, and as a matter of fact, you and I guys, like this happened.
• 23:28
  Matt Harris: So there was a somebody that asked for comments on something.
• 23:33
  Matt Harris: I don't remember it was, it was a big major publication, and then I answered it, never heard anything, and then I see it published, and there's Jennifer in the article.
• 23:45
  Matt Harris: Yes, can I tell you those is yeah, and you're in it talking about the exact same thing that I answered, and like, good for you.
• 23:53
  Matt Harris: I don't know, I could dig it up.
• 23:54
  Matt Harris: Uh, and they sent me a note, they're like, Hey, sorry, we uh you know appreciate you, but we didn't include you.
• 23:59
  Matt Harris: And then there you are.
• 24:02
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm sorry.
• 24:05
  Matt Harris: Good for you, that's great.
• 24:06
  Jennifer Johnson: Who knows, right?
• 24:07
  Jennifer Johnson: But I think I mean you're crushing it with that, and that's awesome because again, it's kind of like it's kind of like asking, but it's putting yourself out there.
• 24:16
  Jennifer Johnson: It's saying, hey, here I am, I exist.
• 24:18
  Jennifer Johnson: And and I don't even need to ask you this, but with regard to entrepreneurship and and doing something, you know, that is not that's scary and all that kind of thing, what role does passion play into that little realm?
• 24:37
  Matt Harris: All of it.
• 24:37
  Matt Harris: Yeah, not even uh, you know, you're you're touching on something.
• 24:42
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh my gosh, with me, that is that's your face lights up because you know, we start talking about something you love and it's yeah.
• 24:51
  Matt Harris: Yeah, I'm all about passion.
• 24:53
  Matt Harris: Uh whether it's in your personal life or in your business life, there's nothing better than passion.
• 24:59
  Matt Harris: I mean, imagine living a life without passion, and if you're living That life right now, go get it because it's like really incredible.
• 25:06
  Matt Harris: Uh, and it feels so good.
• 25:08
  Matt Harris: Uh, and you make other people happy about it as well.
• 25:12
  Matt Harris: So, again, we're talking personal, yes.
• 25:15
  Matt Harris: That's a big one, business, yes.
• 25:19
  Matt Harris: Uh, and if you do what you're passionate about, it sounds really lame, cliche, I get it, that you're gonna everything's gonna work out.
• 25:26
  Matt Harris: Right it works, it's the weirdest thing, but it absolutely works.
• 25:31
  Matt Harris: And I spent, guys, like 50 years of my life not doing it, and I did well, I made great money, I did stuff that was fine, I was mediocre.
• 25:43
  Matt Harris: And I made great money, um, but I didn't have a purpose, and I didn't have a way that I could have my daughter later say, my dad did that.
• 25:56
  Matt Harris: I wasn't leaving like a mark.
• 25:58
  Matt Harris: And I realized that pearls were it.
• 26:01
  Matt Harris: And uh I remember I I I went to my wife and I'm like, okay, I'm making like 200 grand a year right now, running this jewelry store that I took over with this lady.
• 26:13
  Matt Harris: Uh, but you know what?
• 26:14
  Matt Harris: I'm gonna give it all up.
• 26:15
  Matt Harris: And we are going to be, I'll be the pearl guy.
• 26:19
  Matt Harris: And she's like, uh crazy?
• 26:21
  Matt Harris: Nobody knows you in the pro how in the world are you gonna do that, you idiot?
• 26:27
  Jennifer Johnson: So she thought you were crazy.
• 26:29
  Matt Harris: Oh, totally.
• 26:29
  Matt Harris: Yeah, uh, yeah, yeah.
• 26:31
  Matt Harris: And that was a big one.
• 26:32
  Matt Harris: Um, but weirdly enough, oh again, I know it sounds corny, but do what you're passionate about.
• 26:38
  Matt Harris: It can work out, it will work out.
• 26:42
  Jennifer Johnson: It always does.
• 26:44
  Matt Harris: Yeah.
• 26:44
  Matt Harris: It has always I hope it always does.
• 26:46
  Matt Harris: I mean, I I am I'm not gonna be here saying that it always does every time necessarily.
• 26:51
  Matt Harris: Of course not, but um I think you got pretty good chances though.
• 26:55
  Jennifer Johnson: It works out how it should is really what happens.
• 26:58
  Matt Harris: That's a good point.
• 26:59
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, I I noticed that once you kind of stop fighting that following the passion, then things fall into place.
• 27:09
  Jennifer Johnson: But if you're constantly fighting it, going, I don't think I should be doing this.
• 27:13
  Jennifer Johnson: What you know, what what should I be doing?
• 27:16
  Jennifer Johnson: If you really do follow what you really want to do in here, then it does fall where it should.
• 27:24
  Matt Harris: It's happened for you too, hasn't it?
• 27:26
  Jennifer Johnson: It has.
• 27:27
  Jennifer Johnson: But you have to let your guard down.
• 27:29
  Jennifer Johnson: You have to go, you know what?
• 27:30
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm stripping all this away, and I am gonna let things just happen organically.
• 27:36
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes, I'm gonna do my part and I'm gonna push it and I'm gonna do all these things, but if it doesn't, you know, I don't get published in this or I don't get published in that or this doesn't happen exactly.
• 27:47
  Jennifer Johnson: That's how it was supposed to be.
• 27:50
  Matt Harris: But you're not gonna be.
• 27:51
  Matt Harris: Tons of them.
• 28:01
  Matt Harris: Uh you just can't get down by that, and you go for the wins.
• 28:05
  Matt Harris: Uh, one fail means you're just a step closer to the next win.
• 28:09
  Matt Harris: Like when I fail getting the media that Jennifer got.
• 28:12
  Matt Harris: No big deal.
• 28:14
  Matt Harris: But here I am.
• 28:18
  Jennifer Johnson: One more time, Matt.
• 28:20
  Jennifer Johnson: One more time.
• 28:21
  Jennifer Johnson: I know.
• 28:21
  Matt Harris: I gotta I gotta look that up.
• 28:23
  Matt Harris: No big deal.
• 28:23
  Matt Harris: But uh yeah, yeah, I I don't I don't remember what it is, but it doesn't matter because like I I'm and today last week and published by today.
• 28:33
  Jennifer Johnson: I mean, look at that.
• 28:34
  Matt Harris: Parade magazine nine times just once a year and things like that.
• 28:37
  Matt Harris: It's it's nuts.
• 28:38
  Jennifer Johnson: Phenomenal.
• 28:39
  Jennifer Johnson: It's phenomenal.
• 28:40
  Jennifer Johnson: So looking ahead, how do you plan on continuing to grow your business and evolve your business?
• 28:48
  Matt Harris: Oh, that's a really good question.
• 28:50
  Matt Harris: I think about that a lot.
• 28:52
  Matt Harris: And you guys, I I started this two and a half years ago with zero revenue, zero customers, zero mailing list.
• 29:00
  Matt Harris: Uh, and I'm telling you, it's it's not easy.
• 29:03
  Matt Harris: You know, we've we've built it up.
• 29:05
  Matt Harris: Um what's worked for me, which is probably a lot different than a lot of other people, uh, but this has worked for me.
• 29:13
  Matt Harris: And um, if you're watching this and you think it can work for you, follow me.
• 29:17
  Matt Harris: I'll start to teach you this.
• 29:19
  Matt Harris: And that is that I built a personal brand.
• 29:22
  Matt Harris: And that has been great.
• 29:25
  Matt Harris: And so, like, my name is is is known really well in the Pearl World, which is weird.
• 29:31
  Matt Harris: Um, but uh I'm on the uh Pearl Association of um uh the culture or the the Pearl Association Board of Directors.
• 29:38
  Matt Harris: I do Pearl stuff all over the planet, and uh I'm going to Paris in a few weeks to um um Paris Fashion Week, and I'm making an app for the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay about uh the pearls that are in paintings.
• 29:54
  Matt Harris: Um going back to your question, the original, oh shoot, I almost forgot what it was, but I was this is a build-up to whatever the ant your the question was.
• 30:03
  Jennifer Johnson: The question was how do you could plan to continue to grow and evolve your business?
• 30:08
  Matt Harris: Yes, okay.
• 30:08
  Matt Harris: So it's worked so what's worked for me is that all of this like attention has been funneled into sales.
• 30:16
  Matt Harris: So I have a website and people go there, buy go and they buy pearls.
• 30:19
  Matt Harris: And so the way that I monetize all of this, the the business behind Matt Harris Designs is I sell pearls.
• 30:26
  Matt Harris: So what's worked for me is getting all this uh publicity and attention and the YouTube channel and all this other stuff.
• 30:34
  Matt Harris: And then people come over and they buy, and I get uh notes all the time in like my buying notes saying, Hey Matt, I've been following you on YouTube for a long time.
• 30:42
  Matt Harris: I think I'm finally ready to buy some pearls.
• 30:44
  Matt Harris: And then once you get them, the other key is keeping them and making sure that people are happy and you're communicating, and there's nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing better than a customer that you keep and you communicate with because it's far easier that they're gonna come back and buy something else than it is to get a new customer.
• 31:06
  Matt Harris: Um, so my magic is that I I build relationships with my customers once they buy for me, and almost everybody comes and buys twice or three times or four times.
• 31:17
  Matt Harris: Uh, and then the other magic is I drive business through visibility.
• 31:21
  Matt Harris: Yeah, and so what am I gonna do now?
• 31:24
  Matt Harris: More of it.
• 31:25
  Matt Harris: Just more of that.
• 31:26
  Matt Harris: Yeah.
• 31:27
  Jennifer Johnson: Awesome.
• 31:27
  Jennifer Johnson: That's a good strategy, anyway.
• 31:29
  Jennifer Johnson: It's a good plan.
• 31:30
  Jennifer Johnson: Good plan.
• 31:31
  Jennifer Johnson: We are in the final four section of our podcast.
• 31:34
  Jennifer Johnson: I do this with every guest I have on, and it's four magical questions.
• 31:39
  Jennifer Johnson: The first question is what's your favorite book that you've read and what has made it stick with you?
• 31:45
  Matt Harris: Favorite book that I've read.
• 31:47
  Matt Harris: This will surprise you guys because everybody reads books.
• 31:51
  Matt Harris: I don't read books.
• 31:52
  Matt Harris: I I'm sorry.
• 31:53
  Matt Harris: And and that people send me books.
• 31:55
  Matt Harris: I've got in my other like desk at home, there's a bookshelf here, and you see books.
• 32:01
  Matt Harris: And people send me like the same book, like 10 of them.
• 32:05
  Matt Harris: And uh, do you get this, Jennifer?
• 32:07
  Jennifer Johnson: I don't, but yeah, yeah.
• 32:09
  Matt Harris: And uh it's like somebody that knows the author or the author themselves or whoever, and I get all these books, and I feel really bad because I never read them.
• 32:17
  Matt Harris: And you and I know some people that have written books that I've never read.
• 32:22
  Matt Harris: But uh did you read mine?
• 32:25
  Matt Harris: No, I haven't sent you a book.
• 32:27
  Matt Harris: You haven't sent it to me, it's not on my shelf.
• 32:29
  Matt Harris: However, that said, there's a book that literally changed my life, you guys, and thank God I read it early.
• 32:36
  Matt Harris: Uh, I think I read it when I was maybe 16 years old, and it's called The Greatest Salesman in the World by Augmandino.
• 32:42
  Matt Harris: And it is a book that literally takes you 10 months to read.
• 32:49
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh my gosh.
• 32:51
  Matt Harris: And if you read it and you do it the right way, it'll tell you in the book why it takes you 10 months to read it.
• 32:56
  Matt Harris: But it does, but it changes your life, and I've memorized big parts of that book, and I practice things that I've learned in that book every day, even today.
• 33:06
  Jennifer Johnson: That's awesome.
• 33:07
  Jennifer Johnson: I'm gonna look that one up.
• 33:08
  Matt Harris: Yeah.
• 33:09
  Jennifer Johnson: Do you have a favorite quote or piece of advice that you keep find yourself keeping uh that you're always coming back to?
• 33:15
  Matt Harris: Yes.
• 33:16
  Matt Harris: It's from a different book, which is like one of five books I've read in my life.
• 33:21
  Matt Harris: Uh, and it's called that book is called Illusions by Richard Bach.
• 33:25
  Matt Harris: I read it about the same time.
• 33:27
  Matt Harris: And it literally is stuck on a page by itself.
• 33:30
  Matt Harris: It's a quote, and it says, Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours.
• 33:35
  Matt Harris: So the minute that you say you can't, you won't.
• 33:38
  Matt Harris: The minute you say a million bucks is a lot of money, it becomes a lot of money, which is not a lot of money these days.
• 33:44
  Matt Harris: Uh if you say you can't, I guarantee you won't.
• 33:48
  Matt Harris: So what's the alternative is why not say you can?
• 33:52
  Matt Harris: Yeah.
• 33:52
  Matt Harris: Uh great.
• 33:54
  Jennifer Johnson: That is awesome.
• 33:54
  Jennifer Johnson: Wonderful.
• 33:55
  Jennifer Johnson: What is one habit or practice that has changed your life?
• 34:01
  Matt Harris: In a good way or a bad way.
• 34:03
  Jennifer Johnson: Either.
• 34:04
  Matt Harris: Just messing with I don't know.
• 34:07
  Matt Harris: A habit that's changed my life.
• 34:11
  Jennifer Johnson: Positive.
• 34:15
  Matt Harris: Oh.
• 34:15
  Matt Harris: You know, I don't know, other than here's the first thing that comes to my mind.
• 34:22
  Matt Harris: Uh, because uh so you got these she sent these to me earlier, but I didn't open the email or I didn't realize it was at the bottom.
• 34:29
  Matt Harris: So this is actually completely impromptu, right, Jennifer?
• 34:32
  Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely it is.
• 34:34
  Matt Harris: Uh I cuddle in with my dog every morning and he kisses my face all up and down.
• 34:42
  Matt Harris: Is it a habit that I'm deciding on?
• 34:45
  Matt Harris: No, because he does it.
• 34:46
  Matt Harris: And just this morning, too, he, you know, you wake up and he's in there in bed.
• 34:51
  Matt Harris: He's a little guy, uh King Charles Cavalier, and he jumps on me and just kisses and kisses and kisses, and I laugh and I smile.
• 35:01
  Matt Harris: And this is at like whatever, 5, 6 a.m.
• 35:03
  Matt Harris: And it's a habit that he started, not me, but there's something about the love of an animal that's just so nice.
• 35:12
  Matt Harris: And I don't care what I'm thinking of that night, or what I wake up at 3 a.m.
• 35:17
  Matt Harris: thinking of, or the problems I have, or a thing I gotta do, or a financial issue.
• 35:23
  Matt Harris: Uh, because it doesn't matter when that little guy's kissing your face.
• 35:27
  Jennifer Johnson: I love it.
• 35:27
  Jennifer Johnson: That's awesome.
• 35:28
  Jennifer Johnson: And if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be and why?
• 35:32
  Matt Harris: Vermeer.
• 35:34
  Jennifer Johnson: Okay.
• 35:34
  Matt Harris: Do you know Vermeer?
• 35:36
  Jennifer Johnson: I do not.
• 35:37
  Matt Harris: He was the guy who painted the girl in the pearl earring.
• 35:40
  Matt Harris: The uh with the I don't even know what that is.
• 35:42
  Jennifer Johnson: The girl in the pearl earring.
• 35:44
  Matt Harris: Girl in the pearl earring is one of the most famous paintings in the world.
• 35:48
  Matt Harris: And you guys that are watching this, comment on it uh if you know what I'm talking about.
• 35:53
  Matt Harris: And it was done in 1655, uh, a Dutch artist, and his name was Vermeer.
• 35:59
  Matt Harris: And I to this day do not think it was really a pearl, but everybody else does.
• 36:05
  Matt Harris: And I think that I would love to sit with him and confirm that that was not actually a pearl.
• 36:13
  Jennifer Johnson: I have to look that up now.
• 36:15
  Matt Harris: Yeah.
• 36:15
  Matt Harris: I've got a YouTube video about it, as a matter of fact, about proving that it's not a pearl earring.
• 36:20
  Matt Harris: Yeah.
• 36:21
  Jennifer Johnson: And check it out.
• 36:22
  Jennifer Johnson: Matt, our conversation has been wonderful today.
• 36:26
  Jennifer Johnson: If our audience wants to learn more about you and pearls, how can they reach you?
• 36:32
  Matt Harris: Matt Harris Designs is my website, uh, YouTube, Matt HarrisPearls.
• 36:37
  Matt Harris: Just type it in there and learn about pearls.
• 36:39
  Matt Harris: Guys, even if you don't think you want to know about pearls, uh, it's amazing when you go over there and you learn about it.
• 36:45
  Matt Harris: So it's it's really cool.
• 36:46
  Matt Harris: Uh, or Instagram, Matt Harris Designs, and I'll teach you everything you need to know about pearls, probably teach you a little bit about entrepreneurship along the way, too.
• 36:55
  Matt Harris: And I'm happy to help inspire if I can, because this is like a career that uh I just came up with a few years ago, and it's been going great, and it just goes to show you that you can do what you're passionate about.
• 37:08
  Matt Harris: If I can inspire you or help, let me know.
• 37:11
  Jennifer Johnson: Awesome.
• 37:11
  Jennifer Johnson: Thank you so much, Matt.
• 37:13
  Matt Harris: Yeah, thank you.
• 37:14
  Jennifer Johnson: And thank you to my guests.