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The Banker Who Quit His Career to Build a Creative Agency · Story Scaling

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Storyscaling by PodcastVideos.com, where creators share the truth behind the content, the grind, and the growth.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I am Bang with Story Scaling.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for watching these episodes.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: We're noticing that you know the viewership is going up and the subscribers are going up.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: So if you have not, please like and subscribe.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: And I am here with a good brother, a friend of mine, Matt Woolley.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Matt, thank you for your time today, man.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: Pleasure to be here, good sir.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: How are we feeling?
0:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh living the dream, my friend.
0:33
SPEAKER_02: It's been one of those days.
0:34
SPEAKER_02: I'm running up running on about an hour of sleep.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: Uh just because of uh the craziness of the schedule.
0:41
SPEAKER_02: Um, but hey, we're I'm glad to be here, feeling positive.
0:45
SPEAKER_02: I'm feeling you always bring the positive vibes.
0:48
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate that.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: So I'm feeling good.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, check this out.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: We're about to have a great conversation.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: I know it's gonna be a great conversation because you're you're a good conversationalist.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: But before we get there, I'm gonna read your bio.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is me.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: This is this is what I think, this is what I said.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: I did some research and I constructed this.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: And so as I read this, I want you to process.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Do I cosign this or do you not cosign this?
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Let me know what you think.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: Let's go for it.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: It says today's guest is Matt Woolley, a husband, father, musician, content creator, and founder of Design Science, a creative agency based right here in Rogers, Arkansas.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: For more than a decade, Matt has led Design Style in helping brands bring ideas from concept to cart.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: His team has created packaging, displays, video photography, and 3D visuals for major names, including Mr.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Beast, Ozark Trail, Wellie, Kimberly, and Clark with Costco.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Under his leadership, the company has grown, doubled its footprint, and launched an engineering division to accelerate prototyping and design execution.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: Beyond the agency, Matt hosts the Matt Woolley podcast, where he spotlights he spotlights, excuse me, builders, leaders across industries digging into lessons on leadership and growth.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Outside of business, he's a lifelong guitarist with serious shops.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: A direct quote from a friend is if this was the 80s, he would be famous.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: At his core, Matt Woolley is a storyteller who blends creativity, entrepreneurship, family, and music into everything that he does.
2:11
SPEAKER_02: That's pretty good.
2:12
SPEAKER_02: I like that.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
2:14
SPEAKER_02: That was accurate.
2:15
SPEAKER_02: Spot on?
2:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, give me the pen.
2:16
SPEAKER_02: I'll sign on it.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot there.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: When you when you hear that bio, what stands out to you about yourself?
2:26
SPEAKER_00: I know when I read this to a friend of mine, we just stopped after afterwards because he was like, I never hear anybody speak like that about me.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, bruh, I just wrote it down.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: You're the one that's out here doing the thing.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: I just put it into, and so when you hear everything that you're involved in, whether that's design styles, which has been, you know, doing really well for over a decade, music, family, so on and so forth, businessman, like what sticks out to you about the bio?
2:53
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm blessed.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:55
SPEAKER_02: I uh, you know, I tell people like that doesn't elaborate on it, but I've been in different industries and different things of that nature.
3:05
SPEAKER_02: And and I've lived, you know, five five different men's lives.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: Like I've had, you know, the it's design signs, we've been doing that for almost 16 years now.
3:17
SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, I mean, I've I've dude, I've done everything from weight tables to work on cars, to work on heating and air, build cabinets, uh banking, had a career in banking.
3:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've been all over, done all kinds of stuff.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: And so um it I really appreciate the journey.
3:41
SPEAKER_02: Totally.
3:42
SPEAKER_02: When somebody talks about all that, it just like there's like, especially my brain, if the squirrel goes in front of me, I'm off, and there I go bumping the TV.
3:51
SPEAKER_02: I told you I was gonna let's put it, let's put a tracker down here.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: We bumped the TV.
3:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:59
SPEAKER_02: Uh but you know, I feel I feel blessed.
4:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh just have been able to participate in a lot.
4:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:06
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: I mean blessed.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: Blessed.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: You always got good perspective.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: You were saying about me off camera that I'm positive and I'm upbeat, and I feel the same about you.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Good vibes.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what they what the kids say, good vibes, bro.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's some good vibes.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: And I but I feel the same about you when I watch your podcast, you bring in people, first of all, that are great pillars of the community and whatever respective field that they're in, and the same as you.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: And so when I see you today, I'm like Matt Wooley, well dressed, good communicator, you know, always got a smile on his face.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you talk about the backstory, the journey.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's get into a little bit about the journey.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: As far as you want to go back, tell me about your upbringing and tell me about, you know, what All right.
4:49
SPEAKER_02: So if I start I'll start.
4:50
SPEAKER_02: But if if uh I will keep me from writing a novel here, let's do top level.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: This is this is the Matt Woolley show, but I guess the story's got the future of Matt Woolley, so it's all about you.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: Write that novel, and and you take you take us as deep as you want to go.
5:04
SPEAKER_02: Born and raised in southern Arkansas, uh grew up about 20 minutes south of Pine Bluff, a place called Woodlawn, which is between basically Pine Bluff and Warren.
5:14
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, the country.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
5:19
SPEAKER_02: And uh and uh you know, grew up riding four-wheelers and motorcycles and and driving, you know, the back roads and that basically that you know country stuff.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: That real life country living.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: Um uh got into uh I've done several different jobs as a youth, worked a little bit of retail and then uh uh weighted tables for two and a half years.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: That's where I really honed.
5:45
SPEAKER_02: I've always had been a people person, you know.
5:47
SPEAKER_02: I could talk to a tree if I think it's listening.
5:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: And uh honed my skills doing that.
5:52
SPEAKER_02: Uh and then I got into banking and started working for Simmons Bank, the national bank uh headquarters, which is located in the heart of Pine Bluff, and uh was there for a year and a half, and then uh just by the grace of the good Lord, uh, you know, had the opportunity to come up here to Northwest Arkansas.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
6:15
SPEAKER_02: And I've been up here since 2002.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: And uh the quick story is is that uh uh I rose the ranks fairly quickly in banking as a young guy.
6:26
SPEAKER_02: I was very blessed.
6:27
SPEAKER_02: Um it, you know, to spare some of the details because it takes forever, but I tell everybody the dream became a nightmare.
6:36
SPEAKER_02: Uh what I worked for was just in the bank that I was at the time, I was burnout.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: And always been a musician.
6:44
SPEAKER_02: Um and so I started doing altern I got out of banking and started doing um music promotion as well as playing in an original band.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: When you say always been a musician, what like give me the early years, playing in church, family play music, and so you picked it up, or what did that come from?
7:01
SPEAKER_02: Um I do have a lot of musicians in my family.
7:03
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
7:04
SPEAKER_02: Um I started playing guitar at the about the age of 10, didn't get serious about it till 11.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: And I understand like this is at the time uh we're talking like early to mid-90s for me, but uh I love like bands like Kiss and Van Halen and uh which is where the classic yeah classic.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: And guys that could really play.
7:26
SPEAKER_02: Not that the ninety the nineties guys were great songwriters.
7:29
SPEAKER_02: I love nineties music, but as far as guitar players, there's no decade that haven't been seeing it.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: Was playing and be it was in bands.
7:42
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I told mom that I was gonna, you know, when I turn 18, I'm fixing to go to LA and become a rock star, that kind of thing.
7:51
SPEAKER_02: And that and I'm glad that didn't work out.
7:53
SPEAKER_02: I'm happy with where I've landed.
7:55
SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, I always been a musician.
7:57
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
7:58
SPEAKER_02: And so uh when I got out of banking, um I uh decided that I was going to uh give it one last go, released an album, uh, got looked at by Atlantic Records.
8:11
SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, they obviously they passed, but still just to say that they looked at it.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: It's crazy.
8:16
SPEAKER_02: And did a bunch of music promotion, um, did all kinds of different Joe jobs, just trying to figure out what I wanted to do.
8:23
SPEAKER_02: Had an art background, um, was heavily involved in art, uh, was accepted to art school, but it didn't go because it was a little bit different from my generation.
8:32
SPEAKER_02: I was right on the end of it.
8:33
SPEAKER_02: But I mean, dude, back in my day, like the thought of being designing packaging and that kind of thing was where I'm from just felt a little far-fetched.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: Like if you're gonna be an art, you're either gonna be like a uh an art teacher, which is okay.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: You've nothing wrong with that.
8:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
8:50
SPEAKER_02: Um, or you're gonna be a starving artist.
8:52
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
8:53
SPEAKER_02: Literally.
8:54
SPEAKER_02: And and it just so I got into I went where literally where the money was at and I got into banking.
8:59
SPEAKER_02: Um and that kind of gave me a good uh grasp on business fundamentals and and understanding, you know, the ins and outs of entrepreneurship, you know.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: That's one blessing that I had when I was in banking was uh because at the time that I was really getting my hooks into it and having a great understanding and having good mentorship.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
9:23
SPEAKER_02: Um, it was during the recession.
9:25
SPEAKER_02: It was like literally like like 05 was kind of starting to get into 08.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: And so I saw at that time what um not firsthand, but you'd see the aftermath of decisions.
9:40
SPEAKER_02: And so you'd see guys that made good decisions when things weren't going so good, and you'd see guys that make bad decisions that affected their entire life.
9:50
SPEAKER_02: Um and it was it was a humbling experience to see that because I mean, you know, you'd see the owners that are like, oh man, things are you know, we're gonna make this, we're gonna make it through, we're gonna make it through.
10:03
SPEAKER_02: And then you'd see guys that were not doing not doing so great, you know, life-changing stuff.
10:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
10:09
SPEAKER_02: Um, but you know, the thing that I've learned too in that life-changing stuff as well is that um you know, sometimes that's God's plan for you.
10:19
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes, sometimes it's you know that whole unanswered prayer thing.
10:23
SPEAKER_02: You don't realize the trajectory that you're going towards because me, for instance, and when I was in banking, I tell guys, young guys, believe it or not, I I'm not that old, but I guess I'm old enough that some people want to talk to me about this stuff.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: Uh but I tell them all the time, you think your life is over.
10:40
SPEAKER_02: Like I dedicated, I don't have a college degree, didn't go to college.
10:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh everything I am is self-taught.
10:47
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
10:47
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh dude, you know, like I thought my life was over when I got out of banking.
10:54
SPEAKER_02: I said, Man, how am I gonna rebound from this?
10:57
SPEAKER_02: But 16 years later, you know, well, more than that, 20 years since then, but you know, 16 years in the design science, you know, praise God.
11:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:05
SPEAKER_02: I can live to tell the tale.
11:07
SPEAKER_02: Um, we've had a lot of other adventures along the way.
11:10
SPEAKER_02: Boy, and we just really got off in it.
11:13
SPEAKER_01: That's what we did.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's that's I'm not gonna be able to do that.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, the the way I the way I frame this is like, man, this is what this is about.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: It's it's we want to get to know you and the story because there are so many tangible practical applications and things, even as you as you say, you got to appreciate the journey.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: The journey got me where I am.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: You think life is over, but it's not.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: I can say that in retrospect, looking back, like this is the stuff that A is valuable to me, but also valuable to our listeners because, you know, when you talk about the recession, even I think about it in terms of COVID, you know, business owners, some people, 20, 30, 40 years in business shut down.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, and and the recession, I imagine, was was similar.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: When that came through, you know, some people who were probably in business for multiple generations couldn't rebound from that.
11:59
SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, they put they had they had placed in business and entrepreneur when you when you're an entrepreneur, um whether you want to label it this way or not, you're placing bets.
12:11
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
12:12
SPEAKER_02: You're betting on yourself.
12:13
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: And unfortunately, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
12:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, we I've had some failures along the lines with uh design science.
12:23
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes they were business failures, sometimes they were personal failures.
12:28
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes, you know, you know, it's a life is um it's nothing but a learning experience.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: My my old man told me one time, he said, you know, life's really unfair.
12:39
SPEAKER_02: He said, because by the time you about got it figured out, it's almost over.
12:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is.
12:46
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't have to do it.
12:49
SPEAKER_02: It's a thing, but you know, uh if you keep God around, work hard and use manners, you'll always have a job.
12:58
SPEAKER_02: That's just the truth.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: That's what I tell everybody.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Just stay grounded.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Talk to me about we could go one of two ways.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: I I love how you say sometimes the Lord's rejection is his protection.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: And so you know if you go to LA and it doesn't work out, or it does work out, and you get up somewhere where you don't want to be, then what happens to Mount Woody?
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Um so so I'm curious to hear a little bit about more of how that mindset or mentality even was formed.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: Did you always have because when I speak to you now, there's a level of wisdom, but wisdom is only acquired through experience.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: So you might not have known when you quit the bank that you were gonna be okay.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, it might have been the end of the world for you, but now you look back and it's like Well, I tell everybody it's the stuff that you choke on that you never forget.
13:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: You know?
13:46
SPEAKER_02: And uh at the time, it doesn't matter.
13:49
SPEAKER_02: It happened to me tomorrow, dude.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: It could happen to me tomorrow.
13:52
SPEAKER_02: Right.
13:52
SPEAKER_02: It still I mean it doesn't suck.
13:53
SPEAKER_02: Right.
13:54
SPEAKER_02: That's the thing, is like when people that's the thing that I hate about some of these influencers.
13:58
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, you just gotta keep crying.
14:01
SPEAKER_02: You keep grinding.
14:02
SPEAKER_02: Look, dude, I'm a human being, I have emotions.
14:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
14:05
SPEAKER_02: I have invested into this.
14:07
SPEAKER_02: And now all of a sudden, the rug's being pulled out underneath me.
14:10
SPEAKER_02: Don't tell me I need to grind.
14:12
SPEAKER_02: I'm about to cry right now.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
14:15
SPEAKER_02: But you do need to get back up on the horse, you do still need to ride, but what I found, uh if if you want to call that wisdom, I I just been through it one too many times.
14:26
SPEAKER_02: It still doesn't mean I appreciate it when it happens.
14:28
SPEAKER_02: Totally.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, okay, I didn't go to LA.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: But if I that if I had to gone to LA, uh I wouldn't have the life that I have now, which I love.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't have uh I wouldn't be as close to God as I am.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't have my beautiful wife, wouldn't I have my children?
14:46
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
14:47
SPEAKER_02: All these things, uh, you know, the woulda-coulda-shuddis of life.
14:51
SPEAKER_02: You gotta watch, you gotta watch laying in that because that's not reality.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: It's not healthy.
14:57
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like uh this is gonna sound stupid, but they're like uh dropping keys in a volcano.
15:03
SPEAKER_02: Let it go, man, they're gone.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: You know, just let it go.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: But but that what I'm getting at is that uh life always gives you perspective and you don't always see it uh when it's going on.
15:15
SPEAKER_02: But you get 10 steps down the road and you look back, you're like, oh, wait a minute, I'm so glad that didn't happen.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: Same thing with you know the banking.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: I have many banking friends and uh a lot of just wonderful people they have dedicated their life to banking.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
15:31
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
15:32
SPEAKER_02: I honestly don't think I would have made it, even if I even if I hadn't gone a few more years.
15:37
SPEAKER_02: But at the time though, dude, at the time, I was like, I was just miserable.
15:43
SPEAKER_02: I just didn't realize how miserable I was.
15:45
SPEAKER_02: Right.
15:46
SPEAKER_02: Um but it gave me perspective, it gave me knowledge.
15:50
SPEAKER_02: I learned a lot while it was going on, yeah, so much so that when I became an entrepreneur, I saw things from the other side.
15:57
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of people saying I'm gonna start a business, and that's great.
16:00
SPEAKER_02: Start a business, but you need to be prepared to run one.
16:04
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
16:04
SPEAKER_02: And how do you stay in business?
16:06
SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
16:06
SPEAKER_02: How do you stay in business?
16:07
SPEAKER_02: That's the first one.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: And the other one is you know, you're gonna need capital.
16:10
SPEAKER_02: If you were born into uh if you were born into the lower class or the middle class, somehow another, you're going to need some financing.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
16:21
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna need financing.
16:22
SPEAKER_02: And so having a relationship with a bank and knowing how that works, that was definitely 120% a leg up because when I went to say, hey, this is what I'm gonna do, I really need some support here.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: I knew what they needed to hear.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
16:39
SPEAKER_02: So that they were like, okay, sweet.
16:41
SPEAKER_02: And that I was talking their language.
16:43
SPEAKER_02: You spoke to their ways.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: And so that was definitely a leg up.
16:46
SPEAKER_02: And also all the journey, all the journey um, you know, along the way, understanding while I'm in business, looking back and thinking about all those other business owners, like I talked about the going recession, there's value add there too.
17:00
SPEAKER_02: Um everything is a learning experience.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: Soak it up.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: Just because it went sour doesn't mean you didn't learn anything.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: So I heard somebody say, I never lose, either I win or I learn.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: It's great.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: And we gotta put the we're gonna put the Matt Woolley gem tracker at the bottom of this screen, too, along with CV, because you said, what did you say?
17:20
SPEAKER_00: You said something that really resonated with me.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: Um It's no telling.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: You said a lot.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Seriously, it's it's no telling.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: It's no telling.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: You said a lot.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: I when I think about this idea of resilience, oh, that's what it was.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: You were saying when when it's tough and you're going through it, you don't need to be told to just grind because we're human beings.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: Sucks.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: And I was on a it sucks.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: And I was I was on a rant today and I was talking about on my social, I was saying the one thing that they don't tell you is it's going to be difficult.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: And and that's part of the journey.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: And me and my mom talk about this all the time with the Christian journey.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be difficult.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: The one thing that the good Lord guarantees is trials.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't guarantee that it's gonna be roses and and you know, heaven until you get to that point.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: Correct.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: But on earth it's going to be difficult.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: But that's something that I don't think we steward well.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: And we don't tell people, we don't equip them for how difficult this is going to be.
18:13
SPEAKER_02: To quote the one of the greatest uh pastors and happens to be my current pastor, shout out to Mike Newberry.
18:19
SPEAKER_02: Um, and he does have a few books on Amazon, so check him out.
18:23
SPEAKER_02: Shout out to Pastor Newberry.
18:25
SPEAKER_02: But um, and this is on my podcast, he made this statement.
18:29
SPEAKER_02: This is the one that just I had to sit back in my seat for a second, but he said, I've always said that the greatest battle that you're fighting the Christian Christian journey is with yourself.
18:39
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Yeah, 100%.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
18:44
SPEAKER_02: Um You don't always the the thing is is we're not fortune tellers, we don't see the future.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: All we can do is really reflect on the past.
18:53
SPEAKER_02: But when we reflect on the past, we need to reflect on the things that matter and let go of the things that don't.
19:00
SPEAKER_02: Um and I think that's another problem too, is you know, there's some people that they just don't take failure well.
19:07
SPEAKER_02: I don't know, I don't like to fail.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: I mean, like I like to win.
19:10
SPEAKER_02: You'll never find a more capitalist competitive guy than me.
19:14
SPEAKER_02: But you know, sometimes I have learned in my little vapor of an existence that whenever something doesn't go the way you want it to, well, again, we learned something.
19:27
SPEAKER_02: Let's try something new.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: Don't stay in it, don't bathe in that failure.
19:34
SPEAKER_02: You just gotta let it go.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: When you think about that transition from the bank to starting design styles, let's talk about that period a little bit.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Do you do you come from a family of business owners?
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Um were you in the the weeds by yourself, not knowing what to do, how to navigate, figuring it out in real time?
19:52
SPEAKER_00: Like let's talk about that period from 120%.
19:56
SPEAKER_02: I saw from an outside perspective, I saw my uh my papa was, and he is um if I had to look up to uh a man that had an influence on me uh both personally and how um others perceived him.
20:16
SPEAKER_02: Um because he was one of the same.
20:18
SPEAKER_02: He was very great, great man of integrity.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: Um he was a business owner and uh he started with nothing and had got himself into a good position as an entrepreneur.
20:31
SPEAKER_02: He owned a logging company in southern Arkansas.
20:34
SPEAKER_02: But I saw what he did with his um blessings.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: He used his bless I say he used his blessings to bless others.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: And so he lived a good life.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he wasn't uh you know, multimillionaire, sure.
20:51
SPEAKER_02: Um, but he did very well for himself.
20:53
SPEAKER_02: He took care of my grandma to set her up for success even after he was gone.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: Uh he, while he was alive, I mean, he was a guy that was just constantly, if he saw it, just like we're told to do in our Christian walk, if he saw a need, he'd do what he could to take care of it.
21:09
SPEAKER_02: And that made a big impact on me.
21:11
SPEAKER_02: Um now learning the business, no, I was just a young guy.
21:16
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was 18, 19 when he passed, but I had not any I didn't have any business involvement.
21:23
SPEAKER_02: Everything I've learned is through one of two things, just outside looking in in my banking profession and the school of hard knocks just from the beginning.
21:34
SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, I look back on some of that stuff 16 years ago, I'm like, you idiot.
21:38
SPEAKER_02: How do how do we make it?
21:39
SPEAKER_02: Right, yeah.
21:40
SPEAKER_02: Well, I can tell you how we made it.
21:41
SPEAKER_02: It's God, and I have to give honor and glory to God.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: I I've got so many God stories it's not even funny.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: And I tell people all the time, uh, I don't know how people I don't know how people do business without God.
21:54
SPEAKER_02: Because uh, you know, it can certainly be done, but I for one don't want any part of that.
21:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:59
SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, been good.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: When you get the idea for design styles, like you said, you know, where we're from Central Arkansas, South Arkansas, some of these things are not even concepts.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: You could tell somebody you want to be an artist and they're gonna look at you like, you mean after you get off of work, or you know what I mean?
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Like, how are you gonna eat?
22:18
SPEAKER_02: Well, so sometimes there's an evolution to things.
22:20
SPEAKER_02: Like how how it happened with me was so I got out of banking and I decided I was gonna do like some all these other different jobs.
22:27
SPEAKER_02: I did all kinds of different jobs just to make money.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: I could have made more money sitting on my hands drawing unemployment, or you know.
22:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but I um I worked in a maintenance department for a short time in Prairie Grove Schools.
22:41
SPEAKER_02: My father-in-law worked there, so I was like, I just wanted something to do.
22:43
SPEAKER_02: That taught me some skill sets.
22:45
SPEAKER_02: It also taught me a lot about how our education system works too, believe it or not.
22:49
SPEAKER_02: Um while that was going on, I was also doing some side hustles and I was doing music promotions.
22:56
SPEAKER_02: So here's what happens with the music promotion.
22:58
SPEAKER_02: I started doing stuff um with Brian Crown.
23:01
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: And uh shout out to Brian Crown, the the godfather of the music scene.
23:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh and uh I started doing work with him, was working with my own band, but also I was like trying to, you know, make a situation of rising tide lists on boats.
23:17
SPEAKER_02: So I did stuff at the time, like they were called Rock Mayhem and some different things where I we'd pull like three bands in the front and three bands in the back, total chaos for the for the audio engineer.
23:30
SPEAKER_02: But we'd bring just a massive amount of people.
23:33
SPEAKER_02: I made friends with uh God rest his soul, Steve Butler from Butler Broadcasting, Uncle Steve, they done 104.9 the X.
23:42
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
23:42
SPEAKER_02: Um, and uh knew all those guys, but was doing all this promotional stuff because I just love music and I was trying to make it.
23:50
SPEAKER_02: Still, it's my last hurrah.
23:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:52
SPEAKER_02: And uh and doing these different things.
23:55
SPEAKER_02: But while that was going on, I was like, man, I really dig this whole marketing thing.
23:59
SPEAKER_02: I was like, you know, I need to get into the art world because I'm an artist.
24:03
SPEAKER_02: I was again, it's not just a musician, like, you know, I've painted, sculpted, that sort of thing.
24:09
SPEAKER_02: I was accepted to art school, didn't go, that kind of stuff.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
24:12
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, how do I get into art and make some money from this?
24:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:15
SPEAKER_02: And so then I went to work for a short, very short period of time at a company that's still around, owned by Dave Rutan.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: Dave, if you're watching this, hey, shout out to Dave.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: Hope you're doing well.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
24:25
SPEAKER_02: Doing Paula.
24:26
SPEAKER_02: But I worked for a company called Parachuting Penguins, which is up the road, right on the edge of, you know, uh old Walmart campus.
24:35
SPEAKER_02: And um I met who would become my business partner at the time, uh Jesse Jacobs, and his and he helped me with the music promotion.
24:44
SPEAKER_02: Now he was a much better artist than I was, but I was a much better salesperson than he was.
24:49
SPEAKER_02: And so uh I made the joke.
24:52
SPEAKER_02: We I noticed that combining his design with my vision and sales capabilities, there's something there.
25:00
SPEAKER_02: And essentially that is the scene that started Designstein.
25:05
SPEAKER_02: So I didn't have any plans for that.
25:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:09
SPEAKER_02: That was just something that got put in my path.
25:12
SPEAKER_02: And I made the joke to him one day and I said, you know, we do well at this, we just ought to go into business together.
25:17
SPEAKER_02: And I was kidding.
25:19
SPEAKER_02: And fast forward, you know, a couple of months later, he calls me out of the blue and he says, Let's do it.
25:24
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Do what?
25:25
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Let's go into business.
25:26
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, and I thought about it, I was like, what do I have to lose?
25:31
SPEAKER_02: It's just one more log on the fire, we'll give it a go.
25:34
SPEAKER_02: And so got into it and been doing it 16 years.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, you you you you said a lot there that is is weighty.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: And I I had a mentor tell me you have to leave room for the divine.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, because to your point, you had no idea that you were gonna go into business with this gentleman, and then you look up and 16 years later.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: So talk about that.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Talk about the the line between walking by faith and saying, like, I don't know how this is gonna work, but I'm going to be a man of integrity, like I saw my grandfather be.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to move forward, put myself out there, make connections, whether that be Brian Crown or showing up at these like talk about that process because sometimes if you don't have a clear vision, it's easy to think like, man, maybe I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
26:23
SPEAKER_02: So Yeah, I mean you can get lost in it.
26:25
SPEAKER_02: You just gotta, again, you always gotta jump on that horse and ride.
26:28
SPEAKER_02: But you know, um the vision from day one is the vision that it that it is now.
26:37
SPEAKER_02: Um I now ha would have no clue that all of the things that that have taken place would have taken place.
26:48
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: The business should have died at least three times.
26:52
SPEAKER_02: But and it's because we were figuring things out.
26:56
SPEAKER_02: When we first started, we weren't dealing with you know the Kimberly Clarks of the world or or the Duracells or the Unileavers or, you know, you know, you know, just name it, name drop whoever you want to name drop, you know what I mean?
27:08
SPEAKER_02: Um we started out with small businesses.
27:12
SPEAKER_02: And we start out with and again, this is part of the journey.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: You don't see these building blocks taking form.
27:18
SPEAKER_02: Right.
27:19
SPEAKER_02: But what happened was was we were dealing with mom and pop businesses that they don't have a big marketing span.
27:25
SPEAKER_02: If they sp if mom and pop businesses spend money, they are taking a chance.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: Now, marketing is marketing.
27:32
SPEAKER_02: It's good.
27:33
SPEAKER_02: There's always a return on marketing, you don't see everything.
27:36
SPEAKER_02: Getting your name out there helps, but you don't always see an immediate ROI.
27:40
SPEAKER_02: And when groceries are on the line you know, for our small business, you know, it's hard for people to want to put it on the line, you know, because it's like, well, I could for sure have groceries next week.
27:54
SPEAKER_02: Arcus pen this uh twelve hundred dollars, that's right, and then I might let you know, rent may go south.
28:00
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
28:00
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
28:01
SPEAKER_02: There's all kinds of I've seen these examples.
28:02
SPEAKER_02: These are real concerns at every day.
28:04
SPEAKER_02: These are real things.
28:05
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
28:05
SPEAKER_02: And so all I had to say, uh part of it in at that point was having a conscience for understanding that because again, the so talking about this up, this is what I saw in banking.
28:19
SPEAKER_02: I know and my post my own personal life, I know that if there's a mess up, if this doesn't achieve results, it's going to be costly to them.
28:28
SPEAKER_02: So there was always that mentality of wanting to take care of somebody, wanting to do right.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: And then um on top of that, making every cent count in that moment.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: So you really had to be able to think through, you had to really take ownership of every business that you helped because uh, you know, you had to to truly be in the weeds with them, you have to treat it as your own.
28:54
SPEAKER_02: You have to be like, okay, if we're gonna do this, like here, and you know, but that was also a great sales thing for me because it's like they saw that we cared.
29:03
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
29:03
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't just like, oh, just please just give us a so we can get the first time.
29:08
SPEAKER_02: Which again, that happens.
29:09
SPEAKER_02: There's buy-in.
29:09
SPEAKER_02: There's that buy-in.
29:10
SPEAKER_02: Um but over time uh you start to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and you see things that effectively work and work with them, but you're doing it on a shoestring budget.
29:23
SPEAKER_02: So what that does is you're all you're doing two things at once.
29:27
SPEAKER_02: One is you're building a reput well, actually doing three things when I think about it.
29:31
SPEAKER_02: One, you're building a reputation for yourself as somebody that can make it happen, you know, with little, you know, that's right, little little to nothing, guerrilla marketing.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: Two, you're also learning with other people's money.
29:43
SPEAKER_02: So you're learning how to build your own business while you're helping them with theirs because you're doing these deep dives as an ownership, you see similarities that are going on.
29:53
SPEAKER_02: And then three, you're also training yourself uh for much much further down the line.
30:00
SPEAKER_02: And make getting more bang for your buck.
30:02
SPEAKER_02: So again, we do a lot of work with suppliers that are c are they they are vendors to Walmart.
30:11
SPEAKER_02: Walmart every cent counts.
30:13
SPEAKER_02: Every cent counts.
30:15
SPEAKER_02: So if right now, if we're doing whether it's a packaging design or we're doing a display that's going to go nationwide and all their Walmarts, or even other retailers, it's that whole mentality of how can we get the most bang out of this for the least cost?
30:33
SPEAKER_02: And so when we do that, we're more profitable, our clients are more profitable, and Walmarts are more profitable.
30:41
SPEAKER_02: Everybody wins.
30:42
SPEAKER_02: It's truly a rising tide, list law, both things.
30:44
SPEAKER_02: But that training, that mentality, that didn't come right away.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: That came back when I was peddling flyers for Rock Mayhem.
30:52
SPEAKER_02: That came whenever we were helping that little uh pet salon try to get five more clients a week.
30:59
SPEAKER_02: That's where it comes from.
31:00
SPEAKER_02: But you have to, and you're talking about being grateful for the process and understanding, you know, your roots.
31:07
SPEAKER_02: You forget as a human being, because you were, if especially if you're somebody that's that's very um competitive and wants to go big, you know, wants to do all these things, uh, you sometimes forget all these little steps along the way that allowed you to get to this point.
31:25
SPEAKER_02: Right now, if I if I'm at point E, I'm focused on E, but I forget about A, B, C, D, you know, that got me there.
31:36
SPEAKER_02: And it's all it's it's a million different things like that, all compiled in one spot.
31:41
SPEAKER_02: This little pea brain of mine that that that comes from.
31:46
SPEAKER_02: But you know, here's the beauty of that too.
31:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh you're also you have the ability to share knowledge too.
31:51
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: You know, like I can tell small bit friends that have small business, and I have a lot of them, guys that are just starting out, or guys that are there that aren't as progressed as we are.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, hey, just hang tight, look out for this, this, be careful of this.
32:08
SPEAKER_02: Make sure you're doing this with your taxes.
32:10
SPEAKER_02: Have you thought about doing this?
32:11
SPEAKER_02: Do you have a strategy for that?
32:13
SPEAKER_02: All of these are the freaking school of hard knocks.
32:16
SPEAKER_02: And here's another problem.
32:18
SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna ramble.
32:19
SPEAKER_02: So just we're rolling.
32:21
SPEAKER_02: We're rolling.
32:21
SPEAKER_02: So one thing that I give advice to, especially young guys, is stop trying to do it yourself in the sense of not it, yeah.
32:32
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's one thing if you have limited resources as far as you know the finances to have, really, really brilliant people working with you.
32:40
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
32:41
SPEAKER_02: There's there is that limitation, there's real world stuff.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: But what doesn't cost you anything is reaching out to good, credible people that can mentor you.
32:53
SPEAKER_02: And then if you have that blessing, realize what you have, be grateful for it, and then pass it along.
33:01
SPEAKER_02: One of my biggest mistakes in life when I was young was I thought I had too much pride, and pride cometh before a fall, but I had too much pride to ask somebody, hey man, can I just borrow you for like an hour?
33:14
SPEAKER_02: Look, I know that you don't know me from Adam.
33:17
SPEAKER_02: I know that, you know, your time is valuable, but I could just really use your ear and your wisdom.
33:28
SPEAKER_02: Do that as much as you freaking can.
33:30
SPEAKER_02: I'm still doing it today.
33:32
SPEAKER_02: I don't do it enough, but two things when I was young is I didn't do that enough, and I was also too freaking stupid to realize when somebody was trying to do it for me.
33:41
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
33:42
SPEAKER_02: And so that's how we grow.
33:44
SPEAKER_02: We all grow together.
33:46
SPEAKER_02: We all grow together.
33:47
SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna grow if you're trying to set up an island.
33:51
SPEAKER_02: So, anyways, in business, keep God around, seek mentorship.
33:57
SPEAKER_02: That's good.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, there again, back to the Matt Gems, man.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: What I'm hearing you say is the valley can teach you things that the mountain can teach you.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: Well, not teach you.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: Everything the Bible says is is true, is is slam.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy how that works.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: I go back, I was talking to my my wife about that.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: I go back all the time and I'm like, dang, God was right.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Because it's one thing to read it, then you got to live it and experience it.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you got to wrestle with it.
34:25
SPEAKER_02: Well, we're quick to call the Israelites idiots, but we act like an Israelite every day.
34:30
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
34:31
SPEAKER_02: And uh you as far as your faith, I don't think we answered the question, but you uh you kind of hinted at something a second ago and it just popped in my head.
34:37
SPEAKER_02: I sh I definitely need to respond to that.
34:39
SPEAKER_02: Um these obstacles, your faith will grow as long as you're if you stay true to God.
34:46
SPEAKER_02: And even when you're not as close as you need to be, he still finds a way to shine himself into the situation.
34:53
SPEAKER_02: But uh I have story after story.
34:55
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, the uh we ain't got the time to get off into them, but you know, I I had a circumstance where we we were just a retainer-based company.
35:03
SPEAKER_02: We were guys that were working behind the scenes that people were basically we weren't as out front as we are now.
35:10
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
35:10
SPEAKER_02: And we were a company that uh worked off retainers.
35:14
SPEAKER_02: We we had three large companies that we were their in-house T, you know, that they white labeled.
35:21
SPEAKER_02: Um and because of nothing that we did, nothing of uh of our own um doing.
35:32
SPEAKER_02: Within a month of each other, we lost two of them.
35:35
SPEAKER_02: Now that's detrimental to a company.
35:37
SPEAKER_02: And don't think I was like, you know, not good.
35:43
SPEAKER_02: But um, praise God.
35:47
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's a little bit of panic there.
35:49
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
35:49
SPEAKER_02: And that's that's human.
35:51
SPEAKER_02: You got family, you got families.
35:53
SPEAKER_02: You got employees, oh yeah.
35:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a good thing.
35:54
SPEAKER_02: It was a thing, it was a thing.
35:56
SPEAKER_02: But uh I I'll never forget um it was and it was get it was close to Christmas time on top of it.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: So talking about doubling down, and um this is gonna segue into something else.
36:10
SPEAKER_02: The Lord just felt I just got this put on my heart.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: I'll tell the story.
36:14
SPEAKER_02: So we I was feeling down, wasn't sure what we were gonna do.
36:17
SPEAKER_02: We were out there trying, and I was gonna go visit this guy.
36:21
SPEAKER_02: I had a loose uh mor late morning.
36:24
SPEAKER_02: I was gonna go visit this guy and talk some business, and he had given me the freedom to just come on by anywhere.
36:30
SPEAKER_02: I said, okay, I'll be between here and here at this time.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: And so I had some flex in the schedule.
36:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
36:36
SPEAKER_02: And so, anyways, I was gonna work out.
36:38
SPEAKER_02: And so I was headed over to Bentonville and I was headed to uh I was like I was a member of Planet Fitness at the time, you know, uh, you know, the no-lunk place.
36:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
36:47
SPEAKER_02: And uh and uh I was gonna work out after I visited him.
36:52
SPEAKER_02: But for whatever reason, my gut started burning.
36:56
SPEAKER_02: Like you just need to work out right now.
36:58
SPEAKER_02: Don't ask me why.
37:00
SPEAKER_02: Um and so I'm literally about to pass Planet Fitness, but it was just my gut was screaming.
37:06
SPEAKER_02: You know, I say it's my gut, it was the Holy Spirit.
37:09
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
37:09
SPEAKER_02: And and uh so I just I literally jerked into the park and I was like, all right, well, I guess Lord, I'm gonna work out.
37:16
SPEAKER_02: So I go into start going into the locker room, and there sitting straight in front of me is a guy that I've been trying to get business from for over two years.
37:29
SPEAKER_02: And uh I have story after story like this, but he is he's right in front of me, and uh I was like, hey man, you know what's going on.
37:40
SPEAKER_02: He's like, hey, what are you doing here?
37:42
SPEAKER_02: Did you see that email from two years ago?
37:47
SPEAKER_02: Here's the funny thing.
37:48
SPEAKER_02: I used to be na we uh our our old design son's location was right beside this dude.
37:53
SPEAKER_02: Even when we were neighbors, he wouldn't cut us a break.
37:56
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but but so I go in there and I said, hey, I'm not gonna name names on here, but hey, what's going on, man?
38:07
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, oh, not much.
38:10
SPEAKER_02: I kid you not.
38:12
SPEAKER_02: Because I was gonna work out later this afternoon, but I just had this feeling like I needed to get it done.
38:20
SPEAKER_02: And right then the light went on, and I was like, I'm not gonna say, Well, me too, you know, because I was you know, it was a little fishy.
38:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I was thinking, well, that's weird.
38:33
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, so I sit down and I just say, What's been going on?
38:38
SPEAKER_02: And he starts talking and blah, blah, blah, and he asks how we were doing.
38:41
SPEAKER_02: We were just having two bros in a locker room conversation.
38:45
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, you know, and then he says to me, he said, at the end, I say, Well, I'm gonna leave you alone.
38:52
SPEAKER_02: I know you're trying to work out, and I need to work out too.
38:53
SPEAKER_02: He goes, actually, Matt, he grabs my hand and he goes, Hey, I tell you what, I got something for you.
39:00
SPEAKER_02: Tomorrow, why don't you come by and see me?
39:04
SPEAKER_02: And uh I'm gonna try not to tear up, yeah.
39:08
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because it I've had things like this happen before.
39:11
SPEAKER_02: But he uh he said, uh, you know, I got something right as it is, I got something that's perfect for you guys, and I know you've been asking for business.
39:21
SPEAKER_02: And uh the quick story is beyond that point, it was great for business.
39:29
SPEAKER_02: It did, it it gave us a new trajectory and pushed us into another area of business that we've been trying to get in, and through the use of him, it opened up a bunch of other doors.
39:38
SPEAKER_02: But here's the other thing that happened.
39:41
SPEAKER_02: Um, and praise be to God for this.
39:45
SPEAKER_02: I left that day with hope.
39:49
SPEAKER_02: You understand?
39:50
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
39:51
SPEAKER_02: And so here's the takeaway from that.
39:54
SPEAKER_02: It's not just the oh, God gave us all this business.
39:57
SPEAKER_02: Yes, God gave us all this business.
39:58
SPEAKER_02: God completely opened that door and praise to Him for that.
40:02
SPEAKER_02: But here's the lesson from that.
40:04
SPEAKER_02: You know, sometimes in life uh we can just have a real rough day.
40:12
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we're down and it feels like the world is just pummeling us no matter how we try, no matter how good we do.
40:21
SPEAKER_02: You know, and you get to a point where you're like, you know, screw this.
40:25
SPEAKER_02: I am sick of this.
40:26
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
40:26
SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna burn this place and move on.
40:29
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
40:31
SPEAKER_02: And then all of a sudden, it can happen anywhere, bang.
40:35
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you you're working in, you're walking through Walmart just going to get you some Doritos.
40:40
SPEAKER_02: And it can be just as simple as somebody smiling and say, How are you today?
40:45
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
40:46
SPEAKER_02: And you want to say, Well, I'm ready to cry right now.
40:49
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
40:50
SPEAKER_02: But they say hi, they show you some love, and next thing you know, you feel the uplift.
40:56
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
40:57
SPEAKER_02: And I think that God puts people like that in our path, but that's also the responsibility that we're to have.
41:04
SPEAKER_02: You know how much a hug costs?
41:07
SPEAKER_02: Zero dollars.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: You know how much uh, hey, I appreciate your cost, or you do a great job, or I just tell you, man, that's a that's a good looking shirt.
41:15
SPEAKER_02: That cost you zero dollars.
41:19
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you just need a little bit of hope, and that hope doesn't always have to equate to there's business waiting for you tomorrow.
41:27
SPEAKER_02: It's more so humanity still looking out for you.
41:30
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
41:31
SPEAKER_02: So I have tried over the years and not been successful with it always, but I've tried over the years to be like to try to be a positive force.
41:39
SPEAKER_02: Now, let me let me also say this too, as the Israelite that I am, right?
41:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh I can be a hypocrite.
41:47
SPEAKER_02: I I am I'm a born pessimist because I always look for how are we gonna get burned on it.
41:55
SPEAKER_02: And that's good to a degree too.
41:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
41:57
SPEAKER_02: But we're called to lift each other up.
42:00
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
42:01
SPEAKER_02: And you just never know who's been put in your path that day that could use a little bit of that positive vibe that comes so naturally easy to guys like me and you.
42:13
SPEAKER_02: We can use it for good or we can bottle it up.
42:16
SPEAKER_02: But what's the Lord say we're supposed to do?
42:18
SPEAKER_02: Give it.
42:18
SPEAKER_01: Give it.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: So screw it.
42:21
SPEAKER_02: There's a little ding.
42:22
SPEAKER_01: Man, exactly.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: Count that up.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: You you talk about the God story, man, and I'm over here like, you know, getting emotional and getting chills, because it's like in those moments you need it the most.
42:35
SPEAKER_00: 100%.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: Where where things can literally go left to right.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: You could crash out, say forget it all.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: It's in that moment.
42:42
SPEAKER_02: If we all had it figured out, yeah, if we all uh were just these little made-to-be islands that could do it ourselves, we wouldn't need Jesus.
42:53
SPEAKER_02: And you know, um, there's no such thing.
42:57
SPEAKER_02: No such thing.
42:58
SPEAKER_02: It's it is a lie.
43:00
SPEAKER_02: There's no such thing as a self-made man.
43:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:02
SPEAKER_02: No.
43:03
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't happen.
43:04
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't happen.
43:05
SPEAKER_02: Anyways.
43:07
SPEAKER_02: What else you want to know, Bang?
43:08
SPEAKER_01: Man, we're going to let's talk, let's talk a little bit about the podcast.
43:13
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
43:14
SPEAKER_01: The Matt Woolley Podcast or your podcast?
43:16
SPEAKER_01: No, the Matt Woolley podcast.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: I want to know, I want to know where the idea came from.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: I want to know what what made you jump into it.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: How is it going now?
43:25
SPEAKER_02: Um it's good, man.
43:26
SPEAKER_02: So a few things, you know, we're about to release our 50th episode.
43:32
SPEAKER_02: Now it's one of 50?
43:33
SPEAKER_02: 50.
43:34
SPEAKER_02: 50, yeah, 50 episodes.
43:36
SPEAKER_02: Uh it should be more, but the honestly, my schedule is so uh cray cray.
43:42
SPEAKER_02: Um that that's terms for crazy.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, you you well, I'm over here thinking I remember when you guys started.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:52
SPEAKER_00: And you know, 80% of podcasts don't see episode three.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: Really?
43:57
SPEAKER_00: 80%.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: And then an overwhelming 90% don't make it past episode 10.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: 90% of podcasts.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: Really?
44:04
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: Those are some those are some hard stats.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: And it's real, this is real life.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: This is real.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: And so the fact that you're halfway to 100 is it's mind-blowing.
44:12
SPEAKER_02: Well, so it should be more.
44:14
SPEAKER_02: I should be around like the 70 mark, but my schedule, honestly, I haven't, I haven't I haven't pushed it, and uh I haven't pushed it like I should have.
44:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:24
SPEAKER_02: And I haven't, uh my time is so sporadic.
44:27
SPEAKER_02: Um and also the thing, too, is a lot of the people that I have on the podcast, there are they're people that I have to really work with to try to get them on.
44:37
SPEAKER_02: Totally.
44:37
SPEAKER_02: They're not guys that are just like, hey, you know, can you be there tomorrow?
44:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:42
SPEAKER_02: You know, like they're what they'd look at me, what are you crazy?
44:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know what I mean?
44:46
SPEAKER_02: Um so but the reason why I started it was simply this.
44:50
SPEAKER_02: And it and I want, believe it or not, I wanted to do it in a time when podcasting wasn't what it is now.
44:56
SPEAKER_02: Right.
44:57
SPEAKER_02: I had the idea for this like seven years ago when it was starting to take I and because I've always been blessed to know so many great people that just good, good, hardworking dudes.
45:08
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
45:09
SPEAKER_02: Um that bring a lot of value in different areas.
45:12
SPEAKER_02: Um now I've had a lot of retail folks on because of course that's my main industry.
45:18
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
45:18
SPEAKER_02: But I've brought on some other people too.
45:20
SPEAKER_02: But anyways, I'll have to say the reason why I wanted to do it was uh back when I had the first idea, I was like, man, I just know so many cool people.
45:29
SPEAKER_02: It'd be great to grab their stories because I have these conversations with people.
45:34
SPEAKER_02: A lot of the conversations I've had on this podcaster I've I've had in real life.
45:39
SPEAKER_02: You know, little snippets.
45:39
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, mmm, that's a good story, you know.
45:41
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
45:42
SPEAKER_02: And also I love stories.
45:43
SPEAKER_02: I've always remembered stories.
45:45
SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, I can never there's two things when it comes to people.
45:49
SPEAKER_02: One, I never forget a face, but I can forget your name easy.
45:54
SPEAKER_02: It takes for me a minute to grab your name.
45:56
SPEAKER_02: But I'll remember your face, and I remember the story that you told me three years ago about how your you know, brother-in-law had a freaky enmore accident and got his big toe chopped off, and so I'll come up to you and say, Hey dude, what's going on?
46:09
SPEAKER_02: Hey, how's a brother's toe?
46:11
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
46:12
SPEAKER_02: But I I love stories and I love people telling me their stories, and I've been blessed to have that.
46:17
SPEAKER_02: So I thought, okay, back then I was like, man, that's what I want to capture.
46:19
SPEAKER_02: It's people's stories.
46:22
SPEAKER_02: Um but when I decided that I was really gonna go for it, um, number one, shout out to podcast videos and Eric Howarton.
46:31
SPEAKER_02: Shout out to Eric.
46:32
SPEAKER_02: And uh, but you know, doing podcast videos made it easier for everybody that wanted to do one to do it because you guys just make it so easy.
46:40
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh, this is great.
46:41
SPEAKER_02: All I have to worry about is a schedule now.
46:44
SPEAKER_02: Um but I felt a burning desire to do it because honestly, right now, this day and time, uh, and this isn't, I'm not gonna name names, and it's certainly not in the local market.
47:01
SPEAKER_02: We have a lot of great podcasts in this area, Northwest Arkansas area, but uh in general, there's a lot of influencers out there that don't need to be influencing.
47:11
SPEAKER_02: There's people that can just like us can talk to a tree if they think it's listening.
47:16
SPEAKER_02: They have this whole um idea of how this is how this works.
47:22
SPEAKER_02: Some of them may have had a little bit of fortune in how they do things, um, but they don't have the same type of working knowledge as guys that are, you know, I'm 42.
47:35
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
47:36
SPEAKER_02: Um, but guys that are, you know, a decade or two older than me, it just doesn't happen.
47:41
SPEAKER_02: You know, the reason why they had wise men and still do in some parts of other countries is because they're not because they're just old, it's because they've seen so much.
47:50
SPEAKER_02: Excuse me.
47:50
SPEAKER_02: And so, anyways, I just felt like there's a lot of people out there that weren't doing good influencing, that weren't giving real showing real love.
48:01
SPEAKER_02: They were just people selling books or selling likes and follows and stuff like that.
48:07
SPEAKER_02: And so I thought, you know, this would be kill two birds with one stone.
48:13
SPEAKER_02: I can have people on that I know, love, and appreciate, or at least have a good acquaintance with.
48:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
48:21
SPEAKER_02: I can learn their stories, and as they're telling me things, I am learning.
48:24
SPEAKER_02: I learn more than anybody else.
48:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
48:26
SPEAKER_02: So selfishly, I learn a lot.
48:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
48:29
SPEAKER_02: And then on top of it, we're putting some goodness out in the world.
48:32
SPEAKER_02: We're saying, hey, you know, maybe it's not a good idea that you throw this temper tantrum because you didn't get three weeks of vacation as your first job.
48:41
SPEAKER_02: Right.
48:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
48:43
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
48:44
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
48:45
SPEAKER_02: And so that that's why I did it.
48:47
SPEAKER_02: Um I love people.
48:50
SPEAKER_02: And uh it's been a great I I'm and that's another that's the other beauty of it too, man.
48:56
SPEAKER_02: I've got uh just like with you, you know, I've caught a few wisdom nuggets, you know, got them cataloged.
49:03
SPEAKER_02: They're on there, they're in the interwebs, my friend.
49:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
49:06
SPEAKER_02: And so they so like that's another beauty of what we do.
49:09
SPEAKER_02: Like, what did he say?
49:10
SPEAKER_02: Oh, what was that one thing?
49:12
SPEAKER_02: We got it cataloged on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple, baby.
49:16
SPEAKER_02: So it's there and it's a resource.
49:18
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
49:19
SPEAKER_02: So it's a win-win.
49:20
SPEAKER_02: That's why I did it.
49:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
49:22
SPEAKER_02: And it's fun.
49:22
SPEAKER_02: It's also fun.
49:23
SPEAKER_02: It's also fun to be able to just sit down and talk to people.
49:26
SPEAKER_02: Totally.
49:26
SPEAKER_02: It's it's uh, and it's also kind of out of my element as well, because uh unfortunately that is one of the things, and it's part of our culture code.
49:35
SPEAKER_02: In our culture at Design Stein's uh number seven quarkism is you're to be uh interested, not interesting, which basically means you need to listen more and quit running your mouth.
49:47
SPEAKER_02: The Bible also tells you that too.
49:50
SPEAKER_02: Um and my podcast is the one place that I do that.
49:54
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
49:54
SPEAKER_01: Because I need to do more listening than I'm talking.
49:58
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh and I and I love it.
50:00
SPEAKER_02: It's it's a it's great.
50:01
SPEAKER_02: I think and I think the tools that we have as a as a society, as a culture, um having things like this to draw upon is such a blessing if you if you use it for the you know right reasons.
50:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
50:15
SPEAKER_00: Anyhow.
50:15
SPEAKER_00: You jumped in ahead first, like, and I can honestly say you came with the with the dope logo and the branding, and you know that's what we do.
50:24
SPEAKER_00: That's what you do.
50:25
SPEAKER_00: So so when we're sitting here for that first meeting, you and Manning were breaking everything.
50:30
SPEAKER_00: Is he still around?
50:30
SPEAKER_02: Manning actually he has he has he decided to be an entrepreneur himself.
50:35
SPEAKER_02: Now we still work with him on certain projects.
50:37
SPEAKER_02: He's a he's a good dude, and and shout out to Manning Moore.
50:40
SPEAKER_02: Shout out to Manning.
50:41
SPEAKER_02: Um but uh yeah, he uh great talented young man, and he decided too that he wanted uh to do his own thing, and he's doing some big things for a lot of people.
50:52
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
50:52
SPEAKER_01: It's good.
50:53
SPEAKER_00: You guys came in, and I mean, everything from looking at the how can I make this logo fit, and then you know, the microphones, where do you need to sit?
51:01
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, it was cool to see it wasn't just uh, oh man, let me come in tomorrow and mess around.
51:07
SPEAKER_00: Like you guys had the vision and now you're 50 episodes there.
51:10
SPEAKER_00: So talk just a little bit about what you've learned through the process from just starting episode one to now about to launch episode 50.
51:19
SPEAKER_02: What's funny is you have to be you have to it trains you to be comfortable in your own skin.
51:24
SPEAKER_02: Not that I wasn't, but when you add another layer onto it, you know, like it's not just a podcast, you know, that's audio, it's a podcast that's that's right, you know, visual, and so you get both.
51:38
SPEAKER_02: Um and so at first I was like uh you know, a little tense about it, just like that's because it's something new.
51:46
SPEAKER_02: Um but you know, we'll say here again, we'll plug podcast for for the beauty that you guys bring to this industry is that uh uh you make it easy, everybody's comfortable, you're accommodating, you guys worry about the tech.
52:02
SPEAKER_02: You know, you've got a setup that normally would take a four or five man crew to run.
52:08
SPEAKER_02: Uh y'all have a nice easy setup so littily that you guys like me that can just do what they want to do can just come sit down and do it.
52:18
SPEAKER_02: So that lack of pressure there uh is great because that's one less thing you have to worry about and you can focus on what it is that you want to do.
52:29
SPEAKER_02: So from that point, really all it is is being able to come sit down and just enjoy yourself.
52:34
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
52:35
SPEAKER_02: You have to allow yourself to enjoy yourself like this right now.
52:37
SPEAKER_02: Like I feel like after doing the podcast too is great training for me.
52:40
SPEAKER_02: Not that I had problems talking to anybody, but you know, I've done it on stage, you know.
52:48
SPEAKER_02: Now I can do it in intimate settings.
52:50
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
52:50
SPEAKER_02: It's just it's training yourself.
52:52
SPEAKER_02: It's enjoying, it's a it's it's a blessing to be able to do.
52:54
SPEAKER_02: Like this right here.
52:55
SPEAKER_02: This is a blessing to just to sit down and be able to talk to you.
52:58
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
52:58
SPEAKER_02: You know, and y'all make it easy.
53:00
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
53:00
SPEAKER_02: And then when all it's said and done with, uh all I gotta do is say this looks good.
53:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
53:06
SPEAKER_02: Hey, now let this work.
53:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
53:08
SPEAKER_02: So and and and I've learned a lot of little micro lessons from my guests along the way, like we talked about.
53:14
SPEAKER_02: But um I'd say uh on top of the little micro lessons that you get, the little wisdom nuggets, it's just uh uh opening yourself up to another experience that you grow from.
53:25
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
53:26
SPEAKER_00: Man, this was rich.
53:28
SPEAKER_00: It's our already, man.
53:29
SPEAKER_00: It always goes.
53:30
SPEAKER_00: This is rich.
53:31
SPEAKER_00: This was I I feel like I love having conversations where you leave feeling energized and not drained.
53:37
SPEAKER_00: Because something that people don't realize about me is I'm actually introverted.
53:41
SPEAKER_00: Really?
53:42
SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
53:42
SPEAKER_00: Charismatic, big personality, performer, but I recharge by being alone or by being in small settings like this.
53:50
SPEAKER_00: And so I can have a riveting, compelling, amazing conversation that I leave and I'm like, man, I'm tired.
53:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm depleted.
53:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm depleted.
53:57
SPEAKER_00: I gave it, I left it all on the field.
54:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, and then you have conversations like this where you leave and it's like, oh man, I'm I'm revitalized, I'm re you know, rejuvenated.
54:07
SPEAKER_00: And uh, I feel like this was a very energizing conversation.
54:09
SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate you for sending that.
54:11
SPEAKER_02: Praise God for that.
54:12
SPEAKER_02: Hey, I appreciate the opportunity.
54:13
SPEAKER_02: It's it's uh it's been great.
54:15
SPEAKER_02: Time flew, but you know, time flies when you have influenced.
54:18
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
54:18
SPEAKER_00: Plug anything you need to plug, Matt Woolley Podcast.
54:20
SPEAKER_00: Where can we find you and keep up with you?
54:22
SPEAKER_02: All right, so two things.
54:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh hand uh you know, my handle is as it sounds, the Matt Woolley Podcast, uh, and that's M-A-T-T-W-O-O-L-L-E-Y podcast.
54:33
SPEAKER_02: And I have to spell it because my name is weird.
54:36
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh you can find me on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple.
54:41
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
54:42
SPEAKER_02: Also a shout out uh to Design Steins, you know, the retail marketing agency.
54:48
SPEAKER_02: Um, and we do design and uh product development, product packaging, displays, and uh dot-com content.
54:56
SPEAKER_02: And been around for 16 years.
54:57
SPEAKER_02: So show us some love.
54:58
SPEAKER_02: Visit our website once.
55:01
SPEAKER_02: That's the way we like it.
55:02
SPEAKER_02: Love it, man.
55:02
SPEAKER_02: Make it easy.
55:03
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for your time, brother.
55:04
SPEAKER_02: Appreciate you back.
55:05
SPEAKER_02: See ya.