Do you ever wonder why certain individuals make life look effortless and successful while you drudge along? In this episode, Jimmy interviews Matt Halloran of Top Advisor Marketing to share the importance of coaching in the development of your full potential.
Episode Keys
- Why you need a coach to become your best self.
- What areas of life a coach may help you improve.
- How to gain respect and attention in your career by storytelling and being unique in your approach to service.
- Why it is important that you stop selling and start serving people.
- How to use momentum to continue your growth as a professional and person in life.
Podcast Transcript
Good morning! Hey, this is Jimmy Williams, your host with the most on Live a Life by Design. Your Monday morning moments of motivation to help you live life in a bigger, better, and bolder fashion. Oh man, I tell you, I am pumped. You know every day I get up, my wife says, do you drink caffeine early in the morning, because I’m an early riser. You know folks, if you’re gonna seize the day, man, you gotta get up before the rest of those people that are lemmings. Following each other to work, right?
I get up at 5 am. Now my wife believes in being a lemming. She likes to wait a little while to get up, you know, kind of seize the noon day if you will. But what I do is I get up early and my wife will say, honey, I’ve been married to you for 33 years. Is there anything you can do to tamp down all that enthusiasm so early in the morning? She hears me in there shaving, I’m listening to motivational podcasts. She hears me listening to great music. I’m talking about jazz. Those things that really liven my day, right?
So today I want to bring to you something that’s going to make you just as jazzed. I got to tell ya, I’ve been a product of coaching. I’m talking about professional and personal coaching all of my career. I’ve got mentors scattered all over the globe, and I love and adore all of them. Today’s guest on our episode of Live a Life by Design is another one of those influencers in my life. He didn’t remember exactly where we met, but I can tell you almost to the month, at least, I don’t remember the day that we met, and he has been influencing me every since that day.
I want to give you a short story about why I think coaching and getting your story. Your unique story, cause you know you are unique. Too often you sell yourself short. Do not do that. We weren’t designed for mediocrity. We were designed for greatness. And I’m going to show you with our guest today how you can achieve that. But the key to any great relationship, in my opinion, is sincerity and honesty. I don’t care if this is a business relationship, a personal relationship. Now the only time I’ve ever been dishonest to my wife, and if you tell her this, it will be ok. But those of you, thousands of you listening I’m going to tell you why I have been dishonest with my wife. It’s usually her birthday or Christmas. Man I am a prolifically horrible gift wrapper. So I must then work on the areas of life of which I’m more capable. I am an excellent gift hider. And so I hide things all over the house. In the garage. Storage, wherever I can hide it. Because my wife is a wonderful seeker of gifts. Man, she can sniff out perfume a hundred yards away. I mean, I’m telling you got to really pack this stuff good.
So, be sincere and honest. The foundations to all your relationships. And then I’d like to tell you about a friend of mine named Harvey McKay. Harvey McKay bought a small envelope company in the northern United States and turned it into a multimillion dollar international business. Harvey McKay is the famed author of Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. This book changed my thought process. Not as much as Think and Grow Rich. That Napoleon Hill book has been one I read every year. You know, it’s on our website, we encourage you to go read that book. But Harvey McKay claims to have as many as 10 personal and professional coaches that help him achieve his goals in life. Speaking, writing, health, attitude. Whatever it takes. He believes you can do better with a coach.
So with that said, I’m going to introduce to you our special guest today. I am so excited to have a few moments of his time. He’s very busy. This gentleman is all over the place in terms of helping other people live their bigger, better and bolder life. He’s one of the partners of Top Advisor Marketing. A blogger. Podcaster. Author. Speaker. Entrepreneur. Well, let’s just say it. Superman! I mean, this guy is all over the place. He got his start in the financial services business about 20 years ago as a certified life and business coach. That folks ought to tell you quickly, he is serious about helping you achieve your goals in life.
He began becoming immersed in his clients biggest needs. He built his knowledge and expertise in financial branding and a social media expert. And then more recently, he’s actually taken on roles such as Marketing and Chief Relationship Officer for his company. He just does all kinds of stuff. I don’t think he sleeps much. You know, we don’t advocate a lot of sleep here on this episode, especially this whole podcast. But he’s got a great book out, you’ll see this link to his book, it’s gonna be on our website as well. It’s called The Social Media Handbook for Financial Advisors. So any of our listeners that are in the industry would love to have this book. It’s gonna be on Amazon. We’ll have that link out for you as well. So, here’s one thing I want you to know. This gentleman is married and has two twin teenage boys. Now folks that is by itself a big time responsibility. They are both avid swimmers and he’s got dogs. One’s a saint bernard and a rescue pit bull mix by the name of Luke, because our guest is a friend of a Jedi. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to welcome my good friend from Top Advisor Marketing, welcome Matt Halloran.
MH: Well, thank you for having me, I really appreciate it.
JW: Hey, you’re welcome, hey, I know you’re very busy. I want to take a few minutes today, and I want to just share with our listeners a lot about how you face life’s challenges to really become the certified life coach. The coach that helps others reach down deep and maybe break the threshold. Those ceilings of complexity that are holding them back from their ultimate goal in life. And that’s to live life by their own design. So, tell me a little bit of background about you as a child. I mean, what made you want to become a life coach and influencer?
MH: Well, surprisingly enough, my goal was truly to become a therapist. So later in life, after high school I always found that people would talk to me about their problems. Whether I really wanted them to or not. I just seemed to attract that sort of conversation. And after my wife and I worked at a place called Boys Town. And we lived with 36 at risk teenage boys in our home for 5 years. I wanted to be a therapist, Jimmy, I mean, that was my big thing, right?
JW: Wow.
MH: And so I’m in my last two semesters of graduate school and my mentor professor comes up to me and he says, “hey dude, here’s the deal. You’re gonna be a terrible therapist”. And I was like, oh my god. I’m like $50,000 in the hole here in grad school and he’s like no, you really need to focus on coaching. And of course I didn’t listen to him. And I should have. Opened my own private practice and worked with adults with severe persistent mental illness, kids, and families. And found out that he was right. So, I did, I was a terrible therapist. I couldn’t let the stuff go. You know, people dump everything. Really heavy stuff on you all day. And I’d go home crying. Like, I would drive home crying. Just because that was the only way that my body was able to release all of the stress. And had a really bad week. I typed into something that I don’t even think exists anymore. I don’t even remember what the job thing was. Something that’s not around anymore. Because it was a long time ago. But anyway, Jimmy, I typed in life coach. And two things came up and one of them was a franchise that was a small investment of $250,000 which of course I didn’t have at the time. Because I was just out of grad school and failing terribly as a therapist. And the other one was a financial services company called Peak. And I went through a very interesting interview process. And I found out later that my persistence is why I was able to get hired. Because they weren’t gonna hire me Jimmy. Because I had no financial services experience. I was a freaking life coach, right? And eight interviews later. No everytime. And the last time I called who ended up being my favorite boss of all time, her name was Laura. Our General Manager. I said look, I just want 15 minutes with the owner. Just give me 15 minutes. And if I can convince him, then you know what, or if I can’t convince him then I’ll never work here, or I’ll never bother you again. And so I got 15 minutes. Now, you Jimmy, know that getting 15 minutes of this guy’s time is a big freaking deal, right? I mean, this guy….
JW: That’s big. And it’s probably at 4:45 in the morning after his workout. Ya know?
MH: I do have to say, it was much earlier than I was prepared for. I went to the highest end store that I could find. I bought the most expensive suit I could afford, which was nowhere near what of course my soon to be boss was wearing. And I showed up and I sat down and he looked at me, he said man you were persistent. And I said, look, here’s the deal. Pay me half of what you’re paying everybody else. I promise you within six months I’m gonna be your best coach. He looked at me and he smiled and he said, well, you don’t know anything about financial services. And I said, I can coach anybody, on anything, at any time. Now, mind you, that was, I’m not usually like that. But, I really really…
JW: I love the assertiveness, though Matt. That’s assertiveness, that’s great.
MH: Well, and you know what’s funny, Jimmy, that’s why I was a terrible therapist. Because people would come to me with their problems, and like ok, this is how you fix it. And of course, then they didn’t want to do the work and I’d get frustrated. But anyway, so I got hired there. And I lived upto expectations and that really started me on this new phase of my career, which is doing whatever I possibly can to help people get their voice out into the marketplace. Much like you. You know, show their expertise, be very, very giving. Because what happens we found is the more we give, the more you get.
JW: That’s great wisdom, Matt. And so you took this opportunity to learn though, but what I want to encourage our listeners about is don’t be so tunnel focused that you only read and study in your area of life that you have expertise. Listen, you need to expand yourself because those people seeking your help, right Matt, are not in your area. They’re coming to you for that. So you need to understand where they’re coming from. Steven Covey, one of the greatest authors of all time, seek first to understand, then be understood. Talk to me a little bit about who are some of your mentors, Matt. I mean, you’ve got some, I’m sure in coaching or in even in your therapist that’s gone bad kind of thing. Talk to me a little bit about who those people are.
MH: Well, you know, you said Napoleon Hill, right? So I go through, I actually purchased 14 hours of Napoleon Hill speaking when he used to go around and teach. So I listen to that every year. I listen to Think and Grow Rich every year, so Napoleon Hill is somebody that I really look up to. In fact, my old boss, which unfortunately I don’t have the best relationship with him anymore, but a guy named Ron Carson really taught me an enormous amount. Just really looking at somebody who was such an amazing high achiever really allowed me to see what my potential could be, and of course all the pitfalls that go along with that too. Which was a very interesting learning experience. But past that, I try, it’s gonna sound corny and you’re gonna be like, dude this is so corny. But because I’m a podcaster like you, I have the gift of interviewing very smart people almost on a daily basis, and my whole goal is to shut up and listen and glean something and learn something new and Jimmy we have such an amazing opportunity using this medium. And I’ve seen who you’ve interviewed. We get a chance to learn from these really great people all the time. And so, I look to who is my next introduction as my next mentor, because I know I’m going to glean something from their life, their story, their expertise that will allow me to hopefully live a better life.
JW: You know, it’s funny you say that. I don’t want to brag, most people know I’m a CPA, CFP, my Master’s in Tax Law and all that. But I’m really, one of my best areas is a PCR. That’s a professional coattail rider. So I call all these great people like yourself. I get you on the podcast and I just set here and absorb man, like a sponge, all this great stuff. So let’s talk a little bit about how you came into the role of top advisor marketing and podcasting. I mean, this was a relatively young industry 10 years ago.
MH: Well, I started in high school, was behind the microphone. And so this, my desire to speak into a microphone and interview people and be on some sort of radio-ish program has been with me since I was 13. So I was Mad Man Matt Halloran. I ran a heavy metal hour on my high school radio station. Which was 100 watts. I don’t even know if it passed the actual parking lot. But I loved every minute of it, I remember Jimmy, I ran to my advisor. Her name was Chris, she was one of my big mentors, I said, Chris, Chris, Chris, this is what I want to be when I grow up and she looked at me and said, yeah, you need to go somewhere else. You’re never going to make any money being a DJ. And so literally 30 years later, I’m meeting with a guy now, Kirk Lowes, now my business partner. And he said, we have to do something fundamentally different because our clients don’t want us to tell them what to do. They want us to do it for them. And I said, oh my gosh, you know I’ve always wanted to do this. I love interviewing people. That’s a really huge part of being a coach, right, is interviewing people and asking good questions. And teasing out their thought leadership and their brilliance and empowering them to feel smarter, better, stronger. And so, I start, I was the whole host, right? I was interviewing financial services professionals and agents, CPAs, state planning attorneys from all over the country. And it just worked, man.
JW: Awesome.
MH: Now we’ve produced over 1500 podcasts and done over 35,000 social media posts. We went from, we’ve been in business for three years, three years and I have a team of 20 people now. So culture is super important to us, being supportive and autonomous. It’s an entirely virtual company. And we hire for personality. And we train for what we need to train for, but you’ve got to fit into our culture and our culture is loving, giving, sharing, supportive, fiercely dedicated to personal and professional development. You know, much like a lot of people that you interview on your podcast that they realize that there’s something a lot more important than money. And Kirk and I, as much as we’re big fans of that, I would rather improve the lives of the people who work with us, than you know, not pay them well. You know, I don’t know if I could sleep at night, brother.
JW: No, I agree with you. Now I’m gonna start diving a little deeper in this area about how we as individuals, to reach our utmost potential, must be honest with ourselves. So you talked about your high school counselor, for example, and then your professor going hey, you know, Matt, maybe not the choice or the path for you, we need to do something a little different here. One thing that I do find is that sometimes there is the point of negative returns. You just push yourself, and push yourself, and push yourself when there could be an easier path. I’m gonna talk real quickly with you and ask a few questions about how can our listeners find a more simple, but more rewarding pathway to reaching their goals with, say, Top Advisor Marketing? How would that work?
MH: Well, I think a lot of it really has to be you have to believe in who you are in what you do in your soul. And want to actively share that with people and give away everything you have for free in order to deepen a relationship with people so that they will potentially do business with you. I mean that’s really the foundation. So listeners thinking, you know wow, I would love to be able to start a podcast. The first thing is you’re never going to make any money from it. I’m just going to tell you that right now. Don’t ever go into it, if you go into it with that frame of mind, you’re wrong. I’m sorry. Now are there ways to make money and grow your business and grow your relationships and deepen relationships with your existing clients using this medium? Yes. That’s what we do. And if you want to do that, we would be more than happy to help.
JW: You know, one of the great things I love about what you do and your role as life coach. What you’re doing in your role as an influencer, is you’re teaching others how to use their voice to use what they currently have. So a lot of our listeners go, oh my goodness Jimmy, I didn’t even finish undergrad school. I don’t know if I can do this. And I sit there and I tell them, but you are the only you on the planet. You’re the only Matt Halloran. So tell me, what can you help with, Matt, as advice today to our listeners to say, you know, it’s time to pick yourself up, dust those britches off and move forward. What kind of advice can you give?
MH: Walk before you run. So there’s one piece. The other one is trust in the wind. And I’ll address both of those quickly. So, walk before you run. I think a lot of people have this misconception that they have to follow their dream. Quit everything and make jewelry on Etsy for the rest of their life. I don’t support that, right. I mean, you have to have a foundation, because you have to have your Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, basic needs met, right? So whatever that is. You know, get a job. Make it so that you can pay your bills, and then chase your dreams. And if your dreams will allow you to stop the other job, then that’s absolutely fantastic. But I think a lot of people have that backwards. You said, you know, on the opening of the show I’ve got twin 17 year old boys who are about to turn 18 in February. We’re doing lots of life planning with them right now, brother, and one of the big things is you’ve got to have a job. In order to get a good job you have to have an existing job. Don’t try to shoot for the best job you could ever get. Just get a job right now. See what it’s like to work and then we can go from there. But the other thing is trust in the wind. When I was in the Navy, I was one of the only people who didn’t get seasick. I don’t really know why. But we hit a nor’easter which is a bad, bad, bad storm. Especially when you’re out in the middle of the North Atlantic. We were heading to Scotland at the time I stood watch for about 48 hours straight, because again, everybody else was sick. What I had to do is I had to go from the forward part of, or the middle part of the ship to the forward, to the middle, to the back to the middle. And I had to do that back and forth. Because you’ve got ballast tanks on a ship, and you don’t want those to be off or you’ll fall over, right? And that would be really bad in the middle of the Atlantic during the storm. And so I would put on this huge suit and I’d just clamp myself in, and I’d fight the wind and the waves are pounding me cause we had like 12 foot swells, you know, my boat was crashing, I was getting soaked in freezing cold. But it was interesting. So I’d go up and I’d do my little thing, and I’d come back and I’d hook myself in and all of a sudden Jimmy, the wind was at my back. And I’d notice I could move effortlessly, just about any type, I was jumping and having a good time because I’m a ridiculous optimist, no matter what it is, I’m gonna try to find the best in everything. And that’s been, that’s been the foundation of my life. If I feel the wind blowing me in a direction, I listen to the wind. I look at where the wind is blowing me. And most of the time, I just accept that the wind is blowing me in a direction and I see where it takes me. We’re not on this planet for long, brother, and…
JW: I agree.
MH: I want to do whatever I possibly can to experience and help as many people as I can. And if the wind tells me I need to go in a different direction. Drive my wife crazy, my wife is not….I love her dearly, and you know, but she does not take risks. And I am the person who is like, oh I’m making $300,000 a year over here, but I want to try this. And she’s…[crying sound, imitating wife]
JW: Absolutely.
MH: You know, but honestly the wind is never, never blown me in the wrong direction.
JW: Oh, that is awesome advice. And I want to talk a little bit and build on that a minute. You talking about the wind, and I always tell our people listening, I say I want the subscribers to know this podcast. They’ve heard it many times, that their lives are not arks, man. You don’t just go which way that that wind blows. You can also have some effect by taking momentum, as you’re saying, from that wind and using what positives it gives you to make life more enjoyable or bigger, or whatever you want it to be. So I always tell people you’re actually a ship. You have a rudder, you have this thing called a brain. Use those things that you get in momentum. So how do you build momentum through your processes if someone were to call you today and say hey, I listen to the podcast Live a Life by Design, I’m interested in what you offer. I got this idea. What kind of momentum do you offer through Top Advisor Marketing?
MH: Well, we have a whole coaching program. And I think that’s really what separates us from just about anything else that’s out there. The marketplace. We’ve got nine different phases that we take our clients through to continue to build on momentum in order to increase their listenership and increase the impact of their podcast. But it actually goes back to our first three calls. So when somebody signs on with us we’ve got our discovery call. We’ve got a topics call and then we’ve got a coaching call. And the second one, the topic call is where I think the magic truly happens. Because before you ever hit record with us, you need to have 8 podcasts in the can, mentally in the can, right? Because most people start podcasting, in fact, there’s 500,000 new podcasts this year, as of July.
JW: Wow.
MH: But, 3/4’s of them never make it past six episodes. And so we build a system in place and make sure that we’re continuing to move and motivate and listen, you know Jimmy, you talked about this in this last podcast, I think you should expand on that because we’ve got professional voice talents that interview our clients. And we’ve got this whole system in place that’s totally meant to bring you through this continuum, and the continuum, if you do it correctly is about 36 months. And then the fun part about it is, just like since you’re in Strategic Coach and you’ve been involved with a bunch of coaching programs, it’s rinse and repeat. Right? So you get done with 36 months, and oh my gosh, could you imagine going back and doing all of this again and seeing where this could take me. And our client retention is really where I’m so proud of that. That’s one of the greatest things that we’ve had. We retain about 80% of our clients annually, and that’s not too shabby with doing something that is still pretty new and, you know, not a lot of people still fully understand the power of podcasts.
JW: Your modesty is overwhelming, sir. That is excellent, by the way. 80% renewing and recurring. I will say to you, though, that at the end of the day, you must find a way within yourself to see that passion to move this forward. So if you’re thinking about doing a podcast. I encourage you to get in touch with them. You’ll find their contact information in our shownotes. but what I encourage people to think about, they go Jimmy how do you have time? So I’ve authored a book now, it should be coming out here shortly in the spring. By the way, it’s not about money, Matt, believe it or not. Funny how that works, right?
MH: Yeah.
JW: And also have, you know, a podcast, we do a column for a local newspaper we write. We still have our day jobs, so to speak. And people go, oh my goodness, I just don’t know that I have that kind of time or talent. Here’s the thing I want you to take from this, Matt, I don’t watch a lot of TV. I watch recorded TV so I control with my rudder of my mind what time I wish to spend on what topics, right? So, I don’t want to brag, I’m a Nascar fan, my daughter and my dad, we used to all go to the racetracks all over the place. Dirt tracks, I was raised on them. And then we end up in Nascar. Now, I don’t watch the Nascar race the day of the race, now Matt, don’t laugh, I just don’t. What I do is I record that, and I go through all of the episode of that race until I see a yellow flag, and then I stop. And then I go through all the commercials, so all of the advertisers out there, you’re wasting money on me. I don’t even know what you’re selling. But my point here is, is to say that if you’re going to be involved in the podcast, Matt has given you some great advice. Don’t come into this thinking, I’ve got one episode in me. Because that’s not how this works. And with the ability for you to come in and have 6 – 10 episodes, in your mind at least, of how you want to structure those, you’re off to at least a decent start. And I don’t mean great, I mean a decent start. So, I love your advice too on don’t get into this to make money. I really go into this because I felt a passion to help others and one way I could get that voice heard out in the world was through this medium. So, let’s talk a little bit about voice. You know, people look at me and go, Jimmy, how do you have such a distinguished sounding voice? You must be well trained. That’s a joke, Matt, don’t laugh too loud.
MH: I was just trying to figure where we’re going with that my friend. Is he fishing for a compliment there? Oh what’s going on…
JW: No, so, so everyone says do you really talk that way? Yes, this is me. Now, when I’m in the northeast, we have clients all over the country, but when I’m in the northeast, especially New York. I will turn on the southern drawl a little heavier Matt. Because, you know, that’s what theys seek. It’s an enlightenment. But, so talk to me a little bit about people that think I just don’t have the personality for this. What do you say to that?
MH: Unfortunately, I start off by saying, well you might be right.
JW: Sure.
MH: But, I think I can illustrate this by a story. So, you’re a CPA and a CFP and have all sorts of continuing education that I couldn’t probably even begin to touch on. But, one of the gentlemen that we work with is a recovering CPA, which always think is quite humorous, and he’s a CFP now. And he doesn’t do any sort of tax work anymore, or accounting work. He works specifically in financial services. And he was one of our first clients. He was terrible. No, you have a very southern accent. Now this guy has got a Long Island accent, and he says things like, yous and other words that really don’t exist in the English language. And it took him about a year. And we moved him to our continuum. And what happened was this. When he started interviewing other people, when he stopped being the person being interviewed, everything changed. And, we believe that through our process, and this is not meant to sound cocky or anything, cause we don’t always get things right, man. I mean, we mess things up, don’t get me wrong. But, part of it is because I teach our account managers and our voice talents, our hosts how to coach people. We try to uncover that much more quickly than we did with this poor guy. No he hung in there, man, and we love him to this day. You know, he’s one of our best clients, and I think he will always be, well not only one of our favorite but our best clients. But we try to uncover that a lot more quickly. But here’s the thing, one, I don’t care what your voice sounds like. I don’t, at all. I don’t care if you have a stutter or a stammer, in fact, some of our best podcasters have that. I don’t care if you have a wildly inflective voice, or if you speak like you’re from Georgia on a really hot day after you’ve had too much sweet tea. Or if you’re a New Yorker and you speak nine thousand miles and hour, I don’t care, because what’s important is you. What’s important is people connecting with you and podcasting is so intimate. My master’s thesis was on auditory stimulation in schizophrenics who suffered from auditory hallucinations. And it was, nobody would want to read it, but it was fascinating to me because what we found out was there was a way to hyperstimulate your broca’s area in order to cancel out some of the noise that happens in auditory hallucinations. And we brought that really to podcasting. Because you and I are both wearing headphones, right? And from your ear to the broca’s area is about 6 cm. And people listen to podcasts in their downtime and in their quiet time, and if you’re a business person or a coach, or a person who’s passionate about something. And you want to be invited into your ideal clients homes, when they’re hanging out and chilling out drinking a glass of wine, smoking a cigar, you know, drinking their sweet tea on their porch. Whatever. Podcasting is the medium that invites, like they opt into that, dude. They opt into you in their private quiet time and I think that is the most powerful way to influence people. But I am biased.
JW: Well, I am as well. I tell you, I have this uncanny ability, Matt, that I think almost innate in me is that I just love people. And if you love people and you want to see all mankind rise the tide along with all of us. You’re gonna find ways to serve them. So, let’s talk just a little bit about why is it important for us to be, in your term, a micro influencer with social media or with this platform of podcasting or whatever. Why is that important to any of us that has a story to tell?
MH: Because you have to rise above the noise. This is what gets me more than anything. And I just want the listeners to know, I didn’t know Jimmy was gonna ask me this question, but, boy brother, you just opened a can of worms. So here’s the deal.
JW: I do the unexpected, Matt, that’s just what I do, that’s how I work, brother.
MH: No, hey man, you listen, right, and that’s the key to being a great podcast host is not having it be about you. Listen to listen, not listen to respond. But here’s where you opened the can of worms, right? There’s no local media left. That’s it. So podcasting allows you to control the narrative in your hyper local, local or regional area in your area of influence. And that’s why this is so absolutely powerful. There is so much terrible misinformation that’s coming down from lots of different opportunities, I’m talking professionally. Not politically or religiously or anything. I’m talking professionally, right? In our area of expertise right now, which we’re expanding outside of financial services, but you get advertisements all the time about retirement. Right? A lot of it’s wrong. I mean that it’s not applicable to your specific situation. I mean, you’ve got that five step discovery process, I was on your website reading about tha and watching the video. And most people don’t take anybody though a five step discovery process, right? They take them through a quick one page financial plan. And this is what you need. I’ve got the solution cause I’ve got another meeting in three minutes, right? And that’s not what needs to be done. So we try to empower business owners, fiercely entrepreneurial people who know that they are doing something fundamentally unique and different that their population, their demographic, their ideal client needs to know to live a better and more successful life. And that’s what we do every single solitary day. And that’s why I get up and I’m so nerdy about it. You talking about, you know, you get up at 5am, I don’t personally get up at 5am, I get up at about 6. So you’ve got me beat by an hour there. But, you know, when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is I look at my calendar and I smile. Right? Cause, man, now this job isn’t for everybody, but I honestly feel like I have one of the greatest jobs in the world for me. Right? I get up, I get behind a microphone. I shoot a bunch of videos. I meet with my team. I motivate people. I get to ask people good questions. It just seems like such a gift and I’m very, very grateful for it everyday.
JW: You know, you said something there about if I’m so passionate about something I’ve always loved the phrase, if you find something you’re passionate about in life, you’ll never work a day in your life. So one of my clients, so I specialize in retirement planning, Matt, and one of them the other day said to me, well, when are you gonna retire? And I said, to be very truthful, I could have already done so. If you’re looking at it truely from a financial means I don’t do this for money. And she goes, oh really, and I said no, if it becomes a point where my passion now dwindles, I am not bringing value to the people like yourself that are my friends and clients that come in the doors and make our lives so much more special. If I’m not able to do that, that will be my swan song to say it’s been real. I’ll see what I can go do on the coastline of Hawaii and see if I can teach surfing lessons, right? Anyway, boys from Oklahoma don’t teach surfing lessons, but anyway. That was a bad analogy. So, let me ask you another couple of questions and about that, in terms of that role. How does one keep their passion? I told you about my story, and you’ve got a story, get up at 6 first thing you do is hit that calendar. What can we do to help people keep that passion rolling in their lives?
MH: I think far and away too many of us dwell on things that they can’t control. So that’s one of the biggest things that I think allows me to maintain my level of optimism is just to understand that in my life, there are very, very few things that I have any real control over. I mean, I have teenage boys, I mean, that right there should give you the foundation of what I’m talking about. But, you know, I can’t control the weather. I can’t control my dogs barking, if they chew up something. But what I can control is how I interact with the world. How I view the world and I purposely try to find the good in anything I can. Because, if not, man, it’s like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Right?
JW: Right.
MH: That’s how I look at negativity, because negativity, it really only affects me, truely. Because I can be all sorts of negative and hang around with people and they’re positive and I’m not going to influence them. But I’m telling ya, if you’re wicked positive and you’re around them and they’re being wicked negative, it rubs off, right? It’s just this energy that I think all of us live with. You can live with, but it’s a choice. Also, walk before you run. And you have practiced it. This does not, you know, I’m not a spring chicken anymore, everybody, but for the past, you know, I would probably say 35 years I actively practice optimism on a daily basis. I actively practice gratitude, and I actively look for ways to help other people everyday. Not saying I do it everyday. I’m not saying I’m a saint, cause I’m sure as heck not. But that is the way I’ve decided to choose my life. And I think I choose to live my life, and I think that that comes through when you’re working with us when you’re an employee at our organization. When I’m going through the drive thru at my coffee shop, my goal is to make those people smile and give them that brief two minutes of reprieve from somebody being grumpy about their coffee not being right, or somebody being grumpy because they’re late for work. You know I’m the guy who pays for the coffee behind me all the time.
JW: Absolutely.
MH: Right? Cause you know what dude, that three dollars, or five dollars sometimes. Maybe even seven, if that little bit of money is going to really make that person have a better day, it’s my job to do that.
JW: I think what we need to start thinking about in our world, too Matt, and I’m sure you ascribe to this, is I get so weary of people saying I don’t want to spend that. I don’t want to spend that. I don’t want to, it costs too much. And I keep telling them, I said you don’t understand, your whole psychological approach to this is wrong. And they’ll look at me funny, and they’ll go, what do you mean? I said, you don’t know that you’re spending, you’re investing. I’m putting out there an investment. Like you buying the coffee for the person behind you, Matt. I did this with a lady in front of me, and I’ve given this story before on the podcast, I’ll be brief, but there was this young lady, right before the holidays, it was like the early part of December, and she was not dressed very well. And she had a couple of young lads there that were kids, and I could tell that she just, life has been a little rough on her. And I just as she was getting her few groceries and she was looking at what she had to pay those groceries with, and I could see she’s wondering what am I gonna put back kind of thing. She said, how much is that? And she kept asking how much is that to the lady working there at the grocery store. And I, so I just calmly said, like I always do Matt, I interfere in people’s lives. I’m a professional interfere, I said, do you believe in the philosophy of it’s better to give than receive? And she looked at me real funny, her eyebrows furrowed a little bit, and I thought, well, maybe she’s not in the mood to talk today. But she said, I beg your pardon? And I said do you believe in the philosophy of it’s better to give than receive? And she said, yes I do. And I said, I had maybe $10 maybe $20 worth of groceries, she had probably, I’ll tell you why I know, she had $143 when I get through here in a second. She said, yes I do. And I said then would you please give me these groceries that I have here since you’re already ahead of me, and she’s gonna ring you up, she’s gonna just gonna add these to that. And the lady looked at me and she kinda shook her head a little bit, as you can see I’m now animating. For those of you listening, I’m just kind of had that thought process, well, that’s a pretty cool idea. Then she just said something that really hit home to me, Matt, tore at my heartstrings a little bit as I looked at those little boys. Their faces were a little dirty, their clothes weren’t all that great. And she said, well sir if you’re so good with philosophy do you believe in what you just said? And she said, you like that, and I said, without missing a beat unequivocally, I said you bet I do. And she said, then why don’t you give me my groceries today? And I looked at the cashier, and she’s wondering who is this nut and what’s he doing antagonizing this young lady? And I looked at her and I said don’t even total that until you get to these and I will buy these groceries today. And she looked at me, and I’ll never forget what the lady said, the little grocery clerk said, but sir, that’s $143 and some change. And I said, glad to invest in the young lives of these two boys today. If they’re not eating, they’re not living. Please enjoy your holiday. She sacked them up and gave them to her. And this lady behind the counter that was checking us out said, who are you? The world needs heros, my friend. The world needs the Matt Halloran’s to tell their story. The world needs your clients that you serve everyday, helping to create and reframe and transmit their story to the world that hurting. They need to hear that. Like you said, there’s nothing local or positive. Now I got one last question for you, if you don’t mind sir. You’ve been so generous and I thank you so much on behalf of all of our listeners across the globe, 27 countries, Matt, who would have thought when we started, we’d have that kind of outreach. My question to you though, sir, if you could leave our listeners, our subscribers with just one statement of advice today on influence, leadership, legacy, whatever, what would you leave them with today, sir?
MH: It’s not about you. I think that’s the biggest issue that every person has personally, professionally, in business, spiritually, whatever. Is when you can get past yourself, and realize that there is so much more out there that’s so much greater than you. Once you make that mental shift, everything in your life changes. And doors will be open to you. People will be open to you. When you’re not so wildly self centered about whatever you’re so self centered about. Even if you’re the best of the best at whatever, Jimmy, like if you’re the greatest rocket scientist that ever was made. If you still make it about the other rocket scientists. The people who are making the rockets, the people, that sort of granular gratefulness, I think that’s when everything changes.
JW: Oh, man, that is powerful. Matt, thank you so much for joining us today from Top Advisor Marketing, Matt Halloran. I want to say a couple of things before I let you go Matt. One thing I like to do with our podcast every week, and folks, I’ve never missed a Monday. That’s the point, I’m here for you, to help you reach your potential each week, is do not go on this trip alone. Seek out coaches, seek out those that, I’ll be honest with you, I’ve learned tremendously. People go, well how much does that cost? No, no, no. How much can I invest that will help me reap the benefit of not having to pay that ultimate price of loss of circumstances or my lifestyle slowed down. Or some perhaps negative thing that could happen. Go to those people that know how to keep you focused. You know, establish a team of other like minded experts. Friends, family members. Whatever it takes to help you reach your potential. You can do this. I tell you, if a man from Oklahoma, where we just got running water and the internet a couple of years ago, Matt, if I can do this, you my friends listening today can do this even more so. It has been an honor Matt, having you here today. I’m going to share your information of contact and about Top Advisor Marketing on our show notes and on our website. Encourage everyone, get on their website, look at what they have to offer. I’m betting I can even offer you this complimentary consultation. Get on the phone and just see what it’s like for you to talk to these good people and what they can do to help you. But do not put off today what could be done today to improve your life. Because you are the only you in this world. And I’ve got some really good news for you to end this episode. It is your life. If you wish it to be bigger, better and bolder, it takes you purposefully wanting it to do so. Go ahead, it is your life, live it by your design.
