It was a crazy year of ups and down and I want to give you a breakdown of how it went.
Matt Henderson:
Hey everyone, welcome to The Business Mind Podcast. This is Matt and today I am going to run you through the whole year and what I did this year. How I accomplished it and what you can take away from this. Hi everyone, Matt from The Business Mind Podcast, I just wanted to let you know a quick little tip.
So the way that I’ve been doing all these podcasts is this cool app or you can get it on your desktop as well, it’s called anchor.fm. It’s got to be the easiest way to make a podcast because they give you everything you need in one place and they do it for free. So it’s pretty awesome because I’m currently doing all this right from my phone but when I’m home and I have a few minutes, I pop on the computer and it’s got so many awesome tools and everything to edit. And you can do sound effects and all sorts of other really cool things that I haven’t been taking advantage of but I suggest that you do.
…They even distribute the podcast for me, I don’t have to figure out where to put it, they popped it on to Spotify for me, you can get it on the Apple Podcast, Google Podcast and a whole bunch of others. But the nicest part is while you’re getting your podcast out there, you can also monetize and you can easily make a little bit of money from doing the podcast with minimal listenership. So get online, download the Anchor app on your phone or you can go to anchor.fm and you can get started on today. All right. So check it out. Once again, Matt, from The Business Mind Podcast. So excited that you guys decided to take the time and listen and when you’re ready to get your podcast going check out the anchor.fm. Again, Matt from The Business Mind Podcast, have a great day.
All right. So it is officially 2020, I finally am on my fifth time trying to record this episode, I thought it seems completely ridiculous. And for those of you who have been loyal listeners and followers, I apologize for taking so long to get this episode out to you. But I’m really excited to talk to you today about how my year went, exactly what I did this year and why I went down this path. So for those of you who didn’t get a chance to listen from the beginning, I’m really apologetic, because what happened was I actually started posting all of my podcasts on a different platform this year. And when I switched over to putting them up on iTunes, it was actually iTunes didn’t transfer over all of my podcasts. So there are a ton of you out there that are listening and you didn’t get to hear probably my first 20 or 30 podcasts.
So if you’re looking for them they are on Spotify right now, they’re also in a couple other places like Google Podcasts and stuff, if you’re looking for them. So I suggest you go and take a look at The Business Mind Podcast on Spotify or Google Podcasts. But I want to fill you in on what got me started
down this path, why did I even make this podcast and what have I taken away from it that I can give back to you guys. Because that’s what matters to me because it’s the sole reason I did this. So a little backstory for those of you who didn’t get to hear all the earlier episodes and you’re just starting now or you just started in the last few podcasts. About two years ago, I actually went on a spree where I was trying to educate myself on some new things because I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with my life and my business and what my areas of growth were going to be.
So I had read this article about Warren Buffet, for those of you who know, he’s a multi-billionaire like [inaudible 00:03:52] probably the third richest person in the whole world right now. And the article said that Warren Buffet gets all of his information through his reading, he’s an avid, avid, avid reader. And I’ll tell you, I grew up in a family where my mother was an avid reader and my grandfather an avid reader. And they would read, my mom could probably go through two books a week probably and my grandfather would go through about a book or two a week and then probably three newspapers a day on top of that. So I grew up, of course like everybody else, you don’t want to do what your parents do, so I hated reading. I know that’s shocking but I hated reading, I didn’t like it, I would get really tired and bored and blah, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, I decided that two years ago I needed to increase my education and I needed to start figuring out exactly what I was brought here to do. Meaning what is my life supposed to be? What am I supposed to be doing as far as my work every day? And then how am I going to give back to everybody through my work? And that might sound a bit over the top for some of you that are thinking of giving back from your work. I decided that I wasn’t going to become a wealthy person if I wasn’t able to have enough knowledge to actually give back to other people and educate them on what I know and how I
grew and help them grow. So I went out on my journey and I decided that in a year, my goal was to read 50 books. Because I read an article about Warren buffet and said he reads approximately 50 books per week.
And I thought, wow, all right… Well, per week, per year. I wish I could read 50 books a week. But 50 books per year, so I thought, all right I can read 50 books a year. Now as a preface to this the year before I went on this new journey, I read zero books. The year before that year, I read zero books. So to say that I’m not an avid reader, I have not been an avid reader in the past would be an understatement, because I definitely was not. I went on my kick, I said, this is what I’m doing. I’m going to educate myself and I’m going to let the books choose me. Meaning I would read one and based on what I learned and how I felt from that book and what my process was, I would decide on the next book from each book.
I did just that, I took my time and I read each book and then based on how I felt from that book I would decide what my next book would be. And I went through 52 books that year and it was amazing. I guess I should say, on top of my game I never felt more educated. I mean, I’m a college graduate and I
didn’t come out of college feeling as educated as I did from my own year of education. Meaning the year I took just to educate myself on what I wanted and when you’re an entrepreneur which is what I’ve been my entire life I was a kid who didn’t like working for other people. So I would start a [long 00:07:25] cutting business and a car detailing business.
It didn’t matter what it was as long as it would pay way more than a minimum wage would pay, that’s what I was doing every day and I did not want to work for other people. So my childhood was a little different than the average person’s childhood. I grew up in a family where my mom was a school teacher and my dad was a police officer. But my father grew up in a family that was very entrepreneurial, my grandparents owned a taxi company, they owned a banner plane company. For those of you who don’t live by the beach, the planes that fly up the beach and they tow these cool banners behind them
and they basically are just large advertisements and I loved it, I loved it. And I could never figure out exactly what I liked about it other than my grandparents were controlling their income, it was whatever they wanted to do.
But when I found that my grandparents in the 60s were jumping on their own planes. [inaudible 00:08:25] 60s and 70s? I think the 70s. And they were flying out to Las Vegas on their own planes, gambling and seeing shows and whatever for a weekend and flying back. I thought, this is what being an
entrepreneur is about, it’s controlling your time, controlling your income and knowing what you can do with your life and expanding it as you deem necessary. And it just always stuck with me and I decided that’s what I’m going to be in life, I’m going to work for me. I’m going to be an entrepreneur. And as I grew up my father always had rental properties he eventually… Even though he was a police officer, he eventually took over my grandparents’ taxi company, and we sold it.
My dad and I had a taxi company, we bought that exact same taxi company back in the early 2000s together and ran that for a number of years and grew that and we sold it again. So it’s just been in my blood, it’s what I do, it’s what I understand, it’s where I want to be all day. I want to be making my
own decisions, I want to stress over it all night long. I’ll work 100 hours for myself to avoid working 40 for somebody else. It seems crazy right? But that’s what every entrepreneur is, that’s who we are. And I set out on that path of educating myself because my ancestors, my grandparents, my family, they’ve been more educated than me in the entrepreneurial sense and I didn’t realize that. I thought because I went to college, I had all the knowledge I needed and I was going to be able to solve my own problems and grow my own businesses.
But at the end of the day, in my opinion college actually does not give you that kind of knowledge and you come out needing to learn that yourself, so I did. As I said, I ran a taxi company with my father for a few years, we grew from one car to 33 or 35 cars and then we sold that business off. And because the universe was very kind to me, thank you so much [inaudible 00:10:32]. We sold approximately two and a half years before Uber became the biggest thing out there. So actually we sold when Uber was not even an idea that existed on the East Coast at the time. So I got out in a great time
and had great success with that. So I actually wanted to move on and find my next business and unfortunately, 2008 happened and the entire market crashed. And since I didn’t know where I was supposed to be, because I hadn’t read my 50 books yet, because I hadn’t ever really niche down to figuring out what it was for me and where I’m supposed to be.
I wound up floundering for a number of years, like three years trying to figure out where I’m supposed to be and what I’m supposed to do and it was stressful for me. It was a really trying time… Excuse me… I’d never really struggled with finding a way to make money and now I was in a time where nobody wanted to pay you to do anything for them. Nobody wanted to hire you to do anything for them. And my income struggled, my home life struggled. My finances were a mess and I wasn’t really sure where to go. I wasn’t sure what to do and how to get past where I was at, so just to make a long story a lot shorter. I was very fortunate, I did find a job at the time, working for a small business owner and I helped them grow their business and then what I did was I was finally able to find my path.
I met my current business partner and got involved with him and since then, I’ve been running a small business with him. But today in this past year, I’ve been focused on getting myself started again and I’m not a young guy. I’m not a 20 something guy who’s just decided that this is the time and now I’m going to start my own business, no. I’m an entrepreneur who has tried some businesses and succeeded. He’s tried a lot of other ones and he’s failed. I’m sure it’s a story that a lot of you can relate to. Entrepreneurs fail a good amount of time but I never gave up and because I have an amazing wife, she never gave up on me. So this past year, I decided that after reading my 50 odd books and then going on deep dives after that and everything else. This past year, I decided I’m going to start my own businesses, I’m going to create things, I’m going to be a website designer, and I started building websites back last February. And that’s where I’m going to leave you guys for today.
I know, it seems like too much but I told you I got to break this up over a few episodes. But I wanted to let you know exactly where I started and where I got to. I started this year out, I became a web designer, I took a deep dive into search engine optimization and website design and copywriting and
everything else. And I just decided I need to know all of this so that I can be the best website designer out there. Because my goal in life has always been to be location independent, I don’t want to have to live anywhere I want to be location independent. So for today, I want you guys to think about where do you want to be? Where do you feel like you’re at? And do you have your path? Because I didn’t have a path.
So if your answer is, I have no idea, that’s exactly where I was at. I had no idea where I wanted to go, I had no idea what my path was and the only thing I was confident of was that I didn’t know what my first step would even be. So if that’s how you feel, you’re listening to the right podcast, you’re in the episodes that are going to take you from nothing to something. And today I want to just stop this episode right here and I want you to go home tonight and think about, am I doing what I always wanted to do? Is this where I thought I would see myself? Whatever your age is, it doesn’t matter if you’re 15 or you’re 50, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to do what you’re doing, you don’t have to be where you’re at. But just think about it today and decide for yourself whether this is where you saw yourself being, if this was the job you wanted to be at and if not, have you figured out what that spot is for you.
All right. If you like what you hear on the podcast, if you like this episode of the podcast, there’s going to be at least two or three more from here. I’m probably thinking it’s probably going to be three to four more, just this topic. Because I want to run you guys through my year and exactly what happened for me and where it took me, because I think you’re going to get a lot back from it that’s going to help you in your direction. So take a screenshot of this podcast, post it to your Instagram, post it on your Facebook, tell people what you think about it. Leave me a review on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, anywhere that you’re consuming this information, just let people know about me, I would really appreciate it. Because I appreciate you guys, I appreciate all your listening and everything I can do to serve you and give back to my community and help everyone grow and be bigger business people than you ever thought, that’s what would make my life better.
So I’m going to step back in tomorrow, I’m going to finish this up, I’m not going to let this run any further. I apologize for the delay in all of my podcasts but hey, we’ll see you guys again tomorrow. Again, Matt from The Business Mind Podcast, we’re going to stop and do episode two tomorrow and we will get this all dialed in for you guys. All right. Happy new year, I look forward to talking to you guys tomorrow.