Uncover Free Money with Matthew Lesko

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast. We are talking to the CEO of Les Go Help, and what he does is he helps people to get government grants. So, I’m excited to hear more about that. but before we do, are we ready to rock? Matthew?

Matthew Lesko: Well, our roll, rock

Tim Melanson: We’re gonna rock and roll, both of them, I think. Right?

Matthew Lesko: we always start off here in a good note. tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by

like success. my third marriage was a success. My third business was a success.

Tim Melanson: The rule of threes.

Matthew Lesko: Right. You just had to fucking do stuff. You know, if you wanna succeed, you don’t know what’s right. You don’t know what’s wrong. the only thing you know you should not do is nothing You don’t know what to do. I mean, we’re all looking for that magic, you know, oh, the five steps to doing something right and all that.

We pay all this money. The experts and most experts don’t even know what to do with their own life, so they don’t even [00:01:00] know what gives them the audacity to tell somebody else what to do with their life. it is a struggle. We’re all different, so we all have to do it.

Differently in a way. We get clues and tips and stuff like that, but not a seven step ladder to success because half of those won’t work for you, you know? And the first one that doesn’t work, you’re saying, oh, that guy was an asshole. Why did I give him money? and you’ll give up. And that’s not success.

Success is when it doesn’t work and you figure out a way around or through it. You know, and if somebody else tells you the step, then you won’t believe in it. But if you develop your own steps, then you believe in it. You know, if you say, this is the best thing I should do, you know?

You don’t know the best thing, but you have to take the best available. You know, I used to think, you know, walk, oh, I can’t think of a great idea. I can’t think of a great idea. Then I realized I never buy stuff. That’s great. That’s all mediocre shit. None of this is perfect. [00:02:00]

Tim Melanson: Yeah, it’s good enough,

Matthew Lesko: Look at all the mediocre stuff we live with, you know? and so just try the mediocre and that will lead to something. You have to start doing something and you don’t have to know what’s perfect for you to do, because nobody knows. you’re an artist.

You’re a Picasso building a painting, which is you in your life. you have to bring out the inside of you, not get from the outside what to do. You need that feedback just ’cause nobody wants your shit. You gotta do something else. But the best thing we all have in life is what’s inside of us.

You know, and the problem is we go for the experts and they tell you what other people were successful at, and that’s not you. So maybe you could get some little tips there. But the real success comes and the real growth is when you bring your. Inside out because that’s their, particularly if it’s weird, like my stuff, you know, I mean, it took me a long time to start dressing like this and, until I did, I was just [00:03:00] mediocre.

And then That’s when I could give my best because it’s all real me. You’re not getting an imitation or me trying to be somebody else. that is value in the marketplace and that’s value in your heart. Because you have to be somebody all day. And if you’re trying to be somebody else that wears you down, you know, the more you are yourself, you give that the most.

And if you find out what you’re the best at, man, you’ll give that better than anybody else. Then it comes easy, it comes natural, you know? And then life isn’t As much of a struggle. It’s not always gonna be successful financially, whatever, but that’s okay. That will happen no matter what the hell you do anyway, so you might as well have fun doing it.

Tim Melanson: That’s a good point. It’s gonna happen to you,

Matthew Lesko: Yeah, exactly.

Tim Melanson: you don’t make it happen for you.

Matthew Lesko: And, and the life, life is gonna beat you up no matter who you are. And so that’s why everybody wants to plan for success and avoid problem. That, that’s [00:04:00] crazy. because particularly anything new you wanna do in life, it’s like riding a bicycle or learning to walk. You gotta fall on your ass a hundred times.

and if you don’t do that, you’re not gonna grow into what you wanna be, you know?

Tim Melanson: Let’s talk about those pad notes. What happens when something doesn’t go right? how do you recover?

Matthew Lesko: Well just pick yourself up and try anything. That’s the thing. You don’t have to know what to try. You just have to know that doing nothing is bad. So you just fucking try anything and see what happens. Like right now, when I, I sold books for 40 or 50 years, something like that, and it would do very well as a consultant, charged a lot of money for this information, and I want to reach the average person.

So we did books and there really reference books, and then all of a sudden the internet came. And nobody wanted reference books, so I had to do it all again, and it took me a number of years, but the passion for my mission was so great. You know, I didn’t, I. Go and [00:05:00] sell real estate or something instead.

And that’s the thing. You have to find out what’s important for you so you could stick with the problems. if it’s not important, I see it the same as a personal relationship. if you’re there for the money or for the sex or whatever, and that goes away, you gotta have something bigger.

You know, together the stay in the same way with not only a personal relationship, but a professional one. you have to have a bigger, mission in mind on what you’re doing. And this is your life. You spend half your waking hours at work, probably more if you’re doing it yourself.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree.

Matthew Lesko: And it doesn’t become like going to if it’s, if you don’t like it, it’s like going to the dentist every day and who the hell wants to do that?

That’s why I think the most important lubricant for all the bad shit that’s gonna happen to you, I is humor.

Tim Melanson: Hmm.

Matthew Lesko: And that’s the lubricant in life because you’re gonna get beat up no matter who you are, or how good you are or [00:06:00] whatever. There’s no way out of that. You’re a human being and human beings all get shit on.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I think it’s, better when you are in control rather than, you know,

Matthew Lesko: Oh. Oh, absolutely.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, but I think that’s interesting to think about because I don’t know if everybody really agrees with that. Like, for me, I’d rather make a mistake that’s my fault than I know it’s my fault than have things happen to me from the outside that I can blame.

I wanna be in control.

Matthew Lesko: Oh, absolutely. Well, that’s what you learn. See, the other way, when you’re saying there are two different ways, when you say somebody else’s fault, you’re working on somebody else’s mission. So that’s it. I see it also as telling you what you should do. and, it’s not your mission.

See if somebody else even tells you what to do for your mission and you don’t do it, and it doesn’t work, you blame them. And then don’t take apart the idea well enough. You don’t own the event. So [00:07:00] your idea, you own the event and you’ll pull it apart. Oh, what I did wrong. if it’s somebody else, you just blame the other person who gave you the idea and it’s their fault, not yours.

Tim Melanson: Well, and I think probably different personalities do it different ways. I know for me, when I do listen to someone’s advice, I so rarely actually just do exactly what they say. I’ll change it, I’ll make it mine. Right. And you know, sometimes that probably annoys some people, ’cause they’re like, I’m giving you a formula.

Just follow the formula. But if I make it my own, then I feel like I am more in control and it, you know, I make it mine. Right.

Matthew Lesko: Well, I mean, that’s to me the right thing to do because it, their thing worked for them because of their personality and whatever. And so we have to be smart enough to just take the idea and maybe use it for us. And that’s why I say your heart is smarter than your brain. so if you feel it, I mean, you have to have your heart is where the most important decisions come from.

and that will give you a [00:08:00] guy, your brain you gotta use so you don’t fall off a cliff and things like that. But really then you got the passion behind doing it, you know? And that’s what you are doing, you’re telling me is that you put it into your, you know, whatever it is, cookie color so that you have the passion to make it happen.

Yeah. So let’s talk a little bit about, about practicing. So do you, do you have like practices, do you even believe in practice or do you believe in just going out and doing things.

I don’t even think about it. I work every day. I’m 81 years old, and I just can’t wait to get up to do this because I think it’s really helping people. I see the stuff I know is able to help people with problems and that’s a wonderful joy. actually as I get older, what I see, I mean, as a man, at least I’m sure Canada’s the same way.

Most men, you know, trying to get stronger and faster and smarter and all that. Well, at 81, I’m not gonna get [00:09:00] any of those things.

be better. They’re all, they’re all going downhill, but what I can do better is love. And I can love people better. I can do that. I can open my heart better, and I see the more I love and open my heart, the better I feel no matter what’s happening, you know?

It is some kind of tonic that we’re not trained. I never saw an MBA course that covered it and I got a MBA and all this, you know, the, the courses that I, I don’t know what they talk about now, but when I was young and, you know, trying to eat up stuff to see what works, they never talked about any of that stuff, so I never worried about it.

And I think men, and at least in my generation dating and all that. Was sort of like you didn’t work at it, you didn’t have to, or something was just something. If you didn’t have a date by Friday for Saturday, then you worry about it. But, that was about it. after two failing marriages, I realized that part [00:10:00] of life takes us much work as starting a business,

Tim Melanson: It does. Yeah. Right. Well, that’s if you wanna be happy right.

Matthew Lesko: Right, exactly.

That’s if you wanna be happy.

You never know.

Tim Melanson: see it every day,

Matthew Lesko: True. Exactly. But it’s and as I think of that, I think, well, they think this is being happy or, you?

know, wanting your own way or forcing people to do something they didn’t wanna do. And I think love is, helping someone else do whatever the fuck they wanna do. I mean, we’re all struggling in life.

I can’t tell anybody what to do. I struggle every day what I should be doing in my life. So if I love somebody, I think my, obligation is to help them do what they wanna do, not to tell ’em what’s wrong about. If they want me to ask, I’ll tell ’em, but you know, it’s really, they have to figure it out and, and if they’re not invested it, and I just help them with [00:11:00] tools to.

Tim Melanson: Do what they want to do, then they’ll learn more from that than anything else I tell ’em or suggest or whatever. Yeah, and I mean, sometimes it’s even helping them figure that out. So sometimes people just don’t, maybe they haven’t even had, maybe they’ve never even sat down to think about what they wanna do. They’re just doing what someone else told ’em they should be doing.

Matthew Lesko: Well, that says it’s looking in your heart. trying to feel, I mean, the kind of questions I ask is, you know, who do you admire? Or whatever. How do you see yourself? I mean, it’s so funny. I used to think of myself maybe 30, 40 years ago that boy I could do, my work, you know, dying in a hospital online, I guess, to keep doing this stuff forever.

And here I am, 81, still doing this, that, I can’t do it enough.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Matthew Lesko: Yeah.

it’s a gift and I feel very spoiled and it’s more profitable now. Everything. I mean, I’ve been in the media a [00:12:00] long time and, and, a couple New York Times bestsellers and was on talk shows and did Oprah a whole bunch of times, and Larry King and Dave Letterman and all these kind of things through the eighties and I mean, during the nineties, mostly in two thousands early.

but now this is more rewarding than ever. ’cause people are really getting help by accident. I stumbled into building a community. I had no idea. I said, well, I’m trying to figure out, nobody’s buying newsletters. I mean, nobody’s buying books. So I may go do a newsletter. So the newsletter turned into community.

So I used to sell the service to Fortune 500 companies. I charge $10,000 to do what I do for 20 now.

Tim Melanson: wow.

Matthew Lesko: They’re gonna make money, millions out of it. They’ll pay anything, you know? and, but I didn’t wanna help them anymore. they’re no fund to help because they don’t need it. And I think this is important for the average person.

So I devote my life down trying to. Teach [00:13:00] them how to do this and that’s more rewarding to me. I don’t want to charge hundreds or thousands of dollars. I want to be like the $20 guy, you know, so anybody could afford it. I did that and started as a news there, but now it’s turned into community where you get about 12,000 people.

They help each other get the grants. See, I don’t need me.

Tim Melanson: Yes, you facilitate it right?

Matthew Lesko: Yeah.

how much I could do, if I could do it for somebody who only has $20, how am I gonna help them? Particularly more on the one-on-one. ’cause that’s really almost what it takes. People don’t read books. It’s sort of like diet books. I wrote books and sold millions and millions of coffee and very few people use them, you know, because it takes work.

They don’t wanna do that. They have to read. And you know, like diet books, we just sell no more diet books. And America’s the finest country in the world. Like 67% of us are are obese or overweight. About 40% are obese. So that’s politically a problem. Overweight, this might be less of a problem, but, and we sell billions in diet [00:14:00] books.

so having ’em help each other is just a godsend and profitability. At $20, we may, I, I just was looking for income just to pay my way. But, it became so profitable and we just have a handful of people. But after we pay ourselves, we give back the money to the members and we give. 50 to $75,000 every month back to members.

I mean, that just astounds me. That coal miner’s grandson from Wilkesboro, Pennsylvania. I thought you had to be Jeff Bezos or his ex-wife or somebody like that to give that kind of money and yeah, and that, that, that is really the joy that I feel, to do.

Tim Melanson: So now Matthew, have you had mentors through your life?

Matthew Lesko: Not that I know of.

Tim Melanson: So how do you learn everything you learn?

Matthew Lesko: a trial and error? I mean, it just follow your [00:15:00] heart. I was on some big quiz show or some shit like that, and they wanted me to, who I admire, you know, the only people I could think of, Muhammad Ali, south African guy. Why can’t I think of his name? It was in jail, you know who I mean?

Tim Melanson: that guy in jail.

Matthew Lesko: The black guy who took over the country and made it. Nelson Mandela,

Tim Melanson: Oh, Nelson Mandela.

Matthew Lesko: and one, so there are two people to me who gave up everything. For an ideal. I mean, Muhammad Ali, he was king of the world and he went to jail, gave it all up because of the war. So people that do something for things that are bigger than them, I.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Matthew Lesko: Yeah.

And now I’m back into Socrates

who, you know, let him kill. Do you think it’s right then I’d be, you know, the feeling I get, and I’m not a historian or anything, that he decided to live in this [00:16:00] society and that’s the rules and, okay, something bigger, you wanna do. it and it’s not gonna. Yeah, we have to live the something bigger to make this life important to us.

And ’cause otherwise you get so many slings and arrows that you’re gonna give it up. And I think what I sense from you in the beginning talking is same feeling I had. I just hated working for somebody. First of all, I could go to work like this if I ever wanted to. Even when I start wearing these suits. I lost millions of dollars.

I mean, I was working on home shopping. I’d go down there and sell 30,000 books in a day, you know, and I came down wearing in the suit one night. You can’t be on the air. Oh, shit. Yeah.

and good advice, your loved ones, when you make the hard decisions about starting a business or starting your own thing, or they’re gonna tell you 50 reasons why you shouldn’t do this.

Okay? And there are, there’s probably a hundred, not only 50,

Tim Melanson: [00:17:00] Mm-hmm.

Matthew Lesko: could do that. And so you really have to stay away from, and I think the best thing to do when they say that is, I know because why aren’t you? You know, they’re probably right and it could be just, I know. Then it takes the game away.

That’s, I mean, the most fun in life is to argue people, is don’t defend yourself. Just say, I know you’re an asshole. Let go. I know, because that’s not worth talking about.

Tim Melanson: Love that. I think that’s an excellent way to handle things. ’cause you’re right. I mean, there are tons of reasons why you shouldn’t do what you’re about to do, but there’s a reason why you’re thinking about doing it too.

Matthew Lesko: I remember when I was starting doing in interviews on national talk shows, and I, I would prepare, I’d write a book for a year and then work for a month on what I’m gonna say. When I do interviews, ’cause there were three, there was a one minute minute interview, a three minute five, seven. Then you didn’t have to worry about after that everything will come out.[00:18:00]

But how do you, so I remember on, on, on, the Today Show, I think it was Jane Polly at the time, so I’m talking like an old fart. and she said, Matthew, isn’t it hard to fill out an application? And I said, yes. But did you know you could get a house for a dollar? Did you get $45,000 to train for a new job?

Tim Melanson: So it’s gone. I like.

it’s all over, and it only if you only have a minute of airtime. Yeah. And they’re expecting the, you know, the defensive answer

Matthew Lesko: Exactly.

Tim Melanson: combat that.

Matthew Lesko: right?

Tim Melanson: Right.

Matthew Lesko: Yeah.

Tim Melanson: So now let’s talk a little bit about cash flow and about keeping, I call it the hatful, but how do you make sure that you’re making money in your businesses.

Matthew Lesko: Yeah.

Tim Melanson: you’re spending.

Matthew Lesko: the idea particularly starting is don’t spend any money. There’s too many ways to start businesses or whatever, like your business, you don’t need money. You don’t need an LLC, you don’t need, a [00:19:00] 5 0 1 3 C if you’re a nonprofit. All that shit doesn’t mean anything, and particularly in the beginning.

And you have to concentrate not on anything the size of your desk or like your website or any of that shit. Doesn’t matter at all if you don’t have a customer. And that’s the key. They spend so much time getting all the expertise and everything. And I did that the first two, I had an MBA and was starting businesses.

I had a software company back in the seventies that failed. The guy, the lawyers, and all the people I bought shit from, they’re the people who won. I didn’t, you don’t even apply to the government because they, it’ll take them three years to find you and by that time you’ll be outta business and it won’t matter, or you’ll have enough money to pay the fine, $50 fine.

So that was my theory after the two failures is the only thing that’s important is a customer. So, because if you do all that shit, then you have to go look for customers. So that’s stupid. ’cause you spend all the money probably on the wrong thing too. So you go look for the [00:20:00] customers first. And then that tells you how to spend the money and that starts the cash flow.

So why start a negative cash flow when you don’t even know who your customer is? And that’s why there’s so many things, like even back in then, what I did is almost like crowdfunding. I put an ad in the area, in the Wall Street Journal on a book, but I didn’t write it yet. I wanna see if anybody buy it.

Why should I spend a year on a book and nobody buy it? Just so see if anybody sent me checks. So if I didn’t get any checks, well then I know I don’t have to do it. If I got a few checks and I just sent ’em back, I’m sorry. We’re not gonna do it if I got a lot of checks. Oh yeah, we’re, we’re running behind schedule and then we will be a, so I didn’t have to do anything until I start getting money.

So to me, my philosophy is. You’re not in business because you have an LLC. You’re not in business because you became a professional nonprofit. You’re in business when you have somebody wants to give you money for what you got, [00:21:00] you know, that’s when you have business. So you do that as a freelancer. You do any other way and grow that way instead of trying to build the Taj Mahal because everybody’s gonna come.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Amazing that I agree a hundred percent. That’s how I’ve started all of

Matthew Lesko: it seems that,

in our country, oh, I need a million dollars to start a business. Why not this?

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And I mean this whole podcast is about working from home. Like, Maybe back in the day when you needed the brick and mortar businesses, you needed to buy something, to get started. But nowadays, just about any business could be run from home, right?

Matthew Lesko: Exactly. No, it, it, it, it’s, I mean, when I was growing up, like to sell something, you had to buy a, you had to open a store, you know, that’s grand or something. Now, $20 on Etsy and you got a store.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Geez. some of these platforms, you can do it for free and you can start to build up. I mean, hey, you can use Facebook marketplace, start selling your stuff there free. And [00:22:00] then, once you have a few customers, now it’s a matter of, okay, well now I can maybe upgrade to a professional store.

Matthew Lesko: Because the key is how are you gonna find the customers? All this other shit. How do you spend money? That’s the detail. and you have to build a skill of how do you find customers, that’s important. And it’s not by selling ads. So you go on YouTube and know, you know, for help or you Google.

And everybody has the magic for you to advertise because they want your money. And even back before the internet, I found out, oh Yeah.

I would, I would go to TV stations and everything and wanted to do commercials and put it off. None of ’em made money. And I said, this is crazy. ’cause they had a price for what they thought it was worth their advertising time.

But you had to find out what it’s worth to you. Doesn’t matter what they think it’s worth. So what I would do, and now I think they call this on the internet, is, you know, you sell that commission kind of thing. So I, I would go [00:23:00] to TV station, say I a commercial here, you know, it’s pretty good, but I can’t afford your rates.

Use it if nobody buys any time, see, and I’ll give you half my money. Okay, so use my commercial. If nobody else buys it, you have something that you don’t have dead air in a Smokey the Bear thing or something like that. You at least get some money from me.

Tim Melanson: They have those placeholders.

Right, exactly. So that’s why I made a ton like that with, no risk and, and everything. So there’s always another way to do something. Problem is we go to Google or experts on how to market or do these things, and they’re telling you what rich people do. Yeah. Well, and I think a lot of that is similar to what you said earlier about the diet books. You know, people, it’s easier to buy a book than it is to actually do the work. And so it’s easier to buy an ad than it is to go out there and do the [00:24:00] work,

Matthew Lesko: Exactly. Yeah.

But if you want to do it, that’s why, to have the, you know, the stamina to do that, It has to be coming from inside of you

Tim Melanson: that,

Matthew Lesko: Right.

some desperation there as well. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: I agree.

Matthew Lesko: yeah, it, it, it is. And my sense of you is I see exactly what I did and, you can’t particularly services now, I mean, you don’t need a building. You don’t need a store. You don’t need anything. And now even this service, when I started, I wanted to get, so you need, you have to have a way for people to give you money.

Tim Melanson: Mm-hmm.

Matthew Lesko: So that’s it. Because if they say, if you’re going out and do market research, that’s bullshit too, because people wanna be nice to you. Would you buy this? You know? Oh Yeah.

yeah. But ask them for money. That’s the only re true way. And otherwise they’re just being polite. I. now when I was there and I was sort of like doing consultant, and there’s a platform [00:25:00] that would charge the money and everything, so we’d, we, they’d just make an appointment on this platform.

They would take care of the, I think they would take 10, 15% or whatever, and I’d charge a dollar a minute or something, try to get feedback. First of all, would people buy something that are not, we’re not a Fortune 500 company and have that, that was very instructive. but asking for money, so anything you put, put maybe a test, maybe you do a, on, on, put a group on Facebook or something like that.

I did that and I hate it, but, it’s a good free place to start a group to see if there’s. interest have a place that people can send you money, for something so you know what is of value to people. even if you don’t have anything, maybe they could buy an hour of your time or something if they wanna talk more.

Just something to see how, it’s monetizable or not Otherwise, you’re doing things for other people that you think is great, but if they [00:26:00] don’t think it’s great or you can’t find anybody that’s like not making love, that’s masturbating, that’s not as fun as making love.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, and, and, and I think that that’s the thing is there’s a lot of people that out there with free, you know, free stuff and they might be getting a lot of, a lot of traction with this free stuff, but that’s not gonna pay the bills, right.

Matthew Lesko: Right. You.

Tim Melanson: I mean, sure. You.

Matthew Lesko: May, maybe, maybe to build a mailing list, but have something, You.

know, at least that’s why you don’t know exactly what the pro product is. So then at least sell your time so you’re an expert and just don’t fa say $500 an hour, but something that a reasonable person could pay. God, I should it, it was on, ah, I forget.

Uh. I used It for about a year and it was good because it was market research. you know, kind of

Tim Melanson: market research. I wonder what it was. I mean, for me, market research is find your competitors. See, see if they’re making

Matthew Lesko: Oh, I mean, it [00:27:00] was, I used market research to see what people would ask me to do. See, that’s a, yeah. Say what do they want help on? I’ll, I’ll show you how to get money.

on anything. So. Uh, so customize instead of doing a book on, Oh how to start a business at home, or, you know, I don’t know where to go.

So if you’re looking for money to do something, gimme a call. You know, for 50 bucks we’ll spend an hour brainstorming and then everybody was quite satisfied. So,

Tim Melanson: You know what, and I’ve considered doing that so many times just with my, uh, with my podcast ’cause of. I’ve interviewed over 3, 3 50 people

Matthew Lesko: yeah.

Tim Melanson: and, uh, but I never, I never did. I was like, I wonder, would anybody pay me just to talk about what business they wanna start?

Matthew Lesko: Well, E. Exactly. So now if you had a tagline on all your podcasts or anything else, you’re going out to the general public, you wanna talk about that and then that will sell you. Well, I You know, everybody asks about these three things. Well then I’ll do [00:28:00] a program that you pay, pay for to learn about these three things kind of thing.

That you can leverage it or have a seminar on that, you know, uh, that people pay for. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: love that.

Matthew Lesko: Yeah.

Tim Melanson: So it’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business right now?

Matthew Lesko: What’s what?

Tim Melanson: What’s exciting in your business right now?

Matthew Lesko: Business, uh, everything every day. I am, I’m so psyched up. Uh, it, it is, um, my, I’m redoing my, uh. The community getting that, uh, so it can be usable. I’m seeing more and more that this thing could live without me. I never really cared. I’m only caring about me being here. After that, I don’t give a shit. I won’t be here. But now I see, I always thought the government should be doing what I’m [00:29:00] doing and they don’t. And I’ve been waiting 50 years to do that. Now, after I’ve been doing this for two or three years and I see, hey, I could get a lot of this. Down and there, uh, without me. And so I see that as happening. Not that I want an annuity or any of that stuff.

Um, I’m not. That’s not me, but I see it can be a place, you know, uh, that we finally have something in America, the average person could come to and find out what benefits they have, because they usually only know about four or five and there’s a couple hundred thousand

Tim Melanson: Wow. Yeah. And isn’t that, isn’t that interesting that there’s so many opportunities out there and just people

Matthew Lesko: no.

Tim Melanson: them?

Matthew Lesko: They just keep going. And that’s what doing the podcast, I, I used to do a lot of interviews, but I don’t know why. Podcast, I wanted to try something and this doing podcasts made me think [00:30:00] more and made me think, you know particularly people in America. I talked about this, I’ll show ’em website. Holy shit.

You know, I have no idea about any of these things for free. And actually it’s because of this. What I just did is this shows the GDP of the us Okay? And the yellow is capitalism. So this is capitalism 60% over here is what I call the community. This is government and nonprofit organizations help you for free.

So it’s 40%. Canada probably isn’t more to tell you truth. I don’t know for sure.

Tim Melanson: It might be, yeah.

Matthew Lesko: Yeah.

So this is what people have no idea, so they go for help. See, the biggest problem with me is in my work, I’m trying to teach people what not to do. Do not go to Google. You’re not gonna get any fucking help there unless you have.

Right. Exactly. And you don’t have money, so just stay away. You’re a drunk. Going for a sandwich in a bar is the [00:31:00] wrong place to go get a sandwich. You gotta only deal with that, you know? Uh, and that’s, and another thing that amazes me is this. That’s our, our country is going down the toilet. Truthfully. I mean, we’re no longer the king of the hill.

It’s over for us. Right. Uh, just like England so long ago. Okay. This is the poverty rate of all the developed countries. No, my AI camera,

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Matthew Lesko: this is the round when I do something. Uh, so we’re number one in poverty for all the developed countries. There’s about 30. Okay. We have 17% poverty Canada. Has about 12%.

Okay. Yeah. So you’re way down in the middle of the pack. We’re number one. Maybe we’re number one. Number one in millionaires and number one in poverty.

Tim Melanson: Uh, something’s gotta give.

Matthew Lesko: Right. That’s [00:32:00] why, yeah.

Tim Melanson: so then how do we find out more? Like how, how do, how does somebody get more information about this?

Matthew Lesko: Find help. No, not find help. Yeah, that’s one way, but that I won’t make any money out. That’s okay. No, let’s come help. That’s what we’re doing is training people, uh, to learn about how to use that 40% of America. That gives people, if you don’t have that or you don’t have $20, then go to find help. Dot org. I don’t know if you could use it in Canada that may not use it.

Um, maybe that’d be it. Can you go online and just put find help.org? ’cause I’d be curious

Tim Melanson: Org.

Matthew Lesko: now the tariffs would probably cut you off.

Tim Melanson: Oh, it, it, uh, I don’t know actually. Yeah, no, it, it does, uh, it asks for a zip code

Matthew Lesko: Okay. Put mine in 2 0 0 0 9

Tim Melanson: 2 0 0 0 9

Matthew Lesko: Yeah. Is that too many?

Tim Melanson: at that. A whole [00:33:00] bunch of stuff shows up.

Matthew Lesko: Okay. What’s the big number in the middle

Tim Melanson: So the big number in the middle is 3,605 programs.

Matthew Lesko: that tells you how many programs.

that give out free money are in my zip code?

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Matthew Lesko: And look at the tabs on top. They’re the covers, the, the See I. See food and uh, housing and,

Tim Melanson: wow. That’s amazing.

Matthew Lesko: uh, I say,

Tim Melanson: how so? How do they find you then?

Matthew Lesko: oh, well that’s, uh,

Tim Melanson: Or your community?

Matthew Lesko: right. And I stumbling. No, I mean, this is what we’re trying to do is teach people that. I mean, I’ve always believed to giveaway your secrets. Um. Uh, because then you’re authentic. Can people know? And, and you play on people’s laziness.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Matthew Lesko: Uh, and, and if you’re authentic and give away the secrets, you could do [00:34:00] it yourself.

That’s all. You don’t need me. Um, and then the other thing too, see if you go, go to sba.gov because you have I imagine have a lot of, uh, viewers or listeners in, in the state.

Tim Melanson: In the States. Yeah. SBA small business administration.

Matthew Lesko: Okay, now, but what do you wanna do? sba.gov/and then local assistance.

Tim Melanson: Yep. Here we go.

Matthew Lesko: Okay, now put in my zip code there. It’ll ask for 2 0, 0 0 9.

See this, uh, what I tell any entrepreneur to do.

Tim Melanson: Geez. Wow. Look at that.

Matthew Lesko: Okay, now, well you have 14, 15, 20, or whatever.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, about 15 I’d say. Yeah.

Matthew Lesko: Yeah, there’s not, these are all organizations. They’re not part of the SBA, that get government money or nonprofit or government money to help you start a business. So what I try to do is [00:35:00] get them before you go anywhere you call 1, 2, 3, 4, as many as as you have time for and make an appointment.

They’re all mentors to help you start a business for free. They help you find money. They help you get legal help for free. They help you get outta debt for free. They help you use technology for free. They help you get government contracts for free. Everything is free. You go to Google and you’re screwed.

It’s gonna cost you thousands. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Wow. I’m sure this, uh, this is probably translates a little bit to Canada too. Wow.

Matthew Lesko: you got something you, you have something similar your local librarian would probably know. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Matthew Lesko: Yeah,

Tim Melanson: Well, thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Matthew. This has been very informational.

Matthew Lesko: you bet. It’s fun for me. Even at 81, it’s fun.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Yes, and I hope listeners have have had fun too. So we’ll see you next on the Work At Home Rockstar Make sure you go to workathomerockstar.com for more I.