Leading, Loving, and Living Better with Matthew Brackett

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.

Excited for today’s episode. We are talking with a leadership co coach, speaker, and educator. And what he does is he helps people lead better, love better, and live better. Excited to be rocking out today with Matthew Bracket. Hey, Matthew. Ready to rock?

Matthew Brackett: I am. Thank you, Tim. Great to meet, great to be here and to be with your people.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Well, we always start off here in a good note. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can gimme

Matthew Brackett: inspired by. Story of success. Oh, I know you talked to a lot of entrepreneurs. So I, I have great admiration for any entrepreneur to step out of that comfort zone and to start, um, start their business.

I think we all know that it’s hard at the beginning. So I think the first success is really in my life and in many of your people, is probably just taking that step out of the comfort zone and starting something new with creativity. Um, so that’s what I, I would say that, that, that’s my first success is stepping out of, uh, out, out of a definitely a comfort zone and into entrepreneurship.

[00:01:00] And the second one is, is, part of that is, is. Having a plan, I think it sounds basic, but, but have having a vision and a plan of different steps to get there. Um, what’s been helpful for me is also bringing a lot of people, um, on that journey and part of that journey, you know, supporting myself with a network of entrepreneurs who’ve walked the walk before me so much to learn from them.

And so much insight. So I think that’s another little piece. I suppose I’m talking not just one success, but a lot of pieces of the puzzle of success Yeah. Of entrepreneurship. Um,

and those are the, those are some really just leaning on other people, learning, and then the consistency. Yeah, that’s another piece of the puzzle is the, the compounding effect of consistency of how important it is to do stuff on a consistent, constant basis. And I’m sort, I’m just throwing out a few things that [00:02:00] have been helpful for me and may be helpful or probably resonate with your people.

Um, well, it’s funny. Go

Tim Melanson: ahead. Go ahead. Uh, well it’s funny that you say that, you know, just having the courage to jump out because I think you’re right, a lot of. Entrepreneurs are not entrepreneurs on purpose. They sort of find themselves in that situation cuz whatever, for whatever reason. So, you know, and, and, uh, on the other side of it, you know, having the courage to jump out of that workforce, you know, it can be pretty scary.

I, I, I think, anyway, I think it’s probably the reason why most people don’t do it right.

Matthew Brackett: Right. Well, safety, security is a big thing for us as human beings. And stepping out of that, out, out of the normal workforce into entrepreneurship, it is, it’s a risk as well. Right. And it can, it can definitely be scary.

Everyone that does it, I’m sure has so many skills in them, but stepping out of those structures and you have to create your own structures. That’s why, um, I think another thing that’s been helpful for me is just really through knowing myself, is setting up routines and habits that help [00:03:00] me to, um, to do all the other things that I already said, to have these, because when you’re, when we step out of that structure, which might be the workplace, a schedule or having to go to work, we step in, you know, into our own space.

Um, and we have to create our structure. We have to create the routines that help us to be successful and also about taking care of our priorities, which is something that I, I like to talk about a lot about.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. You’re right about that. We do have to create our, and, and that’s the thing, having, uh, an employer, they tend to create those structures for you and you just Right.

Basically follow them. Right, right. But, but when you don’t have that employer kind of breathing down your neck and telling you, uh, you know, do it or else you get fired, Sometimes it’s hard to muster up that discipline.

Matthew Brackett: It can be hard. And I think, I suppose now we’re talking about success and I think some of the difficulties challenges that I’ve had is, is also in that I wouldn’t consider myself naturally to have an entrepreneurship spirit.

Right. And as you said, [00:04:00] some of your audience probably just found themselves in that, um, it wasn’t a choice, but they said, well, maybe just made sense that they, that they try it out. Um, Because it is, it’s a special spirit. I think that that, that an entrepreneur has to have, um, tons of meaning and purpose and motivation and very passionate about the things, and they just have to really bring together so many skills.

And so I, I think it’s been a challenge for me. I don’t know if I really have the entrepreneurship spirit, but I wanted, I definitely wanted to try it out and, and that’s what I’m doing.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with the experiences that we have in the workforce in the first place. Cuz for me, I mean my experiences were probably very different.

I didn’t really ever experience any type of security in a workforce. I got laid off while I was a co-op student and then I got laid off again when I was in my career cuz the company went, went bankrupt. So, like, it, it, it was just like, I was always in a situation where I didn’t really know what was gonna happen next [00:05:00] month.

Pretty much my entire time, there

Matthew Brackett: wasn’t that sense of security and safety.

Tim Melanson: Hmm. No, no. And so for that, I mean, I know that I was brought up the same way with the same types of thoughts that, you know, go get a job, get a secure job and all that. So I, I, I did have that kind of base, but in my experience of it, it was like, uh, I don’t really have much control over this thing.

Right. And that’s one of the reasons why you go get a job in the first place. Yes. And I think that nowadays, especially, uh, in the last several years, I think that the workforce is starting to turn into that. So I, I would, I would guess that there’d be a lot more people that wouldn’t have experienced that real solid security of having a job and climbing a ladder and being there for 30, 40 years.

So I, I imagine that it’s going to, it’s gonna be easier for people to make that switch now. But now, you know, as you said earlier, what about the plan, right? You know, like what, what, what do you do when you do that? Cuz we don’t get really taught in entrepreneurship right? In schools, [00:06:00]

Matthew Brackett: do we? That’s right. No, no, no.

Not at all. No, not, not at all. So it’s a special spirit, but then I think you just surround yourself with the right people and um, and tap into the right resources so that you know how to make a plan. Yeah, and what that plan looks like, how to execute on the plan, how to be consistent. Um, and there’s so many tricks with trades and now with just, with social media and everything, there’s, it’s constantly evolving.

So it’s, it’s a very changing market and, and it’s hard staying on top of that. So I think bringing on certain people or. Um, you know, for example, I’ve, I have a social media team cuz that’s not somewhere I wanna be spending my time. Right? Uh, but you need to see where, where do you wanna invest your time and where do you want to outsource that time and energy.

Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I agree. Um, so now for you, when you made that leap, did you, did you like go full-time right off the bat? Did you start part-time? Like, how, how did, how did, how was your leave.

Matthew Brackett: I went, yeah, I went full-time. We really had to do with a much bigger life decision. [00:07:00] Uh, I was in the field, I was in the field of religious ministry, formal religious ministry for 30 years, and then I was also active duty as a navy chaplain.

So I finished my time in ministry, finished my time in active duty, um, started a master’s degree and started my business. Wow. Okay. And wow. So yeah, it was, it was, uh, I did experience definitely the, um, the fears and insecurities of those at the beginning of that. Cause it was a huge leap. Yeah,

Tim Melanson: definitely.

So now during that leap, is there anything like, cuz we do talk about the bad note. What was it, something that didn’t go as planned that, uh, we can

Matthew Brackett: learn from? A few, uh, have, yes. Let’s see. Probably a whole list of things we could go on for a while, but I think it’s, um, And I think I’m a planner, so I planned well.

But one of the things that probably made, made a mistake where I, where I spent money, there’s a lot of. Great marketers out there that don’t sell good products. Um, and for all of us, we’re look, you know, that we might get [00:08:00] caught by the, the shiny, shiny stuff that say, oh, this is a solution, easy solution to my problems.

And we might throw money at it and, and realize, no, not a good decision. So, and the entrepreneurs, we really gotta do your due diligence. Do your homework. Be cautious because there’s a lot of people that, like I said, are great marketers, but don’t necessarily deliver on good quality products. Um, and we’re looking to support ourselves with, with solutions.

So it really have to be very diligent in, in doing your, your homework. So I think I, I, I wasted money and resources in those things trying to, to find the way, but I just didn’t know. Um, so I think ask, ask advice, ask around as well, so that, uh, so that you’re not wasting time or energy or resources on stuff that’s not gonna, not gonna do it.

Yeah, that would be one, that would be one thing. Um, and then I think, um, just, again, it’s a personality thing, but I think sometimes it, it can be an overwhelming experience and when I am overwhelmed [00:09:00] sometimes, um, I am less productive. That’s to my own detriment. Um, so it’s so that I can be caught spinning my wheels.

I can get down in a funk. And, and that’s not, I mean, we can’t give ourselves that luxury, at least in entrepreneurship at the beginning. So, so those, you know, the, to understand your personality style, understand what is gonna make you tick really well. What’s gonna help you, right? And to put those things in place and to understand what might drag you down so that you can be very, pay attention to those.

And so I had those moments where I was just, um, a little stuck and spinning my wheels and not progressing. And, and again, and productivity is really important, especially at the beginning of entrepreneurship.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and I mean, as you mentioned before, without having that boss to tell you what to do, when you’re spinning your wheels, you’ve gotta figure it out yourself while your wheels are spinning.

Right. So, right. Yes. It can be challenging, right? Yeah.

Matthew Brackett: Right. And motivation’s a huge thing. Yeah. You know, and, and [00:10:00] sometimes in entrepreneurship and in life in general, but we can have just other moments where we sort of question, why am I doing this? Or, you know, we lose sight of the North Star and we kind of lose direction or, you know, and then there’s that sort of darkness or confusion and, and so finding, being able to find the meaning and the purpose as soon as possible, being able to find the energy.

And then the, the motivation. I really believe that motivation is very linked to meaning, call it the m and ms. So yes, this is the meaning and the motivation is this, by there is a lot of knowing ourselves, knowing how we function, knowing what helps us, and also very well knowing, you know, knowing those little things that can get in the way, those obstacles and oftentimes very subtle, that can trip us up.

And so a lot of self-awareness is very important in all of this.

Tim Melanson: Uh, now, so, and you had mentioned earlier about, you know, routines and rituals and, you know, things that, that, uh, you have in place that make you practice, that get, get you better at what you do. And I’ve, I’ve always found that that’s been [00:11:00] useful, especially when I’m in a funk.

I mean, if you’ve got sort of some monotonous tasks that you have to do every day and they’re very well, like laid out. Those are great places to go to. I find anyway, when you’re like, okay, I’m not feeling it right now, I’m gonna go do this mindless thing for a little while, which is technically what your boss would’ve told you to do.

Right. But if you have these things laid out, like, what, what do I, do you have any sort of like routines or any, anything that’s kind of laid out for you? What makes things easier?

Matthew Brackett: Yes. Yes. And when I work with people, I always, I ask them the, because of my, my individual coaching work that I do, so. Or, or teaching or speaking engagements, it’s more usually they can fit on one hand.

Usually there’s a set of routines or habits that help you to show up better in life. And it’s really important to identify what and, and to build your life around those. So for me, you know, an early rise is really important. And when I don’t do that, it, I, it affects a lot of aspects about my life. I feel like I’m, I already got a, you know, I’m behind from the, from the [00:12:00] get go.

Um, I. My energy’s a little bit lower. You know, I’m not, so, it’s so the early, early beginnings, um, exercise for me is very important. And I discovered that years ago, just how important that is for my own productivity, for my moods, for my spirit. Um, and so that’s sort of a. Non-negotiable. Right. You know, so what are our non-negotiables in life that help us to be better?

To show up better? And then what, what you said, lead better, love better, live better, right? What are those non-negotiable really help us to stay centered. Right? And cuz then we, then we’re gonna do everything better. Um, social life is important for me. So if I, social interaction, not that, not to overdo it, but, um, You know, being with people I find is energizing.

So people need, everyone needs to find what, what is, what is energizing for them. And then quiet, I like music, so I, I also listen to music. Um, and then I just take some quiet time, what people call it, meditation, whatever, whatever you where, [00:13:00] mindfulness, that quietness, and then just really being, being able to sit with ourselves in a peaceful manner.

And what I would call also being at home with ourselves and with silence, I think is, is also a very important thing, hard to do. Um, but it’s also can be very important for us in the bigger picture of life and how we interact with ourselves, and then how we interact with, with our priorities, with our inner circles, with the people that are important to us and essentially also with our clients.

Um, and then I think just make sure that we’re producing something, you know, producing something every day. The sense of accomplishment in us as human beings is very important, and because it’s, that creates that virtuous cycle. And so those would be some of the things that I, I sort of held hold as those, those big rocks that I build my life around are non-negotiables.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Okay. So now how do you make sure that you do all those things? Like, do you ever fall off the wagon on any of

Matthew Brackett: them? Oh, of course I do. Yes. Yeah, I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna be [00:14:00] saying this like, holy smoke, cause this guy has, has an ideal setup. Right? And he’s so perfect at it. No, no, no. I fall off the way, it’s a daily, daily commitment.

All right, this is what I gotta do. And some people are just very good at it. I wouldn’t consider myself very disciplined and organized. And so it’s something that I. I have to do on a regular basis, but it was sound, you know, I lived a very disciplined life and organized life for 30 years. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, always everything was always planned and, and scheduled and, um, but naturally I wouldn’t consider myself.

So, so that’s the whole thing that I go back to when I, you know, taking things into my own head. Becoming my own boss is a challenge for me. Yeah. Um, cause it’s about holding myself accountable. It’s about setting up my commitments and holding myself to those commitments. So do I fall off the wagon? Yes, I do.

Right? And it’s about not getting stuck and not getting stuck in sort of discouragement and frustration, but getting back on tomorrow’s a new day, this is what I’m gonna do, and then really paying attention to the results that I want. [00:15:00] And I’m not talking about monetary results or, but even just the results of, I wanna feel good.

I want to have energy. I want to show up better in life for myself and for others, and that I know that when I do these things, I will show up better. Right? So these results, and they’re often not tangible results, but they’re what I would call invisible results, internal results to, it’s about paying attention to those and say, all right, I want that so much that, um, I’m gonna do these things because of essentially, this is what I want.

Right on.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Hey, rockstar. I hope you’re enjoying this episode of the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast. If you didn’t know already. My business is Creative crew agency. We build websites now, let’s talk about your website for a minute. Most people realize that at this day and age, we need a website, but we don’t really know what the website’s supposed to do, and sometimes you’ll just go and build a web website for the sake of building a website.

What I do is I make sure that your website actually accomplishes a goal. Now, there are three main goals. [00:16:00] To most websites, number one is to provide information and build credibility. Number two is to schedule some sort of appointment and get them on onto a sales call. Number three is to sell something like an e-commerce site.

Now, when you’re setting your website, you have to be very mindful that the visitor doesn’t know what to do. And so you have to provide them with a roadmap that leads them down a path to wherever you want them to go. On my website, I want them to be on a free consultation, so that’s why when you go to creative crew agency.com, you’ll see information about scheduling a free consultation.

Now for you though, I’m gonna provide you with an extra link so that you can get your free website audit. Go to creative crew agency.com/free website audit. And schedule an audit with me and I’ll go through your website live and determine what we can do to improve your conversions and make sure that you’re getting the business from your website.

Go to creative crew agency.com and we’ll

Matthew Brackett: see you there.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. And that’s, that’s a huge, um, [00:17:00] and, and one of those things is knowing yourself as well, because I know that you mentioned, you know, early rising, for example, I’m, I’m a late person, I work better at nighttime. You know, there, there are different people with different things.

So identifying, you know, what those five things or six things that you said are, is a huge first step. And then I, I like what you like, I mean, everybody falls off the wagon every once in a while and keep beat themselves up. And next thing you know, know, I, I remember this, uh, analogy of someone saying, you know what, if your phone falls down and you get a little crack on it, you like took a hammer to it.

Oh, well, you know, I, I, I broke it. I might

Matthew Brackett: as well, I might as well destroy it, right? Yep. I

Tim Melanson: might as well destroy it now. Like that’s how some people will r something if they fall off the wagon wall. Might as well overdo it. Right, right. That’s not how it works, right? I mean, if you, you know, if something happens and you fall over, you get back up and you just keep going.

The, you know, you know, I think that, um, there’s another part, uh, this book has come up a few times called [00:18:00] Atomic Habits. I’m not sure if you ever read a book, fantastic book. And what they said is that people, we tend to think about people who have, like, so for example, somebody who’s very, very fit. You know, they’re, they’re very, very in shape.

We, we think, wow, they must have such great discipline. You know, they, you know, they go to the gym all the time. They don’t eat any bad food and all that stuff. Wow. Like, I wish I had that type of willpower. Right. But it turns out that that’s not the way it works. The people who have those lives actually have actually constructed their life so they don’t have to use their willpower at all.

Mm-hmm. It’s, and, and, and that’s a huge thing. We think that, oh, it’s. You know, they must walk through a lot, an aisle of junk food on the way to the gym every day. No, they don’t.

Matthew Brackett: That’s right. The gym

Tim Melanson: is probably downstairs and there’s nothing between the gym and there’s no junk food in their house. That’s how they, they, they create their

Matthew Brackett: life, right?

Yes. It’s about, intentionality is so important, right? Intentionality. No one [00:19:00] grows unintentionally, and no one go. We don’t go uphill. Unintentionally, right? Unintentionally we slide downhill, right? Because of the gravity. So that’s just the natural of intentionality in our growth, right? So we, and yeah, we can, and again, comparison is never helpful.

So we look at people and then we can like, oh, they might, they have it all together. No. And some, I, I look like I have it all together for a lot of people, right? I go to the gym every day, but why do I love it? No, it, it’s hard to get there, but I know what, how I’m going to feel and how it’s going to be helpful in my day.

Um, it’s a struggle every day, but it’s become part of my routines and so I don’t sort of, I don’t. Discuss with myself, am I gonna do this or not? Um, same thing about food nutrition. Right. Um, yeah. I just, I don’t bring a lot of, I don’t have junk food in the house. I’m very caught careful about that. Yeah. Do I do it sometimes?

Of course I do. Right. But generally, because I know if I have it there, then I’m gonna, you know, and, and then I know how I feel [00:20:00] when I indulge on, on junk fruit and I said, well, I don’t want to feel like that. Right. So it’s, I think having the bigger picture of who we wanna be, how we wanna feel, how we wanna show up in life, and to have that as something that’s really important for us, and that there’s steps that we have to go through to get there.

Those steps, we can call them sacrifices, right? We always, we have to sacrifice something and so we, it’s important to decide what we’re gonna sacrifice and what price we’re gonna pay. Cause there’s always a price, but what price do I wanna pay? And so, and so, And where we take ownership, we make the decisions, we what I call, you know, instead of this, we, sometimes we decide and sometimes we slide, right?

Yeah. In other words, we just kind of let inertia take us over, or impulses or whatever it is. It’s all natural for us as human beings, but to taking more ownership is, all right. I, I need to make more intentional decisions here and, and it’s never, we never get it right the first time. It’s a journey. And [00:21:00] so we’re on that journey.

And so that’s the whole thing about beating us. That doesn’t really help us to continue to take steps. Right. Um, so just to, you know, we, we we’re learning as we go. We’re growing muscles that we’ve never used before. Hmm. And that’s always hurts, and it’s never comes naturally. You’re going, let’s go back to music.

You know, you like to use music as the analogy for your, for your, for our, for our time here together. And it, when you start to learn a musical instrument, it’s frustrating. It never comes easy, you know? And it, and it’s so easy to give up because it’s just so unnatural. Yep. And because you’re learning, you’re, you know, there’s things in the brain that’s going on.

There’s things in the muscle memory and all this stuff that you’re just, you’re forcing. Then by little by little, then it begins to come. So it’s that whole thing about just exercising muscles that we’ve never used before and, and just be aware that I’m exercising these muscles. It’s awkward, it’s hard.

Okay. But little by little things will become a little bit more natural. [00:22:00] Love it.

Tim Melanson: Love it. And I love what you said about you don’t go uphill Unin Hill, unintentionally. That’s. Such a great analogy. So now let’s talk a little bit about the jam room. So now, uh, how do you structure your workspace in order to be productive and um, to have some of those, some of those building blocks that you were mentioning before to right,

Matthew Brackett: help you be successful?

Well, my work, and I think the work I do is very simple in that, in that regard. And you can see my setup well, you can see at least from, from, from, from this side version of it, right? You can’t see all the papers and, and little index cards that I have around. But, um, I just, I have my workspace. I think it’s all always important for us to have a space that’s, I think, another challenge with people working from home.

Um, I think Covid taught that to a lot of people as well, and people that had to went, shifted to hybrid and all that is work began to overflow into their personal lives. Yeah. Um, and, and that’s again, that’s something that we need to decide [00:23:00] what is our relationship with work at home and how, what relationship will that have with our priorities and with our personal life.

I am, you know, I’m, I’m single. I don’t have a family, I don’t have children or, so it’s, um, I really manage all, all of my space and time more than other. I mean, I have that. More of that space than other people would have. So, but to your audience, I was, we just have to be very intentional about having a space where we work and sort of keeping that, and that, you know, when we talk about people that do mindfulness or yoga or spiritual exercise, it’s also, it’s about having sort of a, a, a sacred or space set apart for that, a space set apart for work, then a space set apart for family and all that.

I think it’s, for us as human beings, it’s helpful. Um, setting up those, those boundaries. And also I think when we have a space dedicated to that, we work better. We’re, we’re productive. We get into the mindset, into the zone, but again, it’s about people knowing, knowing themselves. Right. And it’s not, nothing’s written in stone on how, how to best do it.

But that’s, [00:24:00] so I have my, I have my little space where, here when I’m. When I’m doing, when I’m on screen and then I just kind of move off to the side where I can do work, where I reflect, where I write and things like that. I also have a little terrace where I sometimes want to go out there where I can spend, you know, get some fresh air and, and also more just reflect my, my idea.

No, no, a lot of, not a whole lot of science to just my setup. And then my digital setup is, you know, I have a, I have a crm, which is important. Everybody just needs to find the little tools and digital mechanisms that help them to be effective so that they’re not spending time where they don’t wanna spend time.

So I don’t want to spend time on. And, um, all the manual stuff. Now these are decisions that I make, right? I want to thing, have things automated. I don’t want to spend time on my finances. So I have a, an accounting team that does that. I, it, it’s not where I wanna spend my time and my energy. It’s draining for me, right?

And it’s stuff that I put off. And then people, you know, when we procrastinate, that’s like a cloud that hangs over us. So what do you procrastinate on a continual basis? And, and can [00:25:00] you outsource that? Love it.

Tim Melanson: Love it. So let’s talk a little bit about that. How do you find people to outsource

Matthew Brackett: too? Um, I think through the, going back to what I said about networking groups, um, you know, entrepreneurship, networking, that you kind of find people that do stuff that you don’t want to do or don’t know how to do.

So that’s one way. Um, then there’s others, there’s a bunch of platforms that you can find stuff, you know, Upwork, fiber and or just through your own connections asks. Ask around and you’ll find people. That’s, that’s how I find, you know, I found a social media team who’s, who does great work. Um, nowadays there’s so much stuff that you can outsource overseas.

Um, sports is financially smarter. Yeah, and like my social media teams, and I live in Mexico right now in Mexico City. My social media team is in Cancun, and it’s, if I were to do that with an American team, with a team in the States, it would be a lot more expensive. And a lot of people would use, um, services from the Philippines, so many other places nowadays that you can get all that.

Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I’ve, I’ve had a [00:26:00] few people on the show that have talked about, you know, overseas type of, uh, Philippines and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. For, for, uh, outsourcing things, um, what do you think would be the barriers to people not wanting to delegate

Matthew Brackett: this? I, again, sometimes it’s personality styles, but it is, we have to pay attention to that.

You know, sometimes it’s, um, um, we’re afraid. We’re afraid to let go of certain things. Oh, we want to control, right? When we have control, we sort of have the sense of security, okay? But people need to look at that. Is, is my wanting to have control over things? Is it a healthy expression or is it unhealthy in my life?

Um, does it up my stress? Does it, um, make me, it takes up all my time so I never have time for other things. And, you know, It’s, we all have some aspect of wanting to control things. Cause we, we want, cause we wanna take ownership. Yeah. We wanna, yeah. We’re, [00:27:00] we’re entrepreneurs. Right. But, but we just need to know where that serves us well and where it might, where it might get in the way so, It’s, and it, sometimes it’s a personality thing or what people have experienced in life, and so they become more controlling, um, you know, and trusting others to do our work.

And it’s sometimes that hit, that’s hit and miss as well. Right. I, I hired someone the other day and it’s been kind of a scam. You know, I realized over time that they, thankfully I didn’t invest a lot. It was just a few hundred bucks. Um, but it was, but it was, you know, it became fishing. So. So we just need to be careful about those things, you know, who we outsource to it and do our due diligence.

Look people up nowadays, there’s so many sites that you can look up if things are trustworthy. That’s why some of these other platforms like Upwork or Fiber, that they can be more trustworthy because there’s accounting, accountability mechanisms in place. Yeah, right? If you have people that just reach out to you through LinkedIn or Facebook and well, yeah, you can’t always trust.

You gotta verify. And so, I [00:28:00] don’t know if I’ve answered, answered that question.

Tim Melanson: I think you did like, and, and I’ve, we’ve gone through this on the show before about, you know, the, just the control aspect of it. I agree. I agree a hundred percent. I think a lot of it is that cuz otherwise, you know, when it comes down to it, if you don’t like something or if you’re not the best at it or if it’s not your highest margin.

Right. I mean, you Right. You’re, you know, we all get into business for a reason. There’s something that we. Do that nobody else does like we do. Right? So why are you getting yourself all messed up in the weeds, right? Of like, you know, doing all this other stuff that really is not your gift zone. Yes. When you could just hire somebody else.

And then when you, when it comes down to it, that person that you hired, That that’s their business. That’s what their gift zone is. So you’re basically leveraging their gift zone for something that you’re not even really interested in doing in the first place. Right,

Matthew Brackett: right. Yeah. It’s, so sometimes it can be financial.

It may, maybe at the beginning for some people. Right. Cause it means investing more money so [00:29:00] that that could be hold them back. Um, but I think going back to what we said about, there’s so many different services that you can find that aren’t as expensive as you might think. Yeah. Um, And learning those, and again, playing to our strengths because that’s when, going back to our, our, you know, sort of like this over this umbrella topic that we’re talking about, is that when we play to our strengths, we’re more successful.

We’re we, we’re more energized, we’re showing up better. When we have to do these things that do not play to our strengths, we find it more draining. And, um, so I think when we, when we’re able to find that sweet spot, And play, play those chords if you wanna use the music and play to our strengths. And that’s better for everybody.

Tim Melanson: I agree. And then nowadays with, uh, you know, the, you know, increasing use of AI tools as well. Now all of a sudden there are quite a few. Little bits of your business that you can start to outsource to an AI tool that mm-hmm. You know, now that’s sort of that in between [00:30:00] part where maybe you can use an AI tool to get some of these things done while you build up this income in order to hire somebody a

Matthew Brackett: little bit more for, of course.

Yes. That’s huge. Technology can be another thing. I think for some people, depending on the generation and the ages, technology can be scary for some people, and so they don’t. That can be another thing that holds people back because we get stuck or blocked. I don’t know what to do with this. Right? But again, that’s why outsourcing is important.

Get someone else to do it, and if you can, yeah, I,

Tim Melanson: I’m like, so for my, the way I think about it is that, hey, if you’re doing everything in your business, And you’re happy and you know, everything is, uh, going, you know, smoothly, you’re paying your bills, you know, you’re this work-life balance. Well then great.

Keep doing it that way. That that’s, that’s what you wanna do’s. Uh, but that’s, if there’s something, I think that, that the main thing that you said earlier is if it’s draining you, it’s draining you, then it’s affecting your ability to show up for your other clients. And right that point, now it’s time to take a, take a look at that and say, okay, maybe, maybe [00:31:00] it is actually affecting my business and start to look.

Mm-hmm. And be finding somebody else to do it for you. Thank you. It’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your

Matthew Brackett: business right now. Exciting. Well, I’m really more at the beginning of things, so it’s, there’s a lot of excitement of possibilities. Mm-hmm. So there’s some really speaking engagements, educational engagements that are coming up, which are exciting and getting new clients.

Really just seeing the, seeing that the changes that people go through and with the work that I do with them, that, so that’s exciting. And one of the things that I. And then this goes back to everything that we’re talking about is I, I use a tool with people called the Results Accelerate and the Results Roadmap, which is.

In my view, very sophisticated and also in depth journey, which doesn’t take a long time. You know, we can easily get it done in a month, but it’s about finding what are my values, what are my needs as a human being? What is my identity, right? And what are my goals and long-term and short-term. And then we map that out in a very visual way on what everything that [00:32:00] helps me to get to every goal that I want and everything that gets in the way.

And I differentiate between what a goal is and what a result is. It’s, that’s not, I was saying before. You know, for the exam, simple thing is I’m, I wanna lose weight, right? That’s a goal. But then what does that do for me on a deeper level? And when we’re able, and I think I differentiating that and understanding, identifying that as human beings I think is very important.

Yeah. Know. So what are our goals and then what are the results? And then we, so we call it the results roadmap cuz what is the roadmap? What is the critical path to success to get those results that I want? And so we map that out for people. And so it’s a really, it’s a great journey of, of knowledge, of self, um, and knowing all those things, as we said, the things that playing to our strengths.

And understanding what can be the obstacles alone. Cause when we identify that, we then we’re much more intentional, we’re much more aware about the way we go about things. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Wow. That’s really cool. Yeah, because I mean, we, we always talk about the why, right? There’s, there’s gotta be a reason why you do something and you know, it’s gotta be a little bit deeper than, well, [00:33:00] I just, I just wanna lose weight.

Like, why, why does it matter to you that you lose weight? You know, does it make you feel better? You know? Mm-hmm. There’s, there’s those, that’s something that’s real, but losing weight is not, that’s not unless is an actual connected to something. Right?

Matthew Brackett: Right. Usually it’s a means to an end, but oftentimes we, we, we confuse it and we make it an end in and of itself when it might not necessarily be that.

So there’s a deeper discussion and conversation to have.

Tim Melanson: Love it. So how do we find out more about, about

Matthew Brackett: you and about your business? Yes, Tim, so they can find me on my website is bracket alliance.com. Bracket with double T. Um, and I say Alliance because I really my work with people’s, I make alliances with them.

Um, and to help them forge an alliance with themselves and with their priorities, what’s important to them. So bracket alliance.com, on Instagram and other, uh, other social media platforms at Matthew Bracket on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Matthew Bracket Official. So those are the places where people can find me.[00:34:00]

Um, so yes, reach out or however engage. Okay. And, and what

Tim Melanson: would you say would be the ideal person that would get the most out of, you know, working with you?

Matthew Brackett: There’s, there’s a few. I, it really has to be someone that’s interested in developing, in, in, in improving themselves. Sometimes we go out to coaching services or other types of services cause we want to fix things outside of us.

Um, and oftentimes fix the things outside of us has to start on the inside. Um, so it has to be someone that’s willing to do that work. Um, otherwise they’ll find it very frustrating. Right. Um, so it might really, it’s, I’m, my gear, my services is more towards senior leadership. People I meet to meet people at the intersection of their personal and professional so that there are positively influencing their inner and outer circles.

Leading better, loving better, and living better. And so that they’re not [00:35:00] sacrificing and oftentimes unconsciously sacrificing their priorities at the altar of entrepreneurship or the altar of success at the altar of career growth. I’m not saying I’m not, you know, saying anything negative, but all that is important.

But what are we, what prices are we paying, um, maybe unconsciously that we don’t want to pay?

Tim Melanson: Love it. Yeah. So there has has to be some self-awareness that, you know, the problems need to be, you know, I, I always say that you can’t really change other people, but you can change yourself. Right, right. So that’s where you

Matthew Brackett: start.

Yeah. And if I were to put it simply, I would say if someone is two things, simply is if you are feeling stuck and kind of, and when we get stuck in ourselves also we then we just kind of, we get confused and we don’t know, um, this type of react, this type of relationship is so important for us. So that’s how we discover answers.

Not, not in the other person, but. Through talking through communication is how we dis how we get clear. Um, and so that’s, I provide people [00:36:00] with that space. Um, and also then with my education and background, I, I hopefully provide a very quality filled space. But if you’re stuck right in sort of in any area of your life or if you’re in a transition, which can also mean sometimes you’re getting stuck as well.

And it’s, and we, in both of those areas, we need, um, greater clarity. And, and we need a, we need a path to success. So if anyone’s feeling stuck or they’re in a transition and stuck can be in your personal life, it can be in your professional life, in the way you lead in your business, it can be in your relationships, in your committed relationships, in your marriage, whatever it is, there can be those moments.

That’s why I do all of that. Awesome. Matthew

Tim Melanson: Bracket. Thank you for rocking out with me today.

Matthew Brackett: Thank you. Thank you, Tim, for the opportunity.

Tim Melanson: It’s been a lot of fun. To the listeners, make sure you subscribe right and comment. We’ll see you next time on the Working to Home Rockstar podcast. Thanks

Matthew Brackett: for listening.

To learn how you can become a work at home rockstar or become a better one, head on over to work@homerockstar.com [00:37:00] today.