0 (2s):
Who's ready to rock today? Fire Nation, JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like Success Story Podcast. Today we'll be breaking down how a homeless kid became a multi-millionaire. To drop these value bombs, I brought Matthew Gallagher into EOFire Studios. Matthew is a self-made entrepreneur and philanthropist generating over 300 million in online sales. In today, Fire Nation. We'll talk about starting giving up, scaling, and when have you made it, and so much more. When we get back from thinking our sponsors. The best podcast listening and discovery app in the world is here and is called Podopolo.

0 (43s):
Visit Podopolo.com. Download the app, mention John Lee Dumas, my Podopolo username when you sign up for a free account, and start listening now. That's P O D O P O L O.com. The Gold Digger podcast hosted by Jenna Kutcher is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Tune in and discover your dream career with productivity tips, business hacks, and so much more. Jenna's recent episode on four Questions To qualify your digital product idea is a must. Listen, listen to Goal Digger wherever you get your podcast. Matthew, say, what's up to Fire Nation? And share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (1m 28s):
What's Up Fire Nation? I believe that there's a good chance becoming successful will make you less happy.

0 (1m 37s):
Wow. That is something that I think a lot of people that are listening might not agree with. So would you mind expounding on that topic just a little bit?

1 (1m 47s):
Sure. I mean, hey, you wanted a hot take? So there it is. I, I think that, I think if you look back, if I've, I've spoken to many successful people and I've, I've come from a lot less success from where I am today. And I think when you find success, you tend to want more and more and more of it, and you end up with this insatiable sort of thirst for more success, more money, more notoriety. And when you think back when things were different or when they, when you had less, maybe you wanted less, maybe, maybe it was, maybe it was better to not be so hungry. I don't know. This is, this is something I, I literally battle with myself.

1 (2m 30s):
Einstein actually has a quote on, on happiness. He wrote on a napkin, I think it was sold to the Smithsonian, but his theory for happiness, I'm gonna summarize it badly, but it was that the constant yearn for more tends to lead somebody to a less happier life. And that it's, it's not somebody who wants more, but they're happy with what they have. That that ends up being happier overall. So it's pretty interesting because I'm kind of, of living through that right now.

0 (3m 0s):
It is interesting, and I am glad you kind of brought this up, but it's a hot take and it's something that I do struggle with as well because like, I look back and I often say, Hey, the happiest years of my life were my four years in college. I didn't have a dollar to my name. I was making $75 a week as an army, R o t c cadets. I was busting my butt with college. I was busting my butt with Rati. But man, I was having the time of my life. Yeah. I was loving it. I was so happy. And you know, here I am now, I've been running a multi-million dollar a year business for nine years. I, I, I'm actually about to be celebrating my 10th year with Entrepreneurs On Fire, nine of which nice, have been consecutive, multimillion dollar years, everything except the first year.

0 (3m 41s):
And guess what? I'm happy. But I have days that I'm not, I have days that I'm, you know, not overly thrilled. I'm stressed, I'm anxious. I have days that I'm happy and I'm excited and I'm enthusiastic. I, I have the still the cycle of life. And can I honestly say that I'm happier right now than I was when I was in college, when I was like in high school, when I was different? No. Like, it's just a different form of life than I'm in right now. So I'm not exactly more happy because I'm more successful. I'm just at a different stage in my life.

1 (4m 10s):
And, you know, I think there's something about being younger and having less responsibility overall that, you know, you're not, you're not burdened by the, the sort of day-to-day responsibilities of anybody else but yourself generally. Right. For what you said, I have a similar memory in being so happy. I, so I left the Midwest with 600 bucks and moved to Los Angeles and I, I got a crappy apartment with my friend. And that year that I, my first year in Los Angeles was one of the happier years I can ever remember. And I was, I was as poor as you can be, and I was, I was driving a, a car that I had to tie to my leg, the door so it wouldn't pop open when I make a right turn.

1 (4m 54s):
Like this was, it was poor. And I mean, at least I had a car, I guess, but it was a, it was a $400 car I got on Craigslist that broke down every day. And that, for me though, it was a very happy time of my life. And fast forward 10 years and, you know, millionaire with kids and I've got great stuff and a great business and, but I also, with that, I have a lot of people that depend on me and it weighs on you greatly.

0 (5m 22s):
I love where this conversation started. I'm excited to see where it goes because I think it's important for Fire Nation to say, you know what? Don't be sacrificing your present for this illusion that you know when you're successful, you'll be happy every single day and everything will be ha great in the world. Like, no, you're present can be awesome. It's gonna be good, it's gonna be bad. There's a cycle of emotions where you're at right now, and there's gonna be a cycle of emotions when you are successful. So enjoy the whole process, enjoy the journey. Always be working on yourself. And we're talking about how a homeless kid became a multimillionaire, Mr. Matthew Gallagher himself. So where does one start in this world, Matthew?

1 (6m 4s):
I would say with the drive and the ambition, first you want to have to change your situation. And that's, that's definitely the driving force for me. I, I noticed from a very young age that I had, I had a drive to sell, to sell things. I was selling rocks that I picked up in a trailer park to neighbors for 10 cents. I I was mowing lawns and throwing paper. I had a paper route in a trailer park. And you know, these, these things were not necessary for me, but I did them because I wasn't getting money anywhere else. And I, I saw kids with a few dollars that could buy an ice cream at school and I couldn't.

1 (6m 46s):
And I, I wanted those things and it, it, it sort of lit me up. And you, if you're gonna start somewhere, you have to have a reason for it. You've got what's your purpose in moving forward and, and entering this journey because it's not easy or guaranteed. But if you're, if you're not good where you are and you want, you want something different, then that's gonna drive you

0 (7m 7s):
Fire Nation drive, persistence, self-motivation. I mean, these are all key things on your journey. And Matthew, I really like how you're kind of sharing it from Fire Nation perspective first, but then also giving a life example that you've experienced as you've gone through your journey of being that homeless kid to becoming that multimillionaire. So let's kind of continue to build on that, you know, where does one starts, when should one give up? I mean, I feel like sometimes people are thinking like, Hey, I just need to come up with one thing and just hammer on that one thing. Focus, follow on one course until success, until like I just exPodopolode.

0 (7m 49s):
Is that true? Or is there a time one should give up?

1 (7m 53s):
Fire Nation probably knows about this, and you've heard this, that for every success you don't see the 99 failures that came before it. And that success is like an iceberg that you see the tip and then all the, all the bad stuff is below the surface. And that's absolutely true for me as well. I think that you should give up on bad ideas. You shouldn't be married to something that you, you see doesn't have traction or have legs. It's absolutely true that some ideas need time to grow and to, to be formulated and, and positioned in a way that they'll be successful. But some of the best stories that I've heard come from people that gave up a bad idea and used their last few dollars from, let's say, a VC investment and turn it into something even greater and larger.

1 (8m 43s):
And so I think don't be afraid to give up an idea because you'll have others, you'll have better ones. And as long as you don't give up in general, I, I would, would, I would just put that caveat in front of it. Don't give up on yourself. Give up on bad ideas though.

0 (9m 0s):
So that's a really interesting topic that I again, love talking about because there's actually a great book by Seth Godan, it's called The Depth. And it talks so eloquently about how, listen, every business is going to go through a depth. Like you're gonna start on fire cuz you're excited, it's an idea, you're putting everything into it and maybe you have some early success and you've kind of had that motivation and traction and then guess what happens? You know, things happen, life goes on, you know, maybe the kind of buzz is kind of worn off a little bit. You kind of go into a little dip with your business and sometimes people give up during that dip during that valley and they are only like, we like to say three feet from gold. Meaning if they had just stuck with it, they would've got back to where they wanted to be cuz they just took, takes time to build things.

0 (9m 45s):
But it also makes a great point, Matthew, to what you were talking about is sometimes that dip is never gonna end and that dip is just gonna be you continuing to wallow in this dip of sorrow, so to speak. And you could be doing something else cuz not everything is going to work. I've tried many things before, Entrepreneurs On Fire that didn't work after Entrepreneurs On Fire, that didn't work plenty and plenty of things, and I've stopped doing those things that weren't working and I continued doing the things that were working aka this podcast 10 years, 3,700 episodes and counting. So you need to know when to give up and there's no like perfect way to ever, ever truly know that.

0 (10m 27s):
But if you still have passion, if you still have excitement and motivation, if you're still giving real value to the world, one thing I'd like to say is if you're still the number one solution to a real problem in this world and you're passionate about delivering that solution and you know it's of real value, that could be an indication to keep going. But if you can look in the mirror and you can say, you know what, I'm not the best solution and I'm not really passionate about this, you know, maybe that's when you give up now Matt, I wanna keep moving forward into scaling. How does one scale and then move into an example of how you've done so to become a multimillionaire?

1 (11m 3s):
Well, in terms of scaling, generally, if you have a good product and you see the product fits into a certain market and that that market is large enough, it's really just about getting the right eyeballs onto your product. And I think I was very lucky in the timing of, of the launch of my company, honestly, when I, when I started it and when I told people my idea, no one thought it was a good idea. They thought it was terrible actually. And I, I believe that I found a hole in the market at the right time when advertising was much easier than it is today. And we scaled through community.

1 (11m 44s):
That's really the best way that I, I think that I could articulate how we scaled. Obviously it's an increase in, in ad spend and whatnot, but we had a fairly good product early on and a good idea that resonated with a large enough number of people that we were able to keep growing and we hit some sort of critical mass at some point. And I think that depending on the product and the company, as long as you see early indicators of success, scaling is just a matter of continuing to do what you're good at and getting it in front of those correct customers.

0 (12m 16s):
I like this conversation as well because what a lot of people miss when they're growing a business is they say, you know what? This is working, so let me add seven more things to what I'm doing and you know, continue going forward because of course more must be better when instead of wasting all that time, energy, and money and mental bandwidth on those six other or seven other things they're adding to their business, why not just put all your energy, all your focus into that one thing that is working and amplify and scale. I mean where you focus, where your focus goes, the money grows Fire Nation, that's a great quote. So we have a lot more around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors ready to ditch your subpar podcast listening app and download an interactive app that has every feature you want and need with more great features being added all the time.

0 (13m 5s):
The app is Podopolo and you can download it for free and start listening right now at Podopolo.com. PODOPOLO gives you access to every podcast at your fingertips with easy discoverability audio and video podcast in every genre and language and instant recommendations. So the perfect podcast and live streams find you without you having to lift a finger. My favorite feature, PODOPOLO is interactive. So you can create and share short snippets and discuss episodes with friends in your favorite hosts. Join me on Podopolo where you can interact with me, connect with others, ask questions, and share your thoughts on your favorite podcasts. Visit Podopolo.com, download the app for free from either App store, mention John Lee Dumas, my Podopolo username when you sign up for an account and start listening now.

0 (13m 50s):
That's P O D O P O L O.com. When's the last time you referred to the tech and software you used for your business as too easy? Eeks, it's probably been a while unless you're using HubSpot. HubSpot is a kind of tech that works and then makes it easy for you to do what every business should be able to do. Have immediate access to accurate up-to-date reports and data. Have a platform that allows your team to work together towards a common goal and to serve your customers at the highest level. If you're using tech that makes it difficult to access data or one that takes months, even years to learn how to use, then it's time to make a change. HubSpot's multiple hubs and 1000 plus integrations allow companies to adapt quickly, align their teams, and achieve adoption like never before.

0 (14m 35s):
HubSpot leads away when it comes to empowering teams to do their best work by eliminating friction with connected, easy to use tools. And HubSpot centralized platform lets you spend less time managing software and more time serving your customers. Learn how HubSpot can help your business grow better at hubspot.com. Matthew, how did you know when you were cut out for this? How does Fire Nation know when they're cut out for this talk around this topic?

1 (15m 0s):
Well, when you launch a business, when you, when you try to materialize an idea and, and either sell to customers or build something that's difficult, you'll be tested, right? You're going to be stressed out, you're going to feel that maybe you're a failure if it's not working. And at some point you'll probably have to ask yourself that, should I go back to my nine to five job or should I not even quit in the first place because this isn't happening fast enough for me? And when, when I got to those moments and asked myself that question, I thought about the alternative. I said, would I rather make $50,000 a year selling my own products and working for myself or a hundred thousand dollars a year working for somebody else?

1 (15m 47s):
And for me the answer was not, it wasn't really about the money, it was about the independence and the freedom to do what I thought was correct because I've worked for a hundred bosses that I didn't agree with and you know, I I still was taking home that stress anyway, so why not do that for myself? And so I think that you have to ask yourself, are you, are you willing to put in the time that that an owner is? Because when you're an owner of a company, you're a founder, you're always thinking about it. It's, it's not gonna stop when you go home, when you turn off your laptop, when you get into bed, you're always thinking about it so that it changes the way that you, the way that you operate in your day-to-day life.

1 (16m 27s):
And if you're not cut out for that, you should, you should stick to something that is a bit less stressful and gives you the freedom to, to really not take that, that stress home with you.

0 (16m 37s):
There's a lot around this topic that's important. Fire Nation. One thing I will say, you know, that kind of came up when Matthew was chatting for me is that a lot of people when they're the person and they're running that business, like they're the person that the founder, they're driving that business forward, they start building a team and then that team that they're building, they expect those people on the team to be working as hard to have as much passion as them. And of course you wanna hire people that are passionate and they're gonna work hard, but listen, they're never gonna be at that same level of passion or or hard work that you are because this is your thing. You stand to benefit all the way, they're your employees or they're your independent contractors or they're on your team, whatever that might be, they are doing their thing, but guess what?

0 (17m 19s):
It's your baby. You have all the benefit to happen if it succeeds and all the downside if it fails. So just don't think that there's gonna be other people that are gonna come on and take away this burden for you. So are you cut out for this? Are you cut out to carry this burden? Because yes, you can build a team that's gonna help you, but you're the one, like you're the one that's gonna always care the most. Always work the hardest. Now I got a question, Matthew, when did you know that you quote unquote made it and what did you do when you quote unquote made it? And lastly, what should Fire Nation do when they've made it?

1 (17m 60s):
I think that's a great question and I think that it's, it's very relative to the person being asked the question because for me, I operate as though I have not made it I that, that I still look, I still have anxiety sometimes going to a grocery store, swiping my credit card, waiting for it to decline because the majority of my life, that was the reality. And so when I slow down and I think about how different my, my life is now, I'm, I'm sort of forced to face the fact that okay, I've made it definitely relative to where I started. If, if I would rewind 10, 15 years and, and I would know where I am today, I would be so happy never going any further in my life.

1 (18m 44s):
You know, to, to even have any amount of money in my savings account would be considered making it from for old Matthew. Today that changes and I, you know, I have new goals now and those goals keep changing and it sort of relates to what we talked about in the very beginning of this episode that perhaps that's not for everybody and that makes you less happy. But for me, I'm, I'm constantly driven and ambitious to, to grow and I think for Fire Nation you have to look at where you are today, where you were before and what would, what would your old self had said five years ago looking at where you are today. And if that's, if you're in a better place, if your old self would've been proud of where you are, take that and be happy with it and then choose, you know, do you keep growing from here or do you, you know, do you, do you sort of just sit in in this new reality and and decide what's next or just be happy where you are.

0 (19m 38s):
I do think this is kind of a full circle conversation and it's a really important one to have and I think it's really relevant to what we've been talking about. And one thing that I've been saying a lot, and I'm curious your feedback on this Matthew, is is there a point where we just have to say enough? And by enough, I mean I have enough like I I've created the work life balance that I want cuz I can give you an example and that example is actually me. I mean we've been publishing our, our monthly Income Reports for 108 months in a row. Now what's really interesting is the very first time we published these Income Reports, it was over a hundred thousand dollars in revenue and I'd say 90% of our Income Reports have been between a hundred to $250,000 a month.

0 (20m 28s):
We've never been below a hundred thousand dollars a month. We've had a few months over two 50, but those have kind of been for big launches, special occasions almost every month we're really kind of between like maybe one 50 to like 200. Like that's, that's like a, seems to be like our sweet spot. We have very few above and, and very few below that. And again, we're never below a hundred and we're very rarely above two 50. We kind of live in that sweet spot and you look at that for nine years, you're like, that person's not growing, that business is not growing. It's been stagnant. But you know, I have a five person team myself, Kate, and three virtual assistants. I mean we are 90% profits most months. You know, we are running a business where I'm actually literally working five days a month to run Entrepreneurs On Fire.

0 (21m 12s):
Now I'm doing other things, of course the other 25 days I'm traveling, I'm working on other things, other passion projects focusing on my health. But my answer to people when they say that is like, you haven't grown in nine years. Literally. Hmm. I say well cuz I really found what enough is for me. Like I found my version of making it and that's my version of making it right now. Like I may have an idea in a year or five years that, you know, makes me want to go build a an eight or nine figure company. I can't imagine what that is. Now it might happen, I'm not saying I never want that, but I've found what enough is for me and I'm not willing to, to build bigger teams and to work harder and harder and harder to get to like 500 k a month or a million dollars a month cuz I know what that would entail.

0 (21m 54s):
And I just don't want that cuz I really feel like I have enough. And for some people that's not right. Like Gary Vaynerchuk doesn't operate that way and that's awesome for him, but I do. So what are your thoughts around that? Well

1 (22m 7s):
I think that is a, that's a very great perspective that you have where for you, you know that that is enough and you seem happy with where you are and you have time to pursue other passion projects and your fitness and things like that. And to be honest, I would love to get to that point. I sometimes feel tortured by, by the need to, to keep doing more and growing and having more. And maybe it comes from the childhood stuff and not having anything that I want to have as much as possible now. And so yeah, I'm, I'm quite, I'm I'm, I'm quite conflicted about being wired this way and deciding on if I wanna work on not having those ambitions.

1 (22m 54s):
And it's, yeah, it's something that I struggle with, you know, to be honest, it's, it's a daily thought of mine that I could probably just unplug from it all and, and sort of semi-retire. I'll never not wanna work on something, but I, I could certainly work less hard than I do today.

0 (23m 11s):
I think it's interesting and I think it's kind of food for thought for Fire Nation and you know, get to a place where it's enough for you. For some people, by the way that are hard chargers, it's never gonna be enough. And that's not a bad thing either. A shark never stops swimming. If it stops swimming, it dies. That's just literally what happens. And and that's some people I know that's a Grant Cardone, that's a Gary Vaynerchuk, you know. I mean I know these people who will keep pushing till the day that they die and that's fine for them cuz that's their fuel, that's their passion. You just need to get in touch with yourself. Fire Nation, like what does that mean for you? So Matt, of everything we've talked about today, which has been really interesting, what is the one takeaway you want Fire Nation to get from our conversation?

1 (23m 55s):
I would want Fire Nation to really assess what it is that drives them and maybe make a goal Now hearing us, hearing you and I speak about where we are in our lives and how we think about what, what it is that we want and where to grow to or to sit tight, make that goal now and decide now like when you get to a certain point, reassess but realize that you made, you made it to the goal. And then decide is it time to, is it time to chill or is it, is it something that you want to keep growing on? So I think that's a, that's a very interesting juxtaposition between

0 (24m 27s):
Us. Wow, I don't think that word juxtaposition gets used nearly enough. So thanks for bringing that into entrepreneurship, fire and let's have Fire Nation find out how to connect with you. Any call to action you have for us, then we'll say goodbye.

1 (24m 43s):
So Watch Gang is the company at Watch Gang on Instagram. I'm at M A T T O M I C on Instagram and I would say keep a lookout on our charitable efforts. It's something that we're very passionate about. We, we do a weekly or biweekly charitable sweepstakes and it always gets donated to a charity. Near and dear to me,

0 (25m 4s):
Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with mg and JLD today, so keep up the heat, head over to EOFire.com type Matthew and the search bar, page will pop up with links to everything we talked about today. Matthew, one more time, give those URL called actions

1 (25m 23s):
WatchGang.com. At Watch Gang would love to see

0 (25m 26s):
You, Matthew, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

1 (25m 34s):
Appreciate it.

0 (25m 36s):
Hey Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Matthew for sponsoring today's episode, Fire Nation. Are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Check out our free podcasting coursework. I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free. freepodcastcourse.com. Freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there. Or on the flip side, The best podcast listening and discovery app in the world is here in this called Podopolo. Visit Podopolo.com. Download the app, mention John Lee Dumas, my Podopolo username when you sign up for a free account and start listening now. That's P O D O P O L O.com.

0 (26m 17s):
The Gold Digger podcast hosted by Jenna Kucher is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Tune in and discover your dream career with productivity tips, business hacks, and so much more. Jenna's recent episode on four Questions. To qualify your digital product idea is a must. Listen, listen to Goal Digger wherever you get your podcasts.