Your Day Your Way With Matt Aitchison

Millennial entrepreneur, 7-figure real estate investor, speaker, and avid adventurist – Matt Aitchison

Here’s what you’ll learn from Matt about Your Day Your Way:

– The “AhA” moment that changed everything for Matt.
– What is the PTFAR model and how it can help you break free from habits that are limiting you.
– Why it’s not always smart to leverage out your weaknesses? and what you should do instead.
– This one “weird trick” has made Matt 5x better entrepreneur and business owner.
– There’s four levels of competence: Which one are you?
– The one crazy spreadsheet that can help you create “your day your way.”

Tune in and listen: Your Day Your Way With Matt Aitchison

How to find a mentor and the SOP template

Matt’s Website:

MillionaireMindcast.com – Increase Your Income, Impact, and Influence
6FigureFlipper.com – How to start a widly profitable 6-figure real estate investing business

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services.

Jaime:	Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Masters and today on the show we have Matt Aitchison. Now he's got a crazy story, expelled from high school, felony charges, like nutso stuff that we'll definitely get into, but he also has a podcast and runs millionairemindcast.com. He's also an amazing real estate flipper. Thanks so much for coming on the show today.

Matt:	It's always a pleasure. Thanks for having me on, Jaime.

Jaime:	Don't you love it when you're first beginning interview is like oh, expelled, felony, oh, he's awesome also. Give us a little bit of that background because reading your bio is pretty crazy.

Matt:	Yeah, you know, it was something I used to be really ashamed of, to be honest. I kind of tried to sweep that under the rug and keep that quiet. And then I realized as I continued to consistently do work on myself and strive for more personally, professionally, we all have our challenges, right? I think every single person has been dragged through the mud at some point in their life probably because they put themselves there. And I realized that those things were not only what got me to where I'm at today, but also helped me really kind of do some of the - they inspired me to do that inner work that led me down a path that has allowed me to grow as an individual. 

	I'm a big believer in your life and/or your business only grows to the extent that you do. And experiencing some of those challenges early on in life really gave me some perspective and some challenging insights that force me to kind of level up in my life or go, really, down a different direction. And obviously there are a lot of outliers in those equations that led me down the path that I went down. And on the alternative, got me out of it and now it's something that I embrace and I share because I think we all have those challenges that maybe sometimes we're ashamed of, maybe, you know, they're not necessarily things we want everybody to know. 

	But I think those are usually, when I share that story now, when I'm speaking on stages or interviewing people, it's one of those things that people can maybe say well, I can't necessarily relate to that specific scenario but the context of that situation and the feelings, the emotions that came from that, I can relate to. And it's great to know that there's something on the other side of that challenge that can be empowering instead of limiting. So I openly share that now and most people go well, what the heck? How did that happen? And it's just something that I like to be open about and transparent because I think that's the best way of learning, right?

Jaime:	So thank you, exactly, for your transparency because I think we do put people on pedestals. Oh, he must have had it easy, oh, he didn't have to do any inner work, he already started that way. Because that's what our brains think, that everybody else is better than us, right? So as you start telling us a little bit more about what you actually do, because I didn't really tell people what you actually do, can you share the inner work that led you to that?

Matt:	Yeah, well to kind of back up a little bit, when I got expelled from high school that was kind of my very first wake-up call of like whoa, my actions actually have a specific result that could impact the entire course of my life moving forward. And so that was really the first aha at 17 when I realized that I actually am in control, which was empowering and also scary at the same time as a 17-year-old who was making a lot of poor choices. 

	But I remember when I was in jail and you get that one call, thank god I had some people in my peer group and my tribe that supported me and were able to kind of speak some wisdom in my life. I think it's - that's why I believe it's so important to have an amazing tribe around you, is oftentimes when we don't have the belief in ourselves there's people in our group, in our tribe, that lend the belief that we don't necessarily have for ourselves in that moment to us. 

	And that person in that moment was my dad. And I remember him saying this is a fork in the road moment in your life and how you respond to this moment is either gonna really take you down this path or that path, it's gonna tell me and a lot of people around you what you are choosing to do with your life. And you can either focus on the windshield or focus on the rearview mirror. And he kind of used that analogy, which I'm sure people have heard before, but the rearview mirror, if all we did was focus on the rearview mirror, we'd lose sight of the vision of what's going on in front of us and we'd ultimately crash if that's all we stared at. So it's there for a reason, it's there for guidance and perspective, but at the same time it's not all we should be focusing on. 

	And in that moment that's all I was focused on was this thing that was gonna plague me for the rest of my life and I wasn't gonna be successful and all of these reasons and stories that I'd come up with that really weren't being productive and conducive to the life that I knew I wanted to live and where I wanted to go. And so from that day forward I remember going back, sitting down next to my new peer group, which was not necessarily the people I wanted to be surrounded with, and I said - I really declared to myself that from this day forward I'm going to put in the work and do what's necessary to not only improve my life and get on a path that I wanna be on, but I wanna use this as an opportunity to inspire others to walk with passion and purpose in their areas of life. 

	And from that day forward was really when I kind of latched on to personal development, picked up a handful of different books, read them, absorbed them, and actually put them into action. And I was always one of those people that was a little bit like, eh, this whole personal development thing, it's a little hokey, it's little woo-woo, you know. 

	And then when I actually became open to it and started allowing it to - not only surrendering to the process and allowing it to play out in my life, once I started seeing some of the results from it, that's when I bought in and that's when I started getting excited and almost addicted to the growth that was happening because of not only what I was learning, but now putting into practice, which became wisdom through actual experiences. 

	And like anybody, I'm a student of life. I'm always looking for my next teacher and I am constantly trying to remain aware of those opportunities because everybody has something to teach us. It's up to us to figure out what that is. And so I've been on that journey for about the last eight years.

Jaime:	So do you think that you would have had that success, that same success, if you didn't have that aha moment then?

Matt:	You know I don't. And I've had a lot of people like, is there anything you regret? Because I did some things that I'm definitely not proud of. And there are things that I've done that I am extremely proud of. And when people say are there things that you would change about that? I go absolutely not. Those darkest days prepared me for what was ahead and it built a lot of character, it forced a lot of self-reflection and inspired a lot of action to create the alternative and move away from the pain that I was feeling to find that pleasure in many different capacities. So I don't regret at all and I do believe that it definitely played a part in it.

Jaime:	Well, I think that's the thing that's interesting. When you're going through it it's like hell, right, and they're like just keep going. But is there anyway, now that you know that that was really pivotal that you can now come across any challenge as a good thing? How do you do that? Or can you at all where you are right now?

Matt:	I think it's unique to each individual. I think a lot of it comes back to emotional intelligence. And I'm a big believer in your reticular activating system, the part in your brain that - the easiest way of explaining your razz that I like to call it, is you buy a new car and all of a sudden you see that new car driving down the street in your neighborhood. Wait, your neighbor's got one, holy cow, there's something on the billboard. Because your awareness to these things are now much more open. You're seeing it from a different perspective, you throw on a new set of lenses. 

	And so I think for each individual, as they go through some of these experiences, if they can become more aware and self-conscious, not only consciously but subconsciously - which is a very loaded topic for a lot of people. You know, I knew that for me one of my favorite models is the PTFAR model, which is P-T-F-A-R, which there's many different variations of it out there, but your programming leads to your thoughts and your thoughts leads to how you feel about things and based on how you feel about things inspires you to go act a certain way and based on your actions you get a specific result, PTFAR. Based on those results it's gonna reaffirm your programming. 

	So I had realized early on, you know, when I learned this model, that the track of my programming and my thoughts and my feelings and my actions and my results had led me exactly to where I was at today. And when I became aware of that, I realized that I was actually empowered to break that and set it on a new track, which would empower me to think and feel and act and get different results. And so that's where I knew that it was exciting. And also I was a little bit scared because of the work that was gonna have to go into that. 

	So I think for anybody, right, if you can apply the PTFAR model into your own life, in an area maybe that you're not satisfied with, then we all at least feel inspired and empowered to say well, you know what, it may not be the way I want it to be and I still have the ability to change this. And so when I kind of wrap my head around that whole thing I went okay, then I can apply this in any area that I want to and I am the one driving the bus and everybody else that's on it with me can be my co-pilots and we can figure out how to create and get to the destination that we wanna go.

Jaime:	I've never heard of the point - so I believe the exact same thing and it totally changed my life also. Like, oh, wait, huh, I actually have more control than I think, right? It's not like things coming at me. But I've never heard of the PTFAR model or the way that that is. So I do meditation retreats and I know Joe Dispenza talks about something very, very similar, not this. But tell me where you found that and how you've actually implemented it. Because it's one thing to be like, this of course makes logical sense, it's another thing to actually change the beginning pieces of it. 

Matt:	Yep, yeah, so the model was given to me by a friend who has been in the personal development world for a long time. I had a handful of mentors and this one's name was Diana and she created this model which, at the end of the day I think we're all shepherding information from some other source, right, and putting our own spin on it. So I believe she got it from somebody else. But when she introduced this to me it was really in a business capacity when I was just starting out after graduating college, kind of lost, wasn't sure what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go, but at the same time I knew I wanted more. 

	And she had identified that some of the limiting beliefs I was having in my career space, I'm too young, how am I gonna advise somebody on this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all of the things that enter our heads at certain points based on where we're at. She had introduced this to me and said hey, I want you to really drill down on what is your fear behind this and what is your programming behind this, what was the experience that, you know - if we're to go kind of in subconscious terms, think of your brain as a filing cabinet. 

	And all of the files that you have stored away in there in this category, in that category, in that category, for decades and years, your whole life, if this were to happen, why does that filing cabinet shoot that file up and give you that information? And then it reads all the script on that file based on all the experiences and results and all the things that you've had and now why does that subconscious thought make you subconsciously feel and act this way? And so when I really - loaded question, right? 

	When I actually started reflecting on that it took me a long time to really wrap my head around it, but then I started getting to the root and the source of some of these fears that I had and wondering why my programming was - and so going back, a lot of it had to do with certain peer groups and tribes, it had a lot to do with specific experiences or conversations that I had or particular environments. 

	So in my business was when I really started putting it into practice when I was 22 kind of getting things going. And I still use it today. I mean, I use it in - if I'm getting a specific result that I'm not necessarily happy with, I'm always either asking myself what is great about this, what can I learn from this and then 2.) If it's not what I want, how can I change this? And we all have the ability in us to actually change the true reality of what our situation is by 1.) Analyzing correctly and then 2.) Putting in a plan to implement and take action on to see it. 

	It's a test and tweak kind of model, right? There is no perfect DNA or blueprint of how life is supposed to be or how things are supposed to play out, but if we can stay super conscious and aware and keep our self-awareness up at a different level, it gives us the ability to be more in control, pivot, and make the necessary changes we need to make in shorter amounts of time in order to test and tweak and keep going and keep leveling up. 

Jaime:	See, I love this, okay. Because the hard thing is, especially for business owners who are very logical and not woo-woo, it's like oh, it's all internal, crap. We wanna do it on a white board with goals and we write stuff down instead of it being oh, shoot, what I thought is not right. So how do we actually do that? How do you analyze that without going - I mean you can't go back and remember the thoughts you thought in order to get - I mean, maybe you can but I can't. So how do you do it?

Matt:	Discipline and practice, to be honest. If you're familiar - in the business world I rely heavily a lot on personality profiles, whether I'm hiring somebody to make sure that I'm putting them in the right role based on 1.) What their goals are, but also making sure that the requirements of that role are in alignment with that person's skillset, natural personality profile. Well, I look at that a lot too when it comes to reflection and building certain skills. And I'm always a big believer in double down in your strengths and leverage out your weaknesses. 

	But when it comes to the area of business, I knew that this was something I wasn't gonna be able to leverage out and I was actually going to start having to build a discipline in this awareness if I was going to be able to lead from the front in a way that would allow us to pivot and change and really make the necessary tweaks that we needed to along the way so I could show others around me what that looked like as well. 

Jaime:	Wait, did you think that this wasn't a strength? Tell me more about the personality profiles before we dive into that because if it's not your strength you're like oh, wait, I'm actually going in and learning it anyway.

Matt:	Correct. And so there's certain things in business that, I personally feel this way, where based on where you're at, especially if you're a new entrepreneur, a small e-entrepreneur like I like to call it where you don't have a ton of resources, a ton of cash laying around, you're not starting a business with $200,000.00 in the bank, right? We have to be very, very resourceful and we have to wear a lot of different hats, right? You have to wear marketing, you have to wear leadership, you have to wear accounting, a lot of the things that if you were to go across the board, you're not going to be the best of the best in all of those areas. 

	You're not gonna put a chip in your brain and become an inspirational speaker for your team like Tony Robbins or you're not gonna look at a financial statement like Warren Buffet, right? That takes time. But I did know that based on that I was going to have to roll my sleeves up and get into the trenches in some areas of my business when I was first starting out that, while I would love to leverage it out and while that's what all of the mentors and gurus say in order to scale as fast as you can, it's not that easy.

Jaime:	That's great except I have no cash to pay anybody to leverage it, thank you. 

Matt:	Exactly. But that's okay, right? And that's all part of being an entrepreneur and taking that roller coaster ride. And by doing some of the things that I wasn't necessarily the best at it really did make me a more well-rounded entrepreneur. So going back to the personality profiles, my personality profile is I'll use the DISC test, that's Tony Robbins, and that's probably the most common referenced one. I'm a very high D and I am also a very, very impatient person that doesn't pay a ton of attention to details. I'm constantly moving forward, fast, fast, moving forward, moving forward, moving forward. 

	Well, I realized that one of the things that was lacking was my awareness around certain disciplines and habits and activities that when I actually started tracking some of these things my awareness enhanced around them and I became able to plan better so I could become more efficient and productive with those areas that I knew I needed to improve in. So even though -

Jaime:	[Inaudible] [00:16:57], yes.

Matt:	So even though my limiting belief was I don't have enough time to stop and reflect and really mastermind and create a plan for this kind of stuff, I can solve that problem by going and getting more business, more revenue, more relationships. Well, when I actually slowed down and realized that 1.) This was a weakness and 2.) That if I were to add this to my tool belt it would make me a three, four, five X better business owner and entrepreneur. For me even though that didn't seem like a strength I should double - or a weakness I should double down on, I knew that if I did and I added it to it, it would enhance me as a leader and an entrepreneur in a much more significant way than I could actually tangibly put an ROI on it. 

	So that was one of the areas that I decided to slow down and really try and strengthen this muscle and build this discipline in order to take two steps backwards and take ten forward. That was one of the things where, by taking the time to reflect, look at it, weigh all the pros and cons out, I realized it was something that I needed to improve in and become a better leader. And so that's where, going back to the personality profile, even though I realized hey, this isn't in your strength zone, this is something that you should really build a discipline and a habit and a routine around. 

	And so that's where every single day I reflect on the things like that that I can either improve in, that I can either delegate on, or that I can really, myself, put the work in on a daily basis and strengthen. And that's where I do planning, journaling, stuff like that. So that's -

Jaime:	Okay, give me the actual tactics you do because that's the thing, it's one thing to be like and then I thought about it at the end of the day, because habits are hard to build sometimes. So give me the actual thing that you do every day in order to help with that. Especially for non-detailed people like us.

Matt:	Yeah, so I'm an extremist. When I do something I go all in, I wanna do it to the best of my ability. And so what I was doing is I started about four years ago tracking habits on a daily spreadsheet inside just Excel. And Hal Elrod's become one of my good friends and mentors and so he had The Miracle Morning. I wanted my day my way. So I did almost like what is my perfect day from a habitual standpoint look like in order to have my self-awareness at a level ten? So not only did I want my miracle morning, I wanted my miracle afternoon, I wanted my miracle evening too. 

	And what I realized was I started creating literally many blocks and chunks of time not only to reflect, but habits. So that way - like your four levels of competence, I'm sure you've heard of that. We have our unconscious incompetence that we just don't know what we don't know, we have our conscious incompetence where we come enlightened of what we don't know, and then we have our conscious competence where we're working on the things that we now know we don't know that we wanna improve in, and then by doing those over and over and over again we just become unconsciously competent where subconsciously it's just who we are. We just become that. 

	And so I realized by doing these things and actually checking off these tasks, which for me checking off boxes is like pulling teeth, I realized that this was a discipline, this was a pain that I was going to embrace going through in order to really subconsciously enjoy the pleasure by becoming that and strengthening that habit in my life. So it started with a spreadsheet and now I actually have a planner, the Legendary Life Planner, where we have created a full-on planner that's just for that. And it's really based on habits so it's got the schedule, it's got the calendar, it's got the one habit to start, one habit to stop. 

	But the thing that I use pretty consistently on a daily basis myself, multiple times a day, is checking in with the my day, my way sections of my miracle morning, my afternoon, and my evening so I can ensure that my awareness around the habits that I know for me, my blueprint of operating at a level ten, are being addressed and checked off every day. And when they're not I know why. I have this - really this data set now that I can go back to after tracking long enough and going that's why and make a little tweak, right? So the awareness aspect of it - and even though it can be very - you get caught in the minutia sometimes by checking some of these boxes off. 

	I realize for me personally, it's not like this for everybody, that by strengthening this side of my brain and this side of my weakness, it's given me a five, six, ten X return on my strengths because my awareness. I always go back to when we talk about millionaires, you become a millionaire in your mind before it ever hits your bank account, right? So it's the same thing with your habits. If I can increase my habitual routine on a daily basis and know what that looks like when I'm on, when I'm off, I can course correct a lot faster than if I were to look at it a month down the road and go why didn't that happen, I'm doing it on a daily basis now.

Jaime:	I love all that. I was just chatting with my son about some of this stuff too. That unconscious competence is huge. And my mentor told me about that long, long ago about like driving a car and we don't even think about it now. But when you were learning how to drive you're like crazy, yeah. And you forget that you can add up all of these different little - even if they're not your typical strength, you can get better and better and better and then once we have it we're like okay, I have that. 

	But I do the exact same thing as you. I have a planner because I'm not very detailed and so I have to write crap down every day also and deal with your miracle morning and keep up the consistency. Let me ask you this, though, because Hal's been on the show. Hal's a good friend of mine and he challenged me for 30 days, this was years ago. And I did the 30 days and I was like no, not doing this anymore. Since then I have my own morning routine. It's not as crazy as Hal's is, right? 

	But how do you figure out what is really, really good for you? Because each person is a little bit different. And when I work with morning routines with people I'm like well, tell me what's the best thing that you can do and most people don't know. So how do we figure that out for ourselves?

Matt:	Yeah, it's a test and tweak model. I think this is the thing that we - so many people now - like goal setting is the rage right now, right? Planners and goal setting, awesome.

Jaime:	I know, so many planners.

Matt:	There are so many different ones out there, right? But now what I'm - you're seeing other people now say it's not about the yearly goals, it's now about quarterly goals. We're condensing things to simplify stuff. So one of the things that I work on a lot with myself and my staff is we do 90 day sprints. 90 day sprints and the way that we check in on that 90 day sprint gives us the ability to keep our awareness up on what's working, what's not, and at the end of those 90 days we reflect back and go what was great about this? What would we love to change for the next time? 

	And so by doing this over and over and over again it's like goal setting 1.0, goal setting 2.0, goal setting 3.0, right? Over time, by testing it and tweaking it enough you're gonna get to something that you're gonna go I'm in the zone, this is it, this is my blueprint, this is where I feel like I'm operating at the highest level, I'm feeling fulfilled, I'm feeling happy, I'm feeling energized, and most importantly, I'm getting results from this, right? 

	So if you don't check in and you just write your goals down at the beginning of the year or routine at the beginning of the year and then you check in 12 months later, your awareness around that isn't gonna be - you're not gonna have picked up on whoa, month one I did this and it worked great for me, month four I didn't do this and something shifted. You're not gonna be able to have awareness and really understand what was working and what wasn't. And the adjustment stages of that then don't necessarily become as impactful. 

	So that's where I like to check in consistently and you can't measure what you don't manage. So if you're not managing your goals and your habits and your routines, how are you going to measure what's working, what's not? So checking in consistently I think is a very important thing because it gives you the power to change things as well as it keeps your mental capacity engaged and in tune with what's not working and what is and you know when you're in the zone and when you're not. 

Jaime:	Okay, so where do you keep track of - where do you write that down? Because if you're testing and tweaking, everyone's like that sounds so efficient and effective, yay, but I can't do that because I'm crazy, right? Most of us are like that's great for you, but how do you - do you just remember the stuff you need to tweak? Do you have a whole spreadsheet written, like what happens for your check-ins each time?

Matt:	So here's one of the things. A lot of people, when they look at my planner and see when I fill it out and they're like dude, that's intense, oh my gosh. And then I think about this myself because when I saw one of my mentors, who's worth a couple hundred million doing just this, I'm a big believer in modeling after other people that have been there, done that and it's worked for them and/or they've learned a lot and said what hasn't. 

	Picking and pulling - mentors are the greatest life hack in general, right? Even like your podcasts, one of the greatest life hacks out there. People can take your information, your guest's information, their experiences of life, years and years of blood, sweat, and tears, and condense it down into the gold nuggets within an hour. Why would we not take that and implement it in our life? Well, that's the same thing with, for me, I looked at what my mentor was doing and I said damn, that's a lot and I don't know if that's really what I wanna do. But then I went back to my why and my mission and my purpose of what kind of life I wanted to live and the pain of going through some of these things was so minute compared to the pleasure that I knew I was going to get in a life that I wanted. 

	So I said hey, I'm gonna implement some of these things and do some of these things in order to live life far beyond what I've ever lived it before. And if you want an extraordinary life, you're gonna have to do the extraordinary things on a daily basis. So that's the thing where it came back to the discipline and the grit of saying I'm gonna go above what I think is freaking normal and I'm gonna live that extraordinary life, I'm gonna have the extraordinary discipline and put in that work on a daily basis. And so that's when I started tracking. 
	So I track every single day and I reflect every single day and that took a lot of time. Did I miss a lot of days? Hell yeah, I did. It took me time to get into this discipline of being able to go through and just have it be a part of my routine, but over time priorities started falling into place where this was something that was a non-negotiable in my life because I knew what it gave me on the other side. And so I started re-prioritizing the best times for me to check in and reflect and do these things.

Jaime:	I love all of this, especially because you said you mess up. That makes us all feel so much better because it?s ?

Matt:	I mess up every day.

Jaime:	Exactly. Evolutionary process. It's one thing to look back over three years and be like oh, yeah, look how much I've changed compared to the pain of right now going I messed up again, I messed up again, right? Okay, so tell me a little bit more especially about the purpose and mission side of things because this also gets wishy-washy for people. And before I go too much further, I wanna see what that planner looks like, I want a picture, I wanna put that on there. I want everybody to understand what you actually do, which would be killer.

Matt:	People can get a free download on the website too so it's available to anybody.

Jaime:	Oh, awesome, perfect. Well, I wanna see your crazy chicken scratch also. I wanna see - maybe you have great handwriting, but I wanna see it.

Matt:	It's in between, but I'm happy to share. 

Jaime:	All right. So tell me about how did you figure out your mission and purpose because that's so big people get stuck.

Matt:	Yeah, I mean, to be honest it's not etched in stone. This is something that continues to evolve. I'm a lot clearer on it now because in the beginning I tried and did so many different things that as I continued to fail forward, what I like to call my majestic failures, through those failures it helped me narrow down what not to do moving forward and to get clearer and more purposeful on what I was doing and why I was doing moving forward. And so for me it has evolved. 

	It initially started with money, to be honest. I became an entrepreneur because I wanted to do what I wanted, when I wanted, with whom I wanted and I wanted to make as much money as I possibly could, so have no ceiling of achievement on what I could accomplish. I wanted to make an impact on people. That was something that was motivating me. 

	And when I started making money and kind of crossed certain thresholds in my net worth, I didn't really feel a whole lot different. I mean, I had more money in the bank, I had more assets to my name, but at the same time I realized that for me - and being around a lot of mentors who have made a ton of money, for all of them it shifted at some point and it became I don't care about making the money, I want to use this money to make a greater impact on the people around me. 

	And so my mission is taking wealth far beyond dollars and inspiring people to walk with passion and purpose in whatever area it is in their life that lights them up, but to utilize and stay focused on true wealth building in order to have a larger platform to impact the people and the missions and the causes that they care about to make the world a better place. Now that might seem very general and broad and cliched, but at the end of the day that's really all I care about. I'm not gonna have a U-Haul strapped to my hearse taking all the assets that I made to the grave with me. I'm just renting all this stuff at the end of the day. 

	Now more money for me gives me more resources and more tools to have a greater impact and obviously to have a lot of fun in the process, right? But I'm not fired up about a car, I'm not fired up about some massive mansion, I'm fired up about experiences, my family, stress-free life, and having the ability to share those experiences and inspire people to have those same experiences with themselves and their loved ones. 

	So that's my mission and that's where the more I do it and the more - I'm sure you get this all the time, I get messages every day from my podcasts or people in my mastermind group of the things that you said or one of your guests said that completely shifted their mindset and sent them down a whole new path and trajectory in their life that they would have never been on should they not have been in that conversation. 

	And so that's what gets me fired up every day. I do believe at the end of the day that people grow into the experiences and the conversations and the relationships that they're in and around. And so I wanna be one of those people, even if it's a small speck in this big equation of providing more opportunities for those conversations, experiences, and relationships for people that are seeking it and want it.

Jaime:	This touched me a lot. My grandmother passed away three days ago, actually, and it's crazy, she did not have a lot of money at all. She was widowed three times, had seven kids. Like insane life. And the inspiration she's given not only me, but the entire family is - you can't buy that. And what's so amazing is that's the whole point of having a purpose, that's the whole point of living our life a certain way so at the end of it you can feel really happy with the time that you were here. But tell me this, and I'm sort of changing it a little, because a lot of people do go after the money first, right? 

Matt:	Of course.

Jaime:	Do you think that you need a mission or purpose to just go after the money to be successful in that even if it's sort of the lower level, I want the car, I want the stuff, I wanna have the freedom? Or does it not matter?

Matt:	I don't think you need it, but it will only take you so far. That's just my opinion on it, but I believe that when you have a mission and a fire burning deep inside you, when those roadblocks get put in front of you, which they will, when you get the swift right hook to the chin, which it will happen, you are much more prepared to push through that because you have something to tap back into that empowers you to do whatever it takes to get back up and keep going and to utilize that as inspiration, as a platform for continuing down the path that you're going. 

	If money is the only thing that inspires you, I would just challenge you to say why and on the other side of that - because I think money's just energy, it's a tool, and while I love it and I chase it on a daily basis, I'm chasing excellence because the excellence will then follow the money. And for me the excellence means relationships, people, experience, and doing that at the highest level that I can possibly do it. 

	So for me, when it shifted from significance, which I equated money to a lot of money equals significance, no, there's a lot of people that are extremely well off in their financial side of their life, but they're bankrupt in their relationships, they're bankrupt in their health, they're bankrupt in being a leader or a good human being and that wasn't - I wanted to come from service. 

	So it shifted from significance to service. And when I began serving more at a high level and being my true self because money had kind of molded me into this person that I didn't necessarily - it just wasn't me. It wasn't the true, organic Matt. When I got more in alignment with that and made sure I was in alignment with why I was doing what I was doing, then things seemed to get a whole lot easier.

Jaime:	See, it's so funny, it's an evolutionary process for everybody and I've interviewed so many people and they say very similar things. So going after the money is fine, you'll learn eventually that once you have enough that there's more to it than that, right? So everybody's on their own path and you'll learn as you go, but like you said, you're like huh, I'm not - I don't feel like me. And you sometimes don't know until you asked that question after you've been through everything that you've been through. We kind of have to all live that journey in order for us to know what the next step is. 

	So how did you actually feel - so I can feel your mission for sure, but did you write it down? Did you have it on a screen? Did you tell it to your team? Tell me the hows of you actually pulling that piece together.

Matt:	So there's an exercise, MVVBP, your mission, your vision, your beliefs - or your mission, vision, values, beliefs, perspectives, MVVBP, right. So this is something that we went through. Now I had my mission, my beliefs, my vision, values, perspectives, all that, but at the same time, when you're doing something that includes other people, you want to include them in that process. You wanna know what their goals are, what their beliefs are, what their vision is, what their values are. 

	So we went through this as a team actually and it's gone - you know, we've done many iterations of it and over time it continues to morph and evolve into something bigger and better based on our experiences, based on the relationships that we have. You know, we only can do as good as we can do based on where we're at today, right? So as time continues to go on, we continue to evolve what this looks like and continue to make little tweaks. 

	But it's written out and I have it on my mirror. Every day I wake up not only with my affirmations, I have the mission on my mirror written in Sharpie or dry erase and I also have it in a card laminated on my car, I have it right over here in front of my desk with my goals. So I have that in close proximity to me because it keeps me connected to it, it keeps me aware. Going back to the consciousness, it keeps me aware of why I'm doing what I'm doing. And by being able to tap into that and be in close proximity to that, it continues to enhance my ability to go out and make sure that what I'm doing on a daily basis is in alignment with that.

Jaime:	I love all of this, especially because it morphs and you're giving us permission to not go I need to know exactly what my legacy is now and it can never change later, right? That's what we sort of have this idea and it's not like that at all. Give us a break, man, right? 

Matt:	It just keeps changing too. I mean, look at the world we live in today. Is the technology that we are looking at today - I mean, Apple just had its tenth anniversary of the iPhone. I look about the first iPhone versus the iPhone now, it's crazy. It's not a phone, it's a computer, it's our GPS, it's how we order things, it's how we check our email, it's how we - it's everything, right. So as life continues to go on when I think of one of the exercises that I used to do a lot with my team and/or some of my mentors or myself was, hey, paint this five year vision of what you want life to look like and this and that, which I was like yeah, it's great, I've done it so many times. 

	But then I've gone through it so many times now and I look six, 12 months later and I realize how fast our world is changing that if I didn't give myself permission to change and deviate from what that vision was and build on that then I might be going down a path that's not in alignment with who I am or what really fires me up and lights me up at the end of the day. 

	So for anybody that's like oh, I don't have my mission, I don't have my purpose, my passion, I don't have it figured out yet, no problem, right? Cut yourself - grant yourself a little bit of grace to know that now you wanna be purposeful in the direction you're going and make sure that that happens, but at the same time you also wanna make sure that you are giving yourself the ability to say this doesn't have to be set in stone just because I wrote it down six to 12 months ago, right? 

	So that's one of the things that I constantly think about is hey, as long as you are fulfilled and happy and moving in a positive direction, you just have to make sure that you stay connected and aware of what you're doing, why you're doing it, and then make the necessary changes. Course correct along the way.

Jaime:	Seriously, I used to look outside of myself so much I'd ask my mentors well what was yours? And I'd take all the data because I'm a data freak and then I'd be like okay, well this one seems like it's the best one, right? And then I'm like, you know what? I kind of have to figure out what's right for me. And I tell my clients, I'm like, it's your best guess and then as you start moving forward you'll be like oh, that was wrong. And that's the only way you really know is when you're actually in it, doing it, and getting feedback at the same time. Otherwise you're literally going; I think this person thinks that's a good idea, which is horrible. 

	And that's why I changed it so much. I was like ah, this doesn't feel right. Well, of course it didn't feel right, it wasn't mine. Like you said, you learn on your own and you take your own experiences and your beliefs and everything you have and you start evolving that piece. So knowing yourself is what's most important. 

Matt:	So true. Yeah, and you know that at the end of the day, I mean, I'm sure your mission is still probably, being that you figured it out a little bit earlier, it's the same. But at the end of the day there's also different outliers in your mission equation now that weren't there a year, two, three years ago. So, you know, get on the right path and then over time you're going to figure out how to niche it down into the space that is you. And you'll know when you get there, but don't beat yourself up if you're not there yet, right? Don't compare your chapter one to someone else's chapter 20, or your behind the scenes to someone else's highlight reel. 

	We're all at different stages of this journey. I have people that are working with me in my investment company that are in their 40's and 50's and are venturing down this new journey and for them it's just as beautiful as somebody else who's in their 20's just getting out of college or not going to college, starting a business, right' Everybody has their own unique journey, their own unique path, it's all beautiful. 

	So don't rob yourself of the joy of comparing it to somebody else or saying that mine's not as good because I don't have this figured out yet. Stop that. Cut that crap and just know that if you surrender to the process and put in the work every day, if you take consistent action daily over a long period of time and you actually couple that with the belief in what you're doing, you will get there no matter what, whether you're 50 or you're 20.

Jaime:	We love hearing this, Matt, because thank you. It gives us permission to be like okay, I'm gonna grow anyway, thanks, Matt. I don't have to do it all right, I don't have to have all the pieces figured out. Pressure, relief, thank you.

Matt:	Right? Take that elephant off your chest now, you're good.

Jaime:	Seriously, because otherwise we put it on there ourselves and we don't give ourselves permission to do anything but success because everybody else has it and I'm the only one that - anyway, our brains are crazy. Entrepreneurial brains, that's what it is.

Matt:	It robs you of the fun too, you know? This is supposed to be fun. It's not a draw a line in the sand and when I get on the other side is when I start living or feeling happy. I was in Peru hiking with one of my mastermind groups, were hiking in Machu Picchu, we all had set out on this journey - it's a bunch of competitive guys, right? We wake up that morning and we're like okay, we're hiking over Dead Woman's Pass, the first person - we all have 60 pound packs on - the first person to the top of Dead Woman's Pass just gets bragging rights, basically. 

	So there was really four of us that had trekked along and we're just - I mean we're putting ourselves through the ringer just to get to the top of this Dead Woman's Pass, right? And so I get up there and I get up there second, it's me and another guy, but at that time we were, individually, so focused, blinders on with what we needed to do to hit this goal and then when we got to the other side, the line in the sand, get to the top of Dead Woman's Pass, get the bragging rights, that that's when we could start celebrating and that's what - right? 

	And then I realized, and this was a very metaphorical kind of analogy and aha for me, was as other groups continued to trickle in, they were sharing pictures with each other, they were laughing, they were - some of them were crying talking about the stories they had shared. I mean, it was a spiritual kind of very "just enlightening kind of journey," right? And I realized that because I was so focused on getting to the other side of the sand, the line that I drew, and to get to the top of the summit that I missed out on all of those experiences, all those moments, all that presence of all the greatness that was going along each step of the way to stop and smell the roses and look at what was going on around me. 

	I robbed myself of that because I was 1.) So focused on hitting a specific goal and 2.) I just didn't have the awareness to slow down and enjoy this process that I was going through. And that's what we do in so many areas of life, right? We draw the line in the sand and we think that when we get to the peak or the summit that then we can be happy, then we can go do this, now we can start traveling or living or whatever. And that wasn't the case. And when we slow down and enjoy the process that we're going through, the good, the bad, the ugly, that it's way more enlightening, it's way more fulfilling, and that is what life is meant to be.

Jaime:	I have chills. That's the epitome of why I started Eventual Millionaire. So thank you for summing it up in a perfect story at the very end of our interview, how perfect. I have to start wrapping up. I even went over than what I thought I was gonna go over with you. This is amazing. We didn't even talk about what you actually do for a -

Matt:	No worries. 

Jaime:	Good. Check out his website of course. I'm gonna ask you the last question that I ask everyone and everybody go listen to his podcast too and then you'll learn so much more about him. But I love this, so thank you so much. What's one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of a million?

Matt:	For me, I'm gonna give you two things. One's the cliched find a mentor. Find a mentor is by far the greatest life hack anybody could gift you in the world and every mentor that I've had and/or know wants to mentor other people that want to put in the work for themselves. If you're a time waster, if you're an energy vampire, or if you're an information sucker, then don't waste your time. 

	But if you truly wanna add value to somebody and learn and level up by just being an amazing presence to them and filling a void or a gap or a pain that they have in their life, then mentors are the greatest life hack to accelerate your results, to shorten your learning curve, to avoid potential pitfalls that you would make otherwise. And it's such an awesome way to expand your network and expose yourself to a bigger, better way of thinking than you would have never been exposed to before. So that's No. 1. 

	No. 2, from a more practical, logistical standpoint is so many businesses that I see lack systems. How do you do what you do? And that's one of the things I work on a lot of my clients with for generating and building their investing businesses is let's pretend in a perfect world that you're gonna go travel for the next 12 months. Is everything you do on a daily basis and/or the people in your company do actually systematized and processed to where if you were to take this and hand it off to somebody new, off the street, that's coming into your business they're gonna go okay, I know what I need to do. And I guarantee you 99 percent of people will say I can't say that. 

	And that's okay, right? You can't measure what you don't manage so let's get into the - back into the management of saying I'm taking ownership of the systems in my business. How do I do this at the highest and best level of how I'd love to see it done, the gold standard, right? How do I do it? Who does it? And what is the expectation and standard of how it's done? And process that out and you will be so - even though it's hard, especially for most entrepreneurs to stop, slow down, and do this, you will be so happy that you did this when you want to continue to grow and scale your business. 

	Because the only way you're gonna grow and scale beyond yourself, which you as a human being, 24 hours in a day are not scalable, it's systems and it's people, it's talent and it's systems. So if you can start working on one, two, three systems this week that you feel are most important for generating revenue in your business or your company, map those out, get a detailed execution plan for how it's done, the standard of how you want it done and get that on paper, start your operations manual, and go from there.

Jaime:	I love this. There is no cloning device yet so therefore we have to do systems, as much as those crazy entrepreneurs hate them. I have a whole SOP, standard operating procedure, template for people to download too because it's one of those things. We don't like to sit there and do this, it's a pain in the butt, but it's so important. Thank you so much for both of them. Tell us where we can find more about you, what you actually do for business, and your podcast so everyone can follow you.

Matt:	Yep, you can always check out millionairemindcast.com, which I interview other millionaires as well, just like the wonderful Jaime does. 

Jaime:	Wait, what?

Matt:	What? But my main focus, my main passion is helping people build wealth through real estate investing and utilizing that as their vehicle for a life design and creating financial freedom so they can go do what they wanna do and impact the people and have the influence in the areas that they wanna have it in. So you can always check it out, millionairemindcast.com or 6-figureflipper - the number 6figureflipper.com, which is my real estate investing mastermind group that teaches people how to really build a sustainable business, teach them how to fish so they can go out and generate wealth over the long term in real estate investing.

Jaime:	I love this. Everybody go check him out. He's like me except the real estate version of it. So make sure you go listen to his podcast. It's gotta be amazing and awesome because this interview was too. Thanks so much for coming on the show today, Matt, I appreciate it. 

Matt:	Been my pleasure.

Tags: business goals, Business Owner, entrepreneur podcast, eventual millionaire, jaime masters, Matthew Aitchison, millionaire entrepreneurs, mindsetting, podcast, start-ups / startups, startup entrepreneur, Systems, top entrepreneurs, your day your way

Categories: All, Featured Millionaire Interview, Goal Setting, Millionaire Interviews, Visioning

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

Learn More