Chasing Financial Freedom
Chasing Financial Freedom
Ep 311 | 3 Essential Strategies for Overcoming Barriers and Achieving Emotional and Financial Abundance
Transform your life as you tune into our conversation with Matt Gerlach, a transformational life coach who conquered anxiety and depression to find emotional and financial abundance. Matt’s compelling personal story takes us from the shadows of a traumatic childhood and the brink of burnout to a life filled with purpose and success. Through shared experiences, Matt opens up about the pivotal moments that ignited his healing journey, including the importance of therapy and personal development. Discover how valuing oneself and setting boundaries can radically change personal well-being and professional success. Matt's journey is a testament to overcoming internal obstacles, and he now dedicates his life to guiding others, especially entrepreneurs and executives, away from hitting rock bottom and towards a path of fulfillment.
Explore the essentials of authentic marketing and strategies for building meaningful connections in business. We unpack the pitfalls of underpricing and the importance of charging what you're worth while attracting the right clientele who appreciate your value. Matt shares his insights into how aligning your business with your passions, like his love for cooking and event hosting, can cultivate genuine connections and trust. Plus, we discuss the benefits of face-to-face interactions, underscoring the power of vulnerability and compassion in fostering authentic business relationships. Whether you want to enhance your business or personal growth, this episode offers actionable insights into living a fulfilling and abundant life.
Start for FREE
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Thanks for Listening! Follow us on Tik Tok Facebook and Instagram
Hey guys, Ryan DeMint from Chasing Financial Freedom Podcast. Hope you guys are having a great day. Today on the podcast we have Matt Gerlach, and I think I got that pronunciation right pretty close. Matt went from debilitating anxiety and depression to earning 100K a month. He overcame limiting beliefs and healed his trauma so he could live a life of emotional and financial abundance. Guys, this is gonna be a great conversation because we're all looking for this and I think Matt could point us in the right direction on how to overcome those things but better yet, become a better person in life. Matt, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me Appreciate it, You're welcome. Warm introduction. Thank you, You're welcome. Sorry for a little bit of a delay and we had some recording issues, but look forward to having our conversation. Thank you Me too. All right, so before we get into it, can you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2:Sure, I'm a transformational life coach. I work with entrepreneurs and executives who are burnt out and lonely and unhappy and unfulfilled to create fulfilling lives and businesses and professional personal lives. Create fulfilling lives and businesses and professional personal lives. It's a journey that I wish I would have had appropriate help for, as I went from debilitating anxiety and depression. So I've committed my life to helping others work through unfulfilling lives and create lives of abundance.
Speaker 1:I love it Abundance. So can we just jump right in there and just talk about a little bit about your story and how you became? You know, not just who you are today, but what you've overcome, because we were talking about this earlier, about things that we have to deal with in life and it's not pretty to put it out there.
Speaker 2:Yep, absolutely so. About eight years ago I started a business, a consulting business, and I consulted for consumer product brands, helping them with their growth strategy. And it turned into where two of the clients I started working with I worked with long term one for about seven years and one for about eight years and the journey immediately shined a light on my cracked foundation. I like to say I've had no business starting a business because I was completely ill-equipped for the self-advocacy and boundary setting that was required. I'd always been a top performer, like really solid top performer in my career. I fell into sales. I did well with it. I always had really nice bosses who cared about me and something got too rough, they would help me fight the fight. I wasn't really somebody. I've always been a nice person and starting my own business I had to. There was I had to advocate for myself and I quickly realized I couldn't do it. I wasn't valuing myself appropriately. Was working 1618 hour days on a plane, 1234 times a week, every week, running myself completely ragged, anxious, and that turned into feeling depressed, got so bad that I ended up feeling suicidal and that was a little scary, to say the least Wound up going to the doctor because something was wrong and he discovered that I had hypertension not a big surprise with all the stress that I was under and I just kept spiraling until it started turning into panic attacks. I wound up in the hospital two times thinking I was dying of a heart attack. And just it forced me, it kicked me on a healing journey and I like to say I'm grateful for this because if it wasn't for the wake up calls, I would have just probably ended up skating just north of rock bottom my entire life. I would have just probably ended up skating just north of rock bottom my entire life.
Speaker 2:Before this, I was definitely an anxious child and an anxious adult and when I turned 18, 19 years old I found alcohol and marijuana Just never got too out of hand but just numbed what I needed to make it through life. And looking back, I don't remember a single moment until I was 35 or so where I actually sat by myself and just felt things and just went for a hike without music or without distracting myself through tons of different kinds of therapies and coaching, and eventually learned my value and learned how to set boundaries and was able to advocate with my clients and renegotiate my agreements. So I ended up earning a million dollars a year, over $100,000 a month, many months, by the services my firm was providing, and it was definitely hard to go in there and advocate for myself like that Did it. And, yeah, this kept like the therapy and coaching and everything eventually led me to realize the reason that I had been struggling the way I was because I had a traumatic childhood, hadn't been dealt with and had just been swept under the rug and I ended up hating myself and not really, and I thought that something was wrong with me.
Speaker 2:Up hating myself and not really and I thought that something was wrong with me. Like that's how I'm living my whole life until I started to do the work and heal from it. That kind of took me. The past several years I've been on this healing journey. I'd like to say that the healing journey has turned into a personal growth journey, and so earlier this year I actually parted ways with the two clients I'd been working with. I just no longer found the work fulfilling anymore and have gone into full-time coaching and mentorship where I'm helping other entrepreneurs and executives change their lives the way I've changed mine.
Speaker 1:So I've got to ask what was the bottom point for you that said enough is enough and I'm going to change and start getting myself in a better place?
Speaker 2:One of my friends told me this and she said the interesting thing about your journey is that you never really hit rock bottom. There wasn't necessarily one moment that everything changed for you, and I agree with that, and I think that's what I do in the world now is I help people before it gets to that point. There were a few things that definitely forced me to inquire further. Ending up in the hospital and it was a tragic day David, my partner, and I we've been together for now 12 years. We were together during this time and we were living in Manhattan at the time and moved to LA. So the day that we moved to LA was the day I went to the hospital thinking I was dying. So my first night in my new city I checked into a hospital bed upstairs and made it and everything. I was very compliant. I went to the doctors, but I didn't know much about emotional health. I laugh about it now. I didn't know that emotional health mattered. I thought that it was no reason to debilitate somebody. So I went to any doctor that you could possibly imagine, any specialist, and nobody could figure out what was going on until finally a neurologist said this is absolutely anxiety. He was like the rudest guy. But whatever, don't come back here, you don't need to be here, don't waste your time. Like you should be, like you have, like anxiety, you don't need to be here, don't waste your time, you have anxiety. This isn't a brain problem where you need brain surgery to get out of my office. And then probably the biggest moment was my partner and I were in couples therapy and, just putting it out there, couples therapy was one of the best things I've ever done with my life and I don't know that we would be together still if it wasn't for couples therapy. We just learned coping not coping, but communication skills and problem resolution skills. That's what I was trying to say.
Speaker 2:But it was a Friday night. I remember very vividly. We were sitting on the couch in her office and she was like a little bit more aggressive, like in a good way. We felt very safe with her and everything we developed, like the report. We were going to two, three hours of therapy a week.
Speaker 2:And then she was like matt, tell david what you need. But I was like, no, I can't tell him what you need. And I was like I can't, matt, tell him what you need. And she kept pushing me and then I just burst out into tears and it I was surprised by what happened and I just let my my, I released what I'd been holding in and just started. I can't say what I need.
Speaker 2:I've always been punished for my fears. I've experienced, I said, I've always been punished for my needs, not fears. I've always been punished for my needs. I've experienced horrendous loss in my life for expressing my needs and I'm afraid. And so she's like first of all, I'm so sorry, like I didn't realize that this was hidden, so sorry for pushing you, but it was fantastic because at the root of it and like the next day, I woke up realizing like, oh my gosh, like I had a traumatic childhood and none of this had been dealt with. And that was really the invitation that I needed to start really getting to the root of what was going on and start working through it. Self-worth and confidence, issues that were holding me back from living a life that was fulfilling. I didn't know we were allowed to enjoy life. I really remember meeting people in college and saying things like hi, I'm Matt, I'm needy or I'm difficult to be around. I'd walk up to people and say that to give them an out. That's how low my self-worth was.
Speaker 1:So you're on this journey and you're transforming yourself and you're getting yourself into a better place and enjoying life. How do you take that and now apply that to entrepreneurs? Because being an entrepreneur is a very different position in life in anything, because I spent 25 years in corporate America and corporate America taught me how to be fat and happy. It never taught me how to fish. It never taught me how to overcome getting knocked down and getting back up every single time because you don't get a chance to stay down. Corporate America okay, you get kicked. You still get a paycheck. You still get a bonus. You still get stock options. You still get a paycheck, you still get a bonus. You still get stock options you still get medical insurance.
Speaker 1:Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart, but also if you've got things brewing under the hood. It's tough, even tougher than it is while you're healthy and good between the ears.
Speaker 2:I think that the problems or the things that were brewing beneath the hood, as you said, were such a gift to me and it just I got to see my I got to let me put those in the right words my vulnerability. I had to be. I was going to die if I didn't start opening up and just getting real about what was going on. And I got to know myself and got to know my strengths and I've always been a very compassionate, like empathetic person, like I remember I'm definitely a I'm in, a hypersensitive person. I always thought that was a weakness and I've learned to embrace those strengths as an entrepreneur. I think that this is, this is like the biggest untapped piece of wisdom, I think for anybody who's running a business. People are your most valuable assets and you have a good employee, a great employee. Treat them very well, treat them the way that you want to be treated. It always makes me laugh when I hear somebody who's making hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and they have somebody who's doing most of the work and they're like, oh, they make good money and they make a wage that you or I couldn't even live off of. You need to treat people well and give them what they need. You're driving into work all the time. It's a long drive. I know that this is probably affecting the way you are with your family, but you need to treat people with a lot of compassion and I did that and it really got me the support that I needed from my team, from the people that reported to me. I appreciated them immensely and they really respected and appreciated me. But I think you asked something in there like how I work with entrepreneurs now to help them, and I think there's a couple of things that I found that most entrepreneurs don't really sit down and ask and it's what do you really? What are you really creating? What do you really want? And what I have learned? I'm sure many listeners out there agree creating any business is hard, even if it's. You think I'm going to do this thing because it's easier. It's not. There's no like getting a good, paying, full time job is hard right now. So if you, if you can really hone in and I help people with this hone in on what you're really looking to create, that's the easiest way to run a business, to start a business. Do the one that you actually really want to do because it's going to take extra push, it's going to take extra effort and when you love what you're doing, it's going to be a lot easier. And probably the biggest gift that I have in the world to give other entrepreneurs right now is to help them value themselves appropriately, value the product or service that you are selling.
Speaker 2:I've seen so many people, so many businesses, that it's just a race to the bottom. Someone's not buying and we think, oh, let's lower the price. It doesn't matter If someone like someone who's not going to spend $100 is probably going to walk away at $90 on something too. The problem isn't a price problem. What we really need to do is, rather than charge a hundred, we really need to be charging $200 and finding the people that are going to pay the $200 so you can afford to build a business that you're going to be able to walk away from and get the help that you need from. And it's all about marketing, it's a branding, it's about positioning, and most entrepreneurs don't realize that. They think it's a price game and it's very often not. So I really help people gain the courage and confidence to sell a product at the price that it should be sold for, so they can create the business that will offer them the lifestyle that they desire.
Speaker 1:And you need to attract those customers and clients that you want to have that are going to buy it over and over again, whether one time or multiple times, whatever the case is. But that is a big deal in this space, because I'm not just a podcaster, we're also an affordable housing developer and we're also a broker slash lender in the mortgage space and you want to talk about a race to the bottom in both of those spaces is huge. Everybody wants it for practically nothing. Hey, I want to get a mortgage but I don't want to pay anything. That's a problem. If you don't, if you're not going to pay the fees that are associated with getting a mortgage, then you're not ready for homeownership and you can't.
Speaker 1:There's times where you can't have that conversation with people and just trying to be transparent and upfront and honest with them works very well for me, but for most people in that space it does not, because there's always going to be somebody that's willing to race to the bottom, like you said, to get it, get that deal done, not me, it's just. It's not worth my time. I'll spend more time with that person than I will do with somebody that's willing to pay the fees and make sure that they're ready to go. It's tough. And do you want referrals from that person? No, no, and that's and all joking aside.
Speaker 1:When I got into that side of the business a while back, I was taking those and that was a challenge because those referrals I was spending, yeah, 60 to 70% of my time on and I couldn't get them to the finish line, just for the simple fact they had several challenges that I felt I could fix, but it wasn't me fixing it, it needed for them to fix. And until you can switch that mindset off to where I need to attract and work with clients your avatar, whatever you want to say customers that are ideal, just like you said, you're selling a product or a service and it needs to be priced appropriately, and then you go out and you find those companies or individuals or clients whatever you want to call them that will buy it at that price.
Speaker 2:So happy the conversation has led to this point right now because it goes back to marketing and, as I have moved into a new phase of my life, starting this coaching business, I'll be transparent and vulnerable that we need help seeing the label from inside Like we can't read the label very well from inside the bottle and it's been a growth opportunity and it grows. I've had to grow a lot over the past several months as I've been business developing and figuring out what I really wanted, when I finally realized that I already had a business that was making me tons of money, where I was working 15, 20 hours a week because I had gotten it all systematized and had people doing the things that I didn't want to do, and walked away from it because I wanted something fulfilling. I wanted something that was me. I'm 41 years old right now. My partner and I are actually just going through surrog. Old right now. My partner and I are actually just going through surrogacy right now, so we're on our journey to be dads Something also I never thought I'd be able to do before the healing and growing work.
Speaker 2:I'm creating my own extremely fulfilling business and so many of us think, oh, I have to post on this thing. I have to do that, we have to do this marketing. We need that billboard. There are endless ways to market your product or your service and the more authentic you are to you and oftentimes your customer is similar to you. So if you're not responding to a billboard and you're not making action based off of billboards, you're seeing chances are your cut, chances are your customer is not going to either.
Speaker 2:So what I like learned and this is like crazy and I'm so happy to be able to share this with you right now.
Speaker 2:But it's like I'm realizing, like what I enjoy doing and this, like I love writing, I love talking about this journey that I've been on, so I'm sharing a lot more about that. I'm using it as a way to connect with people and the biggest thing is I love cooking. I really am trying I would love to continue my life in the cooking area and I'm using it as an opportunity to bring people together. So I've started hosting in-person events in my home, inviting other entrepreneurs and executives into my home and just getting to know people, and I'm like realizing like this is my superpower I can cook all day and I love helping people and it's all coming together in a very unique way that, that it's a very intimate experience and it's about gaining trust with people and I'm just I'm just sharing that because I want to demonstrate that market the way that feels good to you, that feels authentic to you, that doesn't feel like a slog and you're going to be set up for success forever.
Speaker 1:I don't know if this I don't want to say this is sad, but that's just what rolls off my tongue. We don't want to be authentic and I'm going to back up and I'm going to preface this is social media is a great tool, but it's also a very crappy tool. I'm just going to be transparent about it. It does great. You can get marketing out. In 15, 20 years ago you'd have to advertise in a newspaper or have email and that's it. Now you can touch hundreds, if not millions, of people through social media, but people don't realize how addicted it is, one but two. They don't use it as a as an effective tool to be yourself. Put your marketing out there and attract those customers or clients that you're looking to do business with. People think, oh, I put one video out and it doesn't go viral. I'm done, damn.
Speaker 1:It's taken me eight years to get where I'm at today with the podcast, but also social media, and I'm just starting to get nice traction. I could have given up eight years ago and it would have been done and over with, and I would have never been able to see any of the results that I've been working on for the last eight years, and that's entrepreneurship in a nutshell for me is if you continue to go, improve yourself, put yourself in a better position, become a better person, you're going to win in the long run. You just have to be patient enough to get through the trials and tribulations. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:It really is about enjoying the journey Back to the first, on the first pillar I mentioned, of really how I work with clients. It's about really being honest with yourself and learning how to craft this journey, so it's one that you're going to enjoy being on. And this, like what's really hit me like over the past few months is I'm I'm going all in on this and I'm like I am being patient, I am adapting as things go on, and it really hit me like when we're starting businesses, we have to believe in ourselves. We have to be willing to put a lot on the line, and I don't really know many. I know it's happened. I know there are people that have lost assets because they've had to gamble them, but I think in the long run, 99.9% of entrepreneurs can say that it does all work out in the long run.
Speaker 2:And I read a ton. I find so much inspiration from other people's stories. Peace with it. I am like if I have to make some changes in my life, if we have to move to a smaller house one day while my partner and I pursue our dreams, that's part of the journey. And like when I really stopped to ask myself is that really the end of the world. Energetically wise, I don't really want to spend the time and allocate resources to having to move. That's not something wise and I think I won't have to. We've saved very well for the journey.
Speaker 2:But I think it's reframing how we look at this. Like we saw our parents retire or our grandparents retire at 55 or 60 years old in many cases and sit on a couch for, you know, 20 years. I know that was my case and now what I'm coming to terms with and what I've worked with my clients on, it's like we live a lot longer now rather than working so we can retire at 60 years old and not enjoying our lives. Like I want to be working in my 70s and maybe even in my 80s a little bit. I don't want to be working, you know, 40 plus hours a week.
Speaker 2:I don't like. But, yeah, like showing up for six hours a day, three or four days a week doing something I love yeah, do that. So is that worth trading a few moments right now of saving relentlessly? Heck, yeah, it is. And I think so many of us need permission to look at this differently. And that's really what I have found my footing and love working with people on is helping them rebuild their lives and creating a second half of their life that is much more enjoyable than the first.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So is that your approach that you're taking with entrepreneurs, then?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I work with people and help them really figure out what they want their lives and businesses to be like. I've been in sales and marketing for 20 years and I've learned a thing or two. I'm pretty good at it. So I do some consulting still and business coaching, helping people especially with business development and getting out of their own way A lot of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:I think we have to become a salesperson, but there is a science behind it, there are tips and tricks and there are methodologies behind it, and I've found that one of the biggest secrets to sales and growing a business like this is you got to be honest with yourself. Be honest with what your customers really are responding to. Is your offer really that compelling? What is the competitive landscape like? The sooner that you can be clear and be honest with yourself about the real obstacles in getting market share, the sooner we can work to remedy that and have a knack for seeing things as they are and telling people what they may don't want to hear. And I also don't get activated if they don't want to listen to me. I'll say it until I'm told not to.
Speaker 1:So I love that you don't get activated, because that's something I've struggled with for a long time and I've just, probably in the recent year or so, same thing. Hey, if you don't want to listen and you don't, and you don't want to make change, god bless you, man, it's your life not mine, so I don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 2:So I like that. Oh yeah, no, thank you. It's taken a long time. I used to be somebody who wanted excellence for everybody I still do, but I used to really carry the world's weight on my shoulders, and now I've seen a lot of people. I worked for a lot of businesses that have made a lot of mistakes, and a lot of them are their. Mistakes didn't have to happen, but it uniquely positioned me to have had watched probably a hundred million dollars of mistakes go out the window. They didn't have to, so I'm happy to help others learn what I've learned.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of money. So we're coming to the end here. I got a couple of questions. Are you currently bringing on clients? Are you bringing on clients?
Speaker 2:I'm very selective on who I work with. Not like, not just like, not in a mean way, but I want to make sure it's a fit for everybody. Of course, I'm very selective, making sure that you're compassionate and you're looking to really build a business of purpose.
Speaker 1:And nationwide no big deal. Everything's remote, I'm guessing.
Speaker 2:Nationwide, no big deal. I love working with people locally because it's great to meet face to face. I invite people to my home and I serve meals and stuff. We sometimes go coaching over lunch and things like that, but nationwide works and is there.
Speaker 1:if someone wants to reach out that's listening to this episode, how would they get a hold of you?
Speaker 2:You can reach out by emailing me. My email is matt. At mattgerlachcom, my website mattgerlachcom, you can download a six-step workbook that I put together, which is really a distillation of my entire life's work and my healing journey that's helped me, and what I work with clients on, in creating fulfilling and abundant lives, and I have a podcast as well that you can all access from my website mattgarlackcom. I'm on social media.
Speaker 1:It's all there, nice. We'll also put the links in the show notes so everyone can get a hold of you. But, sir, thank you for coming on. I know it's been a little bit of a wait, but love the conversation, love your being authentic but also being vulnerable. There's not a lot of that out there in today's space, I should say.
Speaker 2:Ryan, thank you very much. It means a lot to hear that. And, yeah, vulnerability is my superpower here and I just think that the world would be so much better if we could all just let our guard down a bit. And I think that's how we run our businesses we be compassionate and treat people nice and treat customers nice and treat our employees nice, and that's really the foundation of all my work. So thank you for saying that.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me.
