Matt Booth Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Matt Booth
Matt Booth is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast.
He is a man whose middle name is “Attitude” and works everyday on showing others how the A word is really the key to everything.
Well to be honest I don’t know if his middle name is Attitude. but it certainly should be.
As he says “What’s The Value of Your Attitude? There is an old saying that “attitude is everything”. Is that true? I think Attitude is the START of everything! Attitude determines your thoughts and ultimately your actions.”
We can decide every morning if we are going to have a great day.
We can literally choose whether we are going to achieve our goals just by choosing how we decide to think and start taking action.
How The Dots Joined Up For Matt
But of course that is more easily said than done, so how has he managed to build a life around not only thinking this way, but also helping others to turn their mind-set to a ten?
Well one of the things which just happens to be the name of his second book is you have to “Be Yourself Improve Yourself”
Find your authentic self, relax into who you were born to be, stop striving to compete against high achievers and enjoy life.
Which is exactly what he has done.
But how did he come to this realisation that this was the only way to operate whilst on this planet?
And does he see common themes that run through all of us no matter where he finds himself presenting to eager dream chasers!
Well lets bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Matt Booth
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Matt Booth as:
How it is ok to have a bad day, but it is not ok to have two bad days in a row. It is down to us to make things good.
Why it is so important to try to surround yourself with people who are doing the thing that you want to do.
Why it is so useful to look back in your past to reflect on what achievements
How Matt aims to fail as much as he can, because he know that if he isn’t failing he isn’t trying hard enough
And lastly……..
Why a dream is the starting point to what you achieve, but its when you write it down and start taking action that the dream becomes a plan.
How To Connect With Matt Booth
Return To The Top Of Matt Booth
You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here– enjoy
Full Transcription Of Matt Booth Interview
Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK, David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:26]
Yes, hello, everybody and welcome to Join Up Dots Episode 269. And actually, this show was going to be 154 but we recorded it and halfway through we got a screaming sound on the audio never worked out what it was. But fortunately for us, he’s come back for a second go. I must have done a reasonable job the first time and he got up early and he’s ready to deliver a powerhouse because he’s middle name is attitude and it works every day. showing others how the a word is really the key to everything? Well, to be honest, I don’t know if his middle name is attitude, but it certainly should be. As he says, What’s the value of your attitude? There’s an old saying that attitude is everything. Is that true? I think attitude is the startup everything. Attitude determines your faults, and ultimately, your actions. We can decide every morning if we’re going to have a great day, we can literally choose whether we’re going to achieve our goals just by choosing how we decide to think and start taking action. But of course, that’s more easily said than done. So how has he managed to build a life around not only thinking this way, but also helping others to turn their mindset to attend. But one of the things which just happens to be the name of the second book is you have to be yourself, improve yourself, find your authentic self, relax into who you were born to be, stop striving to compete against high achievers, and quite simply enjoy life, which is exactly what he’s done. But how did he come to this realisation but this was the only way to operate whilst on this planet. Does he seem common themes that run through all of us, no matter where he finds himself presenting to eager dream chasers? Well, let’s bring onto the show to start Join Up Dots. With the one and only Mr. Second time, Mr. Matt Booth. How are you, Matt?
Matt Booth [2:14]
I am better than I deserve. David, how are you?
David Ralph [2:17]
I’m as good this time as I was last time. It was um, we had a screaming sound couldn’t work out if it was from your end on my end, buddy. It killed it.
Matt Booth [2:28]
Yeah, let’s just say it was from my end. You know, I’m in. I’m in Iowa. It was cold. We’ll just say the screaming came from United States from Iowa. Is that fair?
David Ralph [2:37]
Did you think it was actually the world trying to keep us apart? Matt, do you think that we was our passions were about to explode. And
Matt Booth [2:46]
yeah, we were colliding we were just stuff. It was magical. And boom, screeching started happened.
David Ralph [2:54]
I’ve never had a man say to me, it is magical. I don’t know where you’re going. Without Matt, but hey, hey, we can go anywhere we want, because that’s what it’s all about is about having the right attitude. So if we sort of step back into your introduction, the attitude is your key word. Is it a attitude? Is that how you live your life every single day?
Matt Booth [3:17]
You know, I’m not gonna say every single day, and here’s the thing, David, people can’t be positive 100% of the time. I’m not positive 100% of the time. I can’t imagine even though you’re probably really close, I don’t know, Are you positive all the time?
I’m not going to limit bound.
David Ralph [3:36]
I’m about 99% positive. And when I have a dip, like I did this morning, actually, I got up and I just didn’t feel myself. I can get myself back up to it very, very quickly. So I would say I’m about 99.5. And where I’m lucky is I don’t really need other people to get me going again. I can almost get myself going if that makes sense.
Matt Booth [3:56]
Yeah, sure. You know, and I think it’s okay to have One of those days, because everybody has one of those days bad things happen. People get sick people get cancer, people die, you know, your pets get sick and die. And cars break down and people lose their jobs. And it’s okay to have one of those days because everybody has one of those days, what’s not okay to let happen is very quickly one of those days can turn into two of those days, and then to become three and four and five. And everybody listening right now can picture in their mind, a person that they know, that’s had 10 years in a row, or if one of those days and that’s not okay.
David Ralph [4:41]
Yeah, well, we all know those don’t wait and bear normally the people that are still at the companies that we decide to leave, funnily enough, and then you meet up on reunions, and they’re still having that same conversation. They’re still having that kind of victim mentality, but in a funny way. They kind of like that because it gives them Something to rally against, doesn’t it? It gives them a story. It gives them a focus in life.
Matt Booth [5:05]
Yeah, there’s almost a certain percentage of people that just love to be miserable. I don’t know what it is. And it’s very difficult to change their mindset, you know, and I get a lot of questions. What do I do if a co worker has a bad attitude or a family member? How do I change them? And it’s really it’s a lot of work. And it’s a lot of effort. And I don’t know how successful it is to try to change someone’s attitude. Who doesn’t want to change?
David Ralph [5:31]
So how would you go about it? Because you coach people, and I’m looking at your LinkedIn profile at the moment. And I don’t remember this from last time, but it says Matt, Matt attitude booth. Has that been added? Always was that always there?
Matt Booth [5:46]
I think that was probably always there.
David Ralph [5:48]
I didn’t notice it. What a good name attitude. So you meet somebody and you’re talking to them. All there’s some people out there that are a lost cause or are there always Something bad that you can drag out and make them see that, hey, it’s up to them to take action and move forward.
Matt Booth [6:07]
Yes. So if you came up to me, David and said, I have a co worker or I have a family member who’s always negative, and what do I do? How do I change them? The first thing that I’m going to ask you is, I would say, David, had you? Have you ever told them? Have you ever approached them and communicated to them about their attitude? Nine out of 10 times, the answer I get is No, they haven’t sat down with someone and said, Hey, you know, your attitude really stinks. And, you know, you need to work on your attitude. Are you okay? You seem to be having one of those days since 1990. You know, what’s going on? And it’s not an easy topic to talk about. We normally don’t, you know, in our country, and I’ve been in England and travelled around the world, a few different places. We really don’t like to talk about attitude until some One needs an attitude adjustment. And by the time we get the guts up the chutzpah to, you know, confront someone or talk to someone about their attitude, because it’s bad. They’ve had a bad attitude for a long time, and that conversations not going to go very well. They’re going to slam a door, you’re gonna throw something, they’re going to be managed, they’re gonna say, I’m not the one with the attitude problem you are. And it’s not a very good conversation when we approach it like that.
David Ralph [7:30]
So So what was should we do then? But the the people that are surrounded by moaning minis, and I’ve been in that situation where I’ve worked for companies, and I think, my god, these people are just moaning all the time. Should we confront them? Or should we just let it go? Or should we separate ourselves from that, that attitude and move to a more positive environment?
Matt Booth [7:52]
Sure. So there’s some things you can do. You have choices, you can do nothing, and continue to work at the same place and be miserable for the next 20 or 30 years, I mean, that would be one option do nothing. Another thing you can do is you can tell them, you know, talk to them about it. Now, if it’s if it’s someone who’s just has a bad day once in a while, or maybe they had something bad happened in their personal life and it’s been a month or two, maybe you can help them get out of it if they’re not normally like that. But if they’re chronically negative, if they’re, you know, negative Mimi, like you said, it’s going to be really tough to get them out of that. So you can disassociate with people. So if it’s a workplace, this is a radical thing, you can just get up and leave. If you see your whole workplaces surrounded, and you’re surrounded by negative people, it’s going to be very tough to change that culture. That’s not a matter of asking a manager if you can, you know, move your desk or office to a different location. So you don’t have to be by someone who’s so negative. if everyone’s negative That’s a tough situation, you really might want to seriously consider disassociating. With that company, it’s the same way with a person. If, you know, if you have a person in your life who’s very negative, you can just do nothing and continue to go on with it. Or you can you can approach them and say, Hey, Dad, or Hey mom, or grandpa or sister, or things, okay? You just seem to have a very bad outlook on everything. You know. And if that doesn’t change anything, you can limit your association with them. An example would be my wife had a friend from college. And after we got together, she would go out once a week with this friend from lunch. And the couple days before she would go out with this friend, she’d get anxiety because her friend is very negative. And she’d go out to lunch with this person. And then a couple days afterwards, she’d have anxiety about it and we talk about it. So once a week she would go out with And it would take, you know, two or three or four days out of the week, it would disrupt her days. And I said, Hey, babe, why don’t you just meet with this person once a month? or twice a year? Yeah, you know, limit your association and go hang out with the friends that you really like increase your association with people who are fun to be around and are positive. So it’s you really first have to look inside at yourself and what you’re doing, because it becomes very easy just to put that big, heavy burden on our shoulders. And you know, get up early in the morning and make the walk to work and the grind and then be surrounded by negative people all day at work, and try to be positive and try to do the best you can but it’s hard work. It’s hard to be positive. If you’re surrounded by people who are not, you know, and then you leave work you and you make that trek home and and you’re so frustrated and upset and you open the door and your dog comes running out to meet you Kick your dog because you’ve been so frustrated for the whole day. I thought,
David Ralph [11:05]
yeah, I had quite a few. I’m using those coyote fingers, friends that I used to hang around with. And I realised, but more often than not, they just annoyed me. They just really got up my nose. And I got rid of all of them. And it hasn’t changed my life in a negative way at all. It’s just been a positive, because it freed me up to fill that space with positive people. And I think more often than not, when you do that, and you say to your wife, limit your friendship with that person. After a while, she actually realised that she wasn’t getting anything from that friendship. Her friend was getting everything from her the kind of energy vampires Well, what do you think?
Matt Booth [11:49]
Yeah, yeah, totally. You know, and it’s not that we don’t like those people or we don’t love them. We can still love them. We just don’t have to go out to lunch with them once a week because they do Do they their energy vampires, attitude vampires, they suck the positivity right out of you.
David Ralph [12:06]
I went on holiday with a chap a couple of chaps and the one of the guys, he’d been my mate for probably about 1520 years. And over the last sort of like five years leading up to it, I kind of thought to myself, is this a friendship of convenience, so am I actually enjoying his friendship. And we went on this road trip and being stuck with somebody for 24 hours a day in a car that is going to break a friendship. And I got to the point that I couldn’t even bear the way he breathed and the way he walked, and I sort of got rid of him, and he’s still friendly with the family now, but I don’t actually spend that much time with him at all. And it was the best thing I ever did because it made me realise that a lot of the anchors that I had, that you have met, but all our listeners have been built up over people You would have time, and they are actually weighing you down. You start cutting those event, it frees you up to actually change and you’re not being held back by people that go, Ah, you’ve changed. And this chap Actually, I remember having a drink after the holiday sailor, it was really bad. I don’t know why it got that bad. And he said to me, Well, it’s because you changed. And I thought, well, thank god I’ve changed. Really, if I’m the same as a 16 year old when we met, then that’s a big problem, isn’t it? People do change. But the fact that he took it as a negative on me because I was moving in a different direction. It made me realise that is the direction I should be moving.
Matt Booth [13:47]
Yeah, I think you know, you and your listeners and people who we surround ourselves with now, are always looking to improve and change a little bit, but there’s a big group in our world and That, you know, just kind of stuck where they’re at. And they haven’t got to the point yet that they want to change. They want to do something different. They want to improve. So they don’t want you to change. I don’t know if you’ve ever smoked or tried to quit smoking. No. And this was, this was something my wife did, and I’ve never done it. But she would be surrounded her friends all smoked, you know, and they’d stand outside on break, and they try to smoke. And when she decided she was going to quit, she had to disassociate yourself with those people, because they didn’t want her to quit smoking.
David Ralph [14:32]
Well, of course, they done because it’s Yeah, it forces the action on them, isn’t it? If somebody stopped smoking or stops drinking, then what are they going to do with themselves?
Matt Booth [14:43]
Right? And so I want I try to talk to people and you have to get that mentality, about your attitude. I mean, some of us have it about our health, about drinking or smoking, but you’ve got to get a mentality about your attitude like a warrior’s mentality, and you’ve got a different And your attitude because if you don’t defend your own positive attitude, who will, David, that’s that
David Ralph [15:07]
agree with you totally. So So have you always had this positive outlook to life or when you was a small child? Did did, were you in situations sort of growing up that forced you to reassess how you were travelling through life?
Matt Booth [15:24]
You know, I think I had a great childhood. I had two great loving parents. They get divorced when I was in, you know, middle school, but came from very loving households and they said, you know, you can do whatever you want, you can be whatever you want, will support you if you want to play basketball, will help you play basketball, if you want to do music will help you do music. So I mean, I had a great childhood. There’s no, you know, besides my parents being divorced, but whose parents aren’t divorced these days, that’s half of them are, that’s normal. So I didn’t have to go through any life changing experiences or I wasn’t sick as a kid or was never in a car accident. And, you know, almost I never had a, you know, a near death experience. So it’s just, you know, I think it’s just who I’ve become always looking to, you know, just improve a little bit and just do the best that I can with what I’ve got.
David Ralph [16:21]
So what have you got, then obviously, we’ve been talking about the attitude, but what kind of superpowers Have you got that allow you to go off and do what you do? And if we just frame it for the listeners? What is your sort of standard day do you have a standard day?
Matt Booth [16:38]
A standard day I get up pretty early. You know, I’ll get up at five 530 and I get to work and I live about five minutes from my office. And I prospect for people who companies and businesses and associations who are looking for attitude experts, speakers to come in or come in and talk to people or work to their with Their group about attitude. I try, you know, try to exercise over the lunch hour, put in a couple more hours after lunch. And then I go home and spend time with my wife and my two little boys, if that would be, you know, an average day when I’m not speaking. a day when I’m speaking on the road, I’d leave the day before either jumping a car or plane and, you know, give a presentation in a different location the next day, and then it takes me usually a day to get home.
David Ralph [17:29]
And have you lead towards this? Was this always your thing to be a speaker and a motivational guy?
Matt Booth [17:36]
No. I mean, when I was a freshman in high school, I barely. I didn’t even get through a speech. In my biology class. I had to give a speech about when we dissected the frog, and I couldn’t even finish I was so nervous and so worked up. I couldn’t even finish it. You know, and I don’t know if it was because I was a freshman in high school and then, you know, there were seniors In the class, and, of course, pretty girls in the class, but I couldn’t even finish the speech.
David Ralph [18:06]
So where has the change come from what has allowed you to flourish to the point that you can now stand in front of people, and not only inspire them, but I think in many ways, inspire yourself on a daily basis.
Matt Booth [18:22]
Yeah. When I was 16, and got my driver’s licence, I, that summer, I went to a disco to a dance. And when I got home from the dance, I was so amazed by what those DJs did, and how they had people dancing and the music they played and how much fun it was. I got home that night, and I woke my dad up. And I said, Dad, I got to talk to you. And he said, What do you want to talk about? I said, Dad, I want to be a DJ. And he said, What What are you talking about? I said, I know what I want to do. With my life is I want to be a DJ, I’d be perfect for It was CJ, you were thinking, Oh, no, this was a disco DJ, I would call it mobile DJ here in the States. So you go around and do a high school dance or a party or a wedding? Yeah. Not not necessarily radio, even though I didn’t do that later on. So I told my dad, that’s what I wanted to do. And he says, Well, what do you need? What kind of equipment do you need? What music do you need? hower? I said, I don’t know. I don’t know. How are you going to get programme? I don’t know. And he had me write down this whole list of questions. You know, put it on paper. So I could see all these questions. And he said, Why don’t you go to bed and tomorrow, if you still want to be a DJ, we can talk about it tomorrow. So I went to bed. And the next day I got up earlier on my own, you know, than I ever have in my whole life, and I was 16. And I went, woke my dad up and said, Dad, I still want to be a DJ. And so we got out the list of questions. I still had no answers. And he said, Let’s, what could we do? And we kind of brainstormed, and we decided that I would see if I could go get a job working for someone else as a DJ. So I called up a company. And I answered the phone and I said, I want to be a DJ. And the guy kind of paused and then I heard a little chuckle. And he said, Well, can you come for an interview this afternoon? And I put on my best stuff. And that night, I was officially a DJ at 16 years old.
David Ralph [20:32]
So So how did you transition because this is a key point to to live and I suppose is a key point to everyone’s life. How did you go from that idea of this is what I want to do to overcoming that fear, but you’re actually going to do it.
Matt Booth [20:48]
Yeah. You know, it was just a matter of practising of having in my mind the dream that I wanted to accomplish, and then acquiring the skills so I started working with different DJs and learning how they did things, you know that first time you talk on the microphone, it’s a big deal. So you would i would practice when we would set up, I would practice when we would tear down. And it’s just, it was something that, you know, I felt passionate about. But as we all know, passion isn’t going to get you anywhere, just passion alone. You have to develop the skills and the talents to follow with that passion.
David Ralph [21:30]
So said, well, where was the development needed? You done from not being able to say anything about descent, dissected frog, and now you’re standing in front of a load of people or who are looking at you to make sure that they have a good time. Where was the development? Where was the bridge between the two?
Matt Booth [21:48]
Yeah, it was the confidence that I had myself. So a number of other people helped me build that. I think when I was first developing my confidence you need people around you. You You need to be surrounded by people who believe in you. And they believe in you strong enough until you believe in yourself so much that you don’t need others to believe in you.
David Ralph [22:11]
Simple as that just is it as simple as that. Surround yourself with people. And that belief literally carries you alone.
Matt Booth [22:20]
It’s a great question. I don’t know if it’s that simple.
Unknown Speaker [22:25]
What would you say?
David Ralph [22:26]
I think it’s a key point to everything. I really do, I think but if you can, and I know it’s the old adage, we hear it time and time again. But we hear it time and time again, because I believe it’s true that you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. And I do think that if you want to do something, surround yourself with people that are doing it or those people that are positive or those people that are action takers, and because you can see what they’re doing, it makes it easier for you to do it. And also because the I believe you suck off their belief. And then it just keeps on pushing you forward. I think that is a key thing. And I do think for many people out there who are listening to this, if you do have something that you want to do, reach out and find out somebody who’s doing it already, ask them how they got on. How did they do it? If you want to be a mobile disco, then Mr. Matt booth is your man and contact him and say, how did you do it? Man? How did you feel when you first got up there and you put the damn record on? The people dance? What happens when you kill a room and you put three records on? Everyone’s dancing? You put the full point on and the whole floor just clears up is a key thing, isn’t it? People can reach out and people can help strangers literally nowadays with the power of the internet.
Matt Booth [23:46]
Yeah, yeah. And it’s the same thing. You know, now that I’m 44 as it was when I was 16. I mean, if there’s something that you want to try or something where do you think you’re a fit or you’re passionate about? Go try it. You don’t have to quit your job right now, to go and follow your passion and find out what skills and what you need to develop to make this happen. So here I was 16 and I was going to be a DJ at a wedding. And I was so excited. Well, for the first three months, all I did was carry speakers and wrap up chords and take requests. And I went with another DJ, who was the main DJ at the wedding, who did all the speaking and picked out all the music. And I went with this guy named Scott who was awesome DJ and I learned good things from him. I learned bad things from him, right? And all I wanted to do was, you know, talk on the mic or pick out the Wham song, you know, wake me up before you go, go. And that’s all I wanted to do. But he would never let me because he would say I’m the real DJ. And at one time after about three months of just carrying speakers, and, and doing all this work and not getting to be the real DJ or what I thought and I showed up at the warehouse and with my taxi In my bag and looking for Scott, we’re going to load up the equipment. We were going to go DJ wedding on a Saturday night. And I got there and Scott’s not around, which was very unusual because he was always on time, or early. And I said, Where’s Scott? And they said, he’s not going to be here. Because his grandma passed away. And I said, Well, I said, That’s horrible. I’m so sad about his grandma. And then I said quickly, who is going to be the real DJ? Who am I going with? Because a couple times I’d worked with other DJs and what
David Ralph [25:31]
have you inside that when? Yes, this is my child. Being on well, cuz I think Hollywood I think I know it’s terrible with names died, but God, he’s not here. I’m gonna take these tickets.
Matt Booth [25:42]
Yeah. And they said, well, you’re gonna be the DJ, you’re the real DJ. And I’m like, Oh, it’s totally that moment where you’re excited. And at the same time, you think you got to go to the bathroom at the exact same time, and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know whether to be excited or to cry or to freak out or to leave. Just do it, you know, all those things are going through your head. And so I loaded up this huge van with all this old crappy equipment, you know, and I drove about an hour and a half and set up the equipment at this big ballroom, you know, like a big fairgrounds kind of thing, just a big shed. And there’s about 350 people there. And I got all the stuff set up and went and put on my tux, my little tux and cumberbund and I walked up to the bride and groom here was 16 years old with pimples on my face and Goofy haircut and I said, Hi, my name is Matt booth with mobile music machine. I’ll be your DJ tonight. And the groom looked around the room. And he looked back at me and he looked around the room again. And he looked at me and he said, Where’s the real freakin DJ?
David Ralph [26:50]
And how did that make you feel at that moment? Cuz that’s a biggie using it. You could you could have pulled your head into your shell and disappeared or you could have said Well, I am the will DJ
Matt Booth [27:00]
Yeah, I mean, you have that moment where you don’t know what to do I, you know, part of your mind wants to crawl under the table and never look at anyone again. And I just somewhere I just said, You know what? I’m all you got for tonight. And it’s kind of either sink or swim.
David Ralph [27:18]
And was that liberating for you back response?
Matt Booth [27:21]
I totally. Yeah. And I said, Man, if you want to have a party, I’m all you got for entertainment. So let’s do this.
David Ralph [27:28]
And did he look at you and go, Yeah, come on in. We’re going to do that, or did he still give you that look of Hang on. We paid for a proper DJ. And we’ve got Yeah,
Matt Booth [27:38]
that was the look. We paid for. I said the real DJ gramma died, what would you like me to do? And so we went on, and I think he doubted me until we got into it. And it was that Wham record that really turned the tide.
David Ralph [27:53]
Was he really?
Unknown Speaker [27:54]
No, no, that would have been,
David Ralph [27:56]
you know, been there, Mr. Booth. was amazing though that when came back what what was the record that turned the tide? Can you remember?
Matt Booth [28:05]
You know, it’s when you DJ, a wedding it’s not one record. It’s not the chicken dance. It’s not old time rock and roll. It’s just kind of people don’t remember at a wedding. They don’t remember the food. They don’t remember.
David Ralph [28:19]
Yeah, you know, is that not the Well,
Matt Booth [28:21]
I’m sure we played it but it’s people remember how they feel at a wedding? They remember your head. Get him on the floor.
There we go. Now that was a little bit that was 1987
David Ralph [28:35]
I’m too late. Or maybe I’m too young. Yeah,
Matt Booth [28:38]
yeah, it was probably the Beatles stuff. And old time rock and roll and Roy Orbison. And, you know, 1887 maybe had done a little bit of poison.
David Ralph [28:50]
Since I was that one of your big dots in your life, man. When when you look back on that one night that one conversation with that guy where you stood up to the plate and you Did your thing was that the kind of starting of map of being who he is today?
Matt Booth [29:07]
Yeah, it’s exactly one of my, one of my startup dots. It’s, that’s that moment, you know you’re doing something or you’re trying to do something that you know, feels right, and you’re passionate about it. But then you’re tested, and you’re challenged, and you find out if you’re going to do a good job, or if this is going to fit, or what you need to do to make this fit.
David Ralph [29:30]
Let’s play some positive words by a chap called Jim Carrey and he made a statement earlier last year, and I’m going to play it now. This is Jim Carrey.
Jim Carrey [29:39]
My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.
David Ralph [30:06]
How do you know when you found something that you love man? And this? This is a kind of bleeding question for the audience out there because we’re all looking for the thing that we love. But how do you know that you’ve found something that’s worth taking a chance on like Jim Carrey was talking about?
Matt Booth [30:23]
Yeah, I think for me, it which is where I can speak from, it’s where your passion, so something that you love and you’re passionate about, and your talents come together. Because passion alone isn’t going to, you know, I could be very passionate about playing in the NBA, and it’s just not going to happen. I could be totally passionate about it. But I don’t have the talent to play basketball in the NBA. So you’ve got to have that spot, that sweet spot where your passion and what you enjoy doing, connects with your skills and your talents. They stuff the good Lord gave. Yeah.
David Ralph [31:03]
And how do people find that? How do they find that thing that really hours disappear when they’re doing it?
Matt Booth [31:10]
Sure, I think they should. They should look around and see what they want to do where they’re good at. But then the important thing is look in their past and see what accomplishments they’ve made in the past, what awards they’ve got. Look in your old box of stuff from school and see what trophies you have, or what ribbons you have in your box, read, pull out your yearbooks and see what people wrote about you in your yearbooks at so it’s things that you’ve done in the past that people have said, Oh, you’re good at your, you are good at that. But we seem to push that off for different reasons. Maybe, you know, we don’t see how we can make a career out of that. Or even if we did have a career that that doesn’t pay enough to justify the lifestyle that I want. So it’s What you feel good about doing, where the hours just breezed by, but also you have to have some skill and some talent there. And if you look back over your life and see accomplishments that you’ve had, you should be able to find that in there.
David Ralph [32:15]
That’s an excellent point. If you look back on the awards, you’ve won, I reckon you probably put more effort into those moments when you had previously because it was something that fills you with those passions. So when you’re sitting there and you’ve got a box full of old swimming badges or whatever, then you could look back on that go. Yeah, I remember really working hard on that. Why did I work hard on that, where now I’m in a job that basically I’m just trying to get through today? What was it about that? That really inspired me to come out first?
Matt Booth [32:48]
You know, and those are the hardest things to identify for people. If I look back at my trophies and my badges, I have debate class speech class trophies. See So all those things, if you look at that, that’s what I’m doing now. And I had a friend, she’s become a friend, but she was a audience member, maybe five, seven years ago. And she came up to me and she said, I’m passionate about teaching. I love teaching kids because I said, What are you passionate about? She said, I’m passionate about teaching and teaching kids. And I love karate. She said, so what do you do now? She said, I’m teaching at a school. And she goes, but I hate the politics of teaching. I hate all the the debate and the politics and the administration. I hate all that. And I said, Well, what she goes and I gotta do something. I said, What should you do? And to me, it was so obvious, right? And probably to your listeners, she loves she was passionate about teaching children, and another one of her passions is karate. Okay for us now, it’s so obvious what she should be doing with her life. But she was so hmm a plumber
David Ralph [34:00]
Is that what she should have been doing?
Matt Booth [34:01]
Well, she would have had to be apprentice for a while.
David Ralph [34:04]
Damn, I can’t get it. But
Matt Booth [34:07]
she should be teaching karate to kids on her own right. That’s it.
David Ralph [34:13]
That’s it. I didn’t spot that one. But yeah, but that is so obvious. As soon as you said it, obviously, I’m being stupid. But what did once you think that she didn’t realise that?
Matt Booth [34:23]
So you get so close to it. And people don’t realise it. I don’t think I realised it until a friend of mine said, Matt, what are you doing with your life? You’re selling real estate, you’re an entrepreneur. You’re like a serial entrepreneur doing all these different things. He says, What do you really love to do? And I said, I love to DJ weddings on a Saturday night. He said, and you are awesome at that. You are amazing. You’re one of the best around. He said, Why don’t you take those skills and that passion and do that during the week, rather than just Saturday nights. So I spent about two or three or four or five years Trying to DJ during the week, I would go around and say, Hey, if you want to plan your wedding reception on a Wednesday night, I’ll give you a great deal. I tried DJ and bars and pubs, you know, and that was okay in college, but it didn’t work out, you know, in real life being out so late at night, and it just didn’t hit me until I’m like, Oh, this is how I can transition from being a DJ on a Saturday night at a wedding, to doing being on a stage on a Wednesday afternoon at one o’clock instead of in front of 300 people. It’s the same skills and some of the same talents and passions that I use on Saturday night, as I could use in front of a crowd of 300 people on a Wednesday at one and I just had to figure out what was missing in my skills and my talents and maybe my education to get me there.
David Ralph [35:53]
So So what comes first, Ben the passion or the hustle? It’s like chicken and egg time. But do you have a passion And then start hustling or do you hustle and then find your passion?
Matt Booth [36:05]
I always think if you hustle, if you’re moving, if you put things in motion good things happen.
David Ralph [36:10]
I agree with that,
Matt Booth [36:11]
you know? Yeah. And my dad’s always said to me, he said, You know, when you’re in that moment, you don’t know what to do. My dad would say do something. He said, I don’t even care if it’s right or wrong, just do something. And I always think of, you know, people always say, well, when you come to a fork in the road, how do you know which way to take, you know, and you can sit here and think about it worry about whether I should go right or left and which one they should take. I really think you should just when you come to a fork in the road, just take one because you’re going to take one, I don’t think it makes that much difference. But you gotta move somewhat forward because you’re going to walk 50 yards down that fork in the road, and there’s going to be another fork in the road. But if you just if you just sit there you know and worry about which one you’re going to take? You never get anywhere. So you just got to pick one and take it because there’s just, it’s that’s not the decision, you know, one fork in the road doesn’t make or break your whole life. Because once you take it, there’s another fork in the road just down the block.
David Ralph [37:14]
This is a good metaphor for life. And it really puts the focus on why are we so big on a decision? Because there’s another decision coming along after it. And if I came over to your house now, and I said to you, Matt, I’m going to walk you to work. And we went down to the road and went to turn light you got Oh, no, we normally go straight on here. I bet if I said no, we’re gonna turn right would still be able to get to your office, because you would then go a different direction. But in life, we all kind of thing. The next decision is the big one. That’s got to be right. But actually, it doesn’t. It just has to be a decision. And then when we land in that new place, we look around and think to ourselves, what should we do? I’m gonna play with some words about that. This is Oprah.
Unknown Speaker [38:02]
The way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself what is the next right move? not think about, Oh, I got all of this stuff. What is the next right move? And then from that space, make the next right move and the next right move and not to be overwhelmed by it because you know, your life is bigger than that one moment. You know, you’re not defined by what somebody says, is a failure for you. Because failure is just there to point you in a different direction. It’s true in that book, it is true what what do you think about those
David Ralph [38:38]
words? Are they words that we should we spend more time teaching the kids that they can be creative in their thoughts, they don’t have to be serious. They can look for play in their life. Van we should saying, you got to be serious here. You got to settle down. This is your responsibility to Men, those words that she said and those words that Jim Carrey said, Are there the kind of things that we should be teaching in school more than the other route.
Matt Booth [39:08]
She talked about failure a lot there. One of my big goals in life is to try to fail. You know, and if you’re not failing at something, you’re just not trying hard enough, you we can get very comfortable in our lives, sitting in our office sitting in our cubicle, being successful. As you know, the world might define it or your parents might define, or your nice car that you drive or the nice home that you live in, Mike define is successful. And we get very comfortable and we stop being ambitious, and we stopped taking risk. And we stop making decisions that can lead you down a trail to be happy and not just successful.
David Ralph [39:56]
When you look at all the real successful people out there, I’m was listening to this speech the other day with Denzel Washington. And he does this amazing story about he, one of the first jobs he went for was in a theatre. And he went on the fit. And he wasn’t used to being on the stage. So he didn’t know that he had to project his voice. And so he was kind of almost a TV actor, and he didn’t get the job. And so he went fair enough. And he went out, and he did another interview. And he didn’t get that and he didn’t. And he just kept on going, kept going, kept going. And then 30 years later, he won the Tony Award. And it was presented to him on the stage that he first found on and he says, You just got to go for the five years and get them out of the way. Just move forward, just move forward, just move forward. And don’t think of them as a failure. Just think of them as a stepping stone. Because it’s all those failures that have actually developing you. They’re all those failures, but I’m actually pointing you in the right way. All those failures are actually sharpening your own tools and making you better so that when the opportunity does come along, you’ve actually been in preparation for it for years. And you are the number one guy who’s going to get it. You are Mr. Matt booth. But DJ, but you’re not just the substitute DJ, you are the real DJ because you have put the preparation in. It’s true, isn’t it?
Matt Booth [41:15]
And that’s one thing. When you talk about what we should teach kids, we’re not teaching kids how to fail anymore. We’re teaching kids that everything they do they get a ribbon for. So all these kids are going out for sports. And you know, there’s 10 teams playing soccer and all 10 of them when
David Ralph [41:33]
I know. I really, that’s one of my bugbears that is mad when I say to my son, oh, how did you do? We got knocked out in the first round. Well, how come you got a trophy? Oh, everybody got a trophy? What was the point in that? Yeah.
Matt Booth [41:50]
So now when he when your son graduates from school and goes and gets a job, he’s gonna be sitting in an office somewhere. He’s not going to understand failure. And then if we want to motivate people, a younger generation in an office, we have to give everyone trophies and ribbons every day.
David Ralph [42:08]
Why do you Why do you think life has changed from that? Why do we now do that and celebrate taking part where maybe 20 years ago, it was about winning. And I think actually in America, You’re different from us in the United Kingdom. We like the underdog. For some reason, we always support the one who’s not expected to win. But it seems a trait from the Americans I’ve spoken to. But you like the champions, you like the people? It’s the American dream, the ones that really done well for themselves. That’s the inspiring story, but we kind of like the ones that have tried their hardest, but haven’t quite done it. Yeah. Why don’t you think that’s changed over 20 years?
Matt Booth [42:46]
It just feels like we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. And you know, it feels like everybody’s got to be a winner. Everyone has to be, you know, we don’t want any kids to cry. I don’t know. We don’t to kids can’t fail. They’d be upset if they failed at something we want everyone to be happy. I don’t get it either. I’m not sure I’m I don’t know the answer to that. Well, what was your big failure? Can
David Ralph [43:11]
you can you look back on one? Are you somebody that doesn’t consider anything as a failure is just a progression?
Matt Booth [43:17]
You know, I’ve had a lot, a lot of minor failures, and they would be stepping stones. I don’t know that I’ve had any big, humongous failures. I’ve never went bankrupt. I never tried to, to start a business and took out a big loan and went bankrupt. I never did that. Big failure. I don’t I don’t know. what’s what’s your big failure?
David Ralph [43:37]
Well, a big spot, because when you was saying that, you’ve got to fail. Because if you’re not, you’re not trying hard enough. And as you were saying that I thought to myself, I don’t think I’ve ever had a true failure in that same regard, where I’ve actually lost everything or, or you know, do real big, bad failures that you think oh my god, how am I going to get over that and so I was pondering when you said that whether I haven’t tried hard enough in my life.
Matt Booth [44:04]
Yeah, here’s one thing I always wanted to play the guitar was a dream of mine to play guitar. And finally I wrote it down on a piece of paper and I started telling everyone I’m going to play guitar. And for my 30th birthday, my friends, my family bought me a guitar and they bought me years worth of guitar lessons. And so I started taking guitar lessons and I started playing guitar. And for some reason, the the guitar and my fingers and the strings in my brain, it doesn’t all work. I don’t know what it was I could get some chords but I could just I put a lot of time into it but I could never do it. And then that guitar would sit in the corner of my apartment and it would look at me and it would be like, just play me just playing and I’d say I don’t want to play you because I’m not very good at it play me play me. And then finally one day, you know it was looking at my notes my some of my goals and learn to play guitar was on there and after trying to play guitar for two or three years, I just one day I crossed it off. I failed. I admitted to myself that I failed at playing guitar. And it was hard to cross that off. But once I crossed it off, it felt like this burden was lifted off of my shoulders. And I no longer cared about the guitar. I gave the guitar away. I don’t care about all the books, I don’t care. Nothing in me, remotely wants to play guitar anymore. So I totally failed on that because it was one of my goals. I told everyone, I wrote it down. I had guitar. I did everything that I could and I fail. And sometimes when I tell that story, people that people get rubbed the wrong way. They’re like, well, you’re you didn’t try hard enough. You gave up. You’re a quitter. I’m not going to listen to anything that you say because you quit. And what they don’t understand is that it was a goal of mine. And I was passionate about playing guitar, but it just it didn’t work. And I tried I made a good effort. And then when I crossed it off, and I quit worrying about the guitar, it freed up time for me to do other things. Like work on my platform skills, write a book, be a better person, exercise more. So even though I that was a big failure, it showed, you know, if I had never tried that, I’d still be thinking today. Oh, I could. It’s my dream to play guitar. I could do that.
David Ralph [46:28]
Dreams are just something to go for. I don’t think I’ve ever had a dream that I have achieved. But what I have had, I’ve had dreams that as I was working towards it, something comes along and I actually think, ah, that looks better than what I was dreaming about. So I think that dream is just something to start the momentum again, and we always keep coming back to momentum and taking action. But it’s that vision, isn’t it? What you want to do, you know, I would love to go up into space. base. But I know that I would be violently sick on the way out there because I’m not very good. But it’s a dream of mine. Is it going to ever occur? I’m probably not. But if in the future they can sort of replicate it, so I don’t have to have that sick feeling. That’s me route. And so I’ve been a dream is just a starting point on going for something.
Matt Booth [47:24]
Yeah, I think so too and a dream until you capture it and write it down somewhere, or start making plans to live that dream. It’s just kind of a dream floating out there. It just kind of floats out there and maybe gets things started. But once you get serious about it, I think you’ve got to capture that dream and make a plan, write it down somewhere. So if you’ve got, you know, 3 million down, downloads, millions of downloads, you have people out there that they already know their talents and their passions, and they know they can do so. Something else than what they’re doing. And that’s their dream. They just haven’t taken the action to grab that dream and throw it on their laptop, write it down in a notebook and start making steps towards that.
David Ralph [48:14]
Well, why is your dream being if we’re saying is something to work towards where you are now? Are you comfortable? Are you happy? Are you driven for more? What’s on your radar?
Matt Booth [48:27]
Yeah, I think one of the things I always think about and I have this on my wall is these two words, content, and ambition. And I think we fought those things aren’t associated very well together. Because most people that I know that are very ambitious, they want a bunch of money or they want to do this or they want a boat or they want to do this, then they don’t seem to be all that content with their life as it is. And then I know a lot of people who are very committed They’re like, Hey, man, life’s good. This is, this is what I do. This is where I am. But I know a lot of people who are content, they’re satisfied, but they don’t have any ambition. And I think one of the keys to my life is to be content with where you are, yet still be ambitious, and want to keep improving. So am I happy right now? Yes, I’ve got a beautiful wife. I’ve got two great kids. I’m doing you know, I’m in my sweet spot of what I do. my passions and my talents collide. I’m very happy and comfortable right now and very satisfied and content. But this is this is just the beginning. David, this is I’m ambitious to man. There’s things that I want to do. There’s, I’ve got goals and dreams that are out there and I’ve captured those dreams. So I’m ambitious. There’s going to be big things. I think coming so it’s being content and ambitious at the same time. And those are words that don’t often go together in the same sentence.
David Ralph [49:59]
I love that. hear about excitement. It’s palpable. Isn’t it? The excitement that you feel when you’re planning or you’re thinking about your future? It’s you’re gonna, you’ve got more than a half a chance when you feel about why haven’t you?
Matt Booth [50:12]
Yeah. And a couple couple years ago, I was with my dad and with a buddy, and my speaking business had really starting to take off. And my buddy goes, you know, he goes, wow, he said, this, you just pick this is so successful. This is just blown up, like in the last year, and my dad grabbed the guy by the sleeve. And he said, he said, Don’t ever say that. He said, Matt’s been working at this for 25 years, to be an overnight success. Yeah. And I didn’t even look at it that way. But my dad totally did. He says he’s been working on this dream. for 25 years. I was like, wow, I have, you know, because each time when I was 16 or 17, and took that microphone again, in front of a room of 300 people that was preparing me to be on stage. Stage on a Wednesday afternoon at one o’clock to speak to 300 people about attitude and being productive in the workplace and having good customer service.
David Ralph [51:11]
No experience is wasted. Right? Let’s play some words. Steve Jobs said this and is the theme of the show and it really emphasises what you’ve just been talking about.
Steve Jobs [51:22]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life karma, whatever, because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path and that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [51:57]
And so your your path your path is very similar You’re 44 I’m 44 I started speaking, when I was 16. I probably started speaking when I was about, I don’t know, a year old or whatever. I got quite good at it when I was 16. And now I can connect my dots. And I think to myself, yeah, but there is there is a path. I have fine tuned my talents leading up to this point. So your dad was absolutely right. And when Steve Jobs talks, those words, he speaks those words.
Unknown Speaker [52:27]
Is it faith? Is it competence?
David Ralph [52:29]
Is it belief? Is it just doing stuff that leads to success? What you think?
Matt Booth [52:35]
Yeah, I think it’s all of those things. And now looking back, even connecting the dots of our show, you know, it’s that fork in the road. And so many of us get stuck on that. And it’s what Oprah said, we put so much weight, you know, and so much on one decision. And for most of us, I’m just uh, you know, I’m just the guy next door for most of us. There’s not those big, huge decisions, all the Time, especially when you look back on the dots, they were just decisions and you make one and you move on. Because just down the block, there’s another decision to be made. And you, you know, I don’t think that the path to where you’ve got or where I’ve got or where anyone’s led to, is a straight line. It’s a bunch it looks like a bunch of forks in the road a bunch of jagged lines. that got us to where we are
David Ralph [53:26]
you the guy next door trying his best.
Matt Booth [53:31]
It totally that’s, I’m just like your listeners. There’s nothing super special or, you know, I don’t have a superhuman power. It’s just I’m just making the decisions taken. I’m just taking the fork in the road taking some action. And of course, there’s times where I wish I would take more action or do more, you know and be more ambitious. The evidence is just taking small bits of action. which can lead to 25 years of connecting up the dots. Pretty cool.
David Ralph [54:04]
Absolutely. Well, let’s connect those dots now. And let’s send you back in time on the Sermon on the mic, because this is the end of the show. And this is when I’m going to send you back in time to have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could go back in time and speak to young man, what age would you choose and what advice would you give? Well, we’re gonna find out because I’m gonna play the theme tune and when it fades you up Mrs. The sermon on the mic.
Matt Booth [54:50]
I would talk to myself, Matt booth when I was 16. And I was about to DJ that first wedding when the groom said where’s the real deal? Jay, I would pop out of the back of the room as a 44 year old map booth. And I would look at the 16 year old Matt booth. And I would say, Matt, I believe in you. I profoundly believe in you. You have all the talents, tools and abilities right now. To handle anything that the world throws at you and to accomplish what you want. I profoundly believe in you map booth, you are on the right path. There’s going to be failures, there’s going to be forks in the road, there’s going to be decisions that you think are huge in the moment. And you’ll find out when you look back, that that was just another fork in the road for you to make a decision and take action and move further on towards your dreams. So I would say to that young map booth i would say i profoundly believe in you, you that you can do it. You can handle anything that the world throws at you and you will be happy and successful.
David Ralph [56:02]
Matt, how can that audience connect with you, sir?
Matt Booth [56:05]
Yeah, they can connect with me the easiest thing would be a Twitter. It’s at attitude expert. You can send me an email. It’s Matt at mapple calm. My Facebook is just Matt booth speaker. And my website is Mattbooth.com
David Ralph [56:29]
I’ll have all of our links on the show notes. Matt, thank you so much for spending time with us. Again, joining up those dots. Please come back again when you have more dots to join up because I do believe that by joining up adults and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. Mr. Matt Booth. Thank you so much.
Matt Booth [56:47]
Thank you much and keep doing what you’re doing and next time I get to England I’m going to come look you up and we’re gonna do this in person.
Outro [56:55]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you or wants to become So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
