From Teacher to Multi-Unit Franchisee: The Winding Entrepreneurial Journey

Free Agent Podcast with Franchise Guru Meg Schmitz – Guest – Matthew McReynolds the Development Director at FranDevCo

Episode 6.13: Matthew McReynolds recounts his path from franchisee to entrepreneur, shaped by personal challenges, growth, and hard-earned lessons in leadership.

Meg Schmitz:
Well, hello everyone, and welcome to or welcome back to my podcast, the Free Agent. I am Meg Schmitz, and this podcast discussion is all about free agency and taking control over your financial future. The mission of my show is to share inspiring conversations with real people who took the leap into self employment, business ownership, franchising and freedom from corporate refugees and executives tired of the desk job to entrepreneurs and investors looking to share camaraderie and inspiration through their own business journey. My podcast aimed spotlight on real people who stepped into the unknown, took control over their destiny and became their own boss. And today, this is going to be a really interesting conversation because Matthew McReynolds has been around franchising.

You’ve worn many hats. My tagline is take the leap. And you have done that a number of times. I’m sure that there’s been some fear, there’s been some excitement, there’s been some anxiety over the years with some of those. And that’s the real story that I wanted to have you on to talk about because you’re a young man who has made some big decisions for yourself and your family.

And it’s an inspiring conversation with a real person. So thank you for coming on my show today.

Matthew McReynolds:
Wow. Well, I appreciate that, Ms. Meg. I appreciate you and thanks for having me. 

Meg:
So your journey is so interesting. I know where you are right now. You’re in the franchise development side of things. You’ve been a franchisee. You’ve been with Franchoice as a franchise consultant.

Matthew:
Yes.

Meg:
And so I want to touch on all of that, but why don’t you start at the beginning and tell us where your entrepreneurial leanings first started to kick in.

Matthew:
Oh, that’s awesome. I guess if I were to really call it out.

My entrepreneurial leanings. I like the way you put that, by the way. Started when I was a kid. I was always a hustler, always trying to make a buck, always trying to figure out how I could game the system. And I do that in the most appropriate ways.

But I was an athlete in as a kid in college, and I didn’t really ever have a vision for myself after sports was done. And so it kind of opened it up for me. I always had a very strong work ethic, but I didn’t know what I was meant for. I didn’t truly understand my purpose. I had things that I was passionate about, but I didn’t know what my purpose was.

And so after college I went and I was passionate about the inner city. I was passionate about educating and building things and building communities. And so that’s what I did after school. I worked in the inner city as a teacher and as a coach and as a community builder of sorts. My dad was a corporate exec.

He worked at Apple computer for 22 years and got to a point where he started seeing the writing on the wall and everybody that came in with him. Whenever he came into apple in the mid-90s, all those folks were gone and the culture was changing. And so he realized that he needed to take his path into his own hands because he didn’t want to be left without an opportunity to control his future. So he, like many other people, started looking at franchising. And I’d always been.

I’d always been, like I said, I was a hustler. I’d always had side hustles. And at the time I was so I was teaching and I had started a business called Hero Athletics. And so my whole thing was athletic coaching, SAT and act, tutoring and coaching. Those were my three pillars.

Teach, train, build. That was my whole shtick. And I was taking it to schools in the inner city and I was working at a school full time in South Dallas and then kind of working my program on the side. And he had seen this and I guess he was inspired by it and it was really cool because he started looking at franchise ownership, did not involve me in the process at all until after he had already invested in Mosquito Joe, which is our first franchise, which we still own. Still own today.

We’re going on year nine. We’re just wrapping up year nine. But he invested in the franchise and then at that point came to me and was like, hey, I’m going to do this. I already bought our first territory, which was about two hours away from where I lived. I was in Dallas, he was in Austin at the time.

So he bought the territory in Waco and he’s like, if you want to be involved, there’s some additional territory in DFW and we could start there. I’ll make you a 5050 partner. And so to me, it was a no brainer. I immediately jumped on the opportunity. I got married on March 12, 2016, and I flew with my wife to Virginia beach for corporate training on March 13, 2016.

And we just hit the ground running and it’s been a bit of a journey since then.

Meg:
Well, so as you were talking about that. I’ve spoken with a number of people who were athletes and how athletes are groomed. 

Matthew:
Yeah. 

Meg:
And it’s not a surprise then that you didn’t really think about what came afterwards because everything is geared towards hitting the field, not being a free agent, but being a teammate. Being.

Yeah. Selected for a team. What, what sports were you playing?

Matthew:
So I was a football player and I ran track in college.

Meg:
Okay, so you were probably well groomed for a long time.

Matthew:
That’s right, that’s right. And I remember a coach in high school used to always say, get ready. You gotta be ready when the lights come on. And it was all about preparation, preparation, preparation. And I remember I asked my dad whenever we were just starting to get all the groundwork in place and we were about to launch, and I was like, dad, what do I got to do to be ready?

Like, what do I need to do to just prepare myself? And he was like, you know, son, honestly, you’ve already done the work and you’re going to grow, you’re going to learn. You’ve done everything that it takes to get you to the point where you are now. The next thing to do is to just take the step and let’s go. And so that was really encouraging that he saw that in me.

And yeah, the rest is, the rest is history. We’re still building this thing today.

Meg:
Excellent. The sports analogy. And you know, we’re in franchising and we’re building teams, we’re building culture and camaraderie and all of that.

What was it about Mosquito Joe, because nine years, that’s really a great run. What was it for you that was attractive for you then to join your dad in the franchise?

Matthew:
Well, the key for me was being able to join my dad, that was one thing. I’d always wanted to do that and I just thought it was so cool that that opportunity was just laid out in front of me then that way. But I also, the structure of a franchise business that I had never, I had never seen before. Being a part of something that was pre established and built kind of reminded me of, like you said, being on a team.

And I was able to the. Let me back up the very first call that we had after we start launching the franchise business and we’re getting going. My franchise business coach told me to call my neighbor franchisee and just, just call them, introduce yourself and then you’ll thank me later. And we did. And they provided so much value and coaching and training from the very beginning. And I’ll never forget.

And in a franchise. I didn’t realize it at the time. This is more hindsight. Looking back. It’s. There’s so much of a rising tide, raises all ships.

A good franchise system is one that has a strong culture within the franchisees. And. And that was really. That’s really important to me. And I know you asked about playing on a team, and I’m probably getting a little off topic, a little bit of, like, what my mindset was back then, but this just the structure that I never had of trying to build something completely on my own.

I mean, I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know how to build a business. But having the structure, having the blueprint, having people that I could lean on, I don’t know if I knew that going in, but I definitely noticed it quickly and I took advantage of it as best as I could.

Meg:
One of my favorite placements was with Mosquito Joe in the Madison, Wisconsin market. She was a rookie of the year, and this was after having to do her own hard pivot left. We thought she was going to buy a different brand, and turned out she didn’t have the money for that. Her credit needed to be repaired and we made the shift and she licked her wounds and got over it. I found Mosquito Joe and she and her partner, her life partner, were rookies of the year in Madison.

So I’ve been able to. And I don’t know if you know this, but every person I’ve placed into a business, I continue to stay in touch with them and give them the opportunity to. It’s my phone. I hold it up and say, you know, once you’re mine, you’re always mine. This little thing right here, text me, call me. I always want to know what’s going on. So she continues to.

To tap on my shoulder periodically and tell me what’s going on. So as a brand, yeah, they’ve got a nice, strong culture. And obviously then too, you got buzz brands that was founded around that concept, although they’re not together anymore. 

So. All right, so you’re with your dad, you’re doing Mosquito Joe, learning your lessons and collaborating with neighboring franchisees. It’s always the best way to build. Then what direction did you go in next?

Matthew:
So it probably would have been in 2022. My wife was pregnant with our daughter, so fourth pregnancy, but third. Third baby. We had a Let me back up. In 2019, we had a stillbirth.

So between my, my oldest and then my, my middle son, we had a daughter. And at 38 weeks we lost her. And that was, that was such a monumental moment in our life that really wrecked us. And it didn’t at the time, didn’t really know how it was molding us. It was just something that happened to us.

But there was that and it just rocked us to our core and made us really challenge what we were building and why. And it took us out of the business. Grateful that we built it bigger than us at the time so it could survive without me being in the business every single day. That was really the first time that I had to step out of the business in that moment, recovered, got back to work. 2020 happened, which that was crazy for everybody, but we actually had our best year in 2020.

You know, people were at the house and they didn’t want to, they didn’t want to get bit by mosquitoes. And that’s right, the weather didn’t change. There were still crazy mosquitoes. We were in essential service and so we were rocking. Now Fast forward to 2022.

I had, so we had our, our two boys and my wife was pregnant with our, with our daughter, who’s now two and a half. And when she was born, my wife told me, you are taking time off. And at the time I was, I was leading the ship, I was, I was steering, I was waving the flag, I was rallying the troops every day. And it all, it all bottlenecked with me. But when we step, when I had to step out of the business, I noticed a significant shift in the production of the business and what the business was able to do.

And I reflected back on 2019 when I had to step out and the business at that time was able to survive. But I didn’t see a significant shift, this time I did. I mean, the momentum halted drastically when I had to step out of the business. And so that was really eye opening, an eye opening experience.

I ended up read Traction, started implementing EOS and a lot of leadership books, A lot of Patrick Lencioni, a lot of, just a lot. I started, I started learning and growing and I realized that I need to build a business that doesn’t rely on me. We started implementing those systems and started thinking about what can I do that’s bigger now? At the same time, my dad, now come back, had come back and was working in the business and we had differing views on how we should pay ourselves on how the business should grow. We had different visions of leadership.

Now remember, this was my dad’s investment. Initially it was his money, it was his life saving and he empowered me to help build this thing. And now we have differing views. That was really hard. You know, I was growing as a leader and there were things that I wanted to build and I had seen the success that we had in this business.

And so to me, it was, now is the perfect time for me to do something on my own. Let me build something completely separate. So we took some money that we had earned from the business and we did. We took out an SBA loan and we launched our second franchise, which was Groovy Hughes under Quark Power. And we launched that business in 2023.

And that was, that was going to be my way of creating something completely separate outside of my dad. This was going to be me on my own. What I didn’t think about and what I didn’t realize was I didn’t really crunch, not, I want to say crunch the numbers, but that’s just, that’s just a bad metaphor. I really didn’t think about what it would take to stack another brand on top of my previous brand. I had a whole theory about vertical integration, that I could leverage the team that I had in the same geographical area and start stacking brands on top of each other and widening out my scope.

But I didn’t think about my capacity as a leader. I didn’t think about my skill set and my team’s skill set. And I also didn’t, I didn’t consider the amount of investment that it would take to launch a second business, the type of business and the investment requirement that came down from the franchise system that was set up in the FDD. And so I really set myself up for failure. Now I have a lot of opinions about how that franchise was structured, but at the end of the day, it really came on me and my lack of due diligence and not doing the research that I needed to do in order to set my second brand up for success.

I also at the same time thought that I could just purely leverage my team. I fully bought into the whole semi absentee concept that I could build this business while doing something else. I could leverage the team, I could hire the team and then just plug it and then go. And that’s when I also joined Franchoice at the same time. And so here I am, I’ve got my one business mosquito Joe, that we were going on year seven and a half or year eight.

We Launch our second business, Groovy Hughes. And within three months, I start as a franchise consultant with Franchoice. And so for me, my head was just spinning with all the different things that I had to juggle. Now, being somebody that came from the inner city as a teacher and as a coach and in these nonprofit schools, I was used to wearing a ton of different hats, but at a much smaller scale. And when you do that and you extrapolate it in a much bigger stage with hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake, you start dropping.

When you’re juggling a lot of balls, you start dropping a few of them. And that’s what I started to experience.

Meg:
Wow. That’s so much that happened. That was 2019 to 2023. What seismic shifts those are for the competitor in you.

Matthew:

Yes. 

Meg:

Tell me about your ego. Tell me how it. How all of this affected you. Because here you are married, you’ve got businesses, you’ve got kids, but somewhere in there is your self and your ego. So talk a bit about how did you, how did you rise and not just fall? Did you have mentors? Did you have, this gets down a whole rabbit hole of instinct and survival?

Matthew:
Yeah. No, I’ve always had. I’ve always had great mentors, and I’ve always been the type of person that even if you’re not around me, I will. I can still absorb information. There’s a lot of people that I would consider mentors that I’ve never actually met in person because I absorb their content, I absorb what they put out.

But I’ve always challenged myself in trying to put myself in bigger and better rooms. And that’s always been a thing, that’s been a gift. And also it’s been something that’s, that’s hurt me is how do I get into the room? And if I can just do whatever it takes to get into the room, once I’m in there, I will continue to grow, and eventually I will be somebody that deserves to be in the room.

And then I can. I can then lead the room. And that’s always been my thought process. But going back to 2022, there was a lot of, as I start to looking at the franchising space, I started listening to Eric Van Horn and Franchise Secrets, and he was a big mentor to me.

And now I can call him, you know, a friend. And we’ve. We’ve collaborated, and I really like what they’re building at Front street, but at the time I’m listening to his podcast and I’m hearing Guests and these guys that are doing what I wanted to do and the competitor in me and the person that, you know, I see this success that I’ve been able to do on the back end. What inevitably happened was I skipped a lot of steps, and I thought that because I’ve built this and now I see those people over there building that, I can leverage what I have here, and I can just go jump and do that. And I took these big leaps, and I neglected the small steps that you often need to take in order to get there.

And I don’t want to jump around too much, but that was my mindset back then. And even getting into Franchoice and in franchoice through 2023 and then 2024, and we can talk about just the headspace and the trials and tribulations and the struggles of trying to continue to put my head down and grind and not quit being a competitor, but also just struggling internally, financially. Yeah, this is starting to fall apart. Not just the second franchise, but my first franchise that everything is leaning on is now starting to fumble and the team culture, and people are starting to get aggravated because things are not working the way that they’re supposed to. And, you know, all these things are starting to break.

And I’m sitting here and I’m thinking, like, man, what is. What has gone wrong? You know, I’ve been. I’ve been taking home the same amount of money internally for the last eight years. I have not paid myself more.

I’ve gotten more freedom. But with that freedom, I’ve just stacked more weight on my shoulders. And when I saw you last time in person at the Franchoice convention in. Would that have been July in 2024, walking into that convention, I believe you. We actually checked into the hotel around the same time, I believe.

And so you were actually the first person that I probably engaged with. That was probably the lowest moment of my entrepreneurial journey. Walking into that conference, I felt like such a failure, such a phony, somebody that had tried all these things, and it just wasn’t working. And it was not working because I wasn’t good enough.

And it got to a point where talking to people at that conference and really engaging in. And being a. Going back to being a mentee and leaning on so many of the mentors that I have in Franchoice and realizing that this entire opportunity has been a learning experience. And sometimes to experience a breakthrough, you have to let things break. And even on paper, a lot of the people that I was looking up to that had seen success.

They built slowly. They didn’t make these grand leaps and bounds. They took their steps one after the other. And for me, if I can.

If I can change my perspective and view my situation as this amazing master’s degree and doctorate degree in what it takes to be successful and how to overcome this type of failure. And I was. I would have so many sleepless nights of man, am I going to have to declare bankruptcy? Am I going to have to. You know, all these things that I never thought I was going to have to do, and realizing that even if that were to happen, I’m still going to wake up tomorrow, I’m still going to have my kids, I’m still going to have my wife.

I’m still going to have this other business that as long as I protect the core and the foundation, as long as I can continue to grow, what’s really the worst thing that is going to happen? Say I do have to declare bankruptcy. What can they actually take from me? And how can I leverage the opportunities that I’ve. That I’ve learned and the people that I’ve met and the network that I’ve built?

And skipping up to Fran Devco, I mean, that opportunity came and that opportunity just fell in my lap. And it truly was something that if it wasn’t for the relationships that I’ve built and the steps that I had taken, today, I’m in such a better mental space now than I have been in years. And it’s. After allowing my situation to break and on paper, fall apart and call that second business, call it what it was. I mean, it was a huge loss, but I was able to turn the loss into a lesson and continue to grow. And I don’t know if I would, if given the opportunity to talk to my old self. There’s a lot of things that I would. I would probably say, but I don’t know if. I don’t know what I would actually change because I see my future now as so amazingly bright and beautiful.

And the opportunity that I have now, I would not have had if I didn’t take those steps, as crazy as they were.

Meg:
Yeah. So many people, and, you know, from being a consultant, this is their greatest fear, is what happened to you?

What if. What if everything goes to hell in a handbasket? What if I lose everything? And I always go to my own lessons learned. My husband and I call it tuition.

Matthew:
There it is. 

Meg: 
And that’s what it is. It’s. It is not going to kill you. And you know that saying, and I what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but sometimes you wish it would because you’re just a f**ked up mess and it hurts like hell.

And you see your family and your spouse and everyone around you who. You feel like the biggest loser in the world and you just wish it would all be over. And you know it’s not gonna. It’s a slog every day to pick yourself back up and do it and resurrect yourself. That’s big.

Matthew:
And I, that. I love that you said it like that because Alex Hermosi. It was actually I was listening to one of his podcasts. He has a podcast called the Game. And I recommend anybody because there’s a ton of value that he, that he just puts out.

But he, he literally said, what’s the worst thing that could happen? I mean, even if your business completely flops, you’re not going to die. And I, when I heard that, I kind of just smirked at it, you know. But then I really started thinking about it. Like, I’ve never actually thought about what would happen if this business failed.

If I did have to declare bankruptcy, what would actually happen? And it was back to when I was a college football player and my whole thought was, man, I gotta make it into the professional league, I have to. And I didn’t have a vision for myself after football. And so when football was taken away, it was such a scary thing because I didn’t know what was gonna happen afterwards. And then once I started living it, you realize like, oh, wait, there’s actually light at the end of this journey.

There’s opportunity on the other side of it. And in the same way I had honestly been thinking, I think my, my spirit internally was acting as if calling this opportunity a failure meant that something within me was going to die and I wasn’t allowing myself to cut the cord when it needed to be cut. And I think now I’m just in such a mindset of if it doesn’t build on my strengths, if it doesn’t, if it doesn’t fill my cup, if it doesn’t play to what makes me feel whole, I don’t need to do it, I need to stay away from it.

And you know, as I, as I’ve just switched, you know, being a consultant to me, that was, that was the peak. I love what you get to do. And now I’m on the development side and so I have a little bit more structure and I’m a little more in a lane than I was before. But I still get to coach people and I get to actually engage with more people now than I did as a consultant because. And I get to engage with more consultants and I get to interact with you and so many of the other folks in Franchoice and beyond in ways that I didn’t ever think about before.

And I think it’s a beautiful thing that oftentimes we get so stuck and we get these blinders on because we feel like we have to operate in a certain lane.

And truly, you can only experience breakthrough after something breaks. And I just break everything down in order to move forward. 

Episode 6.14: He reflects on redefining success, prioritizing family, and finding renewed purpose through structure, mentorship, and team alignment.

Meg:
And I follow you now on not only LinkedIn but also Facebook. You and your wife and your kids, and I see you coaching and mentoring and leading them in the backyard.

Matthew :
Yeah.

Meg :
Running around back there. And you and I have spoken before. You know, my. My three pillars, Your wife, your life, and your money.

Yeah. Moving forward with any of these decisions, you and your wife had moved forward. Obviously Mosquito Joe the day after you got married, then going into Groovy Hughes and so quickly into Franchoice. How. How did your marriage get tested and come out after the loss of your daughter? That is devastating.

You had. You had struggles for. You had challenges. I shouldn’t say struggles. You can tell me better than that.

But from the outside looking in, so how has your marriage evolved through some of these situations that were so unexpected?

Matthew:
Wow. Well, I will say I. Struggles is a very good word to use. There were definitely struggles. And I am a firm advocate for counseling and therapy and third party intervention. I am a huge advocate for that. And there’s something about having somebody that can speak into the two of you that. That want the best version of the relationship. I am a firm believer, and I highly encourage people to be open to that. But yeah, we had a ton of struggle throughout this entire process. I think going into the business, we both. Our original business, we both had false expectations of what the business would produce for us.

And we thought that, oh, we’ll launch this business and we’ll just make a ton of money and then we’ll be able to just have all this time and freedom to be with our kids. And when I got into the business, I have. I can have some workaholic tendencies and I’m a hard worker. I’ll grind and nobody will outwork me. If I see the necessity in the time and the effort that I need to put out to achieve my goal, there’s nobody that will outwork me when I put my head down.

That’s how I see myself. But what that was doing was it was, even though in my mind, I was balancing everything well. I would come home, I would never miss a dinner. I would take my kids to school. I would be engaged on the weekend to my standards.

But even when I was at home, I was still plugged into the business, and there was a rift in my attention and where I was putting my energy. And what I cared about was in the business, where my wife saw that it was not in the family. And so that was something that I had to really come to terms with. I think as entrepreneurs, we can justify the fact that, well, what we’re doing, is building. And I think not just entrepreneurs, but anybody that’s ambitious can say that.

What I’m building, I’m building it for my family. I’m putting this work for my family. But as an entrepreneur, I was doing all this stuff and leading my family down this crazy, tumultuous path. But I was doing it because this is the lifestyle that I like. I’m the crazy one.

I like to go down these things and take these risks and bet on myself and really push forward to build these big, amazing things. I wasn’t thinking about my wife and what I was dragging her through, and it was really coming to terms with the fact that I was doing it for me. And it’s easy to justify and say that, oh, I’m doing it for my family, but in reality, I was doing it for me. I’m going to provide no matter what. But the way that I provide, is it with my family in mind or is it more me focused?

Is it selfish in the way that I’m providing? Because I could have got a 9 to 5 from the very beginning and made more money and been able to actually clock out and leave the work behind? And it was realizing that, oh, this business gives me the opportunity to be where I want, when I want. And we made a choice collectively that I could plug more into the business and make more money, or I could step back and not make more money, but have more time. There was a season where we made that choice.

Let me take a step back, let me spend more time and recalibrate and then figure out which direction we need to move forward. And I think that was. That was a really pivotal one for our relationship because it was showing her that I could make the shift in my focus and in my intentionality, because before, I just wasn’t realizing what it was doing to her. And, yeah, it was a big shift when I when I finally made it.

Meg:
I work with exiting military who have entrepreneurial ambitions. That’s my grandfather over there was the colonel in the army. None of the rest of us served. But that’s my way of giving back. And what you’re talking about right now, the tie in is my most recent mentee is a woman More than 20 years in the army. She outranked her husband.

She’s got four boys at home. And when she came into the program for mentor mentorship, one of the struggles is that she realized that all of her entrepreneurial dreams were for her and her husband wasn’t behind her. I mean that’s not really right. That’s how she was feeling is that he wasn’t as invested. He’s behind her.

Absolutely. I’ve met her husband. He’s a flag waving, wife loving. He’s behind like go honey, go. If anyone’s going to do it, you are.

But this is your journey, your path, this is your thing that you want. And I’m not running the same race with you. You get, you got to go girl. And that was really great for her to learn now that she’s out and taking full ownership of this business that she’s building of all my mentees, she’s going to, she’s going to win, she’s absolutely going to make it. But you’re so spot on with this because I am too entrepreneurial and I’m doing this for the good of and it does get to be pretty selfish until your spouse comes and taps you on the shoulder and says you’re not present.

You’re not present. And being present is a gift and if you can’t be present then you’re then really you’re somewhere else. How then now you’ve made the shift over to franchise development. So you stepped away from franchoise which I’m assuming you can always go back to if you wanted to come back in.

Matthew:
Yeah.

Meg:
Good. You shift over to development. Any new learnings there besides the fact that now you’ve got more, more rigor scheduled to your schedule? It really is, it is. As a franchise consultant, it is a lonely haul, man.

So now you’ve got a team and you’ve got some great brands. So talk about this transition and what all it means to you.

Matthew:
Yeah, well, I get to work. I could have worked from. I guess I always could have worked from home. I don’t know why being at Brandefco now I’ve actually made the shift to working at in my own home space so that, that’s not a really significant one. But I will say that I’ve always wanted to. Hmm. I would say probably in 2018 or 2019, I started to crave being on a team that wasn’t of my own creation.

Meg:
Oh, interesting.

Matthew:

Because for me you get a lot of these franchise owners and you know, they’ve, they’ve been a corporate refugee, you know, like they lived in this corporate structure where they were, you know, they had everything kind of put on them and they were restricted in what they could do and where they could go. And I was the exact opposite. I was given all this freedom.

There were no bumpers to refine me. And I see my peers, but I also, I see them kind of in their corporate structures, but I also see them growing as professionals. And for me there was something about being in a place that, where I was being pushed and held accountable and I just, I never had that. And so being on a team for me was something that I always, I started to crave, I started to want that. And so making the shift over, having peers, having a boss, having somebody that holds me accountable, it’s challenging.

It’s something that I get a little anxiety for sometimes because am I doing the right things? Am I in the right space? Am I saying it the right way? But honestly, I’m excited for the opportunity to grow in this space. But the caveat is I’ve already built a business.

And not just so we have our business and we also have a spin off business that we started a few years ago as well. That those businesses have been built up in a way that they don’t need me anymore. And I’m able to generate income from those businesses in a very semi involved and passive way. I lead my leadership team every Monday at 8am well, we start at 7:30 these days, but we’ll have a two hour, we’ll have a two hour meeting. I lead the show.

All my leaders come in, we talk about highs and lows of the previous week, we talk about our to do’s and things that we need to knock out. I input any, any wisdom or I ask a lot of questions actually about, okay, what are we doing about X, Y and Z? What can we do better over there? What do you guys need from me moving forward? And then after that they go off and they, they do their thing.

So I’ve already built that. And so even though I’m over here and I’m focused on building my professional career now and learning in this franchising space as a developer and I get to see behind the curtain in ways that I didn’t get to see before, which is absolutely amazing. But I also have the benefit of almost 10 years of building my business to the point where it almost fell apart, but I didn’t let it. I cut off what needed to get cut off before it fell apart. And now we actually have a very strong foundation and all those lessons that we learned, we cut the fat, we cut the toxic culture at the right moment in order to continue to grow and thrive.

And so the state of our business has really never been in a healthier space. And so I get the benefit of both, which I think is a beautiful thing from my unique situation. So even though I did go and technically I’m a W2 now, I’ve got. I’ve got a consistent paycheck. I’ve never had health insurance for the last 10 years that I have that now, and that’s awesome.

But I’m really excited about the opportunity to continue to learn in a way that I didn’t have the opportunity before, because I’m surrounding myself with people that are better than me, that know more than I do. And I get to work in rooms and I get to work alongside people like you, and like I said earlier, more of the franchoise consultants and other consultants and other networks and get to hear so many people’s stories from all over the franchising space. And so my growth now is at an exponential pace compared to what it was a few years ago.

Meg:
It’s so interesting as you’re talking about this, the thoughts that are going through my head. You kind of got sick of being on your own team. It’s a lot of responsibility. You are the epitome of a free agent, which is the title of this podcast, is that you. You were a free agent for such a long time, building and building and trying to find your team to build a team. That’s what a free agent is.

You got to work harder, you’re more dedicated, you have to be more disciplined because you got to find that next team. And so look at you now. You found your next team.

Matthew:
Yeah, it’s truly a great. It’s truly a great spot. And I truly feel like I have the best of both worlds because my businesses grew to the point now I think one day I will probably step back and build something that is truly mine.

But I will do that for the right reasons. Thinking back on why we built the second franchise, wanting to do it exclusively because I wanted to do something on my own. I wanted to add another to 50 to $60,000 in income on a yearly basis. And you don’t take out a $500,000 SBA loan just because you want to do something on your own and because you want to add 50 to 60 to $70,000 of income. Those aren’t the right reasons.

I didn’t have a defined why and how I was expanding everything out. And now the business is structured in a way that I’m in the role that I need to be for the business. My dad has an opportunity to have the lifestyle business that fits for him. Our relationship is in a very healthy space because we both have a defined lane. And so again, I have my businesses on the side.

I still have got equity and everything going on over there, but my time is allocated in a way that I can grow in the way that I need to for this season.

Meg:
And in the season you’ve got three little kids. 

Matthew:

Yes. 

Meg:

And it’s what I’m thinking right now is how focused I have needed to become in my own business. So I’ve got Franchoice on the one hand and I’ve got Image Studios on the other hand. And then my husband and I have five other businesses, four other businesses besides that.

So I’ve got. I’ve got my lane is really dual. And I realized, I think like you, your wife, your life and your money, if you’re going to preserve those three things that work. And you know, my other three words are joy, fun and yes.

And I was not having joy, fun and yes. So no, something had to go. And so I got rid of probably conversation that you and your wife had. You really have to get specific and focused about what you’re going to protect. How do you huddle up, got your football team, what are you going to protect?

And then what are you going to toss away so that you can be specifically driven towards what matters the most. And that’s your wife, your life and your money. You can’t let these businesses ruin the beauty of life. So, yeah, trimming back and focusing on what time investment really is going to matter so that you can go home while you’re home right now so that you can go downstairs or whatever and go outside with your kids and be fully present. And that takes a lot of self reflection and honesty to say, this is a time suck.

It’s good for me. I like it, it feeds my ego, whatever, fill in the blank. But you really have to get healthy with yourself about what’s truly in the best interest of your family.

Matthew:
Facts. I remember it was in the summer 2024.

And my wife had set a deadline on me that if I, if I don’t have X amount of deal flow through Franchoice by a certain. It was by October if I didn’t get a certain amount of deal flow. And I remember when, I think the first time she said that to me was in May of 2020. And I was so mad when, when she said that. And I was so.

I mean, I carried that and I got resentful about it and it was like, what, do you not believe in me? And do you not. Do not you not see that all of this that I’m doing right now and the effort and you don’t see the momentum? And it got to a point where. And it was.

I was literally. My spirit had to be broken for me to actually see it. But it really got down to. Of course she doesn’t see the momentum. It’s been a year and a half and I haven’t, I haven’t done what I plan to do.

I had all these expectations and plans and I hadn’t done it. And she, she hasn’t been on these phone calls and she hasn’t engaged in the way that I have with these individuals and these people. And how is she supposed to see it? And it truly got. Once it, once we got to that point where it was halfway through September, I finally got to the space of, okay, I see it now, I see it now.

It’s time. And for me, being able to, like you said, I can go downstairs, I can engage with my kids and the stress, I’ve. I’ve had great night sleeps for the last, the last two months. And it’s been, it’s been amazing. And it really just goes to the season of life that you’re in is, is always going to be different than the last.

And there’s going to be a point where this season ends. But acknowledging the season and playing to the season and being aware of, okay, this season is going to be different than the last, so I need to act accordingly. My kids are not going to be 2, 4 and 7 forever. They’re not going to care about spending all this time with me forever. And there will be a time where I can put my head down and I can grind and I can just, I can carry all the weight on my back because I’ll have it.

And I think it was realizing that there’s financial sacrifice and financial investment, but there’s also the time sacrifice and the time investment. And what I was doing was I was putting so much of my time and energy into trying to force these businesses to work where I realized there will be a season for that. Right now, for me, I need to take a step back. I need to be with these kids because these kids need me right now. My wife needs me right now.

Even though I am present, I am physically here, mentally and spiritually. I wasn’t engaged in the way that I should have been. And so now I’m really working backwards on figuring out, okay, how can I be the dad, be the husband that I need to in this space for each individual and on my team, from my wife, my kids.

Meg:
You had asked me last week about what season am I in? And, and I’m listening to you now talk about it in a different way in with. With a sports team. Every season is different because players come, players go, they get traded, they get better, they get worse, they get injured. So it’s a. It’s a revolving thing.

My husband is. I call him a farmer. We have property up here in Wisconsin, and it truly is a farm property. It’s prairie. Every season is very predictable with a prairie because once you plant it, those. Those seeds go down 10, 15, 20ft.

So every season, every spring, every summer is always the same. Know exactly what’s going to grow where, because once the prairie is planted, that’s it. But you don’t know about Mother Nature. There are always those things that. So I listening to you talk about season, and there are different seasons for different types of professions with franchising and where you are now, it’s a big world out there, but it’s a really small one and we know who the good ones are.

I was so surprised to hear you talk about the last conference and walking into the hotel feeling that big because you smile and you light up a room and you have this energy that is really infectious. So you did a good job of masking it. But it also sounds like you were able to use that time to really connect with people who are going to help you get out of the headspace that you were in.

So I’m glad that you came and didn’t let that or become a shrinking violet in a situation where you were surrounded by people who are so giving. And we are, I think not everyone, but just about everybody in that at our conference is a give the guy a hand. Let’s. How can we help you to rise up? So I’m glad that you found your way to one of the franchises.

Matthew:
Yeah, I definitely left the conference in a different headspace. It was probably the first or second day that immediately shifted once I started engaging with people, and that conference was pivotal.

Talking to Jeff Elgin, Mike Welch, and some other folks that were in that room of, man, you got to do what you got to do today. We’re not going anywhere. Go back, fix your foundation, get in the right space, and continue to grow forward. You have everything that it takes to be successful in this space. You just got to make sure you’re walking the right path and you’re in the right lane.

And I’m glad that. I appreciate you saying that. My college football coach would always say he was a character, but he would always shout at us. Bullets to the chest. Bullets to the chest.

And it was the concept of never turning your back and running away from a fight. And if there’s a room that I need to be in, whether I feel prepared, whether I feel worthy or not, I need to go into that room and present myself in the best possible way, because you never know what’s going to happen if you do that. So I appreciate you for calling that out.

Meg:
Well, it’s. It’s so true show and, well, it’s the. Fake it till you make it, but there are times that you need to take a step back and lick your wounds. And it. 

Matthew:
Sure, 

Meg:

We’re business owners. It’s not. It isn’t ever easy.

Day after day, you’re gonna. There’s gonna be that left hook that you never saw coming. There’s always something that’s gonna pop up and surprise you.

Well, this has been such a treat for me, so thank you. Can’t wait to see you in Houston. We’ll have a great time. I’ll give you a big hug when I see it. I. By the way, you reminded me of the last conference when I brought those inspirational cards and handed them out in the breakout rooms.

Matthew:
Yes. I love those. 

Meg:
So I’ve got more of those. But it got me thinking about what could I do at the next conference that wouldn’t be exactly the same but would be a good takeaway that will. So I got something for you.

Matthew:
All right. Well, I can’t wait. I can’t wait.

Meg:
Well, thank you so much for appearing on the show today. I’ll let you know when it’s coming out. This has been. I mean, I could talk to you forever, quite frankly.

Matthew:
Well, I hope this has been an enlightening thing. I think my journey has been super crazy, full of ups and downs. But I truly think that just taking one step at a time and progress over perfection, we can all learn from other people’s Failures and shortcomings. So thank you on this.

Meg:
That is such a good one. Progress over perfection.

Matthew:
Yes, ma’am.

Meg:

Alrighty. Well, I look forward to seeing you in Houston, and happy holidays.

Matthew:
Likewise. Thank you so much.

Meg:
Thank you.

Matthew:
All right, bye.