บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ Finding Your Voice: Matt Berthot's Journey to Purpose

Kylie. And he said, no. No. What do you love about life? Like what do you love? And I I'm gonna tell I'm gonna say something I haven't said before. I actually said, I love helping people. I love seeing people happy. I remember I did say that. He goes, Well, what else do you love? I said, Well, what do you mean? He goes, Well is there something that you do that you're not doing that you you really like? And at that time I was a three sport athlete. we were in wrestling season and I played the drums. But since I was a little boy, I would always sing everywhere. I would sing in my room, I would sing mowing the lawn at the at the my first job at the greenhouse. I mowed the lawn there and I would just put my headphones on and just sing at the top of my lungs. I would sing in my truck. Big blue GMC 1967 three on the tree truck. And no one knew. Now my good my good friends knew, my best friends knew, like Brian and Clayton and Chad and Dirk, they all knew. But and I, you know, of course I would use it to my advantage and sing to girls that I thought I could sing. I was not that good at singing. And I told him that, and he goes, We're gonna enroll you in choir. And I was like, whoa, what? First semester is about to end. So that means middle of my junior year, I'm going to be enrolled in choir. Now, I have faked it really hard as a musician. I don't know how to read music. I don't know how to play piano. I just know how to drum. Like, I know how to take the sticks and beat on a drum head. That's what I know how to do. And so he called down Mr. Harmon and Mr. Harmon was like, Yeah, let him come down and he can sing for me. And so I went down and Mr. Harmon, he he listened to me. He was like, Okay, I'd love to have you in symphonic choir. And I was like, Okay. So I enrolled in choir, and Mr. Harmon put me as a baritone on the first few days of school. And Kevin by me was a tenor, and he got all the solos and all the stuff. And I I remember about Two or three weeks after, I was like, I want to be a tenor. That's I want to sing hi. this is not what I do. So yeah, that question, what do you love more than anything in the whole world that's not your family? That changed my life. that's the only reason that that moment changed the whole trajectory of my life. speaker-0: And it's so poignant because I think about all the people that could have used that question. That you had someone that took an interest in you and asked you, not who you love, what you love. What makes you come alive? And we talk about that a lot. And so that journey for you opened up this whole other life. And now you're living, breathing, doing this for a living and helping others find what they love to do. So I I I just have to ask, like, what was the journey after that? How did you get from, you know, singing choir to where you are today? speaker-1: man, that's a long journey. Yeah. well, I fell in love with singing. I fell in love with choir, harmony. I faked reading music my junior year, my senior year of high school. And then I went to Cali County Community College for one year. And I my music theory class consisted of us going to the donut shop in Ark City, Kansas, where I would get a sausage roll and a cage roll and some donut holes and we'd go to Theory and say that we did the class. I had I didn't learn anything, zero. And I barely made it through piano class. and I went one year and then I really wanted to go to Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, to learn from Dr. Reiney, Dr. Cecil J. Riney. He was the director of the Singing Quakers and the sound that this choir would make. There was a hundred, a hundred and ten in the choir. And more importantly, what I now know is the reason why I wanted to go there so bad is because the emotion that he was able to convey as a director, but also that he was able to get out of the students. I wanted to be a part of that. I felt this connection to him that was a lot like our connection and Angela and I's connection. And it's like when And that energy, I wanted to be around that. I didn't know it though. I I just knew there was something about being in the Singing Quakers with Dr. Riney. I wanted to be a part of that. And I faked reading music till probably my s middle of my sophomore year. at Friends University, which would actually be my junior year as a college student, which turned into six and a half years of college because I changed my major because I couldn't read music and I I was sucked at music theory. I failed music theory. I felt like an idiot. I felt like a dummy. I could not play piano. It w people made fun of me like all the time, these these very intelligent Kids that grew up playing an instrument that you had to really read the notes on the page. And I faked it hard. It was really hard for me to read music. And I remember that sophomore, middle of sophomore year, I got tired of my partner next to me doing this when I was flat. And just they would talk crap about me all the time. And I was an athlete. And I was like, man, I could just kick you your ass, like all of you. Like, get out of my way. And I couldn't. speaker-0: Do speaker-1: Because I'd get thrown out of school. but I remember this one moment. It was my freshman year at Friends, and we were auditioning for Symphony of Spring. It was this big, amazing musical review that Dr. Reiney and the music department put together. So it was Act One and Act Two: Lights, Mics, Dancing, Acting, Full costumes of these musicals that Dr. Reine And his daughter Michelle and a few others would go to New York every year and watch these amazing Broadway shows and then come back and we would get to do some of those songs. And I was auditioning for some of the solos. And that year we were doing Maria. And this was not my fresh this was not my freshman year. This was like my junior year, I think. And we were going up the stairs and the dorm, and a couple of these guys that made fun of me all the time because I couldn't read music.

They were like, are you gonna feel it, Bertho? Are you gonna feel it? Is that is are you gonna feel it? Is that what you're gonna do? Just making fun of me. And I'm just like, boy. So I went in there and I auditioned for Maria. And remember the guy, his name was Tom. He was a professional musician. He worked on Broadway a little bit. He was in the audience as one of the judges. He yelled out loud after I got done. He goes, That's how you do it. Because I I gave up. Everything I am. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And that's what happened. I I would get on stage and audition for these roles and I would just put all of my emotion into it, literally everything that I am, to the point I would do auditions and I would like like not remember doing it. Like I was so out of myself. and I, you know, I got a lot of leads. I got to be Archibald in Secret Garden. My my major was music ed and then I quit that 'cause it got hard and then I went to voice performance 'cause I could sing. And I quit that because of foreign language. And then I was a religion major for a year because I really liked spirit. And one of my mentors, James Bryan Smith, he wrote The Good and Beautiful God. He was one of the first people that taught me about what Jesus on the Christ Jesus on the cross actually meant. And so I was that and I was a I was a campus ministry team person for four or five years. and I got to travel with Jim quite a bit too to these different mega churches where he would speak. And then my buddy Jimmy and I, and Jimmy's now a pastor, we would sing in front of all these groups. So we went to Wheaton College and sang in front of that chapel. and we would always get this crazy applause and Jim would always be like, Man, these guys always get all the accolades and I'm the guy that's wrote writing the books. but I wanna talk a little bit about Jim. Like he is an incredible speaker, like incredible speaker. Brilliant. he actually Rich Mullins, who's one of the pioneers of Christian music, lived with Jim. Rich went to Friends University and Jim wrote his auto his his autobiography of his life, Rich's So I had all these mentors, Cecil J. Riney, James Bryan Smith, Bob Tessman. and then I went to Kansas Boys State. And so they have Boys State, American Legion Boys State, all over the country. And I was a co I was a counselor every year. I would go back. And these were the top 10% leaders in Kansas. So we're talking athletes, debate, music, et cetera. And so I got to go when I was a junior in high school, going to be a senior that summer, and I loved it. I was a senator, I ran for office, it was so much fun. And so it's a simulation government of city, county, and state. And so in each county, there were ninety gonna be seniors in high school. And that so there's six hundred kids at at Kansas State University and Goodenough and Marlot Hall. And so the last three years I got to be a county counselor. Which I was a leader in charge of five counselors and then ninety kids. And I

was like, I don't know, twenty-three, twenty-two years old. speaker-0: Wow. speaker-1: And the last year we swept. And so it was a competition too. Like we destroyed everyone. Out of the six positions for general election, I had five that won. What I would say to these kids, and what I say to my clients is there's no ceiling on your potential. You're supposed to be the best, huh? We'll prove it. But don't prove it to me, prove it to yourself. And that was the message. And so these kids just went out of control and they just destroyed everything. And so you can only be a county counselor three times. That was the rule. So my last year, I was very sad about that. But that last year also I learned a couple of valuable lessons. One, my main problem was delegation. I didn't know how to d delegate. This was what Thane Chastain, another mentor, told me. But two, I learned that I had this uncanny magical way to rip out people's potential and get them there. And I knew I have to be a teacher. Well, I burned bridges with Dr. Taylor, who was the in charge of the music ed program at Friends. And so that summer I went back and said, Hey, I'm supposed to be a teacher. And he goes, Well, Matt, you're gonna have to pass math for liberal arts with the C or better, and you're gonna have to write a letter to the department to even consider you back in the program. I was like, done. And I did everything I needed to do. I passed all my classes, past music theory, past piano proficiency. and then at baccalaureate. Jim was on stage giving the speech to all of us graduates. And he said, the best thing you can do in your life is help somebody else. Now at that time, I had three options. One, I could be sales manager at SC Telcom. Two, I could work for Bob Casper Ethanol Corporation in Wichita. He told me I have my own plant. I'll just have to work my way up. Or three, I could be. A teacher. And when he said that, I was like, those other two, I'm gonna chase money. This other one, I'm gonna chase people. I'm gonna help people. speaker-0: I have to interrupt you right there because I love what you just said. Cause I have something that hits me all the time is that I call it chasing the dollar instead of the dream. Or we all like so many of us get out of college and the first thing we think of is how am I gonna make money? So what was it inside of you that made the difference in choosing that path? speaker-1: Well, to be quite honest, real honest, I knew that the there was a part of me that was very greedy that wanted to make money and I could make money. I knew exactly how to sell. I was a top salesman at S at Comp USA within three months of working there. I was lead. I was making more money as a salesman at Comp USA than my parents did combined where they lived and worked. And that was very humbling. I came from very humble, humble background. my my mom and dad, my mom was a temp, my dad worked odd jobs. Both of them super star talented. all the talent that I have was from them and they just didn't have these mentors that I had. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And one thing that my mom would always say to me is, Matt, if you believe you can, it's gonna happen. And I was like, Yeah, it she was right. But back to your question, I knew I had to pay my dues. I speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: d I I think I didn't know like how much I had to grow as a human in my craft, as a director, as a musician, as a person working with the voice. But now that I look back, it was the best decision I've ever made. speaker-0: Yeah. Well, I think about as you were telling that story, all the the mentors. And I think that's a big reason too. I think you having the types of mentors that you had over those years, especially your the first, I think that was the whoever was the director of the music program that you were so drawn to that speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: that his ability to pull out the magic inside of people, it it it that's what you do to this day. He is speaker-1: in the choral music world he is a legend. Kevin Fenton, Florida State University, he was the chair of the Florida State University. Dr. Thomas, Dr. Andre Thomas, same thing, Florida State University. Dr. Riney had had directors all over the country that came from Friends University that are considered the best in the choral music world. Right. But the passion, the enthusiasm, the depth of what he would give us energetically, I had the same thing. speaker-0: That's what I was getting at is that and I personally believe like my stories and about the my belief in breadcrumbs, the nudges, the things. I feel like you were open to receiving those things when it counted, when you had mentors that believed in you, that when they projected onto you these gifts of this is how it's done to ignite passion in someone else, you're able to do that to this day. And I think Sh someone showing you that it was possible. speaker-1: And and I had one more too, I forgot about when you were talking. Gary Gaxstadder, he was my band teacher at Arc City High School, and he's the reason why I went to Calais County Community College. He did the same thing energetically that Dr. Reiney did in choir. So I had these two men that literally would project their energy across the room and to the point that we would feel it in the band and in the choir for Dr. Reiney. But the coolest part was no nobody's nobody talks about what I'm talking about right now. Like nobody. Yeah. But this is what I teach my students and clients because this is this is like the secret. This is the gift. but I recognized what they were doing. And when when they would feel this emotion in this music and they would transfer it to the band and to the choir, it would then transfer to the audience. And I was like I'd I'd never wanted to leave. speaker-0: Yeah. that's 100%. I love that we're talking about this because I'm getting tears in my eyes thinking about it. this is something that happens to me when I get on stage. it's

something that I feel like you're transcending your your physical form. Yeah. I had a conversation with Richard Green, who is a TEDx speaking coach. He's worked with Tony Robbins and a lot of these big people, and we met at this event that I was speaking at and that was a competition. And we talked about that transference of energy and and how there's actually if you can feel it and you can see it, you can actually when I don't sing on stage or at least not not yet. I used to, but not lately. I speaker-1: Work on speaker-0: know we're gonna work on that, but but that that when you can actually feel that energetic, I call it your higher power, the divine, coming through you and then connecting with the audience. You can almost see the energetic transference and feel it. And it is the most powerful feeling I've ever had in my life. And I can imagine that's what it was like for you learning from these these people and how they were able to energetically connect the audience to what they were feeling. speaker-1: So I w I was addicted to that. And so when I became a teacher, basically what I did was I took everything that I learned from, which I taught East High School, which is where Doug Reiney, Dr. Reiney's son taught, which I student taught at Doug Riney's school. And then I took everything I learned in the scene Quakers, and I took everything that I learned from Gary Gaxstadter and Energy and all this stuff. And I just went mashup. And Boy State. So I created this program where, you know, people would say that were close to me when these kids, and you know, probably about after the third year, it started to just become a machine, a like a monster. Like these kids were up for homecoming queen, homecoming king. They were the leaders of the school. They're the valedictorians. And I told them, this is what we're gonna do. I I literally said, this is what we're going to do. And that's what we did. And, you know, I was up for Grammy Teacher of the Year. I got to start some really cool programs, the Link crew, which is based out of California. speaker-0: Yep, I know it. speaker-1: Yeah. So I I brought that to Winfield and we implemented that. It's still there today. I got the the teachers. I recruited them to be a part of that. And then I got to go to the Ron Clark Academy in 2016 and I saw teachers being their best self. And I was like, I need to do that. And about that time, I was 250, 260. I wasn't being creative. I was I I I mastered the blueprint of success in the choral world to the point that my kids that were going to Allstate We had the most in the state of Kansas out of all the schools, Kansas City, Wichita, all of Winfield, Kansas sent the most. speaker-0: Gee. speaker-1: And I and I got bored. I was like, okay, well I mean, this is easy. So now, you know, I speaker-0: Yeah, exactly. That's what happens, you get complacent. Well speaker-1: Well it wasn't me. It wasn't like what was possible. speaker-0: was possible. Right. You weren't we weren't reaching that next pinnacle. speaker-1: Went to the Ron Clark Academy and then 2016, 2017, Brian Winnie, who is a Southwestern, he was the director there, he started talking about this voice technique called the Estel voice training and the idea that to be a vocal athlete and you make all these sounds and these and your vocal folds and blah blah blah and it's not about air. And I'm just like, what in the world is that? Like I I cause I had all the the voice pedagogy books. I felt very astute. in my training. Like my kids would go to Nats competitions, would get first place. I mean, the the kids were getting scholarships all over the country. But again, it was just like one style. It was it was classical. It was opera. That's what it was. That's it. We didn't really sing rock, pop, country, music theater. I mean we didn't we did music theater once a year called Vikings on Broadway. And that was a big deal. But I was intrigued by this Esto voice training because I'm like, well obviously you know something I don't know. And obviously it could make me better. So I better learn this. So in comes the new mentor, Kim Steinhauer, Dr. Kim Steinhauer from Pittsburgh, from the Berg. And she is about your height and she's a firecracker. Tons of energy. Like kind of the mysterious kind of energy. You're like, this girl knows what's up. There's something really special about her. And so my spring break, I signed up to do the Estel voice training workshop five days from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. And we went through level one and level two of the workshop training. And she had me running around the room saying, Take an eye, take an eye, take an eye. And I was, you know, 250 pounds and run around the room. And I was trying to sing from Le Miz the soliloquy at the very beginning. Take an eye, Marina. That whole thing. I was so embarrassed my students were there and I couldn't do it. And I was using too much air. And I hadn't, I I thought I knew how to sing. And so that Friday night, I remember I went home and I went up to my bathroom and I cried. Cause I was like, I'm gonna have to go back to my voice studio of like 30 to 40 students a week, is how many I taught, plus my teaching job. speaker-0: Wow. speaker-1: And I'm changing all my technique, all of it. I'm throwing it all out the window. We're doing this new technique. And because the idea of being a vocal athlete was awesome. But in the workshop, you're gonna be like, holy crap, Matt. This was year one of Estel voice training, 2017. In the workshop, they put to pill the pillars that Joe Estel did for the Estel voice training. Kraft, which was the voice technique. Artistry, storytelling, the implementation of the craft, and then performance magic. So each the craft was i u all of the the sounds that I've shown you. And the artistry is obviously acting, different kinds of methods of acting, different kinds of methods of storytelling. Everybody has their own way to do artistry of that, of the voice.

But there was nothing about performance magic. Zero. It just said metaphysical, spiritual energy, but there was no research, there was no documentation. And I remember, I went another I went the second year, and we implemented the whole thing, the kids loved it, audiences crying at Vikings on Broadway, and I tell Kim about it, and she's looking at me. I can see it to this day. I remember exactly where we were on a third step of the choir room, and I'm telling her this at at break. And I told her all of these things, and I said, and this energy, and people were feeling our emotions, and Kim's eyes are going getting real big, and she goes, Joe had books and books and books of metaphysical, of spirit, energy. And I was like, what? She's like, yeah. But it was the 80s, and she was a woman. No one was gonna listen to her. She had to get the research out there. Yeah. She had to get the science out there. Matt, you're the guy to lead performance magic. And I was like. What are you talking about? You're the guy in her Pittsburgh AES. Brian, Matt's gonna speak in London in August. And I looked at her, I go, What are you talking about? She goes, You're going to London. You're gonna speak on performance magic about what you did with these kids in public school. And she looked at me like a mentor that is like You're doing that. She sees you and she knows. That this part is something that's going to ignite you to the next level. That summer, well, let's go to 2019, January of 2019. We're in LA right now, in this moment with you. My chiropractor, Doug Swanson, said, Matt, you gotta listen to this guy. Cause I was a little stuck. I was like getting bored and complacent with my life. I I lost a lot of weight. I played Stacy Jackson, Rock of Ages. I got down to one fifty nine. speaker-0: It was it was That's a lot. That's a hundred almost a hundred pounds. It was wild. Wow. speaker-1: And Doug said, You gotta listen to this guy. His name's Ed Milette. He's got this show called Max Out. I think you'd really like him. You guys kind of talk the same. And I was like, Okay. So I started listening to him. The first episode that I listened to was him and Dr. Joe Despenza. And I was like, this guy's really cool talking about energy and like manifestation and meditation. I like this. And so I went back to Doug. I said, man, I love that. He goes, Well, you should listen to the MF CEO. That's Andy Frisella and Vaughn Kohler. Vaughn's like this pastor guy, and Andy's like this rough and tumble, like CEO guy. He he says some cuss words, but I think you'll like them too. So I started listening and I was man, I really like this. March 8th, 2019. Andy Frisella says on his podcast, I created this new program that none of you MFers are going to finish. It's called 75 Hard. And I heard that, I was like, okay, I'm going do this. And that's when I started reading books for the first time in my life. Actually reading books. And one of the first books I read was Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Despenza. And it just so happens that that summer, I'm going to London to talk about flow, to talk about performance magic. And in that book, it said, energy is frequency, frequency carries information. And right then I knew, okay, I know how to teach that. So I'm outside a CrossFit workout with my buddy Sean. And this is like June, July, and August, we have to go to London to teach my colleagues of the world, not the United States, the world that our voice teacher experts. About flow and performance magic and energy and spirit that's not black and white, speaker-0: Right. speaker-1: that's not e-a-oo and scopes down the throat and all that. And I'm like, God, I need steps. I need like easy steps to get people in the flow state. And all of a sudden, boop, get in a meditative state, build your energy, visualize the scene, take action. I was like, I got it. So we went to London. I took 15 of us, current students and alumni, and one parent. And we pr we were the keynote. It was my first speaking gig ever in my life at King's College in London on a Saturday night. And we did it performance-wise. We had songs with the kids sang. It was incredible. We got a stand innovation and goosebumps and people were crying, hugging me. There were some skeptics, of course, because I kind of dumbed down the Estel figures and with my the check-ins. And that was the critique a lot of the Spanish and Italians gave me. We're in the Olympus Hotel, and I'm talking to the kids, and I'm just like, you guys, that was freaking amazing. That was awesome. Look what we did. And I heard this voice in the back of my head go, You're done. And I like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not done. I'm not done with public school. So fast forward to October 2019, I was telling Amber Lee this on the way to the hotel. I joined the RT syndicate, who's coached by Ed Milette and Andy Frasella. I had no idea why I'm going to this event in October. All these entrepreneurs, these multimillionaires, and then Matt Vertho, choir teacher from Kansas. I'm making sixty thousand dollars a year. And I'm teaching voice lessons for 60 bucks an hour at that time. And I go there and I meet Nathan Mansfield and a couple other guys, Philip and Sean. I remember. And I did my intention steps before I came there to meet people, to just show up and be present. And whatever God is coming, like let it happen. speaker-0: Right. speaker-1: And so Nathan let me pal around with him and these boys. So I got my first IV at I got, I did cryotherapy for the first time. I was like, this is incredible. So the next day was the event and I already knew I was gonna love it because the doors open and they're playing Snoop and Dre. And I was like, this is amazing. So I go across, I find the aisle seat, I sit down. And we were all doing the hashtag 75 Hard at the time. And this lady comes up to me and she goes, Matt, Stephanie. I'm like, Hey Stephanie from Canada. Yeah, Stephanie Van Dam, how are you doing? She's like, I'm

great. She goes, I gotta tell you something. I was like, okay. What? She goes, hold on, I gotta I gotta go see this. I'm like, well, this lady just told me she's gonna tell me something. I wanna know. what because I've been waiting. what is this moment? And she turns around, she goes, All right, here you go. Did you know that Tony Robbins has a voice coach? And I was like, Stephanie, I know why I'm here. The next day I wrote the business plan. and voiced by Matt was created. And so speaker-0: That's how it happens. Yep. Yep. speaker-1: I I was teaching private voice lessons students and doing my choir job and I met with all these entrepreneurs on Zoom, Tony Watley and Jeff Brecken and Nathan Mansfield got on a call with me. He was CEO of Strong Physiques in San Antonio, and I'm from San Antonio, that's where I was born. And he here's my whole spiel about craft and artistry and performance magic and the intention steps, and I'm gonna teach you this. And It works. I had no proof of concept other than my students and me. That's it. I just needed one person to try. Yeah. Just one. So I get done and Nathan, he has hat on backwards. He was in his, he was in his car. He just looks at me. He goes, Holy shit. I go, what? He goes, Matt, I'm gonna be honest. I thought you were full of shit. I was just being nice with you. I'm gonna hire you. I was like, whoa, what? speaker-0: Really? speaker-1: He goes, Yeah, I'm gonna hire you for this amount of money per month and we're gonna meet one once a week. And I really want one on one time with Ed Milette and I want you to help me get that. I've never told this story to anyone. speaker-0: You hear it first, guys. Well speaker-1: Well, and when I tell you this story, Jen, you're gonna be like, holy crap, Matt. So when I started listening to Ed and Andy, I started talking to my choirs and being like, I'm gonna know them. I'm gonna work with them. I'm gonna have a private jet someday. I'm gonna do all these things. I'm gonna travel around the world and teach everybody how to find their voice. That's what I'm gonna do. I could see it. I see the red carpets. I see the stages. I see it all. And so Nathan, I taught him how to meditate. I taught him how to do the intention steps. And we would do the intention steps and visualize together with our eyes closed in meditation and I would walk him through meeting Ed Milette and how it was gonna gr roll down. And so the the original was we we we thought we were going to do it with him working out in the gym and whistler and Ed comes in and that's how they meet. So that's what we were visualizing and talking about. So it's December. It January is Whistler. Nathan goes to Whistler. We're talking on the phone. He goes to day one. No one-on-one time with Ed. Day two. It's about the event's about to be over. I was like, okay, dude, you're gonna be at the freaking door. We're gonna do this meditation one more time. We're gonna visualize the whole thing. This was like my proof of concept. If this didn't work, This would not work. speaker-0: You wouldn't have anything. You had to you were going off of this one speaker-1: I was going off of my life and what happened in my life because I had these seedy little thoughts of I'm gonna meet Hugh Jackman. And then I met Hugh Jackman in New York. I'm gonna be on the Hamilton stage. And then I was on the Hamilton stage with Lynn Manuel Randa and the whole Hamilton cast in 2016. Things like this happened to me all the time. But I didn't know. speaker-0: How to create it for someone else. Correct. Mm-hmm. speaker-1: Nathan comes, he FaceTimes me during lunch. He's like, man, it ain't working, man. I was like God, let's do it one more time. Let's go into meditation. We're gonna do this. We're gonna visualize it. And I was like, Okay. So they had a question and answer. Now it's the final session. So Ed and Andy at the front. RT syndicate is watching. And so Nathan raises his hand and he had a question about how he's supposed to split this business up with his wife because she's gonna get out of the business and and he's gonna stay in it. And Ed looked at Andy, and Andy looked at Ed. And they're like, I don't know. I don't know. Talk to us afterwards. And so you know at these events. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: What happens? It's crazy. It's chaos. And so Nathan is being polite and he's waiting to try to talk to Ed and Andy. And there's a long line of people just, talking to Ed and Andy, shaking their hands, taking pictures. And so Nathan goes over to Emily for Sella, Andy's wife, and says, Hey, I was supposed to talk with Ed and Andy about this situation with my business. I really need to answer with this. And Ed goes across who he was talking to, goes, Nathan, why don't you sit with us tonight at dinner? We're gonna work this out. You could just sit at our at the dinner table and we'll get this all figured out. And so Nathan FaceTimes me. I was in my kitchen, and that's what he told me. I was like, no, are you serious? I was like, why are we on Zoom? Why aren't we recording this moment? And after that, I knew. I knew, I was like, okay, I know how to bring the Best out of adults, too. Not just my students, not just kids. I want to say something really fun about that, by the way. So we all know what happened in 2020. Big cluster. And my dad also passed away in June of 2020. And so my life was going and my clients were going. I went to one ayahuasca event. And that was to get rid of the pain of my grandfather committing suicide and my dad passing away. And then I went to my second ayahuasca event to become the superhero version of me. And after that second one is when I made my eight session program. That's when everything started to line up. And yeah, it's that that and then God of course was like, You you need to get out of public school, you need to get out of public school. And after we came back from COVID, everybody knows if you're a teacher, if you're in public space, when we came

back from clo COVID, if you were a leader that had a high expectations for people and you were a male, you were a toxic male, you were you were a bully. I got called all those things. And eventually I got my keys taken away of May two thousand twenty three. speaker-0: And Matt, I'll just stop you there for one second because I think COVID, as awful as it was for so many of us, everyone that listens to the show knows I was in the restaurant business, what we went through. There were so many bright lights that came out of what happened in that dark time. And I think you would not be here today doing what I mean, all of the things that you've gone through, all of the breadcrumbs, all the nudges, all of the mentors, all the opportunities, would you would not be here. But It sometimes is through those most difficult moments that you're forced to look at make a decision that that changes everything. And so I wish we could just go on and on because we have we c you and I could sit here and probably talk for another hour. speaker-1: Well, I need I need to say this too though. after all that happened, I went through a divorce, I lost my job in public school. and I I I resigned, but it it wasn't the best situation. The divorce was tough and I was going through all that. I did my first public professional speaking gig while I was going through a divorce in September. And that's when I met Angela, who's my whole mate's soulmate. Yeah. And She helped me really make voice by Matt actual real business. speaker-0: I think the it's sometimes when you are the creative soul, you are the channel, you are the the source and sometimes I'm like that too. And sometimes that isn't necessarily the best model for a business. No. And and so sometimes you need that other half to come in and speaker-1: Go away. But without her, I I would not have ongoing clients like you. Yeah. I would have just had eight sessions and peace. speaker-0: Yeah. And and let me tell you, so I just have to we have to get let people know how they can get a hold of you if they want to work with you. You're not just a speaking coach. You are someone that brings and what is your saying? speaker-1: I let your soul and spirit come out and say hello. speaker-0: Yes. So it's really about showing up as your most authentic self and allowing that to be the leader of your life as opposed to all the identities and things that we've been trained. So how can people reach out to you? How can they find you if they want to work with you or just follow you? Where where's the best place? speaker-1: Well voiceby Matt dot com, voiceby Matt on Instagram, or if you know Jen, you can just text her and she'll put us in a group text together. speaker-0: Yeah, amazing. I know there's so much more that you have to share. And I I said to Angela earlier today, we're gonna get the two of you back in the studio together. That will be so much fun. It will be wild. But I you guys follow Matt. He is amazing. He's changed how I look at my career, my voice, my speaking, and just who I'm becoming every single day. So I'm so grateful for you and thank you for being here with us today and sharing your story. And let's go do our thing at drive tomorrow. speaker-1: Huge and th this girl has so much energy and it's so playful and fun. I got to watch her in Nashville tear it up on the dance floor. speaker-0: Yeah, we had a good time. And you were you had the mic for at least two songs. So that was fun to watch you do that your thing as well. So that was fun. Yeah, we're we're gonna have to post some fun stuff and share the journey. But thank you all for being here and thank you for always subscribing, downloading so you don't miss an episode. And we'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you found this episode beneficial. And if you feel compelled to do so, share it with a friend who might benefit too. And don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Reach out to me anytime on my website at jenmentasana.com.