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Welcome to the Vici Code where we unlock real stories of small business owners who've battled chaos, crushed doubt and conquered their challenges. Faith, family and finances. No fluff, just raw, honest conversations that decode the path to victory one story at a time. What is up? Thank you for joining us today as we explore our latest purpose driven journey, Reconstructing wealth, where we unpack the game of money and mission. How to shift from financial confusion to generational impact by aligning your capital with your core values and breaking the emotional chains of traditional wealth. What do you do when 99% of people tell you to be realistic? Today's guest ignored them. He made it to the pros, built a firm on credit card leverage when the experts said no and is now raising seven children. That's right, seven. While managing tens of millions of dollars. Today's Guest is a two time MLB Draft pick and Series 65 licensed advisor who founded Reconstructing Wealth. Matt Maurizio doesn't just manage money. He helps high performers change their relationship with money to fuel the life they were created to live. Matt is another one of Dan Martell's elite mastermind connections. He is a relentless architect of life and legacy. He understands that money is never just about math. It's about the mission. His story of betting on himself from leveraging credit cards to build his firm to homeschooling seven children makes him the perfect guest to discuss the intersection of risk, faith and. And financial clarity. Today we're exploring the expansion of being. We're diving into why how it's always been done. Won't work if you're. If you're chasing a life most others are not. We filter Matt's unconventional journey through the four pillars. Faith, family, fitness, and finance. Buckle up. Matt, thank you so much for joining our show. That's an intro of all intros, man. Thank you for that. I'm excited for this conversation. Let's go, man. We always like starting out with the early stage breakthroughs. You know, you talk about the unrealistic path. You were told to be realistic as a kid chasing MLB and again when you were leveraging credit cards to build your firm. What is the specific breakthrough you had about risk during those lean years, especially when you were sleeping on parents couches with a pregnant wife that the average financial textbook gets wrong? Yeah. Well, I gotta tell you, man, Shoe, there's so much I gotta, I gotta, I gotta be honest and, but I, I don't know how I want to answer. Well, here's, here's what I learned about risk. Is that. Well, you, you talked about our pillars, right? Faith, family. To me, the number one pillar is always faith. And I gotta say that if, if you are walking in where you feel like you're being called and being led, it kind of doesn't matter what the risk profile looks like or what the world says is not a smart decision or a risky decision or a decision that you probably shouldn't take or make. Excuse me, a path you shouldn't go down. Because I've learned enough times that when I feel like I'm walking this path that I feel called to walk, that I don't A, need to know how it's going to work out because I'm not in charge if I really am leaning into my faith, and B, I don't get to know the end of the story. I only get to know the next step. And if I feel like I'm taking that obedient next step, then the next one will be revealed, but only gets revealed when I take that, that primary step. And my life is a walking testimony of that. Like, there's none of what I've built and what I'm like, my body of work. If you look at, like from five or six years old, chasing the dream, trying to play professional sports to today, like, I actually have eight kids, man, as of a week ago. So not your fault for not having the eight. That's. This is off the press news. Literally, like nine days old, eight children, launching a business at 40 years old with seven kids, having been the sole provider my entire life. My oldest is only 14. You know, like, none of that is that textbook entrepreneurial journey. None of it is the textbook safe path as a kid, you know, go to college, get a job, get a house, all the things. But I felt like I've always walked in what I feel like is God's plan and therefore the risk to me. Here's what I've learned. To answer your question, a long winded way. The risk is trying to take the reins and going against where I feel like I'm supposed to go. Like, where I feel called to go, even if it's scary, which it always is. If I say no to that, then I worry about what is, like, where am I going? Because I no longer know, like, I'm not in control. Yeah. The real risk is not taking risk. Right. The real risk is not believing in something greater than yourself and chasing after it and having that regret, like later in life when you could have had a bigger impact, when you could have magnified what you've done with your life. Did you live a life of purpose? Did you live a life of why? Right, that's the risk. And I, I love the way you said that. And you know, for me, I, I can relate. A big part of my breakthrough was my faith and, and being able to really trust and believe that, you know, walking with purpose and walking with knowing that somebody else has had a plan for me. Now I, now I put it on myself that I've got to follow out that plan. I, I'm meant to do something greater than, you know, greater than myself. And, you know, a big part of what we do at Vichy is we come alongside people and we help them. You know, it, it all starts with, you know, helping, you know, helping, helping our clients achieve that success and, and, and have a higher purpose. Because if they're able to have success, then they're able to help people, they're able to employ people, they're able to, you know, provide. And that's, that's, that's this community, that's this, this circle that we're in is trying to help each other out. Absolutely. Man, I couldn't have said it better. Yeah, you gotta. At the end of the day, I've worked with enough people now that have, on paper, been plenty successful, have plenty of dollars in the bank to fund their life. They always wind up on the answer that it's not about that money. It's not about whatever the goal, achieving whatever the goal is. It always winds up being, how are you pouring into the most important relationships in your life? They always wind up there no matter what. And I mean, like myself as an athlete, my goal was to get drafted and play pro baseball. And then guess what? I did. And that was awesome for like a day. And then I was like, well, what's the next goal? And the reason it was a bit unfulfilling was because it was about me. The goal was about me. It had nothing to do with anybody else in my life. So when your purpose, when your why is a who is a better way to say it. If your why is a who, you will live a life of fulfillment. I completely agree. And tracking back to baseball, how did, how'd the discipline of professional baseball prepare you, you know, for the messy middle of entrepreneurship? It. At the time, I didn't know what I was learning, but today it was like a master class in, in life. Like, you know, like, it's a executive level degree in life in handling crap. I remember when I got out of baseball, my first job was like a sales Role in finance, sales, staffing. And this is. This is like day six on the job, probably. Like, I'm brand new. I've never. I've been out in the outfield and been, you know, picking dandelions. You know, that was my career. I had never put a suit on and gone to an office. So, like, I'm trying to figure it all out. And I remember that a teammate of mine, coworker, I guess you call him, she was called into, like, with the. Our manager and, like, had a meeting and I didn't think anything of it, but she came out, like, storming out of the meeting crying, went to, like, the lunch break room area, grabbed something and, like, stormed out. And I was like, what in the world's happening? Turned out she. She got a. I don't know, she had a come to Jesus type moment with the manager of, like, you're not hitting your numbers. You need to be able to put up. You need to be put on a plan. That kind of conversation, a tough conversation. But in sales, like, sports, numbers tell the story. And you should never be shocked if you're not doing well and somebody tells you, like, you should know that. They didn't need to tell me when I was playing ball that, hey, man, you can't hit water if you fall off a boat. Right now, like, you're not doing very well. I knew my average. I knew I was not doing well, so. So I remember witnessing that. And that was the first realization of many since that. Dang. I am well prepared and well suited to handle adversity in the, in the corporate world because I'm scratching my head wondering, like, why is she even upset? You know, she. There was no shock there. She's not surprised, shouldn't be surprised yet. She felt, like, personally offended, I guess, that she was. She was. She had a hard meeting or whatever it was. And I can. I can rattle off a million probably stories like that since. But I will tell you that, that the challenges of pro sports in the middle of nowhere, America, and failing at a game that you've always been the best at and all of the stuff that comes alongside it on and off the field, managing like, you have this melting pot of people in a clubhouse too. Some of them even speak English. You know, figuring all of that stuff out and learning to row in the same direction has really, really taught me the importance of A, teams and chemistry, B, chemistry, and C, understanding that it will be hard and not trying to avoid the hard, but learn to work through it. There's so much man I could get into. But I think that first story of my business career really highlighted, like, the difference from somebody who has gone through it and somebody who has never gone through it. I wonder if she played sports. You know, I'd be curious to know if she played sports, you know, because I'll be honest with you, I'm. I'm really passionate about you sports. I volunteer as, as often as I can. And, you know, we got baseball season right around the corner right now, so we're, we're a baseball family. We're really excited, you know, but outside of baseball season, it's wrestling, it's football, it's basketball. You know, those things not only prepare you for, you know, your career later on off the field just, it just prepares you for life. It prepares you for the disappointment. And you, you had mentioned, you know, a team. She was a team member, but maybe you would call her a co worker. I call everybody at my office team member. I don't. They're not my employees. They're my teammates. Right. Y. And at times, I'm the coach and I'm here to help you win. I'm here to show you how to win. So I definitely encourage every business owner, every leader to pick up a broom. Right. Be able to pick up a broom. You know, you're all on level playing field, and someone's got to make the executive call once in a while. But I think you'll get a lot more out of, you know, you know, treating people like you're all on the same team. Right. But, you know, sports is just incredible at teaching young kids how to deal with how to learn how to win, how to lose, how to pick each other up. There's just an endless list of, of, of benefits of being on a team and playing sports. So I'm, I can see, you know, I lived it. Right. You know, that that is a big part of what makes entrepreneurs successful, is having some of that background now. Yeah. And, you know, let me share one more, one more insight into pro sports in particular and how it prepared me for entrepreneurship is athletics. Sports, especially at a high level, teach you that 90% of what you do stinks. Like, it's just work. And then there's like 10%. That's, that's the spotlight, you know, lights are on you, games on the line, that kind of stuff. There is, among all of the dozens of big leaguers I played with, the thousands of minor leaguers I played with, there is one player that I've ever played with from college on that was head and shoulders more talented and just felt like a man among boys on the field. Which should say something because I played with guys who signed multi hundred million dollar contracts, like played still playing in the league after, you know, 15 plus years. And one guy, his Tim Lincecombe is his name. People, if they know him, his nickname, the Freak. When he was in the league, he had the most unbelievable start to his professional career, his big league career. I should say he was like a rookie of the year, two time Cy young strikeout leader, World Series mvp, all within like the first handful of years. But the point of me saying that is that the overwhelming majority of the most successful people in the world, like these are the best in the world at what they do, hands down. They were the ones that did the boring basic stuff consistently at a very high level. Like where I could execute a swing 88 times out of 100, they're executing 98. You know, five o' clock batting

practice, same swing as 7: 14:31

05. When the lights are on, the game's on. That's actually really hard to do when you're at the top of your game because the game is fast in general. Like you could apply that to life, like operating at an elite life level. Things are fast moving and fast paced. And if you can take those same theoretical, same swings at batting practice when it's grooved in there at

60 miles an hour that you do at 7: 14:54

05 when the game starts and they're throwing 97 with sync like that, those are the people who are going to make it. I've lived it, I've seen it firsthand. One guy out of, I can't tell you how many thousands, tens of thousands of innings I've played. One guy stands out as like, Dan, you're just actually more gifted than the rest of us. Everybody else did the con, did the basic stuff consistently at the highest level when no one was watching. Yeah, no one was watching. Doing the boring stuff that people don't want to do. Consistency and grit. And there's a lot of parallels there with, with doing your business right. Like I like, I love those memes that are like, they show the stands are empty. You know, this is, this is friends, family and everyone. When you're, when you're growing your business and then the stands are, are full, when you've finally made it right, you know, it, it's, it's not glamorous until it's glamorous, but by time it's actually glamorous. You're not going to even care. You're going to be like, no one knew what it was like to be there. No one knew what's there during those difficult times when we were living off of credit cards and not sure how we were going to make payroll. Um, so you know, if you're listening and you feel like you, you're not, you're not, this isn't glamorous. Stick to it, right? And if you, if you haven't gotten into it, just know that, you know, this is what it takes. There's no magic pill, there's no secret sauce, right? We all have different God given talents and we need to figure out what those are and, you know, pursue those. But there's going to be a lot of alone time doing it and consistently that no one's going to give you credit for. Uh, but it will, it will lead to success and it'll lead to a lot of failure too. But those are actually lessons that will lead to figuring it out. So you got it exactly. Right now I want to swing, swing over to the, the finance pillar. You know, reconstructing the relationship with money is really the base of this, this question. You talk about emotional chains. Why do you even high capacity families with millions in the bank still feel like they are losing the game of money? It's because money still has its grips on them. They haven't learned to really release money, like treat it with an open palm. If I can just sum it up in one sentence, that's really why they, they're losing. You know, financial freedom is often defined as having enough money in the bank to fund your life so that you don't have to work, you can choose to work. Work becomes optional. And that's a place we should all like aspire to get to, no question. But I have now have the unique vantage point and have worked with and talked to enough people who have achieved by definition, by that definition, financial freedom. Yet they worry a lot. Especially like for example, when we're having this conversation, there's a war that we started in Iran and the market's negatively impacted by that. People's accounts have been hit pretty hard. They're stressed about it. And that means that even though they have enough, they don't feel the freedom that it should be providing. So to me, to reconstruct your relationship with money is to achieve really true financial freedom, where you can learn to emotionally detach from money, meaning you no longer worry about how much is there. Instead, you see money as a tool the same way a carpenter might see a hammer. You know, you use it and you view it differently as your relationship starts to change. So to answer your question, why do high capacity families still fail or worry even if they have a bunch of money? Is because money remains in some capacity and idle in their life and something that they let control them as opposed to they control it. Got it. And you know, that's we. You've called that the emotional chain, right. What's the first link you have to break to find that real confidence? It's a good question. I think the first link actually starts with awareness. You think of aa, right? Like Alcoholics Anonymous. The first step there's is admitting that you have a problem. I think that if somebody doesn't know that they have an unhealthy relationship with money, then it's really difficult to fix anything. If you don't know something exists, it's a blind spot to you. So the first thing you need to do is to shine a light on it. And to do that, you can ask yourself some pretty easy, basic, straightforward questions like when I open my bank account or my credit card statement, how do I feel? Or when I get hit with a bill, how do I, like, what's my response when I think of wealthy people, what do I think about them? Like, what's my knee jerk reaction toward who they are or when I was. You want to go a level deeper? This is probably where it comes from, is what happened in my childhood. Can I think of a childhood story where I can say this childhood story really exemplifies how I think about money today? Because most of us inherit from our parents however they think about and they use their money. And most of the time, in my experience, it isn't something that's verbally taught to us. Instead, as a parent of now eight children, I've learned firsthand. Kids catch a lot. We can teach them a lot, but they catch a lot. So more is caught than taught, if I'm being honest. And I caught an unhealthy relationship with money from my mom. I didn't know it. I didn't know it for 30 something years because it was all I knew. And it wasn't until I joined this industry and I had the benefit of talking to a lot of people about money and learning how the game of money starts to work, that oh my gosh, there's a different way to think about this. I didn't even know that I was, I was hoarding in the way that I am hoarding. Not like I'm going to be on an HGTV show, but like I was really resistant to letting go of it. And I really want. Now I want to be. I've heard John Maxwell say this. I want to be a river with my money, not a reservoir. I was a reservoir. And today my goal is to be a river with my money. And that should be all of our goals. Amen. Yeah. So you manage. You manage tens of millions. How do you help a client shift from accumulation to generational mission? It starts. Yes. So that's a really, really foundational question. And it starts less about the money and more about, like, how do you feel uniquely called? And what is your unique mission, your unique giftedness? And what mission does God have you on this earth for? Because then when you understand that at a deep, intimate level, you start to see, hey, this is aligned with my mission. This is not aligned with my mission. And now you use your money as a fuel for that mission to fund that mission. Instead of saying, let me just get enough money in the bank and then go think about what I want to do and at least I got money to keep the lights on while I'm going doing what I want to do, you start to connect those dots and say, well, who am I? How am I created? Who am I uniquely called to serve, and how can I use that money today and in the future to fund that? And I will tell you that just that subtle switch mentally is really freeing for so many people. Like, here's an example. I have a woman, I just talked to her yesterday. She. She was really down on herself because she launched a business to years ago to help moms, mostly corporate moms, busy women, not lose themselves and lose their. Their fitness in their. In their pursuit of raising a family and building. Building a career. So a lot of corporate moms, corporate women that just felt fell off the fitness wagon. She. She's a coach, fitness coach by trade. But that. That touches so much else, just like money does. But in building her business, she's in the early years of it. We had a conversation just yesterday about, about the emotional side of needing to pull some money she had from a. From a previous exit in another business. And I said, look. And she called herself irresponsible. She's like, I feel like I'm being irresponsible with my money, but I just. The business hasn't grown enough quite yet for the things that I need to fund. And I said, irresponsibility has nothing to do with it. If you're trying to buy this supercar that you don't care about, you just want to look Good. Or you're trying to pay for this vacation that you don't need to go on, but like you feel like it's going to bring you joy and happiness. Okay, maybe that's irresponsibility because it's not lined up with who you're called to be and who you're called to serve. But this money today is quite literally needed to keep rolling in the direction you're going, which is serving these busy moms that need an outlet and need help. So like that's actually the best use of your money today. It's an investment of a different kind. It's not going to make the money necessarily, but it's an investment in your today so that you can be who you're called to be. So that's the mental alignment that's a real life example that just happened yesterday on how you start to rewire your view and your usage of money. Yeah. And I think when you're purpose driven and you have a why that's greater than yourself, there's a greater sense of fulfillment. And I think really that's where true happiness is found is are you fulfilled? Are you doing something that means more than yourself? Are you helping people? So, and I like that that's what that story led to is right. Like the vanity of material things, it's just not going to fill your tank. The same way is actually helping somebody, helping many people become better versions themselves, making them feel better about themselves. So thanks for sharing that story. I want to jump into family now. There's a lot to go over with your family because there's not just seven, there's eight and, and it's, and there's, there's homeschooling going on. So you and your wife have been married since 2010 and you homeschool seven, now eight. In the family pillar, how do you lead a household of 10 while managing high stakes financial conversations for other families? I have to lead by example, I think with other families. I think a lot of the reason people choose to work with me, I mean there's 315,000 advisors out there, plus there's AI you can do it yourself. Like there's a million different ways to manage money and there's a lot of right answers. Believe it or not, there's not like one right answer to do it. And you have to find that way and that person. But I think people see my life and they choose to work with somebody like me to help guide them on their journey. Because I'm living a lifestyle and a life that they choose, they want to live, they are living, or, you know, or one day they're going to go to try to get there. And I have to lead that by example. But that gets really difficult when you're home. Me, I'm home and I know there is so much work to be done. You know, right now I'm still early in the business. I've chosen not to hire anybody yet. I'm still working through what I think are important systems and processes to put in place to serve clients at the highest level. And before I ever bring somebody on board, I want to have those in place for somebody. But my point of saying that is the buck stops here. Like, we just had our child nine days ago. I didn't have an employee to be like, hey, pick me up while I'm on paternity leave. Like, I needed to be able to be there in case I needed to be there. And when I'm home with 10 people in my house, myself included, there is never a shortage of help to provide. Work to be done, food to cook, dishes to do. Like, there's always something that needs to be done there. And I have to constantly remind myself of the importance of those pillars, the prioritization of those pillars where it's faith first, then family, then fitness and then finance. And it's so easy to want to flip that finance one up there above family say like, hey, honey, I, I know you need to do all this work in the house, I get it, but like, I gotta keep the lights on, so I gotta go. You know, sometimes there's truth in that. But it's very, very difficult to sit in the chaos of a big giant young family knowing there's a ton of work to do, but also saying that work will be there as long as it's not a time sensitive thing where it needs to get done. Because then my wife understands we got to do that. I've made a commitment to her and to my family to say like, I'm not building this business to lose the relationships that matter most to me in the wake of this pursuit of building something special. Another way to say it is I don't want to sacrifice my family on that altar of ambition, right? So I have to constantly remind myself to answer, question those priorities of faith, then family, then fitness, then finance. And I have to model that and live that, that because other clients, they see me and they call and if I don't answer, I will tell them, hey, look, I'm sorry, I was in the middle of bath time. It's 8 o'. Clock. Like, you know, I had to text you late. And they actually have told me multiple times. They've. I've had clients say to me, hey, I appreciate the way you don't answer my call during dinner. You know, it's super easy to be like, I'm that guy that's always there for you. You call me, I'm answering, I'm responding. I'm serving you, I'm helping you. You know, you can count on me. But really, people want to see somebody modeling a life of priority. It almost gives them permission and freedom to go and do the same in their life. Exactly. Because they're witnessing it firsthand. They're the recipient of somebody prioritizing their family over them as a client, and they appreciate it. Yeah. By leading, by example, right? Yeah. But it's so difficult as an entrepreneur and, like, wired in such a way that's like, I want to build and I want to grow. That's. That's my default mechanism is just hustle and grow. And that. That's what got me to play in the big leagues. Just, I mean, not the big leagues. In the minor leagues, chasing that dream. And with this relentless passion, an entrepreneur shares that passion. And it's so difficult to say passion, like, stay in the. Wait in the wings for now, because there's something more important here than chasing that dream. Yeah. And we. I At Vici, we. I talk about faith when I can, because I don't mind other people talking about their faith. And I think it's something that. It's been taboo over many years, and I just bring it up. I don't push it anything. But I am very vocal about families, though. Like, when I'm having conversations, exit conversations about someone's tax return or advice on business, you know, I'm always asking, you know, how's the family? Like, how are you guys doing? Right. Because that's gotta come first. And I make it. I make it. No, no secret that, like, I put my family before I put my business. And I think sometimes, you know, you can. You may feel a little like, oh, you know, am I losing their trust by doing that? I don't think so. I think you're. I think you're building more trust that, hey, this guy. This guy's doing it right. You know, I want to. I want to lead more like that. I want to be more like that. So I think, you know, prioritizing those things, it doesn't have to be in people's faces, but I don't think you have to hide from it either. I think you can be very, you know, candid about, hey, listen, you know, things got things going on with the family, you know, that's got to come first and, you know, I'll get to it. So I think that you'll. You'll build the right book of clients that, that you'll enjoy working with and that you can have the most impact with if you lead by example, lead out front. Yeah. I wanted to ask you, Matt, what does your family mission statement look like in practice? That's so funny you say that. I was just talking to my wife the other day about. About our mission statement. And what are we on this earth for? I think right now we feel called to be a light on a hill, to. To be an example of what's possible in a family. We have a lot of people that will come up to us and as you could imagine, ask, how in the heck do you do this? You know, there are so many people that volunteer their opinions at the grocery store or any public setting. It's incredible, actually, where how many people feel like they need to remind me how much college costs or if I know how children are made, you know, like, they make these passing comments of like, all those kids are yours. Like, yeah. Do you know? I mean, you know how it's made, right? Like, yeah. You know how much college costs, right? Geez. And I'm like, these are strangers, by the way. I know, it's incredible. Like, side note, I really want to say I would never do it because I just. There's. I don't want to disrespect them, and it's also not worth the time. But it's. It's akin, right? It's equivalent to me calling somebody out and being like, if they're overweight, saying like, hey, you, you know, you shouldn't overeat. Right? Like, that is a ridiculous thing to say. It's not my business, right? Of somehow with a family, people feel like they can just dive right into that personal level. But to be that light on the hill and to be that. To that example of what's possible. How does it look in practice? We are constantly praying for guidance on, like, where are we supposed to go? Like, what is our next step? What do we feel called to do right now? It feels like we are called to build this business, homeschool the family. Like a lot of against the grain stuff where I don't know if it gives people permission or gives them encouragement to know that they don't have to send their kid to elementary school and then send them to college and then get a good job. I don't know if that's. If the model of our life and our family unit is helping people there, but we do feel like that's part of our calling for whatever reason. And we also feel called at one point and it's not today, but we do feel like we both have a gift of hospitality in our lives and our children sort of are picking up on that. They do a good job of making conversation. I think part of it is homeschooling and having to talk to different age groups all day, every day. I think that just helps them carry conversation with a lot of people. Definitely. But. But we do feel like there's a gift of hospitality in our future, meaning we feel like there's possibly a. And I don't have a clear picture on it yet exactly, but some type of retreat destination. Maybe it's a office that has a. A retreat element to it one day for reconstructing wealth, but a place for people to. To come to and to reset and recharge and. And I think become inspired and leave feeling like they are well prepared and well directed on where they're trying to go. So I don't have a lot of clarity on that second part, but I do feel like the first part to be a light on a hill and an example of what's possible. I feel like we're just living that out by taking it every day, you know, step by step. That's really the hardest. I mean, the best way I can describe what it looks like in practice is like living it and going through the tough all the time, but coming out with an optimistic and a joyful spirit. Because that has a lot of people ask me, like, how do you do it? You look well rested. You look like you enjoy this. You look like, you know. And I think. I think that's the conversation starter, the opener that I think our family mission statement is for now, you can tell man your heart is full. And I. And I think our last guest would appreciate this. Kavita Ajwani came on last week and her airs sometime in May. But you got married after only 10 months of knowing each other. Right. That's commitment. How does that all in conviction show up in how you coach your clients to take action? Wow. Cool connection, that. Real quick story on that. Ten months too. I was living in Newport Beach, California. I'm from the Boston area originally, but winter in Newport beach is a whole lot better for baseball than winter in Massachusetts. So it was the off season, I was flying home for Christmas and I had. I met my wife. We were kind of like sort of set up by our parents. Anyway, we'll get into that, but didn't know it. We're totally unbeknownst to us. But I met her the day after Christmas in 2009, flew back to Newport Beach. From Newport Beach, I went to Arizona for spring training. From Arizona, I think I went to Iowa maybe. But while in Arizona, five months later, got engaged. Five months after that, we got married. But the season ends, so I'm not home yet. The season ends and she's in Massachusetts. September, October, we're getting married. So the longest time we've ever been in the same place was like the few weeks prior to our wedding. How crazy is that? That's. But anyway, I think that's a good example and segue into the all in commitment with clients. We were all in because we were, like I said back to the beginning, that like the step after awareness to me, in terms of becoming, reconstructing a relationship with money or really any kind of heavy decision I need to make, after awareness, it becomes this moment of quiet time. I think that's like the next step. And we were very purposeful in our meditation or prayer time for us, you know, call it whatever you want to call it. In those moments where we're sitting, praying, trying to figure out is this, is this right? We weren't having to figure it out. Instead we were trying to really like, download from God what, you know, is this for us? And we knew in our hearts, even though we didn't, we actually both prayed that it wouldn't work from other ends of the country. She's in Massachusetts, down in Southern California, literally, other ends of the country. We're both praying like, please God, don't let this work. Which is kind of funny because it for sure is working. But we were very well committed because we were led. Like, we didn't feel like we were leading, we feel led. And like, that is the commitment level we take. So anytime I give advice to clients that, that share my faith and are willing to listen, like, I don't push it on people like you, but they know where I stand. I always say, even if it's. Even if you're not a Christian, anybody that I've ever met that is successful in life in all areas understands some level of, like, there's more to it than just me, right? So even if it's. If it. You call it whatever you want to call it, if it's Not Jesus. If it's not God, it's. It's just the universe or something. There's an understanding of, like, a higher purpose. Okay? If you're having time connecting there, feeling like you're led there, like, we were praying and we feel led. I share that with clients. I'm like, look, I'm going to give you advice right now. This was the best advice I ever was ever given. Advice 1A is, if you're praying about it and you feel like you have a clear direction, that's the step you need to take. We don't have to Talk anymore. Advice 1B is, let's look at all the numbers. Let's look at all the rationales, let's do the planning. Let's figure out the scenarios. You know, however you want to make a decision on the decision you're making, you have to first sit in quiet time and see if you're called in any direction. Because if you are, 1b kind of doesn't matter, because 1a is the step you're supposed to take. And that's how I share with clients. And it can be giant decisions. Should I buy this practice? Should I sell this? Like, I don't know. What are you hearing in your quiet time? Right? And if you're not hearing a quiet time, you got to try that first. And if you've tried that and it's still not clear, well, let's look at the numbers, and then let's. And then let's take those numbers back to your quiet time to see if there's anything that bubbles up. And I think this is a good. This is a good moment for this question. You believe God has big plans for us, but that those plans rarely go as expected. In terms of faith, how do you stay grounded when the game changes on you? If you are living a life where you feel like you're firmly in the passenger seat of life, Right? Like, if you don't feel like you're driving the bus, then you have this, well, the scripture says peace that surpasses all understanding. You have this peace about you and this awareness about you that, like, you have the creator of all things, you have the best business partner, you have the best bus driver that's driving. So you actually don't. Me, personally, I'll speak for myself. My own truth is when the game changes, and I thought I saw where we were going, and we don't go that way anymore, like, this is not how I saw this working out. I take it in stride because I'm like, well, I'm passenger princess of my life. Anyway, so how are we going to make this one work? God, you know, like, that's quite literally the attitude I take. Like, rewind back to that story you were telling me about or you opened up with in the beginning about leveraging on credit cards and starting this business. The only reason I went to those extremes, like, I got to a place when I launched, when I started my practice. I was working for another firm at the time, but it was kind of like build your own practice sort of thing. I got so maxed out on credit cards, depleted on savings. I was refinancing a home, and that refinance just hadn't closed yet. I had no access to capital anywhere and I needed to borrow. So not only was I fully tapped myself, I actually needed to borrow my mother's credit card just to feed my five kids at the time, and my wife. I wasn't living extravagantly. I literally was just buying groceries. The only reason I had the staying power and I continued to pursue this path of building this wealth management business and career is because back in my awareness time, like, I was aware, like, I needed to get on a different bus and previous job. I wasn't seeing my kids then. I sat in quiet time, and I was very prayerful about the decision. I knew I was supposed to take this job. I didn't know why, because it wasn't the industry I thought I was supposed to be in, but I knew I was supposed to. And there was no inkling, no indication in any of my quiet times since, that I'm supposed to get off this bus. Like, we're not supposed to go in a different direction. So I knew, like, like Babe Ruth said, it's really hard to beat the person who won't quit. Like, I knew that I'm not supposed to quit this yet. That's the only reason. So when the game changes, if you know you're already on the right path, you just keep working the path, right? I don't know how else to say it. Even if. Even if the direction changes, you're like, well, that's the direction we're supposed to be on. Until you feel like there's an off ramp and you're supposed to go somewhere else. And at that point, you've got to live with open palms, live in a posture of surrender to say, like, okay, I really thought that was my career, but apparently not. Let's go in a new direction, I guess. But again, it only. The confidence only comes from quiet time, from an awareness and Some quiet time knowing this is my calling, this is my path for now. And if you're not hearing it, you probably need to just spend some more time in quiet. And I always believe that when life takes you in different directions, yeah, it can be sometimes shocking, but life, life took you in that one direction so that you can be better in the next direction. Right? Like whether it's challenges or good times or bad times, like, you know, we're on this journey, right, and we were supposed to learn something here and you may not know it until you get here and you're like, oh, got it. That's. I've made the connection now. I can do this now because I went through this and I didn't know it at the time. And that, you know, the story of Joseph's comes to mind with the things that I've been through. And, you know, I now look at my past where I, where I. Where before, I may have looked at it as like, oh no, woe is me blaming other people for my issues. Now I see it as I was supposed to go through that so that I can help out people here, so I can support my family here and, and magnify what I can do based on what I've learned from those, those difficult times. So, you know, I, I like that, that, that you, you know, you're, you're on the journey supposed to the games change. Cause it was supposed to change and you're supposed to be going in that direction. Uh, Matt, that's, that's great advice. Now let's talk about how you stay sharp with, you know, your background as a, as a professional athlete. Athlete required you to maintain a certain level of fitness in order to be competitive. You know, how do for the expansion of being you Talk about on LinkedIn, it has to be a priority. Like if I'm going to say my, my priorities are faith, family, fitness, finance, like, I should commit the first hours of the day really in that order. And that's what I do. Like, I, I'll wake up and it's coffee in my quiet time, like, that's my faith time. And then it's my family. They will wake up and I'll make them have breakfast or whatever, or sometimes they're not awake yet. In the fitness, I squeak that in first. But if I don't get it, if they're awake and they need me first, then it's like that will come after. If I don't prioritize it, it won't happen. Like I, everybody that I've ever Met the busiest people in the world. They all have time for the things that matter because they make the time. And nobody has time for stuff that doesn't matter. Like, that's the reality of it. Busyness is really not an attractive trait. It's not an attractive quality. And the ones, the people I admire the most, that are most successful in my worlds, they don't possess the quality of busyness. They just prioritize what matters. And that's how I do it. So I find ways to make myself more effective with it. Like, for example, podcasts, audiobooks. Those have been really helpful for me to digest information as opposed to sitting and reading like I used to do. Because if I sit and read in my life, I become a human jungle gym. Like, if I'm sitting, kids are climbing on me and I have no time, there's no chance I could sit and read. But if I am, let's say I'm emptying the dishwasher and I have my. And. And I have a rule like if, if kids are around, A, I don't have my AirPods in because that tells if I have them in. It tells whatever I'm listening to is more important than you, even though you're present in my house, in my room. And B, if I'm on my phone with the kids, I have to tell them what I'm doing. I implemented that rule years ago in my life and it's worked so well because sometimes, like work, like, I have to respond. I'm in the middle of responding to an email and they walk in the room and they start just immediately talking, right? And I'm like, hang on one second, I'm sending this email back and then I'm all yours, you know, Or I'm convicted if I'm like, hey, sorry, I was just doom scrolling Instagram. Like, my bad, I should not have done that in front of you. And actually that's really humbling. And they appreciate that because I never want them to think that the phone, the audio is more of a priority to me. But to stay mentally sharp, like I need to consume information. I think leaders are learners and I will never stop learning till the day I die. I just have figured out ways to do it differently. So my fitness is much more compressed. Like my Audiobooks are on 11 and a half 2x speeds. I bulk the things that I need to learn. You know, this is something that my, my mentor, good friend, amazing guy, his name is Mack Lake. He taught me this. Distracted focus yields distracted results. And we are all high performer all the high performers I've ever met, they almost all learn with a distracted focus. Meaning we consume so many good things, but they are disconnected. Like, I might get something from Martel, I'm buying back time and then some type of ad planning or marketing stuff with Hormozi, and then I got some life stuff from Tony Robbins and in my lead and I'm like consuming all this good stuff and it's in there and it's like helpful for sure, but it's not making me better in any one area that I need to focus on. Whereas he taught me at the beginning of the month, find for the first few days of the week of that first month of that month. First few days of the week or the month, you find all of the stuff you're going to learn about a specific topic for that month, find your podcasts, your YouTubes, the books you're going to listen to or read. Get all that information in one place and then for the entire month just lean into that folder and become an expert on that thing. And man, that's been really cool to do that. So if anybody. Yeah, I think that's probably the best answer. And the other, the fitness side. My workouts look differently. They are probably a little shorter, higher volume, higher, like VO2 work. Because as an athlete, as a baseball player, I just tried to throw hard and hit far. But now I realize, like longevity of health, that VO2 max matters. But I don't, I don't try to lift. I, I still want to lift heavy. But my goal then was to try to set PRs in my deadlift and my like, because I knew it translated to on field performance to a degree. Today it's like I need to challenge myself so that I am mobile and living. I wanted that again. Mac Lake, I'm steal another one of his lines. He and his wife Cindy say, I want to die young at an old age. And that's how I train today. I train so that I can die young at an old age. Oh, it's great advice. I have to look up Matt. Matt Lake. You said Mac M A C. Yeah, Mac Lake, yeah, that's a good, phenomenal leader. He is the most overdeveloped and underexposed leader I've ever met. Like, yeah, I'll put him up against any leadership topic or person. That's great. I'm a look him up. So we're getting towards the end here, Matt. I just want to go over some key takeaways for our audience. So, you know, there, there is a Realistic trap. Right. What's real for me may not be real for Matt, which may not be real for you. If you want to be extraordinary, you got to do things that other people aren't doing. Right? So if someone tells you to be realistic, sometimes the right thing to do is be unrealistic and, and pursue that. But, you know, base it on, you know, data, base it on, you know, you know, a higher purpose. Right. If it feels right, it probably is. Right. And then, you know, the power of aligning wealth with family values is so important. Right. You know, your value should really help, you know, you know, help drive your, your wealth decision making. And quite honestly, you know, family really is wealth to me. Right. And, and so no one on their deathbed ever felt like they wanted more money. They wanted more times with the people that meant something to you, you know, and like Matt said, you know, money should be a tool in your tool belt, like a hammer to a carpenter. Right. Wealth is great so that you can, you know, magnify your impact and helping people and having a strong set of family values will help you make those decisions. And then there's grit required to build a legacy from the couch to the firm. Right. It's, it's not going to be easy and, and no one's going to be really cheering you on. You, you may have your wife and your kids, but that's, that's it. But you'll always have the man upstairs who's walking alongside you, you know, that whole time. So Matt, thank you so much for your radical transparency and for teaching us the game of money. Those at home. If you're ready to stop playing the textbook rules and start building a life of purpose, please visit reconstructing wealth.com or follow Matt on LinkedIn and Instagram to see what, what real wealth looks like. You can see his Instagram handles in the show notes, his LinkedIn, his, his website's in the show notes. Matt, anything you want to send off our, our audience with today? Yeah. First off, Joe, man, I appreciate you having me on such a fun conversation. It's so evident that you're doing the right things for the right reasons and we are very like minded in so many areas. If anybody heard this and, and heard about the quiet time and the awareness and then quiet time. To me, the next step of my, my money relationship journey started with education and then really learning to give as a discipline. But I created a course, it's free. I'm in the process of transferring it from one host site to another so it's not live back. It's not up again yet. I gotta figure that part out. But if anybody wants it, you follow me on Instagram and just DM me that you heard this conversation. I'll send it to you. It's free. And it. Excuse me, it dives into some of that important, like mindset stuff and actual blocking and tackling of personal finance education stuff that we didn't really address today. But it really doesn't matter until you get you're aware that you have an unhealthy relationship with money, and then you sit in some quiet time to figure who you are, who you're made to be and what direction you're supposed to go. Because only then does it matter that you know how to use your money to. To fuel your purpose. But if you want to watch that course, if you're feeling it, you get there, send me a DM and I'll share that with you. Matt, how about we shoot them the word vici? Send you the word vici and they'll know the course that you're talking about. How about that? Yeah, I love it. Do that. Perfect. Awesome. Well, for now, Matt, thank you so much for coming on. Everyone else, stay relentless, stay grounded, and keep building. We'll see you all on the next episode of the Vici Code. Thanks for tuning in to the Vici Code, where the underdogs rise and the numbers finally make sense. If today's story hit home, share it. And remember, faith fuels a fight, and your comeback is already in progress. Sam.