How We Moved to Florida-The Dream, The Challenges, and the Win

How I Built My Dream Life—And How You Can Too 🏖️✨ 

Have you ever asked yourself, If I could have life exactly the way I wanted, what would it look like? No limits, no restrictions—just pure possibility. That’s the question I asked myself four years ago, and today, I’m living the answer.

I went from running a gym in New Orleans to building a virtual fitness business that allows me to live by the beach, work on my own terms, and spend more time with my family. But let me be clear: it didn’t happen overnight. It started as a vision that felt impossible. Through trial, error, persistence, and a whole lot of belief, I made it happen. And so can you.

Here’s How I Did It: 🚀 

👉 I Created a Clear Vision 

My wife and I sat down and asked, Where do we want to live? What do we want our daily life to look like? I’ve always been drawn to the beach—I had pictures of it everywhere, not as motivation, but because I just loved the idea of it. So, we explored different locations, finally landing on a hidden gem in Florida. 🌴

👉 I Reverse-Engineered My Dream 

To make the move, I needed financial stability. I estimated I’d need about $10K per month to live comfortably while working on my own terms. Instead of thinking I can’t afford this, I asked, How can I afford this? That question changed everything.

👉 I Built a Business That Fit My Life 

I realized I didn’t need to be in a gym physically training people. I could train them virtually. That led me to create The War on Dad Bods, a remote fitness coaching program that helps busy dads stay in shape from anywhere. Not only did it give me the flexibility I needed, but it also allowed me to work with clients I genuinely enjoy. 🏋️‍♂️

👉 I Took Small Steps and Adjusted Along the Way 

At first, my virtual training setup wasn’t perfect. Clients had to wear headphones, enter codes—it was clunky. But instead of quitting, I refined the process, tested different systems, and used AI to help me optimize everything. Today, it runs seamlessly, giving my clients a great experience and giving me freedom.

👉 I Surrounded Myself with the Right People 

I had a coach, Marcus, who believed in my vision even when I doubted it. My wife was all-in. My clients supported the transition. If you want to make a big life change, you need people around you who reinforce your belief, not those who plant seeds of doubt. 💡

👉 I Tasted the Dream Before Committing 

Before fully moving, we spent a month living in our new home to see if it really felt right. That experience confirmed that we were making the right decision. Sometimes, you need to step into your future life—even temporarily—to know it’s what you truly want.

What’s Next? The Dream Evolves. 

Now that I’m here, I’m not rushing into the next big thing. Instead, I’m creating space—space to enjoy time with my son, go on beach walks, meditate, and live in alignment with my values. And I know that when the next opportunity comes, it’ll be the right one because I’ve designed my life to allow for it.

Now, It’s Your Turn. 

If you could wave a magic wand and create your dream life, what would it look like? No rules, no limitations—just pure possibility.

And then, the real question: What’s one step you can take today to start making it happen? 

Drop your dream in the comments. Let’s make it real. 🚀🔥

00:01
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the War on Dads podcast where people get stronger, lives get longer, and dreams come true. And today we're talking about a dream that has come true. Today's big question is if you could wave a magic wand, if you could have it all your way in the next one year, three years, 10 years, magic wand, think crazy, there's no rules.

00:27
What would you do? What kind of life would you live? What would your day-to-day life be like? What would the big picture be like? Dream it up first, have a vision, and then do it. Today I am joined by one of my favorite people on earth, Shablamandia himself, Mr.

00:42
Andres Andy Shablamand. Andy's here because I really appreciate the outcomes he's had in his life. It's a beautiful experience to observe and hear about. And me and Andy have distinctly different approaches as to how we get stuff done and optimized for whatever.

01:06
And Andy, we'll tell you all about that. Andy, what do you think, man? What's up? We're going to just kind of outline my last four years and how I sort of captured a dream here. Yeah. Well, thanks for having me be a guest who interviews you.

01:22
It's an honor. And I think it makes sense for you to set the stage for what you've accomplished, and then we'll go and back in to how you did it. How does that sound? It looks good. So where are you or where are you in your life right now?

01:42
And what did you set out to accomplish or what have you accomplished that you're so proud of? Yeah. So I'm still in New Orleans at the moment at my gym. I come back in town three, four days a month now.

02:00
wife have accomplished is, you know, we became a coach four years ago, and we sat down and we had this vision about if we could live anywhere, where would it be? And we drove out and we found the nicest beach we could find, we found the nicest neighborhood, we'll get into those details later.

02:17
And I was able to move my business, move my life to a much better location, a much more dreamy location. And it took a lot to get there. And we finally did it. Right. Yeah, I think it's incredible to think about how someone like you can have such a vision four years ago, and then, you know, stand here or sit here today, having checked off all the boxes, and made it happen.

02:48
But I can imagine that there were moments where it seemed like a far off dream. So I guess it's like, how did you come up with the vision in the first place? Where were you? What was your life like in that moment?

03:13
Having the vision in the first place was, Jerick Robbins Performance Coach University, where we're going through these questions that I asked that I asked at the very beginning. And it was like, you know, you really got to at first, it feels unreal, it feels impossible is the word I would use.

03:33
But I let my brain go there. And then I had some conversations with my wife, and she was, she went along with it very well. Unfortunately, we have a lot of the same dreams and things that we want. So we sat down and we were like, all right, where would we live?

03:52
And I've always had pictures of the beach on my phone's background on this wall back here on this wall, on this my house, I have posters of the beach. This is not something I did to motivate myself. This is just something I did because I wanted to have it there.

04:10
So I'm like, man, we should probably live by the beach. And then once we did that, we were like, which beach in Pensacola has like the nicest water and there's a city and there's resources. So we went out and we drove around Pensacola several weekends walked around different neighborhoods, we weren't really feeling any one.

04:30
And then we came across this one neighborhood golf breeze proper. And the locals there will tell you like not to tell too many people because it's kind of a secret. But it's like, I mean, it's a dream.

04:42
It's got the most it's like more parks than homes. You can walk to the calm Bay Beach and it's close to the big beach. It's close to the city. It's I had a water at a plumbing problem last week at the house in Florida and the the city was out in 10 minutes and he fixed the problem in 30 minutes completely different than what happens in New Orleans.

05:04
Yeah, it being in New Orleans, you know, being the healthy guy that most people know me as it was like this is not a healthy place like the foods not healthy. The drinking culture is not healthy. I'm not mister go to a concert.

05:20
I don't like brass music. I don't I'm not a big fan of Cajun food or Mardi Gras or any of these things. Now I get why some people like the tradition of New Orleans, but I like a more progressive situation that's healthier and I like to be around people that are healthier and that was kind of a big driving force.

05:42
So you mentioned that early on the dream felt impossible. What kind of things kept coming up in your mind that you know, felt like resistance or felt like it made it impossible or a dream that felt so far away.

06:01
It was all of the logistics. So like, how am I going to afford this? And I had an idea I was like, well, I'll become a great coach, and then I'll have coaching clients. And if I can get 10 to 15 coaching clients, then that'll get me there.

06:18
And that was simple enough. But that's not how it went down. It was more like, like, I think you really start off with like, what do I need? And what I really need is, well, for starters to work for myself, that's always been big for me.

06:34
So I've always had that, but I've always needed that. But then we needed to get together, you know, X amount of money, let's call it about 10 grand a month. So I just needed to get that one way or another in a way that satisfied me and fulfilled me and wasn't draining or soul sucking.

06:52
I wasn't going to do anything that I didn't want to do. And so I generally had to do it through health coaching people one way or another. That's, that's my main skill set. That's what I get fired up and excited to do.

07:04
So I ended up kind of chopping it into three different groups and solving that problem in three different ways. You want me to walk through each way? Yeah, sure. So it's like, all right. So the first thing I did was I we need, you know, it's a little bit more, but let's say $10,000 a month.

07:24
All right. Now, where am I going to get this from? I sat down one day and looked at a whiteboard. And I was talking with who was my dream clientele? Who do I really want to work with? If I could work with anybody, who would it be?

07:37
Well, it's like, it's guys my age that I can relate to and get along with and have fun hanging out with. And then it's older guys who I can learn from and maybe younger guys that I can coach up. So I was looking at this whiteboard of just the guys my age.

07:54
dads with kids that don't have time to work out that need accountability that don't have equipment that don't know what to do They have they have all these needs. I was like wow What if you know, what really fits here is if I started a virtual class, you know on my end I can do that from anywhere anytime but on their end they don't have to drive to the gym and drive back from the gym and Most people if you're going to drive to the gym,

08:21
you're not just gonna stay there for half an hour You know because you drove all the way there. I drive all the way back But a virtual workout class where you could just push go on your computer screen and watch a recording or watch a live class You can do a shorter 30-minute class and we can do that five days a week from 6 a.m.

08:40
To 6 30 and I Troubleshot that I got some guys together. We did a pilot then we started the program the war on dad bods and That's been the most fun, rewarding thing I've ever done. It's the most bang for your buck, valuable, cost-effective thing I've ever done.

09:01
And I started to mix that in with the coaching and then just the whole system of that, the way we track metrics and attendance and being as done for you possible as fitness. So I had one bucket of income came from that group of guys and that program that I just created from scratch.

09:22
So what happened was like there's, I need 10 grand, but so I'm just looking at what does the situation need? So when you say the situation, so you've got obviously this practical need of the 10,000 a month, but you simultaneously need the flexibility to allow you to be in a different location for your dream to come true.

09:44
And you're aware of that in the moment, like you're holding the dream in your mind while you craft what you're going to kind of make those $10,000 with. Is that like part of the decision to do this in that virtual capacity?

10:05
Yeah, it's definitely because you can create a local retail business or you can create a virtual business. And to me, the virtual business, there's no overhead and there's a lot less risk. And it's equally as hard as creating a retail business in my opinion, except now I can travel to my friend's house in Mexico and stay there for a week and work virtually.

10:30
So I can be anywhere working virtually. So things really have opened up. So knowing that I had to go virtual, I mean, that was just a matter of like, I didn't have any technical skills as far as like, I didn't know that on Zoom, I could put in headphones and walk across the room and it works as a microphone.

10:48
I didn't know how to play Spotify through the computer screen or edit a website or process payments and upload videos and create this whole online virtual gym. Yeah. There's one skill set that grew in the last four years.

11:05
It was my ability to do things technically. Well, what I'm also hearing is like, you know, it reminds me of my time in tech was this idea of launching and iterating. So you were, you launched, you did it in a way that maybe was imperfect at first, which you had to be okay with and knowing, you know, that you're a bit of a perfectionist.

11:26
That could be difficult, but you knew that it was in service to probably something greater that you were working towards. Yeah. I think a lot of people get stuck with, they're afraid to fail. And you inevitably have to fail over and over and over again, 10 times more than you succeed, I think.

11:52
So moving forward with that. And, you know, I went into it with a lot of training experience. And then we just kind of touched it up. And actually, I wrote 75 workouts, and I just cycle the same 75 different routines, and I just tweak them and make them more smoother.

12:08
And I'm adding different jokes and different coaching tips every time to get these guys thinking and asking them questions every morning. I wonder if it's worth it, you know, because I'd like to think that this story of yours is really valuable to people who are wanting to, you know, go after their dreams.

12:27
But sometimes dreams can really be overwhelming to people. And one of those things is specifically the sort of high probability that you might fail. So I'm curious if there were moments where you had to talk to yourself a certain way, or that you leaned on some sort of lessons that you had already learned or something that allowed you to push through that resistance.

12:53
You know, I think what one belief that I have is, is that belief matters. So, you know, am I just telling myself some crazy story, like I'm really going to go and move my whole family my whole life to the beach when I've got a perfectly good business here, that's really good.

13:12
I live a few blocks from the gym. And it's, you know, it's awesome. Like I'm really going to leave this gym that I love that I've been here for a decade. And, and at the end of the day, it comes down to like, do you believe that you can do it?

13:26
Yes or no. And if you're going to decide in your own mind that this is impossible, it's going to be impossible. If you decide in your own mind, I'm doing this, this is what's happening, this is possible.

13:38
And you really, really mean it. I mean, it really is just a matter of time until you figure it out. And look, I wanted to do it in one year. I'm three years late. I wanted to have our child over there.

13:50
And Jack just had a second birthday. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. There's, there was a concept in tech I remember called the trough of sorrows. And it's this place where people inevitably get to where it seems like the cards are stacked against them.

14:10
They're in the muck. And there's a choice to be made. And oftentimes, maybe I don't know if it's your power of visualization, if you kept coming back to the idea of the beach to bring you through it.

14:24
But I think there's something to be a man is made in those in the in that trough of sorrow, because you almost have to somehow push through that overwhelming sense that failures around the corner. And I have to believe you probably came across that feeling a bunch.

14:44
Yes. And I don't know if it would have been possible. Because like, now we're just talking about the psychology of the situation. I could believe it all I want. But does my wife believe it? Does the people around me believe it?

14:58
Don't know that it would have even been possible without having a coach. And the coach I got, this guy Marcus, Marcus Truman, great coach, complete coaching nerd. But he really believed in it the whole time.

15:12
He's really committed to it. And he would ask me questions and hold me accountable and take it seriously. And he really believed it. And I couldn't give up on that belief that we sat down and said, I'm doing this without that support, without the whole Performance Coach University.

15:34
There's like a whole team of coaches that are just great people that help you believe in things. They've done it, they've seen it done. And if anybody can do it, anyone else can do it. Gotcha, yeah, that makes sense.

15:44
I think this power of belief is really powerful. Getting help from others is another thing that you mentioned, which I think we have a go it alone kind of society. And I think it's oftentimes important to realize that we all have limitations and it's important to get help and to find places where you can reconnect to your dream and to the possibility of it.

16:11
And I think that's what you're talking about. Okay, so you're now, as we're talking about it, you're well on your path. You've started this virtual training situation. You're chipping away at the $10,000 a month thing.

16:30
What else is happening kind of moving you towards your goal? So then one thing we did, I thought was, so as far as belief and psychological motivation, so we ended up moving in February, right now it was, well, now it's March, but February 2025.

16:51
is when we moved. Now rewind the clock, we bought the house almost three years ago. So the house has been bought. So now it's we Airbnb it for a while and got beat up pretty good on that. But the house has been bought.

17:06
So now it's like, all right, you have to sell the house or move into it at some point. So now there's an investment where I'm actually losing money. So like I've just created some pressure for myself.

17:18
So there's these, there's all these different, you know, angles of motivation coming in. I've made a promise to my wife. That's a big one. Again, I can't let that one go right. Then last October, so we're talking a year, maybe 15 months ago, we decide, you know what, let's just move there for one month.

17:40
And let's just live there for a month. We have this house. It's perfect weather in October. Let's just go out there and see what happens. So then throughout that process, two really important things happen.

17:51
The first thing is we went and after that month, we were like, okay, that's it. 2025, like it's happening. I don't care if I don't have the income to do it. I don't care what like we're going. It's just a matter of like, what are we going to have once we get there?

18:07
So that inspiration to just taste it a little bit, to go there and experience it and feel it because we, because when I wouldn't go there, I would definitely like feel like, eh, but then when I would get out there, the feeling of excitement of like, this just feels good.

18:23
I feel like I'm like, there's something deeper going on there. Even when I moved in three weeks ago, I'd wake up in the morning and deep inside of my chest, something shifted towards being more aligned.

18:32
My brain, my head feels lighter, all that. But on the logistics side of things, when I went last October, so I'm still working one-on-one with high performers and doing high performance fitness over here, just personal training sessions.

18:48
So I wanted to see if I could still train them while I was in Florida. So I had a system where they'd walk in the gym and they would type in my web address, perform with matt.live. They would put headphones in their ears and they would set the phone up and I'd have the gym set up a certain way and I would train them.

19:05
And that worked okay. The clients were very understanding throughout this whole process. The clients weren't excited about having to wear headphones and push numbers in a phone and all that. So that likely wasn't going to work out and last.

19:20
And then I thought I was like, well, every problem, like there's needs, there's solutions, there's small micro problems to solve. Like we need the money. We need the guys to have a workout from home.

19:31
We need all those details. Well, these clients that work out with me one-on-one, I'm like, all right. So what's the difference between me sitting in a corner and pointing versus me being on a TV screen and pointing?

19:43
There's no difference because I would train them and I would say, I'm not sure if you realize this, but I haven't gotten up in 45. I've just been sitting here. So what I did was, and this was where the technology really came into play, and I used AI a lot to help me figure out how to solve these problems.

20:00
So what I did was, in my gym right now, I have three microphones set up at different spots at the gym with mixers to amplify the sound. I've got a big screen TV, and I've got two computers set up as cameras.

20:17
And I will remote access these computers from my home in Florida, log into different Zoom rooms, and I'm playing Spotify music through my speakers. I've got two cameras I can see through the mirror, so I've got other angles I can see.

20:33
The clients had to do nothing but punch in a code. And they walk in the gym, the music's playing, the workout's here, the equipment's set up, we're totally organized, we're on top of everything. And whenever I would have like logistics, because setting up all the audio and video stuff was really challenging.

20:49
If I had a question, I just hate chat, GPT, how do I do this? Why is this not? And there was some troubleshooting for that. And I had a very good friend help me out. He owns a light and audio company.

21:00
And he thought this was fun. He came in and spent a lot of time and energy helping me set that up. So without him, would have been possible. That's cool. What I what I hear in this part of your story is, one, you knew that you needed to taste the dream when you were going through the hardest part of it, just to connect reconnect to it.

21:25
And like, just validate that your dream was the dream and to also probably make sure that your wife was still on board too. And the second thing that I heard is kind of continuing on with this is this idea of launch and iteration.

21:43
But specifically, what I find fascinating about this part is how obsessed you were about the client experience while you were pursuing continuing to pursue your dream. Because I think oftentimes I say this specifically, because I think oftentimes, we think of the pursuit of a dream as this individual selfish kind of pursuit, but you stayed in service to others while you were pursuing your dream.

22:15
And in fact, you knew that the that the most core part of being able to continue to fulfill your dream and move towards it was to maintain an excellent experience for your clients. Yeah, so the the clients I have that train here, these are people that you know, a lot of them are business owners, they're generally older, and they're really smart people.

22:40
So I want of course, the business but I haven't like I was looking at situations where I really may or may not even need it and I was thinking to myself well then why would I do it if I don't need the income?

22:51
I'm like you know what I actually really like the people I want to continue supporting them and hanging out with them and getting their feedback about things but to touch on what you were getting at I think is alignment so like alignment with the customer experience so I need to know what part of the experience they're having that there's friction that they don't like that they're frustrated with because if they're not enjoying a smooth experience so yeah it's got to be a hard workout but anybody can give you a hard workout is it going to be customized or there are smooth transitions specifically for that day are you getting what you needed so being honest about I think a big misconception people have is that if I win you lose or there's some zero-sum game when we can create conditions where my needs get met,

23:45
your needs get met, another person's needs get met, and we all win if there's enough communication and enough alignment with what's going on there. Sustainable alignment is what I would say. Yeah, and it sounds like you probably had to have some pretty, I don't know if they were uncomfortable, but you had to have some risky conversations with your clients because, you know, you were going to be providing a different experience than the one that they had signed up for.

24:14
Yeah, and I've said this a zillion times, but, you know, measure twice, cut once. You know, I'm the kind of guy that measures three times and cuts perfectly. Or, you know, I like to say my favorite quote is, if I've got six hours to chop down a tree, I'm going to spend the first four hours sharpening the ax.

24:32
Well, I got back in October and I had over a year to figure this out. You know, I was like, I have to figure this out. And at some point I decided, you know what, I bet I could do it with these clients.

24:45
And I sort of like tossed like them. I was like, look guys, I'm not doing this, but just let's just have a hypothetical conversation. And I had, I think three or four or five, enough of them were like, yeah, sure.

25:00
Just, you know, come in town every now and then. So having had those conversations, then I was able for the rest of the year to just envision the small problems. And I'm sitting in the gym watching their workouts and how the routines need to be structured, the sequencing of things, the setting up of the gym, getting their feedback constantly, testing everything, retesting everything, updating everything.

25:26
And one of the pieces that we landed on was that is working out in an interesting way, is like, I don't want to leave all of my friends in New Orleans. I don't want to leave this amazing gym. You know, my.

25:41
My son's got two sets of grandparents and his cousins are all here and all that and all my friends, kids. So what we decided on was we're gonna come in town into New Orleans three, four nights a month.

25:53
And I'm gonna spend the day at the gym touching base with all the clients, work with them one-on-one, tweaking any programs, teaching anything new that we might need to have. My son gets to see his grandparents and all his friends.

26:06
And so we're not totally away from the city, but I get to check in and just do what I wanna do and then go back to this vacation life. And then all these days I'm here, I can like batch work. Like right now I'm doing three or four podcasts this week.

26:19
I just stay at the gym all day in my favorite room on earth and grind and work and talk to people about their health. So I got a question about how, from the place where you had your dream to now these more granular things that you're solving for.

26:39
Did you know that you were going to be solving for these things and the time that you had the dream? When you had the dream, were you just thinking you were going to have clients in Gulf Breeze and start a new life?

26:51
Or had you imagined already this aspect of it? I had not imagined any retail business in Gulf Breeze because building the business I've built, I have really good clients because everything fits and there's an alignment.

27:13
These are people who probably have similar life values to me, so we really get along and really connect well. You can do marketing and have high-paying clients that turn over a lot, but these are all relationships I've had for a long time that are really sustainable.

27:29
The idea of going to Florida and building out a business where I'm one-on-one personal training, again, if I'm going to build out something else, it's going to be something that's going to solve a bigger problem that's going to be more exciting.

27:43
I never did really look at that. I got crazy and looked at buying laundromats, I looked at starting a magnesium business, I looked at real estate stuff. I looked at other things, but I looked at starting an assisted living facility.

27:59
My brother's doing really well with those, and I really dug into that. Every time I veer away from being the healthy guy, it just hurts. I just can't do anything else. I just really can't do anything else.

28:15
That reminds me of something that I think happens to a lot of folks, especially in the US, where when we don't have a connection to a dream, a specific dream, we often settle for just going after the shiny objects or making more and more and more money.

28:31
It seems like you made active decisions at times to actually forego the possibility of making more money for staying connected to the dream. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, it went things to be sustainable and not burnout.

28:51
And I guess if I was going for as much money as possible, then I'd probably be working with clients that I wasn't excited about working with. I'd be working longer hours. I'd be at the whim of their schedule and I wouldn't have tight systems in place.

29:09
Yeah, it just would have been drained. And you see, like, I just need enough money is the word that I use. Cause let's say you get more, okay, then what? Okay, then what? And I've seen a lot of older guys that they don't have enough.

29:25
Like once I get to this point, then that's enough money. And like, number one, are you psychologically satisfied with your success? Did you succeed this year? Or is I never have enough? Just the answer, no matter how much you...

29:37
you have so you never feel like you've actually achieved anything like what is a good year defined as how much income in that sector. Yeah, that's interesting. It reminds me of a book that the girl that I most grew up with that's the closest to my sister just wrote.

29:53
Her name is Elizabeth Husserl from New Orleans and she wrote a book called The Power of Enough and it's fascinating because yeah and I think what you're pointing to is that yeah your dreaming had the aspects you were talking about before which was the you know the sand and the beach but it also had feelings associated with it.

30:18
There were there were certain feelings that you wanted to have as you envisioned this dream. Like you were clear you wanted to be free to move around you wanted to be able to stay connected to certain people that meant a lot to you.

30:37
You wanted to be working with clients that were aligned with your goals and and with your desire for certain types of impact. Yeah and I think that's interesting because it makes the dream a little bit more robust right when you're not just thinking about it as okay I'm moving to Gulf trees to be near the ocean no no no it's actually part of a much I didn't know this about you either so I'm learning this too it's part of a much larger complex and beautiful system of emotions that you were aiming for.

31:13
Yeah and I guess to elaborate on like the vision was it wasn't just to like make X amount of money and live by the beach. A big part of this is I have a son who's two years old we would like to have a second one at some point and for the next 15 or so years of life I've decided I want to invest that time and energy with taking it advantage of the opportunity.

31:38
I've seen my kids grow up, because every older person will tell you, you've heard it a thousand times if you're a parent, oh, it goes by so quick, it goes by so quick. Well, I'm gonna listen to them.

31:49
And I'm, you know, like, let's say I got called tomorrow, and someone said, Matt, we want you to be the CEO of our health coaching company. I actually talked to some people about that. And I was like, this actually is a great fit.

32:02
I would enjoy it a lot. It'd be a new experience I would grow a lot from. But that's not what I want to do right now. I kind of want to go get stressed out and go to a bunch of me like, when I struggle with with when I've got free time during the day, and I could be getting work done, I could be reading a book, and growing myself, I could be meditating, I could be working out.

32:25
But my son says, Hey, Daddy, let's play toys. I have a hard time saying no to everything else. or saying no to him and saying yes to anything else. Because like, I'm just not gonna have this chance again.

32:36
So for me right now, I logically have not like, maybe I need to define how much time I'm allowed to spend with him, but I don't know that too much is ever gonna be too much, you know? So part of this vision was doing that and getting out there, but like in a location with enough time and space and energy to actually enjoy it.

32:57
So I've been working like a madman for the last four years. So that now I get to a point where I actually don't have that much work to do when I'm in Florida and I can spend a lot of time with him. We walk to the beach sometimes twice a day.

33:12
We go to the playground and we do all these fun things. And now me and my wife can like go on dates and have time for that. We're gonna sit upstairs. It's gonna be, hopefully I'll have my friends come and visit me at this house and they'll get to experience what we do all the time.

33:28
I think what I'm realizing is that when you kind of said a word in passing and you just sort of threw it in there, I didn't realize how complex it was. And it was the concept of sustainability. And for something to be sustainable, it's not just a financial like sustainability.

33:47
It's far deeper than that. Yeah, it's, you know, I think some people might not know exactly where they flow and what gets them excited. And if you had to have a job and do it every day, like what could you do every day?

34:06
I think that's what I've been fortunate is sort of finding that early in life. Some people find it in careers where they can make a whole lot more money and give themself a whole lot more opportunity.

34:19
But it's hard to walk away or adjust and move away from a position that pays you, half a million dollars a year. Yeah, kind of switching gears a little bit. But I was thinking about your goal and your dream and you know, I've been a lifelong traveler and nomad and one of the things that I feel like would have been difficult for me having had a goal that I set four years prior that had me in a different location was staying present in my present location and situation prior to getting to the place where I was moving towards.

35:04
Because I feel like you could have been like, oh, New Orleans, I'm giving up on New Orleans because I'm going to be in Gulf breeze. So like, I shouldn't invest time and energy here. But you somehow kind of were able to stay present in your present while focusing on the future.

35:19
And I'm curious if you had any thoughts on how you did that. I don't know that I did that that well, other than, you know, showing up consistently. But, I mean, the life that I have here is really good, you know, I, I wake up and I hang out with guys I really like, I go to the gym, that's down the street from my house.

35:44
My wife is awesome. And my son's great. And, you know, I guess fundamentally like if you're, I mean one thing I've definitely noticed about myself because I've got like a standard template of like, I really like what I do.

36:02
So if I wake up in the morning, and I coach these guys four or five mornings a week, and I got to be pumped up at 6am ready to go and some mornings I'll wake up and I'm like, I have to do this and like when that phrase I have to comes out of my mouth.

36:17
When I'm fully energized I'm taking care of myself, I wake up and I'm like, All right, I'm doing this, the different idea and the stuff I want to tell them and like different ways I want to chop the workout up.

36:26
But if I wake up I'm like, Oh, I have to do this. That is definitely like, Okay, Matt, what did you put in your body yesterday you were not slept, you are stressed out you ate a bunch of crap is alcohol involved like, why are you not excited to go and do what you love doing.

36:41
That's just an indicator for me. That's kind of getting away from what you're asking. Is the outcome that you're in right now better than what you imagined. Yeah, it is because you know when you, let's say I you know you you drove from the gym to my house right now and you said, and once you arrived I said hey how many red cars did you see on the drive here.

37:13
I don't know I wasn't looking for. But if I said I count the red cars you'd be like oh 15. Well now that I'm there, like, I'm like, Oh wow, so me and my wife can get on our golf cart and drive down to the yoga studio down the street, then we can eat Mexican food for dinner.

37:32
next door to the yoga studio, then we can drive a block down to the beach and watch the sunset. Now I'm just like setting up this stuff and I'm like starting to see it all. And there's an Italian restaurant down the street and there's, you know, different, I met a guy at the playground last week.

37:48
He was like, yeah, I mean, we should hang out. You know, what do you want to do? You want to hike? You want to go mountain biking? You want to go surfing? And I'm like, wow, those are the three options?

37:57
I'm like, I would love to surf. He's like, I got an extra board. I'm like, great. And you know, something that happens when people have the courage to make hard decisions and make these jumps, magical doors open up that wouldn't open up for other people that wouldn't be where you thought they would be.

38:16
But you know, opportunities pop up and things happen that you wouldn't expect. And it happens a lot when you're chasing dreams like this. That's cool. And it makes life so much more exciting and fun too.

38:27
And people want to... You know, especially people above you, like they all want to see you make it. They all want to see you do something. And they all often would love to contribute, you know. Yeah, they're just waiting on you to show them that you're willing to do the work and that you're serious.

38:48
Yeah. You know, I think so many of us live in this. I don't know. I saw one of these like cheesy quotes the other day, which was like, what if it all worked out? And I thought that was such a powerful question because I think so many of us live in the reality of what if it doesn't work out?

39:11
And I think it's really a testament to to something that you're built with or maybe the people that you've surrounded yourself with that you kind of have stayed connected to the optimism and the possibility.

39:26
I was actually I was talking to a coach a year and a half ago and he said something and I wrote it down and I put it right here in my wall. Listen to this. It says, I trust, I accept, I let go, I embrace the unknown knowing that it's going to work out for the best and even better than I thought.

39:46
And I thought, wow, what if I just believe that? What if I just decided to believe that? I want to start noticing it. Yeah. And I think actually one of the things that helps me is knowing that nothing is permanent in a sense.

40:05
Yes, it's important to stay connected to your dream, obviously, but diminishing a little bit of the risk that people kind of often hang on to as a reason to kind of give up on their their dreams, sort of like I often tell myself, hey, you know what?

40:21
Like, no matter what, I'm going to learn something about myself. I'm going to grow. This won't be for nothing. And then it kind of. Sometimes I have to talk to myself in that way in order to stay on the path, you know, because because it can get a little bit hard.

40:37
Right. Yeah. Um, in my experience, and this is not everybody's experience, but in my experience, all of my success that I've had in different categories of life has happened very gradually. Like stair steps, like I didn't just open up a business and boom, move them to Florida.

40:55
We made it like, no, this was a very methodical way. Where we started off with the virtual class, then the regular clients, then just one-on-one actual coaching clients. Yeah. So now, okay, what happens now?

41:18
Like you've reached your dream and do you just, it's over now. You call it quits. You hit you hit what you wanted or is it like now you have a new dream or what's the what do you do now? Yeah, you know I haven't um I haven't fully gotten a chance to like Sit with that question because we're still moving in you know um it's definitely like things are percolating and they're getting exciting and um like You know what's like?

41:51
Okay, so I have to get ambitious about something and it's such a personal thing So one person might be like, all right Well matt, you know you could go on stage and you could speak and you could coach Billionaires and olympians and and do all this And my brain didn't go there like I might do that later when I can like make the sacrifices necessary Um right now that the coaching business is definitely growing.

42:15
That's a whole lot of fun. Um, you know, you don't want a side note So When we have mistakes along the way like we opened up me my sister my my girlfriend my wife now We opened up a fitness and yoga studio like six or seven years ago And we went into it with ten thousand dollars.

42:34
We rented a space and we were pretty smart about and we left with ten thousand dollars and in that process, I realized I do not want to lead a bunch of women in a Studio that is just a lot of work and just it was too much.

42:48
It was it was it was a lot But throughout that you could call it a failure um I Connected with four or five people that Um introduced me to other people that really helped build one of my businesses So that failure really helped me launch into this other business Um So that success that comes gradually and you asked me about moving forward on what's new Well, I I think actually, you know just to pause there that's not a bad I mean from my experience when i've been in my dream,

43:26
meaning I've accomplished something or I'm on the path to accomplish something. Certain people and opportunities present themselves from that place. And I think that, you know, it's okay to pause in the dream, like that you've crafted for yourself to enjoy Jack, to enjoy those walks to the beach and the sunset and the golf cart rides, the yoga studio and the life that you crafted for yourself.

43:58
Because I do trust personally that when you're in that energy, when you're exuding the gratitude for where you've come from and what you've accomplished, that there are going to be opportunities that arise from that place that are, to borrow your word, in alignment, complete alignment with who you are and your heart and all that stuff.

44:19
Yeah. And so right now, what I've been thinking is, instead of like doubling down on my business or doing something ambitious, well, a couple of things come to mind. Number one, can we get to a position where me, Jack, Nina can fly around wherever we're going to fly around state if I want to take them skiing for a week, you know, if I want to go visit all of our friends in Austin or I got a good friend in New York,

44:45
I could go visit. That'd be fun. Um, we're Mexico. Um, so like that's, that'll be cool. So we'll probably get there at some point. Well, if we have a second child, that'll be really young. So we'll have to wait two years for that kid to grow up, but, um, we'll likely be doing something like that as they're growing up, getting different experiences in life.

45:05
And then like what I do is, and no one else does this, but I'm going to create as much space as I can. So like, I'm gonna be saying no to a lot of things and create a lot of space. And I'm only going to fill it with, you know, things that really fill me up.

45:19
So like, I've already compulsively got together, like a group of guys to work out and to come to my house and work out in the garage and just hang out and work out. But I'm like envisioning, you know, I need to like meditate a lot every day near the beach.

45:34
I need to get space. I want to start growing food. I want to get as healthy as possible. I want to double and triple down on like all the weird, healthy stuff that I do and eat like the perfect diet.

45:45
And this is what's excited me right now. And then once I get to a spot where like my head's even clear, there's a lot more space in my life. My brain really slows down and I have time to sit back. Like I don't know where I'm going next, but I know to get there and figure out what it is.

46:01
I got to get there. Does that make sense? Totally. Yeah. I think that I think that that's incredibly powerful sometimes to focus on your core values and the things that You and that bring you joy and meaning and wellness and all the things that you stand for to really be in a space by creating the space and being in it to double down on those things so that like your energy is as Elevated as possible and then to make decisions from there.

46:41
I can only imagine what you're gonna dream up yeah, and then opportunities are gonna show up and And Sometimes an opportunity might show up looking like X, but it might be Y So someone might call me and say hey, I need help with this I'm gonna say well have you considered solving the problem this way With this person or this way with this method or what if we got other people involved or you know you can see a lot of different things that a lot of different ways to solve health problems and You know there could be some kind of enterprise software for companies and we're solving a much bigger problem with more people It could be You know,

47:20
VIP, health treatment, we're going to test everything and not in the way that these companies are doing it now, but in a way that's much more tangible. Like I know if we fix these six things rigidly, it's going to work.

47:37
And that gets into the coaching business where like, there's actually, there's six pillars or six cylinders, as Marcus would say, but I like to call them pillars of coaching. And that's like, there's six, there's have a crystal clear goal that you're excited about.

47:55
There's getting a lot of psychological motivational leverage, like moving to the beach, being excited about something. There's a crystal clear plan to get there that you kind of work through with your coach.

48:08
I like to use metrics and you have to track metrics. I did the podcast with Jarek Robbins recently, we're going to drop that. He talks a lot about that. He makes a lot of good points there. You have to change your psychology.

48:22
You can't think this way and then be that way. Like if you're going to be somebody new, you have to think a different way in a different life. You have to shift your identity personally. And then having the accountability and not an accountability that comes from your partner or even your friends, but someone who is outside of you, who is neutral, who has no other interest other than just to support you independently from your actual circle of people.

48:48
Those are the components of like coaching that we do. Well, what's just, I mean, obvious to me and it's going to be obvious to listeners is that all the things that you just talked about, I mean, you basically put an emotion to make your dream come true.

49:05
Yes. With a great coach. Yeah. But also, I mean, yes, a great coach, but there is something about you that, you know, really, I think, I think there's something about you. something really, this belief thing is really incredible, right?

49:26
We're really powerful creatures, and we are often led to believe that we're not, I think. And I feel like one of the superpowers that I've heard here on this chat with you is the power of your belief.

49:45
Yeah, I think, you know, be ridiculous. Be, like, audacious, you know, like, I'll be the first person to admit, I'm not that intelligent. Like, I'm not smarter than most people, but, you know, you just set your mind on something, and believe you can do it.

50:07
I think people are worried about what other people think, what their parents probably think, other people's expectations of who or how they should be, you know, they get it. distracted by failure and rejection.

50:20
And gosh, you got to feel so much to make it forward. Because I mean, I messed around with so many different online marketing strategies and funnels just trying to grow the coaching business. And then once I stepped back from trying to grow just the one-on-one coaching business, I have one coaching client at the time and I do a webinar for him.

50:44
And in that coaching webinar, it was like how to get your energy up. One guy's like, dude, I'm signing up tomorrow. That was incredible. And I wasn't even trying. So it's when you get to a spot where you're confident that like things come at you like that.

50:57
I love it. Well, I mean, what do you think are some sort of closing thoughts or something that you feel like wasn't talked about in this conversation that you think is important to leave people with?

51:18
Here's one thing I would ask of people is most people haven't had the thought. Like, you know, go into your head. I'm going to give you either tomorrow, I'm going to cut off your finger. I'm going to give you $10 million.

51:32
And if you'd give me a sheet of paper that says exactly what your dream life would be, you had to fill that out. I'm going to cut your finger off and we'll give you $10 million. So there's pain and there's pleasure here motivating you.

51:45
Have the thought, have the experience and go through some fundamental questions. Go to chat TPT and say, hey, ask me questions about what my dream life could be. And where would you live? What time would you wake up?

52:00
Who would you live with? What city would you live in? What would you be doing every day? What, you know, what satisfies you? And then go out and taste it. Because one of two things happened. The first thing is, wow, this is awesome.

52:16
I'm definitely doing it. Or, wow, this is not what I thought it was gonna be. I needed to decide something else. But I've got some guys that I work with that I do training with. And they're like, yeah, one day when I retire, because I'm making a million dollars a year, they hate their job, but it's hard to walk away.

52:37
Well, you know what? One day when I finally retire, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna teach philosophy to high school students. And I'm like, you know what? I've had a friend go and teach school thinking he was gonna have a chance to sculpt some kids and make some impact.

52:51
And he walked away after a semester and said, oh, no, God, no, that's not the way to do it. You have to do something else, not that angle. So envision it and then go taste it. I like it. I'm gonna take this gun to your head, $10 million came with me after this talk, for sure.

53:12
That's one of the coaching tips, I give the guys in the morning. If you had to eat perfect this week and not miss a workout, you know, you absolutely have to do it or else I'm going to cut off your finger.

53:23
And if you do it, at the end of the week I'm going to give you $10 million. How are you going to sort out this? What kind of conversations do you have? What kind of food do you have to prepare? How do you have to get to sleep all the time?

53:32
What are you going to do to make sure it happens or else you're going to lose a finger? Man, I love it. Well, thanks for having me on and congrats on your success. I really am proud of you for doing that.

53:47
I think it not only is beautiful to see you living the life that you set out to live, but then to share it with others is an incredible gift and it means a lot to me personally. And I know it will mean a lot to your listeners too.

54:01
Well, thank you, Andy, for showing up today and listening to me talk about my story for so long. And for like, you know, always supporting me and, you know, reinforcing my positive beliefs about myself.

54:16
It's mutual, man. It's important, like you said, to have people in your life that force you to solidify your dreams, to question them and to come back to them and to check you at times when you might be falling off the path and to reiterate that it is possible, that you have the power in you to accomplish anything you set out to accomplish.

54:45
Yeah, and it just, you know, it takes time. It takes consistency. And, you know, once you decide to do it and you're just gonna do it, people are gonna try to stop you, man. And they've got their interests.

54:57
They've got their beliefs. They've got you reminding them that they're not doing it. It's a big one. And, you know, some people got cut out. They're not around anymore. Because they, you know, they wanted to throw a wrench in it.

55:13
Not happening. Not gonna infect my psychology. Nope. You gotta go hang out at the beach with your kids. And, you know, if you listen to this, you're probably invited. Come on, come and visit. I want more people to actually move out to Pensacola and join the workout gang.

55:31
I'm gonna build over there. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. Yeah. All right, my friend. All right, thanks again. And guys, what is your dream? Envision it.