Matt Osborne (2022)

All right, well, how much time do we have? I'll give you the quick answer to that. It was six years ago, a little over six years ago, that I stopped running an office. And the story I told myself was... I guess the story I told myself was, hey, you know what, like running my office was time consuming and I was burnt. I guess just I guess it was maybe emotionally tired when I got home. And then I was pounding out three to four hours after the guys hit the field, three to four hours of phone calls every single day. And I guess the story I told myself was, I think I could be more fresh or fresher running these calls, helping my guys get their piece, get promoted to consultant and beyond. And to me it was, that was the, hey, let me go see if that is really the story. And candidly, it wasn't having a lot of fun running my office, which is hard to admit, right? Especially in our business where I think there's this pretense that everybody should just you know smile and just put on this good face. At times I just wasn't having fun running it. And so I stopped running an office and fell... I can tell you about that first two months. It felt dirty, it felt scary, it felt like I was useless, I felt like I was lazy, you know. I was like, oh my gosh, I mean, where are my leaders? Where are my owners? Where's my true value? And then I got over that. And you know, I woke up about four and a half years later. And again, it was about four and a half years ago. I was like, I missed something. Something's missing. And what I was missing was competing again. Just really, really competing. And you know, it's kind of not necessarily a running joke, but Gary sat me down at RR and he's like, how are things? And I go, and he's like, you having fun? And I go, no. I'm not having fun. And he smiled. And I go, but I don't have fun running an office. It's more of... it's exhilarating. It's... my fun's different. Like there's laugh fun and then there's set strategy, execute plan, go make things happen, watch the growth. And that to me is like the competition. So I realized about four, four and a half years after I stopped running a deal that what I missed was the competition. And for me, competing is like competing from within. It's like helping me get to be a better version of myself and then being able to pass that on to other guys. And about a year, gosh, it was probably about a year and a half ago, I was ready to jump back in the game. And we had it all dialed up and everything was ready to go. And then we couldn't get the client. I mean literally, like everybody was on board, like they were like simultaneous high fives and then five minutes later, oh by the way, it can't work. And I got all hot and bothered and excited and then took about another year to figure out how we were going to pull it off. And you know, Jamie, I love traveling, like going and visiting the guys. My favorite part of the business has always been me sitting in front of people doing one-on-ones or me in front of a group of people and just being able to connect with people. And you know, prior to COVID, I was more so doing... I was doing Zoom. I remember when I was telling people how to do Zoom, teaching people how to do Zoom three, four years before COVID. And then with COVID, it was truly there was really no travel involved. And I think I just missed that more than anything. And yeah, so then I decided about a year and a half ago I wanted to come run a deal again. And then I took about another year and now I'm building a crew and I need to hit qualifications before I can open up and they don't get going on my own code.

Zero. Until my wife, who is much, much, much, much, much smarter than me. So I came out to her with this idea and I was like, hey listen baby, you might hear me out here. I want to get back in the game and I think I got the client, I got the program, I got awesome people that I can ask questions to, and I set this up where I'm going to go get back in the game and run a deal. And I didn't expect much pushback because that's just not the relationship my wife and I have. But she says this to me: 'You know, that'll be really good.' And I was kind of like, uh. And she said, 'It's good to show the kids that you're actually working.' And I was like, oh my God, what does she think I'm not working? But she, it hurt me and I was like, what? She goes, 'No, no, no, it's good that you're not available to the kids all the time.' And I was like, damn, I married the right woman. But explain more, right? And she's like, 'It's good that my oldest is 13, my oldest daughter's 13, my youngest daughter is nine. It's good for Jacqueline and Coco to see a man go to work and provide for the family, even though you are providing and I know you're working, but just to put on that suit and to come home. And it's even better for Colton, who's my 11-year-old son.' And I was like, of all the ideas and all the reasons I was going to go back to running a deal, get back in the game and competing, it had nothing to do with my kids. Yet she put that idea in my head and I'm like, oh crap, that's like at least for me it sounds like a really, really good thing. I mean, this is the first time I've been doing the parenting thing, so I don't know if that, if they care. I don't know if it's subconsciously helping them, but yeah, it feels good. And you know, my kids were always... I've been available to my kids, but it's plenty of times, you know, we have a ping pong table over there too, but it's like, Daddy, can we play ping pong? I'm like, I can't play buddy, I gotta call in 15 minutes. And he gives me that space, he sees. But when he hears 'call', he thinks business for me. But this is different because I'm gone before they wake up in the morning. And I tell them what I'm doing. I'm like, yeah, Daddy goes to the gym, I shower at the gym, and then I go to the office. And then he ain't gonna be able to come to my game. Yeah, most of the time I can make the game, and sometimes I can't make the game. And you know, we have a soccer tournament in two weeks that's like six or eight hours away at the beach. Daddy's not going to the game. Why? Because we're going to the tournament. Why? It's the busiest time of year for our business, baby. I got work to do. Even on Monday nights it's kind of funny to tell my kids, like, walk in and see y'all, I'm going to work. And it's 7:30 at night and they're like, where are you going? I'm like, I'm going to work, office night, baby. And just being able to show them that I'm doing it. And then I'm like, all right, I'll see you all tomorrow night. So originally, to answer your question, originally that wasn't a reason, but my smart wife Julia decided to say that was a good reason, and that really hit home to me. Yeah, of course. I mean, I think in my home life, my oldest, he saw me grinding hardcore as a little one, and so he's got a frame of reference of what it took to live the life that we have now. But my two youngest, my girls, I do have some concerns that they're going to grow up and you know be in the dating scene and say to their soon-to-be husbands, 'Well, why can't you just be like my dad? I mean, he was home a lot and he made lots of money.' I mean, I don't want to ruin my kids with that. So I like that idea of just the kids. They're gonna remember what they saw, they're not necessarily going to remember what they heard. And so seeing Matt putting on a Superman costume every day to go save the day and grind, I think that's a great example for kids to see, no question about it. And Jamie, also like, maybe you don't want your daughters to think, no, he doesn't work, he just sits on his computer. You know, who knows what they think work is, right? There's just something about somebody can be working legitimately from home on their computer all day creating something great, but more times than not they're not, you know, they're not creating anything great, they're playing around. And so I can't say that was the reason, but it's a good reason that my wife brought to my attention. Yeah, my daughter for her kindergarten class, I got to see her post, she had to make a presentation, you know, favorite color, favorite food, all the stuff. You know what does your dad do? He talks to his computer. I'm like, wow, I don't know if that's the answer I want her putting down there. My dad talks to his computer because he's lost his mind. My kids think I work for Walmart right now. I mean really, they still don't understand. It's great. Yeah, you're a Walmart greeter. Yeah, they probably think that. When I was in the field in retail, I felt like a Walmart greeter. You know, I'm saying hi to a lot of people, I'm just not stopping them. So...

Okay. Here's the... and I wish my original strategy... they're like strategy changes and like that's something to always expect, right? Here's what I've kind of landed on in probably the last three or four weeks. You know, whenever I go, every single time I've gone into a partnership over the last, let's say first 17 years of my career, I kind of went in there like the thousand pound gorilla, it's my way or the highway. And realize that probably because I was partnered up with some people that really didn't know what the hell was going on and I was dialed in. And this time I came in like the Wallflower and I was seeking to understand at first. I spent probably the first four and a half weeks just... I set it up the frame of I'm going to ask a lot of questions, but I'm not questioning you. I'm just gonna ask why you're doing this, but I'm not questioning what you're doing, I just need to hear what you're thinking. And this was one of the other reasons I got back into the game, Jamie, is that I realized that the further owners got away from the initial mindset that I think I have and that people who've been able to scale our business not only short term but long term, the further I got away from that, the further the owners got away from that, the harder it was to coach them. And they weren't really building necessarily businesses that I could see that could be sustainable five, ten years from now. So I get into the office and I realize that, and then I took my foot, put the foot on the gas like probably three weeks ago, let's say. And I just said okay to the two other people, I said, 'Hey, there's some things that you're really good at that I have zero interest in doing. And I think it's probably smart that we, since we have three of us working together, let's play to our strengths.' Here's what I'm good at: I'm good at relating to people, I'm good at being really honest, and I'm good at being able to tell people things without getting them really riled up and mad at me. And the more your people know me, the more I can be even more pointed with them. So I've been doing prelims like you wouldn't believe. And now I'm really damn good, thank you, Lens. I mean, I was on vacation and I'm like, 'Lindsay, can you just do a prelim for me?' And I scribbled down notes and then I tried to do it like him, and I'm like, I'm not that handsome, and I didn't have the same smile, so I was like, okay. But it took me a little bit, but then I got it. And then I put my own magic into it and I got comfortable with that, and now I can do a prelim that is amazing and it's thorough and I've hit all my hot spots. And the same thing with my second interview. So I am my hands in on the prelim, the second, the final. I don't... one of the things that I was doing was like, okay, Billy gets... okay, after the final, I was hiring somebody. I'm like, okay, now Billy's gonna... you know, like we said from day one, you're assigned a mentor and a coach, so what I'm going to do is I'm gonna have Billy reach out to you and da da da da. And then I was like, wait a second, I gotta get in on that. So I started just making sure... so I started having long one-on-ones with these guys. I'm like, okay, tell me everything that you're saying to people to get them prepared for orientation. Tell me every conversation you're having afterwards. What are you doing? And I was just listening to it, and then I was like, okay, this can be better. And then instead, what I was doing was I started going, okay, this is what I want you to say to this person, here's why. And so I'm legitimately in on almost all my conversations of my leaders that are having conversations with new guys. And I'm just giving them a new way, because you guys know what it's like. You get some top leaders in your office and sometimes they're on this path because they're following, and then it's kind of like that rotating restaurant, you just sit there and next thing you know you're faced in the opposite direction. Same thing happens. And so I've really just dialed in on the top performing leaders in that office, the ones that have their hands in on the recruiting and development of everyone, and just started talking about the conversations and just having the conversations and letting them watch me have the conversations. And I've learned a lot. I've learned that they're not nearly as suave... they're not nearly as... they know what they want to say but they're not saying it the right way. It could come off as cold or demanding. And I'm like, no, no, no. And so that's kind of the paint by numbers, Jamie, that I've been doing. And I can only remember one time in my career having to do that, and that's when I opened up with three leaders. Because then I've built a business there that I've always had a stable of four or five leaders that have been in enough of my leaders meetings to hear me talk mindset conversations, why we're doing it, when we're doing it, the X's and the O's, so that even when we expanded, I still have five or six leaders that I could talk through. And then I kept doing that, and so then the cupboard was never bare when I was running a deal, ever. Right now it's bare, but I'm going to build these other what I consider four or five leaders that we have collectively that I think are good, even though there's probably 10 total. There's four or five. Once I get that built, as soon as we promote a leader, they come into the leaders meeting and then I'm doing the one-on-one coaching with them so that things don't get lost in translation. And it's neat. I will tell you, seven years ago that wouldn't have been a fun thing for me to do, hate to say it. But it's really fun in the sense of like I can see the wheels clicking inside of their heads. I have more energy and I'm expending way more energy.

I think I'm different. I think I've... I want to say I'm just how I've grown in the last, you know, since I've run an office. I think I just my intent is so different. It is different. I truly believe that I have a gift, and that gift of developing people and having patience and being able to pull the right strings to help people grow, I don't think it's perfect, but I think it's darn good. And I almost framed it as you're being selfish by not doing this for your people. And maybe before it was maybe self-serving, like yeah, let's build this head count, let's see how big my numbers can be. Don't get me wrong, that's on my mind, trust me, it's on my mind. But you know, I even had a call with a leader from another office the other day, and he's like, 'Did you get back running an office because you want to get to platinum consultant?' And I go, that has never crossed my mind. And he goes, 'That's what I figured.' And I'm like, you know what, that'd be cool, but I've spent zero time thinking about it. The most time I spent was like in that last five seconds when the phone was dead, me thinking about that. It's mostly about, let's see if we can get this new guy over the hump so he can get into leadership, and then be able to teach that new guy, let's have some cool things, let's watch what he can do. I mean, legitimately, it's gone from this big picture to just this, hey, let's see if we can just add this guy. I got a guy that I like, by the end of the week he'll be in leadership, and I can't tell you how giddy I am to teach him how to do a second interview. And it sounds so bizarre, right? Like, yeah, I can't wait. Because I trust the guy, he shows up every day, I like his image, he has zero baggage, and I'm like, he would be a really nice person to be able to show and watch grow, because he's going to be pretty darn good. And so that's kind of like... I think I'm just going at this with a different intent, to see if I can help. And something I've learned along the way just in the last probably a month, my one-on-ones with my owners are so much more engaging. I'm just like, boom, what about this? I go, are you doing this? And he's like, no. I'm like, okay, well you better get in front of that because X, Y, and Z. And this was just stuff that maybe for the last five years I wasn't really able to touch because it wasn't happening in my office. So I feel like I'm getting a little bit more dynamic with my one-on-ones and being able to provide better coaching. And I don't know, you could probably ask them and they'll probably say it feels the same, but I don't know. Yeah.

Really good question. Well, you know, everybody recruits differently, right? We're doing our own recruiting in the sense that whoever's prelim you do, you own it all the way through the whole process, so everybody's engaged there. There's just some things that people really like to do, and you're absolutely right, between the three of us we're all totally capable of doing all of the things. There's just some things that I think they're better at. Like running a morning meeting and hooting and hollering is definitely Mikey or Colleen's strong suit. I kind of get a little bit embarrassed, I'm like, just settle down a little bit, and that's not what the guys need, right? And I felt it, and then finally I was like, guys, listen, we don't need to whip through. You do one, I do one, she does one, and do it like that. I go, quite honestly, you guys bring way more energy, you're excited about this role. I'm capable. Well, here, do it. Do you like it? They're like, oh my God, I love that opportunity to get to take on another morning meeting. I'm like, do it then, man. I have no... I'm not attached to it. So leaders meetings is like... I just love that time, and so they've kind of just left it up to me. And one of the things is, I can be incredibly prepared, way more than they are. Because they'll flip through a notebook and kind of pull out a sheet and go, okay, I'm gonna go run the meeting. I'm like, hands on, okay, got this, here's the roster, here's production, here's where we are, here's what day it is, and I'm like, okay, tomorrow what are they going to need? And I'll write it. So then I'll tell them, hey, I'm thinking about running a leaders meeting on X, Y, and Z, and here's why. And they're like, oh, can I sit in on that? Because they're usually not as thoughtful. And that doesn't mean they're haphazardly running meetings, but I'm putting some thought and some prep into it. You know, if somebody can throw the ball better but somebody can catch it better, we're going to win as a team. So that's kind of how we do it. Like even orientation, I sat in on a few and I was like, I can do this, and not only can I do it, I think I can do it maybe get them laughing a little bit more and having more fun. So I was like, hey, can I do some of these? And they're like, you want to do it? I'm like, yeah, let me in there, man. And I got a little loose with one group, a little too loose, and I'm like, okay, I think I got a little too loose with that group. Okay, can you guys watch me do it? Let's tag team it. And so we're having fun with it. So it's not like a chore. It's not who's doing prelims as a chore, who's doing the morning meetings a chore, who's going to run campaign, or who's going to be with our advanced sales training or who's going to do basic training and stuff like that. It's kind of like everybody's doing what they really like to do, and we're talking through what we're going to be going over. So it's a sincere partnership. It's not like... yeah, I mean, they might be competing with me but I don't feel like I'm competing with them, and they might be competing with one another, but legitimately people are training other people's guys, and we're doing one-on-ones with each other's guys, and bringing everybody into the loop on all the conversations. Which is not common, and I think it requires some experience and some maturity between all three partners or even another partner, which I never had the first 10, 15 years. I was just like, all right, this is how we're gonna do it, I'm gonna do this, and we kind of butted heads, but usually they were my own guys so they kind of deferred to me anyway. I don't know, did I answer that very well?

Well, I am playing the law of averages to a degree, which I always have. And that's a good question. I prefer to work with people... it's rare that you find somebody who has all of it together and you're just like, all right, let me, this is gonna be great, right? You know, I love people that can eventually become disciplined people, because then you know where and when they're going to be there. Right? I talk all the time, I had a couple buddies that played in the NFL, and I was like, what's the difference between somebody being on a roster and not on a roster, or a starter and not a starter? And they were like, availability. I was like, what? They're like, yeah, this is why we play through injuries. If you're not available, you might not ever see the field. And I was like, oh. So you know, as I'm being a talent scout, I need people that are going to be available. Which sounds so ridiculous, right? Like available, like they have a pulse, yes, and they're going to be there every single day. And they're going to be solution finders, not problem finders, right? And they're going to be... like I know it's not like, oh, is so-and-so going to have an issue with X, Y, and Z? You're going to have a bunch of those in your office no matter what, because as you scale your business it's going to happen. But if you think about your players, the people that you want people to be like or to watch their example, it's typically the guy that can be there at this time, walks around just like this, says these things, you can set your watch to everything. You know, they're ready. This is kind of ridiculous, but they're not getting sick, they're not having all these issues and issues and issues. So I'll work with other people, don't get me wrong, and I'm willing to. But when I find that guy or that girl that, I'm like, that was totally inconvenient for them to do this but they did it, that was totally inconvenient to do this, I can't believe... because I've seen 10 other people not be willing to do that. Those are the guys I want to build around. They might not be the most dynamic, and I'm still going to work with the dynamic people, of course, because if I can give them a little bit more discipline they might have a higher ceiling. But as I, maybe to a fault, and I guess you can't even say that, I've held a pretty high standard just in terms of who I want to work with. And I've given, I wouldn't say I've given up on people, but I've just pushed my energy to other folks that I knew were going to be consistent. That I just know that they didn't have to be super dynamic, I could help them become dynamic. And you know, when you have an office that doesn't have 10 leaders in it, availability is incredibly important. And even saying the things they're supposed to say and react... you know, I've talked quite a bit about how you interpret events is massively important. I've been talking about that so much the last two weeks because I need to get inside my guys' heads. What happens doesn't matter, it's how you interpret it. Is it neutral, is it positive, is it negative, is there a learning? And are you able to say it? Because we are going to have more new leaders. I mean, eventually we're going to have 30 leaders in this office. Eventually we're going to have 45, 50 people. And you're going to have to be able to interpret all of the events for them in a positive way that will help them grow. And if people are, you know, potentially missing days or coming in late or looking like one day they look good, the other day they look checked out, I'm not excited about that.

Give me till April, baby. Give you till April.