05: Why As An Entrepreneur You Have to Keep Fighting

Behind Their Success: Ep 5 Transcript

Paden: Ep 5

paden: Hello, I'm Paden Squires, and I'm the host of the podcast. This podcast is for those who are dissatisfied with where they are at in their life and career currently, I used to be one. When I got out of college with my master's degree, I started working in banking. I eventually moved to a Fortune 500 company.I quickly found out being an employee was not for me. I was bored out of my mind and did not like it whatsoever. Something eventually lit a fire under me. I started studying for the CPA exam, listening to podcasts, and reading books every day. By doing that, I had passed all four parts of the CPA exam in eight months and quit my job.

I opened up my own tax firm, having never been paid to do someone's taxes. That was in 2014. Since then, I've consistently grown my business,  had a lot of success in other business ventures, including real estate, property management, among other things. And now, I'm looking for a new venture. I want to help inspire you and other entrepreneurs to achieve their potentials and dreams, as well as learn from the stories of these entrepreneurs, as to see what has gone well, and what hasn't gone well for them.

Let's go create a bunch of healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs.

paden: Hey, quick ask from you guys, if you ever got any value from these podcasts, I kindly ask you to rate and review it. It really is the best way to help us grow and reach more people. We want to get as many healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs out there as possible. Thanks. Now to the show. 

paden: Welcome, to Behind Their Success. Today we have a really special guest for  you. One that in less than a decade has built a really successful business. And one that I know has even some bigger plans going forward. So let me introduce you to MattKuehlhorn.. He's the owner and founder of Kooler Garage Doors and Grand Junction in Gunnison, Colorado.

paden: Matt has a background in education and nonprofit work. Before he started [00:02:00] Kooler Garage, he loves adventures, rivers, mountains, canyons, snow, and everything business. Kooler found him and it's offered an adventure of a lifetime. He thrives on client feedback and building culture with his team. Matt is a guy I've gotten to know fairly well over the last.

paden: A little over a year or so. We're in a mastermind group together. 

matt: Matt, good morning. Brother, how are you? I'm really good, Paden. Thanks for the intro, man. 

paden: Yeah, man. we've gotten to know each other a little bit. in our kind of Gathering the Kings group. And, you're a guy that kind of always brings amazing advice, amazing perspective. We're excited to have you here on Behind Their Success. Yeah, 

matt: I appreciate that. when you mentioned build a successful garage store company and in less than a decade, I'm like, Oh, that is so slow. But that's just a matter of perspective. I think it is super healthy.

matt: It is something that. Pat myself on the back with and, the vision is so large. I feel like I'm not even close to it. And so I just [00:03:00] have to remind myself, this is good, doing good. It's funny. 

paden: And it speaks to your personality a little bit, right? The vision is so large.

paden: I wonder, you're probably never going to fulfill that. 

matt: Maybe at the end of this whole journey. 108 years old or wherever I make it to, aand I'm sitting there and I'm like, phew, I just hope it's phew, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's the real vision. 

paden: Tell me a little bit more about your background. 

matt: Yeah, background, midwest kid grew up in Chicago and Michigan came out to Colorado in 1997, really found the mountains. And when I came out here, I was transferring schools.

matt: And in college, I never did anything. I'm a kid that when I was 11-12 years old, my mom was running a coffee shop. And I really was like, pulled into the idea of being an entrepreneur, the idea of making a lot of money at that point, I was really invested in math. I was this [00:04:00] accelerated learner and loved the education model.

matt: And I was like, what can I do to make a lot of money that uses math? And at that time, my game was to be an actuary and I was going to go, I was going to be an actuary and make six figures. And then my family moved to Michigan and overnight I went from the city block of Chicago into having a wide open expanse of being a block away from the Grand Traverse Bay up in Traverse City, just full freedom for a 12 year old.

matt: My friends and I, we would just build BMX bikes out of dumpsters. And we didn't have money. We just were wrenching on whatever we can find and then jumping them across the railroad tracks and getting into a bunch of trouble. Our parents had no idea where we were. complete latch key type of kids.

matt: And it was awesome. and I went through school and I remember in high school still being like book smart and accelerated and I loved it, [00:05:00] but then in my senior year, I started taking some different exams and the veil started like eroding itself. And all of a sudden I just got disheartened. I was like, ah, I went to this one exam and I didn't study for it intentionally, like almost wanting to bomb and I didn't bomb.

matt: I was like, ah, this is all made up. and I, yeah. And I had a hard time starting. I had a hard time launching. I went to the community college that was right across the fence from my high school, and I stayed at home for the first year, and then my mom was like, you gotta go. And she really helped me launch and boot.

matt: So I went up to Northern Michigan university up in Marquette for a year. And then I came out to Colorado. When I came out to Colorado, I found experiential education and a great mentor. In experiential education is just go out and live and then reflect on that experience and what can you extract into life?

matt: It's like God, this is it and I still think I follow that to this day and, utilizing outdoor education, [00:06:00] leadership, traveled into some really cool country and got in some really cool adventures, brought a lot of folks out into the adventures with me and, using experiential education just to, to learn the inside game, like what moves us inside that creates our external reality.

paden: That's really interesting. You say that, it's like, former education, all that stuff, that's great. And in many ways it's necessary. it's self education or the education through experience, right? The intentionality behind that and how much more you can learn about yourself and the world, figure out how to navigate this world and achieve the goals, you really want to, right?

matt: Yeah. we're on a podcast talking about entrepreneurship, and I know without a doubt, that my kids are in our local public education and for the high school, their intent is to develop a worker, not an entrepreneur, and you and I've had some conversations offline as well [00:07:00] around AI and technology and the paradigm is shifting and we don't really know how it's going to shift.

matt: And I guarantee you the education is not prepping students for what's coming. You get those big education systems and the ability to adapt them in any quick manner is basically impossible. Yeah. Yeah, we're doing a disservice of not being able to adapt the education to our, our world that is changing ever so rapidly, right? He faster and faster under that exponential curve. And you're right, it's an institution and that institution is. A hundred plus years old, and it's a huge freight train. That's really slow to turn or even slower to stop, and it's not the people.

matt: And I want to make that point. there's really great intentions within the system. It's just a massive institution and it's hard to shift it. And I also [00:08:00] think that with some of the shifts on the horizon, technology wise, we just don't know. We really don't know what AI might or could or will do. We don't really know the whole implication of blockchain.

matt: I think there's some futurists out there that have a decent sense of what it could be. But there's some variables in how it. 

paden: Yeah, how it's going to play out. There's just too many variables to even comprehend what's going on there and, yeah,there might be a handful of futurists that can wrap their heads around it, but us normal people are pretty good at this.

paden: So Matt, let me ask you this. This is a question I'd like to ask everybody. What would you say your superpower is? What is your number one skill that leads to your success?

matt: That's a great question. I'm going to say poised adaptability. I think that, as I kind of progress and gain more self awareness. What I realize in my power, it's not [00:09:00] consistency. Some of it is preparedness, and I think going back to experiential education, like this has prepared me to be able to answer in this poised adaptability, if I got dropped in anywhere, I have a big vision ability that can always optimize a scenario. I can drop in, I can look at a system and I can start optimizing a system. I can get on an airplane and I always look across the heads that are on the airplane and I say, I got you. Whatever happens, I'm going to lead and I'm going to find the optimized, and I think that really is my superpower, like poise adaptability.

matt: I'm ready to react and lead in a way that serves. Yeah, 

paden: That's great. the ability to see the future, to be able to be a leader, when you talk about being on the plane, they're being a leader of thinking, okay, crap. It's the fan here. what do I do [00:10:00] first?

paden: And you're already prepared. Thank you. And then like adaptability, like that's survival, right? That's what makes humans, the dominant species really even on the planet. It's not that, we're the strongest. we're probably the smartest, but it's the ability to adapt, right?

paden: The ability to change like a tree if the weather changes, the trees, they're screwed. They're going to die, but humans, we can move and we can adapt. And that's what allows us really as a species to grow and thrive

matt: Yeah. I mean, one of the, one of the things that has not done my business service, and I'm being really transparent here is I love change.

matt: Love it, COVID hit, I was in my element. I am like a wartime general, it gives me disruption and that's what's happening in the garage door industry right now, and I love it. However, it doesn't do great for maintaining consistency. In a business. 

paden: And, especially as leaders [00:11:00] of businesses, leaders of teams and people, we always got to be careful that we're not just outrunning them, and leaving them behind, it's so easy for us to create chaos, and then our team has to come in behind and pick up the pieces.

paden: That's always a balance of leading and being that forefront. But Gosh, sometimes you just need to let your people settle in for a minute before you bring them something new. 

Yeah. I've been learning that as I mature. So I want you to think back on your kind of your career, your journey, in entrepreneurship.

paden: What would you say is the best decision you've ever made?

matt: The best decision is to start. Yeah. There's a small graveyard of LLCs in my background. And each one, I don't have any regrets. I started, fired off. And they either work to a degree or they didn't work at all.

matt: But certainly the best decision ever. And what it did was prepped me like this poised, poised ability. Like when Kooler showed itself, it wasn't [00:12:00] something I was like, Oh, I'm going to put together all trade service company. I was on route to be an actuary. I didn't think I was going to pick up the tools.

matt: I didn't do construction work in high school. Like I was in kitchens and then administration of nonprofits, but what happened was when I saw the opportunity to Kooler, I was like, I saw the vehicle, cause I had four or five, six different LLC’s in the background that were just like burning dumpster fires.

paden: I think everyone’s got a few of those. And if there's a listener, like at all on the edge, like leap jump. Yeah, do it. I would, in my personal journey, I'd a hundred percent agree with that. Like the best decision I ever made was just being brave enough.

paden: To even file for that first LLC, and it's I'm gonna put myself out there, see what happens. 

matt: yeah, 

paden: on the flip side of that, we all do a lot of stupid stuff. What would you say is the biggest mistake you made?

matt: [00:13:00] Thinking that, something or somebody would come save me, help me, and I think that's a super immature, naive perspective. And I had to go through some rough patches in order to really own my decisions. And so back in 2011. I had attempted a couple of different LLCs already in 2011. My youngest son was born in September.

matt: My wife and I, we crested January of that year, debt free. We got out of our student loans. We were like living it. I was working at a nonprofit earning 30,000 a year. I was like, I got the job that mom wanted me to do with a salary. We had one baby at home already. And Annie was pretty much at home doing some loose end stuff, but also, growing Taj and it was a super special point.

matt: I remember being at a conference in March, I went to a free conference and that's where I heard Taj's [00:14:00] heartbeat for the first time over the phone. I'm just like emotion, tears, and I had just executed a 15,000 contract that I put on my credit card to join a membership of this personal development style company.

matt: And I had bought into four or five different courses throughout the year. And I had a big box of this dude's books and I was going to go sell the pay for it. And I had a little bit of a plan, but I didn't have execution power. And I think I was working through it. I don't know if it's a belief or just the maturity of like kind of the lotto winner mentality.

matt: Like when growing up, my dad was always buying lotto tickets. He's Oh man, if we win this and he would create this dreamer and mad,and of course, like my personality is yeah, I want to live in the future. I want to dream with you. And. It took some really hard knocks. I went through bankruptcy chapter seven to start learning [00:15:00] that the lotto ain't going to happen it's on me to own these decisions and work through this and execute and do the nitty gritty, make the phone calls, chase the leads, carry the water, right?

matt: Chop the wood, do the work, because I think early on, like I was just thinking I would pull the numbers, hit the ticket, 

paden: yeah, I know you listen to some Alex Ramosi or at least, aware of a lot of what he does, he talks about, how you feel about doing the work doesn't really matter, right?

paden: Like having a positive mindset about the work is certainly going to make you feel better while you're doing it, but ultimately the outcome is going to happen based off whether you do the work or not, like the only thing that matters is you do the things that advance you towards what you want to do, right?

paden: How you feel about it doesn't matter. so it's really interesting. I had some of that, especially early in my career as well, where you can get into some kind of like sales opportunities, but I personally was not capable of executing on any of that stuff at that point.

paden: [00:16:00] my self confidence, the lack of all those different things, there was no way I could execute on those. Now, me today? Sure I could. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I could execute on it. I really want to point out to the listeners here that Matt, especially, was pretty vulnerable there about some of the struggles and stuff he's had. People now may look at Matt and see the success in his business and think, man, wow, he's, he's this big, great thing.

paden: He's got all this stuff going on. I could never do that. it's not true. You look at Matt's background. He's had all these bumps and road, just like all of us. who are successful. He just kept chopping wood and carrying water, right? 

matt: That's right. That's right. 

paden: You think about those big mistakes you made and what you have and how you've come through them. What's the one piece of advice you'd give to Matt, in 2011, from your perspective today?

matt: If I was to drop in on Matt in 2011, he wouldn't listen to me, but I would probably, honestly, Paden, what I might do is throw an uppercut into his jaw.

matt: like of the pieces that [00:17:00] helped me get through that time was that's when I found boxing and I went into it with an intention to get uncomfortable. So there's been a cool piece that I've carried throughout my life. And some of this comes from experiential education because they've taught me this comfort zone.

matt: and we have these concentric circles and inside the tightest one is like where you're at.For me this morning, getting out of bed, I was so comfy. I was snuggling with my wife. I was like, ah, this is my comfort zone. Some people it's the sofa on a rainy day with a cat and a book.

matt: But that's the comfort zone. And just outside of that, we've got a little bit of a learning zone where we get out of our comfort zone. It's like, all right, I got to go out in the cold. Now I've got to stretch myself. And then beyond that, it's like the wild zone of not super healthy stretching.

matt: It's where we get trauma. So it's in that learning zone, right? And I've always had this, desire to push myself into a learning zone. And one of the reasons why I went into boxing was to stretch myself into that learning zone. I was like, [00:18:00] This is going to be super uncomfortable this year. Just so it's public, like my intent is now to get myself into an amateur fight.

matt: Cause I've never done that. I've sparred and trained. And, the amateur fight is the next thing of Ooh, like I could feel that, but it's important. So go stretch myself. Back then, it wasn't until I actually declared bankruptcy somewhere in there. I had different experiences of this martial art component.

matt: And we had a boxing gym in town and that's where I ended up going. And, if I was to try to circumnavigate those experiences, which they all learn and serve today. So I wouldn't necessarily need or want to take him away. But if I was to drop in on Matt, I would probably throw an upper cut in his face and be like, fight, wake up.

matt: Yeah. Fight. That version of Matt was just like waiting for mom or dad at a lotto or whatever, and just scared. There's a lot of insecurity for sure in that. but there's also just ignorance and naivety that's it's okay to go after [00:19:00] what you want.

matt: And there is a component of fighting and I call it fight for your life. And as long as that fight is connected to a heart and out of this mindset of serving all good, all you're going to do is build. 

paden: That's great stuff. You talk about boxing and how that taught you that, that kind of fighting mindset, I've had very similar experience myself, a little over three years ago was when I really committed myself to exercise.

paden: And I've gotten to the point where three years in, I work out five, six days a week. and it's not even the physical stuff and the developing the body and everything that's all great, but it's all about the mindset and it teaches your mind that, Hey, I can get better if I just chop wood and carry water. Like we talked about, I can keep advancing. It's learning that growth mindset. our tagline here, the podcast is we want to create as many, healthy, wealthy and wise entrepreneurs as possible and healthy is a big part of that.

paden: It's mentally, physically, and that mental and physical is [00:20:00] interconnected, right? Like you, you can't separate those things and getting your body in shape is going to get your mind. and much better shape to 

matt: I think there's an important thing, and this is a completely different rabbit hole that we don't need to go down.

matt: But in my journey, I've done a lot of work in the realm of masculine and feminine energies. And I think for the masculine for men to really have that mindset, that the space. We have to engage physically and whether that's in a martial art or lifting weights or going on some cool adventures, engaging the body and in knowing yourself through our body is really important.

matt: I think way too often, society taught this to me growing up with reflection, I can now see it where there's a lot of men that disengage their mind from their body. They're not connected. They're not feeling right or sometimes taught not to have feelings. and yet that connection I think is critical.

matt: It's been incredibly powerful in my journey to [00:21:00] make this reconnection and engage the body, engage the physical. And I look at like the riders, the brain and the horses is this body and I'm a freaking thoroughbred. So I might as well train. 

paden: Yeah. it'sinteresting.

paden: It's especially since in our lifetimes that culturally. It has been,towards males to maybe hold back some of their masculinity, right? And certainly there's ways men are toxic or whatever you want to call it, but to repress that instead of finding good routes to express it, it is not healthy.

paden: There's something to be said about going to the gym every day and then being able to walk around there and saying, you know what? But I am strong, right? And I am confident and I've put in the work that does so much for your ability to create and do good in the world. 

matt: A dangerous man is really healthy. Yeah. 

paden: You know that Jordan Peterson has that quote, right? Men should be as dangerous as possible, and then learn how to control it because, if you're a weak man, you're really not [00:22:00] good to anybody. And there's no morality in being a weak man, right?

paden: You're not good because you don't have the ability to do anything bad, right? That doesn't make you good. Astrong man that could do bad, who doesn't. That's more of a moral 

matt: person. Yeah, and I also make a distinction. there's mature masculine, there's immature masculine, there's mature feminine, immature feminine.

matt: And this quadrant, they have dynamics between each other, but just the distinction between immature and mature, immaturity is in it for the taking. Maturity is in it for the give. And that's a paradox. That's like opposite sides of the same coin in a lot of ways. And yet, there's a lot of leaders out there that are running the immature version.

paden: Yeah, and the understanding is like that you can have whatever you want as long as you give enough people what they want.

paden: That's right. it's in the act of giving to get whatever you want. Yeah, it's a really interesting perspective. 

matt: Back in 2011, I met a mentor, Keith Cunningham, [00:23:00] and he's the original rich dad.

matt: So he was one of the mentors for Robert Kiyosaki and, gold of a man. when I met this dude, I was like, this dude's a master. When I met this dude, I couldn't hold his eye contact. I had to go work with him. And, so I put his lessons on my credit card, went down to Austin, Texas and had some.

matt: Real transformational moments. but one of his quotes that just resonates with me. Hell on earth to meet the man I could have been. I'd rather meet that man, look him in the eye, and say I know you because I am you. And we don't necessarily get what we want by doing. We get what we want by becoming the person we need to be in order to have that which we want.

matt: And that quote. Moves me and has since 2011.

paden: yeah, Rich Dad's often a book I certainly recommend to a lot of people that are starting out on the financial journey.[00:24:00] it's trying to become the person that we want to be, man. it's a process and just a lot of dang boring work.

paden: and the people that go down the entrepreneur route that's attracted to entrepreneurship is also the same people that get bored easily, it's so hard for them to zero and focus on one thing.

paden: They start one thing, they start that first LLC and it's not working. Right away, because we have realistic expectations that something's just gonna work right away. the second we bump up against the littlest problem, it's boop, second LLC, let's go do something else, right? Instead of pushing through that resistance.

paden: That pushing through that initial resistance is just people just never go deep enough on 

matt: any one subject. I guarantee you Peyton, if I had kept my original LLC was called Life Schools, S K O L Z. I've had something with changing up letters.

paden: That is like  90s or something there, right? 

matt: Yeah. I created a graphic [00:25:00] novel that was aimed for middle schoolers to teach them restorative justice practices, which is conflict resolution, and I hired an illustrator and I hired an author and we wrote this book. I still have a couple of copies and it's good.

matt: And I didn't have execution power back then, but I sold some copies, right? I got some investors and I put this thing together. I formed the contracts and it's something that I always feel like I could. Resurrect and bring forward. But had I stayed with us, this was in 2009 somewhere in that time frame where it formed one of the graveyards now, but that could have kept going.

matt: I could have persevered. If I had done that, I'm pretty sure it would be a multi million dollar thing right now, because it probably would have evolved into online. It probably would have evolved into a real thing, but I really had to go through that needle point of discomfort. And I chose not to [00:26:00] at that moment.

matt: But I could look back at that and be like, it was actually a really good idea because I was teaching business sex life. That was the. The big three. I was like, yeah, those are the things that I needed during that age. And I don't think we're teaching that well at all, even to this day. And to that point of start and then.

matt: Have that tenacity to keep going and keep going and see what's on the other side. It's like that three feet to gold. It could be right there. If you quit you're not gonna see it 

paden: Yeah, it's just the ability to just stand in chaos almost right? Yeah, ability to just stand there and not run away and face.

matt: Yeah, whatever, some true way, right? Yeah, and I think you know when I look at that reflection I'm like, okay Yeah. If I had stayed, but there is, again, going back to maturity because you're right. Standing in chaos, being comfortable in discomfort and I've [00:27:00] only learned that by getting to know myself more.

matt: It's the core values as a principle. It's what I would ultimately die for, right? Like who is Matt, no matter what externally is happening. 

paden: I think that's very powerful is having those principles or values, that you say it's like. These are things that Matt's willing to die for, right?

paden: And that's important to, to have that, to even know what that, that is, to have thought through that. And, we got a good friend, Carl, and, in our group and 

paden: he's famous for saying that 90 percent of the work is internal, right? And only 10 percent is like external or your circumstances or whatever. It's like the only focus you really need to have is internal. But I tell you what, the first time I met Carl, I was talking about transitioning my business and build out my team and different thing, and this is when I knew Carl was really good.

paden: first thing he says to me, he goes, okay, so once you get that team in place, what are you going to do with your addiction to being needed? That's the first sentence that he ever said to me. I was like, dang Carl, you're reading my 

matt: mail brother. But that's the [00:28:00] cool 

paden: thing. the mastermind group that like me and you are in like.

paden: The capacities, the maturity levels of the different people in that group, man, they can see right through your 

matt: BS. 

paden: it's good stuff. that's being surrounded by, guys like you get, you guys in that group. It certainly helps us, certainly goes to another level.

matt: I definitely think it's true. Like your net worth is a sum of your net work. again, when I found gathering the Kings, like it was similar to boxing where I was like, huh, it's going to be uncomfortable. I'm going to do it. Yeah. And 

paden: yeah, it is a bit intimidating. He's Oh, I'm jumping in this group with all these successful business owners.

paden: I don't belong. Yeah. 

matt: Yeah. And Chaz and his team has done a great job of pulling in other players. And it's like each one adds a little level of like, all right, level up. Yeah. 

paden: It's exciting. Yeah. Exciting stuff. Matt, how can, how can people connect with you? what's the best way for people to connect with you?

paden: they like, they like you like what you've said here. what's the best way they can. 

matt: [00:29:00] Yeah, I'm not going to be shy. cooler garage doors, I think cooler in and of itself is a billion dollar brand. It's something that I formulated this year and it's going to be a life. to really bring forth cooler because there's a strong mission behind it.

matt: Like you talk about, mature masculine representation in the world. I think that's ultimately what this is a vehicle for when I am. Bringing on apprentices and young men and women that want to learn the trade, like it is time to level up and mature. and there's a big mission behind it. So as far as finding us, like we're easy to find Kooler Garage Doors online.

matt: it's our tags on social media. It's the URL for the website, Matt at Kooler Garage Doors. If you want to talk business, life, if you want to look at partnering, expanding, let's grow, cause right now in the garage door and home services in general, there's a really sweet disruption happening right now.

matt: And it [00:30:00] really does create a divide where there is old school and new school. And you talk about tech coming in, like the new school is going to win out over time. And it's just a different level of service for a homeowner, which honors them and their home. And the people that work for. these different companies and brands.

matt: Ao I get really fired up on it, and if anyone wants to reach out, please do love it, Matt. 

paden: I know, buddy, I know you have some massive goals. You've shared some of those with me, offline. And, I have no doubt, you're going to end up exactly where you are supposed to be, with your intentionality, man, you're going to do, you're going to do some really cool stuff and I can't wait to watch.

paden: We're going to wrap up our show here. I appreciate Matt being here. you can reach out to him, find him on socials or wherever. it's Kooler garage door spelled K O O L E R garage door. just reach out to him.

paden: Look forward to having you guys, listen to the next show. 

Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate, review, and share it. That is the [00:31:00] best way to help us build this and reach more people, as we're trying to accomplish our goal of help create more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs. You can follow us on social media by searching for me, Payden Squires, or going to padensquires.com on the website and social media, we're always sharing tips of personal growth, and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.