Blaze Your Own Trail - Becoming Matty Ice with Matthew Ryan

Episode Date: July 9, 2021

Matthew Ryan, A.K.A., Matty Ice is an Entrepreneur, Podcast Host & Studio Owner based in Scottsdale, AZ. Matthew Ryan has had on some amazing & notable guests like: Super Bowl Champion WR Antonio Brown, Taylor Alesia, Bdotadot, Taelor Parker & more! In addition to notable guests, Matty Ice loves to interview local Arizona artists to give them a platform to be heard! In this episode we discuss: Matthew's upbringing How he was as a kid Some early entrepreneurial spirit Getting into the music space His first business Who has inspired him What he's up to next And more! Connect with Matthew: https://linktr.ee/MattyIceShow Connect with Jordan: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanjmendoza/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/therealjordanjmendoza/⁠ Clapper: ⁠https://clapper.vip/jordanjmendoza⁠ Join my Facebook Group: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/linkedintrailblazers⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.blazeyourowntrailconsulting.com Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are you ready to find out how to blaze your own trail? Welcome to the Blaze Her Own Trail podcast with your host, Jordan Mendoza. In this podcast, Jordan interviews people from around the world to find out about their journey to success. If you're looking for valuable content with actionable advice, you've come to the right place. And now your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. got a very special guest with me today. His name is Matthew Ryan, aka Maddie Ice. And I'm going to

give him just a second to tell you a little bit about who he is and what he does. And then we will kick off the show. Beautiful. First off, thank you so much for inviting me on your show. I really appreciate it. I've been seeing you a lot on social media. And I know you got a great show. So I'm just happy to be here. So thank you. A little bit about me. My name, like you said, is Matthew Ryan. I have a podcast up in Arizona in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's called the Maddie Ice Show. People ask, well, hey, how did you get the name, Maddie Ice? Well, Matthew, Ryan, Matt Eice, Matt Ryan. It just kind of happened that way. So here I am with the name. But really a privilege to interview a ton of great people in the studio. We've had guests like

Christian Kirk from the Arizona Cardinals, Byron Murphy from the Arizona Cardinals, Mark Kett King, who was a punter in the league for a long time, and he's now into music, and he's getting back in the league as well. But just a ton of recording artists. We had, you know, famous social media influencer, Taley Alicia. I did the show recently she has like 2.5 million YouTube subscribers. Just been really a mix of everything. And, you know, I've been very fortunate to link with a lot of companies

and a lot of great people. And most recently, I've been talking to Rick Ross and the Bel Air family. and Rick Ross has given me the opportunity to work with his company, Luck Bel Air, and I'm just really excited for that. And it kind of fits my niche with who I've been interviewing and kind of what I'm looking to do in the long run of it all. So that's where I'm at and it's where I'm here. Awesome. Awesome.

We appreciate you sharing that. And what I love to do on my show is really rewind and give the audience context into who you are as a human, you know, where you started, where you grew up. So let's take it back to the formative years, say, you know, elementary up through high school. Where did you grow up? I know it was out in Illinois, but give the audience, you know, where did you grow up? What kind of kid were you? Were you into sports? Were you more into school?

Did you play any sports yourself? I'd love to hear about that. So I am from Vernon Hills, Illinois, which is the northwest suburbs of obviously Illinois, city of Chicago. So, you know, as a kid, I would always go up to the city of Chicago and just, you know, go shopping out there on Michigan Avenue. or just, you know, go to the beaches or just hang out there, catch good food, stuff like that. But I'd say as a kid, you know, from like five years old to high school, I was kind of, I was really hyperactive.

You know, I've been, I guess I'm ADHD, ADD, you know, ADHD, ADD, but I like that about myself. You know, I'm always out there. I'm always out there. But I was always that kid that was very like just, I would say out there and always on the go, always trying to figure out something and do something. I was always involved in business. I always wanted to make money. From a young age, I used to make these beaded key chains and I would make a bunch of them and I would go to the restaurants and I'd sell them to the waitresses and the staff and the customers.

It's like I was always on my hustle. I always wanted to make money regardless of what it was. I always wanted to make money, you know, just different ventures. Even as a kid, it didn't matter if I was shoveling snow from all my neighbor's driveways to save it or whatever. I just always wanted to make money. I always wanted to be something. That was like really something I always noticed about myself. even at a younger age, it's like my hustle.

You know, I always had that hustler mentality. It was just, it was born in me. But I was kind of a troublemaker. You know, I was like that. I was a little troublemaker. I wasn't the easiest kid to deal with. I was definitely not the easiest kid to deal with in high school for sure. A quick, funny story.

I always love sharing this story about high school story is, like I said, I was a little troublemaker. I was, I always pushed the limits and stuff like that up until high school. Nothing crazy. know, small little things, but I remember once, and shout out my gym teacher, Mr. Moran, this was back in high school. Everybody plays hacky sack outside during lunch and stuff like that. And the big pool at this high school I went to called Stevenson High School, there's a big pool and outside, you know, everybody's playing hacky sack. Well, what did I do? I ditched class.

I ditched gym class and I'm, the idiot I am was playing hacky sack right outside the pool where the whole gym class was. So I remember Mr. Moran, my gym teacher, and this is like, I always remember this. He was, he was an ex-Marine too. Really cool guy, but gave you that tough love. You know what I mean? Great, great. I loved going to his class, but I also knew he wasn't the guy to mess with either. And I remember he took me by my earlobe, literally, and walked me all the way in front of the class and all the way to my dean's office. And that was just a funny story. And I got caught ditching class that day, but I would say, After high school, I really calmed down. I really just started to focus and grasp life and take it more seriously for sure.

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, that gives us context about you. You've got a lot of energy, right? And sometimes you didn't use it for the best purpose, right? But I think that's all of us as kids, right? We don't know where to put that energy. And what happens when you don't put it in and you don't actually have a plan of where you want to focus it?

that's when that's when you find yourself getting dragged down the dang straight by your earlob. You know what I'm saying? That's what I'm making the wrong decision. So yeah, shout out to your gym teacher for putting that lesson into you because I'm sure that sticks with you today, right? Like, you're still talking about it, you know? People still talk about it too. Yeah.

That's awesome. That's awesome. So what happened after high school? You know, you seem very motivated, right? You knew you wanted to make money. So did you want to go to school after? Did you go to college? or did you say, you know what, I want to go the entrepreneurial route?

I want to figure out something or maybe start to work somewhere and just start to earn money on my own. Which one did you take? So right out of high school, I worked for T-Mobile and AT&T. Then I was a manager. I actually started up as a sales rep, you know, in their cell phone companies. I don't know if you remember back in the day, it had the kiosks in the mall. And people are buying phones and everybody's hustling trying to, you know, cell phones. There's the hustling mentality.

But I started up as a sales rep, worked my way up to assist the manager to manage. and then I wound up managing four different locations. This was all the way up to like 18, 20, 19, 2021. I was doing that about four years. It wound up a lot of the stores, you know, the kiosk wound up closing. A lot of it went corporate. I kind of decided that I wanted to get out of it. And then what I did was in my later 20s is I started a concert promotion company called Dreams

the Kings and I was throwing, you know, big hip-hop concerts in Chicago. I had guys like Machine Gun Kelly, Twist, just a lot of different artists in Chicago I would throw concerts for. And I did that for a while. My passion has always been in music, has always been in the entertainment industry. Like my whole life, I used to DJ too. I used to DJ in the clubs and stuff like that, like EDM music actually. But my passion's always been in the entertainment music, that kind of field. So I was throwing concerts, but I realized on the business center of it all, it wasn't really lucrative.

because it was really a gamble. You don't know, you know, who's going to sell out, who's really not, you know, how other people are going to vibe do it. So another story, like when I was throwing concerts, I had a Machine Gun Kelly concert I did with Twista. And this was August 9th, 2014, about six years ago. It was the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. And we sold 2,500 pre-sell tickets for it, which was crazy, really good. But unfortunately, Little Wayne and Drake announced the concert, a week after that. after we had already done our contracts and everything, it was the same night of the Machine Gun Kelly concert. So it killed our door cells because everybody was going to see Little Win and Drake,

obviously not that MGK is not a great artist, but just because that's what it is. Little Winning Drake, people are going to go to that ticket. So it's just a gamble, man. And I decided, you know what, that's just, it's not good. Putting too much money out there, not sure if I'm going to get it back or not. And this wasn't a good investment. I thought we can do other things, you know, with money at least invested properly. So I got out of that. Um, not. for me opened up a rolling paper company called the evolved premium rolling papers which did really well it really did it did good I have another business too I have a radio advertising company too so I'm all over the place that's my

main business the radio advertising company is my main business we're pretty much we just broker airtime and stuff like that but this the evolved you know premium rolling papers was a company that I was passionate about the branding was ridiculous it's federally trademark full website full store all that stuff it's just This was a big headache for me. And I'm not the type of guy that just, I just didn't want to deal with the headaches anymore. And I have another business, especially with COVID and everything that's gone on now. And I have employees there and a heck my mom works there.

I had to gear my attention towards my main income and my main business. So I went up selling my other, the rolling paper business to a really good friend of mine named Armando Allen. He used to play for the Bears. So I wished him nothing but best of luck with it. He told me he's going to make it a $3 million company. company. So if that happens, I'll be, I'll be a little salty, but I'll, I'll congratulate him. But now I'm here, and I started the Maddie I show about eight months ago. And, you know, not to sound conceited or cocky or by any means at all, but I feel like it's taken off in a lot

of ways. And I say that really because my whole heart is in it. So this is my passion, just talking to guys like you, interviewing different people is truly my best. passion and especially being in the entertainment kind of dealing with you know athletes or influencers or recording artists producers writers heck i had paris hilton's dennis on my show um it doesn't matter so i'm really really really interested in people's stories you know and that's that's kind of where i'm at right now that's what i'm focusing on right now i love it man and there's definitely a lot to lot to break down from what you just said because i mean here you are you're promoting concerts for some big names, right?

And then, you know, you have this show get kind of ousted by some bigger names, right? You know, for the, if you think about the masses and top 40 and things of that, I mean, you're right. They're going to, they're going to buy those tickets over the other artists you had. But, you know, like Twista, I've been a big fan of Twista since the 90s, man. Yeah, I mean, since, you know, the Pope Pimpin days, you know, I'm saying, like those albums. Yeah, yeah, those albums were amazing. Deer die, Christopher die, yep. So I probably would have been, I probably would have been like,

no, I'm saying it this one, you know, because I'm a big, right, a fan. I'm sure there were some loyal folks, but yeah, you could see how that gamble didn't pay off the way that it was supposed to. And to be honest with me, the concert went great. He put him, you can go on after we're off, you know, this pod. You can Google Machine Gun Kelly, Aragon Ballroom. It was Aragon Ballroom August 9.

The concert was fantastic. I mean, he put on a great performance, Twista put on a great performance. Machine Gun Kelly and Twista lit up a joint right on stage. It was a great vibe. It was a cool vibe for everybody that was there, you know, as a concert view. It just was, as far as the business end of it all, you know, you're hoping you can capitalize or make some money.

That's the whole goal. Profit, not being the red, be in the green, right? We wound up being in the red and it was just, you know, there's some things we could have fixed maybe to control the few things, But the problem is when you're a concert promotion company and you're not a live nation, you're going to get eaten alive because these companies can do that. They can get better venues. They can pay the artists more money.

They can control the game better. They can tell the artists, well, if you do that concert, we're not going to give you these. So they can do a lot of different things to make smaller promoters to make their life, you know, much harder. So, but dude, right now where I'm at and meeting the artists that I've met here and the producers I've here and it's incredible. I mean, I was just in the studio yesterday with this really very big artist named Sincerely Collins in Arizona. He actually just did the Phoenix Suns halftime show their last game in the real, you know, before COVID hit. He performed at halftime and I was at his studio yesterday just listened to his music and just to be able to even get these invites to

all these different studios that I'm being invited to just to hear their stuff before anybody else hears it or um you know just to meet these people and hear their stories bro that's what that's what it is to me like it's it's incredible to to really dabble in the scene now i feel like now i'm really in it and um the sky's the limit yeah you know and i think uh a big lesson there for people that are going to listen this episode is you know you had to have the self awareness right you had to have that self awareness to know that listen although i know this could be good and i probably could do well at it like i think it's my time to get out i think it's my time to you know put everything into this area right and then also you had to have the self-awareness to say you know what this business is a headache i i'm

actually not able to invest what i want into the thing that i'm most passionate about which is the show right you said it's your sport right and when i hear that like that's that's a very committed tagline because you're saying like this is it you know what i'm saying I truly created that. I truly mean it, dude. And I have a great team here. Nick Tantillo, Tantillo Productions. Yeah, he actually does some work for Bridget Case.

I had Bridget Case on my podcast in season one. And I know she does some work with them, I believe, as well. Yeah. I've talked to Bridget before a couple times. And I think Bridget's good friends with my friend Chelsea. So just a lot of different people. But Nick is, Nick's incredible. It's phenomenal.

producer. We've been working together for all 23 studio episodes. I'm just a really good guy in the studio that he works out of. Carrie Payna, inspired media 360 in Scottsdale. She's incredible. So just everybody that I've been working with out here, we got a really good team. This Friday, we're going to be in the studio. We're doing a friend of mine, and I've interviewed him, and we became friends after the interview. He was named Seth Bishop and his friend, CJ, who they do music together. They're going to be doing a live performance and a podcast episode together.

We're going to be doing that this Friday in the studio. So a lot to look forward to you right now. And I got a couple of interviews right now that I'm working on right now. People always say, oh, I can't say it. I just really can't say it because I don't have it confirmed yet completely. That's the only reason why otherwise I would say it. I'm like that. I'll put it out there.

But I really am working on some stuff right now. I'm waiting for the confirms. But once I get those, I think it's going to kind of change the dynamics. little bit and people people you know I'm not the easiest person to deal with um but I put it out there like I'm trying to leverage myself in the game I'm not doing this to just do this I'm not doing this to just make a post or interview somebody I'm literally trying to take my podcast and say screw it hey me is Maddie I's whatever you want to call it and I'm trying to leverage myself in the game I'm trying to be that next that next that next guy

truly so some people you know they take that the wrong way like oh well look at this guy like being cocky you know no I'm not what I'm really trying to say is I'm gonna not even speak it to existence like we're gonna make it happen till it happens I'm a big opportunity guy an opportunity comes my way I'm gonna jump on it so that's kind of who I am as a person and that's what I'm trying to do here I'm trying to literally make my podcast my platform a place where every influencer every artist, every athlete wants to interview, because I'm going to give them the interview that they want. I'm not looking for clickbait. I'm not looking to screw them over. I'm trying to build relationships. And that's what I think sets me apart from other interviewers or other people

that are trying to do what I'm doing. Yeah. And I think, you know, you hit it on the head. You're doing what you want, right? And what you're passionate about and what's, and what you love and you're building, you're trying to build a legacy with this show, right? You don't want something that's just going to disappear after 100 episodes and no one's heard about it again, right? I'm 100% trying to make one thing. I want to get paid. I want to make money from this. And I want to become successful from doing this.

So as of right now, I realize I'm a nobody in this game, right? I'm building myself up right now, meaning like, as far as am I here yet? No, but I'm trying to build myself up right now and leverage myself, you know, in the game, working with guys like Rick Ross. I'm really tight with Antonio Brown. He's helped me out a lot. So just different people that I'm working with and trying to, you know, network with them and learn from them on how they go about their business in life, and really just life. Like I said, guys like Antonio Brown really inspire me.

You know, I know people have his issues with him and his off-the-field stuff, whatever, but, you know, knowing him as a person, seeing how he conducts his business, it rubs off on me a lot. So it's good to have mentors, right, and coaches and people that that you can count on. So can you talk a little bit to the audience about maybe who are like the number one, one and one A or, you know, one and two in your life that that really are rocks for you or a foundation for you that have helped you really be able to do everything that you're doing, being supportive, being that accountability partner for you. You know, who are those people for you? So I would say, again, I'm a different kind of a breed.

These names might be different, but first off, I want to say somebody that really I look up to and admire and really just changed a lot for me was the passing of Kobe Bryant. He's somebody I always idolat. He's somebody that, I mean, I cried when he died, like literally. And I can say it. But he's somebody that, like, I'm getting the chills even talking about him. because that's how much he inspires me. But now that he's gone, you know, it's not somebody that, somebody present right now, who I really would say is my mentor or who I look up to.

It depends on what I look up to him for. But I will say guys like Drake, somebody that I've been inspired by for the past 12 years, I have the aisle tattooed on my chest. He's my favorite artist. Huge inspiration to me in so many different ways. but you know even guys like i'm going to use him right now as an example um Antonio brown and people are going to be like well yo how can you use him as your mentor

how can you look up to him or respect him with you know the stuff you hear about him in the media or the stuff you know you hear off the field with him and stuff like that well i'm saying it firsthand you know people don't really get to know the person they hear about them on tv they hear him out of on radio but they really don't know the whole situation or they really don't know the bottom line of what really happened or that person. And that's how I feel about, you know, Antonio and seeing how he works out, seeing how he takes care of his kids. I mean, the guy has like six kids. And to me, he's like the father of the year.

You know, he's with it. Every one of his kids lives with him. Every one of them. Takes care of every single one of them. Takes him out and, you know, play sports with him. And then how he conducts his business, his business, personal, his financial business, is, incredible how he handles his finances is incredible um how he handles his workouts he's up every morning at five in the morning and he's not done until eight at night so like those are the types of

things i pick up from him and um his work ethic and i that's what i pick up from him work ethic um guys like drake you know just picking up you know how he inspires me and his music but i'd say those two people right there are definitely big inspirations for me right now for sure and a lot of it with Antonio comes from just his work ethic. But, you know, all honestly, he's not a bad guy. I mean, he's really a good guy. So, and I hope people, I think this year, people will see, we'll see that other side to him. And hopefully he thrives because I know he just got his eight game suspension. And actually, Seattle was, there's been rumors, so we'll see. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, there was, there definitely was rumors that, you know, he could come to Seattle. He was working out with Russell Wilson.

The host of it over there. Yep, yep, that's right. So now that would be, you know, be awesome. I mean, speed kills, my friend. And, you know, you got D.K. Metcap, Tyler Lockett, Antonio Brown, and Josh Gordon. I mean, I don't know any receiving core in the league that would be better than that. Can you believe, and I hate to say this about my team, but I'm going to say it. Can you believe we took DK or we took Andy Isabello over DK.

That was a bad decision. And he, listen, he made every, he made. made sure every person watching knew how bad of a decision that was last year. Listen. I mean, listen, there were, there were plenty of teams that had the opportunity way earlier. And they, when, when you say you want to, you don't want to miss out on a guy like that, that's like a once in a lifetime guy. He's, and he has swagger and his persona's great.

He has it all. He's the whole, he has the whole nine yards of it all. He's going to be that Hollywood guy, that type of guy that just does it all. He's that guy. He looks like an act. action figure. He runs like an action figure and he plays like an action, you know, plays like a video game. What more do you want from a wide receiver? You wear a pacifier in his mouth too. Is that what he wears in his mouth? Yeah, he would, yeah, because he was, he was the baby, the rookie. I don't

know if he'll do that for year too, but that's another statement, right? He's like, I'm the baby. I like. So, um, all right. So let's, let's dive into a little bit about, um, you know, the show, you know, how you actually came up with that, that tagline. That, you know that this is your your sport right because again i said earlier that's that's that's that's a bold statement and it's it's a commitment so what went into creating that and did it just come pop in your head one day when you just wrote it down and you're like that's it like how did that happen so literally it kind of just popped in my head like that and you know i look at like these athletes or um you know anybody out there that's doing something that's their sport like that's that's their

that's what they're doing like christian kirk he's a wide receiver that's his thing um but when he came on my podcast i let him know this is my thing so like you know what i mean um like what you're doing this is your sport bro like this is what you do um so that's kind of why that's just my slogan like this podcast is my sport this is like this is what i do um this is what i play this is what i'm involved um so that's kind of where it came from and i just liked it and i just said i'm running with it and that's where it's at. So I use it in almost every podcast. It's on all my branding and all that.

But we'll probably have some merch that comes out later. It might be on some of the merch. But that's where it came from. That's awesome. That's cool. And those are the, you know, the cool stories about where things come from. Because a lot of it just comes from something popped in your head and you're like,

that's it. You know what I'm saying? And then you stick with that. So that's very, very cool. So what are some things that you're doing on social to try to be different, to try to build your brand different? I know you're on Instagram lives a lot. You're doing a lot of lives. You're doing story posts.

And are you married to a specific platform? Because I do see you on Instagram. What are your thoughts on other social platforms like LinkedIn, like TikTok, like Twitter, Facebook? You know, what are your thoughts on those other platforms? Great questions. Social media and marketing to me is everything in a lot of ways. So not that my, you know, social media page has crazy action. Because it doesn't, it's getting in there.

We're building it every day. And that's been a gradual growth every single day. But to answer your first question, as far as social media, I'm really, really, really using Instagram, I would say the most for my podcast. But we also upload the videos obviously to YouTube. YouTube. So YouTube is a big presence for me, but not the best, necessarily social media. But YouTube is a big presence for my podcast as well. We do really well on that. We just hit like our 1100 subscribers, which whatever. It's not a whole lot. But we're gaining traction.

We're over the thousand mark now. So we're getting traction there. But as far as Twitter and Facebook, we're on Facebook a little bit. Twitter, not yet. I know I need to handle my social media better outside of Instagram. But I feel like Instagram is like we're the, for what I'm doing, I feel like that's where I'm getting like I feel like that's where all the traction's at and that's why I've been pounding Instagram and I feel like it's out of all the social media apps I feel like that's the best one

especially for what we're doing just because of the lives and you know you get to see everybody has an Instagram and then like with Twitter you just can't upload pictures every second or go on stories or so I just feel like for what we're doing Instagram's the best but I do think I need to get myself

on every platform I feel like we should be everywhere So that's something I'm actually actively working on along with a website and all that. So we're going to go all in, but I definitely need to have a better presence outside of Instagram for sure. Okay. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. And I think you're right.

You know, any of these platforms can disappear at any time. Literally. Like we could wake up tomorrow and Facebook's gone. We could wake up the next day. You know what I'm saying? Instagram is part of Facebook. That would be gone. Right.

So if you're only putting your eggs into one basket, Like you said, if you're not distributing and showing up in different places, you know, it's not the best thing. But I think what you did was smart. It's let's focus and build this up, right? Let's get this platform up. Now that you've got some traction when you start to see exponential growth, right? Your following has a steady line of increase. Now you can put a little bit of time over here.

You can put a little bit of time into this place as well. You know, and my Instagram, you know, I've been working on building. mine up. My biggest brand is on LinkedIn. Really? It's a platform that I have a page for my podcast and then I have my personal page. But, you know, in 15 months, I was able to scale from 7,000 to 57,000 followers. You know, so, but again, I did what you did. I put my eggs into that basket. I created content at scale, you know, made sure that I was trying to reach my intended audience. I engaged with my audience. And you start to build up the network. You start to build up a a fan base of people.

And so now I've started to shift to Instagram. That's why you started to see me show up more is now I have the ability to start shifting because it's sustainable on this side. So I feel like for my niche, you know, and again, I'll interview really anybody that has a great story, you know. Yeah. I am picky about who I interview.

I'm not going to just interview everybody, but I will interview somebody that has a really unique, cool story or is involved in something really good. But I'd say the main thing for me is I'm really, really trying to get in that entertainment field. Music is everything for me. And I feel like with Instagram especially, like the fact that you can share people's music right on the stories and just different. These artists are just a lot of them obviously are really Instagram one. I feel like Instagram's one for what we're doing.

Yep. But you want to have your hands and everything. LinkedIn's obviously a really good platform. I've heard a lot of great things about it. Yeah. Yeah. And again, you just got to be testing, man. to check it out. You got to figure out how do I how do I use this platform right? Because of course

when you shift from an Instagram to a LinkedIn, it looks like a different language. You have to start to understand the lingo. So I think for me like you know just mainly I was talking to this is another thing. I network with so many different people on Instagram. I'm telling you 80% of my interviews have come from Instagram literally. So like 80% of the people I've met the amazing people I've met here, long life, lifelong friends now, met him on Instagram. And that is what I think is incredible. But guys like Rick Ross, who has 11 million followers on Instagram, I connected with him on Instagram.

And that's incredible. And, you know, I was sponsored by Bang Energy for like four months. And great company. And I appreciate everything that they've done, you know, for me in the junk. you know, starting the podcast off, getting me like a sponsorship opportunity, all that. But at the same point, like, you've got to do what's best for you and what's best for, you know, your brand or what you're looking to do. And when I heard that I have an opportunity to work with, you know, Bel Air, I jumped on it.

Not that bang is a bad company or anything like that. But for what my niche was and what I'm trying to do. And then when you have guys like Rick Ross and your DMs telling you what to do, it changes it changed my that changed my perspective so a simple conversation on Instagram with Rick Ross you know through DMs telling me what to do it literally changed everything for me and that happened about a weeker about 10 days ago he told me he's like put a flyer up announced you know what you're doing da da da da da da da da tag me in it did that and then he commented it he's like I'm going to get back to you he commented it like two

or three days later I was silent for two or three days he commented it welcome to the family. It's not my page right now. So like, commented, welcome to the family. He's been sharing my stuff, whatever. To me, it's like, okay, when you have a guy like that who's reached the level of success he has, who's done numerous songs with my idol, Drake, um, dude, I'm on it. And I'm going to do everything the dude tells me to do. And, um, who knows where that's going to take me? And people are like, well, oh, you know, you're kissing Rick Ross's ass. No, it's nothing like that. It's about opportunity and when an opportunity gets put in front of me like that um i'm going to go with it until you can't go anymore and that's kind of where i'm at right now like literally right now especially with

you know social media has all happened through social media yeah yeah no and that's a good lesson for people that um you know it's okay to to try to spark up a conversation in the dms but but here's the thing um it's got to be it's got to be it's got to be from a position of value and not like taking you know what I'm saying like when you reach out to someone it's hey I really enjoy what you're doing I appreciate your content you know I've engaged with your content you know what I'm saying so there's oh there has to be some type of relationship that's built exactly there's got to be some type of value that you're going to add you know to the other person you know that if you're not doing it that way then it's transactional and you sound like the guy brother

that you don't want transactional relationships. You're building something sustainable for the long term. And you can't do that by jumping in and just trying to beg people for stuff. That's exactly what he gets all the time in his DMs. I told him, I'm going to work blood, sweat, and tears. Like you just said, how can you not want to work with me? And again, I'm saying that in the most humble way possible. How could a brand not want to work with me?

I think that's crazy if you don't want to work with me. And let me say why. here I am bringing in big time NFL players, big time recording artists, big time producers, big time doctors. And I know what I'm about to announce in the next few days, but at the same thing, how can you not want your product in a studio with these people in the studio with a photographer there, with a videographer there, with these videos going on YouTube, with the product being on YouTube?

And then of course, I'm always offering the product. You know, to when I was sponsored by bang, I was always opening up bangs. We're drinking bangs in the studio. I'm having bang and their branding all over the studio. How can you not want that for your company? Especially doing with what I do. And that was my pitch to the boss. And he was all over it.

And now it's just kind of like, okay, this sky's the limit. Now really put in that work. You know, anybody can talk. And now I got to get my interviews and check. And I got to put my work in because, you know, like I said from the beginning, my goal is to have an opportunity. My goal is to get a call from somebody and say, hey, we want to pay you this.

Like, this is a blast. Don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day, if I want to make this my livelihood, and if I want to say, okay, I want to take this and run off with it, I got to get paid. And that's where I'm at.

I got to get paid from this eventually. So if I don't want to make it a hobby, let's put it that way. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's my opinion. Everybody has different goals. Some people might be doing this for, you know, just have fun and get out there and meet people.

One thing about me, when I start something, I'm literally going to go all in. And I'm either going to fail or I'm not. And if you fail, truly that's okay. Because I probably started 50 things in my life, and I swear only two of them have been successful. And that's okay. I'm cool with that because I'm still successful right now. I still have a business during all this crap. It's down right now a lot, but I still have a business.

And like I said, I failed at numerous different things. But the two things that I didn't pay my bills, keep me in a nice place, and I'm living comfortably. And I think that's the main message that I really want to tell everybody is, yo, dude, I've been that, dude. I've been broke. okay i've been down to literally not eating that night like straight up like i've been through the grind of it all i've been broke maybe maybe i've been broke because some of my spending issues haven't been the best maybe i didn't budget myself correctly or made stupid decisions when i was younger but the one thing i'll always say is there's a go if you have something you really want

to do i i truly believe this this is something i truly believe if you want something you can get it. Now, maybe you can't be an NBA basketball player if you're five-time, like myself. You know, and you're not, you don't, but if you want something out of like a physical, you know, if you can't get, you get where I'm going with it.

If you can't physically get it mentally, anybody can get anything they want. If you want something, you can get it. Period. That's it. Just like right now, if I wanted Drake on my podcast, I could get that.

I could get that right now. If I wanted Drake and I wanted to interview with Drake, I could get that. But it's not going to just be me saying right now I can get it. I'm going to literally have to dedicate myself for the next two weeks to getting Drake on my show, meaning all I do is figure out a way to get Drake on my show. But I promise you after that two weeks I would have Drake on my show.

That's my mentality. Where if I put a task to myself and I say I have to do it, I'm going to do it. And that's, that's, I feel like what separates me from different people. That's good. I mean, that's a great mindset to have, right? You got to have the mindset that you're going to succeed, right? You have to have that positive mental attitude because that's going to help you when you take action, you know,

because listen, if you're trying to sell something and you go into it with an attitude that you're not going to sell it, you're never going to sell it, right? And so if you're going to something with the attitude that it's already finished, it's already done, then the chance of you being successful are a lot higher. Exactly. And that's the whole thing. It's like, yo, if you really want something, I truly believe it. Everybody always says that. But I really believe it. You know, everybody says if you want to get it, it's a true statement. Maybe there's a few things in life you can't get, you know, truly unless you have the ability to do it. But everything else, you can get that job. You can go, you can get that girlfriend if you want. You can get in good shape if you want. Everything in life is about choices. And hopefully people make the right choices. And that's, that's kind of what I've learned from life.

And I haven't made the right choices in a lot of different areas in life. But I feel like now that's where I'm gearing towards now is trying to make the right choices, trying to network with the right people, linking up with people like you. And that's kind of where I'm at right now in life at least. Sure. That's good, man. No, that's awesome. So let's talk hobbies for a second outside of the show.

I know it's your sport, but you have to do some other things outside of the podcast. So what are you into, man? Do you play any sports and basketball, like, you know, wreck stuff out at the park or at the gym? You lift weights. What type of things are you into? I know you're in Arizona, lots of golf courses, stuff like that. So what do you like to get into in your downtime for that release, you know? Need that.

It's crazy. I used to play a lot of golf in Chicago and Illinois, way back in the day as a kid. I haven't played one round since I've lived here in five years. And I need to. All my friends play out here. This is golfers paradise in Arizona. TPC is right by my heart. And golfing, brother, is all about networking, man.

Yes, I know you're into networking. I need to. So you're missing out on all of those opportunities, brother. I know, I know. Trust me. All my friends golf out here and business people golf out here. I need to get into it again. It's something I'm going to get into.

Like I said, the problem with me is this, though. Like I just said earlier, if I get into something, I'm literally going to go into it. I'm going to be playing all the time. So this is just my personality. When I start something, I'm into it. And that's it. I'll wind up playing like I'll be the driving range every day.

So that's just, I'm going to get into it because like I said, I live right by TPC. All my friends play out here. So it's not a hobby I'm into right now. I definitely work out five days a week. It's a huge stress reliever for me. I work out at Lifetime in Scottsdale. They're actually closed right now because of everything that's going on. Arizona is one of the hardest hit states right now with the pandemic.

We're in a mask everywhere we go. I think everybody really is. But hopefully that gym will open back up soon. right now I'm kind of just training at this private gym that no one really goes to kind of on the low just to get a workout in no one's really there but I got to get some kind of physical activity in besides being outside but being in Arizona hiking is a huge thing out here not right now because it's 120 degrees but the hiking trials are fantastic out here I love going to Sedona Sedona is a beautiful place in Arizona it's a really peaceful place

I always know man it's it's awesome have you gone hiking up that way or yeah I've been hiking in Sedona. It's amazing. Dude, whenever I'm there, I just feel like I'm in tune with Earth. And it just gives me a really surreal feeling that I only get it when I'm there. And I can't even explain it. It's just a very like, it is the, if I remember correctly,

the spiritual vortex of the northern hemisphere. That's what they call Sedona. Yeah, it is. It's, there's just something. It's almost like you, there's some type of presence almost. You know, when you, like literally entering and leaving, you could feel

difference. Totally true, dude, and I feel so in tune with myself when I'm there. And I feel like you're just far away from life. And that's your time to just, you know, be in tune with your body, be in tune with life. Whoever you're with, have a great time with that person, take some great pictures. That's what it's about, you know, in Arizona is getting out there, getting on the trials, you know, going hiking with your buddies, whatever. Like you said, the golf out here is incredible. But I'm really a laid-back person. I love sports. I love going to the football games. My grandparents I have season tickets to the Cardinals. Unfortunately, you know, it doesn't seem like we're going to be able to go to games this year, but they've had season tickets for the past 20 years. So I always would

go to games with them. That's a big hobby of mine, you know, make sure I go to a lot of the, you know, the sporting games. But right now, that's kind of not happening. So I'd say really, I keep it simple right now. I'm keeping it my main business. Now after that, I would say the podcast, I guess, is a hobby right now because I'm not making a lot of, I'm not making really money from it, so it's a hobby still. And then fitness. You know, I try to, not eating great, but I'm working out good. So if I can get the diet right, we'll be there.

But those are the main things I'm really focusing on right now, dude, is business, fitness, podcast, and I'm a big lover of Las Vegas. So being in Arizona, I love going to Vegas, especially with the sports. You know, there's no sports now, but I love that aspect of it all. and hopefully, you know, get back to some normalcy here. Yeah, man. Yeah, hopefully this will be a thing of the past for everybody. So let's give the audience some places to reach you, right?

They're going to listen to this, and there's going to be some folks that are inspired by your journey, by your mission, by your ability to shift and change your mind at the drop of a dime and not look back, right? Because that's a strength, man, when you can make those decisions and say, I'm good with that. I'm going to go all in here.

Right. And then pivot again and say, I'm good with that. I'm going to go all in here. Right. It takes a lot of, it takes a lot of self-awareness to be able to do that because some people get stuck doing the things that they don't really like and then they end up regretting it for years later. You know, so where can people find you on social?

And, you know, I know you got the website coming soon. And then, you know, what can people also? you know, be looking out for in the next, you know, 30 days from YouTube as well. For sure. Well, obviously, Instagram, Maddie I Show with a Y, Maddie I Show. YouTube right now, you know, the Maddie I Show or Maddie I. I think it's Maddie I Show on YouTube. You'll see all my videos.

We got like, you know, 20-something videos up there already, different interviews. And then my website, Maddieis Show.com. We already own the domain for everything. We just, I'm going to be getting it off the jump with that. I'm going to have a ton of merch. I'll throw this out there right now. I am working on doing black bottle boys and black bottle girls merch with the Maddie I show. So that's something I'm working on right now behind the scenes.

If that happens, I think that merch would sell out like crazy. I'm just kind of branding it with Bel Air and Black Bottle Boys and Black Bottle Girls. They're branding. I think their logo and everything and how I kind of presented it, I think really will do some good damage coming up in the future. but I'm going to be doing the merch. I have some interviews right now that I'm really trying to get. They're not easy ones.

So I'm really, really working on that right now. But I think you're going to be seeing a lot of just a ton of local artists on my show. And then you're going to be seeing a ton of talent too, that all the way up. So that's what you'll see coming up in the future. And as far as my Instagram lives, I'm trying to do those a little bit less. I was doing cash giveaways a lot of my live because people are like, why you're always giving out cash on your live, dude? And it's not much like 10, 20 bucks here and there whenever I go live.

But how I look at it is just I'm a big marketer, dude. So if I'm paying for engagement, why not take care of my own people that follow me? And have them engage on my page more, you know, because not everybody's going to like every single picture you put up or share everything you do. But if there's a reason to do it, they will. And they'll still like it and comment it and share it, but not every single thing. So if I'm announcing something or I'm promoting something, hey, I'm going to do a little giveaway and go like this or share it. That's been my kind of marketing thing.

But we're going to kind of take the cash away and do merch eventually and give merch give merch giveaways and stuff like that. But really you're going to see just a ton of good interviews coming up and some stuff with Bel Air. So that's kind of where I'm at right now. And hopefully you've got some crazy stuff coming up too. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Well, hey, I appreciate you taking the time to come on the show. share your story and your journey with people and everybody make sure you go follow the at mattie eye show on

instagram check out his youtube and be on the lookout for some more amazing guests that he's going to have on the show coming at us really soon thank you man bro i really appreciate it thank you so much bro later