Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Matt Lisle- The most followed, MLB Hitting Coach

Episode Date: January 6, 2022

Today Shawn French sits down with an old friend of his, Matt Lisle. Matt is the most followed MLB/NCAA Hitting Coach on the Internet. On this epidose we sit down and talk old times and catch up each other's lives. His story is absolutley incredible and the amount of adversity he went through to get to where he is now is impressive. We go deep into his journey. Sit back and enjoy this true success story. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/shawn-french/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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I mean, I appreciate you letting me know. I probably should have told you that we were going to do this Facebook live stream beforehand. So I could have protected myself from embarrassment. All good. Hey, Matt, what's up? Listen, guys, this is an old friend of my Matt Lyle. A lot of people call him the internet's most followed hitting coach, which is accurate. It's totally accurate. But I call him Matt Lyle. I remember growing up with Matt playing baseball with him and against him for many years and always had an amazing attitude, always passionate about the sport, and moreover people. You know, and Matt, dude, I think my second year ever, I was on your brother Trevor's team.

Yeah. The wolves. And was your dad the coach? Yeah, yeah. I mean, he coached me most of the years that we played. There were a couple years in there he coached. I don't know if he coached both teams at the same time, but he definitely goes my brother a few years as well. So that wouldn't surprise me.

He was still coaching for a long time. Yeah, man, that was awesome. I remember that. Me and Trevor were the one-two punch on the bump. That was like my last year of pitching. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. After that, it was just straight fastballs and people were taking the yard. So my dad hid me behind the plate and it worked out for me.

But yeah, man, listen, dude, I appreciate you taking the time to get on here and for us to catch up. And, you know, your story is pretty incredible, man. I think, and I'm pretty sure I'm correct. you're literally the only coach ever to coach every level that we know of we've definitely tried to figure out there's anybody else who's you know i think i think everybody's coached little league and travel ball in high school and stuff but uh from the college level juco n aia d3 d2 d1 uh and then i have two different sports as well. So it's just it's it's been a crazy journey. That's the best way to just that's the best way to say it. It's just been a great. We'll definitely get into that, you know, but first I want to,

I want to start small. Okay. And forgive me, it may not be small, but how did you transition from baseball, right? In the concepts of hitting to softball, because listen, man, we've been friends for a lot of years, you know, and I followed you. And I, um, I think one. of the one of your one of the things i remember you saying on some of your videos is the baseball and softball swing are not all that different not not different at all actually okay you know and and and we can talk about that but it's just uh you know it's actually a real you know to me it's a funny story is you know i i coach some d3 ball some juco i coached naia and you know as a father and married and having kids you know the most money i made coaching in my career up at the

first 10 years with, you know, and I coach, I was a head coach at YV, your old high school. Yeah. Yeah. I got, I made $1,900 that year, which probably didn't pay for the gas and the, you know, you know, you know, yeah. And then I coach D, I coached NIA. I got a $3,000 stipend that year. I was a head coach at a D3 and I got $7,000. So it's like, you know, the, the journey of a coach and trying to make money doing it full time is extremely difficult. Right. And so I went back to coaching high school. And I just got done with coaching at college park high school, not too far down the road from where you played as well and competed against. And I was trying to get back into college. I'm like, I'll take a volunteer job, a D2 job. I'm just trying, I want to provide for my family.

I want to coach college. And I just wasn't getting a lot of love. So our season ended, our high school season ended in the middle of May. And we just had, he's now my nine-year-old son. My wife was working, so I stayed at home with him over this like two to three week time. He was a couple months old. And for whatever reason, I'm on the couch. He's, you know, doing the nap, doing the daddy daycare thing. And the women's college regionals come on. Softball.

Yeah. So I'm like, I got my kid. I can't really go anywhere. I'm going to watch this softball regional. I'm telling you from that time on, all the way through the Women's College World Series, it's about two to three, throughout three week process. I watched every single game on ESPN and ESPN and ESPN Plus and all the different, you know, things. And I was like, wow, this game is just like baseball.

And I'd never really watched it before. It's high tempo. Like you can play a 90-minute game. I mean, the infielders. I mean, the game was just so fast and exciting. And for me, as a coach, like if someone was asking, you know, what was Matt Lyle's baseball coaching high school philosophy? It was a very high-tempo game with a lot of stealing, drag bun team. and like putting pressure on the defense, high tempo, high energy game.

And I'm watching softball, like, wow, this is exactly like my style of play softball. And I'm kind of like, okay, this is really, and it was really fun. It was an incredible world series. And I watched all of it. I'm like, man, this is really cool. So I had, back then I was doing the email newsletter and all these things trying to build the social thing up and I had no, you know, no followers. And I got an email list of every D1 softball coach.

head coach and every D1 baseball coach. And it was late at night. The World Series was over. And I penned together this email saying, hey, I've coached high school. I've coached college baseball a little bit. You know, here's in my background. Here's who I've worked with. And I just want an opportunity.

That's all I want is an opportunity. I woke up the next morning. I probably had 10 emails from D1 baseball coaches saying, you know, might have a volunteer spot and this and that. I don't really have anything. I had over 50 emails from D1 softball coaches. is saying they were interested in talking. So I'm like, okay, maybe this is a sign.

Right, sure. And most of them were volunteer positions, but like a lot of them was like, you know, I interviewed on the phone with Michigan State, Southern Miss, NC State, Oregon. And I was like, I mean, it was like, these are some big time programs. And so like I said, kind of long story short, it just kind of worked out that I got on the phone, the Oregon coach offered me the volunteer spot. and we packed up the U-Hull and drove up to Eugene, Oregon and started my softball career there. But it was just kind of this like, you know, not to over-spiritualize the thing, but it was like,

I've been trying so hard to kind of break down the door of getting the college ball. It was with a little bit more pay than D3 and NIA and just wasn't having a lot of success. And looking back, it was like, that was the thing that opened the door for me. And I got into softball. and, you know, I never, I never looked back. It was just, I really, really enjoyed it. I enjoyed, just enjoyed coaching hitting. And as I got into it, I figured out, hey, you know what?

It isn't any different than baseball, this, this hitting thing. And so it kind of just all worked out for me in that sense. So that's kind of, that's kind of the story of how I got started into softball from having, you know, doing daddy daycare and watching every game on ESPN for a couple weeks. Well, I think what's really cool about that story is, first of all, you watched every inning. It reminds me of I'd never watch the World Cup. And the last World Cup, men's World Cup, my wife, my wife's from Ecuador, she's big into soccer. Nice. And I'm like, okay, fine.

I'll watch it. I just don't know what's going to go on. They're going to run around. They're going to run 17 miles. They're going to kick the ball and somehow they can't, you know, get in the goal. You know, baseball players aren't always the biggest soccer fans, right? Yes. I hated it growing up.

I can't stand it. Dude, I fell in love with it. I'm literally counting down the days until the next World Cup. I'm the same way. I can see myself sitting. I can see you because I, because to me, I had a similar experience with the World Cup, except, you know, I didn't go and say I'm the coach soccer because that's way out of my box. But I really appreciate that part of the story because, you know, as you know, I've coached for many years. I actually took a six-year, you know, time span off and I just went back. and I'm working with the catchers at a local school here, Canterbury of Fort Myers. Very good program. But, you know, I've been that guy on the couch trying to figure out how to get into D1 ball. I've interviewed with University of Miami, Florida Atlantic, you know, all these different schools. And there weren't the volunteer programs that, you know, paid a lot of camp money.

Yeah. Right. So when I, you know, when I got close, I mean, I remember sitting in, you know, Jim Morris's press box at University of Miami. And he's like, is $6,000 going to do it for you? And I'm like, man, I'll do lessons. I'll do whatever, this and that. And you know what, dude? You know, God's own answer prayers, right? Because it didn't happen. It didn't happen. And I, you know, I've been able to, you know, home with my son and, you know, then my daughter and then other daughter and I have three kids, right? So for me, it just didn't ever get there, but I can appreciate the sitting there.

I'm like, okay, like, how do I figure this thing out? And what most people will do, they'll go to these perfect game tournaments and talk to these coaches. I really like your approach. You took the time to compile a mailing list for everybody. And like, hey, here's my chips. They're out there. And the thing that I love the most about it is zero ego involved. Zero ego involved.

You were a baseball guy your whole life. You're like, well, you know what? I'm going to listen to, you know, this divine intervention right now is softball. That's where it's at. And you've done amazing there. And you've done what? Oregon. Then you went to Menlo, didn't you right after that?

Well, at Oregon, so that kind of just really relates to what you were saying, I made $900 in my time in Oregon total. That's insane. And my wife was pregnant with my fourth kid at the time. time. We were on WIC and food stamps. I had a friend pay our grocery bill and cell phone bill. We were legit rock bottom. And I was hiding my car in the garage because the repo tow truck would drive by every morning at 6 a.m. And for me, and I think a lot of coaches like, a lot of people ask me, hey, how do I get into college coaching? I'm like, I'm not saying that your journey is like mine,

but I'm telling you that the sacrifices that you have to. make to start at the rock bottom is difficult and it's probably not worth it. Looking back, obviously it is, but in the midst of it. And so at the end of that year, I wouldn't got a job at paycheck selling payroll 40 hours. I did. I was there for seven years. Yeah. So and I'll tell you, like, I learned so much, so much in that environment, sales from and recruiting. It's helped me in the coaching and the social media world. Paychecks was an incredible trainer of sales. And, And I spent 14 months there. I'll tell you, it was, I hated every second of that job that you can imagine.

But I had my family, we couldn't pay the bills. Right. In the part time, I was sneaking off work early to go help Cal State East Bay. It was D2. Yeah. And she off. Was Ralston there? It was softball.

So Ross was doing baseball while I was there doing softball. And I got $24,000 and full health benefits. That was like my first real pain, you know, shop. So I kind of was double dipping for a little while. My paycheck, my paycheck's boss said, hey, you know, you got to stop double dipping. And so I said, I'm going to, I know, I'm going to go back to the softball thing. I'll do camps and all, you know. So we were just kind of getting going enough to do that.

And then, you know, I ended up going to Santa Clara University back to D1. It paid $13,000. And it was, it was three hours round trip every day. So I left my house at like 4, 55 a.m. to get there to every morning, three hours round trip. I made 13 grand that year. Again, we kept thinking, okay, we'll do camps, we'll do lessons. I grinded out lessons every night until 10 p.m. And just kind of in the belief that eventually we're going to get this full-time job.

And then I end up getting the head coaching job at Menlo College. And again, now I got $44,000. Now, if you know this, some of your friends, some of your friends, follows my not, $44,000 in the Bay Area doesn't even pay your rent. Yeah, it's just like, it's a just that's right. That's your gas money to live here. Yeah, for sure. And my wife's a stay-at-home mom. I got, you know, four kids at this point. So again, it was three hours round trip every day. And at the end of that year, I love that job. And I was just like, man, I just, we can't do this. 44, $44,000 a year, another year and just, again, trying to find that way. And so then I hit the road for a year doing camps and clinics. My social

media had really grown at that point. And so I did that until I got to call at the University of South Carolina. And they were looking for a hitting coach. And I met with her. It was a really good fit. And again, just kind of continue to do that. And I got an opportunity to go back to the into baseball, SEC coaching third base at Missouri.

And honestly, at that time, the NCAA was voting on the third assistant position. And everybody that I talked to said this is 100% passing. So, Mizzou called me, offered me the volunteer hitting coach position. I'm coaching third base in the SEC. Now, think about this, seven years, six years earlier, I'm coaching at College Park High School, $1,900 stipend. I've never coached at the college level.

And I got offered the third base coaching job in the SEC. So you're thinking like this, SEC, like, I'm six figures. Like, they approve this. I'm making at least 100K. 100 and what, Missouri, you're probably thinking, you know what? 120. So they said about it's going to be about that position is going to be about 120. So I'm like, all right.

All right. All these. We've been doing this for 20 years. We're finally going to make it. So we're at Missou. And November starts rolling around. And some proteins had called me. I'm like, I'm, you know, I'm good. I've got the spot.

And I, the Missouri AD and a couple other AD is like, And I talked to, if you follow college baseball at all, you know who Kendall Rogers is. And I talked to Kendall. He's like, this thing's not going to pass. We don't think it's going to pass. And I just moved my family from South Carolina to Missouri for a volunteer position in the middle of the country. And now you guys are saying it's not going to pass. Wow.

So I'll have to say, the next thing, I got, within a week, I got a call from Chicago White Sox. They flew me up to Chicago, said they wanted me to run all of their evaluations and assessments and stuff for the for the Chicago White Sucks for the minor league program and full benefits, which I didn't have in Missouri. And we could live anywhere we want in the country. And so next thing, you know, we moved home back to where we live right now. I get, and I probably live a mile from College Park High School. I live in Martina. And my kids actually go to school right by Ignatia Valley High School now. And so, you know, I coached a year of pro ball. And it was, it was awesome. And it was incredible. I think that for a softball guy who had no pro playing experience, the best way I could

describe it was that it was difficult to be a part of the part of the brotherhood a little bit. I think for me, the players accepted me really well, and I think that did well. But my position really wasn't coaching players. It was coaching the coaches and developing hitting plans for them and trying to be a resource for them. And at the end of the year, I just kind of realized that, and I've been doing this for 20 years, as much as I want to be a pro guy, and that was a dream come true to me,

that my heart and my life is in coaching college. I just, that's where I really enjoy coaching student athletes and having that with them. And so out of the blue, I get this call from Fresno State. Fresno State coach is like, you know, I know you want to be a head coach one day, and why don't you come here for a year, and I'll help you,

become a head coach. So I'm like, okay, we live three hours north of Fresno. I got an apartment in Fresno by myself. And my family and I are like, okay, we can do this for nine months. We can survive nine months. Nine months. Oh my gosh. So the year of Fresno, we have an incredible year. We're 12th in the country. We beat number two, Texas. It was just this incredible season. But at the same time, I'm not, there's times I hadn't seen my family like 21 days in a row. It was, it wasn't, it's always never as good as it sounds and it was really difficult in my family. COVID hits. Our season ends, but I live three hours north. So I go home for a few months. My mother-in-law who lives, again, live kind of by YV, lives right by, she's diagnosed with stage four cancer. If you know anything about

California, we've been on lockdown forever. Kids distance learning. My wife is distance learning, homeschooling. My mother-in-law gets cancer and it's like, okay. God, I'm trying to, like, you know, do the right thing, trying to follow this path. And it doesn't sound like me going back to Fresno is probably the best thing for my family. Right. And so we kept we kept pushing it off, hoping, hey, you know, maybe this COVID thing will go away. And we can kind of go back to normal. Really never did until after the season.

And Fresno didn't go back to practice until January. Please. And so we decided, hey, you know, I took kind of, it took a year off to really, you know, And even this morning, you know, I was running Zoom calls with teachers and doing the, helping with some math stuff. And so now we're here, 2021. And it's been a crazy journey. And I think still we're trying to figure out, you know, what does it look like going

forward? I do believe it's going to be involved with coaching at the college level. I don't know where. And hopefully it's going to be a long-term fit. But, you know, we'll see what, see what doors open and we'll see what happens. Yeah, I saw, you know, earlier, I think maybe last week, some of you said, you know, it's time to go back. I'm like, I wonder if he knows yet. I really don't. I can tell you, I have talked to some schools about head jobs. I've talked to some schools. Some schools are still actually playing. I think that, I mean, I think the doors are going to open there. And so for me, I just having this year off and my wife and I've been talking about it and praying about us, okay, it's like, okay, you know, what should we do? We gave it a year to try to figure out how to, you know, do these other things. And we just kind of came together. So, okay, let's let's take a, take a, take. step out there and let's see what opens.

And June 1st usually is when a lot of college stuff starts moving. So we're kind of just sitting around going, okay, let's see. That carousel, the coaching carousel. That's always fun to watch, man. It's really fun to watch. But see if you're involved in all that or you've got friends and stuff and that. It's very interesting to see, you know, all the things that happen. Now, I used to sit there when I was, you know, in the middle of endeavoring to coach in college,

I would watch that carousel. And it was just, I'm watching dominoes just. Yeah, it's kind of crazy how it all works out. Well, it's crazy because, you know, when you're on the outside looking in, you realize that, you know, these things are known privately before it's made public. So unless you're a part of the inside track,

you're toast. But you look, man, the one thing that I respect most about your story because, you know, people who follow you or, people who are a part of, you know, my small following so far, they may not know all the adversity that you've overcome, dude. I mean, there's, I mean, all I got to do is do a simple Google search or just, you know, pay attention to when you're saying, you know, I was hiding my car from the tow truck. I mean, it's really, really cool. So when I started this brand that, you know, it was under the assumption that when I interviewed largely successful people like

yourself because I consider you a success because you've overcome so much. You know, what makes that person so successful? And it's, it's overcome adversity and it's mindset. So like, dude, take me to your darkest. Take, take, take, take, not just me, take, everybody is going to be listening on this Facebook live, Instagram, and hopefully, you know, all your followers on your platforms, like take them to that darkest moment, man. Like, it's more than just saying, hey, you know, I had, I was, I had my car in the, in the garage, but like having to, and again, like, I'm not this, I've felt this way in my own life having to look at my kids and my wife like, okay, this is bigger than me. Like, I literally have to make

this work in that why kind of brought me to my needs. Yeah. Right. So, so talk to, talk to everybody about that. So for me, for me, the kind of, I guess the wrong, I mean, I was a couple of them, but my rock bottom moment, really. In 2010, I had gotten done coaching at Ignatia Valley High School. I coached there for two years. And I was trying to do the camp thing and trying to make the ends meet. I just wasn't really making ends meet. It was just like, and I decided, okay, you know what?

I'm going to try to go on a limb and try to get some of these other jobs. And just nothing was working. And so I literally hit rock bottom. I got no money. I was in my car. And the rock bottom moment for me, really, I was in the same way. parking lot in my car. I had just made a deal with my landlord.

And at the time, I wasn't married. I got married a year later. And so my wife and I, we actually were broken up for a little while. And I told the landlord, I can't pay rent. If you let me stay until the end of the month, you can have the deposit back. I did that. And so I had nowhere to live. I got all my stuff in storage, which ended up getting repoed and I lost all my stuff

in my storage. but I'm in my car I kind of bounced around some couches a buddy of mine had to put an air mattress in his kitchen with a with a drape and I was in my car safeway parking lot over by YV and I eaten a packet of tuna off my food stamps and I was just like man this is it like this is this is this is it right here like I've nowhere to live I'm eating tuna out of this can I remember sitting under this parked under the shade of this park and I just sat there just like I don't know where to go from here like I don't have a job. I don't have prospects.

And so for me, I will say the one thing that I look back at my life and the different adversity, family stuff, jobs and all these kind of, a lot of more self-inflicted wounds, to be honest with you. But something in me, whether I mean, maybe you did too in your baseball career, but as a, even as a young kid, I felt like I was destined to. for bigger things. And I don't mean like, you know, being famous on TV or like, you know, this, like, egotistical way. I just always felt like there's better for me than this, whatever this is. And so, and so if I'm willing to, you know, deal with the adversity,

deal with that there's, it's going to be, there's, there is grasses greener on the other side. You just got to go through some of this stuff. And so for me, I just deep down in me, even at rock bottom. I was like, you know what? I believe that there's going to be greater. And I'll tell you, no, 2012, after I got back from Oregon, 13, and I worked at paychecks, and I wanted to leave paychecks for the assistant job at UNLV. It paid $32,000.

And I had five friends come and do an intervention on me. I use intervention lightly, but it was, they sat down. like, hey Matt, you've been trying to do this coaching thing for a long time. Your family, you've been homeless twice. You live with your in-laws. Like you've got a good job at paychecks. It's time to hang it up. And you can't, like, and, you know, I was probably three months in the paychecks

the time. And one of my buddies said, hey, Matt, just like, trust me on this. If you can commit to the paychecks for one year, just that's, that's a timeline. Give it one year and let's see. But you can't just keep, you know, can't keep chasing this dream. when you guys haven't made any money in 15 years of doing this. And again, my social media wasn't really around at the time and it was kind of dead. And I had a friend, one of my friends sat down and he sitting across from me and he said,

Matt, if you turn this job down, I promise you that it will be so big. It'll be like a, he said, like, a hitting coach for the Giants. And he was referring to like pro baseball. I remember looking at him like one, like, one, screw all you guys. I want this job. It's a full-time hitting coach job in D1, $32,000. And I hate this paycheck's job. And you're full of it that's going to get better.

If I say no, it's going to get bigger than this. And so I told them all, no, I'm going. And I drove home. And after there was a couple hours of them basically telling me, like, this is a really bad decision. And I've laid in bed at probably 1 o'clock in the morning. And I called them, like in a group thing, I said, you guys are right. I'll say no to this.

I'm not happy about it, but I haven't made good decisions in my life. And you know, you guys are, I feel like are in good places. I trust your input. And I'm going to say no to this. And again, I think that was as much as the rock bottom moment was like in the car and and that felt like the bottom. To me, that felt like the first time that I actually, there was a turning point. Like it was by saying no to this thing and the belief that something bigger and better

was going to come if I if I could do that and stay the course and just at that time again commit to my family it's the same thing uh I felt like a year ago when I left Fresno State it was like man this is not going to be good for my career uh I leave it another job I've left all these jaws bouncing around it's not going to be good but something in me again was saying hey do what's right and be patient and and for me uh when it comes to mindset uh it really is just that I've read my Bible a lot. There's these stories of guys like Job and these guys who have done really dumb. Yeah, you haven't quite as bad as Job.

I mean, Joe, you got beat up, man. Just made some terrible decisions and gotten beaten up and came out on the other side. And so for me, I just always believe like, hey, there's going to be some really tough times. And I want to say I read a book one time, maybe about the Navy SEALs, some military training where, you know, they get them so bad. But in their mindset, they say, you are not going to die. The sun is going to come up tomorrow. Yeah. And so in the moment right then,

and so I've held on to that idea to a degree of like, even when I'm in pain or things are going really bad, is like, okay, you are not going to die. Tomorrow is going to be a better day. And holding on to the idea that that's coming. So for me, that has been really helpful because I think it's really easy. It's easy for me too to kind of get to the depression or start blaming people

and blaming everybody else. and all those things. And I think I've been, I've been fortunate to have people around me that when I start feeling that way or start feeling like, you know, doubting myself that they are, they kind of step in and say, hey, those are lies. That's not the truth. You are a good hitting coach or you are this.

And there are, there is a better thing for you. And I think if I hadn't had that tight circle or my big family to speak into those things and it was just left to my own devices, I probably would have gone to some, some darker places or believed a lot of the lies in my head over the years about who I was. You know, man, so a couple of things. Like, I hear, I'm with you on everything you said. First of all, I got to ask you, was that the Safeway, Right by Nations? It was actually, it was a countrywood safeway.

Okay, okay. There's some Starbucks. I think back when you were there was Winchells, but it's a donut shop. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah, no, there's a Starbucks there. So I know exactly which one you're talking about. But listen, man, I mean, that's the thing. Like, I've heard you say depression, right? I've heard you say dark places, intervention, you know, and just telling your friends you're thinking, screw you. Like, guys, listen, if you guys are listening into this and watching this, understand that there are very successful people that deal with the same, you know, I guess, I want to say voices in their head. Like, it, I

I deal with it on a day-to-day basis. I battle it, right? And Matt, I'm going to tell you something, dude. When you said that you always thought you were dressed for something so great, like, brother, like, I thought about that for decades. I'm like, what is it? Like, I can't figure this thing out. Like, I'm not super inventive.

You know, the shoelaces have already been invented. I'm screwed. Like, you know, like, what am I going to do? So, you know, one day, this came along, you know, with the help of my friend, Nat, and we started talking about what's your brand? Dude, I don't know. know what my brand is and they said post a picture of yourself in the gym and ask people to fill in the blanks and I'm like who that's dangerous with migraines. So I got some amazing responses like my buddy

Jason Montgomery sent me a response that I'm still laughing at every time I tell the story. It wasn't very, it's not for the air. But you know, the cool thing was is I always thought like I'm destined for something bigger than me like whatever it is. Yeah. And you know, I didn't know what it was. And then when this came about, I'm driving down the road and then all of a sudden my brain exploded. You know, all in the car. It just exploded. I'm thinking podcast or videocasts. I'm thinking, you know, speaking, you know, consulting with sales teams, consulting with people. And then all of a sudden, it was like the matrix in my car. I'm like, dude, I got to pull over because I can't even see right now. There's so much stuff going on. So I get off the exit and I call my wife. I'm like,

something just happened and I got to tell me I'm crazy and she goes no you're not crazy you can literally do all those things like every single thing that you have mentioned you can have like you can do and within two months I've set it all up I mean this is new right so to the point it's just like when you when you think of something that you wanted to do you go out of it with massive action right it's something that you obsess over and you just go And dude, like I'm right there with you. So, you know, like you said, like I don't mean from a statistical standpoint, I don't take it that way at all. It's vision. I've known you a long time, dude. I mean, granted, when we grew up, we didn't like hang out all the time. But like,

I knew you. Right. Like, it's like, okay, that dude is different. You can always tell people are different. Yeah, I agree. You know what I mean? So like your story is compelling. I think it's, it's never what you expected it to be. So for me, back in the days of coaching Ignatio and college park and is, I kept thinking, okay, if I could just get the camps going and the lessons, travel ball, I can make enough money. Like that was a goal. That was a goal.

Like I, to be a hitting coach for Chicago White Sox, I was never on my dream board. It was. It was like, it's never going to happen. Come on. Yeah. That isn't going to have it. Coaching on ESPN and the SEC championship for soft. Like these things.

And so for me, again, like, you know, I think I hit a million followers this year on social media. It's like, my wife and I joke is like, would you ever believe that a lot of this like has to do with Twitter and Facebook? Like that has helped pay the bills for us. Well, dude, you're hitting vault. I mean, like, you're hitting vault. That's an amazing business. The hitting vault 1.0 was, in 2014, I was the main speaker at the National Fast Pitch Coaches Association, which was one of the scariest. moments of my life speaking from these thousands of college coaches.

That's bad, man. And I wanted to launch, I got the idea in my head from watching these other hitting gurus who are selling DVDs. I'm like, you know what? And again, it's one of those moments just like, I never, I never thought it would be like this thing. But I'm like, you know what? I want to do a website of hitting drills.

And I'm going to launch it. And, uh, but I had no money at the time. And a buddy of mine, uh, it's like, hey, man, what do you think it would cost you? I'm like, I don't know. bare bones, $4,000. And I hired a woman off Craigslist who had a movie camera. She filmed me and this other guy doing the drills. I edited every video in I movie. And I launched the site and it made like 35 grand the first week. I paid my buddy back as $4,000. And I was I was so worried about borrowing this $4,000 because I was like, if this doesn't work, I owe, now I'm my,

I owe the best man in my wedding, $4,000. it's just going to damage that relationship. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I get it. Gave it to him 24 hours later, and my wife's car was broken down, totally broken down, this Hyundai, oh, it was death trap. I got her a new car, new-ish, and I had taken off, and then again, throughout the years, and now, you know, it has blown up, and we have seven employees now, and it's a huge, it's an incredible business.

But again, like, in those moments of doing something, and my Down syndrome 30 year old brother who facetimes me five times a day. Dan. Dan, Daniel. Oh, Daniel, man. Dan's the man.

I can't see where I put my phone, but see if I can put it on on mute. But anyways, but to me, like all those ideas and yours, especially with your podcast and everything, is like it starts small and you never know where it's going to go. and your expectations of what it can be are never what they it never turns out the way that you expect it to be.

It seems to be always much bigger and better. And, you know, for me, I think the biggest challenge that people have is to just get the ideas and they just don't do it. It's like, oh, I have this great idea. Fear takes over and they just can't. And they take a step on it. And, you know, I'll tell you, like, if you look back at the heating vault one point out that we did it, it wasn't great quality. It wasn't a great product. But I've heard 50 other people say, oh, I had that idea.

I should have done it. But you didn't. Yeah. Like you've got to go out on a limb. You've got to take a risk. And you know what? You might fail at it 50 times. But the 51st time, it might take off and might go.

And, you know, for me, social media for the first year or so, I worked my butt off on social media. I didn't make a penny. But I was like, you know what? I think this could be a thing. and I'm just going to invest full time into it and sharing ideas and videos and drills and practices and, you know, anything, everything I know about coaching. I'm going to share it on social media. Let's see what happens.

Yeah. I see Noah had 100,000 followers and on and on and so. That, it was funny. Like that whole thing for me, you know, when I'm, guys, go to his Facebook, his, his Twitter, his, his Instagram. and you'll see like on Facebook he'll put something up there and then within an hour like what 7,000 people have shared it like it's social media social media is insane I'll get people right you know parents or something or kids that I coach or just friends will share something of yours and they're like hey I saw this I think you like this and I just laugh and they're like

do you know him? I'm like, well, yeah. I mean, like, no, no, no, you know of him. Like, look, dude, like, I go way back with that guy. But it's always so funny because, you know, like, it's awesome and it's inspirational because I'll see like where I'm starting right now, you know, I'll see, you know, a vlog that I do in the morning. And I'm like, oh, cool, 19 people have viewed that. Like 19 people care. And it's just like, I look at, you know, in preparation for this spot, you know, this video cast, I look at your social media and it's like, dude, like this is, this is amazing. It is absolutely, real quick, dude, you have got to say hello to somebody for me.

You've got to say hello to Casey Howard. She is a friend of mine. She is a huge Matt Lyle fan. She's one of those that, if you say my name, I'll fan girl. That's awesome. It's up to her, man. Casey, how are you doing? I appreciate it very much that you say that.

And I appreciate you following. again, Casey and others too who do. My wife and I joke about it all the time, and she has friends all of the country. Like, one of my good friends is a scary thing. And there's times that I post something. And I looked at it a little bit and it has 52,000 likes. I'm like, what in the world? Hey, show me how to doggie, Matt.

Show me. There's no, there's no rhyme or reason to it sometimes. And it's just like, we joke about it a lot because it's just, that's the nature of social media. again like we joke about it more because it's like 10 years ago if you were to say hey guys Twitter and Facebook are going to be some of the main sources of your income and how you guys provide for your family and you looked at you would have like what are you talking about social something what are you talking about that was thing I've ever heard so I get I guess for me you know for people of your friends and people are listening it's like you just have to understand

that you the ideas you have in your head you got to try them you got to go for it and the biggest part, the other piece of that is, you got to be consistent with a friend of mine that you might follow on Instagram a little bit. Him and I are good buddies. Now, his name is C.J. Beatty. He's the baseball softball motivator. And when I first met him, I had followed him. He was big on YouTube and had a lot of followers.

I was like, hey, man, how did you do it? And he said for the first six months, he made really good YouTube videos and 20 views of video, 20 views of videos. He's like, I guarantee 19 of them are my mom. That's what he said. And he's, you know, he's just like, I just, I want. wanted to give up, but I was just consistent. Then he had a 13,000 video that kind of hit.

It was a good, it was a great video. And then 20,000. And now he makes it a living full time from speaking and being a motivator, a speaker and having a brand. And again, like if he had quit after 10 videos of 20 views, who knows what he'd be doing, you know, and trying to grind it out. But what happens is we try things. It's like, oh, this sucks or it didn't work.

And I don't have a lot of views and whatever the thing is. and after a few tries they give up, but that being consistent part, showing up and continuing to do it. I mean, it's a same conversation I have with my nine-year-old son about baseball. Like, you can't go out and practice for 10 minutes before a game

and not practice the rest of the week and expect to be good. You have to be consistent. And if you're not consistent, how do you expect to be good at this thing? I mean, 100%. You know, and the thing that I love about this whole thing is people are getting the opportunity to kind of,

even though they're not interacting right now or they could be i'm not looking at the facebook feed i mean it could be blowing up hopefully it is um but seeing how down to earth you are as a human being as a father a husband you know a son-in-law you know a son i mean there's not there's not a whole lot of people matt in this world that would put their career on hold you know for for you know i mean listen and to be there for your mother-in-law, I mean, that doesn't happen a lot. So, you know, the one thing that I love about you, bro,

and that I've always enjoyed about your family, is you guys have good hearts. And, you know, I'm jacked up about all your success, man. It's, you know, it's humbling. And it's, you know, I look, I mean, honestly, man, I look at you and I'm like, you know what? That's where I want to be in two, three years, you know, is being able to have.

And it's not because I want all these people just like knowing I want to be able to reach more people with my message, right? And help people. So, you know, dude, you're an inspiration to a lot of people, dude. So you know what? Here's what I have for you. Those moments because you're still going to have them. Remember this conversation. Remember there's somebody in, you know, Indiana that you don't even know who she is that literally hangs on to every single one of your posts.

So always believe that Matt Lyle is going to come out on the other end. That's what I have for you. I appreciate that very much. But look, dude, I know you got some more distance learning to do. You know, I again, dude, I appreciate it. It's been one hell of an hour. It flew by. And, you know, if you don't mind, I want to connect with you real quick offline, if that's

cool. And then I will let you get to your day. But thank you, everybody, for listening. Once again, Matt Lyle. Thanks, bud. Thanks, everybody. Bye, Casey. Let's see here, bud.

Stop recording. All right, man, I'll get back to you, okay? I'll reach out to you here in a second. Okay. Thanks, man.