Matt Left His Cubicle To Live The "Internet Guy" Lifestyle - Here's How He Did It...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Matt was not my ideal student.

At least that’s what I thought…

When I started offering training, I had always assumed that anyone who had a stressful 9-5 day job AND a family just wouldn’t be able to dedicate enough time or focus to take action and succeed with my training.

Matt has proved me blatantly wrong, and I couldn’t be happier![/vc_column_text][bsf-info-box icon_type=”custom” icon_img=”1561″ img_width=”48″ icon_size=”32″ icon_color=”#333333″ icon_style=”none” icon_color_bg=”#ffffff” icon_color_border=”#333333″ icon_border_size=”1″ icon_border_radius=”500″ icon_border_spacing=”50″ read_more=”none” read_text=”Read More” hover_effect=”style_1″ pos=”left” desc_font_size=”16″ box_border_style=”solid” box_border_width=”1″ el_class=”ianquote”]

Ian: Matt, can you give us some background on yourself and your life before you built your own lifestyle business online?

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Matt: First of all, Ian, thank you again for the opportunity and all the support you’ve provided along the way.

You could say I came from humble beginnings…

I grew up in the 80’s in a very small town near Montgomery, AL where I was literally born and raised in a trailer park.

I guess we couldn’t afford a hospital, so my dad delivered me right there in our single-wide. That trailer park was my childhood playground and that small town is where I’d spend the first 23 years of my life.

My parents divorced when I was 5 and I lost nearly all contact with my biological father when I was 13. My mom did remarry, but my step dad worked 12-16 hour days to keep food on the table for my two siblings and I. While we never had much, my parents definitely worked hard to make sure we never missed a meal.

At 16 I was barely getting by in high-school and had become a raging alcoholic, to say the least. I had a job at the local car wash, but drank beer nearly every day. I was smoking cigarettes, pot, and taking prescription pills as well. I got into trouble with the law and had years of misery making really bad decisions.

It wasn’t until I was 23, when I got a DUI, that life finally hit me. I decided if I was ever going to accomplish any of my goals of owning a home, having a career, and finding a wife, I had to leave my hometown and change my ways.

Deep down inside I always knew I was going to get out. I had spent years mentally convincing myself I could make it happen. Even when a lot people told me it was too hard, that it would probably never happen, not for a kid that barely had a high school education, but I was determined and I stayed focused on my goal.

About 8 months later the opportunity I’d been looking for presented itself. One Sunday evening at a church service I met a lady whose daughter had moved out of her Birmingham apartment and had one more month left on the lease. After telling her I had been looking to move to that same area she offered me the last month for half the rental rate, since she had to pay it anyways. I knew this was my chance. I could not delay or think about it. I packed my car that night and left town to start my new life with $100 in my pocket and no job.

I quickly learned to wait tables so I could get my own apartment, and that worked well for years. However, because I didn’t know very much about money I simultaneously put myself in about $40k of bad debt that nearly sent me back home 6 years later.

I ended up moving to Florida in 2005 while things were still good and went to work tending bar, but the tourist industry slowly halted due to the recession. Before I knew it I couldn’t afford to pay any of my debts.

When I met my future wife in 2007 I was at the height of my financial mess. She wasn’t in trouble like I was, but she was used to making decent money selling real estate and the recession had completely dried up that market as well. So we were both looking to get somewhere with a more stable economy.

We moved to Nashville together in 2008, just a month after we started dating, and against everything that made any sense. I had no job, no real formal education, and no experience (other than tending bar and waiting tables). Not to mention the piles of debt. Honda was trying to find me to repo my car and two different credit cards had taken out lawsuits against me for collections. Honestly, I couldn’t even rent a crappy apartment by myself. But I had her and for some reason she believed in us. I guess that’s all we needed.

We both went to work in corporate technology sales – I had to start at a very entry level position because I had no experience. Eventually I paid off all my obligations, restored my credit, and built a little bit of net worth, all while learning to be a husband and father.

In 2012 I built the house we live in now, and then began to focus on ways to get us out of the corporate life so we could truly be free and live the life of our dreams.

It wasn’t too much longer before I discovered Ian’s Authority Site Blueprint.

Unlike some of you who may be reading this, I wasn’t skeptical at all, but I did have a little bit of an unfair advantage.

You see, for our first 5 years in Nashville we lived right across the street from Ian, and while we never really became friends or got to know each other, my wife and I quickly noticed that he lived a different lifestyle. He kept unusual schedules, drove really nice cars, and obviously wasn’t getting up every morning to commute to a JOB. I just figured that he came from a wealthy family and didn’t have to work – boy was I wrong!

So in late December of 2013 we when saw an opportunity to learn how he made a living, it was literally like someone dropping a treasure map right in our lap. All we had to do was follow it, and I couldn’t wait to get started. If he’d been charging $2000 we would have paid it.

It was much like when that first apartment had been offered to me, or when I decided to move to another state with a girl I barely knew – but knew I wanted to marry. I knew we had to take this opportunity and not second guess.

Today, just over a year later, our websites are generating nearly $15k per month and still have lots of room to grow.

That’s the opportunity you have right now.

[/bsf-info-box][stat_counter icon_type=”selector” icon=”Defaults-dollar” img_width=”48″ icon_size=”48″ icon_color=”#333333″ icon_style=”circle” icon_color_bg=”#c2eaa6″ icon_color_border=”#333333″ icon_border_size=”1″ icon_border_radius=”500″ icon_border_spacing=”50″ icon_animation=”rotateIn” icon_position=”top” counter_title=”just 12 months after starting our training.” counter_value=”15000″ counter_sep=”,” counter_decimal=”.” counter_suffix=” per month” speed=”3″ font_size_title=”18″ font_size_counter=”28″ title_font=”font_family:Montserrat|font_call:Montserrat” title_font_style=”font-weight:bold;” counter_prefix=”From Zero to $”][bsf-info-box icon_type=”custom” icon_img=”1561″ img_width=”48″ icon_size=”32″ icon_color=”#333333″ icon_style=”none” icon_color_bg=”#ffffff” icon_color_border=”#333333″ icon_border_size=”1″ icon_border_radius=”500″ icon_border_spacing=”50″ read_more=”none” read_text=”Read More” hover_effect=”style_1″ pos=”left” desc_font_size=”16″ box_border_style=”solid” box_border_width=”1″ el_class=”ianquote”]

Ian: Thank you so much for helping everyone get to know you.

I’m pretty sure you just invalidated so many peoples’ excuses!

On that note, what self-limiting beliefs did you have to conquer before you started, and along the journey to get to where you are today?

Matt: Honestly, I’ve been conquering self-limiting beliefs most of my life.

I had to start with convincing myself that I wasn’t going to end-up an alcoholic like many in my family before me – both of my grandfathers had drinking problems. I’d been told my whole life, “It just runs in our family”. Then in my teens and early adulthood it became a very scary reality. I’m extremely blessed to have made it out virtually unscaved.

But once I conquered that I had a lot of momentum.

Conquering nicotine after nearly 10 years of addiction was a huge momentum boost as well. Many people remain in addiction because they don’t really believe they can change. Feeling powerless to an addiction is without question self-limiting.

Ultimately I’d say you have to truly believe you can accomplish anything, regardless of what the statistics say, what anyone else tells you, where you came from, or what your current situation may be.

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Ian: You became my student in Jan 2014 before I offered any resources that helped you get set up… Your only option was to watch my video lessons and figure out how to build your site all by yourself, starting from scratch as a newbie…

How did you get past such a huge roadblock?

Matt: I had to find/create/use my own resources.

Fortunately, I had already been taking some web design courses in anticipation of finding a way to make money online.

I was also fortunate to have a wife that was really into blogging.

She was able to help me generate great content and has been a tremendous help with forming strategies.

She’s helped me become a better writer myself as well.

Ian: What do you feel is the #1 thing that stops people from achieving success in affiliate marketing, or any business?

Matt: Persistence, or lack thereof.

People all too often miscalculate or have unrealistic expectations as to how long something should take.

When they don’t see results right away they give up. This, as with most businesses, is not a get rich quick scheme.

It took us nearly 7 months before we made any significant money at all.

If we had quit after 6 months of making nothing we would have never realized that successes were just around the corner.

Ian: Success often means something different for everyone, and our definition of success may change as we go through different phases of our lives.

How do you define success at this point in your life?

Matt: I’d have to say it’s freedom.

If you can do something you really enjoy – I don’t know that this is my life calling – but if you can really enjoy it, earn a decent living, and not have someone telling you when to be where and to do this or that, that’s pretty successful in my opinion.

Ian: Describe for us, so we can close our eyes and imagine clearly:

How is your life different today, compared to back when you were in corporate sales?

Matt: It’s vastly different.

Instead of waking up every morning dreading the events of the day, learning things that only benefit someone else’s company, and building someone else’s dreams…

I wake up knowing I’m where I want to be and that I can do whatever I wish.

No more morning or afternoon commutes! I get to work from home everyday.

I like to read in the mornings when my brain is fresh, so I read for about 3-4 hours first thing every morning, where during that same time I used to be stressing about who I should call so my call metrics didn’t fall behind for the day.

After I read, I workout, then spend the rest of the day working on our business.

I don’t have to worry about whether or not my laundry has been done or if my clothes are ironed, I can wear my pajamas all day if I wish.

I don’t have to stress about whether or not I’m going to hit my sales quota for the quarter, or whether or not I’m going to be scrutinized in a team email for not hitting some useless metric.

In the evenings, after dinner and family time, I work on tying up things I didn’t finish in the day.

I’ll work until I’m tired, or I may read more before bed.

I’m basically in a neverending state of either learning or building our business and our dreams, not wasting 40-50 hours a week building someone elses.

And I sleep better knowing that I’m still making money while I sleep!

Ian: Are there any books/training on entrepreneurship, sales, online marketing, etc that you recommend to our readers who want to succeed?

Matt: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is my favorite book. I’ve read it several times and listened to the audio probably 100 times.

Other books I’d definitely recommend are…

Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything (by Carol Loomis)
Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins.

Ian: How do you plan to evolve your business and take it to the next level?

We’ve already got a couple of more sites launched, and we’re working on a brand new one right now.

We’re also building in and researching other niches.

Additionally we’ve started building a portfolio of quality Web 2.0 properties that we can use for backlinking to our sites.

We’re doing a lot more outsourcing as well, training writers and social media managers.[/bsf-info-box][bsf-info-box icon_type=”custom” icon_img=”1561″ img_width=”48″ icon_size=”32″ icon_color=”#333333″ icon_style=”none” icon_color_bg=”#ffffff” icon_color_border=”#333333″ icon_border_size=”1″ icon_border_radius=”500″ icon_border_spacing=”50″ read_more=”none” read_text=”Read More” hover_effect=”style_1″ pos=”left” desc_font_size=”16″ box_border_style=”solid” box_border_width=”1″ el_class=”ianquote”]

Ian: What advice would you give to someone who is on the fence about starting their own lifestyle business with authority sites?

Matt: I’m not going to sugar-coat it, it’s a lot of work.

But for the financial investment it takes to get started I just can’t think of another business model that could have a higher income potential.

I’ve had my eyes open for years and to this day this is the best thing I’ve found for anyone who wants to start making money online.

I would also recommend learning the basics of web design so you can build and customize your own websites. HTML, CSS, and some PHP.

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Ian: I’d like to thank Matt for taking several hours of his time to really dig deep and answer all my questions, so the rest of us can get some insight into what it takes to succeed with my Authority Site Blueprint and any other business.

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Matt Left His Cubicle To Live The “Internet Guy” Lifestyle – Here’s How He Did It…

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