Episode 13 - Matt Stevenson

In this episode, we sit down with Matt Stevenson to talk about loss, healing, and fatherhood. Matt opens up about the death of his father by suicide—a moment that changed everything. He shares what it was like navigating grief, the guilt he carried, and how he eventually found a way forward through therapy and inner work.

But this isn’t just a story about pain. It’s about resilience. Matt talks about the promises he’s made to himself, how he’s chosen to show up differently for his own kids, and the importance of being a present, supportive father. His story is raw, honest, and full of wisdom for anyone who’s ever faced loss and wanted to break the cycle.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• How Matt became a narrator for the Toronto Blue Jays

• Reflections on fatherhood, divorce, and showing up for your kids

• Losing his father to suicide and learning to heal

• How Reiki, therapy, and mindset work helped him rebuild

• Stories from his days as a national canoe racing champion

• Matt’s journey into music, voice acting, and public speaking

• Lessons on wealth, legacy, and preparing your family for the future

• Building community through the Burlington Dads and charity events

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
All right, let's go. Shit, my dad's happening.
What's going on? Shit, my dad.
Well, he taught me some shit, I'm not going to lie.
Well, some of the good, some of the bad, yeah.
We got we got a friend in studiotoday.
It's Mr. Matthew Stevenson. Matt, morning welcome.
Welcome brother, I just gave away that it's morning right
now. Thanks for coming.
In the timeless early expanse ofthe Internet.

(00:25):
Yeah, Miles has made us this little dungeon here, so we don't
know. Not just as an early morning,
like you guys are also fasting right now too.
Yeah, crazy. Gastards.
Yeah, yeah. True story, Yeah.
Day three, yeah. Yeah, Final day.
Yeah, Yeah. You guys are done tonight at
dinner or are you gonna do what you did last time?
I'm gonna push it to break. More mornings.
Yeah, Yeah. I'm I'm gonna push it to
breakfast 'cause I have to win everything I can.
Do it's although it's. Not a contest.

(00:47):
Everything's a contest. You're gonna wait for the
message from Matt, like, yeah, just.
Ate that'll be like, hey, just ate.
I'm like pussy, I'm excited to have you here, man, So thank
you. Give the listeners a little
background. We're all great friends.
We we've known each other and you've certainly known Jamie for
longer than me and you know, your families are you travel

(01:07):
together and and great, great buds.
So this is a fun one because youknow, whenever we bring a friend
into the studio, I kind of thinkI know a few things about them.
But then you go and have to do ChatGPT and you learn even more
about them. So what do you know?
What do you know? So maybe we'll start with that
ChatGPT intro. Okay, Matt.
So you know, because you've seenthe show, we do a ChatGPT, we

(01:28):
try not to tweak it at all and let it bring whatever it finds
on the interweb. So here we go.
Matthew Stevenson is an insurance and estate planning
expert who helps business ownersand families preserve their
wealth, maximize cash flow and navigate the complexities of
estate and tax planning. He specializes in using life
insurance and annuities to ensure people leave behind more

(01:49):
than just memories. That's pretty good.
So far so good. So far so good.
Yeah, You know, you know what? This is reminding me of a great
YouTube channel that I like as well called the Loudwire
Wikipedia Factor Fiction for Metal Stars.
Like they'll have Zack Wylde on there.
They'll have Slash on there, andthey'll say, OK, so you were
born on January 8th, 1971 as Jeffrey Phillip Wyland in Bayou,

(02:11):
New Jersey. And Zack Wylde will go correct.
Keep going. So here we go.
Yeah, yeah. You know who you.
Guys didn't even know that you're that you're doing some
cool. Shit.
And it actually goes. It goes a little bit deeper here
too, so we'll see how it did. We're just trying to be lazy.
Yeah, we. Actually just yeah, we really.
Like the computers to do the work, you know, the one that I
like is Nardwar. Have you seen any of his?

(02:32):
Like, I mean, he's been around for probably decades, but he's
got this interview style that just blows people away.
Like he'll. He'll come with props.
He'll be like, hey, did you you know Maddie and the deep cuts,
you were here at this time and whatever.
And he pulls out like an LP and they're like, we don't even know
that's where we're headed. You know what?
A little help from AI, we'll getthere.
So this. Is actually avatars?

(02:52):
Like we aren't even here right now.
Miles. Make Jamie say some dumb shit.
That's pretty easy. So Chachi PT goes on to say, but
Matthew is not just about numbers and financial
strategies. He's a family man first.
He's a proud father to a boy anda girl, balancing the demands of
work and making sure he's present for the people who

(03:13):
matter most. And here's a fun fact, Matt is
also a seasoned voice actor witha diverse portfolio that
includes clients such as BMO Manulife, Tangerine and your
Toronto Blue Jays. You got it.
Yeah, I, I reached, I reached mypeak voice acting, I thought a
couple of years ago when I was just watching ATV movie with the

(03:36):
kids on the couch and heard a commercial that I'd done for
Ancestry, incidentally, during aBlue Jays game.
And I thought that's it. I did it.
I saw myself on a commercial during the Jays game.
Yeah, yes, I have arrived. And then little that I know that
a couple years later, I'm going to be narrating for the Blue
Jays. Are they OK?

(03:57):
So I can deal with this. What would your record be for
the games that you've narrated for the Blue Jays?
Oh gosh, are the Jays like 3 andO?
Four and O. Well, they've been some tight
games, and the most recent one Inarrated that I was actually at,
so I didn't get to hear myself. They won.
There you go. So that's good.
Yeah. Yeah, and you're and tell the
folks you're a huge Jays fan. Oh, totally lifer.
You know, I was at the Joe Carter home run game.

(04:20):
I'm excited to be able to tell you I was at 100 games at
exhibition. No exaggerating.
I was at 100 games exhibition stadium with my mom in the 80s
and we started going 1984 when Iwas 9 or 10 years old or
whatever. And I'm probably at 2:00. 100
cat GPT didn't say you're old asshit.
Yeah, 01984 I was 3. Yeah, life for Jays man for

(04:42):
sure. Yeah, I love that.
Right. What it did miss though, It
missed that he was also the 2024All Star first baseman for the
championship winning Tigers lastyear.
I was, yeah. Now, the Detroit Tigers, not the
Detroit Tigers, Yeah. The Burlington Beer League
Softball Championships. Still an accreditation, still a
trophy. Did I tell you my Joe Carter

(05:04):
story? By the way?
Have I ever? OK, so we've got.
Yeah, we got Joe Carter here. And I had the good fortune of
meeting him at one point, and great guy.
And I'll send Miles some pictures of the time I met him
because it was insane. It was at a golf tournament, and
it's just awesome. But I digress.
So the Joe Carter 1992. 92 WorldSeries.

(05:26):
Was the World Series home run? Yeah, we.
Always forget no 92 or 93 was the home run. 9392 was when he
he was playing first base. OK, so 93 the the home run,
which is the picture we've got on that you can't see behind
Jamie's massive, impressive torso, but it's back there.
So when I was I'm. More impressed by his upper
body. It's so good.
It's so big. Yeah.

(05:47):
You look so tall today too. Yeah, you look taller.
It's the shoes. Is it the shoes?
Yeah, so game is on. I'm watching watching it, Jay's
fan, obviously I'm a young guy. Game starts to go a little late
and mom comes down and she's like, you know, you, you should
go to bed. Like it's getting, it's getting
really late. And I'm like, well, I got to

(06:07):
finish watching the game, right?And at the time my Uncle Wayne
showed on Uncle Wayne was visiting as well too.
And he was watching the game with me.
And we're getting ready and, youknow, we didn't know obviously
what was about to happen. And she goes, no, it's time for
bed. You got to go to bed.
So I stormed off and I was so I go to bed and he hits the home
run and I find out about it the next morning and I was so mad.

(06:29):
And to this day with my kiddos, I let them stay up way past
bedtime because I'm like, what if?
What if you get another once in a lifetime?
What if you get another touch them all Joe right?
Like you only get to see that live 1.
Can't say that anymore. No, why not?
Touch them all. Oh, is that?
Different we're a few years. Past the basis, yeah, yeah, but
an incredible. But not a safe space anymore.

(06:50):
Yeah, and you talk about incredible voice work.
How's that for like maybe the most iconic all of all time?
Yeah, so awesome. Yeah, so good.
And tell me about the other stuff.
So you said I know Chachi Pizza,BMO, Manulife, Tangerine.
But then you also mentioned was the other one, you just said
ancestry. Ancestry, yeah.
Yeah, so you've been all over the place.

(07:11):
Cool old commercial, yeah. How do you get those gigs?
Well, you have to. You have to get a talent agent
to do a demo for you like I I got into this 1011 years ago and
just. Are there non talent agents?
Inquiring minds want to know, Yeah.
A friend of mine is asking. They say that anyone has a niche
in the voice active business. You just have to find it, right?

(07:32):
So I I got all the faith in you.We've been told that we've got
the voice for TV. Yeah.
That's right. You got the face for?
Radio, Yeah. We have the face for radio
though. And now we're in a.
Pod leaving that part out. Now we're in a podcast era where
fuck y'all you don't even have to have talent, you just need
the Internet. You don't want to look at it.
You just got to listen to it. Got him.
Yeah, yeah. So that's.

(07:52):
Cool. Just do a demo, send it around
to talent agents, one of them will pick you up and start
sending you auditions and if youhave a good enough demo then
people will start booking you for gig straight.
Like when I did that, the first of my Blue Jays narrations, it
was like a Friday afternoon, 2023.
They hadn't secured a playoff spot yet, They needed another
team to lose that night. And I got sent an e-mail saying,

(08:16):
are you available Saturday or Sunday to record a project?
And I said sure. And then I get an e-mail
response saying, great, it's forthe Blue Jays.
We need them to win on Friday night.
And if they're in the playoffs, then on the weekend we'll record
this thing and it'll start off the playoffs for the season.
It was just such a cool experience.
We got to put a little clip of that, too, Miles.

(08:37):
You got to cut that in for us. The Toronto Blue Jays are going
to the postseason. This is the story of the 2023
Toronto Blue Jays and how a topsy turvy season for the ages
culminated with them thirteen wins away from a World
Championship. So not only were you a big fan

(08:59):
hoping they were going to win anyways, then you were like
fuck, now they really need to win.
Yeah, so cool. And then tell us about family
life, man. So Chad MPT two kids.
Bittersweet sitting here right now because I just had my final
March break trip. You know, the, the, the run of,
of the kids being young is coming into an end for me.
It's I'm having a tough time with it right now.

(09:22):
You know, I thought the other stuff that we're going to talk
about later will make me cry. But right now, yeah, I've got an
18 year old in first year. He's he's going to be 19 in May,
Chris, he's wonderful. And Nikki the powerhouse is
going to cheerleading World Championships for the second
time next month. It's amazing, man.
Yeah, yeah, man. So, yeah.

(09:44):
But it's, it's really tough to, to, to sit here and say, hey,
this thing that I'm, I care about so much that has been my
whole life for 18 years now is transitioning into this other
thing where they're, they're notreally around anymore.
And I have to find some other stuff to do with my time.
And so who am I going to be going forward, you know?
September, you're going to be inan empty nester.

(10:05):
Yeah, that's crazy. Roller coaster, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
What about Speaking of roller coasters?
So Chris, you and I, we've got to play golf a few times and
Chris is a great golfer. So tell me about the roller
coaster of emotions when you have a 17 year old son who's
better than you at golf. I was like, yeah, what does that
feel? Like I totally thought you're
going. Somewhere else.

(10:28):
Oh, the pride, you know, like it's so true that you want your
kids to do better than you. I would.
Love. Accept that.
Goal my drive went a little further isn't very much you know
yeah but for sure yeah yeah. All all the things that wanted
your kids to do well, wanting them to succeed, wanting them to
do better than you. Check, check, check, check out.

(10:48):
Yeah, I love all that stuff. I want to see Chris hit the
longer drive than me and hit thehome run further than me and and
everything. And Nikki is, you know, already
better than me. I'm I've not been to a World
Championships before and anything.
And she's going to her second. So she just blows my mind
constantly with her discipline and capabilities.

(11:10):
Like God, she's gonna go. That's gonna be an emotional
roller coaster for you too, whenyou're at that knowing it's her,
her last big. Yeah, she's been competitive
cheerleading for. This is her 11th season.
She started when she was 6. And you know, again, like,
that's something I've been doingfor so long.
And so that that trip to to Disney in in a couple of weeks
now is. Yeah.

(11:31):
Oof. This is the last one.
You know, you know, they say like, you never know it's the
last time you pick up your child.
You never know. It's the last time that they
will come running for a hug, things like that.
I am going to know that this is the last time that I'm going to
watch my daughter doing this. Yeah.
Oof. Yeah.
Yeah, well, fellow cheer dad, asyou know, so yeah, it's, it's

(11:53):
fun to watch them and it is certainly, I mean that that's
the goal, right? Raise them a bit better, a bit
stronger, bit better foundation.Like that's the that's the goal,
right. Tell me about your foundation.
Go back to when you were a kid. What's your family dynamic?
Yeah, my family dynamic, some complaints, some great things.
My parents didn't get along all that well.

(12:15):
They had my sister, Kath Webb, kind of before they were ready
to have kids. They had my sister Kim a little
bit further along. They had me, Kath and yeah,
Kath, my oldest sister myself both seem to be whoopsies.
And Kim was maybe the one that my parents were ready to have.
But my dad was a lawyer. He worked the lawyer hours and

(12:38):
provided provided like a like a champion, right.
So my upbringing dad wasn't around too much and can't really
get into that. As a matter of fact, I'm around
in my kids lives, especially thefact that I was divorced 11
years ago. I am a very present divorcee
father compared to the norm. That's what I can tell you,

(13:00):
right? Like each of my kids have close,
close friends whose parents havebroken up and the dad's nowhere
to be found. You know, that wasn't going to
be me, right? And, and I see examples of
parents broken up where the dad of the equation, his father
wasn't around and the dad says, hey, that's not going to be me.
My parents were together just about until the end of my dad's

(13:22):
life. And so I don't have any of that
in my past. My parents were generally
together for for my upbringing, but I pride myself in being the
most present father I can I can name for my kids.
For the fact that your mom and Ibroke up when they were pretty
young. That's awesome.
Yeah. Yeah.
But going back to my upbringing,good upper middle class

(13:43):
experiences, but not so much on the family love thing.
So I would trade having a pool and a nice car to drive for the
family getting along every time.Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, that's something that a
lot of people don't understand, that's for sure.
Yeah. What's can you tell us about
Dad? Loved my dad.

(14:04):
Oh my God, He was a bankruptcy, insolvency, corporate real
estate lawyer in Toronto for just shy of 50 years.
He was a powerhouse until he wasn't, but we'll get into that
later. But he loved his kids.
He loved his family. He loved playing the the
supportive, energizing, loving, providing awesome dad.

(14:33):
He was amazing at that for a long, long time.
And as he was approaching 70 years old, some health problems
sort of took him out and he had a really rough final long 1011
years of his life. Yeah.
But yeah, my dad taught me some awesome stuff.
He, he taught me to love my kids.
He loved the crap out of me. He supported me.

(14:54):
I was, you know, I was an athlete in my teens.
I was a flat water canoe racing guy.
It's a bit of an obscure sport. Most people haven't even heard
of it, but it's an Olympic sport.
We've had Olympic champions in Canada from this.
And I did that in my teens. I, I was in wicked shape.
I I worked out 1415 times a week, went to Canadian

(15:15):
championships a couple of times.Kind of sounds like our last
like 6 months, yeah, yeah. Making the Canadian
Championship, working out 1415, Yeah. 16 * 16 and I feel lazy,
yeah. Yeah, we're in pairs of shape.
Like, yeah, we're in great shape.
Brown's of shape, yeah. Yeah, but it was a cool thing to
do in my teens. I mean, I would be in Ottawa or

(15:35):
Welland or Montreal or somethingevery weekend in the summer at
a, at a regatta, at a race, right?
We would get in the car and go stay in a hotel room for a
couple of nights. I'd do my races.
My sister Kim was in on it as well.
The two of us were doing it. That has translated out into,
you know, Chris, my son, who wasa Rep ball player, my daughter

(15:55):
Nikki with her cheerleading thatwe talked about.
Like, I, I love this stuff. I learned that from my dad,
right? Let's get in the car.
Let's go to this thing. Let's get in a hotel.
Let's have you compete. This stuff is awesome.
This leads to the lifelong memories like.
This is what being a dad's all about.
Oh yeah. Yeah, Yeah, totally.
Yeah. Allowing for those experiences,
like providing to the point thatthey're going to be able to do

(16:18):
this right, and giving them, instilling in them the the
belief that you can achieve and exceed, right?
Like, get out there, go to your workouts, be passionate about
this. You've found something that you
like. Do it right there.
You, you have all the opportunity to take this as far
as you can. Yeah.
As far as Dad Matt is concerned,Right.

(16:38):
Let's go for it. Yeah.
So how did you do at this this regatta?
Like how how was your? I'm, I'm, I'm a national
champion, yeah, 3 * 3 times over.
And so I obviously I peaked at 17.
Yeah. There's some people that don't
really peek though, so take it as a whip.
Yeah, sure. And.
Then stay. We've taken a peek.

(16:59):
Like we'll take a peek. And then stay competitive too
right like you, we still I mean you and I still play sports.
I know you I'll flex for you. You won the Home Run Derby at a
softball tournament, which and shout out Steve Bork too.
If Steve's listening, he puts ona great show.
He puts on a tournament every summer, raises money for Food

(17:19):
Bank and gets. Which we love doing, yeah.
There was, I was just looking ata photo of that the other day.
He probably gets 100 guys together to play baseball and
it's it's fun to still stay active too.
What else do you do to stay active?
I do a lot of Stairmaster because I do like to eat and
drink. After all, I came to this stark
realization not long ago that inyour 40s, if you want to eat
food and you don't want to be unlimited weight, then you have

(17:44):
to work out. And yeah, it's a good thing to
do is the doctor. Doctor says you have to work out
if you want to be healthy. So let's do that man.
Let's let's lift a few weights. I play guitar, love my guitar
playing. I got into that another another
thing my dad taught me, which islove good music, love rock
music. He got me into Elton John.
I got him into Aerosmith and I started playing guitar in 13 and

(18:11):
I'm OK at it. I I'm combine my voice and a
guitar playing and I can be a good front man in a band and
I've I've done OK at that, but it's fun.
Maddie in the deep cuts. Yeah, Maddie in the deep cuts.
That's it. If you want him to play for you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually started with a Johnny
Cash impersonation little act about about 10 years ago.

(18:33):
Where are you? I hear the trainer coming.
It's rolling around them and I can get down there, right?
So, yeah, so I did a Johnny Cashand I found there wasn't a very
big market for that. So I just pushed into doing just
covers. All right, let's just play
covers if people. Want to really good but nobody
fucking wanted. To listen.
Yeah, You know what? It's weird like that.
It's kind of like our podcast, bro.

(18:55):
So that's cool, man. And then so as we, we always ask
this question about, you know, obviously you've got a great
relationship with your kiddos. Yeah.
What are the things you think the kids would say about you?
Each of them would say differentthings.
I think, yeah, Chris and I, he would say I'm awesome.
He would say I'm a great dad. He would say it's super fun to

(19:18):
hang around and do stuff. It's fun to get to go places.
One of my best experiences as a father was a couple of years
ago, he and I went to a Metallica concert in in Buffalo,
NY. And at the concert towards the
end, he said to me, I wouldn't have wanted to be here with
anyone else That said I was gone, right?

(19:38):
I was done. Like my father wouldn't have
gone to a Metallica concert withme.
Like he was weary of me liking music like that when I was in my
teens. But so here's my son wants to go
with me. Like, all right, this is cool.
So Chris will say I I'm amazing.He he wants to follow in my
footsteps with a career, which is great.

(19:59):
I've got something set up for him to.
To jump right into, you know, it's available to Nikki too, but
if she's not interested, you're not interested, no problem.
But yeah, he'll, he'll say I'm cool and I'm fun and I'm
supportive. Nikki will say this, you know,
exact same thing as I, as I've told you, I, I'm here for my
kids. She might not necessarily say

(20:20):
I'm cool and fun, but she will say I'm supportive and I'm
always there. She's watched the Twilight
movies, right? Yeah.
Everybody's watched the Twilightmovies.
And I said to her, you know, I'mthe I'm the Bella's dad, right?
Loves the crap out of her, but also knows his place and knows
when to just sort of be at Bay, right?

(20:41):
Yeah, yeah. I can have AI can have a
relationship with my son where we have the common interests and
that's going to be cool. And with my daughter, not
necessarily common interests, but all the massive support and
love. And I even said that to her not
too long ago. I said, you know, you and I, I'm
like Bella's dad with you. I'll always do everything for
you. And I love the crap out of you.

(21:02):
And I'm just sort of just sort of here.
Just let her do her thing. Yeah, Let her do everything.
Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. And she, she didn't really say
anything in response, which I think she agreed.
She was like, yeah, so that's a good thing.
I take that as a super positive thing.
Yeah. If you can have any kind of
relationship with your kids where they will look upon you

(21:22):
and say, yeah, I give you a check mark.
Yeah, good. The goals.
I Yeah. Yeah, yeah, sometimes a smile
and nod from a teenager is aboutas commutative as you're gonna
get. So that's feedback that counts.
So other topics that we tend to talk about, man, mental health.
Tell me a little bit about how you approach your mental health,

(21:44):
what you might teach your kids, any experiences with mental
health. Lots of experiences with mental
health, man. A roller coaster ride for my
whole life, as everybody tends to have.
I wasn't so happy young when, when my household, you know,
parents didn't like each other kind of thing.
Lots of those households around.So I was kind of an unhappy kid.

(22:04):
Started to come out of my shell when I hit puberty grew.
I was doing that working out. I was a muscular 1516 year old
and starting to get popular at school.
So that was cool. And my, you know, my, my 20s,
everything's fine. You know, I started a family in

(22:24):
my 30s. My kids are growing up in my
40s. I started in my 40s.
I really started to figure life out a little bit.
I started to pay attention to things like cause and effect and
the law of attraction and the focusing on giving and karma,
which totally drives my whole life now today.

(22:47):
So that's something I got into. One of my business mentors told
me to read the book think and grow Rich.
And I did very glad I did. And then I and I just took that
on a whole journey. Some of the the tough times in
my life. I've talked a little bit about
my father and how he was a utterrock star.

(23:08):
He was the man he was in, you know, news, he was in the
Toronto Star with the deals he was doing when he was in his
heyday, when he was in his powerhouse days.
But then physical pain, man, it not good.
It, it can, it can ruin a life. So that that's what happened
with my dad. He and when he was just shy of
70 years old, he had just a sun and onset of some bad hip pain.

(23:32):
And then that started spreading over to his back.
And he had many surgeries and hetried this, tried that and tried
the other. And he ultimately spent the
final couple of years of his life.
His life consisted of red wine, oxy and sleeping pills and.
Just to numb the pain, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
And he killed himself. And I kind of look at that as

(23:56):
that happened on my watch. For as much as my therapist has
said that wasn't on you, you didn't do that.
Obviously. You didn't choose for him to
have this pain problem. You didn't choose for him to,
you know, find ways to compensate.
That happened on Labor Day of 2021, not that far in the rear
view mirror. And I spent after that.

(24:18):
After that happened, it was a good six months of me being
completely useless at everything.
And then I started to pull myself out of that and I, I was
kind of getting on towards my own life, sort of slipping off
the tracks and don't know where I'd be today.
But I had some good support and got into Reiki, which really
helped. Just as an aside, but one thing

(24:42):
my dad taught me, don't fucking kill yourself.
I have a bit of a a weight on myshoulders to be not the third
Stevenson family dad in a row tojump to your death.

(25:04):
That's a that's a little bit of something.
That's pretty heavy. Yeah, yeah.
That day, you know, the the lasttime I saw my dad was good.
The last time I spoke to my dad,not good.
You know, there was some shitty circumstances in there.
And, you know, the liquor store was closed because it was Labor
Day and he was calling me. Can you come over with booze?

(25:28):
No, dad, I'm not going to do that.
The conversation went liquor store was closed.
I'm not going to bring you booze.
I can't help you with this, dad.And he said, well, if you can't
help me with this, I don't know what's going to happen.
Well, I, I had made the, the hard line, tough love decision

(25:51):
to not help him with this, right?
And so I said, all right, if you're, if you're saying what I
think you're saying, all right, phone hung up.
I called 911, said my father is going to take his own life.

(26:14):
Not long later, I get a call from the police.
We know what they told me. Somehow I had the the
wherewithal to say, why are you calling me on my cell phone?
How did you have my number from when you called to say he was

(26:34):
going to kill himself? So you're telling me my call to
you saying he's going to do thisis how you have my number to
call me to tell me he did it. I I refer to that as the swift
kick to the groin to end all swift kicks to the groin.

(26:59):
That's a hard nut to swallow, but you weren't the one that
made that decision for him. No.
You were trying to give him the hard love to get him to come off
of doing that. Yeah, yeah.
It was COVID. I couldn't go.
Like I couldn't, I couldn't go like I knew I was going to have

(27:21):
an ambulance go pick him up and everything.
But it was, it was still at the point where you couldn't go to
the hospital yourself. So many things were wrong about
how everything went down that day.
And it's one of those things where his life was over, if you
know what I mean. Like he was quickly running out

(27:41):
of cash. He was.
His day consisted of not being coherent on too many pills.
He wasn't happy. I, he wasn't had, there was no
quality of life whatsoever. None whatsoever.
Yeah. And that was a tough one.

(28:03):
Yeah. So his father, as I say, his
father had an alcohol problem. And this is gross stuff.
But my father, my grandfather, who I never, who I never met,
had an alcohol problem. And on the day he was supposed
to come home from rehab, he decided to jump out the window
instead. And that happened when my father

(28:25):
was 30. And this happened with me when I
was, you know, 45 or whatever I was.
So now, yeah. So I, I have this goal to live
the rest of my life in good health and I'm pretty much doing
the things I need to do to do that because I, I don't want to
be the next guy along to end up in circumstances where, OK, I

(28:45):
can't handle this anymore. And I guess I'm just the next
guy to, you know, interesting. You're.
Surrounding yourself with peoplethat, yeah, take care of each
other as well. Yeah, right.
Like you've got a band of brothers that Yep, you know your
your dad didn't have around him at that.
Point. He didn't, yeah.
And you've got that, you've built that.
Yep. For yourself and that that's a
big thing for people's mental health, whether it's whether

(29:06):
it's males, females, it's, it's having having those four or five
people that. For sure, yeah.
Those are your support system. No matter what you're going
through, you need that because it's going to prevent shit like
that from happening. Totally, Yeah, Yeah, yeah.
So that that experience, you know what, my life could have
gone either way at that point when other people had lose their

(29:28):
parents, I always say to them astrying to help, I say, remember
that your parents going before you was the plan, right?
So it's going to be a terrible thing.
We're going to have to deal withit.
But go on with your life. They're up there wanting you to
go on with your life. So let's go, right?
Keep being successful, keep being good, keep improving

(29:49):
yourself. Leave this life in a better
station than than which you entered, like for God's sakes.
But then when their death happens kind of the way my dad's
did, it's like, OK, this wasn't the plan, right.
So let's work on a little bit where we're going to have to do
to be able to get to be able to move on.

(30:09):
Yeah. So I know a little bit about
mental health and how you can godown a bad road and what you
have to do to to get yourself back onto a good track.
And the great person you were before that happened is a very
different person than the amazing person you've become
since that, Like everything thatyou've done in your life since

(30:31):
that point has been for everybody else.
Yeah, as much as it's been for yourself to to help help you
mentally, you've done a ton for everybody else over the last
five years. For sure.
Yeah. Well, yeah, like I say, and when
I got into my 40s, karma, cause and effect, law of attraction,
this is what my life is about now.
Like I've, I've seen enough times that if you focus on

(30:55):
giving to this world, this is mygreat piece of advice to anyone.
My kids for sure. I tell this to them constantly.
If you focus on giving to this world, then this world will
focus on giving to you. You focus on taking from this
world. This world will focus on taking
from you. So what are you going to do,
right? I focus on giving to this world.
If I want to have what I want tohave, then you know it's going

(31:17):
to come to me. If I focus on, you know,
spreading to love to others. May sound cheesy, but it's so
fucking true. And you live in Bree, though,
like my, my kids see you as Uncle Matt.
You come to our house, they run up and give you a hug.
Every time you leave, they want to give you a hug and a kiss.
And you know, you come over and play board games with them and
bingo and like, you're just suchan inspirational.

(31:37):
That was my keep. Calling was a bingo announcer.
There's still time. Maybe I didn't peek at 17.
Yeah. It's coming up, man.
Yeah, that is it. Yeah, but you could have taken,
you could have made the choice to let it take over your life
and, and compound things mentally and, and you didn't.
You chose to go to go the other path and and to make a

(31:59):
difference. And it was really, you know,
shit my dad taught me was to be the powerhouse guy who who does
things for his family, right? So if I didn't have kids, and
that's what happened with my dad, not sure where I'd be
today, but ultimately I'm not finished with my
responsibilities. I'm never going to be finished

(32:19):
with my responsibilities. So pulled myself out and pulled
up my socks and kept going, Right?
Yeah. Yeah, you sure did.
Yeah, you mentioned a couple of things in there that you found
helpful. You said Reiki was one.
Yeah, yeah. What?
What is that? I'm not, yeah.
Reiki is a about 100 year old Japanese energy healing system.

(32:41):
It's one of these things that can can be really like woo woo
or weird or like, OK, whatever bro, that I don't believe in
that shit. But just like, you know, the sun
rises everyday. This is the fact that that
everything is energy, right? We'll all agree that a human
being is energy. Thoughts are energy, the

(33:02):
universe is energy and all this.So Reiki is just simply a
practice where you will, the Reiki practitioner will use
themselves as a conduit to channel life force and universal
energy in and out of another person for that person's
benefit. It can be used to help someone

(33:22):
with their emotional problems that can be used to help someone
with their physical problems. I had emotional problems, we'll
say. So in that was, you know, the
bad day was Labor Day 2021. So that right at the beginning
of 2022, I just started searching.
I'd known of Reiki. I knew what it was.
I didn't really know much about it.
And I thought I need something I'm going to try anything here.

(33:43):
So let's check out Reiki. And I just googled it.
I came up with let it go with Reiki.
I thought, OK, there's somethingI need to let go here.
This is the one that I so I contacted lovely woman named
Calla Brooks here local in Burlington who runs Let it go
with Reiki. I, I wanted to become a
practitioner of it, use it as a,as a healing mechanism for

(34:06):
myself. So I got into that and I I have
had some really fucking trippy experiences while receiving
Reiki. Really cool stuff.
Do the like mushrooms come hand in hand with the Reiki?
Like, pretty much part of Japanese mushrooms, yeah.
Yeah, pretty much. Like if a session is an hour
long, then at about the 40 minute mark I'm having

(34:27):
conversations with people that aren't there.
I'm feeling physical touch from people that aren't there.
I'm hearing, you know, singing that that isn't there.
Like 1 good example is there's, there's always like the kind of
music in the background, right? Just the relaxing Zen kind of
music playing in the background.And then on one occasion the a

(34:51):
Disney song came on. It was like a whole new world, I
think it was. And, and at the end of the
session and it just this beautiful woman singing voice
singing a whole new world, everything.
And so callous said to me, wow, it was so weird that a Disney
song came on and I said, yeah, the singing was beautiful.
And she goes singing. Yeah.

(35:13):
Oh, no. So there was no singing.
I was just hearing it in my head.
But I was hearing that singing the same as I can hear your
voice in in these headphones right now.
It was super cool. Yeah.
And it really works as as an emotional cleansing, as an
energy cleansing and sending yourself out to feel good and

(35:33):
have a really calm mind, right. Because we all have really busy
minds, right? Which is another thing that we
all need to work on. But I will come out of a Reiki
session not feeling the like, ohGod damn it, that person didn't
answer my e-mail yet. And oh Jesus Christ, I forgot to
get groceries and all this, all this stuff has gone from your

(35:54):
head once you receive Reiki. And As for as long as you can
keep that mentality of this totally cool calm.
So then you just, you just startwalking down the street and woo.
So yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, Yeah, Ricky's really cool.I I wouldn't be in as good of

(36:16):
shape right now if not for that.Do you still practice it like
weekly or monthly or like I? Still receive Ricky every now
and then. For a while I was, I was
receiving it weekly like 2022 into 2023 and I've gotten away
from it, but just simply becauseI feel better, right?
And I'm sort of back in charge of myself.

(36:36):
And but it's just an amazing thing to do that anyone who's
having emotional problems or physical problems, as I say,
like I actually cured someone's trigger finger using Reiki
myself once, which was kind of cool.
And like the person that I did that for like didn't know
anything about it, didn't know what I was about to do.
And I just went like this with my hands over, over her finger.

(36:59):
And her finger was shaken like this in a manner that you can't
choose to do. And she's like, my God, look at
this. And then all of a sudden her
finger sort of straightened out.OK, so this stuff is real.
May seem weird, may sound woo woo, but don't discount it.
I think there's so many paths toWellness.

(37:19):
You know, one of the things and the reason why we ask mental
health attorney is, is that I don't think it's
one-size-fits-all. I think there's many ways to
heal. I think there's things that we
can do to better ourselves. And if you don't know, you don't
know. Like you learn something every
day, Right. So you also mentioned speaking
to somebody, a psychiatrist, I assume.

(37:39):
Yeah. Tell me about that.
Yeah, I started that in 2018 after I'm twice divorced.
And after my second breakup, I got into therapy and learned a
lot about why everybody does everything that they do.
And a lot of it is driven by repeating patterns that we've
recognized in our parents, right?

(38:02):
A lot of the time we do stuff toplease our parents.
A lot of the time we do stuff that we learned as a habit from
our parents. And a lot of the relationships
we end up in are because of whatwe've been exposed to.
As an example. And one thing I've learned is

(38:22):
you've got to go with what you want rather than what you're
used to. You got to go with what what you
want rather than, you know, maybe a pattern or whatever your
parents did or whatever you you've.
Been programmed. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, or whatever they want for you.
Yeah. So therapy was was really good.

(38:42):
It's, again, it's something thatI've gotten away from because I
learned so much from it. And I feel like I'm in a decent
place. And these things that I have
used to, you know, get myself from where I was to where I am,
that was definitely one of them.Going to a therapist has that
stigma. Maybe not so much anymore, but I

(39:03):
am very, you know, shoulders held high, able to say, Oh,
yeah, I went to therapy again once a month for a couple of
years in there. For sure.
Very happy I did it. I would always tell everyone if
there's something you need to work on, go.
God don't, don't, don't feel thestigma.
Yeah, and then that learning side of things, cuz I know
you're a guy who likes to try and continually better

(39:26):
themselves. The one story I have that that I
think is awesome is you. You came by my office one day
with a book and you said, yeah, I know you're busy, but bro,
just read this chapter and you had it, you know, dog eared and
on my desk. So tell me about that.
Tell me about reading, learning,continuing for.
Sure. This was the the Captain
Underpants? Yeah, it was.

(39:46):
A great comic it was. No, no, it was something we
can't mention on the. Podcast, just just watch there.
Weren't very many words in this book.
Yeah, that's right. It was one of the Dog Man books,
wasn't it? Yeah, he knows I like pictures.
Yeah, that that that book was, Imentioned that a business mentor

(40:07):
of mine said, read, Think and Grow Rich.
Turns out to think and grow Richwas the sort of the Cole Notes
version of a bigger book called The Law of Success.
And the lesson that I wanted youto read was called The
Mastermind Alliance. And that basically says that if
Matt Stevenson has a goal and he's thinking about it, then

(40:29):
he's got a certain amount of energy going into the universe,
out into the ether, as they say,to get that to happen.
But if Matt Stevenson and Chris Carter are thinking about Matt
Stevenson's goal, the amplification of that just went
up double, right? So that's what we need.
So that's the lesson there. If you have an army of people

(40:52):
who believe in you and like you and are invested in you
achieving your own goal, then the you're going to achieve that
goal. Yeah.
And of course, how do you get someone to be invested in you,
to want you to achieve your goals?
As I've already said, focus on giving.
I give to people. I am here to do for you what I
can do for you. I'm here to do this for you.

(41:14):
Fuck, I was going to say shots. Let's do a shot.
Yeah, I'm here to do shots with you.
Can be all of the above and the idea.
That some good therapy sessions over.
Shots we have, you know. Many, many ways to well.
Yeah, we had three therapists, Jim, Jack and Johnny.
Yeah. Yeah.
The the, the other side of that that you touched on, which is,

(41:36):
you know, another way the to kind of build that success is
that manifesting piece that, that having the, the clear
visual and then putting it out there.
Tell me about that. For sure, yeah.
When you have identified something that you want, right,
you've decided on a goal. If it's for a relationship, if
it's for money, if it's for something material, if it's for

(41:59):
capability to do something that you can't do.
Then if you think about in present tense about what you
want, then that's how you do it,right?
To manifest something into your life, you have to feel like you
already have it right? So it's always comes down to
relationships and money are the 2 main problems that people seem

(42:20):
to have. So if I don't have the
relationship I want, if I'm sitting around feeling really
sad about being single and I'm on the couch again tonight, then
that's going to go on for a longtime.
You're not going to find your person.
But if you're sitting there on that couch, oh that, oh, that
person makes me feel so good. And then, Oh yes, then she's
going to show up in your life, right?

(42:42):
And so that's relationships and money.
If if the wallet is tight and you got to think about whether
or not you're going out for dinner, you got to think about
where the groceries are going tocome from next week, then it's
the hardest thing in the world to do this, this kind of
mentality. But if you can sit there knowing
that the groceries are going to be paid for, then they're going

(43:04):
to be paid for, right? You know, Henry Ford, I think it
was that said, whether believe you can't or you believe you
can, you are correct, right? So if you're sitting here
thinking about abundance, then things are going to be
abundance. If you're sitting here thinking
about lack, you're you're going to be lacking, right?
That's the way it works. So to manifest things into your

(43:24):
life, you need to think about what you want in present tense.
That's the lesson. Yeah.
And it's so easy for people to spend all of their time
frustrated about just being distracted.
Like, oh, like I said, oh, I forgot to get the groceries.
God damn it, that prison didn't call me back.
Throw all that aside and just say here, this is what I'm

(43:45):
focused on. This is what I want, OK?
I want this and that and the other, the money, the
relationship, the the status, whatever it is, go for it.
We, we live in an abundant universe, right?
There is more than enough out there for everyone.
Go ahead and have it. The best philosophers, the the
new thought philosophers, DeepakChopra, Eckhart Tolle, Tony

(44:11):
Robbins book right there. He's a good one.
They all say like, hey, it's allout there.
Go ahead and have it. Don't feel guilty for it either,
right? If you're if you're telling me
that I can have an abundant lifeor I can have a life of lack and
frustration, I'm supposed to feel guilty for having a
blundant life? Hell no.
You know, drive the nice car. You want something?

(44:32):
Go make it happen. If you're going to have the poor
me mentality, you're going to bepoor me for the rest of your
life. If you want something, you got
to make it fucking happen. Yeah, 100%, yeah.
And that's that thoughts become things, right?
Like to quote to Robbins, I hopeI'm saying it right, But we're
the focus goes, energy flows, right?
That is it. So if you're focused on the
negative, that's where all that energy is going to go.

(44:53):
And that's what you're going to receive too, right?
So it's a it's a cycle, man. And you know, again, when we
have those challenges in life, like that's, that's a moment
where it's not easy, but you do get to decide, you do get to,
you know, translate what you're feeling into whatever you want
it to be, right? And you know, we talk about the,

(45:14):
the energy and, and the kindnessyou put into the world, the
volunteerism you put into the world, the support you put into
the world. Every single time I've done any
of that, it comes back in spades.
Always. And I, and I think that's, you
know, that's something that we could all do better if I'm still
trying to up my game. I think it's all bullshit.
I've wanted to be 6 foot ever since I was given the.

(45:36):
Tesla truck over here right withthe I.
Fucking do everything I can to make it happen.
And I went from 5/9 to 5/9 and 1/2 because I'm wearing big
thicker shoes. Well, you, you saw it in your
mind, you saw yourself as being how tall like 5/8 was, what
you're hoping for. And then you go buy the shoes.
That's the, that's the metaphor for the day.

(45:57):
I want to talk about your professional life too, because
and you've been crushing it. So obviously ChatGPT talked a
little bit about it, but how would you introduce yourself?
How would you introduce what youdo?
Like tell us about your work. Yeah, What I do, it's a really
specialized, niche sort of thingthat I've found my way into.
Then it's a career that I'm extremely pleased with, that I

(46:20):
have a lot of motivation for, that I have a lot of passion
for. You know, it checks all of the
dream boxes, right? Like I get to work at a pace
that works for me and the bills are paid.
I get to do what I want to do, and I'm doing something that is
really beneficial for the peoplethat I'm doing it for.
And ultimately, not to get too political, but a lot of

(46:40):
Canadians are upset about how much tax they owe.
A lot of business owners are extremely upset about how much
of their work and blood, sweat and tears and risk ends up going
into government coffers of whichwhere it's questionable the
validity of how much gets taken and what it's going to get spent
on. So my focus is basically for an

(47:03):
incorporated business owner who's upset about how much tax
they're paying, we can do stuff about that for you while you're
alive and especially once you'regone.
Now, something my dad taught me was financially be prepared to
die. So when you go, your family's
not going to have a problem. I believe in the the mantra of

(47:24):
being worth more when you're gone than you are when you're
alive. Like why not, right?
You know, the way it happened with with my dad was after this
illustrious 49 year career as a lawyer in Toronto, you would
have thought that I would have inherited 5,000,000 bucks.
Well, my mom inherited a bit of cash, a bit of debt, and.
You got a couple bills in the and a car you had to repaint.
Yeah, yeah. That's right.

(47:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my dad didn't have life
insurance. It had, it had lapsed a couple
years previous in his, in his troubles.
So I'm rammed to the gills with life insurance and when I go,
things are going to be fine for my family.
And that's one of the things that I do professionally.
And yeah, the, the main thing that I do professionally is

(48:09):
bring awareness to the business owner about things I've never
heard of before. Processes to reduce tax bills.
And again, like you earned this.You put in the the work, you had
the idea, you got it to happen. It's all about making shit
happen, right? So you got this to happen.
You deserve to have your freaking money.
So let's let's have that be the way it is.

(48:29):
And for a lot of guys that get involved in those policies, it's
also, you know, even previous tothem dying, it's hey, like if
you take care of taking doing this now and dealing with the
situation now, you'll be able topay yourself and you could
probably retire earlier and not have to depend on, you know, a
pension plan and all that other shit.
Like what you do is set people up that they can, they could
retire early if they want to andbe paying themselves from these

(48:52):
policies as. Well, totally.
Yeah. Yeah, because a key in
retirement is to have fresh cash, right?
If I'm not going to work anymore, my paycheck isn't going
to show up anymore. But there needs to be more fresh
cash, needs to be fresh cash forever coming in always.
And that's one of the things thepolicies does as well that that
usually people don't know about.Once I explain to a person,

(49:13):
here's what I'd like to do with you, you know someone, I'll sit
with someone, They'll tell me their goals and intentions.
They'll tell me their financial landscape.
I'll say, all right, here's whatwe can do.
Here's what you have to do. Here's what you'll get back for
it. And usually the response is this
is too good to be true. Why haven't I heard about this
before? I wish I'd done this 10 years
ago and and all these sorts of things.

(49:35):
It's crazy how smart all these people are that own businesses
that are anywhere from like 1 to$50 million super good at what
they do. And a lot of them are, are
professional corps, like a lot of them aren't even like other
entrepreneurial businesses. A lot of them are professional
course for whether they're they're doctors, the therapists,
they're dentists, whatever. Like they're really good at what
they do, but they really don't know what they're not doing

(49:58):
totally. And then when you bring that to
them, they're just like, wow. Yep, Yep, Yep.
Answer. Yeah, It answers questions that
they didn't know they needed to ask, and it solves problems that
they know they have, but they don't know how to solve.
You know, right now in March of 2025, it's, it's bad for the the
markets right now and a policy has a 6% non taxable yield in an

(50:24):
investment class that's as riskyas cash.
You tell me for sure. It's worth a look.
Yeah, yeah. It's not just, it's not they're
not just to save taxes and they're not just, you know, to
help you with capital gains later on.
They're also an investment vehicle, right.
They're a long term investment vehicle that is as safe as it
gets with a decent return. Yeah.

(50:45):
Yeah, Yep. I think it's the awareness piece
too. It is like anytime I've I, you
know, I've been to a few of your, your presentations and
obviously follow along with yourcareer.
I think it's just a lot of people don't know, think about
legacy. How many people go their whole
life without saying, OK, I'm going to have some conscious
thought around legacy. Yeah, what, what happens after?
Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people, they're

(51:05):
like, oh, like I built a business and my business is
going to be worth $10 million, and when I die, my kids will get
it and be able to take it over. And there's going to, they had a
great legacy. And what they don't know is like
80% of that business is probablygoing to disappear and the kids
are going to end up with 20% of it.
And do or don't they know how torun that business, Who knows?
But like, you didn't really leave them much of A legacy.

(51:27):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Yeah, I'm getting back to shit my dad taught me.
I mean, as I say, you got to be ready to die.
You got to be ready to pass all of this on.
The earlier you look after it, the better.
It's going to work out for you and for your beneficiaries, for
your family. Right.
Yeah. I love the work I do and bonus
that it teaches me how to solve a problem that, you know, we're

(51:51):
always teaching our kids with the lessons that living our own
lives, right? We can show our kids what to do
or we can show our kids what notto do.
You know, I've talked about the stuff my dad did that was
awesome, right when I was growing up, supporting me with
my sports and providing a wonderful lifestyle.

(52:11):
All that stuff was great. That was him teaching me
something to do. Be supportive of your kids.
Go to the events. Love the events.
You're going to love the events,you know, be there for that.
Support it. One thing my dad taught me not
to do is die broke, you know? Yeah.
And. And not pass anything on.

(52:33):
Yeah, like I I, as I said, I want to leave this world in a
better station than I entered, and I want my kids to have the
opportunity to do that as well. Yeah.
Looking forward a little bit, what's on that road map for you?
What can we expect? What's What's the fun?
Stuff. Well, yeah, I'm I'm an empty
nester in a couple of months. My kids are adults now and I

(52:57):
love that and I'm going to miss them being kids.
But now the job of being a father never ends right.
I'm and now it's going to be something else.
I'm providing. I feel such pride in the fact
that I'm providing a career conduit for both of my kids.
One or two of them might end up taking me up on it, which is
cool. So a really cool thing that I

(53:19):
that I see every now and then inmy professional travels, I'll
see, you know, a parent who has an, an investment business or an
insurance business or something and they're their 55 and their
25 year old is there with them in the office.
I'm, I'm just embarking upon that and I'm super excited about
that. Yeah.
So Chris is going to come home from his first year and have a

(53:42):
summer job. He's going to be working for me,
learning the business as well asdoing some marketing stuff.
He and I are both totally chuffed for it.
So that's cool. Love that.
That's a cool thing that's on the horizon.
And but now maybe I'll get to play more golf.
Play the guitar a little bit. More.
Play the guitar a little bit more.
Play golf a little bit more. I'm getting married for the

(54:03):
third time. Hey, no judgement, please.
But you know that life is funny.Life is a roller coaster.
But I'm with a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful girl named
Robin who constantly lets me know that she she likes what I
do and she likes me and she's here for me.

(54:24):
I never have to doubt that for asecond, right?
I think that's the best thing you can find in a relationship
is someone, no matter what's going on through the ups and
downs, I love you. You're awesome.
That's the kind of person you want in your life.
And that's that's what I've got with this girl.
I'm very fortunate. That's amazing, man.
Yeah, that's this summer. That's this summer.

(54:47):
Yeah, it's three months today inthis.
Big party, yeah. Looking forward to it, man.
Yeah. What else?
Anything else you want to share about your business?
Anything you want to plug? I want to plug cars.
OK shit. My dad taught me cars are cool
and holy fuck are cars ever cool.

(55:07):
Yeah he was. He owned one non American car
and so he probably owned 40 cars, maybe 50 in his lifetime
and one of them was not American.
It was car that I own today. It was a 2010 Audi A5 Cabriolet
that he bought when he was 70. It was brown on brown.

(55:30):
And when he passed away, I inherited it.
And Dad, I love you, but I'm notdriving a brown car.
So my friend painted blue and itlooks pretty sharp now.
But yeah, when you're when your parents pass away, you're going
to want to hold on to something of theirs.
I didn't want to hold on to his canes because that's just a
painful reminder and I've got his CDs and I've got his car,

(55:55):
this super cool car. So my parents had a condo in
Fort Myers and a Golf Club membership down there in the
early 20 tens into the mid twenty 10's.
And this car that I have today is the car that my father bought
new and I drove to Fort Myers every fall as my annual
pilgrimage in October to send itdown to Florida for the winter

(56:17):
for them and and love having that thing today.
It's as I'm accumulating assets and feeling cool about some
collections of things I have, that car is never leaving my
family. Yeah, that's a good thing to
have. And he he said the best car that

(56:39):
he ever owned was his 1992 Chevrolet Corvette that he
bought in in the mid 90s. So this was in that heyday when
he was working hard and putting in the lawyer hours and making
big money and providing a nice lifestyle.
It's one cool thing he did. He did.
I was at Western University, Kimand I, my sister.
It was Thanksgiving weekend, 1997.

(57:02):
I'm home for Thanksgiving. He says to me, this is fact.
Internet was in its infancy and it was the Auto Trader magazine
still. So he says go get the Auto
Trader magazine, flag every manual convertible Corvette in
the Auto Trader magazine and we'll go check it out.
OK, so I flagged 3 and one of them was like way out in
Richmond Hill, but it was this is the best looking 1.

(57:24):
So we drove out to Richmond Hilland saw the car.
It was awesome, green on tan, super cool thing.
And private owner selling it to you know the the C5 with
Corvette was just coming out. This was AC4 he was unloading it
enthusiast. The car was dead, bent 40,000
kilometers on it and oh, thanks very much.

(57:45):
OK, yeah, see you later. We left and we had Thanksgiving
dinner. I went back to London, to
Western. Two nights later, my phone
rings. He says it's my dad.
He says go out in the driveway. There's my dad in the Corvette.
He bought it, didn't tell me, Surprised me with it a couple
days later. That's how fucking cool my dad.

(58:05):
Was. That's awesome.
Right. So when he passed away, I had
some of the records, I had the VIN and everything.
I tried to find the car. When he sold it a little while
later, it went to Alberta, couldn't find it.
So I basically got myself the exact facsimile just to, you
know, as one of the things I didto, to kind of crutch myself

(58:27):
with the emotions. I made a, a bit of a bit of a
purchase and I've got that now and I've got it done up the way
I want it. And once again, this, these
things are never leaving family hands now that they're here.
My dad's car, the Audi, the wicked thing that I my
pilgrimage to Fort Myers every year, this cool 1993, the Neo

(58:49):
classic Corvette that you know my kids are going to have some
cool shit along with a few buckswhen I'm gone.
So that's good. And damn, does that sound good
now. Yeah.
I feel like this is like one of those in memoriam's that we
should bring back. Dream Car Garage.
Yeah. We want to.
Yeah, I think so. OK, so in the first few
episodes, you've probably heard it.
We did dream car garage. So we we're just, you know,

(59:11):
while we're still fucking learning.
Let's be clear, we don't know what we're doing, but one of the
things we thought is like, cuz we're car guys, right?
You're a car guy. So the questions we had for our
guests is you get to choose three cars in your dream car
garage. OK, You've got the winter
beater, you've got the daily andyou've got the flex.
Yeah. So what would those three be?

(59:32):
What would you have for a winterbeater?
Winter beater is going to be do I get to flex and say it's the
car I have? Whatever it is, and this is your
game. Man dream car garage.
Yeah, I've got a an Audi S6 Quattro with a hell of a
powerful twin turbo V8. Sounds like the perfect winner.
Great. One yeah, Audi enthusiasts would

(59:53):
say. So they'd be talking about
Quattro all day. Yeah, my winter beater is a very
practical 4 door, 4 wheel drive,loaded with snow tires, space
for the family luggage, you nameit.
Rocket. Yep, perfect.
The Daily. The daily is going to be

(01:00:14):
something a little more fun. The daily would be like a my
ideal dream car project would bea Jeep.
Yeah, let's have some. That's that's cool year round,
as long as it's not your only car.
Jeep is is rough to have as youronly car as a friend of ours
might be finding out right now. But yeah, Jeep's a cool car.
It's fun year round. Take the doors off in the
summer, have a convertible when you want a convertible, and when

(01:00:38):
you're just tooling around town,you know, day, night, summer,
winter, you're good. And then the flex, I know of two
cars and you got to choose one. So which one are you going to
say? The Lamborghini Diablo.
Yeah, it's the Diablo. Yeah, I like my 80s nineties,
the neo classic, and it was one of the reasons I left my
Corvette so much. It's that 80s, nineties, you

(01:00:58):
know, I've been watching, I've been binge watching X-Files,
which was filmed in the beginning of the 90s.
And I swear those like 1991 FordTauruses drive by and I'm like,
oh, I like that, Yeah. The Taurus SHO ones, Yeah, yeah,
yeah, they were dope. Yeah.
Fun fact, producer of The X-Files name.
Chris Carter. Chris Carter.

(01:01:19):
Yep, fun fact. Yeah, but that Diablo shit.
Yeah, yeah. What's the other?
One, you're gonna say you've gota Porsche that I know you
idolize what it's. All all the race car.
Yeah, yeah, the Porsche 917K17K Yeah, 1 was just at auction.
Jerry Seinfeld still owns a 917,the one that was used in the Le
Man movie Steve McQueen. Wasn't he offered like a

(01:01:41):
ridiculous #25,000,000? Yeah, and he said no to.
It no Yep. Like what was he expecting?
Like cuz he put it on the auction.
So if you're doing that, it's under the assumption that for
the right number I'll sell this.Like what is his right number do
you think? For if God knows 25,000,000
wasn't enough? Yeah, yeah, who knows?
I guess he had a number in mind,but that didn't get the job
done. There's been some wild prices
though, man. You watch Barrett and things

(01:02:02):
like that. Wild prices, yeah.
Also some deals though too, especially if you're into that
eighty 90s vibe. Like I've watched a few like Fox
Body Mustangs go through there where I'm like, oh, I'd have
that. Well, there's some trucks on the
road right now that you can get some great deals on.
Jimmy's selling a cyber trek. Yep, my friend's selling a Jeep.

(01:02:23):
Yeah, yeah, he showed up water selling the.
Jeep we'll we'll trade OBO Yeah,that's great man.
Want to do another segment we always ask Dad joke.
Did you bring a dad joke for? Us.
I did, yeah. So where do pirates get their
hooks? Where do pirates get their
hooks? Yeah.

(01:02:45):
The second hand store. They have a second hand.
Yeah, I get it. There you go.
This hockey season, pick up something to celebrate the puck
drop grab Wolf Glass Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon now
only 1795 at the LCBO. Why settle when you can soar?

(01:03:06):
Wolf Blast. Yellow Label.
That's good times. Yeah.
What? Anything else you want to plug
Maddie? Think I'm good?
What are you doing with your with your time outside of work
right now? Like what do you what do you put
your time into and your investment vehicle into mentally
and. Yeah, right now my time's into
my upcoming marriage. My I rehearse with my band once

(01:03:27):
a week which is super cool. Play as much golf as I can and
getting looking forward to having an employee this summer.
On your huge piece of the Burlington Dads.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We haven't talked about the dads.
That is the really wonderful thing in my life that allows me

(01:03:48):
to do everything I want to do asfar as giving right.
What a perfect thing that the Burlington dad's group, which
has 6500 guys in it is going to have every kind of guy in it.
Guys I can look up to. Hello guys that I can help
perfect, right? So we've got this is March right

(01:04:09):
now as we're recording this and June, bit of a busy month for
me. We're going to be doing the the
family BBQ for the third time, which is going to be super cool.
Yeah, and you do an amazing job with that.
That's a great day, yeah. Yep, your pickup truck was on
attendance last year, and hopefully you're gonna be in
attendance on your birthday thisyear.
See, Daniel's better be there. Let's go.
Yeah. June 21st is your birthday.
It is, yeah. Yeah, I should.

(01:04:31):
I think we'll be in town. I mean, we'll be in town for the
wedding for sure. Yeah, maybe we'll make it all
happen. The BBQ's a great event, too.
Like if anybody and I couldn't go to this one, I've been to
previous ones, but that's a fun one where if you're anywhere
around Burlington or thinking about getting involved, it's
free. Yep, it's awesome.
Sponsor driven, yeah. It's it's super well attended.
So like, there's a hundred different things to do.

(01:04:52):
Matt and the boys get, you know,games, BBQ, a whole bunch of fun
stuff for the kids. Bouncy castles.
Face painting. There's yeah, a bunch of fun
stuff. Tons of different companies come
and set up like outdoor activities for kids to do, so
there's stuff for kids to do forhours there for sure.
Yeah. I think that one comes full
circle too, with, you know, finding your support system and
finding your tribe. Like, you know, we've got an

(01:05:14):
event too, coming up. Like if anybody's listening to
this and you're thinking about ways to work on yourself, get
out there a little bit or maybe find some new tribe, grow your
tribe, whatever the case might be.
Shit like that. So easy, man, just to, you know,
just go go hang out. So that's an easy one to go meet
some great people. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, and that group, I mean, you know, Jamie and I talk about

(01:05:35):
it all the time. It's just been so awesome to
watch it grow. And you know, some of us,
certainly us at this table and afew others get to kind of
steward things a little bit, butthat's its own living, breathing
thing. You've had a couple other big
events that you did too. You did a you did a huge fall
cleanup one year that you had like 304 hundred people show.
Up with their with their kids. The woof.

(01:05:55):
We cleaned the whole city in like 4 hours. 5 hours.
Yeah. That was, that was interesting,
that woof, that was about two weeks after the bad day.
Yeah, right. Yeah.
Was it that close? Yeah.
Yeah, this was like, I remember.I mean, I remember in my mind
that they're much farther apart than that.
It was like one of the first steps for him to like be out

(01:06:15):
there and just kind of like, yeah, I need to go do good,
right? Yeah, that was a cool thing that
the, the IT was citywide garbagecleanup.
Yeah, Yeah, cool. We divided Burlington into like,
its various neighborhoods focused on Realtors as sponsors
and just said, OK, Realtors, you'll pay a nominal sponsorship
fee. We'll have a zone that you're
dedicated to. We're gonna promote the crap out

(01:06:38):
of this. All you need to do is show up.
And it worked, right. We we brought in 10 and a half,
$1000 for charity that we, you and I, Yep.
Drove the checks out to 1 was toa men's mental health place or
men's shelter. Men's shelter in Hamilton.
Yeah. Men's shelter in Hamilton.
And. And then to the Rock.
We gave the other half. Yeah, yeah.
And we've got some good picturesof the massive pile of garbage

(01:07:01):
bags and recycling bags that we that we gathered up at the dump
at the end of the day. Yeah, it was like 6 hours and it
was like 400 people that showed up.
Yep, in the different pockets. It was.
It was cool. Yep, the kids that needed, like
the high school kids that neededtheir community service hours
that qualified for that. And the city was a little bit
cleaner. Some great charities received a
few bucks and some Realtors got some exposure.

(01:07:23):
And it was it was awesome. Yeah.
Another great way to get off thecouch too, looking for ways to
get some fresh air and meet somepeople and get moving.
That was a that was a good one for that.
Yeah. Yeah, we have a few of those
too. Yeah.
And if you're listening to the, the other one that we've been
doing and Jamie's been spearheading is with the United
Way. There's a lot of good volunteer
options there. So if you're looking for ways to

(01:07:44):
get involved, reach out. Absolutely.
Yeah, You know, Maddie, it was awesome having you on.
Yeah, thanks. What a pleasure, what an honor.
Thanks guys. A lot of lot of shit for people
to to think about and understand.
That's for sure. Yep.
OK. Appreciate you.
Man appreciate you. Chat soon.
Thank you. Bye.