January 23, 2025 • 35 mins
What if you could unlock a treasure trove of government benefits with the wisdom of a legendary icon? Matthew Lesko, the man who danced into our hearts with his question mark suits, joins us to share his enduring passion for helping individuals access financial support. At 81, he remains dedicated to shedding light on the "giving society" — a world of government and non-profit resources that often goes unnoticed.
In this engaging conversation, Attorney Bob Mannor interviews Matthew Lesko, a well-known figure in the realm of government benefits and financial resources. They discuss the importance of understanding the 'giving society' as opposed to capitalism, emphasizing how many resources are available to help individuals in need. Lesko shares insights on accessing government benefits, the significance of community support, and the lessons learned from both success and failure. The conversation concludes with practical tips for listeners on how to navigate available resources effectively.
Episode Takeaways
- The 'giving society' comprises 40% of our economy, providing resources to those in need.
- Many people are unaware of the financial assistance available to them.
- Community support is crucial for personal and professional growth.
- Success can be a handicap; learning from failure is essential.
- Accessing resources often requires asking the right questions to the right people.
- There are thousands of nonprofit organizations ready to help individuals with various needs.
About Matthew Lesko:
Matthew Lesko, the“Free Money Guy”, is an author and infomercial personality best known for his flamboyant question-mark suits and promotion of government grants. A former naval officer and Fortune 500 consultant, he gained fame in the 1990s and 2000s through bestselling books and TV infomercials on accessing free government resources. With over 70 published works, including Getting Yours and Free Money to Quit Your Job, Lesko remains a passionate advocate for public access to financial aid. Learn more at Leskohelp.com
Listening Options
YouTube Playlist
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Amazon Music
iHeart Radio
Podcast Addict
Podchaser
Deezer
Listen Notes
Player FM
ABOUT US:
Mannor Law Group helps clients in all matters of estate planning and elder law including special needs planning, veterans’ benefits, Medicaid planning, estate administration, and more. We offer guidance through all stages of life.
We also help families dealing with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other illnesses that cause memory loss. We take a comprehensive, holistic approach, called Life Care Planning. LEARN MORE...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Advice from your Advocates.
I am really excited tointroduce you to our guest today
, matthew Lesko.
If you are at least 30 yearsold probably even 25 years old
you'll remember Matthew Lesko asone of the premier people, if
you ever had insomnia, stayed uplate at night to watch these
infomercials.
(00:20):
There was a lot of bad guys outthere doing infomercials and I
feel like Matthew Lesko was agood guy, always felt that.
I bought his book back in the90s and you'll see today when
you listen to this podcast,you'll see he really is a good
guy, has committed his life tohelping average folks and I
(00:40):
think you'll really like it, soenjoy folks and I think you'll
really like it.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So enjoy You're listening to Advice from your
Advocates a show where weprovide elder law advice to
professionals who work with theelderly and their families.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Welcome back to Advice from your Advocates.
I'm Bob Manor, I'm a certifiedelder law attorney in Michigan
and I am really excited aboutthe podcast today, and I think
you're going to be excited too.
We got Matthew Lesko.
Hi, matthew, how are you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I'm fine, still alive , still above the ground.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
A lot of you guys aren't listening and you might
recognize the voice If you sawthe picture.
If you're watching on YouTube,you would know who Matthew Lesko
is.
If you're at least 25 years old, you will know who Matthew
Lesko is.
He is famous.
He is one of my favoriteinfomercial people.
I bought his book.
You're the one.
Yeah, I'm a big fan, so tell usa little bit about yourself,
(01:38):
matthew.
I'm just so excited to have youon the podcast.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Well, I'm old as hell , but I can't believe it.
You know, 81.
I'm having the wow, yeah, besttime my life.
If I knew 81 was going to bethis much fun, I would have got
here early.
What the hell I was waiting solong to get here for it?
(02:03):
Yeah, I mean, it's justwonderful.
My heart is open.
More Business is easier forsome reason.
Everything you know and allthat stuff you used to worry
about when you're younger Idon't have to worry about that.
Wendy and I are probably morein love than we've ever been in
our 40-some years or whatever.
(02:25):
Very cool.
I don't know, and I think it'sall about giving.
Yeah, it's just how I meanright now.
It's how much can I give beforeI die?
Yeah, that's my mission.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Well, let's talk about this for our listeners.
So, if you recognize that nameand trying to place it, or if
you're watching and you see theimage of the jacket with all the
question marks on it, so if youremember, he's the guy that
tells us how to qualify and getgovernment benefits Right.
Which is in line with what wedo, right so?
(03:00):
I help people get governmentbenefits.
That's what we do so.
I help people get governmentbenefits.
That's what we do, andobviously we do a lot more than
that.
But we help people get veteransbenefits, we help people get
Medicare and Medicaid benefits,and so I'm really excited to
have Matthew Lesko.
I've always been a fan for thelast 30 years and so I'm just
(03:20):
excited to have you on here andI wanted to remind people of you
know who you are.
If you remember from a fewyears ago, you'd see those
commercials with Matthew walkingaround with the outrageous
suits on that have all thequestion marks over it.
Right, that's right.
Still do.
Yeah, yeah exactly, I know, youknow, I bought your book.
(03:43):
What are we doing now?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Well, the same thing.
I mean I guess I've been afailure in my life because I've
been sick of this shit for 40,50 years now and people still
don't realize it.
And actually I'm getting alittle better, maybe in my show
and tell this is what ourcountry is, our gross domestic
product, so that's how muchmoney every year.
(04:05):
And this yellow part is what'sinvolved in capitalism.
Yeah, what we all know.
We all know how to go Googleand how to buy stuff that we
need and things like that.
What we don't know how to use iswhat I call our giving society.
So this is the capitalistsociety.
This is the capitalist society.
(04:25):
This is the giving society.
So that's 40 percent ofeverything in our society is
people that are giving youthings, and this is government.
Does that.
Non-profit organizations andpeople don't know how to access
that because they're not allowedto advertise.
The giving society Society hasno advertising money.
The Capitalist Society 90% oftheir money goes to advertising.
(04:48):
So maybe the Giving Society isin Google, but you'll never find
it and that's a pity.
And now, with half of ourcountry, I feel can't afford a
$500 bill that are living.
The middle class are gettingsqueezed here and they're
getting less and less of the pie.
So you have to start learninghow to use this, at least in my
(05:09):
mind.
But I'm biased, so trust meanybody selling you something I
advertise on Google.
So you can't trust me either.
And it's a pity, because seewhat frustrates me is and when I
started this business it wasreally helping fortune 500
clients get all this and I'mfrom Wilkes-Barre, pennsylvania,
(05:32):
a little coal mining town.
I didn't know anything aboutthis stuff.
So, like you as a lawyer,probably you know you didn't get
in the laws.
You didn't know about thisstuff.
Yeah, it's pretty complicatedstuff and and God.
But but it surprised me so muchand these millionaires were
coming to me and finding how toget money and help to do things
(05:53):
in life and I'd show them theprograms and whatever.
And after a while of doing that, about five years, and that was
the first successful business.
So I got an MBA in computersand a computer company had
failed.
Oh no.
Failed business.
So I even I got an mba incomputers and a computer company
that failed, failed, uh.
But now and then I thought, god, I'm helping millionaires
become billionaires with freemoney.
And I think of people inwilkes-barre that don't know
(06:15):
anything about this.
Yeah, and I thought growing upin wilkes-barre I thought
government was the dmv and thepost office, right, and that was
it and the post office, right,and that was it.
And the tools and how big thisis, and the wealth that have,
and the programs thatmillionaires could become
billionaires.
So why don't people strugglingknow about this stuff?
(06:37):
And so that's my mission now isto teach them how to do it
where it is.
And I think it's the but mostimportant about that it's where
it's not.
We all have preconceivednotions like we, about lawyers
or anything, and it's wrongbecause we got a little piece of
information.
(06:57):
So we think that's the worldand that's not.
Are you online?
Can you go online?
I could show you something, ornot?
Yeah, probably not yeah, okay,well, there's a.
If you went to, or yourassistant off camera if she went
to, findhelporg, findhelporg,okay, findhelporg, and put in
(07:19):
your zip code.
Okay, have you put in your zipcode.
You put in my zip code.
I'm in washington DC, so that'snot typical, but there will be
3,000 to 4,000 nonprofitorganizations that help you with
any kind of living expenses.
That's fantastic.
Thousands.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
And you probably— Mindhuntorg.
That's great.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So Savannah, our producer, just pulled that up.
And yeah, currently in our zipcode it's 2,281 programs that
can help you.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
And see 2,200, and not just one Right 2,000
programs.
People want to give you money.
Yeah, See everybody there wantsto get your money.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So, matt, do you want's talk a little bit about
this?
Because you and I both face alittle bit of criticism
sometimes that we're exploitinggovernment resources, and the
reality is exactly what we'vejust said I love how you
presented it is that the folksthat have money are already
doing it.
Now I'll use this analogy a lotfor what we do.
(08:24):
I'll use the analogy of taxesand saying you know, we all know
that there's people with a lotof money that use and I don't
want to say manipulate, but theyuse the tax code and all the
rules appropriately and legallyto make sure that they pay less
taxes.
And I use that analogy becauseI represent regular folks.
(08:48):
Right, I represent regularfolks, not the billionaires, and
so my point on it is when Ihave regular folks that question
and say is this legal, shouldwe be doing this?
My answer is the billionaireshave been doing it for
generations, and so what we'redoing is we're trying to apply
the laws appropriately to theregular folks so that they can
(09:11):
get some advantages to this thebillionaires have already been
taking advantage of for years,because that's how the law has
been, unless we're going to putall the accountants in jail.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I don't know Right Exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
It's funny.
So this is really you know.
I probably shouldn't get intothis, but when I first got into,
when I was first a lawyer inthe 90s, there was a law that
was.
They called it the put.
Uh, they put the law was and we, we joked about it because it
was put granny in jail, grandmain jail a lot.
(09:44):
they said, well, that's notright, we can't put grandma in
jail because they were trying toaccess you know, appropriately
access government resources.
And then it was the law was putgrandma's lawyer in jail.
That lasted about two monthsbefore the government realized
that's just ridiculous.
You know the lawyers givingadvice is a.
(10:07):
First Amendment right to giveadvice to people to how to
access government resources, butthere was literally a law in
the mid-90s that was designed toput people like me in jail for
giving advice to grandma.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Oh, that's right, Then your tax accountant has to
go to jail.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Exactly, then shouldn't we do the same thing
for tax?
I have this quote.
I want to read it to youbecause I think this is great.
This was from a Supreme Courtjustice and I really think this
puts all of the things that wetalk about in perspective, and
you got to use, you know, yougot to extrapolate, because this
is regarding taxes, and so it'snot.
We're not always talking abouttaxes.
(10:44):
Most of the time, we're nottalking about taxes, we're
talking about resources andgetting access to resources, but
it's the same concept.
So this was Louis BrandeisJustice.
Louis Brandeis, which was oneof the preeminent Supreme Court
justices.
When we think about SupremeCourt justices in history,
there's probably maybe a dozenthat we think of as just being
(11:07):
preeminent, of standing out, theones that really had an impact
and Brandeis is one of them, andso this is a quote from Justice
Brandeis.
He says I live in Alexandria,virginia.
Near where you live, probablyNear the Supreme Court chambers
there's a toll bridge across thePotomac River.
(11:29):
When I'm in a rush, I pay thedollar toll.
To get home early, however, Iusually I usually drive outside
of downtown section of the cityand cross the Potomac on a free
bridge of downtown section ofthe city and cross the Potomac
on a free bridge.
This bridge was placed outsideof downtown Washington DC area
to serve as a useful socialservice, getting drivers to
(11:52):
drive the extra mile to helpalleviate the congestion during
the rush hour.
If I went over the toll bridgethrough the barrier without
paying the toll, I would becommitting tax evasion.
If, however, I drive the extramile and drive outside the city
of Washington to the free bridge, I'm using a legitimate,
logical and suitable method oftax avoidance and I am
(12:15):
performing a useful socialservice in doing so.
For my tax evasion, I should bepunished.
For my tax avoidance, I shouldbe commended.
The tragedy of life today is sofew people know that the free
bridge even exists, and that'swhat we're talking about right,
the free bridge.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Great, I'm going to steal that.
Yeah, yes, no, that's true.
I mean I heard Trump I think Isaw the quote again.
He was, I think, in hisargument with Hillary back and
forth.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Right right.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah, she said something about he avoids taxes.
No, I'm just smart.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, I remember that .
And there's the comedian thatkind of pointed that out.
That was like, okay, even thefirst billionaire that told the
truth.
Right, I'm smart and so we kindof get why there's some
popularity.
There is because he's tellingthe truth.
Sometimes, whether you like himor hate him, he's telling the
(13:21):
truth.
He's saying yeah, no one elsetells you this.
I'm taking advantage of itbecause I'm smart and that makes
sense, all right, so tell meabout your current.
You've got let's go help dotcom.
I want to hear about thatcommunity because it sounds like
a really great community.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
It came out by accident.
Most things when I startbusinesses, I have one idea and
they wind up something else, butyou have to do something
because you'll never think ofthe best idea before it happens.
They sort of evolve and youhave to get into doing it and
we're not smart enough to knowthe future.
People stop buying referencebooks Shit.
(14:06):
What am I going to do?
So it took me many years andthen I knew the information was
still good and if I wanted tosell to rich people, then that's
easy.
They can make money.
They'll give you money.
I didn't want to do that.
I wanted to help the averageperson who didn't have that
money.
Didn't want to do that.
And I wanted to help theaverage person who didn't have
that money kind of money to doit.
(14:27):
And so I said, well, I'll havesome kind of subscription or
whatever.
But that seemed bad to mebecause I how many people can I
really help at $20?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, and make a list $20 a month and you get that to
your resources and so butwhat's grown into it is that the
people are helping people, notme.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I'm just the train seal Telling people and it's
people who just got in there,better at it, because they just
started getting the money andthey didn't know how to do it
either.
You know two weeks ago, and nowthey're getting to them, so to
talk to them about how they didso they're available.
We got about probably aboutanywhere three to five hours
(15:11):
every day of people who areavailable on Zoom calls.
You can talk to it, wow, howthey got the money, uh, and and
get one-on-one help like that.
And then also, what surprisesme, uh, is that we only charge
$20 and people said I shouldcharge thousands, even you know,
and people.
(15:32):
it would uh, and I said no, Iwant to help the people.
If you have thousands ofdollars to spend on that, you're
not interesting to me to help,and so I wanted to have $20.
But it's so profitable.
We give 40% of our money backto people.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
So every month we give like anywhere from $50,000
to $70,000 back to members andpersonal grants.
That's great.
And I just was reading howFacebook is giving grants to
small businesses and they'regiving out a hundred million
dollars.
Well, I was doing some mathwith their sales.
(16:10):
Their sales is like 150 billion.
Oh wow.
A hundred million is like0.0001 percent of the money that
they're giving the people inneed, and we're giving 40, so
that made me feel nice well,giving any money.
I never thought I'd be in aposition to be able to do
something like that.
(16:30):
I thought you'd be jeff bezosor somebody right.
A schmuck like me from looksfor a pennsylvania and you know,
could do something like that.
It is so nice, um, and but moreimportantly, it's the giving
part, and that's why I see whypeople are helping people,
because they they realize howselfish it is to give and that's
(16:54):
sort of believe, a lot tooInteresting.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, what you're saying.
I absolutely, completelybelieve in that the community
part of it.
So, I'm part of a number ofgroups, but one of them is a
coaching group of lawyers, andthere's the coaches, which are
great.
They're very smart coaches,great coaches.
But everybody in the grouprecognizes that we're getting
(17:21):
more from the community than weare from the coaches.
So we get, you know, we havethe leaders.
They're great, they're smart,you know good resources, but the
reality is it's the community,other people in the group that
are really advancing our goalsand helping us achieve, you know
(17:45):
, some things beyond justbusiness success.
Like we all.
You know, it's nice to havebusiness success.
You and I can both acknowledgethat that that's nice, that we
have business success.
But once you get there, it'slike, okay, what do we do with
this?
You've been at that point forquite a while to say, okay, how
(18:16):
can I have an impact on society?
How can I actually make things?
Recently I heard speaking andanswering some questions and he
said I think it was GeorgeClooney.
Actually George Clooney.
He said success teaches younothing.
It's the failures that teachyou.
And so when you get success,then what do you do with it?
(18:37):
What do?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
you do.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Too many people think that that's just the end all be
all goal and it sounds likewhat you're saying is beyond
that.
We want to have an impact.
What's great?
We've had success.
Fantastic, that's lovely.
What do we do now?
And that's having impact?
Giving back, you know, havingtrying to move things forward
(19:01):
having have trying to movethings forward.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
No, I remember, you know, in beginning of my
professional life, going toseminars and I mean, and they
teach you about success and whatto do with success, and I said,
well, god, that's sort of likethe easy part, you know, right,
you get the money, you go to thebank.
What do you got to know more.
You know, yeah, you have toprepare for, not success,
prepare for failure.
Most, most things are going tofail, that's what you got to
prepare for not success.
Prepare for failure.
Most things are going to fail.
That's what you got to preparefor.
(19:22):
But you prepare.
I remember MBA sort of taughtyou how to run businesses
perfect.
Well, no business is everperfect and you really have to
train yourself to.
You're going to open the doorevery morning and it's going to
be all fucked up.
That's what you have to trainfor, not just when everything's
working.
No, that's just lightninghappening actually a success.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Where it's not, there's not going to be those
you know stumbling blocks,there's not going to be those
failures along the road.
That's part of it, and I thinkthat's, frankly, one of the
biggest lessons of of succeedingis realizing that you know that
those stumbling blocks, thosefailures, are just part of the
process.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah, and it's also.
That's the only way you grow.
You're not going to grow, andin success?
Because you don't learnanything, yeah, uh, except how
to hide money or something uhand so the failure is growth.
I mean, the biggest setbacks Ihad were huge growth, growth
stuff, uh, and important partsof life.
(20:36):
They're the important parts oflife and we're all organic, I
feel, you know, like a tree or aflower or everything, we're
here to grow, absolutely.
Get the environment foryourself to grow so you can grow
the most, and that's aretirement.
That's not growing.
So if you're not growing, whatthe hell are you doing here?
(20:57):
Yeah, that's not growing.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
So if you're not growing, what the hell are you
doing here?
One of the things I want tocompliment you on, because this
is my goal for my life I workwith a lot of older folks, and
sometimes older folks get to thepoint where they just choose
not to adapt anymore.
They choose not to embrace newtechnology and things like that,
(21:19):
and my goal for my life is tonever resign to that.
Never resign to oh, that's new,that's complicated.
I'm not going to learn that.
And I feel like that's exactlywhere you're at.
Did you say you were 80 yearsold?
81, yeah, 81 years old.
So I love the fact that you're81 years old and that you
(21:41):
realized that selling bookswasn't going to get you where
you need to go.
And now you've developed thisonline community.
That's exactly where I, youknow I want to go.
I want to have the folks thatlisten to me.
You know, think about yes,don't just just because you're
aging doesn't mean you have to.
You know, follow that processto me.
You know, think about is.
Don't just just because you'reaging doesn't mean you have to.
You know, follow that processof saying, okay, well, that's
(22:04):
for younger people.
No.
I can learn.
That too.
I can.
I can learn the new technologyI can adapt to, you know,
realizing that people aren'tprobably going to buy a resource
book anymore.
You know things like that.
So I really admire your path,that you've followed and, uh,
and I recommend that and I hopeI follow it myself.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Right, oh, nice Now.
But what I found, though, isthat, if you have success, that
becomes a handicap in growing.
Right, because you foundsomething.
You worked your ass off andfinding all of this work, and
then the fucking world changeson you.
Yeah, and that doesn't work.
And you're trying to find outhow to take the old stuff.
(22:45):
I learned to fit it in the newstuff Right, and that wasted
about five years of my life,yeah, but the fact that you kept
trying is the point.
Exactly.
That's the only way and that'swhy I like younger people,
because older people trying todo something, they're trying to
take their success and fit it in.
(23:06):
Younger people don't havesuccess, so they're just looking
at the opportunities and theholes that have to be filled.
And that's why I like hangingaround younger people more,
because they're looking forwardand not dragging success with
them trying to make it fit inagain.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
it's over and you know one of the things and it
sounds like you and I are on thesame page.
It's about helping youngerpeople develop too.
It's you know I have folks that, um, you know, I realize that
when I am developing youngerpeople, they might go on and do
bigger, better things outside ofmy organization, outside of my
(23:43):
firm, and I'm happy with that.
I want people to develop and Irealize that when I'm, you know,
helping them develop theirprofessional grow up, that it
might not benefit me in the longrun, but I just feel like
that's an appropriate thing todo and I'm proud of the fact
that they go on to do greatthings.
You know, once they leave thefirm and things like that.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
No, definitely.
I mean.
I think that's what we weinvest in ourselves, first to
grow Right, and then we, afterthat's done, then we invest in
the new people who are comingalong.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Well, I've monopolized a lot of this
because I'm really interested inyou and I, like I said, I'm a
fan.
So I've monopolized a lot ofthis, just kind of talking about
my interest.
I really want to kind of focuson can you give some tips to our
listeners of how they mightaccess some of the resources
that you provide?
So give us some of your besttips.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Well, anything's going to take work, and that's
what, to me, marketing is is allabout making you believe it's
easy to do anything, because yougive them money.
Whether you give some money orsomeone money or not, it's still
going to take work.
You may get lucky as hell, butnot, and so that's still going
(24:59):
to take work.
You may get lucky as hell, butnot, and so that's what, to me,
all the marketing in our country, and that's what we're very
good at marketing, and so Ithink, unless you have a lot of
money, just stay away fromGoogle.
You're not going to get it'sjust.
People are so good at marketingnowadays because you could try
(25:21):
50 different combinations withina second to see what makes
somebody open their wallet.
You know, for the days when Ifirst started, direct mail is
how we marketed.
It took five months to see ifanything works.
Now it takes a nanosecond andyou get five items to see what
works and that doesn't work, sothey can get your money so
(25:42):
easily.
So you, number one, stay awayfrom that.
Number two, talk to people whoknow.
Those 500 websites that youjust got on Google were 500
(26:02):
billion.
The three you should know, andthe only way you're going to
know that is by talking tosomebody who knows that stuff,
and that's important.
So, and anybody you talk tomake sure there's a gov or org
Interesting, because coms thatwant money from you I mean, I'm
(26:24):
sure they're good ones.
If you don't have money, youjust can't even play that game.
And there's too many people thatdon't have money to get in that
game and they're trying to getout of trouble playing the game
of coms.
And you can't, you've got toplay the other game, which is 40
percent, so that's a lot ofplayground to play it.
(26:44):
So that's what you have to do.
You have to call people who arein business to help people like
you.
Ok, because they study it everyday.
So if you want to start abusiness every day, so if you
want to start a business, thenyou would go to this website
(27:07):
called americasbdcorg.
These are free consultants inevery county that will help you
start or expand any business atany age, at any income, whether
you want to start a business oryou want to start an inventor,
or you want to start a nonprofit, or you want to invest in real
estate, anything.
Give you all the free legalhelp, marketing help, help you
(27:31):
find money, anything you need tostart something.
And there's dozens like that,not only this group in every
county to tell them that's whoyou want to find, that's who you
want to talk to, and thatfindhelporg if it's any daily
expense you have.
You can't pay your rent, youcan't pay your, you know you got
(27:52):
to fix up your house, you gotto get more job training, you
got to even get legal help orwhatever.
That's all free in there.
And, as Bob said, he's got two3,000 organizations in his zip
code that give you that for allfree.
Now when you call that say youwant rent, well, with him you
(28:13):
can have 50 to 70 organizationsin any city in America that
helps you with rent for free,helps you pay rent.
Okay, now how do you use them?
And that's your fish in thebarrel.
If you put rent grants inGoogle, you'll get literally 500
(28:34):
million.
So it's not even worth trying.
So you got 70 people.
You know they're all nonprofitorganizations.
They're all there to help yousolve a rent problem.
Now, they're all not going tobe able to solve your rent
problem because they're allusually for separate groups or
whatever.
So you have to fish throughthat, finding the right lawyer,
(28:54):
right, oh, I got a lawyer here,but yeah, but he doesn't do
stuff for seniors, so he's notcosting a lot of money to go up
the learning curve, right?
But more importantly, if youtake those 70 organizations and
start calling them, hey, I havetrouble with rent and you don't
have to know what to say, canyou help me?
And they'll say yes, no ormaybe.
(29:16):
So if they say no, then you askthem can you suggest somebody
else that could help me?
So if you find Bob with a, youknow, and he's a lawyer and
maybe you don't need a lawyerthat helps with seniors but you
need a tax lawyer, well, heprobably knows because he's in
the business.
You know helping people.
So that's what all these peoplein the business are helping
(29:38):
people pay rent.
No, other people who do that.
They go to the meetings andfind other people and they know
what's going to.
They people who do that.
They go to the meetings andfind other people and they know
what's going to.
They know what will be in theinternet next week or next year
because you know they're aheadof the curve like that.
That's their tool and if youhave to learn how to use that,
then you learn how to getthrough the internet without
(29:58):
knowing anything, and it'sskills we all need.
We all know how to do.
We all know how to make a phonecall.
We did that before the internet, and so that's how you really
find something.
And the other thing it's justbecause it's difficult.
You know you want to solveproblems that are important to
(30:20):
you.
I mean, solve them easy.
If they're easy, fine, butyou'll probably give up because
it's not as easy as you think.
But the help is out there.
We live in a country that has,you know, 40% of our country is
here to help you.
So we have a giving economythat you pay for, we all pay for
, and nobody knows who to use.
(30:42):
But the fat cats know it andyou know we have Elon Musk.
You know is hooked to the hipof Trump because he's already
got $5 billion in governmentmoney.
And he wants more.
That's why he gave Trump $150million for his campaign because
he wants more.
And that's all.
These high-tech billionairesnow are all down in Mar-a-Lago
(31:05):
now how are they going to getmore money from the government?
The average person on thestreet thinks there's something
bad about that which is stupid.
But if that's a philosophicalquestion you have to follow your
heart.
But just to realize it is there, you have a problem to solve.
You live in this country, Don'thave to be certain income.
I mean, everybody says, oh, Imake too much money.
(31:28):
Yes, for a few programs.
But, 80% of the programsavailable have no income
requirement at all.
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
That's an excellent point, matthew.
That's one of the things I hearall the time, and even when I'm
trying to help somebody and I'mlooking at their actual
information, so I'm face to facewith somebody often people will
say, well, I hear what you'resaying, but there's no way I can
qualify for that because I maketoo much income.
(31:59):
So it is one of those thingsthat you there's so many ways.
I really liked what you saidthere about how you know people
that are willing to keep askingthe right questions to the right
people, right.
Just to summarize what you werejust saying there, it's asking
the right questions to the rightphone number, right.
(32:22):
And that's the key is when youGoogle it.
This is why you're saying avoidGoogle.
When you Google it, there'sgoing to be 90% of the responses
from Google.
Is somebody trying to sell yousomething of whatever it is that
they have to sell?
It's not necessarily going tosolve your problem, it's just
this is what I have to sell, soI'm going to try to sell it to
(32:43):
you.
Nothing wrong with that, butit's really hard to sort through
that and get to the people thatsay, okay, this is actually the
resource that I need and I maynot know how to ask the right
question.
I train my staff this way.
All the time I say look, mostpeople that are going to be
calling us aren't going to beasking the right question.
They may be asking for a powerof attorney, they may be asking
(33:05):
for a guardianship.
If you're asking for thosethings, there's some problem,
there's some background problem.
You don't call and justrandomly ask for a guardianship
or a power of attorney unlessthere's some bigger problem
that's occurring, and then youknow.
So we got to address the realissue, not just the question
that they're asking, and I thinkthat's what your point is.
If you call the right people,they'll know that.
(33:27):
They'll know that you're notyou don't know exactly what
question to ask and that withthe right people, even if
they're not the resource,they'll point you to the right
resource for money or whateveryou think you need, to just say
I need help, right?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
So if you're in the right you know area, uh, then
they'll.
They know the questions I askyou to find out what kind of
help you really need, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Right, Right.
Well, Matthew, this has beengreat.
Uh, this is really exciting totalk to you.
I think, um, I love how the,the, the, the trajectory of your
life has gone and that you, youknow, I've always felt like you
were one of the trustworthyguys, because there was guys out
(34:15):
there that weren't trustworthyback 20 years ago.
All that, and to see thetrajectory of your life, and now
you're all about making surepeople have access to
information at a very low price.
Let's Go Help that.
$20 a month is nominal to getaccess to all these resources in
(34:38):
the community that you'vecreated, which is amazing.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Well, thanks, Bobby.
I love your kind words, man.
I pretend I don't hear them.
Maybe the nuns taught me to dothat.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, yeah, good.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
But they're etched in my heart, believe me.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I appreciate you coming on the podcast.
I think that people uh peoplethat are listening will get a
lot of value from this.
I do recommend that you checkout lesscohelpcom.
Thank you, matthew, for beingpart of our community, and
hopefully we'll send a fewpeople your way.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Thank you so much.
Thanks for listening.
To learn more, visitmanorlawgroupcom.
Welcome back to Advice from your Advocates.
I am really excited tointroduce you to our guest today
, matthew Lesko.
If you are at least 30 yearsold probably even 25 years old
you'll remember Matthew Lesko asone of the premier people, if
you ever had insomnia, stayed uplate at night to watch these
infomercials.
(00:20):
There was a lot of bad guys outthere doing infomercials and I
feel like Matthew Lesko was agood guy, always felt that.
I bought his book back in the90s and you'll see today when
you listen to this podcast,you'll see he really is a good
guy, has committed his life tohelping average folks and I
(00:40):
think you'll really like it, soenjoy folks and I think you'll
really like it.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So enjoy You're listening to Advice from your
Advocates a show where weprovide elder law advice to
professionals who work with theelderly and their families.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Welcome back to Advice from your Advocates.
I'm Bob Manor, I'm a certifiedelder law attorney in Michigan
and I am really excited aboutthe podcast today, and I think
you're going to be excited too.
We got Matthew Lesko.
Hi, matthew, how are you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I'm fine, still alive , still above the ground.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
A lot of you guys aren't listening and you might
recognize the voice If you sawthe picture.
If you're watching on YouTube,you would know who Matthew Lesko
is.
If you're at least 25 years old, you will know who Matthew
Lesko is.
He is famous.
He is one of my favoriteinfomercial people.
I bought his book.
You're the one.
Yeah, I'm a big fan, so tell usa little bit about yourself,
(01:38):
matthew.
I'm just so excited to have youon the podcast.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Well, I'm old as hell , but I can't believe it.
You know, 81.
I'm having the wow, yeah, besttime my life.
If I knew 81 was going to bethis much fun, I would have got
here early.
What the hell I was waiting solong to get here for it?
(02:03):
Yeah, I mean, it's justwonderful.
My heart is open.
More Business is easier forsome reason.
Everything you know and allthat stuff you used to worry
about when you're younger Idon't have to worry about that.
Wendy and I are probably morein love than we've ever been in
our 40-some years or whatever.
(02:25):
Very cool.
I don't know, and I think it'sall about giving.
Yeah, it's just how I meanright now.
It's how much can I give beforeI die?
Yeah, that's my mission.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Well, let's talk about this for our listeners.
So, if you recognize that nameand trying to place it, or if
you're watching and you see theimage of the jacket with all the
question marks on it, so if youremember, he's the guy that
tells us how to qualify and getgovernment benefits Right.
Which is in line with what wedo, right so?
(03:00):
I help people get governmentbenefits.
That's what we do so.
I help people get governmentbenefits.
That's what we do, andobviously we do a lot more than
that.
But we help people get veteransbenefits, we help people get
Medicare and Medicaid benefits,and so I'm really excited to
have Matthew Lesko.
I've always been a fan for thelast 30 years and so I'm just
(03:20):
excited to have you on here andI wanted to remind people of you
know who you are.
If you remember from a fewyears ago, you'd see those
commercials with Matthew walkingaround with the outrageous
suits on that have all thequestion marks over it.
Right, that's right.
Still do.
Yeah, yeah exactly, I know, youknow, I bought your book.
(03:43):
What are we doing now?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Well, the same thing.
I mean I guess I've been afailure in my life because I've
been sick of this shit for 40,50 years now and people still
don't realize it.
And actually I'm getting alittle better, maybe in my show
and tell this is what ourcountry is, our gross domestic
product, so that's how muchmoney every year.
(04:05):
And this yellow part is what'sinvolved in capitalism.
Yeah, what we all know.
We all know how to go Googleand how to buy stuff that we
need and things like that.
What we don't know how to use iswhat I call our giving society.
So this is the capitalistsociety.
This is the capitalist society.
(04:25):
This is the giving society.
So that's 40 percent ofeverything in our society is
people that are giving youthings, and this is government.
Does that.
Non-profit organizations andpeople don't know how to access
that because they're not allowedto advertise.
The giving society Society hasno advertising money.
The Capitalist Society 90% oftheir money goes to advertising.
(04:48):
So maybe the Giving Society isin Google, but you'll never find
it and that's a pity.
And now, with half of ourcountry, I feel can't afford a
$500 bill that are living.
The middle class are gettingsqueezed here and they're
getting less and less of the pie.
So you have to start learninghow to use this, at least in my
(05:09):
mind.
But I'm biased, so trust meanybody selling you something I
advertise on Google.
So you can't trust me either.
And it's a pity, because seewhat frustrates me is and when I
started this business it wasreally helping fortune 500
clients get all this and I'mfrom Wilkes-Barre, pennsylvania,
(05:32):
a little coal mining town.
I didn't know anything aboutthis stuff.
So, like you as a lawyer,probably you know you didn't get
in the laws.
You didn't know about thisstuff.
Yeah, it's pretty complicatedstuff and and God.
But but it surprised me so muchand these millionaires were
coming to me and finding how toget money and help to do things
(05:53):
in life and I'd show them theprograms and whatever.
And after a while of doing that, about five years, and that was
the first successful business.
So I got an MBA in computersand a computer company had
failed.
Oh no.
Failed business.
So I even I got an mba incomputers and a computer company
that failed, failed, uh.
But now and then I thought, god, I'm helping millionaires
become billionaires with freemoney.
And I think of people inwilkes-barre that don't know
(06:15):
anything about this.
Yeah, and I thought growing upin wilkes-barre I thought
government was the dmv and thepost office, right, and that was
it and the post office, right,and that was it.
And the tools and how big thisis, and the wealth that have,
and the programs thatmillionaires could become
billionaires.
So why don't people strugglingknow about this stuff?
(06:37):
And so that's my mission now isto teach them how to do it
where it is.
And I think it's the but mostimportant about that it's where
it's not.
We all have preconceivednotions like we, about lawyers
or anything, and it's wrongbecause we got a little piece of
information.
(06:57):
So we think that's the worldand that's not.
Are you online?
Can you go online?
I could show you something, ornot?
Yeah, probably not yeah, okay,well, there's a.
If you went to, or yourassistant off camera if she went
to, findhelporg, findhelporg,okay, findhelporg, and put in
(07:19):
your zip code.
Okay, have you put in your zipcode.
You put in my zip code.
I'm in washington DC, so that'snot typical, but there will be
3,000 to 4,000 nonprofitorganizations that help you with
any kind of living expenses.
That's fantastic.
Thousands.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
And you probably— Mindhuntorg.
That's great.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So Savannah, our producer, just pulled that up.
And yeah, currently in our zipcode it's 2,281 programs that
can help you.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
And see 2,200, and not just one Right 2,000
programs.
People want to give you money.
Yeah, See everybody there wantsto get your money.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So, matt, do you want's talk a little bit about
this?
Because you and I both face alittle bit of criticism
sometimes that we're exploitinggovernment resources, and the
reality is exactly what we'vejust said I love how you
presented it is that the folksthat have money are already
doing it.
Now I'll use this analogy a lotfor what we do.
(08:24):
I'll use the analogy of taxesand saying you know, we all know
that there's people with a lotof money that use and I don't
want to say manipulate, but theyuse the tax code and all the
rules appropriately and legallyto make sure that they pay less
taxes.
And I use that analogy becauseI represent regular folks.
(08:48):
Right, I represent regularfolks, not the billionaires, and
so my point on it is when Ihave regular folks that question
and say is this legal, shouldwe be doing this?
My answer is the billionaireshave been doing it for
generations, and so what we'redoing is we're trying to apply
the laws appropriately to theregular folks so that they can
(09:11):
get some advantages to this thebillionaires have already been
taking advantage of for years,because that's how the law has
been, unless we're going to putall the accountants in jail.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I don't know Right Exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
It's funny.
So this is really you know.
I probably shouldn't get intothis, but when I first got into,
when I was first a lawyer inthe 90s, there was a law that
was.
They called it the put.
Uh, they put the law was and we, we joked about it because it
was put granny in jail, grandmain jail a lot.
(09:44):
they said, well, that's notright, we can't put grandma in
jail because they were trying toaccess you know, appropriately
access government resources.
And then it was the law was putgrandma's lawyer in jail.
That lasted about two monthsbefore the government realized
that's just ridiculous.
You know the lawyers givingadvice is a.
(10:07):
First Amendment right to giveadvice to people to how to
access government resources, butthere was literally a law in
the mid-90s that was designed toput people like me in jail for
giving advice to grandma.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Oh, that's right, Then your tax accountant has to
go to jail.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Exactly, then shouldn't we do the same thing
for tax?
I have this quote.
I want to read it to youbecause I think this is great.
This was from a Supreme Courtjustice and I really think this
puts all of the things that wetalk about in perspective, and
you got to use, you know, yougot to extrapolate, because this
is regarding taxes, and so it'snot.
We're not always talking abouttaxes.
(10:44):
Most of the time, we're nottalking about taxes, we're
talking about resources andgetting access to resources, but
it's the same concept.
So this was Louis BrandeisJustice.
Louis Brandeis, which was oneof the preeminent Supreme Court
justices.
When we think about SupremeCourt justices in history,
there's probably maybe a dozenthat we think of as just being
(11:07):
preeminent, of standing out, theones that really had an impact
and Brandeis is one of them, andso this is a quote from Justice
Brandeis.
He says I live in Alexandria,virginia.
Near where you live, probablyNear the Supreme Court chambers
there's a toll bridge across thePotomac River.
(11:29):
When I'm in a rush, I pay thedollar toll.
To get home early, however, Iusually I usually drive outside
of downtown section of the cityand cross the Potomac on a free
bridge of downtown section ofthe city and cross the Potomac
on a free bridge.
This bridge was placed outsideof downtown Washington DC area
to serve as a useful socialservice, getting drivers to
(11:52):
drive the extra mile to helpalleviate the congestion during
the rush hour.
If I went over the toll bridgethrough the barrier without
paying the toll, I would becommitting tax evasion.
If, however, I drive the extramile and drive outside the city
of Washington to the free bridge, I'm using a legitimate,
logical and suitable method oftax avoidance and I am
(12:15):
performing a useful socialservice in doing so.
For my tax evasion, I should bepunished.
For my tax avoidance, I shouldbe commended.
The tragedy of life today is sofew people know that the free
bridge even exists, and that'swhat we're talking about right,
the free bridge.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Great, I'm going to steal that.
Yeah, yes, no, that's true.
I mean I heard Trump I think Isaw the quote again.
He was, I think, in hisargument with Hillary back and
forth.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Right right.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah, she said something about he avoids taxes.
No, I'm just smart.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, I remember that .
And there's the comedian thatkind of pointed that out.
That was like, okay, even thefirst billionaire that told the
truth.
Right, I'm smart and so we kindof get why there's some
popularity.
There is because he's tellingthe truth.
Sometimes, whether you like himor hate him, he's telling the
(13:21):
truth.
He's saying yeah, no one elsetells you this.
I'm taking advantage of itbecause I'm smart and that makes
sense, all right, so tell meabout your current.
You've got let's go help dotcom.
I want to hear about thatcommunity because it sounds like
a really great community.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
It came out by accident.
Most things when I startbusinesses, I have one idea and
they wind up something else, butyou have to do something
because you'll never think ofthe best idea before it happens.
They sort of evolve and youhave to get into doing it and
we're not smart enough to knowthe future.
People stop buying referencebooks Shit.
(14:06):
What am I going to do?
So it took me many years andthen I knew the information was
still good and if I wanted tosell to rich people, then that's
easy.
They can make money.
They'll give you money.
I didn't want to do that.
I wanted to help the averageperson who didn't have that
money.
Didn't want to do that.
And I wanted to help theaverage person who didn't have
that money kind of money to doit.
(14:27):
And so I said, well, I'll havesome kind of subscription or
whatever.
But that seemed bad to mebecause I how many people can I
really help at $20?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, and make a list $20 a month and you get that to
your resources and so butwhat's grown into it is that the
people are helping people, notme.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I'm just the train seal Telling people and it's
people who just got in there,better at it, because they just
started getting the money andthey didn't know how to do it
either.
You know two weeks ago, and nowthey're getting to them, so to
talk to them about how they didso they're available.
We got about probably aboutanywhere three to five hours
(15:11):
every day of people who areavailable on Zoom calls.
You can talk to it, wow, howthey got the money, uh, and and
get one-on-one help like that.
And then also, what surprisesme, uh, is that we only charge
$20 and people said I shouldcharge thousands, even you know,
and people.
(15:32):
it would uh, and I said no, Iwant to help the people.
If you have thousands ofdollars to spend on that, you're
not interesting to me to help,and so I wanted to have $20.
But it's so profitable.
We give 40% of our money backto people.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
So every month we give like anywhere from $50,000
to $70,000 back to members andpersonal grants.
That's great.
And I just was reading howFacebook is giving grants to
small businesses and they'regiving out a hundred million
dollars.
Well, I was doing some mathwith their sales.
(16:10):
Their sales is like 150 billion.
Oh wow.
A hundred million is like0.0001 percent of the money that
they're giving the people inneed, and we're giving 40, so
that made me feel nice well,giving any money.
I never thought I'd be in aposition to be able to do
something like that.
(16:30):
I thought you'd be jeff bezosor somebody right.
A schmuck like me from looksfor a pennsylvania and you know,
could do something like that.
It is so nice, um, and but moreimportantly, it's the giving
part, and that's why I see whypeople are helping people,
because they they realize howselfish it is to give and that's
(16:54):
sort of believe, a lot tooInteresting.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, what you're saying.
I absolutely, completelybelieve in that the community
part of it.
So, I'm part of a number ofgroups, but one of them is a
coaching group of lawyers, andthere's the coaches, which are
great.
They're very smart coaches,great coaches.
But everybody in the grouprecognizes that we're getting
(17:21):
more from the community than weare from the coaches.
So we get, you know, we havethe leaders.
They're great, they're smart,you know good resources, but the
reality is it's the community,other people in the group that
are really advancing our goalsand helping us achieve, you know
(17:45):
, some things beyond justbusiness success.
Like we all.
You know, it's nice to havebusiness success.
You and I can both acknowledgethat that that's nice, that we
have business success.
But once you get there, it'slike, okay, what do we do with
this?
You've been at that point forquite a while to say, okay, how
(18:16):
can I have an impact on society?
How can I actually make things?
Recently I heard speaking andanswering some questions and he
said I think it was GeorgeClooney.
Actually George Clooney.
He said success teaches younothing.
It's the failures that teachyou.
And so when you get success,then what do you do with it?
(18:37):
What do?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
you do.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Too many people think that that's just the end all be
all goal and it sounds likewhat you're saying is beyond
that.
We want to have an impact.
What's great?
We've had success.
Fantastic, that's lovely.
What do we do now?
And that's having impact?
Giving back, you know, havingtrying to move things forward
(19:01):
having have trying to movethings forward.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
No, I remember, you know, in beginning of my
professional life, going toseminars and I mean, and they
teach you about success and whatto do with success, and I said,
well, god, that's sort of likethe easy part, you know, right,
you get the money, you go to thebank.
What do you got to know more.
You know, yeah, you have toprepare for, not success,
prepare for failure.
Most, most things are going tofail, that's what you got to
prepare for not success.
Prepare for failure.
Most things are going to fail.
That's what you got to preparefor.
(19:22):
But you prepare.
I remember MBA sort of taughtyou how to run businesses
perfect.
Well, no business is everperfect and you really have to
train yourself to.
You're going to open the doorevery morning and it's going to
be all fucked up.
That's what you have to trainfor, not just when everything's
working.
No, that's just lightninghappening actually a success.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Where it's not, there's not going to be those
you know stumbling blocks,there's not going to be those
failures along the road.
That's part of it, and I thinkthat's, frankly, one of the
biggest lessons of of succeedingis realizing that you know that
those stumbling blocks, thosefailures, are just part of the
process.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah, and it's also.
That's the only way you grow.
You're not going to grow, andin success?
Because you don't learnanything, yeah, uh, except how
to hide money or something uhand so the failure is growth.
I mean, the biggest setbacks Ihad were huge growth, growth
stuff, uh, and important partsof life.
(20:36):
They're the important parts oflife and we're all organic, I
feel, you know, like a tree or aflower or everything, we're
here to grow, absolutely.
Get the environment foryourself to grow so you can grow
the most, and that's aretirement.
That's not growing.
So if you're not growing, whatthe hell are you doing here?
(20:57):
Yeah, that's not growing.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
So if you're not growing, what the hell are you
doing here?
One of the things I want tocompliment you on, because this
is my goal for my life I workwith a lot of older folks, and
sometimes older folks get to thepoint where they just choose
not to adapt anymore.
They choose not to embrace newtechnology and things like that,
(21:19):
and my goal for my life is tonever resign to that.
Never resign to oh, that's new,that's complicated.
I'm not going to learn that.
And I feel like that's exactlywhere you're at.
Did you say you were 80 yearsold?
81, yeah, 81 years old.
So I love the fact that you're81 years old and that you
(21:41):
realized that selling bookswasn't going to get you where
you need to go.
And now you've developed thisonline community.
That's exactly where I, youknow I want to go.
I want to have the folks thatlisten to me.
You know, think about yes,don't just just because you're
aging doesn't mean you have to.
You know, follow that processto me.
You know, think about is.
Don't just just because you'reaging doesn't mean you have to.
You know, follow that processof saying, okay, well, that's
(22:04):
for younger people.
No.
I can learn.
That too.
I can.
I can learn the new technologyI can adapt to, you know,
realizing that people aren'tprobably going to buy a resource
book anymore.
You know things like that.
So I really admire your path,that you've followed and, uh,
and I recommend that and I hopeI follow it myself.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Right, oh, nice Now.
But what I found, though, isthat, if you have success, that
becomes a handicap in growing.
Right, because you foundsomething.
You worked your ass off andfinding all of this work, and
then the fucking world changeson you.
Yeah, and that doesn't work.
And you're trying to find outhow to take the old stuff.
(22:45):
I learned to fit it in the newstuff Right, and that wasted
about five years of my life,yeah, but the fact that you kept
trying is the point.
Exactly.
That's the only way and that'swhy I like younger people,
because older people trying todo something, they're trying to
take their success and fit it in.
(23:06):
Younger people don't havesuccess, so they're just looking
at the opportunities and theholes that have to be filled.
And that's why I like hangingaround younger people more,
because they're looking forwardand not dragging success with
them trying to make it fit inagain.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
it's over and you know one of the things and it
sounds like you and I are on thesame page.
It's about helping youngerpeople develop too.
It's you know I have folks that, um, you know, I realize that
when I am developing youngerpeople, they might go on and do
bigger, better things outside ofmy organization, outside of my
(23:43):
firm, and I'm happy with that.
I want people to develop and Irealize that when I'm, you know,
helping them develop theirprofessional grow up, that it
might not benefit me in the longrun, but I just feel like
that's an appropriate thing todo and I'm proud of the fact
that they go on to do greatthings.
You know, once they leave thefirm and things like that.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
No, definitely.
I mean.
I think that's what we weinvest in ourselves, first to
grow Right, and then we, afterthat's done, then we invest in
the new people who are comingalong.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Well, I've monopolized a lot of this
because I'm really interested inyou and I, like I said, I'm a
fan.
So I've monopolized a lot ofthis, just kind of talking about
my interest.
I really want to kind of focuson can you give some tips to our
listeners of how they mightaccess some of the resources
that you provide?
So give us some of your besttips.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Well, anything's going to take work, and that's
what, to me, marketing is is allabout making you believe it's
easy to do anything, because yougive them money.
Whether you give some money orsomeone money or not, it's still
going to take work.
You may get lucky as hell, butnot, and so that's still going
(24:59):
to take work.
You may get lucky as hell, butnot, and so that's what, to me,
all the marketing in our country, and that's what we're very
good at marketing, and so Ithink, unless you have a lot of
money, just stay away fromGoogle.
You're not going to get it'sjust.
People are so good at marketingnowadays because you could try
(25:21):
50 different combinations withina second to see what makes
somebody open their wallet.
You know, for the days when Ifirst started, direct mail is
how we marketed.
It took five months to see ifanything works.
Now it takes a nanosecond andyou get five items to see what
works and that doesn't work, sothey can get your money so
(25:42):
easily.
So you, number one, stay awayfrom that.
Number two, talk to people whoknow.
Those 500 websites that youjust got on Google were 500
(26:02):
billion.
The three you should know, andthe only way you're going to
know that is by talking tosomebody who knows that stuff,
and that's important.
So, and anybody you talk tomake sure there's a gov or org
Interesting, because coms thatwant money from you I mean, I'm
(26:24):
sure they're good ones.
If you don't have money, youjust can't even play that game.
And there's too many people thatdon't have money to get in that
game and they're trying to getout of trouble playing the game
of coms.
And you can't, you've got toplay the other game, which is 40
percent, so that's a lot ofplayground to play it.
(26:44):
So that's what you have to do.
You have to call people who arein business to help people like
you.
Ok, because they study it everyday.
So if you want to start abusiness every day, so if you
want to start a business, thenyou would go to this website
(27:07):
called americasbdcorg.
These are free consultants inevery county that will help you
start or expand any business atany age, at any income, whether
you want to start a business oryou want to start an inventor,
or you want to start a nonprofit, or you want to invest in real
estate, anything.
Give you all the free legalhelp, marketing help, help you
(27:31):
find money, anything you need tostart something.
And there's dozens like that,not only this group in every
county to tell them that's whoyou want to find, that's who you
want to talk to, and thatfindhelporg if it's any daily
expense you have.
You can't pay your rent, youcan't pay your, you know you got
(27:52):
to fix up your house, you gotto get more job training, you
got to even get legal help orwhatever.
That's all free in there.
And, as Bob said, he's got two3,000 organizations in his zip
code that give you that for allfree.
Now when you call that say youwant rent, well, with him you
(28:13):
can have 50 to 70 organizationsin any city in America that
helps you with rent for free,helps you pay rent.
Okay, now how do you use them?
And that's your fish in thebarrel.
If you put rent grants inGoogle, you'll get literally 500
(28:34):
million.
So it's not even worth trying.
So you got 70 people.
You know they're all nonprofitorganizations.
They're all there to help yousolve a rent problem.
Now, they're all not going tobe able to solve your rent
problem because they're allusually for separate groups or
whatever.
So you have to fish throughthat, finding the right lawyer,
(28:54):
right, oh, I got a lawyer here,but yeah, but he doesn't do
stuff for seniors, so he's notcosting a lot of money to go up
the learning curve, right?
But more importantly, if youtake those 70 organizations and
start calling them, hey, I havetrouble with rent and you don't
have to know what to say, canyou help me?
And they'll say yes, no ormaybe.
(29:16):
So if they say no, then you askthem can you suggest somebody
else that could help me?
So if you find Bob with a, youknow, and he's a lawyer and
maybe you don't need a lawyerthat helps with seniors but you
need a tax lawyer, well, heprobably knows because he's in
the business.
You know helping people.
So that's what all these peoplein the business are helping
(29:38):
people pay rent.
No, other people who do that.
They go to the meetings andfind other people and they know
what's going to.
They people who do that.
They go to the meetings andfind other people and they know
what's going to.
They know what will be in theinternet next week or next year
because you know they're aheadof the curve like that.
That's their tool and if youhave to learn how to use that,
then you learn how to getthrough the internet without
(29:58):
knowing anything, and it'sskills we all need.
We all know how to do.
We all know how to make a phonecall.
We did that before the internet, and so that's how you really
find something.
And the other thing it's justbecause it's difficult.
You know you want to solveproblems that are important to
(30:20):
you.
I mean, solve them easy.
If they're easy, fine, butyou'll probably give up because
it's not as easy as you think.
But the help is out there.
We live in a country that has,you know, 40% of our country is
here to help you.
So we have a giving economythat you pay for, we all pay for
, and nobody knows who to use.
(30:42):
But the fat cats know it andyou know we have Elon Musk.
You know is hooked to the hipof Trump because he's already
got $5 billion in governmentmoney.
And he wants more.
That's why he gave Trump $150million for his campaign because
he wants more.
And that's all.
These high-tech billionairesnow are all down in Mar-a-Lago
(31:05):
now how are they going to getmore money from the government?
The average person on thestreet thinks there's something
bad about that which is stupid.
But if that's a philosophicalquestion you have to follow your
heart.
But just to realize it is there, you have a problem to solve.
You live in this country, Don'thave to be certain income.
I mean, everybody says, oh, Imake too much money.
(31:28):
Yes, for a few programs.
But, 80% of the programsavailable have no income
requirement at all.
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
That's an excellent point, matthew.
That's one of the things I hearall the time, and even when I'm
trying to help somebody and I'mlooking at their actual
information, so I'm face to facewith somebody often people will
say, well, I hear what you'resaying, but there's no way I can
qualify for that because I maketoo much income.
(31:59):
So it is one of those thingsthat you there's so many ways.
I really liked what you saidthere about how you know people
that are willing to keep askingthe right questions to the right
people, right.
Just to summarize what you werejust saying there, it's asking
the right questions to the rightphone number, right.
(32:22):
And that's the key is when youGoogle it.
This is why you're saying avoidGoogle.
When you Google it, there'sgoing to be 90% of the responses
from Google.
Is somebody trying to sell yousomething of whatever it is that
they have to sell?
It's not necessarily going tosolve your problem, it's just
this is what I have to sell, soI'm going to try to sell it to
(32:43):
you.
Nothing wrong with that, butit's really hard to sort through
that and get to the people thatsay, okay, this is actually the
resource that I need and I maynot know how to ask the right
question.
I train my staff this way.
All the time I say look, mostpeople that are going to be
calling us aren't going to beasking the right question.
They may be asking for a powerof attorney, they may be asking
(33:05):
for a guardianship.
If you're asking for thosethings, there's some problem,
there's some background problem.
You don't call and justrandomly ask for a guardianship
or a power of attorney unlessthere's some bigger problem
that's occurring, and then youknow.
So we got to address the realissue, not just the question
that they're asking, and I thinkthat's what your point is.
If you call the right people,they'll know that.
(33:27):
They'll know that you're notyou don't know exactly what
question to ask and that withthe right people, even if
they're not the resource,they'll point you to the right
resource for money or whateveryou think you need, to just say
I need help, right?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
So if you're in the right you know area, uh, then
they'll.
They know the questions I askyou to find out what kind of
help you really need, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Right, Right.
Well, Matthew, this has beengreat.
Uh, this is really exciting totalk to you.
I think, um, I love how the,the, the, the trajectory of your
life has gone and that you, youknow, I've always felt like you
were one of the trustworthyguys, because there was guys out
(34:15):
there that weren't trustworthyback 20 years ago.
All that, and to see thetrajectory of your life, and now
you're all about making surepeople have access to
information at a very low price.
Let's Go Help that.
$20 a month is nominal to getaccess to all these resources in
(34:38):
the community that you'vecreated, which is amazing.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Well, thanks, Bobby.
I love your kind words, man.
I pretend I don't hear them.
Maybe the nuns taught me to dothat.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, yeah, good.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
But they're etched in my heart, believe me.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I appreciate you coming on the podcast.
I think that people uh peoplethat are listening will get a
lot of value from this.
I do recommend that you checkout lesscohelpcom.
Thank you, matthew, for beingpart of our community, and
hopefully we'll send a fewpeople your way.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Thank you so much.
Thanks for listening.
To learn more, visitmanorlawgroupcom.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com