September 1, 2025 • 35 mins
Matthew Stern talks about his journey from digital marketing to becoming a telehealth startup entrepreneur, sharing insights on handling business challenges, celebrating milestones, and the importance of mental health. He also delves into his personal experiences with overcoming difficulties, including being homeless at 17, and how these experiences have shaped his entrepreneurial spirit. We talk about the significance of human connection in business, the impact of innovative healthcare solutions like GLP-1 medications, and why men's mental health is an essential focus in his ventures.
▬▬▬▬▬ Resources ▬▬▬▬▬
- Matthew Stern: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewstern/
- MyStart Health: https://www.mystarthealth.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cacklemedia/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cacklemedia
- X: https://x.com/CackleMediaLLC
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CackleMedia
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cacklemedia/
- Support the pod when signing up for Descript / SquadCast: https://get.descript.com/transferableskill
▬▬▬▬▬ Timestamps ▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Introduction to Transferable Skills
00:15 Overcoming Startup Challenges
00:45 Embracing a Stoic Philosophy
02:11 Celebrating Milestones
04:11 Balancing Critique and Celebration
08:15 The Grind and Work Ethic
15:41 Early Life and Adversity
17:35 Early Hustles and Construction Work
18:21 College and Career Beginnings
19:38 First Job in Digital Marketing
21:35 Angel Rush Ventures and Mentorship
22:46 The Importance of Human Connection in Business
26:54 Telehealth and MyStart Health
32:36 Personal Motivations and Mental Health Advocacy
34:35 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Transferable skills, skills, skills from Cacklemedia.
This is transferable skills. I'm Noah, Michigan.
Today's guest is Matthew Stern, who shares his skills journey
from digital marketing into telehealth startup entrepreneur.
I hope you enjoy. Just checked out my Stripe
account. We just solved like a massive
billing issue that we've had fortwo weeks of the business.
(00:20):
For 10 days we've been getting all the new sign ups for the
people that have been with us for a year, haven't been able to
get billed or get their medication.
Yeah, we just solved A10 day billing issue in the last 30
minutes. Well, congratulations on getting
that Peace of Mind before the weekend.
Thanks. Yeah, I've been half, not half
trying to just not freak out. The last 10 days it hasn't been
(00:40):
working. No.
Does that keep you up? It doesn't keep me up at night.
Why? Because there's nothing you can
do to control it. When you run a startup, shit is
going to happen. It's going to go sideways.
I've been doing it for 20 years.If anything is inevitable, it's
that the high times are super high and the low times are
always going to happen. Like you're always going to get
punched in the face. And so the more you can like
(01:03):
minimize the impact of that blowand just keep going, right, keep
fighting, the better off you areand control the things you can
control and let go of the thingsyou can't.
I mean, it's like, sounds prettybasic, like life stuff, but
yeah, it's real. But that takes so many years,
often for people to mature into that sort of Stoic philosophy of
(01:24):
understanding the difference between the things you can and
can't control. I was wired from a really early
age to never be able to hold on to the losses.
You know, I, I had a funny conversation with a buddy on the
golf course like last week and he said, you remember when I,
when I, I really, I gave you a beat.
(01:45):
He gave me a beat down. I guess like a year ago we were
on a golf trip and he's like, you remember the last day I took
you for a ton of money And when I was like, I don't actually.
I'm sure he remembers it. He, oh, he was like, it was the
greatest day I've ever had in playing golf with you.
And he was celebrating it. And I was like, I don't remember
at all from a young age. That was always kind of my
thing. Like I was very easy for me to
(02:07):
move on from the losses and juston to the next, right?
Not I'm not also very good at celebrating the wins.
I think that comes with it too. That's something that I've
worked on over the years as wellas getting better at.
And that was my wife actually, her influence from her early
time when we were dating, she was like, that's an incredible
milestone. Like we should celebrate.
And I was like, what do you mean?
(02:28):
That's just one step. Like, we got to go, we're going,
we're going somewhere. Else the goal posts have already
been moved. Now, yeah, they shift
immediately. Yeah, we'll set and but she got
me to pause in that moment. We were on a trip somewhere and
we hit some big business milestone and she was like, we
should celebrate. And you're right, my response
was the goal posts has already moved like we're on, we're gone
to the next thing. And she was like, no, like we're
(02:49):
going to, we're going to celebrate it.
And so, yeah, she's gotten better at grounding me in the
moment and giving me that perspective of like, OK, we're
getting there. And now I actually, I've been
keeping a notebook in this latest business, and there's one
page in this notebook that is just like those little
milestones. And that's my acknowledgement in
my celebration. I can look back at that and say,
(03:10):
here's where we were a year ago,Here's where we were three
months ago. And now, like, whoa, OK, we're
doing like, you don't see it every day, but when you look
back at it like that, you see the big leaps that you're
taking. How big does a milestone have to
be for you to record it? That's a great question.
It depends. Like I think in this business
(03:31):
that I'm operating today, in my start, I've had these like 1000
patients, 3000 patients, 5000 patients.
Those kind of milestones are, are the milestones that I'm
really driving towards in my career, though.
I'd say like, yeah, they're, they're multimillion dollar
(03:51):
celebrations, yeah. I think I asked that question
because it's subjective, obviously what's impact or
meaningful to you or what you choose to recognize.
I struggle sometimes with some of that same thing of
celebrating those moments is small as a victory as it is,
it's still a victory. It's something to be noted.
(04:11):
And the areas where I get hung up on something like where my
kid comes home with like a, a 96on an exam.
It's like, well, what happened to the four where the four
points? Where'd you go wrong?
It's why am I focusing on this four when he got 96% And I work
on that. I actively work on it and I, I
literally catch my tongue. I'm like, Nope, think about it
for a second. Pause.
Nice job, well done. You worked hard and and that's a
(04:32):
great, that's a great achievement.
Good job. You know, and as opposed to
always focusing on the negative,because it's not that I'm
pessimistic, it's that I want tooperationalize and optimize.
I want to say, OK, now where didI miss that area of opportunity
and what can I do for the next time to, to improve on that
result? And I have to remember that that
(04:53):
doesn't always apply to my my children.
I wonder if that's part of your wiring as an artist as well,
where you're like always trying to get better and better and
there's like little minute, likeminute thing that you're
constantly adjusting from like atune perspective.
I don't know if that's how you play, but I wonder if that's
really core to like your DNA as an and like why that works for
you as a musician too. Because I'm not that way.
(05:14):
I'm not ever focused on the 4%. Like to me, the minutiae is just
the minutiae. And I'm always like celebrating
the 96 or whatever the best partof that is.
It's possible I've had this wrong my whole life, this
perspective, because I think I've always had the opposite
assumption that the non artistic, more objective and
(05:35):
analytical side, I'm always pushing for how do I improve and
optimize and the artistic expression side of whatever I
produce is good enough. And that's, that's an expression
of what's inside. But I, I think it's very
possible that what you're identifying and pointing out
right now is an observation thatI was perhaps completely wrong
(05:55):
about, or at least partially wrong about.
Because I, I do agree to get better at any instrument, your
voice included, you need to practice.
There is the physicality of the muscles, but then there's also
the intellectual side. And then there's the artistic
expression you might have up here in your head, this idea of
you want something to sound likeor this vibe that you're going
for. And the artistic side is what
(06:18):
you're thinking and where your expression is.
But you still have to be able toproduce it technically.
And so you have to work on that craft.
The results have to be through iteration to grow in order to
accurately express what you had inside that you were
envisioning. Yeah, 100%.
That's crazy to me. I honestly think I had it the
opposite of my whole life. That's cool.
Yeah. I I that's it.
(06:38):
Because I'm not a musician, but I have a ton of respect for
musicians and have always wishedthat I and you, you've already
told me, I guess, you know, it'snot too late.
So I got that in my back of my head since the first time we
talked that there's still time for me.
The closest thing I have to thatis golf, right?
Like I play golf in the same waywhere it's something that you're
never going to perfect. Every time you go out, you're
(07:00):
trying to get a little bit better and you're and when you
go out and practice, you're trying to limit mistakes was
really the entire the entire game is is all about how do you
accept failure and how do you push past failure?
And so that's why golf is such agood expression for me as like
an entrepreneur of and such a reflection of who I am in
business is just that ability toaccept failure in the moment and
(07:22):
continue to push forward. When you're talking about
limiting your faults or limitingyour mistakes, that is literally
how you score golf. It's not how many points you
have, it's how many mistakes youmade.
The higher the number, the worseyou are.
That's literally what you're calculating is how many mistakes
on that hole, how many stakes onthe next hole.
Yeah, there's different ways to flag that.
(07:44):
I mean the score is 1 reflectionof that.
Do you keep track of your results from from Just like
games for pleasure? Oh, yeah.
No, nothing's for pleasure. Oh, I've gotten much better.
I've gotten much better at enjoying the time out there.
I think since having a kid, the ability to go out and spend 5
hours with your buddies is very unique and like special that I
(08:05):
get to do that more than most people I think.
So I don't take that for grantedanymore.
And I do enjoy it. But no, it's, it's not for
pleasure. It's all for competition.
Take us back if you want to use like a a golf analogy, what was
your approach into your career? Because it starts before you
were really of age for a typicaljob.
Tell me about your background a little bit.
Yeah, there's, there's a term actually, if we're going to keep
(08:28):
going to this golf analogy, we don't need to.
But yeah, there's a term that we'll have to use as like a term
of affection on the golf course to call someone a grinder.
That's someone that can just push through whatever it is,
whatever gets thrown at them, they just stay on it and keep
grinding, right? Just keep working through it.
And it doesn't matter how big the boulder is, they're going to
push it up the hill and they're just going to keep pushing.
(08:49):
And they don't know how to stop pushing that boulder up the
hill. From an early age I had this
ability to just lock in and grind and I enjoy that.
Like I enjoy being out on a run and looking at a big hill and
looking at the flat Rd. in the right and being like, Oh no, for
sure, I'm going to go run up that hill.
Like there's no way I can't do that.
And that's just mentally how I'mwired.
(09:11):
Do you like taking the harder path?
That's what it is, yeah. I do it always.
Like there's no in my mind. There's no other choice.
Why? I don't know that, but that's
always how I bet. I've always when I look at the
easy path and I look at the hardpath, I have to take the harm.
Is it about enjoying the struggle or is it about proving
something? I think it's both because there
(09:36):
are times where I don't enjoy the struggle, where it is hard,
but I literally look at it like there's no other choice.
So mentally I don't allow myselfto really play with that and be
like, what's the alternative? Mentally, even though it's hard,
I don't look at like there's anyother option.
Let's explore that a little deeper because I think that this
is really tying into skills because it's about inherent
(09:59):
personality traits, but also characteristics of work ethic
and other things. When you're in that moment of
not enjoying the struggle, the challenge that's in front of you
that you're maybe actually you're in, you recognize you're
on that run, it's 95° uphill andyou're not enjoying it.
It's hard. What's going through your head,
maybe in that moment where you recognize it's hard and you
(10:21):
don't like it, but. It's hard to answer if there's
literally I just my answer everytime is there's no other option.
There's no option to quit. There's no option to stop
pushing. And that could be years of
hardwiring that into my brain, right.
I'm 42 now, so I've been by whom?
(10:43):
Me. Yeah.
I mean, I really feel like I wasborn with an enjoyment of
pushing through the hard and knowing that on the other side
of that hill there is this full experience of I did that, I
overcame that, I pushed through,I achieved it.
(11:05):
And now I'm on the downhill and I'm cruising and I'm lit up with
all this energy. And that happens in everything
you do in life. You just have to make sure you
don't enjoy the downhill too much.
But like you hit that cruise right.
You've made it over this hill, You made it over, made it to
that milestone or you made it over that hill on that run.
And you're just lit up with adrenaline and endorphins that
(11:26):
you're like, you feel like you're on top of the world and
you get to ride it downhill and all the way home.
And I, and I think that's it forme.
It's it's always seeking out challenge like that gives me
that experience of cresting the hill and and feeling it on the
other side. Have you ever quit anything in
your life? Wow, I don't think anyone's ever
(11:50):
asked me that. I definitely quit A-Team when I
was like 13 or 14. I guess I left a couple teams
where in my life I didn't feel like I was valued in that team
or I wasn't getting a fair shake.
Does that fall maybe into the category of the things you can
and cannot control? So the outcome or success of
(12:11):
that team isn't solely dependenton you and you can't control the
ethics or performance or maybe raw talent of the individuals
that are side alongside you on that team.
So maybe you've this sense of protecting your track record or
success rate is I'm not going tobe on this team if they're not
going to rise to the level of myexpectations.
So therefore I'm out. That's really good coaching by
(12:33):
you and actually something that my life coach was coaching me on
this week. I like a business slash like
coach that I work with every week and we were talking about
that specifically. I don't operate well in
environments where I don't have control, where I can't control
the outcome. I like to be in the driver's
seat of whether something's going to be successful or also
(12:55):
why I haven't been extremely successful in my career.
Just as like a consultant where you're just telling people
purely like what to do and you're relying on them to
execute. I like to be in the driver's
seat. I like to be steering the
strategy and then also be like, roll up my sleeves and be in it,
be in the dirt driving the business.
(13:17):
Yeah, I think there is somethingthere.
So that, and I think my, my dad was that way too.
My dad was definitely like that dude.
And so there were a couple timesin my life as a kid where my dad
would step in and give it to thecoach and like that he wasn't
giving me a fair shake. And I think that that was those
were the the two teams that I ultimately wound up quitting.
(13:38):
So I don't, you know, I don't remember whether how much of an
influence my dad had on that decision, but there were two
teams in my. Yeah, we, we.
Don't have to go deeper into this as as clinical therapy, but
I'm sure we could. And having control over the
outcomes of things. I wonder who you're harder on?
Not to lead the question, but westarted this talking about how
you, you just found a resolution, fixed a problem that
(14:01):
was negatively impacting your business for a number of days.
Yeah. I'm curious how you react
differently when you're the one that created that problem or
somebody else on your team created that problem.
Yeah, forget about the solution,the problem itself.
Yeah, I think really, I think it's on the owner of the
business. You know, I think every single
(14:22):
thing is my problem, and it's and it's on me.
Yeah. As a leader in a business, if
you're going to be the CEO of a company, it all starts and ends
with you. The good, the bad, the ugly,
like everything. And so it doesn't matter who
caused the problem because had you had a better process in
place for that, had you trained them better, had you educated
(14:44):
them better, probably. What probably doesn't happen, I
think that is leadership. Leadership is owning it all and
leaving no excuse to why something happens to anyone else
in the business. And then it's leading from a
place of grace and gratitude with those individuals because
(15:05):
had it been caused by a person, they're going to feel it.
They know, right? And so all you can do in that
moment as a leader is wrap your arms around them and know that
like if they're your person and they're coming alongside you to
build this business, that they're never going to do that
again. If you hire the right people and
you have the trust in those people, which I feel like that's
(15:25):
paramount to running any business, but the people that I
have in my organization, I trust100%.
And with that trust comes grace and gratitude all the time.
Yeah, fully. I, I fully respect that and
subscribe to the same kind of vision philosophy.
Let's start at the beginning. I know you started in what I
would describe as digital marketing.
Yeah, as a leader. He described growing up before
(15:49):
you went to UC Berkeley, though your father passed away at an
early age. You're homeless the age of 17.
What was that experience like early in your life?
I was extremely blessed growing the 1st 17 years of my life.
I had everything I ever wanted. My parents idolized me.
I was I was everything to them. And I was given everything,
(16:09):
every opportunity that anyone could ever have.
And then at 17, my dad lost everything.
And there were a lot of explanations for why that was.
A lot of that was what came up, what became a mental health
condition that he had battled for years that no one had
diagnosed and no one had given him support for.
So it's part of the reason why I've gone so deep on mental
(16:31):
health in my life. My dad had undiagnosed bipolar
probably his entire life, and a lot of the stories and outcomes
of our family were a direct result of that.
But I came home from school one day as a senior in high school,
and he was gone. And there were bills stacked up
in his entire office. And that was the moment
(16:52):
everything changed. I can still picture myself
walking into that office and andwhat those next days that were
that followed. And he wound up coming back and
coming home. And we wound up selling
everything. And my parents filed bankruptcy
and we sold the home that we were in.
And yeah, my mom and I were essentially homeless.
(17:13):
You know, we had an incredible community in my hometown and
people rallied around us. And there was one specific
family that took us in. They built out their pool house
for us, which was probably 304 hundred square feet, and they
put a wall down the center of it.
My mom lived on one side, I lived on the other side.
And we had a little plug in skillet, had a little
refrigerator. And that's what we did.
(17:35):
And we did that for a couple years.
Well, kind of got our feet underus again.
And I was supposed to go off to college and do the whole, you
know, college thing, like everyone.
And that just wasn't an option for me.
So again, kind of coming back tomy mentality, I had always
worked. I'd always enjoyed work.
I'd been doing construction during the summers, painting
houses, banging out when I was doing dump runs from an early
(17:59):
age, I was running around the neighborhood and selling fruit
off our trees. And like, I always, just always
had that hustle. Like any way I could do it and
make money, I was doing it. I was selling baseball cards.
The plums from our backyard treewere cash.
That was like cash money around the neighborhood in the summer.
Was that was that for neat or was it really like an adrenaline
like you enjoyed? I just enjoyed.
Business, yeah, yeah, I just like the hustle.
(18:20):
Yeah, that was always in me. And so anyway, Fast forward, I
just, I what I knew was I could make good money doing
construction. So that's what I started doing.
I actually found a contractor that was doing bathroom remodels
and started doing tile work and plumbing and I was painting.
So anyway, I can make money. I was making money and then just
started saving it. Started going to classes either
(18:41):
early morning, like I'd go to a 7:00 AM class and then go to an
evening class and then work in between.
I was kind of whatever I could fit in the schedule and he was
really flexible with me knowing that I wanted to go to school.
So I went to a City College close by.
When we say save money for a couple years living in that pool
house, I thought I was going down the path of becoming a
lawyer. That was what my 2 cousins did.
So it seemed like that was kind of the family path.
(19:01):
And so I was working in Law Offices.
I was painting houses on the weekend.
I was going to City College and then wound up getting a full
scholarship to go to Berkeley. And that was a blessing,
obviously. So I got to finish my education
with no debt. And when I did that, that was
when I decided, well, maybe I shouldn't take on $200,000 in
(19:23):
debt in law school. I should go see what I can do
with a degree from Berkeley. So I did.
I just started applying to everyjob out there and he went to all
the weird first job interviews that are out there in the world
like crazy funny interviews. That would be its own episode in
itself. But I, I found these guys off of
Craigslist. There was four guys in a room
and the CEO got on the board andhe was like, we're going to
(19:46):
build a platform to understand the lifetime value of a customer
from the first time they see an ad online to the last time they
interact with that brand. And we're going to optimize all
the pieces in between and we're going to build brands on the
Internet. And I was like, I have no idea
what that means but that sounds really cool.
And I liked him and so. Crash course and performance
(20:07):
marketing. Totally, and that's what it was.
It was three years of an MBA in digital marketing.
It was almost like 4 years that I was there, but that was like
the NBA because I got paid 30 grand a year or 33 grand a year.
But I but that was amazing to me.
I was like all you want me to dois show up at 8:00 in the
morning and stay till 6:00 at night and work at a desk like
that's easy. So I was that guy just.
(20:28):
Much easier than than roofing, yeah.
They made fun of me for the first couple weeks for showing
up in a suit. I'm like, I, you know how I was
wired was just like to show up and grind and.
I did that same thing my first job, my first day at my first
job out of college. I was in like a full suit and
tie and everyone's like, wait, that's not, we don't do that
here. Come on dude.
(20:48):
Yeah, chill out. Yeah, he said.
Get calm down, yeah. That was it.
That was me. I got to work right alongside
the founders and learn everything from these guys and
they grew the business from zeroto 60 million and zero to 100
employees and were incredibly successful.
Was your role specifically? So I really gravitated more
towards the media buying and customer acquisition side of the
business, which, you know, stillin that role, you need to know
(21:13):
every piece of how the funnel converts and how you make money
on the back end of the business.Like you still need to know it
all. But my focus was really on
driving revenue and sales. And that was because one of the
founders of the company really took a interest in me, kind of
brought me under his wing, became my mentor, became like a
Big Brother to me, and eventually we became business
(21:33):
partners down the road as well. We started Angel Rush Ventures
as a way to empower other entrepreneurs with our skill set
around growth and digital marketing.
So we became kind of like a private equity slash like
incubator type business where you had a great idea, but you
didn't know how to grow it online.
We would come alongside you withour capital and our team of
(21:55):
experts and help you grow and amplify the growth of that
business. And that was really cool because
we had to lean into really what we are both great at which was
growth and driving sales and andrevenue and partnerships.
That was nine years where we ranAndroid Ventures, so.
Yeah. Yeah, it was great.
It was like all my best friends working in a room together,
(22:18):
driving at it every day, you know, charging through like your
late 20s and and early 30s. There was no better place to be.
We just lived it and breathed itevery single day and it was,
yeah, super fun. Tell me about the transition
from the that early job in sales, customer acquisition,
media channels and all that stuff, the skills that you
(22:40):
leverage from that into that next venture.
What made you ready for that? The number one thing that is
consistent through everything I've done has been the ability
to connect to people and build partnerships.
That was something that I also felt like was pretty intuitive
for me, that I just love people and can connect.
(23:01):
That emotional intelligence is something that I was also
definitely born with and nurtured big time by my mom and
my dad. They were both those people that
just would like love on anyone and connect to anyone.
And my dad was like a sales chameleon in that way.
So I could just adapt to any situation and be that guy.
So I think I was born with that,but also really nurtured in
that. And Dave, who was my mentor and
(23:23):
business partner was also one ofthose guys like just incredible
out with people and incredible with anyone.
And So what he really drilled into me from the beginning was
we're in an Internet business, but our ability to get in front
of people and build connection is what's going to separate us
from every other digital brand out there.
And we continue to do that. And I still COVID kind of hurt
(23:46):
that, right, that we're not traveling as much and getting in
front of people as often. But I still think that's a
complete difference maker in anybusiness is the ability to just
get across from someone, actually get in person, feel
their energy and build a connection to someone because it
does it just especially in a digital business, it separates
you from every other company that they could choose to do
(24:06):
business with because they know your heart and they know who you
are as a person. When you see so many different
businesses that exist that are maybe overlapping services or
similar services, what is the differentiation between any of
them? Sometimes it's a key feature,
maybe it's pricing, but ultimately neither of those
things are going to be as impactful, I think as the
(24:28):
individuals that you have confidence that support that.
If the people behind the curtain, people that are what is
their culture? What is their philosophy?
What is their mission? And is it, is it backed up or is
it just words on an about us page?
It's it's kind of ironic actually, you know, being people
first or having that human connection in a digital era,
(24:51):
It's so needed. Especially the more separated we
are, the less personal we are between brand and consumer.
I think the more that a personality or human connection
is relevant. I think you're 100% right.
I think even as we move through the next 10 years where we know
innovation on AI and automation and everything is just going to
(25:11):
go to a whole nother planet thatwe can't even picture right now.
I think leaning even more into the human side of business is
going to be interesting. I think there's going to be a
return to experiences and in real life experiences, whether
that's through coaching and actually getting across from
someone in the room and or it's going to be going to an event or
brands that can pull you into anenvironment to experience the
(25:35):
product or experience their service.
You're looking for how the humanelement just remains in business
into the future. COVID taught us that we no
longer in many cases need to actually go into an office to
see our primary care physician to ask a question about I feel
this way. What do you think and can you
write me a prescription those I don't need to waste all that
(25:58):
time and it's more efficient to do it that way.
One of my favorite books that I had read about Priya Parker
called The Art of Gathering, oneof my all time favorite books
because it talks about how to bebasically be mindful about and
intentional behind your gathering.
So we've invested all of this time, energy and planning into
coming together and this was written be before COVID.
So now how do we capitalize on all that investment?
(26:20):
How do you make it actually moremeaningful and have better
outcomes from all of this work that led up to us being here
today? Yeah.
So you you also hit my business on the head, right with like the
doctors on demand. I think you know I.
Didn't even need. I didn't even intend on it, by
the way. Maybe with some conscious, I
don't know. Well, what's, what's interesting
is yes, that's, it makes sense, right, that there are so many
(26:43):
things that can be solved by making healthcare more
accessible, right? Just make it easier for people
to get the things they need thatmake them healthier and let them
live a longer life. That's my start, that's my
business, that's what we're doing.
So a year ago I started, it's mysecond venture into the
telehealth space, but I started at telehealth business called my
Start Health. And we have a mission to
(27:06):
ultimately make healthcare more accessible and more affordable
for the average American consumer.
And to do it across really game changing peptides and prescribed
products that we feel like should be in the hands of every
single American and will help people live healthier, longer
lives. Yeah, give me some examples.
(27:28):
GOP one medications weight loss medication the stat is is the
second you get diagnosed with diabetes, you lose 16 years off
your life. Our healthcare system is well in
Americans, right? Diabetes is rampant not just in
America but other countries as well, but big time in the US and
the cost on our healthcare system is dramatic from these
(27:49):
chronic conditions that a lot isbrought on by obesity.
One of our focuses. I mean, I just what got me into
it was seeing the lives of friends and family members
completely transformed by these medications.
And I've still yet to see a casewhere someone had a bad
experience that didn't outweigh the positives of these
(28:10):
medications. I think you're going to see them
even from anywhere from micro dosed to full titration.
Like, you're going to see a lot of people, like up to 90% of
Americans on some form of these medications because of their
ability to regulate our blood sugar.
And ultimately, regulating your blood sugar helps you achieve
weight loss, but also helps you achieve longevity because you're
(28:31):
not putting that strain on the rest of your system.
Typically, maybe always right now, these medications are
reactive. Is there a world where there is
a level of proactivity? What you're doing is proactively
preventing something like that. Yeah.
And I think that's what you're seeing.
I mean, you're not seeing it outthere as much as you're seeing
this, you know, trying to solve the obesity epidemic in our
country. That's primarily where the focus
(28:53):
of the medication is. But when you peel back the
covers a little bit on people that are talking about longevity
and talking about peptides and people who are very healthy
naturally, there's a lot a largegroup of people out there that
are micro dosing GOP ones on topof other peptides that they're
using because of that exact reason.
Because it does get them ahead of the curve and helps them
(29:15):
regulate their blood sugar. And yeah, there's just going to
be more and more evidence comingout around how it actually works
from a longevity perspective. I would like to see more common,
a full robust program that includes medication and then
sustainability. I'd like to see this not just
about obesity, not just about diabetes, but in general from
(29:39):
our healthcare system to have these more lifestyle packages
that allows you to both proactively as well as from a
recovery reactive way of managing our health.
It's so segmented. It's like, why?
Why is my gym membership not covered by insurance?
Well said. Yeah, I completely agree with
you. It takes everything.
(30:00):
I think we are moving in the right direction as like a
society. I think there's more and more
education around how our food system needs to shift and change
away from processed foods and into more whole food diets.
I think it's becoming more well known.
We're like us growing up in the 80s, it was 0, right?
It was all about packaged foods and ease and fast food and like
(30:22):
that's what it was. And like, And so I think we're
seeing this shift back to like more whole food and solving the
price points on that, like for the general consumer.
I think is where the next the next phase of this.
Like you're starting to see someregulation come out in different
states. Like in Oklahoma, they just
passed some legislation around using people on Medicare, like
(30:44):
Medicare dollars to be able to cover quality foods like organic
foods, things like that, right? Like that type of legislation
needs to happen. I think you're seeing, you know,
ultimately we have to see, you know, how far government can
push it. But I think you're seeing things
move in the right direction. You've just seen Casey means get
promoted to be our surgeon general, and she's written an
(31:06):
incredible book on it. But it's all about the food
system promoting someone like her that's like not a
traditional medical doctor in that spot where she believes in
Whole Foods. She believes in alternative
solutions to our health. Like again, we'll see how it all
plays out, but things are shifting in the right direction.
(31:26):
Yeah. So you know from my start, well
from from digital well construction to digital
marketing into more investment incubation, PE, but then why
telehealth? Yeah.
So I, from the first time I did anything in the healthcare
space, I kind of light bulb moment for me was like,
Healthcare is the best application of my skill set
(31:48):
across any industry that I couldpossibly be in because there's
so much inefficiency in healthcare, They don't
understand what I do from a growth marketing perspective.
Generally as like an industry, there's a ton of value creation
both by helping people and actually getting solutions in
people's hands that can change their lives.
So that was important to me and also creating company value.
(32:10):
You know, if you do those thingsin hand, I felt like it was the
one space where I could accomplish both, where I could
get medications into people's hands that literally made a huge
impact in their life, and I could build incredible equity
value around a company like that.
So if I do it well, if I do my job, I can help people and I can
change my family's life. That's brilliant.
Fantastic talk about mission driven.
(32:33):
Yeah, I mean it. Yeah, it's that and it's also my
dad, right? Like I, I always think about him
because had he had access to these medications?
Had he had a diagnosis of bipolar?
But even if he just had access to GOP1 medications, my dad
always carried a big belly with him.
He always had high blood pressure that was unchecked,
hated going to the doctor. Like he had the silent killer,
(32:57):
like high blood pressure over who knows how many years,
probably 30 years. Shut down his kidneys, gave him
heart failure. And like he would lie to us and
say he was going to the doctor and he's fine.
We knew he was not fine. We tried intervening.
But like, I really believe if hehad access to those medications
early on, he'd still be with us today.
(33:18):
That's a hard pill to swallow. It's true.
Yeah. I think a lot of us in society,
my observation and theory is that a lot of people go into
specific professions because they themselves either needed it
or were related to or directly impacted by somebody who could
have benefited from the services.
And it influences a lot of how we think and live and therefore
(33:40):
maybe what we do. Yeah.
Yeah, 100%. It's also why we started cheat
code. Doctor Mondo and I both had the
same type of dad, dads that had there been these solutions more
available, like, and had we all been more open as a society as
men to receiving therapy and getting help and talking about
(34:02):
our shit, like, yeah, both thosedudes would still be around.
And you know, Mondo's dad suffered with alcoholism.
My dad suffered in and it was also bipolar.
My dad suffered with bipolar andhad his own vices and you know
how he ate. And yeah, it's just that was it.
That's where Mondo and I really bonded.
(34:22):
And we're like, we got to do something to just ship the
narrative, especially for, well,for everyone, but especially for
men around. Like why we can't just talk
about this stuff? Why can't we just be cool with
therapy? So that's been, that's been a
big part of our mission there too.
Public service announcement hereis I've been in therapy
virtually my whole life and I'vebenefited greatly from it.
And if you are suffering, struggling at all, I encourage
(34:45):
everyone to seek help and to go out and find somebody that's
going to be a positive influenceand, and maybe North Star for
you. Because I, I have often preached
that the best time to be in therapy is when you don't think
you need it. It is such a game changer.
The ability to even just vent, even just just get it off your
chest. But sometimes it's more than
(35:06):
that. It's OK.
What did I learn by way of just throwing this out and having a
unbiased third party perspective?
Give me some of that feedback. And so I encourage everyone to
invest in themselves. Thank you, Noah.
I love that. Matthew, I just want to say
thank you. This has been a fantastic
conversation. Thanks for being here and and
sharing your story. Thank you so much Noah.
This is a blast and I hope we get to do it again.
(35:28):
Totally. I want to thank Matthew for
being today's guest on the show and also want to thank you, our
listeners, for joining us on this episode of Transferable
Skills. Remember, the skills you've
gained can take you anywhere. Until next time, Kee exloring
those transferable skills.
Transferable skills, skills, skills from Cacklemedia.
This is transferable skills. I'm Noah, Michigan.
Today's guest is Matthew Stern, who shares his skills journey
from digital marketing into telehealth startup entrepreneur.
I hope you enjoy. Just checked out my Stripe
account. We just solved like a massive
billing issue that we've had fortwo weeks of the business.
(00:20):
For 10 days we've been getting all the new sign ups for the
people that have been with us for a year, haven't been able to
get billed or get their medication.
Yeah, we just solved A10 day billing issue in the last 30
minutes. Well, congratulations on getting
that Peace of Mind before the weekend.
Thanks. Yeah, I've been half, not half
trying to just not freak out. The last 10 days it hasn't been
(00:40):
working. No.
Does that keep you up? It doesn't keep me up at night.
Why? Because there's nothing you can
do to control it. When you run a startup, shit is
going to happen. It's going to go sideways.
I've been doing it for 20 years.If anything is inevitable, it's
that the high times are super high and the low times are
always going to happen. Like you're always going to get
punched in the face. And so the more you can like
(01:03):
minimize the impact of that blowand just keep going, right, keep
fighting, the better off you areand control the things you can
control and let go of the thingsyou can't.
I mean, it's like, sounds prettybasic, like life stuff, but
yeah, it's real. But that takes so many years,
often for people to mature into that sort of Stoic philosophy of
(01:24):
understanding the difference between the things you can and
can't control. I was wired from a really early
age to never be able to hold on to the losses.
You know, I, I had a funny conversation with a buddy on the
golf course like last week and he said, you remember when I,
when I, I really, I gave you a beat.
(01:45):
He gave me a beat down. I guess like a year ago we were
on a golf trip and he's like, you remember the last day I took
you for a ton of money And when I was like, I don't actually.
I'm sure he remembers it. He, oh, he was like, it was the
greatest day I've ever had in playing golf with you.
And he was celebrating it. And I was like, I don't remember
at all from a young age. That was always kind of my
thing. Like I was very easy for me to
(02:07):
move on from the losses and juston to the next, right?
Not I'm not also very good at celebrating the wins.
I think that comes with it too. That's something that I've
worked on over the years as wellas getting better at.
And that was my wife actually, her influence from her early
time when we were dating, she was like, that's an incredible
milestone. Like we should celebrate.
And I was like, what do you mean?
(02:28):
That's just one step. Like, we got to go, we're going,
we're going somewhere. Else the goal posts have already
been moved. Now, yeah, they shift
immediately. Yeah, we'll set and but she got
me to pause in that moment. We were on a trip somewhere and
we hit some big business milestone and she was like, we
should celebrate. And you're right, my response
was the goal posts has already moved like we're on, we're gone
to the next thing. And she was like, no, like we're
(02:49):
going to, we're going to celebrate it.
And so, yeah, she's gotten better at grounding me in the
moment and giving me that perspective of like, OK, we're
getting there. And now I actually, I've been
keeping a notebook in this latest business, and there's one
page in this notebook that is just like those little
milestones. And that's my acknowledgement in
my celebration. I can look back at that and say,
(03:10):
here's where we were a year ago,Here's where we were three
months ago. And now, like, whoa, OK, we're
doing like, you don't see it every day, but when you look
back at it like that, you see the big leaps that you're
taking. How big does a milestone have to
be for you to record it? That's a great question.
It depends. Like I think in this business
(03:31):
that I'm operating today, in my start, I've had these like 1000
patients, 3000 patients, 5000 patients.
Those kind of milestones are, are the milestones that I'm
really driving towards in my career, though.
I'd say like, yeah, they're, they're multimillion dollar
(03:51):
celebrations, yeah. I think I asked that question
because it's subjective, obviously what's impact or
meaningful to you or what you choose to recognize.
I struggle sometimes with some of that same thing of
celebrating those moments is small as a victory as it is,
it's still a victory. It's something to be noted.
(04:11):
And the areas where I get hung up on something like where my
kid comes home with like a, a 96on an exam.
It's like, well, what happened to the four where the four
points? Where'd you go wrong?
It's why am I focusing on this four when he got 96% And I work
on that. I actively work on it and I, I
literally catch my tongue. I'm like, Nope, think about it
for a second. Pause.
Nice job, well done. You worked hard and and that's a
(04:32):
great, that's a great achievement.
Good job. You know, and as opposed to
always focusing on the negative,because it's not that I'm
pessimistic, it's that I want tooperationalize and optimize.
I want to say, OK, now where didI miss that area of opportunity
and what can I do for the next time to, to improve on that
result? And I have to remember that that
(04:53):
doesn't always apply to my my children.
I wonder if that's part of your wiring as an artist as well,
where you're like always trying to get better and better and
there's like little minute, likeminute thing that you're
constantly adjusting from like atune perspective.
I don't know if that's how you play, but I wonder if that's
really core to like your DNA as an and like why that works for
you as a musician too. Because I'm not that way.
(05:14):
I'm not ever focused on the 4%. Like to me, the minutiae is just
the minutiae. And I'm always like celebrating
the 96 or whatever the best partof that is.
It's possible I've had this wrong my whole life, this
perspective, because I think I've always had the opposite
assumption that the non artistic, more objective and
(05:35):
analytical side, I'm always pushing for how do I improve and
optimize and the artistic expression side of whatever I
produce is good enough. And that's, that's an expression
of what's inside. But I, I think it's very
possible that what you're identifying and pointing out
right now is an observation thatI was perhaps completely wrong
(05:55):
about, or at least partially wrong about.
Because I, I do agree to get better at any instrument, your
voice included, you need to practice.
There is the physicality of the muscles, but then there's also
the intellectual side. And then there's the artistic
expression you might have up here in your head, this idea of
you want something to sound likeor this vibe that you're going
for. And the artistic side is what
(06:18):
you're thinking and where your expression is.
But you still have to be able toproduce it technically.
And so you have to work on that craft.
The results have to be through iteration to grow in order to
accurately express what you had inside that you were
envisioning. Yeah, 100%.
That's crazy to me. I honestly think I had it the
opposite of my whole life. That's cool.
Yeah. I I that's it.
(06:38):
Because I'm not a musician, but I have a ton of respect for
musicians and have always wishedthat I and you, you've already
told me, I guess, you know, it'snot too late.
So I got that in my back of my head since the first time we
talked that there's still time for me.
The closest thing I have to thatis golf, right?
Like I play golf in the same waywhere it's something that you're
never going to perfect. Every time you go out, you're
(07:00):
trying to get a little bit better and you're and when you
go out and practice, you're trying to limit mistakes was
really the entire the entire game is is all about how do you
accept failure and how do you push past failure?
And so that's why golf is such agood expression for me as like
an entrepreneur of and such a reflection of who I am in
business is just that ability toaccept failure in the moment and
(07:22):
continue to push forward. When you're talking about
limiting your faults or limitingyour mistakes, that is literally
how you score golf. It's not how many points you
have, it's how many mistakes youmade.
The higher the number, the worseyou are.
That's literally what you're calculating is how many mistakes
on that hole, how many stakes onthe next hole.
Yeah, there's different ways to flag that.
(07:44):
I mean the score is 1 reflectionof that.
Do you keep track of your results from from Just like
games for pleasure? Oh, yeah.
No, nothing's for pleasure. Oh, I've gotten much better.
I've gotten much better at enjoying the time out there.
I think since having a kid, the ability to go out and spend 5
hours with your buddies is very unique and like special that I
(08:05):
get to do that more than most people I think.
So I don't take that for grantedanymore.
And I do enjoy it. But no, it's, it's not for
pleasure. It's all for competition.
Take us back if you want to use like a a golf analogy, what was
your approach into your career? Because it starts before you
were really of age for a typicaljob.
Tell me about your background a little bit.
Yeah, there's, there's a term actually, if we're going to keep
(08:28):
going to this golf analogy, we don't need to.
But yeah, there's a term that we'll have to use as like a term
of affection on the golf course to call someone a grinder.
That's someone that can just push through whatever it is,
whatever gets thrown at them, they just stay on it and keep
grinding, right? Just keep working through it.
And it doesn't matter how big the boulder is, they're going to
push it up the hill and they're just going to keep pushing.
(08:49):
And they don't know how to stop pushing that boulder up the
hill. From an early age I had this
ability to just lock in and grind and I enjoy that.
Like I enjoy being out on a run and looking at a big hill and
looking at the flat Rd. in the right and being like, Oh no, for
sure, I'm going to go run up that hill.
Like there's no way I can't do that.
And that's just mentally how I'mwired.
(09:11):
Do you like taking the harder path?
That's what it is, yeah. I do it always.
Like there's no in my mind. There's no other choice.
Why? I don't know that, but that's
always how I bet. I've always when I look at the
easy path and I look at the hardpath, I have to take the harm.
Is it about enjoying the struggle or is it about proving
something? I think it's both because there
(09:36):
are times where I don't enjoy the struggle, where it is hard,
but I literally look at it like there's no other choice.
So mentally I don't allow myselfto really play with that and be
like, what's the alternative? Mentally, even though it's hard,
I don't look at like there's anyother option.
Let's explore that a little deeper because I think that this
is really tying into skills because it's about inherent
(09:59):
personality traits, but also characteristics of work ethic
and other things. When you're in that moment of
not enjoying the struggle, the challenge that's in front of you
that you're maybe actually you're in, you recognize you're
on that run, it's 95° uphill andyou're not enjoying it.
It's hard. What's going through your head,
maybe in that moment where you recognize it's hard and you
(10:21):
don't like it, but. It's hard to answer if there's
literally I just my answer everytime is there's no other option.
There's no option to quit. There's no option to stop
pushing. And that could be years of
hardwiring that into my brain, right.
I'm 42 now, so I've been by whom?
(10:43):
Me. Yeah.
I mean, I really feel like I wasborn with an enjoyment of
pushing through the hard and knowing that on the other side
of that hill there is this full experience of I did that, I
overcame that, I pushed through,I achieved it.
(11:05):
And now I'm on the downhill and I'm cruising and I'm lit up with
all this energy. And that happens in everything
you do in life. You just have to make sure you
don't enjoy the downhill too much.
But like you hit that cruise right.
You've made it over this hill, You made it over, made it to
that milestone or you made it over that hill on that run.
And you're just lit up with adrenaline and endorphins that
(11:26):
you're like, you feel like you're on top of the world and
you get to ride it downhill and all the way home.
And I, and I think that's it forme.
It's it's always seeking out challenge like that gives me
that experience of cresting the hill and and feeling it on the
other side. Have you ever quit anything in
your life? Wow, I don't think anyone's ever
(11:50):
asked me that. I definitely quit A-Team when I
was like 13 or 14. I guess I left a couple teams
where in my life I didn't feel like I was valued in that team
or I wasn't getting a fair shake.
Does that fall maybe into the category of the things you can
and cannot control? So the outcome or success of
(12:11):
that team isn't solely dependenton you and you can't control the
ethics or performance or maybe raw talent of the individuals
that are side alongside you on that team.
So maybe you've this sense of protecting your track record or
success rate is I'm not going tobe on this team if they're not
going to rise to the level of myexpectations.
So therefore I'm out. That's really good coaching by
(12:33):
you and actually something that my life coach was coaching me on
this week. I like a business slash like
coach that I work with every week and we were talking about
that specifically. I don't operate well in
environments where I don't have control, where I can't control
the outcome. I like to be in the driver's
seat of whether something's going to be successful or also
(12:55):
why I haven't been extremely successful in my career.
Just as like a consultant where you're just telling people
purely like what to do and you're relying on them to
execute. I like to be in the driver's
seat. I like to be steering the
strategy and then also be like, roll up my sleeves and be in it,
be in the dirt driving the business.
(13:17):
Yeah, I think there is somethingthere.
So that, and I think my, my dad was that way too.
My dad was definitely like that dude.
And so there were a couple timesin my life as a kid where my dad
would step in and give it to thecoach and like that he wasn't
giving me a fair shake. And I think that that was those
were the the two teams that I ultimately wound up quitting.
(13:38):
So I don't, you know, I don't remember whether how much of an
influence my dad had on that decision, but there were two
teams in my. Yeah, we, we.
Don't have to go deeper into this as as clinical therapy, but
I'm sure we could. And having control over the
outcomes of things. I wonder who you're harder on?
Not to lead the question, but westarted this talking about how
you, you just found a resolution, fixed a problem that
(14:01):
was negatively impacting your business for a number of days.
Yeah. I'm curious how you react
differently when you're the one that created that problem or
somebody else on your team created that problem.
Yeah, forget about the solution,the problem itself.
Yeah, I think really, I think it's on the owner of the
business. You know, I think every single
(14:22):
thing is my problem, and it's and it's on me.
Yeah. As a leader in a business, if
you're going to be the CEO of a company, it all starts and ends
with you. The good, the bad, the ugly,
like everything. And so it doesn't matter who
caused the problem because had you had a better process in
place for that, had you trained them better, had you educated
(14:44):
them better, probably. What probably doesn't happen, I
think that is leadership. Leadership is owning it all and
leaving no excuse to why something happens to anyone else
in the business. And then it's leading from a
place of grace and gratitude with those individuals because
(15:05):
had it been caused by a person, they're going to feel it.
They know, right? And so all you can do in that
moment as a leader is wrap your arms around them and know that
like if they're your person and they're coming alongside you to
build this business, that they're never going to do that
again. If you hire the right people and
you have the trust in those people, which I feel like that's
(15:25):
paramount to running any business, but the people that I
have in my organization, I trust100%.
And with that trust comes grace and gratitude all the time.
Yeah, fully. I, I fully respect that and
subscribe to the same kind of vision philosophy.
Let's start at the beginning. I know you started in what I
would describe as digital marketing.
Yeah, as a leader. He described growing up before
(15:49):
you went to UC Berkeley, though your father passed away at an
early age. You're homeless the age of 17.
What was that experience like early in your life?
I was extremely blessed growing the 1st 17 years of my life.
I had everything I ever wanted. My parents idolized me.
I was I was everything to them. And I was given everything,
(16:09):
every opportunity that anyone could ever have.
And then at 17, my dad lost everything.
And there were a lot of explanations for why that was.
A lot of that was what came up, what became a mental health
condition that he had battled for years that no one had
diagnosed and no one had given him support for.
So it's part of the reason why I've gone so deep on mental
(16:31):
health in my life. My dad had undiagnosed bipolar
probably his entire life, and a lot of the stories and outcomes
of our family were a direct result of that.
But I came home from school one day as a senior in high school,
and he was gone. And there were bills stacked up
in his entire office. And that was the moment
(16:52):
everything changed. I can still picture myself
walking into that office and andwhat those next days that were
that followed. And he wound up coming back and
coming home. And we wound up selling
everything. And my parents filed bankruptcy
and we sold the home that we were in.
And yeah, my mom and I were essentially homeless.
(17:13):
You know, we had an incredible community in my hometown and
people rallied around us. And there was one specific
family that took us in. They built out their pool house
for us, which was probably 304 hundred square feet, and they
put a wall down the center of it.
My mom lived on one side, I lived on the other side.
And we had a little plug in skillet, had a little
refrigerator. And that's what we did.
(17:35):
And we did that for a couple years.
Well, kind of got our feet underus again.
And I was supposed to go off to college and do the whole, you
know, college thing, like everyone.
And that just wasn't an option for me.
So again, kind of coming back tomy mentality, I had always
worked. I'd always enjoyed work.
I'd been doing construction during the summers, painting
houses, banging out when I was doing dump runs from an early
(17:59):
age, I was running around the neighborhood and selling fruit
off our trees. And like, I always, just always
had that hustle. Like any way I could do it and
make money, I was doing it. I was selling baseball cards.
The plums from our backyard treewere cash.
That was like cash money around the neighborhood in the summer.
Was that was that for neat or was it really like an adrenaline
like you enjoyed? I just enjoyed.
Business, yeah, yeah, I just like the hustle.
(18:20):
Yeah, that was always in me. And so anyway, Fast forward, I
just, I what I knew was I could make good money doing
construction. So that's what I started doing.
I actually found a contractor that was doing bathroom remodels
and started doing tile work and plumbing and I was painting.
So anyway, I can make money. I was making money and then just
started saving it. Started going to classes either
(18:41):
early morning, like I'd go to a 7:00 AM class and then go to an
evening class and then work in between.
I was kind of whatever I could fit in the schedule and he was
really flexible with me knowing that I wanted to go to school.
So I went to a City College close by.
When we say save money for a couple years living in that pool
house, I thought I was going down the path of becoming a
lawyer. That was what my 2 cousins did.
So it seemed like that was kind of the family path.
(19:01):
And so I was working in Law Offices.
I was painting houses on the weekend.
I was going to City College and then wound up getting a full
scholarship to go to Berkeley. And that was a blessing,
obviously. So I got to finish my education
with no debt. And when I did that, that was
when I decided, well, maybe I shouldn't take on $200,000 in
(19:23):
debt in law school. I should go see what I can do
with a degree from Berkeley. So I did.
I just started applying to everyjob out there and he went to all
the weird first job interviews that are out there in the world
like crazy funny interviews. That would be its own episode in
itself. But I, I found these guys off of
Craigslist. There was four guys in a room
and the CEO got on the board andhe was like, we're going to
(19:46):
build a platform to understand the lifetime value of a customer
from the first time they see an ad online to the last time they
interact with that brand. And we're going to optimize all
the pieces in between and we're going to build brands on the
Internet. And I was like, I have no idea
what that means but that sounds really cool.
And I liked him and so. Crash course and performance
(20:07):
marketing. Totally, and that's what it was.
It was three years of an MBA in digital marketing.
It was almost like 4 years that I was there, but that was like
the NBA because I got paid 30 grand a year or 33 grand a year.
But I but that was amazing to me.
I was like all you want me to dois show up at 8:00 in the
morning and stay till 6:00 at night and work at a desk like
that's easy. So I was that guy just.
(20:28):
Much easier than than roofing, yeah.
They made fun of me for the first couple weeks for showing
up in a suit. I'm like, I, you know how I was
wired was just like to show up and grind and.
I did that same thing my first job, my first day at my first
job out of college. I was in like a full suit and
tie and everyone's like, wait, that's not, we don't do that
here. Come on dude.
(20:48):
Yeah, chill out. Yeah, he said.
Get calm down, yeah. That was it.
That was me. I got to work right alongside
the founders and learn everything from these guys and
they grew the business from zeroto 60 million and zero to 100
employees and were incredibly successful.
Was your role specifically? So I really gravitated more
towards the media buying and customer acquisition side of the
business, which, you know, stillin that role, you need to know
(21:13):
every piece of how the funnel converts and how you make money
on the back end of the business.Like you still need to know it
all. But my focus was really on
driving revenue and sales. And that was because one of the
founders of the company really took a interest in me, kind of
brought me under his wing, became my mentor, became like a
Big Brother to me, and eventually we became business
(21:33):
partners down the road as well. We started Angel Rush Ventures
as a way to empower other entrepreneurs with our skill set
around growth and digital marketing.
So we became kind of like a private equity slash like
incubator type business where you had a great idea, but you
didn't know how to grow it online.
We would come alongside you withour capital and our team of
(21:55):
experts and help you grow and amplify the growth of that
business. And that was really cool because
we had to lean into really what we are both great at which was
growth and driving sales and andrevenue and partnerships.
That was nine years where we ranAndroid Ventures, so.
Yeah. Yeah, it was great.
It was like all my best friends working in a room together,
(22:18):
driving at it every day, you know, charging through like your
late 20s and and early 30s. There was no better place to be.
We just lived it and breathed itevery single day and it was,
yeah, super fun. Tell me about the transition
from the that early job in sales, customer acquisition,
media channels and all that stuff, the skills that you
(22:40):
leverage from that into that next venture.
What made you ready for that? The number one thing that is
consistent through everything I've done has been the ability
to connect to people and build partnerships.
That was something that I also felt like was pretty intuitive
for me, that I just love people and can connect.
(23:01):
That emotional intelligence is something that I was also
definitely born with and nurtured big time by my mom and
my dad. They were both those people that
just would like love on anyone and connect to anyone.
And my dad was like a sales chameleon in that way.
So I could just adapt to any situation and be that guy.
So I think I was born with that,but also really nurtured in
that. And Dave, who was my mentor and
(23:23):
business partner was also one ofthose guys like just incredible
out with people and incredible with anyone.
And So what he really drilled into me from the beginning was
we're in an Internet business, but our ability to get in front
of people and build connection is what's going to separate us
from every other digital brand out there.
And we continue to do that. And I still COVID kind of hurt
(23:46):
that, right, that we're not traveling as much and getting in
front of people as often. But I still think that's a
complete difference maker in anybusiness is the ability to just
get across from someone, actually get in person, feel
their energy and build a connection to someone because it
does it just especially in a digital business, it separates
you from every other company that they could choose to do
(24:06):
business with because they know your heart and they know who you
are as a person. When you see so many different
businesses that exist that are maybe overlapping services or
similar services, what is the differentiation between any of
them? Sometimes it's a key feature,
maybe it's pricing, but ultimately neither of those
things are going to be as impactful, I think as the
(24:28):
individuals that you have confidence that support that.
If the people behind the curtain, people that are what is
their culture? What is their philosophy?
What is their mission? And is it, is it backed up or is
it just words on an about us page?
It's it's kind of ironic actually, you know, being people
first or having that human connection in a digital era,
(24:51):
It's so needed. Especially the more separated we
are, the less personal we are between brand and consumer.
I think the more that a personality or human connection
is relevant. I think you're 100% right.
I think even as we move through the next 10 years where we know
innovation on AI and automation and everything is just going to
(25:11):
go to a whole nother planet thatwe can't even picture right now.
I think leaning even more into the human side of business is
going to be interesting. I think there's going to be a
return to experiences and in real life experiences, whether
that's through coaching and actually getting across from
someone in the room and or it's going to be going to an event or
brands that can pull you into anenvironment to experience the
(25:35):
product or experience their service.
You're looking for how the humanelement just remains in business
into the future. COVID taught us that we no
longer in many cases need to actually go into an office to
see our primary care physician to ask a question about I feel
this way. What do you think and can you
write me a prescription those I don't need to waste all that
(25:58):
time and it's more efficient to do it that way.
One of my favorite books that I had read about Priya Parker
called The Art of Gathering, oneof my all time favorite books
because it talks about how to bebasically be mindful about and
intentional behind your gathering.
So we've invested all of this time, energy and planning into
coming together and this was written be before COVID.
So now how do we capitalize on all that investment?
(26:20):
How do you make it actually moremeaningful and have better
outcomes from all of this work that led up to us being here
today? Yeah.
So you you also hit my business on the head, right with like the
doctors on demand. I think you know I.
Didn't even need. I didn't even intend on it, by
the way. Maybe with some conscious, I
don't know. Well, what's, what's interesting
is yes, that's, it makes sense, right, that there are so many
(26:43):
things that can be solved by making healthcare more
accessible, right? Just make it easier for people
to get the things they need thatmake them healthier and let them
live a longer life. That's my start, that's my
business, that's what we're doing.
So a year ago I started, it's mysecond venture into the
telehealth space, but I started at telehealth business called my
Start Health. And we have a mission to
(27:06):
ultimately make healthcare more accessible and more affordable
for the average American consumer.
And to do it across really game changing peptides and prescribed
products that we feel like should be in the hands of every
single American and will help people live healthier, longer
lives. Yeah, give me some examples.
(27:28):
GOP one medications weight loss medication the stat is is the
second you get diagnosed with diabetes, you lose 16 years off
your life. Our healthcare system is well in
Americans, right? Diabetes is rampant not just in
America but other countries as well, but big time in the US and
the cost on our healthcare system is dramatic from these
(27:49):
chronic conditions that a lot isbrought on by obesity.
One of our focuses. I mean, I just what got me into
it was seeing the lives of friends and family members
completely transformed by these medications.
And I've still yet to see a casewhere someone had a bad
experience that didn't outweigh the positives of these
(28:10):
medications. I think you're going to see them
even from anywhere from micro dosed to full titration.
Like, you're going to see a lot of people, like up to 90% of
Americans on some form of these medications because of their
ability to regulate our blood sugar.
And ultimately, regulating your blood sugar helps you achieve
weight loss, but also helps you achieve longevity because you're
(28:31):
not putting that strain on the rest of your system.
Typically, maybe always right now, these medications are
reactive. Is there a world where there is
a level of proactivity? What you're doing is proactively
preventing something like that. Yeah.
And I think that's what you're seeing.
I mean, you're not seeing it outthere as much as you're seeing
this, you know, trying to solve the obesity epidemic in our
country. That's primarily where the focus
(28:53):
of the medication is. But when you peel back the
covers a little bit on people that are talking about longevity
and talking about peptides and people who are very healthy
naturally, there's a lot a largegroup of people out there that
are micro dosing GOP ones on topof other peptides that they're
using because of that exact reason.
Because it does get them ahead of the curve and helps them
(29:15):
regulate their blood sugar. And yeah, there's just going to
be more and more evidence comingout around how it actually works
from a longevity perspective. I would like to see more common,
a full robust program that includes medication and then
sustainability. I'd like to see this not just
about obesity, not just about diabetes, but in general from
(29:39):
our healthcare system to have these more lifestyle packages
that allows you to both proactively as well as from a
recovery reactive way of managing our health.
It's so segmented. It's like, why?
Why is my gym membership not covered by insurance?
Well said. Yeah, I completely agree with
you. It takes everything.
(30:00):
I think we are moving in the right direction as like a
society. I think there's more and more
education around how our food system needs to shift and change
away from processed foods and into more whole food diets.
I think it's becoming more well known.
We're like us growing up in the 80s, it was 0, right?
It was all about packaged foods and ease and fast food and like
(30:22):
that's what it was. And like, And so I think we're
seeing this shift back to like more whole food and solving the
price points on that, like for the general consumer.
I think is where the next the next phase of this.
Like you're starting to see someregulation come out in different
states. Like in Oklahoma, they just
passed some legislation around using people on Medicare, like
(30:44):
Medicare dollars to be able to cover quality foods like organic
foods, things like that, right? Like that type of legislation
needs to happen. I think you're seeing, you know,
ultimately we have to see, you know, how far government can
push it. But I think you're seeing things
move in the right direction. You've just seen Casey means get
promoted to be our surgeon general, and she's written an
(31:06):
incredible book on it. But it's all about the food
system promoting someone like her that's like not a
traditional medical doctor in that spot where she believes in
Whole Foods. She believes in alternative
solutions to our health. Like again, we'll see how it all
plays out, but things are shifting in the right direction.
(31:26):
Yeah. So you know from my start, well
from from digital well construction to digital
marketing into more investment incubation, PE, but then why
telehealth? Yeah.
So I, from the first time I did anything in the healthcare
space, I kind of light bulb moment for me was like,
Healthcare is the best application of my skill set
(31:48):
across any industry that I couldpossibly be in because there's
so much inefficiency in healthcare, They don't
understand what I do from a growth marketing perspective.
Generally as like an industry, there's a ton of value creation
both by helping people and actually getting solutions in
people's hands that can change their lives.
So that was important to me and also creating company value.
(32:10):
You know, if you do those thingsin hand, I felt like it was the
one space where I could accomplish both, where I could
get medications into people's hands that literally made a huge
impact in their life, and I could build incredible equity
value around a company like that.
So if I do it well, if I do my job, I can help people and I can
change my family's life. That's brilliant.
Fantastic talk about mission driven.
(32:33):
Yeah, I mean it. Yeah, it's that and it's also my
dad, right? Like I, I always think about him
because had he had access to these medications?
Had he had a diagnosis of bipolar?
But even if he just had access to GOP1 medications, my dad
always carried a big belly with him.
He always had high blood pressure that was unchecked,
hated going to the doctor. Like he had the silent killer,
(32:57):
like high blood pressure over who knows how many years,
probably 30 years. Shut down his kidneys, gave him
heart failure. And like he would lie to us and
say he was going to the doctor and he's fine.
We knew he was not fine. We tried intervening.
But like, I really believe if hehad access to those medications
early on, he'd still be with us today.
(33:18):
That's a hard pill to swallow. It's true.
Yeah. I think a lot of us in society,
my observation and theory is that a lot of people go into
specific professions because they themselves either needed it
or were related to or directly impacted by somebody who could
have benefited from the services.
And it influences a lot of how we think and live and therefore
(33:40):
maybe what we do. Yeah.
Yeah, 100%. It's also why we started cheat
code. Doctor Mondo and I both had the
same type of dad, dads that had there been these solutions more
available, like, and had we all been more open as a society as
men to receiving therapy and getting help and talking about
(34:02):
our shit, like, yeah, both thosedudes would still be around.
And you know, Mondo's dad suffered with alcoholism.
My dad suffered in and it was also bipolar.
My dad suffered with bipolar andhad his own vices and you know
how he ate. And yeah, it's just that was it.
That's where Mondo and I really bonded.
(34:22):
And we're like, we got to do something to just ship the
narrative, especially for, well,for everyone, but especially for
men around. Like why we can't just talk
about this stuff? Why can't we just be cool with
therapy? So that's been, that's been a
big part of our mission there too.
Public service announcement hereis I've been in therapy
virtually my whole life and I'vebenefited greatly from it.
And if you are suffering, struggling at all, I encourage
(34:45):
everyone to seek help and to go out and find somebody that's
going to be a positive influenceand, and maybe North Star for
you. Because I, I have often preached
that the best time to be in therapy is when you don't think
you need it. It is such a game changer.
The ability to even just vent, even just just get it off your
chest. But sometimes it's more than
(35:06):
that. It's OK.
What did I learn by way of just throwing this out and having a
unbiased third party perspective?
Give me some of that feedback. And so I encourage everyone to
invest in themselves. Thank you, Noah.
I love that. Matthew, I just want to say
thank you. This has been a fantastic
conversation. Thanks for being here and and
sharing your story. Thank you so much Noah.
This is a blast and I hope we get to do it again.
(35:28):
Totally. I want to thank Matthew for
being today's guest on the show and also want to thank you, our
listeners, for joining us on this episode of Transferable
Skills. Remember, the skills you've
gained can take you anywhere. Until next time, Kee exloring
those transferable skills.
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