September 14, 2023 • 22 mins
At DENT: The Future 2023, Imperial Moto Coffee founder Matt McKenna sits down for a discussion about his journey entrepreneur. In this candid conversation, Matt shares the inspiration behind starting his specialty coffee business in Miami and roasting unique, high quality blends. He also delves into his passion for watch and design craftsmanship.
When it comes to the future of coffee, Matt believes specialty culture will continue growing as consumers demand new flavors and shopping experiences. However, he stresses sustainability will be key as the industry expands globally.
Matt also reflects on his experiences at past DENT conferences, noting the value of hearing varied perspectives from leaders and newcomers alike. Beyond business, DENT aims to facilitate connections that support personal and professional growth.
For anyone interested in coffee, entrepreneurship or simply an engaging discussion, grab a cup and enjoy this insightful dialogue with Matt McKenna.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
here you know as we settle in. That's where the magic happens you know. Yeah.
(00:03):
Hey what's up internet it's Chris Scroog and I'm here at the DENT
conference DENT the future in Santa Fe New Mexico. I'm here with my buddy Matt
McKenna. What's up dude. Matt say what's up to the internet. How you doing internet? Nice to see you.
Matt's a board member here at DENT but more importantly it's one of the
(00:23):
places we've really got to spend a lot of time together over the years. We know
each other through the tech world specifically and then through South by
Southwest. I think that's where we first met. Is where we first met you face to face but we knew of
one another and communicated online when I bumped I came to one of your Redfish
talks at the old Lance Armstrong's bike shop or whatever back in the day and I
(00:44):
think you were doing a mobile phone marketing. Yeah we were like a
tech specially platform provider. This is not gonna surprise you but the
man sitting across from me here is one of the most interesting people that I
know. Obviously has great personal style and he's got a real brain on his
shoulders. He's a real compassionate heart and he's just mixed up in all
(01:07):
sorts of stuff and so I'm gonna brag about you. That's a good one. I'm gonna brag
about you here a little bit but you know feel free to take the reins at any point
you know and stuff. I would like to dive into each one of these things eventually
but Matt's running a coffee company in Miami Florida. When I talked to him last
it was a coffee shop called Imperial Moto but tell us a little bit about that
(01:28):
whole thing. Yeah I mean like any like any good entrepreneur you know endeavor
I just jumped in headfirst right. I was in the tech world for a long time and I sold
that company in 2017 and it was really into specialty coffee and it wasn't
really like a cool place in Miami where you could pull up. There was a vibe. There was
great coffee. It just didn't really exist you know so I didn't really know anything
(01:53):
about the coffee industry and just opened up a coffee shop in 2017 and now
that's blossomed into a full-fledged business and you know we have a pretty
cool brand side of things but we're really focused on roasting our own coffee
now and selling it to other restaurants that that want to offer a superior
product. Yeah and Matt is a connector and ultimate networker. He sees you know
(02:17):
patterns and trends. I mean I would even say you're a bit of a trend spotter.
Well and and you put together this agency you've been doing some rep and
and some promotion of kind of celebrities in the social space or
something like that. Yeah that a town alliance group and that's what happened
organically too you know as friends with it with a variety of people that were
(02:40):
were doing all sorts of different talks and and endorsement deals and and I
decided to make a business out of it. You know LeVar Burton who's a dear
friend of mine. Reading Rainbow, Jordy LaForge. You know I was fortunate enough to
wasn't he? Kuta Kinte? Kuta Kinte. Kuta Kinte. Fortunate enough to work with him and find a
(03:01):
variety of deals and causes that align with his brand and just have fun with
it you know and we did we've done some cool things over the last couple years.
What's the Miami scene like these days? Miami is crazy. We had a huge influx of
(03:21):
people moved to Florida during the pandemic and now the roads have stayed
the same but the amount of people driving on them has increased tenfold.
Yeah so there's a lot of traffic. It's very expensive place to live you know
but we're hanging in there you know we just opened yesterday our second
location at Aventura Mall. Yeah. Like top five mall in the world. I mean he was just
(03:45):
showing me some photos on his phone I mean yeah it's he's being a little bit
humble. This is a fancy ass coffee shop in a really fancy mall and I mean it
looks sweet to open up yesterday and have a look I mean it looks awesome.
Thank you so much yeah you know my wife's an amazing interior designer. She
owns a company called Chelsea Design and she really helped me stay on point when
(04:05):
I'm like hey forget the bricks let's just open. She's like no we need bricks or
whatever touch and you know I'm grateful to have her help on that. In our team
there's really great too. I mean you know I think any successful business you know
it comes out of the employees right you have to have happy employees. If your employees
are miserable your business is gonna fail so part of part of the secret sauce
(04:30):
is just making sure that our employees are really you know love coming to work
every day. That's awesome man I know it's not like retail and stuff isn't like
the easiest place to keep staff these days and stuff so. Yeah we've been
we've been really lucky. Most of our people our core team have been there
for years. Cool man. So what brings you to Dent? What you getting up to here?
(04:54):
Well I've never missed Dent. I'm the only guy other than Steve and Jason
who's been to every Dent. You know it's my birthday tomorrow yeah I couldn't miss
it. I'm gonna hang out and fortunately I get to leave early on Tuesday and go back
but I'm excited to see everybody excited to see you. You know Zoe's coming in
we're having dinner tonight. Will you poop on through this beat? I got to share with Matt a
(05:18):
little bit today about my own sobriety journey about me reimagining my whole
relationship with alcohol and the kind of year and a half that I spent sober and
I was happy to share that with you because you've been a real inspiration
to me. Maddie quit drinking long before I did and your like focus and your
dedication to it man is is inspirational you know like sometimes I could be a
(05:44):
little bit passive about it but I can tell that you're really fucking taking
those demons and stomping on their throats and rassling them into a choke
hold and giving them the fucking gears man. You know I started my recovery
journey in 2010 and I have like 19 months of sobriety so there's definitely
been some moments where I took my will back and said hey you know it's gonna be
(06:05):
a little bit different this time but probably the best decision I've ever
made is to continue down this path right it's not easy especially being in a
place like this. Dent is very very whiny. We were talking yeah it's very whiny we
we got a buddy Greg Kaiser and he's an expert sommelier and he breaks out the
fanciest bottles you know bring them on down here and stuff and that's a big
(06:27):
part of what gathers community around and stuff but when you were talking this
morning to me about your sobriety and you're talking a little bit about how
you don't drink and your approach through the meetings and stuff it was
it was pretty interesting cool way of looking at it. Specifically I like the
way you talked about you know the only way to ensure that you are the man that
you are and want to be is to not pick up that first drink and maybe you could
(06:50):
just like elaborate a little bit on like well you know look I think I really do
believe this is a disease right I think I you know it's a very young very young
man I think I smoked a joint when I was 12 years old and it quieted everything down
and grew up in a very noisy home and I just you know I wanted to feel you know
sort of part of something and unfortunately I wanted to always feel
(07:11):
part of like the wrong crowd right I feel like I fit into the misfits and
later in life and once you start identifying that way and yeah later in
life I was the music business and I said oh if you're in the music business you
have to drink and drug and all this sort of stuff and and and I surrounded
myself with people that acted like that and it took a long time for me to
(07:31):
realize that that I was I had a disease right I'm allergic to to alcohol and you
know of course I wrapped it in all sorts of things like I would buy the fine wines
and the fun and the great whiskeys on that ship but let me tell you it all led
to the same place which was you know remorse and regret and now I don't have
(07:53):
any of that you know you know my kids don't see me drunk right my wife doesn't
see me drunk and I'm able to be there for anybody at any time yeah right and I
know that a part of this too for you as well as for me has been a bit of a
self-love journey and coming to peace with kind of who I am and and stuff and
(08:14):
so I know that when you start shedding some of that bullshit behavior that's
brought on by giving into the alcoholic tendencies you actually can be it's
easier to love yourself it's easier to be proud of your decisions and stuff you
know not being yeah I'm not discussing when I look in the mirror
(08:35):
but it's a day to time you know I mean it's uh I noticed that did you do any
like therapy alongside of this or was yours through meetings and stuff in a big
alcoholics anonymous yeah you know a believer in that program which is very
simple right just keep your side of the street clean do the next right thing
you know don't put a drink or a drug in your body
(08:56):
the church behind us here we're we're staying right on the Plaza in downtown
Santa Fe at the La Fonda Hotel this morning there's a Fiesta Festival going
on which is pretty interesting because it seems to be celebrating of the lake
colonial conquistador history of here like literally they had dudes dressed up
(09:17):
as conquistadors wandering the streets and stuff so I'm intrigued to get a
little bit more background on that but it's been cool to be down here
performances going on and Maddie wandered down got a new bracelet show it
off there buddy what was that guy's name Kevin Kevin yeah Kevin white Navajo
(09:38):
yeah I love coming here you know part of coming here is these little things you
know walking down a visiting with the Navajos and seeing the jewelry I mean
it's part of the experience here right this Bell you know I'm staying in a room
right off right off the terrace here that's been going on I've had like one
of the chillest days I've had in the longest time I let a photo walk at 630
(09:58):
this morning with like 10 people there was so chill it was just like breaking
off from the rest of the group at a quiet time of the day and just wander
around making photos of each other and together and stuff and then I went to
Charlie Van Kirk he's an audio engineer he's building the audio project here and
teaching people how to do it so we went out and recorded soundscapes in the
streets right when this you know processional conquistador processional
(10:22):
is going on then I got to go shopping with Maddie and a little bit of a
catch-up and then I just caught Kyle Kester sins heart centered AI and
masterful prompt engineering workshop and it was fucking great man there's 30
people in there his understanding these things is super deep but the thing I
(10:42):
appreciated most about his workshop anytime you're talking to a group of
people about this AI stuff is very easy for it to get derailed by people's fears
about their questions and about all and and and those things were there but he
was able to keep the whole thing moving forward in a positive direction man and
(11:02):
it was that's what debt brings together the most amazing group of people right
such interesting group of people together for a few days and you know
somebody's experiences like you're gonna remember this thing with Kyle today for
yeah ever you know these little moments it just stay in your your memory this is
definitely not a dent commercial but I know that we were both like legit into
(11:24):
this event and so I'm intrigued to hear how you describe it or maybe I'll go
first right so like hey if I met some pedestrian folks at the airport last
night and they're like you know what's thing you're going to and I'm like okay
dent dent the future it's called it's like a future focused ideas festival I
said I said it's kind of like Ted but smaller and like lower production values
(11:45):
and I said it's kind of like summer camp for like professional adults a little
bit we get together you know people with jobs and careers and businesses and we
get together and stay up a little bit late share what we're working on make
some art together I don't know it's it's I've been I've been literally coming
(12:05):
here before its inception you know and I think yeah you know Steve and Jason I
remember having breakfast with them 12 years ago we want to build this
conference where we bring together like-minded individuals to share our
stories and you know I guess you know everyone sort of Ted so it's a very
similar format there's talks throughout the day but there's more than talks
(12:28):
there's experiences and dine-arounds and activities and photo walks and I think
it's really interesting and legit bonafide community friendships and yeah
it's certainly bonafide community and I think every year a variety of new people
enter my life and I stay connected with them in some cases you know I've met
people where I've invested with them and they did their homes they've been to my
(12:51):
homes it's a really special event I don't like the word networking but it's
certainly like a connector I mean networking does have like a sort of 30
connotation when used as a verb but everybody knows that like you are an
amalgam of the people you hang around and spend time with for sure and that
your professional network is really what it's all about people don't just want to
(13:13):
do cool shit they want to do cool shit with great people that they love you
know and stuff and and I've developed a lot of those friendships here and stuff
so absolutely Matt he's always got some interesting extra curriculars going on
you've built some cool vehicles along the way you you got me into knife
collecting what do you what do you got oh man I'm so excited to show you this
(13:34):
one bro you've never seen it before this is a Kevin Smock custom handmade for me
and actually there's a little piece of you in this you'll maybe see it in a
second the blade shape is one you taught me about oh yeah the old sheep's foot
unbelievable so yeah it's a green anodized steel raindrop Damascus with
(13:57):
blue titanium spacers in the back and I waited fucking five years on that guy's
waiting list for that knife bro and he went out of business a couple times
beautiful the internet revolted against him and said no one's orders would be
and you know what Kevin Smock you fucking came through I would have liked it a
couple yeah yeah yeah so Matt he got me into custom handmade knife collect and
(14:22):
talk to me a little bit about that you know I'm a big fan of jumping into
industries headfirst like like jumping into this three and a half foot
jacuzzi over here we just jump right in you know at the bottom real fast you
know when I used to run this this this Instagram Punisher Life right we would
you know we'd focus a lot of on knife makers and everyday carry they carry
(14:44):
kind of stuff and and then my brother started making knives I have one I want
his prototypes and a blades yeah and just meeting with some of these craftsmen
these unbelievable custom knife makers is so cool such a cool thing right
because a knife is a tool or a weapon this depends how you wield it and I love
(15:09):
it but I have a pretty big collection myself I don't have a I don't have a I
don't have one of Kevin's knives yet I don't know man you've got some pretty
sweet knives this is the only one in my collection that was made for me right
it's so cool when you order a both bespoke knife like that yeah and knives
got you into watches now you're on the watch train like watches a lot I like I
(15:29):
like nice shit you know what are you collecting right now what's your what's
on the top of your I know jewelry my sky of a greatly great jewelry collection
I you know I think my father used to always have a nice watch the nice chain
on you remember those things as a kid and then my father I remember when he
went out I was probably about 13 years old or something you know you bought an
Omega constellation and he came back beautiful gold stainless watch this oh
(15:55):
my god thank you paid $1,500 for it so much yeah like a lot of money yeah but
you know now I'm sort of I'm a big watch collector and I like to be a bigger one
but you know it's little by little man some of the nicest things I have in my
life are passed down from my grandpa a couple nice gold watches and things like
(16:17):
that and he was just a blue-collared guy but it was something he valued and set
aside and say for us and I mean he would be like 105 years old now and he's been
passed for 20 years but I tell his stories all the time and they often come
up through me wearing his watches around and stuff and it's pretty you know I
love those stories I like this I like to dive into the stories behind the things
(16:38):
that I like you know I think like you think about some of the biggest marquee
brands like Rolex or Omega or Porsche or whatever there's an amazing story
pursuit to be the best in their field and you know there's so much history it's
like you know when you drive a Porsche or you or you wear a Rolex there's so
much history that goes into that cool that's cool that's the brands you
(17:01):
identify with I'm I'm repping Levi's pretty hard for the last 20 years I kind of had to
tow or rock and Levi's these days tomorrow I'll be sporting the Canadian
tuxedo I think I got four different layers of blue denim we'll see that I
got my teeth did in Miami this year I got tell me about this well I spent the
winter down in the Florida Keys and in Miami and I've long wanted and looked up
(17:26):
to guys with gold teeth literally I remember being like eight years old in
church and my family would sit in the deaf section and there was this deaf
guy that had the sickest gold teeth man this was before girls and stuff but I
would just look at him and stare at him and like think it was so cool and and
and and then I was dating this woman and she was really into it so she started
chirping in my ear about how good I look with gold teeth she showed me this movie
(17:49):
that I liked spring breakers you know that guy's got a fucking crazy grill and
and I was down in Miami where y'all have like strip malls full of guys who will
give you gold teeth and grills there's this so what kind of gold do we have I
got 22 carried gold man like I got the best you can get there eight crowns so
(18:09):
they're all individual I can floss between them and yeah they're permanent
they have to shave your teeth down they didn't know mine are like a little bit
like bigger than some of the ones where the guys shave their teeth down but I
don't got to fucking shave my teeth down you know so yeah and now that I've got
them I want to go into one of these shops maybe with you and take them all
(18:30):
my silver and turquoise jewelry and see if they'll do like you know three for
one upgrades I'll give them three three silver ring turquoise bracelets and maybe
they'll swap me back one gold one to match with my teeth or something we'll
see so we're gonna go have a little dinner for you here tonight so I'll
celebrate your birthday go off to the reception have a hangout is always
(18:53):
coming in with her man so well you know coupons coming yeah William coupon my
friend in town here Jimmy Stardust is coming he used to make hat maker in town
here cool dude well is there anything else you want to like share with me you
tell me that's like on your mind or your heart you know there's there's a lot I
could share with you do it man let's talk but you know I think back back to
(19:16):
the coffee thing you know why the coffee was important for me is I think there's
just so much there's such a massive amount of really bad coffee right as I
dove into this industry more and as I fly to some of these coffee growing
regions that I'd meet with the farmers and I walked the fields and look in the
eyes of the people that are harvesting the fields people that are storing the
(19:37):
coffee and I get to see how much work and love goes into this that it's fueled
my desire to share this with the world cool man because there's been so many
there's so many like really famous high-end restaurants bullshit that spent
all this time and money on their food and their kitchen build up their
aesthetic and they serve really crap and I think educating people on what the
(20:02):
differences are that is kind of cool right where I could be like your coffee
you know your coffee is full of chemicals and pesticides ours is organic
fair trade you know like there's big differences it's not just like oh man
one of the things I love most about like coffee culture is like the so many
right ways of doing things or so many best ways of doing things you know you
(20:22):
got your yeah you got your pour overs and your drips in your espresso and stuff
well you just had an express out of this machine here wow man it was super smooth
I thought it was funny that we're here at this luxury hotel on the fucking
terrace floor at max luxury suite and he's got this guy's got his little
espresso machine there and it's like please descale me and he's like I'll
just exit out it's like dude you need to go descale that shit for us there buddy
(20:47):
now it was really great man it was totally awesome and I love all sorts of
good coffees I love good campfire coffee yeah I love good truck stop coffee I
love great Italian espresso I go to a lot of meetings with a lot of terrible
coffee I bet you do well I wish you like great success with that endeavor and
(21:07):
like I'm not I'm not gonna be surprised when you crush it you know like you've
got a really clear vision of what you're doing and I believe in your ability to
kind of like spot trends and see patterns move quickly in that direction I
know you've got a fucking bombastic network of rad artists and other people
that you're getting down with and I'm blessed to have so many beautiful friends
(21:31):
yeah seriously dude you have a very rich and creative network man it's very very
awesome yeah well I love you very much brother thanks for this is my first
podcast that I've done where I'm sitting next to the person I often you know get
to do these solo ones in my truck or we do them on zoom or something like that
so thanks a lot for doing a little bit of the experimental format and we didn't
get rained on it was a little sprinkle yeah I thought we were gonna have to
(21:52):
yeah I was I had the faith I didn't I didn't think it was gonna rain on us and
your hat you had just kind of good captured anyway I could use a shower so
all right over now for now thanks a lot for watching this KK mappacanta
signed off from debt see ya over and out
here you know as we settle in. That's where the magic happens you know. Yeah.
(00:03):
Hey what's up internet it's Chris Scroog and I'm here at the DENT
conference DENT the future in Santa Fe New Mexico. I'm here with my buddy Matt
McKenna. What's up dude. Matt say what's up to the internet. How you doing internet? Nice to see you.
Matt's a board member here at DENT but more importantly it's one of the
(00:23):
places we've really got to spend a lot of time together over the years. We know
each other through the tech world specifically and then through South by
Southwest. I think that's where we first met. Is where we first met you face to face but we knew of
one another and communicated online when I bumped I came to one of your Redfish
talks at the old Lance Armstrong's bike shop or whatever back in the day and I
(00:44):
think you were doing a mobile phone marketing. Yeah we were like a
tech specially platform provider. This is not gonna surprise you but the
man sitting across from me here is one of the most interesting people that I
know. Obviously has great personal style and he's got a real brain on his
shoulders. He's a real compassionate heart and he's just mixed up in all
(01:07):
sorts of stuff and so I'm gonna brag about you. That's a good one. I'm gonna brag
about you here a little bit but you know feel free to take the reins at any point
you know and stuff. I would like to dive into each one of these things eventually
but Matt's running a coffee company in Miami Florida. When I talked to him last
it was a coffee shop called Imperial Moto but tell us a little bit about that
(01:28):
whole thing. Yeah I mean like any like any good entrepreneur you know endeavor
I just jumped in headfirst right. I was in the tech world for a long time and I sold
that company in 2017 and it was really into specialty coffee and it wasn't
really like a cool place in Miami where you could pull up. There was a vibe. There was
great coffee. It just didn't really exist you know so I didn't really know anything
(01:53):
about the coffee industry and just opened up a coffee shop in 2017 and now
that's blossomed into a full-fledged business and you know we have a pretty
cool brand side of things but we're really focused on roasting our own coffee
now and selling it to other restaurants that that want to offer a superior
product. Yeah and Matt is a connector and ultimate networker. He sees you know
(02:17):
patterns and trends. I mean I would even say you're a bit of a trend spotter.
Well and and you put together this agency you've been doing some rep and
and some promotion of kind of celebrities in the social space or
something like that. Yeah that a town alliance group and that's what happened
organically too you know as friends with it with a variety of people that were
(02:40):
were doing all sorts of different talks and and endorsement deals and and I
decided to make a business out of it. You know LeVar Burton who's a dear
friend of mine. Reading Rainbow, Jordy LaForge. You know I was fortunate enough to
wasn't he? Kuta Kinte? Kuta Kinte. Kuta Kinte. Fortunate enough to work with him and find a
(03:01):
variety of deals and causes that align with his brand and just have fun with
it you know and we did we've done some cool things over the last couple years.
What's the Miami scene like these days? Miami is crazy. We had a huge influx of
(03:21):
people moved to Florida during the pandemic and now the roads have stayed
the same but the amount of people driving on them has increased tenfold.
Yeah so there's a lot of traffic. It's very expensive place to live you know
but we're hanging in there you know we just opened yesterday our second
location at Aventura Mall. Yeah. Like top five mall in the world. I mean he was just
(03:45):
showing me some photos on his phone I mean yeah it's he's being a little bit
humble. This is a fancy ass coffee shop in a really fancy mall and I mean it
looks sweet to open up yesterday and have a look I mean it looks awesome.
Thank you so much yeah you know my wife's an amazing interior designer. She
owns a company called Chelsea Design and she really helped me stay on point when
(04:05):
I'm like hey forget the bricks let's just open. She's like no we need bricks or
whatever touch and you know I'm grateful to have her help on that. In our team
there's really great too. I mean you know I think any successful business you know
it comes out of the employees right you have to have happy employees. If your employees
are miserable your business is gonna fail so part of part of the secret sauce
(04:30):
is just making sure that our employees are really you know love coming to work
every day. That's awesome man I know it's not like retail and stuff isn't like
the easiest place to keep staff these days and stuff so. Yeah we've been
we've been really lucky. Most of our people our core team have been there
for years. Cool man. So what brings you to Dent? What you getting up to here?
(04:54):
Well I've never missed Dent. I'm the only guy other than Steve and Jason
who's been to every Dent. You know it's my birthday tomorrow yeah I couldn't miss
it. I'm gonna hang out and fortunately I get to leave early on Tuesday and go back
but I'm excited to see everybody excited to see you. You know Zoe's coming in
we're having dinner tonight. Will you poop on through this beat? I got to share with Matt a
(05:18):
little bit today about my own sobriety journey about me reimagining my whole
relationship with alcohol and the kind of year and a half that I spent sober and
I was happy to share that with you because you've been a real inspiration
to me. Maddie quit drinking long before I did and your like focus and your
dedication to it man is is inspirational you know like sometimes I could be a
(05:44):
little bit passive about it but I can tell that you're really fucking taking
those demons and stomping on their throats and rassling them into a choke
hold and giving them the fucking gears man. You know I started my recovery
journey in 2010 and I have like 19 months of sobriety so there's definitely
been some moments where I took my will back and said hey you know it's gonna be
(06:05):
a little bit different this time but probably the best decision I've ever
made is to continue down this path right it's not easy especially being in a
place like this. Dent is very very whiny. We were talking yeah it's very whiny we
we got a buddy Greg Kaiser and he's an expert sommelier and he breaks out the
fanciest bottles you know bring them on down here and stuff and that's a big
(06:27):
part of what gathers community around and stuff but when you were talking this
morning to me about your sobriety and you're talking a little bit about how
you don't drink and your approach through the meetings and stuff it was
it was pretty interesting cool way of looking at it. Specifically I like the
way you talked about you know the only way to ensure that you are the man that
you are and want to be is to not pick up that first drink and maybe you could
(06:50):
just like elaborate a little bit on like well you know look I think I really do
believe this is a disease right I think I you know it's a very young very young
man I think I smoked a joint when I was 12 years old and it quieted everything down
and grew up in a very noisy home and I just you know I wanted to feel you know
sort of part of something and unfortunately I wanted to always feel
(07:11):
part of like the wrong crowd right I feel like I fit into the misfits and
later in life and once you start identifying that way and yeah later in
life I was the music business and I said oh if you're in the music business you
have to drink and drug and all this sort of stuff and and and I surrounded
myself with people that acted like that and it took a long time for me to
(07:31):
realize that that I was I had a disease right I'm allergic to to alcohol and you
know of course I wrapped it in all sorts of things like I would buy the fine wines
and the fun and the great whiskeys on that ship but let me tell you it all led
to the same place which was you know remorse and regret and now I don't have
(07:53):
any of that you know you know my kids don't see me drunk right my wife doesn't
see me drunk and I'm able to be there for anybody at any time yeah right and I
know that a part of this too for you as well as for me has been a bit of a
self-love journey and coming to peace with kind of who I am and and stuff and
(08:14):
so I know that when you start shedding some of that bullshit behavior that's
brought on by giving into the alcoholic tendencies you actually can be it's
easier to love yourself it's easier to be proud of your decisions and stuff you
know not being yeah I'm not discussing when I look in the mirror
(08:35):
but it's a day to time you know I mean it's uh I noticed that did you do any
like therapy alongside of this or was yours through meetings and stuff in a big
alcoholics anonymous yeah you know a believer in that program which is very
simple right just keep your side of the street clean do the next right thing
you know don't put a drink or a drug in your body
(08:56):
the church behind us here we're we're staying right on the Plaza in downtown
Santa Fe at the La Fonda Hotel this morning there's a Fiesta Festival going
on which is pretty interesting because it seems to be celebrating of the lake
colonial conquistador history of here like literally they had dudes dressed up
(09:17):
as conquistadors wandering the streets and stuff so I'm intrigued to get a
little bit more background on that but it's been cool to be down here
performances going on and Maddie wandered down got a new bracelet show it
off there buddy what was that guy's name Kevin Kevin yeah Kevin white Navajo
(09:38):
yeah I love coming here you know part of coming here is these little things you
know walking down a visiting with the Navajos and seeing the jewelry I mean
it's part of the experience here right this Bell you know I'm staying in a room
right off right off the terrace here that's been going on I've had like one
of the chillest days I've had in the longest time I let a photo walk at 630
(09:58):
this morning with like 10 people there was so chill it was just like breaking
off from the rest of the group at a quiet time of the day and just wander
around making photos of each other and together and stuff and then I went to
Charlie Van Kirk he's an audio engineer he's building the audio project here and
teaching people how to do it so we went out and recorded soundscapes in the
streets right when this you know processional conquistador processional
(10:22):
is going on then I got to go shopping with Maddie and a little bit of a
catch-up and then I just caught Kyle Kester sins heart centered AI and
masterful prompt engineering workshop and it was fucking great man there's 30
people in there his understanding these things is super deep but the thing I
(10:42):
appreciated most about his workshop anytime you're talking to a group of
people about this AI stuff is very easy for it to get derailed by people's fears
about their questions and about all and and and those things were there but he
was able to keep the whole thing moving forward in a positive direction man and
(11:02):
it was that's what debt brings together the most amazing group of people right
such interesting group of people together for a few days and you know
somebody's experiences like you're gonna remember this thing with Kyle today for
yeah ever you know these little moments it just stay in your your memory this is
definitely not a dent commercial but I know that we were both like legit into
(11:24):
this event and so I'm intrigued to hear how you describe it or maybe I'll go
first right so like hey if I met some pedestrian folks at the airport last
night and they're like you know what's thing you're going to and I'm like okay
dent dent the future it's called it's like a future focused ideas festival I
said I said it's kind of like Ted but smaller and like lower production values
(11:45):
and I said it's kind of like summer camp for like professional adults a little
bit we get together you know people with jobs and careers and businesses and we
get together and stay up a little bit late share what we're working on make
some art together I don't know it's it's I've been I've been literally coming
(12:05):
here before its inception you know and I think yeah you know Steve and Jason I
remember having breakfast with them 12 years ago we want to build this
conference where we bring together like-minded individuals to share our
stories and you know I guess you know everyone sort of Ted so it's a very
similar format there's talks throughout the day but there's more than talks
(12:28):
there's experiences and dine-arounds and activities and photo walks and I think
it's really interesting and legit bonafide community friendships and yeah
it's certainly bonafide community and I think every year a variety of new people
enter my life and I stay connected with them in some cases you know I've met
people where I've invested with them and they did their homes they've been to my
(12:51):
homes it's a really special event I don't like the word networking but it's
certainly like a connector I mean networking does have like a sort of 30
connotation when used as a verb but everybody knows that like you are an
amalgam of the people you hang around and spend time with for sure and that
your professional network is really what it's all about people don't just want to
(13:13):
do cool shit they want to do cool shit with great people that they love you
know and stuff and and I've developed a lot of those friendships here and stuff
so absolutely Matt he's always got some interesting extra curriculars going on
you've built some cool vehicles along the way you you got me into knife
collecting what do you what do you got oh man I'm so excited to show you this
(13:34):
one bro you've never seen it before this is a Kevin Smock custom handmade for me
and actually there's a little piece of you in this you'll maybe see it in a
second the blade shape is one you taught me about oh yeah the old sheep's foot
unbelievable so yeah it's a green anodized steel raindrop Damascus with
(13:57):
blue titanium spacers in the back and I waited fucking five years on that guy's
waiting list for that knife bro and he went out of business a couple times
beautiful the internet revolted against him and said no one's orders would be
and you know what Kevin Smock you fucking came through I would have liked it a
couple yeah yeah yeah so Matt he got me into custom handmade knife collect and
(14:22):
talk to me a little bit about that you know I'm a big fan of jumping into
industries headfirst like like jumping into this three and a half foot
jacuzzi over here we just jump right in you know at the bottom real fast you
know when I used to run this this this Instagram Punisher Life right we would
you know we'd focus a lot of on knife makers and everyday carry they carry
(14:44):
kind of stuff and and then my brother started making knives I have one I want
his prototypes and a blades yeah and just meeting with some of these craftsmen
these unbelievable custom knife makers is so cool such a cool thing right
because a knife is a tool or a weapon this depends how you wield it and I love
(15:09):
it but I have a pretty big collection myself I don't have a I don't have a I
don't have one of Kevin's knives yet I don't know man you've got some pretty
sweet knives this is the only one in my collection that was made for me right
it's so cool when you order a both bespoke knife like that yeah and knives
got you into watches now you're on the watch train like watches a lot I like I
(15:29):
like nice shit you know what are you collecting right now what's your what's
on the top of your I know jewelry my sky of a greatly great jewelry collection
I you know I think my father used to always have a nice watch the nice chain
on you remember those things as a kid and then my father I remember when he
went out I was probably about 13 years old or something you know you bought an
Omega constellation and he came back beautiful gold stainless watch this oh
(15:55):
my god thank you paid $1,500 for it so much yeah like a lot of money yeah but
you know now I'm sort of I'm a big watch collector and I like to be a bigger one
but you know it's little by little man some of the nicest things I have in my
life are passed down from my grandpa a couple nice gold watches and things like
(16:17):
that and he was just a blue-collared guy but it was something he valued and set
aside and say for us and I mean he would be like 105 years old now and he's been
passed for 20 years but I tell his stories all the time and they often come
up through me wearing his watches around and stuff and it's pretty you know I
love those stories I like this I like to dive into the stories behind the things
(16:38):
that I like you know I think like you think about some of the biggest marquee
brands like Rolex or Omega or Porsche or whatever there's an amazing story
pursuit to be the best in their field and you know there's so much history it's
like you know when you drive a Porsche or you or you wear a Rolex there's so
much history that goes into that cool that's cool that's the brands you
(17:01):
identify with I'm I'm repping Levi's pretty hard for the last 20 years I kind of had to
tow or rock and Levi's these days tomorrow I'll be sporting the Canadian
tuxedo I think I got four different layers of blue denim we'll see that I
got my teeth did in Miami this year I got tell me about this well I spent the
winter down in the Florida Keys and in Miami and I've long wanted and looked up
(17:26):
to guys with gold teeth literally I remember being like eight years old in
church and my family would sit in the deaf section and there was this deaf
guy that had the sickest gold teeth man this was before girls and stuff but I
would just look at him and stare at him and like think it was so cool and and
and and then I was dating this woman and she was really into it so she started
chirping in my ear about how good I look with gold teeth she showed me this movie
(17:49):
that I liked spring breakers you know that guy's got a fucking crazy grill and
and I was down in Miami where y'all have like strip malls full of guys who will
give you gold teeth and grills there's this so what kind of gold do we have I
got 22 carried gold man like I got the best you can get there eight crowns so
(18:09):
they're all individual I can floss between them and yeah they're permanent
they have to shave your teeth down they didn't know mine are like a little bit
like bigger than some of the ones where the guys shave their teeth down but I
don't got to fucking shave my teeth down you know so yeah and now that I've got
them I want to go into one of these shops maybe with you and take them all
(18:30):
my silver and turquoise jewelry and see if they'll do like you know three for
one upgrades I'll give them three three silver ring turquoise bracelets and maybe
they'll swap me back one gold one to match with my teeth or something we'll
see so we're gonna go have a little dinner for you here tonight so I'll
celebrate your birthday go off to the reception have a hangout is always
(18:53):
coming in with her man so well you know coupons coming yeah William coupon my
friend in town here Jimmy Stardust is coming he used to make hat maker in town
here cool dude well is there anything else you want to like share with me you
tell me that's like on your mind or your heart you know there's there's a lot I
could share with you do it man let's talk but you know I think back back to
(19:16):
the coffee thing you know why the coffee was important for me is I think there's
just so much there's such a massive amount of really bad coffee right as I
dove into this industry more and as I fly to some of these coffee growing
regions that I'd meet with the farmers and I walked the fields and look in the
eyes of the people that are harvesting the fields people that are storing the
(19:37):
coffee and I get to see how much work and love goes into this that it's fueled
my desire to share this with the world cool man because there's been so many
there's so many like really famous high-end restaurants bullshit that spent
all this time and money on their food and their kitchen build up their
aesthetic and they serve really crap and I think educating people on what the
(20:02):
differences are that is kind of cool right where I could be like your coffee
you know your coffee is full of chemicals and pesticides ours is organic
fair trade you know like there's big differences it's not just like oh man
one of the things I love most about like coffee culture is like the so many
right ways of doing things or so many best ways of doing things you know you
(20:22):
got your yeah you got your pour overs and your drips in your espresso and stuff
well you just had an express out of this machine here wow man it was super smooth
I thought it was funny that we're here at this luxury hotel on the fucking
terrace floor at max luxury suite and he's got this guy's got his little
espresso machine there and it's like please descale me and he's like I'll
just exit out it's like dude you need to go descale that shit for us there buddy
(20:47):
now it was really great man it was totally awesome and I love all sorts of
good coffees I love good campfire coffee yeah I love good truck stop coffee I
love great Italian espresso I go to a lot of meetings with a lot of terrible
coffee I bet you do well I wish you like great success with that endeavor and
(21:07):
like I'm not I'm not gonna be surprised when you crush it you know like you've
got a really clear vision of what you're doing and I believe in your ability to
kind of like spot trends and see patterns move quickly in that direction I
know you've got a fucking bombastic network of rad artists and other people
that you're getting down with and I'm blessed to have so many beautiful friends
(21:31):
yeah seriously dude you have a very rich and creative network man it's very very
awesome yeah well I love you very much brother thanks for this is my first
podcast that I've done where I'm sitting next to the person I often you know get
to do these solo ones in my truck or we do them on zoom or something like that
so thanks a lot for doing a little bit of the experimental format and we didn't
get rained on it was a little sprinkle yeah I thought we were gonna have to
(21:52):
yeah I was I had the faith I didn't I didn't think it was gonna rain on us and
your hat you had just kind of good captured anyway I could use a shower so
all right over now for now thanks a lot for watching this KK mappacanta
signed off from debt see ya over and out
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