229: Biking 2,000 Miles in 13 Days to Raise $1 Million with Matt King

Today I’m talking to Matt King, CEO of GoBundance, host of The Matt King Show, and Chief of Staff for a family office managing high-level investments and operators.

 

Matt is about to ride a bike 2,000 miles from Mexico to Canada while giving away $1 million to people in overlooked communities across America.

 

We get into how he thinks about balance, why he believes entrepreneurs should stop chasing net worth and focus more on cash flow, and what he’s learned reviewing financial statements from ultra-high-net-worth investors.

 

We also talk about how GoBundance scaled from a small mastermind into a 900-member community without destroying the culture, the investing mistakes he sees over and over again, and why the best operators are usually the people willing to admit they don’t have all the answers.

Mic Drop Moments

• “It’s not about having to have all the answers. It’s about knowing the right people and just being incredibly resourceful to find the right who that can help me navigate whatever pops up.” – Matt King

• “I actually believe that our life is supposed to be lived out of balance in the season that we’re in.” – Matt King

• “I think actually balance for me is a sign that I’m not doing enough.” – Matt King

• “Life is not lived shoulder to shoulder. Life is lived face to face.” – Matt King

• “If you can’t write it on a napkin, it’s too complicated.” – Matt King

• “I don’t want to invest with somebody that has all the answers. I don’t want to invest with somebody that’s only won and never lost because like that’s just not reality. That’s not life.” – Matt King

• “You have the right, the authority to ask any questions you have for somebody that you’re giving money to, period, full stop.” – Matt King

• “If they are unwilling to give you the information, you’re not missing out on a deal. You are saving yourself a headache.” – Matt King

• “It’s amazing what happens when you actually just look at something every single day, how much stuff actually gets done because it’s top of mind and it’s in front of you.” – Matt King

• “You’re an entrepreneur. You are going to fail. Get used to it, enjoy it, embrace it, and do it as quickly as you possibly can. Because on the other side of failure is the knowledge and the awareness you need to move in the direction, ultimately, you and your business need to go.” – Matt King

• 01:32 The Highest-ROI Skill
• 02:16 Why Balance Is Overrated
• 06:04 Prioritizing What Matters
• 08:31 Scaling Without Killing Culture
• 13:15 Genuine Contribution
• 18:51 What Great Investors Do Differently
• 23:34 Managing High-Ego Entrepreneurs
• 25:44 How Family Offices View Risk
• 29:12 What to Look for in an Operator
• 31:30 The Red Flags That Kill Deals
• 35:56 Riding 2,000 Miles & Raising $1M
• 50:41 Play Calling for Your Life
• 53:06  Non-Negotiable Recovery Habits
• 54:57 Empowering Kids with Core Values
• 56:55 The Amputee Who Wouldn’t Quit
• 58:40 Advice for New Entrepreneurs

Brad Weimert: CEO of GoBundance, 900-member entrepreneur mastermind with a collective net worth of pushing like $6 billion, Chief of Staff, and portfolio lead for DRO investments. You’re the host of the Matt King Show, and you are getting ready for a 2,000-mile bike ride where you are hand-delivering a million dollars to small towns across America. Matt King, welcome to Beyond A Million.

 

Matt King: Yeah. Thanks so much, Brad. It’s an honor to be here with you.

 

Brad Weimert: Dude, I’m pumped. So, first and foremost, you do a whole bunch of different stuff and skills bleed across these things. What personal skill do you think delivers the highest ROI across DRO, GoBundance, and this crazy physical adventure stuff?

 

Matt King: It’s just resourcefulness, man. Like, I’m just one of the most resourceful people that I’ve ever met. If you look at the bike ride, I hired a coach to help me train for cycling because I’m not a cyclist. He’s training for the Olympics. If you look at DRO Investments, I’ve surrounded myself with some of the most sophisticated family office investors across the country. For me, it’s not about having to have all the answers. It’s about knowing the right people and just being incredibly resourceful to find the right who that can help me navigate whatever pops up.

 

Brad Weimert: I love that. So, you are sitting as the chief of staff for a family office. You run this massive mastermind that represents billions of dollars. How do you balance those things with the training for a 2,000-mile bike ride?

 

Matt King: Yeah. You don’t. You just find a way to do it all. So, what’s interesting, Brad, is I think a lot of us spend so much time and energy talking about balance, but balance, I believe, is not something that you can truly quantify or measure until you look backwards. So, I actually believe that our life is supposed to be lived out of balance in the season that we’re in. But when I’m on my deathbed, can I look backward and say, “I lived a life of balance.” I’m in a season right now where it is heavy work, heavy training, heavy family, which means there is not much sleep. And that’s a choice I’m making consciously because of the season of life I’m in. And so, so many people ask like, “How do you balance? How do you balance?”

 

I’m like, I don’t try to balance. I understand that balance is something that I will look at over the 50-year course of my professional career or over the 70, 80, 90-year period that I’m on this face of the earth. But, in this moment, I don’t really care about balance. Like, I don’t want balance. I don’t need balance. I don’t crave balance. I think actually balance for me is a sign that I’m not doing enough. I’m not challenging the status quo. I’m not pushing enough. And for the training, I mean, what I would say is the one thing I am not willing to compromise is time with my family. I’ve got a 7-year-old daughter, a five-year-old son, a one-year-old daughter, and they’re only going to be seven, five, and one once.

 

And so, I’m not willing to sacrifice time with them. And I told that to my coach on the front end. I’m like, “You can put as many hours in the bike as you possibly want during the week. Do not touch my weekends. Like, I don’t want to do long rides on the weekends.” And anybody that’s doing marathon training, ultra training, any endurance type thing, their weekends are stacked with training. What I have made a decision to do is I will just sacrifice sleep so that they don’t have to sacrifice time away from me. So, last week was 21.5 hours on the bike, which means I was literally at the office on the trainer at 2:30 in the morning, and my five-hour ride was 2:30 in the morning until 7:30 in the morning.

 

I literally will be on Zoom calls on the bike. Like, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get my body prepared, and I do know I will need sleep leading up to it, and I will be able to sleep as we get closer to it, and I’m actually in the right condition, but I’m just not willing to sacrifice time away from my wife and my kids. And so, I just am punishing myself. And honestly, Brad, like I’m really fortunate. I don’t need a ton of sleep. I’ve never been a big sleeper. And so, going from five hours to three, three and a half has been okay for me. I’ve been able to function just fine, and I just look at it as this is a season, and like the guys that are getting deployed right now for the wars, like it’s a season for them.

 

It’s do whatever it takes to execute the mission at the highest level and then get back home and recover. And that’s kind of how I’m treating this. This is a mission. Do whatever it takes, accomplish the mission, and then we can talk about sleep and recovery and all the other balanced things that come with it.

 

Brad Weimert: Well, first of all, I hate the fact that you sleep so well and don’t need it. I’m a terrible sleeper, and I desperately need it. Two, there are a couple of things that popped out there. The first was when you find yourself in balance, it’s a signal to you that you’re not doing things the right way right now. And I think that that’s like a really, really strong takeaway for people. Instead of looking at the lack of balance as something you’re doing wrong, it’s an indicator that you’re probably deep into something that you’re trying to get done. Then the second that really stood out there was prioritization, and it’s, “Look, I’m going to find a way to get it done, period.” And as long as you are prioritizing effectively, when you’re “out of balance,” you’ll be getting a lot of sh*t done.

 

But to me, when I look at bandwidth constraints and only so many hours in a day, everything always comes back to prioritization. And if you want to get the big things done, you better just make sure that that’s the focal point, and that’s what you’re getting done.

 

Matt King: Yeah. And the biggest lesson I’ve learned so far from training for this bike ride, Brad, has been the squeaky wheel always gets the grease. And I was the kind of human that when somebody texted me, I would respond right away. When somebody email me, I respond right away. I was an inbox to zero. I was a no-unread notification. And what I realized is I was carrying this weight and this burden of so many people handing me their problems to solve for them that aren’t mine to solve. And so, I found like great peace and comfort in, if I don’t get back to somebody immediately, like I apologize. It’s not like I don’t like you or I don’t respect you, or I don’t know that you’re going through something. It’s just like that’s not mine to carry in this moment.

 

And if I choose to carry that burden, that means I can’t choose to carry the burden my son’s carrying or my daughters are carrying. And so, I’ve just really found peace in, like, I have to understand that nobody is coming to put my oxygen mask on for me. Like, I have to put mine on first, and if mine’s not on, I can’t help anybody else. And that means in this season, I’m okay with 46 unread text messages right now. Like, I don’t love it. Yeah, it brings me a little angst at random times. But most of those texts are like, “Can you do this? Can you do this? Can you do this?” And like, look, I’d love to do all of those things, but by choosing to do those, your example of that prioritization, by choosing to prioritize those needs, would mean that I’m putting somebody else’s needs of my family or myself on the back burner. And right now, I’m just not willing to do that.

 

Brad Weimert: Yeah. Actions have impact and outcomes, and if you choose to do the unimportant things, whether you’re conscious of it or not, you are de facto choosing to not do the important things. And in a world when you have tons of important things, sometimes some of them aren’t going to get done right away. And it’s the adage of you can have everything that you want, and you can do everything, just not all at once.

 

Matt King: That’s right. That’s right.

 

Brad Weimert: So, one thing at a time. Well, I want to talk about the ride because it’s close to my heart. I’ve done a fair amount of cycling in my life, but I want to back out to some of the other things that you’re involved with. So, I met you originally through GoBundance, and I went to a GoBundance event in 2015. And at the time, it was probably like a hundred people there. Now, there are 900. So, how do you scale a group like that without diluting culture?

 

Matt King: It’s really hard. And candidly, we have gone through growing pains where we did dilute the culture, and we made those mistakes. But I think the key to really focus on is like, what is the acquisition channel, right? Like, for us, it’s members. For somebody else, it might be customers. For somebody else, it might be products. But like, where are your new members for GoBundance coming from? If I spend a ton of money on ad spend and a ton of money on like sort of the not organic growth, it’s going to be a lot harder to protect the culture. But if I really focus on I want to change the members’ lives so powerfully that they have nothing other than to say you need to join GoBundance when they meet somebody, I’m far more likely to be able to protect the culture through those kinds of member growth or member acquisitions.

 

And so, we really double down on, like, how can we generate more referrals? And the only way to generate a referral is to give somebody an incredible experience. Like, if you give somebody an incredible experience at your company, they’re going to sing your praises, and that is going to lead to more business. Now, there is a very, very, very low likelihood that somebody is going to refer a dirt bag like it does happen every once in a while. But like, generally speaking, you are surrounded by good people. And if I create an incredible experience for you, you’re going to tell other good people, “Hey, you should check this out.” And when you vouch for them, now your name, your reputation, your brand, your likeness is all on the line.

 

And so, it’s really about where does that growth come from? And then the other thing is like, what are your company core values? Like, sort of our motto is intimacy at scale. Like, one of the most powerful things about GoBundance is these intimate, authentic, raw, vulnerable conversations with accountability layered in. So, when we go to our events, when we have our conversations, it’s always about how do we create that intimacy. Like, a lot of people give me grief for how we set up our events. Like, we can max out most of our events somewhere around 350 people because these ballrooms only fit so many round tables. They call them crescent rounds. It’s like eight people almost all the way around the table, but not fully around the table.

 

And the members will call me and be like, “I’m on the wait list, and you could get me in if you change the seating arrangement.” I’m like, “Yeah, but life is not lived shoulder to shoulder. Life is lived face to face. And if I go into a student-style seating arrangement, now I lose the authenticity, the vulnerability, and the connection that occurs at that table.” So, it’s just about establishing non-negotiables for the business that maintain the culture that you’re really trying to maintain. That’s one of my non-negotiables. Like, I’m sorry you’re on the wait list, but I am not willing to change the community and the camaraderie that happens at those crescent round tables when we’re doing the work.

 

And so, like I have to honor that that has worked for us. It continues to work for us, it drives value, it maintains this culture, and I’m just not willing to move away from that.

 

Brad Weimert: I just did an interview with Tom Patterson, who founded Tommy Johns. And he said something to me that I thought was great, which was, you can buy the first sale, but you can’t buy the second. And sentiment was the product is the only thing that will buy the second sale, right, will earn the second sale. And what I heard you say just now was that you are relentlessly focused on the product that is the experience of the GoBundance Mastermind. And that ultimately, if you protect that, that is what, by default, ends up getting the referrals that allow you to keep the culture intact as you run a larger and larger group over time. Is that fair?

 

Matt King: Yeah. I mean, the number one metric we’re tracking is attrition. Like, how can we drive attrition so, so, so, so low? And like that’s the number one thing I’m focused on, because it’s a sign that we’re delivering value. It’s a sign that people are gaining the value that they came looking for. And if our retention was at 10%, it’s a miserable business model. Like, you’re just constantly churning through people, right? So, it’s like, how can we drive attrition so low and then trust that the referrals will take care of themselves after?

 

Brad Weimert: Yeah. Well, also a big part of the value of masterminds in general is connection and relationship. And it’s unrealistic to think that you’re going to be able to drive those deep in a month, a quarter, a year. So, the renewal on that stuff is actually where the most value comes from for the member, period.

 

Matt King: That’s right. That’s right.

 

Brad Weimert: Alright. So, let me back out on GoBundance and talk about kind of what it is and how it’s unique. So, at least from what I remember, there were kind of six pillars or a handful of pillars for the group, and then you had this idea of a one sheet that stuck with me in my mind over time. Can you break that down so that people know what that is and how it works?

 

Matt King: Yeah. So, I think what makes us really unique is the word GoBundance actually came from moving toward abundance. And an abundant life, I think, for me, means having abundance in all gardens of life. It’s not just about wealth. It’s not just about health. It’s not just about relationships. It’s about you can have it all, and you can have it all at the same time if you are actually intentional about how you are living your life. And so, we focus on business, we focus on a contribution, we focus on bucket list adventures, refueling that spirit. We focus on relationships, we focus on health, and I think that’s what really makes us unique. A lot of masterminds that exist are very business-oriented, or they’re very health-oriented.

 

And there’s a beautiful place for those, but at the same time, I think that we as humans want to have it all, and we should have it all. And so, let’s have a conversation on all of it. And really, our core, let’s call it a technology, is the one sheet. And it’s essentially a baseball card for your life that David, Pat, Tim created to put all of your metrics and all of the gardens of your life on one piece of paper. So, if I picked up Brad’s one sheet, I would have a sense of what’s your income, what are your expenses, what’s your health, what do you want to do on your bucket list, what are your top three goals in each of the gardens of your life, where do you need help, and where do you want to be held accountable.

 

Like, I could pick up that sheet, and we could immediately have a very intentional, very deep conversation where I would have awareness around where you are, awareness around where you’re going, and awareness around where you need help. Then I can serve you as a board of directors for your life, and asking the questions, making the suggestions, and then in turn holding you accountable. And so, what that baseball card or that one sheet really does is it gives all of your stats, all of your metrics, also where you’re trying to go, and then it identifies where you already know you have a blind spot in accountability. Maybe you’ve been wanting to write that book for three years, but you haven’t done it. Maybe you’ve been wanting to rekindle that friendship for five years, but you haven’t done it.

 

And what I have found is the hardest thing for us as humans to do is stay true to our work, but it’s also the most important thing to do. So, why not layer in some accountability? So, when I say, “Brad, I want to get healthier,” I don’t just look in the mirror and go, “I want to get healthier, but like, dang, those chicken wings smell good. And it is the Super Bowl. I’ll start tomorrow.” I have that accountability with you when you’re at my house, and it is the Super Bowl. You’re like, “Dude, you’re going to eat the chicken wings? There’s a good salad right there. I thought you wanted to get healthier. Do you just want to talk about it, or do you want to be about it?” And so, it’s all about having that level of accountability that we can layer into what we say we want to do in our lives.

 

Because life gets busy, there are distractions everywhere, and it is very easy to fall off. But if we have accountability from people we know, like, trust, and respect, it’s far easier to stay on the rails because now we’re not going back on our word. We’re going back on our word to somebody else, and that, for some reason, carries way more weight than our word to just ourselves.

 

Brad Weimert: Yeah, no question about it. Of those pillars and other areas of life, which one do you think new members typically have the biggest issue with, and what helps them?

 

Matt King: Contribution.

 

Brad Weimert: Interesting.

 

Matt King: It’s contribution, man. I think if you look at most people, they will say that they’re like genuine. They contribute, they help others, they tip well, they do whatever, but if you really look at the numbers, like what percentage of your income are you actually giving? What percentage of your time are you actually giving? Most people are very weak in that garden. And it’s not because they don’t want to give, it’s because they don’t know how to give, or they don’t know where to give. And for some reason, that is just heavy for us. Like, where do I spend my time? Where do I spend my energy? Where do I send my funds? How do I do it in the most tax-efficient way? How do I do it to a cause that I trust and a cause that resonates with me?

 

And so, we really try to help people with sort of a giving statement for their life. Like, what does your family, what does your name, what does it stand for in terms of genuine contribution? Like, what do you want to stand for? What do you want to stand against? What do you want to show up for? And for some reason, contribution is always the weakest pillar for members.

 

Brad Weimert: That doesn’t surprise me, though I would think that health would be up there, too. I think that like, I don’t know, I suppose it depends on the group, but contribution is one that I think a lot of lip service is given to it, and it’s tougher to automate, or it’s not the first thing on the list for people to automate and put into a system. But I see a lot of fat entrepreneurs too, so.

 

Matt King: There are, and I mean, I think maybe we don’t see it as often because we are so forward-facing with the age-defying health pillar that somebody that is out of shape, looks at it and goes like, “I can’t join those people, like I’m going to go eat my double cheeseburger.” But there are, obviously, health is always a thing, and it’s a beautiful thing in life because we’re always working on our health. Like, it is so easy to gain weight and go backward, and yet so hard to maintain and go in the right direction. So, it’s always front and top of mind for people, but genuinely speaking, like most of the members that are in GoBundance or are joining GoBundance are either on the health journey or have already gone on the health journey and have themselves to a pretty good, pretty manageable place.

 

Brad Weimert: So, you have had the opportunity to review a tremendous amount of net worth statements. What surprising commonalities are there, and what differences are there between somebody that’s at 5 million net worth versus 50 million versus 500 million?

 

Matt King: I think the biggest difference I see is a lot of people chase net worth and don’t pay attention to cash flow. Like, net worth is like, excuse my language, but that’s the d*ck measuring contest. And then they’re like, “Wow, dude, you’re worth $50 million, but yet you’re telling me you don’t know how you’re going to pay the mortgage this month? Like, sell some of your assets. Like this doesn’t make any sense, right? This doesn’t add up.” What I see as I go, let’s call it higher on the food chain. I mean, that might sound condescending, but it’s not like as I go higher on the food chain, when I see different net worth statements, the people that have $100 million to $200 million to $500 million net worth are just much more intentional with the decisions they make around their capital.

 

They’re not chasing the shiny pennies. They’re not chasing the new Bitcoin fad. They have an investment thesis. They follow the investment thesis, and then they track the investments they make and hold them accountable to generating the returns they said they were going to do. They’re very, very intentional with what they’re doing with their money and where they’re spending their time and their energy as it relates to their finances. But the thing that just blows me away more than anything is how many people are chasing net worth? And the most crazy part about it is like net worth can’t buy you a pizza, like net worth can’t put gas in your car. Like, it’s like a billboard sign, and it’s an ego thing.

 

And look, like net worth is a sign of how much assets you have, but there are so many guys I talk to who have $2 million, $3 million, $5 million, $7 million of net worth in an asset that is negative cash flow. I’m like, “What is the point of that? Like why? Sell the asset.” Like, “Well, I can’t, there’s so much equity in it.” Yeah, but you’re bleeding every single month, which means you’re taking hard-earned money from somewhere else, and you’re pouring it into that asset that can’t carry itself. And so, it’s really about just understanding where your money’s going, and then being very intentional and holding yourself extremely accountable, again, to following that plan. Because you and I both know, every single day there’s another deal. And it’s the best deal ever, Brad.

 

And let me tell you why there’s no risk and let me tell you how much money you’re going to make. As an entrepreneur, as a visionary, it’s very easy to get FOMO and be like, “Am I missing out? Should I get in at SpaceX at a $600 billion valuation? Like, maybe I should do this, right?” And it’s not like going back and saying like, “What do I truly want to hold my capital accountable for? Is it just growth? Great. Is it just income? Great. Is it tax consequences? Great.” Like, let’s figure out what the plan is and then let’s hold ourselves accountable to it.

 

Brad Weimert: I love that. SpaceX, by the way, 1.5 trillion.

 

Matt King: I don’t know, it would’ve been a good investment.

 

Brad Weimert: I was fortunate to squeeze in there a while back, which is awesome. I think that very likely SpaceX is going to change the whole f*cking world and be a crazy, crazy, crazy company 10 years from now.

 

Matt King: I think there’s a very high likelihood, and my hope would be you squeezed in there and you put an amount of money in there that you’re safe and comfortable letting ride for 10, 15 years. There are people that put money into a SpaceX deal that can’t afford to not have that cash in their account and are telling you how great it is, but how badly they need the money, and there’s no way to get that money unless they sell their shares on a secondary market or take some crazy discount. And then they’re too obsessed and addicted to the dream of SpaceX to let those shares go, but yet they actually needed that cash. And so, it’s about making calculated risks. And when you do that, you can put yourself in a position to have an opportunity to squeeze into SpaceX, which I don’t disagree. I think it’s going to absolutely change the game.

 

Brad Weimert: Yeah. Well, I think that a major takeaway for anybody that’s listening to this is the 50 million and up people are the ones that are more deliberate about what to put money towards and more calculated in their approach, even though a lot of them can afford to let it ride for a long time and aren’t in that position where they’ve got a cashflow constraint. Meanwhile, new investors don’t have a deliberate path, and they’re too eager, and they get sort of trapped into the allure of something without doing the real math or really thinking about the actual return over time with carrying cost against a cash-flowing investment, and how it impacts your life. So, I think that that’s a great takeaway.

 

I do want to talk more about investments because you’re sitting on top of DRO and investing, but before we leave the GoBundance chapter, one of the things that I have to think is part of the equation is managing a sh*tload of egos. How do you handle a group of high-powered A-type men when you have clashes?

 

Matt King: I mean, my knee-jerk reaction would be like, when you figure it out, send me the playbook in the manual because I could really use that one. But in all honesty, man, I think, Ryan Holiday’s book, Ego Is the Enemy, is a book that absolutely changed my life. And I think the way you handle a clash is you check your ego at the door and you just show up curious, like, tell me more. Okay. So, what I hear you saying is, “Cool. So, what do you suggest we do?” And what I have found is people love to complain. Yes, the high-net-worth people love to complain. Yes, everybody loves to complain, but when you ask them what they suggest as a solution, they go very quiet very quickly.

 

And so, I just have gotten what I like to think of as very good at listening to the problem, rehearsing the problem, or making sure I understand the problem, communicating that to them, and then saying like, “Okay, so do you have any suggestions?” No, I have no suggestions, but you’re the CEO, you go figure it out.” I’m like, “I absolutely can go figure it out, but you are the one telling me that there’s a problem here. And I would love your suggestions, like, what would a win look like for you? What would this feel like for you?” And I think you can do that so long as you’re actually willing to take action from the feedback you’re given.

 

GoBundance is member-led and member-driven. It always has been. And under my guidance, it always will be. And so, when a member makes a suggestion, it’s just not like, cool, throw it in the someday-maybe later-never bucket. It’s like, “Hey, that’s a good suggestion. Let us look at this.” And then it’s circling back to that person that suggested and said, “Hey, that’s a great idea. We just don’t have the bandwidth. We don’t have the capital. We don’t have the resources to do that in 2026. I’m going to put this in the Q1 ‘27 queue, and I’ll circle back with you in ‘27. And when you do those things, people stop bringing you so many problems, and they start actually bringing you some solutions along with their complaint. And that’s really the way I combat it.

 

Brad Weimert: Love that. Okay. Alongside the mastermind, you steer strategy for a private family office. How do you think about the strategy of a family office investing versus something like a private equity firm or an individual? What’s the strategic difference?

 

Matt King: I think it’s just access to capital, right? Like, the bigger the check you can write, the more you can negotiate the terms of a deal. And I had the incredible privilege two years ago to go spend time with a family office that actually owns a major league baseball team. And I went to their office, and I had a list of questions that I was going to ask them, and I was very prepared. And like the question I was most excited to ask, Brad, was like, how do you guys think about risk? Because that’s like the famous thing, like, how do you think about risk? And so, we went back and forth, back and forth, and then finally I had the opportunity. I was like, “So, walk me through how you think about risk.”

 

Now, the CEO of that family office, probably a 60-year-old guy, came out of Deloitte. Like, all of the degrees, all of the credentials, all of the experience. And here I am, a college dropout asking this question. And he kind of rocked back in his chair and started laughing at me. And I thought to myself like, “Maybe this is the time when they call security and walk me out.” But he looked at me, and he said, “We don’t take risks.” And like my initial thought was like, “Yeah, okay.” But my reaction was like, “Interesting. Tell me more.” And he said, “Risk is a lack of knowledge or a lack of controls. We don’t take risks with our capital. We either deeply, deeply, deeply understand what we’re investing in, or we have a path to control in whatever we are doing.”

 

And I was like, “Oh my gosh, my mind is absolutely blown.” And so, when you think about family offices, when you think about private equity firms, and you think about like billionaires making investments, that’s really what they’re doing. Most of the time, they are either investing in themselves and what they know, or they’re investing in something with a path to control, knowing that their team or their processes or their connections can save if it ever goes wrong. And I think a lot of people making investments look at risk as like, “Okay, geopolitical risks, the price of oil, interest rates.” Like, yes, all of those are risks, but all of those are outside of our control.

 

But what is in our control is how well do we know what we’re investing in, the people, the product, the investment, the opportunity, like how well do we know it? And then do we have a path to control? And for a lot of people writing smaller checks, the path to control is going to be a harder lever to pull. So, then you have to spend way more time, way more energy on deeply, deeply, deeply understanding what is the value creation plan? Who is the operator? What’s their track record? What’s their background? And understanding that I think can help a lot of people avoid making mistakes in investing.

 

Brad Weimert: Somebody told me a long time ago that if you can’t show me the economics of your deal on a single spreadsheet, one page, then it’s too complicated for me to invest in.

 

Matt King: I’m like, if you can’t write it on a napkin, it’s too complicated.

 

Brad Weimert: Yep. I really like that. And also, I’ve talked about this quite a few times, but the way that you de-risk a lot of things that somebody would perceive risky can be de-risked through tremendous experience or tremendous understanding. You can really make a huge dent in that by those two things. So, I think the research makes a big difference. To that end, when you’re looking at, you mentioned the operator of a given investment opportunity, company portfolio, real estate deal, what are the traits that you look for in an operator?

 

Matt King: The number one most important trait for me is like, are they a good human? Like, how do they treat the wait staff when we go to coffee to talk about the deal? How do they treat the valet guy at the restaurant? How do they treat their assistant? How do they treat their wife? I like to watch people in the wild, is what I call it. I’ll walk with them towards their car. Is their car an absolute disaster? Or is their car neat and tidy? And people will be like, “Well, what does that matter when you’re making an investment?” I’m like, well, if you go to somebody who’s going to run a deal, let’s call it real estate deal, and their car is a disaster, how could you possibly think that the financials won’t be a disaster too? Or that their inbox isn’t a disaster, too, right?

 

So, I like to look at a person in the wild, and then the other thing is, is like, I like to try to find humble people. We don’t have all of the answers as humans. That’s like one of the beautiful things about life. And maybe at some point with AI, we will have access to all the answers. But I want somebody to look me in the eye and say, “You know what? That’s a really good question. I don’t have the answer to yet. Let me get back to you.” And so many of these people pitching deals are such good salesmen and such good bullsh*tters, even if they don’t have the answer, they find a way to spin it and give you an answer. And if you just accept that, you enter into a very dangerous place because consciously or subconsciously, they’re like, “Okay, he bought the bullsh*t. Now what more bullsh*t can we feed him if we don’t have the answers?”

 

So, you make the investment with a guy who didn’t have the answer but kind of covered over that or lied over that or worked around it, now all of a sudden you ask him at Q1, “Hey, what’s going on with the financials?” He doesn’t have the answer. He is like, “Ah, I can’t show Brad any weakness. Hey, financials are in really good health. Our CFO is just in Japan right now, family trip. We’ll get back to you next month.” And in his mind, he is like, “Please, Brad, don’t ping me. Please, Brad, don’t ping me. Please, Brad, don’t ping me.” And most humans don’t then follow up. They just take whatever bullsh*t they’re fed and assume it to be true.

 

So, it’s just really finding like humble people that are good human beings, that are willing to say, “Hey, I made a mistake. Hey, I was wrong. Hey, I don’t know. Let me get back to you and find that answer.” I don’t want to invest with somebody that has all the answers. I don’t want to invest with somebody that’s only won and never lost because, like, that’s just not reality. That’s not life.

 

Brad Weimert: Can you give me an example of a deal that you walked away from and what the decision-making criteria was that caused you to do that, maybe as it pertains to a founder?

 

Matt King: Man, there are so many of them. One of the things that I like to try to do is be a slow to a yes. So, like some of the most sophisticated offices that I’ve had the privilege of being around are very, very slow to a yes. And you’ll ask them like, “Well, wait, being a slow to a yes means you’re going to miss great opportunities.” And they’re like, “Nah. Like, that’s not how this works.” I’m like, “Oh, okay.” Like, interesting, right? And so, we try to be really like slow to a yes. And what that has often done for us is that it’s allowed us to see a lot more about the human and a lot more about the deal as it goes forward.

 

I was sent a deal a couple of months ago from somebody who said like, “Hey, I’ve got the most amazing commercial real estate deal. It’s going to be incredible. It’s got this amazing depreciation, amazing long-term tenant. I need an answer by the end of today.” And it was like 4:30, right? I’m like, “Okay, cool.” I’m chasing my kids around the house. And so, I just responded and said, “Hey man, would love to look at it when I get the kids down. I could get back to you today. Please send me all the information.” And he is like, “Okay, what other information do you need?” I’m like, “Everything that you can provide me.” And he responded and was like, literally, “F*ck you. If you were serious about this deal, you would tell me specifically everything you need. And oh, by the way, make sure you tell people the only reason you’re worth multiple millions of dollars is because you worked for David Osborn.”

 

I was like, “Cool, that is true, and I will never do another deal with you ever, ever again.” We never done one with him, thankfully. But it was like, that’s just such an easy block. And the question, Brad, was so simple. Send me all the data. If it was that good of a deal and it was that urgent and you really needed an answer, you would be like, “Great. Data room’s in your inbox. Let me know when the kids are asleep. Happy to jump on the phone with you at any hour that it serves you. Thank you so much for looking at this.” Like, it’s just stuff like that where you just ask some questions, and you get to see a human’s true colors.

 

Brad Weimert: Yeah, I love that. Well, I think that a really good takeaway for a brand new investor or any investor at any stage is you should know that you have the right, the authority to ask any questions you have for somebody that you’re giving money to, period, full stop. You are allowed to ask for all documentation. You’re allowed to ask for a meeting. You’re allowed to drill into the details. You’re allowed to question how they operate. All of it. And if they are unwilling to give you the information, you’re not missing out on a deal. You are saving yourself a headache.

 

Matt King: Yeah. I mean, one time, Brad, I asked the guy for a spreadsheet. He’s like, “Why do you need the spreadsheet? Here’s the PDF.” I’m like, “No, could you just send me the spreadsheet? I like to look at the formulas. I like to see how everything’s calculating. Like, can you send me the spreadsheet?” He was very resistant to sending me the spreadsheet. Finally, he sends me the spreadsheet, and I go in to see how he was calculating the annual revenue. He was taking the quarters and multiplying it by 4.25. Well, you and I both know, Brad, that there’s only four quarters in the year. So, I reached out to him. I’m like, “Hey, this cell is calculating the annual revenue based off of the quarterly revenue, but it’s multiplying it by 4.25. Can you walk me through that?”

 

“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We just put that buffer in there. That’s for seasonality. That’s to adjust for seasonality.” I like, “Since when did we get to add a quarter of a quarter to adjust for seasonality? Like, who the hell says that?” Right? And so, it was like answer done, right? So many people will never ask for the spreadsheet, never look at the formulas, never really dig into those details.

 

Brad Weimert: Yep. Couldn’t agree more, man. And I think that when you’re brand new in investing, or you don’t, it’s usually when you’re brand new, but you don’t have access to deal flow, and so you feel like, “Hey, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing that’s coming up here.” And today, in particular, you are an LOM away from digging in and finding 10 other deals that fit that criteria, and you may or may not have access to all of them at the moment, but it’s really important to realize that there isn’t scarcity with that stuff, and you are far better off not investing than being pushed to invest with not enough information.

 

Matt King: Well said.

 

Brad Weimert: Awesome. Let’s dig into you’re crazy. So, we’ve talked about how you manage capital. We’ve talked about how you manage a team. Now you’re about to hit the road and give away a million dollars. Here’s what I know. You are riding 2,000 miles from Mexico to Canada. Why are you doing this? And then we can talk logistics, like, how much you riding per day? Where do you start? Where do you finish? But like what the f*ck?

 

Matt King: Maybe it’s the same reason you did 29,029 times two in the same amount of time people do it in once, right? Like, there is just something about challenging the status quo for a cause bigger than ourselves. And really, where this all stemmed from is, I met up with a guy named Matt Johnson, who’s become a friend. He ran across Texas twice. The first time he went west to east. The second time, he went north to south. And he did it for a cause bigger than himself. He did it for ValorFit, which is an organization that gets veterans back into CrossFit because they recognize that community is the best way to combat mental illness from people that leave the service.

 

And I was just like running with him one morning when he was out on his run across Texas. And I was like, “Dude, this is incredible. This guy put his life on hold for 19 days for a cause bigger than himself, for people that he’ll probably never have the opportunity to meet, and he’s just running.” And I was like, “Man, I talk about doing good, I talk about changing the world. I talk about all these things I want to do, but like, what the f*ck am I actually doing?” I was like, “I’m not doing what I should be doing.” So, got in the car to drive home, and I was like, “What could I do?” And the first thing that went through my head is like, “I could run, but I’ve ruptured my right Achilles tendon twice. Like, running is probably not the smartest decision.”

 

I’m like, “Well, I could ride a bike, but I’ve never really ridden a bike. Okay, cool, let’s do that.” And then I was like, “You know what I’ll do? I’ll ride across Texas.” And then I thought, “You coward, like that dude just ran across Texas. You can’t take a bike across Texas.” I was like, “Well, then let’s just do the whole damn country.” And I was like, “Okay, I’m going to ride my bike from Mexico to Canada.” And then I was like, “Well, what’s the cause?” And I was like, “Well, I don’t want it to just be for one thing, like I am a bleeding heart. Like, I want to see kids. I want to see women. I want to see like everybody that is currently facing disaster. I want to be able to provide to them whatever they need.”

 

And I was like, “Okay, so we’ll just raise it for people in overlooked communities and provide direct impact to them.” And then, as I was sitting there that night, Brad, I was watching the movie Cars with my kids. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that, but Lightning McQueen, the little red car, he gets stranded in this little town called Radiator Springs, which used to be vibrant, hustling, and bustling. Then they built a flyover, and the town just died. But the people inside of it, the businesses inside of it, were still alive. They just had nobody to serve. I was like, “Man, there are so many of those stories out here in America. I want to hear those stories. I want to see those people.” And I was like, “Well, what could we do to do that?”

 

And my first thought was like, “Oh, let’s do 250. $250,000, like that’s a good number.” I talked to Pat Hiban, one of the founders of GoBundance. I was like, “Hey, man, this is what I think I’m going to do.” He’s like, “$250?” He’s like, and if you know Pat, this is exactly what he says, like, “Son, that’s a week. How about $1 million?” I’m like, “Hell yeah, dude. Let’s do a million dollars.” And I just put the flag in the ground, bro, like, hadn’t been on my bike in 18 months. The only time before that 18 months was one time after I bought this bike off of Craigslist. Rode it for a day. I was like, “I don’t really like this. I’m going to hang it on the wall.” And I just put the flag in the ground and said, “Who do I need to become in order to achieve this?”

 

And started finding the right people, finding the crew chief, finding the coach, finding the PR team, finding the people that could help us, engaging with the members of GoBundance, engaging with people outside of the community of GoBundance and saying, like, “This is what I’m doing, and this is why I’m doing it.” And not a single person has told me, “That is a great idea. You’re going to crush it.” Every single person’s like, “You’re not going to ride that far every day. That’s it. I’ve done a lot of cycling, 150 miles a day for 13 days. You’re never going to be able to do that. A million dollars? You’re not going to do that. How are you going to do all this? Why did you pick May? It’s going to be really hot. Oh, did you know that tornado season follows your route?”

 

I was like, “Dude, who cares? Like, you just got to go do it. You just got to chase it. You just got to go after it.” And so, May 27, we leave the Mexico-Texas border, and for 13 days in a row, we will cover, on average, 150 miles a day, until we get to Canada on June 8.

 

Brad Weimert: So, I can answer the question of who cares, and that will be you at some point in the near future.

 

Matt King: Oh, I already care.

 

Brad Weimert: Well, so I think I know the answer to this, but are you doing it for the experience, the impact, or the story?

 

Matt King: For me, I’m doing it for the experience and for the impact, the experience for myself, but more importantly, for my kids. We tell our kids as parents, like, you can do hard things. You can be whatever you want to be when you grow up. And then we lay in bed at night going like, “I really want to do that thing, but I can’t. I really should do that thing, but I can’t.” Our kids, I believe, learn far more from our actions than they do from our words. And I want my kids to see my dad wasn’t a cyclist. He didn’t like riding a bike, but yet he rode his bike across the country to raise a million dollars and give it all away along the journey. If he could do that, what can I do? And I want to give them permission to go chase their dreams through my actions, rather than just my words.

 

And then the impact, man, on the first training camp, we did a give back after we wrote 103 miles that day. And I always say we, because I have a team with me, but I’m the only knucklehead riding. We went to a community here in Driftwood, Texas. It’s called the Burke Center for Youth, and it really is for boys ages 11 to 17 that have all been victims of sexual abuse, extreme trauma, and neglect, and we just spent time with them. We donated a bunch of sports equipment, donated a bunch of reading equipment for their lounge area, and we just spent time with them. And at one point, Brad, a 14-year-old boy, came up to me and asked me if I was going to come back.

 

And now, before we had gotten there, the leader of this camp had basically said, like, “Hey, I just want you to know these kids have all seen and experienced things that you nor I could ever fathom, and I don’t think they will get triggered, but you never know what will trigger them.” And so, I was like, on guard a little bit, but not totally. So, I just said, like, “Do you want me to come back?” He’s like, “Yeah, I want you to come back.” I’m like, “Well, then hell yeah, I’ll be here.” He’s like, “Okay, because my mom’s in prison. I never met my dad, and my sister’s been adopted, so I can’t talk to her until we’re both 18, assuming I can find her again.” And I was just like, “Dude, are you kidding me?”

 

Like, a 14-year-old kid did not get to choose that life, Brad, like they were dealt that hand. I get to consciously choose these hills as a way to impact that person. Like, I will choose this hill, I will choose this pain, I will choose this suffering every single day, if it means having an impact on a boy that’s 14, that saw some hope when we showed up for him and just spent time with him.

 

Brad Weimert: I love that. Well, there are a couple of things that I want to highlight there. The first is that you pinned a why to it after the fact that was bigger than your original, and I think that that’s a really, really good takeaway for people, because a lot of the time there’s a narrative amongst, I think, the general population and certainly entrepreneurs, that you have to find your why. And sorry, Simon, you can figure out your why along the journey, or you can f*cking make it up, but you have to go do sh*t, and sometimes you figure it out through doing sh*t. So, I love that. And then the other thing I want to highlight is that I asked you if it was about the experience, the impact, or the story, and part of the impact will come through the story.

 

So, once you’re done with this, the story will live on for a long time, and that will continue to impact people. And I think that that’s I like asking people that when they do crazy sh*t, because some people think about that on the front end, and some people find it later. But there’s no question that of the crazy sh*t that I’ve done in my life, the story lives on far beyond the experience. And I find a lot of value in it over time.

 

Matt King: Yeah. My biggest fear with starting with the story, candidly, was I feel like sometimes when we start with the story or the end in mind, we put a ceiling as to what’s truly possible. And so, like, we put a flag in the ground of saying a million dollars or more. But I’ve really tried to consciously not adopt any of the stories that have been given to me about the ride, because I don’t want those to limit what’s truly possible, or what I could truly feel, or what we could truly do, and the impact we could truly have. And I think sometimes when we approach things with like, “Hey, this is about the story,” all we do is essentially stop once we hit that story. And the question is like, what if there was more on the other side of it, we just didn’t know was possible?

 

And when we hit that goal, we just kind of stopped. And so, I’m really trying not to allow any stories to come in about it, because I want to see just how powerful this could be if I don’t have any assumptions or preconceived notions on what this will be.

 

Brad Weimert: Yeah, I love that. How do you choose what towns or individuals are going to receive money? So, how do you see the mechanics of that working?

 

Matt King: Yeah. So, I’m incredibly fortunate that we hired, I think, the best crew chief in the world of endurance, crazy things that you could possibly do. I essentially told him what I wanted to do, and he said, “Great, let me map out a route that hits all of these small towns.” So, he mapped out a logical route that hits the small towns. We have deviated that route based on certain things, like, I wanted to go through Dripping Springs, Texas, rather than downtown Austin, one, because of traffic, two, because I live in Dripping. I want to see my kids on one of the days. He was having us go a little bit more direct through Dallas. I’m like, “Hey, I want to go through Stephenville.” He’s like, “Why do you want to go through Stephenville?”

 

I’m like, “A, I want to ride a bull in the middle of this. And, B, I know a guy there, and he told me how bad it is there for the locals, like, how poor they truly are.” So, I’m like, “Let’s go hit that town.” And so, some of it has been just like, “This is what Google said.” And then some of it has been very intentional of like, “I know their stories in that town, because people have told me, and we need to go to that town specifically.”

 

Brad Weimert: How do you choose which individuals will receive funds?

 

Matt King: Yeah. So, not just me will choose. We have about 21 other people riding with us along the journey. They can ride a day. They can ride a minute. Some of them told me they’re not even going to get on a damn bike. They’re like, “We’re going to sit in the RV and drink a vodka tonic and watch you pedal in the heat, and then when it comes time to the giveback, we’ll support that.” So, really, what I want us to do, Brad, is we’re going to go out into these communities that we’re riding through, and we’re just going to ask questions. “Hey, what’s the story? Hey, why did you have this coffee shop? Hey, why did you start this auto mechanic business? Okay, Grandpa owned it. What did that look like? How’s it been going? Oh, it’s been really bad.”

 

Just like, really intentionally asking questions and finding the people in the community. A lot of it is going to be by like pure chance, like our path is going to cross the person’s path that we need to see and we need to meet. Call it God, call it the universe, call it dumb luck. I don’t know what label I will give it yet, but I think a lot of these stories are just going to cross our path as we go. And it’s already happened, like the route was designed. We were going through Stephenville, Texas, and all of a sudden, last week, I got a call from a guy saying, “Are you still riding through there?” And I was like, “Absolutely. Why?”

 

He’s like, “I’ve got a story for you. A mom and a son were sleeping. 18-year-old was drunk, lost control of her vehicle, drove through their car, killed the mom, killed the seven-year-old son, left the dad and other siblings with a ton of debt from a funeral, and no house to live in.” I was like, “We will be there on May 29, like, can’t wait to do whatever we can to help them.” And so, it’s really just about finding, like, the organic stories, like myself and the GoBundance members and the other people riding with us on the journey, feet on the pavement, going out into these small towns, asking questions, awkwardly, asking, like, the weird, deep questions, and just looking for the story and looking to see the human for who they are, where they’re at and recognize like, how can we show up for them in this moment?

 

Brad Weimert: Beyond the donations, what narrative do you hope that the viewers will take away from the experience?

 

Matt King: I hope that the viewers look at the life that they’re living and saying, “I live a very busy life, but that doesn’t mean I can’t take five minutes to pause and ask a person at the coffee shop, truly, how are they?” Or that doesn’t mean I don’t have time at the grocery store to say, like, “Good morning.” Or I can’t tell you how many times I drive past people and wave in my damn neighborhood, and they don’t freaking wave back. Like, do you know how hard it is to wave? Like, it’s so freaking easy. And so, my hope is that people watching this go like, “I would have never thought there were people in my own backyard that I could have that big of an impact on with just a hello or with just a hug or with just a cup of coffee or just a good morning.”

 

And my hope is that people go, “I just want to slow down just a little bit and see people.” Because at the end of the day, like, I truly think humans have three core needs. We want to be seen, we want to be loved, and we want to be heard. So, like, can we just all pause and see people and hear them and show them a little bit of love? And whether that’s supporting on the ride or not, I don’t care. I just want people to go back into their communities and be like, “Hey, good morning, Brad. How are you? Like, no, really, Brad, how are you? How is life? What can I do to help you? Like, I just want to tell you, like, I am incredibly inspired that you did 29,029 times two, because I did it times two, but I did two different events, and I can’t imagine doing 29,000 more feet on either one of those things. Like, dude, that was inspirational, and that was a long time ago, and I have not forgotten that.” How hard is that? It’s not that hard.

 

Brad Weimert: That’s awesome, man. I appreciate that. I love that. That’s what you want from other people. That’s what you want them to get out of this. When you cross the Canadian border, what feeling do you want to be left with?

 

Matt King: Well, my plan is to bike across the Canadian border. I hope I’m done at the border. I don’t want to go to Canada. I want to be done there. All I really want is my team, my family, and I to kind of look backward towards Mexico and go, “Holy sh*t. If I would’ve told you 12 months ago this is what you were going to do and the amount of impact you were going to have, would you have believed it?” And then I want to look at my kids. I want to look at my wife and say, like, “I can’t possibly imagine what else we can do.” I just want to really bask in the gratitude of the people around me, the people that have supported me through this journey, at that finish line. And I’m sure there’s going to be a bunch of wisdoms and lessons that come a day, two, 10, 15 days later, but in that moment, I just really want to sit with the gratitude of like, “I cannot believe we pulled this off.”

 

Brad Weimert: So, all of this, you’ve got scaling companies cycling from country to country, all of this runs functionally on your personal operating system. What does your personal scorecard look like every Sunday night? How do you stay on track personally? And what do you track?

 

Matt King: Yeah, it looks like if you watch the NFL, the offensive play caller, the defensive play caller have a play calling sheet. And there was a moment in my life where I felt incredibly overwhelmed. And I was watching the Packers game, and I was like, “How the hell do they know what play to call? Like, there are so many different plays in their playbook. How do they know?” So, I just googled it. It’s like, “Oh, they all have play calling sheets, first and long runs, first and long passes, second and short passes, second and short runs.” And I was like, “Holy sh*t. So, that literally is, this is the scenario. These are the plays we can run in this scenario.” I’m like, “Well, what if I just built that for my life?”

 

And so, I literally have a play calling sheet for my life that on Sunday nights I update. These are the businesses, said differently, the scenarios, and these are the plays I’m calling this week. And then I just print it off, I keep it in front of me, and I look at it. And it’s amazing what happens when you actually just look at something every single day, how much stuff actually gets done because it’s top of mind and it’s in front of you. And on there is all of the businesses I’m overseeing, all of the plays that are getting called inside of those businesses on each given week. And then I have a whole right column for everything personal, all of the things I want to do personally. Sometimes it’s like, “Call grandma.” Sometimes it’s like, “Call mom.” Sometimes it’s like, “Set up the 401(k) for the children,” or whatever it is, right?

 

Like, the personal stuff is about whatever I need to move the needle on that week, but that’s my sort of Sunday plan. Like, I go through my play calling sheet, I update it, I print it off, and I carry it with me everywhere I go.

 

Brad Weimert: That’s awesome. I’d love to see that, man.

 

Matt King: I can send you a template so that you can link it. I’ll link a template to anybody listening that wants to steal it and use it and make it their own.

 

Brad Weimert: That’d be dope. We’ll definitely put that in the show notes. Okay, you’re beating the sh*t out of your body right now, and I can tell you from experience. I don’t know if you know this, but I rode a bicycle from Los Angeles to Boston years ago.

 

Matt King: I did not.

 

Brad Weimert: Yep, and we were riding 111 miles a day on average. 150 is going to f*ck you up.

 

Matt King: Well, let me put it this way. I’m really glad that I didn’t talk to you before I committed to this, because you probably would have talked me down. Yeah, it’s a lot, dude, it’s a lot.

 

Brad Weimert: I might have talked you down on daily miles, but I certainly wouldn’t have talked you down on the experience.

 

Matt King: No, you wouldn’t.

 

Brad Weimert: It would be an unbelievable experience for you.

 

Matt King: Yeah.

 

Brad Weimert: What are your non-negotiable recovery habits right now? And how does that change with training? What were they before training? What are they now with training?

 

Matt King: The only thing I’m doing different with the training is a lot more stretching and like, sort of flexibility stuff. I wasn’t ever really a good stretcher. Like, nobody wants to go to the gym and stretch. It’s not really like the cool thing to do. I’m doing a lot of stretching right now, and I’ve never been that kind of a person. But the non-negotiables for me are sauna, cold plunge, and red light therapy, and I am very, very, very addicted to all three of those. I don’t know if the red light panel does what they say the red light panel does, but even if it doesn’t, I like sitting in front of that red light panel. I feel better. I think it’s working. I think it’s helping. The sauna and the cold plunge have been absolute game changers for me, the sauna to get rid of the toxins in the body.

 

There’s no better feeling than sweating. It’s just sitting in a 211-degree sauna, like, whatever it is, like sweating is just good. And then doing the cold plunge, mentally and physically, I love the benefits. Like, I don’t care how many times you do it, it never gets easy. It never gets fun. But you do understand that on the other side of this pain for three minutes, approximately, there is this, like, euphoric type feeling like, holy cow, I just sat in water that was 41 degrees for three minutes. And then I think from an inflammation perspective, which is what I’m most concerned about with the ride, I think the cold plunge definitely has benefits.

 

Brad Weimert: Yeah, the cold plunge, I mean, red light too, red light and cold plunge don’t have the data behind them that saunas do, but I certainly feel the same way about the cold plunge. Also, 41 is a f*cking cold plunge, man. Get after it.

 

Matt King: It is. I like it cold. I’m like, “If I’m going to hurt, I really want to…” It’s like the same with the 150. Like, if I’m going to be in pain, like, let’s really find the pain. Let’s really do it.

 

Brad Weimert: That’s amazing. What’s a ritual that you have with your family that listeners can adopt to empower their kids?

 

Matt King: Well, it’s not like a daily ritual, but I think everybody talks about family values, like needing family values. But I think most people get it totally wrong. What they do is they tell their kids, “These are our family values. We’re going to put them in a frame. We’re going to hang it on the wall.” Or they say, “Hey, kids, what are our family values?” And they find a way to manipulate and lead the conversation to their own core, personal beliefs, and their own personal values. When my daughter was a little over two, one night before bed, after reading to her, I was just like, “Hey, Rylan, what do kings do?” Now, like, she could barely, really even speak, but it was like she could mumble, and I could understand, and we had this little language.

 

And she literally looked at me, and she’s like, “We’re brave.” I was like, “Okay, what else?” She’s like, “We win.” Like, “Okay, tell me more.” She’s like, “We’re kind.” I’m like, “Great.” Like, literally, I took her values that she just said from her intuition or her subconscious, or from watching how I lived, my wife lived, how we showed up every day, and she articulated them to me. And I’ve communicated those to her consistently as she’s growing up. Now, as a seven-year-old, when my five-year-old son gets scared of something, she’ll grab him by the hand and say, “Kings are brave,” like kings are brave, like she’s leading that value every single day. And I think what the listener can instill is, like, ask your kids what their values are, but don’t say, like, “What are your core values?”

 

Because that feels incredibly heavy, right? Like, “Hey, Brad, what do Weimerts do? Like, what do they do?” And then just shut up, see what they say, and then ask another question, and then another question. And I think that’s been one of the coolest like rituals I have with the kids, and each of the kids has answered differently. Bodie, my five-year-old is like, “We have fun.” Like, “Okay, cool.” He’s like, “We play Power Rangers.” I’m like, “Okay, cool. Like, that’s just a season of life. That’s going to fade. But like, what else?” And you just keep asking, it shows up.

 

Brad Weimert: That’s cool. What are you paying attention to right now? What books, podcasts, people? Who are you following? What are you listening to?

 

Matt King: Man, I love Matthew McConaughey. I’ve loved him for like, I’ve just always been obsessed with him. Really, the guy that I’m studying right now is one that probably most people won’t know about. His name is Mike Egan. He’s a bilateral amputee that actually lives in San Antonio. This last weekend was the BPN, Bare Performance Nutrition, last man standing race. Every hour on the hour, you run 4.2 miles. If you’re not back in the corral at the top of the hour, you’re out of the race. This man did it in a wheelchair on a ranch, made it 27 hours, and only had to stop because the rain got so bad that the wheels of his wheelchairs got caked with mud where he couldn’t move the wheelchair anymore.

 

Now, most people would quit there, Brad. He jumped out of the wheelchair and proceeded to drag his wheelchair one pull at a time until he could no longer go. And so, like I have been obsessed this week on listening to his story, listening to the demons he’s battled, watching how he shows up, watching how he works out. Like that dude not only is an American hero who stepped on an IED and now doesn’t have legs, that guy showed up at a race four runners on a ranch, knowing that the conditions would ultimately test him, and did it anyways. And then when they did test him, he didn’t quit. He got out of the wheelchair and just kept going. I mean, at one point, Brad, he couldn’t pull the chair anymore, so he started just crawling on his hands, one at a time, like, after 27 hours straight of putting in work and effort. And like those are the kind of people I’m studying right now.

 

Brad Weimert: What advice do you have for new entrepreneurs starting out?

 

Matt King: Fail. Like, don’t be afraid of the failure. So many new entrepreneurs say, like, “I don’t want to do it because I’m going to fail. I’m afraid to do it because I’m going to fail.” Like, let me tell you something. You’re an entrepreneur. You are going to fail. Get used to it, enjoy it, embrace it, and do it as quickly as you possibly can. Because on the other side of failure is the knowledge and the awareness you need to move in the direction, ultimately, you and your business need to go.

 

Brad Weimert: Awesome, man. Where can people find out more about you? Where can they follow the ride as it unfolds?

 

Matt King: Yeah, backtheride.com. Just B, A, C, K, the ride.com. You can find out about me, about GoBundance, about the ride. We’ll have daily content, daily YouTube videos that drop, showing the good, the bad, the ugly. Really appreciate you having me on the show. Really enjoyed the conversation and look forward to catching up again soon.

 

Brad Weimert: Absolutely, man. Matt King, get after it, dude. Looking forward to watching and following along.

 

Matt King: Thanks, man.