EXPERIENCE 197 | Anti Work Girl Boss and Real Estate for Good - Gabrielle Judge & Matthew Fugate on The LoCo Experience!

I met Matthew Fugate circa summer 2017, when LoCo Think Tank was really starting to become a thing, and Matthew was a fresh-in-town Realtor.  I remembered him well for two reasons 1) He was enthusiastic about LoCo Think Tank but could never remember my business name or my name - he’d shout from across the street in Old Town - Hey LoCoNoCo Guy! and 2) He made a big splash with a bus bench purchase, featuring himself in a suit with a suggestive pose, and the message “For a Good Time, Call Matthew Houston Fugate” with the phone number below.  He’s grown his business and his skills since, and in 2023, he started his own brokerage and property management firm.  

Gabrielle Judge, I met more recently, in that when I suggested to Matthew that he should share his story on the show - he said “Dude, you gotta have my girlfriend on too - she’s like blowing up on tik-tok and Instagram!  

And indeed - this is so.  In less than 2 years, #antiworkgrilboss Gabrielle has over 220K followers on Tik-Tok, over 300K followers on Instagram, a growing Substack following - and a book coming out!  Hopefully, her followers will spur new listeners and followers of @thelocoexperiencepodcast! - follow and share today!  Despite the clicky-bait hashtag though, this girl is anything but opposed to work - if it’s work of the right kind, and honoring to both employer and employee.  

This conversation gets very real, very early, with Gabrielle and Matthew both sharing their upbringing with alcoholic, abusive, and mentally unstable home environments - and both moved early into their own struggles with substance.  In 5th grade, Matthew traded a Pokemon card for a stolen bag of weed, rolled it into joints at 5 bucks per, and began a series of substance abuse peaks and valleys that eventually left him on the streets - until it was time for a change.  Matthew came to his new life in Northern Colorado straight out of rehab - and he’s been sober and growing his business ever since.  Gabrielle’s journey is no less dramatic or inspiring - but you’ll have to listen to get it - because she’s the #antiworkgirlboss and she’s here sharing with Matthew and me on The LoCo Experience! 

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Transcript

3:36

Welcome back to the Loco Experience podcast. My guests today are Matthew Fugate and Gabrielle Judge. And Matthew is the founder and owner of the Fugate property group. And Gabrielle is the anti work girl boss. YouTube and Instagram other places as well as the creator of the Lazy girl job trends. So I've got a trending talent on here as well as my longtime friend, Matthew. And, uh, let, can we start with you, Matthew? Absolutely. Um, uh, we're here the day after the election. You're wearing, uh, quite the outfit today. Yeah. God bless America and I'm grateful to be here. We live in the best place in the nation, Fort Collins, Colorado, and it's, it's great. It's going to be good. Make America great again. So what do you do? Uh, what's the Fugate property group? We help people find shelter and build wealth in real estate. So it's a property management company, real estate brokerage. We do buy, sell, invest. And, uh, recently. With collaboration of the Abundance Foundation, we started a real estate fund to raise capital for investors that have, uh, real property as collateral using promissory notes and LLCs. to pay out 10%, 12 percent and 15 percent plus points on their money, depending on how much they contribute and how long they contribute that money for. So for properties, for this abundance foundation, for the abundance foundation. So it kind of, yeah, kind of all circles. You're a board member as well as kind of a, uh, capital developer for a local nonprofit. Absolutely. And we'll unfold that. Uh, more as part of why I wanted to have you on here. Past, uh, episode, maybe number 78, 79, was Brian Bauer. I love Brian. Uh, the founder of the Abundance Foundation. Yeah. So, uh, it comes full circle. Wait, I didn't even know he was on. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Did you? Wow. A year and a half ago. Wow. Yeah, he unfolded, like, his slow descent into alcoholism. Um. Um. He was trimming trees with a half a bottle of vodka in him, uh, as his job kind of thing. And, uh, it was one of the more, um, like I get kind of shivers up my arm just remembering the content of that conversation. He's awesome. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Super guy. Uh, Gabrielle, uh, what is Anti work girl boss. Uh, and how, yeah, tell me, yeah, like, just let's see what you're doing now. And then I will unfold the story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my background's in tech and so that's what I went to school for. And so I was working in the tech industry. Um, I started in 2019. So when I graduated school and, um, I started to notice this like huge drop off in the morale of corporate America, the loss of merit in corporate America, the loss of opportunity. Um, and that's because of like a lot of things, just what happened in 2020 and a lot of stuff. And so I was kind of looking around at like 22, 23, and I was like, this is like too good to be true. Like in the tech industry, there's like four different community managers making ADK and you ask them what they do. And it's like, Oh, why do the snacks? And the other one's like, why? And you're like, this is crazy. Like it definitely needed an overcorrection for sure. And that's like, no dig to like community managers out there. It's just like, You know, I just saw like a big bubble, right? And so I started making content online. I hated making fun of this. Yeah, I have like, yeah, I'm really, is that what all the tech layoffs were the last couple of years was just people that didn't really have a need to have a job. Yeah. And some of them I would say isn't really their fault because what corporate America does is like, they'll be like, well, this is your dream job. And like, you have to devote all your hours to this. And then of course, you know, in 2021 happened and Google went through all these layoffs in 2022, people were having like existential crisis. And it was like, yeah, that's a really big problem where we're like teaching people to be like superly overly attached to work. And then Light work, you know, the economy just does what it does. And we're just not teaching people resilience. We're not teaching people to have like a life outside of work, um, and have that adaptability. So I started making like this anti work content, I call it, and it's pretty mainstream now, but it used to not be. So it used to be, I used to be on headlines all the time. Um, Fox news, everyone used to just kind of like make fun of me. Um, and kind of paint this like weird narrative of me, but really it's like this tongue in cheek marketing kind of tactic of like, what are we doing? And like, there's more resilience and work, you know, it's like, I'm not anti work. Of course, obviously it says that in the word, but she's like a workaholic for sure recovering. Um, so anyways, yeah, fast forward to anti work girl boss. That is, that is my online persona. And so it's, it's really developed into this thing. And, um, I started the Lazy Girl job trend last year and it doesn't make any sense unless you're in like the zeitgeist of TikTok. But at that time on TikTok it was like Lazy Girl dinner ideas and Lazy Girl workout routines. It was just like, yeah, Alma has showed me some Lazy Girl stuff. Yeah. It's all like pretty innovative little, it's life hacks. Yeah. And I was like, I love that. And also like, can we talk about work? Cause this was 2021. Like this is where we were all like white knuckling and being like, do I have a job today or not? And it was like, how do we make our job feel less. Like not work is work is meaningful and work is impactful. But I just think a lot of people are selling their souls to a corporation that would cut them immediately, you know, and it's just trying to make that a little, that conversation a little bit cooler. And from there it's, it's turned into like. Essentially like a media company at this point. That's where I'm that's where my goals are next year Is to really bring like other creators on and make more of a network about it. Oh interesting. Yeah, and I'm really happy and I'm really excited about it And it's been something that I've been doing full time now for a year and a half Which is I'm very grateful for if I had a Jamie like we could like Pull up some videos and stuff and maybe we even could it might be an interesting thing, but I don't think we can play that sound through my system jamie if you're listening out there from the joe rogan podcast if you could let If you could if I could connect you with alma and she could figure out how to get that interactive kind of stream thing Yeah, you just need like a big monitor and like screen capture it. Oh, yeah, that might work, huh? Yeah, right there, but they can play sounds like On the Joe Rogan show, they actually pull up videos and play the sounds associated with those videos when it's not, like, Gonna get screened by YouTube or whatever. Yeah. Anyway. Jamie's a wiz, for sure. Well, he's probably not a listener yet. You could get the new Gabby. Yeah. Maybe, maybe she can reach out. Yeah. I, uh, I was telling these guys, I just, uh, I was just, uh, onboarding really my, my new executive assistant. Um, Gabby Lauta is her name. And, uh, she and another Gabby were the two top candidates for the role. And then Gabrielle comes in here today. I'm like, I'm surrounded by Gabby's. I've never been around Gabby's in my life. Hardly. I don't see a nickname. It is usual. Um, so I want to stick on you for a little bit, Gabby, if you would, cause real estate's cool and what you're doing is interesting, but, um, Like, did you have any kind of a plan or was this very much just like the first six months you were just like Annoyed and found a little niche and and you got dopamine hits from people liking your content Oh kind of both, but I would say it's definitely delusional. Like I definitely wanted this to be full time I just oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah from the beginning. I think I just didn't No, yeah, what that was gonna look like but I was delusional enough to be like I'm gonna somehow make a career out of this That's kind of cool go for it. Yeah, and then it blew up, right? Yeah, and I was like, that's insane Well, it was kind of the beginning of that. Um, You are your brand. Yeah kind of mentality and you know in those days and even before that and 2018, 19 people have been like, you know, Kurt, you need to write a book. You need to become a guru, you know, and all these things. And I just never could feel comfortable with it. I'm so much happier on this side of a podcast microphone with actually successful people. And she's actually writing a book right now. She just got a book deal. Right. And of course she's putting out a course, like she's crushing it just from one hashtag that in the work that you've. I'm sure it was not just for one hashtag, but that's what sparked the fire. She laid out the foundation and poured the gas Yeah, I appreciate it. I mean like so what I got really good at really quickly is understanding like controversy So you want to make you? Like, whatever your message is big enough to where there's room for controversy, someone's going to take a really polarizing side on each side, but you want to be able to hold it well. So like for me, right, what I would do is say I was talking about, I'd cover like stuff that was going on in the news at that time, like an employee getting fired for having a mouse jiggler on their laptop, right? And so I, what I would see is like, There was a lot of buzz around that. So I would like kind of host like my own discourse about it. And I wouldn't pick a side or anything like that. But it was just enough controversy to get that engagement going. And then every time that I was doing that, talking about these more polarizing things, I was getting on headlines like I was getting on the news. So it was like, that was free press. PR in itself. So I was starting to like really like workshop that before I hit the lazy girl job trend. So starting to see like, okay, if I just make enough buzz, there's enough of these like stupid AI generated articles that are created, then the big media companies are seeing that all day. They're tracking that they start writing. It's just content about content about content. That's all this legacy media is. So I was like, okay, if I just make a loud enough noise, like they'll pick up on it. And so I saw the noise comes from people engaging. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it was so relatable. Like everything that you talked about is so relatable still is. Yeah. And we talked about like one or two of those topics just to give it some context. Yeah. So how I kind of, how I break this stuff down now, I didn't use to have this like sophisticated of an approach, but now like in this work all day, I really understand it. Like I break it down as like this one. Acronym I have called F. I. S. T. Right. So when we're looking to back up, like when we're looking at work, we're kind of told this like work life balance thing. Then we tried to move it over to like work life harmony. And like, we're still all trying to work life integration. Like we're all still trying to figure out like what our relationship with work is in America. And. What I'm really proposing is like you're looking more for like autonomy. So how I break this down is like, okay, looking at fist, right? So there's the financial, there's the ideological, there's your social and there's your time, right? So all of these things are at play when we're looking at our autonomy at work. Okay. And so I really trying to create these like more philosophical exercises of like, If you feel like you can't be your full self on a team or in a meeting, that's not intellectual safety. Like you're not operating like you. And then you're also told to be there for 11 hours a day, 10 hours a day, stuff like that. So like, Yeah. Okay. You're paying me as if I'm a 40 hour a week person, but you're trying to squeeze all you can out of me. And when I said this two years ago, this was like, Like people thought I was crazy and I was like, I think it's crazy that you're telling people to work 60 hours a week all the time. And then for me, when I started in 2019, my first year was 2020 when I was supposed to get my annual review, I got nothing because no one did. And it was just like, and then, you know, you go into the next year and it was like, Oh, but you got a 10 percent raise, which sounds good, but it was. It was actually broken up by two years and inflation was at its record high in 2021. So I started to like really look at this of like, you guys want me to work 50 hours a week, not actually say it, but make enough like pressure and projects where I have to, I have to work 50, 60, 65 hours. And it's just the ROI job is to make you as busy as possible. Yeah. And I was like that new responsibilities, meaningless, busy work. And it's just, it's been crazy. And so I was like, this is crazy. And I started to get kind of like, Creeped out by it all, but I, I didn't have enough going on in my brand yet to like move and I wanted to say, I wanted to say lazy girl jobs. I couldn't say it at my job. I was working at Wix, the website builder company. So like that would have been like a rough, a rough transition. My, my content was already becoming a distraction at that company. Were you just like starting to date this boy at this time? I met him in 2020 and we started dating. Yeah. So I started to see the way that he was working. I was so indoctrinated by this, like, Go to college, sit at a desk thing, and I started to see the way he was working, and I was like, wait, he just like works, goes and has coffee with people. Yeah. And he's never on a laptop. And then we went to Maui. That was our first vacation together in 2021. I actually wrote about this in my book. You'll get to see it one day. And, um, he's like, Just like working when he wants to, he had just onboarded Amanda, his first operational assistant. And I was like, wait, he's like unplugging. And then he's also like taking calls when he wants to, while we're on the beach. I'm like, what is it? And he was, he was making like tons more than me. And I was like, this is crazy. Yeah. I was like, this is crazy. Like I totally took the wrong pill here. Um, and I'm not trying to like wake people up at a nine to fives. I think nine to fives are still like a good thing, but it's just like having that balance and discernment of like. Where's your actual goal? Stop thinking about only goals that benefit your employer. You can still be a team player. I think that's great, but it's just like that balance. Right. So I come off very like jarring sometimes for people and that's because I'm trying to swing them out of this like huge, I call it corporate pick me back kind of into the middle, you know? So it's like, they're over here, I'm over here. I'm just trying to get them in the middle. I, uh, so a couple of things that I relate to in this story, one is that I've got kind of a habit. A hobby. We'll call it a hobby, not a habit. But I, I liked, I love to bring corporate employees that have had a ton of great training and a ton of, you know, they're just, they pump a lot of stuff into you. You see how big, complex systems work. And then when you see these small businesses, it's like sometimes easier for them, you know, except for the lack of resources. Right. So bringing people out of, you know, 100, 000 a year, corporate jobs into 68, 000 a year, small business jobs, but where they get to see the impact of their work, where they get to feel part of a team, almost a family environment and, and go be at lacrosse games if you want to, for your kid and whatever, right? Like that's kind of environment that I think is sustainable. And that's, what's important. Yeah, you can, you can go be ground up and, and some, and maybe it makes sense for a lot of people to just go get ground up by a corporate job and, you know, climb the corporate ladder for 10 years so you can buy a house and get your foundation built so you can have a kid and whatever, but you can't do it for 40 years at the way they want you to anymore. No, that's what I'm saying. And I'm so glad that you brought that up too, because this is still very riveting to like baby boomers to talk about. And it's like, yeah, but it's. Like how I try to say it with them is like, it's not like you just stay in one career path at one company. You get to work up the ladder. Like that's just not a thing anymore. It can be, but it's few and far between compared to baby boomers. Right. So it's like this whole adaptability. So I'm all for job hopping. I'm all for like quiet quitting in certain scenarios. I'm all about like doing the work if you need to, like, I'm all about, it's just like, use these levers and treat yourself more. Like an actual business at some points because like you do have to be that resilient. You're just a little economic engine of your own. Yeah. And sometimes you might find yourself unemployed if you go into the wrong field, you know. But if you like working in startups and that's what makes you feel excited, well, that's gonna occasionally come with some layoffs. Yeah. Even failures and whatever. But know, know who you are. Yeah. And then what was the rest of the fist? So yeah, there's financial Is that like, urgh, is this like, I'm thinking about, uh It's the only word I could come up with with those letters. Malcolm, Malcolm X kind of style, actually. It's not as radical as that, but Do you think Malcolm X would have voted for Trump or Kamala? Trump because of the free speech stuff. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. Anyway, I digress. Yeah. What's the Olympics dude? The black dude that won the Olympic gold medal during the Hitler Olympics? Yeah. Jesse Owens. I have no idea. Yeah, I think it's Jesse Owens. Anyway, I digress. The Fists have a lot of good You know, there's a lot of positives with that. So it's financial, it's intellectual, social and time, right? The social one's important to you. Cause there's a lot of this, like in corporate America, there's this pressure of like going to the happy hour and it's like, you don't have to, but like you have to, and then it's like kind of thinking, especially with Gen Z, like a lot of Gen Z. Just don't think the same as, as, um, their predecessors. So it's like, we don't really want to sit at a happy hour. Like if we can just use that time back for other stuff, that'd be great. Especially people that have like kiddos. It's just like, why are you hanging out together all day? I'm not saying that like, it's good to have a relationship with people that you work with, but it's just this idea with these giant, giant corporations of like, hang out all day, working remotely for Wix and whatever. Yeah. And then they would try to pull me in a lot for happy hours. And I was like, I'm. I'm gonna go to yoga. You loved the happy hours. Did I? No. No, absolutely not. No, they would pull me in. Well, and they didn't give me a raise my first year and inflation was hitting pretty heavy in Denver. And so I moved back, well that's not why I moved in with Matt, but I was, it just made more sense to move in with Matt, we were developing our relationship, and they would be like, are you gonna make it to the happy hour? And I would be like, I'm, like, an hour and ten minutes away. Right, yeah, sorry. If you wanna bring up my salary back up to the cost of living, absolutely, but like, yeah, no. So that's just like, for me, right, I'm 27, so I'm like, I'm the oldest year of Gen Z, so like, that's a little bit of like, how we Oh, you're older than I thought, honestly. Oh really? Yeah, I look, I look young. Um, but uh, yeah, so like, that's just kind of our sentiment about work, and it's a little extreme to a certain extent, right? I do think it's great to Yeah, well sometimes to make a point, you kind of go over the point. Yeah. Just a little bit. Yeah. So. And it's important to like have morale in a company too. You should have networks. You never know who you're going to meet and the opportunities around it. Well, yeah. And I mean, you, you mentioned the social, um, and like for you, the happy hours that they were engaging was not filling your social bucket. You'd rather be in a yoga class. Well, cause the thing for me is I was also working on my business. So it was like any other time that I wasn't working, I wanted to work on anti work girl boss. I wanted to grow this thing. So it was like, if this is just like a nicety, like show up thing, I don't want to do it. And also I don't drink. And my Wix is very like into drinking and they would black out. Like my directors would black out at events and stuff like that. And it was just like, So if you're not going to remember I'm not going to black out today. No, you're fine because we're hanging out. Matthew required me to drink tequila and to I'm totally smoke marijuana before No, no, no, I'm DD. I'm You got two DDs. Yeah. We're totally cool with it, but it was just in a work setting, right? If you're going to black out, you're not going to remember our conversation. That's gross. So what's the point? I mean, I'm sorry. I don't mean to put Wix on blast like that, but like, yeah, you're going to get me in trouble for putting you on a platform. I, they heard about it in my exit interview. Like this isn't a whole, they know, but it's just like, that's what I'm getting out of just like, what are we doing? What are we doing here? We got cigars. There you go. Cubanos. Um, should I get one of those Monte Crestos from the road? Okay, cool. Um, so, um, Alright, um, well I was going to put Matthew back on the spot, but he's got a big old cigar stuck in his mouth. Matthew, I would like to, we're going to go back, for both of you guys, we're going to go back to like, uh, first grade kind of thing eventually in the time machine. But, Matthew, I want to hear about, like, for you, uh, Why did real estate become an interest? You know, I didn't even have that on the radar. I didn't know that's anything that I was going to do. Um, I came up here from Houston, Texas, 11 years ago. And I had no idea what I was going to do. I moved to Fort Collins to go to CSU. I thought I wanted to go to college to get into the corporate world. And I was really thinking to myself, what do I want out of life? What do I want to create? And I thought to myself, who in my life has created the most autonomy and had the most financial freedom and had attractive lives that looked worth living. And a lot of those were realtors that I knew. And, and. People that actually invested in the market and, and built wealth. It's like a real job. Yeah. That's what a lot of people think, dude. It's like, uh, it's hard, but it's hard to say you got to be a therapist. I wear a lot of counselor, financial analyst. Yeah. And what's funny about real estate too, is anyone can do it. There's a very low barrier of entry. Um, and that's why you see a lot of people getting out of the market, especially this past year, because the economy has shifted and market shares open up for good agents. Um, and I think a lot of the changes that are going out into the marketplace are going to keep weeding out the bad agents, the hobbyist agents. And then we're going to see the cream of the crop rise to the top. And that happens in any industry. Um, but it's been creamy. I'm very creamy. Cash rules, everything around me, not really, but I love that. So for the, uh, for the listeners out there, if you're in Fort Collins, which I know about at least half of our 40 percent of our listeners are, um, if you've seen a bus stop bench with a inappropriate. Uh, like almost, it's appropriate, uh, but a, a gigolo like, uh, image of a realtor of your dreams. I've got a really funny story about that too. So that was early, that was like your first big spend I bet that was the biggest spin to this day. Uh, those, those bus benches aren't cheap and I've got a couple of funny stories surrounding those. Yeah. The first one being online to test out what I was going to put into the market for marketing. It's a picture of me laying down. That's the back of the bus bench. Maybe it wasn't gigolo like. That's what I thought. It was on the online version. And this is probably what stuck because it was so sticky. It was so polarizing. It was my first experience with polarized marketing. I had hashtag real estate porn that caught a lot of attention. In the bold print on the bus bench with me laying down, it said, for a good time, call Matthew Fugate. Oh God. And that was a tester. And that was my first experience of polarized marketing. And I had 36, 000 engagements. What? Within 24 hours. So, that's when I learned, stir in the pot works. Right. And it sticks. It's kind of that purple cow philosophy, right? I never saw a purple cow. I never hoped to see one, but I can tell you anyhow, I'd rather see than be one. Absolutely. Do you know that poem? No. Oh, well, you're lucky I remember that. I thought you were just freestyling, dude. No, that's first grade. That's a first grade poem you just benefited from is, I never saw a purple cow. I never hoped to see one, but I can tell you anyhow, I'd rather see than be one. Amen. There you go. Yeah. I can resonate with that. I don't know. Maybe I'd rather be a purple cow. Like, that would be In today's age, you can be whatever you want to be. You know, do you want to be unique or do you want to be real? Yeah. I want to be both. I think unique is real. I think that is what's real today. It's just the attention economy. That's what you want to tap into. So no matter if it's good or bad, you want the attention. Well, and I think, uh, Prager actually says, uh, don't try to be unique. Try to be authentic. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and cause like everything I heard from you in particular, Gabby, but also you, Matthew, you're a out there kind of guy. Yeah. Um, and willing to be open to criticism. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And I guess that's probably part of why you guys like, like each other and stuff, right? Yeah, we get it. We feed off of each other, I think. She really grounds me cause I'm very visionary. I'm very like, Yeah. Absolutely. I'm a dreamer, but I'm also a doer. But she's very, she's very grounded.'cause I'm, I'm kind of chaotic. I've got a lot of energy. I'm enthusiastic. You are. But it's good fun. Gets it done. Yes. It's, no, I think we respect each other a lot too. I think that's also another thing that's the foundation of our relationship is respect. Yeah. I think with Matthew and I both, right, like we actually do work a lot and we do take on a lot of stress, of course, being business owners. There's weird stresses to it too. Like these were very thoughtful. Absolutely. Those are cu, they're like cigars Cubans. They're like a small investment arent, yeah, they're called like mini Cuban cigars. Yeah. These probably be greatest blunts too. You could little mini blunts. Yeah. That's like Snoop, how blunts don't do that. Right. I can teach you. I used to do a lot of that back in the day. Yeah. Okay. All right, we'll talk more about that later. Um. So, so, so you, like, so, you came to Fort Collins, maybe go to school, maybe go to real estate, like Nah, I didn't even have real estate on the radar, dude. I came here literally with First, let's rewind. Should we just jump in the time machine now? I think that's the easiest way. It'll be more exploratory. Matt's time machine's good. Set the foundation. Yeah. Okay, so, ready? And this would be the condensed milk version. Short and sweet. Can pack a punch. But I want to go back, like, earlier than normal, like, First grade is a normal target for me. Oh, cool. Yeah, we'll And we'll bounce over to Gabby a little bit too and kind of work our way through. Yours isn't probably quite as interesting, Gabby, but that's what we do. Actually, hers is kind of interesting too. That's crazy too. Yeah, we both have, like, we're both marinated. And I think that's what makes us so special. Gives us a different lens on, on the world. Um, but in first grade, everything was pretty good. I grew up in Houston, Texas, uh, lower middle class family. My mom worked at JC Penney's and my dad worked at a factory like doing signs, making signs and stuff, hardworking. He liked to drink a lot and, um, that was kind of incorporated early on. I grew up a lot. Around the bars I do my homework at the bar. Oh wow, and I thought that was kind of the part of the life Right, and I didn't I didn't know. Were you his only child? Basically, yeah, cuz my brother's 50. He's up here now. So but he's 20 years older. Yeah, so I grew up in a It was just me and the household. Right. And your dad was like, well, I'm going to be at the bar. Your mom's working and we're going together and you might as well do your homework here and you can sit over by Fred. And we're going to, what I did like was the claw machine, the pool table. I'm okay at pool. I should be better with the amount of time that I spent at the bar. But, um, yeah, it was great. It was, it was a different experience. I don't know anything else. Yeah. So it wasn't. So let's move you to like fourth grade now. Now we're in fourth grade. I was a little heathen, like, in school I was kind of a class clown. I didn't realize I was using humor to cope with kind of the, the pain and, and suffering, which Did your parents have a decent relationship? Yeah, they were, they would argue a lot. My dad would get wasted. She didn't drink like you did? No, my mom was, she's an angel to this day, and so is my dad now. He's been sober the same amount of time I have. Oh wow. He actually got sober sooner than I did. Oh wow. And that kind of, that's really Spurge your, if my dad can do it. No, not even. But, coincidentally, and I think it was just, it was perfect timing. Right? But in fourth grade, life was still good. Fifth grade is when I started to really experiment. I had my first marijuana cigarette. I had my first, I started getting drunk regularly on the weekends and smoking weed. And then I started selling weed. With who? Uh, my buddies. Like, you were hanging out with older kids? With your age kids? Yeah, the older kids that rode bikes and, and skateboarded, and I thought that was the life. And you saved your money so you could buy a bigger bag of weed, and then sell weed to the kids at school? Well, the first bag that I ever secured was from a Pokemon card, a holographic Pokemon card that I traded a, a neighborhood kid. He stole his dad's weed. Okay. Gave me a 5. fat sack. It was probably about like a half ounce. I rolled those up and was selling three dollar joints or five dollar joints. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was a pretty valuable Pokemon card. It was a pretty valuable probably turned into 25 joints or something. And I was selling Mexican candy and just like 25 to 50 cents a piece. It was fun. We were hustling early on, you know? Okay, um, I'm gonna save the next chapter until after we hear of Gabby's first chapter, or first couple chapters. Um, first grade? First grade, I was still living in, uh, Princeton, New Jersey. Um, I lived there. That's where you're from, originally? Kind of. I mean, I moved there, I lived there until I was ten. Okay. And then my parents moved me out here in 2007. Alright. So that was fifth grade, when I moved here. Um, fourth grade me, um, so my, Well, let's go back to first grade, you. Like, did you have little brothers, little sisters? Yeah, I have a little sister, she's four years younger than me. Alright. Her name's Joey, she's awesome. So she was just a little one when you were in first grade. A little one, yeah, yeah. And, um, my dad is an alcoholic, bipolar, um, all this stuff, yeah, super, super, um, he wasn't super crazy yet. Um, I think he was still kind of holding it together. He had me at 29 years old. So yeah, he was in his 30s. He didn't really start to really drop off to those 40s. Okay. Um, and then Yeah, you got some story too. Yeah, a lot of domestic violence. My parents did not get along together at all. Um, I think they started arguing on their second date, as my mom says. Yeah. So I'm very tumultuous, very chaotic. So fourth grade and first grade me was kind of white knuckling. Yeah. And that's where I started to get super workaholic. Like it was like, I started to realize like, I'm not gonna get The emotional support at home. Cause no one's available in that way. Like there's just so much chaos. It can't really happen. My mom tried really hard, but being a single mom, I mean, it's, it's a lot. I mean, she wasn't single physically, but like in every way she was raising me on her own. I mean, he was there, but, um, it was kind of few and far between. So I was, I was figuring out, Hey, if I, if I get an a, if I get all a pluses, like I get an external reward. And I don't have to do the work of like actually like giving myself a reward. And so I started to really play with that and being the gifted and talented kid and like hiding behind all this stuff and being like, no, everything's good. Yeah, I do. Yeah, family's fine. Yeah, everything's good. Um, yeah. So then do we want to fast forward? To an older age. Well, you moved here, to this region, somewhere around here when you were 5th grade? Yeah, 5th grade. And then, yeah, in Fort Collins, I went to CLP, uh, middle school and elementary. Okay. Because that was the last 6th grade year in elementary school. What's CLP mean? Cash la booter. Oh. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's where our, uh, exchange student is going right now. Yeah. Yeah. At PLU High School. Of course. Yeah. And they wanted to, um, skip me a grade. New Jersey schools are really good. Um, and so my mom said no. And so I stayed in fifth grade, but I walked over to the junior high for most of my classes, so. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I was over there with older kids and, uh, I found some really, really amazing like, friend groups that I'm still like really close with. Okay. Yeah. So you didn't, uh, you weren't early into, uh, peddling Pokemon weed bags or things like that? Not till like 14, 15. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so, so you were really a hyper overachiever. Yeah. Pretty much. I still am, yeah. Gifted and talented, all that kind of thing, you know. I, I know a gal, uh, here in town, I won't mention names, but she's got like a, she was like tested in her early teens at like a 185 IQ. Thank you. And it's not a benefit to her because she's got all this pressure that she puts on herself for being like more smarter than everybody else and that it didn't, it ain't worth that much. You know, as long as you're over about 90, you're going to, if you push yourself to do a good job of being a human, your chances of success are not that much different than 180. I think sometimes being too smart too actually can be, cause you're, you understand the risk and your limitations a little bit more than someone that's more self aware. Yeah. So it's like, kind of a balance you have to play with, with intellect, for sure. So what What turned you what was your like when you started getting into less achievement oriented and more troubly? Yeah, your family environment was getting really really bad like to the point where I started seventh grade Living in a motel with my mom and like it started to get really really crazy And so it was just kind of this thing more like especially people who are in abusive situations Not to just to kind of like yeah, it's worth hearing about Yeah, like with my mom like she just She wanted to just take care of me so much. She didn't want me to, like, know that it's bad. So it was kind of this game all day where like, it was almost like, oh, this table's wood. And then they're like, no, it's not. It's plastic. And I would be like, okay, like that's almost like how like weird it was where I'd be like, this is crazy. Right. And then my mom would be like, no, yeah. And she'd be like, no, honey, like go to school, blah, blah, blah. And I think that, and I think she was trying to protect me, but I think longterm, that was a really net negative because it kind of created this, like, I can't trust my reality. You know, so I started to really crumble around like 15. I think my sophomore year I got put on probation. Um, lots of things. I got kicked off the soccer team. Bad grades, bad grades, bad class attendance. I was in IB and they saw me go from like Uh, a 3. 5 or whatever, down to like a 1. 8, and it was like a red flag immediately, so I. B., the vice principal of the I. B. group in Poudre, kind of like, really saved my life on that stuff. Um, cause they, they knew, you know, like, the teachers know. Did that initiate like, child protective services and stuff then, too, or not yet? Not for me, personally, that was more with my sister, when she went through. Um, and then my daddy, I lost custody of me at 15. Finally, they, uh, filed for divorce and that was something that I, I really wanted. Um, and so I was really pumped about that cause it was just starting to get really unsafe. And, uh, yeah, my mom, I don't know how she did it. She worked at Whole Foods. I got a car immediately when I could. I stopped at the soccer team, got a car, got a job at Taco John's. Wow. And just to help, you know, drive my sister to CLP. She makes really good tacos. I believe it. No, she can roll them up, but I can roll them up pretty well, but that's about it. And I don't know if there's a lot of cuisine happening at Taco John's. Wow, that's so impressive though. Like, I mean You had support from your mom, but it wasn't much. She was maxed out. She's maxed out. That's a good way to put it. Like completely maxed out emotionally, financially, everything. And so for me, I think that I didn't get to be a kid. Like. Yeah. Honestly, like I just never really did. So that's why I like my twenties now because like I do get to kind of create my own life and be a kid. I wonder how much of your, even the, the seeds of anti work girl bosses like goes back to there even, you know, and all that like frustration and not having that play time. Yeah. Yeah. Then you're in Maui with this guy and you're like, you get to play for your work kind of like I haven't been able to play since I was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I used to, I used to dabble with stuff and, um, I, I liked stimulants. That was my, that was my thing because I felt more productive. Yeah. You know? And, uh, that's something that I kind of grappled with until I was 23. I got sober in 2020. Um, and yeah, it's been amazing since. I love it. But we did one more thing and this will make a lot of sense. So my father's pretty violent. Uh, he got kicked out of the state, you know, he's, he's homeless and he's not here. So he likes to just be. Bad out in the downtown and stuff like that. And so he's like living in downtown here in Fort Collins. Not anymore. Not anymore. Cause he got kicked out of the state for too many things on his record. And the judge was just like, you just gotta, I can't even more like do this. Right. So then he goes to New Jersey to live with his mom, caretake with his mom. He tries to kill her for six hours in 2020. He is in prison for two years. He's supposed to get eight years. I think he's going to get six or five because of good behavior. But yeah, so he's just like, not the most, he's sick, unfortunately. And like, he was just born in like a rough time where like the seventies and eighties, it was like, you know, parents needed to call the cops on their kids. And he just wasn't really given anything. He's been in and out of rehab since he was 13. So, and the, and the, the system in general and stuff. So it's rough, but, um. Yeah. Through my own sobriety and through my own Like learning myself, I get to learn, I get to learn about him. You know what I mean? Cause there is a lot about me that is similar to him. I tend to piss my mom off a lot. Cause I remind her of him. Um, but that's okay. And, uh, yeah, it's cool. Cause that's why I go missing, you know, to look for. So, yeah, that's been, um, that's been a crazy thing. And, uh, actually my dad and I have the best relationship ever right now. And I enjoy him in prison. He's medicated. He's safe. He's eating, he's eating meals. And you, like, have phone calls with him regularly? Phone calls? Stuff like that, even go visit him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He doesn't let me visit him, but one day. Yeah, he's a great guy. I got to talk to him a few times. On the phone. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, it's an interesting thing. I, I had an experience, um, We had a neighbor, uh, well, we, yeah, we still have neighbors, but there was a fellow in that lived in like a shed behind one of our neighbors. And he was like, almost like a handyman free rent to do the yard work and stuff for this, uh, gal that lived next door to us that owned the property. That could have been her dad. Tom was his name. And, uh, and he, um, you know, was a severe alcoholic, you know, and I would hang out with him and smoke weed once in a while and never really drank with him. Care took for our house one time and like cleaned out the whole liquor cabinet even like the old de Kuiper's schnapps that was 14 years old and whatever and Then he got sober a couple years later. I guess this was probably back in like 2017 range or something like that and within like six months of getting sober. He was twice as smart as As he was before, like he was kind of an airhead and this and that and, and sensitive and thoughtful. And he spent like a year sober and then he fell off the wagon and turned back into the old Tom and like, A month, you know, and it was like, really, you know, I hate to say it this way. Cause you guys know, I like to have a little tequila with my cop podcasts and it loosens everybody up and it's a social lubricant and whatever. And as part of my evidence that I don't really have a severe alcohol problem, cause I'm not like, that's actually why we're, why we're here. My alcohol problem. This is an invention right here, but it was, it was really eyeopening seeing him, like, unfold like a butterfly from the pressures of all the alcohol that Put on his brain, I guess or whatever else and I don't know It's a cunning baffling and powerful disease that keeps people at dis ease if they're not actively enlarging their spiritual conditions and and Looking for the light in in the world and packing in to the stream of life Yeah, that's an interesting way to think of it if it's an escape You really from life and it's this ease. Um, and it can also, uh, yeah, it's, it's an interesting thing as a, as a Christian, especially it's like, well, Jesus wouldn't have made wine if all alcohol was always bad. Right. Right. Absolutely. You know, there's plenty of warnings about separating yourself from the spirit of the world or whatever because of that disease that you might be feeling. Right? Insidious. And yeah, thank God Jesus turned the wine back into water for me. Like, that was the best thing that ever happened. Yeah, no, I think that's a beautiful way to say that. Um, Matthew, uh, we were going to get into your, uh, next phase of entrepreneurship probably in sixth grade or something like that. Eighth grade. The enterprise. Yeah, that's when we started. Um, really sixth grade was good. That's when I was in Northbrook. That was a great year I was doing well straight A's I did really well through school Even when I was balancing all that other stuff because it was easy to keep the attention off me It didn't start my grades didn't start slipping until like 10th 11th and then barely graduating high school But I started going in and out of rehabs early on outpatients I went to juvenile when I was like 12 or 13 or 14. So you're like crushing it in school and getting busted being drunk at class. Yeah, well no, I never got busted really and I was drinking at school. So did your parents discover that you were drinking and that's why you went to rehab? Or what was the source? I started getting in trouble with the law. Oh, you were stealing and stuff. No, I never got really caught and now that the statue of limitations is up I'm not proud of anything that I've done and I think alcohol is one of those dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde Substances for alcoholics, so I wasn't the same person that I am today. I've completely transformed my life. But yeah, I was Drinking doing drugs at that time I would get my first time that I went to juvenile was in Galveston and we got a pretty good Uh, public intoxication and I got busted with marijuana and my parents had to drive out to Galveston and pick me out of the juvenile jail. And you were like 12, 13, 14? Yeah, somewhere in that range. Wow. Like middle school. Yeah. Why were you there by yourself? I wasn't by myself. Like Galveston Yeah, no, I was with some friends, we were partying in a tent, older friends, a bad girl, and yeah, just not good stuff. Yeah, it just got crazy, and then, there's so many stories I could go into, but for the sake of time, like, I'll just tell one about my broken arms. I broke Both of my arms at the same time. Skateboarding or something. It was the summer of eighth grade and I wish it was from skateboarding. It seems like a way to do it. That would have been a cooler way and a more honorable way, but this was a very humiliating, humbling experience. I kind of kickstarted my. other addictions into pain pills and opiates and stuff like that. So I'm hanging out with some buddies and we're drinking. I drank two six packs of Schlitz malt liquor, the tall boys. We finished off a fifth of Jack Daniels, uh, between a few people. And everybody else went to sleep. I was supposed to go see this girl. This is when I had a Nokia brick phone. That's when the Nokia brick phones were popular. And I remember trying to call her. She stopped answering. It's like midnight. I black out. I come to, it's like 6 30 in the morning. I end up Waking up one of my buddies and I couldn't figure out how to get out of the house To leave to go to this girl's house and we're gonna try to go to this girl's house I convinced my buddy who's completely sober to come with me and he'll probably hopefully listen to this and he's a great dude and We ended up taking this trip To Lord knows where we were going. Cause I didn't. And I remember the sun's coming up. It's hot. It's humid. It's Houston, Texas. The birds are chirping. There's humidity on the grass. There's. This new housing development that I saw and I had a little bit of marijuana and I was like Let's go smoke weed in those brand new construction houses I've always loved houses and new construction and let's go smoke some weed in those new houses and my buddy's like How are we gonna get into those houses? And I was like just wait here and I'll get us in I climbed this like nine foot metal rod fence. The first time I get, it's so humid and, and wet from the morning dew that I slide down. So I do it again, slide down. Third time's a charm. I get up there. My right pant leg is caught on one of these iron metal rods at nine feet and I'm standing. Nine feet on this metal fence. My pant legs caught my genius brain thought if I could jump high enough, I would be able to jump off the fence and free my pant leg. Well, that caught it's true that it could have happened, but I didn't jump high enough. I didn't jump high enough and I fell straight down, put my arms out. I didn't know my left arm. I looked at my left arm. It's a parabola. I could see the white of my bone. You know? I didn't know my right arm was broken, so I go to pick myself up. My right arm crunches like a can. It's a Z. I break my wrist and a couple other spots in my arm. My buddy goes and hops a five, six foot wooden fence. Right next door. And I was so pissed. And at this point, I'm not really You've already tried two times. Yeah. And I'm not, I'm in pain, but not really because my adrenaline's going. I'm wasted still. Um, and then he calls my buddies. They put up a ladder. One of my buddies gives me a shirt and I make a little sling for my arms. They take me to my mom. I'm like, dude, take me to my mom. I need my mom. And I go home, I'm freaking out, my mom takes me to the hospital. I remember they didn't want to give me morphine, because they were like, you smell like a brewery. And I'm like, no, I haven't had anything to drink. So they give me the morphine, finally, and I kind of black out. I come to, my mom's like crying, there's a toxicology report. I'm in a hospital bed at this point. And then there's literature on teens and alcoholism and drug addiction. And that right there is like when the first seed was planted. And I think that's when my mom really knew that there was an issue and that kind of inspired and influenced a lot of the outpatient, uh, conversations that we had, and I went to teen and family in Houston and yeah, she was doing everything she could for you. Oh, yeah. She never stopped. She never gave up. Yeah. And that's why we're here today. And I'm so blessed to have the loving, unconditional love from and support from my family. I love it, man. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very grateful. And how did you, like, happen to land in Fort Collins? Like, what was that? So season? Yeah, that was the end of my drug and alcohol career. That was Right there, that moment? No, no, no. Oh, when you moved to Fort Collins. That was your fresh start. Well, I started off in a halfway house in Loveland. Fresh, fresh, fresh start. Okay, interesting. And I came here with like 36 bucks, a duffel bag, and a trash bag. And a suspended driver's license. From the state of Texas. They should have never gave me a driver's license, to be honest. Here in Colorado, you mean? Uh, probably that, too, cause No, but In the first place. In Texas. Right, you were never safe in Texas. Well, yeah, I didn't end up driving until I was 18, cause thank God my parents didn't buy into my Bullshit. Yeah, they knew you. I would have killed myself. I would have killed myself, I would have killed someone else. But what brought me here was the final straw that broke the camel's back. It was um, this is insane. So the day that I went to jail, so I went to jail. Right? For a public intoxication. How old are you? I was 21. So we're, we'll speed it up to 21. And um, I went to jail for a public intoxication the day that I was supposed to go to rehab. In Michigan. I already had a bed. I'd get wasted and talk to these people on the phone for hours just to appease my parents. And buy some time. And uh, the final day came. And I was like, Mom, Dad, let me go get drunk one last time. So I'm hanging out with a homeless dude. Drinking in downtown Houston. You don't really have any friends, hardly, Mark, cause you've been in the city for Oh, I burned all my bridges. Like I was a horrible human being. I wouldn't have been my friend. And I'm glad a lot of people cut me off and didn't continue to enable me. Cause that's what helped me reach that bottom. And when my parents let go of that and just gave it over to God and trusted that. Everything was going to be okay. That's when things started to change. And the moment that I was hanging out with that homeless guy, I was so lost in the sauce. I had no fucking clue what was going on. Right. I got arrested that night. With him, we're hanging out, he probably loved it because he needed a place to stay breakfast in the morning. That was like his go to routine, probably like a day in the life for him, you know, which I hope he's doing better. I hope he found what he needed to find. And, uh, yeah, it was crazy looking back and just even telling you about all this, it's like a bad story or a nightmare. I go to jail, I get out, six hours later I meet these guys in jail. We, um, plan to meet after and kinda swap some goods. So, six hours after getting out of jail, the day that I'm supposed to go to treatment in Michigan, everything's teed up, I've got my flight ready to go. I miss that, obviously, going to jail. Six hours out of being in jail. I end up with another charge. This charge isn't so light. It's a two to 20 year sentence. Cause it's a third time offense with controlled substances and other things involved. And at that time, uh, you're like, maybe I need to leave Texas. I, I didn't know what was going to happen. I had accepted my fate and I was like, I'm way too good looking to go to prison. I can't do this. You got a pretty mouth. Yeah, exactly. Dude. I didn't want to be with Bubba and I was with this guy and this guy, God bless his soul, a huge black dude. And he was super ripped. And I asked him the first day that I was there, I was like, this is a second entrance into Harris County. And I asked him why I was there. He killed his girlfriend and tried to kill himself. And that's the moment that I was like, I've. do not belong here. These are like criminals. These are hardened criminals. There was a lot of gang violence. Harris County is the second most violent, um, county jail in the nation. LA County is number one cause of gang violence. And in that moment I knew I had to do something different. I kind of got some sleep that night. They started calling my name on the intercom and this guy wakes up cause I'm not getting out of bed. I'm like finally falling asleep. I'm going to be here a while. I don't have to go. Um, That's my thought process, right? And I'm still in this like drug induced psychosis state of mind. He's like, you're going to talk to, you're going to your court case. And I was like, okay, I'm going to my court case. So I go to my court case. The DA let me go because he had called my dad. The previous DA got murdered. The new DA called my dad and said, what do you want us to do with your son? My dad was like, he's a good kid when he's not drinking and doing drugs. So they let me go straight to Michigan to go to a medium security rehab, did not pass go, did not collect 200, but I got to go to rehab and from rehab, I went to a really, um, cool, sober living at the time until they kicked me out for not doing some chores. But I've let go of that resentment, and I've forgiven you, if you're listening. That's here in Northern Colorado? That was in Loveland on 4th Street, and that's kind of what inspired How did that get synced up? There was just a sober living house there that had openings, and this rehab in Michigan found them? So the way it works, they already had a relationship with the coordinator at the treatment center. They released me to Loveland. And my parents, I wanted to go to California. And, uh, my parents were like, you're not going to California. There's too many drugs in California. Yeah, they're like, I want to go to Orange County. So I'm like daydreaming of palm trees on this bunk bed in treatment. They're like, you're not really a weed guy, even though you smoke weed, but Colorado's better than California. Absolutely. And best decision. Ever made they sent me to Loveland and thank you mom for not giving up on me and and not buying into my bullshit And it's like you didn't drink after that. No, I haven't drank my sobriety day. It's may 1st 2013 I haven't had a drink since and my life has freaking Exponentially exploded. For sure. And that's what's inspired my passion with Abundance, and I would have never met Gabrielle Judge. My, the love of my life. I love Gabrielle so much, and we just complement each other so well. And none of that would have been possible if, if that pain didn't turn into purpose, and we didn't see. Yeah. You know. For both of you. Yeah. Um, and we're gonna unfold some of this Abundance Foundation work Um, when we come back from a break, but I'm an old guy with a small bladder. So we're going to do that real quick. All right./ The Loco Experience is sponsored by InMotion, providing next day delivery for local businesses. If you need anything delivered in Northern Colorado, InMotion's flat fee service is a great resource for your business. Delivering from the Wyoming border to Denver and anywhere in between, their clients range from small breweries to realistic companies. InMotion can deliver almost anything you can imagine. If this fits a need for your business, contact InMotion directly by emailing them at InMotionNoCo at gmail. com. That's I N M O T I O N N O C O at gmail. com and mention you heard it on the loco experience. Um, so when we departed, you were fresh into Loveland and freshly sober and with fresh hope. Um, do you remember? I feel like we met probably as soon as like 2015 or something like that. Yeah, it's, it's, it was early in my loco think tank days. That's when I was, I think it was 2015 going into 2016 and, yeah. I didn't think you like me at first'cause I would always like yell at you. You bras Well you were always like, loco noco guy. I didn't know like the no co loco and No, I liked you. I, I, I did. Um. You know, I would definitely say you came out a little strong at times. Uh, but I did, I think, I hope you felt that within like three, six months, you know, and much certainly after that. But yeah, you were, my first impression wasn't. As positive as it is with some other people. Or my second or my third. But now it's better. But by like what, after I saw the bus benches, I was like, he's my style. Now you get it. It wasn't because of the bus porn. Yeah. Well, it was. Well, and especially later as. You know, we've kind of been acquainted for a while since then, and you, you subbed for me back in the 2020, uh, Wild West Relay. Oh, yeah. When I hurt my calf, uh, and, you know, ran that Greeley in the freakin heat thing. But even through that time, and even, you know, as, even leading up to that time as the pressure to have, Politically acceptable speech come out of your mouth and only such things and there's certain things you can think and say and there's certain things that Appropriate people don't think and say, you know, I think you and I kind of vibed over that general notion Yeah during those seasons leading up not that I've got any desire to spread vulgarities or lies or things But I want to say what I want to say Yeah, you know, and I think both of you guys, it's a really significant thing. And that needs to be highlighted. That's, that's a really key component of America. You know, without the perceived threat on freedom of speech, uh, Trump wouldn't be our president. Absolutely. Um, and, or without, with freedom of speech, he would definitely be our president. Who knows? Like, depending on how you want to see the last few elections. Yeah. And we're going to get into the faith family politics topics, uh, here shortly. But before we do that, I do want to, um, dig into the abundance foundation chapter and maybe a little bit into your early career as well, Gabby and the, the seasons before Wix and like, what was college like for you? I assume you went to college, got a degree and stuff. She's super smart. So, um, and maybe we can shift actually back to you. for this chapter, Gabby. To wrap it up. To wrap up kind of that leading up to today and then we'll get into the Abundance Foundation chapter and then the closing segments. Yeah, so I, I graduated from Poudre High School in 2015. Yeah, 2015. I started at the University of Arizona. I went out of state for the first three semesters. Flagstaff, right? Uh, that one's Tucson, even worse. Northern Arizona University. Yeah, NAU. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um, I went there because I, you know, my senior year of high school, I was doing a lot of partying with CSU and CSU guys just hanging out with guys that were way too old and, you know, things that just weren't safe and I was like, oh, I already did the CSU thing. Like, why would I be here? My family life was just so in crumbles. I was like, I need, like, two states for that. In front of us. Like I need to like get out of here. Yeah, and I wanted to be an alcoholic like low key. I didn't want to I didn't want anyone to see me. I just wanted to like do whatever I was doing and just still the stimulants as well Too. Yeah. Oh, yeah, molly. I used to sell molly. I used to be an r. a Selling Molly to dorms and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I really liked all that stuff. I was a really bad Molly dealer. Cause I used to do all my Molly and share it with every girl that I loved and they wouldn't pay me and I'd be like, no, that's okay. It's fine. Yeah. It's all good. Um, so I was, yeah, I was a bad deal. A low profit, low margin. Yeah. Well, that's why everybody starts into dealing, you know, like you just want to smoke your weed for free. Yeah. So you buy an ounce instead of a quarter and then you sell three quarters and theoretically you smoke your weed for free. Yeah. And I was a huge EDM girl, like rave stuff. I had a bunch of Red Rocks and stuff. That was my whole thing. I used to spend all my money, all my time there racking up credit card debt. drugs and doing all that stuff. So I was doing that and, um, that's kind of my coming of age is like EDM shows like Red Rocks, um, fish. I used to go to fish every year. So just some crazy areas for like a 15 year old girl. I'm a dabbler. Like I've gone to fish shows. I've been to widespread and things and whatever, but like, I didn't. Dude, I'm a hunch, you know, it's weird music twice. I feel like the only way to enjoy that music is if you are on drugs. You have to. Yeah. In my opinion, you just have to, I mean, I've taken him in sobriety. He's got, we've gone sober and stuff. It's still fun, but it's, it's a lot. And, um, yeah, so I started at U of A. I was trying to double major with computer information systems and computer science. I just was trying to get the most bang for my buck. Computer science was really big back then. So 4ChadGBT could code for you. So I was like, I just really want to, like, make money. My mom stayed with my dad because of financial reasons. And so I, I learned this idea of if I'm not rich, I'm going to be Reliant to an abusive man. Yeah, so I was kind of running away from this like weird thing that absolutely needed a lot of therapy for sure and through school Um, I ruined it. I my grades were horrible I was having panic attacks from my drug use and I kept checking myself into hospitals and I would be like I think i'm dying and then they'd like put me on an ekg or whatever that thing's called and they're like No, you're having like a panic attack and I'd be like, Oh, okay. And you know, 800 later, it's just all the time. My mom was so pissed at me. So I eventually moved back home to Colorado state university. And that's where I graduated. I got a computer information systems degree. Uh, really cleaned it up cause I was living in the basement with my mom. So, cause she lives in old town, um, with my stepdad now. And, uh, they moved in together when I was, uh, in school or yeah, at U of A. And, um, yeah. Yeah, I tried to clean it up, and I got a scholarship to study abroad in Thailand my junior year. That was super exciting, and I was just, yeah, I was trying to clean it up. I really wanted a job in tech, so I got my first job in 2018, right before the Thanksgiving break of my senior year. So I started working at a company called Patronix. It's a big, big, uh, restaurant vendor for, uh, Um, think about like, this isn't their client specifically, but it's like the same shit. So with Starbucks, right? You have the Starbucks app and then the rewards program. And then that's what we built. Um, so I was working with like some big companies like Pete's coffee and, um, caribou and, and, and all that. And I was really implementing these systems within their framework. Yeah. And then I was basically like climbing the corporate ladder. Pretty good. I mean, I was getting a lot of visibility. It's not like a huge, huge tech company. Um, and you're a woman in a tuxedo. Yeah, there was that was we were talking about the tech bro is right. Yeah, and I was like the only girl Yeah, right. So there and I was used to that diversity promotion or you just worked harder. I think both Right, I think both like because my manager she was my manager at that time But she was she had gone through the same program the year before and she found me at a career for at CSU and she saw That I had my CIS Degree, like little on my name tag. And she, I remember she pointed at me too. My, then my, then get boss. Yeah. She was like, geter. So I think there was a little bit of that, right?'cause it was 2018, so that was like, for sure a big, a big deal. And I was, oh yeah. Well, and that was right in the heart of the Me too. Yep. Yep. So that definitely worked in my favorite, the job market was super great in that year too. How was it, by the way, were you, because you're. Pretty young thing. Was there Me too stuff going on in the tech bro world when you got there. I didn't get any of that. Okay. Yeah, I'm good. Yeah. I'm glad. Yeah, no, just curious. I was still left out. Yeah. I felt super left out. Wish I would've had a little more sexual harassment during my corporate career. Yeah, it's offensive. The burnout and the, uh, the implications that if I didn't party with people, uh, to get ahead, that was. I felt that a little bit more at Wix, and I'll just say that. There was a little bit of that, but um, I followed up with HR and did all the things you're supposed to. But kind of towards the end, because I was like, what am I going to do? Just like, what I felt is that they were kind of more of a fraternity in the way that they hung out, which is like, cool, but it's um I don't know why I needed to get asked out every time I went into the office. It was just kind of like, it's 10 a. m. Like, I don't want to grab coffee after this. You know what I mean? And like, I'm cool. Like I'm flattered. It's not like I'm like anti that stuff, but it was a little distracting, you know, or like every time, okay, this is weird. So I got a little bit of that at the bigger tech companies for sure. But, um, the first one, no. And then. Yeah, I was climbing the corporate ladder and I was doing all the things and then, you know, it was a really rough market. I mean, 2020 to 2022 is rough. And so I thought I was gonna stay at that company forever and retire there. I was still kind of in that dream job propaganda that millennials have gone through and I was like, no, this is it. And then I got a concussion, uh, 2020. One, I think. Okay. And I couldn't work for the first time ever in my life. I like, that was, I had to Can I ask how you got the lamest story ever, I'm not It's the lamest, it's not as cool as his I thought she was joking when she told me this story. Yeah, because we were together and I was like, no, this is like a whole thing. We weren't living together yet. Um, I was in Cherry Creek, that's where I was living at the time, and I was in a high rise, and it was uh, uh, April, It was 420 actually, the morning of 420. Uh, I was grabbing some Starbucks at like 6am. There was like a weird sheet of ice everywhere, which is kind of weird for April. And so the apartments didn't, uh, ice it or anything. And I just literally, like, my head's here, my feet are here, and I just go, whoop. That's it, on the ice, and I couldn't see, I couldn't, you know, I was pretty Somebody find you and had to get help. Yeah. Someone found me. And then I was worried about her stepping on my AirPods the whole time. And then I tried to say like, you're stepping on my, and I couldn't talk. And I was like, it's rough. And I could only see out of pinholes. And I remember like fighting the urge to puke. And then I just like went down. Um, so anyways, like kind of anticlimactic, but the part that was climactic about it was like, it was the first time in my entire life where. I wasn't working. Yeah. I had so many jobs as a kid, like so many part time jobs to hit 40 hours while still at work. Just always doing shit school. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where anti worker robots came out of. Cause I was like, what do I actually want to do now that I'm not staring at my screen during the pandemic? And it was like, Oh yeah, I think I want like a personal brand. Yeah. Yeah, I think I want to, I think I want to try the social media stuff out. And I had been drop shipping and side hustling all different types of things as a kid and in college and in, you know, some legal, some not, of course. And, um, you know, now that I've, I've really grown out of that and, and been able to like really harness all of this together. Um, I think staying sober and making sure that I just have a good conscious, it all works out. And so that's where the social media stuff came out. Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. Um, If you had, like, advice for, for young graduating from college women, especially in the world right now, I'm sure you do all that all the time, but like, if you're going to boil it down to one or two things that are kind of universally applicable. Yeah, if you're like obsessing about that one weird thing in your head, and it's like too scary, and you kind of think about it after work, or you think about it during work. Like just do it. It's that that's something there, whether, whatever you believe in, I believe in God, but whatever it is, like, that's, there's something telling you that's possible if you can think it, it's possible. So, um, I think that's really important. Um, and like trusting yourself, I think is important too. I think that young people right now are very indoctrinated to think a specific way. Um, I don't think that it's beneficial in every case. I don't think that you, you need to get what you want through a victim mentality. And I think that's what a lot of young folks are taught right now is like, You're either a colonizer or the colonized and, uh, this divide and Yeah, that victim mentality is definitely not productive for anybody. For anyone, and no one wants to listen to it. And also, it doesn't benefit you. Like, just thinking about some belief systems that I think we're encouraged to think as young people right now. Who does it even benefit even believing it? Right. So even if it is true. Right? Like, let's just move on. That's been a beautiful joy of most of my life is that what seemed like the worst things to happen to me were like the opening page for a new better chapter. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and for both of you guys, I've heard a lot of that kind of content already here too. Yeah. Um, I'm going to shift back to you, Matthew, and the Abundance Foundation, and like, even maybe unfold a story of how you came to be acquainted with the Abundance Foundation. Like that wasn't the sober living environment that you came to when you moved to town, but you somehow met Brian through circles or Otherwise supporting talk to me about that. Yeah inception moment two people that have been really inspirational and influential and impactful in my life through And that's how I met Brian. And that's also how I met Gab. Is through a good friend of mine, Tyler. That's Gabrielle's sister's boyfriend. He was one of my best friends. He still is. But we were a lot closer when he lived here. And he came here from California and he was living at Brian's house. And at this point I had a little bit of sobriety under my belt. He was just getting into sobriety. Tyler. Yeah, Tyler was, and we started hanging out, and it's so funny, I kept seeing him around town, I saw him at the bar, and I'd go to the bar, um, just to hang out, and I actually worked at the Yeti and Rec Room for a while, in sobriety, I had like five different jobs until I got into real estate, um, And I met him, and I saw him, and I kept seeing him in my life, and we became really good friends, and he lived with Brian, and that's how I met Brian, and we were really on to this Abundance Mantra, and Brian was working in IOP, and I think he was working with the institution out of Boulder, and he was doing, yeah, sober living stuff, and Yeah, and really just seeing him in a better way, wondering why there was so much re Yep. Uh, I don't remember, I don't know what the term is. Relapsing. Relapsing We met through Tyler and, and I was getting into real estate at that time and he was doing that. And a few years passed and it was during COVID when he reached out to me and he's like, Hey, I've got some opportunities that came up. I want to start looking into sober livings. And I was like, that's awesome. I'm my heart's in it. Yeah. He had some grant funding to help. Yes, and that was what kick started everything. He came back from Denver And then the first house that we got was a flip that I was going to be doing And it it wasn't the best model of home to use But it was the only thing that we had at the time because we couldn't find anyone that believed in our vision enough at that moment Um, and that was a three bed two bath house That we converted into a women's house and and yeah That's the first house. That's our anchor location here in Fort Collins. And then shortly after that, we picked up a men's house right down the road and we had a hundred percent financing on that. And then we're actually tying up a third, um, deal in Loveland. It will be our anchor location in Loveland, and then we'll be expanding to Greeley. So it's just kind of taken off exponentially in, in the rewards and dividends are very profitable financially because we have a profit business in a nonprofit business. I was going to say, so like the, the, the nonprofit can. paid rent to the real estate ownership company. Yeah. And then we can pay back our investors and they get a great return. So they're getting financial dividends and spiritual dividends knowing they're making a difference in the community. Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. And are the people that live in these sober living houses, are they sponsored in some way or is they, are they paying rent? They're trying to get, it's like a halfway house almost. We have. Right. But better, because we have sober coaches assigned to every tenant that's in the property. And sober activities as well, because there's like a big club too, right? That goes to hockey games or different things. There's community requirements in it. It's great. It's the best program. There's a lot of great sober livings in Northern Colorado, but I think abundance is the cream of the crop. Doing it more better. Yeah. The sober coaching, it bridges the gap that you see in traditional treatment to transitioning and integrating into society. Well, I think living in a neighborhood, in a home that can be a long term situation, Paint your room even if you want to, you know, it's not like, well, maybe not that, but No, we run it tight. It's a tight ship, but we want to help people that want to help themselves. And we do have a lot of freedom and flexibility and other aspects. And we inspire people to go through the program and get their own. But the big thing is you're not like in a big treatment center. No. Right, you're like in community. That's the point I was trying to make. Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, this is helping people that are coming out of treatment that have already detoxed because we don't touch that. We not yet. You're already sober when we get you. Yeah, you're already sober when we get you. And what happens if they relapse while they're with you? Do they have to leave? They have to leave. Yeah, I mean, you can't risk it corrupting the other five people that live in the house or those three people. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Mm hmm. And a lot of, a lot of places won't do that. A lot of places are very lenient. Really? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Well, and I think that's, uh, you know, that's the incentive of dollars, right? Like, somebody's paying over a month that they're there. And, yeah, there's, uh, you know, the, even the whole We could talk about the whole insurance system, probably you seem capable of that. Um, but unless we want to have another three hour podcast, we should, uh, uh, move into our closing segments. Is it already three hours? No, we're, we're like an hour and 20 right now or something, but we still have a lot of stuff to touch on. And, uh, so, um, we mandatory topics are faith, family, and politics. And obviously we've brushed on family. a fair bit with both of you. Um, to me, you seem like your family already, even though, uh, you know, it's time to get a ring, mister. Um, but, uh, like, I'm gonna get you real estate. Real estate is the ring. Oh, You can get those little silicone things. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, because then the cash flow will pay for a really nice ring down the line. Right. Oh, thank you. A 10th anniversary kind of thing. Yeah. If you could show me a ring that's gonna appreciate, like, real estate, Colorado, that I'll get you a rig. Um, so I guess let's just start there like both of you have had kind of, you know, some, some brilliant examples of, of love and family and a lot of examples of, of brokenness, right? In persons and relationships and stuff. How do you like, I guess it's the cornerstone is for you guys, especially as, as sobriety Right? And, and, trust, uh, things like that, respect, that's a foundation, and, and love, and understanding, and, yeah, I think, um, I think we do a really good job at that. Yeah, I mean, especially, uh, dating someone like Matthew, his, his schedule's insane, and I think, um, it takes a specific person to be able to handle that, and there is a lot of respect and patience that needs to be done, right? Cause I could sit there and bitch about him. You know on the phone for six hours a day or on the phone before we're trying to do something or whatever But it's like that is really like what I'm signing up for right? And so I made my peace with that long time ago like when I first met him It was just like can you handle that like can you handle yeah, you know making decisions by yourself and like not having You know, like if he is on the phone for that long, you know, like, can, are you happy doing that? And I absolutely am. But I know that it takes a different type of person. And I think with success in relationships, there's a few categories that kind of make you fall. And I think one of them is like when, when the two people in the partnership try to compete, that's one where I see it doesn't work too often either. And I think a lot of women right now at this, uh, I think feminism is great, but I think it's gone a little too crazy where it's like, I, I should be the breadwinner. I should be the CEO. I should, Make more than a man and you can, and that's cool if you want to do it. But like, I think it indoctrinated women to be like, well, I need to out earn him. And men aren't even trying to compete with us. Like, it doesn't even matter to you guys, like how much we make. And I think women don't really understand that. So it's like, when I started to really like, kind of surrender to this, like, we're not in competition, that helped me. And then, you know, I think, um, another thing too, is like, You know, work is a big part of our life. So we need space to be able to vent about that season when you can make hay. You have 50 hour weeks in you still, you know, I'm, I'm more of a 35 hour a week guy. And I think a lot of lazy boy jobs. Yeah. And I think a lot of partnerships can't respect that either. Sometimes, like, I think one person, sometimes we'll see the other person getting really into work, they want to vent. And then that person will be like, well, it seems like this isn't good for you. And you don't need, you can't hear that when you're in the thick of it. You need encouragement. I think we do a really good job of that too. So every like pitfall that I really see with like two people that are both own businesses or two people that are both successful, I think we're navigating pretty well. Um, but yeah, it kind of goes back to respect and just trusting each other. And I think him and I both have made a huge commitment to our own relationship this year. Matt went through, uh, quite a, a journey in the last like three years and it's been cool to see him really like. Grow into what's important to him as a man. That's been really beautiful to see in his 30s. I like that for sure. I I'm reminded of a I think that's a line from my marriage vow is actually where the pastor was like, you know You can you can think about a relationship a marriage as a 50 50 kind of thing And that's totally the wrong way to think about it. It's more like a hundred hundred Yeah, you know and if you keep your focus on your shared You visions, your shared goals, your shared dreams, you know, how you're pushing toward that is, is In your way. Mm-Hmm. you know, and, uh, so I think that's really neat. Yeah. We really get to create, uh, life by design. We've broken the chains of Yeah. The, the generational traumas, and we get to lay a new foundation and pave a new pathway for our kids. Yeah. When that time comes. Right now we have four french bulldogs. We actually have one French bulldog that's still available. If no one claims him, we're going to have to put him down. He's joking. Yeah, that was a, that was, that was your, that was your relationship trauma this last 12 months, I can tell is, uh, didn't you have like a dozen bulldog puppies or something? That was insanity. But it was so cool. That was, I think that's the first time we've ever really argued. But it, it, it pushes you and it tests you and it's, you see, you find out what you're made of when you're operating on little to no sleep because you're waking up every two hours to latch the puppies. Those dogs shouldn't exist. I love them. They're my favorite dogs. They're number one, but yeah, they shouldn't be. Yeah, Darwin should have taken care of that by now. Yeah. Darwin tries every time they're born. It's hard to keep them alive. Oh, dang. It sucks, but, no, it was really beautiful, but it was definitely like baby practice for sure. A little, little boot camp. Do, uh, do either of you guys want to give a shout out to, um, Mom? Uh, sister, stepdad, any special family members that He's been shouting out his mom. I love my mom so much. You're my favorite person on the planet. Dad, I love you too. I love all my lovely aunts. Yeah, I'm really blessed to have a great family. My mom's one of 16 kids. And my brother's amazing. Your mom's one of 16? It's insane. Oh, dude. It's insane. Irish Baptists. Irish Baptists? Yeah. Oh, that's a, that's a different category than I've heard before. I mean, it seems like they were competing with the local Irish Catholics or something, probably. And probably the Mormons. Right. Uh, same question for you, Gabby. Uh, I want to shout out my little sister. Joey's the best. I love being an older sister. It's my favorite role ever. And, uh, my mom, my mom's awesome. She, uh, has done so much for the two of us. And I think the pain and the turmoil that she got to experience allowed my sister and I to really not repeat the cycle is kind of what he was saying earlier. And it's been galvanized against that. Yeah, it all happens for a reason. Yeah. Yeah. Um, faith, politics. Let's close with politics on the day after November 5th, 2024. Um, have you been really raised in a faithful household? I was raised Catholic, actually, and I never got confirmed because I had too many questions when I was like 13. Um, and I was like, this is a really big, if this is such a big decision, like, I don't know, you know, at 13. Um, I never, yeah, and I never, I never had a bad, a lot of people have, who have left the Catholic church from being a kid have experienced some type of like trauma. Like I never had anything bad happen. You didn't get whacked with a ruler by the demons or nothing like that? No, I had Sunday school at St. Joe's over here on Mountain and stuff, but I, uh, yeah, it was nothing bad. I just had a lot of questions like, who am I praying to when I pray? And I think they were very distracting in class. Right, right. Um. So, yeah. Well, I think, I think there's an argument to be made that there is some vagueness in the Catholic faith about, you know, am I praying to Jesus? Am I praying to the priest? Yeah. You know, where's the Virgin Mary fit in? Yeah, 13 year old mind, you're like, wait, so like, but when I make a phone call, right, I'm calling someone, so if I'm praying, like, who am I praying to? That was just kind of my logic, and it, it, my mom got some feedback that that was distracting in Sunday school and stuff, these questions. Okay. Yeah. So I was like, okay, like if I'm supposed to get, get confirmed right now, I'm not going to do it. So technically I, I haven't gone through all my sacraments to be an adult Catholic, but, um, I'm definitely religious. Um, I would say I'm definitely, I believe active in a church right now. No, I, we definitely, like for me specifically, I kind of take all religions at the same time and I think they all have an importance. And I think, uh, AA is also like very important to us and just following that guide and. Um, we'd love to get involved with churches and that's the thing, having a, having a higher power. Yeah. Whatever you name it. Yeah. Yeah. I think is kind of the more essential in some regards. Now I can, you know, obviously Christ has a special place for me and my faith journey and whatever, and so I'm not saying everything's equal, but I think from a practicality of life, um, you know, there's a reason most of those wisdom books have a lot of the same content. Well,'cause if you don't believe in a higher power, you start to. pretend and play God, and that's where the controlling comes in, the binary of thinking. of your own life, and then you can always be disappointed by all these things that go wrong in the world if you're really God, or the state becomes the God. Yes. And that's even more dangerous, right? And we've kind of seen that. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, there's a new religion that's been, um, you know, defeated at the ballot box this season. Yeah. Um, yeah. Matthew, uh, what was that journey like for you, or is it like for you? It really started in that jail cell where I was like, Alright God, that foxhole prayer became the sealed deal. Signed, sealed, delivered. And I, I honored that commitment moving forward. Can you get me out of here? Out of this spot? I'm not a real prison guy. Yeah, I'm gonna clean this up and I'll do everything I can to honor and serve and and that's that's continuing Yeah, God is my favorite act acronym. Okay, we check this out. You can tuck this here. So just pull in your ear. Yeah But yeah God to me like the the one of the coolest acronyms that I like is gift of desperation Cuz God came into my life And that gift of desperation in that moment, my life changed forever. I wouldn't be sitting here talking with you. I wouldn't have Gabrielle by my side and have the life I live today. And continuing to enlarge and grow that spiritual condition is definitely a priority. I don't do it perfectly, and I definitely put them on the back burner. And I try to take over on the driving. Sure. Yeah, when it's going good, I'm like, God, I got it. I got it. And then I got to remember, like, during the good times is also a celebration, you know? Yeah, yeah. I think that's good. Um, well, if you, uh, if you ever want to check out our church community, ours is, uh, Sunday at 10. Where do you go? Uh, the Crossing Church. It's at Shields and Horsetooth in Fort Collins. Shields and Horsetooth. Okay. Um, are you guys, did you guys move to Loveland now? No, so we were going to, but now we're going to turn that into a run. So it's not far from your neighborhood there even, really. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. It's a, it's a good, there's so many young people. Uh, like I would say, I bet two thirds of our church is below 40. Nice. I like the diversity though. I like the buffet of experience and I love old people. Frankly, we're pretty diverse. We got a handful of old people and we've got like, I wouldn't say we have, we don't have very many like Asian couples, but we've got a lot of mixed marriages. So we've got some color, you know, there's some Hispanics. We've got some Asians. We got a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Habla Espanol. Yeah, I mean, most of us don't, but, um, but we're like, it's, it's a very diverse group, both in, you know, we're more diverse than the traditional Fort Collins white bread, uh, neighborhood church, I would say. That's awesome. Um, so yeah, I'll give you the info anytime you want to check it out. Absolutely. Um, politics, you came in wearing your, uh, your flag. Red, white, and blue, baby, my pronouns are USA. So, um, we're here in Larimer County, which, uh, remains a solidly Biden territory. Harris Territory, I don't know. Yeah, who's who? Who is Harris? Do you want to, let's just have some commentary on like, now that it's over the, this was the most unpredictable and Action event filled campaign season I've ever seen. No question about it. I mean, we had assassination attempts. We had coup or something like that. We had this crazy coalition of discarded Democrats and Tulsi and Bobby Kennedy. And, uh, I love Bobby Rogan. It's a, that's a crazy time to be alive. What, uh, like, Matthew, thoughts, uh, like, can Trump actually change things? Like, to be honest with his first term, he like spent a bunch of money and, uh, upset the balance of the budget and stuff. I wasn't too impressed his first term. Um, he makes the case that he was setting the stage for, you know, the, the, the growth to come. And I think that's the, the secret. If you could have a, Yeah. Yeah. A 3 percent growing economy instead of a 1. 5 percent growing economy, a lot of things change in the long run. Especially when our debt is being paid. It's a 25 percent interest rate. If you didn't know that on, on trillions of dollars, right? 25 percent is a lot of money. No, it's not 25%. We need a fact checker in the room. No, it's like 7 It's a lot. Treasury, treasury bills are five and a half. It's a lot. It is a lot more than it used to be. Department of defense spending, I think is what you're talking about. The one that Elon Musk was referring to. Yeah. It's probably the department of defense. I think that's the most exciting thing is that notion of a government efficiency. Yeah. Kind of thing. You know, if, if Twitter can do without 80 percent of its workforce, what's that look like for the federal government? I think the only And how can they use AI and programs to Yeah. Be simpler, more fair? I love Elon Musk. Um, I know that's very controversial online. I don't know why. But, um, I, I do think that fundamentally he's a net positive to the world. I think he's going to go down in history as like our Nikola Tesla kind of thing, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, but with him, the only thing, I think it's great, I personally think it's great to sometimes have billionaires instead of politics and governments because they're not as, uh, easily swayed and they obviously have a proof of success, but I understand that the only thing that I have an issue with that is he has a lot with it. at stake via regulation. So just making sure that someone's regulating him as well in those decisions and the checks and balances because he's got a lot at stake. Well, yeah. And with power comes corruption. Yeah. I'd hate to see that. And I think it's our responsibility to hold everybody, no matter what side you're on accountable and make sure they're congruent to what they're saying in the actions match. And if that's the case, I think we're in for a really good four years, but I don't know what that looks like. Yeah. Yeah. I think the open slate is pretty, the canvas is pretty open right now. Um, you know, the victory has been won, you know, where are they going to put Kennedy? Where are they going to put who, you know, and, and I think the, I saw a Jon Stewart blow up about, um, pollsters, uh, you know, You can take your polls and like bite me from now on. Like, I don't believe you. I think we should all question the legacy media. Yeah. Then if you're not questioning the media by now, after seeing everything that's happened, I think I first really opened my eyes during COVID and I was like, the media is intentionally trying to crash the markets and guess what happened? The markets crashed. So that reassured my concept and thoughts. That was a buying opportunity for. Black rock and all those other, uh, it was insane. I think it's going to be an interesting, like, aside from the swing in the electoral college and whatever from last time, but there's a lot of States that, you know, we're 23 percent blue in 2020 and now they were 11%. Yeah. She underperformed Biden's results everywhere, which So I think there's a few things that happened. I think that she lost the moderate white female vote. Um, for sure, and that is because of the, the abortion stuff. So, how I feel with the abortion stuff is, she wanted us to be a single issue voter with that. And there were a lot of people that were. Oh yeah. I know a number of them. Oh yeah. Um, and here's what, here's what I'll say about that. One, I, I do think that having abortion only as her talk, her main talking point, I think one is a little bit offensive. I do think that having abortion only as her talk, her main talking point, I think one is a little bit offensive. Uh, in general, I think that there's much other opportunities, things to focus on to benefit women. Uh, in my opinion, it's the border. Uh, in my opinion, it's, it's strengthening the economy so that we have consumer trust and most of the social issues will figure itself out with that, right? And we're not having an existential crisis about where our money's going. Yeah, loss of trust is, uh, throwing sand in the, in the gearbox of the economy. And impeding, uh, free speech. I think, I think that was a little ridiculous and I, Hillary Clinton's remarks with the whole like Promising to do more of it. Yeah. She was like, social media is crazy because, I'm paraphrasing of course, but she was like, social media is crazy because we can't control the misinformation. Doesn't allow us to have total control. Yeah. Oh. Okay, the government should never be focusing on what is hate speech and the definition of it. I don't that doesn't make any sense to me. The reason that there is free speech is and allowing that is because the bad speech will work itself out. Right. And because we are allowed to be a democracy together. But just with the the abortion stuff, I just I can't follow the thought process anymore, because it was this whole in the beginning, like, Men shouldn't be making decisions about our body, then Trump literally says, okay, I won't make it. It's not a federal issue, and it is a philosophical, spiritual, medical issue that should go to the states, and you should be able to decide instead of me, a man, and that's considered anti abortion, that's considered all these things, and this whole like war on a woman's autonomy, and I just didn't bite for it. I saw the legacy media really going for that, and I find it to be disrespectful to the intellect of the regular moderate woman. Like, I think that's where she really lost us. I would tend to agree. And, and the media lost it in some of the blatant clip manipulation and lies. Yeah. Like that, that line, uh, I'm going to, you know, basically I'm going to protect the women from the illegal immigrations, whether they like it or not. And they're like, I'm going to do it. Whether the women like it or not is what gets put on the news. And they repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. It's like, you just can't take stuff out of context. Like democracy. There's been, Oh my God. There's been some weird celebrity things that have been weird like, uh, Robert Downey Jr. recently was like, with like the Avengers or whatever the fuck they were in and they're all in this zoom call wearing like Harris shirts and they kept making jokes about like what her new hashtag should be for, you know, Terrace. And they were like, how about down with democracy, like getting down with democracy and they kept going like down with it and I'm like, dude, what is like on a zoom call or something? I was like, are they trolling us? Like what is going on? It's like, are you down with democracy or are you down with democracy? Yeah. That was just silly. It was so weird. And maybe they did that on purpose. I have no idea. I don't know, but it's just, it was a lot of that. Right. And so we can be unburdened by what has been and blah, blah, blah. In the vortex. Yeah, and, and being, working in social media, obviously for a living, I understand how to clip someone, I understand how media can take things, and so I just couldn't take the bait on that stuff, and I never spoke freely about it with My following and in my content because I felt like it was too big of a fish to fry this year Yeah, and I wish I well, we're not very popular. So you probably won't get outed by this podcast About talking about it like this. No, I'm not here, but I on my platform I never want to come off as someone that's gonna endorse a president. I find that whole endorsement ship to be Stupid like if you're if you're voting for someone because someone you follows You know what I mean? But then also, I guess like one could use that same argument about an influencer in general and like, who cares about influencers? I get it. I get the whole thing, but you know, so for me, like endorsements isn't really my big thing. I consider myself more of like an entertainer and a philosopher when it comes to our relationship with work. And so that's my boundary. And so for today, I don't want to be in politics, but that may change down the line. I hope you do. Trump said he didn't, he wasn't going to be in politics for a long time. I'm thinking, uh, JD Vance, 2028 with Tulsi Gabbard, Tulsi Gabbard's first woman president. Yeah. I'd be on board for that. Tulsi Gabbert's awesome, yeah. Um, The Loco Experience is our closing segment. That is the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share. If the broken arm thing was your craziest, then you can do that, but I bet you've got another crazy experience, Matthew. Who wants to start? Gab, do you want to start it? I don't think I have one. You don't have any crazy experiences? I'm thinking. Okay. Well, I bet Massey's got five more. I've got one. Mm hmm. So, I remember being at, um, um, Mexican bar in, in Houston, Texas, and, uh, You were like 19, 20 or something? Yeah, probably, uh, younger than that. Okay. My ex, ex girlfriend's uncle owned the bar, I believe, and it was, it was predominantly Mexican and I, I would go there on the weekends, it was awesome, we'd get bottle service. And I got a little too drunk one night. And I don't know what I was running from, probably the police. Try not to go to jail, doing something dumb, or And I guess I hid somewhere, and where I hid, I ended up coming to. It's like 1am now, and I'm coming to You're like hid behind a dumpster or some shit, whatever. I'm actually in the back of a dump truck that's moving. And we're going, and it's like midnight, 1 a. m. in the morning, and we're driving. And I'm like, what is going on? It's like sandy, I see the stars moving, just going fast above my head. And then I kind of sit up and I'm like, what am I doing? And I look around and I realize, like, I'm in a Dump truck so I try to go and knock on the garbage like on top of the cab or some shit I try to get on top of you know those big trucks that deliver gravel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah in sand to construction sites So I'm in the back of one of those right who knows how I got in there. I can't even like reached I can't even get out of it I can't even climb it to get out of it But I climb it enough to get to the top and we're going and I'm trying to knock on the hood At that moment, I'm wide awake. Like on the top, you mean, not the hood, but the The top of the truck, yeah, not the hood. Above the guy's head, above the cab. Yeah, yeah. So I'm trying to knock on, above the cab. I can't reach it, so I kind of sit back, enjoy the ride. We stop. We're going to get a load of sand. If I wouldn't have came to, I would have been buried alive. So did you go, like, jump out of the back of the truck as you were, like, pulling up to the sand dumper thing? I couldn't jump out. I couldn't get out. But I could pull myself up enough to yell at the guy when he got out. And I was like, hey, I'm back here, dude. I'm in the back of your truck. Imagine being that driver that day. He didn't speak English either. He didn't speak English, but It was insane. I'm sure he knew enough to Figure out that you didn't want to be back in the back of the truck when he got his load. And I'm like, baracho, baracho, which means like drunk. And I'm sure he could tell right away. And, and he brought me into the cab and he let me use his phone. He dropped me off at a gas station. My mom picked me up. I love you, mom. And life goes on. That was a pretty low impact one there. Yeah, that was good. Getting near death. It could have been bad. Yeah, yeah. It's a pretty crazy experience, nonetheless. Gabrielle? Oh, the craziest experience. I think, well, I have like a positive one that isn't like super crazy. Um, so I, uh, 60 Minutes Australia came here to, um, cover me. And so, they were in our house, which was exciting for us, and, um, my first ever, like, it was like a Wall Street Journal, um, publication written about Lazy Girl Jobs and stuff like that. It went live that morning, and so they got that on camera, and that was like a really cool day. Um, and then that same day, um, MSN, well, Wall Street Journal went live with an op ed from Susie Welch, who is Jack Welch's, um, late girlfriend. Late wife. Yeah, yeah, GE guy. Yeah, talking, talking a lot of stuff about me. Um, and then they brought her on, um, MSNBC that morning as well. And I saw for the first time, like, slander. You know what I mean? Like, straight up, like, she had never, she didn't know who I was. Like, just, like, made fun of my voice. What she was talking shit about, you know, on the list. Yeah, on MSNBC. Wow. Like, and it was just, like, the, my emotions that day. It was just so crazy. Um, and I think it took me, like, six months to really, like, process all of that at the same time. But That was what, like last summer? July? Maybe last August? And is this kind of stuff still happening? Are people looking you up to have you on TV shows and meet the press and whatever? Yeah, I still get cast in with like documentaries every once in a while. We're much more strategic about it now because I can't get paid. It's got to be strategic. And also I can't just get paid an exposure forever. Um, I'm comfortable with the amount of exposure that I've gotten. And so now it's more about like actually creating like a whole business behind it and hunkering down. So that's the phase that I've been in. So how are you learning to, uh, be a business? Like, are you reading books? Are you listening to podcasts? Are you like following other influencers, seeing how they're developing their business? Yeah, I think I'm really good at looking at, cause, cause our business model, so. In your face, right? I think a lot of people are like, well, I don't even know what to do for content. And it's like, go to the account that you want to be study their videos. And like, that's it. There's no hiding. Cause it's a video it's customer facing. So I'm pretty good at that of like being able to mimic other things and reverse engineer things. Um, I have a whole team around me now, which I'm excited about and grateful for. So it's not just me. I think when it was just me for a long time, it was like this white knuckling until there was that like critical, critical, critical point in the revenue where like it could expand. Um, and now that I am like really in that, it's much more about scaling now. So, I mean, I have my, I have my assistant, Eugene, he's the best. I have a business manager, Alyssa. I have a whole like book team. Um, I get to bring on different independent contractors, of course, for other things. Always looking for an editor. So if you want to put some editors stuff, where should people find you? Um, anti work girl boss on Instagram. I think, uh, my TikTok is still Gabrielle judge and, uh, yeah, over there. And, uh, I write a lot on sub stack. That's probably the best part to really like understand my ethos and, and get to, to connect over there. That's just Gabrielle judge too. And that's anti work girl boss. Yeah. It's all in the link tree on Instagram. Will you like. Will somebody be able to actually contact you if they want to be your editor or something like Just send you a chat on youtube or something on insta collabs at anti work girl boss. It's also a bio of my instagram That's what your uh, executive assistant will take care of that. We got the we got the chaff Matthew, um, you want to tell people how to What was that, uh, tagline? Um, fulfilling your real estate? No, realestate porn.com or something. Yeah. So, uh, you don't have that website anymore? No. It's, it's, uh, Yeah. We, uh, no ads on that keyword anymore, that it's like food porn, you know, the hashtag food porn. I get you. That's where I pulled it from. Yeah. Yeah. And I didn't mean anything by, and I've got another funny story leading into that now that you brought it up. The CEO at the time of the board of realtors called me and was like. I don't know if you want to put hashtag real estate porn. And I was like, it's a voicemail. We could play it, but it's probably too long. It's pretty, it's pretty funny though. So, uh, what's your website? Um, the best way to get contacted or LinkedIn or call me, call me, call me. And you want to just share your number right here right now? Give me a phone call. 9 7 0 6 1 9 1 0 6 3. And then on Instagram, if you want to keep up with the shenanigans, it's Matthew Fugate Realtor. Um, anything you guys want to ask me before we close? Oh yeah, we'll have to do another podcast though, dude. I'll just let you be the guest interviewer. Yeah, dude. Uh, next time. That'd be fun. Thanks for making time. Absolutely. Thank you, man. Catch you soon. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Loco Experience podcast produced and sponsored by Loco Think Tank. This is your producer Alma Arellano. Check out our website at thelocoexperience. com to find all of our episodes, nominate future guests, or leave us a message. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn at The Loco Experience. To support the show, please subscribe and share it with your favorite people. Until next time, stay loco.