Matthew Clegg

Full transcript: Matthew Clegg on London Real

1:12 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Matthew Clegg, recent graduate of our Business Accelerator. Welcome. Thank you very much. Tell us about you. Where are you from, what do you do? So I live in Jersey, the Channel Islands. I used to live in Australia. So I’ve uprooted my family and moved them over to the Channel Islands to sort of bring the family closer to sort of where the rest of our family network is.

1:36 So it’s been a lot of sort of upheaval and movement in our life, but I think we’re sort of planning to settle where we are now. I’ve always been a searcher for kind of a change in my life, and so there’s often been change, but I think now we’re sort of looking for some settled time. And what was going on with you, personal life, and what was going on with your business, before you decided to take the Business Accelerator?

2:00 Well, I think I’ve always, I’m in finance, and I’ve led this kind of double life of being a finance sort of performer and trying to sort of be a high performance person in finance, and at the same time I’ve had this sort of underflow of sort of searching to better myself, both from a performance point of view, but also kind of almost, it sounds so cliche, but at the spiritual level, and looking to sort of find sort of more connectedness.

2:28 And that journey has sort of worked in tandem sometimes, and then I’ve had some very humbling experiences around overwhelm and anxiety and panic attacks, and that led me sort of more to search about maybe sort of giving back, and to try and have something where, maybe in an industry where that’s not talked about, not apparent, to be someone who can then bring both the high performance sort of aspects, but also some techniques to bring calm, connectedness, compassion, into that industry.

3:02 And that’s been sort of an undertow of interest for me for a long time, and I thought of doing some sort of entrepreneurial way of moving into it. I think I’ve put it off for a long time. The Life Accelerator that I did with you prior to this one compelled me that you have to really strike now. I can’t remember what that sort of, some people talk about the best time to start these things is however many years ago, the second best time is now.

3:28 And so that was kind of for me, if I wasn’t gonna do a course like this, then I was probably never gonna take that step and give it a chance. And so that’s the situation for me at the moment that caused me to take that step. Okay, and what was going on with your personal life? I mean, I know you’ve got two boys, you got your wife. What was going on that allowed yourself to feel like you could go ahead and do this?

3:56 Well, I think having children teaches you time management in a way that there is time to make things happen. You realise that when you have children, that there are ways of making things happen that you thought the time never existed. And when you have children you realise you have to stop doing so many other things and just immediately take a leap into what’s in front of you there and now. It is a great sort of, I don’t know, historical confidence booster, that that capacity was there, if that makes sense.

4:34 You know, I thought I was busy before I had children, and then when I had children I realised that I wasn’t busy before. And I realised that unless I took the jump to do it, that I wouldn’t do it, and I would find time. So the low media diet, something that you talk about in the Life Accelerator, gave me that time, and a very understanding wife, in terms of saying, okay, these are the days when you’re gonna be doing your Accelerator work. We’ll make time for you.

5:00 So I’d say I definitely operated on about the minimum time that you can give to the Business Accelerator. You know, I’ve got various hats that I have to wear. I’m an employee. I’m a father. I’m a husband, and then the Accelerator as well, so it was around managing that time and just giving the best that I could. I’m glad I’m not doing a third right away, ’cause I probably would crash and burn. But doing the two together went really well.

5:18 Yeah, you hit some good points here. I mean, they say the best time to plant a tree is a hundred years ago. The second best time is now. So, agree, it’s always now. Everyone always thinks, I’ll do that when I have blah blah blah, but it’s just procrastination. It’s just fear. And then the second thing you said there is about time. I mean, I think Dan Pena told me, if you want something done, give it to a busy person, because they know how to get things done.

5:42 And as well, like, you’re busy doing what? You know, honestly, if you do decide to delete, try deleting Facebook and Instagram from your phone, and then find that you’ll have an extra 10 hours a week. And then kids show you you can get things done when you think you don’t have time. So that’s good observations. And what are you talking about? The banking industry has all sorts of charities. They give back all the time, man.

6:08 Yeah, they do, and that’s great. And I think genuinely there are people there that are giving it, and it’s not a complete sort of anti-banking. I’m still very much involved in finance, and a different side of it. I mean, I was an investment banker on the real cutthroat edge of, I worked for the Australian version of Goldman Sachs. I was in the front office, where there was plenty of screaming and shouting.

6:40 And I considered myself, to some degree, an A-type, go get things done, but when I went to Macquarie Bank, and particularly in the area that I was in, I realised that I had gone from probably having to tone down that level to being very much at the bottom of that type of personality. And so marrying those two traits of being competitive and A-type and trying to get things done, but then also being very interested in my personal development and setting times for meditation and doing those things, was quite an alien concept that I kept quiet about, that I didn’t share with the people that I was doing.

7:15 So I was going and doing those things, going to do my two meditations at work and booking meeting rooms and going to those, and not sort of sharing that, keeping the two lives separate, because they wouldn’t be understood by most people, and now I’m trying to sort of be more open about them. Good, you’d be surprised how much they will understand. Yeah, I think so.

7:35 I mean, when I left my job in banking, you hear this all the time. People say, wow, you did it. I’m so jealous. I mean, that’s 80 percent of the comments you get, is that I wish I could get out of here too. It’s this weird thing. So I think everyone inside knows it’s just a trade. You’re trading your time for money. You’re trading sometimes your dreams, or doing something that has an impact, for, potentially, money.

8:00 And I don’t regret my time in finance, and I don’t regret the banking industry. I think it actually has a great role. But it is just, your job defines you as a person, and no matter what you do, if you’re a cop, or if you’re a banker, or if you’re a judge, or a president, it defines who you are. And so you gotta always understand that, trades. Why London Real?

8:18 Why London Real? I mean, so I found you through Ben Greenfield. You were interviewed by Ben Greenfield, so that’s kind of like how I discovered you. I think I then realised your journey connects with me, because you’re a banker originally by trade, and I saw that you’d gone and done ayahuasca, and I was like, bankers don’t go and do ayahuasca. That is not normal. Or do they? Yeah, but maybe they do. So immediately that kind of got me interested.

8:56 You know, this is someone who, people who go and do those things are quite different. So I was then intrigued. And that’s how I found out about you, and I think somehow, through the clever marketing that you do, I must have got an email about the Life Accelerator, and it came at the right time for me. And I think it was around, I think, the integrity, I think the fact that there was an involvement at a personal level, the accountability.

9:28 I think that’s what brought me to this course rather than another one. In the Life Accelerator, I knew everything there. I just hadn’t layered it and put it all together in my life to repeat the process. In the Business Accelerator I knew nothing. And it was the confidence I got from the Life Accelerator that said, that felt so good that I’ll do this course with you. In the Life Accelerator I decided I was gonna do a business course, but by the end of Life Accelerator I was like, yeah, the integrity’s there, so that’s why I chose you guys.

10:00 All right, so you get into the Business Accelerator. You already know what it’s like in an accelerator. But Life Accelerator is different. It’s six weeks. Again, it’s 18 high performance habits. A lot of them you’ve heard of before. And for some people they’ve tried to do them before, sometimes with success, but when we stack ’em all together in six weeks with accountability, with a group of 150 people, something electric happens. It’s crazy, and you know that.

10:19 Business Accelerator’s different. It’s eight weeks and there’s different tasks. It’s more focusing on creating something that you can add value to other people’s lives, as opposed to kind of changing your own self. So what’s it like those first two weeks? Obviously, we throw you in. I’m asking you to do lots of things about your business. How did you find it? The first few weeks, I think, are comparatively easy, comparatively easy to the rest of the course. They’re still hard.

10:55 I think when you’re evaluating what interests you and what your passions are, that’s kind of exciting. And you get good feedback, or I got good feedback when I went out to my network as well. That was encouraging, and I wasn’t too much out of my comfort zone. That was quite good. That was like, okay, this is interesting. I can see how this works, the model, this could. So that was encouraging.

11:14 But there were areas later on, I mean, one of my traits that is both a good and a bad trait is I’m extremely determined when I set myself up for wanting to achieve something. But I nearly pulled out of this course at one point. There was a point where it was like, this is seriously hard. This is pushing me to the brink. I don’t know if I wanna do this. And I just had to take faith in what happened before, ’cause I was questioning what you were doing at some points.

11:43 It’s like, I don’t know this is what I should be doing for me right now. But the two things was, I went, okay, it’s worked before, and I had questions earlier on and it worked, and then I was just like, okay, better done than perfect. I was like, okay, so it doesn’t feel like I’m ready to do it, but maybe I’ve just gotta jump in. Maybe it’s like the whole sort of idea of, if I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it.

12:05 And what were those things that made you wanna stop? What was the thing? You can be straight up. Tell me. Well, webinar week was a big one for me. Yeah, of course. That’s toward the end of the course, though. Yeah, there were some times before then, but I’d say the one when I really nearly pulled out was webinar week. And I think it was because I wasn’t happy with the quality of everything I’d done. And I was like, I don’t wanna go out there and put this out to people, because I don’t feel like I’m ready.

12:37 And with me, I still get anxiety and overwhelm, and I have to learn how to deal with that. And I was being pushed to the level and going, am I really gonna be able to step up on a webinar and put all this stuff out there? The whole imposter syndrome. Have I got anything to offer people? Can I really do this? Is my product good enough yet? Maybe I need to wait another month. Maybe everyone else is ready, but am I ready?

13:03 And so I thought, is it in my interest to go now? Maybe I should wait a month and let everyone else go ahead, and I’ll just pull out now. I’ve learned enough. I can keep going. But I didn’t take that option. Are you listening to yourself now say that? Yeah, oh, I mean, it was the right thing to do it. Yeah, it was definitely the right thing for me to go through it. But I like the fact that I questioned it.

13:30 And I’m not saying that everyone should, you have to listen to that. Maybe for someone it would be the right thing to stop there. I don’t know, but for me, it was right to push through. And look, it’s intense. Don’t get me wrong. If you actually take a step back and look at what we do in those eight weeks, it’s pretty mind-blowing that you can start with kind of no idea, and then look at the market analysis and do your 10 vlogs and look at the market opportunity map, and come up with an idea to build a website, to build a three-part free video series,

14:01 to create a low-cost product, and then hold a webinar and sell it, and actually get money in your bank account from your ideas. I mean, it’s actually quite mind-blowing. Some of these people don’t even wanna go on Facebook to start off with. I’ve had people that are anxious to be on our video call, let alone film themselves and put it out there. So look, I know it’s a stressful week and it’s really pushing people a lot, and so I understand how you feel about that.

14:27 But how did it feel when you went through it, and how was that webinar? First one was tough. I’d say I probably would have looked a bit nervous, but probably, I’m very good at hiding when I’m in anxiety. I hid it for years. You know, I had panic attacks twice a day at work, like deep, real, full on, and no one knew. Like, everything starts coming in? Oh, yeah, I couldn’t breathe. The whole total, game over.

14:53 I’d go home and collapse in adrenaline overload when it just would dip out, so I have the unfortunate skill and ability of learning how to deal with that. And I nearly went into panic beforehand, which is why, you know, I think for me that’s something I have to be very careful of, at a personal level. But it went well, and it went well enough for me to go, I can do this.

15:21 And I did watch it back and was like, oh, I hated that bit, I hated that bit, but that’s fine, you know, and that’s okay, and that’s how you learn from it. And I did it, and I pushed and did another one, and that went a lot better, and still there’s some concerns there that I need to fix up. And so, you know, I will do more. I will be doing more webinars. And I think I will get to a stage of quite liking them, as opposed to sort of, yeah, I think I actually will quite enjoy it, yeah, bizarrely.

15:47 How many people were showing up to your webinars? Probably not enough. Like, the week before was another very hard week, the hustle week. I found that really challenging, to really hustle. And that’s sort of still a problem for me, which I’ve gotta kind of work out what’s going on there. So I probably had a little less than 20 on the first one and maybe 10-ish on the second one.

16:15 And I have a feeling that I’ll get, I think I’ve got the capacity to sell, and I used to be in sales in finance, and if I believe something and I’m passionate about it, I can communicate that. As long as my integrity is backing it, I feel compelled to share it with people. And so I think that I’ll be able to convey that message and that sort of conviction once I can build up more people coming in. Did you get customers?

16:40 Yeah, I did, yeah. Yeah? How many sales did you make? I think I’m on seven at the moment. That’s impressive. That’s real talk. No, it’s good. Only 20 people on a webinar, honestly, that’s nothing to shake a stick at. That means you probably did more hustling than you thought, or, you know, getting those people there. And selling seven products is incredible, ’cause you’ve got a small class of people that you can take through. The course begins on Monday.

17:07 That’s incredible. And what is your course? So the course is kind of helping people like me, maybe sort of where I was five years ago. So it’s people who, I mean, I think it appeals to more than just that, but the real focus is around people who are overwhelmed, but they want to move to a state of high performance.

17:32 And they probably know that they’ve got it in them, that they know it’s there, but they’re struggling to do it, because they’ve probably got kids and there’s lots of complexities going on in their life, and there’s this sort of build-up of just things and stuff in their life that they can’t seem to get rid of and move to the state that they wanna be, which will then allow them to be more purposeful, more connected, and calmer.

17:54 So it’s sort of a combination of the achievement, but also more grounded, more comfortable, so that it’s sustainable, as opposed to sort of like a fad diet where you achieve great success, can’t sustain it, and then you plummet, wonder why, and then ditch it and move on. It’s sort of, you know, I think life can move in, like, waves or breathing. There’s ups and downs, and it’s being aware of those so that you can have your high performance, but when there’s a dip, realise it and not throw the baby out with the bath water, and then come back and reengage, have your game raised, but still recognise the flows of life.

18:28 I love it. And your target audience is people like you? Yeah, so I think it’s open to anyone, and I market it mostly to men, but women have found it appealing as well, which is great. So just from the way you taught, I’ve gone from a micro-niche to begin with, which is basically dads in the industry, probably finance, probably desk jobs, and it’s how they can, you know, turn having a hundred things on their to-do list that they never do any of in the day to actually starting to get things done when they say they’re gonna do them.

19:08 And to bring sort of more calm into their life as well at the same time, so that they can then go home and spend time with their kids and their wife and the other things that they’re passionate about, and be more connected. And feel like, you know, my wife and I have often said, at the earlier times when we had our children, that we felt we were just in survival mode. And I think there are times in your life when you are, and that’s kind of okay, but I think there’s more to it than that as well.

19:31 I don’t wanna go through x number of years with my family being in survival mode. I want it to be more like it is now, particularly post-Life Accelerator, where I’m getting my stuff done at work and I’m happy and I’m passionate about it, and then I’m going back and I’m committing time to my children and spending time with them and living life way more vibrantly. And that’s kind of what I think the journey that I’m trying to help people go through is aligned to.

19:51 Yeah, I can’t believe you almost didn’t do your webinar. It’s ridiculous. Think of all those people you couldn’t have helped. So that’s amazing. I mean, I love this idea. I love this product, and congratulations to you for pushing through it, and teaching the course is just gonna make you more empowered. You’re gonna get more out of it than your students even. So that’s super exciting.

20:10 Talk to me about the community here. You’re getting to meet a lot of them here at graduation tonight. We got a big dinner with everybody. What’s it been like to have those people involved in your journey, and to look at them inside your team as they go on their journey? Yeah, it’s crucial. I mean, in the Life Accelerator, I think I was way more of a sort of helping people. There were certainly times when I was really pushing, I needed people to help me, but I felt I had capacity to help people more. In the Life Accelerator I think I was more giving.

20:43 In the Business Accelerator I think I was giving to begin with, and then I had to batten down the hatches, ’cause I was like, I just didn’t have as much time to give, because I was like, how the hell am I gonna do this week? It was closing in from all angles, not just the accelerator, but everything. Life just seems to always get busy at the same time. And so that’s when I was probably reaching out to the community more this time than I maybe did last time.

21:10 So, and it’s great to sort of see people in the same boat, to see how they’re going, to be able to learn from those experiences, to see people have difficult times and then all of a sudden be smashing it the next week. Yeah, I mean, it’s crucial. I’ve got the Life Accelerator course for life, and my wife could watch those videos and she could just learn it and do them, but I’ve said to her, don’t do it. You’ve gotta pay the money.

21:36 It’s like, the people, the community, is what it’s all about. It’s there, it’s sitting there on the desk. She could go do it tomorrow. She could be doing it now. But to me, it’s not even half the course if you do it without the community. Yeah, I think when most people buy things online, what they do is they get a password and they get the videos, and they say, do it at your leisure, which means, I think, if the data out there is, five percent of people ever complete an online course,

22:05 whereas I think we’re in the 90-some percent completion rate. So doing it with this team that actually goes through it as a unit, with a lot of calls, and I’m involved, there’s something really special about it. So we know that. It’s great you were on with the Life Accelerator skills, which I think really helps in your Business Accelerator. So, yeah, I’m just so happy that you found this, you got this. I think it’s gonna really change you as a person.

22:21 Talk to me about how you changed. Like, if we walked outside and bumped into Matthew who didn’t take the Business Accelerator, how is that guy different than you? Yeah, and I think maybe summed up, I was chatting with someone at a dinner, and they said, what’s all this stuff you’re doing online at the moment? And I was like, oh man, he’s like thinking I’m such a jerk, such an idiot. He’s poking on your personal Facebook, right? Good for you.

22:54 Yeah, and I was like, okay, I’ll explain all that. And we kind of got cut off for a few minutes, and I came back, and he sort of came in and says, what are you doing? And I was like, oh. Finance. I didn’t wanna, I’m a big believer in that I don’t wanna have to justify my life to anyone, so I didn’t wanna defend it and have to say, oh, it’s doing this and it is amazing. I just said, oh, this is what I’m doing, and he was asking some more questions. And then the penny dropped.

23:17 He wasn’t asking me because he thought I was some jerk who was doing this, it was like, what the hell are you doing. He wanted to do it. He’s doing the course. He’s one of the guys now doing my course. He wanted to do it, and he was interested, and he was intrigued, and so that gave me the confidence that people are interested and that there is value. And so I think I have a belief that I do have something to offer, that I can help people.

23:36 And it’s almost that, even if there’s only a few people that I help to begin with, they deserve to be helped. So I now kind of, I sometimes forget that. There’s moments when I go, why am I doing this? Why am I here? And then I kind of try and remember those moments and those conversations, and so I have a belief I have something to offer.

24:04 And I’ve got an opportunity now to create a business for myself where I live with my rules and my principles and my affirmations, which are already starting to come true. So yeah, I guess that maybe summarises one of the key differences. That’s incredible, and that’s a powerful place to be. I mean, to be able to actually create a business that’s aligned with your passions.

24:27 I mean, I’ve said this before, but I think that applies to .1 or .01 percent of the people in the world. They talk about the one percenters. It’s less than that, of people that are actually loving what they’re doing and providing value, and they can really, like, hold their head up when they say what they do. So now you’re in that space. So love that, love that transformation.

24:48 Last question: for someone that’s watching this and they’re on the edge, they’re like, I don’t know, I don’t know if I should take the Business Accelerator, maybe I should wait a few years when the kids grow up. What would you say? Yeah, there’s only one phrase that comes to mind. A friend of mine from the Life Accelerator, he’s German, Kristof, and he did an interview last time, and he does a great German impersonation of you, and he just says, “pull the trigger, man, pull the trigger.” I mean, that’s what you gotta do.

25:18 I mean, if you’re on the edge, you already know you need to do it. If you’re looking at it, you just need to move from the stage of should I do it to making the decision and doing it. Yeah, you know, so if they’re searching for it already and they found you, I think they probably just need to pull the trigger.

25:40 Yeah, and you did this with a full-time job in finance, and kids, and your training schedule, and your meditations, and then you still went and did this business. And now because of you, Jiu-Jitsu, and spinal waves every day. That’s incredible, that’s incredible. That’s awesome. Well, good, well, take a couple months off and then the Speak to Inspire course comes up. So we’ll get you on the TED stage next.

26:04 But look, I think when you’re honest with your people about your own issues, like you’re talking openly about panic attacks and stuff, like, I don’t know if Matthew would have done that a year or two ago. And it’s super powerful, because there’s lots of people out there, and all of a sudden when you get vulnerable, people identify with you, and they’re like, yeah, that’s me, I’m like that as well. I’d love to learn from a guy who’s been through it, maybe still struggles with it, and also is still doing all these other things. And so that’s a personal brand.

26:31 And you’re building one. I love it. You’re obviously attracting people. Yeah, there’s hard days as an entrepreneur, and then you get these rays of sunshine where you’re like, wow, I am doing something special. And honestly, these days for me are rays of sunshine, where I get to say, wow, we’re doing something special.

26:45 So Matthew, it’s incredible having you on the Life Accelerator and now on the Business Accelerator. Welcome to the family. Thank you. We’ll be watching you for the next 12 months. And let’s just keep the momentum going here. You’re gonna take these seven people through your product. You’ll probably sell another three out the back of this video. And so then, after that, let’s really focus on the prime product and keep that momentum going, because I think this will transform you even more than all of your people as well. So as we say on London Real, it’s about the journey, and let’s do this. Thank you, Brian. It’s been a good journey, thank you.