Funding Support Made Easy | Matthew Lesko | Ep 197

Matthew Lesko  00:00

What you're doing every day in life is the most important thing your time. I feel is the most valuable thing you have.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:09

We need to be doing what we love with people we love and making a huge difference in the world. That's what we're here for

Matthew Lesko  00:14

Giving us selfish because it feels so good. So I think the most selfish thing to do is to get.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:28

Welcome to another episode of Better Business, Better Life. I'm your host, Debra Chantry Taylor, and I'm passionate about helping entrepreneurs lead their ideal lives by creating better businesses.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:45

I'm a certified EOS implementer, an FBA credit family business advisor and a business owner myself with several business interests, I work with established business owners and leadership teams to help them live their ideal entrepreneurial life using EOS, The Entrepreneurial Operating System. Today's guest is a little bit different. Today's guest is an expert in helping you get money and help from the government. He is going to share with us today how you can actually turn it on your head. So I know a lot of us get really frustrated about the fact that government is really hard to deal with, or you feel like you can't get anywhere with them, but he's really going to share why it's important that we need to learn how government works so we can make the most of it as business owners, as people, to ensure that we get the most value from it.

He's also going to talk about bringing love back into business and bringing love back into life. He is an absolute character. He is 81 years old. He has written dozens of top selling business books, and he wears a suit all the time with big question marks on it. I'll let you find a bit more about that. So today's guest is Matthew Lesko. He is from LESCO, help.com and today we're going to be talking about love, government and money. Today I am joined by a very colourful character. His name is Matthew Lesko, and you will see, if you're watching this, on a video, that he has the most amazing glasses and the most amazing outfit, which he'll tell you more about in their podcast. But Matthew, welcome to the show. Lovely to have you here.

Matthew Lesko  02:07

My pleasure. Nice to meet you.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  02:11

It's wonderful how we can talk across the world.

Matthew Lesko  02:14

I appreciate being anywhere.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  02:18

I love it, We just had a quick catch up before we came on for the podcast. I just heard Matthew's story, but I'm going to ask him to going to ask him to tell you his story himself. So, he started in corporate world, Fortune 500 consulting companies, but that wasn't where you ended up. So, it tells us we've been about that Matthew.

Matthew Lesko  02:31

Yeah, they don't have fun. I had to get out of there. And also my expertise became after is showing people how to take advantage of government money program. So I was working for Fortune 500 companies. They wanted to grow their business or whatever, and I didn't know anything about government. I was a, like a researcher market research. I had an MBA, actually, in computer science. And I was a computer teacher at a college level back then too. And I started this consulting business, and I found these rich people who were boring to work with. All they want to do is money, which is important. I mean, that's where the first thing you have to do in life is support yourself. So I think that's very important. But as you indicated a little bit earlier, before we got on about there's other things in life, and I think what you're doing every day in life is the most important thing your time. I feel is the most valuable thing you have another I sort of take my car, all that shit, take an hour of my time as a boring asshole. You're really robbing the I'll call it cops on that. I like crap. I could get a gear. I can't get there.

Matthew Lesko  03:51

So how do you spend your time here? You know, doing that, and I think what you have to do, part of it, I think is, is so you don't get down rabbit holes is find something that's bigger than you to work on. I think when we you know life is going to beat you up no matter what, no matter who you are, or how rich or poor or lucky or whatever, you're just going to get beat up in life, because that's the price of being a human and it's so easy to get to dwell on that, and instead of just letting it roll off and learning from it and going again, because that's the only way you're going to thrive, and I think that's what we're all here, is to thrive, to grow. You're I feel or like a flower, a piece of grass, or whatever the hell it is, and we have to keep growing, or we die and at my age now too, is especially being a man in this culture that I'm in. I mean, most men like say, I'm 81 years old, so growing about the 50s and 60s as a man you grew up, you know, trying to make money. You. Try to get muscles, you try to be faster, you try to be stronger, you try to be smarter. Well, Vicky by your time at 81 man, all that shit you're not gonna get better at. So that's over. Man, that's over. And I work on now more things that I could get better at. And you know what? The one thing I realised, it's loving man. We have a heart I can work on my heart, that muscle I could grow until I die, and it's so satisfying. Never was much on my radar most of my life as a as a man. I certainly was a sensitive person, but I never thought of that. And now I concentrate everything, work, personal, whatever is, is growing your heart, it's the most satisfying thing in a world, and we take it for granted for some reason, or I mean, even way in my generation, even using the word love was, I thought you had to get married if you said, look, and I've been married three times. And so it's not it. It's all about giving. I mean giving a selfish because it feels so good.

Matthew Lesko  06:18

So I think the most selfish thing to do is to get, and that's why even the service I have now is showing people how to get government money. But when I started this, I sold books, and all that did very well, millions and millions of books, New York Times, bestsellers, and more attention than I ever thought I deserve. That's for sure, growing up Catholic because you don't think you deserve anything. And but now it's really about helping people and I thought when I said, Okay, books were easier. You could you could grow that. And I think when we're helping people, you know, as a consultant, there's only so much of my time, I could do that, and that's why, as a consultant, I used to charge 1000s and 1000s of dollars for this. I didn't want to help the people who could pay 1000s and 1000s of dollars. They weren't they don't need help, and these programs are for everybody. I want to help the people who really need that. So, I'm so fortunate.

Matthew Lesko  07:20

A couple years ago, I finally figured out build a community where it's only $20 that's all, and not only me, but members help each other. And this is the most beautiful thing I've seen. I can't I stumbled into it by accident. I never knew it would be this way, and now members don't. And so much sense when I think about because, okay, I've been studying this for 50 years, so to me to get excited about something is different than somebody who just starts out. Oh, government program, wow. I mean, I can get my rent paid. Oh, my god, yeah, yeah, I know. But you don't, you'd go to Mars too. Maybe they don't care about that. They need a rent paid, and so someone who just found out about the rent programs and sharing that with somebody is better to help than me, yeah, because that's sort of boring thing. I hate to say that, but it is, and it also solves the problem by expanding, growing a business. You know, whatever.

Matthew Lesko  08:22

I forget what that buzz word is now, to grow it. People are helping people. I mean, like, I just got a a note the other day from a member. And we also give grants. This is what I do with the profits. We give profits back to the members. They're the ones who've given us 20 bucks. I never thought, I mean, funny. I just want to make a living and have something fun to do for this my life. And we're making extra money, so we give it back to members. So every month we give $70,000 I mean, that sounds like I have to be a billionaire, but don't. I just got a little business, a handful of people. That's it. I had no idea it's more profitable than any business I have. In the past, I've had bigger businesses, but not as proud. And so we give about $70,000 back. And we have four different grants that people apply to every month. And one person put in for $1,000 grant and said to want to give it to another member who helped her solve a $40,000 grant that she the $40,000 bill she owed to the IRS. And she walked them through that process of how to get that forgiven. And so that other member saved him her forget now $40,000 and he doesn't have money to give any so he's applying to one of our grants to give to another member, because he was so great, grateful.

So that's just amazing to me. I mean, I can't believe and it's not by design. I mean, my design was just to learn how to feed myself. I gotta get something that creates income, because I still got a mortgage or whatever, and that's the thing, and something I enjoy doing so I could have the energy to keep. Doing it. Unfortunately, you have to do things in life that you don't like, to be self-sufficient, so you're not a burden to other people. But then after that, hmm, you know, if I probably need another suit or two. But other than that.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  10:14

You’re speaking my language, I'm just gonna actually grab something. So I'm sitting here in my office. I actually, so obviously I work with business owners and very, very large business owners. But I actually have a lot of things with hearts and love in the office, because I actually believe there's not enough there's not enough love in business. And I think that's what we have to do, is we have to make sure that, sure we have to be sustainable and profitable and all that sort of stuff. But we need to be doing what we love with people we love and making a huge difference in the world. That's what we're here for.

Matthew Lesko  10:40

Well, that's what it is I think you are, and that's why we're trying to figure out what to do in life. And we don't know, or we're all guessing, and but when you find it, you could give up more, because it's natural for you. You know, if you're trying to do something that isn't natural, somebody else who's going to do that naturally is going to do a lot better than you so and, and that's hard to figure out. So it but, but all of life is that way. And so when we learn to do something, you know, you have to fall down 100 times, you know. And starting a businesses, right? And most of businesses really that turn out successful didn't start out with that same idea. It evolved to that idea, because we're not smart enough to know what we should have done. We look smart afterwards when we start. We really don't know. And we got to get out there and get information. And I think Google is the problem.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  11:34

Okay, tell me. Tell me more, what? What's the, what's the challenge with Google? In your opinion?

Matthew Lesko  11:38

That’s four weeks ago. I mean, I'm a data guy from the 70s, before Google and trying to man, and that's my first business was getting fortune 500 companies to manage external information, information about outside their company. And computers back then were only doing inside payroll and stupid stuff like that. But in the 70s is when we when it realised that things are going to affect your organisation, is not inside the company, outside of the country. And we learned that by the oil embargo in our country. I don't know if you were involved in that in the 70s, before companies here just drew straight lines and just worried about manufacturing all internal stuff, and then some little country nobody knew how to pronounce or spell or anything, just brought us to our knees, you know. And so it's the external world that that, you know, rules us, and we have to keep track of that. But now, so Google does that. But people go to Google. You want to start a business, you go to Google and start a business. Okay, well, first of all, you put in the safe in our country what we look everybody thinks grants, and that's why I say grants, because that's in people's minds. I go, you should say that, but that, that's Mark issue for me.

Matthew Lesko  12:54

You got to figure out what's in people's heads. And so it, you know, they go to Google and say, Okay, I want a business grant. And you do that, and you literally get a billion websites. Yeah, and grant is money you don't have to pay back. So that's why people want to start a business. And particularly, half of our country, half the people don't have enough money to start anything, let alone pay rent, and so they see that as a way to success is starting a business, yada yada. But they go in and Google Grants and you can't do that, and what you they wind up doing calling a couple people. Are you going to call a salesman? I mean, they're the people who advertise on Google, they give Google money, and the people who actually give out grants are in there, but they're in 20 billion websites that may be on page 89 or something like that, you'll never find them. So that's the thing I find.

Matthew Lesko  13:57

So if you don't have money, I say, just stay out of Google. I mean, you're just it's terrible. And the other thing is, particularly for a business in our country, I think it's best to say you need help starting a business, not you need money. Starting a business, that's something you have to unlearn to do, because there's so much help, at least in our country, to help you start businesses. And it doesn't start with money, because people don't want to give you money to start whatever the hell you want to do. First of all, you got to sit down. And we have more than money. So yeah, here's a tip right now. SBA, if you're in the United States, go. Sba.gov but you don't want to talk to anybody the SBA, you want to use their service, their data, sba.gov, then put a slash, then local l, o, c, a, l, dash assistance, and all that. After the slash is small letters, okay, local dash assist. Put that if you want to do it now, if you're online, happy to and you put in your zip code.

And what we do as nonprofit and government offices, we support free consultants to help you, for free, start a business, and you'll have like in my neighbourhood, maybe I got about 20 or so nonprofit already. All they're there to do is help you start a bit so they don't have advertising. You know, they live off grants that give them for, you know, just surviving. You know, not, not to give Google money, you have to fund them. And our country, I don't know about yours, but our country, I see now, is divided. Two thirds is capitalism, and 1/3 is community. Let's call it so we have people helping people. That's government which helps people and nonprofit organisations, they're not there to get money from you. They're there to give money to you to solve problems or to grow or whatever it is. So you need home, you need an education, you got to pay your bills. Okay?

Matthew Lesko  16:01

So we have a third of our economy that specializes in that. The only thing we're trained to do is work with the, you know, the capitalist part, the one that wants to get money from you instead, instead of the part that once wants to give money to you. So that's what I see my work as is trying to educate people that we have this and see the pity of the whole thing. The fat cats know this stuff, Donald Trump, I mean, if it wasn't for government programs and his father, we'd have nothing. You know, Elon Musk, the government grants up the all living off of that, and then they yell at somebody else, you know, being a welfare queen or something you know, which is terrible. So how do I fight that? It's not complicated. It's just we're not trained to do that. We're trained to buy something, and people want to sell us something, so they're going to kiss until they give them money.

Matthew Lesko  17:09

But the people who giving money that they get say, paid the same, whether they help you or not, see and that's another loving thing you know, is that you have to realise that. And so when people are out there trying to find help for their business, and they make a dozen phone calls and they're getting nowhere, and they get to run around and things like that, and then finally, the person that really could help them answers the phone and say, damn it. Why does somebody? Because you had a bad day, they could hang up on you, and doesn't affect them whatsoever. Yeah. And so that's a we have to learn that, you know, and that's part of what we do is teach people that. And people want to go everything on the internet. No, you got to get on the phone. Life is too complicated to think there's an easy answer on the internet, and particularly the government. First of all, you want to grant because that's free money. Well, 80% of the free money the government gives out is not even called grants. If you're calling a government office and asking for a grant, and they're looking at, yeah, we have no grant, no grants here, yeah, but they have so much other money, other stuff. Yeah, that's right.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  18:18

That’s interesting, yeah. So yeah, you got to make sure that you're looking for the right thing. But I think what was really interesting what was really interesting to me was you said that, you know, it isn't firstly about money, it's about getting the right help, because the right help will get you eventually to the right money. But.

Matthew Lesko  18:32

Exactly.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  18:33

Yeah, I'm just interested to hear it more about how your community works in terms of helping each other to get that help.

Matthew Lesko  18:41

That it's an evolving thing. I mean, first of all, I mean, I sold books, another training materials or whatever. So I'd go out and sing and dance and, you know, for marketing and infomercials were very popular for me, because I like to entertain. I like to make people happy and then they get the book and do nothing, you know? And that's too bad. So that's what, what I'm doing now, I'm getting more help. I mean, I've sold 4 million books, or something like that, and nowhere near the results as I'm getting now with this one-on-one help and for $20 I did it in the beginning and charge 1000s, but for 20 because it's members helping members. So members will go online and, like, here they'll be out, like, they'll have a zoom call. Hey, you know, I just got this. I did it. You want to learn how I did it? Okay? I'm here talk to you. Ask me a question. Wow. You know, for 20 bucks I get so that's, I think this is very powerful.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  19:43

It’s interesting because I always talk about this, this kind of three legs to the stool that a business owner needs, and we talk, I will talk about that, the fact that they need a coach or a mentor, somebody can kind of keep them accountable, and somebody bounce ideas off. You need an operating system for your business, just that you have clarity in terms what you're doing. And the third one is a peer group. Yeah. There's nothing more valuable a peer group, so a group of peers, yeah? Which is there's nothing more valuable than being able to talk about things with people who've either gone through it, been there, got done that, got the t shirt, or are going through it at the same time, so you don't feel alone. And you get that, yeah? That superb advice.

Matthew Lesko  20:18

Yeah, that's what it is. And then you're not alone. You're not alone. You're not the only one the government hates, or something like that. Oh yeah, yeah. And that's soothes that. And that's why I think love and humour is the other lubricant I feel in society. Is humour. It makes the medicine go down, which means life, because it's going to beach up no matter what, and that's what I see. That's why I hate even advising myself like people think I'm somebody special or something like I want to find people like you that see, see how they got it. You know, you could say I got it because I've been doing it for 50 years. Yes, someone who just did it for two weeks is getting it. That's who you could learn better from, and that's the magic I feel and all this was not a business plan to me. You know, I spent about 567, years after we got rid of books and books, I mean, I was in the directory business. I sold directories of government programs. Yeah, that's what it was, what it was books. And yeah, when people stopped buying books, and I thought the information was important, and it took me a long time to figure this out, and it's the community thing, and the community is so I think, you know, your culture sounds more friendly than ours for some reason, because I know with less that here, we've lost so much community because we hate each other so much, and so it's important my son, who works with the Surgeon General, I mean, that's his main health problem, that our top doc in the United States believe that Loneliness is our crisis in our country, and other people there.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  22:04

Well, I think, I think it is not just America. I think, I mean, I'm fortunate to work across America, Australia, New Zealand, various different countries, and also a lot of my clients have, you know, offices and staff over in the Philippines, in Bangladesh, all kinds of places. And I think that the more westernized societies have definitely lost that sense of community. You know, that we don't have the village that we used to have around us that would actually help us. We'd become very isolated. And as you said, people sit on a computer and they look at computers for that kind of connection. Well, that's not real connection. I was actually just watching a documentary last night about it, a catfishing case, which was really fascinating, because when you're watching it from the outside, from the outside, doing it was a Saturday night or Friday night, and I was just wanting to do something to chill out after a long week at work. You know, there are people who are so lonely that will just jump at any kind of friendship or relationship online and then suddenly make it into something bigger than Ben Hur but it's not a real relationship. But that's because I don't believe we have the, that community connection anymore.

Matthew Lesko  23:03

No, I believe we live in an apartment in downtown Washington, DC, urban life. But I grew two kids who are now 40 or so in the suburbs, and my wife, I met her at this apartment I'm in now, 40 some years ago, and we moved back down a couple years ago to live an urban life, and it that too changed my life, because in the suburbs, yeah, we had friends, but I really didn't. I worked too much anyway, and it was friends and family. I hate it. When do you want to go? Wendy is the lady lets me live with her here she would drag me to parties. I'd happy once I get there, but I don't know why we moved down here, and something clicked. Never threw. I think I threw one party in 40 years. I came down here. I throw a half a dozen or more parties every year. Now, like this week, I have a Halloween pumpkin carving. We are in the building. About 70 units are in the building.

So, organising there, so everybody could, you know, you get in the elevator, and you don't, you know, we know everybody, and everybody is involved with each other in a way. And all my friends now are, are living in this building, so I have that, and that's for Halloween. We have a cocktail hour down in the lobby where we're giving up prizes for pumpkins and stuff like that. It's an excuse, you know, and just a drink. And then Saturday, we have called porch Fest and got four rock and roll bands in the front of the building that will play from two to six, and the whole building the, you know, dancing in the streets. And we'll get 400 people in out in front of our building on the rock and roll band. And that is, I never did anything like that before. My wife, she was the one. And that organises all this kind now I'm a pain in her ass on all these things I wanted and about with people, yeah, and community.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  25:13

So, what do you think was the switch? What was the thing that made you suddenly realise that that was important?

Matthew Lesko  25:18

I have to think part of it is aging and the love thing. And I think that's what happened is, boy, I gotta love harder. How do I do that? You know, I barely know how to spell the word. Know what it meant. And so it was open. I what I used to call it. More was this opening my heart. How do you open your heart? You know, to get away, or any barriers that we have or preconceived notions about other people. If your heart is open, I mean that, I think is key. I don't I'm not sure what that means. I'm sure how to get it, but I think we all sort of feel that somewhere, and so that's what I think love is, is opening your heart to others just saying the word, I couldn't even say it before a couple years ago. And you know what helped me say it more? Because we have community very diverse, so there's a gays and lesbians and things like that in the community and getting to know this wonderful lesbian lady, and that was the key, when I was able to say love to her that. So if it was another woman, yeah, wait, I'd go out and I can't say that, yeah. And that was safe. So it was a Yeah, so I say, I tell her she's my gateway drug, and that made it easier. And now, now even the men, I could say it, and I could never have done that before.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  26:52

I do think it's about sort of being able to find the people that you feel comfortable with, and I feel comfortable being vulnerable with as well. I think because I know that I'm part of the Entrepreneurs Organisation, which is obviously a community for entrepreneurs. And when you see the bonds between those people in that community, you know, they really do, truly love, support, help each other, and a lot of them, when they first come in, they're really nervous, because business is a dog-eat-dog world, right? A lot of cases, you know, you, you give a little bit, and people take complete advantage of you. So yeah, that's right. But when you actually surround yourself with people who are on a similar journey, people who want to make a huge difference, they will be more open, more vulnerable, and suddenly you realise that people, people love to help, people love to be there for you. And there's nothing wrong with love. In business, love is great.

Matthew Lesko  27:39

I think it's the most selfish thing in the world, because it feels so good when you're giving you know, so that's selfish making you feel good.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  27:50

Well, I always, I always say to people who are afraid to ask for help, because I know it can feel like failure. For some people, it's like, if I ask for help, that means I'm not good enough. And it's like, well, I always say to them, but when you help somebody. How does it make you feel? And like you just described, it makes you feel amazing. So in actual fact, if you're not asking people for help, you're ripping them off. You're ripping them off from having that feeling of satisfaction and joy. So ask for help.

Matthew Lesko  28:13

You're depriving them of joy. And I remember when it first earlier wives, whether in laws like to give us money or something like that. Oh no, I'm whatever. And then after a while, no, you know the problem in life, you want to give, and you finally find some deserving bastard to give to, and they say, No. I mean, that's being mean to them. And so that's why it I gave up saying no and trying to be independent and all that kind of stuff. You deprive somebody of opening their heart.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  28:48

I do have some in some questions around the whole government. Slash, help. Slash, whatever they can do for you. So we have similar things in here and the same in Australia. I think every government has, you know, has a desire to actually help people be more self sufficient, grow great businesses, etc, etc. But there is a sort of a sense that sometimes people working in these government organisations don't necessarily understand what really goes on outside of those government organisations. So you've had a lot to do with it. You've been involved for a long, long time. What would you say to that? I mean, there's obviously, you know, you can't one brush does not fit all.

Matthew Lesko  29:25

But, you'd say people inside government don't know what's going on outside of government. Okay? Well, I see it. People outside of government don't know what's going on inside government, and that is the problem. I think, because government is a tool, it's sort of like, what's the best way to use a lawyer or something? You got to understand what they're good at. So the same thing with the government. The government is going to operate by they could only do things the way the law says, or they all go to jail. Yeah. So they're not going to change. You're crazy if. That's why, I mean, I was feeling that. Well, this is a stupid way you doing this, Mr. Government. You know, there's an easier that's just a wasted energy to even consider that you have to figure out what the government's doing, how they do it. Give them whatever fuck they want to do it. If you want help, if you don't want to help, fine, you know, you go somewhere else.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  30:24

But you made a really valid point earlier. I mean, the likes of Elon Musk, the likes of Donald Trump, those guys, they have, as you said, built entire businesses, built multi million dollars from contracts with government and support. See, and you is it possible for anybody to do that?

Matthew Lesko  30:43

Absolutely. And see what the government has? And here they're called Apex accelerators, I think it.org's and they're nonprofit that helps you get government contracts are free. They even have grant money to give you money while you're getting a government contract. I mean, it's just crazy. I mean, you would never ask that. That's the government does stuff. I mean, questioning why that is it is, what if you want to change that, then you go into politics, and then that'll take 10 years, or whatever. You don't have that time as an entrepreneur, you have to learn it's like your customer, your customer stupid. It doesn't like my product. You got to get inside the mind of the customer to figure out how to play satisfy the customer. And so it's the same way when I hear you say that yes, the government doesn't understand outside the government, yes, but it that's not its job. The job is to follow laws to do what it's and the laws tell them what to do. It's our job outside the government to figure that out. Yeah, and it can be.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  32:01

No, I love it as it's changed my perspective. I think that's really important, because I think a lot of a lot of entrepreneurs who are potentially a little bit on the capitalist side, although they do want to do good, probably just can't. They need to. They to flip that. They need to go actually, you're absolutely right. They're doing what they need to do. They're following the laws that they need to follow. But there's opportunity in there for us, and how do we actually work with them?

Matthew Lesko  32:23

Someone said, This computer is going to help your business. Okay? You learned how to use the computer, right? Didn't make the computer do what you wanted to do. It's only going to do what it can do, and you have to learn what it can do. So I see it as a tool, and now that it represents a third of everything in our economy. Boy, you're missing a lot of people here, and I don't know if you have the same thing. I mean people, I don't care what the government does, just stay away from me forever, and you could live a happy life and never use it. But if you're trying to get from Washington, DC, New New York, and you hate expressways that are built by the government, it's going to take you twice as long, that's all and so and everything else that these are tools to make your life better. And you know, they're for everybody. And what bothers me is that the people who don't need them the most. No need use the hell out of them. And the restaurant really need, I don't know about your company right here, and we, at least half the country, cannot afford a $500 bill. You know, an expense comes in for 500 they don't have that money to do anything to pay that. So they're really living close.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  33:42

Yeah. Okay, so if people are at a loss as to where to get started, because I think sometimes this can feel really overwhelming. I you know it's all very well to say that the other guys know how to do it, but where do I start?

Matthew Lesko  33:54

Okay, here's a couple of things. Take some notes. One, don't go to Google. Number two, start. remember that you're going to have to talk to people don't use the internet and think you understand what the government says on there. You have to talk to people a couple places you could start. Okay, if you're in a business you go to that list, I told you, sba.gov/low, at gov, slash local assistance, and start talking to them. The other thing you want to do is go to EDA, which stands for Economic Development administration.gov, and you go there and look for your state. Every state will have 20, 3040, what they call economic development offices. These are government offices that help businesses start, grow, whatever they need. Okay, you start calling and asking them, hey, I want to start a business. Can you help me? And then, if they say no, then ask them, Where else can I go? Just don't, and that's why the problem. If you say, I want money, some of them have money. Some of them don't. They'll say no, but they know other places, because they solve this kind of problem all the time. It's sort of like, say, I in your country, if I look at internet about something, and we think that's true, but talking to you would certainly cut out a lot of time about where the stuff really is. And so that's it. So you have that, EDA, SBA now for living expenses, what we have in this country are two websites that are very good on there.

Matthew Lesko  35:43

Everything I'm telling you is free all the websites you know. That's why, when people join us, no website will ever ask you for money. Okay? 211.org. And what I like better of the two is called Find help.org that has all the nonprofits and government offices that help people individually. So like in my zip code is 20009 I do that, and then I put in financial assistance. Well, for my zip code, they're like 200, 300 nonprofit organisations that give out financial assistance to 300 I mean, people, I would think, Oh, there's a government office for financial assistance, you know, like, no, there's 200 of them. And that's sort of like customers. You know, if you find 200 wonderful customers for your product, then you start calling every one of those, right? And that's it. Instead of going Google, and you got 2 billion, these are identified. So findhelp.org and you could put in rent and like for where I am, I know there's 70 offices where I live that help people with rent. 70 every one of them gives out money or help the people who can't pay their rent. Wow. Google. I'm sure they're in there somewhere, but you'll never find them.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  37:16

And I had to look at, I'd look at 211.org as well. So that's a similar sort of thing. It's just a curated site of all the different places you can go to get help, which is fantastic. Yep.

Matthew Lesko  37:25

What’s bad? Good, about 200 and you could actually call 211 but I think that's bad, because you're going to get, I need help on my roof, and you get that, then you don't get the intelli, you get the operator telling you what you do. If you have 30 people who solve those problems, you're going to get more out of talking to them or actually doing that work, not somebody like me telling you, oh yeah, this is probably the best, you know, I'm not doing that work, yeah. So that's why I like find help, because you can't call them. You have to call the people doing the work, you know, instead of aggregator, okay, the other thing I think, is careeronestop.org This is wonderful for your business or want a better job. This has more money, I think, than anything. We've been growing that the last time, but Biden threw a ton of money there for careers. We need higher paying careers. This is where you get free training to get a higher paying job. There we need skilled people so much they're paying you money like they'll pay you maybe 3040, $50,000 a year with only a high school diploma to train for $100,000 a year that you'll be able to do after, you know, couple years or something, but also maybe six months to become a massage therapist or things like that. But also from the business side, what they do? You want to hire somebody. They train your workforce. They give you money to train your workforce. I mean, there is so much. And I was giving a speech at a call centre who was taking my calls. Yeah, they got like $250,000 from the government to train their call the people to call me at dinner time, because it's all about jobs and creating jobs.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  39:17

And I just want to reassure people to this, this exists in all the countries I've worked in, that there's always these kind of resources available. It's about, you know, knowing where to look is the most important thing.

Matthew Lesko  39:26

Yeah, it's true. And then the other place for healthcare, and it's a wonderful database, needy, N, E, E, D, y, meds, M, E, D, s.org, remember, anybody's going to give you money? Are going to be a.org O, R, G, or a dot GOV, dot coms are going to get money out of you somehow. So just ignore the.com if you need money and don't have any. Now, that is a place at. Everything from free prescription, I mean, right now, I mean, there, I just saw a day the other day, like 20% of the people under 65 who don't have health coverage are covered in an existing program, but they don't know, yeah, I mean, this is so this is a database, and also they have information there on nonprofit organisations that maybe you're recovering from a mastectomy or something like that. So it's money to live on when you're doing these kinds of things too free, prescription drugs, people that will fight your hospital bills for you for free. So all the health care system that is very well organised, and it's called NeedyMeds.org you want to go there. Yep.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  40:47

Yeah, perfect. And, of course, you have your own website where you can actually find you and you will help them. No, no. That's because I think that's really important, because I love what you're saying on here. You know, you've been studying this stuff, but over 40 years, Americans, you know, shouldn't be losing their homes, drowning in debt, buried in bills, will be forced but their hopes and dreams aside. So you know, this is a site they can go to. They can actually get help. So the what is the address of the website? Let's

Matthew Lesko  41:11

Leskohelp.com. L, E, S, K, O, H, E, l, P.com, yes, and yeah, you can ask us 100 questions a day, if you want. We have live people every time. We give out grants, $70,000 every month, and all you need is one sentence to apply. That's it. No bureaucracy with us, and it's just members helping members. Yeah, it's a community that shocked. It just grew by accident. You know, you fall in a nose, and that's why I think you do well, you have an idea, but then you go, we're all artists like Bucha or somebody I feel but you and I probably can't paint worth a thing here. We're art and artists and what we're doing. And so an artist, like a guy, has an idea what they want to do, and you, and you throw paint on the canvas that, oh, that gives you another idea. And that's how I think businesses or your ideas grow. You have a general idea, but what you're doing now is probably a hell lot different than whenever that was it looked like when you started. Right? Absolutely.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  42:17

Yeah. And that's why I think that the peer groups are so important. So, you know, for entrepreneurs, there are things like the Entrepreneurs Organisation, there's a family business association, there's lots of associations, of things that will actually put you together with other people who are in a similar situation. For exactly that reason is that, you know, being able to have a sounding board, being able to put those ideas out there, get some feedback and learn from others who've done some of the stuff before, so you don't keep reinventing the wheel.

Matthew Lesko  42:42

I believe that the best advice is your customers, not friend. I mean, I used to do commercials, and I do my commercial and I show them to my friends or whatever, and then they take their advice or whatever and change it. Then it occurred to me, they never buy anything from TV. Why am I asking them? So now it's easier to ask customers, you know, and that's what's great about the internet. See, you think something will happen. You don't have to ask somebody. They don't know they're not buying your stuff. How do they know? No, I mean, you put a you don't even need the product, you know, you put a crowdfunding site, and this is the product I'm gonna sell. Anybody gonna buy it? You go out and then you find customers that you want to help and see what they need try. And I'd say so many people start businesses by investing in all this stuff and then going out and find a customer. No, you can't do that. You're wasting money. I mean, come with LLC, you know, there's sometimes you have to do but no, you're not in business till you get a customer. So figure out how to get a customer first. That's when you do. And even if you have a problem, you have a service. Then you don't need money. And on the internet, you just put a website and you got a service. You pay your taxes, that's all, yeah, perfect. Hey, look, Matthew. I'm

Debra Chantry-Taylor  44:05

Matthew, I’m sure there's a lot more you can share with us. You've got huge amounts of wisdom, but I just want to say thank you so much for spending the time with us. That website, again, is, let's go help.com as you can see, Matthew has a real passion to make a difference, and I think that is admirable, but there is lots of help out there. And as I said, and earlier on, it's like, don't, don't feel afraid to ask for help. Asking for Help means you're going to make somebody else feel a whole lot better about themselves. So think of it as that, rather than a failure.

Matthew Lesko  44:33

Well, thank you, Debra.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  44:35

And I do encourage you to kind of Google Matthew as well. I mean, I think you will love some of the stuff that he has been doing, and he's certainly a character out there, but a man with a lot of love to give. So Matthew, thank you for your time.

Matthew Lesko  44:45

Thank you for opening my heart during

Matthew Lesko  44:49

Yeah. Thank you.