278 Matthew Davis

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast where you learn how to extract your business and personal Deep Wealth. 

I'm your host Jeffrey Feldberg. 

This podcast is brought to you by Deep Wealth and the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience. 

When it comes to your business deep wealth, your exit or liquidity event is the most important financial decision of your life. 

But unfortunately, up to 90% of liquidity events fail. Think about all that time and your hard earned money wasted. 

Of the quote unquote "successful" liquidity events, most business owners leave 50% to over 100% of the deal value in the buyer's pocket and don't even know it. 

I should know. I said "no" to a seven-figure offer. And "yes" to mastering the art and the science of a liquidity event. [00:01:00] Two years later, I said "yes" to a different buyer with a nine figure deal. 

Are you thinking about an exit or liquidity event? 

Don't become a statistic and make the fatal mistake of believing the skills that built your business are the same ones to sell it. 

After all, how can you master something you've never done before? 

Let the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience and the 9-step roadmap of preparation help you capture the best deal instead of any deal. 

At the end of this episode, take a moment and hear from business owners like you, who went through the Deep Wealth Experience. 

Matthew Davis is an attorney and entrepreneur that led his solely owned firm Davis Business Law through over a 1000% growth over seven years, making it one of the very rare law firms ever to make the Inc 5,000 List two years in a row in counting. The firm currently has seven offices stretching from Austin to Kansas City.

He has presented his programs to groups such as [00:02:00] the Inc 5,000 Masters Class and the Young President's Organization Global Forum. He also regularly appears on podcasts and in the media, Inc. Magazine published Matthew's first book, the Art of Preventing Stupid in 2019, and the follow up The Strong Protected Business.

Matthew and his wife Allison have five children, three biological, one adopted from Russia, and the youngest adopted from Ethiopia. 

He's also an accomplished guitarist and his hard rock band, Geriatric Steel is about to hit the studio to record their first album of original Hard Rock songs from middle-aged and beyond, with titles like, Get Off My Lawn and Been There. Done that.

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, and you heard it in the official introduction. We have a fellow business owner in the house, but not just a business owner. Wow. He has grown his business like none other, and he's here in the person to give us some insights on an area that most business owners tend to overlook.

But I'm gonna put a button on [00:03:00] it right there, because Matt, we have you here in the person. Such a pleasure to have you on the Deep, Wealth, Podcast. And I'm curious, Matt, there's always a story behind the story. What's your story? What got you to where you are today?

Matthew Davis: Well, as a business owner you told me we've gotta have some fun. Right?

Okay. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: The F word. Fun. Absolutely.

Matthew Davis: And look I'm your middle-aged white guy now, right? Okay. It's gonna be heavy metal. Okay. That's it. How about that? I'll throw you a curve ball.

And so, I was in high school on this long-haired kid and I'm playing in heavy metal bands which I still do, we've got a new heavy metal band. I got a plug called Geriatric Steel.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Love that. Yeah.

Matthew Davis: excited about that. Gonna go record an album this summer, but I decide I want to be the student council president.

I'm going somewhere with this and I'm running against the jocks,

Right? So I have to get up and I give a speech and I just think about it. I'm like, are they gonna say?

Gonna go, well, I'm on the football team and [00:04:00] I'm. Involved in this, that and the other thing, and I'm in the National Honor Society.

I said, I'm gonna tell a different story. I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna go, look, I'm not on the football team, so I got plenty of time to do the job and I don't think you owe it to me, so I'm gonna take care of you. And by the way, I am a hard worker. I was getting up at six in the morning and making donuts at the local bakery and okay, so you know, that's the story I told.

That was my speech. Killed it. One 83% of the 

boat to do that. Okay? Now, what that has to do with our success today is that's what we do with when we're recruiting for attorneys.

Because guess who ended up running all, most of the law firms are those same guys I was running against in high school. There's a selection bias.

Those guys go to law school. I didn't. Wasn't real fond of putting up with him in law school 

because I'm a creative type and we have [00:05:00] built a law firm really with definition, internal definition against that of, we're not gonna be jerks to everybody. We're not gonna just try and push everybody around and we're gonna treat our people well.

And there's other law firms that do 

that.

But you know, I got a five page letter from some jerk up in Denver 

yesterday, and I'm just like, whatever, who do you think you're talking to? I just responded to him, said, I read your letter. I'm not gonna respond to it. I'm not taking the time. Just call me if you want to talk, but can you accept service for your client, 

The legal equivalent of flipping him the bird.

And 

Jeffrey Feldberg: I

Matthew Davis: so the point is, what? Got us here is, you know, it's a certain rebell 

of culture

Of we want to treat people better, we want to take care of people. And, it's something that I've, had inside me since I was a long-haired kid.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Love that. And Matt, you had me with the band Geriatric Steal and Get Off My Lawn is one of the [00:06:00] songs and been there, done that is one of the other songs. So it's a different way of doing things. And what I love about your narrative is a rich narrative because on the one hand there's some business strategies and best practices that I would love to ask you about, and then we're gonna flip that and take the position from our listeners who are, what you say in your website is your business protected.

And absolutely, let's talk about that. I mean, step four of our nine-step Deep Wealth roadmap. Due diligence, finding those nasty skeletons in the closet. Forget a liquidity event. Forget selling your business. If you don't find those skeletons, there is no business. So we'll talk all about that as well. But let me ask you this.

I mean, it's not every day. Where you'll speak with a, founder of a law firm, or law firm in general, a thousand percent growth, and you're on the ink, 5,000 lists, and the accolades keep coming and coming, and you're growing as a business. So what's going on there? What can you share with our business owners, our listeners, our community of, okay, what's some of your secret sauce that's [00:07:00] helped your business grow?

Matthew Davis: Obviously great people and have just. Attracted a really fantastic leadership team. 

And this is a cliche, but at the end of the day, it's about culture because we set up a law firm culture that is very distinctive from other firms. Most law firms should, I'll go to the Bar Association websites or.

Or LinkedIn, and again, here's what their ads look like. Would you like to be a douche bag and wear a gray suit and torment humanity and work for a prestigious law firm? I mean, they almost read like that. I'm exaggerating. But it's all this pride driven crap.

And pretension crap. And our ads read, Hey, would you actually like to help people?

And go home at night and have a good life, have a nice work life balance, and work with people you love. 

And guess What? When people that we wanna work 

with see that they

Call us

Jeffrey Feldberg: Love that. 

Matthew Davis: And I'm in a battle for talent, 

in the law [00:08:00] space, it's a battle for talent. We're sufficient marketers.

We're always working on getting better, but we're sufficient marketers to be able to get the attorneys busy once we get them. Not only with digital marketing, but with our repeat business efforts. And, it's about having. That internal culture, that is one of service. And one of my sayings I say all the time is, look, guys, at the end of the day, we're just plumbers pushing paper.

People Want a solution to their problem. It's not about us sitting here admiring the problem and nerding out about we gotta file this stupid motion or that stupid motion. Or go, yeah, they need a solution to the problem. And when you, that's our second core 

value, is create solutions.

And help when you come at it with a heart like that, your clients keep coming back, your attorneys are happy.

It's just been a secret sauce for us.

Jeffrey Feldberg: What a terrific secret sauce. And for our listeners, I hope you picked up on that because Matt, what's terrific with what you're sharing. So firstly, on the one hand, [00:09:00] step two, X-Factors here at Deep, Wealth culture is an X-Factor. And what I love about your culture, you're saying publicly, What every would-be lawyer is thinking privately, Jesus, I have to work those 120 hours in a suit and tie the entire time.

I'm never seeing my family. I, I guess I'm gonna have to, and you're saying, Hey, not us. You want a family life. You wanna make a difference? Come to us. So on the one hand, you know exactly who you're looking for. And you're speaking their language. And then on the other side, when it comes to the clients, the folks who pay the bills, you're out there, you're solving problems, you're coming off not in legalese.

I mean, look how you spoke to me. Just right now we're having a regular conversation. Not all these sophisticated words and these terms and everything. Someone I can relate to. So for our listeners, take note of that. I mean, this little wonder that Matt, you've grown such a successful firm and you continue to grow.

You know what you want, who you're after, what that looks like, and you're out there, you're walking the talk, you're [00:10:00] speaking the language that people understand. Where did that come from initially? Is that something that was just natural to you? Did you learn along the way with that? What's going on with

Matthew Davis: Yeah, 

I think it's natural. We're in middle America. My mom is originally from Kansas, and my dad's from Oklahoma. I live in Oklahoma. I was just talking to Derek, my COOs up, interviewing him today or tomorrow, I 

in Kansas City. and he's original. This recruit's originally in Olp n He's like, you guys are just Frank and down to earth.

And I was raised that way. And, I come from Old Farm people 

We're just conno salt of the earth people. But, my family's been really successful. I like to joke, I'm the poor country cousin, which is, is kind of true. And, I go from an enormous family of 

really Good people.

And we were just taught to respect people and to build the American dream 

and

We just believe in that because my granddad was the first kid [00:11:00] in our F family to go to college. And For you basketball fans, his gym coach at University of Kansas was Nay Smith who invented basketball

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. Wow.

Matthew Davis: Yeah, how about that? and you, we've built a story of, just family success. 

 I also grew up here in Enid, Oklahoma, and that's, where I am now. This is our home base. 

It's a small city I went to grade school just right over here, a mile and junior high, three blocks up the road.

I went to school with kids who were living on dirt floors in their homes and then kids whose daddies could buy half the county if they wanted to. 

And that's a really broad education in how to treat people. And so maybe I'm on a soapbox, but I just respect people and wanna see 'em do well, you know, our first core value is believe and protect their dreams.

Okay? Because that's what people want. They want an attorney that's gonna get in and believe in them, [00:12:00] and then help them protect their dream. They wanna go somewhere.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And so let's talk about that. What a perfect segue into your clients, the business owners, and Matt, let me ask you this. When you're working with business owners, particularly the first time that they're picking up the phone and calling you or someone at the firm, What's going on? Are there some, Jeffrey, of all the issues and the problems that our clients are having that we're helping them solve, 80% of those problems are coming from 20% of these areas here.

Are you seeing something like that? I mean, what's going on that's causing business owners the biggest Headaches and grief?

Matthew Davis: Hey, by the way, lemme toss this out, and this may sound like a little plug, but it's also a free plug. We just did a checklist called the Strong Protected 

Business checklist. It's over on our website, davis business law.com, 

and it's in the resources page. And what it is it's, we made a list of all.

Of the main problems we see time and time again with [00:13:00] our clients and map that out. Now and by the way, we also broke it down by, at what point in your business, what size of your business. You probably ought to be concerned about that.

The main thing though is gonna be people issues.

Whether it's gonna be employees or business partners or things of that nature. I ended up taking a call yesterday from a new client and I think we signed him today. And, he's having problems with ex-employees. Actually they're independent contractors 

crashing him on the internet. People issues and guess what?

People are peopley they're gonna do that. And you know, we were able to, Take over the case because he had a previous lawyer that, for my estimation, was just admiring the problem we stepped in. I had to plug Joey in on it. Those are the sorts of things we see. And by the way, we end up doing a lot of what we call business divorces, people get into ill-advised partnerships, 

Unless you're a sophisticated business [00:14:00] person, 90% of your business partnerships, and that meaning even having other members in your LLC is pretty ill advised.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. And so, Matt, as you're going through that and you're helping your clients who unfortunately are coming to you perhaps a little bit late after the fact, Looking back, if okay, we could wave the magic wand and we could have corrected this out of the gates, right up front.

What should we be thinking about as business owners? What should we be doing exactly to protect ourselves? We're working with you so that we don't have to have that panicked call. Hey Matt, we never spoken before. I've got this problem. I've got this court order, or I've got this lawsuit, or I have this threat to the business.

Do you think you can do something about this? What's going on? What should we be thinking about? How do we change our mindset?

Matthew Davis: Oh, this is gonna be fun. So now my first book, and I need to get around to publishing the second one, but I got a little bit on my plate. [00:15:00] My first book is called The Art of Preventing Stupid. 

Okay. That's

A provocative title because I'm talking to entrepreneurs and you know what you're talking to me about with that is people coming into the office, my office going, Hey, I did something stupid, or I'm in a stupid position.

Right? Okay.

And maybe it isn't. I'm trying to be provocative to make entrepreneurs think differently because as A lot of 'em think they're 10 foot tall and bulletproof, right?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Exactly.

Matthew Davis: Yeah, because they're really good. And we're gonna talk about SWAT analysis here, strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, which I think is an inadequate way of dealing with your threats and weaknesses.

Entrepreneurs are good at sizing up their strengths 

Bravado, they're brave, they're fearless, or else they probably wouldn't be in business. 

Right? And so they get their strengths and they get their opportunities.

Now, the question you [00:16:00] posed to me is how do they deal with their weaknesses and their threats? That book is part of the, one of the system we use it. It talks about what we call the business immune system.

And what I point out is all of those problems that you see, they are symptoms of a weakness or a threat in one of your business systems

And in somewhere along the way I picked this up, that you can define your business systems by the management.

People and people. There's obviously bleed over between people and management 

By the production that you do. For instance, we do legal advice. If you're a plumber, you're doing plumbing, 

If you're an electrician, you're doing electrician, electricity, whatever that 

is.

And so you got production.

Then you got your facilities, which may just include vehicles if you're mobile, and then you're gonna have metrics of how you measure it, 

And you've got marketing. And you got sales, which are different, preach it, brother Matt. They are different. A lot of people don't think they are, but they are. [00:17:00] And once you start to dig down you can start with just that seven list 

And start asking smart questions about what can go wrong. Because even if you just start with that's a lot better way. Of assessing your opportunities and threats than just going, what could go wrong? It's not an informed question.

Right? 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. 

Matthew Davis: Okay, so let's start with those seven. But the other octane we add when we're brainstorming the, the trick is to brainstorm and get ahead of those problems 

if you get ahead of your problems as I like to say, if you'll deal with your vulnerabilities, you can capitalize on your opportunities.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Matthew Davis: Yeah, right. Okay. Here's three other aspects I add to that mix, and eventually you come out with 21 smart questions. Number one, there's three sources of almost every business failure. Number one is [00:18:00] catastrophes. Okay. I wrote the book, so I get to come up with the name. You can call it disasters. You can call it sucker punches.

You can call it whatever you want. they happen all the time. And business has been the same for 4,500 years since the ancient Sumerians, and we're gonna get a few odd out ones like Covid, but, do I have a moron for a business partner that's really foreseeable?

Right? Do I have an employee who's gonna break a non-solicitation clause? Yeah, that's, but you know, a lot of guys don't even go get non-solicitation clauses. Okay. are catastrophes.

And when you brainstorm and you go, okay, what can go wrong with the business?

What can go wrong with the management? Or what can go wrong with our marketing? And you start to ask those smart questions, then you're gonna find answers, and you're gonna get prepared and you're gonna be ready to capitalize. 

So that's one column of seven.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay.

Matthew Davis: Second one is [00:19:00] ignorance.

Now there's a saying you don't know what you don't know.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Matthew Davis: So it's not necessarily easy to figure out what you need to know. I'm not telling you it's easy, but you know what's harder is being ignorant,

Right? And, getting your behind handed to you all the time. 

And one thing, and we do this by the way, all the time at least every quarter, we'll dig down and we'll go.

And this is really about what skill sets do we need to know to get where we want to 

go. And if you'll dig down and you'll go, okay, oh, well here's an example. So I'm out at one of my clients shops and we live in oil country we had an oil boom going on. 

It was the one that you guys all heard about that was creating the earthquakes. The oil field electrical company, they were so busy they could not, they were working eighty, ninety, a hundred twenty hour weeks. It was horrible.

And we went out, we were going through this exercise and I said, guys, the [00:20:00] problem is y'all are ignorant about recruiting.

And you know, these are guys wearing steel-toed boots. And they're looking at me like, yeah, punk, lawyer, whatever you think.

And then finally they said, yeah, you're completely right. 

Well, let's go learn how to fix

Okay. So, you know, there's an example, but you have to dig down and go, what do we not know? 

Because business is a series of learning skillsets.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And. Matt, what I like with what you're sharing, and for our listeners, again, I hope you're picking up on this, Matt is saying the exact same thing we say here at Deep Wealth, in different words in a different way, but again, how can you master and win at a game you've never played before? So whether it's regulations and laws that's not necessarily your specialty as a business owner or founder and entrepreneur or selling your business.

Hey, if you've never done that before, sure you can go out there and find out the hard way or be smart about it. Bring on Matt as an example. Okay? Matt. What do I need to know that I don't know, protect me or, hey, deep, both want to have a liquidity event or wanna grow the [00:21:00] business. What don't I know that I should know?

Help me. So it's getting out there and doing that. Matt, what do you think it is for most business owners who are hearing us talk about this now? Hey, speak to Matt. Get some information now that will save you pain and heartache later. But it's just, oh yeah, I'm busy. I'll, I'll get to it. Or I don't wanna spend the money.

I'll get to it later. And then when it does happen, wow. What they're spending now compared to what they would've spent, it's significantly larger, nevermind the heartaches and the sleepless nights and the stress and the pressure. What's going on with that? From a mindset decision maker side of things.

Matthew Davis: they don't stop. this is just something I preach all the time in it and this is what you're preaching too, is let's take a 

break.

Let's stop. We do it every quarter. Stop and size up. We call them vulnerabilities, 

but let's size up what your weaknesses and threats are so that we can deal with them 

By the way, catastrophes, you either prepare or you prevent,

Ignorance, you get educated. 

By the way, the third category we [00:22:00] always talk about is ineptitude, which basically just means you're slacking off. 

You're gonna see that more in established companies that know what they need to be doing.

Little gray area between ignorance and an aptitude, 

The thing is, business owners don't do this. Business coaches talk about strategy and execution, and guess what? We're the company that they call 

Clients are businesses called when they're in the ditch, when all hell breaks 

loose when things go wrong. And so, from our point of expertise this is what you need to do. You need to stop. You need to deal with these vulnerabilities, and then you know you're the strongest player on the field

Because everybody else isn't doing it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Matt, what you're talking about, and again, we're saying it in different words, we're doing the exact same thing. For us with step four due diligence. This is exactly what happens before I even can think of a liquidity event. I'm calling up you, Matt. Hey Matt, some point down the road, two years, five years, 20 years, I'm gonna sell the company.

[00:23:00] But between now and then, why don't we do a deep dive? Let's look for those skeletons. Let's figure out where I'm not compliant. Let's go through that together. Maybe that takes you nine months, maybe it takes you two years, but at the end of it, you're coming out with clarity and certainty and confidence.

But most of all, Peace of mind when your head hits the pillow. You know what I've done. All I can do, I've protected myself and the business as best I can. What's gonna be is gonna be, but at least I've taken every action to put myself in a better position.

Matthew Davis: Yeah you know, as well as I do that's uncommon for business owners to take the time to do that. Likewise, you know, as well as I do that the ones that do it

Are really successful.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And for our listeners, speaking of successful in the show notes, it'll be a point and click. You'll have a link to the book, the Are Preventing Stupid, how to Build a Stronger Business Strategy Through Better Risk Management. And in the book, I love how you broke it out, and you have the different strategies and [00:24:00] chapters.

Okay, here's the Preventing Stupid Method as an example, or the four key attributes of problems. Perhaps putting you on the spot. A bit of a tough question, but the question for you is this, maybe it's like asking, I know you have five children. God bless you for that. in many ways, maybe I'm asking you to pick from the book.

It's like asking which one's your favorite child, but from all the chapters in the book, which one for you really jumps out or resonates of being your favorite or, hey, yeah, this one really, Jeffrey? This, if I had to pick one thing, it would be this one. What would that be for you?

Matthew Davis: Yeah it's, that's easy. It's the getting business owners to understand. That the problems that they have are A symptom of what's going on down in these systems. And once you kind of understand I like to I get kind of jolly's off of abstract thinking. I mean, 

Books that really changed my life was Michael Gerber's EMyth 

and just understanding the difference between [00:25:00] technician, manager and entrepreneur.

I love to think in those big, broad categories and once people start to understand that, 

then they go, okay, yeah I can start to see the bigger picture. And find that really powerful with our clients. And yeah, maybe it's no different than Six Sigma in the sense of, let's go dig down.

Let's figure out what's going on down deep. Why did this go wrong? Because from our perspective, by the way, this is another reason that we're successful, is our attorneys love working with clients on opportunities rather than problems.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Matthew Davis: Yeah, it's a lot 

more fun. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, absolutely. And Matt, let me ask you this, because I know from your practice you cover a lot of different areas. One of those areas here is our wheelhouse at Deep. Wealth, not on us doing the buying and selling, but on preparing business owners to sell the business.

So when you are working with buyers so that our listeners, they can hear it straight from you, straight from the trenches. And [00:26:00] I know every deal is different, and you can say, well, Jeffrey, it's hard to say from one deal to the next. It each has its own personality or characteristics. That said, though, what have you seen that has a buyer running in the opposite direction as fast as the buyer can, because it's just from legal side or skeletons that you, you've picked up on the seller side.

It's just not a good thing. Any, you know, kind of trends or things that you're seeing out there that you can share with our listeners?

Matthew Davis: Well with buyers of businesses AR problems 

A clear indicator for our client, you know, when, when we're looking at a deal with somebody. Yeah, because what that often speaks to is an unhappy client base. Of course financials. But honestly we don't do that many buyer side deals.

Because guess what, we represent entrepreneurs and so we're usually upselling. I mean, one of my clients just sold to Exxon for a really nice, well, it was [00:27:00] on front page of the business section of the Wall Street Journal two days ago. was a nice little pat on the back. We were pretty tickled by that.

So, we end up being on the selling side more. Than we are on the buying because we represent in large part growth companies

Jeffrey Feldberg: let's flip the question then, Matt, because you know, two sides to a coin. And so the question for you is when you're with a business owner, founder, entrepreneur, they're selling a business. And whether you're dealing, like you mentioned, with a multi gazillion dollar company on the one hand or regular types of companies, what's making the deal sizzle?

What are you seeing that the business owner working with you and team. That you've done that has really impressed the buyer.

Matthew Davis: One thing is funny, I mean, I could probably come up with your list. 

I know you've thought through it, so this is almost kind of a test. one thing is having a really solid management team in place 

And depending on the size of the [00:28:00] company there's a lot of business owners that start to check out

And Let's talk sort of mid-level companies, you know, 10 to 20 million or something of that nature.

When the owner is still involved and the owner is still. Kind of got his, at least got his pulse on what's going on and is not off, on a yacht somewhere or, you know, has 50 collector cars, that's all he is doing. 

Boy, I think that adds a lot to the business and, I still am, for instance, very active in what we do.

And partly just because I love it and in a way I have the luxury to do it. But now I'm in court all the time with my attorneys and I think that adds a lot of value and a lot of cohesion. So to me that's an important deal because I've seen companies where the owner was asleep at the wheel and then tries to sell the company.

And, some buyers [00:29:00] are capable of coming in and making that work. 

But Some not. And you know, to borrow a metaphor from family law there's not any blended families. They're collided families.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. And, you know, lowering through the book, what I loved about that, you have different case studies, you pick different areas of preventing stupid, you know, okay, we're gonna prevent stupid in the production area or in the metrics or in the sales area. But let me ask you this. When it comes to preventing stupid, you use your words and I just love how you're just putting that right out there because oftentimes we just don't know what we don't know.

To your words earlier, and we welcome stupid into our business. Life flows into our personal life. So as a listener who's now listening, okay, Matt, you sold me. We're doing some stupid things. Don't even know about that. That makes it even worse. Where would be an area for us to start? So if there's one action.

That a listener could take away. Coming out of our episode here, hearing the two of us talk and they could do one thing, [00:30:00] what would that one thing be that could move the dial, perhaps low effort, high return.

Matthew Davis: Yeah, I mapped this out really and the. A next book. but the first step is sit down and brainstorm. Just grab the business immune system report. That's on our resources tab as is. We have another tool that's very similar called The Strong Protective Business Report, a little rebrand that looks at more things like your competition, our friends in the government, 

how they can affect things, but. Do a great brainstorming exercise of what your vulnerabilities are. Just get down with your management team, dig through it. And then what we also teach is here's a priority tool. 

Let's Prioritize. We've got a tool. Let's kind of based on the Eisenhower matrix 

of let's Look at urgency, and then let's look at likelihood.

Of course, this is an art, not a science. But you know, first thing, [00:31:00] brainstorm, second, prioritize, and then come up with an execution plan and deal with things. So, but you know, the first thing is sit down and brainstorm, but brainstorm with some smart questions. Don't just go, what can go wrong? That's a dumb question.

That's a stupid question. You gotta say, you know what could go wrong with the management? A management catastrophe. Right. I mean, Derek and I don't drive around very frequently together because, he's the COO of the company. If we both die, the company's, my wife's gonna be really cranky.

She might not be that cranky if I die. Right. But, but if we both die and Derek's not here to run the company, that's, she's mad.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Thinking ahead, thinking smart, and speaking of thinking smart, coming out of the pandemic, Matt, so here we are, post pandemic. Has anything changed from the workplace environment? Any trends, anything that we should be aware of as we build our team or keep [00:32:00] our team in place and want to have everyone happy?

Anything that you're seeing there, either on the legal side or what you're seeing with your clients?

Matthew Davis: Oh yeah. it's the virtual staffing. Or a lot more flexibility in workplace. I was down at Fulbright Jaworski, which is now called, I think Norton Rose Fulbright. It's one of the biggest law firms in America. And I was, on the 49th floor of the building in downtown Houston, and I got lost coming back from the bathroom. And there was nobody there.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow.

Matthew Davis: And, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I'm like, I hope these guys are enjoying paying for this real estate.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Ah-huh.

Matthew Davis: And it has made us a little more flexible. My na right hand lawyer naturally lives in Portland, so, that's okay. But we've always been pretty flexible about office space and staffing.

So that's the big thing we see, the [00:33:00] deal too with the economy right now. I was with a friend of mine who's a pretty well known national speaker, and we were talking about just the labor market, and he pointed out that the real issue is, Right now one of the dramatic changes is Covid accelerated the retirement of the baby boomers.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay.

Matthew Davis: And so labor markets are really tight right now. 

Cause you know, a lot of 63 to 65 year olds retired sooner than they otherwise would have.

Jeffrey Feldberg: You know, It's interesting I'm, thinking as you're walking through that map and really in many ways, it goes back to how we started the conversation. Whatever trends are coming up, whether changes in the workplace, when you're plugged into the culture, you have that dialogue. People have a comfort level too.

Okay. I'm gonna ask a question. I'm gonna share a viewpoint. May not be popular, but I'll share it anyways. That's where we can keep [00:34:00] really ahead of the curve, a different curve, but ahead of the curve and be there to support our people. Make sure that we can find a win-win a fair solution for everyone.

Would you agree with that? Have you been finding that, know, internally what's going on with, your side of things?

Matthew Davis: Yeah. I mean, you have to anticipate all that right now too. I mean, We're looking at inflation. And think about that in light of salaries because I assure you, your competition is.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. So it's just that internal dialogue keeping ahead of things, having really that trust that you're building up internally with the people, with the team. After all, for business owners, we should know this. Sometimes though, it's easy to take it for granted. The most precious resources of a company, it's our people, and without our people, we have nothing.

Matthew Davis: Yeah, and by the way, you know I talked about this first core value that we 

have, which is believe and protect their dreams. That's kind of a double entendre, if that's the right word, because yeah, it's about our clients, 

Guess [00:35:00] what? It's really about our team members, 

Because if I can find people that I can believe in what they're 

doing

And I can help protect them and make their, make their dreams, make their hopes, make their wishes come true, 

It's a fantastic thing.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Matthew Davis: I'm on maternity duty right now. 

Because Ashley just had her second baby. 

And I'm so happy about 

that. I mean, I get these little pictures of Cora Jean holding her little baby, and I'm like, this is just fantastic. and so, you just take care of people like that and all of a sudden you've got a great, loyal team that loves working together.

And bang, you're cooking with gas.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. what a great story. And you're living it. You're breathing it, you're walking it, you're on the front lines. You're doing what you expect other people to do. Leadership at its best. Well, Matt, let me ask you this as we start to wrap things up and before we go into the wrap up question, my favorite question, I have the honor and privilege to ask.

Are there any areas that we didn't cover? [00:36:00] Any questions that perhaps I didn't ask or any strategies or insights that you'd like to share with the listeners that we haven't talked about so far?

Matthew Davis: Wow. Now that's a broad question, and I've been sass talking about people who ask broad questions now, haven't I? I can talk about business all day. I love it and I love helping people. I was on a podcast yesterday and the thing I always preach to business owners is, go figure out your word problem.

 Jim Collins calls your smack your specific methodical. And I think that stands for it's your, it's the process that you have to go through and how to measure it. 

 Look, we have lots of business owners and I have our word problem up on my board here. 

Wow. I mean, maybe I'm talking into outer space about that, but That's one thing I talk about a lot is figure that out.

Figure out how to measure it, and then at the end of my word problem up here it says, equals success.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. Some advice from the trenches, which you [00:37:00] know a lot about with success and growing and just making a difference out there. And that's really a terrific segue, Matt, for the wrap up question. And so let me set this up for you. It's a fun question and I know you've done your homework as I would expect nothing less from you where you listen to a few episodes, but let's have some fun.

Anyways. So when you think about the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. So it's tomorrow morning and this is where the fun begins. Matt, you look outside your window. Not only is the DeLorean car there curbside. The door is open waiting for you to hop on in which you do, and you can now go back to any point in time of Matt as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time is going to be.

What would you tell your younger self in terms of life wisdom or life lessons or, Hey Matt, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like?

Matthew Davis: This may be the stupidest answer you've ever heard, but I would stay, I mean, maybe if I went back and gave myself some advice, maybe [00:38:00] would've started my business sooner. How would I know everything that know now? And so, I like to think a life is just, you know, it's constant learning, constant growing.

And, I wouldn't be really as equipped as I am now to run this company if I hadn't spent 20 years in the trenches in the law business. Just slugging it out. As I like to say, on the cold, tough streets of Enid, 

learning

About, case finance, learning about clients, of clients, psychometrics and all that.

So yeah. I maybe wish I wouldn't have sold that 1976 Firebird, which is, is a guitar. That's maybe what I would do, but. But you know, we got the firm outta debt and I got this really cool new flying V the other day. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: And for our listeners who obviously you're hearing us, you're not seeing gas matches, put up this gorgeous guitar on the screen for me to see that. Yeah, I can see you with that heavy metal band and you're doing your guitar thing, all your licks on that mat. That would be terrific. So Matt, am I hearing you say [00:39:00] and, if I'm off base, please let me know.

This is a common theme I hear, Jeffrey. I don't know if I would change a lot because if I did, I may not change anything at all. I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't be the person who I am today because I needed all of that to get to where I am. Thoughts on that?

Matthew Davis: That's absolutely right. Yeah. I'm just very grateful for all the opportunities I've had and all the great. Great people I've got to work with and, just feel very fortunate to, to live in this time and place and so, it's really coming from a position of gratitude, of going, yeah, that's, you know, I'm real, I've been very lucky and I've been very blessed to get to work with everybody I have.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific advice. And so, Matt, let me ask you this. In the show notes, we have your website, we have the links also to your report and all the tremendous resources that you have. That said, a listener has a question. They wanna reach out, they wanna speak to you, they wanna become a client. Where's the best place online that someone can reach you?

Matthew Davis: Yeah. Davis business law.com is our website and you can reach me on that my, my email's, m davis davis business [00:40:00] law.com. that's the best way to get in touch with us.

Jeffrey Feldberg: There you have it. Matt even gave you his personal email address, so grab it, run with it, ask him a question. Matt has been there as a fellow business owner. He's been there, done that as a saying goes. And you have everything to gain, nothing to lose all upside on that. Well, Matt, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your insights today.

And as we say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

Matthew Davis: Thank you buddy. Bye-bye. 

Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me. 

Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who doesn't go through it will lose millions. 

Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity 

Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.

Lyn M.: Compared to when we first began, today I feel better prepared, but in some respects, [00:41:00] may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix. 

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Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the energy that was expended. 

Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.

Kam H.: I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies before. [00:42:00] I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even. 

Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, gone to many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.

It's five-star, A-plus.

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Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an experience and knowledge that could be applied today and forever. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:43:00] Are you leaving millions on the table? 

Please visit www.deepwealth.com/success to learn more.

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