Starter Girlz Podcast

The Man Behind the Question Marks: Lessons from Matthew Lesko

• Jennifer Loehding • Season 7 • Episode 66

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In this episode of the Starter Girlz Podcast, host Jennifer Loehding sits down with the one and only Matthew Lesko—yes, the guy in the question-mark suits! With over 50 years of experience helping people access billions in government funding, Matthew is on a mission to show everyday Americans how to tap into resources they may not even know exist.

Known for his infectious enthusiasm and no-nonsense approach, Matthew shares insights on cutting through red tape, the power of community, and why embracing your uniqueness is the key to success. He also dives into Lesko Help, his growing online community that empowers people to find financial support they’ve already paid for with their tax dollars.

At 81, Matthew is still going strong—proving that purpose, passion, and a little bit of fun can change lives. Tune in for a conversation full of wisdom, energy, and game-changing advice!

Takeaways

  • Embrace change and learn new skills throughout life.
  • Using the word 'love' can open your heart and change your perspective.
  • Success requires your heart to be in it; otherwise, you won't finish.
  • Finding what you're good at is essential for personal growth.
  • Building a community can lead to greater impact and support.
  • Giving back is a rewarding experience that keeps your heart open.
  • Living authentically means being true to yourself and your values.
  • Life's challenges often lead to the most significant growth.

To learn more about Matthew, visit www.leskohelp.com.

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to the Starter Girlz podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives career, money, relationships, and health and well-being while celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girlz podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, jennifer Loehding, and welcome to this episode, welcome. Welcome to another episode of the starter girlz podcast. Wherever you are tuning in today, we are so glad to have you. I'm your host, jennifer loehding, and I'm so excited about my guest today. I think you guys are going to have a great time listening to this one too. So just real quick. My guest is a true he is a true original who's made it his life mission to help people uncover financial opportunities they never knew existed. You may know him as the question mark guy or from his unforgettable infomercials that inspired millions, and so you guys are going to get to hear from him in just a few minutes, but before we do that, I need to do a quick shout out to our sponsor.

Jennifer Loehding:

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Jennifer Loehding:

We're going to get our guest on here today, but I do want to mention, before we do that, to head on over to startergirlscom and make sure, if you haven't been following us for a while, that's not an s, it is a z, because we have to be a little bit different here. So, startergirlscom, and there you can keep up with all the fabulous content that we're putting on or out. You can also sign up for our newsletter if you choose to do that and be in our community. So again, startergirlscom. All right. So my guest today, matthew Wesko has spent over 50 years helping Americans access billions in government funding. Known for his colorful suits and boundless energy, matthew has sold over 4 million books, made over 100 TV appearances on shows like Oprah, good Morning America, and built a thriving community of 15,000 members through let's Go Help. Now, at 81, he's still passionate about empowering individuals to unlock resources designed to support them, and he's here to share all his wisdom with us today, so I'm so excited to chat with him. So, matthew, welcome to the show.

Mathew Lesko:

Well, thank you. It was fun just to listen about me. I know, is that not the best part of the show, right.

Jennifer Loehding:

Now they're going to be disappointed? Oh no, I don't think so. But you want to know something funny. I don't know if I shared this with you off camera, so I was in Mary Kay for a really really long time.

Jennifer Loehding:

Maybe I shared that with you, but one of the things we always had to do. I was in leadership and I had to welcome people up and I would have to go on stage. We always had to have accolades and so I spent many years. Everybody knows that Mary Kay has big conventions and so every year we would go and they would do these like massive accolades. And it's so funny because I'm just so used to doing them that for me it's just like but to your point, is it not fun on the other end when, like, you get to hear somebody go read all that and you're like hey, I did all that cool stuff, you know, that's kind of fun.

Mathew Lesko:

I looked around. What the fuck are they talking about? Is that?

Jennifer Loehding:

you. Is that someone? No, nobody's wearing those glasses and that question mark suit, so we got to be talking about you today for real.

Mathew Lesko:

You're great.

Jennifer Loehding:

It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun, okay. So I want to open this up. I want to talk about you, because I know some of these people are going to know who you are and some are going to be like who is this guy? So tell us a little bit about what it is that you have been doing all this time. What's been this journey for 50 years for you?

Mathew Lesko:

Oh God, 50 years. Number one I never thought I'd live 50 years, I mean doing something 50 years. Never thought I'd live to 81. But what is amazing to me about 81, I am having such a good time now. This is the best time of my life and I keep thinking shit, if I knew 81 was going to be this much fun, I would have got here earlier.

Mathew Lesko:

Why did I wait so long? But it is, and then I think what it is more than anything is how I've changed. I mean, the world changes, of course, and the problem is, if you live long, then you have to learn new skills every couple of years, and that's hard, particularly when you work your ass off to try to learn something and it finally works and then, oh shit, they changed all the rules, and that is a handicap, you know, having any kind of success, even the little success I had, then you have to unlearn that, and you want no, you don't want to learn that. You finally learned something to make good, so you want to use this more, and so it takes a long time to get that beat out of you, because nothing will work again like it did before, and that's why I love hanging around younger people because they're not dragging success with them, they're just looking for opportunities. Hey, they're just looking forward, and old people are just trying to recreate the old opportunities. But I think more than that.

Mathew Lesko:

What I think has changed me more is just in the last few years too is using the word love, especially. As a man growing up in the 50s and 60s, I never used the word love. Man, I thought I had to marry you if I said that. And now I see that really makes so much of a difference in so many ways. It opens your heart, at least for me, just saying the word it just makes you mushy inside, which is a nice way to live. I mean. That's terrific, you know, and there's no encouragement in a way to do that, at least for guys. And that's why I think women always had an edge on life, because they're aware of that kind of stuff and the real stuff about life. You know how much money you could fucking pile up, you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

I mean that's interesting.

Mathew Lesko:

But you know, there's more to life and helping each other, and I think that's I feel that's the mental illness in our society is because we're not connected as individuals, right and showing our heart and caring for each other, and I think that's what makes me energetic at this time. I want to see how many people I could help before I die. What the fuck else do you have better to do in life and you don't take classes like that. There's another thing in school, and the other thing is too is that you have to learn how to listen to your heart. Everybody wants a fucking spreadsheet and they want the answers, and you know life's a pain in the ass.

Mathew Lesko:

No matter what you do right, it'll be tough, it's gonna, you're gonna fall on your ass and it's gonna be hard. And and that's why I think I used to wear question marks I'm in the hearts, like most of my suits now have hearts on, because if your heart's not in it, you won't do it, you won't finish, you'll, you'll. You'll buy somebody seven lost to success or whatever, and number two and a half. It'll be a pain in the ass and you'll fail and you just blame that idiot for charging so much and and not not hang in there, because that's the if you're not going through those bad parts, you're not going to grow, and and that's why you have to have your heart in it in order to grow, to go through all those bad parts, because then you're just going to get another thing that's going to fail, get another thing that's going to fail and keep going, because you don't give a shit about what you're doing.

Mathew Lesko:

And I think it's the same as personal relationships, and your heart has to be there for a relationship to flourish at all. If you're there for some other reason, you know that's going to change pretty quickly, and so that's why now I feel my heart is smarter than my brain. I like it.

Jennifer Loehding:

No, and this is good. You hit on like some really good points here, because I can even though you know like I'm in my early fifties but I can resonate with a lot of these things that you're talking about, because it's stuff that I do in my work. You know when I'm helping people and I talk about passion and I talk about having your heart in the right place. But you really led with some things about talking about this, this love word, and I think you know, as you I don't know. I think we all have different moments where we go through. Obviously we're continuing to grow all the time, right, but I think we all have different moments where we keep kind of morphing a little bit.

Jennifer Loehding:

And you know for me, like I, when you talk about, like these spreadsheets, I talk about metrics all the time I talk about people put these unreasonable metrics on everything Right and then they set themselves up for failure.

Jennifer Loehding:

Everything's about follow another hack, another widget, another, this, another that they're not ever leading with. Just you know what's my gut telling me to do? Or how am I feeling about this? Or they do what they think they need to do and not what they feel like they should do. And I'm not saying go out and be crazy and jump off a building or anything.

Jennifer Loehding:

but I do think we have to be in alignment, you know, and that's where I think it becomes sort of this idea of figuring out what we're good at, what we enjoy doing, and then leading with all of that, putting all that together right when we find that purpose, what we're doing. And so I love all of this that you're saying, because I was listening to it. I'm like, oh my gosh, it resonates. You know, I had to have this whole like life crises happen for me because I'm a very driven person, very like you know, the people over, or logic over people.

Jennifer Loehding:

And I went into Mary Kay even for probably 17 years I was in there, I was around motivational stuff, you know, for everything we go in one ear and out the other. And then when I had this personal crisis that just it basically dropped me to my knees. It was a health crisis and it wasn't from eating unhealthy I just got diagnosed with a weird rare nerve disease and it brought me to my knees. But it it changed me. It's what set the catalyst for me to really go into this deep dive.

Jennifer Loehding:

And in the process of that I realized I started, you know, changing the way I was looking at things. It wasn't so much like I I now the way I roll, it's like I have like a guideline that I follow about everything. If it's not in alignment with my values, if I'm not excited about it, it doesn't mean I don't do hard things, but I have this whole thing that I do and I'm like, no, it ain't going on the checklist, I ain't doing it. No, this ain't happening, you're not going to pour, I'm not going to drive across town for cheap pay because it doesn't align with what I'm.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know, I'm also in the same way, intuitively running, and so I'm very much trying to think about how does this affect me, the people around me and what I'm doing every day, you know, to help me make better choices. So I love all this that you're saying because I think it's so important and you've got the wisdom that you can now say all this. I'm with you. Well, I have to wait till be 81 to figure it out all this. And I'm with you. Well, I have to wait till b81 to figure it out, right things out at like 20, you know but I think that we're all insecure about what to do in life.

Mathew Lesko:

yes, we're all guessing, so we're looking for help, whatever, and so we're easy. And then the people and the people trying to make you believe that they know what to do so they can charge a lot, right? They can't say, ah fuck, I'm guessing, but try this.

Jennifer Loehding:

Hey, I'm honest about that. I say, look, here's what works for me. You've got to figure out your path.

Mathew Lesko:

Is it not? It's like parenting.

Jennifer Loehding:

Nobody has a manual really. I mean they can tell you. It's always the people that don't have kids that tell you how to parent right, exactly right.

Mathew Lesko:

No, parenting doesn't roll like that. You learn it every day. I'm still learning, man, my kids are like even too, is love yeah, as long as you spend time in love? I remember sending my kid to the his room to study fuck, he's gonna, he's, he's not gonna. But if I sit next to him and study, they want attention. We all do. And the other thing I can't the people so many things about what to do with your life. And all these people tell you what to do with your life. They don't know what the fuck to do with their own life. So what is the audacity to tell somebody else what to do with their life?

Jennifer Loehding:

I have a rule for that. Like you know, I think I saw something it was Gary Vee put something out one day that he was like if you're a certain age, up to a certain age, you ask questions and then after that people write like a wisdom thing. And I kind of have this policy and I'm like a stickler on this Like I don't really care what somebody has to say, unless they've walked that walk. So if you want to hear it and I kind of roll with that same thing, like I tell people, like if I'm telling you something I don't know, I'm going to tell you I don't know, maybe you should go try it. I don't have the answer.

Jennifer Loehding:

I'm talking about it. I probably walked it because I'm not sharing what I don't know. Like I have a stickler on that one, so I'm with you on that.

Mathew Lesko:

And then to me also, we're all so different, yeah, and we're trying to copy somebody else, right, and they're different. Things will work different. It's sort of like a petunia has to be a rose. No, it's going to be a fucking petunia, no matter what you tell it to be. And so we have to find out and I think that's what life is about is finding out what's inside of us, right, like the suits and stuff, like that's me inside, yeah, and so living inside out to me is what?

Mathew Lesko:

When I started finding some comfort in life, trying to do everything that everybody else tell me about, it wasn't working, so I was failing at all this stuff. I mean, I had a software company in the seventies, I have an MBA in computers and stuff and that and other businesses that failed. I said I had a software company in the 70s, I have an MBA in computers and stuff and that and other businesses that failed. I said, geez, I'm doing everything that everybody was telling me about and I wasn't having fun doing it, you know, because it's sort of like eating my spinach or something.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Mathew Lesko:

You had to do and I was failing, not having fun, and the hope was someday in 20 or 30, 40 years, I was going to have fun. Now that just seemed like a stupid life.

Jennifer Loehding:

And a lot of people do it right.

Mathew Lesko:

And I said how do I have fun now?

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Mathew Lesko:

And so, whether I are successful or not, I have no control, in a way. So that's not a guarantee, but I could have fun now and not maybe have fun later.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I like it, I want to know, cause I you know, like I went and I was looking at all of your. I looked at like when we first met I went through and kind of looked at some of your stuff and I went back through again and like you've been wearing these suits like forever in a day, like I'm just curious, like I'm assuming the question mark came about because you were asking questions. I mean, did you just like tell?

Mathew Lesko:

me how?

Mathew Lesko:

yeah, my life has always been about getting people answers to questions okay, I like it but then I, when I was doing that a lot and back in the 70s I started uh, was that you really have to ask the right question? Answers are easy. It's asking the right question, yeah, especially now with the internet, that's even more so. But now I'm in your hearts because even if you get the's asking the right question Especially now with the internet, that's even more so. But now I'm in the hearts because even if you get the right, ask the right question and get there, your heart has to be in it or nothing's going to happen. Right, and it was. I lost lots of money when I first started wearing these things. I was on home shopping. You know, home shopping.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Mathew Lesko:

Yeah, so I'd go down there at their 30,000 books in a day. You know, they were just credible for me for selling books.

Jennifer Loehding:

Wow.

Mathew Lesko:

One day I just thought, oh, I want to, I want to dress like this. I came up oh, you can't go on the air like this. Oh fuck, you did it anyway, yeah, so I went out and bought a suit for the couple of days I was down there, but I just couldn't do it. And the other thing, those tough decisions like that you don't get good advice from loved ones.

Mathew Lesko:

I always believe loved ones are your enemy In terms of business, yeah, Because they want to protect you, Right, and they don't want to see you hurt. Yeah, it's their party. Wear what they want. You're going to make a lot of fucking money.

Mathew Lesko:

That wasn't the issue at all for me. It was something bigger. I had to, I bit the bullet and lost a bunch of money, but then it opened up other doors and opened up my heart too. That was the really start of opening my heart. I saw I could live more inside out and people will not make fun of me, even dressed like this, and I was getting more kindness from people than anything. And even still today, I mean I have three more suits coming from Vietnam. I mean I watch on the stream.

Mathew Lesko:

People smile at me. I mean it's almost like a responsibility. I feel I can make someone smile just by doing something you're not doing. I mean I have nothing better to do with my life than opening their life just to make and that's the most we can help with anybody is to make that other person's life just a little bit better, no matter what it is. Yeah is what a gift you have. That's why I really feel giving is selfish, you know, because it's really you're satisfying your own ego or whatever, because it feels so good yeah, it's yeah I've had that conversation with other people before about that.

Jennifer Loehding:

But listening, listening to you, it's it's two things that are coming to mind. Um, talking about the home shopping, uh, jamie Kern Lima, she was the founder of it cosmetics and I read her book and I was on a webinar, you know like she did a workshop while back, but she was talking about this story, how it was one of those. I think it was. I don't know if it was a home shop. It was one of those shows. Right, she went out there, I think, with no makeup on because she had I want to say I may be wrong Rosacea. She had something going on and she walked out there with no makeup on and everybody was telling her not to do that. But because she did that, everybody got to see the transformation on the stage and she sold out. So there was a story about that.

Jennifer Loehding:

But then, even yesterday, I was at a meeting with the Texas Legends. It's a G League here in the Frisco area in Dallas where I'm at, and they do a business owners meeting and the president of that organization now was telling us how he had gotten fired from SMU there and then he ended up working for the G League. He started working there for free. He was like an operations person. Now he's the president of the organization, right, the thing he was talking about was standing out and being different, which is kind of what I have always said. You know, like I'm not probably as bold as you, I think I need some glasses like that, but I've always, I have never wanted to. I wrestle with that because you want to fit in but you don't want to fit in. Right, society tells you to fit in but you don't want to fit in because nobody that's ever doing anything great has fit in. Nobody doing anything great fits in. Right, you have to be different from everybody else.

Jennifer Loehding:

So he was talking about that yesterday and I was like, yes, this is what I'm talking about all the time. Is it was what is that? That factor? And that's what you're talking about. It's like what is that kind of it factor? Right, like what makes you different? And that's why when I you know I look at your stuff, I'm like, oh my gosh, he's had these suits on for a long time. So now I'm excited, you got these heart suits. You got different suits going on now right In the question marks, but that's that is almost now like your responsibility, right? That's how people have seen you, they know you and it's what makes you, whatever that is.

Mathew Lesko:

I mean, oh, at first I mean it was. I remember walking through the airport the first time wearing it. I mean it was like every step was working, walking on a crate of eggs I was going to smash. I just worry that. You know, being a guy in this country, I'd have to defend my honor, you know, every 20 minutes or something, and I'm not that kind of guy Interesting and but it wasn't it just yeah, and what it is is a filter, because if you think I'm an asshole, I probably think you are too. So we're saving each other a lot of time. If you love this, then I'm going to love you, because I know where you're coming from, if you like.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yes, it is. Yeah, I see it as kind of bold, but it's not a bad, bold's not a bad. But you know, it's kind of like when people use the mix the word with aggression and assertive, they mix those two words a lot. They look at somebody and they say, because they're assertive, they're aggressive, and those are really two different words team.

Jennifer Loehding:

you know, back in the days when I was in the building teams, you know I would say assertive and aggressive are not the same thing. Aggressive is when somebody tells you no and you keep on. When they have told you no and you keep forcing yourself. Assertive is asking for what you want. It's saying what you need or being forward, but it's not the same as aggression.

Mathew Lesko:

And I think you know we all have perceptions as to how we see things and see, I look at something like this and go man, this is pretty bold, this is awesome, like like I'm seeing like nobody else is doing that or willing to do that you know what I'm saying and that's because I lived on free media.

Mathew Lesko:

You know I never bought until I really could understand a bit worth. So I would live. I was a professional guest. Hey, and that's how I made I'd go do 50 cities after I wrote a book and you know, and and channel clickers. Back then we had, you know, you, you start 100 channels and oh, who's that asshole there? And I was a professor of computer science back in the 70s and I found that I can't teach people anything unless I keep them awake first.

Mathew Lesko:

So, that's where I saw that if you want to educate anybody, you first have to keep them awake. And now it's even more so with attention. And now it's so much media and you've got to fight for media.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Mathew Lesko:

It is incredible I never could afford advertising.

Jennifer Loehding:

Well, I mean, hey, you know it's a business model and sometimes you got to do what you got to do to get you know.

Mathew Lesko:

notice my parents did not admit I was their kid for the first 10 years on television.

Jennifer Loehding:

Oh, my goodness.

Mathew Lesko:

Because I was doing national shows and I know the reason they had me because I act like a clown. Yeah, it's all entertainment, they didn't care what you say, it's how you say. You know they're, they're fighting channel clickers. And so I was a regular on letterman and larry king did oprah, I think three times, and until the people they were in a retirement community down in Florida they said, hey, is that your kid Larry King? He sounds smart. Then it was okay.

Jennifer Loehding:

Someone said you were smart, you were so smart.

Mathew Lesko:

But they wanted me to act like Henry Kissinger.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Mathew Lesko:

You know and be. Yeah, who knows?

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, act like henry kissinger. Yeah, you know and be, yeah, who knows. Yeah, I think that, yeah, you just sometimes, you know, I I get a lot of people on this show. It's funny that just sort of kind of have unique um stories and there's just something a little bit. They're just a little bit different than the rest and I don't think I think society is all we. Just people don't know how to deal with different. You know what I mean? They don't know how to embrace if you don't follow along the little pattern. So we want everybody to be the same and and I'm like that's boring we don't and I find it in the zip code.

Mathew Lesko:

like I live in a you know, uh, a hip neighborhood in downtown washington dc and it's very mixed and and everybody has their heart in their sleeve and I feel like the Pope when I go down the street because I'll get so excited. But I go into a richie neighborhood like Bethesda, just people don't pretend, they pretend they don't even see me Interesting. They don't know what to do.

Jennifer Loehding:

I just don't know what to do. That's so funny.

Mathew Lesko:

I'd be like. I'd be like a country club too, up that area and nobody says anything to me except the staff, unless their kid comes. And the kid comes and says oh the question mark's here, Daddy. So this guy at the country club who was naked in the shower with and never said boo to me for 30 years now becomes my best friend because this kid wants to meet me I could.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, no, I. I think it's great and I think this is a good, I think this is a good lesson for anybody right now that you know someone listening to this and they're kind of questioning what they, what they're like. They might have that wild thing or something they want to do that makes them unique and they're going. I don't, you know, I don't want to put you know. It's like the other day I was putting something out. I would, I have an event coming up and I was somebody, one of the gals here. I messaged her I said, hey, I'm doing the event, I'm excited about it, blah, blah. She's like get on there and do this.

Jennifer Loehding:

And I'm like you know what, sometimes it's just that little edge of stepping out of your comfort zone that we're like we're sitting back and we're not moving right, we're stuck because we're frozen, and then it's just that little, that nudge, you need to just go. Oh, I'm going to step out and do something. You know, 10 years ago, when I was in that field, where I was like crunching numbers and all that, that wouldn't even been an issue. I'd be right like we're on top of you know. But it gets you, get in your, your zone and then sometimes you start doubting yourself, and I think that imposter syndrome sets it basically lazy, I think, oh boy I would agree with you on that too.

Jennifer Loehding:

I think we take the path of least resistance as a whole again it's um.

Mathew Lesko:

That's why I love about being this it makes me think differently, because I think opportunities are and how, if you think differently, then you see a different opportunity. Everybody's not there, yeah, and so not fitting in helps me stay thinking different, because I'm fitting in and that is how to survive, at least for me as a small entrepreneur. Whatever, yeah, not trying to copy what all the big people are doing.

Jennifer Loehding:

I think, and then I think, if that's an important value too, I think it gives you a sense of like comfortness, you know what I mean.

Jennifer Loehding:

Because that's something I like, even when you talk like social media. I joke about this all the time because I do a podcast, which means I have to be in social media. But I actually hate social media. I hate it a lot and I wrestle with it because, like, I want to hide, I want to be off. But then I realized I can't be off because I'm out there and like, if you go, pull my name up on the internet, it's kind of not as much as yours, you're a lot, but if you pull my name up you're probably going to find me in there.

Jennifer Loehding:

I've been't really hide, you know, and so every day it's like what am I going to do today? Can I just not get on there today? You know cause I want to hide. But you know it's that right, and so we do. We want to take the path, the least resistance. But we know that when we stay in that and for me it is a checkpoint that I know that in order for me to do the things I want to accomplish, I have to be out there. I have to be doing those things.

Mathew Lesko:

I mean, if you have something to help people and they have to know about it.

Jennifer Loehding:

Exactly, exactly.

Mathew Lesko:

That's what you said was about you have to use the tools in our society and, thank God, with social media at least it's free. You know, when I started up, you only had three networks and a dozen magazines and you had to buy everything. It was so different, wasn't it?

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I'm like I grew up. I was my early 70s baby, so it involved a lot. I know I was telling somebody one day my kids don't even understand what it was like before internet and cell phones, or like.

Jennifer Loehding:

I had like Atari. I was telling about this little TI computer. Like my first computer was a TI and I was so excited because I could program on it and was a TI and I was so excited because I could program on it, like, and I had it on one of those big TVs, it was consoles, it was in my room one of those TVs.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know, my kids are like what? What was all that? So, yes, we didn't have all that media and all that stuff. Back then Things were very different. You know, I think it's funny and I don't know. Maybe you know, when you were a kid you talked about being a little crazy iPhone or iTunes and all that. We had to wait for a radio to come on, a song to come on the radio, and then we hit the record button and try to record it.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know I should buy the big album. But I remember being a child and going in my room with my little tape recorder and like hitting record and like tape recording myself, like I was like teaching people things or like you know, like having no clue that you know, here we would be 50 years later and we would actually have a podcast and we would be doing this kind of stuff where I get you know. Basically I'm hitting a record button, I'm getting to teach people and have you know, great people like you come on and tell their stories and provide, you know, wisdom and stuff, and so it's just funny how we've all evolved and the world's evolved. And the other thing is that how our things that know, things that we did sort of kind of find us, they like find their way into our work.

Mathew Lesko:

You know what I mean because it's comfortable and and that's I think life should be is finding you know what you're weird at, because whatever you're weird at is probably your superpower I need to write what you're weird at.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love it. I've never heard it put that way.

Mathew Lesko:

That's that if you said that before you even know yeah, because it's, uh, I to help you discover what your talents are, your best at, and that's probably go through a, uh, an educational system. If you can't, do you know studying or band or athletics or whatever. I mean. I made fun of myself in school all the time and thrown out of classes, yeah, and so I spent most of my high school in detention after high school for just making the class laugh. Now, if someone took me that way and said, hey, that's your skill, you love to do that.

Jennifer Loehding:

And you can see it here. It shows up. It's so great I wrote this down, you're out of class. That's so awesome. I wrote down this. Find what you're good at Never had anybody put. I'm like, oh my gosh, that's like a whole post, a blog, right there.

Mathew Lesko:

Exactly Because it is, I mean, what other people think, then that means that's something different, that you have to expand and you could do better than anybody else, so you're ultimately going to be oh this guy's success doing that, so I'm going to do that. And we're not as good as that. He's a born asshole, so he's going to act like right.

Jennifer Loehding:

Well, you got in trouble in school.

Mathew Lesko:

I so when I was younger.

Jennifer Loehding:

I got in serious stuff. When I was a kid I was grounded a lot for getting my getting bad conduct.

Jennifer Loehding:

I'd have straight A's and then bad conduct grade. My mom was like you got done with your work too fast and then you'd be talking. So I told the teacher to give you more work. And I'm like man, I have things to talk about with people. You.

Jennifer Loehding:

Why Mary Kay was so good for me? Because I actually got really shy. I started getting weird about having that and then I realized now I laugh about it because I'm like that's the very thing that I do now that I used to get in trouble for. It's really my gift. I'm good at having conversation with people and doing these kinds of things and speaking in front of people. I don't have a problem doing any of that, but that was the very thing I got in trouble for. They should have just let me do podcasts when I was a kid. Would have been great. Would have been great. So are you now? I know you've been doing the. Are you doing? I looked on your YouTube, so are you still doing videos now? What are you doing what? I looked on your YouTube, so are you still doing videos now? What are you doing? What are we working on now? I know you're still helping people.

Mathew Lesko:

So what is your kind of your focus? Now I'm in a community of about 15,000 people where we help each other get government grants Okay, and that's lessgohelpcom Okay, and I was worried about how to grow something, because you know books and stuff like that. It's easy to expand, but people bought books and they didn't do anything sort of like diet books. We buy diet books and we keep getting fatter. So you know, self-help books are sort of like that too.

Mathew Lesko:

But now with a membership and a community helping each other and I call it a loving community even, because everybody in the community knows how good it is to help somebody else and so, like right now, we'll have three, four, five hours a day of people helping them live on Zoom call, join a Zoom call, and they tell you how they got the money. So you learn from other people like you, not from me I'm a clown and whatever. So I feel even they're better at teaching people how to do this because they just learn. I've been doing this 50 years, so it's hard to me to relate. Somebody just learn how to spell grant.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, so I'm assuming they learn from you and now they're kind of like they know that, they know how to do this and now they're kind of like they know how to do this.

Mathew Lesko:

Yeah, we're doing it. So people who just applied for money and received it are much more excited about it than me, right, right, and they can relate. Yeah, I felt like that too. I haven't felt like that in 50 years, like they're going through me, so they can relate a lot better. And and that's why, when I started this subscription thing, oh yeah, I, I would have to be the sole person or something didn't work that way at all yeah, how long has this community been?

Jennifer Loehding:

I guess this in this community that you built, how long is it a?

Mathew Lesko:

year now and okay, and everybody said I can't make money at $20. And I don't want to be the $20. I used to put in thousands and thousands. If you could afford thousands, you're not of interest to me to help.

Jennifer Loehding:

Right right.

Mathew Lesko:

You don't need it. There's too many people that need help.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yes.

Mathew Lesko:

Not only are we profitable, but we give anywhere between $50,000 and $70,000 every month back to members as grants. We give like 40% of our sales go back to members as grants and so they have four grants to apply to. One they could get $1,000 to do anything. Or another one you get $500 to help you fix your car, $500 to pay the rent. Or we give out 30 laptop computers every month too, because you need a computer to deal with this stuff. Yeah, it's hard to do it on the phone. A lot of people try and some people you know are successful with it. So I mean, see even that to think that I could give away all that money. I thought it had to be jeff bezos to do something like that and just a schmuck like me who flunked out on most things could do that as a very rewarding thing, yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Mathew Lesko:

And it, yeah. So I am just very grateful every single day and it keeps my heart open and that's the nicest thing, and there's nothing nicer. I mean, we don't want to work hard. No, you want to give hard and if you're skilled to other people, that's something you can give hard. I mean that's why I always every artist who knew there were singers, dancers or whatever, and they just had to do that. I didn't have any of the skills and but we do all have something that is an art for us and it's not work, yeah, it's your work.

Jennifer Loehding:

yeah, there's so many lessons in that. I mean, I think, the whole idea about the community, because I I know a lot of people that I work with or we talk about this building these communities and they're like, oh, this is so hard to do and and you're proof that no, it can be done. With work, you can make it happen. And so I think you know, when you talk about, like this $20, you know, per person coming in there, I think the overarching message here is that you built a community and that's what's. That's the important thing. It's not about the money, it's about building the community.

Jennifer Loehding:

And when you do things from the heart and passion, that's when money typically follows right. It typically comes behind. And so I love this, because I think this is so. It's so hard for people to see this a lot of times and it's sort of it's really you know the heart of what I do. It's a lot of times and it's sort of it's really you know at the heart of what I do. It's a lot of it is I do it because I enjoy doing it and I think I like to get find a way to give back.

Jennifer Loehding:

I was talking to somebody, I think, yesterday or the day before, and I was talking about this whole idea and you've heard it Tony Robbins has talked about they all do they talk about like growth and contribution, right, like when you continually are working on evolving and then you find a way to give back contribution. It's really what you're saying in this whole episode is that, right there, you've done enough work, that you've grown and you've learned things and you've shared wisdom with people and you're still continuing to evolve, but you found a way to give back too, and that's the rewarding part of all of this. So there's so much in this I write like real lessons. We talk about finding your strengths, you know, figuring out what your passion is, continuing to evolve and grow, and then find your way to give back and find purpose right.

Jennifer Loehding:

Like all of those are like summary bullets in here today Wonderful and work from love, right Work from the heart.

Mathew Lesko:

That's the best part.

Jennifer Loehding:

So good, I love it. I love it. So this has has been awesome. So what would you? I? I love this. I want to. I want to ask this question and you kind of answered a lot. I feel like you've given me so much today, but I want to know what you like. What would you want somebody like? If they were like who is matthew leskier? What would you say, want them to know about? You Like, what would you like? What's the walk away on this?

Mathew Lesko:

Nice guy maybe. I mean, we're all part of so many things. I'm part asshole. I've been an asshole a lot of times.

Jennifer Loehding:

We all have.

Mathew Lesko:

Exactly so. It's me trying to figure out how can I give more, how can I open my heart more today to anybody to make me feel good and feel more alive, and maybe that helps somebody else. You don't have control over that. What somebody else is inputting isn't a function of what you're outputting sometimes, and so you can't do that. That's why, to me, it is at nine, at 80 or whatever the hell I am. I may have 10 more years or 15 if I really get lucky, but it's how do I make those 10 years of value and every day that I, no matter how much shit is going on, that I can still be open and somehow you know or feel, but it's all very selfish. I just know, if I'm doing that, that I feel better. What other people think or say or do or whatever is I have no control over anyway. So but it's, how can I live inside of me that feels good, yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Mathew Lesko:

And I think a lot of disease comes from that too. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah Well.

Mathew Lesko:

Just shit going on inside.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, no, I think this is good because I think that's at the core and you know it's interesting, some people never really figure that out and they go their whole life and they get to the end and they've never figured this stuff out. And you know, and it's sad because I think when you, when you it's like you can't unlearn what you learn, you know, like you can't know what you know. And I always talk about like, how, like I feel like things happen to us in our life, like I would say like I meet people that have these crazy stories and I'm like, I'm sad, I feel bad that you had to go through that particular situation to learn the lesson or to find what you needed to find. But even in my case, you know, like I've had to go through these, really like I'm like okay, jesus, you know what You've given me.

Jennifer Loehding:

Enough knee bending moments. I think we're at the place, we're good, I don't need any more hard things, you know. But I recognize in these things. I mean I wrote a book about my first, my first condition that I had and how it rocked my world for four years and thought I was never going to come out of that and I realized in the aftermath of that that, yeah, that was a really hard time and it did a lot of things to me in a lot of ways, but there was some profound things that came from that and I think that lesson needed to be there in order for me to do the work that I do today, because I don't think I would have ever gotten to this place or be able to do what I'm doing now had I not been through those things, you know because I didn't have enough empathy.

Jennifer Loehding:

I didn't have enough empathy for other people or situations to know. You know and now I do I look at things differently. You know, I see somebody going through something hard and I'm like, oh, that sucks, and I cannot say that I understand how they feel. But I can understand they're going through something hard and I'm like, oh, that sucks, and I cannot say that I understand how they feel. But I can understand they're going through something hard and that's something they're trying to work through. You know.

Mathew Lesko:

And so I think we have this Looking back, as you're saying, through your own hard times I mean at least through mine I in retrospect, the only time I really grew. That's how you grow. You know, with that, success is easy. Who the fuck needs?

Jennifer Loehding:

I know I think every time I have a hard thing, and I don't know if you feel this way, but I think every time something really we had something really hard come up in december and I think every time something really hard comes up, I think, oh, jesus has something he wants me to be talking about.

Jennifer Loehding:

He's got something else he wants me to share another story. He's waiting for me to get through it because he wants me to share another hard thing, you know, and I have to wait because I'm an optimist and I'm sure you probably are too. I tend to find try to find the good in everything that happens, even when it's bad. I'm trying to find it, I'm digging for the lesson in it every single time, and sometimes it's really hard to find the lesson.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know we have these. Hard to find. The lesson, you know, it's like we have these. Yeah, like I will tell you, when we had these, we had contractors out here and we ended up having one of. This is one of the only one of the things that we have is something else, but this was one. We ended up having a leak under the slab. We had to, we had to dig a hole in the slab. We got it all down, only to find out that we still have problems going on. Right. But here's the silver lining in all of this In the midst of all of this, because they pulled the baseboards off the wall, we found mold in our wall and we got the mold out of our wall. Now I've been dealing with a chronic condition for about 12 years now.

Jennifer Loehding:

And although my symptoms are not completely gone. Ironically, right after all this happened, I started feeling better and I'm like okay, maybe the silver lining out of all of this is we found the freaking mold that was in my house and got some of it out of my house, cause we didn't even know we had it, and I mean it was. It was pretty much down a wall, like it was. They had to pull all the sheet rock out of there. So I say all this to say that I tend to try to dig for the, the. You know where's the, the good that comes out of this, but sometimes I think we could just, you know, maybe we get a few lefts of them, you know you owe me a few, god I need a few less.

Jennifer Loehding:

But I think there's a reason we do what we do, and I think it's because we we have the voice and we have the capability of putting the things out there, and there are people that need to hear it, and you and I may not, but there's a one person that does need the help and you're that source to that person. Right, you know so good stuff. I love it. So if our audience wants to find you, I think after they this is such a great episode Like I could talk to you forever, but I know we all got a hundred things to do here.

Jennifer Loehding:

So you can talk to anybody forever. I probably could, but I think I could talk to you forever too. You're a lot of fun, but I have a feeling our listeners are going to listen to this and they're going to want to find out more about you and learn about what you've got going on. So where would you like us to send them?

Mathew Lesko:

Well, let's go helpcom.

Jennifer Loehding:

Let's go helpcom. All right, awesome, we'll make sure to Matthew. When this goes out, we'll get the link in there, so they know I don't think they're going to have any problem finding you, but we'll make sure the link's in there so they know where to catch up. This has been awesome. I want to tell you thank you so much for your time and appreciate all your wisdom and your knowledge and sharing from the heart and all the authenticity. We appreciate it.

Mathew Lesko:

I appreciate having the opportunity to do it.

Jennifer Loehding:

Thank you, it's been fun it's been fun and, of course, to our audience. We appreciate you and hope you found this episode inspiring and informative. And, of course, go check out Matthew at let's Go Help dot com. Check out what he's got going on over there. You can keep up with them and anyways, but you know what to do, so like, subscribe, share, do all the things to help us keep spreading all this fabulous content out there. And, as I always say, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision. You guys, take care, be safe, be kind to one another. We will see you next time.

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