Matt Morizio - "The Replaceable Life: From MLB Dreams to Entrepreneurship"

Matt Morizio, former Kansas City Royal catcher/pitcher and founder of Reconstructing Wealth, shares his journey from professional baseball player to financial entrepreneur and father of seven. His story reveals powerful lessons about identity, mental performance, and finding purpose beyond your career.

• Chased professional baseball dream for nearly 20 years before transitioning to "real life"
• Faced homelessness with his wife after being released from the Royals organization
• Learned the counterintuitive skill of playing at 80% rather than 100% for optimal performance 
• Discovered the power of visualization and mental preparation too late in his baseball career
• Realized everyone is replaceable after seeing teammates instantly substituted after being released
• Found his identity in faith rather than occupation, unlike many former athletes
• Started his financial planning business at age 40 despite being the sole provider for seven children
• Defines wealth through four buckets: faith, family, fitness, and finally, finance
• Dreams of creating a retreat center where people can find restoration and encouragement

If you're curious about reconstructing your own definition of wealth, visit reconstructingwealth.com to learn more about Matt's approach to financial planning.

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Chapters

• 0:57 Introduction to Matt Maurizio
• 2:09 From Baseball Dreams to Family Life
• 6:05 Identity Crisis in Professional Sports
• 14:51 Mental Game and Visualization Techniques
• 22:30 The Art of Playing at 80%
• 32:59 Defining Wealth Beyond Finances
• 39:01 Matt's True Calling and Purpose

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:38

Welcome back to one on one with Mr you. Of course I'm your host. Mr you is to do with us is my twin, matt Maurizio, former Kansas City Royal entrepreneur and founder of Reconstructing Wealth. Good morning, matt, what's up, twin.

Speaker 2: 0:51

Good morning, jake. You're a good choice on the purple. We are twins. I mean, see us in public. They wouldn't be able to tell us apart.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Probably not Great mind thinking like I love it.

Speaker 2: 1:00

That's what I'm talking about. Of all colors, we both want purple.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Yeah, I don't know what led me there, man, but it's just a feeling. I just kind of read with it and look what happened. We had a great pre-interview chat. Man Devils tell an incredible life story that you got and I'm hoping we can get into it in about 30 minutes. You got so much stuff going on, brother, but it's going to be fun. If it has to be a part two, we'll make it happen. No worries there, man, but as customary I ask all of our guests coming in very first question out of the chute describe your childhood and upbringing. Most folks can find that easy. Some folks get triggered. We're ready for it either way. So go ahead and share what life was like for you as young, matt and how you got from there to here. So go ahead and share that with us.

Speaker 2: 1:50

Sure Well, as a young child I had, I think, a decent upbringing. I probably was in like a lower middle class life and my my parents split middle-class life and my parents split. They divorced when I was maybe third grade or so and I spent, it was like every other weekend and Wednesday nights with my dad. So he was very much in my life. It wasn't like I didn't know who he was, but most of the time just raised by mom in my childhood home and every other weekend with him, and that was kind of my normal. Until college I went to Northeastern and played baseball there.

Speaker 2: 2:31

Man, what I will say is like the through line of my whole life has always been like I felt this pull and this call on my heart to do something big. I think we all are in there and we all have that. I think some of us listen to it, some of us don't, and I think big is relative. I think big for some people can just be I say justice, I don't mean that it means big for some people is I'm gonna be a parent, raise a family and grow young like amazing world changers. Others will feel like different calls that are on their heart, but for me when I was young. It was baseball, like I'm talking like preschool graduation yearbook. I wrote in my in my graduation book that I wanted to be a pro baseball player, which at that age is not abnormal. There's that. And firefighters and veterinarians and astronauts, you know like they want to be all those yeah, what's that?

Speaker 2: 3:23

in baseball yeah, in baseball.

Speaker 2: 3:25

So that's that was what I wanted yeah and so, but I chased it and I chased it hard for for nearly 20 years. Basically, as I, I played all my whole childhood. I played in college at northeastern and then I played professionally, like you said, in the minor leagues with the Royals and I ultimately didn't get there to the to the major leagues. I stayed in the minor leagues, which was funny to think back to say, man, like I spent 20 years chasing something that ended up. I ended up not getting there. That's a long time in life, but I will tell you, man, that journey taught me so much about who I am.

Speaker 2: 4:03

I call, especially the five professional seasons. I call those my. Those are like an MBA of life or masters in life or something. That's kind of what I. That's what I attribute those five years as. But after that, my life, real life no longer my baseball chasing life happened and I had recently been married and had got pregnant with our first child, while literally couch surfing trying to find a home, because I got released right after my wife quit her teaching job. Released is the baseball term for being fired.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Yeah, that's the word for fired.

Speaker 2: 4:35

Yeah, so we're both driving back to Arizona. We had just gotten married, we don't have jobs, we don't have anywhere to live. We're driving back from Arizona to Massachusetts, I should say, and we're trying to figure that out, and as we're like couch surfing trying to find a home, we get pregnant and man, that story hasn't stopped for 13 years. But we have seven children now, and the oldest is 13, the youngest is two and at age 40, not to shortcut this whole thing, but age 40 a couple years ago I launched my own investing firm. So financial planning, investment management, so entrepreneur, with seven children and I'm and a wife at home as a sole provider. I launched my business at 40, so never too late to go chase other dreams no, not at all.

Speaker 1: 5:20

I want to get into all that stuff, if we can too. Man, our story is not exactly the same. It's similar in some ways. Baseball is my first love, so I just want to spend a little bit of time talking about it. If it's a rabbit hole, that's what happens. That's just what happens. But I love baseball like that. It's my first love, so anything can happen. It's all on the table. But as far as the humorous part, my wife and I we don't share the story a lot, but we went home three times Some short stints. It's weird because, like, wow, the fear that you fear when you're like okay, I don't have a place to go. I'm out here.

Speaker 1: 5:59

I mean, I can't go to a hotel, I can't go to one of those short stay deals. I'm out here on the street. It's a level of fear that I don't know if I can put into words, even though it's a short stay. People out here in the streets now live in days, weeks, months, years in the streets. So I can't imagine what they're feeling and I definitely sympathize with them. But you know, in my little short sense of three times, that happened and it was incredible. How did you and your wife handle that, knowing that? You know what? Not only were you out, you know, basically homeless, but you didn't have a place to go, but you also had a child coming too. What were the conversations like between you guys? What were you guys talking about? How was that? Were you guys clashing?

Speaker 2: 6:48

What was happening there, man, that's a good. I mean thank you, god that we were not like on the street, homeless. We had families, couches and stuff that we could we could surf on for a little while, um, but regardless it felt we felt very displaced and felt a little bit frustrated. If I'm being honest, we kind of felt frustrated with God, like our faith is important to us and I think that, as the center of our relationship, is the thing that has kept us through the really hard times especially, but also like we can find joy in that in the really good times. But in that season where we're homeless, like really, what I would attribute that to is like we were frustrated with the way the outcome took, like it was unfolding, because our opinion and our plan, our our trying to control the situation, was that she was going to quit her job, we were going to go play baseball, it was going to be a fun newlywed thing. We're on this journey together and that wasn't the plan. And when it didn't go as planned, when we didn't have the control we wish we had, we were like very frustrated and hurt and scared because, like, what do we do now? I just quit a teaching job. I have only ever played baseball my whole life. So I'm struggling with this identity thing of like who am I? What do I do? She's like I just quit my teaching job and then she gets pregnant so she can't go get a full-time job because she knew like no one's going to hire her full-time.

Speaker 2: 8:13

So we were really leaning on faith heavy in that season and we were also really struggling to figure out what our next steps were. Thankfully, our relationship was brand new, really like newlyweds. So we had that like young, exciting love still. So we had this figure it out mentality, thankfully, um. But we were riddled with unknown and fear the whole time, like we were like I don't we're, are we gonna have this baby on somebody's couch? Like what the heck are we going to do? So we were we weren't at a necessarily hard, hard emotional place as a really in a relationship, because we had family to lean on and we were newlyweds and like had this young, exciting love kind of feeling later on in our relationship through multiple valleys, peaks and valleys, but the valleys we did have emotional struggles and strains and that. That. That that's where faith really came through oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Okay. Well, I've been told this since now. Thanks for sharing that too. By the way, you know this, uh, this, this thing with baseball and the identity. I think that's so powerful, man, and I don't get a chance to get these kind of insights, so I want to dig in in a little bit. I want to talk about some baseball, talk about some ball too. I want to kind of get into a little bit of this, because you mentioned something real powerful about how it's, like you said, your identity was wrapped up in the sport, in what you were doing, and outside of that, you kind of didn't know who you were. What did you see from other players in that regard while you were there? Did you get any kind of warning sign? Do you know what? This is kind of like a dead-end street. Either I'm a baseball player or I'm not. Do you have any insights about that from the time you were there, or even since then? Did you have to support?

Speaker 2: 10:42

Yeah, well, what happens is with a lot of players, especially guys that play at a high level, at the professional level, is that they kind of feel like that is who they are. So they therefore stay in the game in some way shape or form. But they stay in the game and aren't really necessarily happy about it all the time. So when I say stay in the game, I mean they become a coach or they become a scout or they work their way to the front office of a major league club of some way shape or form, and it's it's kind of like a new baseball ladder that they have to climb. Because that's how, interestingly in the minor leagues I didn't realize this, but when I got drafted, I like I am, I'm knocking on the doorstep and I guess theoretically I was relative to most people. But when I got drafted, I went to idaho, falls idaho with the royals. That was their short season a program. They had two short season programs at the time and then four full season programs, full seat, the difference being one season starts in june, goes through september to september. The other one started in april and goes through september. So like low, a high, a double, a triple. So my point is there were six minor league levels in total and I was like, are you kidding? What? No, well the world. Well, when I'm on, when I'm playing Idaho Falls, idaho, and I'm getting to talking to literally everybody like umpires, other players, managers, coaching staff, everybody I'm not joking Everybody is on that same grind journey, like the umpires are, have just completed umpire school and they got assigned to the low-level minor leagues and they're working hard to get promoted to the next level and hopefully one day become a big league umpire. The coaches are coaching at the low levels, hoping one day they will climb to the higher levels and then become a big league. The front office members are like ideally want to get one day affiliated with one of the front office staff of 30.

Speaker 2: 12:47

I'm like we are all on this crazy climb together. So when you live and breathe that your entire life, quite literally over 20 years of my life, that's what I did and that's what I was in the same boat as everybody else playing. They all kind of struggle with in some way shape or form, with that identity crisis of like, what do I do now? And the sad part to me is that most stay in the game but feel like they're supposed to do something else, they just don't know what. So by default they're like basically what I know, so I stay in it. And then they live this unhappy 40 plus years Cause you know, you get released at 23. I was 25 or 26. I was like a dinosaur getting released that was so much older than everybody else.

Speaker 2: 13:32

But like you've got 40 plus years of professional career and they don't know who they are and what they're good at and they're too afraid to rebrand themselves in any way. So they just stay in baseball and kind of grind it out in the scouting department, scouts also trying to climb to become a front office staff of the major leagues one day. Everybody's on the same climb and they're like well, I guess I'll just do this climb in a different form now and not always enjoying it. Some do, some for sure enjoy it, but most don't, and I feel for them, because they're too afraid, they were too afraid to take any leap anywhere else, which is kind of counterintuitive, because these guys have chased statistical odds their entire life, absolutely their whole life. They were at 0.01 chance of making wherever they were going, yet they still went for it. So for me I'm like why don't you just use that wiring and go do anything else, like if the odds are against you? So what? You've lived your whole life that way. What's the difference?

Speaker 1: 14:32

Yeah, that's what I'm curious about. What is the difference? What's the difference? I don't think I fully understand. Maybe it's a little bit deeper than we can understand. Like you said, like you laid it out, they've been fighting the odds all their life.

Speaker 1: 14:49

I remember when I was in baseball my first sports love we didn't even have a viable baseball field where I grew up in Brooklyn. It was just like a. You could tell it was a field, but it was poorly kept by rocks. You don't want a ball hitting a rock. Only bad things can result from that. That's the problem. You don't want that. The ball hitting the ground is when the ball hitting the rock, and hitting you in the face is when the ball hits you. So we don't want that. So that was a rough slide. The chances of me going to the majors from that were so minuscule and people had played in the league with worse stories than that, whether it be in the Dominican Republic. For some people you can't see the bridge to something else, like you did, which is pretty awesome. What did you learn?

Speaker 2: 15:37

about you. You're right. I think it is deeper than that and here's what I really think it is. I think it's that the same thing I struggled with for a little bit. We all as athletes, baseball players I'm going to speak for us in general because I understand us we our entire life identified as a baseball player, and I think when you even try to step outside it, your community and the people around you remind you who you are.

Speaker 2: 16:06

It's really difficult to get outside, like when I would come home from getting drafted, back to my hometown to visit my mother or something, because I was mostly away, but I would come back for holidays or something and inevitably I'd run into a store and see somebody.

Speaker 2: 16:20

Like it wasn't even that I had high school friends, that I went back and hang out at their parties. I just would be in my hometown. And because when you're in these small towns and you get drafted, like people remember that, cause that's like big news, there's not much big news, so they remember that one. And that, because that's like big news and there's not much big news, so they remember that one. And um, I would get back there and I'd go to a restaurant or somewhere in town. People would see me and then, within like 30 seconds of catching up of like I know your face, hold on, oh, you're the baseball player, right? Like that's how people would identify and connect a dot with me. So even if I'm working internally to be like, yeah, I'm more than a baseball player, I'm reminded by everybody that I interact with that like you're the baseball player, right.

Speaker 1: 17:02

So it's really hard.

Speaker 2: 17:04

It's really difficult to unwind that identity. There's also some pride and ego and pain of unwinding the baseball player part. It's something you chased so long and ultimately you're admitting failure when you're like, all right, I'm going to do something else. It's truth, like you have to come face to face with, like I wasn't good enough and therefore I got to move forward. But I think most guys, if I'm going to be real, can't unwind that identity enough, can't find who they are Like.

Speaker 2: 17:32

For me, my identity became rooted in faith and it was who I was. Baseball was what I did and too many guys stay in that baseball is who I am, mentality, even if they'll tell you verbally no, no, it's just what I do. Like it's ingrained in their internal, like who I am, identity and I. They can't unwind it and they're too afraid to, and that's really sad, but I think that's the realitywind it and they're too afraid to, and that's really sad, but I think that's the reality is too many guys are too afraid to unwind and see what else is out there, so they're like this is what I know and, truthfully, it's easier, it's just more comfortable to stay in the game. You know what. You've done it for 20 plus years you've done it at the highest levels like might as well, just stick with this. It's's the easy path, so it's scary to unwind and difficult to re-identify. And I guess the last piece is it's the more comfortable path, which is a problem. It's usually not the right path, but like that's the one they take.

Speaker 1: 18:31

That's the word, the comfort. Here you go Now I got this one thing I want to get into. That's the word, the comfort. Here you go now, this one thing, I'm going to get into it. We have no time for this but I'm trying. But I want to get you have a, a biggest takeaway for yourself from your time in baseball. You mentioned something about you know, not being good enough and I kind of I want to, I want, I want to kind of fold that into the answer that you give me, because me watching baseball players, I was always into the mechanics and analytics per se, but just the mechanics and just the behind the sports stuff. But you know, what does that mean to be, to be to say I'm not good enough? Does that mean that you miss some kind of important training as a younger kid, or is it? Was it a physical thing? Was it a mental thing? I want to understand that. But I also want your biggest takeaway from your time in baseball, so kind of a two part question.

Speaker 2: 19:33

Yeah, but.

Speaker 2: 19:34

I think I can connect them. Yeah, so my answer is the short answer. The cool thing about baseball it's kind of like sales. I mean, it's a numbers game and if you are not putting up the numbers that you need to consistently, you don't continue to play. That's what it boils down to. So, at the end of the day, not being good enough is a physical thing. But I believe in my case, in most cases, just because I've played with so many guys that have made the big leagues even more, that haven't, the ones that made the big leagues were not physically more gifted in any real way, shape or form. For the most part, they were not necessarily exceptionally more talented than the rest of the people.

Speaker 2: 20:18

My answer is, yeah, it's physical, but really I think it's a mental thing that translates into a physical problem on the field. And what I mean is for me, mentally, I would have told you that and it's true, I wasn't lying, I was bullheaded. I would run through a wall. You know you can knock me down 100 times, I'll get up again and that's who I was Like. I took pride in that. But two things One, baseball is a weird game where, like, you've got to play at 80% so that you can stay loose and smooth, because tense muscles move slower. So like your swing is actually better mentally at 80 than 100, same with throwing, playing that game and when you have that bulldog mentality that it's really difficult to like dial that down to play at a at that high level. But interestingly I was too bullheaded to dial it down. So there's one piece of the mental side that like limited my physical ability. But the other piece was I was my confidence was really crushed and I didn't understand what real mental work visualization actually meant until well into my professional life, like as an entrepreneur, or at least the early stages of my business development, entrepreneurial life. So for me visualizing was, hey, get yourself in a headspace where you can see the ball hit the bat and just continue to see the ball hit the bat. I was like, all right, I'll see the ball hit the bat. What I didn't realize is there's so many more elements to visualization that no one taught me right, like to get into it a little bit now, this is one of those. Hey, this is where most people fail kind of thing at that level, because they don't understand when people say it's a mental game. What I'm about to say is what people are talking about.

Speaker 2: 22:13

The mental game comes from confidence. Confidence comes from an undeniable amount of reps in a self-belief because you've executed at a high level so many reps that you know without a doubt you're going to go and succeed in whatever you're doing. But those reps can't be in-game reps because those are so variable. You could take a great swing, put the ball on the bat perfectly sweet spot and line out to the center field. Great at-back, great swing, great hit it's an out, you know. So the way to successfully execute an infinite number of perfect reps, base hits, home runs, whatever they are is to do it in your mind. And interestingly, like I've learned brain science for if we can go there real quick, your conscious and your subconscious mind, well, your subconscious can't tell the difference from your conscious and your subconscious mind. So the brain has this part of your brain. This is all stuff I've learned post-playing that I was like man. If I knew this, I would have really actually understood what a mental game was.

Speaker 2: 23:15

Your brain has what's called a reticular activating system. This is the part of your brain. Think of it as like the filter for your brain, it's like the matrix for your brain. So we can't possibly focus on every single stimulus that's around us because we would short circuit Like every noise, every sound effect, everything. If we actually had to respond to all of it, we would be going crazy all day long.

Speaker 2: 23:42

The cars, the birds, the wind, the smells, the heat, everything is like stimulating. So your brain understands what's a threat, what isn't, what's important, what isn't, and it filters out all that stuff. So it happens basically behind the scenes of your life. Think about when you're going to go buy a new car and you start to look at one. You dial in on one particular vehicle, one particular color. All of a sudden you start to see that vehicle in more places like dang, there's that car. That's the truth and it's because your brain, it's become, you're told your subconsciously, you've told your mind this is important to me now and now your brain goes to work, filtering it into your life, like okay, now you need to see that.

Speaker 2: 24:22

Then it was all in there before, it was out in front of you before, but your brain didn't filter it in because it didn't recognize it as important. What you need to do mentally when you're visualizing is intentionally set aside 10 minutes of pure quiet. See yourself in some highlight reel like some well-executed play at bat on the mound. For me it's like future business experiences. But then you sit in those experiences and you fully embody them with all the senses, like let's just use baseball as an example You're in a stadium, it's a big game, you hear the crowd, you might even hear the guy yelling popcorn. You can smell the hot dogs. You know you can. You hear the at bat music of the next side coming up.

Speaker 2: 25:11

You feel the dirt under your feet, whatever, like whatever position you're in, and then what you do is you connect your emotion to it, like because of the success that you're having, you want to feel that joy, that gratitude, that like pure bliss of of that experience and you relive it over and over and over. And those are like a thousand reps without you know it's free. Basically it's dreaming. It's free. Basically it's dreaming, it's free. But you create those reps. There's like undeniable confidence that gets stacked inside your subconscious mind to the point where you go, like me, one every eight games and I saw myself in the lineup on that eighth day or the fifth day or whatever, because I was a backup catcher at that point and I like had this pit in my stomach like oh crap, eighth day or the fifth day or whatever, because I was a backup catcher at that point and I like had this pit in my stomach like oh crap. And as soon as I had that I lost.

Speaker 2: 26:01

You know I'm out. It's such a confidence game at that level. But had I worked, I understood how to mentally work behind the scenes. I didn't need in-game at bats in order to actually succeed. I just didn't know. Nobody ever taught me that. So really, like the biggest lesson of the game that I learned that finally, like tie into your whole answer is that you're always replaceable. You know, that's that's actually one of the biggest lessons. There are very few roles in life that you are irreplaceable. I would argue even none. Even as a dad, like if I was a terrible dad to my kids, kick me to the curb and get somebody who's going to love them properly. Like you know, even as a dad, if you don't assume that role, well, like you could be replaced for somebody better. And I can tell you a quick story on that. It went like when it hit me and I don't know why this it hit me in this moment, but every spring training, dozens of guys get released. Throughout the season guys get released. It's a normal part of the game. That's like the business side of baseball. It happens, it stinks, but, like you, sort of see it and move on.

Speaker 2: 27:07

When we were at the end of a long road trip. And at the end of the road trip the bus drives you back to the stadium where you drove and you parked so you can get your equipment off, leave your equipment in the in your locker for the game the next day, then you get in your cars to drive home. So we're going to the stadium at the end of a long road trip. It's like three, three or four in the morning and one of my teammates got called as we're getting off the bus, like imagine three or four in the morning, it's been dark and everyone's like this because the lights just turned on. You know their eyes are like half open and my teammate got called and all of us are just trying to race home to get a few hours sleep because we got to get back to the ballpark. So we heard him get called, but we're groggy and not even thinking twice about it. Well, when we show back up to the ballpark at like 2 am, he had apparently met with the manager in his office at that time and had been handeda plane ticket home. He was going back to the dominican and he was released. But when we get back to the ballpark at two in the afternoon that same day when we just got dropped off three in the morning, in his locker there's a new name badge above his jersey. It's the number, but it's a new name on the back of it. In the lineup this guy's replaced him. So if you are a fan showing up to the game that night there's you had no idea that. A guy's dream just ended at 3 am that morning and this is a new guy that has never played at this level, but he just got put in the lineup tonight.

Speaker 2: 28:30

You know that like the train keeps chugging and I was like in that moment I don't know why that moment I was like man, you're always replaceable. Like there's always somebody chasing me and it motivates me. But it also humbles me to think like I'm not that good, no matter how hard I want to or how great I might think I am in any situation. Like there's somebody out there that's better. So like I'm going to lean into my gifts, leverage what I know I'm good at and continue to walk what I feel like is the path God wants me to walk, but I'm like very aware that I am not God's gift to anything. You know, there's always people that are better at certain things. But it does keep me hungry to keep, keep hustling, to know like, okay, maybe you can replace me, but but I'm gonna make it really difficult to replicate no question, we gotta move a little bit faster.

Speaker 1: 29:19

I want to get a few more questions in about some baseball, but before we talk about what you're doing in the realm of finances. But I love what you said about the 80 percent. Uh, player on my favorite baseball team said that he plays at 80 and the man got vil vilified. I thought they were going to fish hook that man. I'm like they were like not 100? Why not 100%? And you explained it so well. I wish you were there to explain it for him because you explained it perfectly why 80% is better than 100 in some cases. But now, as a fan, you're watching the game on TV. Now I'm not sure if you're watching the Royals or you're watching somebody else, but you're watching the games. Now. The game system has changed over decades. Real quick answer. Is this a good thing or a bad thing in your opinion?

Speaker 2: 30:01

I think, good thing overall, I think, if the game doesn't change, well, for me, I think growth in any way, shape or form, has to include change. So I think it's growing and evolving. So I think every change is great? Probably not, but I think it's fun to see the speed of the game, the power of the guys. I think overall, I think the evolution of the game has been a good thing we're going to keep on moving.

Speaker 1: 30:29

I don't think we have enough time to go where I want to go with this one word feeling. When you hit your first home run, what was the feeling?

Speaker 2: 30:41

joy is the first word that came to my mind.

Speaker 1: 30:43

Oh man, overwhelm is probably another word how long did it take you to get around back to home plate if you were that overwhelmed? How long did it take you to get around back to home plate If you were that overwhelmed? How long did it take you? Not long.

Speaker 2: 30:54

I'm not positive. I even touched the ground. I might have floated around the bases.

Speaker 1: 30:58

I can only imagine. I can only imagine that Actually there's a question in our pre-interview I thought was so interesting.

Speaker 1: 31:03

Your oldest son wants to play pro baseball. All you've been through I'm thinking you know what. You're going to have a different answer for him when he comes to you and say you know what, dad, I want to play baseball too. Like you did, I want to go further and do whatever, but what's your response to him if he comes to you and says he wants to play baseball? You said he already did that already. So what was your response?

Speaker 2: 31:24

Yeah, my response was amazing, Like awesome, I'm here to help you. That's going to take more work than you could ever imagine, but you can do it. If you want to put your work in, you can do it. Because I know as an athlete, the worst thing you can have is somebody to diminish your confidence, because you can be more confident and be physically gifted but a less confident player and actually lose out to the more confident player, even if he's not as physically gifted. It's such a mental game. But I also, so I guess I didn't want to diminish his confidence and I also wanted to like help him understand that it's possible. It's just going to take work and I'm there to support him. But you know, my role as dad is cheerleader, my role as dad is not coach extraordinaire and to like reprimand him on games and rides home like yeah, I, I just cheer him, cheer him on, I help him, but like he doesn't need the negativity from me, he can get it from other places.

Speaker 1: 32:31

Yeah, I'm sure he will. Yeah, you talked about what living a wealthy life meant to you. I want you to get into that a little bit. I know we're up against the time-wise so I'm trying to be mindful here, but I want you to get into that brief if you can. But you have an opportunity, or you had an opportunity to go for the comfort, comfortable, stable job and you know, when you start in a family, especially from the beginning, you know what I'm saying. That's the thing that kind of gives new families the most ease. You know, is kind of become the default.

Speaker 1: 33:04

How did you convince the missus to kind of bet on you to do something different than that? This was a sales job extraordinaire. You guys are homeless, butt in the oven and you're not going for the corporate job like the one that I had that I hated at any minute of it, knowing I was replaceable at any minute. How do you get people to bet on you and kind of help steer you guys to the wealthy life that you were shooting for? Kind of get into that real quick if you can, Sure.

Speaker 2: 33:39

So to first define, for me, defining wealth. Did I lose you here or are you still there?

Speaker 1: 33:45

No, that's just me touching things I shouldn't be touching.

Speaker 2: 33:48

Oh, okay, okay, I just saw you disappeared, I was like, okay, okay, cool, cool, cool, that's right, I just disappeared. I was like, oh shoot, did I mess up? What do you mean? No, so to me, finding wealth first is that I kind of look in like four buckets and I didn't make these up, I just heard them years ago and I'm like it works for me, so I stole it. Faith, then family, then fitness, then finance. So I, so I keep the main thing. The main thing is the best way to say so I prioritize that. That to me, if you're winning in those areas, in that order, inevitably you're going to live a fulfilled and wealthy life, You're going to be full. So for me, that's first and foremost. I'm chasing that. But the other part was and, um, and who you marry matters so much Like. She's always been my biggest supporter, my biggest cheerleader, and even if I don't believe in me and I didn't teach her that, that's just like she. Sometimes her role as my wife and my role as her husband sometimes is just hold a mirror up to her face or sheet of mine to show me like who she sees me to be, because sometimes I can't see it, you know. So she really encouraged me to go for it. And in sales first. We both knew like in sales you at least have the potential to outsell and then out earn over time, comparatively to like a back office support job. So she encouraged me to go for that and then to go launch my own thing with seven kids and the sole provider. And again it's just her, her belief in me and in my sales role.

Speaker 2: 35:27

It was a staffing. So I was part of a finance and accounting staffing team at a company called K-Force and I got a lot of new candidates as job offers when they were part of layoffs oh we're having a restructuring, we just got bought, we sold a business unit, all these different reasons. These people just get like kicked to the curb, not because of their performance, just because of like something completely out of their hands. So I saw that over and over and over and leaned into that when I was in staffing because I'm like, hey, some good employees are available. Like let's go, let's go find them new jobs.

Speaker 2: 36:00

That to me became really scary over time because I was like am I going to hitch my wagon to somebody who at any moment, for any reason, that is something that's completely out of my control. They can tell me hey, great job, you're done, at least in baseball. I knew like, hey, you can't hit water if you fell off a boat. You can't keep playing baseball, sorry. Like, okay, I get it, I understand, not a shock. But I looked at entrepreneurship. I kind of flipped that then on its head to say entrepreneurship feels like the safer path because it's me that I'm betting on and if I fail then we lose. But if I keep winning, nobody's going to tell me that we're going to have a corporate restructuring and my job's over Right, like that's name. I'm like I think it's time to go and launch my business. Her first response she was like finally, I was waiting for you to say that. I'm like oh my gosh, I think she's saying that. So, anyway, her unwavering support is the only way this is possible.

Speaker 1: 37:27

I love this. I love this man. I wish we had more time, but we're going to go ahead and pivot to our final question for the day. You've been kind of prepped for it. Anybody that is a part of our show gets to ask the same question, and you got to dig deep into the archives to find the answer. Happens every single episode. But it's all good though. So you're not playing baseball, you're not doing personal finance. What is Matt most likely doing in career vocation mission? What are you most likely doing in baseball and personal finance, or not in the picture?

Speaker 2: 37:58

I am probably um, I'm going to pretend like money's not an object, we just have whatever, like I'm just going to make this up so I probably own. I'm probably living in a place that is a destination of some way ship from, like as a place that people would like to come to, not necessarily like I live in the Bahamas, but like I've got a property, let's say it's on the ocean or it's in the mountains, and it's a really scenic view or something. And I'm probably hosting people to come and bring their problems and troubles and all of all the things that's weighing heavy on them in life and it's and I'm probably restoring them in and pouring encouragement into them and reshaping how they view their world and all the things so that they can leave refreshed and rejuvenated and excited for what God has in store for them. I'm probably just doing that because when I can do that with people in people's lives, I just get lit up.

Speaker 2: 38:56

So, if I can do that in a place that like because I do believe your external environment influences your internal environment in many ways, so that's the reason for the scenery Like I think if they can come to a place that feels very different and feels very peaceful and feels very like how do I say it Like God-inspired, then I think they're going to emotionally be in a different space and in that different space I think I can connect with them in a way to pour life into them and encouragement and sort of rethink, reshape, work through some of the stuff that's weighing heavy on them. I think I would just do that for a living. I mean, I like I get so juiced up when I can do that for people.

Speaker 1: 39:40

Don't want me to ask this question. It does. It does several different things when we ask this question, but this is probably one of the few times that I can say this. These are the kind of answers that you need to consider. This is not some kind of thing pulled out of the air. I don't believe that when I ask that question I'm expecting God to show up in those answers. That's why I asked he showed up in this one.

Speaker 1: 40:07

You have to consider that If you get the whole money-making aspect of it, forget that part. That is the work that people would run to that need it. Matter of fact, if I had the finances I'd partner with you on this one. I think that one is worth it. You and Addie talk about that one. Consider it. Pray on this one. I think that one is worth it. You and Eddie talk about that one. Consider it. Pray on that one. That's powerful stuff right there. Thanks, man.

Speaker 1: 40:40

You don't always have much of your environment and I don't want to take too much time here, but you don't always have. How much of your environment plays a part in how you feel and what you take in and what you put out To be in a location like that ser, how you feel and what you've taken and what you put out To be in a location like that serene. I mean, if you've been on a retreat before, a real retreat I've been on men's retreats and stuff and I'm telling you it's been awe-inspiring because of the environment and the intent to go there and recharge, get rejuvenated, to do it in a place like that. It's like extra bonuses attached to that. So it's a retreat on top of a retreat, on top of a retreat, on top of a vacation on top of a retreat. So I mean that's what that is. So think about that. Maybe we can talk offline if you want to. But awesome stuff.

Speaker 1: 41:22

Matt marizio, ladies and gentlemen, man of faith, husband of 14 years, father of seven for a catching picture of the royals, founder of reconstructing wealth and entrepreneur at heart and obviously a great idea man. You heard one just now. So thank you jumping to him. Matt man, it's been a pleasure to have you on. It should not be the last time we get. We get together on this show, right?

Speaker 2: 41:42

no, I love it, man. Thank you for this. It's been an honor oh, same here, brother.

Speaker 1: 41:46

Thanks again for watching everybody. Matt and mr you, we're out here. Have a fantastic day you.