Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the the podcast for cannabis businesses looking to launch, grow, and scale their operations.
Tommy Truong: I admire the work that you do as an entrepreneur because, you know, entrepreneurship can be a very lonely road if you don't have business partners. But also I've, it, it took me a little bit longer during my journey as an entrepreneur to understand that I'm in the business of infinite problem solving. And before I used to think, Hey, this is big, this big, really big hurdle in front of me or in front of us. If we just get through it, the world will open up and the world is, or ours and we're gonna be walking downhill. But, you know, as I progress, I realized that, you know, I'm in the business, the problem solving, and there's an infinite amount of problems that a business is, uh, that a business face.
And it's my job to determine which problems are worth solving. And it can be [00:01:00] extremely daunting if you are trying to solve all problems. And, uh, I found that, um, where I make my money is identifying which problems to solve and having the discipline not to pursue problems that are not worth my time.
Matt Ritchey: Mm-hmm.
Tommy Truong: Um, so the work that you do is, is really, it's fascinating to me because entrepreneurs, you know, whether or not we like it or not, we need a support system, and you definitely provide that.
But I'm really curious is how can NLP help a person in their journey of entrepreneurship?
Matt Ritchey: Well, you said a lot there, and coming back to NLPI just wanna clarify for people out there, listen, you know, what is NLP Neurolinguistic programming and, um, I think it was made up in the seventies, created in the seventies, everything's made up at some point, right. Um, the, uh, the practice and or the study of NLP is the study of the unconscious mind and how behavior works and how we are incentivized or how we are deed [00:02:00] to take action or not take action.
Right? So it's sort of almost like the, the psychology of selling. If anyone's been in a marketing, you know, in marketing or in, you know, the persuasion of, of, you know, sales, so to speak. There's a lot of those that overlap with NLP in a sense of, um, you know, NLP is a. It's a practice, it's not something, I mean, you know, I lemme back up.
I've taken two different NOP, you know, master courses over the last 12 years or 15 years now, and, you know, they basically break down how our, our subconscious mind makes decisions and how external, uh, triggers can influence our decisions and or, or, you know, how we see things or how we feel about things or how we perceive things, right?
Because everything's perception, because how you perceive something is how you're gonna feel about it. Because I could say the exact same thing and two people could perceive it differently and they would have different. You know, feelings about it, right? But then, but it, with, uh, NLP, it's about how do we be as intentional as we can with everything from the hand movements I make to the tonality of my voice, to how I can build rapport [00:03:00] with somebody and, you know, in person, whether it be, you know, modeling your, your, your space or whatever, right?
There's different things we can do so people feel more comfortable and they feel more connected to the words that we say and or the energy we 'cause. Words are just energy, right? So the energy we put off, 'cause everything's energy. Our body, uh, our body puts off energy. Our heart, our mind, everything puts off in energy.
So when you're intentional with all of that, it, it, it's impactful for the other person. And they don't generally know it. They don't generally like, oh, this person's, you know this, but they kind of just feel like, I feel, they feel more connected. They feel that they can trust me, they feel that they can open up to me, stuff like that.
So basically, NLP is more of the, the tools to basically help open up the conversation to have whatever conversation you want to have, whether it be a transformational healing conversation, whether it be a sales conversation. Whatever it is. NLP is sort of the, the toolkit to really, um, yeah, open up the, the heart and the mind to really connect,
Tommy Truong: Is it, uh, like the analogy, is this the right analogy in that we are having a conversation consciously, and I'm saying words, but [00:04:00] subconsciously you're downloading who my being, my overall presence and your subconscious brain is making the judgment of who I am.
Matt Ritchey: essentially. Yeah. And, and that's not, that's just the way we're wired, man. That's, it's really just, it's a safety mechanism, right?
Tommy Truong: Is that like Blink by Malcolm Gladwell? You know that book?
Matt Ritchey: know, I've never read that. I've actually not read that book. Um, so I can't speak into that specifically. I've read other Malcolm Gladwell stuff, but actually no, never read that.
Tommy Truong: So he talked about how in a split second, you've already made your mind up on something
Matt Ritchey: yes.
Tommy Truong: whether or not you like it or not, it happens that fast.
Matt Ritchey: Yeah, I think there's studies out there, you know, talk, most of it's around dating, but you know, they can tell, like a woman can tell within like four or five seconds if they're gonna sleep with a guy or like, if they would like a guy, right? And it's all, everything. It's just like, say, it's just the combination of you're taking in so much information that you don't even realize.
And that's the whole point. Our conscious brain can only take in so many bits of data. Our unconscious brain can take in like infinite more or go [00:05:00] a thousand x more, a million x more data than our conscious brain. So our con, our unconscious, you know, unconsciousness is taking in it all from, like, say from the sounds we're seeing in the thing from the perfume that person's wearing to the eye connection they make with me to whatever.
It's, it's all data points, right? And we're just meaning making machines or these data points are all going into our subconscious and it's making us think or feel or perceive a certain, you know, a certain thing. So when someone, you know, a beautiful woman walks up and she smells great and this and that, you're like, you like, oh my God, this is like, 'cause as a, as a, as a male, that's an unconscious.
You know, something just naturally happens whether you're married or you have a girl, it doesn't matter. There's something that just can be attractive about a woman, right? Or this the opposite. Like, someone could come in and she just, you know, doesn't have a great look or just, you know, whatever, and you just like, oh man, I just don't feel that.
Right? So everything's unconsciously happening and our conscious mind, we're very, we're very unaware of most things happening. Our conscious mind is only grabbing little bits of it. And, um, yeah, when we can be more intentional with the other [00:06:00] pieces of the data that we're putting out there, that'll automatically influence the unconscious of other people.
Tommy Truong: Well, how can somebody understand a little bit more about their underlying operating system, their unconscious mind, and whether or not that's aligned with who they want to be?
Matt Ritchey: Mm-hmm. Well, that's a good question. So nervous system regulation has a lot to do with that, right? So do you ever walk in or do you ever meet someone and you can just tell they're like scattered and, or they have so many things going on and they're just like in the opposite? Do you ever meet someone who's just like, they're so present?
And there's like, their energy's there, right? That's the biggest impact I think we can have is how we show up. And that has a lot to do with our mind, right? As, as far as are we, you know, if, you know, I'm a meditator, so if I don't meditate, my mind races a little more, I'm thinking more about the future.
Maybe I have a little more thoughts about the past, what things happen or didn't happen, or someone said or didn't said, didn't say. Um, but the point is that when we regulate our nervous system, our thoughts, our energy, our [00:07:00] feelings, that's what we bring to someone else. And that's where, like I say, when you meet someone who's just super dynamic and energetic and whatever, you're like, man, there's just something very attractive about that.
And they didn't, they didn't put on that, that, you know, costume. That's just kind of who they are, right? Mostly, I mean, some people can, you know, act pretty well and or put on a good show for something. But in general, especially if you have multiple touchpoints, you know, you know, we're, we're pretty good at deceiving the bullshit and really knowing what's real and what's not.
So the point is that doing your own work. And that's a daily basis thing. It's not something, it's just you do, you know, you do your work once and it's done. It's like a, you know, are you a daily meditator? Do you have, you know, an outlet for, you know, whether it be a therapist or a coach or something like that, you have an outlet for, for your emotions and your, your things that you're going through.
All that matters in how you show up. Like, so if you're not doing your work on a daily basis, you can't hide that. I can't show up how empowered, clear, calm, and confident if I haven't done that work. So that's the biggest thing I see that impacts people or that's what I see. People having the shift, getting more sales, getting more whatever, having more impact because they've done, they're starting to do the work and people can just [00:08:00] unconsciously feel it.
They meet them at that point and the people who don't have been doing the work or, or, or driving from ego or just kind of have this like, uh, we call it a thirsty, not hungry. Like we talk about being hungry, not thirsty. 'cause a lot of people are just thirsty and they're just so thirsty for business. So thirsty for that next sale.
So thirsty for that connection to that woman. Whatever it is. It's just this. This unattractive, like, have to have kind of thing. That's, you know, if you're in the dating world, like, you know, women feel that. Women know that if they, if you're a single guy who hasn't been late in six months, they can feel your energy like just wanting that, right?
But the opposite, if the guy's kinda like just, you know, confident he's in the space, they're attracted to that as well. So it's all unconscious of how you're coming or it's unconscious for them of how they're perceiving you. But it's consciously you doing your work to make sure that you're showing up energetically in a way that is perceived as present and, um, regulated.
You know, having a regulated nervous system's, kind of a, kind of a flex these days. Right? A lot of people are stressed, a lot of people are going through mental health things. People are, you know, challenged in the real world. It's, it's, you know, normal to be [00:09:00] unregulated.
Tommy Truong: Wow. So what. If I wanted to be, if I wanted to understand myself more from a subconscious perspective, and, oh, actually no, I'll give you my experiences with medi meditation every time I meditate. And, um, there are certain thoughts like bubble up in my head. And sometimes I just think to myself, why did that thought come up? What's going on there? Like, is, is that something that I've been thinking about subconsciously that now I'm in this state of stillness that has bubbled up and there's not a lot of noise in that state where, okay. And, and then I, I take my time and I investigate a little bit on why, you know, you mentioned that meditation is, is a tool that you use to, um, tap into just being a better person.
Like what's your [00:10:00] experience with meditation?
Matt Ritchey: Great question. I probably was like most people listening to this at one point, and, you know, felt, I had the belief that I couldn't meditate. So back up to 2011, I think I tried meditation two times. Someone asked me to sit and I just have these, you know, racing thoughts and after two minutes I'm like, I can't meditate.
Like this is silly. Like it doesn't, it's not doing anything, you know, whatever. Fast forward, uh, I was doing these events and at the end of every event we would do a 30 day challenge and we all, and everyone would declare their own so we wouldn't have to do the same 30 day challenge. So I someone. Someone did it and I just decided to join.
'cause it sounded like a good idea if someone did a 30 day meditation challenge. I'm like, all right, I'm, do, you know, we meditate for 30 days. So January 1st, 2012, I started meditating and it was awful. I mean, the first five to 10 days was just like, it's like, what is this? Right? Then I got turned onto binaural beats.
Are you familiar with Binal beats at all? So, I mean, everyone knows about frequency headphones as far as like, you know, uh, sound canceling, whatever. So, you know, frequency changes, noise and or whatever, right? So these binaural [00:11:00] beats by meaning two, you basically put on headphones and it puts in one frequency in this year and one frequency in another.
And it basically can change and level you to a certain, you know, whether it be theta or beta or whatever frequency you wanna get into. So the brainwaves, right? So I'm blanking right now. I apologize. The, the exact brainwaves, which one's which, but theta, I think Theta's the more active one. Beta's a little more an alpha.
Uh, delta's like a really slow, like, like sleep like, or like deep, deep, deep meditation. Anyway, you wanna get into these, these certain states for meditation and these bin beats literally just kinda like pull you into there. Now you have to sit and you have to kind of breathe whatever, but you put these things on within five minutes, you can get into these states.
And that was a game changer for me. Once I felt the state, I was like, oh, like that's what I was looking for. It's, and when you hit it earlier, it's stillness and it's signal versus noise. And that's what I heard earlier is like, how do I, you know, this, this thing's coming up. Is this, is this signal, is this noise?
And then usually when you get quiet, the signal comes through. 'cause there's always noise. And when you can quiet the noise, then the signal comes through and you think of that, oh, that thing did come up. Maybe there is something there, maybe there is [00:12:00] something that's, uh, you know, triggered me around her or that or this, or whatever that thought was that came up.
And then you can kind of slowly peel back the onion. And if there's something there, maybe you bring it to your, like say your therapist, your coach, or whoever. If you can do your own internal work, great. Um, but yeah, there's definitely a, a process there of stillness. And then, then that stillness, you find the signal,
Tommy Truong: How has that impacted your career or where you were today?
Matt Ritchey: everything. If I wouldn't be, if I hadn't done meditation. I don't know. I mean, there's so many pi, I call 'em pivot points. There's so many pivot points in life. And that was definitely one for me. And if it hadn't, if I hadn't done that, I, I mean, I don't know, to be honest. 'cause I, I, my nervous system was, you know, just like anyone else, it was very unregulated.
Um, I couldn't sit still. And that's what most people like say you sit, you sit and you can't sit and this and that. It's like your nervous system's used to on the go. You're just not used to being still. And we can have that practice of stillness. That's where it comes through in those conversations. And when in the presence, what you bring to people.
And that's what people feel. They feel your presence. If, if your mind is thinking [00:13:00] about something else, or if you're excited for your next, you know, conversation you're gonna have and you're not present. Like say that's the signal versus the noise where you can just get present, get still, and, and find your own signal away from all the noise.
That's the, you know, that's the power this thing has. So the point being, I wouldn't be where I'm at. I wouldn't be the person I am. I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't have gotten into coaching and doing a bunch of stuff I did, you know, now because I wouldn't have had that awareness, that awareness brings everything.
If you don't, if you've never had a state of something, think about it. If you've never had sex and all of a sudden tell, tells you how great an orgasm is and how great sex is. Okay, well I've never experienced it. Now that I've experienced it, you're like, I wanna have more sex. So I wanna have more meditation, I wanna have more stillness.
So now that you've experienced it and you've put it into some sort of, you know, grounded practice that's, you know, you gotta stack days too. It's not gonna change in a day. It's not gonna change in a week. Probably won't even change in a year. You might change, you know, you might see little changes, but there's the, it's just a cumulative effect now for 13 years of meditating, 13 plus years of meditating that I feel it when I don't now.
It's like the contrast, right? So you know it when you don't do it,
Tommy Truong: like exercise.
Matt Ritchey: insane. It's just mental exercise. [00:14:00] It's like the opposite of mental exercise. It's like mental stillness, right? So it's, that's the, but that's, that's the challenge. 'cause right now, like normally our physical, we're still so it's like, okay, we gotta go move.
Normally we're, our mind is racing, so we gotta be still. So it's basically giving your, your, you know, the yin yang of what you need, because you need active brain, you need creativity, you need, you know, all that stuff. But you also need stillness. And same, you need stillness in your body to rest and recover, but you also need activ.
Tommy Truong: I am a, I'm pretty hardcore on productivity. I, everything I do around my life is just based on productivity. And I had this epiphany the other day, well, I mean, it was a while ago, but this, this was, uh, it more, it was, it was a life changing, a life changing, I guess, change that I did, um, before, and, and I'll, I'll tell this story quickly.
I, I used to be able to read a contract. All contracts that come through the door, I have to read 'em because [00:15:00] I wanna make sure that we don't, I handcuff ourselves in the future.
Matt Ritchey: Sure.
Tommy Truong: And I used to be able to go through a contract in 30 minutes and just power through it. 30 minutes, read it, and there you go. And then there was a point in time where I realized that I was so distracted that it took me an hour and a half to read a standard contract and I would do anything but focus and read.
And I was think, I was like, what the hell's going on with my level of focus? It's just not there. I would be on slack, uh, emails, whatever the case may be. And then I got into dopamine and I was like, okay, I probably have really low dopamine and,
Matt Ritchey: Hmm.
Tommy Truong: and, uh, I may be, before I used to think every single hour, every single minute of my waking day, I would have to consume information to get ahead.
So I'll be
Matt Ritchey: Hmm.
Tommy Truong: to a podcast, listen to an audiobook, listen to everything. It's just constant information coming in. And there was absolutely no stillness. That, uh, that I gave myself. And it [00:16:00] wasn't until, until I accepted boredom and I just online reading and I realized that if you should, for me personally, if I am, if outside of work, if I'm bored and work is the stimulation, then that gave me so much more focus
Matt Ritchey: Hmm.
Tommy Truong: in a normal context, outside of work is generally more similar.
I used to watch like street fight videos for like 10 minutes. Like, that's so stimulating, you know what I mean? And you come back to reading a contract that's, that's terrible for you. Right? And then I correlated that with meditation and that has just taken things through the roof.
Matt Ritchey: Ah, nice. So you are meditating now, is what you're saying then?
Tommy Truong: I am, but I'm not meditating. Probably not as frequent as you. Uh, but just having this conversation, I think I should go through like a hardcore meditation challenge.
Matt Ritchey: Well, I don't like to show it all over people, but you know, if it feels called to you, then you know, that's a, it's definitely, it's a game changer. And everything's [00:17:00] consistency. Right. You know, if you're gonna work out once a week, it's not gonna change a whole lot. Right. But you're gonna work out five days a week, seven days a week, you're gonna see some shifts.
Right. And I got young kids, so there was a period where I actually didn't meditate. 'cause every time I went to meditate, I'd fall asleep when my kids were really young and I had sleep deprivation and this and that. So it's like. You know, it's not to say that I've meditated every single day in the last thir, you know, 14 years or whatever it's been, but you know, the idea of the practice of, and, or like, say, whenever I got into that, that habit of falling asleep, I was like, well, I'm just gonna go take a nap instead of meditating.
Right? So I got outta that phase and, and that season of life, and now I'm back to meditating. And you know, it, it's like you don't know the contrast until you stop and then they seem similar. You don't know the contrast until you start and have consistency at it. So I would definitely recommend, you know, doing a 30 day meditation challenge and just journal.
Notice what you notice difference in everything, how you show up and how your mind sees things or doesn't see things. Um, you know, the, the overall activity of your brain. That's the biggest thing. I think most people. Um, it's even hard for me to relate to. I, I just have such a, a calmness and a stillness that I just didn't have before.[00:18:00]
And people feel it. People know it. And you can, I say it comes down to your, your nervous system. 'cause your mind is, is the, you know, the impetus for everything. So if you're mind is racing and you're worried about things and even if you're, you know, taking action on stuff, you're just worried about stuff, your systems dysregulate, you're gonna be in this hyper, you know, actionable state, which in a certain aspect is, can be good as an entrepreneur, but in a, in the long term it's, you're, you're gonna be burned out.
You know, you're basically, you can't be in that, you know, fight or flight all day, every day for, you know, years and years without basically burning your system out. So you really need to regulate and like, say the stillness. And I'm not saying meditation's the only way to do it, you know, people pray. Um, people have other, you know, I've done meditation, active meditation where you're walking too as well, and we've helped people with that as well.
'cause, you know, sitting on a couch or sitting on a, a pillow here is, you know, not as attractive for everyone. And I don't feel like everyone has to do the same thing. And how do you find stillness? How do you quiet your mind? How do you get into that flow state of just presence and just, you know, being right?
Tommy Truong: I find what, what's [00:19:00] helped for me is, um, offscreen time and just being bored. So, you know, meditation, you're, how I meditate is, I'm just focusing on my breath, but just actually being. Forward and not on, not stimulated from an external source has helped tremendously.
Matt Ritchey: Yeah. You'd mentioned about, you know, watching street fight videos and going back and trying to like, do something that's a little more slow. Right. Yeah, that's, that, that's, and I, and I've been in this trap too, like, you know, we, I don't watch tv, but like we have phones and stuff like that. Of course. So it's like when you're consuming content or it's not even content, it's the rate in which the, the screens are switching and, and the lights are flashing.
It's all, it's all, you know, dysregulating your nervous system essentially. And so the more you're doing that, the, the harder it is to, you know, balance that or to really, you know, sit down and then have a regulated, you know, conversation or sit down, have a regulated work session, right. So that's why for me, breadth is our best tool, you know, that we have, [00:20:00] it's always there.
It's readily available, you know, within 30 seconds I can shift my state, I can go from a whatever to like super calm, or I can go from like super calm to like activated in 30 seconds. So learning to use your breath is the biggest tool that we have. So I think that's where people should start. Not like the shuttle people, like should, you know, the breath is just simple.
It's easy, it's free, and it's the most effective tool we have.
Tommy Truong: Mm-hmm. So, elevated executive is, are these, I guess I could, I would call it technologies,
Matt Ritchey: Yeah.
Tommy Truong: you know, what you use to help, um, the executives that you coach and that, that you talk to kind of get to their next level.
Matt Ritchey: Yeah, absolutely. I mean there's, you know, probably more than what we've talked about today. Of course we talk, you know, talk about nootropics and we talk about, um, titration of all, all substances, whether it be cannabis, whether it be alcohol, whether it be coffee or caffeine, whether it be sugar, you know, titration.
If people don't know what that is, basically titration is uh, basically using the least amount of some substance to get the maximum or get the desire effect you [00:21:00] want. So, you know, people, titrating people's, everything is important. 'cause like, say we're generally over, you know, over consuming almost everything, whether it be sugar, whether it be caffeine, whether it be whatever, whatever your drug of choice is.
Right? So really just, you know, titrating. 'cause that can have, have a huge impact on your, your nervous system as well. If you're drinking a ton of coffee, it's gonna be really hard to. Sit down and be present and really have your nerve nervous system slow down. 'cause coffee's meant to speed you up. Almost all these things are meant to speed you up.
So you just gotta be really, you know, intentional with how, what everything you do from, from your mindset to the things you put into your body to, to the activities you do or don't do. And the people you surround yourself with, right? You know, the five people around you is kind of who you're gonna become and or you, how you start to think and or what you start to believe.
So if you're, you know, hanging around, you're the wealthiest person in your group and, you know, people talk about how bad things are and how they're victims and this and that. It kind of, kind of soaks in a little bit and it kind of lowers your ceiling of what you're, what's possible for you. And just the opposite.
If you're hanging around people, you're the, you know, the least successful and kind of motivates you to get your shit done and, you know, see, see what habits they're doing and see what things that are making them, you know, better. So [00:22:00] all of it, all of it adds up. And, uh, you know, to be connected to, to other like-minded, uh, executives and people who are doing the, the work as well is important because as you mentioned earlier, a lot of people are solo.
A lot of people are building on their own, or a lot of people don't have, you know, daily communication with a, a team or physical connection with a team or a, you know, board of advisors to ask for advice, right? So to have these connections, to have these places, to have conversations and have, you know, real sounding boards with people who know what they're talking about, or people who have gone through the same things, you know, that's valuable.
And that's something that, you know, the executives and people in the, in the entrepreneurial space are really clamoring for in a way that, you know, we, we weren't, not that we weren't 15 years ago, but it just wasn't as much, you know, connection and, and or, you know, groups like this.
Tommy Truong: What got you into this?
Matt Ritchey: Uh, I mean, what, what specifically you're asking got into
Tommy Truong: Well, just everything you are, you are very passionate about wellness, right? So not just, um, from the, and, and I do want to talk about this from the alternative medicines that are out [00:23:00] there that are natural. That's, that's a part of kind of your umbrella, but also just wellness of people's experiences in life.
Matt Ritchey: Hmm. Well, honestly, it first started at age 13 when I started racing motocross, and I kind of. Got, I was like super passionate about it. As soon as I got onto a dirt bike, I'm like, this is it. Like, I wanna do this. So I, you know, studied all the people who were great, really good at it. And what the main thing they did early on was like, they were really dedicated to their diet and their health.
So specifically sugar. Like I, I did 13, I cut out all soda. So from basically 13 on, I really haven't had soda. I've had a couple, uh, you know, rum and cokes and stuff back in the day when I used to drink alcohol. But in general, I don't, I don't drink soda. It's not really, you know, part of my thing. So, point being, it was early on when I started to think about it and started to be about it.
So early on it was more of an athlete, you know, your mind, body, uh, connection. So that was the, the impetus for everything. But then realizing that once you get out of athletics or any kind of com competition, business is the, the game of life, right? And business is the, you know, competition in our real world.[00:24:00]
My father was an entrepreneur, my grandfather was an entrepreneur. So for me, I have foundational, you know, practices and things that are built in that I just didn't realize I had even at that point. So getting into the entrepreneurial space. It was a pretty natural fit in a sense. Like this is, you know, I'm a very competitive person and or, you know, uh, now more of a conscious person.
So it's like bringing the, the conscious or bringing the competitive spirit in, you know, melding it with the awareness and the consciousness of health, wellness, mental health, you know, all these things that, you know, we'll say most alpha high drive, you know, entrepreneurs aren't, aren't thinking about.
Definitely gave me a, a unique perspective in getting into business and who we worked with. And, you know, we were, I worked, I had a, a internet marketing agency, you know, way back in the day, like 2008 through 2010. So this is like, you know, early stage Google, SEO and just getting local businesses, uh, online with websites.
And this is like, you know, internet, you know, 1.0 basically. And, um, quickly realized I didn't really wanna work with, with, uh, businesses on that in that way, but realized that I had a, a gift for bringing people together and bringing people to connect and bringing, uh, and holding a space for people to have deeper [00:25:00] conversations and deeper connections and just overall.
Um, trusted, you know, trusted networks. So, long story short is, uh, you know, the, the health and wellness has been sort of a, a, you know, impetus from the start. And now I'm just figuring out how to really do that in a way that brings it to more people. You know, for me it was originally for me and how to be the best, you know, the best motocross rider I could be, and then how I could be the best, you know, version of myself to be a, an entrepreneur.
And now it's kinda like, okay, well I've done a lot of that and now I realize that a lot of people just don't have those skills and just don't have that knowledge. So for the last 10 plus years in different capacities, from coaching to, to online groups, to masterminds, to just like say working with other business leaders in, in, you know, different settings from consulting to otherwise this is, this stuff kind of comes through and realizing that it's pretty, pretty niche in a sense of like, there's not a, you know, if there's, what if they'd say there's a 10 million entrepreneurs in the us, you know, how many of them are doing this kind of stuff?
Maybe 10%, you know, maybe so. To really give people these tools and give access to these certain, the look that, the look that is more like woo woo, right? 'cause some of the stuff is less grounded [00:26:00] in science or less grounded in the physical world, right? But it all, it's, I go with results, right? So I don't do anything that doesn't have results both for myself or from other people.
So, you know, I used to certain, used to just think certain things were very woowoo too. One of them being meditation and psychedelics. Well, both of those have changed my life and have definitely changed many, many people's lives. So I go with results, I go with what works. Um, the point is that, you know, health and wellness is kind of the, the through line for all the businesses and all the things I've done over the last 25 years, 20 plus years.
And, um, yeah, it's kind of made me, uh, an unknowingly expert without really going to school or really, you know, having any kind of official training other than just working with people one-on-one. And obviously, you know, iterating with what works for my own consciousness. Um, it's been an interesting, interesting journey 'cause I work with a lot of people who are.
Have master's degrees or have doctor degrees, or who are, you know, much smarter than I am, which is great. I like being, you know, not the smartest person in the room. So we're, uh, you know, we're really building out a network now of people who are wanting to do this type of work and, and are conscious around the, you know, the day-to-day actions they [00:27:00] can take if only because it makes them more money if and only ' cause it, you know, raises their business up and they can be a better business person.
Like, I'm okay with that. Like, if you can just be a better person to be a better business leader, like that's step one of the journey. And then from there, like, you know, quadruple bottom line, how can we make that business be very intentional and more on purpose? And, uh, you know, that's, and that's the lever.
I think that's gonna change, you know, slow, slow and easy, but change the world in a sense. 'cause entrepreneurship is a, uh, a vehicle for transformation and for people that are doing that work and creating businesses and, and products and services that ripple out into the world. It's a slow game, but it's a, you know, it's a worthy one to, to take on.
And one that I think that, you know, we're in a bubble here in Southern California, but there's definitely more and more people coming online, you know, across the us, across the world that are more interested in all of these. Especially post COVID, right? People in in COVID realized that the government and their doctors don't really, A, they don't really have their best interest in mind, and B, most of 'em don't know what they're talking about and or don't really have UpToDate information.
They're, they're working on books that were written in the forties or the fifties and they don't even talk about your endocannabinoid [00:28:00] system and they don't even talk about, you know, psychedelics or anything. Right. So all these things, these newer, well newer, they're not, they're not new things. They've been around for thousands of years.
Right. But newer to us, newer to the west, these are the technologies that we're wanting to, you know, give people access to and give them education around so they can have these in their tool belt.
Tommy Truong: I've, I think the world opened their eyes during COVID for me personally, on how hijacked the medical industry is. With special interest groups, I thought it was bad. And then you just veil the onion just a little bit and you're like, oh my God, it's now with RFK in there and you can just see it just, it's ugly.
Matt Ritchey: Yeah. Yeah. Well, being in the cannabis space, you know, ccb d cannabis space prior to the, uh, the pandemic definitely opened my eyes. I knew that, you know, FDA was kind of rigged and this and that. But yeah, once you realize how rigged it is, it's like, okay, yeah, these aren't, you know, they're, they're not really, like, say they're not looking out for your best interest, which I always thought they were.
You know, FDA is supposed to protect us, supposed to keep our food and [00:29:00] drugs safe, right? Yeah.
Tommy Truong: Yeah, it's too bad. I, so what, what can somebody expect, or I guess what are, what is the type of person that you work with, an elevated executive, and what can somebody expect going through this program with you?
Matt Ritchey: Yeah, so the elevated executive is the, I'd say is the, uh, the bridge group that I've kind of created here. We talked offline. Um, everyone in that group is, you know, not in plant medicine. They're not working within our industry. They're either, you know, maybe you're in finance, maybe you're in tech, maybe you're in the medical industry, you know, big pharma.
Um, these are people who are, uh, you know, waking up we'll say to their, their, you know, greater power and their consciousness and or, um, what they're, what's possible for them and or generally unaligned with the work they're doing. Right. They're, they're in a business or a com, uh, a company or an industry that's just not.
It's not exciting for them, right? There's no purpose for them. There's no tension there for them to do anything bigger. So the elevated executive is a, a group of people who are coming in to find, uh, community [00:30:00] around similar like-minded people who are having these awarenesses and these, these transformations.
And then, uh, the whole program is really to give you the tools that we just kind of talked about in order to, you know, evolve your own consciousness, evolve your own efficiency, and become a better executive. And then the, the goal and the, the selfish goal for me is to then recruit a lot of these people into this emerging industry so that we can have the best, you know, the best brightest people so we can build this space.
Because, you know, we, we need great leaders, we need great people, but we also need great skills and great, you know, business chops for people to come in and help us build this because. Right now, I mean, a lot of the stuff being built out in the psychedelic and in emerging spaces are people who are super passionate about it, but maybe don't have the business acumen or don't have the, you know, the, the previous business experience to actually grow or build or grow or scale a company.
So we need, we need real builders to kind of come over, you know, real builders who have had their consciousness awakening to kind of come in and help us build these industries. So Elevate executive is, is serving as that bridge and, um, you know, it's basically a, a community of like-minded [00:31:00] entrepreneurs who are not necessarily wanting to get into this space, but who are doing their own work and using plant medicines and cannabis and other things as a tool.
And, uh, you know, we do retreats and other things like that where they can go and have, you know, plant medicine experiences with like-minded, safe, trusted people that they want to. You know, transform with. So whether it be, you know, psilocybin, ayahuasca, you know, San Pedro, we have, you know, networks of people from obviously here in Southern California to all over the world that are doing different types of integration and or retreats with these medicines.
And, uh, that's the whole Elevate executive network. It's gonna be really exciting to see the bridge built from the, we'll call the traditional business world into this, these emerging markets and into these emerging spaces. Um, yeah, that's my, my selfish goal is to really, uh, attract the best people and, and really build these industries up because, you know, these, these compounds have changed my life.
And for me, getting these out into the, uh, you out into the collective in a safe and effective way, goal number one, it's like, how do we get education? How do we get best products, best services, and the best people to bring and, and rep represent these compounds so that we can be, you know, taken, taken [00:32:00] seriously?
Because I think right now on the, on the national, you know, world level, you know, most people don't take these things very seriously and or they think they're demonic or they think they're this and that. You know, I was here, I was listening to a, a. Uh, a clip from Tucker Carlson talking about somebody talking about ayahuasca and DMT and, you know, think it's a specific real or a specific entity and it can take you over.
Yeah, maybe. I think there's definitely some truth to that. And if you're working with, you know, skilled guides and people who have, you know, reverence and, and you know, uh, history with the plants, it's not really gonna happen. You're not really gonna go into those spaces. You're not really gonna be captured in that way.
So anyway, I think there's just misconceptions about what these medicines are, what these compounds can do, and you know, who should be taking them. So I think this is the, a way to really educate and bring awareness to, you know, the greater, you know, business world about how people can use these in a way that's safe and effective and actually improves their life.
Tommy Truong: What got you into like ayahuasca or these alternative medicines?
Matt Ritchey: Yeah, I don't know if we talked about this or not, but this is something I share in my book and, and everything. [00:33:00] But, you know, I was sexually abused as a kid and at age 11, uh, you know, uh, friend's dad took advantage of me and, uh, I obviously had a repressed memory until I was 27. So it was, you know, over 15 years of never even thinking about it.
As soon as I used cannabis, 27 years old, lifted the veil and I was like, oh, I can't unsee that now. So, you know, you can't unsee what you, what you see. Right. So it basically, at age 27, it lifted the veil and gave me insight into what was driving me. You know, I was 27, I, you know, I had some girlfriends, but never really, you know, serious in a sense that I just didn't really feel whole and complete.
I had a lot of shame. I had a lot of, you know, just, I don't know, had a lot of, uh, unknowingness about who I was and or what I was, you know, there for anyway, long story short is, you know, cannabis lifted the veil. I had a lot of connections to people who were already, you know, this is 20 10, 20 11. A lot of people were already using these medicines in, in sacred ceremonies and, you know, spiritual ways around where I live here in Southern California.
So I think my first was a, uh, psilocybin, uh, uh, dose with a men's group that was, you know, awesome. Really opened [00:34:00] things up and kind of, you know, helped me to start to, to see things that I was, you know, repressing. And then ayahuasca for sure was the, uh, was the pivot point for me. It really helped me desensitize all the triggers, helped me forgive myself around shame and anything I had around who I was or who I, you know, thought I was previously.
And it really gave me the, uh, the license to be a creator. Right. That was my biggest takeaway from Ayahuasca is that we are all. Uh, creators we're, we're seeds of a creator. So, you know, seeds that seeds of an apple grow apples, right? So seeds of creator are creators, and we are creators, whether we believe it or not, or whether we think we are or not.
We're creating our life one sentence at a time, one action at a time. And so to be more conscious with that and be more intentional with that, that was what my ayahuasca really kind of, you know, empowered me to basically take advantage of my, or take, you know, take control of my life and say, I'm creating this.
This is not for anyone else to do. I'm not gonna be a byproduct of the things around me. I'm gonna actually take action in the things I want to see happen. So for me, there were a tremendous, you know, pivot point for, to really, you know, take a, take things on. You know, shortly after that I got married. Now I have two kids.
You [00:35:00] know, I have, you know, successful businesses probably wouldn't have happened without plant medicine. I probably would've been, you know, being driven by these unconscious things to whatever, you know, I think some of my unconscious drivers were to, to feel safe and, and certain like things like that. And that wouldn't, you know, that doesn't align with being an entrepreneur and taking risks and all these certain things.
So it definitely would've been. Prohibitive and I would've been, you know, held back on certain actions if I hadn't cleared that from my subconscious, if I hadn't cleared that from my, you know, the drivers that were driving me. 'cause we all have things that are driving us unconsciously. We mentioned earlier, our unconscious sees and, and takes in everything.
And it's really main job is to keep you safe. That's it. Alive and safe. And from there it's up to you to be intentional with how you use it. So if you're not intentional, if you don't know what's driving you, you're gonna be driven unconsciously. So for me, these were, these were the tools to really, uh, clear up any of the, you know, the previous stuff I had around my, you know, beliefs and my, my mindset.
And then to really, you know, take that next step of being conscious and being a creator and being intentional with my life.
Tommy Truong: Wow. [00:36:00] So that it, it really, I, I wanna talk a little bit about your, how did Ayahuasca. What was your experience like to de synthesize yourself from what happened? Like what? Like what do you actually go through and what does that growth look like? Because it's, how many sessions did you go to? Through
Matt Ritchey: With Ayahuasca
Tommy Truong: Yeah. One, oh, that was just one session and it, it completely helped you get over some past trauma. That's amazing.
Matt Ritchey: now. I was doing a little work before that and in that session, um, yeah. And that session was amazing in the sense that, uh, you know, I saw, I saw, you know, I was basically 11 years old, you know, I saw 11-year-old Matt, you know, he's scared. He's, he's, you know, uh, he's confused. You know, he's un he's unsure of what his, you know, he, his, he who he is, and has a man as a person, right?
So it even just go back and experience it through the lens of being a. 30 something year old man at the time, or 20, you know, 30-year-old man [00:37:00] at the time. That is, is refreshing and it's a healing. And it, and it kind of, you got mentioned about the desensitation before I did this, you know, thinking about it, you know, it brought back memories, it brought back feelings, it brought back, you know, certain shame, certain guilt, certain things.
And then once I'm able to go through that Ayahuasca experience, see, you know, who I was and see who I am now, and, and you know, forgive, you know, the guy who did this 'cause, you know, holding, holding resentment and whatever, that's only hurting me. It's only hurting the person, you know, holding these feelings.
So it was really like a full surrender release. Um, you know, it was a whole. Um, system upgrade that really happens there, that you can basically then after that experience, now I can think of it, I can speak about it, and it's not emotional, it's not triggering for me. It's not gonna take me back to that place where I feel shame, guilt, and all the things that I used to feel, because I know that's just a story that I made up.
So these, these compounds can really help us do our work in real time. That's why ayahuasca is a beautiful medicine in the sense that, in the, in the, [00:38:00] the throes of the medicine, you are, you're conversing with grandmother, right? With the, with the medicine. And it's not, you know, you're not necessarily hearing even words, but it's like these feelings, these visuals, these, uh, you know, whatever.
So the, the medicine really can help you, and I think it really takes you to wherever you need to go. I think that with cannabis, with anything, like people talk about cannabis, like, oh yeah, every time I use cannabis I just fall asleep. I'm like, yeah, you're fucking sleep deprived. That's why it's a medicine.
It's gonna give you what you need. It's gonna put you to sleep because you're, you're sleep deprived, right? So medicine gives us what we need, generally speaking. So when you go into, uh, an ayahuasca ceremony with these intentions and or just with, uh, you know, the intention to heal, it's gonna bring in whatever visuals, whatever repressed memories, whatever thoughts or whatever beliefs you're having, and it's gonna let you look at 'em, and it's up to you to really kinda go through it.
There's no magic thing you do. It's literally, you know, thought by thought image by image. Uh, belief by belief. You kinda get to do inventory. And what do I believe? Do I believe I'm, you know, do I believe I'm shameful and guilty and all these things? Or do I [00:39:00] believe that I'm a creator and I'm powerful, I can do whatever I want.
And, but that's where ego can come in. Actually, it's funny, I see this in the, in the psychedelic space, people get more ego after they have a psychedelic experience sometimes because they have that feeling of like, oh my God, I'm God, like I'm connected to God. And I'm that that creator, right? Yes. And you, what are, what are you doing with it?
What's your reverence for it? Where, you know, what's your responsibility to that? What's your connection to the greater, you know, greater connection of all everyone. Right? If everyone, you know, everyone's God, everyone's a, an image of God, right? So there's a, there's a really interesting dynamic that plays in the industry or in the, you know, people who take psychedelics.
That some people who take psychedelics one time have, have an inflated ego. People who have had the experience and or multiple experiences usually have more humbleness and, and, uh, you know, a realization that they're not God and or that they're not, you know, special, that we're all capable of these things.
It's just more about, you know, thinking, you know, access and, and or beliefs and or, uh, uh, the, the [00:40:00] supercomputer running our meat suit.
Tommy Truong: I, uh, I know someone personally that went through four, five Ayahuasca experiences and I remember meeting him for the first time and, um. Just feeling this energy of just straight groundedness,
Matt Ritchey: Hmm.
Tommy Truong: a completely grounded energy. And we talked about it more and more and more. And I, and he was going, you know, and eventually the conversation came down to the plant medicine and it just opened my eyes to like, oh, who were you before the plant medicine?
And I was talking to him and, and my wife, their childhood friends. And she said that he was a completely different person, like a completely different person than who he is today.
Matt Ritchey: And that scares a lot of people. It does. Because, you know, who am I if I'm not this person? That's scary, right. But there's a lot of people who are unhappy with who there are. So it's like, well, maybe this isn't who I need to be, or this isn't who I wanna be. This isn't who I really [00:41:00] am. Right. But yeah, it's definitely, um, it's a look under the hood.
It's a, uh, you know, it's a conversation with God creator, whatever you wanna call it. And it's a, uh, it's an invitation to do the work. And, you know, none of that's easy. None of that's, uh, gonna happen. You know, I didn't come out of that Ayahuasca experience, you know, like I am now, but I was on the path too.
And so it set the, set the frame for me to continue to daily, you know, daily and even early on, daily affirmations. I am worthy, I am powerful, whatever, you know, whatever you need to believe, whatever you need to see. And, uh, you know, the medicines really just kind of give you, like, say a look under the hood of what you really need to work on and or what you need to transcend as a human, as a, you know, we've all had trauma.
Like say, my trauma's not special. I'm not, you know, everyone's had their own trauma, so whatever's driving you unconsciously, you know, that's a, it's a peek into the hood to really get a hold of that so you can be more intentional with how you heal it and or how you move forward in the future.
Tommy Truong: How can somebody today make a career or a [00:42:00] business in this industry, the emerging plant industry?
Matt Ritchey: Good question. There's a lot of ways, uh, you can either be a, I I look at it kind of two ways. You're either on the business side of things or maybe you're on the healing side of things. And it can be both to a certain degree, but you know, one more than the other. So, you know, I think on the business side, I think of, you know, people who are creating products or services that are helping support these business or these healers or these therapists or these retreat centers.
And then you have the people who are, you know, doing the work, whether they be, you know, doing integration work, whether it be doing education work, whether it be doing the actual medicine ceremonies, um, you know, all that. So there's a, there's a pretty broad way you can get involved, whether it be, you know, if you wanna work hands-on with the medicine, great.
If you wanna work, you know, if you, if you've been awakened by the medicine and you have a great skillset, whether it be marketing or whatever, great. Like we need more of that. Um, so really there's no. I mean, there's always limitations to getting in just because the, you know, the, the total adjustable market here is still pretty small, right?
There's still a lot of, you know, a lot of, uh, illegality [00:43:00] to a lot of these compounds right now, especially here in the us. But we're, you know, we're transcending that day by day here and say, we'll say this current administration is at least pro psychedelics to a certain degree. We'll see if we can get some of these things descheduled or, you know, taken off schedule would be ideal, but I don't think that's gonna happen in the short term.
All that to say is that it's gonna be a slow burn here in the next one to five years. And then in, you know, I don't know, throughout this adminis, this administration into the next one was gonna be kind of the tipping point to see what's gonna happen in the next, you know, next decade. And I'm very, I'm bullish.
I think the future looks bright in the sense that I've always said, ever since I got into psychedelics in like 20, 21, about a year after we got into the cannabis space, psychedelics will be federally legal before gardening will be. 'cause you can't deny the impacts it has. The veterans who come back and have, you know, healed real brains and lives.
You know, the fighters who get over their PTSD and or, uh, you know, CTE, the, you know, the, the person who has trauma and, you know, awakens from that and, and heals themself and is it a whole different person to their family or to their loved ones? You can't deny the [00:44:00] impacts this is having cannabis. They can muddy the waters they have.
That's what they've been doing. Hey, it's just, there's no, you know, it's not, I don't, it is an equal medicine in a certain sense, but it, it definitely has its limitations in power. Like, you know, psychedelics has such a power, such a, you know, the ceiling is so high with the psychedelics, no pun intended, that, you know, you can't deny it.
Where cannabis, they can kind of, they've been mudding the waters and basically kind of pushing it down the road. Now I think they'll vote both, eventually be federally legal, but psychedelics will be legal first. I'm still standing on that. I still think we're moving in that direction, although I have heard that.
Potentially, uh, the Trump administration may deschedule THC, which wouldn't be a great thing, but it would be a mini step in the way of legalization and or getting there. But, um, yeah, there's, there's a pretty good chance that in the next, you know, three to seven years here, that we could have studies and or things come out where, you know, MDM, DMMA, psilocybin, DMT, you know, iboga, all these things are having studies and having, you know, real world proof [00:45:00] of what's what they're doing.
And like, say once that kind of comes out, they're not gonna be able to deny it and or they're not gonna want to deny people these medicines, like, say, especially veterans and, you know, first responders or whatever. Any of these people who've put their lives in the line for us. Like if, you know, I don't know how humane we can be if we're, you know, denying the medicine is gonna change their life.
So I think we're moving that, that change. It's out at the station. It's not coming back. So we're, we're moving that way pretty quickly because say we work with a bunch of veterans groups and people who are veterans here, and it's just so undeniable and there's so much coming out about it right now.
There's so much media as well, which is great. So we have some people who are, you know. Pushing that along and like say, that's gonna be the, the first fulay. So all I have to say is that there's lots of ways to get involved. Wherever your passion and your, your skillset really crosses over is probably the best place to get started.
You know, I find a lot of people who have an awakening and then they're like, oh, I just wanna serve the medicine. That's a long journey, you know, if you have your awakening now, you shouldn't really be serving medicine for a couple years. You should be sitting in, in, you know, ceremony with other, other guides and, and doing medicine and having X amount of, you know, [00:46:00] experiences and doing your own work with the medicine.
So you get to know the medicine and then you can serve the medicine. But people think, oh, I had an experience, now I'm gonna bring this to everyone else. It's like, we need to be careful in the sense of that's, I think, what could get us in trouble in a sense of, you bring uneducated or un well-intentioned even, but, you know, uneducated and unskilled people.
Bringing up the people that, you know, need the medicine. There's a, that's a slippery space to be in. So all I have to say is that I find people that have a zone of genius, you know, whether it be marketing or, or whatever, that's the best and easiest way to get in. Now you can get in and serve medicine and there's no shoulds or shouldn'ts and timelines, whatever.
But, you know, there's a, there's a, you know, there's a real push for people to do more of their own work before they start serving medicine, which I'm fully behind. I don't think we need, you know, rookies out here. You know, holding, holding hold space for, you know, people to kind of go through, you know, it's just a lot of energy.
It's a lot of work. And, and you know, if you're not done your own work, you're not really, you know, ready to bring other people through it.
Tommy Truong: How are we for time?
Matt Ritchey: Um, [00:47:00] actually I'm good. Lemme see here. I kind of forgot we were on time, or you know, in time. Yeah, I'm good.
Tommy Truong: Okay, you're good to go. A couple minutes over.
Matt Ritchey: Yeah. Yeah. I'm good.
Tommy Truong: I, I wanted to ask you this, um, because you probably deal with this a lot and um, you probably help a lot of entrepreneurs through this is imposter syndrome.
Matt Ritchey: Hmm,
Tommy Truong: You know, it's a real thing. I think every entrepreneur goes through it. What are some tools and techniques that somebody can use to, uh, to address this?
Matt Ritchey: great question. You had good questions today. I'm liking this. Uh, the, uh, the imposter syndrome is something we all have, and as an entrepreneur we have it more than most people because we're constantly speaking into existence, what we want to happen, acting as if, and or literally, you know, in real time conversations, speaking to people, uh, to help make it happen, right?
So [00:48:00] the imposter syndrome's real in a sense of like, oh man, I'm telling this guy this, ha, this, this, this, you know, thing's there, but it only there if this happens. It's like, oh my god, things are gonna come together. Like. You know, the confidence can be shaken for a lot of people. Like, I don't know if that's, you know, is that a real thing I'm telling him in the sense of if I don't, uh, you know, I've done it once, can I deliver again or whatever.
It's kinda like this early on. So all that to say is that rep, there's no, there's no experience for experience, right? So there's, you can't replicate that. And I learned this actually in my motocross days, visualization. The subconscious mind actually can't differentiate from full blown realization and actually experiencing it.
So the more senses you can bring in. So I used to do motocross visualization visualizations where I would sit down, I should do it, would do it in the sauna too. So I would make the time go faster. I would sit down and I would pretend I'm on the starting gate. I dunno if anyone knows motocross. You have 40 people on a starting gate.
Everyone goes to one turn and then you do your, do your laps. So I, you know, visualize myself. In the starting gate ready to take off, getting the whole shot, doing the whole, [00:49:00] the whole, uh, course, you know, the whole thing. I, I knew the course, you know, I knew the, what I was riding. I'd run, you know, written in hundreds of times.
So you literally visualizing everything and you could feel it, you could feel the, I could hear the, the engines going and hear the throttle. I could feel the dirt hitting me. I could smell the exhaust, the two strokes of exhaust. And the more you can encompass all of these, uh, senses, the more real it becomes for your subconscious mind.
So the long way of saying that is that if you're feeling like you're an imposter, do some visualization. Sit down, think about what it is you're gonna do. And maybe that's, maybe that's a sale, right? Maybe you're gonna make a big sale. You get a sale, a 10,000 package. You never set, sold a 10,000 package, whatever, right?
Um, sit down, walk through the conversation, act as if, or, you know, in your mind, act as if how you want the, the sale to go and visualize it and feel into it. And then when you get to the actual conversation, the real world actuality of it. Your system's almost like, oh, we've been here before. We've done this, we got this.
So there's like a practice involved. That's the whole thing. Like, you know, a [00:50:00] closer or someone who does 50 closes a day after a year, they're gonna be pretty good. They're gonna be pretty relaxed. Their nervous system's gonna be knowing what to expect. They're gonna know all the conversations or all the, the objections, right?
So the imposter syndrome will go away with confidence. And the only way, only you know, thing for confidence is experience except for the visualization of experience. So that's my only hack for people to get in there and, and start to do stuff. Start to use your, like say this comes down to the, uh, the meditation.
So me, in the morning, I do a meditation. And then I do a visualization. And the visualization, uh, without getting too granular right here, has a lot to do with what, how my day is gonna go. Because I know my schedule, I know what's gonna go, I know, you know, I know the conversation I'm gonna have generally, and I can kind of visualize them.
Now, it's not to say I, I'm, I'm a 30 minute conversation. I'm not gonna sit there and visualize the whole conversation and this, and back and forth. It's the concept of it. It's like, Hey, I'm gonna sit down with, so I sit down with you and have these diff you know, these, these topics and I'm gonna talk about these certain things and visualize it.
Just visualize it going well, and feel the energy of how you feel afterwards of how good it feels or [00:51:00] how, you know, uh, it feels good to accomplish something or to, to make something. 'cause everything is, is systematic. And the more we can make our system believe that we can do it, we can do it. And like I say with the, the Henry Ford quote, you know, whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right.
So if you believe you can, if you have the confidence it's gonna happen or you're gonna do it. If you don't, that's where the imposter syndrome come in. Like, can I do this? Can I close that deal? I don't know. I've never done one that big. I've never done something like this. Visualize it first. We all start from zero at some point.
So you gotta have the visualization and or the, uh, the ability to, to practice and have the confidence that you know that you can't do it.
Tommy Truong: I have you, um. You know, when, when you talk about that, it reminds me a lot about pro athletes like you, motocross basketball players. Have you read the book? Alter Ego?
Matt Ritchey: no.
Tommy Truong: It's amazing book. So,
Matt Ritchey: Who, who's,
Tommy Truong: oh, gosh, gosh, who's the author? Alter Ego. So you just tied down Alter Ego, the yellow face cover, yellow book cover.
[00:52:00] And he talks about, so he's a coach and he coaches a lot of athletes and a lot of actually Olympic athletes too. And you, if you think about the Olympics, you, if you're running a hundred meters in Olympics, you're training four years for nine seconds. So you gotta be on in that nine seconds. So how do you turn on the juice when it matters the most?
And he talks, uh, a lot about what you spoke about and, and as well as you kind of have to have you step into an alter ego.
Matt Ritchey: Hmm.
Tommy Truong: um, and maybe, maybe it's not you at that very moment, but it's somebody that you want to emulate and you do that enough where that that now becomes your alter ego. Yeah.
Matt Ritchey: Yeah. Uh, yeah. Essentially that's what you're doing here, right? You're, you're visualizing yourself as something greater than you are. And you're just stepping into it when the time comes and the repetition in your mind is the, [00:53:00] you know, like I say, your mind drives everything. So when you, when you do the reps in your mind, there's just a belief that kind of comes into your system that, you know, I am, that I am that closer.
I am that person. I'm that alter ego, right? So I, I make sense. I've never heard it really since, uh, broken down that, that wave alter ego. But yeah, I mean, we all, we all have archetypes too within me. I'm a father, I'm a business owner, I'm an athlete, whatever, right? I have these archetypes. So, you know, to say it's fake or say that you're, you know, changing.
No, no, we're all changing at different times. Like, what, what state are you stepping into? Earlier I talked about breath, right? Well, that's the easiest way to change your state from, you know, archetype to archetype, right? So if I need to go from having an intense conversation, whatever, to going to talk to my kids, then it's, you know, I gotta maybe sit down, take a breath, and that's where even compounds come in.
You know, Mary Jane, cannabis is a feminine drug, is a feminine compound. Have a little bit of Mary Jane, I'm gonna open up my heart a little bit. Gonna be more patient. I'm gonna more empathetic for my kids. Stuff like that, right? So there's definitely different ways that you can shift states and or change what you're doing or how you're experiencing things, but you gotta kind of know [00:54:00] yourself and know what tools you use, um, to do certain things.
Whether it be like, say if you're using caffeine to then, you know, get into that, you know, whatever, and do that, you know, high energy for whatever reason you do. Yeah, go do it. I don't personally use caffeine, but hey, a lot of people do. And a lot of people, I don't use cannabis. I do. It's, uh, you know, whatever tool works the best for you or, uh, I'm non-judgmental.
So, you know, use caffeine if it works, use Kratom if it works. I don't use Kratom, but certain people use Kratom. So all these tools throughout our disposal, um, you know, it's really about titration and figuring out what works and what doesn't and how to really use these tools best to get into whatever state we need to be, to be the best in that, that situation.
Tommy Truong: Matt, I really enjoyed this conversation. Gotta have you back.
Matt Ritchey: Thank you. Yeah, I've enjoyed this as well. Like I said, this is, uh, this stuff I geek out on, I don't really get to talk about with a lot of people too much. And, um, I love bringing this to a greater, greater audience here. And, you know, definitely a lot of, a lot of deeper and, and bigger concepts we've talked about.
So we'd love to, you know, come back and maybe dive into, you know, a couple more in more depth and, and more, um, granularity, if that makes [00:55:00] sense. And yeah, keep the conversation going.
Tommy Truong: Definitely. How can our listeners find you?
Matt Ritchey: Yeah, if you're, uh, wanting to learn more about Inner Circle, you can check that out. Inner Circle Biz, that's easy. Uh, if you wanna direct connect with me directly, it's Matt at Inner Circle Biz. Um, I don't really use any, uh, socials other than LinkedIn, so you can find me on LinkedIn. Matt Richie. Um, yeah, that's, that's my main ways you can connect with me.
You know, we're, uh, we're definitely looking for, you know, conscious leaders who are, uh, awakening to their power and are wanting to potentially make an impact in a, in a greater way. Obviously, if that includes plant medicine, that's our biggest community we have right now. Um, we have a bunch of people from all over the world, but mostly all over the US in different, different, uh, geographic markets and doing different things.
You know, everything from growing and distributing the, the plants and fungi to the, uh, you know, the ancillary services and the, the marketing, the, the media and all that kinda stuff. So if you're interested in wanting to get into this space or you have, you know, uh, a business that's already in the space, let's connect, let's, uh, talk more.
I'd say we're, uh, we're [00:56:00] open to vision and values aligned to entrepreneurs who are building and, and want, you know, the support to basically, you know, be in, be in a, a regulated group that's, you know, high vibe and highly vetted of high, uh, high integrity people.
Tommy Truong: Guys reach out. All of our listeners are in the plant space, by the way, so, um, definitely reach out. I, I think there's so much value in being part of a community and learning from each other that, uh, it's invaluable.
Matt Ritchey: Yeah. And we meet people where they're at in a lot of sense. Like, say, I tell these people all the time, I had the same model in the, you know, coaching space in the, you know, the transformational space and, and not the plant medicine space in 2014 through 2017. And I was charging double what I'm charging now.
So all I have to say is we're, you know, we're not doing this for the money specifically. They, you know, they have to have skin in the game and all that kinda stuff. But we're, we're, we're, we're, we're trying to meet the community where it's at and we realize that there's not a, you know, there's not a windfall of money going through the plant medicine spaces right now.
So we're really trying to meet people where they're at and, you know, you gotta have skin in the game and you gotta have, uh, you know, value to, to, to exchange. And we're here [00:57:00] to, uh, meet people where they're at and, and, you know, see who's got the value and the, the risk to step up and be a part of something bigger.
Tommy Truong: Matt, thank you so much for joining me.
Matt Ritchey: Appreciate you. Thank you.
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