Coronavirus & Being a Leader with Matt Sweetwood

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Tony: 

Welcome. I'm your host, Tony DUrso. I interview some of the most successful people in the world and I thank you for joining us. This show is dedicated to helping you turn your vision into reality. And here's a successful entrepreneur who provides insights and guidance you can use to move along your vision path. Listen to my shows at tonydurso.com, or go to your favourite podcast platform such as Spotify or Apple podcasts. Just search for Tony DURSO. So now before we get going, get ready to build your first sales funnel without having to hire an entire team to help as ClickFunnels makes it super easy. Visit Tony DUrso.com/click and please stay tuned for important messages from our sponsors just ahead. I'll be talking about shaving with Harry's Razors. I've been using them for years and we're giving you a trial set at harrys.com/durso and find the right person for your business at LinkedIn jobs by going to linkedin.com/Tony to get $50 off. More details on all this just ahead, so please stay tuned.
Today's show is about Corona virus and being a leader with Matt Sweetwood. Let's see what we can learn today. At the end of this interview, I'm going to do a summary recap of what we went over, so stay tuned for that. Here's some info on Matt Sweetwood. He's the bestselling author, Leader of the Pack and the father of powerful leadership speaker. As a single dad to five children, he built his own $100 million business and is now the CEO of the emerging start up Luxnow. Here we go.

Tony: 

Hi Matt. Welcome to the Tony DUrso Show. So great to have you on with us today,

Matt:  

Tony. It is a pleasure to be here, particularly at this most troubling time.

Tony: 

Yes, indeed. I really look forward to talking about the Corona virus and being a leader. It is a time where leaders I think have to do a little bit more or maybe a lot more than they're doing now, because you've got to help so many more people under your care, under your jurisdiction, under your zone of influence. So really want to get into this. But before we do, we want to follow your journey to success and learn about you. So Matt, please tell us how did it all start for you? What's your backstory?

Matt:  

For me, I like to say that I am a Jersey guy. I spent most of the five decades I've been alive in New Jersey. I ran a business, I raised my five kids there, went to school there, ended up selling my business there. So really I always say that's kind of where my roots are from. Recent years, I made it into New York City, was there for a few years and now I'm running an amazing company called Luxnow here in Miami, Florida, and really enjoying life and trying to build something big. But I'll back up to the Jersey side so you know I was a full Mister New Jersey kind of guy. People would always with joke with me that I was the legal version of Tony Soprano. Ran a photographic supply business there which went through major, major business transformations, if you know anything about the photo business. One time we sold flash bulbs and then eventually film. Became a huge seller of film. 5% of the market went through my company. Digital came about. The small stores we were selling went out of business. We ended up selling to photographers. It was a constant reinvention of this business. Eventually opening up a camera store, reinventing the camera store model, building a very, very successful camera store when all the other cameras, stores kind of bit the dust, and really had an amazing and quite adventurous business career there and to my fortune. I eventually was able to successfully exit that business in 2015.
On the personal side, maybe I have more of an interesting story because I'm the guy who ended up writing a book called Leader of the Pack about his story of raising five children on his own. I tell the story about how the mom left when the kids were little. I ended up in a pretty difficult circumstance, obviously very, very difficult circumstance, some crazy adventures along the way. Like I said, it ended up in a great self-help book of how really anybody can overcome this in business or in their personal life, raise those kids in New Jersey, built that business and really ended up in a very, very good way. The kids are all out there now doing their thing and I'm here, like I said in Miami enjoying myself and running a new cool business.

Tony: 

Matt, so many questions and comments I want to make about that. But just to follow along the little format I have, I want to get into your vision for your current success. You're running Luxnow. You've done dynamite on other businesses. What brought about this vision to do this? I mean luxury rental assets and we'll talk more about that business, but I just want to get into your mind-set here of how did that vision come about?

Matt:  

Well when I moved here to Florida, quite frankly, I decided to do something different in my life. I lived within 20 miles of New York City for 50 something years, and there came a point where I said, okay, I'm going to do something different. I headed to Florida, which a lot of North-easterners do. We have some tax advantage here. We got a weather advantage here. There's a lot of good reasons to move to Florida. And much to my surprise, the business environment here was really good. And when I started searching around for businesses, it was a situation where just this opportunity came my way and it was such a good opportunity. It looked like a company that could really go big and the opportunity to step in and transform the business and turn it into something really amazing was just there for me. I had to take it.

Tony: 

Absolutely fascinating. Matt, what is the purpose for what you do? What's the passion here? Why do you get up every day to do this job or this business?

Matt:  

For me it's to build something really significant. I am a person who drives for success and this is an opportunity to create big success. And when you have that opportunity before you, you seize it. And so I get up every morning and I say, how can I grow this business? How can we make it into something that people will be talking about the next big unicorn start up? And for me, that drive, that drive to success and to build something that will last for generations, for my kids, for my success is really what gets me going. And that's really been the story of my career. You take on a challenge, you build it, you turn it into a success. And for me, that's what gives me gratification. And on the business side keeps me going.

Tony: 

Matt, let's get into your vision path and really drill down. And I'm telling you the one thing that blows me away here is you took a company from $1 million in sales to @100 million talk about unicorns. Tell us more about this.

Matt:  

I think that this was a situation where I can't really talk about the growth of this business without really talking about the desperation that I had to sort of make a life for me and my kids. And when you approach a business, if you are driven, and I believe this for anybody, if you are driven to create success, you're going to find a way to do that. And I was in a business when I started this business, we were a small company. Just a few employees, and we were selling photo supplies to small stores. You know, you can think back in the late '80s, late 70s early '80s, most of the photographic supplies were sold through, let's say independent drug stores, about 80% of the photo supplies. So we went in there and I took a look at this little business and kept innovating and working hard, innovating, working hard, innovating, working hard, reinventing. And I think for me, if I just approach this question from the top level, I think that for me I've always been a reinventor and I'm a person who looks to reinvent even when things were going well. But I had a real drive to make this business, to turn this business from a little four-person business into something big to conquer the photo business, to create something that would last a lifetime, or create something that would create enormous success. And it's just that continuous drive, the understanding of the business.
I think as a leader, one of the things that I always did was I knew how to do every job in my company. I got myself involved in every aspect of the growth and then hired good people and put them in place and then treated the staff really, really well and built something that everybody could participate in and just kept doing that over and over relentlessly. And you know, like I said, the drive for me was to be able to care for my kids and make a life for them. A life that was worth living, create a big life. And I think it's just something about being driven that anybody can take a business and really turn it into something significant.

Tony: 

I am just impressed. $100 million in sales. That is absolutely amazing. And because of current events right now, we've got a Corona virus issue going on, let's call it. It's very severe right now. And I wonder about brick and mortar stores, camera stores, any kind of stores. I wonder about the future. There's a lot of people that wonder, and I'd love to know your take. What do you think the future holds on this?

Matt:  

I think that this is a major problem for the retailer. I think large, medium and small retailers are, if this continues, right now as we're talking about this, we're really, I would say a week into heavy effect in the United States, and I think that if this continues more than a month or two, you're going to see an unfortunate major fallout in the retail market. I'm going to guess that some of these retailers are just not going to open up again. I think a lot of it will depend upon what happens with rents, because if you really understand the retail side of the business, the rent that you pay is really such an enormous factor of whether employees can stay on, whether you can pay employees or not.
This is all going to determine what happens in this marketplace. But I have a feeling, and I don't mean to be pessimistic, but I have a feeling that you're going to see really a sort of - I don't want to call it the final straw on retail - but I think that you're going to see just such a heavy and sorrowful, very painful effect on the retail world out there where only the very strongest are going to come out on top. But of course, we always say like a forest fire burns down and that's to fertilize the ground for something new. So I'm a believer in business.

Tony: 

We're talking about the virus and being a leader with Matt Sweetwood and you can find him at msweetwood.com I'm going to spell that. M for Matt. Sweet. We know that word, wood, W-O-O-D. msweetwood.com. This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about Corona virus and being a leader with Matt Sweetwood. But first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment.
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Tony: 

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You are listening to the Tony DUrso Show with key influencers. We'd love to hear from you via email. Be sure to send questions and comments to Tony @ TonyDUrso.com. Now back to Tony and his guests.

Tony: 

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about Corona virus and being a leader with Matt Sweetwood. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this and I'll share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that.
Matt served as President of Unique Photo®, NJ’s premiere camera store for 28 years. Nationally known in the photography industry as an innovator, he helped acquire over fifty U.S. and International Trademarks for both language and design, and he founded and ran the Ozzie Award winning publication Photo Insider®, and we've all heard of that, right? And now back to the chat with Matt.

Matt:  

I happen to be a believer in the retail model and that if you run a retail establishment properly, you can retail anything and compete against anybody. I did that for many years, selling photographic product against some of the largest internet retailers in the world at a retail level. So while I think it's going to be very ugly and I think this year is going to be one that's going to go down in the books, I think that will come out of it eventually, and you'll see retail grow a new, maybe in a different form, maybe in a different experience factor for the consumer. But unfortunately, like I said, I don't think this year is going to go very well in the end.

Tony: 

True, true, true. And it can be no doubt that the online world, the digital world is going to grow even more. I mean, more and more business schools, classes of all kinds are all being forced on the internet and that's just going to be our new way of life. Can totally see that.

Matt:  

I think if you even look, like I'm looking at what's going on here in Miami, right now all of the restaurants have been closed, but they're allowed to be open for takeout. So how many people will, once this is over, continue to do takeout? So you'll see restaurants start to develop a more robust takeout business and they will have an opportunity going forward to not only fill their dining rooms, but to also expand their takeout business. So if you sort of look at how business evolves, an opportunity like this could be a chance to focus customers on a different part of the business. And so there's always opportunity if you know what you're doing. And you know, I look for it.

Tony: 

Again, so true. It is quite an opportunity for the takeout business and we can, as just mentioned on one of my last interviews with Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler with the takeout challenge. If those that can and have the means start ordering takeout from their local restaurants, even one a day for themselves or their employees or whoever, it will help bring that business a little bit and grow that business to give them a chance. Because as we all know, once a small business or the smaller enterprise goes down, it's very hard for them to get back up. The bigger chains will be able to absorb this loss a little bit more than the small midsize business. So doing something like that will definitely help, and I do see that growing. So yes, we're going to see that where it's just the order of the day to take out instead of going out to eat.

Matt:  

I did that at Luxnow actually the last week that we were operating out of the office. Obviously now businesses are all mandated to close here in Florida. So we're all working from home and we can talk a little bit about how we strategize that. But the last few days that I was there, it's a morale thing obviously to keep your staff's morale up. I ordered lunch for them, but I ordered lunch for the staff in from local restaurants every day this week until we were forced to shut down. And I did it for the reasons that you mentioned.

Tony: 

Thank you so much. That's excellent. If we all do our part, we will help as a team, as a country, get through this. And I do want to continue going down the leadership route, learning about leadership. You are a wealth of information and one thing that I like to make sure I bring up is your role in beBee, if I'm saying it right. It's a professional social network. Can you tell us about that and how you work there?

Matt:  

Yeah, so that was an opportunity that came about kind of by surprise. It's not even one that I went out and reached for, and that came as soon after I had sold my photographic supply company, a retail store. It's a company that was trying to build a social media network around the world and here in the United States, somewhere between, let's say LinkedIn and Facebook. And it was a very, very interesting project for me because I myself have built a very, very big personal brand, have used social media extremely effectively throughout my career. You know I speak regularly and one of the things that I always speak on is how to use your personal brand to build your business, how to use your personal social media to actually enhance your business, separate from the business social media. So for me this was a platform that actually did that.
That was a very exciting opportunity for me to sort of work outside my own company for the first time in my life and try to do something, and I took the CEO role there, kind of on a consulting basis to try to give that platform a lift. During my time there we added over a million users to the platform. We did a lot of very, very interesting things there. So for me it was a great experience too. It was also an opportunity to enter the start-up world where you go out and you try to raise funds and you go to speak to private equity and venture capital and you sort of build the company again from the ground up, which is something I really, really enjoy.

Tony: 

Matt, we talked earlier about your book, Leader of the Pack. We want to focus on leadership. We have entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, we have small business owners as well as corporate executives listening. What can you help us with? What can we learn from you about being a leader in these times?

Matt:  

I think at this time the most important thing that you can do is not panic. I think that your staff or whatever it is, whether you're running a small business, medium, you're a solopreneur, even if it's yourself, you don't want to pack. You want to think logically through the circumstance and you want to be in a position where you're not continually catching up to the circumstance. So one of the things that all humans do is they tend to lie to themselves and say, well, maybe it's not as bad as this. I always have time to do this. You want to very, very confidently act and try and stay ahead of the situation on the ground. We're sitting here right now looking at the Corona virus situation. You're sort of sitting there and saying, well, you know, this is going to blow over in a couple of days. You should be planning way ahead. I'm really looking myself down the road a month, two months to see what operations are going to look like. One of the first things that I did for example, was I went out and I cut all of the unnecessary expenses immediately. If the virus situation ends relatively quickly, I can always go back to them, but obviously we have to look at resources. We have to look at cash flow, we have to look at the business coming in and we sort of prepare for this more long term strategy, but we do it very calmly. We keep our staff informed. We don't let them be in the dark about what's going on. You give them confidence.
We use other tools. Like today we were all working from home. Literally before I got on this show with you, I have my entire staff on a Zoom call and we actually went over what we worked on today. We answered questions. We joked a lot. We really just made it feel like I get that business is going on. I told them the plans of the company, what we're cutting, what we're doing, what's required of them. We have that kind of communication and you just need to have sure, steady leadership. It's like being the captain of a ship in wartime. Even if it's a small boat and you're on the boat, you don't want to panic because when you panic you're going to sink your ship and you want to be very, very focused. Plan ahead, assume the worst, anticipate, try to stay in front of the news and in front of what you really think is going to happen, and you know we're tough. We're business leaders. We have to be strong if we want to be a leader and be successful.

Tony: 

Such great advice and by the way, your book leader of the pack, if we go to msweetwood.com, can we get the book there?

Matt:  

Yeah, absolutely. Of course. I talk a lot about the book there. You can go on Amazon obviously and download the book in audio, digital or paperback form. I'm very proud of the book. That book was a bestseller in self-help books. It's got a zillion five star reviews. I've had people come to me tell me it's changed their life, it's motivated them, it's helped them through very difficult times. It's been a very rewarding experience. I know it's self-serving to go out there and if anybody thinks by the way you make a lot of money off a book and I'm doing this because I'm going to get rich off selling my book, that's not really what it's about. It really means something for me that people go out and read the book and it has an impact on their life and they actually write me or tell me or whatever. To me, that's what makes life great.

Tony: 

I love that, and I totally understand that the book, the book is not to get rich. It's just to give that good information out there. And I feel the same way about my books and I'm glad that I'm able to help people in marketing and sales and things like that. Now, Matt, some people - or actually, should I say, excuse me, a lot of people - now are working from home and they have family there. There are situations there. There's perhaps taking care of parents, taking care of a sibling, taking care of children, and they have to work. And you took care of your family while you were a CEO of a huge business. Let's see what advice we can give our audience out there who have to deal with those sorts of things and keep working. It's very, very challenging. 


Matt:  

Yeah, I mean, and this is a very unique time. I don't think I can ever remember a time like this when you have essentially the entire workforce working from home. You know, if you think about this from let's say 20 years ago, where very few people worked from home, this would have been like ... work at home? What's that? But now I think people step into it much more easily, at least the concept of it. Of course if you have little children at home, my direct recommendation is just to lock them in the closet. Please don't do that. 


Tony: 

If the closet has got a refrigerator, a bed and another person and all their toys, maybe?


Matt:  

Yeah, exactly. No, there's no way we're going to candy coat this. If you have children, particularly little children or even young teens and they are home and you're trying to work, the idea is to try to stay sane. We know this. I'm not going to candy coat this. I'm not going to be like do this or do that. You know your kids better than anybody. You just going to have to sort of get in there and get through it. The good part is that your employer, your boss, your manager, we're all in the same spot. Nobody's going to get on you if you're working and your kids are throwing a paper airplane through the screen as you're doing whatever you're doing. 

The other good part is that a lot of people are kind of set up at home to do this and I will tell you that that's the first thing that I will tell you. So because I live pretty close to my office and I'm working pretty long hours at Luxnow, I don't really have a sophisticated set up at home and so literally the first thing I did when I knew this was going to happen is I made myself a comfortable work environment. This is really important and I think sometimes people say, Oh, I'll just put the laptop on my lap and I'll sit on the couch or whatever. That's really a mistake because you want to be in the mind-set of work. You should take it seriously. You may be doing this for a few weeks, at least. Get yourself a really good setup. I know I did that. As a matter of fact, literally this morning I realized that I didn't have a proper second monitor to my laptop. I've got one, but it's not so good. It's only meant to sort of carry on an airplane. I went out and I splurged. I spent a few hundred dollars. I ordered a proper monitor so that I can sit and work comfortably. I cleared out a desk in there. Actually I'm using my wife's makeup desk. She's going to have to sort of move that makeup stuff someplace else. I put myself in a comfortable chair, created an environment that's really good. 

And then when it comes to your kids, you set the rules. I mean, I'm not one who sort of candy coats with his children. One of my philosophies because I really couldn't do anything else. I was by myself raising five little kids is you basically have to set the rules and you say this is work time, this is what has to happen. You can't disturb me. You make time for them and you create sort of this - Oh I hate this term - work/life balance. But now we really have to do it. And what I mean by is work time balance and family time balance, which you're now going to have to intermix because you can't go on your computer and ignore the kids for eight hours a day. That's not going to work. So you have to rethink your schedule, create it. So create a proper work environment. Come up with a realistic schedule for working a little bit, dealing with the family, stay focused on your work, don't get distracted by TV and all sorts of other things. 


Tony: 

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead the chat continues about Corona virus and being a leader with Matt Sweetwood. But first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment. 

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You are listening to the Tony DUrso Show with the influencers. We'd love to hear from you via email. Be sure to send questions and comments to Tony@Tonydursocom. Now back to Tony and his guests. 


Tony: 

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about Corona virus and being a leader with Matt Sweetwood. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this and I'll share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. And now back to the chat with Matt. 


Matt:  

And another thing which is really important, which I am a huge believer in and considering everything is closed, I really believe in going out and getting some fresh air every once in a while. Extremely important because you know, we're in our homes. We don't have our bosses watching us, so it's very, very easy to sort of just get stuck at a desk, do a little bit of work, flip open the news, flip open Yahoo or whatever it is that you do, deal with the kids, come back and then it's dinner time and you go to bed. You don't really want that. You want to create sort of this rhythm in your day where you're getting some movement around, you're dealing with the kids, you're dealing with your work, and you'll eventually find a very, very productive ritual doing that. And once again, you want to impress your employer. If you're running your own business, you want to continue that momentum going and you just need to take the whole process seriously, adapt fast, create that work environment and go get it. 


Tony: 

I love that advice. Thank you. And I just wanted to say in the past I've seen too many people in unsupervised job positions at the physical company place of work where because they're not supervised, they just really brought down the bar of what they wanted to do and they goofed off a lot. They did a lot of things that I don't even want to mention on air because they took advantage of the system, and I want to say to everyone listening now, please be grateful you have a job, but be very grateful. You work at home. That's fine if your boss is not there. Work. Show through your work and the efforts that you are producing, that you're contributing, that you're valuable because this job, what you do is extremely important and the unemployment rate has gone up. So please be grateful and put in that work. 

And just as Matt so beautifully said, organize yourself and do your personal stuff, watching your news or whatever later when you come home, when it's done. You know there's your work time and then when you come home at night. It might be a 30-second commute to the kitchen or whatever, or the living room. But get that in so that you can keep your job because I want that unemployment rate to go down. So I really appreciate this advice. I want everyone to listen to this again right after this. I'm going to give some highlights of this talk. So please stay tuned and be grateful for your job, everybody. Whether it's your job you created yourself or a job that someone is expecting you, live up to the demand and we will get through this. 

Matt, you are the CEO of Luxnow, the world's first portfolio of luxury rental assets. What's a luxury rental asset? I think I know what it is. I'd like to know what is it that you do there, and is there a place for that in this current economy right now? 


Matt:  

So first, let me just sort of give you the rundown on the business. So Luxnow is a marketplace of luxury assets and that would be autos, homes and yachts. We're the only platform that has all three of those verticals on one platform, and we specialize in the luxury area. To make it really simple, we do kind of like what Airbnb does. On one side you have hosts which list properties, and on the other side you have renters that come in and rent those properties, but we do it with homes, we do it with autos, high end luxury and exotic autos, and we do it with yachts and you can do all three on the platform at the same time. Like I said before, I'm really excited about this business cause nobody else was doing it. And finding convenient and easy access to luxury through an app. We have a fantastic app. It's on iOS and Android or through a website or just by calling us and speaking to one of our expert concierge, you can't find it. You come into a place like Miami where we are in New York or Los Angeles or some of the other cities were opening up right now. Finding those luxury assets is actually very difficult. We make it very, very easily accessible and in many cases, affordable process. As to whether I'm in this really difficult times we're in, obviously travel is extremely difficult. We have some more high end clients that can sometimes fly private and come in and do that, but for the vast majority of our clientele, obviously getting to the locations and accessing those assets, particularly in homes is more difficult. So we're suffering a little bit like everybody else. But there are people that still get themselves around and there are people that still are able to rent and do whatever it is they need to do. But in this economy, I think right now from a corporate perspective, we're spending a lot of our time instead of going out there and trying to get bookings and do our digital marketing and our social media to drive people, we're looking to improve our process. And I think that that is really excellent advice to give to other business owners that at least while you're "treading water", there are many other opportunities. 

For example, I just sent my sales staff, my concierge staff to really go look at our web property and our app properties and make sure that all of our listings really look good. The pictures are good, the descriptions are good. We contact the host to see if they need anything. People that have listed stuff, we have other tech stuff and we're building marketing platforms. So there's lots of back work that we can do that can set us up for when everything turns around, which God willing will be soon. We're going to be ready to go at full speed and in an improved format. So the answer, I guess to your question is, no, we're very much impacted obviously by what's going on, but from an operational perspective, we're using this little pause and we're going to improve our offering, improve our visibility, and be even in a better position when things go live again. 


Tony: 

I think that is extremely important advice for any CEO leader out there. Take this opportunity now and organize and set up and make your product even better so that when things pick up a little bit more, you've got a better, greatly improved product. I think that's very wise and on that, we've talked a little bit here and there. We've talked a lot about leadership. I want to make sure that we've addressed what you think is important for our audience to know in these times as regards leadership, as regards to surviving. Is there anything else that you'd like to go over and make sure that we take note of? 


Matt:  

Yeah, I think that leadership is a mind-set. I can't emphasize this enough. You know, one of the best talks that I give. I give it in front of very big audiences is that the path to success lies within every person. You can tap into that if you're driven, if you really want it. One of my favourite sayings is you can't have everything that you want, but you can have anything you want. Meaning that you simply ask yourself the question, how badly do I want it? How badly do I want to get my business through this crisis? If you ask yourself that question every day and the answer to that question is I'm going to survive, no matter what. You are going to lead yourself and your company and your staff through this and you are going to find the way to be more successful coming out of it, to look for opportunities, to actually, like we talked just talked about, to transform your business to do what it takes. So for me, I believe that leadership always starts with desire. If you have the desire to be successful, you're going to find a way to get there. And to me that's at the heart of anything that you do in your life. And we began this discussion in the same way and it's that drive for success, the relentless drive for success that will ultimately lead you there. So that's really my advice to lead for people to lead in this moment is just to be driven and to understand where you want to go and to do everything in your power to get you there. 


Tony: 

I liked that so much. If you really want it bad enough, you'll get it. So it's just all a matter of how bad do you want it, and therein lies the focus and the desire and just pushing like crazy to make that happen. I think we can all be very successful and more successful if we put more focus on it. So I love that answer. What are you looking to accomplish in the next few years? 


Matt:  

For me from a business perspective... I'm going to answer this first by talking about, I want to see my kids, they're all adult children now, they took my heart and soul to raise them into successful adults. God blessed us and they're all really successful out in the world, and I want to see them continue that success. I want to see them contribute to the world in positive ways, and do something that can make not only me proud, but everybody around them and their families proud. From a business perspective, my focus is on Luxnow. I believe we can be the next in the start-up world, unicorn start up, something that people will be hearing about and talking about and driving this into a company that is going to generate generational wealth for me and my family and the people who are connected to my company. 


Tony: 

Matt, are there any personal habits that contribute to the success of you accomplishing your vision? 


Matt:  

Yeah. obviously we talked about drive and desire for me, managing five children and running a $100 million business and even running start-ups and managing a complex life has always come down to organization. People call me crazy organized. I just call me successfully organized and so everything I do is always organized and managed. If you ask me to find something from three years ago on this date, I can find it. My schedule is always laid out. My personal effects are always in order. In other words, I never lose my keys. I never misplace my wallet. My cell phone is always working. I make sure that the screens are organized, my calendar is up to date. Every person who contacts me is in my address book. I make notes on everything, everything's in the cloud and backed up so that I can always find it, no matter what. And I can go on and on about how I plan my schedule and how I plan my day. Managing emails and organize the emails and instruct my staff and keep track of what goes on with the staff and manage the finances. So for me, success always revolves around Uber-organization and if you are organized and keep track of everything that you're supposed to and do it in an efficient way, you're basically three quarters of the way to success. 


Tony: 

Totally agree with that. Organization is key. This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about Corona virus and being a leader with Matt Sweetwood. But first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment. 

Get the news on our shows and other happenings by following us on Twitter. Find us at Voice America TRN or twitter.com/Voice America TRN.


Tony: 

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You're listening to the Tony DUrso Show with key influencers. We'd love to hear from you via email. Be sure to send questions and comments to Tony @ TonyDUrso.com. Now back to Tony and his guests. 


Tony: 

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about Corona virus and being a leader with Matt Sweetwood. At the end of this interview. I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this and I'll share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. Matt appeared as a regular contributor on Fox News, NBC Today Show, CBS TV, News 12 NJ, PIX11, and other high-profile programs. He has also spoken publicly for organizations like Panasonic, UPS, PMDA, Microsoft, NJ Devils Hockey and the BMW CCA, and he was a member of the prestigious CMO Club, where he won the President’s Award in 2014. And now back to the chat with Matt. 


Tony: 

Are there any great resources that you would like to share with our audience success squad? 


Matt:  

Yeah, I think that resources are the people that are around you. And so one of the things that I learned as a leader, even though you ultimately make the final decision and I don't want to send you off to look at this source, to look at that source, I like to be more personal about how you find your sources. And I think that for leaders, particularly people that are leading their companies, I have made it a habit, particularly as I've gotten older and supposedly wiser of really leaning on my staff and taking their input and trying to understand what it is that's really going to make our company better. So that's my mandate out there to your listeners. If you haven't really reached out to your staff and the people that are connected to you, even if they're managers, other managers, and just sort of draw from that group of people and that will be your greatest resource. They always have insights that you don't see and always have ideas that you don't see. Ultimately, not every idea is a great one, but it also can lead you to other things. So for me, business leaders really lean on your staff, take their input, take the input of people you do business with and really anybody that is around you. So the number one resource is people, 


Tony: 

Once again, we're talking about Corona virus and being a leader with Matt Sweetwood and you can find him at msweetwood.com. Matt, thank you so much. There is so much information in here. We're going to get this out right away. I I want to help so many people get through this current scenario that we're in right now, pandemic if you will, and just want to thank you so much for spending the time and giving us this. This is great information, 


Matt:  

Tony. It's been really a pleasure being on here. I feel particularly honoured to be on here at such a critical time and you know my final message out to the audience is we will get through this. We always do. Just be tough, be strong, be driven, try hard, be moral and it's all going to happen in the right way. 


Tony: 

Thank you so much. Hey, success squad. Thanks for hanging out with me while I featured an elite entrepreneur who took his vision to reality. I hope it was as inspiring for you as it was for me to do this interview. I learned so much. The insights are so valuable, so how did you like it? Corona virus and being a leader with Matt Sweetwood. You know this is a time where leaders have to do a lot more and they have more people to take care of in their zone of influence. Not just in getting the job done, but in also seem to the care and well-being of their employees and associates more than ever. Matt says a lot when talking about taking a company from $1 million to $100 million. He was really driven to be successful for his family's sake. Zone into that and really ponder what he did. This is a big key to success. Big. He says clearly that if you are driven to create success, you are going to find a way to do that. Matt repeats that he worked on innovating, working hard and reinventing over and over and over again. He also knew how to do every job in his company. For you solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and small business owners, do you know how to do everything? I think the more you know how to do everything in your business, that it makes it easier to train others how to do those tasks and it makes it easier to be a leader as you know the terrain, you know the obstacles, you know how to get stuff done. Don't you think? 

Matt discusses how rent is a key cost for retail stores and payroll is right up there too. I know that retail stores which have a strong online presence have been able to weather storms in the past. We know we're going to see significant changes ahead with what's going on. Those that really build their online presence can survive much better, no matter how you sell your products and services. I know I'm preaching to the choir when I say to build your online presence bigger than ever as our retail paradigms are significantly shifting right now. Matt's book leader of the pack, he gives great advice right off the bat, which we all need to adapt and not just listen, but get it in our brain, so to speak and really do it. Not panic, be calm. And I think by now that most of us have it together. Plan way ahead, months down the road, cut all unnecessary expenditures immediately and look where we can make do with less waste. Some of you may be forced to do this and I feel sad for that, but some of us could do this with conscious choices to make our resources last longer, so I say make a game of it. Make it a challenge, embrace it, learn from it. Make yourself better as a result of it. Do you follow what I mean on this? 

Matt brings up so many great points. If you have people in your care who are working at home, are you communicating with them through video calls and increasing the morale, as well as strengthening the bonds with everyone? This is vital to do often. Let your crew know what's going on. The time for playing poker is over. This is the age of telling those under your care what you are doing and where your company is heading. If you read my vision map, then you already have a head start on how to do that. There's so much more I got out of this interview. What did you get? I would really love to know how you use this information to help you in your business or career. Reach out to me. 

Okay guys. Now grab hold of your vision. Decide you're either going to start something great or take it to the next level. You have to decide first. You know that. It always starts with the decision and you can get my vision map to help you along the process. The free eBook is at TonyD-U-R-S-O.com. I created my empire in just a few years. That's all it took. I had the vision map as my guide. I wrote it all up for you so now you can do it too. And once again, check out all my shows on Spotify, all designed to help you get to the next level in your business or career, and let's help you move on your journey to success. And if you have any Apple device, look up my name on Apple podcasts, Tony D-U-R-S-O and please subscribe to my show. A kind review there will get you tremendous appreciation back in return. Thanks guys. And remember, just take action. Success awaits those who persevere and remain steadfast despite the odds. Sow good seeds, do good deeds, and join me on the next episode of the Tony DUrso Show.

We hope you've enjoyed this week's edition of the Tony DUrso Show with his key influencers. Be sure to tune in again next Friday at 5:00 PM Eastern time, 2:00 PM Pacific Time on the Voice America Influencers Channel.