Diana Alt [00:00:04]:
Hey, Diana Alt here. And this is Work Should Feel Good, the podcast where your career growth meets your real life. Each week I share stories, strategies and mindset shifts to help you build a work life that works for you on your terms. Hi, everyone, and welcome to Work Should Feel Good, the show where your career growth meets your real life. I'm your host, Diana Ault, and today my guest Matt Griffin is going to talk about how a huge career pivot from digital marketing agency leadership to small business owner changed his Life. After spending 13 years in marketing land, he decided to join his wife and his father in law to open Hometown Sports Gear, a locally owned sporting goods store in Gardner, Kansas. Matt's going to share about how and why he made this pivot and why he thinks it's not just good for his career, it's good for his community. Welcome to the show, Matt.

Matt Griffin [00:01:03]:
Hello.

Diana Alt [00:01:04]:
All right. It's nice to meet you. I love how networking works, don't you?

Matt Griffin [00:01:08]:
Yes.

Diana Alt [00:01:09]:
We didn't know each other existed a few weeks ago, but our mutual pal and former guest Shelby hooked us up. So I'm going to jump into a place that may, maybe most people having this conversation wouldn't jump first and ask why sporting goods? What made you decide on sporting goods?

Matt Griffin [00:01:29]:
Well, it was pretty interesting. Last year we went out, took our Jeeps, went out to Colorado and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and just kind of hit that point. Had a lot of hours in the Jeep by myself even to think and just kind of was trying to reevaluate things. And we actually had always talked, my wife and I, we've been married almost 20 years, had always talked about owning a business or, you know, we pivot or play with ideas sometimes. But we had jobs that we were happy with and content and just, it was always just kind of a play topic. But driving back from Colorado, actually we had gone to a beer spa out there and I don't know what we were thinking, but we spent about, yeah.

Diana Alt [00:02:07]:
What is the beer spa?

Matt Griffin [00:02:08]:
A beer spa. It was a date. It was a place when I researched after we went jeeping off roading with our friends that I was like, okay, we'll have a date night in Denver. And it was a top spot where it's a spa where they use the oats and the wheat or I mean, all the grain, everything. And they, you have a hot tub and everything in this room and they bring you some beers if you want them and it's just a spa. So it was a great date night. With music and everything. We had a great time.

Matt Griffin [00:02:33]:
And we were driving home, like, Kansas City doesn't have that. You know, maybe we should do one of those. And so we spent all the way home coming from Denver to Kansas City, brainstorming, thinking about that. And then we said, hey, we'll go to the local coffee shop and talk about it next Saturday. Well, by then we sat down and realized we don't know anything about a spa. It would be me running it because my wife works for Johnson Lace and her name's Lacey. She works for Johnson County Library, and she's going to continue to work there. So it'd be me running the spa all the time.

Matt Griffin [00:03:02]:
So as we kind of started putting pen to paper, we kind of laughed, like, we don't know what we're doing. But it led into, like, what do we do? Or what do we think the community needs? So we sat at this coffee shop outside of Groundhouse Coffee and Gardener. We were just kind of thinking about, what does the community not have? What do we have to do? We have two boys, 14 and 16, and they're both in sports. So we're always leaving Gardner to go get sports gear 25 minutes away. So we thought about it. How many parents have we heard over the years complain, yeah, run. You know, a kid loses a mouth guard and you got to run all the way, 25 minutes to get. So that kind of became our business plan about beginning of September, kind of one.

Matt Griffin [00:03:47]:
I knew I was kind of gonna wrap up and wasn't happy. And then we got it all together and we opened on March 8th. So really, it's just what we found the community needed. And what do we find ourselves being passionate about? Lacey and I's first date was a Super bowl party. So it's been a sports family growing up. You know, our kids are in sports year round, so it kind of just made sense. We started researching and asking parents what they thought about it and things like that. So, yeah, then it became Hometown Sports Gear.

Diana Alt [00:04:16]:
I love that. That's a great story. And I. I like the part, like, I live in Olathe, so I know exactly where you got to go. You got to go to that Dick Sporting Goods up by the movie theater in order to get a freaking mouth guard or shin guards or whatever, because who knows if Amazon prime will show up on time. And the mouth guard is always lost at 5 o' clock when practices at 6:15. So I don't even have kids, and I know how that works. So.

Diana Alt [00:04:46]:
So when you. You said that you Were kind of like not really happy. You knew that you were wrapping up. What. What was the kind of the thing that made you realize that now is the right time? I think that so often everybody is waiting for everything to be perfect in order to jump into their next thing. How did you and Lacey decide the right time for you?

Matt Griffin [00:05:12]:
Just all kind of twofold. I mean we worked for a great company, but just some things changed where I won't say culture changed, but where I fit in changed.

Diana Alt [00:05:23]:
Yeah.

Matt Griffin [00:05:23]:
So for I had a couple months where I was making myself unhappy and that kind of led into stress. And I've always loved being in marketing and never really felt a lot of stress. You know, it's kind of really. I've always been in client services. Usually can let it roll off and don't bring it home. And started kind of bringing it home a little bit. And what actually story when we were at track meet last May and my oldest came up to me and because I literally came to the track meet and hawked tail back to work and you know, he just kind of hugged me and said he could tell I was stressed and thanks for coming. So it kind of started weighing in that, you know, I just wasn't right and for the first time in my career, I was kind of bringing it home where my family could see in other places.

Matt Griffin [00:06:03]:
So and it. That just kind of led myself into kind of that getting down on myself. And then I got brain. I literally had brain fog. You always hear about where I was having trouble with basic concepts sometimes I wasn't sleeping and it just kind of, you know, hit that point and was just getting worse and worse until just had that conversation with Lacey about should I leave where I'm at, am I going to be happy at another agency period or do we need to or do I want to just try something new or do I want to do. So I remember she kind of asked me point blank, what do you want to do? You know? And I had to think about that for a few minutes. I didn't have the best answer. I'm sure she would laugh if she was sitting here because I think I was like, I don't know, you know.

Matt Griffin [00:06:46]:
But it led to kind of start the brainstorming of. I realized at my age and, you know, the I've kind of gone a sales marketing path over the years that I wasn't sure I was going to be happy staying in agency world. So it became time and part of it too is I was at home and I'm an extrovert So I needed to get out so that you start kind of going through those hard times in your gut that you can't shake. And then when you're by yourself every day at your house and you're not around people to recharge a little bit, that even kind of made the downfall go a little quicker where my happiness was concerned.

Diana Alt [00:07:21]:
Yeah, that's, you know. You know what I find the most commendable about all this is how in tune you were with it and how fast you took action. Because I have known people that have been unhappy for over a decade in a career or even an individual company and they just can't make themselves even think about moving. So for you to go from last summer, kind of starting to feel the itch that it was time to do something different to actually making such a large jump was huge. What made you, what do you feel like made you take action so fast on that? Where others have trouble?

Matt Griffin [00:08:09]:
Support. I think, you know, it came down to really just taking that idea coming back from Colorado that was just playing around and realizing we could do this. And then of course there's up. We may talk later about it, but of course there was up and down days or what am I doing? But I found support in other places. So I work out at the Legacy CrossFit gym here in Gardner and people started asking me about it. So, you know, it's kind of like a workout. The whole thing of like you have your good days and your bad days and it all just started taking place where people, junior lengths would catch me on the street and be like, you heard you're opening a sporting goods store, you know, and it just kind of started snowballing of like, okay, we're doing this and you know, we were able to put it together. Like I said, we really put it together end of July and opened on March 8th.

Matt Griffin [00:09:00]:
So at times that seemed like a long time. But really to have, you know, everything come together from our board and our equipment and everything, to open that quick was really just the support of everybody, family included. You know, the boys, we had to make sure they were on board because at 16 and 14 we didn't want to disrupt them.

Diana Alt [00:09:18]:
Yeah.

Matt Griffin [00:09:19]:
So it was just my father in law, he's been in a big box stores and he's got a lot of inventory and management experience over the years in retail. And my wife has. Does a great job with inventory management at the library. She's in charge of all of the inventory that comes out of all, I think 13 branches. So just taking Everybody's skill set and be able to talk everything through about what we wanted to do, and let's go for it.

Diana Alt [00:09:43]:
That was really. So what kind of. What kind of experience, like, what chains or business types.

Matt Griffin [00:09:51]:
Did your father in law work in Kmart. So one time he managed all the Kmarts in New Mexico because they're all spread out, but that shows kind of the breadth of what he did. And then Meyer Kroger, so he's just been in a lot of the big box type stores, so he brings a lot of experience. And then with Lacy, being able to manage not a library is pretty comp. She's really good at that inventory management there because you're. You're not just in and out, you know, the materials coming back in. So you got to get things that.

Diana Alt [00:10:21]:
You know, it's like in, out, around and everything.

Matt Griffin [00:10:25]:
So, you know, I have a lot of respect for her for what she does and the team she manages that does all the inventory management there's. So she's been able to bring a lot of that to the table. So with just our three skill sets really kind of work well together for opening a business.

Diana Alt [00:10:39]:
Yeah. And another thing that's really great about this is that you guys, you made connections that might not have been obvious. Which I talk to people all the time that are trying to make career pivots, and they have a hard time grasping what their transferable skills are. Like, how could I possibly go from A to B? And sometimes A to B is pretty. It's pretty much closer than what you're talking about. Like, how do I go from being an account director to being, like, the branding strategist inside an agency? Like, a lot of people have trouble just with that, let alone, you know, going from the librarian is also going to be an inventory expert. So that's really cool that you guys were able to do that. How have your sons reacted to this so far? Or is it both? Do you have both? Okay.

Diana Alt [00:11:29]:
Yep.

Matt Griffin [00:11:30]:
Two boys. Yeah. They've been very positive with it. You know, at times they've seen the stress we go through, but we always talk through as a family are able to sit and talk about it, and they know they can talk about it when they're frustrated or, you know, so we made a video the other day with my. One of my oldest and his girlfriend came in. We got nominated. So if you get a chance to go. We got nominated by the Johnson County Post for best sporting goods store in Johnson county, which is kind of cool because I had my web developer actually Send me the link.

Matt Griffin [00:11:59]:
And it was Dick Shield or. Yeah, Dick Shields Academy, AEI and us, you know, so it's kind of cool. So we made a video of, you know, small but Mighty. So that's on our Instagram channel. So, you know, it's things like that where we, you know, let's brainstorm and I use chat GPT a little bit and we came up with a script and my son came in and you know, we did it one night and it was kind of fun. So, you know, I had a day where I was going to leave on Saturday and go put coupons on some of the cars at the complex soccer complex. And my oldest, hey, I'll go with you and do it. So they fought in and we wouldn't have done it if it had been a worry.

Matt Griffin [00:12:37]:
You know, we, like I said it was a full family decision. We sat down and talked about it a couple times and made sure everybody was on board.

Diana Alt [00:12:42]:
Yeah. How is it like you got three partners in the business, you, your wife and your father in law. Right. What have you guys thought about what has been something that's been like a point of conflict that you had to work?

Matt Griffin [00:13:02]:
Probably me because I'm the one here all the time. So with my father in law still working and he just helps out, but a lot of it is with Lace and I kind of staying in our lanes a little bit. You know, I'm in the store on. She does the inventory and I tend to kind of get out of my lane a little bit sometimes. And that's I think one of the hardest we're having our meetings of showing trust to her, you know, that she can do her job at the store with, you know, and just making sure I'm phrasing things correctly and that I show trust in her. So yeah, that's probably been kind of the main one is the lanes because they're, they have full time jobs except me. So I'm here, you know, the 45 to 50 hours a week. So I get a little bit more into, you know, into it or thoughts and things like that.

Matt Griffin [00:13:49]:
So I think it's just communication and stay in my lane. Stay in our lanes a little bit.

Diana Alt [00:13:55]:
Is there anything from your time, like from your marketing agency world that you lived in for so long that you miss like an itch that this new job is not scratching?

Matt Griffin [00:14:06]:
Oh, not really. I enjoy the people aspect of client services. It's interesting because I help, you know, like social. I'd never done before. Yeah, like through in the weeds social. I'm not. I don't feel like I'm the most creative person, so it's learning to do that. And I think it's just.

Matt Griffin [00:14:23]:
It's still the same client interaction. You know, people are coming to me and I'm helping manage their need, their goals, you know, whether it's a soccer glove or, you know, goalie gloves or something like that. So really. And that may have shown where I was kind of just burnt out on what I was doing, because I love client service. That's, you know, where I never wanted to jump into brand management or anything else. Like, I love the dealing with the clients. And here I get different clients every day with different needs, you know, and knock on wood. I think everyone that we haven't had that issue yet, I'm sure will come where we've had an upset customer.

Matt Griffin [00:14:58]:
Everyone has been great, you know, great to work with, and I get to do what I'm good at. We had a ball pop a soccer ball in week one that someone bought, and I was going to the gym that night, so I ran it by their house, and they've come back, you know, which is kind of like, sorry, took that one, and they've been back again to buy stuff. So it's still. I'm able to transfer a lot of those things of, like, just taking care of the customer, you know, and now it's something that I'm really passionate about because it's smart.

Diana Alt [00:15:25]:
Nobody from Dick's is going to drop off a replacement soccer ball. That's never, ever going to happen. And if you do another video for that competition, you should write about that.

Matt Griffin [00:15:37]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:15:38]:
Or do a video about that. Include that in there. So one of the things that I hear a lot as a career coach, I ask people all the time, like, what do you consider a red flag? Like, if you see it in a job posting or you hear it in an interview or whatever. And one of the top things is we're like family, because not everybody has a great family. And they, you know, a lot of people kind of consider that toxic and weird. But you're in a business where it's literally your family. So did you have any reservations about having it truly be fully a family business? Did you ever worry about the impact that it might have?

Matt Griffin [00:16:21]:
Actually, no. And I think I'm lucky in that sense. You know, Lacey and I have been through our ups and downs over the years on different things, and we know where we are and, you know, our life and a marriage and business. And we had that talk a little bit but no, just because we've always kind of joked about it and then pretty close to my in laws they live. They moved in with us actually came from Green Bay during COVID Moved in with us for eight months or so. So, you know, you can tell if you can do that you can get through about anything. So. And they're very supportive of the whole thing.

Matt Griffin [00:16:54]:
So honestly, I really haven't had that, you know, concern at all because I think we all were just so it's just. Who knows how it's gonna end up. But we're all excited to start the journey, so.

Diana Alt [00:17:05]:
Yeah, I love that. Especially the part about living with them. Like if you can live with them, you can have a business with them. Makes a lot of sense. So you have three owners. Do you have any other team members at this point, whether it's contractors or like part time employees in the store? What does your team look like?

Matt Griffin [00:17:24]:
Nope, just me at the beginning. You know, as we're setting up and we'll kind of branch out. We. If our budget comes through, we may be able to hire somebody next year, which will give me more time to do the marketing side of it. But with my father in law Don retiring, he, you know, he wants to be part of the store, which gives like he'll come in on a day off and I can go where we're working with the middle school on some ships. I was able to go the other day and go talk to them. You know, it's work commuter town. So a lot of our stuff's gonna come in in the evenings and the weekends.

Matt Griffin [00:17:54]:
So during the day I can get a lot of stuff done. Yeah, so we're not. Other than to free up some time when it's very rare that we'll need to, you know, more than two people. So. And of course with the high schoolers, we did this at the right time. So I've got a line of high schoolers that want to work here someday if we get to that point. So yeah, we had a coach's night and one of the football coaches came in and introduced himself and then said, well, my son needs a job. And I was like, well, so do a lot of the high schoolers, you know, so.

Matt Griffin [00:18:23]:
Yeah, so it's. I think that's where we'll kind of grow. And having, you know, the 16 year old all the way to the 14. Whenever we're, whenever it's time, we'll have enough. We know these kids, people when. Yeah, yeah. And so as far as marketing, we have a one thing we got to do which is really special I think to us is we have some friends that worked in an agency in Kansas City and they started their own. They still do, but they started their own company off to the side.

Matt Griffin [00:18:53]:
And so we were their first really big client that they got to do something from beginning to end. So they designed our logo, they designed the board behind me that all these, all these pictures are current. We did a photo shoot so they're all current gardener kids and they put all that together. Our photographer we use was a family friend so it was kind of cool to we have people we can call on as contractors and people like that that'll will pay to, you know, their bill rate and things like that. Our contractor that actually did all the slat wall for us is one of my friends of 20 plus years, Chris bearing who has a company chorus who is painting. So he did all that for us and we're able to support them. So that's been kind of the fun part of using all the local companies.

Diana Alt [00:19:36]:
I'm not a big fan of that. Like one of my points of pride in my business is that I had all of my visual branding done by graphic design student at Olathe Northwest High School.

Matt Griffin [00:19:49]:
Oh cool.

Diana Alt [00:19:50]:
So lathe and Northwest. And then I. When I started our recording I forgot to hit like the right studio. So we don't have the logo on this live stream or this recording. But in it was spring of 2020. My family, a family member of mine actually teaches at our latest in Northwest and they have this, it's called the E Communications Academy and they have web design and graphic design and all of this. And it's kind of like picking a major for those kids and they come out a lot of times like doing college level sophomore work, you know. So I said I wanted a new brand and I told my family member about it and she said I've got the perfect person.

Diana Alt [00:20:35]:
He's got a full ride to Casey Art Institute. He's my top student. And so while everybody's locked up at home, I was his client project for his last semester of school and he did the whole thing from start. I didn't have colors, I didn't have anything. I just said this is what we're doing and here's the name of my business, which is my name. So I got assets out of that that I showed to other people that have worked in marketing and they're like I've paid 20 grand to agencies and not gotten something this good. So it's. It just goes to show like, you don't have to be the big name.

Diana Alt [00:21:12]:
You just have to be committed to making something of high quality for the right people.

Matt Griffin [00:21:19]:
So 100%. So, yeah, we got a really good deal and all of that, you know, and just to be around people we've known for so many years, helping be a part of building our store was really cool.

Diana Alt [00:21:28]:
Yeah. So I'm a big believer in making sure that an organization knows their values and is working in accordance with those values. Like, whenever people throw around the term bad culture, to me it doesn't mean like ping pong balls. It means that the stuff you put on the website that you're about is actually how you conduct. So what are some of the values for hometown sports gear?

Matt Griffin [00:21:59]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:22:00]:
And how do they show up?

Matt Griffin [00:22:03]:
A lot of that was. Our branding team helped us come up with that. But then, you know, like, we get Team Gardener and gear is one of our big ones, you know, so it's taking care of all the, all the kids that come in the store and being able to support them on a one to one basis. So it's not like going to the big box store where you're searching, you know, we'll help you out, help you know what you need, be able to, you know, be the experts in it, which I'm learning daily on the sports that I wasn't involved in. But it's really kind of to get that hometown feeling that you come in, you know, you're going to get help, you know, you're going to get people talking to you. Like I said, our board, you can see behind me, Team Gardner, Team Gardner's biggest cheerleader. You know, we've got. We got a chance to do.

Matt Griffin [00:22:45]:
There's a softball game this Friday and we got a chance to do the cancer awareness search for that. You know, it's really not just saying we're a community, but being part of it. We give a dollar back to all the T shirts to the sports. And then so if it's the middle school T shirts we sell, we'll give a dollar of every T shirt back. So really it's just making sure everyone feels like this is their store too, in a way when they come in, that they're happy with it and they're able to like feel a part of the community. And you see in our colors, our colors are the high school colors. Yeah. The blue and the white.

Diana Alt [00:23:19]:
So gorgeous. And it works so well for like, it gives Royals vibes too. So. But you did it for this. You picked it not because of The Royals connection. You picked it for the Gardener connection, right?

Matt Griffin [00:23:31]:
Correct. That's what our design team did. You know, we told them I liked blue anyway, but, you know, they came up with all of that when they did all the designing for us. They researched Gardener and did. Like I said, they did an exceptional job getting to understand. We had a big questionnaire, so they understood what our values and what we wanted out of the store. And they did a good job, you know, portraying it on our board, you know, above us, you can see some of its pictures, some of its verbiage. So they did a really good job of getting that.

Matt Griffin [00:23:56]:
Where people walk in and they're like, oh, I feel like we're part of the community. And we had one.

Diana Alt [00:24:02]:
It feels a little bit like walking into Rally House. Although they have, like, all the sports, but still, at least you know that you're in a Kansas City sports store. So. Yeah, because I. I gotta go get my current stuff somewhere. So you're clearly carrying a bunch of stuff for the high school, because that. Or for the school system at all levels, because that's a major driver. Do you only focus on those brands? Are there, like, other schools that are local that you try to serve? Are you.

Diana Alt [00:24:30]:
Do you have, like. Do you focus just on the things to play the sports, or do you have, like, Team Swag as well?

Matt Griffin [00:24:38]:
So we've. We've got kind of. The sides are set up by sport. You can tell behind me where it says local, actually, above the hats. And then that one right there, you know, it says football. So with the size of our bill, the size of our store, we'll, like, baseball down at the end is huge right now because we're in the middle of baseball season, and we'll condense that out of season and grow football. And just. That goes back to Lacey and the inventory management.

Matt Griffin [00:25:02]:
So along the side of the wall is just the sports. And we try to. We asked the community, too. When people are in here, you know, what are you looking for? And we've got a parking lot that we write down stuff that people want. Something I'd never heard of was a sock company called features. They're about $18 socks that runners just love. And so the track. The track coach came in and said, if you get these, the kids will love it.

Matt Griffin [00:25:23]:
And we've. We've had them, like, a week and a half, and we sold 15 pairs, you know, people. So it's learning and really being open to other people's feedback, you know, on what they want or what they think. The talent needs. So kind of the outskirts would be this, all the equipment and then the middle of our store we're showing. You can kind of see there. It's the middle school and the high school apparel. So we have some individual sports.

Matt Griffin [00:25:47]:
We have just some like a Blazer Nation or the Gardener blazers trailblazers. So it's a Blazer Nation hoodie. And then we're the only place in town that you can get the middle school gear. And that's where we found. None of my family lives around within hours a year. So when I'd have family come in town other than my in laws now but when they used to come in town they would want. We'd go to my youngest Chase's football game and there was like nowhere to get a T shirt that day because they have to buy them in sections. You know, you have to buy them at a certain time for a certain sport.

Matt Griffin [00:26:20]:
So we've made sure to have that middle school gear here for the parents to be able to come in and get kids geared that way too. So we have a lot of.

Diana Alt [00:26:27]:
I love that and like when I don't think, I don't know that anybody really does this anymore. But like I'm a Gen Xer. Letter jackets were a big thing when we were in high school whether you were in sports or not because you could get required theater, whatever. I was definitely not in sports, so. But we had a very particular purple that it felt like nobody understood. Like it was hard to find the right purple for the school district and whatnot. And our letter jackets were gorgeous. But we had to go to the town of our biggest rival to buy our letter jackets because there was no store in our town.

Diana Alt [00:27:12]:
So it's kind of cool that you're serving in that way.

Matt Griffin [00:27:15]:
Yeah, we have the ability to get the letter. My son having mentioned a letter jacket. So I think I haven't seen as many but you know, those are some that if we started getting the people asked then we would go. I've got, you know, I have the ability to carry those if needed. So it just has to be something that makes sense in this size store. You know, until our goal here in two or three years would be to be a bigger store in a bigger store or a different city. So you'd ask, you would ask if it's other areas. I started reaching out around other areas to let them know we're here.

Matt Griffin [00:27:43]:
But in general, you know, it's just gardener the beginning for space wise. But we had somebody come in and ask about payola if we're ever going to carry that the other day and you know, if there's a market for it, then we'll give it a try. So we're definitely doing the swag here. And then we're actually. We are. You know, if you start one business, why not two? We're looking into starting another business on the side of this. A different LLC that will do jerseys, things like that. So I had a meeting yesterday with the Parks and Rec and we're gonna, we're gonna get to do their.

Matt Griffin [00:28:17]:
We should get to do their flag football.

Diana Alt [00:28:20]:
Really cool.

Matt Griffin [00:28:21]:
Like that. So that. But we want that under a different llc. So, you know, we're trying to grow already and we've only been around without growing too fast, you know. But that was an idea that we found a partner that also has interest in doing that with some connections. So we met with them yesterday and we're gonna tackle that too. So it's just finding ways to grow and retail's a tough world. So it's just finding ways to be creative with the coaches and the people involved in the community.

Matt Griffin [00:28:46]:
And people are bringing ideas to us, which is nice.

Diana Alt [00:28:48]:
That's awesome. When I think about the whole doing the jerseys and whatnot. So my hometown now, which is Pacific Missouri, it's outside St. Louis, they now have a couple that owns a business that's screen printing and T shirts wag. And so I can get Pacific Swags mailed to me now with the right color purple, because I know what to do. And that same store or the same business owners had a big impact on the community because they started two other businesses. One for, they call it Snow Monster. It's like the snow cone stand for the summer and then they have an ice cream stand that they bought.

Diana Alt [00:29:32]:
And that was a big deal because that was a 60 year old institution. And then the people retired and they bought the stand. They kept the name the same. They may change that in the future. But it was just like a really nice to see that commitment in the town. I've lived in the Kansas city area for 20 years and one of my favorite freaking pages on social media to follow is the Facebook page of this ice cream stand that I didn't even go to when I was a kid because my parents weren't into it. And now it's like this major institution in town because these people picked it back up. So what you're doing is really important.

Diana Alt [00:30:10]:
You have a six month tradition, not a six year tradition or six weeks open, I guess.

Matt Griffin [00:30:16]:
Yeah, we're still trying to get people, we saw people coming in that didn't know we were here, so we're still trying to get the word out.

Diana Alt [00:30:21]:
Oh, that's so cool. When you think about the risk. Like, so much of what I hear from people about I never want to start my own business is that they worry about the risk. And I, for me, I had a switch flip years ago that's like, why am I relying on one person or one company for 100% of my income? And to me, once that switch flips, it's hard to unflip it and see the risk. But like, how did you, how did you and Lacey and your father in law think about the risks associated with starting this business and which one scared you the most?

Matt Griffin [00:31:01]:
Yeah, you know, we lucked out a little bit. We, we, we, we met the first time we said we're not pulling anything out of retirement, you know, to start this. Like, we're all, you know, old enough in an area that, that we don't want that risk. So that was kind of meeting one when we decided we're going to do it. And I think it's just being open and honest about it, you know, like, I mean, I'm not gonna, you know, like I said, there was people at the gym. I could be having a bad day and worried and people would be, how's it coming? This is going to be great, you know, and I think that helps decide the risk of just the people around us that would want to talk about it or be excited about it. And I think, you know, I had some sleepless nights. Still do sometimes, you know, but it just started kind of making sense that the passion kind of overtook the risk.

Matt Griffin [00:31:48]:
You know, the desire to make this successful overtook the risk. But it's always there, you know, and then I have to keep myself in check. You know, I was listening to a podcast today and they were talking about taking two to three years before you start. You know, a business really starts taking off sometimes and it's just keeping yourself in check. And I'm kind of the one that can be all over and Lacey's a little more even keel than I am, so it's just a matter of try learning to not hold it in and just talk about it. You know, we've got support from family and friends and it's not, you don't have to sit in a dark corner and cry about it. You know, just make sure you're open and talk about it. I mean, I've talked to my son about it a little Bit my oldest asked me, you know, how long till the store makes money or you know, or when does that look like and do to talk to him about it even, you know, so just making it everyone buy in.

Matt Griffin [00:32:35]:
That is kind of, I think what's helped me manage.

Diana Alt [00:32:40]:
We're not going to let him stop us, that kind of thing. For me, one of the ways I described it is that the risk. Because I was in. I was in corporate and I had been unhappy for a while, but I had a leadership change right before I left corporate and went full time in this. I had a side. I'd been coaching on the side for like six or seven years before that. Looking at it from a one or two clients at a time. It was almost all people I knew for a while, etc.

Diana Alt [00:33:12]:
But I had a shift where I realized that previously I was worried about the like the financial risk of what happens to my retirement or oh my gosh, what if I don't have money or whatever. And then I recognized that my real risk was wasting my life doing something that I didn't actually want to do. So let's see, I'm going to do a little bit of a lightning round. That's not really a lightning round for anybody that has listened to this because I'm incapable of just letting an answer sit most of the time. What is the worst piece of career advice that you've ever received?

Matt Griffin [00:33:49]:
Oh, boy. I think it was an agency I was with that wanted everybody to kind of be robots, you know, like form into. Yeah. The same type of pitch, the same type mentality where and not let every, you know, like this is the best way to do it. So I tried and it's just you kind of lose that person. Everyone's different, you know, I learned then when I managed sometimes of like, everyone's got to be different. You got to recognize what they're good at and what. You know.

Matt Griffin [00:34:17]:
Just because they do it a different way doesn't mean it's the wrong way.

Diana Alt [00:34:20]:
So that's a big deal. The just that right there is the gold. Just because you do it a different way doesn't mean it's the wrong way. I'm a huge nerd for cliftonstrengths, which I've had, I guess two episodes now where we talked at least a little bit about that. But it's centered around this idea that we all have different talents. And so let's set a goal and then you use your talents to get there whatever way makes sense to you. What is a personal habit in your life that has made a really big difference to you.

Matt Griffin [00:34:53]:
I'm going to. Or. Yeah, I would say I can think of good habits, bad habits. No, I think a good habit would be just caring about customers. I think, you know, my past boss would. Bosses would say that of just taking the time to have that gut feeling. And if you have a gut feeling, something's wrong, it probably is. So, you know, don't wait till they come to you about it.

Matt Griffin [00:35:16]:
If you have a gut feeling and be able to kind of get ahead. I think I've always had a talent at getting in front of things before they blow up to at least start to come, be the one to start the conversations, not wait for them to come to me.

Diana Alt [00:35:29]:
That's great. And that's one like that I haven't had anybody give me. So I like the thing that you got to that. One of my mentors, slash friends, slash. I've coached him too, in business, says that he calls that running towards trouble. Most people try to run away from trouble when things are going. They try to deflect. They try to do everything except facing head on that something might be wrong.

Matt Griffin [00:35:55]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:35:56]:
What's something you've changed your mind about recently?

Matt Griffin [00:36:03]:
Let's see. That's a tough one. I think just even in the store, realizing how quick it had to grow or how quick that things had to be done a certain way in the beginning, you know, and like expect, you know, I think Lacey always tells me, you know, trust the process. Trust me. You know, like, we have to build our customer. And I was like, that can't be. We've got to get people, you know, anything. So it's a little bit of a way to change my changing the mindset a little bit that, you know, you start seeing return people coming back to the store, you start seeing people.

Matt Griffin [00:36:32]:
Yeah. Want to come back in here. Well, when two those start building up. So I think it's just that realizing that this is a process, not a rock star overnight. Look at that. Look at me.

Diana Alt [00:36:46]:
Opening the store is the start, not the finish, right? Yeah.

Matt Griffin [00:36:49]:
Yeah. The fireworks don't come in the first eight weeks.

Diana Alt [00:36:52]:
No.

Matt Griffin [00:36:53]:
I think. I think I thought you figured out.

Diana Alt [00:36:55]:
A lot that you've got to fix process wise in the first eight weeks, which is exciting.

Matt Griffin [00:37:00]:
Yes.

Diana Alt [00:37:00]:
What is the common misconception that people have about your work as a retail store owner?

Matt Griffin [00:37:10]:
Oh, that's interesting. I haven't talked to a lot of people at the work. It's more the store. But like, I'm just. Yeah. I Think it's just, well, maybe not misconception, but I think it's just how many hats you do have to wear. You know, I think everyone knows. Everyone's like, yeah, it's got to be tough being an owner, but I think it's really how many hats you have to wear, especially when you're this small.

Matt Griffin [00:37:36]:
Like Lacy's like, you know, I leave you alone in the marketing and sales world, but I'm like, like, I don't mind you questioning because it's. I've never done the retail marketing, you know, it's so. It's just, it's 10 times more rewarding than I thought it'd be. But it's Also, I think, 10 times harder because of the. You can only take so much in your brain at one time. And I'm trying to learn more. Like I did a little SEO 10 years ago and it's so different now, but I still understood some of the language. But now it's my own site.

Diana Alt [00:38:01]:
Right.

Matt Griffin [00:38:02]:
I don't have a coach necessarily. You know, I can pay people and I've got people that I can bring in to help or even friends. They're like, hey, I'll buy you a beer if you come here and help me with this, you know, as we talk. But I think it's just, you gotta try to be good enough at everything. And I think so. It's kind of misconception, but I think people get it. But I don't think they get the full. They don't.

Diana Alt [00:38:22]:
They like, they intellectually, they get it. They don't really like, fully in their gut and their body and everywhere get it until they do it. You have to. You have to do it. I've had my business for six years and it's mostly an online business. Coaching, consulting. Like, there's some stuff I do in person, but not a ton I sometimes do, like with, with business owners or leaders. I will do like an in person, like, VIP day.

Diana Alt [00:38:52]:
We're going to draw the crap on the whiteboard and then kind of sort out, assimilate, make you a roadmap. But other than that, I'm almost always online and I still run across. Oh, my gosh, this is a new hat. Like right now, podcaster is a new hat for me and I'm trying to decide which pieces I'm gonna wear. I do have a VA team in the Philippines that does a lot of podcast production that supports me, but they're not in charge of the creative vision. They're not in charge of like, what are we going to do to grow the podcast? Which right now the answer is we're just going to do a podcast and then see how it goes and if we like it. So. And then my last one was, what is something that you thought would be harder about the business than it actually was? So it turned out to be a little bit easier than you thought, because what we always hear is, everything takes twice as long.

Diana Alt [00:39:47]:
It's harder than you think. Yeah.

Matt Griffin [00:39:51]:
I think being an extrovert, I was kind of worried about being in this area, 1100 square foot, you know, 50 hours a week, and kind of like what that would be like, you know, especially on the days we're open from, like in the beginning, we open till 8. We knocked it back to 7. It's like 10 to 7. You're like 9 to 10 hours by the time I get here early. And I thought, well, is it going to drive me crazy? But it's. It is amazing how fast a day can go, you know, Like, I never would have thought that. But, like, next thing I know, it's two, and then I've. I pick something to work on, and then it's five, you know, and then there's customers sprinkled in.

Matt Griffin [00:40:25]:
But it's really just how fast. I know it's still new, but it's just how fast a day can go when you own the business. Like, you own, like, there's so much, like, you always have something to do. So it's amazing. You know, I'm not never sitting here, like, twiddling my thumbs, because there's like, there's always something, especially when it's a very small group opening it up. So, yeah, I think that's been kind of the thing. I'm like, is my ADD gonna kick in? Is like my, you know, am I not gonna be happy because I'm here 10 hours by myself on a slow day? But it, you know, you get kind of rocking and rolling, and it just means more when it's something you control, like, it's part of you, you know, it's not. It's not doing it for company A.

Matt Griffin [00:41:03]:
You're. You're doing it for your vision, too. You know, you're doing it for, like, the wall behind me. You're doing it for the kids that are behind me and things like that.

Diana Alt [00:41:11]:
So, yeah, I love that you started it for the kids. I think that's such a big deal. Yeah. Because, I mean, from a pure marketing perspective, like, parents will spend on their kids and they spend. We spend so much on Sports in the US and the Midwest. I think maybe we just don't have as much going on, but we, I think just every other kid is in soccer. Every other kid is in there, so. Well, I really appreciate you coming today, man.

Matt Griffin [00:41:43]:
Thank you. It was fun. I enjoyed it.

Diana Alt [00:41:45]:
I'm now I, I live about, I don't know, I'm in South oath. I'm what, 15 minutes from your store.

Matt Griffin [00:41:50]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:41:51]:
So check us out. Come by and check it out sometime soon. We need to, we need to have lunch on your day off.

Matt Griffin [00:41:57]:
Definitely. I mean, we have sunglasses, we have the feature socks you can check out. It's not all sports stuff. There's some things.

Diana Alt [00:42:03]:
I'll get some socks I, I wear like Belegas, which I was trying to run. I was trying to do triathlons like a long time ago. It didn't go well because it turns out I don't like that. But I did like a couple of little short distance indoor triathlons. But I found the socks that I like. So we'll see if these socks are better.

Matt Griffin [00:42:28]:
And we have, we do have pickleball. Our friend Shelby bought some pickleball paddles. I challenged her, but she hadn't taken me up on it yet.

Diana Alt [00:42:34]:
So is there anywhere to play pickleball and in Gardner?

Matt Griffin [00:42:37]:
No, There's a couple new ones in Olathe that people go to. There's one place right about a half mile behind us that has leagues, but they're usually senior leagues. But people always ask about if I've heard of anything. So I think it'd be something that Gardner needs.

Diana Alt [00:42:49]:
Business. There you go.

Matt Griffin [00:42:51]:
Yeah, we'll start a third one there. There you go.

Diana Alt [00:42:54]:
A gardener. I'd probably do well.

Matt Griffin [00:42:56]:
Yeah, we need that. So. But we've had a lot of good conversation around pickleball. So, you know, we bought the feature socks in and we had a people ask about sunglasses, but I didn't want to bring in the 100 sunglasses that some of the kids wear because that won't move. So we found a brand called Tifosi that we carry and we've done really well with them because they're kind of that 30 to 40 sunglasses range. But they have a hundred. It fits our store mentality because they have 100 lifetime warranty on them. Nice.

Matt Griffin [00:43:21]:
So how easy is that when you're talking to parents like you just broke yours? Well, these are warrantied, you know, and it's a family owned business too, out of Southing of South Carolina. So, you know, we're, it's learning to, well, carry what the community wants is part of the fun, too. Trying things out.

Diana Alt [00:43:35]:
Well, I'm so glad you came in. I've got your website up here so people can go and check that out, see what you're doing, whether they're in the area or not. This is the kind of. Kind of thing where Matt is thinking different. Matt and his business partners are thinking different than all the big box stores are. And so thinking different, there's a lot of value in that, in our career. So, so that we can make work feel good. So I can't wait to hear more about this.

Diana Alt [00:44:07]:
Hopefully we'll check in and, like, see how it goes after year one.

Matt Griffin [00:44:11]:
I should do that. That'd be great. So I look forward to that.

Diana Alt [00:44:13]:
We'll have some more fights to report before that.

Matt Griffin [00:44:17]:
I'm sure there'll be some stories.

Diana Alt [00:44:19]:
Yeah, for sure. All right, thank you very much.

Matt Griffin [00:44:21]:
All right, thanks. Thank you. Bye.

Diana Alt [00:44:24]:
Hey there. Do you ever find yourself wondering, is it finally time to walk away from this job? You might want to go over and check out my free mini video [email protected] it's going to walk you through the four pillars of an aligned career and let you know whether it's time to start making your move. That's isittimetowalk.com and that's it for this episode of Work should feel good. If something made you laugh, think, think, cry, or just want to yell yes at your phone, send it to a friend, hit, follow, hit, subscribe, do all the things, and even better, leave a review if you've got a sec. I'm not going to tell you to give it five stars. You get to decide if I earned them. Work should feel good. Let's make that your reality.