Matt Raad is a successful digital investor, entrepreneur and educator. He’s built a dream business in buying and selling websites worth millions of dollars. And he is passionate about teaching the simple wealth-building strategies he has mastered with over 30 years in the business
In this article, we take a look at the secrets of Matt’s success. We learn five key strategies you can use today to make your dreams a reality. Or to simply enjoy a “Laptop Lifestyle”.
Here are a Few Highlights
- A “lighthouse goal” is a guiding light to achieve your dreams
- Put pen to paper, write down your goals and they will come true
- Sample the Smorgasbord of life to be happy, healthy and wealthy
- There is no “Retire Early” for High Achievers
- Follow the Big Money if you want to be rich
Feel Free to read through or jump ahead.
Who is Matt Raad
Matt Raad is a successful digital investor, entrepreneur, and educator. He runs the eBusiness Institute (EBI) with his wife Liz. Together, they are passionate about teaching digital skills and coaching their EBI students.
Matt is an expert in business, SEO and digital education in training to buy, renovate and sell websites. His infectious enthusiasm helps everyday people learn digital skills. All with the intention of escaping the 9-5 “rat race” and building wealth to create a “laptop lifestyle”, where you can work from anywhere in the world.
When Matt was interviewed on the Captain FI (financial independence) podcast, he spoke at length about websites and building digital assets. He also focused on entrepreneurship, putting pen to paper and making your dreams a reality. It was an inspirational discussion with some fantastic takeaways to achieve your dreams and live a happy and successful life. Let’s take a look.
1. Why You Need a Masterplan to Design Your Life
Matt has helped many digital investors and entrepreneurs over the years. The first question he asks when coaching budding entrepreneurs is “Tell me your goals”. And surprisingly, many people don’t have an answer to that question. And without a goal, it’s difficult to aim at a target and achieve anything. This is why Matt recommends a “Lighthouse Goal”
A “Lighthouse Goal” to guide the way
A Lighthouse Goal is a vision of the future. It is something to aim towards that may seem far away, a singular destination to guide you. For example, a digital investor might have a goal to build websites to generate $10,000 a month. Or a lighthouse goal might be to land a dream job. Whatever the goal, to achieve it you need to put a plan in place. And that is why we need a Masterplan.
A Masterplan to Achieve the Dream
The Masterplan should be broken down into weekly, monthly, and yearly sections. There are also daily strategies that can be used for success. The Masterplan is a roadmap to achieve your Lighthouse Goal. With a plan and a goal, Matt believes all you need to do is “keep showing up and keep making progress and you will get there.” It’s also recommended to reset the Masterplan every five years as your plans will never be set in stone.
The Masterplan isn’t just about business for Matt. It also applies to the other side of his life. Specifically, this means personal fulfillment.
“Personal fulfillment and being happy and creating a wonderful family. And a wonderful life to enjoy and feel enthusiastic about every day.”
A well-rounded plan will touch all aspects of your life. Matt believes that “you need to consciously create your life and what you want out of life.” Most people will want to make money, which is great. But it’s worth understanding what will give your life meaning and make a conscious decision based on that.
2. Write Down Your Goals and They Will Come True
Matt discovered that by putting pen to paper, your dreams become a reality.
To consciously design your life, you need to have a vision and to make that vision or goal come true, you need to write them down. And this action can bring your vision to reality.
If Matt can give one piece of advice to anyone, this is it:
“Sit down and write out your goals or your vision on a regular basis, like at least every 90 days, and then definitely every year. And most people won’t do that. I learned many years ago now, that if you just sit down and write your goals, you stand a pretty high chance of achieving them.”
Matt is living proof, where he has been fortunate enough to achieve 95% of the goals he wrote out 30 years ago. A key to his success was the simple process of writing out his goals. And this has carried him through good times and bad times.
And when it comes to goal setting, Matt says to be specific. If you want to be a millionaire, is that a million bucks in the bank or is that tied to a house? You need to be specific.
Your goals should be an ongoing document that follows you throughout your life and you should refine them every 90 days. Check in with your significant other and make sure your goals are aligned. Discuss how your life looks now, and where you want to be in 5 years’ time. Or 10 years time and beyond. Have a regular check-in to keep your goals aligned and relevant to where you are.
But most importantly, you have to put pen to paper…
3. Sample from the Smorgasbord of Life
Matt samples other people’s lives and their stories to inspire and influence his own life and business goals. He calls this “sampling from the Smorgasbord of Life.”
Inspirational books and mentors can provide ideas and a roadmap to amazing success and an amazing family life. Matt has always surrounded himself with interesting people and books about hugely successful people in life. Matt says it best about bringing the parts of other people’s lives into your own.
“I’d recommend what you do is when you’re consciously creating your life and thinking about what you want… Start looking around for role models or people that you can emulate just through reading books.”
This is how Matt discovered buying and selling websites, where at the time, he was trialing various business models. But he also does this with his personal life. He mountain bikes and keeps super fit as he knows older people who are fitter than he is. This is a source of inspiration for Matt, as are friends with fantastic family lives. And he takes their success to fuel his own.
Matt encourages anyone to be open and sample from the smorgasbord of life for health, wealth, and happiness. New ideas and stories from inspirational books and mentors can help build a fantastic life for yourself. And these influences can support and develop your life and business goals.
4. There is no “Retire Early” for High Achievers
Matt has an interesting take on the FIRE movement, where he is a big fan of “financial independence”. That was his main goal in life, and he has achieved that. But the “Retire Early” part isn’t as appealing.
The key reason why Matt isn’t a fan of retiring early is that none of his mentors did that. He never saw these high achieving, high net worth individuals get to a magic number to then kick back and retire. There is no “Off” switch for Matt’s rampaging business mind. But Matt does have a better alternative.
“People who listen to self-improvement podcasts and are likely high achievers and goal-orientated shouldn’t retire early. Rather than set a goal to retire early, they should maybe set a goal to have a business that they absolutely love and it doesn’t feel like work.”
Retiring early isn’t on the cards for Matt. He’s having too much fun and loves what he does. And Matt points out that having a goal can sustain you through life. In challenging times, a purpose or a goal can bring meaning to your life. And reaching for that next goal can help provide the momentum to get through those tough times.
5. Follow the Big Money if You Want to Be Rich
Matt is an entrepreneur, he loves business and the art of making deals. He enjoys networking and lives and breathes business. And he has a fortunate position where he has access to high-net-worth individuals.
He picks their brains and learns from the best. In the conversation with Captain FI, he recalls one piece of valuable advice he received many years ago that he abides by to this day.
“Follow the big money. If you want to be rich, just follow the big money. Don’t try and reinvent the world. Just emulate what they’re doing”
Matt also values and looks up to mentors. And he is in a unique position where he can ask big-money individuals financial questions. Such as what are they investing in. Or are they worried about inflation or recessions? Matt discovered that the Big Money has cash and is waiting for an opportunity to invest. When there is a crash, the Big Money doesn’t sell. They buy because everything is on sale.
“…And this really shocked me. When I was learning this stuff many years ago. I realized the Big Money, they tend not to panic and they tend to just keep going…. The Big Money aren’t freaking out. There’s a recession and these guys are just working out how to do deals because they can get assets at good prices.”
Matt concludes that when you’re an entrepreneur, and you’ve had some success, in times like this when times seem uncertain, It’s possibly one of the best times to start making some serious money. A valuable lesson he learned from following the Big Money.
Matt Raad – The Guiding Light
Over the course of the conversation with Captain FI, Matt perfectly encapsulates the value of having a goal, working hard, and learning every day with the right mindset. Just read this summary from Matt that says it best, it’s amazing stuff.
“Write out your goals, have that vision, and be learning off lots of other people around you and thinking what could work out here
We always have our lighthouse goal, which guides us on a daily basis. And then you try all these different things. We look at different people and watch how do they raise their families, or what do they do to stay healthy, or what do they do to stay happy? What can we borrow from those?
And we read books about it and we just test out all these different things on ourselves and see what works best. And I think that’s a really smart thing to do. But see, you wouldn’t do that unless you had an overriding goal and vision for your life to achieve a certain thing. Because most people do what?
They just sit at home at night and have a beer and watch Netflix. And there’s nothing wrong with that, by the way. But you know where they’re gonna be in 10 and 20 years’ time. They’re still gonna be sitting at home having a beer, watching Netflix, and probably not be as rich as they wanted to be. Or as happy as they wanted to be, or as healthy as what they wanted to be.
Whereas if you can consciously and each day work on testing out little things in your life. Trying different things, pushing yourself a little bit to achieve certain goals, pushing up against a few boundaries, doing a bit of mindset work… You’ll be very pleasantly surprised how life pans out for you in five and 10 years’ time.
You want to work hard, do those reps, and have that goal though, to hold it together. That’s your guiding light. That’s the thing that you want to be working on.”
Final Thoughts
If you know Matt Raad (and his wife Liz), they are energetic, enthusiastic, and happy. And this demeanor isn’t by chance, it’s by design. Matt believes that “creating happiness or a balanced life or success is definitely a strategy in itself.” Which is something we can all strive for. And something he happily teaches to his students.
There is so much great stuff in this interview and from Matt’s eBusiness Institute and Digital Investor YouTube Channel. They are all fantastic and the success of the EBI Digital Investor students is phenomenal. It is proof that the laptop lifestyle isn’t a dream, it is achievable by following Matt’s strategies.
I hope you enjoyed this article, feel free to comment below or just say hi.
M. Moneyman
Read About Robert Kiyosaki, who was a big influence on Matt Raad in this Rich Dad Poor Dad Review, with 4 Big Entrepreneurial Insights.
References:
- Captain FI Podcast – QandA with Matt
- Small Business Big Marketing Podcast – Simple Wealth-Building Strategies
- Matt and Liz Website – mattandliz.com
- Rich Dad Poor Dad – Buying Websites for Passive Income
