Matt DiFrancesco is the Principal/Financial Technician of High Lift Financial. He grew up in Pennsylvania with his family, his Dad being an attorney had a very structured routine that he would not deviate from.
Through years of personal development, Matt follows a similar path of structure. But when he started coaching with Coach Joe, he implemented his take on the Magellan 8.
Now his morning routine is a non-negotiable in his life.
Routine | Morning Routine | Magellan 8
Matt has adapted The Magellan 8 that we learned last week from Coach Joe to fit his lifestyle.
“If Somebody Had To Ask Me What Was The Most Transformational Thing That I’ve Done. It’s Probably The Morning Success Ritual.”
- Matt starts his morning at 5:30 am because that is when he is able to have an hour that is his time
- Next, he drinks water and Apple Cider Vinegar
- Then he jumps into the Magellan 8 from last week
- Finishing his morning Routine at the Catholic Church for Prayer
Matt’s biggest tip to get started with a morning routine is to get off of social or news feeds.
Success
Matt’s definition of success is giving 100% all the time. And through his morning Routine, he is able to create that structure and plan so that he can be present to give that 100%.
He has also seen exponential growth in his business. Anywhere between 10 to 25% a year, annual growth.
Connect With Matt
Website: https://highliftfinancial.com/
Talk to Matt about your business’s financial situation: https://go.oncehub.com/DVFOscheduling
Podcast: https://anchor.fm/matt-difrancesco
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/36172651/admin/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOhyTsIcGHsXtDydpRA9pFQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/difranFC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/high_lift_financial/
Transcript
Hannah Mitrea 00:05
Hello, everyone, this is Hannah, your host, and you are listening to the success is routine podcast. Our show is on a mission to talk to leaders in life and business that have achieved success. And to learn what their routine is, if you are ready to create your routine to success, you’re in the right place. Now let’s get started. Thanks so much, Matt, for joining me today on success is routine. And I am so excited to have you on so for everyone listening, this is Matt, Matt DeFrancesco is here with us. He is the founder and principal of high lift financial, which is a he’s a financial advisor that helps collision. And small businesses create that generational wealth for their families, whether that’s transitioning exiting their business, you know, retiring any kinds of secession or things like that. And I’m really excited to have Matt on because on our last episode, we got to talk to coach Joe Lucca. And Matt is a client of coach show. And so I was like we need to have him on. I’ve worked with Matt now for over a year. And I love to see how the processes all work between you know, having your coach there teaching you this morning routine and this routine, and then implementing it and seeing your success from it. And so I’m really excited to hear from you and hear how the implementation work. But welcome to the show, Matt.
Matt Di Francesco 01:24
Thanks. Yeah, I’m excited about this, this is something a little different. So it’s always good to kind of shift gears.
Hannah Mitrea 01:30
I know, we’re always stuck in the business world of you know, teaching our craft your business financials and helping people create that wealth for themselves. Whereas, you know, I have all this marketing I’m always talking about. So this is super exciting. For me, this is almost like a passion project in a way. Right? Because like, I’ve read a ton of self help books, and I’ve like personal growth. And one thing was always there’s the habits and routines. And then when you talk to people like Joe like, he is so profound on his morning routine and has it to like a perfection, and to see his success from it. And I’m like, I need to learn routines from other people. And it’s not just morning routines that we’ll talk about on the show. Like I have somebody that I’m working with, who like brings in like fun and laughter I’m trying to get her on the show, and also somebody that has like a self care routine. And so there’s so many routines in our life that we can have, and will be kind of like sharing all of them. But morning routine is one of the biggest. And so that’s why we started there. That’s
Matt Di Francesco 02:33
why it is the biggest I mean, it was probably if somebody had to ask me what was the most transformative transformational thing that I’ve done. It’s probably is in the morning success ritual ritual.
Hannah Mitrea 02:45
Awesome. And so before we jump in here to routine, I know I know your story that I want to share your story with everybody else. So like, you know, tell me about how you grew up and like, from there? Did you always have routine? Like, things like that? I wonder that routine kind of switch for you and what was life? Like before the routine? I guess?
Matt Di Francesco 03:06
Right? Okay, well, I guess the process, I think everybody has a routine. I mean, it’s just whether it’s a positive routine or a negative routine. And so, you know, I grew up we were basically my dad was an attorney, my mom was a stay at home mom, my dad was, I always joke my dad, if you looked up anal retentive, in the, in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of my dad, my dad was very, very structured and everything that he did, even down to when he got up his routine in the morning what he did, you know, going to work coming home, I mean, there was just, you know, you could basically set your watch to him. And so I think that was kind of passed along to all of us. But, you know, again, it’s you know, you’re like I said, everybody has a routine and sometimes it’s we get up and we turn on the TV news, okay? Or we listen to the radio or you know, we read the newspaper and which are all routines but there’s a lot of times they’re not always that productive. So you know, I guess you know, you know, my routine was you know, your basic stuff get up you know, go eat breakfast go to you know, get or get dressed for school, eat breakfast, go up, you know, wash my face, brush my teeth, you know, get on the school bus, go go to school, do those type of things. And so there wasn’t really I would say any kind of structured routine, but you know, as a as a as a came out of school and I got involved in my career. You know, and I’m like you I’ve been a personal development junkie for the last 30 years. So I have like, you know, I’ve got it’s so funny. I’ve got bookshelves all over the place filled with books, and that’s probably about a third of them. I’ve got others just packed up in the I packed up in my attic. And one thing that I always talked about was that successful people always have a morning routine, something that they do on a regular basis. So, you know, my routine kind of evolved. You know, as I got older, especially once I got into financial services, were, you know, I kind of get up, I would, you know, I would get dressed, and I started going to daily mass. So that was really part of my routine. But there was never really anything to kind of get my mind, right. So, you know, I get to the office, and then all of a sudden the proverbial stuff hits the fan, and that you’re going bonkers. So that’s kind of what led me after I met coach Joe, to get into a very structured morning success routine, as we call it.
Hannah Mitrea 05:49
Yeah. And that’s so interesting. So I didn’t know your dad was an attorney before I missed that somewhere down the road. Okay. And so, though, it’s interesting to see like, he was very, like, get up in the morning, do these things, and home everyday at the same time. Whereas my dad was in construction, it was completely different. I never. And so it’s interesting to hear how like, everyone has a routine. And as you say, I definitely see it too. Like, it’s a routine we didn’t even know we have, like, it’s like an invisible routine.
Matt Di Francesco 06:20
Yeah, and our routines can be positive or negative. I mean, even in my dad’s case, he had these routines, but not all of them probably served him in the best way. You know, it was you can, you can almost get too structured. You know, like, just to give you an example, like at night, we’d be over maybe, you know, the family would be over. And like at 930, my dad would like go upstairs and like, where’s that? Oh, he’s getting ready for bed? Because that was his routine. Okay. And then he wonder what, well, nobody ever wants to you guys don’t want to spend any time with me? Well, you’re leaving every time we come over. Because you’ve got you’re so stuck in your routine. So again, you know, there can be some flexibility with that. But I you know, I think it’s it’s, it is important that we have positive routines that we can kind of start our day with.
Hannah Mitrea 07:10
So interesting. Well, we went to Nepal over the summer. My husband’s father’s this very same way He must. He gets up, he gets breakfast, he listens to the chanting. He has the same breakfast, he has to take a nap at the same exact time. Yeah. And like, for us, it was so interesting, because like, if you ever make it down to Texas, we will make you play board games and card games until you’re ready to run away. Right? We just love to like, sit around as a family and play games. And so constantly like, Hey, do you wanna play the card game to like, not have to take my nap? And I’m like, oh, okay, I realize now like that was his route. That’s just his routine. He so ingrained in it. And is it positive? Is it negative? I don’t know. But you know, he missed all those opportunities to sit with his grandkid. And play games just because that was his routine. And he kind of, like, flexibility.
Matt Di Francesco 08:02
Yeah, and it’s interesting, as you mentioned that because so let’s go conversely, with my wife and her family, they have no routine. I mean, it’s okay. They haven’t been I mean, everybody’s got their routine. They were always shooting from the hip. And I remember like, early on in our marriage, you know, they, you know, my wife would lay she, she would call me or text me and say, Oh, my dad wants us to come over for dinner tonight. And I’m like, I’m already scheduled. All right, I mean, because I’ve got my schedule already broken up. And I finally got to the point where it was just I told her, I said, Look, I appreciate that’s how your parents operate. But you know what, you’ve got to be sensitive to me too. I need to be structured. So yeah. If you’re familiar with like, the DISC personality profile, so my profile is an ID. Okay. So eyes, we tend to be people, P people, people, we love to tell stories, we love to chat, but we can be a little scattered. Okay. And but I’ve got the D in me, that kind of keeps me direct and focused on things. And so what I’ve had to do is raise my organizational skills so that I don’t get off track because it’s very easy for me to get off track. So I’ve had to be much more structured as I’ve gotten older and to kind of learn that so you find you kind of find a fine balance. There’s nothing wrong with spontaneity. But again, you got to get done, what needs to get done. First things first, as Steven Covey talks about,
Hannah Mitrea 09:33
yeah, yeah, definitely in seven habits. That’s right. Awesome. And then okay, so I know you mentioned personal development. So I guess that’s like a really good like segue there. Okay, so did you have a routine prior to the personal development, or did the personal development come after you started getting that routine?
Matt Di Francesco 09:52
Well, pretty much like when you talk about a structured more like success routine. Yeah, that was probably when I started, started getting involved in personal development. You know, one, one commitment that I made, you know, I remember hearing the saying, Leaders are readers. And I had a mentor of mine that challenged me and says, you know, you need to be reading 15 minutes a day. And that was something I did every day, I mean, every day for and I still do that is always tried to get 15 to 20 minutes of reading in a day. And now, I used to do it right before I went to bed. Okay, now knowing, you know, how our sleep cycles work and things like that. I typically, I mean, you know, when I go to bed, it’s to go to sleep. Okay, so I’ll typically read, you know, later, you know, like later in the evening, usually sometime in between, you know, like six and seven, because then after seven, then my wife wants to spend some time together. And, you know, so I can kind of get all of that, you know, all of that in. So but this got developed as I got more involved in learning success principles. You know, you mentioned the seven habits of highly effective people I to this day, I still say that outside of the Bible, it’s the most influential book I’ve ever read. Me too. And it’s one that and it’s one that I actually give clients, I give to prospects. I get, I’ll get them on, I’ll get audio books for them. And it’s kind of a gift I do when they when I initially meet them. And because it was so transformational in my life, that, you know, I want to be able to pass that along to people.
Hannah Mitrea 11:34
Yeah, that was the first personal development book I read. And it was, it was mind opening for me, because, you know, I grew up in a really small town in Pennsylvania right above, you know, where I was. Pennsylvania, so small town, there wasn’t a lot of structure, per se, in that town, I feel like the whole town was a little out of structure. And so just learning some of those things, because you don’t learn those things. In high school, you don’t learn those things in school whatsoever. And they should be because being able to be more introspective in a way to understand like, what do I have control over? And you know, how am I putting the things that are important first, like those first things first, like, not picking up the phone in the middle of dinner and things like that, but recognizing that you’re doing that, because a lot of people don’t recognize it. And I had to, and that book really helps you see those things, and it opens your eyes to just creating successful habits in life, to be able to reposition what’s important for you, right?
Matt Di Francesco 12:35
Oh, exactly. And, you know, I’ve read, like, I love John Maxwell stuff on leadership, leadership has always been something that’s that’s been a big thing for me. And, you know, one thing John Maxwell talks about, is it. You know, when you’re a leader, your people are watching you. Right, and they’re watching and, and I’ve noticed this raising kids, you know, I’ve got four boys. And, you know, it’s the examples that we set that speak, you know, that was the old saying, your actions speak so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying. And so it’s really important to develop those habits and have them see you doing these habits, because these are the things that are going to set them apart. But if you’re going to be a leader, you need to you need to have some structure that’s there. And you need to you need to keep things the first things first.
Hannah Mitrea 13:24
No, I love that actually having them see you do that. I completely relate my daughter’s 15 Now, and she still picks up everything that
Matt Di Francesco 13:35
I know, good and bad, right?
Hannah Mitrea 13:37
Yeah. Like if I have an opinion all the time, she has the same opinion as me, my husband talking about last night like, dude, he said this, I’m like, Well, no, I said that to Judy, like a week ago. So awesome. So okay, so the personal development books really helped you kind of understand that, you know, especially because leaders read our readers. And so you’re reading these books, you’re doing the personal development. And so when did you kind of like your transition to this routine? Because you have 13 Now, are you doing the same one that Joe talks about the modality, or like, what is your morning routine?
Matt Di Francesco 14:18
It’s pretty much the Magellan eight. There’s there’s some little variations that are in there. And I really picked that up from Joe. So when I first started working with Joe about 12 years ago I guess it was about 12 years ago. Wow. It’s time flies. Yeah. And, and that was one thing that he talked about was you have to have a morning success ritual. So do you want me to go through the ritual or just or what I do,
Hannah Mitrea 14:48
and government you do? Because we did go with Joe yesterday where he said like the exact things and how he does it but I’d love to learn how you were able to take it and transform it to what fits your lifestyle right Right. Yeah, yeah.
Matt Di Francesco 15:02
Okay, so Yeah, cuz like I said, there’s some variations to it. It’s pretty much Joe’s model. But usually, so first thing I do, I get up at 530. In the morning, I started doing that that was actually from Joe’s suggestion, because, you know, everybody else wasn’t getting up to like six. And so I had that time to myself. And I was like, This is me time. And I actually have to laugh because my, my wife being not a ritual person and not structured. She would, she wouldn’t get up till 630, then all of a sudden, I’d be getting up and then she’s getting out of bed. I’m like, What are you doing? Well, I decided to get up at 530. And all this. I said, this is my time. All right. My time. So you want to get up, you leave me alone, I get this first hour to myself.
Hannah Mitrea 15:47
So I’m laughing because I actually, same thing happened to me. I started getting up at six. And like actually, one, he typically used to get up earlier. But like, because I used to sleep in he started sleeping into. And then on September the day after Labor Day, so just this month, so it’s been a whole month now. 6am, Monday through Friday, every day. And the first week he stayed in bed till seven. So I had that hour to myself. All of a sudden, like week two, he gets up at seven o’clock, or six o’clock with me now every single day. And then it was like, am I gonna make me a coffee? I’m like,
Matt Di Francesco 16:24
Wait, this is the way it’s supposed to work?
Hannah Mitrea 16:27
No, this is I’m not what I’m going to make you and then my dad started getting up to and I’m like, Oh, this is a mess actually journal. That’s like what happened? Exactly right. I understand completely. So I’m gonna get back to you that you’re gonna get 30 wives. Yeah,
Matt Di Francesco 16:42
exactly. And I think it’s, I think it’s important to have your own private space too. So like, I have my I work from home. So I’m usually in my office. So but I get up in the morning, first thing I do, I drink 16 ounces of water that says, you know, you just gotta get your body hydrated, again, from from the night. So I do that. I drink an apple cider vinegar Totti, too, because that’s supposed to help inflammation. And all my sports injuries now are catching up after 57 years. So I do that. But then I go down to my office. And that’s where I really kind of start to ritual. So it really begins with what I call, what Joe would call the declaration statements and questions. So what I do, and it’s actually part of Joe’s process is we fill out a quarterly game plan, I do a trimester, it’s just a little, I started breaking my year up into into trimesters, instead of quarters, just because logistically, it’s easier. But anyway, so we do this, and it’s basically. So let me kind of backtrack a little bit in every November, Joe has his business planning workshop. So we every year get together as a group, and we work on our business plans for the coming year. So I have a business plan that for every year, it’s basically in a you know, he breaks it down into we start with our mindsets, you know, what do we need to change in our mindset, you know, your belief system, our values, and rules are our self image, okay. So you know, all of these sorts starts there, then we kind of break down into, you know, our goals, the things that we want to accomplish there, then it kind of breaks, it breaks it down, you know, you start with 10 year, then three year, then one year, and then our business development. So we do this whole process, well, then these things are kind of translated on to this onto this quarterly or trimester game plan. Right? It’s a one pager that I have. And so I read this and I started out with my belief systems, okay, you know, basically with four questions, the first one is I am and so I answered that question in business planning. I am. So I am confident I am a leader I am, you know, these kinds of declarations, you know, people are, all right, people are a gift from God, people are confused, and people are there, they’re slaves of their own mindset, you know, these type of things. Business is, and again, what you’re telling yourself is really important, because sometimes, you know, sometimes if you’re in business, and you’re just thinking, oh, man, this is so hard. This is so hard. Well guess what your subconscious mind is picking that up. Now, there was a great book, I read this book years and years ago, it was called What to Say When You Talk To Yourself by a guy named Shad Helmstetter. And it was all about our self talk and how important that is and how it drives everything that we do. And so if we want to change, we need to change the way we talk to ourselves in our own head. So that’s what these declarations are really about is really about rewiring our brains. And so you recite these every day. So it’s every morning. It’s the first thing And then our statements, power statements, you know what one of mine is? Let’s get uncomfortable today. You know, Coach, Joe’s really big on, you know, you’ve got to get uncomfortable every single day. Because if when we get comfortable now, all of a sudden, that’s when we start slacking. You know, there’s, you know, they always said, you know, if you’re in a hospital and it’s flatlining, it means you’re dead. So we’re either growing or we’re declining, right? So it’s really important to like, do tell yourself these things. How do you define success? Have a definition of success? You know, my, my definition of success is when I’m serving people, okay? When I’m giving 100% It’s not necessarily monetarily based, because that can fluctuate, but I think when we can have control over it, it becomes much more powerful. Okay, what’s our definition of failure? My new definition of failure is, when I don’t learn from something, okay, changes the whole paradigm. So these are statements that I asked, and then, you know, questions that I asked myself, How am I going to get uncomfortable today? You know, what is my day look like? There’s visualizations, so I have certain Happy Places that I have. And so I’ll just spend a minute or two just kind of visualizing my Happy Places, places, you know, we, you know, I like the mountains, okay, I like afternoons at the beach. Alright, so I’ll kind of picture these things. But I have local places, too, that I have there, like my Happy Places, being on the tennis court, love the tennis court, you know, being at church and adoration. That’s, that’s a happy place for me. So I visualize these things, again, to get our state in a place where we’re in a good spot. And so then, then it comes down to reading my goals. So I have my annual goals. And I read through those every single day. Here’s what I here’s what I plan to accomplish, both from a business standpoint, and from a personal standpoint, all right, and then breaking it down into those quarterly or trimester goals. So okay, what do I need to accomplish this quarter this trimester? So I’m reading through those every single day, when you’re doing that you’re actually programming your subconscious, right to keep those things for most. So your brains always working on those things, as long as you’re always staying focused on those things and reading those every day. Yeah. So that’s the so you know, that they usually probably takes me about 10 minutes maybe to go through that, then, then usually what I did from there, what I do is I usually I stretch, okay, because it’ll, you’ll learn this when you get older, it’s, it isn’t quite as limber as it was, you know, back starts to egg, you know. And so so I do about 15 minutes of stretching, usually listen to a podcast while I’m doing that. Then I sit down and I read my, I look at my dailies. So I get into my calendar, don’t look at email, I don’t look at email, don’t turn on the TV, don’t watch news, anything like that. But I’ll look at my calendar, say, Okay, here’s my day structure. And I look at my daily game plan, here’s the things, here’s the people I’m contacting, here’s the meetings that I have to set, you know, here’s the must do tasks that I might add that I have to do. takes about a minute or two review that I go upstairs, start getting washed up and dressed. And then I leave and I usually I go over to the church because we have adoration every morning. I’m Catholic. So we do Eucharistic Adoration every morning, an hour and that’s where I do my prayer. Okay, which is usually usually again, I have I have a routine for that if you’re interested but anyway, you know, as I do that, and I start to get into metal meditative prayer. So I usually try to take some content then focus on that and just kind of feel how the how the spirits leading me in that. And then then I usually journal that so. Okay, and then I stay for morning maths. And then after maths, I pop home and we’re hitting it.
Hannah Mitrea 24:04
No, I love that. And I love that you’re you implement that. I know one thing he says is like to go out in nature. And for you to be able to go from you find your house to mass is like your way to get out there. So you’re able to implement his routine in a way that fits your lifestyle. And I love that you’re able to take those pieces and do that. And so I know you went through like lots of personal development books, lots of reading different mentors. And so it was it easy to kind of jump into this routine based on Joe or did like how many times did it take before they kind of like stuck with you?
Matt Di Francesco 24:38
I think it was pretty easy for me. But you know, I think a lot of it was again, this is training my my my dad had given me but because he was just like when he did something it was like bone This is that. I mean, you know, he just you know, when he decided to start running. It was like there was no going back. He just this was sat in his schedule. So I’m kinda like that and it all He’s amazed me when, like a lot of my peers who work with Joe, you know, they come out, I’m really struggling, how’s how’s your morning? Hey, well, you know, I’ve gotten away from it. And I’m like, this is like a non negotiable. I could survive without it. But you know, maybe maybe that’s because I was, you know, raised in a way that my dad was like that it’s like when he committed to something he committed to it and bomb. And that’s what I’ve done.
Hannah Mitrea 25:23
Yeah, that’s very interesting, like you remind me a lot of how one relates to so my husband, he when he can miss something, that’s it. That’s what I’m doing right deviation from it. So he’s like, very all or nothing. Whereas I feel like I’m very much more like your wife who had no structure. And so I’m going through all this to kind of figure them out. And that’s a big part of this podcast is, you know, learning those different sides of it. And so did your wife start doing any kind of more routine after she saw you doing it? Like, Was that helpful for her? No, she just wakes up.
Matt Di Francesco 25:59
She has a routine but her routines the day she comes down, feeds the pads, makes coffee and then she plays Wordle
Hannah Mitrea 26:07
Oh, my goodness, people still play Wordle that’s great. Oh, yeah,
Matt Di Francesco 26:09
she’s Wordle Ock turtle Maduro. I don’t even know what happened. I mean, I’m laughing. They’re always on me like everybody else’s. But why don’t you play? I’m like, I don’t have time to play a
Hannah Mitrea 26:20
single game on my phone other than like solitaire just for time.
Matt Di Francesco 26:25
Right? Yeah, exactly.
Hannah Mitrea 26:26
I like you on that. And I’m like, Nope, I don’t have time for games on my phone. I’m on my phone enough for work. I don’t want to be on it any longer than that. Exactly. But no, I love that it was easy for you stick to and that you made it and non negotiable. I don’t think a lot of people do those things they like and I’d be fair today, it was the first time I woke up at 6am that 80% of my morning routine. And I was just dead tired still. And I took a nap at 7am. Yeah, like, I was just like I have to, it’s like, I’m not going to make it through the rest of my day without that nap. So having that flexibility, but still knowing that like I did my routine, I didn’t give up on it, I just woke up, I did it. And they would just drive the day too. But that you have that in there too, that this isn’t non negotiable. I’m not going to just not do it. I’m not going to deviate from it. And it comes a lot from you know, you seeing that growing up. And so I love that you’re able to see that there. So like, how would you define success? I know, you talked about how it’s not monetary. So what is the success that you’ve seen? Because you’re able to implement this morning routine?
Matt Di Francesco 27:33
Well, I think the biggest thing is that it’s it’s, you know what, like I said, one of my definitions of success is that I’m giving 100% all the time. Again, part of my nature is to start like trying to give 100% But I’m trying to give 100% five different things, and you can’t do that. So I think what it really helped me to do is to really kind of get structured. So what I did part of the I mentioned about reviewing my daily game plan, and what I do is every day at five o’clock, I basically kind of I kind of stop everything. And then I plan out my day, and I do time blocking. So because you know, again, being a sole practitioner, a lot of times, you know, this thing happens, client has this issue, and it kind of gets dumped over to me. And so I’ve had to kind of revise, revise my systems and refine them to start pushing those urgent but not important things. I mean, client needs a check that’s important to them. But again, that’s something my administrative team can handle. So being able to funnel starting create workflows to funnel those people. But you know, after I come back, I usually then it’s it’s after I come back from mass, I’m usually looking at my emails, then kind of going through everything. I usually just you know, check. You know, okay, what’s come in this month as far as revenue, because I track all that, then usually, I look at the obituaries of all things. And it’s a Yeah, it’s the only thing I read in the paper in the morning. And it’s, you know, it was because I would have clients or friends that would lose a parent or somebody like that, and I wasn’t reading the paper and I’d miss it. So I just kind of glance over the kids, everybody I know here.
Hannah Mitrea 29:25
Okay. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Like, yeah, exactly. It’s the same way I’ve gotten yelled at because I forgot. I missed something on social media. And they’re like, why don’t you tell us or why don’t you tell people and I’m like, I didn’t know.
Matt Di Francesco 29:37
Yeah, but the only thing I use on Facebook is I check to see who when if people they know when they’re if it’s their birthday, okay. Yeah, and I always try to send them a little birthday thing and if I you know, there’s some I’m not I don’t, some of them I have in my contacts and I send them a personal text, usually with some goofy Jeff you know, to just kind of make them smile, but Um, but if they’re just on Facebook, I’ll just say, Hey, have a great day. You know, just, it’s about gratitude. You know, and you’ve got, you’ve got to express that gratitude all the time. But then, you know, a lot of times, you know, I put West dutas If I, if I’m in a heavy client contact time, okay, I usually do that stuff in the morning. Okay? Because that’s my higher energy level, right? One thing I’ve learned, and actually, it was funny, because I knew this, but I never had that Joe, give me permission to do it, I guess is how it works was taking a midday break. So like you said, like, there’s times when you’re just you’re kind of beat and just, you know, I might have launched that I might make my workout in there never been a good morning workout person, it’s just, I’ve tried it, it’s just, it’s not my time to do it. So usually that mid day, that’s when I get my workout in, eat some lunch, and then I might just take like a quick 20 minute power nap. Just, you know, I got really good at being able to do that. So then, then my afternoon, that’s a lot of times when I book client appointments, because, you know, your day kind of goes, and most people start the law, about two o’clock, and I’m like that, but what happens is when I get around people, I get energized. So yeah, so that’s why it’s better for me to have my client appointments in afternoon evening. Because again, then, then I can kind of stay and I can keep my energy level at a constant at a constant pace.
Hannah Mitrea 31:29
No, no, I love that. You were able to create a like create that and see that structure by looking at your day by you know, using your morning routine to look at your daily gameplan and yearly annual all of it to really be able to remap out what your day needs to look at look like to achieve these goals that you’re setting up. And like that is success on its own. Just being able to read through all of that to really achieve those goals.
Matt Di Francesco 31:58
I think you know, the other thing is too is knowing yourself knowing yourself even physically, you know, so under like, I understand now, when I was young, like my creative time was at night. I mean, I’d be up to one two o’clock in the morning, because that was my creative time. Okay, but as I’ve gotten older and especially as a train myself to get get up at 530 I’m toast that night at 10 o’clock, man that’s like I tell people I’m paws up, man. Yeah. So. So that’s why I try to do more of my creative work in the morning. Okay, then client interactions in the afternoon, because I know that I law at that time, but I know that that’s going to energize me. So now again, that’s like I said, knowing yourself. So if if your creative time is it later at night, then structure your day to fit that fit yourself instead of trying to like put a square peg in a round hole.
Hannah Mitrea 32:54
Yeah, like in something Joe talked about where I know you get up at 530. Because that’s your time. But he also mentioned like, you know, find the time for your morning, it doesn’t need to be at 5am or 7am. It’s that hour that you can get by yourself to do this before you go to work. And so you found that time you created that routine for yourself. So you can be successful. And you can get that success based on that routine. So I love that and like hearing how it’s like truly been implemented to and seeing how you’re able to take it. I love it. Awesome. Well, I have two questions for you. Before we wrap up real quick. What I want to ask me, alright, so I want to make sure that we stay within time here live dinos late. So thank you for being patient with me. But two questions are one of them is if somebody is noodle this like, or maybe like maybe they are in the personal development world, what’s the one thing they need to start doing tomorrow to really be able to implement a routine in their life for their morning to be a positive routine. But that one thing you’d recommend?
Matt Di Francesco 34:01
The one thing Wow. The Wow, I’ll tell you why this is and I tell clients this all the time, turn off the damn news. Don’t read the paper, don’t watch CNN or Fox News or any of that stuff. It’s all it’s all negative, it’s all garbage and think about this, you know, you’re gonna start your day off putting negative stuff into your head. It doesn’t make any sense, because you’re just gonna carry that through the day. And you know, I heard a saying one time that said, you know, for every negative thought that you have, you need three positive thoughts to overcome that. So why not start today with those positive thoughts going in there? You know, and framing your own life. I mean, that’s, that was. William James once said, you know, the greatest discovery of the 20th century was that we can we can change change ourselves, if we’re willing to do that. So that’s really the first thing is turn off the news. Just you know, if it’s that important, no, let you know. If a hurricane is gonna be blowing through, you’re gonna get an alert on your phone. Right. Okay. That’s the first thing. I think the second thing is I think whether you, you know, for me, it’s prayer, some people I, you know, and again, I respect anybody’s faith, meditation, I think that’s really an important thing too. Because, again, it kind of gets us in tune with our inner self. And I think too many people struggle with that. There. There’s this big struggle that goes on inside of them. And, and we need to come to terms with that, we need to realize that we’re okay. Yeah, you know, that’s the biggest thing. I think, you know, we beat ourselves up so much, or the world beats us up so much. And we just need to know that we’re okay. Yeah,
Hannah Mitrea 36:02
no, I love that. And I think it goes hand in hand with the news. Because the news is that negativity. But that negativity doesn’t only come from the news, it comes from that self talk, like you mentioned the book, what do you say to yourself? And so if you are in that place of meditation or prayer, that’s going to take you out of negativity, because you don’t look at to your god or whatever God that you pray to. And think negative thoughts. You’re right, you’re in a positive state of how can I get something done and accomplished? Or how can I be helped and get there, which is more of a helpful state, though. And so I think they go hand in hand and get rid of the negative negativity, and then being able to be in that place. But whether it’s faith, or it’s meditation, to right, to bring yourself back to center, and a good place? Yeah,
Matt Di Francesco 36:55
yeah. And I will say this, because I have, and I know, I’m gonna Buck coach Joe, on this one, because, you know, he’s really big on meditation, but, and he and some of my peers are really into Tm into Transcendental Meditation. And I think, to me, that can be dangerous. Because you know, this idea of Transcendental Meditation, we’re supposed to just try to clear our heads, but we, the only time your heads clear is when you’re dead. Okay? And so sometimes if we’re just letting thoughts flow, that negative stuff can start to filter around in there. And I think what’s what’s a better way to do it is to focus on some content, get something positive, whether it’s, whether it’s a book, whether it’s a devotional, whatever that is. And just, it could be just five minutes read, and then meditate on that. And that allow your thoughts to flow? Yeah. Because now you’re directing it toward a more positive source.
Hannah Mitrea 37:56
And so many people struggle with a negative self talk to begin with, to let yourself sit in silence is not going to achieve that positivity you need. So I love your, your method there of actually finding a concentration point, right. And focusing there,
Matt Di Francesco 38:13
that a positive climate situation point, I think that’s the big thing, because again, I think people don’t, it’s amazing in our society, how people fear silence, and I think a lot of is because they don’t want to hear the voices that are inside of them. So now help to direct it by by putting it in starting with some positive stuff, and then allowing, you’re allowing you to let allow you to kind of flow through that.
Hannah Mitrea 38:38
Yeah, I love that. You need to write a book, Matt. For the maths book, now.
Matt Di Francesco 38:46
It all be stolen because I’ve stolen everything. So
Hannah Mitrea 38:50
yeah, that’s at this point, what is not in some way repurposed. Further, but you know, in but bringing all your things together, of the pieces you’ve taken, because, you know, if somebody goes and reads just Stephen Covey, or just John Maxwell, they’re not going to get maybe everything that they needed. I think, you know, as people rewrite books, and like, write their own books, taking all this perspective, I think it’s okay, so because you’re, you’re putting it in a way that made you successful, and sharing that experience. Because, you know, not everything that you do. Now, everything that Joe does, and everything that I do is going to be perfect for the listener is going to be, you know, pieces of each thing, which is why we talk to everybody about different routines, and we read so many books, because, you know, each book has a different perspective. Like, it helps us shift how we need to be. And I love that. And I think you’re dead on with you know, people are afraid of silence like my daughter never turns stuff like the music is always on while she’s on a phone call while she’s watching TV. And like I come into the room I like silence everything because I’m like, Guys, we it’s okay to be silent. Yeah, it is okay to be here and, and just peace and just like in a routine of you know making the coffee doing the dishes, but not needing always like the soundtrack in the background. Right. So I think it’s really neat to hear that side though, for when somebody is meditating to be able to take that focus because maybe that is a problem they’re having why they can’t be in silence. They can’t manage the thoughts that they’re having. And, you know, yeah, yeah,
Matt Di Francesco 40:33
it takes practice to do that. I mean, it’s, you know, it’s interesting, because you made the comment about not everything’s gonna work for everybody. And I kind of look at personal development as like a smorgasbord. So you want to you read a lot of things, listen to a lot of audios, 10 different conferences, and you take what works for you. So like, yeah, I follow the Magellan morning aid, to a certain extent, but it’s also customized to me, and it’s what works for me too. And, you know, I think, you know, Joe’s framework is great. But again, there are certain things you know, and there’s other of our peers that, you know, like he does his morning walk, and I tried that for a while, but, you know, the weather in Florida, Pennsylvania, I don’t live in Florida, right. And I remember I was walking the dog trying to do this, you know, talking about this, this talking to myself, the Joe’s doing and I’m going first off, I gotta Coonhound so he’s like, dragging me all over the place. I can’t focus on anything. And then I’m thinking, Oh, my gosh, wouldn’t when like, December comes here. I gonna be walking out there the complete dark at 530 in the morning, freezing my butt off, because I’ll be just like, I just want to get
Hannah Mitrea 41:46
home. Let’s know she’s on
Matt Di Francesco 41:48
all night. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So you make it work for yourself?
Hannah Mitrea 41:53
Yeah, totally. I agree. All right. My second question. I know, we’ve mentioned a lot of books. And so either, which one of the books would you recommend that most? Or is there a different book you would also recommend? Wow. I mean, there’s gonna give you options of
Matt Di Francesco 42:08
where yeah. Wow, there’s so many great books. I mean, you know, I mentioned the Bible as being one of the most influential and and I’ll tell you, what is the Bible, even if you’re not a Christian or a believer? read Proverbs. Oh, Proverbs just, it’s just, it’s just basic wisdom. I think that’s, that’s a phenomenal one. Seven Habits is usually a great starting point. You know, gosh, well, I think one of the very first books I ever read was, the magic of thinking big by David Schwartz was written, I think, like, 1950s, something, you know, and it was just that was really just a transformational book for me, because it was this idea of, let’s think bigger, you know, allow yourself to think bigger. I mean, my gosh, yeah, right now, I really, I really like a lot of Brene Brown stuff on leadership. I think that’s phenomenal stuff. Pat Lencioni has some great stuff on, on, on organizational and team building, which again, that kind of fits into my practice, because that’s what I’m doing with business owners, you know, helping them develop their, their, their, their teams within business, and also as a family too. So you can take the principles and kind of use them both ways. So I mean, my gosh, I could, I could start reciting books like that.
Hannah Mitrea 43:28
I know those are good that I love Brene. Brown, too, I wrote down the magic of thinking big. And I also have all the other books you recommended. And so we’ll make sure to have them in the show notes so that anybody can go check all those books out. And then when Matt writes his book, we’ll make sure to put that in our show notes, too.
Matt Di Francesco 43:44
Right. And I will have it I’ll have it the preface, all of this was stolen from 30 years of book reading.
Hannah Mitrea 43:51
I will thank you so much, much, Matt, for joining, sharing your routine, how you have, you know, adapted Magellan morning’s eight that we talked about on the last episode, to be what fits your life where you’ve added stuff in, and like success that you’ve been able to create by figuring out what you need to do every day to be able to reach your goals, which is. So success, like that is success right there. Being able to do that, and you’re so successful in what you do and helping others, which is what you want to do be giving all 100% of what you can do when you do that every day. So I love and I love working with you. So thank you for being here with us.
Matt Di Francesco 44:30
I love working with you too. So thank you.
Hannah Mitrea 44:33
Is there anything else you want to share before we jump off?
Matt Di Francesco 44:36
Okay. Are we good? kept us at a time limit, right? I mean, I share but you know, it’s like they always I had a mentor of mine said you got to be able to get up and give a talk on anything for 10 minutes. So I’d be I’ve got kind of a wealth of stuff there. But I think, you know, again, find a routine that’s going to set off your day in a very positive way. Okay, you know, anything that puts you in a negative mindset, get rid of it, at least for that hour in the morning. And I’ll tell you why, you know, honestly, since I’ve been doing it, I’ve seen exponential growth in my business. I mean, we’re talking, you know, for anywhere between, you know, 10 to 25% a year, annual growth. Okay. So if someone’s based off the market, so might be more this year, anyway. I mean, it’s, you know, and I attributed a lot to just getting my head right in the morning, so that I can go and be that best version of myself every day.
Hannah Mitrea 45:38
All right, awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here. No problem,
Matt Di Francesco 45:41
Hannah. Thanks.
