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Kevin Lowe: Have you ever felt like life was asking something more from you,
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Kevin Lowe: but you didn't know how to answer?
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Kevin Lowe: I'm talking about maybe you've been crushing it in your career,
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Kevin Lowe: checking all the boxes, but quietly you've been breaking down inside,
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Kevin Lowe: knowing that where you are is maybe not where you're meant to be and feeling
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Kevin Lowe: like there's got to be something more for you.
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Kevin Lowe: And yeah, maybe that means that the thing that you've built your life around
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Kevin Lowe: is the very thing that you have to walk away from.
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Kevin Lowe: Inside of today's episode, you're going to hear the story of a man who stepped
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Kevin Lowe: out of the spotlight and into the deeper work of healing himself from the inside.
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Kevin Lowe: His name is Matthew Blades. And Matthew, he had it all going for him until one
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Kevin Lowe: day when he finally decided he had to walk away for him, for himself.
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Kevin Lowe: Today is a deep conversation, a meaningful conversation.
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Kevin Lowe: It's his story, but more importantly, it's a reflection maybe on you and your story.
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Kevin Lowe: There are so many meaningful takeaways, so many life lessons that you're going
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Kevin Lowe: to be able to gain from today's episode, that my friend, you might want to grab a notepad.
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Kevin Lowe: Because today is the day that I introduce you to Matthew Blades.
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Kevin Lowe: But more specifically, it's the day that, well, I hope everything changes for you.
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Kevin Lowe: My friend, this is episode 387 of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.
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Kevin Lowe: I'm, of course, your host, Kevin Lowe. And man, oh man, am I excited to have you here today.
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Kevin Lowe: Because this is an interview I've been excited to bring you.
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Kevin Lowe: And whew, the day has finally arrived.
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<Podcast Theme Music>
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<Podcast Theme Music>
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Kevin Lowe: Welcome back to Grit, Grace, & Inspiration. Today is another one of those awesome days
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Kevin Lowe: when I get to be in the studio doing what I love, talking with people around
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Kevin Lowe: the world who I find absolutely fascinating here to share their goodness with you.
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Kevin Lowe: Today, it just so happens to be by the name of a guy named Matthew Blades.
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Kevin Lowe: Matthew, welcome to the podcast.
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Mathew Blades: We're doing this, aren't we, Kevin? We are finally doing this.
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Kevin Lowe: We are doing this. You know what I said? I'm like, if this is a bottle of wine.
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Kevin Lowe: It is a fine, well-aged bottle of wine indeed.
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Mathew Blades: Yeah, it's all good, man. I'm so happy to be on the podcast and thank you for,
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Mathew Blades: you know, thinking I'm somebody who can add some value to what you're doing.
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Kevin Lowe: Oh, 100 percent. 100 percent. Well, well, my goal today is for us to unpack
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Kevin Lowe: this journey you've been on.
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Kevin Lowe: And and I honestly would love for us to start back kind of getting a grasp of
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Kevin Lowe: kind of who you are, where you come from in terms of those, you know,
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Kevin Lowe: kind of formative childhood, teenage years.
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Kevin Lowe: Would you mind just starting us off there with kind of a snapshot?
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Mathew Blades: Sure, man. I grew up in a really blue collar family and a really blue collar
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Mathew Blades: town in a small city in just outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota, called Coon Rapids.
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Mathew Blades: And my father was in the army. My mom was a part-time cashier slash she had
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Mathew Blades: several kind of jobs, but working mostly at a grocery store.
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Mathew Blades: I'm the oldest of three kids. I have a younger brother and a younger sister.
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Mathew Blades: And life for us, man, I think was like a lot of kids in the 70s,
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Mathew Blades: 80s and, you know, early 90s.
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Mathew Blades: We like I said, man, we were pretty blue collar family.
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Mathew Blades: We had enough to, you know, have clothes and food and all the things.
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Mathew Blades: But it wasn't a big extras kind of a family.
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Mathew Blades: And at about 12 years old, my dad got relocated for the military. And we moved to St.
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Mathew Blades: Louis, where I spent a few years in a town called Florissant,
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Mathew Blades: Missouri, and went to Hazelwood School District.
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Mathew Blades: And then he got transferred again in my sophomore year. And so we went back
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Mathew Blades: to Coon Rapids where I finished up my high school career.
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Mathew Blades: And at the ripe old age of 19, I made the decision to follow my childhood dream
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Mathew Blades: and became a radio personality.
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Mathew Blades: And so that then started a 28-year journey in the radio and television business.
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Kevin Lowe: Wow, wow, fascinating. Well, moving, I mean, I'm going to see the obvious that that can't be easy.
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Kevin Lowe: But how was that on you as a teenager, sophomore year, changing schools, friends, all of that?
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Mathew Blades: I was pissed, Kevin. I mean, I had all my childhood friends.
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Mathew Blades: And the first time it happened when we were 12 years old, you know,
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Mathew Blades: I only really have a couple of memories of being super, super mad at my mom
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Mathew Blades: and dad a couple of different times.
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Mathew Blades: One of them was not their fault. We had to put a we had to put a dog down who wasn't well.
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Mathew Blades: And I just hated that we had to do that. And then the other one was when they
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Mathew Blades: came home and they said, you know, we're going to be moving because it meant
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Mathew Blades: that I was going to start, you know, what everybody calls middle school now.
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Mathew Blades: But back then, junior high had a brand new school in a brand new city where I didn't know anybody.
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Mathew Blades: And I will tell you that hindsight's 2020. It was the best thing that ever happened
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Mathew Blades: to me. I look back on my move to St.
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Mathew Blades: Louis now with incredible fondness and just for what it did for me personally,
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Mathew Blades: how it developed me as a young man and really kind of set me up for what I would
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Mathew Blades: go on to do with my career.
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Mathew Blades: Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of it, man. And then we had to we ended up moving back
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Mathew Blades: to Minnesota when I was in 10th grade.
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Mathew Blades: And so that meant that I would be jumping into the middle of the school year
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Mathew Blades: again with a bunch of kids.
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Mathew Blades: I mean, I had a few friends from, you know, back when I was it was a kid.
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Mathew Blades: But, you know, a lot of those guys had had moved on with their lives because,
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Mathew Blades: you know, we didn't have social media or we weren't gamers.
00:06:05.478 --> 00:06:08.698
Mathew Blades: And there was no way for us to stay connected back then unless we wrote letters.
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Mathew Blades: And I don't know if you've met a 13 or 14 year old boy, but they're probably
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Mathew Blades: not going to sit down and write a lot of letters.
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Kevin Lowe: No, I don't think so.
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Mathew Blades: All right. Right. Yeah. I'm not going to be your pen pal, buddy. Sorry.
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Mathew Blades: It was tough, Kevin. But like I said, I look back at it now and it was,
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Mathew Blades: you know, I mean, this is this is life and you know this and you and I have
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Mathew Blades: talked about this when I had you on my podcast.
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Mathew Blades: It's like eventually we all have to get to a place where we go,
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Mathew Blades: all right, it happened for me.
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Mathew Blades: Like every single thing happened for me.
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Mathew Blades: And I'm there now. So I'm much more relaxed about it. But it is kind of fun
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Mathew Blades: to talk about how pissed I was as a 12 and a 15 year old boy.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, no, I mean, I can can totally understand. And now you mentioned that 19
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Kevin Lowe: is when you got into the radio broadcasting realm, correct?
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Mathew Blades: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
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Kevin Lowe: Now, what prompted that? What led to that direction?
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Mathew Blades: So this is a funny story, man. I grew really into music when I was about 12 years old.
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Mathew Blades: One of the things that I did when we moved to St. Louis was I picked up the
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Mathew Blades: string bass and I started playing in an orchestra.
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Mathew Blades: And I was pretty good at it. I could it was an instrument that made a lot of sense to me.
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Mathew Blades: I was good at reading music. I had some, you know, I had tonality about me so
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Mathew Blades: I could I could hear the instrument well.
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Mathew Blades: And I really thought that I was going to be a classical musician for my whole life.
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Mathew Blades: And so even in high school, while other kids were into other things,
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Mathew Blades: I was really working hard on crafting my string bass as an instrument that I
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Mathew Blades: would use in my adult career.
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Mathew Blades: And I was starting to study under the principal bass player for the St.
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Mathew Blades: Paul Chamber Orchestra and trying out for different orchestras in Minnesota.
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Mathew Blades: And I really thought that that's what I was going to do until one night where
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Mathew Blades: I walked into a radio studio to shadow a guy named Tony Fly.
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Mathew Blades: And in five minutes, I knew that was what I was going to be doing with the rest of my life.
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Kevin Lowe: Wow. Now, why? What was it about it that just totally captivated you from the get go?
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Mathew Blades: Yeah, it was just the way that he, man, you walked into that studio.
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Mathew Blades: And number one, you just felt like everybody in the city of Minneapolis and St.
00:08:32.439 --> 00:08:38.239
Mathew Blades: Paul and all the suburbs, you just felt like this was the only show anybody was listening to.
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Mathew Blades: His phones were ringing off the hook. He was taking phone calls while he was playing songs.
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Mathew Blades: Because, you know, a lot of people don't know the behind the scenes of the radio business.
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Mathew Blades: It's like, while the audience is listening to the music, the DJ's in the studio
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Mathew Blades: getting ready, getting that thing ready that the audience is going to hear next.
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Mathew Blades: And so, and it moves that quick, right? Like you put on a three minute song
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Mathew Blades: and a DJ will answer 10 or 15 phone calls.
00:09:05.459 --> 00:09:07.899
Mathew Blades: He'll get a phone call that he really likes from somebody.
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Mathew Blades: He'll take two or three minutes max to edit that phone call.
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Mathew Blades: And then when the song is done, you know, we're on the air doing our big call
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Mathew Blades: letters and playing the phone call, airing the bit, doing the thing that we
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Mathew Blades: hope will entertain you throughout the record or between the records rather.
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Mathew Blades: And it was just the way that he handled himself, man. For four hours,
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Mathew Blades: it was absolutely nonstop fun.
00:09:31.353 --> 00:09:35.293
Mathew Blades: He laughed. He joked with people. He hyped people up.
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Mathew Blades: You know, he was a hit music station. So he was playing the coolest music that was out there.
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Mathew Blades: It was just like it was a collective of all of those things that made me go like, this is amazing.
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Kevin Lowe: That is awesome. That is awesome. Now, I'm curious, though, like,
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Kevin Lowe: how did that actually pan out?
00:09:57.993 --> 00:10:01.113
Kevin Lowe: Because, I mean, it's one thing to like walk in and be like,
00:10:01.293 --> 00:10:02.833
Kevin Lowe: oh, my gosh, this is what I want to do.
00:10:03.173 --> 00:10:08.973
Kevin Lowe: There's a whole nother point of actually getting to that point in a career.
00:10:09.333 --> 00:10:15.213
Mathew Blades: Right. At that time, I was I had graduated high school and I was enrolled in
00:10:15.213 --> 00:10:20.453
Mathew Blades: a community college and I was just doing my basic, you know, classes.
00:10:20.453 --> 00:10:24.713
Mathew Blades: Because I had no idea outside of the music thing what I wanted to do with my life.
00:10:25.300 --> 00:10:29.740
Mathew Blades: And after that night of walking into his studio, this is no joke, man.
00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:32.860
Mathew Blades: I went home and the next day I told my mom and dad, I was like,
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Mathew Blades: I'm dropping out of community college.
00:10:35.100 --> 00:10:39.280
Mathew Blades: I found a radio and television school in the Twin Cities that trains people
00:10:39.280 --> 00:10:40.580
Mathew Blades: to be radio professionals.
00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:45.460
Mathew Blades: And I'm going to go there tomorrow and I'm going to try to enroll because this
00:10:45.460 --> 00:10:48.540
Mathew Blades: was such a prestigious radio and television school.
00:10:48.860 --> 00:10:52.280
Mathew Blades: It's sadly not around anymore in Minneapolis, but Brown Institute is what it
00:10:52.280 --> 00:10:57.920
Mathew Blades: was called. And you had to audition just to get into the school like they just didn't take everybody.
00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:03.900
Mathew Blades: And I went in and did my audition and we, you know, was the best,
00:11:04.020 --> 00:11:08.140
Mathew Blades: worst version of whatever I was going to be. But it was enough to get me in.
00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:14.680
Mathew Blades: And I stayed at Brown for the next year and some change and got my my associates
00:11:14.680 --> 00:11:17.940
Mathew Blades: in radio and television broadcasting and then got my first job,
00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:22.900
Mathew Blades: I think, right when I turned 20 years old, doing overnights in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
00:11:23.800 --> 00:11:27.160
Kevin Lowe: Wow, dude, that is, I mean, that's pretty darn cool.
00:11:27.640 --> 00:11:33.500
Mathew Blades: It was unbelievable, man. I look back at my career, and even though I don't
00:11:33.500 --> 00:11:37.560
Mathew Blades: do it anymore, I just absolutely had the time of my life, dude.
00:11:37.740 --> 00:11:46.020
Mathew Blades: I did things that, you know, we won't talk about on this podcast, but it was so much fun.
00:11:46.220 --> 00:11:50.880
Mathew Blades: I mean, you know, think about it, dude. Like you're you're a 20 year old kid
00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:57.740
Mathew Blades: and your your job, your literal job is to throw a party every single day of your life.
00:11:58.060 --> 00:12:01.420
Mathew Blades: Like, how do you how do you put a value on that?
00:12:01.500 --> 00:12:05.380
Mathew Blades: It was so much fun, man. I mean, just being on the air, introducing records,
00:12:06.040 --> 00:12:10.320
Mathew Blades: talking to all the people, going into bars, you know, doing all the gigs that
00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:12.560
Mathew Blades: come along with it, being a
00:12:12.560 --> 00:12:17.980
Mathew Blades: local celebrity in your area and where people knew you and listen to you.
00:12:18.100 --> 00:12:23.340
Mathew Blades: And I mean, then on top of that, Kevin, it was like once once I really started
00:12:23.340 --> 00:12:27.400
Mathew Blades: to get, you know, into my career after you cut your teeth a little bit.
00:12:27.983 --> 00:12:32.503
Mathew Blades: You know, I was working in Washington, D.C., and every night,
00:12:32.783 --> 00:12:36.643
Mathew Blades: every night, bro, we had people on, like, in the studio, like Jay-Z,
00:12:37.003 --> 00:12:38.943
Mathew Blades: like NSYNC, like Britney Spears.
00:12:39.263 --> 00:12:43.083
Mathew Blades: Like, these people were in my studio hanging out with me for a couple of hours
00:12:43.083 --> 00:12:46.563
Mathew Blades: while we were on the air. It was absolutely ridiculously cool.
00:12:47.663 --> 00:12:52.643
Kevin Lowe: That is absolutely ridiculously cool. That is pretty darn epic. Wow.
00:12:52.983 --> 00:12:54.743
Mathew Blades: It was epic. It was epic.
00:12:54.923 --> 00:12:59.803
Kevin Lowe: Wow. And so in that realm of radio, is that what you pretty much did for the
00:12:59.803 --> 00:13:02.843
Kevin Lowe: 28 years? Because that seems like a lot of partying.
00:13:03.963 --> 00:13:06.583
Mathew Blades: It's a lot of partying, right? Yeah, you're absolutely right.
00:13:06.883 --> 00:13:08.843
Mathew Blades: At some point I had to get sober, Kevin.
00:13:09.163 --> 00:13:14.723
Mathew Blades: Yeah, exactly. But I spent, so I don't know how much you know about the radio
00:13:14.723 --> 00:13:18.003
Mathew Blades: and television business, but I'll give you like the quick landscape version.
00:13:18.243 --> 00:13:24.683
Mathew Blades: So every city is a market and markets have size, right? And so where do you live in Florida?
00:13:24.683 --> 00:13:26.123
Kevin Lowe: Daytona Beach area.
00:13:26.563 --> 00:13:30.123
Mathew Blades: Daytona Beach. Okay, so Daytona Beach is a little bit of a smaller market,
00:13:30.123 --> 00:13:33.823
Mathew Blades: but it's still like market 40 or 50 or something like that.
00:13:33.903 --> 00:13:36.623
Mathew Blades: And when you're in the radio and television business, your goal,
00:13:36.823 --> 00:13:40.203
Mathew Blades: if you're really trying to like get to the cream of the crop and rise to the
00:13:40.203 --> 00:13:45.083
Mathew Blades: top is you wanna get in the biggest market you can doing a morning or an afternoon show, okay?
00:13:45.303 --> 00:13:49.663
Mathew Blades: Those are the two, because they're drive times, they're the two positions that pay the best.
00:13:50.123 --> 00:13:55.643
Mathew Blades: So I spent the first 10 years of my radio career as a night guy.
00:13:55.923 --> 00:14:00.503
Mathew Blades: And what that means is I was on every single night from seven to midnight,
00:14:00.963 --> 00:14:03.423
Mathew Blades: most of the first 10 years of my life.
00:14:03.523 --> 00:14:08.783
Mathew Blades: And then after the show was done, it was very, very common that I would go to a nightclub after that.
00:14:08.943 --> 00:14:12.703
Mathew Blades: And I would, you know, do a two hour appearance. That's what they call them.
00:14:13.143 --> 00:14:19.283
Mathew Blades: And then I would get home at around, you know, 3 a.m., sleep till noon and do it again the next day.
00:14:19.443 --> 00:14:24.883
Mathew Blades: And so that was most of the like the 10, the first 10 years of my life.
00:14:25.063 --> 00:14:31.243
Mathew Blades: And then in about the late, I guess it would have been right around 2002,
00:14:32.223 --> 00:14:33.683
Mathew Blades: 2001, something like that.
00:14:33.883 --> 00:14:38.483
Mathew Blades: The dream job that I had fizzled out, the format of radio station changed.
00:14:38.603 --> 00:14:44.623
Mathew Blades: I was fired and we had an opportunity to move to Kansas City after that.
00:14:44.803 --> 00:14:48.703
Mathew Blades: And when I moved to Kansas City, I switched up and became a midday host.
00:14:48.903 --> 00:14:51.703
Mathew Blades: And then that only lasted like two years.
00:14:52.043 --> 00:14:58.663
Mathew Blades: And then about 2004, I had my first opportunity to host a morning show.
00:14:58.663 --> 00:15:02.843
Mathew Blades: And that's when I, that's when I segued into morning radio. And I did morning
00:15:02.843 --> 00:15:07.143
Mathew Blades: radio from 2004 until I walked away in like basically 2021.
00:15:07.923 --> 00:15:11.943
Kevin Lowe: Wow. What, what was your favorite? If you have one man.
00:15:11.943 --> 00:15:19.463
Mathew Blades: For different reasons, right? The, the, the, my, my twenties are a blur and were fricking fun.
00:15:21.003 --> 00:15:27.123
Mathew Blades: Just, I just had so many unbelievable life experiences, right? Like,
00:15:27.785 --> 00:15:32.945
Mathew Blades: you know, I'll share a quick story. I, I, one time this was at the height of the boy band era.
00:15:33.125 --> 00:15:36.405
Mathew Blades: And so, you know, I don't know what team you're on Backstreet Boys or NSYNC,
00:15:36.525 --> 00:15:40.905
Mathew Blades: but I was, I was team NSYNC and, you know, Carson Daly was doing TRL.
00:15:41.065 --> 00:15:44.425
Mathew Blades: And I mean, it was, I mean, I don't know if you remember that time,
00:15:44.505 --> 00:15:46.845
Mathew Blades: but being down in Florida, you, you know, it was a big deal,
00:15:46.965 --> 00:15:48.685
Mathew Blades: but man, the boy bands were everything.
00:15:49.185 --> 00:15:49.545
Kevin Lowe: Yes.
00:15:49.885 --> 00:15:55.065
Mathew Blades: They were everything. Okay. And so it was very, very common for me to have some
00:15:55.065 --> 00:15:58.785
Mathew Blades: member of the Backstreet Boys or some member of NSYNC or Christina Aguilar or
00:15:58.785 --> 00:16:04.065
Mathew Blades: Britney Spears or LFO or insert boy band there, O-Town, whoever you want.
00:16:04.185 --> 00:16:08.805
Mathew Blades: It was very, very common for me to have those people in the studio or to be
00:16:08.805 --> 00:16:12.185
Mathew Blades: going to concerts and working backstage with some of these people.
00:16:12.325 --> 00:16:15.665
Mathew Blades: But Britney Spears had this fragrance.
00:16:15.965 --> 00:16:20.045
Mathew Blades: It was her first fragrance that she released and she was doing a mall tour across
00:16:20.045 --> 00:16:24.745
Mathew Blades: the country, And her first stop was in what's called Hex.
00:16:24.845 --> 00:16:28.105
Mathew Blades: I don't even think they make them anymore, but it's a huge department store
00:16:28.105 --> 00:16:32.665
Mathew Blades: in a mall in Tyson's Corner, which is outside of Washington, D.C.
00:16:33.505 --> 00:16:39.065
Mathew Blades: And her and I are scheduled to arrive at Hex at 930. They're going to open up the store at 10 o'clock.
00:16:39.345 --> 00:16:42.345
Mathew Blades: And the goal is that Brittany is going to be there.
00:16:42.465 --> 00:16:46.285
Mathew Blades: I'm going to emcee the thing and we'll sign a few autographs.
00:16:46.365 --> 00:16:48.925
Mathew Blades: We'll take a few pictures and it'll be a really fun event.
00:16:49.045 --> 00:16:55.865
Mathew Blades: Right. So we get there at 930 and there's cops everywhere and we are thinking
00:16:55.865 --> 00:16:58.125
Mathew Blades: like, oh, my God, what what happened?
00:16:58.385 --> 00:17:04.965
Mathew Blades: And what we came to find out was there was already 5000 people at the mall waiting
00:17:04.965 --> 00:17:07.685
Mathew Blades: for us to get there. There was no parking.
00:17:08.045 --> 00:17:15.145
Mathew Blades: So they the cops took me and they took Britney Spears and her crew around this
00:17:15.145 --> 00:17:20.685
Mathew Blades: little bend. And we end up going into this underground parking space and they elevator us up.
00:17:20.845 --> 00:17:27.025
Mathew Blades: And when we get into Hex, you can't move. It's like literally people are like sardines.
00:17:27.345 --> 00:17:32.685
Mathew Blades: And after 10 o'clock, there's probably another 2000 people that show up and
00:17:32.685 --> 00:17:36.365
Mathew Blades: they actually have to shut that part of the mall down because there was too
00:17:36.365 --> 00:17:38.805
Mathew Blades: many people there to see Britney Spears.
00:17:39.497 --> 00:17:44.377
Mathew Blades: And so we had moments like that, bro, that were just so fun,
00:17:44.497 --> 00:17:46.197
Mathew Blades: right? Like so cool and exciting.
00:17:46.597 --> 00:17:50.217
Mathew Blades: But I will tell you that when you're a morning show guy, not only does your
00:17:50.217 --> 00:17:55.557
Mathew Blades: paycheck typically get another zero on the end of it, but you're really just
00:17:55.557 --> 00:17:57.977
Mathew Blades: talking to people all morning long.
00:17:58.157 --> 00:18:00.637
Mathew Blades: You're bringing up your life. You're talking about things.
00:18:00.837 --> 00:18:04.777
Mathew Blades: And so there's a greater sense of connection because you're really spending
00:18:04.777 --> 00:18:06.917
Mathew Blades: time with folks, getting to know them.
00:18:06.917 --> 00:18:10.937
Mathew Blades: You know, you've you've got your regulars that call you, you know,
00:18:11.137 --> 00:18:16.217
Mathew Blades: every day or every morning and you just you just sort of birth this little family.
00:18:16.617 --> 00:18:19.737
Mathew Blades: And so I love them both for very different reasons.
00:18:19.757 --> 00:18:24.997
Mathew Blades: But I will tell you that there is nothing cooler in the world than having a
00:18:24.997 --> 00:18:26.617
Mathew Blades: morning show on the radio.
00:18:26.857 --> 00:18:31.337
Mathew Blades: It's just it's the best job in the whole world, man, because you you just come
00:18:31.337 --> 00:18:34.957
Mathew Blades: in every day and you talk about your life. You give away tickets to concerts,
00:18:35.157 --> 00:18:39.717
Mathew Blades: you give away, you know, T-shirts, you give away music. It's so fun.
00:18:40.637 --> 00:18:46.197
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that's amazing. And I can relate in this little teeny
00:18:46.197 --> 00:18:50.897
Kevin Lowe: tiny way, because I mean, way back in like 2012, I actually did like a three
00:18:50.897 --> 00:18:54.477
Kevin Lowe: month internship at a morning radio show.
00:18:54.817 --> 00:18:59.217
Kevin Lowe: Did you? I did. It was a different style because it was AM. So they did like
00:18:59.217 --> 00:19:06.017
Kevin Lowe: local political news. But it was, you know, it was WNDB AM 1150.
00:19:06.157 --> 00:19:08.797
Kevin Lowe: And I was there from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
00:19:09.157 --> 00:19:12.337
Kevin Lowe: And I loved it. That's so awesome. Yes, man.
00:19:12.817 --> 00:19:14.677
Mathew Blades: So that is very cool. It's a lot of fun.
00:19:14.957 --> 00:19:16.317
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. So now.
00:19:16.577 --> 00:19:18.917
Mathew Blades: But I don't do that anymore, Kevin. So that's okay.
00:19:19.157 --> 00:19:24.397
Kevin Lowe: Exactly. So now during this time, though, I mean, we're talking about this thriving
00:19:24.397 --> 00:19:26.697
Kevin Lowe: career, having fun, time of your life.
00:19:26.697 --> 00:19:32.077
Kevin Lowe: But I would love to kind of before we move past this time in your life, these 20s,
00:19:32.237 --> 00:19:37.017
Kevin Lowe: speak to some of the personal stuff going on, because I would love to ask of
00:19:37.017 --> 00:19:44.157
Kevin Lowe: two kind of aspects that I've read about preparing for is one kind of your religious
00:19:44.157 --> 00:19:49.717
Kevin Lowe: like kind of faith journey and also the loss of your father at a very young age.
00:19:50.237 --> 00:19:53.357
Mathew Blades: Yeah, they're two really pretty big pillars in my life.
00:19:53.597 --> 00:19:57.537
Mathew Blades: And so, again, it going. So let's start with my dad's story,
00:19:57.577 --> 00:19:59.977
Mathew Blades: then we can move into the religious part of this thing.
00:20:00.097 --> 00:20:06.337
Mathew Blades: But I had my my first night on KDWB in Minneapolis, Minnesota was going to be Sunday.
00:20:06.737 --> 00:20:12.637
Mathew Blades: I think it was August 26th. And I was getting ready to go on at eight o'clock that night.
00:20:12.897 --> 00:20:17.757
Mathew Blades: And during that or before that, I guess I should say we were hosting a barbecue
00:20:17.757 --> 00:20:22.537
Mathew Blades: at my house because the woman that I was then engaged to, our families had never met each other.
00:20:22.657 --> 00:20:27.137
Mathew Blades: And so we were going to have a barbecue and, you know, have the dads meet, have the moms meet.
00:20:27.317 --> 00:20:30.877
Mathew Blades: And at 4.30, everybody was scheduled to arrive.
00:20:31.017 --> 00:20:37.497
Mathew Blades: And at 4.20, my then fiance came screaming around the corner that there was
00:20:37.497 --> 00:20:38.637
Mathew Blades: something wrong with my dad.
00:20:39.357 --> 00:20:46.357
Mathew Blades: And when I ran around to see what was going on, what I walked up on was my dad in cardiac arrest.
00:20:46.577 --> 00:20:51.397
Mathew Blades: And Kevin tried everything I knew how to do to save his life,
00:20:51.517 --> 00:20:53.397
Mathew Blades: but he died right there in my arms.
00:20:53.477 --> 00:20:59.117
Mathew Blades: And as you can imagine, that has a pretty significant impact on a kid,
00:20:59.337 --> 00:21:00.937
Mathew Blades: right? On a 23-year-old kid.
00:21:01.097 --> 00:21:05.737
Mathew Blades: And so all of the things that I just told you about all of the fun that I was
00:21:05.737 --> 00:21:10.017
Mathew Blades: having and all of the amazing things that I was doing were right on the heels
00:21:10.017 --> 00:21:12.157
Mathew Blades: of that very significant event.
00:21:12.457 --> 00:21:17.517
Mathew Blades: And because I just put my head down and plowed into my career,
00:21:17.877 --> 00:21:23.897
Mathew Blades: I didn't really give credit to how that was gonna impact me later in life,
00:21:24.037 --> 00:21:25.697
Mathew Blades: right? Like it's one of those things where
00:21:26.310 --> 00:21:29.330
Mathew Blades: Eventually it catches up to you. It did.
00:21:29.450 --> 00:21:33.730
Mathew Blades: It did later in life and eventually it caught up to me and I had to face off
00:21:33.730 --> 00:21:36.230
Mathew Blades: with it. And maybe that's some of the stuff that we'll get into a little bit
00:21:36.230 --> 00:21:37.230
Mathew Blades: later on in the interview.
00:21:37.470 --> 00:21:42.210
Mathew Blades: But the other piece of this is that aspect that you mentioned about religion.
00:21:42.210 --> 00:21:48.110
Mathew Blades: I grew up in a very, very religious house where we had to go to church every single Sunday.
00:21:48.310 --> 00:21:52.930
Mathew Blades: We were there most Saturdays and we weren't even Catholic, But we were so involved in the church.
00:21:53.330 --> 00:21:59.770
Mathew Blades: And when I got to be about 12 or 13, I just didn't feel connected to that particular faith anymore.
00:21:59.930 --> 00:22:03.590
Mathew Blades: It's not that I didn't appreciate it or understand its value,
00:22:03.590 --> 00:22:06.850
Mathew Blades: but it just for whatever reason, it didn't speak to me.
00:22:06.990 --> 00:22:10.290
Mathew Blades: And that put a lot of tension between my mom and I.
00:22:10.430 --> 00:22:17.390
Mathew Blades: And it created a really contentious relationship for us pretty much my entire
00:22:17.390 --> 00:22:22.610
Mathew Blades: teenage years and even into my, you know, 20s and 30s, man, I can remember.
00:22:22.990 --> 00:22:26.370
Mathew Blades: So now I'm married. I got married in 2004 to my wife, Nicely.
00:22:26.610 --> 00:22:29.870
Mathew Blades: And I remember when we were planning our wedding back in 2003,
00:22:30.590 --> 00:22:34.950
Mathew Blades: And we were trying to figure out where we were going to hold this wedding.
00:22:35.090 --> 00:22:38.190
Mathew Blades: And my mom called me and she was just mean about it. She was like,
00:22:38.290 --> 00:22:40.110
Mathew Blades: you better get married in a church.
00:22:40.250 --> 00:22:43.190
Mathew Blades: And she'd said, because I need God to be there.
00:22:43.710 --> 00:22:50.110
Mathew Blades: And I was like, whoa, like, mom, if you believe in God the way that I believe
00:22:50.110 --> 00:22:51.790
Mathew Blades: in God, he's everywhere anyways.
00:22:52.070 --> 00:22:54.350
Mathew Blades: So, you know, and again, it just
00:22:54.350 --> 00:23:00.250
Mathew Blades: kind of gives you a glimpse into our relationship surrounding religion.
00:23:00.490 --> 00:23:05.230
Mathew Blades: Now, what I will share with you is much later in life, and I mean much later
00:23:05.230 --> 00:23:13.210
Mathew Blades: in life, my mom and I came to a great bridge, and it was never that I didn't respect her viewpoint.
00:23:13.310 --> 00:23:15.390
Mathew Blades: It was that she didn't respect mine.
00:23:15.710 --> 00:23:19.730
Mathew Blades: So that probably lays a little groundwork for some good juicy conversation.
00:23:20.390 --> 00:23:22.430
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, of course, of course. Now-
00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:28.920
Kevin Lowe: When it comes to the topic of religion and stuff, where do you stand today?
00:23:29.420 --> 00:23:34.520
Mathew Blades: So I went through a whole bunch of stuff, man. I became a practicing Buddhist
00:23:34.520 --> 00:23:39.240
Mathew Blades: for a long time and kind of dwelled into that topic.
00:23:39.700 --> 00:23:45.980
Mathew Blades: And I would say that I feel most aligned with those types of Eastern religions.
00:23:45.980 --> 00:23:52.460
Mathew Blades: And Buddhism is where I feel the most centered. but I can't tell you that there's
00:23:52.460 --> 00:23:58.700
Mathew Blades: any faith, one in particular, that feels like it's the whole thing to me.
00:23:58.900 --> 00:24:02.900
Mathew Blades: And, you know, this is what I would be really getting into with my mom.
00:24:03.080 --> 00:24:07.380
Mathew Blades: And, you know, I even I even sent her this book that I had read called The Diversity of Religions.
00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:12.080
Mathew Blades: And if you look at the, you know, let's say the 10 biggest religions in the
00:24:12.080 --> 00:24:17.000
Mathew Blades: world, the seven of the biggest, they almost share an identical through line.
00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:22.820
Mathew Blades: You know, the things that are important to one faith are exactly the same things
00:24:22.820 --> 00:24:26.320
Mathew Blades: that are important to another faith. And all of them boil down to the concept
00:24:26.320 --> 00:24:31.120
Mathew Blades: of live your life in a way, you know, like that you would want to be treated by others.
00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:35.620
Mathew Blades: And, you know, the golden rule, if you will. So I have a really,
00:24:35.860 --> 00:24:41.480
Mathew Blades: really, really deep spiritual connection to just oneness is I think what I would
00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:42.740
Mathew Blades: what I would call it today.
00:24:42.740 --> 00:24:47.740
Mathew Blades: Where the world that I want to live in, Kevin, is the one where it doesn't matter
00:24:47.740 --> 00:24:51.100
Mathew Blades: if you love Jesus and you love Muhammad and you love Buddha.
00:24:51.320 --> 00:24:56.680
Mathew Blades: And like, it doesn't matter. Like, we're all really good people just here doing our best.
00:24:56.980 --> 00:25:02.820
Mathew Blades: So that's where I align the most. But I will say, and I think this is important.
00:25:03.120 --> 00:25:08.720
Mathew Blades: I'm very, very grateful that my mom kind of pushed us into the window that she
00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:14.580
Mathew Blades: did early on, because I think what it did for me more than anything is give me a good place to start.
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.840
Mathew Blades: And there's a lot of people today that I think don't have a place to start, you know?
00:25:19.980 --> 00:25:23.680
Mathew Blades: And I even wonder about my own kids as we've never really brought them up in
00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:26.580
Mathew Blades: a church and never really talked a lot about religion in my home.
00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:31.100
Mathew Blades: It's been more about spirituality, but I wonder if they're gonna have the same
00:25:31.100 --> 00:25:36.080
Mathew Blades: compass that I will or did in life, meaning a place to begin.
00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:40.000
Mathew Blades: So I don't know if that answers your question, but that's the best I can do
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:41.100
Mathew Blades: to tell you where I'm at today.
00:25:41.100 --> 00:25:48.800
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, no, I mean, I think what I love about your answer with that is it's all
00:25:48.800 --> 00:25:51.740
Kevin Lowe: a very personable journey for each one of us.
00:25:51.980 --> 00:25:53.040
Mathew Blades: For sure, man.
00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:59.200
Kevin Lowe: You know, and I'm a firm believer, too, that I don't understand all of it.
00:25:59.260 --> 00:26:00.340
Kevin Lowe: I don't have all the answers.
00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:05.220
Kevin Lowe: You know, I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. But in the same regard,
00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:08.680
Kevin Lowe: I feel as though when we talk about religion—
00:26:09.026 --> 00:26:11.566
Kevin Lowe: I feel like people try to put it in a box.
00:26:12.266 --> 00:26:16.846
Mathew Blades: And I am- It's not fair. It's not fair to the people that practice to put it in a box.
00:26:17.086 --> 00:26:19.246
Mathew Blades: It's not fair. Because you're more than just a Christian, right?
00:26:19.386 --> 00:26:20.506
Mathew Blades: Yeah, you're bigger than that.
00:26:20.626 --> 00:26:26.146
Kevin Lowe: Well, and that's what I've said, is I feel as though it's all bigger than any of us.
00:26:26.286 --> 00:26:30.206
Kevin Lowe: It's bigger than we can. That's it. We can't comprehend it. You know what I
00:26:30.206 --> 00:26:32.086
Kevin Lowe: mean? On its type of size.
00:26:32.466 --> 00:26:39.146
Kevin Lowe: And so at some point, you have to just like come at peace with finding what
00:26:39.146 --> 00:26:40.986
Kevin Lowe: is for you, you know? Yeah.
00:26:41.186 --> 00:26:45.986
Mathew Blades: And if that's Jesus, man, that's incredible. Like if you, I always say this,
00:26:46.086 --> 00:26:48.686
Mathew Blades: man, when I'm talking about religion with people, I'm like, if you get into
00:26:48.686 --> 00:26:52.946
Mathew Blades: the Bible and you read the words written in red, you do the stuff that Jesus talked about,
00:26:53.526 --> 00:26:57.746
Mathew Blades: you can achieve really one of the greatest lives on planet earth.
00:26:58.066 --> 00:27:01.366
Mathew Blades: It's when you get caught up in some of the other stuff in any religion,
00:27:01.646 --> 00:27:05.046
Mathew Blades: right? It's when you take any religion to the extreme where you lose me.
00:27:05.606 --> 00:27:09.626
Mathew Blades: And quite frankly, that was the case with Buddhism. I studied it for a long time.
00:27:09.786 --> 00:27:12.126
Mathew Blades: And then we would get into some of these teachings and I would be like,
00:27:12.606 --> 00:27:15.206
Mathew Blades: this doesn't, it just doesn't feel like me.
00:27:15.406 --> 00:27:21.746
Mathew Blades: And so, you know, I'm 51 now, so I'm a little older than some and younger than most.
00:27:21.886 --> 00:27:26.806
Mathew Blades: But I'm in a place now where I'm more settled with the way that I see the world.
00:27:26.966 --> 00:27:28.506
Mathew Blades: Like I went to church last Sunday.
00:27:28.746 --> 00:27:33.106
Mathew Blades: You know, I had a friend that invited me to church last Sunday and I had the
00:27:33.106 --> 00:27:35.426
Mathew Blades: greatest hour of my life. I cried.
00:27:35.546 --> 00:27:39.946
Mathew Blades: It brought me to tears. I was so moved by the things that they were saying.
00:27:40.106 --> 00:27:43.066
Mathew Blades: I was so moved by the words that we were singing.
00:27:43.426 --> 00:27:48.286
Mathew Blades: To this day, I love church music. I always tell people I don't go to church, but I love church music.
00:27:48.726 --> 00:27:53.526
Mathew Blades: And those songs can bring me to my knees because I just love the way they make
00:27:53.526 --> 00:27:56.006
Mathew Blades: me feel. So I'm whatever that is.
00:27:56.466 --> 00:28:00.126
Kevin Lowe: Yes. Yes. I love it, man. I I absolutely love that. I love it.
00:28:00.386 --> 00:28:01.746
Mathew Blades: Now, I'm whatever that is.
00:28:04.486 --> 00:28:07.926
Kevin Lowe: Now, going back to kind of like this journey that you've been on.
00:28:08.426 --> 00:28:12.266
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Losing your father at such a young age.
00:28:12.566 --> 00:28:16.746
Kevin Lowe: Here you were, you were just getting engaged. Now, that engagement,
00:28:16.966 --> 00:28:19.426
Kevin Lowe: would that go on to become marriage?
00:28:20.006 --> 00:28:25.206
Mathew Blades: Nope. No, we gave it a shot, but I was way too focused on my career.
00:28:25.566 --> 00:28:26.586
Kevin Lowe: Yes. Yes.
00:28:27.086 --> 00:28:28.806
Mathew Blades: Yeah. And so there wasn't room for that.
00:28:29.246 --> 00:28:35.106
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. Now, fast forwarding way ahead and you can fill in gaps in between.
00:28:35.106 --> 00:28:40.246
Kevin Lowe: But we talk about this career spanning 28 years in radio.
00:28:40.786 --> 00:28:45.486
Kevin Lowe: What after 28 years, what made you get out of it?
00:28:46.046 --> 00:28:48.346
Mathew Blades: Man, this is such a big conversation.
00:28:49.689 --> 00:28:53.409
Mathew Blades: Okay, there's a lot of truths like there is for anybody. I don't think,
00:28:53.669 --> 00:28:59.249
Mathew Blades: I mean, sometimes it's one thing, but more times than not, it's a cumulative effect of a few things.
00:28:59.629 --> 00:29:05.689
Mathew Blades: I had stopped enjoying what I was doing. It just, it wasn't fun for me anymore.
00:29:05.909 --> 00:29:12.029
Mathew Blades: The politics of the business, the audience shifting, the programmers that were
00:29:12.029 --> 00:29:18.669
Mathew Blades: in place, it just stopped being what it used to be and it shifted in such a big way.
00:29:18.829 --> 00:29:23.629
Mathew Blades: But that's just a small piece of it. The bigger thing was I was shifting.
00:29:24.149 --> 00:29:28.849
Mathew Blades: I was ready and feeling this itch to do something more in my life.
00:29:29.009 --> 00:29:34.049
Mathew Blades: And I'll share with you this. So like, I remember being 12 years old and looking
00:29:34.049 --> 00:29:39.469
Mathew Blades: around my house and my situation, Kevin, and feeling like, what the hell are we doing?
00:29:39.729 --> 00:29:44.829
Mathew Blades: Like, none of this makes any sense to me. I always tell people like I had really
00:29:44.829 --> 00:29:48.149
Mathew Blades: good, loving parents, but they were also
00:29:48.849 --> 00:29:54.749
Mathew Blades: alcoholics and they were abusive and they were really like unstable in a lot of ways.
00:29:54.909 --> 00:30:00.089
Mathew Blades: And so while I grew up with like great Christmases and family vacations and
00:30:00.089 --> 00:30:06.029
Mathew Blades: lots of hugs and I love you, we had all the other stuff to all the really tough,
00:30:06.349 --> 00:30:09.709
Mathew Blades: violent, nasty stuff, too. And as I remind everybody.
00:30:10.149 --> 00:30:12.469
Mathew Blades: Nobody's in therapy because they got too many hugs.
00:30:13.289 --> 00:30:24.689
Mathew Blades: So adding all of that stuff up, man, I'd been feeling this tug my whole life that I was destined to
00:30:25.284 --> 00:30:30.884
Mathew Blades: I just feel in my heart, man, like I'm here to help people move out of dysfunction.
00:30:31.284 --> 00:30:34.064
Mathew Blades: That's really at my core who I think I am now.
00:30:34.244 --> 00:30:39.284
Mathew Blades: I call myself a transitional character in my lineage because a few years ago
00:30:39.284 --> 00:30:44.424
Mathew Blades: I went to a retreat and I had a Native American healer that sort of imprinted that on me.
00:30:44.684 --> 00:30:49.264
Mathew Blades: And that's really how I see myself now. I see myself as somebody who's here
00:30:49.264 --> 00:30:53.744
Mathew Blades: to move my family out of dysfunction, to move the people around me out of dysfunction.
00:30:53.744 --> 00:30:58.064
Mathew Blades: I see myself as somebody who's here to break all the generational cycles that
00:30:58.064 --> 00:31:02.084
Mathew Blades: I can for my kids and for their kids and for their kids.
00:31:02.524 --> 00:31:07.604
Mathew Blades: And that's really how I feel. That's how I see myself.
00:31:07.844 --> 00:31:11.924
Mathew Blades: And so when you're on the radio day in and day out and all you're doing is giving
00:31:11.924 --> 00:31:15.444
Mathew Blades: away concert tickets and talking about your life and all this fluffy crap,
00:31:15.444 --> 00:31:18.784
Mathew Blades: it just stopped feeling authentic for me.
00:31:19.224 --> 00:31:24.404
Mathew Blades: And it wasn't what I wanted to be about. And it was one of the hardest things
00:31:24.404 --> 00:31:26.964
Mathew Blades: that I've ever done in my life was, you know,
00:31:27.184 --> 00:31:30.724
Mathew Blades: that idea that I'm going to walk away from the one thing that I've wanted to
00:31:30.724 --> 00:31:34.604
Mathew Blades: do since I was 10 years old, which is to be on the radio and entertain audiences.
00:31:35.104 --> 00:31:36.984
Mathew Blades: And to a lot of degrees, it was
00:31:36.984 --> 00:31:40.464
Mathew Blades: my entire identity. It was the only thing that I thought I was good at.
00:31:41.584 --> 00:31:46.744
Mathew Blades: But I just know that like the last 10 years, I started to feel this tug of like,
00:31:46.864 --> 00:31:50.564
Mathew Blades: are you really the father that you dreamed that you would be when you were 12
00:31:50.564 --> 00:31:55.664
Mathew Blades: years old? Are you really the husband that you dreamed you would be one day?
00:31:55.864 --> 00:31:59.584
Mathew Blades: Are you really the friend that you dreamed you would be one day?
00:31:59.824 --> 00:32:05.804
Mathew Blades: And it got to a stage in my life where I really started to grapple hard with
00:32:05.804 --> 00:32:10.584
Mathew Blades: those questions, Kevin, and I was really, really thirsty for some answers.
00:32:11.444 --> 00:32:15.184
Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. Okay. Amazing.
00:32:15.184 --> 00:32:24.064
Kevin Lowe: Amazing the fact of this personal just dialogue going in on your head and especially
00:32:24.064 --> 00:32:29.544
Kevin Lowe: what's very just kind of interesting about this topic is I literally just recorded
00:32:29.544 --> 00:32:32.884
Kevin Lowe: a solo episode the day that we're recording this.
00:32:32.884 --> 00:32:40.184
Kevin Lowe: I think it's episode 380 about this idea of starting over in life and this idea
00:32:40.184 --> 00:32:43.664
Kevin Lowe: of when we feel like we're called for something more,
00:32:43.864 --> 00:32:47.924
Kevin Lowe: but it means quitting what we've been working on.
00:32:48.104 --> 00:32:53.184
Kevin Lowe: And this idea of like, we feel like we're failing in one way.
00:32:53.324 --> 00:32:54.864
Kevin Lowe: I mean, we're taught not to quit.
00:32:55.164 --> 00:33:00.464
Kevin Lowe: And yet you understand that there's got to be more out there.
00:33:00.464 --> 00:33:05.444
Mathew Blades: Yeah, I call it blowing up what you built. And it's it's a phrase that I've
00:33:05.444 --> 00:33:08.144
Mathew Blades: coined and it really resonates with a lot of people.
00:33:08.284 --> 00:33:10.544
Mathew Blades: But, you know, I think that so
00:33:10.544 --> 00:33:14.644
Mathew Blades: many of us would be better off if we would sit down one day and say, oh,
00:33:15.760 --> 00:33:19.060
Mathew Blades: Huh, is this really what it's going to be?
00:33:19.240 --> 00:33:22.480
Mathew Blades: Is this really what it's going to be about for the rest of time?
00:33:22.620 --> 00:33:26.040
Mathew Blades: Am I just going to keep waking up and this is what it's going to be?
00:33:26.260 --> 00:33:29.540
Mathew Blades: It's an important question to ask yourself at some point.
00:33:29.640 --> 00:33:34.480
Mathew Blades: I know not everybody's maybe got the luxury of walking away from their career
00:33:34.480 --> 00:33:37.880
Mathew Blades: in the middle of it like I did, but I think in a lot of small ways,
00:33:37.900 --> 00:33:42.060
Mathew Blades: I don't think I know, in a lot of small ways, we can start to tweak our life.
00:33:42.180 --> 00:33:45.380
Mathew Blades: And so we can kind of like, let's use a radio analogy, right?
00:33:45.460 --> 00:33:48.180
Mathew Blades: Like back in the day, there wasn't, there wasn't the digital radio.
00:33:48.320 --> 00:33:52.320
Mathew Blades: You had to turn that knob. And if you didn't turn it just right,
00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:54.680
Mathew Blades: you couldn't get the signal of the radio station clear.
00:33:55.080 --> 00:33:59.700
Mathew Blades: So many of us, I think that's what we need to do. We need to fiddle with that knob a little bit.
00:33:59.820 --> 00:34:02.780
Mathew Blades: We need to turn it to the left and we turn to the right. We need to figure out
00:34:02.780 --> 00:34:09.320
Mathew Blades: where is our clarity and how do we live the truest version of ourselves and
00:34:09.320 --> 00:34:13.120
Mathew Blades: just start to get really curious about what that would look like, right?
00:34:13.220 --> 00:34:17.340
Mathew Blades: I have a kind of a four-step process that I walk through everybody through now.
00:34:17.500 --> 00:34:21.400
Mathew Blades: And I think step one is let's renegotiate. So that's what you're talking about.
00:34:21.560 --> 00:34:23.560
Mathew Blades: It's like renegotiate with yourself.
00:34:23.780 --> 00:34:26.140
Mathew Blades: Where do you wanna go? What do you wanna be about?
00:34:26.520 --> 00:34:29.400
Mathew Blades: How do you wanna live your life? Who are you? Who are the man?
00:34:29.720 --> 00:34:34.120
Mathew Blades: Who is this guy that's gonna live out the rest of time?
00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:37.920
Mathew Blades: And then what are you gonna leave behind? So, and I did listen to a little bit
00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:40.000
Mathew Blades: of that episode before you and I got started.
00:34:40.180 --> 00:34:44.100
Mathew Blades: And so I really appreciate that you're putting out into the world this idea
00:34:44.100 --> 00:34:47.560
Mathew Blades: of, are you doing it the way you wanted to be doing it?
00:34:47.660 --> 00:34:51.780
Mathew Blades: Because we all dreamed up the way it would be when we were little kids.
00:34:52.420 --> 00:34:54.520
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.
00:34:55.289 --> 00:35:01.129
Kevin Lowe: Now, before we move on, I want to go back and I would love for you to talk to
00:35:01.129 --> 00:35:05.749
Kevin Lowe: me a little bit more about it because I'm intrigued to understand more about
00:35:05.749 --> 00:35:09.169
Kevin Lowe: the retreat that you went to in this,
00:35:09.169 --> 00:35:13.469
Kevin Lowe: I think you referred to it as a transitional character.
00:35:14.389 --> 00:35:16.769
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Can you dive a little bit deeper into that?
00:35:17.029 --> 00:35:19.549
Mathew Blades: Oh, my God. It's my favorite thing in the world to talk about.
00:35:19.549 --> 00:35:24.169
Mathew Blades: Of course, I need to set up what happened. So I was starting to develop,
00:35:24.349 --> 00:35:28.369
Mathew Blades: and I'm going to mention this because I think this is a really big truth for a lot of people in life.
00:35:28.609 --> 00:35:33.349
Mathew Blades: I was starting to develop physical symptoms that doctors couldn't explain,
00:35:33.629 --> 00:35:38.889
Mathew Blades: had gut issues that people couldn't figure out, had back pain that nobody could figure out.
00:35:39.189 --> 00:35:42.809
Mathew Blades: And then I got shingles on my face, which if you've never had before,
00:35:42.949 --> 00:35:45.389
Mathew Blades: sucks, like to high heaven. It's the worst.
00:35:45.529 --> 00:35:47.569
Mathew Blades: It's like one of the most painful things that you can ever get.
00:35:47.569 --> 00:35:52.829
Mathew Blades: And you learn once you get shingles that the only reason that they come to fruition
00:35:52.829 --> 00:35:54.529
Mathew Blades: is because you're stressed out.
00:35:54.789 --> 00:35:57.749
Mathew Blades: Like that's when you get shingles, it's literally stress.
00:35:57.949 --> 00:36:02.789
Mathew Blades: It's chicken pox that lie dormant until you get stressed out so much that your
00:36:02.789 --> 00:36:05.969
Mathew Blades: body just goes, you know, like I can't take it anymore.
00:36:06.069 --> 00:36:09.089
Mathew Blades: I'm just going to explode. And I'm going to give you these rashy things that
00:36:09.089 --> 00:36:10.709
Mathew Blades: it's like crazy for a few weeks.
00:36:11.069 --> 00:36:15.629
Mathew Blades: And then after that, Kevin, I started to get these panic attacks and I'd never
00:36:15.629 --> 00:36:18.189
Mathew Blades: gotten panic attacks before in my life.
00:36:18.929 --> 00:36:22.809
Mathew Blades: And I didn't know what they were because, and you have to remember,
00:36:22.969 --> 00:36:25.149
Mathew Blades: like I told you, my dad died of a heart attack.
00:36:25.369 --> 00:36:28.949
Mathew Blades: He died of something called sudden cardiac death. And for those that don't know
00:36:28.949 --> 00:36:34.989
Mathew Blades: what this is, it means the first time you ever find out you have a heart issue is the day you die.
00:36:35.489 --> 00:36:42.769
Mathew Blades: So when you get a panic attack, the symptoms can feel eerily similar to a heart attack.
00:36:43.209 --> 00:36:47.749
Mathew Blades: And in fact, you know, I work with a cardiologist now and he tells me all the
00:36:47.749 --> 00:36:52.389
Mathew Blades: time that people call him every single week about panic attacks because they
00:36:52.389 --> 00:36:53.189
Mathew Blades: think it's a heart attack.
00:36:53.329 --> 00:36:59.269
Mathew Blades: So anyway, I have my third and final panic attack in July of 2020, I think.
00:36:59.669 --> 00:37:03.749
Mathew Blades: And it's such a fierce panic attack that I think I'm dying.
00:37:03.969 --> 00:37:09.309
Mathew Blades: And so I go to the emergency room after trying to cope for a few minutes.
00:37:09.509 --> 00:37:12.169
Mathew Blades: And I spend 10 hours in the emergency room.
00:37:12.389 --> 00:37:17.529
Mathew Blades: And because I have some connections in the hospital, I have access to the best
00:37:17.529 --> 00:37:18.649
Mathew Blades: doctors in the hospital.
00:37:18.769 --> 00:37:21.649
Mathew Blades: They run every single test. We leave no stone unturned.
00:37:21.929 --> 00:37:25.909
Mathew Blades: And at two o'clock in the afternoon, Kevin, the doctor walks into my room.
00:37:25.989 --> 00:37:27.129
Mathew Blades: What do you think he says to me?
00:37:27.689 --> 00:37:29.469
Kevin Lowe: You have anxiety attack?
00:37:30.789 --> 00:37:34.149
Mathew Blades: Exactly. There's nothing physically wrong with you.
00:37:34.489 --> 00:37:38.889
Mathew Blades: You have, there's nothing, that we can't find anything on any test.
00:37:39.629 --> 00:37:44.009
Mathew Blades: And because I had been on a little bit of a spiritual journey the last,
00:37:44.209 --> 00:37:47.989
Mathew Blades: you know, pretty much since my dad's death, right, that that it's funny how
00:37:47.989 --> 00:37:50.869
Mathew Blades: death will kind of set you on a trajectory and a path.
00:37:51.824 --> 00:37:56.804
Mathew Blades: I knew in that moment that if it wasn't physical, then it was probably mental
00:37:56.804 --> 00:37:59.064
Mathew Blades: and it was probably spiritual.
00:37:59.244 --> 00:38:02.884
Mathew Blades: And I was wise enough to know that it was both.
00:38:03.224 --> 00:38:07.184
Mathew Blades: I knew it was both. I knew it was time to start working on my mental health
00:38:07.184 --> 00:38:10.204
Mathew Blades: and I knew it was time to get back into connection with my spiritual health
00:38:10.204 --> 00:38:11.544
Mathew Blades: because I kind of lost my way.
00:38:11.624 --> 00:38:15.924
Mathew Blades: I didn't really know who I was anymore to get back to what we were talking about a few minutes ago.
00:38:16.244 --> 00:38:20.304
Mathew Blades: So I wanted to set that table for you because I think it's an important precursor
00:38:20.304 --> 00:38:23.804
Mathew Blades: to what happens. And so after that third and final panic attack,
00:38:23.984 --> 00:38:28.744
Mathew Blades: four days later, I checked myself into a mental and spiritual retreat for five days.
00:38:28.764 --> 00:38:31.264
Mathew Blades: And I work with what I call my 12 angels.
00:38:31.484 --> 00:38:36.084
Mathew Blades: I have 12 people whose job it is to take care of me for the next five days.
00:38:36.284 --> 00:38:39.204
Mathew Blades: Some of them are counselors. Some of them are like healers.
00:38:39.944 --> 00:38:45.464
Mathew Blades: Some of them are Native American spiritual healers. Some of them are like psychotherapists.
00:38:45.584 --> 00:38:51.344
Mathew Blades: Some of them are sound healers. Others are massage therapists that are trained in Reiki.
00:38:51.684 --> 00:38:57.404
Mathew Blades: And so I just do this deep dive into my mental and my spiritual health.
00:38:57.404 --> 00:39:01.064
Mathew Blades: And I spend five days talking to people, listening to people.
00:39:01.324 --> 00:39:06.064
Mathew Blades: And what I come to realize in this retreat, on my third day,
00:39:06.304 --> 00:39:09.204
Mathew Blades: the gentleman that I was working with, Troy, looks right at me and he was like,
00:39:09.284 --> 00:39:13.544
Mathew Blades: Matthew, I think that you are a transitional character in your lineage.
00:39:13.684 --> 00:39:15.724
Mathew Blades: And I had no idea what that meant.
00:39:15.964 --> 00:39:19.544
Mathew Blades: And I said, help me with that. What is this?" And he said, well,
00:39:19.624 --> 00:39:24.084
Mathew Blades: the transitional character comes here and they feel like the world doesn't fit
00:39:24.084 --> 00:39:28.384
Mathew Blades: and they feel like what's happening in and around them doesn't make sense.
00:39:28.604 --> 00:39:32.044
Mathew Blades: And you know, this is what I told you about when I was 12 years old, right?
00:39:32.224 --> 00:39:35.504
Mathew Blades: Like instantly I went back to being 12, looking around my house going,
00:39:35.624 --> 00:39:38.104
Mathew Blades: what the hell is going on? What are we doing here?
00:39:38.780 --> 00:39:41.700
Mathew Blades: And in a moment, I had all the clarity that I needed.
00:39:41.940 --> 00:39:47.560
Mathew Blades: And so what he challenged me then to do was he said, OK, if you are really this
00:39:47.560 --> 00:39:52.460
Mathew Blades: transitional character in your lineage, you have a set of responsibilities now.
00:39:52.760 --> 00:39:56.740
Mathew Blades: And the first responsibility that you have is to yourself.
00:39:57.540 --> 00:40:03.340
Mathew Blades: Moving forward from this day forward, you are the most important person in your
00:40:03.340 --> 00:40:08.520
Mathew Blades: life because until you feel whole and you feel good, you will never be able
00:40:08.520 --> 00:40:12.020
Mathew Blades: to be the father that you want to be. You'll never be able to be the husband you want to be.
00:40:12.160 --> 00:40:15.360
Mathew Blades: You can't be the brother you want to be. You can't be the son you want to be.
00:40:15.740 --> 00:40:21.280
Mathew Blades: And you need to get to work on all of these relationships that feel like they don't fit.
00:40:22.080 --> 00:40:26.400
Mathew Blades: So imagine me, right? Three days into this retreat and he's telling me like,
00:40:26.560 --> 00:40:33.640
Mathew Blades: basically, I have to confront all these demons that I've been avoiding my entire life.
00:40:33.760 --> 00:40:37.780
Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. Nobody said it was easy.
00:40:37.960 --> 00:40:42.460
Mathew Blades: Nobody said it was easy. But it is simple, right?
00:40:42.600 --> 00:40:46.720
Mathew Blades: That's what makes it such a mind-eff, if you will, right?
00:40:46.740 --> 00:40:51.760
Mathew Blades: Because it's not complicated to solve the Rubik's Cube of your life.
00:40:51.860 --> 00:40:55.960
Mathew Blades: It's actually quite simple. And it starts with you.
00:40:55.980 --> 00:41:01.300
Mathew Blades: It starts with you doing what you need to do for yourself, not in some mean,
00:41:01.460 --> 00:41:08.800
Mathew Blades: arrogant, spiteful, hateful, terrible way, but in the highest way possible.
00:41:09.100 --> 00:41:15.100
Mathew Blades: How can you move yourself and your family and transition the lineage so that
00:41:15.100 --> 00:41:19.320
Mathew Blades: you break a lot of these generational cycles and you don't keep repeating history,
00:41:19.320 --> 00:41:21.800
Mathew Blades: which is showing how messed up it is?
00:41:21.800 --> 00:41:28.380
Mathew Blades: And so, oh man, what I had to do was I had to do two things that were really, really difficult.
00:41:28.620 --> 00:41:32.600
Mathew Blades: The first thing that I had to do was I had to quit my job. I knew I had to quit my job.
00:41:32.740 --> 00:41:37.220
Mathew Blades: I had fallen out of love with it and I knew that I just didn't want to do it
00:41:37.220 --> 00:41:39.480
Mathew Blades: anymore. And why is that so impossible?
00:41:39.760 --> 00:41:43.700
Mathew Blades: Well, like I told you earlier, man, the goal of radio is to get to the biggest
00:41:43.700 --> 00:41:46.920
Mathew Blades: market you can and do a morning show, which I had done. And,
00:41:47.060 --> 00:41:52.040
Mathew Blades: you know, I was making multiple six figures and had a contract for the next.
00:41:52.200 --> 00:41:53.700
Mathew Blades: I could still be on the radio.
00:41:53.880 --> 00:41:57.380
Mathew Blades: Like, let's just put it like that. Right. I had probably a never ending deal
00:41:57.380 --> 00:42:00.360
Mathew Blades: with these guys. I could still be on the air making that money if I wanted to
00:42:00.360 --> 00:42:01.400
Mathew Blades: right here, right now, today.
00:42:01.860 --> 00:42:06.640
Mathew Blades: But I I knew that it just didn't serve me anymore. And so I had to have two
00:42:06.640 --> 00:42:08.180
Mathew Blades: incredibly hard conversations.
00:42:08.400 --> 00:42:12.860
Mathew Blades: The first one was with my family to let them know that I'd fallen out of love
00:42:12.860 --> 00:42:15.760
Mathew Blades: with this thing and I just didn't want to do it anymore. And there was nothing
00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:19.720
Mathew Blades: anybody was going to do to convince me that that's what I needed to keep doing with my life.
00:42:20.120 --> 00:42:24.220
Mathew Blades: So that was very, very challenging. The second thing that I had to do,
00:42:24.320 --> 00:42:28.760
Mathew Blades: Kevin, was I had to confront my mom and I had to finally tackle the tension
00:42:28.760 --> 00:42:32.740
Mathew Blades: that we'd been experiencing our entire lives.
00:42:33.487 --> 00:42:37.507
Mathew Blades: And I'm happy to walk you through both those conversations if you think there's value there.
00:42:38.227 --> 00:42:43.747
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. And I mean, 100%. And I think that ties in with what I've been sitting
00:42:43.747 --> 00:42:51.047
Kevin Lowe: here thinking as you're sharing this, I'm thinking you went away to this retreat that you talked about.
00:42:51.407 --> 00:42:56.967
Kevin Lowe: And you've had this incredible personal breakthrough within you.
00:42:57.307 --> 00:43:00.907
Kevin Lowe: And you've come back home and you're trying to make these changes.
00:43:00.907 --> 00:43:09.407
Kevin Lowe: But trying to relay that same drive and feeling inside of you to others is not
00:43:09.407 --> 00:43:14.187
Kevin Lowe: an easy task to get them to understand what you're feeling and what's driving
00:43:14.187 --> 00:43:16.967
Kevin Lowe: your decisions behind you.
00:43:17.227 --> 00:43:22.267
Kevin Lowe: And so I would love for you to kind of explore that while, yes,
00:43:22.467 --> 00:43:25.987
Kevin Lowe: continuing on with exactly how this all went down.
00:43:26.487 --> 00:43:31.207
Mathew Blades: Yeah. And I get back to something that, you know, Troy, who was one of my most
00:43:31.207 --> 00:43:35.067
Mathew Blades: influential healers said in this thing, you know, it's like, this is your journey.
00:43:35.307 --> 00:43:38.827
Mathew Blades: And so, and listen, man, my life made no sense.
00:43:38.987 --> 00:43:44.047
Mathew Blades: It was nonsense, right? Like I didn't have any, it literally was nonsense. And
00:43:46.963 --> 00:43:50.983
Mathew Blades: I was ready to do anything it took. And these are the conversations that I was
00:43:50.983 --> 00:43:52.703
Mathew Blades: having in my head when I was in this retreat.
00:43:52.903 --> 00:43:57.743
Mathew Blades: I was saying to myself, if you need to end your relationship with your family,
00:43:57.963 --> 00:44:01.443
Mathew Blades: you're going to do that. If you need to end your marriage, you're going to do that.
00:44:01.643 --> 00:44:04.183
Mathew Blades: If you need to move out of your house, you're going to do that.
00:44:04.383 --> 00:44:08.043
Mathew Blades: If you need to stop talking to your best friends, you're going to do that.
00:44:08.163 --> 00:44:13.783
Mathew Blades: Like I was at a stage where I just was like something had to change.
00:44:13.783 --> 00:44:19.583
Mathew Blades: What was happening didn't work for me any longer. And I was really willing to
00:44:19.583 --> 00:44:25.503
Mathew Blades: do anything it took, which was terrifying, right? Because I didn't know what it was going to take.
00:44:25.863 --> 00:44:31.163
Mathew Blades: But what I started to figure out was if I could just go through these conversations
00:44:31.163 --> 00:44:37.443
Mathew Blades: with a really open, loving heart and not make it about anybody other than myself, right?
00:44:37.523 --> 00:44:40.863
Mathew Blades: I didn't need to play the blame game. I wasn't a victim here.
00:44:40.863 --> 00:44:47.243
Mathew Blades: I had just gone about my life in a way where it's it had stopped making sense.
00:44:47.443 --> 00:44:53.243
Mathew Blades: And I was the one responsible for being the person who stopped asking myself, what do I need?
00:44:53.383 --> 00:44:55.903
Mathew Blades: Like, what do I need to feel good in life?
00:44:56.443 --> 00:45:01.783
Mathew Blades: So I approached both of those conversations with that kind of love.
00:45:01.863 --> 00:45:07.303
Mathew Blades: And I think that's a critical thing for most people, because a lot of us and
00:45:07.303 --> 00:45:09.043
Mathew Blades: listen, I've been podcasting,
00:45:09.183 --> 00:45:12.203
Mathew Blades: you know, like you have for a long time and week in and week out,
00:45:12.343 --> 00:45:16.143
Mathew Blades: all I do is talk to people who've had very traumatic backgrounds and have found
00:45:16.143 --> 00:45:18.823
Mathew Blades: a way to overcome whatever obstacle it is in their life.
00:45:18.983 --> 00:45:21.683
Mathew Blades: And there's a lot of common through lines that I see. But I,
00:45:21.863 --> 00:45:25.623
Mathew Blades: what I do see a lot with people is they get to that stage where it's not working
00:45:25.623 --> 00:45:28.063
Mathew Blades: for them anymore and they get a little nasty about it.
00:45:28.183 --> 00:45:32.903
Mathew Blades: And they start to very unlovingly have these conversations with people and you
00:45:32.903 --> 00:45:35.563
Mathew Blades: did this and because of you and because of this.
00:45:35.683 --> 00:45:38.223
Mathew Blades: And I just wasn't interested in any of that anymore.
00:45:38.523 --> 00:45:42.163
Mathew Blades: And so I approached both of these conversations, both with work and my family
00:45:42.163 --> 00:45:45.643
Mathew Blades: about quitting my job and the conversation that I needed to have with my mom
00:45:45.643 --> 00:45:48.223
Mathew Blades: from a very loving standpoint.
00:45:48.543 --> 00:45:53.123
Mathew Blades: And, you know, so I remember calling my mom after the retreat and I asked her
00:45:53.123 --> 00:45:57.443
Mathew Blades: to give me a couple of weeks because she knew she knew full well why I was there.
00:45:57.583 --> 00:45:59.783
Mathew Blades: Right. Like I was there to work on some stuff from my childhood,
00:45:59.783 --> 00:46:04.643
Mathew Blades: to work on the deal with my dad and to work on a few other things that are interesting,
00:46:04.863 --> 00:46:08.783
Mathew Blades: but maybe don't need to be brought up in this particular conversation for the
00:46:08.783 --> 00:46:13.083
Mathew Blades: safety of not spending three hours on a podcast with anybody.
00:46:15.043 --> 00:46:19.683
Mathew Blades: But so I called my mom, Kevin, and I said, hey, mom.
00:46:19.803 --> 00:46:24.043
Mathew Blades: And I was already crying. I said, hey, mom, we need to talk about our relationship.
00:46:24.283 --> 00:46:28.503
Mathew Blades: It doesn't work for me anymore. And I'm pretty sure it doesn't work for you anymore.
00:46:29.543 --> 00:46:34.083
Mathew Blades: And, you know, she she got a little bit quiet on the other line.
00:46:34.423 --> 00:46:40.163
Mathew Blades: And within 30 seconds, Kevin, we started we we went from talking about the things
00:46:40.163 --> 00:46:44.523
Mathew Blades: that I was dealing with, with these counselors and the stuff that I wanted to
00:46:44.523 --> 00:46:45.923
Mathew Blades: unfold and talk to her about.
00:46:46.757 --> 00:46:51.337
Mathew Blades: And she started to let me into her life. And she started to tell me all of these
00:46:51.337 --> 00:46:54.857
Mathew Blades: things about her childhood that I'd never heard her talk about before.
00:46:55.357 --> 00:46:58.617
Mathew Blades: And, you know, I think most people know where I'm going with this.
00:46:58.917 --> 00:47:03.857
Mathew Blades: Her childhood was maybe twice as bad as the childhood that she dealt me, right?
00:47:03.997 --> 00:47:08.277
Mathew Blades: A terrible father, again, loving, good things, great things.
00:47:08.477 --> 00:47:10.397
Mathew Blades: Nobody's in therapy because they got too many hugs.
00:47:10.897 --> 00:47:15.237
Mathew Blades: And she had a really contentious relationship with her brothers and her sisters.
00:47:15.237 --> 00:47:22.797
Mathew Blades: And that led itself to her makeup, like the person that she is and was becoming and living her life.
00:47:23.157 --> 00:47:28.097
Mathew Blades: So in that 30 to 45 minute conversation that I had with my mom,
00:47:28.317 --> 00:47:33.057
Mathew Blades: we probably became closer than we had since I was a little boy.
00:47:33.697 --> 00:47:37.697
Mathew Blades: And we finally started to find some common ground with each other.
00:47:37.817 --> 00:47:42.317
Mathew Blades: And the reason that this story is so important to me to share with people is
00:47:42.317 --> 00:47:47.557
Mathew Blades: because from that moment on, My mom and I really went to work intentionally
00:47:47.557 --> 00:47:51.077
Mathew Blades: on our relationship. And I can't tell you it was easy. And I won't tell you
00:47:51.077 --> 00:47:52.197
Mathew Blades: that it was roses every day.
00:47:52.297 --> 00:47:58.237
Mathew Blades: And I won't tell you that we got along every minute of every day for the rest of time, right?
00:47:58.437 --> 00:48:03.377
Mathew Blades: But what I can tell you is that we both laid down our swords and we both,
00:48:03.497 --> 00:48:08.417
Mathew Blades: more importantly, took down the shield, the walls, the protective layer of coding
00:48:08.417 --> 00:48:09.977
Mathew Blades: that we had around our relationship.
00:48:09.977 --> 00:48:13.617
Mathew Blades: And we started to get a little bit more vulnerable with each other.
00:48:13.617 --> 00:48:16.137
Mathew Blades: And I don't mince words here, man.
00:48:16.217 --> 00:48:18.997
Mathew Blades: There was a long time where my mom would call me and I would send her straight
00:48:18.997 --> 00:48:21.197
Mathew Blades: to voicemail. I wasn't interested in talking to her.
00:48:21.677 --> 00:48:25.837
Mathew Blades: And after that conversation that I had with my mom, number one,
00:48:26.057 --> 00:48:29.637
Mathew Blades: I almost never sent her to voicemail again. I would at least pick up and say,
00:48:29.697 --> 00:48:32.137
Mathew Blades: hey, I'm right in the middle of something. Can I call you back in a little bit?
00:48:32.857 --> 00:48:37.217
Mathew Blades: And so we went on to develop, I think, a much healthier relationship between
00:48:37.217 --> 00:48:41.077
Mathew Blades: the two of us, one where I would call her every Sunday and I would say,
00:48:41.157 --> 00:48:44.437
Mathew Blades: hey, how was church today? What did you guys talk about?
00:48:44.657 --> 00:48:48.517
Mathew Blades: And we would talk about the sermon and we would talk about how we were both
00:48:48.517 --> 00:48:53.817
Mathew Blades: going to try to put that into our lives in the days ahead. And it became a really
00:48:53.817 --> 00:48:57.457
Mathew Blades: much more peaceful relationship between the two of us.
00:48:57.517 --> 00:49:01.617
Mathew Blades: And the reason that this is so important, Kevin, and the timing of you and I
00:49:01.617 --> 00:49:06.237
Mathew Blades: recording this podcast is very interesting because one year ago today,
00:49:06.237 --> 00:49:11.837
Mathew Blades: we were in a hospice center with my mom and she was experiencing her final day.
00:49:11.997 --> 00:49:14.237
Mathew Blades: She passed away April 1st of last year.
00:49:14.477 --> 00:49:19.297
Mathew Blades: And I know in my whole heart that if we had not done our best to mend that relationship
00:49:19.297 --> 00:49:23.557
Mathew Blades: in some way, shape or form, I'd be living today with a lot of regret and I'd
00:49:23.557 --> 00:49:26.437
Mathew Blades: be living today with a lot of what ifs.
00:49:26.577 --> 00:49:30.637
Mathew Blades: And I don't have any of that. I don't have an ounce of that in my heart or my
00:49:30.637 --> 00:49:35.377
Mathew Blades: soul. I know that we put our relationship back together the best that it could possibly be.
00:49:35.577 --> 00:49:39.677
Mathew Blades: And that's why I want to encourage other people to jump into these really hard
00:49:39.677 --> 00:49:44.017
Mathew Blades: conversations with people they know they need to talk to because of the amount
00:49:44.017 --> 00:49:46.057
Mathew Blades: of freedom that's waiting for you on the other side.
00:49:46.057 --> 00:49:52.077
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. You know, what you just said, honestly,
00:49:52.397 --> 00:49:59.597
Kevin Lowe: what you just said summarizes all of it and it makes it applicable to every
00:49:59.597 --> 00:50:04.177
Kevin Lowe: single person, no matter where they are in life, no matter where in the world
00:50:04.177 --> 00:50:06.057
Kevin Lowe: they are listening to this conversation today.
00:50:06.057 --> 00:50:12.037
Kevin Lowe: That is it is the tough conversations that we don't want to have because it's
00:50:12.037 --> 00:50:20.017
Kevin Lowe: uncomfortable and yet it's the tough conversations that lead to ultimate freedom that's.
00:50:20.017 --> 00:50:22.717
Mathew Blades: It both with yourself and other people exactly but you gotta go there
00:50:22.717 --> 00:50:25.097
Kevin Lowe: Yeah wow I am,
00:50:25.809 --> 00:50:30.209
Kevin Lowe: I'm so grateful that you had that opportunity with your mom.
00:50:31.369 --> 00:50:35.869
Mathew Blades: You don't know, man. I mean, literally, like I said, I went to church last week.
00:50:35.869 --> 00:50:37.609
Mathew Blades: I was invited by a friend to go to church.
00:50:37.829 --> 00:50:41.229
Mathew Blades: And, you know, I've kind of decided that I'm going to go back to church from
00:50:41.229 --> 00:50:43.649
Mathew Blades: time to time because I really feel close to my mom there.
00:50:44.069 --> 00:50:46.889
Mathew Blades: And do you know the guy, do you know the artist, Brandon Lake?
00:50:47.449 --> 00:50:50.369
Kevin Lowe: Yes, I do. I know. I recognize the name. Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:50.649 --> 00:50:55.069
Mathew Blades: He's in a group called Elevation Worship. And he's just broken off into a fantastic
00:50:55.069 --> 00:50:57.069
Mathew Blades: group called the Sons of Sunday.
00:50:57.269 --> 00:51:01.409
Mathew Blades: At any rate, Brandon's got this really beautiful song called Gratitude.
00:51:01.709 --> 00:51:07.529
Mathew Blades: And it's just a song that I really think that always moves me when I'm listening
00:51:07.529 --> 00:51:09.549
Mathew Blades: to it. And sometimes it can move me to tears.
00:51:09.989 --> 00:51:14.749
Mathew Blades: And because I think about that as it relates to my relationship with my mom
00:51:14.749 --> 00:51:18.769
Mathew Blades: and bigger than that, the relationship that I have with myself and the relationship
00:51:18.769 --> 00:51:21.989
Mathew Blades: that I have with my kids now and my wife now, my friends now,
00:51:22.129 --> 00:51:24.309
Mathew Blades: and the people that are the most important to me.
00:51:24.509 --> 00:51:27.929
Mathew Blades: I'm so grateful that I went on this journey,
00:51:28.089 --> 00:51:31.689
Mathew Blades: that I had all of those difficult conversations, that I wasn't afraid to step
00:51:31.689 --> 00:51:36.009
Mathew Blades: into the energy of being the transitional character and moving myself and my
00:51:36.009 --> 00:51:40.189
Mathew Blades: family out of dysfunction and breaking cycles for us that I knew would make us better.
00:51:40.549 --> 00:51:44.649
Mathew Blades: And I kid you not, man, I walked into this church last Sunday.
00:51:44.869 --> 00:51:48.489
Mathew Blades: And what do you think I think the first song that they played was Gratitude.
00:51:49.287 --> 00:51:49.887
Kevin Lowe: Wow.
00:51:51.027 --> 00:51:55.207
Mathew Blades: It was so powerful, man. I instantly started bawling. I mean,
00:51:55.327 --> 00:51:57.087
Mathew Blades: I was brand new at this church.
00:51:57.267 --> 00:52:00.547
Mathew Blades: I was there with a friend who I don't, you know, not a super close friend,
00:52:00.627 --> 00:52:01.987
Mathew Blades: but we hang out from time to time.
00:52:02.207 --> 00:52:06.787
Mathew Blades: And I mean, just waterworks. And they weren't even like, they weren't sad tears.
00:52:07.007 --> 00:52:08.207
Mathew Blades: That's the best part about it.
00:52:08.487 --> 00:52:14.327
Mathew Blades: They were just these really joyful, happy tears, almost patting myself on the
00:52:14.327 --> 00:52:16.667
Mathew Blades: back. Like, Hey man, you did it. You did the work.
00:52:17.047 --> 00:52:21.207
Mathew Blades: Like, be grateful, be grateful that you did all the hard stuff because it's
00:52:21.207 --> 00:52:23.627
Mathew Blades: paying off and it's going to continue to pay off.
00:52:24.147 --> 00:52:29.687
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. I want to ask the question and I'm asking it kind of from two fronts,
00:52:29.947 --> 00:52:36.547
Kevin Lowe: both curious from how you handled it, but also curious from the perspective
00:52:36.547 --> 00:52:40.867
Kevin Lowe: of the person listening today who maybe they're thinking,
00:52:41.627 --> 00:52:50.267
Kevin Lowe: yeah, but how do you do all this internal work when you're juggling being a
00:52:50.267 --> 00:52:56.127
Kevin Lowe: husband, a father, you have your career, you're trying to provide for your family.
00:52:56.507 --> 00:53:02.207
Kevin Lowe: How do you balance all of that while at the same time giving enough time and
00:53:02.207 --> 00:53:04.507
Kevin Lowe: energy to pour into yourself?
00:53:04.927 --> 00:53:09.087
Mathew Blades: Yeah, it's a great question. And I'll tell you just what's coming through to me right now.
00:53:09.267 --> 00:53:13.947
Mathew Blades: I had a beautiful Buddhist teaching that I went to one time.
00:53:13.947 --> 00:53:17.087
Mathew Blades: And this type of question came up.
00:53:17.207 --> 00:53:20.827
Mathew Blades: I think it was a mom who asked this question to the Geshe-la that we were working
00:53:20.827 --> 00:53:25.167
Mathew Blades: with. And she said, I've got my job and I've got my kids and I'm just so busy.
00:53:25.387 --> 00:53:29.207
Mathew Blades: And I don't know how to like, how do I do it all? Right. Is basically what she
00:53:29.207 --> 00:53:31.547
Mathew Blades: was asking. And I think that's kind of what you just asked too.
00:53:31.947 --> 00:53:37.627
Mathew Blades: And he said something so simple to her. He said, I want you to make your kids your teachers.
00:53:38.870 --> 00:53:45.250
Mathew Blades: And so what that means is stop looking outside, stop getting external with it
00:53:45.250 --> 00:53:50.910
Mathew Blades: and just take your situation that you have right here, right now and make that
00:53:50.910 --> 00:53:52.990
Mathew Blades: how you practice this life.
00:53:53.730 --> 00:54:00.030
Mathew Blades: So when your kids, you know, are crazy, appreciate it because it won't be like that forever.
00:54:00.030 --> 00:54:03.810
Mathew Blades: When your kids are can't sleep at night and they want you to lay with them,
00:54:03.990 --> 00:54:07.090
Mathew Blades: go sit with them because one day they're not going to want to sit with you.
00:54:07.090 --> 00:54:13.810
Mathew Blades: When your husband drives you crazy because of whatever, sit down and let him
00:54:13.810 --> 00:54:15.690
Mathew Blades: know how you feel right now.
00:54:15.950 --> 00:54:20.210
Mathew Blades: Just tell him. Don't make it about him, but just tell him. And so I think that
00:54:20.210 --> 00:54:24.830
Mathew Blades: the way to answer that question is to say, just start to make really tiny shifts
00:54:24.830 --> 00:54:29.410
Mathew Blades: in your life that add up to a whole lot more. And I know this to be true.
00:54:29.830 --> 00:54:34.190
Mathew Blades: One day you will wake up and you will look back over the last year or the last
00:54:34.190 --> 00:54:37.970
Mathew Blades: two years and he'll go, wow, we've really made some incremental shifts.
00:54:38.270 --> 00:54:41.670
Mathew Blades: And so I'm going to keep going on this because I think it's important.
00:54:41.870 --> 00:54:46.490
Mathew Blades: I would love for people to remove the word balance from their vocabulary.
00:54:47.070 --> 00:54:51.830
Mathew Blades: I was somebody who was chasing balance my whole life, which is obviously a very
00:54:51.830 --> 00:54:55.670
Mathew Blades: Buddhist principle, yin yang, right? There's good, there's bad, find the balance.
00:54:55.910 --> 00:54:59.910
Mathew Blades: And what somebody told me was the more important thing for most of us to figure
00:54:59.910 --> 00:55:04.250
Mathew Blades: out is flow. how can you just go with it?
00:55:04.510 --> 00:55:07.650
Mathew Blades: How can you just move with the wave?
00:55:07.990 --> 00:55:14.270
Mathew Blades: And, you know, what was truth about me, Kevin, was when the waves were high
00:55:14.270 --> 00:55:17.450
Mathew Blades: and the ocean was rocky, I was at my best.
00:55:17.590 --> 00:55:21.590
Mathew Blades: But when the ocean got really calm and got really still, I sort of longed for
00:55:21.590 --> 00:55:24.290
Mathew Blades: this chaos and I longed for the choppier waves.
00:55:24.350 --> 00:55:27.670
Mathew Blades: I just felt like I was better in those scenarios.
00:55:27.850 --> 00:55:32.790
Mathew Blades: And I was really challenged to become better at going with it,
00:55:33.090 --> 00:55:35.250
Mathew Blades: not taking things so personally.
00:55:35.982 --> 00:55:39.542
Mathew Blades: Stop not advocating for myself, right?
00:55:39.662 --> 00:55:43.902
Mathew Blades: Like speak up when you need to say something. And I'll, if you give me a minute,
00:55:44.042 --> 00:55:45.762
Mathew Blades: I'd like to explain why that's so important.
00:55:46.022 --> 00:55:46.762
Kevin Lowe: Oh, absolutely.
00:55:47.482 --> 00:55:49.762
Mathew Blades: Yeah. No, what I've come to learn, Kevin, is that, you know,
00:55:49.842 --> 00:55:52.042
Mathew Blades: it doesn't matter what happened to you in your life.
00:55:52.182 --> 00:55:56.242
Mathew Blades: You know, we've all had hits and I've told you earlier that one of my hits was
00:55:56.242 --> 00:55:58.202
Mathew Blades: my dad dying at 23 years old.
00:55:58.642 --> 00:56:01.642
Mathew Blades: When I was trying to save his life, I was doing CPR.
00:56:02.962 --> 00:56:06.362
Mathew Blades: I was it worked.
00:56:06.682 --> 00:56:09.922
Mathew Blades: And this is totally unfair, but this is what happens to all of us.
00:56:10.122 --> 00:56:14.582
Mathew Blades: In those moments, this entire set of beliefs gets set up within you.
00:56:14.722 --> 00:56:18.022
Mathew Blades: And two of the core beliefs that got set up within me in those moments,
00:56:18.182 --> 00:56:21.342
Mathew Blades: and I didn't know this until much later in life, where number one,
00:56:21.542 --> 00:56:24.082
Mathew Blades: you didn't know enough and you weren't useful.
00:56:24.442 --> 00:56:28.822
Mathew Blades: And so if you live your life with that little programming in the back of your
00:56:28.822 --> 00:56:33.642
Mathew Blades: head that you're not useful and that you don't know enough, you're likely to
00:56:33.642 --> 00:56:35.842
Mathew Blades: act that way in a lot of situations.
00:56:36.162 --> 00:56:39.502
Mathew Blades: So you'll be in situations where you should speak up because you know better,
00:56:39.602 --> 00:56:42.122
Mathew Blades: but that little voice is in the back going, you don't know enough.
00:56:42.542 --> 00:56:46.282
Mathew Blades: You might be in a place where you really know that if you inserted yourself
00:56:46.282 --> 00:56:50.282
Mathew Blades: in this situation, you'd be very, very helpful to it.
00:56:50.362 --> 00:56:53.422
Mathew Blades: But that little voice is in the back of your head going, you're not useful.
00:56:53.982 --> 00:56:57.562
Mathew Blades: And so when I was in that retreat, those were a couple of things that I really
00:56:57.562 --> 00:57:02.002
Mathew Blades: had to go to war with and go to battle with and then ultimately surrender to
00:57:02.002 --> 00:57:04.382
Mathew Blades: was, which is, you are smart.
00:57:04.602 --> 00:57:07.842
Mathew Blades: You know a lot of things and you're really useful.
00:57:08.122 --> 00:57:11.902
Mathew Blades: You've helped hundreds, if not thousands of people in their life.
00:57:12.102 --> 00:57:17.182
Mathew Blades: And so I mentioned that because I want people listening to this right now to
00:57:17.182 --> 00:57:21.342
Mathew Blades: really sit down and get quiet with themselves, meditate, pray,
00:57:21.702 --> 00:57:22.762
Mathew Blades: call it whatever you want.
00:57:22.902 --> 00:57:29.822
Mathew Blades: But what is the outdated programming that you're running that you know is probably holding you back.
00:57:30.062 --> 00:57:37.002
Mathew Blades: There is so much value in figuring that out because a lot of it is so outdated.
00:57:37.362 --> 00:57:40.582
Mathew Blades: Like it's stuff for me that happened back in 1996.
00:57:40.642 --> 00:57:45.222
Mathew Blades: It's completely unfair that I'd be living with the same programming in 2025
00:57:45.222 --> 00:57:48.342
Mathew Blades: as I was in 96, right? That's ridiculous.
00:57:48.742 --> 00:57:55.122
Mathew Blades: So I really want to challenge people to get quiet and say, what are those pieces
00:57:55.122 --> 00:57:59.082
Mathew Blades: of programming running in me that are outdated.
00:57:59.362 --> 00:58:04.842
Mathew Blades: And, and I know our, it's time for an upgrade and then start to move towards
00:58:04.842 --> 00:58:08.522
Mathew Blades: those things, because I'll say it again, there's so much freedom waiting for
00:58:08.522 --> 00:58:09.462
Mathew Blades: you on the other side of that.
00:58:10.102 --> 00:58:15.122
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. 100%, man. Wow. So extremely powerful.
00:58:15.462 --> 00:58:18.222
Kevin Lowe: Thank you so much, man, for, for being willing to.
00:58:19.157 --> 00:58:24.317
Kevin Lowe: To share such a vulnerable and personal part of your story.
00:58:24.497 --> 00:58:31.017
Kevin Lowe: What you just shared with us, I mean, is stuff that a lot of people don't share.
00:58:31.517 --> 00:58:39.117
Kevin Lowe: But the fact that you can share and help who knows how many people just listening
00:58:39.117 --> 00:58:42.097
Kevin Lowe: to this podcast alone, let alone your own podcast.
00:58:42.097 --> 00:58:47.477
Kevin Lowe: I mean, it just, to me, it takes things to a whole nother level of,
00:58:47.477 --> 00:58:53.437
Kevin Lowe: of being able to use what we've gone through and be a help to somebody else.
00:58:54.077 --> 00:58:56.577
Mathew Blades: It's what you do every day of your life, Kevin. I mean, when you,
00:58:56.697 --> 00:58:59.277
Mathew Blades: when you were on Learned from People Who Lived It, you were one of those guests
00:58:59.277 --> 00:59:03.097
Mathew Blades: that I had on. I was like, whoa, man, you just leave a, you leave an imprint, right?
00:59:03.237 --> 00:59:08.577
Mathew Blades: And it's, it's, it's such a special skill that you have, the ability to light up people's lives.
00:59:08.737 --> 00:59:12.797
Mathew Blades: And so I'll say it right back to you. Thank you for being one of these other
00:59:12.797 --> 00:59:15.197
Mathew Blades: folks out in the world who's willing to light things up.
00:59:15.757 --> 00:59:19.397
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Oh, man. Well, thank you very much. Well, well, so Matthew,
00:59:19.737 --> 00:59:23.997
Kevin Lowe: let me ask you one of my next questions, which is the logical next question
00:59:23.997 --> 00:59:28.497
Kevin Lowe: is you were in radio for 28 years.
00:59:28.817 --> 00:59:31.037
Kevin Lowe: You have all this stuff happened.
00:59:31.457 --> 00:59:35.237
Kevin Lowe: You walk away from it. So what the heck do you do then?
00:59:37.557 --> 00:59:40.297
Mathew Blades: Yeah, right. What do you do with your life now, man?
00:59:40.537 --> 00:59:45.277
Mathew Blades: Um, I'm on a journey right now and I will tell you that initially,
00:59:45.597 --> 00:59:49.117
Mathew Blades: so on my fourth day of my retreat, I knew that I was going to walk away from
00:59:49.117 --> 00:59:51.917
Mathew Blades: my career and I was going to start a podcast and speaking series.
00:59:51.937 --> 00:59:56.417
Mathew Blades: I had learned so much in that retreat and my gift, right?
00:59:56.577 --> 01:00:01.177
Mathew Blades: My gift in, in from God, from the universe is my ability to communicate.
01:00:01.637 --> 01:00:04.457
Mathew Blades: I have just always been good with my words.
01:00:04.979 --> 01:00:10.279
Mathew Blades: And so I felt viscerally in my heart that it was my responsibility now to share
01:00:10.279 --> 01:00:14.259
Mathew Blades: all of the things that I learned in that retreat with other people.
01:00:14.479 --> 01:00:19.399
Mathew Blades: And so what's interesting is, in a lot of ways, I still see myself as that radio guy.
01:00:19.579 --> 01:00:21.699
Mathew Blades: I mean, look at me right now. I'm right behind a microphone.
01:00:21.699 --> 01:00:25.699
Mathew Blades: I'm having a conversation with somebody. I'm just using different words now.
01:00:25.979 --> 01:00:31.139
Mathew Blades: And so my podcast, Learned From People Who Lived It, has just been really the
01:00:31.139 --> 01:00:36.159
Mathew Blades: labor of love for me because I sit down every single week with people like you.
01:00:36.339 --> 01:00:41.239
Mathew Blades: I sit down with these unbelievable thought leaders in every kind of space you
01:00:41.239 --> 01:00:44.739
Mathew Blades: can imagine. And we talk about the nitty gritty. We talk about money.
01:00:44.859 --> 01:00:51.759
Mathew Blades: We talk about everything. And we really get to the root of why people act the way that they act.
01:00:52.039 --> 01:00:56.139
Mathew Blades: And, you know, then there goes my challenge again to update your programming with those people.
01:00:56.359 --> 01:01:01.039
Mathew Blades: And then similar to you, Kevin, I'd love nothing more than to be on a stage.
01:01:01.379 --> 01:01:07.659
Mathew Blades: I spend about 30 dates a year delivering this content to people that are willing to listen to it.
01:01:07.879 --> 01:01:12.599
Mathew Blades: I spent some I spent a lot of time in corporate America helping helping corporate
01:01:12.599 --> 01:01:15.899
Mathew Blades: folks kind of break the cycle of dysfunction because, you know,
01:01:16.299 --> 01:01:20.879
Mathew Blades: this stuff that I'm talking about right now, it has an enormous impact with
01:01:20.879 --> 01:01:23.099
Mathew Blades: the way that people show up for their careers.
01:01:23.619 --> 01:01:27.159
Mathew Blades: And and you think about it like you go to your like, you know,
01:01:27.259 --> 01:01:31.719
Mathew Blades: you go to your job tomorrow and you got 15 co-workers that are kind of in your sphere.
01:01:31.979 --> 01:01:37.059
Mathew Blades: And if 12 of those people are really dealing with some serious life issues,
01:01:37.319 --> 01:01:39.979
Mathew Blades: how do you think they're showing up for work, right?
01:01:40.099 --> 01:01:44.959
Mathew Blades: It's impacting our daily lives in every way, shape, and form.
01:01:45.259 --> 01:01:51.139
Mathew Blades: And so I really get into these situations and I challenge people to go to work
01:01:51.139 --> 01:01:55.879
Mathew Blades: on themselves so that they can show up as the best version of themselves,
01:01:55.879 --> 01:01:58.139
Mathew Blades: so that they can be the best co-worker,
01:01:58.359 --> 01:02:03.079
Mathew Blades: So that they can have the kind of career that they've dreamed about and be the
01:02:03.079 --> 01:02:08.199
Mathew Blades: kind of parent or brother or sister or friend that they want to be about.
01:02:08.559 --> 01:02:13.679
Mathew Blades: Because we've been lied to this entire time and we've been lied to that it doesn't
01:02:13.679 --> 01:02:17.119
Mathew Blades: make any sense for us to pour into ourselves.
01:02:17.299 --> 01:02:20.559
Mathew Blades: But the truth of the matter is, it's not selfish to put yourself first.
01:02:20.679 --> 01:02:23.819
Mathew Blades: It's the only way we ever get the best version of yourself. End of discussion.
01:02:24.279 --> 01:02:28.299
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Yeah, well...
01:02:28.889 --> 01:02:33.309
Kevin Lowe: Well, Matthew, for the person today, I mean, obviously your podcast learned
01:02:33.309 --> 01:02:34.249
Kevin Lowe: from people who lived it,
01:02:34.569 --> 01:02:40.329
Kevin Lowe: but where else can people go who want to connect with you to whether the podcast,
01:02:40.509 --> 01:02:44.209
Kevin Lowe: you as a speaker, or just to get plugged into your world?
01:02:44.409 --> 01:02:49.329
Mathew Blades: So I've got a couple of different websites, man, that I think are fine for people to key into.
01:02:49.729 --> 01:02:55.569
Mathew Blades: Learn from peoplewholivedit.com is my podcast website. and then matthewblades.com
01:02:55.569 --> 01:03:00.129
Mathew Blades: is where people can go to kind of snoop up the speaking side of things.
01:03:00.669 --> 01:03:04.229
Mathew Blades: Obviously, people are on social media, but I won't lie to you and tell you that
01:03:04.229 --> 01:03:07.509
Mathew Blades: I spend a lot of love and attention on my social media.
01:03:07.769 --> 01:03:13.229
Mathew Blades: I see it as kind of a drain suck, so it doesn't get the attention that I probably should put there.
01:03:13.409 --> 01:03:16.729
Mathew Blades: But, you know, those two websites are a great place to start.
01:03:17.089 --> 01:03:23.049
Kevin Lowe: You know what? I've come to adopt the feeling of social media in terms of that
01:03:23.049 --> 01:03:24.829
Kevin Lowe: is it's a digital business card.
01:03:25.189 --> 01:03:30.109
Kevin Lowe: It's there if you want to go look at it. But otherwise, I'm not going to let
01:03:30.109 --> 01:03:35.349
Kevin Lowe: my world get consumed by it. So, yeah, right.
01:03:35.489 --> 01:03:39.009
Mathew Blades: That's kind of how I approach it. I put just enough effort and attention into
01:03:39.009 --> 01:03:40.309
Mathew Blades: it to be there, to be relevant.
01:03:40.329 --> 01:03:45.029
Mathew Blades: But I can get sucked down that algorithm hole way too easily. So I have to be careful.
01:03:45.449 --> 01:03:51.789
Kevin Lowe: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Matthew Blades, my man, it has been an absolute joy and pleasure.
01:03:51.889 --> 01:03:54.669
Kevin Lowe: To have you here today to get to hear to get to hear your
01:03:54.669 --> 01:03:59.329
Kevin Lowe: story but I guess more than your story to get to hear this this personal journey
01:03:59.329 --> 01:04:05.929
Kevin Lowe: that you've been on that I believe so many aspects of this journey can relate
01:04:05.929 --> 01:04:12.829
Kevin Lowe: to so many people and I can only just hope and pray that the person listening today is
01:04:13.090 --> 01:04:16.450
Kevin Lowe: There's been something that you've said that's just really touched them.
01:04:16.510 --> 01:04:19.690
Kevin Lowe: And I appreciate you for being here.
01:04:19.990 --> 01:04:23.390
Mathew Blades: Brother, I hope we share a stage together one day. I really do.
01:04:23.590 --> 01:04:27.570
Mathew Blades: I think you've got so much to offer the world and to the audience that comes
01:04:27.570 --> 01:04:31.890
Mathew Blades: to Kevin's podcast week in and week out and to the people that are thinking
01:04:31.890 --> 01:04:33.590
Mathew Blades: about bringing him in as a speaker.
01:04:33.830 --> 01:04:36.990
Mathew Blades: I can only tell you that your life will be better after he's done.
01:04:37.790 --> 01:04:43.470
Kevin Lowe: So is it being announced? Kevin Lowe and Matthew Blades coming to a stage near you.
01:04:47.270 --> 01:04:49.190
Kevin Lowe: What a way to be inspired.
01:04:50.330 --> 01:04:54.130
Mathew Blades: That's it, man. Appreciate you. Thank you for taking the time.
01:04:54.750 --> 01:04:58.870
Kevin Lowe: 100%. For you listening today. Oh, man.
01:04:58.970 --> 01:05:02.930
Kevin Lowe: I hope you're coming off of today's interview is inspired, empowered,
01:05:02.930 --> 01:05:06.710
Kevin Lowe: and honestly, just as enlightened as I feel today.
01:05:07.450 --> 01:05:12.110
Kevin Lowe: Matthew is one of the most genuine, most amazing people you'll ever know.
01:05:12.290 --> 01:05:16.570
Kevin Lowe: So please be sure to support him. Go check out his podcast.
01:05:16.930 --> 01:05:22.010
Kevin Lowe: All those links are inside of today's show notes. So be sure to not let this
01:05:22.010 --> 01:05:24.750
Kevin Lowe: be the last time you hear his voice. The guy is amazing.
01:05:25.110 --> 01:05:28.430
Kevin Lowe: And I appreciate you. I appreciate you being here.
01:05:28.750 --> 01:05:32.450
Kevin Lowe: And hey, get out there and enjoy this beautiful day. This, of course,
01:05:32.610 --> 01:05:35.430
Kevin Lowe: is another episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.
01:05:36.710 --> 01:05:42.650
Theme Music Plays: I will not fear the storm, my hopes will define. I walk by faith, not by sight.