How To Build Connections - Matt Russell - ProCents

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. Subestima Matt Russell, welcome to the show. Uh man, I appreciate Sebastian. I appreciate you taking some time out of your day to hang out with us here at the Beyond the Story podcast. I have to think about my show names before I say them because I host three shows now, which I don't recommend any human being or podcaster does, but yeah, here we are. So uh you and I are part of a secret society. I'm totally kidding. Uh we're part of an organization called the Bellweather Alliance. I'm brand new to the uh Alliance uh from probably this the summer on here. So that's where you and I first connected. And uh we had a call a couple weeks ago, and uh we got some some similar things working. And uh I wanted to get you on the show to talk a little bit more about you and your backstory and what really brought you to present day with what you're currently working on. So let's back up to the beginning of the story, help our listeners better understand where it all started.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah, so I'm Matt Russell, I'm I'm here in Atlanta, Georgia. Um, I'm a native to Atlanta, so it's you talk to a lot of people in Atlanta now and they say it's fairly uncommon, but I'm now with my children, I'm seven generations in the same county. Wow. So, but I've grown up around hardworking people. Um, my dad was an entrepreneur, um, started an electrical business, and then my dad always said work smarter, not harder. So after you know, working hard for a while, I figured it's time to start working smarter and working on bigger ideas that take less uh stress on my body and take a bigger toll on my body that allowed me more free time to do what I like doing, which is connecting with people. And it's it's been a good journey. Um, but it's it's been a lot of ups and downs throughout the journey.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Sure. So and when when did it start? What have you always been an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

I've always had the entrepreneur mindset, but unfortunately, uh that did not really occur until about five years ago. Um, when I became an entrepreneur and opened my own company. Uh, I'd always worked for people and always had given been given some liberties. Uh, but when my vision, I've said in the past, when my vision uh superseded their goals, it created conflict within it, um, which told me I needed to be an entrepreneur and create a vehicle that uh people could associate with me and uh tie their businesses to so we could, you know, blaze the path forward. And that's how uh I I launched ProSense. And what year was that? Uh we launched that in 2019 officially.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

And I was checking out your website before the interview. You've you've worked with some pretty big brands, the likes of Disney and BMW and the Home Depot. And so what what type of what what type of things do you do to help these organizations?

SPEAKER_00 3:00

So I I've built my name in the energy space in the trade organizations. So uh primarily in the lighting, but every one of the brands uh that you've seen or referenced, uh, I've worked with in helping do energy conservation projects, um, also do some other stuff with either EV charging or supply chains or some other really neat IoT type applications, which is what in the trade industries we call the Internet of Things, which has been a lot of fun to help get things started. Um, and now that the foundation's been laid, they can do a lot more with it. Very cool.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

So, um, how how many clients do you work with at any given time?

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Well, on the as a direct to the consumer, I probably only work with two or three at any given time just because my time is better focused working with the organizations of the buyers and sellers to bring them together and bring these opportunities to them because they're more an apt to work uh and have more resources to bring the project forward, where for me as an individual, it's a little bit harder on the scope and and also with just liabilities. Um, I'd rather not put that liability on a company. I'd rather, um, like myself, I'd rather have it be with a larger entity. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

So, what would you say the the the hardest part of the startup process was for you?

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Just willing to take that first step. You know, a lot of people say that they want to be a business owner, but they don't want to go and open a bank account or they don't want to go and get their S corporation sit down with an attorney to you know have that corporate document set up. Um, that was the first thing is had I had to get out of my own way. And then once I got out of my own way, I had to allow other people to be a part of my journey, um, not as an equal partner, but to help me move the my vision forward because I can only achieve so many things because I'm skilled at certain things, but I'm also not skilled at others. So um having a team around me was um humbling, um, but it's also the right move.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Yeah. And what and to the opposite of that, what would you say the best part of the startup process is?

SPEAKER_00 5:14

The best part is knowing that the journey will only end when I decide to give up. Love it. Um, and that's been awesome because I've got people that are you know highly motivated behind me. Um, but it's been really, really good to have their input to say, yeah, that's a great idea, and that's a bad idea. And but when I see it as a bad idea, I look at it as it is a bad idea as an anchor or a bad idea. Um, and it's just dead weight, and we just need to let that go.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Sure. It was funny. I thought I thought about it. That this isn't the exact quote, but it's like, everyone wants to be a lion until it's time to do lion shit, you know? Yep, that's right. That's exactly what that reminded me of. You're exactly right. Everybody talks about it. So it's kind of like my one of my favorite quotes is you know, everybody wants it, nobody wants to work for it. That's right. Uh unfortunately, that you know, that doesn't uh that doesn't bid well when it comes to uh the world of entrepreneurship. And so um we're rounding out 2022 at the time we'll record this episode, which is just wild to even say, let alone here on there. What are you guys excited about for 2023?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

So 2023, um, we've identified some new verticals to increase the overall presence within four pro sense in the trade order organizations, and also I've identified a couple large um possible JV ventures. Um, for me, it that's the the thing that's getting me excited for 2023 is the people that I'm going to be trying to reach out to to create avenues for them to partner with me. Um some people may say they're giants, other people may say I am. Uh, I just look at it as a great way for us to blend ideas and you know create a betterment for humanity and you know, maybe save some energy along the way. I love it. Yeah, imagine that.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Save some energy along the way here. Yeah, I've been having a lot of uh I host another show for a for a tech outlet called Grit Daily. And oddly enough, they've been having I've been having a tremendous amount. I didn't even know this exact. I mean, maybe it's my lack of education, not maybe, but it definitely is. But a lot of guests coming on to talk about my I could be wrong here. Mining lithium. Is that correct? Yeah. So and then, like, so then I'll go in there like, so what does that even mean? Can you break it to me down to me like somebody's never even heard of this? And then they start to do that, and I'm like, I'm still confused, but I know we need this. So um it's great to see these things happening. The the fact that we're able to leverage our expertise, tools, and resources of the world to really help, you know, shift this whole energy, uh some would say crisis, uh right?

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Yeah, uh absolutely, and I I think um as much as we want to push put our foot on the accelerator for 2023 um or 20 2035 and beyond, um, where they earmark some things. I think it's good to make sure that we're constantly building what we currently have um so we can support those uh those agendas as they come up to us on in 2035.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah, that's I think that's great advice because let's not get too far ahead of it. Let's make sure that we're what we're working with right now is working and matters. Yeah. Well, dude, it's been great to uh great to connect with you face to face, virtually face to face on here. And I look forward to to staying in touch with you here um you know through through bellwether and what you got going on. I know we've chatted about a few things podcast uh related to. So I'm excited for those conversations, but I appreciate you taking some time uh out of your day to hang out with me here. Uh any final thoughts for our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Well, hey, you know, I always like to say the the power of connections is picking up the phone or just reaching out to someone. If you don't know what you're doing right, uh ask someone, they'll tell you. Um and just take that advice with a grain of salt, and then you'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Absolutely. Ask questions. There are no dumb questions, right? That's right. Hey, thanks again uh for your time, Matt. I really appreciate it. And do you want to connect with Matt? I'll make sure to put his link uh and links to connect uh in the show notes. That's the description of this podcast episode. So make sure that you check that out. And speaking of connections, connect with Matt. Thanks again for your time, brother. I appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Nah, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

You got it. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.