Eileen:

Hello, and welcome to Soul of a Leader Podcast, where we ignite soulful conversations with leaders. In today’s episode, Dr. Alicia and Dr. Eileen sit with Rich Matthews to discuss learning through leadership.

 

Alicia:

Welcome to Soul of a Leader Podcast. In today’s episode, we have Rich Matthews. He is the partner and owner of VistaNational in Oak Brook, Illinois. He is also a proud daddy, a proud grandfather, and a great leader at VistaNational. Welcome, Rich Matthews to Soul of a Leader.

 

Rich:

This is Rich. I’m very excited today to be part of Soul of a Leader. I’m looking forward to spending some time discussing leadership and what it means in my life.

 

Eileen:

Can you share with me how you would define your leadership style or, and how you lead?

 

Rich:

People need to be led. In my business as a salesman and a manager, I encourage all individuals that come on board or even in my life when I meet, like I met my son-in-law 10 years ago and learning how to lead others is something that I try to convey to them so that they can have a successful life by leading. There are a few leaders in this world, most people follow. And in order for you to truly get ahead in life and become successful in your life and also in your business life, but in your personal life also, leadership is at the top of my list. So for example, in sales, so many individuals that we bring on in this business recently or past, when we bring them into, encourage them, or they’re interested in hiring with us to become a sales representative, a lot of people don’t realize the hard work that it takes to succeed in sales. They’re looking for an easy route to become successful.

And they look for… If in fact, something happens where they have a negative in there, somebody says no to them on the telephone and they don’t… They get discouraged too easily, my answer to that is you need to always go out and push that aside, don’t listen to what other people tell you because other people will tell you, you weren’t made for this job. For example, in my life, my parents discouraged me from getting in… Put my nose to the grindstone and won’t back out again and never stopped. I try to teach that to others when they’re brought on board and some people will get discouraged and prefer to go to a job and work nine to five, and you can be successful in that.

 

Alicia:

Right.

 

Rich:

If you’re looking to control your own life and control your own income, you do have to be the leader and have an attitude that I can. Not that I can’t.

 

Eileen:

Well, and with that, Rich… Oh, sorry to interrupt. It’s-

 

Rich:

I’m sorry, go ahead.

 

Eileen:

… high rewards, high risk in sales, but it’s so hard because you’re managing a number. Tell us how you pump your employees up with that?

 

Alicia:

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Rich:

Well, it doesn’t take long to see if the person that you’re working with has what it takes to persevere in this type of business. Now I’m not calling them… I’m not saying that they can’t persevere in other businesses. What I’m saying is in our business or in any type of sales business, there’s a personality that you have to have. You have to be able to… People buy you, first of all, they don’t buy the product.

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Rich:

It’s very simple. People go through sales classes and training classes. And the way I look at it, I’ve never been through a training class or a sales class. I got into this business with something that I truly believed in, in the beginning, and I still do today. And if you don’t have something that you truly believe in, it’s very difficult to be successful at it. And in the beginning, when I started, I was in the life insurance business and I was selling term life insurance against whole life insurance. And I believed in it. My brother passed away at a very young age. He would have had a $50,000 whole life insurance policy, and because I got in this business, he ended up with a $250,000 life insurance policy. And the premiums for that were 75% less than what he was paying for the $50,000. That is something you can believe in. That is something you can go out and talk to people about.

My brother had four children at the time. He was young, passed away, and left his wife with at least a quarter of a million dollars so she can help the kids. So I look at that and I say, “I can believe in that.” Now I go out and I don’t care what anybody says to me. They could say no, people can say I don’t know what I’m talking about early on because I was young, but I just kept learning and listening to others that I was able to believe in and I became successful because of that. Now, I believe that most people need to find that thing that they love and they truly believe in. Once you do that, the rest of it, I think is easy. You just work harder than the next guy. You don’t have to have the best education. You don’t have to be the most articulate. All you have to do is want it, want it more than the other guy.

And I’ve watched them come and go in the 35 years I’ve been in sales. They’ll interview somebody that comes in with a suit and tie, he’s got a graduate degree from Harvard University and he was successful in the business world and came over to the sales world and was not successful because he felt that he had already paid his dues. You’re always paying your dues. There’s never a time when you’re not paying your dues. Does that make sense?

 

Alicia:

Oh, yeah. And one of the things that I like what you said, Rich was oftentimes, and it could be a generational thing or it could just be an individual thing. People give up too fast because they don’t want to, as you say, put the work in or don’t understand the power of perseverance and grinding and getting it through, but you got to be passionate about it. And so what I hear from you is a lot of passionate leadership, a lot of love in what you believe in. You gave a great example about your learning points about helping a family member get the best insurance. And so, talk a little more about what you do to challenge others to be their best in that type of business that you’re in? Because sales are like… You said sales are not for everyone.

 

Rich:

True. What’s exciting for me when I’m working with a young individual is they’re not used to being recognized. If you really want to get someone excited, give the credit to other people, rather than taking it for yourself, give the credit to others, recognize them, and they will jump through hoops for you. Encourage them, congratulate them on the little things. Don’t wait for the big things to happen. Give them the encouragement that they need, that they seek. Everybody is looking to be recognized. And I believe that that is a big part of success. If you’re going to be a leader, you want people to follow you. People will not follow somebody that’s complaining, that blames others, that’s grouchy, that doesn’t have a… Not only at work but at home, if you’re not happy and successful at home, you’re probably not going to be long-lasting in business, so successful as a leader.

So, it’s a big circle. It just works in your whole life. Christ came into my life many years ago, I often wonder why am I still here? When I see great people like my brother who passed away and others at such young ages, and I know that God had a plan and his plan is for leadership for me and my family and for my grandchildren to make sure that we carry on Christ’s word. And that is a big part of my family and my life with my family is a speaking Christ.

 

Eileen:

Thank you so much for sharing that because of what a soulful leader is, and we have this in our book, Soul of a Leader Echoes. We call it SAS, which is spiritual, authentic, and servant leadership. And what you just explained is exactly.

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Eileen:

… It aligns with SAS.

 

Alicia:

Oh my gosh. Yes. Yes.

 

Eileen:

Yeah. And leaders need to be authentic like you said. The followers can see if you’re transparent or not. And the engagement and energy between a leader and their followers is an energetic connection.

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Eileen:

So could you share with us a little bit more about how you bring your spirituality into your day-to-day leading?

 

Rich:

Well, part of life is God taught me all of life is God and Jesus, and people see it in you. It’s hard to explain how every part of my life, everything positive and negative that’s happened in my life, I’m always praying to Jesus and asking questions as to why? We don’t always know what the answer is to that, but during a meeting or during a seminar, I love to give credit to Jesus Christ. I know at times people feel it’s not right to do in certain spaces and certain areas, but the public schools, for example, it’s difficult sometimes because of church and state, and a lot of the times in certain areas they are not allowed to pray prior to a meeting. It’s happened several times, but what I try to do is always bring my positive attitude with my love. I think it just shines through me as far as caring for people. What does God have us here for? Why are we here?

I think that there’s a purpose for every life. And I think that purpose is to spread love and joy, happiness. And whenever you can give that credit to Jesus Christ and let other people know it. All you need to do is say that a couple of times, people know where you’re coming from throughout your life once they get to know you. I don’t have to express that every single time, but people know that my heart is always in the right place and you will never ever get an excuse from me. I will always own up to what’s good and what’s bad. And if I’ve made mistakes, I’ll admit it. There are no gray areas for me. And I think people see that also. One of the big advantages I had, when I was at Blue Cross, is the trust that I was able to gain with the underwriters.

If you don’t have trust with underwriting… There were several sales reps that didn’t have that trust. They were sneaking bad business in and they had a bad reputation, but I had a reputation. I have a reputation in my industry where companies know if Rich Matthews is involved in this, you don’t have to worry because he will let you know if there’s anything bad going on with this case. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’m a Christian, honest leader. And I think it just shines through.

 

Alicia:

Wow.

 

Rich:

I can’t explain how or why, I just live my life. And I try to express that to my grandkids from the time they’re born. I love it.

 

Alicia:

Well, one of the things as I stated earlier at the beginning of the show, I’ve met you through business. I was working out as a client at a municipality. And so it does have a lot to do with knowing who God is in your life as a leader. And I like to also talk more about what you said about church and state and then the business, where people oftentimes don’t want a person to either pray over their lunch or at a big meeting or something. And I think some people have to get out of that thought process because there are so many great things that you can get out of just acknowledging the presence of God in a business. With me being on my own, leadership comes from him. He teaches me how to lead and that’s the best teacher. So talk a little bit about some of your values. I know you mentioned some of them, what are your top five values that you as a leader, make sure that it’s like at the forefront of you doing business or talking to your staff? What are some of your top values?

 

Rich:

Well, being spiritual, having a passion for what I do. I would say being grateful for things that I have already and not always wanting more. Being fair with people. And most of all, having integrity. Once you lose your integrity, you can’t get that back. Integrity is something that’s not given to you. It’s something that you have to own. And there is really no way to get integrity, but once you’ve disappointed somebody or lied or were deceptive, it’s very difficult for other people to trust you. So, those are my top. If you want to call them the five top, for loss of words-

 

Alicia:

Yeah.

 

Rich:

… values that I have. And I could tell you, there’s many more. I’m sure if I had time to sit and think, but I don’t think there’s much more you can go for, it’s got to start with being spiritual, period.

 

Alicia:

Absolutely.

 

Rich:

It all starts with God. I don’t know how… I often wonder how successful people are successful when Christ is not in their world, but I can’t be the one to judge them. And I don’t, I just am curious, because he’s such a big part of my life that I don’t know what I would do without Christ in my life. So-

 

Alicia:

Yeah.

 

Rich:

… it would be a very difficult life to be able to go through it and not have that comfort that somebody has always got your back. He is always there for them. They’re always there for [crosstalk 00:17:53]. He’s always there for you.

 

Alicia:

Yeah. Yeah. You’re singing our tune.

 

Rich:

Yeah. It’s so fun to talk about it. And then when you mix it with business, it’s almost in our industry though. It’s sad because they’ve taken God out of so much that I think our kids are missing out on a big part of what it takes to be a winner. And it starts with Christ. And I don’t know how we’re going to get that back. The schools today, a lot of the schools are taking that out of the curriculum and-

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Rich:

… the colleges have more or less pooh-poohed it. My poor niece, she’s 28 years old now, but she went to college as a Christian. She came out as an atheist and today she’s 100% atheist. And I don’t talk to her much. I pray for her and I haven’t written her off as a niece, but I used to follow her on these media, social things. But with the things that she says and does today, you could just see she’s a lost soul.

 

Eileen:

Well, and with that, as you said, you send love, you pray and when we go back to what Alicia said, people living with God in their life, there’s a steadiness that I can see when I talk to people. There’s a calmness knowing that someone is with them. And as you said we’re trying to get that back. And Soul of a Leader is living with that, making sure that you share… 99.9% of the people on this earth, believe in God. Our US money has In God we trust on our bills, right?

 

Rich:

Correct.

 

Eileen:

So, what I’m hearing and what I heard from Alicia too, if you open the conversation, people will sometimes come in and some people may not. But what I liked and I heard from you as a great leader is that you don’t judge and it’s sometimes hard not to do that, right? And as a leader living with Christ in your heart, what do you see are triggers and how do you kind of make sure you’re on that steady path as a leader? Because I know sometimes if I’m not sleeping or I’m tired or I’m overwork, my patience gets lower and it’s harder and I have to just recenter and pray. So, do you have any tips or tools or tricks to say how do you do that?

 

Rich:

Wow, it’s all true. Everybody gets down, we’re human, we’re not Christ. We all make mistakes. We all get tired. We all get crabby, short fuse. I’m not perfect. I pray every night when I go to bed for the day and I wake up in the morning, praying that I could do better. God gave me the patience. That’s all I asked for. I might not be the most patient individual. And I think that sometimes that shows in my leadership skills is that I sometimes assume people should understand and know better and sometimes get short, but when that happens, I try to take some slow breath.

I’ve learned as I get older to slow down, especially when you’re sending an email or a text, think about it a day before you send it because if you’re not in a spiritual mode if you’re not always in that mode and you’re not, there are times when you get down and you’re just tired and you think that tomorrow is going to be worse than today and you start getting on yourself and you’re thinking, “Well, yeah, that’s me. I’m a human being. I’ve definitely got to pray tonight. I got to spend more time with Jesus.” And that’s what I do. And I teach that to my grandkids and my daughter and my wife and I pray together. And she feels the same way I do. She’ll be the first to tell you I’m not perfect.

 

Eileen:

Well, and what’s neat about you sharing that, we’re all like that. And one time, a spiritual director told me, when you’re in the heart of things, like sending an email or you think something’s going on, or someone’s there, she said three days. And she said it’s because of the crucifix, right? And then Jesus. If you feel the same in three days, then act, but just pray and wait for three days.

 

Rich:

That’s a very good point. And I’ve gotten to one day.

 

Eileen:

It’s okay, we all have our trials.

 

Alicia:

I’ve been practicing for some time doing that three-day because I found out if I react too fast, it’s just not in love. And I kind of understood what you were saying, Rich. It’s not about being perfect. And I think sometimes we beat ourselves up because you do so. But for what we believe as leaders, God is not asking us to be perfect. He just asks us to love more and understand that we’re a work in progress. And I just try to use those three days. It can be hard, especially when it’s something that is an area where you’re trying to grow in life and this seems to be right where you’re being tested.

 

Rich:

That’s true. And I could tell you the fast-paced world that we live in today; sometimes it doesn’t give me three days to contemplate and continue to pray. They’ll call you the next day and want an answer. So no, I do understand the more time that you take to pray and thinking about it, the better the results will be. So, I work on it every day. It’s a struggle every day and I love it. I just love it. I hope to see God come back into our schools and to our universities. And I just want them back in the life of most people. I think that that is the missing element in a lot of leadership skills. I do believe that. And I know when I’m with somebody when I’m working and they’re working towards leadership and wanting to be a leader and wanting to be the best at what they can be when they drift off, I try to drag them back.

I can sense they don’t have God in their life completely. It’s not that they’re not God-fearing, it’s just they’re not God-practicing. They’re not spending the time that’s needed, that God expects from us. This is not what I consider to be the free lunch. We’re put here, it’s a gift from God. And what we need to do is use that and share it with others at the right opportunity.

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Rich:

There are times when people will go off and speak non-stop over and over, but talk the Bible and you’ll turn people… I love to go out and lead by example. And at the right time, just at that perfect time, I’ll say, “You know what did you ever ask Christ for a little bit of help in that area?” And see the reaction. And they’ll know. I can tell and then-

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Rich:

… And you work through it. It’s gosh, it’s amazing. I have 30 years, 35 years ago, it’s amazing what happens as we mature and get older and understand why we’re here.

 

Alicia:

Yes. Yes. Well, time flies when you’re having great conversations. So we are certainly enjoying you on the Soul of a Leader Podcast today. But as we get ready to end, we always like to ask our guests to leave us with some words of wisdom for our listeners, for us, because you certainly have a spirit that we recognize as just sharing the love. So words of wisdom.

 

Rich:

Yeah. I can say that if you’re looking for success in your marriage and success in your business, you have to spend more time understanding yourself and where you’re at this moment in your life. Speak with somebody that you trust in your church, in your neighborhood, in your synagogue, speak with somebody that you feel you could trust and open your heart and listen to them. If you’re hurting right now and you’re down and out and have a nose that where we’re at with COVID and all the things going on in the world today, there are so many people out there right now that need help. And the only thing I can tell them, word of wisdom, turn to God, spend more time praying and understand that God is on your side. Don’t ever think that God has left you. That is just never going to happen.

You believe in God, you believe in Jesus Christ and you will be successful in ways that you cannot even imagine, but it takes a lot of faith. Those are my words of wisdom.

 

Alicia:

Oh my gosh.

 

Eileen:

Thank you so much.

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Eileen:

Thank you. Thank you so much.

 

Alicia:

I was soaking it all in.

 

Rich:

Well, I enjoyed it. I enjoy talking to Christians and successful individuals. We’re on the same page.

 

Alicia:

Yeah, yeah. We are so glad that you were able to be on the Soul of a Leader Podcast. Rich, thank you for just… Man, yeah, this is.

 

Rich:

Yeah. I get a little nervous when I’m being recorded, but I truly speak from the heart, so.

 

Eileen:

Speaking from the heart is exactly what the Soul of a Leader is about. So thank you. We’re so grateful.

 

Rich:

Thank you.

 

Eileen:

And thank you for sharing everything.

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Eileen:

Thank you for joining us on the Soul of a Leader Podcast. We are igniting a new way of leading with your soul and interviewing ordinary people with extraordinary impact. Thank you for listening to the stories of our leaders who will help and guide you on your leadership journey. For more information on our podcast, please visit our website at www.soulofaleader.com. Thank you for listening.