00:00:00] John: Morning Mateo, how are you?

[00:00:02] Mateo: I am just fine, brother, out here in Portland, Oregon, again.

[00:00:07] John: Bright and early.

[00:00:08] Mateo: Bright and early, beautiful fall morning, and a lot to be grateful for. Got a great guest today,

[00:00:14] John: we’re excited. Excited. The you commented before we hit record, but the yeah, the Steelers are 6 3. Shitty the shittiest team in NFL with a six and three record.

[00:00:28] Mateo: and I’m going to give you a corny line. That’s no bullshit. Yeah.

[00:00:34] John: one 14. Excited to have the founder and CEO of the global improvement. I’m sorry, I messed it up because I see, I’ve always called it the Carbon Offset Company and now it’s, is it changed? Whatever the case, Matt, thank you so much for joining us.

[00:00:53] John: Thanks for joining the show.

[00:00:54] Mateo: Welcome.

[00:00:54] Matt: you. I appreciate it. And thanks for having me on. Yeah, a little clarification. We were the Carbon Offset Company. Now we do more than planting trees. We had to do a little name change.

[00:01:05] John: There you go. There you

[00:01:06] Mateo: Love it.

[00:01:06] Matt: The new improved version.

[00:01:09] John: So we met back in the spring in Missouri at a VRMA show and we had some time to talk. We chatted up, we were right across the street from each other in the aisle. Then we learned a little bit about what you’re doing. And, On our show, we’d like to talk about where you are today, but we’d love to talk about how you got to where you are.

[00:01:32] John: And, we understand the importance of what you do, and we’ll get into all of that. But, looking at your work history if you will, looking at that timeline, it seems very interesting to me. You’re doing some metadata stuff.

[00:01:46] John: You’re doing some sales rep stuff, talk to us about this journey. How did you stumble or, why are you where you are today? And let’s talk about it.

[00:01:54] Matt: Yeah, no, that’s a great question. How far do you want me to go back?

[00:01:58] John: You tell your story,

[00:01:59] Mateo: beginning, brother. Yeah. How’d you get here?

[00:02:02] Matt: I guess I’m not going to obviously talk about this from this stage, but since I was literally three years old, I have as soon as I could write, like I wrote in my journal that I’m going to be a CEO, I’m going to own my own business someday. So for some reason. That was like embedded in me, like at a super young age, I think it had something to do with my dad, being entrepreneurial and coming from an entrepreneurial family.

[00:02:28] Matt: So I think like it was almost a predetermined destiny to some degree. Just that it was in me at, since I was a very young kid. And, I think what I did was just like always explore like the opportunities. That were presented to me and I never really shut them down. That led me into some really funny spots.

[00:02:48] Matt: Like one time I turned in an essay, like an English class for college. And the professor was like, Oh, you should be a writing tutor. Let me introduce you to the director. And I became a writing tutor, which honestly, I think I not great at. But I was like, whatever, I’m gonna get paid to do this.

[00:03:03] Matt: I’ll do it. And I learned a ton through it. And I went in one time to a professor and I handed him some questions on Forget the name of the class, but it was working with just like big data. And I asked my professor some questions by the end of it.

[00:03:17] Matt: He’s do you need a job? Like I need like a marketing person for my, he was a head of technology learning and services department. And I was like. Yeah, like I don’t know how to do any Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop software whatsoever. I’ve never been a marketer ever, but yeah, like I’ll do it.

[00:03:35] Matt: And which that then taught me a ton of other skills I use to this very day. And I think that mindset just was like repeated over and over again. Like once a door opened and I saw I could step through it. I was a lot of times scared and nervous and all those emotions, but I just did it.

[00:03:53] Matt: And I was like, this is my leap of faith to try to go into that. I did the same thing when I found out about this program called Semester at Sea. I was like, I have to try everything I can to get on this ship. I’m going to be involved with people that are probably coming from wealth, which I didn’t. And then also combined with an open mindset to explore and see the world. And I was like, I want to be a part of the, I want to see what that group like operates like, and I want to be fully in that.

[00:04:23] Matt: So that was a big thing. Really transitioning into Paycom was a super launch to me. That’s where I learned how to sell for sure. I’ve had a lot of sales positions in the past for internship purposes, but when I went to Paycom they’re a top tier, top class organization.

[00:04:41] Matt: I went to the, it was a cool story with that too the Minneapolis office I got hired to. They all got fired like right before I got there because they’re the worst performing office in the country. They’re like number 52 out of 52, like dead last. And I was, my new managers like got hired and I was his first hire and we took.

[00:05:05] Matt: Our team from last place to first place. And I was the number one rep on that team. So that was like just a journey to go through like those successful practices and the way that they’re structured as a business. I took a lot of that and I’d stored it away. Like all these different journeys that I openly was a part of.

[00:05:23] Matt: I stored it away. I learned and.

[00:05:26] John: So sales, never afraid to back down. Always looking to go ahead and basically it seems push the envelope or explore every, possible opportunity to the the best of your ability these are entrepreneurial traits, right?

[00:05:38] John: These are traits that, that successful, CEOs have, these are successful businesses that operate fast, not afraid to break things this is a, MVP mindset, right? Like the, put out that minimal viable product , and see what sticks and what doesn’t and then pivot from there.

[00:05:59] John: So great, man. You did this Paycom thing. It looks like close to three years. And then you’re saying, fuck it. I’m going to start a company.

[00:06:06] Mateo: Well, and not just a company, right? Like someone that’s completely opposite from what Paycom and those things are, right? As well it’s not like you’re like, Oh, I’m going to go, create a competitive and stay in one space, like you transitioned to something that.

[00:06:20] Mateo: frOm the outside looking in, seems to be, , it would have to be a passion project this has to be something that’s close to your heart, right? And when you look at the nature of the business of which you created, this isn’t… Business as usual. And I it’s, I’m interested to hear where these stories connect.

[00:06:37] Mateo: And, John and I have both been in sales and business development for a long time. And we understand that a large part of that is painting pictures and telling stories, and understanding and creating value. So I’m very interested to hear the next part of like how you transitioned from, where you came from and all of the things that you’ve learned into where you are today.

[00:07:00] Mateo: And yeah, that, so let’s pick it up from there. I’d love to hear that.

[00:07:04] Matt: Yeah, for sure. No, I appreciate that. And yeah, it was a total change, and there’s a reason for that. So basically, as much as I learned from Paycom, and there was like a lot of good parts to it for sure there was a tremendous amount of bad parts to it. To where I felt like I was losing myself.

[00:07:20] Matt: Like I was like literally losing this like inner core child wonder curiosity energy that like I pride myself on having, like I’m very curious person. I love exploring different things in life and like just digging into life, like getting as much of life as I can, squeezing it, like having it full and like having everything I can out of it.

[00:07:41] Matt: So eventually like doing what I didn’t want to do every single day, I started feeling like you were leading a dog into a kennel and you’re just like, ah I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go back to work. Oh, like this is killing me. And eventually I was like, oh man, like I’m starting to change.

[00:07:56] Matt: I’m starting to dull, like my excitement for life is waning away. And luckily cause I had some success there, I had some money like saved up. So I got to this point where they started getting way too micromanagey and I was like, screw it. The straw that broke Campbell’s back was

[00:08:15] Matt: they wanted me to share my location, and I was like, no. This is it yeah, I was like, this is crazy you guys aren’t tracking me this is the sign through my resignation letter right then and there.

[00:08:29] John: It’s like those things where there’s some of these companies now are embedding chips into people’s wrists and shit.

[00:08:34] Mateo: What

[00:08:35] Matt: That’s bizarre to me. People sign up for it, like voluntarily. I know what you’re talking about. Not me, not for me. I was like, okay, this is too big brother. Like I can’t do that. This is my sign. So I bounced like immediately. That was my decision maker and. I was just sitting down that night and I was like, all right, I got to do something.

[00:08:54] Matt: I don’t know what I want to do, but I know I want to do something. And clearly what I’m doing now, like this type of thing doesn’t work for me unless I’m like passionate about it, unless I really care about it. Like it’s not going to work for me in the long run. So it’s not about making money.

[00:09:08] Matt: It’s not about like really starting a business like it is, but it isn’t. The more part that I knew at that point what I needed was something that I was actually going to be fulfilled by and like passionate about and driven towards every single day like wake up and get purpose or whatever or I knew it was a short term game is going to destroy me just like pay content basically.

[00:09:27] Matt: To start, I was thinking, what do I care about? What legacy do I want to leave behind? And I do want to leave behind a legacy. I want to get to my deathbed and look back and be like, alright. I made an impact in the world. I made a difference. The world is better because I lived here.

[00:09:47] Matt: And I want to do it on a big scale. And to me, to be able to do that as big a scale as possible. And something I always cared about was the environment. I grew up in the woods. I live in the woods right now. I spend so much time in nature. It’s always been something that I’ve been really attached to.

[00:10:05] Matt: And the thing I love about the environment is it doesn’t matter your beliefs, your background, how much money is in your bank account. It doesn’t matter your skin color. It doesn’t matter anything. You are affected by it. There’s no escaping it. We are all 100 percent affected by it. We’re all attached to it.

[00:10:21] Matt: And so I just thought that was my light bulb moment of okay, the environment’s my thing. If I can help fix the environment, I help everybody. I help the entire earth and it goes beyond just people. It goes beyond, to the animals. It goes to every single water cycle, all this stuff.

[00:10:36] Matt: The environment became my mission. Then I just had to attach it to something like, okay, how do I, basically provide value to a business while helping the environment. And it’s funny, the brainstorming that I had in the beginning, thinking back to it, like my very first thought, cause I was like, movement was really big at the time.

[00:10:56] Matt: You guys know movement watch brand. Okay. Okay. It was like a pop up watch brand that became really like successful, like really fast and like high quality, nice looking watches for a hundred bucks or whatever is their thing. And so I don’t know if I had that in my head or whatnot, but I was like, all right, maybe a watch company.

[00:11:13] Matt: I’ll start with that. And the way my brain was working as I

[00:11:16] John: I love this.

[00:11:17] Matt: The way my brain was working was like, how can I make the world better every time I sell a watch? And I was like thinking like issues I could support. And I was like, Oh, maybe like Flint, Michigan, like I could clean the lead out of the water and put it in the face of the watch and sell these like Flint, Michigan lead faced watches.

[00:11:36] Matt: And like part of the sales would go contributing to solving that issue.

[00:11:42] John: And nothing like heavy metal attached to your wrist too, right?

[00:11:44] Mateo: Yeah, I

[00:11:50] Matt: sO I was like, all right, like maybe that’s something to go towards. And then I figured it out, like after some research, like they’re pretty much are solving that issue, which is nice to hear not good for business, like this watch idea was like, oh that’s not going to work, it’s only a matter of years before they basically clean this up, but that kind of set me on the trajectory of my thinking, like my next thought was like, oh, clean carbon out of the air and I’ll mold it into a carbon disc for the watch.

[00:12:16] Matt: And as I thought through that process okay, I’m literally like the next step after pressurized carbon is diamonds. So I’m like, okay, now I’m talking about making diamonds out of air. Like maybe I’m like ahead of myself.

[00:12:27] Mateo: , pretty lucrative.

[00:12:29] Matt: If I figured that out, I don’t have to sell any watches. I would just diamonds. SO eventually I was like, okay, how would I start simple? I make reusable products. So I made this water bottle is one of them I designed and made. It’s like a high quality reusable product, displacing single use items, making a tote bag, to bring to a grocery store with you.

[00:12:50] Matt: And then Every time I’d sell an item, I would plant trees associated to that sale. And they’re all really intentionally made like through and through the best labor practices, every single packaging materials, eco friendly as possible. Like every step of the supply chain was really intentional.

[00:13:09] Matt: And I think I made some great products, but the only downside was I had no B2C experience, and I didn’t sell anything. , I like, spent all this money, made all this stuff. I felt ridiculous, because I was making tons of money coming from Paycom. Now I’m like, Moved from Minneapolis. I’m in the middle of the woods.

[00:13:25] Matt: So I started it here at my cabin in the middle of the woods to start. Now I have Elon Musk wifi, but the start I had to do like this phone dial up wifi where like my business partner, I’d be like, Hey, I’m getting on a zoom call. Turn your internet off. Like I’m not going to take this call. And It was just failing really fast.

[00:13:43] Matt: There was a spot of what the hell am I doing? I’m in the middle of the woods. I’ve done my money into like water bottles and tote bags. No one’s buying them. I’m like stressed out. This and that. And eventually we had one influencer that was backing the program. She won like Miss.

[00:14:00] Matt: Eco USA. I forgot her title, but she was like Miss Eco something of a pageant. She invited us, got us into this like pageantry in Omaha, Nebraska. And

[00:14:12] John: This story’s insane,

[00:14:13] Mateo: much. I love this so much, by the way.

[00:14:16] Matt: it was a wild journey. Yeah, we get invited to this. Eco friendly beauty pageant, Omaha, Nebraska. And they’re like, okay, you guys are going to be judges.

[00:14:24] John: I’m sorry.

[00:14:26] Matt: It’s so

[00:14:27] John: Wait, that sentence. Eco friendly beauty pageant Omaha, Nebraska.

[00:14:33] John: This,

[00:14:34] Mateo: just so much to unpack in that, but again, I’m going to stop interrupting you. Are

[00:14:49] Matt: that point. So it’s funny to look back. So I was like, all right, this is our big make or break we’re going to this beauty pageant, we’re gonna put up our best we’re gonna, we gave, like, all our products to all the contestants, we made this big video to be, like, on this theater screen, we had to give a speech to everybody, and then be a judge, which I have no right being a judge at a beauty pageant, I’ve never even been to one but I was like, whatever I’m, same mentality I’m ready to jump in, I’m, here’s an opportunity, let’s go.

[00:15:17] Matt: And I knew going into it, I was like, this is either going to make or break us, because the idea of giving every contestant all of our stuff was that they had decent social media presence. And then they would take pictures of the stuff and shout us out. But literally no one ended up doing that at all.

[00:15:32] Matt: So we ended up dumping all our product away. We got no visibility from it. And it was the kill. It was the break. Which is good. Look back. It’s good to fail fast. I believe that for sure. Like it’s good to feel fast because if it would have made us afloat, like I might still be trying to make that work.

[00:15:51] Matt: But it was a clear Oh this is not working. So I’m at the bar of the hotel after this event and I’m just in the dumps, like, all right, this business is a failure. I’m ready to throw in the towel. Like I’ve given a lot of work and this is clear, it’s not going to work.

[00:16:09] Matt: And, my savior was this guy named James and he did all the hair of the contestants. So he was like a hairstylist and he owned like a couple different different barbershops. And he

[00:16:23] John: It’s still getting crazier. I love that your savior is a hairstylist at a beauty pageant in Nebraska.

[00:16:30] Matt: Yeah. Yeah, seriously of all places yeah, you find your little moments of divine intervention so to speak. thEy could be anywhere. But I go to James, or he goes to me, he’s like really passionate guy and like awesome dude. And he’s just Wow, you guys really inspired me.

[00:16:47] Matt: What you guys are doing is amazing. We love it. I want to be a part of it somehow, some way. And I was like, Oh, wow. Yeah. That sounds good. As we get into talking okay.

[00:16:57] John: Cheers.

[00:16:58] Matt: Yeah, let’s have a drink and let’s think about this a little bit. And we landed on where he’s how about I plant a tree per haircut I give like across all my salons.

[00:17:07] Matt: And I was like, yeah, like we would never deny anybody planting trees with us. And that’s a new form and fashion, but. I’m down. So it was a thousand trees because a thousand haircuts per month. And at that point, like we had done total like 300 trees and that was like counting like friends and family to buy our stuff. So we’re like this is thousand trees per month. This is like a dream come true pretty much.

[00:17:31] Matt: That was the light bulb moment where I was like, okay, I’m going to do this. I’m going to do this. And in a lot of industries, and I’m going to figure out ways to like, I can get other businesses involved in helping the planet and then make it good for their business. Help them spotlight that they’re making this difference.

[00:17:48] Matt: Help them stand up from the competition that aren’t making this difference and get them on this train that like, we’re all in this together, which we are, if we, as business leaders, combine our minds to think like this and integrate it with your absolute core operations of your business, you can make your business for good, right?

[00:18:07] Matt: In terms of, for the environment, or at least better. And that became the focus, and the next day, I’m like, coming back from Omaha, Nebraska. And I got to make this drive and I was sitting in a traffic jam. There’s like a huge tornado that went through. So there’s a bunch of traffic and everyone stopped.

[00:18:25] Matt: It was crazy busy. And I’m just like sitting around okay, like everyone’s cars on, no one’s going anywhere. These emissions are just escaping for no value. No one’s literally getting anywhere. We’re just sitting here. And I started looking in the research and I’m like, there’s no one helping this, like the personal contributions of like automotive travel, which is one of the biggest contributors of CO2 emissions.

[00:18:50] Matt: No one is really tackling this. So I’m like I’m going to tackle that. And automotive became our first. And then we just kept identifying other ways we can help industries and expanded and now we’re, vacation, the wonderful world of vacation rentals, which I love the people here are great.

[00:19:06] Matt: And yeah, that was the launch. That was the story of getting us to this point and I’m sure some other stuff, but yeah,

[00:19:13] John: When was that exactly? When was this amazing EcoBeauty pageant? What year was that?

[00:19:19] Matt: that was just over three years ago.

[00:19:22] John: Okay. Talk to us a little bit more about the business model today, right? You started off, so you know what you’re doing now, right? It was that light bulb moment, there’s a few light bulb moments in a short amount of time, right?

[00:19:33] John: And it all happened in Omaha, Nebraska, which is you should pay tribute to Omaha somehow, someday.

[00:19:39] Matt: I don’t like them on a mascot, but yeah, they should.

[00:19:43] John: Back in the late 90s on a trip across the US, I, we blew a tire and had to spend the night in Omaha, Nebraska and it got way overcharged, actually I think my car might have exploded, whatever, it was a long time ago it was a crazy trip, that’s a different story, so Omaha’s got some good stories, you’ve made the decision you’re going to go in the automotive vertical, right?

[00:20:06] John: now working in, hospitality verticals and different things. But talk to us about that business, your business model. Obviously you’re doing this for offsetting carbon. You’re doing this to plant trees, but you have to, it has to be profitable or is it a nonprofit?

[00:20:20] John: Let’s talk about this model a little bit.

[00:20:22] Matt: Yeah, for sure. And I want to say it’s, it started off with offsetting carbon and planting trees. It’s grown from there. No pun intended, but we’ll dig into that. So It is a for profit. To start, it was always intended to be a non profit. So here’s the thing about a non profit world is that I didn’t know because, I’m just a fresh, bubbly, just hoping for the best type of, I’m squeaky clean.

[00:20:48] Matt: I have no, miles on my tires, basically. So I went into this yeah, we’re going to be a non profit. And that’s. This is how the business is going to go. And then after talking to a nonprofit lawyer, like guiding us through that process, I found out that you need a board of directors that essentially run the company and you lose all your power.

[00:21:07] Matt: Like I could be booted out at any point. Like they could dictate where the company goes. And that didn’t sit well with me because at that point I was like 26 years old. I’m like, I’m not starting something that I have no control over. Like maybe that’s something that comes when I’m older.

[00:21:24] Matt: And, but like right now is my entrepreneurial stage. Like I, I want to have control. I want to dictate where the business is going and I don’t want to just, have the risk of someone could boot me out at any point, which I now. have seen that happen twice with some buddies of mine that started non profits.

[00:21:41] Matt: So it’s a real risk. Eventually the non profit that was started off as a really innocent mission, when they become successful, the board changes dynamic. And then they typically, a lot of times, go after the founder and get him out and go on their own direction, because that… Which is really sad, because the founder had this dream, the goal, they built something that’s actually successful, no one really knew it was going to get to that point, and once it gets to that point, money kind of gets people greedy and changes their feelings and beliefs, and then all of a sudden, the founders boot it out.

[00:22:12] Matt: which I’ve seen twice from personal friends. So I was like I’m not going that route. So it became a for profit, but we run just like a non profit. Vast majority of the funds is going towards our mission. We’re putting everything back into like R& D and just growing what our mission is.

[00:22:30] Matt: So I forget the exact term, but it’s like a… For purpose based, like for profit, I think is what they call it.

[00:22:38] Mateo: B-Corp?

[00:22:38] Matt: We’re in the certification process right now. It’s a long one

[00:22:42] Mateo: is.

[00:22:43] Matt: yeah, it’s a

[00:22:45] Matt: beast, but yeah, we’ve started that transition and we’re doing all the things that we can to like be a part of groups like that, because.

[00:22:53] Matt: It’s just easy for us to prove that out because most of the, we run like a non profit. But basically what we do is, we make a little bit every time we make the world a better place. So just like any business selling anything, you sell it for X, it costs you Y and there’s a gap in between there.

[00:23:11] Matt: So we do the same thing. That’s the model. But on that note, if you don’t mind, like I would like to share just like a mindset that’s developed in my head through that process, because a lot of people have problems with that. Like they think of a nonprofit or a four mission based company.

[00:23:27] Matt: Like they think like right away, you shouldn’t make any money whatsoever. Like it should all go towards the mission, which is yeah, conceptually. That makes sense, but in reality, like if you don’t have any money to have a team or invest in stuff like There is no making a difference. Like you can’t just do it for free.

[00:23:46] Matt: Like you’re not going to hire employees that will work for free. It doesn’t work that way. And it’s so funny that people inherently, like their initial reaction is , Oh, you shouldn’t make anything. But if you started a oil company, like you’re pretty much, their reaction is Oh, you’re going to make so much money.

[00:24:03] Matt: You’re going to be a billionaire. So it’s really funny. We turn that completely opposite in my mind of if you hurt the planet. You’re accepted to make so much money, but if you help the planet, like you should make zero dollars which is we should probably change that thought process and encourage people that are making helpful changes.

[00:24:21] Matt: I don’t

[00:24:21] Mateo: Not I agree a hundred percent. John knows I’m big on ethical capitalism. And I was actually, talking with someone actually before we jumped on here about this, because it’s something I’m big on. And if you look at, historically the narrative of, the poor non profit is relied upon to save the world.

[00:24:39] Mateo: But the reality is the world doesn’t change until business adopts what’s important, right? You look at how far we’ve come, especially in this space, with recycling and the need for renewable energy and the reason we’re behind. is because we didn’t approach it from a business mindset. It was the non profits and others that were fighting this fight to justify, its existence.

[00:25:03] Mateo: And, we could be making green jobs. We could be saving the planet and doing all these things in tandem while making a profit and actually allowing, it’s the processes and how you act. with what you do. It’s the, it’s your business ethics that determine what you do, right? Because, from one viewpoint, you can’t do anything if you have no money and no resources to, you can scream, you can yell, you can protest, you can throw, a banner, you can do whatever you want to.

[00:25:33] Mateo: But unless you have the means to make change, You’re just noise in the background and hoping that someone that can and does have the resources will come along and, swoop you up and help you in your cause. So what I love about what you’re doing and I love about your business is you’re not waiting for that to happen.

[00:25:52] Mateo: You’re going out and being proactive and giving the business community a platform to actually participate and make change today. And that’s what has to happen. That’s ethical capitalism, right? It’s a simple concept, but that mentality has always been, and growing up in Oregon, I grew up in Oregon.

[00:26:08] Mateo: So I, everything from the spotted owl, the saving salmon, to all of these nonprofit causes that you’ve seen and have been in, in justified fights, but they’ve always been dependent on raising money for their causes, as opposed to actually doing something that could be self funded. And actually allowing them to do what their purpose is.

[00:26:28] John: But in It When you get government involved, right? If you could circumvent the government and just do it and get it done, government muddies it so bad and they and it changes the direction you’re trying to go. And now with deep pockets and lobbying and all these different things, and now what you initially set out to do.

[00:26:50] John: and accomplish in, in to make progress. Before you know it, you’re going down a whole different path that you didn’t even want to go down. And you’re not solving anything because it’s taking more money and so I love this idea. Tell us about what specifically your project and what you’re offering to the hospitality sector, to property managers, to anyone that wants to get involved, , what is the process and , what does that look like?

[00:27:16] Matt: Yeah. And I appreciate that because I think it’s one of our more exciting solutions that we have. There’s two pronged approach and always like through the businesses we work with, it’s to help them differentiate. through making a difference through, through sustainability. And essentially it’s a two pronged approach.

[00:27:32] Matt: Like one, we’re digging into like solid practices that we can share that are easy to adopt that make long term, drops in their footprint. So it just makes them more efficient and helps them like drop waste. And, really easy things like, Hey, don’t do single use plastics, find a way to have reusable plastics, at least, involved in your.

[00:27:54] Matt: Rentals, such an easy, simple, boiled down example would be like those like shampoo and conditioners like that, like our small plastic tubes that are in, some Airbnbs. Go away with that, have a refillable one or at least buying like these huge jugs of it, it really reduces the waste and it’s cheaper for you.

[00:28:12] Matt: So that’s a, that’s a. Good thing is like usually being more eco friendly in those terms also correlate with cost efficiency. So it’s like we’re educating them on different practices, but like that’s that’s nothing new. There’s a lot of companies that do that but I don’t, I didn’t want to overshadow that.

[00:28:30] Matt: Like number one, our goal is to help you reduce your footprint. To the minimal as possible that’s our step one. Step two is instead of limiting the negative, let’s focus on the positive. It’s a total mindset shift to be like, okay, Instead of every time a guest comes through my property of how little bad that can be, how about we focus on every time a guest goes to your property, how good can it be for the environment, for everybody?

[00:29:04] Matt: And that’s where our sauce comes in. That’s where we play. We help… Property managers and properties in general make an environmental difference typically around their area, or at least somewhere near their properties in an environmental way. So we plant trees. One of our programs is like doing a tree per night that someone stays at their property.

[00:29:27] Matt: Which really adds up over time, especially they have a lot of properties. So we’re getting trees in the right areas. Another one that we’re, we recently got into is we’re cleaning up plastic from the ocean now. That’s indicating the name change from the carbon offset company. We needed to be more diverse and like the good that we can do.

[00:29:45] Matt: So now the other program is every week that someone stays, we’ll clean a pound of plastic out of the ocean.

[00:29:51] Mateo: Oh,

[00:29:52] Matt: And number three. Is this one’s brand new. I actually was just at the Mexico convention, basically the VRMA of Mexico Expo

[00:30:02] Mateo: XBAR V? Yeah. Great

[00:30:03] Matt: Yep. Have you been there?

[00:30:05] Mateo: I have not been personally, but everyone I know that’s there and has come back is just railing about it. And that it’s a really great show for multiple reasons. Alright.

[00:30:15] Matt: It is a great show. So yeah, I suggest people to go to that. But. I met a professor down there and he is way behind like coral restoration. So that’s going to be another like thing that we’re going to be able to offer and basically give these packages like, okay, let’s use your rental as a force of good.

[00:30:33] Matt: Like anytime someone goes through here, One of these positive things are going to happen. Either we’re going to plant coral, we’re going to clean plastic out of the ocean. We’re going to plant trees on land and we’re

[00:30:43] John: What What if someone wanted to do all three? Is that an option? Can you like build your own and package, like if someone wanted to be like, Hey, listen, we want to do this and do this.

[00:30:52] John: Like, you know, we want to clean a pound, that’d be cool.

[00:30:55] Matt: Yeah, no, it’s an a la carte. So you can either do all three at one time. You can switch off like, Hey, this month we’re going to focus on the corals. This month we’re going to focus on the trees. We’re really flexible, like any way people want to contribute and make something that they’re excited about within our, realm that we can we’re all for that.

[00:31:12] Matt: So we set up those programs and then we help them highlight. So we make stuff, for the website, we make stuff for their postings, we make stuff for their social media channels and help them showcase like collectively, that there’s going to start making a good difference that they’re becoming different from other options out

[00:31:28] John: It’s sustainability sells. Let’s not oversight that, this is a huge marketing like positive thing and , it’s going to generate a positive fiscal ROI for you, on top of doing the right things for the environment and making every place better place, there are travelers that will not book unless you’re sustainably certified. So this is, super smart because you’re checking off all these boxes and, we’ve had, and I want to ask about your, if you’re partnering with some of these other people we’ve had on, obviously Systonica is they’re doing some pretty cool stuff in this space.

[00:32:07] John: I just love I love the direction that, as a whole, as a, you’re doing your thing, they’re doing their things. They’re all aligned on the same direction. It just makes a ton of sense. I think more need to get involved than are. , my assumption is this is something that’s, it’s easy to add and easy for property managers to adopt.

[00:32:27] Matt: yeah, it’s incredibly easy once you’re part of the program and decide what you want to do, you basically set it up and forget it, essentially is how it works, so every time that a room is stayed in, we’re tracking that, we’re getting into syncing their iCal links into, so they don’t even have to report to us, we’re just like, hey, there’s so many rooms were consumed or reservations were consumed last month, we sign on the bill, Yeah.

[00:32:51] Matt: We get the trees planted or the coral planted or the plastic cleaned up. They get their resources that they can share to their guests. Then, that they’ve increased on their contributions. And we do all the work. That’s the beauty of, working with us is that, we’ve done this before we figured it out.

[00:33:07] Matt: We make it really easy on you. Because let’s face the facts that everyone’s busy. That’s one of the things I looked at when creating this company was like looking at why do people not do this more? Because I think inherently people want to do the right thing. Everyone wants the right thing.

[00:33:24] Matt: And everyone wants the good in the world for the vast majority of people. But like usually the blocks in front of them are time constricting, they don’t know how to do it, or it’s expensive. So we intentionally, try to remove those barriers and we are a plug and play for them to be able to add the sustainable portion onto their business where they don’t have to dedicate a bunch of resources themselves to go figure this out and put it on.

[00:33:47] Matt: As far as your point, like with working with other people, we talk to them and everything, like we all share which is really great. Like it’s a. It’s a good community, like I always say to anyone in this space, we’re on the same team. Like you have the same mindset as me of we’re just trying to make the planet better.

[00:34:03] Matt: And we found like value in business to, to unlock that ability to do so we’re all out there rooting for each other and sharing like what works and whatnot. And yeah, it’s a small community, but it’s it’s a good one with a lot of potential to, to make a huge change. So it’s really exciting.

[00:34:20] Mateo: you, have you encountered in our space specifically any pushback or any, hospitality, whether it be managers or other companies that are just like, not on board or, don’t see the value of what you’re doing in the mission that you’re pushing forward?

[00:34:37] Matt: Yeah we do, unfortunately, because yeah, you’re it’s one of those things in my mind is like, why wouldn’t you be behind this? But I think it boils down to two things. One is people just feel they’re too busy. And they’re like, I don’t even want to take two seconds to like, even hear about this.

[00:34:54] Matt: That’s probably a Biggest barrier, which is valid. Everyone’s, everyone is really busy. But the other one is one that like, I would like to learn to overcome better because it makes sense in my mind. And I just need to get better at sharing it with other people that make sense in their mind.

[00:35:09] Matt: And that’s where if we don’t plant in their backyard, they’re like not going to be a part of this, but we plan a lot of places. We plan like 150 sites, like across the world. And we can, we have a good network and ability to like expand on that. But the reality is we’re not in everybody’s backyard.

[00:35:25] Matt: That is super hard to be like, all right, you want to be a part of this program, but only if you plant your trees 20 feet away from your property, otherwise I’m not a part of this. And like the real thing to understand is like a tree anywhere to a small degree helps. Like all the ecosystems are interconnected. Everything is interconnected at the end of the day, interdependent.

[00:35:45] Matt: Everything depends on the flow and cycles of all the different systems in place that make up ecosystems in the environment. And they got to get out of their head that even though this isn’t in my very backyard, and usually plant for sure in their country, usually in their state, like somewhat close to them, like it’s going to help their environment and it’s just, it’s for the greater good of everybody and like triggering that mindset shift to this isn’t, this is for you and your business to differentiate, but it isn’t just for you.

[00:36:13] Matt: This is for everybody, like you can still be behind this idea without us being in your very backyard.

[00:36:20] John: Do you generate, and I love that aspect of it, I’m just trying to think of, you’re trying to, You’re talking about how do you overcome this, this blocker, do you generate like a, and you know how sometimes you can, there’s like a carbon offset report, right?

[00:36:34] John: Talking about at this company, they did this and they’re working to get to carbon neutral, right? And obviously you have expanded past this of just carbon offset, but do you generate an annual report for these? Companies that they could, I know you’re doing marketing materials and do different things like that, but maybe if you don’t do this already, a report that’s based on, hey, you did this, these are all the things that happened, and because of this is the greater good that came out of it, and then turn that into social as well.

[00:37:03] John: , if you’re not already doing that could be something that, hey, we’re in the next state over, we’re in the same country as you, but this is what your contribution does and you’re going to get this annually or biannually or whatever the case may be.

[00:37:17] Matt: Yeah, no, you’re spot on. I actually, right before the call, was just talking to Paige, who you know about this. She’s one of my, she’s on my team, and yeah, she was, we were talking about this exact thing of yeah, we gotta make these reports, because we have the data, we just don’t have the manpower, really, to create it.

[00:37:34] Matt: So I’m just like, yeah, like… I know we got to do this. It’s just I need a marketing person. We’ve tried a couple different people. They didn’t really fit. And then it’s just, it’s hiring people is super hard. Like you go through four marketing people and you’re like, ah, my God, I can’t put this on the back burner.

[00:37:49] Matt: I got to focus on sales now. And then this and that. So you’re absolutely right. It’s something that we can do. We want to do. We will do today. We don’t But hearing these pushes is like, it’s good to bring it up to the mind and be like, yeah, this is a priority. Like we gotta do this because I think people just get a lot of juice out of that.

[00:38:06] Matt: They get the, get the feeling that they want. We do create this dashboards that it’s like A watered down live version of that. Like we got to better those as well, but at least keeps track of like their tree count and like what that relates to in terms of impact.

[00:38:22] Matt: But there it’s, there’s a long way to go. This industry is I said this to Paige, I’m like. This isn’t like starting a McDonald’s franchise that like millions and millions of people have done before. There’s an absolute blueprint, step one through 100 to get a successful McDonald’s off the ground.

[00:38:40] Matt: This is a brand new business. So I just, there’s stumbles, there’s falls, there’s drawbacks. There’s learning

[00:38:45] John: Startup life, man.

[00:38:46] Mateo: Yeah it’s a real thing, man.

[00:38:48] Matt: It’s crazy. Yeah.

[00:38:50] Mateo: but there’s a runway, man. You have a lot of room to grow in an area that is, relevant and important, right? That’s exciting, right? And exciting to see, because again, this industry is going to embrace it. You’ve seen the statistics. The travelers care.

[00:39:03] Mateo: And, the property managers and others are looking for ways to tell that story that they’re doing their part. And whether it’s, putting EV chargers on their homes, whether it’s, putting sustainable practices into their businesses, whether it’s working with companies like you to ensure that every guest that comes is offsetting their footprint and making an impact.

[00:39:24] Mateo: It’s a hell of a story to tell, right? And, again, I think your success is just going to continue to skyrocket the more they can see that they’re playing a part in working with you, right? That’s going to be exciting to see. I’m looking forward to seeing that too.

[00:39:37] John: I’m super stoked too, man. On behalf of Mateo and I and the No BS Podcast, we’re going to figure out a way that we’re going to contribute to the No BS Podcast as well. And we’ll talk to you about what that looks like, but I think that it would, there’s a couple different options just thinking about it right now.

[00:39:56] John: And how we can go ahead and start, pushing it as well. I think it’s super smart and I actually have, I got some good ideas. We could talk about that offline, but what do property managers need to do? But before we get out of here, what do they need to do if they want to go ahead and get signed up with you and start planting trees for every stay or every week or, clean up the, the plastics or help rebuild the coral reefs?

[00:40:20] Matt: Yeah. So it’s really easy. Go to our website, globalimprovementgroup. org. We have under the take action section, there’ll be business and then there’ll be lodging. And if you go through there, you can reach out to us directly for a consultation. You’ll meet with myself and Paige Addington.

[00:40:38] Matt: She’s our head for

[00:40:40] John: Shout out to Paige. Shout out to your team. You’ve got a

[00:40:42] Mateo: Yeah, you got a great team. You do.

[00:40:44] Matt: Yeah, Paige is wonderful. So yeah, you’ll get to have fun meeting out of it too. I promise. Like she’s a great person to chat with. People typically like her more than me. So

[00:40:52] John: I could see that. I definitely could see

[00:40:54] Matt: hard to, it’s hard to, yeah, it’s hard to beat. So I don’t even feel bad saying that. But yeah come through the channel reach out to us.

[00:41:01] Matt: We’ll meet with you. We’ll figure out what, really makes sense for you, where to do this change, how to do it. It’s literally a 20 30 minute meeting and we pretty much got everything we need to get you going. So it’s very easy and we’d love to help you. Help the world.

[00:41:16] John: Love it. Global improvement,

[00:41:18] Matt: Group.

[00:41:20] John: globalimprovementgroup. org.

[00:41:21] Mateo: Really, John? Yeah. We’ll put the links in the comments because

[00:41:25] John: Yeah.

[00:41:25] Mateo: can’t see. And remember we’ll definitely make sure that we get your down in the in the comments and other sections. We’ll make sure people have access to get in towards it.

[00:41:34] John: Matt, thanks so much for joining us, man. Appreciate it.

[00:41:36] Mateo: It’s been

[00:41:36] Matt: Yeah, I appreciate you guys. John, Matteo, you guys are awesome. And yeah, excited to see where this goes. Thank you very much for having me.

[00:41:44] Mateo: Anytime.