Matthew Lesko | Free Money: Government Grants, Hidden Benefits, & Seizing Free Opportunities

“When searching the web, remember, .com’s generally take your money, while .gov’s and .org’s typically give it to you in some form.” ~ Matthew Lesko

Guest Bio: Matthew Lesko is a renowned advocate for educating Americans about government programs and benefits. With over 40 years of experience, he has sold more than 4 million books and has become a household name through his colorful TV infomercials, guest appearances on Oprah, Larry King, Good Morning America, and David Letterman. Now, at 81, he continues his mission through “Lesko Help,” a 15,000-member community that assists people in accessing free government money and resources. His life’s work has empowered millions of individuals to find the financial assistance they need to thrive.

SHOW NOTES: 

• Website: LeskoHelp.com
• Resource Links from Screenshare Exercises:
  • https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance
  • https://www.eda.gov/economic-development-directory
  • https://findhelp.org/
  • https://needymeds.org/

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• REMARKABLE OFFER 2: Join LeskoHelp.com for $20

For more Remarkable Episodes, Inspiration, and Motivation, please visit https://davidpasqualone.com/remarkable-people-podcast/. Enjoy!

Transcript

Matthew Lesko | Free Money: Government Grants, Hidden Benefits, & Seizing Free Opportunities

David Pasqualone: Hello friend, welcome to this week's episode of the Remarkable People Podcast, the Matthew Lesko story. So when I was a teenager, I remember watching commercials for free government money, free grants. And it was this guy in a question mark uniform, like the Riddler from Batman. And I wanted to get his book so bad, but growing up poor.

Couldn't afford it. So every time I went to the library it [00:01:00] was checked out but Over the course of the last 40 years matthew lesko may not be on tv or the home shopping network anymore But he is still active and has lesko help desk where he helps americans find Quote unquote free government money so you can live a better life and take advantage of the tax dollars.

We're all paying in So this episode you're going to hear matthew lesko's personal story And then you're also going to see what he's up to today And how it can benefit you He gives websites that you can go to that are active and live that you can directly benefit from He also gives a special offer to our listeners with his new Lesko helpdesk So you can enroll in that and he's got thousands of members nationwide And the episode's entertaining, but it's also going to be able to be [00:02:00] applied to your life So you can hopefully see some savings and some free government grant money.

So i'm david pasqualone This is the Remarkable people Podcast check out a quick affiliate offer then enjoy our episode with matthew lesko 

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Matthew Lesko: Government grants only come from two main sources from the government and from nonprofit organizations. So anybody else that you're looking for free money from in Google is going to be a.

com because they rule in Google. So if you're looking for free money and you're going to get 99, 44, 100 percent websites and, and, uh, you, uh, and Google. That are all dot coms that want to get money from you. But see the dot com, I mean the dot orgs and the dot govs only give money. Never, never charge you, and they're only [00:04:00] giving out money.

So that's why they don't have money to advertise in Google. So nobody's finding this stuff. When the government's giving out more money than ever before. 

David Pasqualone: Ladies and gentlemen, so we're here today with Matthew Lesko.

And as you can see, he is passionate about what he does and Matthew, we're going to talk today about not just what you do and what you've been helping people with for years, but we're also going to talk about who's the man. How did Matthew Lesko become? Matthew Leskco. So at this point, if you were to guarantee listeners, if they stay through the episode, what's one thing you guarantee that they're going to get by the end, that's going to better their lives.

Matthew Lesko: We live in a country, uh, that gives out an average 18, 000 to every adult every year.

That's how much free money the government gives out, and they don't advertise, so the average person has no idea, they look in the wrong places, like Google, or whatever, and they'll never find it, uh, they'll call the right, or the wrong, you know, [00:05:00] 

address, or phone number one or two times, and they say, ah, there's nothing for me, and that's crazy, uh, it grows every year, no matter who's in power, um, And it's going to grow as long as I could see, it's already, like I say, baked in the system.

We don't get rid of programs, we just keep adding programs. That's why we're in debt. So, if you have a problem, no matter what income level you are, there's programs. This is why, you know, billionaires are following Trump around. Because they know it's easier for them to get a billion dollars from the government to do something than it is to Create a new business that is of value of that thing and that's why they're all following him around town But it's been like that i've been doing this 50 years It's no change 

David Pasqualone: Yeah, yeah, and I mean democrat republican, right?

The system is broken and hopefully we get it fixed soon. But like you said if people are giving out free money All right, we're gonna be it's 

Matthew Lesko: hard and and now [00:06:00] too it is I'm, people are, are, are earning less than ever before. I mean 90 percent of our, I have a graph here, I'll show you, 90 percent of our population hasn't seen their income grow at all.

So in the last 45 years from about 1980, that's about when I was started as a professional here, 90 percent of the people, this is the growth of their income. The wage increased 30 percent over the last 40 years. 45 years or so, and that's on the bottom. 90%. 90% of us. So didn't see much income growth over, uh, the last 50 years, the top 10%.

Now they're doing fine. We don't have to worry about them, you know. But the problem is too, is that, so the 90% of the people only had their income grow 30%, but the consumer price index grew 300%. So everybody's, you know, , bailing water out of the basement. Uh, because their [00:07:00] wages did not keep up with inflation and that's why people worry about inflation and that's true because they don't have money to pay the increased prices.

Yeah. So, 

David Pasqualone: so in this episode, we're going to talk about you as the man, and then we're also going to help people find resources and inform them how to find resources to help them during these times. 

Matthew Lesko: Absolutely. 

David Pasqualone: Awesome. So when I was growing up. I would see you on TV. Oh, I remember wanting your book right here.

Yeah. Yeah. And I remember wanting your book so bad and it was at the library, you know, how to use a card catalog. And we're not saying it's outdated. It's just, that's how things are just, you know, just a few years ago, it was a totally different world. We didn't have Google. Like you said, we didn't have AI.

It was just, what can we get our hands on? I remember your book. I always wanted to get it and try to get these government grants, but I never could find it. So everybody always had it [00:08:00] checked out. Right. So 

Matthew Lesko: it was nice. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. Yeah. So when you got to, you know, where were you born? What was your upbringing like?

How did your life start? And then we'll transition from there. Through the eighties and nineties when you grew up and then we'll bring it today. So you can do as much or as little detail as you'd like. It's like your autobiography, 

Matthew Lesko: I grew up in a little coal mining town in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Uh, grandson of, uh, coal miners, immigrant, came to this country from Czechoslovakia, both sides of the family to work in the coal mines, um, and grew up there. Dad did pretty well with a small business, uh, that made us, you know, at least into the middle class, and got a degree, barely, I was terrible in school.

flunked on most things. I actually, I flunked college, I mean, flunked English every time I took it, and I have two [00:09:00] New York Times bestsellers, so I love that. When I first booked my New York Times bestsellers, I tried to call that English teacher who flunked me to let her know, hey, this stuff doesn't matter.

Oh, and back then when I got out of college, barely, I mean, I was on and off probation every semester, uh, couldn't get into grad school. I was a dummy. I, I took the LSATS or something. Maybe I could get in law school and avoid the draft. And I got like two above plant life or something like that. So it was either, uh, going to be drafted and sleep in the jungles.

And I, I'm not a camper. That didn't sound good to me. And so I joined the Navy three years, two months, and nine days. And never had more responsibility again for the rest of my life. Man, as a kid, you know, they sent me to the OCS, learned how to drive ships. Went out to the South China Seas, and, uh, 22 year old kid that darted me billion dollar ships around the South China Seas.

I don't know what the fuck I was doing. 

David Pasqualone: It's great. My son's actually in the Air Force right now, [00:10:00] and he can't. Oh, 

Matthew Lesko: really? Oh, wonderful. I mean, it's a For young people, I mean, you will just, I mean, just think if he went out and got a job, that wouldn't be making coffee for somebody or something at the, you know, getting his foot in the door.

And they just give young people so much, um, responsibility as a man, also as a diplomatic courier. They gave me a gun to travel around Northern Europe with a gun and travel that as a, Uh, uh, uh, in civilian clothes with, you know, handcuff, suitcase, whatever. And it was amazing. We flight commercial too. And this is back in the 70s.

So, uh, and I had to be the last one to come on the plane. And to make sure all the hatches were closed and everything. Then I got on the plane and get in and then I'd get my seat and usually in the back. And then when we got in the air, I had to give my gun to the pilot. So the stewardess would come back, take my gun and walk through the whole airplane with this [00:11:00] gun.

to give to the pilot, and then I had to come back to give it to me when we land. And, uh, yeah, I could see all the heads turning, who's going to get that gun? Yeah, this is back before we had any of these kind of issues. But that's it. Then I got out of the Navy, uh, and got an MBA, had businesses that failed, had a Software company that failed back in the seventies, everything was failing.

David Pasqualone: Now, what made you, you said you weren't a student, you didn't like school, you know, and then you get out of the military and you join and go to college and what motivated that decision? Uh, to join, I 

Matthew Lesko: mean, 

David Pasqualone: no, well, you said you joined the military, you're four years and you got out, but you said now you went back to school.

What made you go back to school if you didn't like school? 

Matthew Lesko: Yeah, no, I hated school. You know, graduate school was easy. Maybe because I was older or something. But it was easy. God, I, I, I went to, I went back to undergraduate school first, actually, to tell you the truth. Because I wanted to [00:12:00] get an MBA. That seemed to be the thing at the time.

I didn't have the grades. So I said, somebody let me into undergrad. So then you maybe let me into grad. I couldn't get good grades in undergrad. 

David Pasqualone: This 

Matthew Lesko: is terrible. So I quit that. Then I came to, uh, Washington DC and they had, uh, AU. I said, Hey, I just, let me take a course or two, see how I do. And they did it.

And I was getting A's in everything. Somehow it was easy in graduate school. Like I said, maybe it was, you know, I was older. 

David Pasqualone: Uh. I always, well, what do you think about this? I, people who are successful in life. Typically aren't fit, let's say, or build a traditional education, right? And me too, the more complex or higher education, it got the easier it got for me.

And I really think it's because you can focus on one thing. You take one class at a time instead of six. Like, I actually wanted to learn, and taking six classes at a time, it's like, you don't learn jack. But when you focus on higher education, you take one [00:13:00] class at a time and kill it. Is that how you felt?

Matthew Lesko: Yeah, that's probably, that's a good viewpoint, because that's probably what happened. It just, all that other is that foundation stuff that looks boring and you don't know why you're fucking learning it. It doesn't seem worthwhile or relative to anything that you want to do. And so it's hard to be focused and ran.

This was easy. Yeah. I can't believe my grade point average was almost 4. 0. And I got no. None of my teachers would have recognized that, uh, but I still failed the business after that. 

David Pasqualone: Okay, well talk about that. How did you transition? So you go into business, you start a software company, doesn't work out, happens to a lot of people, makes you stronger.

Where does your life go from there? 

Matthew Lesko: Well, I started another business and failed. I had two businesses, maybe even three, uh, that failed. And what was, in retrospect, probably the best thing that ever happened to me, uh, would have been a mediocre IT company, you know, because [00:14:00] my heart wasn't into it. I enjoyed information, but not the technology side.

Um, and then it was a chance to rethink. your life. I mean, that's what failure teaches you. That's why you have to go out and do something. You think you could, you know, play football like a pro and go out there and do it. Ah, why doesn't he do it this way? And you, you get your ass out there and do it and you learn why it's so hard.

Nothing's as easy as you think until you try it. And that's, uh, uh, I tried it and failed. And what I realized then I was doing things I was taught. In other words, hey, this is how you become a success. This is what you do there. I was doing all that stuff and I was failing. Plus, I wasn't having fun. You know, I thought it'd be fun.

So it seemed like I, I was, wasn't having fun. I was failing and doing all that. So maybe someday in the future, I'll have fun and enjoy life. And I said, that's crazy. I'm going to spend my whole life being [00:15:00] miserable, hoping I'm not miserable. Somewhere in the future and that just sounds crazy and I said, no, I got to have fun now, you know, because I could fail anyway.

So what the hell, but now I'm having fun. I don't have to wait. 

David Pasqualone: And that is a true point. I mean, there's a necessity. We have to feed our families. We have to take care of them. But if you have most of us, especially within the U S we have options. We may have options. We may be scared to make excuses. We're going to be lazy and make excuses.

But at the end of the day. Most Americans, even in the hardest situations, have options. Right. And you decided 

Matthew Lesko: And that's right. And, and to, you know, certainly you have to feed yourself. And I grew up that way with an immigrant family, you know. Uh, they always worried, you know, that's why they all want you to be a doctor or a lawyer.

You 

Matthew Lesko (2): know. 

Matthew Lesko: Uh. So they could feel safe and sleeping. Like, okay, he'll be well. Uh, and, and, but it is, the other thing I [00:16:00] see is Inside of us. I mean, I think it's how do you grow. I think we're organic, like a plant or a flower or anything that we're here to grow, uh, whether mentally, physically or whatever. Uh, and how do you do that?

And I think you grow the best by finding out what you're the best in and in the school system. It shows you a choice of these are the 12 things you should be, you know, and that's probably not you. So you're shoehorning, horning, shoehorning yourself, that sounds like a word, weird name, word, uh, into a profession or whatever that other people said is good and it's not really you, but you're making it you, you know, for other reasons, um, you know, to survive and stuff like that.

I, I found at least I'm not going to feel satisfied unless I'm satisfying [00:17:00] what's inside me. And, and that's usually we get no encouragement at all to bring out of what's unique about us and what's special about us. And, and the best part we have to give to each other is usually something fucking weird.

But we're not allowed to do that in public, which is crazy. And the more I do that, the more I feel after about 30 years old or so, it really was pulling off of me stuff that was put onto me to see what is inside me. Like in school, I was thrown out of school all the time because I'd entertain the class.

And I'd be a smart, I mean, nothing malicious, but be thrown out of school. Or just being a smart ass, uh, because I was just so bored then, but I was good. See if someone's, I was good at that. I make millions of dollars out of being a smart ass. [00:18:00] Yeah. Anybody took a, Hey, but no, you got to do. Greek, I studied Greek, holy shit, uh, or all these things you're supposed to do.

And that's the problem, you have to fight this system to find out what you're best at. And not, it's not only best at, see to me finding out what you're best at is. Love. I think love is the bottom line of most things, maybe because I'm an old fart now. So I didn't think this way back in the 30s or 40s or maybe even 50s.

Uh, that we're here to give to each other people. We're here to love people, personally and professionally. So, if you're able to do something that you really love doing, you're going to give that better than anybody else can. Uh, and the same with a personal relationship, um, that's why people say, well, I want an easy job, and I don't think, well, you want to pay your bills, and then, but after that, you [00:19:00] want something where you could give the most.

I mean, to me, an easy job is sort of like playing basketball with a five year old. Yeah, you can beat the kid any time, you know, that's not, that's no fun. You know, you want somebody that helps you grow, you know, uh, and, and grow intellectually or emotionally or whatever. So, if that's with a personal relationship or a professional level, so that's why in your work.

If you love what you're doing, you don't worry about the clock that much, and time goes by. I mean, oh shit, it's over already. I mean, those great dates when we're dating in the beginning, oh my god, it's three o'clock in the morning. How did that happen? And why does it work that way? Then you're giving yourself, and that's what I think we all need from each other, is all of us giving the most and best we can to help other people.

Uh, have a better life. So it's all about giving. I mean, right now I'm at 81 and I feel, um, uh, my mind is how much [00:20:00] more can I give before I die? 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And I think that's biblical. I mean, no matter how people come at the world, you know, I come at things from a biblical worldview. And Jesus summarized it, love God, love thy neighbor as thyself.

So what you're saying, you know, lines up with scripture and it's something that we have the most peace and joy, not when we're a billionaire, but when we're helping others. I mean, I think that's the most fulfilling. And you said you, you even maybe not recognize it, but you would like to entertain. You love to entertain your class.

You were always trying to give to people. You just didn't recognize it that way. 

Matthew Lesko: Well, it's making people smile. I mean, putting somebody's joy in somebody's life. If I have that, like, I walk down the street, I dress like this every day, and I do a lot of walking and, uh, Exercising or whatever and out there, and even if they don't know what I'm doing, it makes people smile, people come up and just hug me for no reason, you know, I mean, I never dreamt anything like that would, would happen to [00:21:00] me and, oh, you made me smile, wow, what better thing do I have to do?

David Pasqualone: Yeah, and for. For our listeners, let me just explain this, Matthew. Uh, we have listeners from all around the world. We're so happy you're with us. And I know the bulk of our listeners are on Podcasts. So it's audio only. I see. You can check out, if you can check out the cover art on your phone or your, or your PC, or check out our website, uh, YouTube rumble, uh, Frank speech, uh, vocal, wherever you're at watching Matthew Lesko, even when we'll get to that, when you transition from the businesses.

to when you started getting on TV, he dress up with question marks all over. Like I always said, the Riddler, you weren't the Riddler, but you know, he has emojis all over his shirt and pink glasses and his hair spiked up. So he's, he's always got a, you smile, just looking at them in a happy way. 

Matthew Lesko: And that's, that's boy, if I could, I mean, that's just a wonderful gift.

I have to give people, uh, want to [00:22:00] do it. Uh, and then with my work, if I could show people how, I mean, now, I mean, God, I get results every day of people, hey, I called this number and got 5, 000 to do this, and I was able to pay this, or, or put a roof on my house. Oh my God, if I could do that, I mean, I got nothing better to do.

I mean, it's not my money. It's, it's our money. It's stuff, uh, if I'm different, I'm not curing cancer or anything that I did personally. I'm just pointing it to something over here that I found. And the rich people made me find that. I didn't know about any of this stuff. I started as a consultant, my MBA after I get failures.

What happens? You become a consultant. Yeah. And there's that joke. If 

David Pasqualone: anybody doesn't know it, right. When you're unemployed and you're in business, you call yourself a consultant. 

Matthew Lesko: So I was telling Fortune 500 companies get into new markets and stuff like that. And I was in Washington and, uh, [00:23:00] I, this is before computers or anything.

So I'd run around the libraries as you were saying, you found a book in the library. Yeah. Uh, and that's what I would do is find all. Help for them, these rich people, to get money, to get help, to get information, intelligence information about markets and everything, and I'd find it all in government documents, um, because I was in Washington, and I wouldn't, I'd go to the library anywhere, any state, and find this stuff, and it shocked me that I was able, the schmuck from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, Was able to, uh, find this information and give this information to these millionaires who will become billionaires.

Why doesn't everybody in Wilkes Barre know about this stuff? They have lives that could be helped too. And so that was my mission. Uh, doing that. by doing books because I was charging thousands of dollars to do that and they'll pay for it. Uh, but I [00:24:00] did it then with 30, 40 books. And actually, if you 

David Pasqualone: don't mind, how did you first get started?

So you go from life at home, you go to the US Navy, become, you know, even more of a man, you get out, you go back to education, you start through businesses. You said they all failed. And now you go and you become. A consultant to huge businesses, how did that happen? 

Matthew Lesko: Well, failure forces you into stuff, you know, and that's how you fail at everything that that's, you know, like you're a boxer, you know, you get hit with a left hook all the time.

Well, fuck, I'm going to protect myself against that. And so that's the only way you really learn. You could sit in your armchair and say how to fight. But until somebody's thrown punches at you. You know, you really don't know what it's like, and so once you get out there, and that's how you learn, that's how you grow, and you learn from failure, and that's why now, later in life, we're living so long, all of us have to start new lives a lot, [00:25:00] and we're, we're trying to avoid failure, and that's wrong.

You can't do that. And you're just going to wind up doing something that you'll be miserable at if you keep doing that. Because anything you want to do in life that's important to you, have to fail through because you haven't done it yet. So it's like learning to ride a bicycle all over again. You never rode a bicycle, okay?

Then you have to get on there and fall down a bunch of times to figure this out. And experts will try to tell you how not to fail. And, you know, they may be right, they're probably wrong, because they'll give you seven processes to success, and you'll get to number three, and that'll be, you'll fail at it, and then you'll just, uh, like, I shouldn't have given him money, and you won't learn from it, but if your heart's in it, And you want to say now, besides question marks, I'm more into hearts.

Because if your heart's not in it, you won't get through those failures. And they have to, that's the key, is realize you're going to fail and your heart [00:26:00] has to be there to get through it in a personal relationship or a professional relationship. Because you'll stop. There's too many reasons to stop all the time.

And the experts will tell you, you're stupid. Why do you do that? Especially your loved ones are worse because they want to protect you from failure. And anything you do in life, anybody could come up with 10 reasons why that's going to fail. Um, and, but you have to, like, I've written 100 books and only 10 made money.

So I'm wrong 90 percent of the time. 

David Pasqualone: But that's a great point. I mean, people think if I fail, they quit. They're just Lied to and program that way. But like you said, you don't go to the sports field and win the Super Bowl. Right. Practice thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of 

Matthew Lesko: hours. And the people who make it, they're the ones that have their heart in it.

They want to be there, not there for some other reason, you know? 

David Pasqualone: Yes, exactly. So you're going out though. And just the, even though you failed and you learned. How did you keep yourself [00:27:00] focused and how did you get somebody to buy off on you to say? Okay, this guy has three failed businesses yet. I'm gonna hire him to can to direct my company.

Matthew Lesko: Yeah. No, I never worked for anybody That's why hey, well, oh 

David Pasqualone: no, but you were hired as a consultant. Did you go in? Oh, yes, right exactly Well, 

Matthew Lesko: they a lot of people like that a consultant very practical. I Think right. I didn't want to run their business. I just want to do research for them. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. 

Matthew Lesko: Uh, and so that was an issue.

I had a credential as an MBA or something. I don't know. I mean, like now people say, well, I need an LLC to do something. You don't need anything. You just need a customer and customers by people, you know? And so if you're not authentic, maybe that's an issue. Uh, but it's trust in people, uh, people by now I go on TV and sell millions and millions of books and they don't know if I'm an LLC or whatever.

Probably just send me money. So you don't need all this stuff. And that's [00:28:00] why people say, well, I got to start a business plan. I went, no, you got to figure out who's going to buy your shit. That's what it is. 

David Pasqualone: So now you're, you're going out, you're consulting, you're helping businesses find grant money and other ways to save money and get government money.

So where does it go from there? Where you're. Doing business consulting and research to where I'm watching you on TV in high school. 

Matthew Lesko: Well, it was, uh, I got bored of helping millionaires become billionaires and they're not fun because they don't enjoy what they're doing just after for the money. So the daily experience was not, uh, open hearted as I talked about now.

Uh, And I just saw a bigger need for the average person to know about these things that could, I could affect more lives that way. I'm not changing much in the millionaire, uh, realm. And even though it was well paid, [00:29:00] uh, it just wasn't satisfying. Uh, and so when I have the people and then that great can't bring it brought out more creativity too, because then it was, uh, I didn't have to impress Pachter and Gamble.

You know, and so I remember giving speeches at Procter and Gamble, I love entertaining people when I speak and I would work my heart out and they would laugh, smile, and it wasn't until like three weeks later did I find out I did such a great job. Just people in these professional organizations hate to show their feelings.

You know, and that, and that seems to be, uh, and they wouldn't laugh, but man, I go to the local library. I'll get you on the floor and laugh and everything, uh, and I get the real person, you know, so many in our professional self is not authentic, uh, and so it doesn't feel comfortable to me. Um, and I [00:30:00] just have more, um, uh, life feel real.

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And so you're feeling this disconnect almost, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you're saying it's unfulfilling. Like, yeah, I'm making a ton of money and I want this job, but I want to do more. So how does that transition into the, you writing your own book and going on television, helping people?

Matthew Lesko: Well, yeah. And then the consumer book, I couldn't, uh, sell. Anything to consumers, you need to, um, you know, to be in stores and all that kind of stuff is another kind of thing. Uh, and so the infrastructure back then was publishing and me failing English all the time, I didn't seem like an author, but some agent came up to me.

Uh, and I'm grateful for that and said, yeah, I think I could sell this because I did very well. And I was getting good press on my business side. Uh, we can make a. Consumer and I jumped at that [00:31:00] and my first book. a consumer, I got for free at the government printing office. I cut and pasted it, send it to New York editors.

They sat on it for six months. It came out and became a New York Times bestseller, and I didn't write a lick. So you could plagiarize anything in the government. Everything in the government is owned by everybody, so there's no copyright. So you could take anything in government, call it whatever you want and sell the hell out of it.

Don't have to give government a nickel. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And so you took this book and you found all these grants and all these opportunities for people and you copied and pasted and made a book. And then what was the title of that first book? It's called Getting Yours, the complete guide to government money.

Getting yours, very nice. Appeals to all of us who pay ridiculous amounts of taxes. Right. All right, and then where, where do [00:32:00] things go from there? You write this book. More 

Matthew Lesko: books. I was, and then I got bored working for New York because. I was a New York Times bestseller. I thought, shit, I thought I'd have a penthouse on Park Avenue.

I made bupkis, you know. And I said, I gotta get these people out of the loop. Yeah, this is terrible. And because I was selling books because I would get on TV, people would go to the bookstore, and my people that needed this money were not people hanging around the bookstores. They weren't the intellectual crowd, you know, uh, readers and stuff like that.

So I was, felt I was sending bookstores my people. And I wasn't getting their people to buy my books, and so I needed that money. I didn't want to give it to the supply chain, and so I figured out a way that I didn't even have to publish books. I could get on TV, give an 800 number, and uh, because I was a regular on talk shows, and Larry King used to use me all the time.

I actually, I was a [00:33:00] substitute for a lot of times. Um, Uh, and I, uh, Larry King and myself see it a lot, and, and Letterman used me a lot of time when somebody canceled. And so they'd call me up and, oh yeah, I'll go, you give me seven minutes of, uh, national air time, man, I'll do anything. Uh, because it cost me 50 grand if I had to buy it on an ad, you know.

Um, and so that was, and I was able to get my 800 number. So I'd go on and do the talk shows and educate people and, uh, 800 number and. I'd get money before they had the book. So no cash flow program. If I had to print the books, print a hundred thousand, get them all in bookstores, I couldn't afford that. Uh, so there's always another way to do something.

And that's why the system is usually set up for people who already have money. So if you don't have money, you can't. Use the existing system. You have to figure out a way, uh, to use the system to your advantage. [00:34:00] A system set up for people, and the advice you get, well, for people who are making money in the existing system.

So, uh, they'll tell you you need money, raise money to print the book, raise money to buy the ads. No, you don't have to do any of that. If you're hungry enough. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And so before we get into like how people today who are listening can start looking into these opportunities, bring us from when you launched that first book through today, because you've had a great career, you've had a ton of things going on, a hundred books, you know, that's a lot of work.

So bring us to today.

Matthew Lesko: What happens is the world changes on you. You know, that's the problem with success. I never thought I'd have that much success, you know, best selling. And that was like being on Mars.

 I never thought I'd do all the things that I've done. Uh, and But now I still have a lot to do, and so I'm not, uh, you know, I work harder now probably than ever before, uh, because I see I have a way to be more effective with [00:35:00] it now than just selling books.

I used to sell books. People wouldn't do anything. Sort of like diet books. Everybody, I'm fat, I'll buy a diet book, and then they think they'll lose weight. But you got to do more than just buy the book and that's it. And so now what I have now, and it took me a long time to do it, then people stopped buying books, you know, particularly reference books.

I mean, people didn't buy, uh, stop buying books overall, just reference book directories. You know, I was selling directories. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And if I remember correctly, your book, like the one I remember, it was around a hundred dollars and purple. Do you remember which? 

Matthew Lesko: I don't know. That wasn't, I mean, I had some professional level stuff may have been that much, but most books are in bookstores where 40 bucks was a lot.

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And I, but I just remember being so poor, like, you know, I just couldn't afford that. That's why I was trying to go to the library to get it. Right. Now you want to find these government grants. I want to find these government grants. But I never got to do it. So it's not like [00:36:00] you didn't have the value or the quality.

Um, I just didn't know enough to make it happen back then. So that's what I 

Matthew Lesko: think. See, to me now, I, I mean, it took me about five, six years, I think, to figure this out after books started selling. But now I, then I started the subscription service recently, a couple of years ago. And that turned into something I didn't know about either called a community.

So now I have a community and we only charge 20. And it's all you could eat for 20. Um, and, uh, people come in and they help each other get government grants. So it's not only me, you know, it's, it's people, members helping members get that. Uh, and this is, I mean, I get more success stories out of this than anything I've done in selling millions and millions of books, tell you the truth, uh, because.

People get the help they need to get through this process. Uh, you just don't get an application and fill it out. It's [00:37:00] much more complicated than that. And so you need the help to do that. And I couldn't be the only one helping. Because that's a limited resource. And so I see that members are helping members.

And they enjoy it because they're giving. So they enjoy the f the process of giving to each other. And so, wow, and that's why I'm doing this, because the joy comes from helping people. Uh, and so the 12, 000 members are feeling that joy too, and they help each other. So now you can get one on one personal help, unlimited, like tonight.

We'll have four or five hours today of people on Zoom calls. Helping other people, uh, get how to apply that. So it's, and helping many people at a time. And then we have a special, uh, tomorrow of just, we're taking areas, like I need money to buy a house, okay? So we have a special section and money, [00:38:00] everybody there is looking for money to buy a house.

So they help each other, what they learn, and they share that information and help each other do that. And that's what's fun to do that, is to watch that happen. And, and it grow without me in a way. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And like for me, like I've always wanted to figure this out, get some of my tax money back, get some of this money that's out there back.

So like for a joke, like I dropped my camera before this started, right? I might need to buy a new camera. So I'm thinking, is there a grant out there? Is there something like a Podcast? 

Matthew Lesko: I would do, I mean, you have a service. You're a consultant in a 

David Pasqualone: way, right? Yeah, I mean, by profession, I'm a business and marketing consultant.

Marketing consultant. 

Matthew Lesko: That's what I would do. I would go to this website. Can you go online now? Can I? Uh, 

David Pasqualone: sure. I'm going to share my screen for the audience that we're recording. Yeah, that'd be fun. 

Matthew Lesko: Yeah. 

David Pasqualone: All right. Never, never done before. First. 

Matthew Lesko: You're like the girls in [00:39:00] college.

Yeah. Oh, I 

David Pasqualone: should have got that

sba. gov. All right. So we're going 

Matthew Lesko: to go to sba. gov and then sba. gov slash put a slash there. Okay. Local small letters. L O C A L dash. 

David Pasqualone: Oh, dash like hyphen like that. Right. That's it. 

Matthew Lesko: Assistance.

Okay. Enter. Okay. Go down a little bit. Okay. Now put your zip code there.

Okay. And put 50 miles. Sometimes it's a little better to do that.

Okay. Go down. That's where I'm [00:40:00] at. Okay. Right. So that's five organizations within 50 miles that get grants to help you sell your products. Okay. That's all they do. They already got paid. You'll never have to pay these for anything. And the second one is really very important to you. That's Apex Accelerator.

Now that is, and they all will do the same thing, but I like them, them better for, because they specialize in contracts. So your contract is better than a grant. You can get a marketing contract for a million dollars every year. You'd be lucky if you get a grant for 50 grand. Yeah. Uh, And that's because, and when you learn that, then it's something that is, uh, you know, it's renewable.

You can keep using it, you know, uh, but the other thing, like the small business development center below that, uh, at Westford, they will sit down with you and give you any kind of [00:41:00] help you need with technology, legal help, uh, you know, government problem, anything. That you have that stops you in some way, they will provide free assistance to help you get in financial trouble.

I know my sister was like that, she had that, and I went down to make an appointment with her and everything, and yeah, got her all out of that. I mean, they don't sprinkle thousands of dollars. But they show you the options and make a logical decision and know the options. See, they help people like you all the time.

And what I would do initially is on the accelerators, you got to first find who buys your stuff. Okay. And that's what they will do. Instead of going and hiring a marketing consultant, excuse the pun. No. Yeah, that, that's how you find it, you know, uh, that's how you get free help and anything like that. [00:42:00] And also you should not be afraid to call your elected official because they have other stuff.

See, locally, most things are happy. Here's another, uh, thing, uh, let's go to another website, uh, eda. gov.

David Pasqualone: I'm saving these so I can put links in the show notes for our listeners. Yeah, no, that's great, 

Matthew Lesko: eda. gov. Okay, now just get out of that. Now up in resource and tools, okay, uh, economic development directory.

Okay, now click on Florida.

Okay, now here, every office, okay, every office there, let's see how many you got there, maybe 10, 20, something like that. Go [00:43:00] down a little more, see what they're, Okay, so all those offices are in business to help businesses grow in Florida. They get grants, they have special money, they have expertise, or whatever.

They're all there to do that. So, and, and so you'll never find any of these in Google because Google will have the people who are spending ads to find you so they could charge you money. None of these people charge money, so they don't advertise in Google, but they're there to give you that help and expertise, uh, to figure out so you could grow your company.

Because if you go to the country, you're going to grow jobs and things like that. So their, their mission is really jobs. And jobs come from companies. So they help companies grow jobs. 

David Pasqualone: And who are the, who are the people that are typically working at these places? Are they successful entrepreneurs [00:44:00] and business people?

Some 

Matthew Lesko: are, some aren't. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. I 

Matthew Lesko: mean, they're, they're, they're hired as there's economic development is a industry by itself. Uh, they help people grow their communities, you know, and the tools they need to grow the communities. Sure. They may not be. Uh, a marketing guru or something like that, but they'll know the sources that are.

I mean, if they've helped so many other people be successful doing this, they learn the tools in their area, uh, to use, to be successful. So you're just one person they talk to. They've talked to 50 and helped 50 people that. Week or month or whatever it is, uh, be successful and, and learns what, learned what works, you know, to share with other people.

And that's the, it's sort of like, instead of you going to Google and, you know, fighting the ads on what could really help you. And [00:45:00] that's the other thing too. Everyone here. No one here is promoting their own thing because they don't have, they're not making money from you. So you're getting, you know, unbiased advice, you know, after helping so many people do this.

And they have nothing to sell you. So if you're a, you know, IT consultant and, you know, of course I have some software that's going to make you magic. You know, uh, and, and that's what to me is great about, Nonprofit organizations, government offices, they don't have a, you know, all three or interior or whatever mission because all of us are, we're all salesmen and we want to survive and, and that's our instinct to do that.

And they're available for free. Now, there's one other. The site that I think everybody in business and out of business should know about. Uh, and, and actually, by the way, that the apex thing, you know, that apex there, uh, initially on SBA, that's [00:46:00] great because that is exactly, that's not marketing. See, that's learning the system of government contracts.

And that's like you and me getting on TV. Yeah, that's a lot of the bureaucracy and that's, that's bigger than anything you could do on TV. 

David Pasqualone: The Apex Accelerator is a way to go to learn to write contracts and win contracts. Yeah, absolutely. Do they teach you actually how to find contracts? Absolutely. Very nice, very nice.

And then did you say there's another website you 

Matthew Lesko: wanted to visit? Yes, uh, findhelp. org. Because

putting your zip code,

David Pasqualone: it, it put in my zip code for me by scraping my information, but it wouldn't hit enter. [00:47:00] 

Matthew Lesko: It was just, uh, giving you a little cheat sheet in 

David Pasqualone: case you forget your zip code, we'll tell you, by the way, we know your social and bank account to, 

Matthew Lesko: uh, 1, 388. Programs. These are programs by non profit organizations and government offices that will never charge you for help.

Each one of these programs of 1, 300 that are there in Tampa area, uh, are there to solve some kind of problem you have. In other words, let's go up and say you want home repair. Let's put, oh, you, yeah, up there. Did we put, yeah, we put, no, up on top. See on the left hand top, where you put in the zip code initially, yeah, put in home repair.

Okay.

David Pasqualone: Do they help building houses too? Everything. 

Matthew Lesko: [00:48:00] Okay. Here, what do we have here? Look at the top. Where is, go further on top. I'm looking for it. There it is. Okay. 121 organizations that help you pay for home repair. Every one of them gives out money or help to help you with home repair.

See, this is what we're missing. And, you know, in our country, 40 percent of the organizations in our country give out free money. That's their 60 percent are, is capitalism that wants to get your money. 40 percent is social economy that wants to. Help the neighbors and give you money. Okay. Now, long before you and I started this stuff, we decided to have this.[00:49:00] 

And this is reality that 40 percent of everything is giving out free money to people to make their lives better. Now, whether they make their lives better is I'm sure debatable, but important thing is that, you know, it's there because this is what reality is. The only thing we know about reality. It is capitalism.

And that's Google. None of this is Google. Probably in Google, but you'll never find it. Because nobody's advertising. They don't advertise. I mean, and it's for anything. Uh, I mean, look at those headlines there. For food, for housing, for goods, for transit. For healthcare, for money, put money, click on money, see what's there.

So there's 393 organizations that just give gas. Here, help to pay for gas, help to pay for work expenses, help to pay for phone. So, I mean, not only you as an entrepreneur, but you as an employer. You know, if people don't have enough money, [00:50:00] uh, these are sources to help people help to pay for child care. 

David Pasqualone: I never knew, like, I've heard about sites like this.

This is so cool being able to speak with you. Like, you were on television and I watched you and I wanted to talk to you. Now I have a conversation with you. Sites I never knew existed and how many sites are there. I know, I just can't 

Matthew Lesko: believe, and I just started doing interviews again recently. You're not alone.

Everyone I talk to has no idea that this has been here for 50 years. Oh, there's another one called 2 1 1, that's been there a long time. This is a fairly new one, I like it better than the other one, uh, and it's, you have the numbers there and everything. And really to use this site, the way you do it though, is again, you have to put your effort into it and you do that because you don't know which one you're eligible for.

And they all have different requirements and you have to get on the phone and start calling these people to see if you Eligible for that [00:51:00] there's, and if you're not, where else can you go? So it's sort of like talking to marketing. I, oh yeah, I don't, I don't use, you know, video. You want to talk to somebody else?

Yeah. So it's that, but I'm not, at least you're talking to the people, help people, you know, that, that need help Podcast. Oh, I see. That's interesting. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. So if I was trying to like find. Podcasting. Cause like our whole thing is we've been doing this for five years. We try to bring valuable content like this to help people.

Right. So how could I get funding so I could reach more people? Right now, this one, I type Podcast and it didn't work, but Podcast thing, like you just keep kind of working the terms. I 

Matthew Lesko: wouldn't do this here because they're not, these are not. investing in ideas. These are investing in, uh, uh, expenses and financial problems you have.

David Pasqualone: This is more like philanthropy. Like [00:52:00] actually we're helping the people on the ground with their work, their education. It is, but that's a 

Matthew Lesko: different kind of thing. That would be, I would say the first thing, the SBA, the EDA and, and the The Apex people, they're the people you want to talk to. And the way you do, you make appointments with those people.

And you say, hey, here's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to grow this, and I don't know what to do. That's all you have to say, and that's what they're there to do. Don't think that you know what they have because they don't know what they have.

David Pasqualone: All right. But like, as you're scrolling over these, you know, we'll go back to the money alone. It's like help for childcare, help for food, help for health care. Exactly. And it just lists these opportunities. 

Matthew Lesko: Yeah, so 393 organization. I mean, would you have thought there's more than five of these things [00:53:00] in Tampa?

David Pasqualone: Yeah, no, I mean, like when, when I'm clicking this and you know, let's just pick money, um, child care. It says there's eight organizations in this area that pay for child care. I mean, I have kids that, you know, I don't need child care. They're in their twenties, but what I'm saying is if someone needs child care, exactly, this is saying there's, you know, cancer related costs will help you.

Military will help you, financial assistance, income, breast cancer treatment. So they're very specific, but if it hits. 

Matthew Lesko: That's why you have to do. You have to call these specific people and ask them where is the one for me because you don't know it well enough, but they're going to know it well enough because they study this stuff all the time.

You know what I mean? Yeah, and you have to use people. You can't use the Internet to get help. You have to find people on the [00:54:00] Internet who know stuff and use them to get help because It's too complicated for you to understand, for me to, anybody to understand what the hell the internet has or what somebody puts on the internet and if they help you or not.

David Pasqualone: Yeah, it's not like you go to this website, enter your information, five minutes and you'll get a check for 30, 000. It's not like that. Exactly. You know, you'd love to 

Matthew Lesko: be that, but, and maybe that happens and they're the people I used to put in my infomercial. 

David Pasqualone: And I think before I shut off the screen share, Matthew, is there anyone else you want to go before I turn it on?

Matthew Lesko: Well, that's a good thing. I mean, there's a couple of websites that I think we'll take. One other one, because health care is so important, go to needymeds. org. 

David Pasqualone: And I do want to point something out before we go on. We are in a situation in life where a lot of times we think we're doing it wrong. And we are like, man, I don't know what to do.

It's confusing, complicated. Um, what, what do I do? I must be stupid. But the [00:55:00] fact is you're saying these systems are complex. They are not well marketed. They're not out there to be easy, but yet they are out there. And that's why your community is so great. Cause people help navigate you through around the landmines into the goal.

But if you're feeling discouraged, it's complex. Everybody's feeling that way. Don't quit. Is that, is that accurate? 

Matthew Lesko: Absolutely. No, we're all guessing. Nobody knows what they're doing. But the problem is people like you and I would sell our expertise. We want to let people think that we know the answer, right?

So we can charge. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. So health care is a huge issue because I've been self. 

Matthew Lesko: See health care savings. See that second tab on top. Okay, so if you need, and there's a prescription drugs. There's so many programs now, uh, that will pay for prescription drugs that people don't know about, and they're just starting new ones this year.

But before that, go up a little bit more. The important one here is medical clinics, dental [00:56:00] clinics, and mental health clinics. That's where to get, let's put medical clinics if you want there. Or dental clinic, dental is a big problem. You know, I 

David Pasqualone: just, my neighbor just broke a tooth. Oh, okay. And 1500 bucks, five 

Matthew Lesko: minutes of work, 1500 down, down below.

See postal code, put in your zip code. Maybe you want to put more. more miles. Okay. Hit clinics. Okay. These are free and low cost clinics in your area within 31 miles. I don't know how many there are, but it looks like a bunch

David Pasqualone: in my area. And you know, we're not in the most populated area. So principal state health and hope. Good Samaritan, Florida Department of Health. So yeah, I mean, even in our community, we're not in a great metropolis. We're not in New York City. We're not in LA. But we're in Pensacola. Beautiful [00:57:00] place. I think it's a hidden gem in America.

I love it. But there's six people in our area. Right. 

Matthew Lesko: Exactly. See, and that's what frustrates me. People don't know. And then plus you have to go. And they say, at or below 200 percent of poverty. I mean, 200 percent of poverty is 60, 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And now what about people who get the middle class? They work their butt off.

They pay the most taxes. They're frustrated. They're like, I am not wealthy. I could use a boat and I am not, you know, on the poverty line. So I don't get any help. Do you have anything for the middle class? Absolutely. 

Matthew Lesko: And, and it's, the middle class is like, here's a program, uh, just look for the, don't, don't worry about your requirement, just go find the source, you know, and worry, don't ask about income requirement until you find it.

So, and then if you don't, then you find the income requirement and [00:58:00] then if you don't, then you go somewhere else. So don't worry about that at all. And the income requirement, like for housing. Uh, Income requirement to help people buy a house. Low income people is now up to 150, 000.

And even like daycare now, childcare money is up to 200, 000 and more. I mean, it, I mean, I thought you had to be destitute in the street when I first learned what I thought about these programs most of my life. And it's not that way anymore. Uh, and like, here's a new program Biden was in, um, part of that, the famous ERA.

Okay, now this is to help with, um. Utility bills, they get your utility bills cheaper. Just started last year in 2023. It was part of the ERA Biden stuff, and they give out $8 billion the first year. Okay? That first year in $8 billion. Now they give you up to [00:59:00] $40,000. To help lower your utility bills. So there's a program to lower utility bills.

Uh, and the people who used it the most was the top 25 percent of our income level. Which starts at a hundred thousand and goes to a hundred million. So those people got 5. 8. Billion dollars, or 65 percent of everything, 25 percent of the people got 65 percent of the money, up to 40, 000 in grants to help their home be weather efficient.

The bottom 25 percent got less than a 1 billion. They got less than 1 percent of this stuff. And so that's income level, you know, it's crazy. So, yeah, 

David Pasqualone: that, that's insane because the people who need help, like in Pensacola. Exactly. 

Matthew Lesko: They need help. The people making less than 30 grand are the ones that need help. I would think. 

David Pasqualone: and they got the 0.01%. 

Matthew Lesko: Exactly [01:00:00] right. That's why whatever you think about or whatever you know, or hear about a government program is right, and whatever you hear about it is wrong too. . I mean, there's so much of this shit up there, . You could find an example for anything. And that's why you just have to go out there and realize, you know, uh, That it's there.

Uh, it's for all incomes. You know, this is why Trump has all his billionaire friends following him around. They know that's where the 

money is. Uh, well, I mean, obviously it's Biden too. You just showed a chart under Biden. I mean, it's all these bastards. I like Trump, but Joe Biden, Trump, all of them are giving away our money.

He's the one that ruined it for everybody in a way, because Uh, the Democrats now put the income requirements up to their population, you know, the rich Democrats to take advantage of it. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. When I grew up [01:01:00] in Boston, they brainwash you, you know, the Kennedy's brainwash you. Democrats are the good working class, Republicans are the rich scumbags right now in Congress, in America, the Democrats hold more wealth than the Republicans do.

So it's just like, I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, you need to be an American and do the right thing. And these guys are in men and women. Oh, they're all just, I mean, I'd say 90 percent of them are on the take. Uh, absolutely. And that's what gets elected, not dummies. Yeah. Well, I wouldn't go that far.

They're corrupt. They have a morally destitute and they'll do anything. And these, uh, pharmaceutical companies pay them off other companies, insurance companies, all of them. Let's get back to the good stuff though. So where, where are we going now? You come out. You get books going, you're seeing recently that there's an online community and what's greater is there's only one of you, but now you have people who are getting success sharing with others for success.

So bring us from [01:02:00] when you're releasing books through today and then we'll transition to where you're going next. 

Well, it's really to set this up, uh, I'm not here forever, but I don't really care about after me or we're interested in entertaining myself and, and doing something of value to other people.

But what I see now, I, my biggest worry was if it's not me doing it and what happened in the last year or two, Hey, I don't have to be there. Uh, And so now it's sort of like designing something, because I know more about all these programs than anybody else, uh, to get that structure, uh, that it can, because I think the government should be doing this.

I don't think I should be doing it. Never did. I mean, it's stupid. I mean, if you have a business giving out money and you don't know how to collect applications, I mean, that's, They're the people who appreciate doing this, not me, but I've been waiting 50 years for them to do something. [01:03:00] So I got maybe about 10 years left and that's what I wanted to do is get a structure down.

So people, uh, the average person can find out about it, you know, and what's in it for them. 

Awesome. So where are you heading next, Matthew, and how can we help you get there? Going to the bathroom, I'm 81 years old.

Matthew Lesko: No, I mean, this is it. It's really stabilizing. This has been very profitable. We even give, which shocks me. I never thought I could do this. We give out 50, 000 to 75, 000 to members every year in personal grants. So what we do with our, uh, our profits, which is about 70 percent of our sales, not 70, 40 percent of our sales, we give back to members in individual grants for people who need it.

Um, and that's, I mean, I thought you had to be Jeff Bezos to do something like that. I was surprised a schmuck like me from Wilkes [01:04:00] Barre, you know, could do something like that, but it's a wonderful feeling to. And to do something and not give it to the government, 

David Pasqualone: yeah, 

Matthew Lesko: absolutely. You get to help people and not pay obscene taxes and that even I, my social security money I give, uh, I guess I don't need it.

I'm doing well. Uh, And so I have a scholarship at a local community college called I don't need my government money scholarship. So I get most of my social security money to scholarships for single moms to go to college. Beautiful. 

David Pasqualone: That's awesome. So whether it was in your personal life story or whether it is for business, are there any final thoughts you want to share or advice with our audience before we transition out for today?

Matthew Lesko: Uh, well, the thing I've learned now, and I don't [01:05:00] know if it's from external, internal, both, or when, uh, I, I certainly believe more than ever before that your heart is smarter than your brain, and we don't trust our heart enough. We don't make the important decisions at heart. You need a brain to make decisions, so you don't go off a cliff.

You have to trust your heart. All the important decisions come from there. And I never took a class. Maybe I did, and I didn't know I took it. I talked about things like that. Maybe philosophy class was probably the closest I ever got. 

David Pasqualone: Well, and then also let's start with this. We mentioned it, your crazy outfits, the emojis and the question marks.

How did that all come about? 

Matthew Lesko: Me, what I call living inside out. This is me inside. This is how I feel inside. This is me inside. And I wanted to You know, to me, having an outside [01:06:00] is a filter. If you think this is crazy and I'm stupid, we're saving each other lots of time because this is the real me. And it's a filter.

I mean, I was thrown off when I first started wearing these suits. I, I lost millions of dollars. I mean, they wouldn't let me on home shopping. And I go down there and sell 30, 000 books in a day. But they say I couldn't wear the suit and it was bigger than that. 

David Pasqualone: So wait, go back to that. So you were wearing the, you started wearing these suits and home shopping club said, you can't wear that.

So you stopped selling on their channel over your suit. Right. Interesting. And then did they ever have you back? Did they ever lower their standard because you held to yours? I don't care. 

Matthew Lesko: Uh, I, and you don't get help from loved ones because they don't want to see you hurt. You know, don't do that. They have, they have reasons why you shouldn't do that.

You know, it's their party or whatever. You know, [01:07:00] you do it, you're making so much money. Oh, but amazing what happened, though, and was a big hit. I'm not a real rich man, but, uh, is that it opened up other doors, other things open. You know, that's why if you make a decision based on your heart and all the advice I got.

Two from agents or loved ones or whatever, you want to protect me. They don't want you to fall. And to me, that's like a child trying to walk. You, you have a son, you said now in the air force, when he start to walk, you knew when he let go of the coffee table and took that first step, he's going to fall on his ass.

So if you don't do that, you're going to fall. He would never learn to walk. So anything we want to do in life. We have to go out and fall, we have to do that. And people who try to protect you from falling, or prevent you from living. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah, that's, that's super [01:08:00] important and true. Because we gotta fail, we gotta grow, we gotta stretch, or it's not gonna help us.

If you coddle somebody all the time, they turn into a weak loser. They don't turn into a winner. Right. So, awesome, Matthew. Well, how What, where is the best way to reach you? 

Matthew Lesko: LeskoHelp.Com.

Yeah, that's the, that's all you could join for 20. If you don't like it, we'll give you money back. It doesn't matter. Uh, but yeah, and we'll. I'll be here. I hope for about another 10 years or so. 

David Pasqualone: All right. Well, we don't know what's going to happen today. Right. But I know what you're saying. All right, ladies and gentlemen today, our friend was on the show, Matthew Lesko, and you can go to Lesko health.

help. com and you can check out his program, sign up, give it a try. And like he said, you get money back if it doesn't work out. [01:09:00] And Matthew, it's been a true honor to meet you and spend time with you today. Thank you. 

Matthew Lesko: Thank you for 

David Pasqualone: having me. I enjoyed it. All right. And ladies and gentlemen, like our slogan says, listen, do repeat for life.

Don't just listen to the great content. Matthew brought you do what you need to do. Repeat, have those habits, keep searching, keep working each day. So you can have a great life in this world, but more importantly, an attorney to come. So I'm David Pascalone. This is our Remarkable friend, Matthew Lesko, and we will see you in the next episode. 

Remarkable people Podcast. Check it out.

Remarkable people Podcast. Listen, do repeat for life. The [01:10:00] Remarkable people Podcast.