0:01

Art of the Hustle is a production of I Heart

0:03

Radio. You're

0:12

listening to the Art of the Hustle, the show

0:14

that breaks down how some of the world's most fascinating

0:16

people have hustled and learned their way into

0:18

achieving great things. This episode,

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I had the pleasure of interviewing my pal, Matt

0:23

Poulson. Matt is the co founder

0:25

and CEO of oh May's, the online

0:27

fundraising platform that offers people a

0:29

chance to win once in a lifetime experiences

0:31

while supporting nonprofits around the world.

0:34

Since founding it in two thousand twelve, the

0:36

company has raised more than a hundred and thirty million

0:38

dollars from more than three hundred and fifty charities.

0:41

Was recently named one of the fifty world's

0:43

most Innovative companies by Fast Company magazine.

0:46

Matt was really considerate and

0:48

sharing his personal near death

0:51

experience that tremendously changed

0:53

his perspective, and Matt broke down

0:55

how he led oh May's from

0:58

a self funded, small startup to a

1:01

global organization with over a hundred

1:03

employees. Please enjoy my

1:05

interview with Matthew Polson. Matt,

1:12

Welcome to podcast, Jeff,

1:14

Thanks for having me. Where are you in the world today.

1:17

Um, I am out in Long Island.

1:19

Cool and you're a West Coast guy.

1:22

Originally correct, You're you're born and raised

1:24

West Coast. I am. I'm from the Guna Beach.

1:26

I live in Venice. I'm just I'm

1:29

out here in kind of a friend commune

1:31

for a little while. Love that. Love

1:33

that. Im I'm in the dad

1:35

commune, um, you know,

1:38

with the mother in law and the wife

1:40

and child. Um, I romance

1:43

the times that I was in the friend communes.

1:46

Well, I'm excited for the times when I get to be waiting

1:49

for a child and having a family

1:51

around. Its sound like a beautiful experience.

1:53

It is fair enough. UM, I appreciate

1:56

that. Well. You as you know, I'm a huge fan

1:58

of you and Oh May's. You know,

2:00

I really am happy to

2:02

call you a friend, and you know, just

2:04

to you know, I've done my little intro

2:07

on May's, but I would love for you to give the listeners

2:09

a little insight into the company. Yeah. Well,

2:11

first of all, I'm a big, huge

2:13

fan of Jeff Rosenthal and Summit

2:15

and and honor to you a friend, Um,

2:18

you have given so much to our

2:22

community of entrepreneurs around the world. For

2:24

so long um and not just driven

2:26

driven business

2:28

creation but impact and in fact, you

2:31

know, we got the first investor for

2:33

oh Mays on the Summit

2:35

series boat back in two thousand

2:38

twelve is a two twelve eleven.

2:42

Yeah, yeah, amazing. So you guys

2:44

played a role and that as as as I'm

2:46

sure you have in so many other partnerships

2:49

from business too. I met a couple of the other

2:51

night that admitted Summit and I'm sure that's happened a hundred

2:53

times. So in terms of what Amaze

2:55

is, we raise money and awareness for charity by

2:58

offering the chance to win once in a lifetime experiences.

3:01

We've done everything from

3:03

being mentored by Michelle Obama

3:06

to ride in a tank with Arnold

3:08

Schwarzenegger and crush things, to win

3:11

a l Grighini where Pope

3:13

Francis hand you the keys, which was probably

3:15

the most extraordinary

3:17

experience we've ever done. I had to go to the Vatican and

3:20

and pitch Pope Francis

3:23

of where we're different than most people that

3:25

do this is rather than make it so one high net worth individual

3:27

can pay twenty five or fifty thou dollars

3:30

to have one of these experiences, make it

3:32

so that anybody in the world can donate ten

3:34

dollars for the chance to win UM. And

3:36

then we use our background and content and storytelling

3:39

and performance marketing to spread these around

3:41

the world. And as a result, we

3:44

cannet to to sometimes forty x

3:46

for our charity partners versus alternative fundraising

3:48

and the word for profit company. When we take

3:50

a percentage of the proceeds incredible

3:53

and that numbers. I believe it's over

3:56

a hundred million for over three hundred

3:58

fifty charities around the world. Correct, Yeah,

4:00

we have, Yeah, we have. Now we have now

4:03

netted over a hundred fifty million actually

4:05

for charities. That's incredible.

4:07

UM. And I know that you guys were named one of fast

4:09

companies, you know, most innovative companies.

4:11

And what I when I especially love about

4:14

your model is that it really democratizes

4:17

access to both these experiences

4:20

but also being a part of these impact stories.

4:22

You know. For me, you know, I guess

4:24

when I was younger and I had, you

4:26

know, only a little bit of capital to my name

4:29

to go to like a charity I cared about and give

4:31

them ten dollars or twenty dollars, it felt like

4:33

such an also ran thing or perhaps

4:35

I'm you know, I'm partially

4:37

interested in supporting a good cause, but I'm

4:39

really interested in having a great experience.

4:42

I just love that you've offered sort of this

4:44

you know, branch to people that aren't

4:46

like, you know, the converted, to get

4:48

involved in these cause areas. Do that matter so much?

4:51

Yeah? Thank you? I mean, I totally

4:54

you know, that was obviously the core of our mission. I mean

4:57

the we were

4:59

started with kind of a similar

5:01

experience that you had in that you

5:03

know, me and my buddy were at

5:06

an event that Magic Johnson was hosting

5:09

for the Boys and Girls Club back when we were

5:11

in grad school, and he was auctioning off the chance

5:13

to play basketball with him and go to

5:15

a Lakers game. But it was only available

5:18

to the high net worth individuals sitting

5:21

in the room, and we were in the room, but not high

5:23

net worth individuals. We're the guys who get

5:25

invited last minute to fill

5:28

the table. And we sat there and watched as the auction

5:30

went up to fifteen tho dollars and we

5:32

couldn't afford to participate in. Magic was

5:34

our childhood hero. And

5:38

when we were driving home and I were like that just doesn't make

5:40

any sense, you know, like magic has

5:42

fans around the world, not

5:44

just in that room. And in fact that people who can't afford

5:46

to be in that room it will probably

5:49

be more grateful to meet him than the people who can. And

5:51

so if we made it available to all of them online

5:54

for the chance to win and reinforce what

5:56

you just said about, you know, making

5:58

them understand that every every contribution

6:00

matters, for even if it's five dollars,

6:03

you can have a massive ripple effect totally.

6:06

And you mentioned your background in storytelling

6:09

before you found it om is what were

6:11

you doing? Yeah? So, um

6:13

a co founder right and I um

6:16

we you know, we went to college together,

6:18

came down to l A to get into entertainment,

6:21

specifically focused on cause

6:23

content. We had a passion for

6:25

using storytelling to inspire

6:28

action because the beauty

6:30

of a story in its essence

6:33

is that enables you to connect with someone whose

6:35

experiences are different than your own, and

6:37

when you do that, you want to help that person, and

6:39

when you do that, you feel more connected. So it's a virtuous

6:41

cycle and we wanted to help perpetuate that cycle,

6:43

and so we did a bunch of different projects

6:46

along those lines. Were the first directors

6:49

on this thing called Live Earth,

6:51

which is the biggest concert ever thrown. It

6:53

was on seven continents and one night

6:55

to raise awareness for a

6:57

climate change, and we everyone

7:00

from the Rolling Stones to Kanye

7:03

Um. We were the early producers on a documentary

7:05

series called Girl Rising about girls education

7:08

and the developing world that was funded by Oprah

7:10

and Queen Reign of Jordan's and Meryl

7:12

Street was narrator. We spent

7:14

a couple of years traveling around the world interviewing the world's

7:16

greatest thinkers, a couple hundred Noble Prize winners in

7:18

MacArthur Genius current recipients, and then we did

7:21

the Clinton Foundations big tenth anniversary

7:23

global television concert event with everybody

7:25

from Bono and Jay Z to Bill

7:28

Gates and Lady Gaga,

7:30

and so we were doing that work, and you

7:32

know, we're working with these people that were obviously like very

7:34

influential and authentically

7:36

wanted to do good, but

7:39

we just didn't feel like we were doing that much good. You

7:41

know, we felt like we were creating a lot of awareness

7:43

around these projects, but we weren't necessarily creating

7:45

a lot of impact. And that was kind of endemic

7:48

to the cost content space. So that

7:50

so we decided we need to figure out a better model

7:52

to do. We were passion out de stided to go to business

7:54

school and try to surround ourselves

7:57

with people smarter than us. And then when we were in

7:59

school we went to that J. Johnson event. For

8:01

me, I'm just so fascinated with how

8:04

you chose as a path.

8:06

Perhaps there should just be more things like oh,

8:08

May is out in the world, But you guys

8:10

have really utilized the twenty

8:12

one century tech platforms

8:15

and a p I s and performance

8:17

marketing programs and combined

8:19

it with such like a practical approach

8:22

to getting cash to these organizations

8:24

that need it. So take us through those initial

8:27

days, like what was what was it like when you guys

8:29

were raising the first money? Is it the same company

8:31

now as it was then in terms of the theme

8:33

or in terms of what the intention was? Yeah,

8:36

that's a good question. Um,

8:38

I would say it is very much the

8:41

same company in terms of the

8:43

intention. I mean we articulated a

8:46

little bit differently now, but the spirit is the same

8:49

and what we set out to do is very much

8:51

the same, you know that. I think the big difference

8:54

is, like we had no idea what we're doing at the beginning.

8:57

Like literally we're very bad at

8:59

what we were doing a long across like almost

9:01

every dimension, you know. And I think part

9:03

of it is like I think we, like a lot of people don't realize

9:05

when they go to being like doing

9:08

a startup, is that everyone

9:10

is scared. And we were scared. Ryan and

9:12

I when we left business school. Neither of us like you know, we

9:14

had done documentaries and those those you

9:16

know, cause content before school, but like

9:19

you don't make much money doing that. And so we came we

9:21

both left school, you know, two debt.

9:24

I mean we had you

9:26

know, not worked really and so you

9:28

know, we came out with and we both passed up. He

9:30

passed up a job at Golden and I passed up a job at McKenzie.

9:33

I mean, to do this, and so we were definitely,

9:36

Wow, this is like pretty irrational. Um.

9:39

And then you know, I think I always

9:41

thought like entrepreneurs like you

9:43

think about like Musk or Brandson,

9:46

and they're like they're just like courageous and they

9:48

they're they're bold and they see

9:50

every you know, every step with courage

9:53

impressions, and anytime they fail, that's

9:55

just a launching path to success and then so I remember

9:57

being like some spending so many nights like sleepless

9:59

because like, oh me didn't work at all

10:01

for like the first year, Like

10:03

our first experience raised seven

10:06

eighty dollars, you know, and it would be the Guest Judge

10:08

and Cupcake Wars, and like you

10:10

know, we were we were about um,

10:13

you know, after we had raised our seed round and we had to go out

10:15

and raise again. We had like a month left

10:18

of cash when we got our big break. What

10:20

was that? What was the big break? It was

10:22

Breaking Bad actually was our big break ironically,

10:24

but yeah, what had happened was there was another

10:26

company that had launched it was doing the same thing, which

10:29

I know, you know those those guys, and they were

10:31

really smart entrepreneurs, and we had to have this

10:33

thing set up with Brian Cranston around

10:35

Breaking Bad. And then they

10:37

had done another campaign with Samuel

10:40

Jackson that raised like a hundred eighty thousand, and

10:42

the most we've ever raised at that point was eighteen

10:44

thousand, So they were literally ten

10:46

x better than us, and they knew

10:49

we had this with Brian, and they went to Brian to say like,

10:51

hey, you know, you guys

10:53

should you should do this with

10:55

us, like we're much more better, which is very fair thing

10:57

to say. And so that we got the word from Brian's team

11:00

of hey, you know, Brian

11:02

is actually gonna go to another platform,

11:04

and we were that was devastating because like that was our We

11:06

thought that was our last chance to prove that, like we

11:08

could like you know, get a case study to go out

11:10

in fundraise off of. And so you

11:13

know, we called back like the

11:15

person on his team that it like we were that

11:17

we knew and we're close with and

11:20

and said like he's got to do with us. She's like, I'm sorry.

11:23

He's like, you know, but like I don't know, like

11:25

we have you know, he's gonna go to the direction and he's

11:27

you know, he's gonna call him let them to tomorrow. And I was like,

11:29

well, where is he right now? Then she's like what

11:31

are you talking about? It was like I need to talk

11:33

to him right now, like and she's like, well,

11:35

he's at this charity event. And so we snuck into the

11:37

charity event. How did you do it? How did you get

11:39

in? You know? I found that you can sneak in most

11:41

places if you walk by just pretending like you

11:43

belong. So that's what we did. You

11:46

know. We dressed, we dressed the part, and

11:48

we u it was at this famous person's house

11:50

and when they named the name, but like and

11:52

I had actually catered at that house like three

11:54

or not three, I don't know, many years

11:56

earlier. It's I kind of knew. I knew

11:58

the house some way. We got in there and then

12:01

we found Brian and explained,

12:04

you know, like, hey, what are these guys from m az and

12:07

and you know you were going to do this campaign together

12:09

and now you're doing with someone else. He's like, it's not the personal guys,

12:11

but it's just these

12:14

guys raised a lot more money and it's really about the charity.

12:16

We said, we understand that. You

12:18

know. He's like, and he's saying, these guys, you know, so they can raise

12:20

a hundred and eighty thousand, and I said, well we can raise two

12:22

hundred thousand. And he's like, well, what's the

12:24

most you've ever raised? And I said eighteen thousand,

12:28

and he's like, well, how are you going to

12:30

do that? And it was like we have no choice, you know,

12:32

like literally, like we will do anything it takes. We have

12:34

a lot of creative ideas like we think we can

12:36

break through. We're gonna put our whole heart into this thing

12:39

and we and we will deliver. He kind

12:41

of just looked at us and maybe felt sorry for us. I don't

12:43

know what it is. He was like, all right, like let's do it,

12:45

and so he took the leap on us. We

12:48

ended up raising three hundred thousand with

12:50

that campaign, and then he introduced

12:52

to Darren Paul and we did the finale of Breaking

12:54

Bad and that raised one point seven million, and that's

12:56

like what put us on the map. Unbelievable.

12:59

And I remember, are you telling me about the Aaron

13:01

Paul story. Did you guys take the RV

13:04

from the show to the finale? Yeah,

13:08

with with the winner of the Yeah with

13:10

the winner, And we like we had to do this like pyrotechnic

13:12

thing where we like let off the yellow

13:14

smoke like they do in the show. Nice.

13:17

So it wasn't the actual one from the show, because the actual

13:19

one from the show doesn't drive, but the

13:21

but we went and found one of Craigslist that looked

13:23

identical to it that like that Sony

13:26

and everyone signed off on as like okay, that will

13:28

pass because it's literally like it was the exact model.

13:31

That's amazing. But I was so nervous that we

13:33

were going to blow the thing up, like because we had to do this stunt.

13:35

And we were like, yea, we were so nervous.

13:38

Incredible. We'll

13:42

be back with more out of the hustle after

13:44

the break. You

13:52

know, there's so many directions I want

13:54

to take this interview, but you

13:57

mentioned the Pope, and I have to ask. These

14:00

are such amazing stories. So wait

14:02

a minute. So you went to the Vatican

14:04

to pitch the Pope. Yeah, I

14:07

did. I just don't even understand

14:09

how that how that initiates. Yeah,

14:12

I mean the well that

14:14

that's a crazy story too. I can tell it. It's like a

14:17

it's like a five minute story, but I can. Yeah,

14:19

I'm so Basically the way that the way that, the

14:22

way that that happened actually started

14:24

with we did this experience

14:27

with Bono, and

14:29

basically what happened was, so to step

14:31

back, there's this, there's which led

14:33

to the Pope. So to step back, there's this. There's

14:36

this young girl who at the time was fifteen

14:38

years old living up in northern California.

14:41

Her name was Chloe, and Chloe

14:43

was born with a

14:45

club foot, and

14:48

she went to high school and

14:52

she was picked off by a bunch of

14:54

mean girls and then and then

14:56

escalated to one point they pinned

14:59

her down during lunch in front of the whole school.

15:01

Six girls like held her down

15:04

on the lunch tables and pulled

15:06

her shoe off to show everyone

15:09

what her deformed foot looked like. She was

15:11

obviously traumatized. She went back to her house.

15:14

Um she locked herself in her room.

15:16

She wasn't coming out, and her dad was obviously

15:19

like very you know, concerned

15:21

about what she can hert herself, and so

15:23

he tried to talk to her, and he talked about

15:26

how he was this huge fan of you

15:29

too, you know, maybe she would

15:31

like listening to them, And she like found this one song called

15:33

Invisible, which is an anthemic song

15:35

that basically says like you can't see me, but I'm here,

15:37

and she just like latched onto that song and

15:40

she started listening to it every single day

15:42

on loop and eventually

15:44

like I went back to school and

15:46

you know and kind of like started to

15:48

address what she was working

15:51

through with that song is inspiration. At

15:53

the same time, her dad, we had we had offered

15:55

this campaign to meet Bonto backstage

15:57

to benefit Red and her dad day

16:00

and it had entered and he won,

16:03

and so they got to

16:05

go meet Bono and so this

16:07

is so awesome, okay, yeah, and

16:10

so and obviously we don't know any of this. We get there

16:12

and I'm and this is early and amaze, so like

16:14

I'm literally like flying to be

16:16

there to make sure this goes okay, because obviously gets

16:19

a big deal. It was our first campaign with Bono. And

16:21

so we go backstage. It's me and

16:23

Chloe, who is a fifteen and on

16:25

crutches, and like you could tell she's got this weight

16:27

on her. I don't know any of this backstory. I just can tell

16:29

like there's something going on with her and her dad. And when this like

16:32

little room, and then

16:35

Bono comes in and

16:38

the first thing he does is there's this Red guitar because

16:40

it has been to benefit Red. So he signs the guitar,

16:43

which bottom point becomes important later and then

16:45

and then he says hello to the dad, and then he

16:48

says, he says, you know, tell

16:50

me your story, and his dad, Dane, says, you

16:52

know, this isn't about my story, like this

16:54

is about my daughter, Chloe's story, and

16:56

he says, well, what's your story, Chloe, And she says,

16:59

well, I was a sault did and your

17:01

song Invisible helped

17:03

me get through it. And Bonna said,

17:05

you were insulted like that they called you names, and

17:07

she said, no, I was assaulted. And

17:09

the way that she said it like had this gravity

17:11

and again like like obviously I didn't know the backstory

17:14

of Corsebondo didn't know the backstory, but he's clearly

17:16

a very emotionally intelligent person and

17:18

you could just feel it. And so he said, well, how did this

17:20

song Invisible help you? And

17:22

she said, you know, it gave me

17:24

the strength to not hurt

17:27

myself, give me a strength to go back to

17:29

school, gave me the strength to stand

17:31

up to those girls, and gave me the strength to stand up to

17:33

my school to make sure it doesn't happen to somebody else, you

17:35

know. And he just looked at her and he said, we know

17:37

how you were able to do that. He said, because

17:40

the art of the universe bends towards justice

17:42

and love, and when you have right on

17:44

your side, it's like this big fist

17:46

not to hurt people with, but to fight

17:48

for what's right. And you could like see in

17:51

that moment like this, like the way he was saying

17:53

it was impacted here. And then he and he said, you know, what's

17:55

your passion, Chloe? And she said she

17:57

kind of got embarrassed against She said, I haven't figured

17:59

it out, you know, I don't know. And he

18:01

said, well, that's okay. He said, we have a prayer

18:04

in my family, and we're not a we're

18:06

not a righteous family. We say this prayer in the church, but we

18:08

also say this prayer and the pub and

18:10

our prayer is I am available

18:12

for work. He said, make yourself

18:15

available for work and your passion

18:17

will be revealed to you. And you could

18:19

literally see this

18:21

weight just lifting off

18:24

this girl. Like it was so I mean, obviously, like

18:26

Bono is so much more poetic than I can never be in recreating

18:28

it, but like, literally the moment was so I've

18:30

never seen a moment like that in my life. You could literally

18:32

see this weight lifting off of her. You could

18:34

see this person transforming

18:36

before your very eyes. So then

18:39

Chloe goes home, she decides,

18:41

Okay, I'm gonna use this for good. She starts telling

18:43

other girls who've been bullied about this story,

18:45

and like what Bono told her, and all that kind

18:47

of stuff, and then work

18:49

he gets out about this and like a parent at another

18:51

school asks her to come talk to like some kids

18:54

who've been bullied at their school. And then another school

18:56

asks her, and then another school, and all of a sudden, she's

18:58

like going and like doing these like talks,

19:00

and she decides, I'm gonna I'm gonna name this

19:02

thing. I'm gonna call it like staying beautiful

19:04

where people embrace their differences. She

19:07

then like it becomes such a thing that she gets

19:09

invited to do a ted X talk. So

19:11

she does a ted X talk about standing beautiful,

19:13

embracing and what Bono taught her. There's

19:16

a publisher from Penguin Random House

19:18

there, they get a they give her a book deal

19:20

she gets. She then gets invited to go speak

19:23

around the world about

19:25

what had happened. And she goes on this tour helping

19:27

people. And then one of the tours she went to,

19:29

there was someone from the Vatican there and

19:32

they heard the story and then they went up to her and

19:34

said, what's this amaze thing? And

19:37

she explained what it was, and then they asked

19:39

if they could she could put them in contact,

19:41

and so then the person from the Vatican reached

19:44

out to us, and that's how I ended up with the Vatican.

19:47

One other thing is just shows you

19:49

like that the universe inspires sometimes the

19:52

you know, I said, there's the red guitar the Bonno signed.

19:54

As we were leaving um, the

19:56

dad said to Bono after the like magical

19:58

moment of like hug and whole thing, and said,

20:01

you know, hey, by the way, like, what's the story

20:03

with his guitar? When was the last time you played it? And

20:05

Bonn I was like, oh, man, I don't know. I

20:08

I'm not going to keep in track of those things. But we have someone

20:10

who's job it is to keep track of those

20:12

things, you know, and I'll make sure that you

20:14

can get in contact with them. So then like the

20:17

day and email the guy's name is Gary, and Gary

20:19

email back without having any context

20:21

of the story, saying the last time

20:23

Bonno played this guitar was

20:26

in Dublin in the studio

20:28

when he was writing the song Invisible WHOA.

20:33

Well, I just love that. I just loved

20:35

it, you know, and I want to talk more about oh

20:37

Mays. But it's kind of a perfect transition because

20:39

you know, one of the other I'd say

20:42

magic surrealism, that that has

20:44

touched your life, um, and that the yield

20:47

the saying is one of the things I've heard you say before, is

20:49

it optimism is a superpower. And

20:51

you had a personal life experience and your

20:54

death experience that I'd love for you to share with the listeners

20:56

because I know it had a huge impact on you. This.

20:59

So what happened in me is UM

21:01

when I was born, so basically two years

21:04

ago last week, I was declared dead and they

21:06

brought me back to life. And the

21:09

background is when I was born, my stomach was twisted

21:11

and and not and I

21:13

was supposed to die when I was born,

21:15

and then they did this crazy surgery

21:18

that saved me, obviously, and then the scar tissue

21:22

from the surgery broke off all

21:24

these years later, um,

21:26

creating this ball obstruction. But

21:28

I didn't know that at the time. All I knew

21:30

that my stomach was hurting my stomach, you know,

21:33

that's just part of what I've lived with my whole life. But this

21:35

felt like particularly acute. And so I called

21:37

my friend who's a doctor, and

21:39

I said, Hey, you know, I'm

21:42

hosting this dinner party tonight.

21:44

I really want to do it, but my stomach is

21:46

hurting, like, do you think I need to go to the hospital. And he's

21:49

like, yeah, this could be your appendix burst

21:51

thing. I'm not sure, but better safe and sorry. So he tells

21:53

me to go to hospital. So go to the hospital

21:55

and it gets a lot worse and and

21:57

I'm in this kind of crazy pain, but we can't figure out

21:59

what's going on. And the CEO of a maze

22:02

comes. Her name is Helen because

22:04

I was supposed to be meeting her at the time. And then my parents

22:06

come and they do all these

22:09

tests. It's inconclusive.

22:11

So they about like ten thirty at

22:13

night, they say to Helen and my parents,

22:16

right, you guys go home. We're gonna keep mad overnight

22:18

and if he's not better by

22:20

the morning, then we'll do surgery

22:22

then. And so Helen

22:24

drives home to her house. She pulls into her driveway.

22:27

You know, at this point it's about eleven o'clock at night,

22:29

and you know she

22:32

something is telling her not to get out of the

22:34

car, something is telling her to go back to

22:37

the hospital. And you

22:39

know, Helen is British in a ceo

22:42

and very serious. She's not like a venice.

22:44

You know, listened to the Cosmos type of

22:46

person. But the

22:49

voice was undeniable,

22:51

and so she decided that

22:54

to go back to the hospital. And

22:57

and if she had not driven back

22:59

to the spittal, I would have probably died

23:01

forty five minutes later because

23:04

my blood pressure had plummeted.

23:06

It was down to over fifty, which

23:09

it's like, you really shouldn't be getting oxygen

23:11

to your brain. But the machine somehow had not alerted

23:13

the nurses, and so I was literally just fading

23:16

away. So she came in. She

23:18

saw the machine. She had been in the hospital with

23:20

her grandmother like for a while a

23:23

couple of months earlier, so she kind of knew her

23:25

way around. And so she went and got the

23:27

nurse and said, look at this. This this looks really

23:29

bad. And he's like, that can't be right. He wouldn't he

23:31

wouldn't be getting oxygen to his brain. So

23:34

then he went to do and get

23:36

do another test out the same result. He was going to do another

23:38

test and she's like, no more tests, like, get the doctor.

23:40

She went and got the doctor. Doctor

23:43

came in, she took one look and called

23:45

in the crash team. They rushed me down

23:48

to surgery. What's what's the crash

23:50

team. It's like the like when

23:52

someone's they think someone's dying. They like said,

23:55

they have these teams that are like swat teams essentially,

23:57

that are on call that like you'll you'll see like

24:00

people rush into a room like on Gray's

24:02

Anatomy or whatever. You know, it's like when just

24:04

like all these people converge and

24:06

they're equipped to like transport you real

24:08

fast and like address whatever the cute thing

24:11

is. So they all rush in the room.

24:13

They rushed me down into surgery.

24:15

Come out of surgery, and they

24:18

say to my mom, the good news is we

24:20

figured out what it is. It's about obstruction.

24:23

The bad news is his heart rate is continuing

24:25

to plummet and we don't know why,

24:28

and he's in critical condition. And so

24:30

then and your mom, your mom is a nurse,

24:32

correct, My mom, she works

24:34

at a hospital. She's not a nurse works. He

24:37

knows her way, she's you know, she knows where

24:39

around the hospital. And

24:41

so yeah, so yeah, then a couple hours passed

24:43

and she goes down to get my dad and my brother, and

24:46

she comes back upstairs and she hears over the

24:48

loudspeaker code blue

24:50

in room seven and

24:53

um, as you mentioned, my mom works in the hospital,

24:55

but so she knows that means flatline,

24:58

and she knows that's my room.

25:00

So she rushes upstairs and she

25:02

gets to the door and the nurse

25:05

says, I'm sorry, you can't come in. This

25:07

is really serious. And she said, look, I

25:09

was there when he came in this world. If he's leaving this

25:11

world right now, I'm gonna be in that room.

25:14

So she led her in the room and

25:16

they were doing the compressions

25:18

and they were doing the electric shock treatment,

25:21

but my body wasn't responding. I was flatlining.

25:24

And so my mom at first she started

25:26

to crumble. You know, it's it's one thing

25:29

to lose a child, it's

25:31

another thing to be in the room when

25:33

it's happening. Um. And then at

25:35

the same time, my dad was outside with my brother, and this

25:38

doctor came out and said to another doctor in

25:40

front of my brother, not knowing was my brother, Hey,

25:42

we lost this guy. He's gone. And

25:45

so my brother pushed my dad in the room.

25:47

So you need to be there with mom. And

25:49

so when my dad came in, you can

25:51

kind of picture of my mom's face to the right

25:54

towards me, and my dad comes in from her left,

25:56

and he's crying so loudly as he enters

25:59

the room. It causes her

26:01

to turn away from me to say, like, Garrett, you know you gotta

26:03

be quieter. They're gonna kick us out of this room. You know.

26:05

My dad's like if I can't cry right now, like

26:07

when do I get to cry? But you

26:10

know she's when she turned to say

26:13

that to him, she said she saw something that she'd never seen

26:15

before in a hospital. She

26:17

said, every nurse and every

26:19

staff member and every doctor

26:22

and the I C you had just gravitated outside

26:25

the window and there was like

26:27

forty of them. And she said they looked like

26:30

this silent church choir just

26:33

sending in this positive energy.

26:35

And she was so moved by these people that were

26:37

sending love to someone that they didn't even

26:39

know. It was like this

26:41

transcendent spiritual experience for her,

26:43

and it just kind of filled her up with strength,

26:47

and she kind of took

26:49

a deep breath and she started

26:51

coaching me. You know, she turned back and

26:53

she just said, Matthew David Poulson, these

26:55

people are fighting to save your life. They're

26:57

fighting so hard to bring you back,

27:00

but you're not fighting hard enough. You to show them

27:02

you're a fighter. They're fighting to save your life. And

27:05

you know, they said it was this surreal

27:08

experience watching because here's this sixty

27:10

five year old mom who's in this room

27:12

that you're not what no one's supposed to be in except for the

27:14

medical staff. And you

27:17

know, the flat line went on

27:19

for four and a half minutes, which

27:22

is a long time and they don't usually

27:24

keep fighting that long, but because she was there

27:27

fighting, they kept fighting. But at

27:29

one point, you know, my mom said, you

27:32

know, she just realized, like this has been going on a long

27:34

time. And she, you know, because she works on hospital,

27:36

she knows how long these things usually go. And so she starts

27:38

to think, oh, my god, like I cannot believe this. We're

27:41

gonna lose him. And if I

27:43

lose him, like I'm gonna lose my husband,

27:46

and how's this happening? You know, and her mind started

27:48

to go there. And you

27:50

know, right as it was going there,

27:53

the main doctor who was administering

27:55

the CPR and the shocks,

27:58

you know, he uh, he started shake his

28:00

head as if to say like, oh, this is this is done,

28:02

and you know as he did that, she said no,

28:05

no, no, please, like please don't call it, and

28:07

as she said that, he said, wait

28:10

a second, and he turned back. He

28:12

said, I think we have a pulse. And all

28:14

of a sudden, my eyes just opened

28:16

up and I

28:19

popped up, and then

28:21

I looked over at my mom,

28:24

and then I looked over my dad, and I

28:26

was on my side, and I kind of just like slowly

28:28

lifted my right

28:30

arm and gave a thumbs up.

28:33

Oh my god, what

28:38

a story, dude. First

28:40

and foremost, happy resurrection

28:42

anniversary. Thank

28:45

you. Secondly,

28:48

your mom deserves like the mom equivalent

28:50

of the Nobel Peace Prize. She

28:56

was a superhero. She's a force of nature, art

29:00

of the hustle. Will be right back after this short

29:02

break, and

29:10

I want to, you know, get into you

29:12

know, optimism is a superpower, and

29:15

you know how it applies to your work today. But

29:17

like you know, now it's been two years

29:19

since this has happened, and I'm

29:22

sure it changed your perspective on everything.

29:25

Yeah, it really has, you know, It's

29:27

I mean, it's still like I learned. I think about it every

29:29

day. I learned from it. The lessons

29:31

are still revealing themselves to me. I

29:34

think one of the things that, like it changed my perspective

29:36

on are just like, is like what it means to be

29:39

a best friend to yourself, you know, Like I used

29:42

to be so much more ego

29:45

driven. Then I realized, you

29:47

know, not in a I don't. I

29:49

mean, you knew me obviously before. I don't. I

29:51

hope that you wouldn't describe me as like egotistical

29:55

or like an asshole or you know, but I

29:58

would have said Debonair, hilarious,

30:01

Talton, I appreciated that I was fishing

30:03

for compliments that you know, I used

30:05

to care so much about what people

30:07

think in an unhealthy way, and I used

30:09

to compare myself two people

30:12

all the time. You know, you and I are surrounded by extraordinary

30:14

people, and I would compare myself to them

30:16

and remind myself of why I didn't stack

30:18

up, you know, and that frame

30:21

of reference was just so unhealthy. And

30:23

so that like this helped change that

30:25

in a fundamental way. And part of the reason it did was

30:27

because you know, I had this kind of like come

30:29

back to the light experience that just made

30:31

me realize how interconnected

30:34

we all are, and I could feel the

30:36

love that people were sending me, and it

30:38

just made me, you know, I have

30:40

such a broader perspective

30:42

on these things and also recognized

30:44

that, like, you know, like when I left the hospital, the

30:47

doctor, you know, he sat at the edge of my bed

30:49

and and he was like, look when

30:52

I he was guys are a world renowned surgeon.

30:54

He's like, look, when I finished my career thirty years from now, and I'm

30:56

talking about the most extraordinary case I've ever seen,

30:58

this is gonna be it. You know, we had you had zero

31:01

percent chance of survival for two days,

31:03

and the fact that we have you going home with your full faculties.

31:05

We have no medical explanation for that. And

31:08

I said, well, do you have a guess? You

31:10

know, he said, look, we were inspired by your mom. That

31:13

there was a whole another day and a half

31:15

after they resuscitated me where

31:17

I was, they had me a zero percent

31:19

chance of revival still, and they had to do these other

31:22

surgeries. And before like the second surgery,

31:24

my mom was grabbing the

31:26

doctors by the cheek and she was

31:28

saying, look, this is my son, but

31:31

today this is your son, and

31:34

this is your brother, and his company

31:36

is trying to do good in the world. You need to help them. He

31:39

said. So we were motivated by that, but outside

31:41

of that there were larger forces of play. And I said,

31:43

well, was a man of science, how do you define

31:45

those larger forces? And he said

31:47

it was love and it was optimism

31:50

that brought you back. And I really believe

31:52

that to be true, you know. And so what

31:54

I believe is possible now,

31:57

like in terms of kind

32:00

of shaping your own future, and I

32:02

get careful of like the world's manifestation,

32:04

or like you can get into the world of the world of like the

32:06

Secret and some of these things that I think lack

32:09

acknowledgement of. It's not just about thoughts, it's about

32:11

actions. But do you believe that

32:14

your thoughts and your intentions travel

32:16

much farther and can shape and can

32:19

change the trajectory of things and

32:21

can change you know that that that

32:23

energy is like we feel that

32:26

and it's powerful and we don't

32:28

have great scientific explanation for it just

32:30

yet, but I think we will, but we all know it's there

32:33

and so um And so when

32:35

I got let rid of the ego a lot of the stuff

32:37

that would hold me back, I think I'm able to

32:39

express more love now. And being able

32:41

to express more love comes from

32:44

getting rid of fear, because the opposite of love is not

32:46

hate, it's fear and so and I had some

32:48

to fear. And then as a result of expressing

32:50

more love, you start to also realize

32:52

the power of optimism and like what can change in the

32:54

world. And you know, and I think we're

32:57

feeling in that more never right now. Definitely

33:00

there is some scientific credence to this

33:02

that you know, it is not that widely read,

33:04

but there was a great book called Synchronicity.

33:07

It was all about the birthplace

33:09

of scenario planning in the Royal

33:11

Dutch Shell Corporation, and

33:14

the idea being that, you know, if they had

33:16

to take the spice through through regions

33:19

that we're going to have some kind of upheaval,

33:21

then they needed a doctrine plan for

33:24

that's what the US military calls it for

33:27

how to deal with both negative and positive

33:29

scenarios. And then you get to invest,

33:32

over a long period of time along

33:34

those you know, potential outcomes.

33:37

And what they realized is that when

33:39

they tacked towards the

33:42

more optimistic outcome, it happened

33:45

more often. And

33:47

you know, I'm certainly a believer that if

33:49

you think you can't, you're right, you know, And

33:53

I'm curious for you you know, and I

33:55

feel you and you could feel the

33:57

love of your friends, Like it sounds like it turned

34:00

on some faculties for you.

34:02

Literal sensitivity is that you might

34:04

not have had how did it manifest

34:07

inside of like you know, in a company,

34:09

it's not just friendships, it's also you

34:11

know, how you lead, how you manage. Did it change

34:14

the way that you operate in that fashion as well? Yeah?

34:17

Absolutely, I learned to kind of with

34:19

our team almost love more and

34:21

care less. And so what I mean by

34:23

that is like I'm more, I'm less afraid

34:25

to express my gratitude

34:28

for people. I do that. I actually make that a regular to

34:30

practice, Like I send an email to a different person

34:33

on our team every single week and

34:35

to a different friend. I sent a video every single

34:37

week saying like this is why I'm grateful for you.

34:39

So I do that more. It's awesome. But at the same

34:41

time, I used to in some ways, I

34:44

think, care so much about

34:46

what our team thought

34:48

of me because I cared so much about

34:50

them, and they're so grateful that people even go on this journey, you know,

34:53

Like I mean, you know how it is you at the beginning of

34:55

an entrepreneurial journey, and you're doing every job and then

34:57

sometimes you every once while you wake up, you're

34:59

like, wow, there's like a hundred and thirty

35:01

people that work here, and like that's just I can't

35:03

believe they work here, you know, Like, yeah,

35:06

I remember when like there was two

35:08

of us. But what I

35:10

I I assess my leadership and like

35:13

my impact is a leader over I'm much longer to mention

35:16

now, So like, I know there's certain things that can maybe

35:18

make people feel uncomfortable

35:21

or challenged or

35:23

or a short term discomfort for them,

35:25

or or that I'm

35:28

willing to push more because I think with down

35:30

the road, like they'll recognize

35:32

that this was in their interests

35:35

in the longer term. And as long as

35:37

I feel like I'm operating from that place,

35:39

I can like I'm much better absorbing that I don't I

35:41

don't worry as much about being

35:44

liked as much as I do about feeling

35:46

like that I'm actually serving them and then serving

35:48

this greater vision, you know, um, And so

35:52

I think it's changed me in that way.

35:54

And and then also like my

35:56

big capacity to you

35:59

know, get above the level of the problem.

36:01

You and I both have a teacher

36:03

that we love named Jim George that like talks a lot about

36:06

that is a problem can never be solved at the level of the problem.

36:08

So I think I used to overweight every

36:10

single thing, and I have my identity so tied

36:12

up in a maze that with this broader perspective

36:14

that I have now, it enables you to kind

36:17

of process through things much quickler,

36:19

see decisions much more quickly, recognize

36:22

what really matters and what doesn't on on an

36:24

easier capacity. I do want

36:26

to transition a little bit, you know, back to Oh May is

36:28

and just because I think it's really important, like

36:30

you said, like you know, you are working on something

36:33

that is in service of this greater good. And

36:35

you know, I think it's also really important that it's

36:37

a it's a for profit business, you know, that has

36:40

investors and that has capital

36:42

to spin to scale. And I think

36:44

that there's an ongoing debate about you know, impact,

36:47

and like about altruism, like

36:49

the selflessness of altruism in a sense,

36:51

so that you know, appropriate philanthropy

36:53

is when you receive nothing in return, whereas

36:56

you know, you know, one of the things I told you,

36:58

you know, in inviting you to the Pond asks is that

37:00

I really do want to. I think

37:02

it's really important that people understand

37:04

the good that OMAS is able to do because

37:07

of how you harness you know, modern technology,

37:10

how you harness the tools that are at our

37:12

disposal at this moment in time. So maybe

37:14

you could talk to us a little bit about you know, the future

37:16

of Omens, like where you guys are going, what are the ambitions?

37:19

Yeah? Absolutely, um, well, thank you

37:21

for seeing that. You know, the vision

37:25

is to dream the world better.

37:27

We we feel very lucky that we get to

37:29

make dreams come true every single day, not just for the

37:31

people that win the experiences, but for the

37:34

beneficiaries the causes and

37:36

so you know, people getting resources and opportunities

37:39

that weren't previously available to them. And you

37:41

know, we believe that optimism is a fuel for dreams

37:43

and as we discussed optimism as a superpower,

37:45

optimism makes you realize

37:48

that what you thought was impossible is

37:50

actually possible. And we want to we not only

37:53

want to be impactful from a fundraising

37:55

perspective, but from scaling optimism.

37:58

You know, in our kind of north Star,

38:00

there is to be the first for profit company and give a

38:02

billion dollars to charity in a single

38:04

year. You know, as I mean, we've already netted a

38:06

hundred and fifty million for charity. If we

38:08

had chosen to be a nonprofit and

38:11

we're limited by that, we would have we would

38:13

have you know, we would have netted five

38:16

millions. So um, that's very much around

38:18

poor profit and it's important for us. You

38:20

know, we care a lot about being

38:23

a highly impactful,

38:25

highly profitable company because

38:28

we think we can not only

38:30

help people, but we can be a beacon for other

38:33

entrepreneurs that realize that that's a false

38:36

choice, Like choosing between doing

38:38

well and doing good hurts

38:40

the nonprofit sector. And I can go

38:42

all through the history of why that is and this different

38:45

social maorias that we have governed the nonprofit

38:47

sector, that we don't have government for profit sector, and

38:50

and what that how that hurts us as a

38:52

society. But you know, we believe that's

38:54

part of our role is breaking through those norms. And

38:56

so it creates another burden. You know. You

38:58

you don't just have to be a any that like develops

39:01

a model that's really impactful. You

39:04

you have to you know, or impactful

39:06

of business perspective, but you have to go through all these other

39:08

things. Part of what we're doing in terms of like

39:11

expanding that is like we've expanded from doing

39:13

just celebrity experiences too. We're

39:15

offering stuff like travel

39:17

the world or a country in a sprinter van or when

39:19

a you know, we're about to do when a four

39:22

million pounds penthouse in

39:24

London. And part of our vision for

39:26

that is like when we do something like that,

39:29

you know house in London, it'll go build

39:32

a soccer field and a poor area

39:34

in London, or or art center in the poor

39:36

area in London, and that will be the Amaze Art Center.

39:38

And if you donated, it would say Jeff Rosenthal

39:42

on the bricks um and

39:44

and so then you'll see you'll feel a connection to that

39:47

impact. You know, you'll learn that or just like we

39:49

did with you, you know, you guys can give power

39:51

and the great work that you're doing. We've we've helped build a

39:53

couple of solar water farms and

39:55

and so the donors names will be on the bricks and so they'll

39:57

feel that connection and they'll they'll see how far they're

40:00

all our goes in addition to also getting

40:02

a chance to win something amazing um

40:04

and we think that'll add back

40:06

to the ripple effect that we were talking about

40:08

earlier. A lot of our listeners

40:11

are earlier in their careers. There their

40:13

their startup founders and entrepreneurs,

40:15

you know, like anything that comes to mind for you

40:17

as advice as takeaways, just like for

40:19

those that are in that you know zero to

40:21

one or one two, you know, leg of

40:24

the race. Yeah, I mean I think

40:27

one of them I kind of mentioned earlier is that

40:29

everyone is scared. And

40:32

so if you feel

40:35

scared about what you're gonna do or what you're taking

40:37

on, and you feel like maybe you don't have the you

40:40

know, the constitution to be an entrepreneur because

40:42

you're something like that, just know that that's okay, especially

40:45

now, like things where it's it's hard, and

40:47

there were so many moments where I, you know, I

40:49

thought it was going to fall apart and sleepless nights

40:51

and and it almost did. And so

40:53

so give yourself permission, you know, be a bet, be a best

40:55

friend to yourself, and that, um, I think

40:57

that's and I would also recognize no matter

41:00

like who you look up to, your like you you see those

41:02

stories of people in profiles that you

41:04

know are like seem like they've never made a mistake. And I've

41:06

always been so bold. You

41:08

know, we know some of those people that have those have been written

41:10

about and know their realities and it's just so that

41:13

like everyone is that, so you know, don't try

41:15

to conclure yourself and just give yourself

41:17

permission there. Another thing is like

41:19

the greatest fuel for persistence

41:21

is serving others, you know, And so

41:23

even if your company is at mission driven um

41:26

and it doesn't have to be, you

41:28

know, find ways to dedicate your your

41:31

actions to another and you'll just on tap of like

41:33

a certain reservoir of energy that may

41:35

not be there if it's just about yourself, you know, whether

41:37

it's for your early employees or whether it's for

41:40

your doing this because maybe you want to make

41:42

a lot of money, but then you want to use that money

41:44

to help your parents or whatever. It is

41:47

like finding a daily a capacity

41:49

to think, you know, dedicate your actions like people

41:51

dedicate books is a is a good thing. And

41:54

then like I guess maybe the last one I would say,

41:56

and it took me a while to learn this was like when you don't know what

41:58

to do, sometimes

42:00

the best thing to do is do nothing. What I say

42:02

about that is like we've we constantly, like

42:05

as entrepreneurs, like there's this like sense you have to be

42:07

like a perpetual motion. If you're not moving, you're dying.

42:10

If you're not growing, you're dying. And so as a result,

42:12

like sometimes when like big inflection

42:14

point decisions come, you know,

42:17

we're like, just like what can I do to move this forward rather

42:19

than like step back and like finding your kind of inner voice.

42:21

And you know, particularly if it's a really bigger

42:24

decision um fundraising or hiring

42:26

whatever, you're gonna get opinions from a lot of different people

42:28

who are smart people that are going to tell you different

42:30

things based off their own experiences. And

42:33

sometimes if you just stop and like find

42:35

stillness, whether it's through meditation or a

42:37

workout or or however you

42:39

access it, you can get back in touch

42:42

with your gut and a lot of the best decisions get made

42:44

that way. That's great advice. Well,

42:46

Matt, thank you so much. I really

42:48

appreciate you being on the podcast. Your story

42:50

is unbelievable, and thank you so much

42:52

for being vulnerable and sharing

42:55

what you went through with us. Is

42:57

just such a wonderful, wonderful

42:59

company. And you know, when we talk

43:01

about what our generations entrepreneurs

43:04

have built and done. This is this is prototypically

43:07

what I hope can be held up as an

43:09

example of what we're able to do with both

43:11

our care for how we can change the world and

43:13

utilizing the technology that's at our fingertips.

43:16

So thank you again for being on the podcast,

43:18

and man, keep doing what you're doing. It's such

43:20

important work. Thank you, my friend.

43:22

Thank you for having me. It was it was. I really enjoyed

43:25

the conversation, and thank you for continuing to put

43:27

the love out. Yes sir. For

43:46

more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the

43:48

I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or

43:50

wherever you listen to your favorite shows.