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Episode 59 - Past

The Present

The Future

Guest Mathew Stockstill LLC 1 of 3

Adrian  00:02

Hello future millionaires and welcome back to the get rich low podcast. We're your hosts Adrian Shermer, Mr. brilliant at the basics Lance Johnson and making millionaires every day, Rob Delavan.

Rob Delavan  00:17

Still working on. Good morning.

Lance Johnson  00:20

Good morning everybody. Stockstill here at the house the other day saying, your projects.

Mathew Stockstill  00:33

Part of our interview series, this is going to be one of three in a set of talking with Mathew Stockstill. He owns Mathew Stockstill architect LLC and we're going to be diving into what makes his business work and how he's managed to find success in the world of architecture. Matthew is an architect specializing in guiding and a collaborative process with clients on residential and small to mid-size, public and commercial projects. Matthew's firm offers design project consultation, permit assistance, drafting and construction administration services in both Oregon and Missouri.

Rob Delavan  01:12

Which is quite a combination.

Lance Johnson  01:17

We always go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly.

Rob Delavan  01:25

I love it. So, yes, today, we'll be getting to know Matthew and learn about what made him into the person he is today. This is a the first of three episodes with Matthew, this is going to be a lot of fun.

Lance Johnson  01:42

I'm excited about it. Because if I wasn't a financial advisor, I think I'd love to be an architect. Clearly Math when you were at my house that I have a flair for it, huh?

Mathew Stockstill  01:56

Yep. All those gears, I could definitely hear it turning.

Lance Johnson  02:01

The smoke was coming out.

Adrian  02:05

Yeah. I think it's up there, the top 10. It's like fire man, police man architect, it's one of those dream jobs.

Mathew Stockstill  02:15

I would say probably 90% of time I've talked to a client and if professions accrues ever get brought up, they always say that they wanted to be an architect or wish they were an architect. Quite the renaissance man that people make us out to be.

Rob Delavan  02:30

It's not as glamorous, is what you're saying.

Mathew Stockstill  02:33

Not quite. I hang out in crawl spaces and attics still a lot. There's a lot of pieces to it, but not as appealing as others.

Rob Delavan  02:40

Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's start.

Lance Johnson  02:44

 Let me jump off and ask the first question. Tell us your story. Where you grew up and what was your family like to get you to be an architect today.

Mathew Stockstill  02:55

So, I grew up in Smith in Missouri, which is a small town about 500 people. It was literally a six by six block town. I grew up on a farm but 180 acres outside of Smithson and it's about an hour and a half east of Kansas City. So, Missouri pretty much Kansas City. There everything in between is pastures and farmland. So, we're in the middle. I grew up with three sibling,  grew up really close to my grandparents who also lived on the farm. Pretty big family, dad's side was pretty small, and five or six of us but my mom's side, between four aunts and uncles all with a handful of kids themselves. We grew up very close with there's probably 12, 14 cousins all within four or five years of each other. So, a lot of holidays, a lot of just being surrounded by people having all that camaraderie that you would hope to get into family.

Mathew Stockstill  02:58

What was your crop or your what you produced on your farm?

Mathew Stockstill  04:04

We would rotate between corn and soybeans. So, most of the farm was for just pasture for cattle. We weren't really farmers, I would say we the family had other jobs. The farm was something that my grandpa started up whenever he moved from Texas and we just use it as us to live on and for leisure and a little bit of passive income as Lance would probably like to do here. So, it was nice to have just a few cattle, a little bit of cropland to be to rent out.

Rob Delavan  04:36

Isn't farming as a passive income kind of an oxymoron.

Lance Johnson  04:44

The last couple of people that we've had on were all farmers, good work ethics, they understand.

Adrian  04:51

I've been out to the Delavan family ranch too. I spent time on cattle ranch, there's a theme here, there's the thread for sure.

Rob Delavan  04:59

By cattle ranch you mean at the most like three? [Cross Talk 05:05]. That's what's called a hobby farm. Matthew, yours was a big hobby farm.

Mathew Stockstill  05:15

I think we used the farm more for pleasure. We had probably at its max probably 30 head of cattle floated around. It was enough to wake up in the mornings and had to go feed calves before he went to school and, and help take care of the farm with my grandpa and my dad but when it came to all the big equipment, we would just hire someone else who had fully functioning farms with all the crop machinery and then we would take the cow to the market and let everyone else take it from there.

Rob Delavan  05:53

Gotcha. Was there any water on the farm, streams or lakes?

Mathew Stockstill  05:59

Yeah, we had a we had the flat creek, which was a pretty good-sized creek that was just down the hill from us. It was big enough and deep enough to hop on a boat and float down and do a little bit fishing and we also had a couple of ponds throughout the farm that was for cattle to drink out of.

Rob Delavan  06:17

Nice, interesting.

Lance Johnson  06:19

So, what was the family like as far as just how you took care of it? Did you have to rotate it? It was like, oh, I don't want to do it today or you just you had a system?

Mathew Stockstill  06:32

It really depends. Summertime it was a very busy farm. My grandpa worked for the Parks Department in Sedalia and he wanted to treat the entire like the entire farm like a national park. So, he spent a lot of time maintaining it. mowing it with a push mower, acres and acres and acres of push mowing just didn't make it look beautiful like a park. So, that's huge in my job, I did most of the push mowing. I was the younger able bodied I guess and went into caravans whenever there's summertime, I spent more time doing farm work and then when we got into school, dad spent a little more time there and then grandpa was always around doing most of the work. My grandparents owned a pizza parlor and sub shop. That was their full-time gig. So, our family's been around the food industry. I think I was the first one to get out of it officially. But they had that for a long time, I think till I was 13 or so whenever they sold that and then just tended solely to the farm as needed.

Rob Delavan  07:45

Man, I could get into some subs. I love it.

Mathew Stockstill  07:52

Yeah, it was. Definitely not a farmer, certainly, I think learning just work hard at things. You have to least make it any bit of functional at all. But it's fun and all my friends and even our family had bigger, more functioning farms. So, we didn't really live inside actual Smith in town. Except for my last few years of high school. But now my dad just takes care of it. He's been taking care of it ever since I moved away and my grandpa passed. So, he's been keeping up and I'm doing a good job with him.

Adrian  08:36

Mathew, what's a significant story that made an impact on your life? And what life lessons have you learned to make you into the person that you are today?

Mathew Stockstill  08:44

Yeah, that's a tough one. There's been a lot of really just big moments in my life. I'm very fortunate and blessed to have all these things surrounding me. But to me, the biggest one is undergraduate school back at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, as a five-year architecture programme. Going into my freshman year, being from a very small town, you know, I was certainly not the one people would have picked to be have any college success. Never really took academics very seriously. Never really just took too many things seriously at all didn't really seek out leadership roles. Just really stayed in my own little shell. But then I joined a fraternity during university Lambda Chi Alpha and every year the freshmen and a few of the incoming social members initiates we would have a leadership retreat, and they would take all of us grab a few of the seniors in fraternity we would have just been a whole weekend, team building. Leadership analysis was really good, it's a great weekend. The first time I feel like I was challenged, to be leader and to have confidence to, to look at a bigger a bigger cause than just me trying to work my way through life and being in that group and being there that weekend, as a class, we struggled a lot, we had a lot of us. We're adolescents, didn't quite know what we wanted to do with our college career lives at that point of what our role was going to be in the fraternity and we had a lot of struggle, a lot really, to take off with it and during that weekend, all my classmates and upperclassmen, there really looked to me to kind of be the leader of the team, I think, because I was quiet and reserved, and I didn't really feel like I had to take the reins of it all. But a lot of my classmates looked up to me at that point, and really pushed me to get everyone together to give us clear direction, to get one of communicating on the same level and really walked away as a completely different mindset and a whole different energy and desire to have confidence to know that hey, people see something in you that you may not see in yourself and to this day, I think that we can just how much everyone else's energy and confidence in me. We've set me up to do all the next phases of my life when it comes to business. leadership roles ahead paternity and organizations after that, that confidence, I don't think I ever would have had it if it weren't for that one weekend of everyone else picking me up. I think people ask, you know, what is this? What is one of the keys to success? I think to me, it's surround yourself with people that believe in you more than yourself and I think I've done that. I think everyone has fed me a lot of synergy and confidence. So, impact weekend literally, that's what it's called. So, works out in terms of being impact on your life. But that's a big one. That's a big growth moment for me as a as a leader, I would say so.

Rob Delavan  12:02

So, what do you think they saw that you didn't see at the time?

Mathew Stockstill  12:06

I think in general, I'm a person, like my leaders, leadership styles is to stay in the back of the line, and just make and see how people are moving and making sure that they stray away or if they feel like they're not going to a direction and that can help push them to where they want to go. But I think because I was one of the few reserved people, I'd say things now in the here and there I wasn't. So, goofing off at all. But I think it's because I was reserved, I wasn't trying to do a lot of guys and they came in that weekend, they immediately went into it. I need to be the leader in this group, I needed to really push people and everybody wanted to really take that role. But it just made a whole lot of chaos when they come it can be communication and, and getting everyone on board. I was really close with a lot of people in my class, I think just in general, made friends, that's my friendships in general, and I'm pretty easy to get along with. I can literally talk to anyone for hours and be best friends with anyone out there's not a group that's I gravitate towards. So, I think the fact that so many people could relate to me or knew enough about me, and had enough confidence. I wouldn't stay steers in the wrong direction. So, that collective group of people as opposed to one or two people wanting to solely be leaders or some people may be a little more boisterous or loud about trying to be the front of the line. When I was right there in the back and we had a lot of great leaders and men came out of that group. It was just fun. For me personally, it was something I was not expecting going into it.

Rob Delavan  13:49

That's interesting, being the glue guy.

Mathew Stockstill  13:53

Yeah, I'd say that's pretty much simply that it really is what I've seen and had people tell me over the years, I get along with people, I like people a lot. I like to hear stories. I think I have a lot of compassion for other people's scenarios and I try to be empathetic and I think that does just attract a lot of people towards me in my causes.

Rob Delavan  14:19

Awesome. Okay, so, the third question for Matt is what advice would you give to your younger self?

Mathew Stockstill  14:34

I would say don't stress as much. It's very fortunate where any goal I think I've said except for being the shortstop for the New York Yankees everything outside of that. I feel like when it comes to professional goals, messing everything I touch turns a goal.  Fortunately, I like to set goals they have happened. But I am a very high stress person, where I do, even to this day, having the confidence to know that things are going to work out, may not that month. But I do live pretty consistently, just in a stress ball. I think I frequently have to have my partner Jim call me down when I feel like, oh, I'm going to get an email back on Monday about a project or I'm going to call for this, and I immediately just start to think of the worst-case scenario. But yeah, I have no reason to think that way. So, things have worked out pretty well throughout the years. So, I think for me just learn to manage that stress, having the confidence that things are going to work out, I think certainly would have saved me some grey hair, probably a few points, my blood pressure, but I think things do work out.

Rob Delavan  15:58

Yeah, it's funny that negative spiral that can happen. Lance, I know you've seen that all the time and in your line of line of work, if you will, Adrian, same thing.

Adrian  16:16

That's a really good advice to give hard to follow to write, but just don't stress man.

Lance Johnson  16:24

So, in the financial world, obviously, the market goes up and down. The brilliant at the basics really came when, when things don't work out, what's your coping mechanism and for me, you go back to very simple basic things, you get into a routine that work. So, if you have to get up early, if you have to exercise to relieve that stress, because think about when the market goes down, 2001 and two, and now, we've been through it before we've been through wars, we've been through scenarios, and they all look unique, but they're all kind of based on the same thing. When we had the fires or the pandemic, you just got to go back to basics, and that's where the brilliant at the basics came from, just do your simple things, take care of yourself, make sure you have good food, stock up on some things, don't take risk and that coping mechanism is really what truly defines, when I did my presentation. I think my quote was, how do you deal with when it's a tough time and that's when you're going to succeed, and you have that view, and you've been through tough time and it happens and there's certain things that you do that are going to calm people down and be a leader and do all those things. You just got to make sure you look back on time and just learn from those and just recognize when you're in those situations.

Rob Delavan  18:12

Obviously, you've handled stress pretty darn well. To get to you up to this point. But yeah, you're right, Lance pretty much repeats itself.

Lance Johnson  18:28

Clearly, he's done a good job. He's doing much better job.

Rob Delavan  18:36

I'll take a little bit of that advice.

Adrian  18:39

Dan pepper up there now.

Rob Delavan  18:41

I need to I need to slow down a bit, I guess and take Matt's advice. I love it.

Mathew Stockstill  18:46

I think a person has to operate with a sense of urgency. I think a little bit stress is good for me. I think it does keep me moving and keeps me motivated. But in terms of what I'm stressing over versus the degree I take it to certainly could be altered.

Rob Delavan  19:07

Yeah, I love it. Good advice.

Adrian  19:14

Well, that's the end of our first episode with Mathew Stockstill. Mathew Stockstill architect LLC Is the name of his company rapidly growing. I know you've had some pretty fantastic growth over the past few months even. I'm going to say past few years, but that too, where can we reach you? Where can we find you?

Mathew Stockstill  19:35

Yes, email is right on the screen, M Stockstillarchitect.com That's my cell phone number. We like to be very accessible. You can call me anytime. We can chat about your project or design and then recently just got Instagram fired up. So, that's M. Stockstill_arch. So, find us there. We're trying to get that moving. We've got some really good posts with some projects we've worked o and also just some educational bits for those who want to know more about architecture and just how these design processes work.

Rob Delavan  20:08

Yeah, very nice. Adrian, take us home here.

Adrian  20:14

That's going to cover us episode one of three in this series. We'll come back for a little bit more about where Matt is now and where he's headed. For those of us watching on video, got all our contact info on the screen. But of course, as always, you can find us on any of the many get rich slow podcast links, I think we've got the links even in the in the episodes now, regardless of what platform you're listening to. You can also jump on ROI-fa.com/events. To find out what's going on in the future for us locally. I know we're doing our we have the summer bash, coming up in August, August 20. Here we go. started screaming August 20 and then this is still a little ways out but photos with Santa on November 12. I love doing this nice and early. Because again, you can get the content for your Christmas cards, swing on by the office. Get your Santa photos and you might want to grab a reservation with us and early on that.

Rob Delavan  21:06

Yep. All right. Thank you all for listening and we're looking forward to our next two episodes with Mathew Stockstill, our architect. Love it. Thank you, guys.