The Quiet and Strong Podcast, Especially for Introverts
The Quiet and Strong Podcast, Especially for Introverts
Ep 237 - Building Successful Online Businesses and Personal Growth with guest Matthew Stafford
Are you an introvert curious about how your unique strengths can fuel powerful leadership and business success?
In this episode of The Quiet and Strong Podcast, host David Hall sits down with Matthew Stafford—serial entrepreneur and e-commerce expert—to explore building thriving businesses while embracing your natural gifts.
From radically honest leadership to team building and the power of deep personal work (including transformative dark retreats), you’ll uncover practical strategies for personal growth, business optimization, and authentic collaboration.
Tune in to hear real stories, actionable advice, and inspiring ideas to help you succeed on your own terms—whether you’re running an online business or simply looking to better understand and honor your introverted strengths. Listen, learn, and be strong.
Episode Link: QuietandStrong.com/237
- - -
Over the past three decades, Matthew Stafford has been entrepreneurial and successfully building several businesses across various industries, including Concrete, Brick and Mortar Locations, POD, and Software-based ventures. Matthew As the Managing Partner of Build Grow Scale and an equity owner of some in-house Ecommerce brands, Matthew has knowledge and expertise, enabling him to mentor thousands of store owners through paid Ecommerce groups and live events. His experience has also allowed him to help hundreds of ecommerce brands scale past the million-dollar mark - with many hitting the $10 million mark. To top it off, he's been speaking on stages about ecommerce optimization for the past seven years! In fact, before COVID-19, BGS hosted the largest yearly Ecommerce-focused event in North America - BGS LIVE.
Connect with Matthew:
Website: BuildGrowScale.com/
Socials: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | X Twitter | Youtube
- - -
Contact the Host of the Quiet and Strong Podcast:
David Hall
Author, Speaker, Educator, Podcaster
quietandstrong.com
Gobio.link/quietandstrong
david [at] quietandstrong.com
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.
Take the FREE Personality Assessment: Typefinder Personality Assessment
Follow David on your favorite social platform:
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Youtube
Get David's book:
Minding Your Time: Time Management, Productivity, and Success, Especially for Introverts
Matthew Stafford [00:00:00]:
Yeah, that the team is a lot stronger when the business owner is radically honest about what he does know and what he doesn't know. We've had a lot of our best insights saying, hey, here's the issue that we're dealing with. What's everybody's input? Rather than me saying this is what I think and getting a bunch of people go, oh yeah, that's what I think too. They'll just parrot what you said or they'll just confirm what you said rather than have their own idea. So I've learned to share what the problem is, get everybody's input, and then we work on it together. And that works much better than me being the answer guy.
David Hall [00:00:50]:
Hello and welcome to episode 237 of the Quiet and Strong podcast, especially for introverts. I'm your host David hall and the creator of quietandstrong.com. this is a weekly podcast dedicated to understanding the strengths and needs of introverts along with strategies for success. Introversion is not something to fix, but to be embraced. Normally we wear each episode on a Monday. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite platform, leave a review or a rating. That would mean a lot to me and also help others find the show, tell a friend about the podcast and help get the word out there that introversion is a beautiful thing. Over the past three decades, Matthew Stafford has been entrepreneurial and successfully building several businesses across various industries including concrete, brick and mortar locations, DoD and software based ventures.
David Hall [00:01:38]:
As the managing partner of Build, Grow, Scale and an equity owner of some in house e commerce brands, Matthew has knowledge and expertise enabling him to mentor thousands of store owners through paid e commerce groups and live events. His experience has allowed him to help hundreds of e commerce brands scale past the million dollar mark, with many hitting the $10 million mark. To top it off, he's been speaking on stages about E Commerce optimization for the past seven years. All right, well, welcome to the Quiet and Strong podcast. Matt. Matt, so good to have you on today.
Matthew Stafford [00:02:16]:
Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to the conversation.
David Hall [00:02:19]:
Yeah, absolutely. We're going to get into the work you do, especially with E commerce. And before we do that, let's just hear a little bit more about yourself and your journey to the work that you're doing now.
Matthew Stafford [00:02:29]:
Yeah, I actually started working for myself right out of high school. I actually did a couple years of architectural drafting and ended up using that as I moved into the concrete industry. I owned a commercial concrete business for about 23 years and traveled all over the country pouring concrete for the big box stores like Walmart, Menards, Lowe's, Home Depot. And I was on the road about 200 days a year and was tired of that. So I went to a Tony Robbins event. And in that program, he sold another program called Money Masters. And it was a DVD with a booklet that you got each month, and it was highlighting someone who had started making a living selling stuff online. The first one was Frank Kern.
Matthew Stafford [00:03:22]:
Then I think he was selling an ebook, making about 50 grand a month. And I thought, oh, wow, that's crazy. I had never thought about using my computer to make money. All I had used it for at that point was to just send blueprints and proposals and things for the concrete business. But I started looking at how I could make money from a computer and then not be. Not have to travel so much. And that really started my e commerce journey. I tried SEO for a little bit, didn't enjoy it, and then got into selling things online through a platform for T shirts called Teespring.
Matthew Stafford [00:04:02]:
And essentially what you did there is you put designs on a shirt, and then you would run Facebook ads to it, and from there you would sell a certain number, and that would determine how much they were going to charge you to print and fulfill it, which would determine your profit minus your ad spend. And the first couple that I did, I did really well on. I thought, okay, this actually has potential to do very well. And so I kind of doubled down on that. And within a couple years, I had sold the concrete business and two brick and mortar salons that I had and went full time online. And that's what I've been doing the last 10, 11 years.
David Hall [00:04:40]:
Wow. So how did you jump right into owning your own business? You were pretty young, it sounds like.
Matthew Stafford [00:04:47]:
Yeah, I was. I had started a paper route when I was about 12.
David Hall [00:04:52]:
Okay.
Matthew Stafford [00:04:53]:
And so my parents would drop me off in town, and I would walk around to all the businesses and tell them the newspaper called True Grit, it was like a quarter, and I had built that up to about 60 bucks a week. So saved my money, bought a car, and just always felt like, you know, I could rely on myself to produce. And I liked that a lot more than the jobs that I had from 16 to 18. So when I turned 18, the guy that I was working for offered to sell me his business on a land contract, and that was my opportunity to get started.
David Hall [00:05:32]:
Wow, that's amazing. And then you said that Tony Robbins was really influential. Tell us a little bit more about that.
Matthew Stafford [00:05:40]:
Yeah, I had read several of his books. I loved it loved them and his. His message. So it seemed like the next thing was to go to one of his events, which I'm not sure why I waited so long to go to one, because I had read several of his books and loved that, but I just had never made the. Never took the opportunity to do that. And once I did that Money Masters program, it was 12 issues. I still have them because it was like Russell Brunson, Brendan Bouchard, Frank Kern, Dean Jackson. And I'm.
Matthew Stafford [00:06:19]:
I'm actually friends with two or three of three of the people on that out of those 12 that the program came out. So it's really, really cool to see how it's went full circle for me.
David Hall [00:06:29]:
That's great. And Matt, you are a fellow introvert. So what's the strength that you have because you're an introvert?
Matthew Stafford [00:06:36]:
Great question. I would say that I'm willing to do the work without needing the recognition for it. A lot of times people want the recognition, and I think that that slows them down. So being able to give other people not needing. Not. Not needing credit for something. I think that as an introvert, that actually gives you the ability to build a stronger network and even a stronger business because of the fact that it feels good and it feels comfortable to give other people the. The credit for things.
David Hall [00:07:15]:
Yeah, yeah. And you do the work and the credit's going to come anyway. Right. And then we also bust myths on this show. Is there introvert myth you want to bust today?
Matthew Stafford [00:07:24]:
I don't think it's a weakness. I think some people think that it's a weakness and really don't. Yeah, I think that's the myth that I would say is I don't think it's a weakness. I used to really beat myself up for it. I don't anymore. I actually have done a lot of personal work, and you and I have talked about a couple the dark retreats that I did in the last seven or eight months. And I. I genuinely see the different aspects of myself as good qualities, not.
Matthew Stafford [00:07:55]:
Not weaknesses.
David Hall [00:07:57]:
Yeah, you're in the right show. Introversion is a strength. You just have to understand it. Yeah. So, yeah, tell us about what is a dark retreat and tell us about your experience. I'm fascinated with it.
Matthew Stafford [00:08:10]:
Yeah. Well, what it is, you have a room with a bed and a bench and a little table that you can eat on and a bathroom, and that's it. And it is so dark that you can't see your hand in front of your face and there's no noise. So it's basically dark and silent. My first one I went in for a little over 121 hours. So it was about five days. A little over five days. And the second one I did was a little over 100 hours.
Matthew Stafford [00:08:40]:
And I did them six months apart. And I'm. I have one final one to do in November, so we'll kind of cap it off. And the first one was so influential. I said, oh, I'm going to do this again in between. Because the way that it originally happened was I signed up on a waiting list. And finally, like a year later, they said, hey, can you do November 22nd or 27th through December 4th? And I'm like, sure. And this is around August.
Matthew Stafford [00:09:10]:
So I thought he meant November to December of the current year. And around September, I emailed him like, hey, I need some more details so I can buy my. My. Buy my flight and, you know, kind of make arrangements. He goes, oh, no, no, that's for 2025.
David Hall [00:09:28]:
Oh, wow.
Matthew Stafford [00:09:28]:
And I was like, oh, I already had all the time scheduled off. You know, obviously you're not taking calls. And. And so I'm gonna go online and see if I can find another place that could do that. And I did. I found one and went to it, and it was so impactful. I said. I kept my.
Matthew Stafford [00:09:49]:
I kept the one that was a year out and said, I'm going to do it one more time in between. So I've done two out of the three, and my life is radically different in the six months following it. You know, we've almost doubled our business. I just. I feel immensely healthier. I think I processed a lot of old trauma and things that, you know, you don't even realize that you're carrying around.
David Hall [00:10:16]:
Yeah. So describe it a little bit. Like, what is the benefit of. Of being in the darkness? And what did you walk? How did you walk away with some new insights?
Matthew Stafford [00:10:27]:
Yeah. So the first day, I'm pretty structured, and I thought, like, okay, I'm going to be in here for four, four and a half days, almost five days. I structure my life based off of my body, my physical being, like, how I eat and exercise, then my being, which is my relationship with myself and with God, then my balance, which is my relationships with others, and then my business. And I thought, oh, I work on each one of those each day. Wow. The dark had other plans, because that first day when I tried to do that, I realized that my mind was literally addicted to distraction. And so I was way too distracted to actually do any deep Work. And that kind of really took the entire day to what I would say is kind of detox from that distraction that we're used to.
Matthew Stafford [00:11:24]:
No screens, no phones, no emails, no getting up and, you know, distracting yourself with anything because there's nothing to do. The second day felt like my body had to detox from not getting the dopamine chemicals from the brain all the time. And then the third day was actually when I was able to do a lot of deep work. The third and the fourth day, and my understanding of how it changed me is once you get past that point of no longer being distracted and you can start witnessing your thoughts and seeing the stories and how you're formulating ideas, things like that, you actually realize a lot of the stories that you're telling are just that they're stories, they're not truth. And so your mind, the story that it made up when it was five or six years old, and you've never revisited that because you're distracted and just living life. Now you're seeing it. Me personally, I was seeing it as a 53 year old and I have context of 53 years looking at that story. And your brain like automatically upgrades it, automatically reframes it.
Matthew Stafford [00:12:46]:
And so there's this period of after I got out where about every week to 10 days, I would actually be really tired and lethargic for a day or two. And then I would just feel amazing. It was like I was shedding these old beliefs because my brain just had to re catalog the new stories and the reframes. And it literally happened all the way up almost until I went in for my second one. It kind of tapered off. So I felt like that six month, it's almost a five month integration of your body adjusting. And over that period of time, like I said, I showed up for work immensely different. I showed up for myself immensely different.
Matthew Stafford [00:13:32]:
Like I'm much, much healthier now. I showed up for my relationships from a very open and vulnerable place rather than this fear or hiding because you're ashamed of different things that you went through in life, which I think causes a little bit of the introversion, you know, the natural tendency to be introverted. Because one of my patterns was that I'm the only safe place for me. And so from that I learned how to stay safe inside of that environment of being alone.
David Hall [00:14:06]:
Yeah. So how. Tell us a little bit more about the new stories. How did those come out of being in the dark?
Matthew Stafford [00:14:14]:
Yeah, I've done a bunch of psychedelic stuff for healing and I would tell you, the difference between the two is you have amazing experiences when you do the plant medicines, but you have to kind of formulate your own idea of what happened, what it meant, all of that. With the dark, you don't have any of that experience. It's just, it's literally playing you, your thoughts and how you're formulating them. And without any distraction, physically or mentally. I think that you create the better story naturally. And I'm sure that my stories will get better. Who I am at 60 will be different than I am at 53. And so life experience, it does create wisdom.
Matthew Stafford [00:15:05]:
And the stories that I create now at this age are a lot more empowering and a lot more encouraging than the ones were when I was little and was trying to be safe.
David Hall [00:15:16]:
Yeah. So we talk about, you know, it's. With introversion, it's. We have a gift of thinking and it's a lot more than just recharging. A lot of people just talk about recharging. It's a lot more than that and doing the deep work that you're talking about. So outside of this dark retreat, how do you, in your, just in your, your life, how do you make that time and how does deep work look for you?
Matthew Stafford [00:15:40]:
I have a. I have a very strict morning routine and it's gotten much better since then. There was a lot of times I told myself this is what I want to do and still didn't do it as much as I thought I would. Since I've gotten out, it's non negotiable. So that has changed. I make sure that I journal every morning and I've done that for years. But now I also go through a couple other processes. I make sure I read, I make sure I meditate every single day.
Matthew Stafford [00:16:10]:
And those habits are now non negotiable. And that's very good because regardless whether life is great or not, like you don't wake up in a great mood or a great place every morning. And so doing those things first thing when I get up, I set the pace for my day. I am grounded and centered and I have a good day from that point forward because I've been able to reframe whatever mood I was in to something that's. I've won the day already by the time I'm done with my morning.
David Hall [00:16:44]:
Yeah. How about, how long is that every day?
Matthew Stafford [00:16:46]:
Not counting the exercise? Cause I'm doing a 40 minute hit class. About probably an hour.
David Hall [00:16:51]:
Very nice.
Matthew Stafford [00:16:52]:
Yeah.
David Hall [00:16:53]:
And so tell us about your business. Build, grow, scale. Tell us about that and what Made you found that?
Matthew Stafford [00:16:59]:
Yeah. So I, I actually had a partner when we first started. I was helping other e commerce businesses optimize their stores and he was very good at teaching funnels and so together we basically started teaching store owners how to get much higher conversion rates similar to what they would get back in the days when funnels were the, the talk. And then over the last 10 years we've just gotten better and better at it. Instead of figuring it out by trying things, we started using data and, and now we're a very data driven company. We make all of our decisions based off of the actions that people are taking on the website and our goal is that we handle everything from when someone comes to your website until they give you money or give you their information and we optimize that UX UI experience of your website which is your conversation with your customer, your clients that you don't get to have until they contact you. And that's our job is to make your website work well.
David Hall [00:18:09]:
Yeah. And how would you describe the difference with your business model compared to others?
Matthew Stafford [00:18:14]:
Well, we charge a percentage of their revenue because we're very good at it and we scaled a lot of businesses. Most agencies charge like a flat rate and they turn, turn a lot. We charge a percentage of your revenue and our goal is that what have you done for me lately? So as long as you know, percentage of more is more, we have skin in the game. We're as invested in you growing your business as you are because that's how we make our living. If you're not growing, neither are we. And I love that model. I've always believed in, you know, pay for performance and if we're not performing we don't sign any long term contracts. They're allowed to know give a 30 day notice and away they go.
David Hall [00:19:02]:
Awesome. So I know you could probably talk about this for a very long time but what are some keys to website optimization and in conversion strategies?
Matthew Stafford [00:19:13]:
Yeah, I could and I have for a lot of years. I still enjoy it. What I would say is most websites, the early wins that we get is removing things. So clarity trumps persuasion. The more persuasive you try to be a lot of times, the less clear it is because you might understand what you're trying to get across but they don't. And we have found very simple, easy language. Yeah, very clear. The majority for the first six months of what we do is removing things from the website, getting rid of stuff that people don't use, making things a navigation much easier and all of those matter the most.
David Hall [00:20:03]:
Yeah. On a different podcast, I heard you talking about what, what you're describing as the Homer Simpson approach. Tell us about that.
Matthew Stafford [00:20:09]:
Yeah, yeah, we always say so. A lot of times we run rerun tests and they don't win. But our metric is, is it clear? Is it so simple that Homer Simpson could understand it? And if it's not, then it's not clear enough. We can, we can do a better job. And so we, we literally use that over and over and over. And it's, it's an ongoing process because it's basically when the website's super crowded, you got to kind of do it in passes. So first it's like a vehicle that you went mudding with and you got to wipe off the windshield, and then all of a sudden you can see that, oh, wow, the rest of the vehicle is really dirty too. Let's clear the wood or the wheel so that the brakes work, and then let's start washing the body of it.
Matthew Stafford [00:20:56]:
And so that's really how we view the website. We kind of, we start from the back and move towards the front. And what I mean by that is we start at the checkout or where they enter their information. Because if that's not working well, all the other work that we do on the website, you're not going to see the actual monetary benefit from it. So we fix the cart, the checkout, or the opt in, and then we go to the product page, and then we go to the category page and then the homepage. That way each time that you improve a step, it generates more revenue for the business owner.
David Hall [00:21:32]:
Yes. It's not effective if you improve everything else, but then the checkout doesn't work.
Matthew Stafford [00:21:39]:
Yeah. And a lot of people think the first thing they want to work on is their homepage because that's what they look at and that's what they think people are coming to. But we're like, okay, if we improve your homepage, the end goal of that is more people will get to your filters or your category. That doesn't generate you more money yet. There's still two or three more steps. But if we start at the end, optimize that, and then fix the cart, that means more money. And then we fix the product page, that means more people go into the cart, which is check out more money.
David Hall [00:22:11]:
Yeah. And then what do you say? The person, you know, their website is performing poorly and they throw more ad money at it. What, what do you say to that?
Matthew Stafford [00:22:21]:
I think most websites do not have a traffic problem. I, I would say all tra, all, all websites don't have a traffic problem, they have a conversion problem because most of them convert around 2 or 3%. And that means 100 people raised their hand to come look at what you're selling and only two to three people bought. My goal is not to send another hundred people for two to three sales. It's how do I capture two or three of those 97 people that left double the business on the same ad spend and now you're more profitable so the business actually can fund itself, grow more, buy more traffic, hire a better team and improve.
David Hall [00:23:08]:
Yeah. And how do you use data to do that?
Matthew Stafford [00:23:11]:
We use it for everything. So we want to know where they're dropping off, how far they scroll, what they click on, what the customer service complaints are. In fact, one of our very best tips. And I'll share this with everybody. So if anyone here owns a website, it's probably responsible for six or five or six of our biggest wins over the last 10 years. And it's a question that we put on the thank you page that says, what's the one thing that almost made you not buy? And so the people that just gave you money will now tell you what they didn't understand or what was confusing or what took a long time. And we use that, the answers to that to then go back and optimize the process. And we've just, we always get really, really good insights from people who have just went through the website that didn't understand.
Matthew Stafford [00:24:06]:
That makes it more clear.
David Hall [00:24:07]:
Yeah. How are others trying to get that same information? Maybe not as effectively.
Matthew Stafford [00:24:13]:
Maybe sending emails. You know, a lot of people think, oh, ask the people that didn't buy or what prevented them from buying it. And the truth of the matter is most of the those answers are junk and they don't really net very good results. The person who just bought, they now have a vested interest in you doing well and they feel. I don't know how to. Can't think of the word. The word that comes to mind is like a kinship. You know, they've just given you money, they're expecting their product and obviously they think it's going to be good and they want to help you.
Matthew Stafford [00:24:50]:
And so the answers that we get from that, like I've said, we get amazing answers on all the sites that we do using that. And some of our largest, the majority of our largest wins have come from that one thing.
David Hall [00:25:03]:
Awesome. And then how effective is social media in all this?
Matthew Stafford [00:25:09]:
That's a, that's A difficult question to answer because I think social media done well is very effective. In social media, where it's an afterthought, doesn't do that good. And also I would say some businesses thrive around a community and so the community on social media drives a lot of the business for the website owner. We've noticed that the businesses that come to us that already have a community a lot of times their website can be in quite a disarray and it still converts really well because the people have a no like and trust for the community and the business owner and so they'll put up with more issues than a normal cold traffic would. And then there's other businesses that require education. And so the interruption marketing of social media Like Facebook, TikTok doesn't work as well as Google, which is search intent. So there's really, you know, there's lots of different traffic sources, there's lots of different social platforms. It really is contextual on how the business owner uses it in order to either drive traffic or create a community.
David Hall [00:26:32]:
Yeah. So it sounds like it can be effective. Maybe. What are, Is there any myths that come to your mind about the use of social media?
Matthew Stafford [00:26:40]:
Yeah, I would say build it and they'll come.
David Hall [00:26:43]:
Okay.
Matthew Stafford [00:26:43]:
I see a lot of business owners just post a lot of content and they give up after a little while because they don't see likes and engagement. And the truth of the matter is most of the people that are, that are buyers, when they see the content, they go by, but they're not engaging with the social media near as much. So I think, I think the myth that I would say is you don't need a lot of engagement on your stuff to actually still be driving awareness. And buyers, those people are still finding you through those channels. And so it requires you to probably check your ego at the door and realize that not everybody's going to be a YouTube influencer, not everybody's going to have a huge following, but you can still have an enormous business by being consistent with it.
David Hall [00:27:39]:
Yeah. And of course, Matt, where does AI fit into all of this? How do you use AI?
Matthew Stafford [00:27:46]:
We use it every day. Every day. Now it's, it's literally, I believe is probably gonna take away the job that we have right now as we know it, and it's gonna reshape it so we can put so much data into these large language models and have it analyze it in ways that we've never been able to do manually. And so now we're doing that all the time and we have way Better insights and a lot more clarity into things that we could, could have never processed all the data at once, you know, with our own brains. So I believe that we will get to a point where the website looks different for you than it looks for me. And it knows what my preferences are, and it knows what your preferences are, and it will serve what you're looking for or what your interests are based off of that. And I think when it gets there, we will see a lot higher conversions, we'll see a lot more happy customers. Because a lot of times, most of the time right now we're guessing and trying and figuring things out and eventually the data always wins.
Matthew Stafford [00:28:58]:
And the more data we have, the better it converts. So it just makes sense that as we can analyze the data better, we're going to make websites a better experience.
David Hall [00:29:10]:
Yeah. That's fascinating. I hadn't heard that before, that it'll actually customize for the consumer. Right?
Matthew Stafford [00:29:16]:
Yeah.
David Hall [00:29:18]:
Awesome. And over your long career as a business owner, how have you learned to.
Matthew Stafford [00:29:24]:
Build strong teams through a lot of mistakes? Okay, yeah, I wouldn't say I've always got that right, but I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong and also realize that I'm not the only one with answers. And so if you build a team that just parrots what you say, the business will never be any better than you are. And so the more people that can have a seat at the table of the conversation, I think it makes the business a lot more well rounded and the ideas that flow are a lot better and the business improves. So I would say from the team building aspect, really lean into everybody's strengths and have a culture of being able to make mistakes. If you give people the ability to make a mistake, they're not afraid to try new things. And those new things is usually where we find the wins for our, for our, our business owners that we work with.
David Hall [00:30:30]:
Yeah, absolutely. And in teams there's a lot of diversity and there are great ideas, but people need to not be afraid to share those ideas and make mistakes. And so that's, that's amazing.
Matthew Stafford [00:30:44]:
Yeah. And being, being willing to say, I don't know, what do you think create collaboration rather than them waiting for me to give them the answer of what's right or wrong. And it also allows them to get work done without waiting for that answer. And I, I see a lot of inefficiencies in businesses where everything's got to be checked in with the owner. Instead of a certain amount of leeway that they can, they can do. There's. They can do what they're were hired to do without them being the bottleneck.
David Hall [00:31:20]:
Yeah. And I think you hit on something. Many leaders don't want to show that they don't know everything. They don't want to be vulnerable. What have you learned about leadership through the course of your career? And like you said, making mistakes and things.
Matthew Stafford [00:31:36]:
Yeah. That the team is a lot stronger when the business owner is radically honest about what he does know and what he doesn't know. We've had a lot of our best insights saying, hey, here's the issue that we're dealing with. What's everybody's input? Rather than me saying, this is what I think and getting a bunch of people go, oh, yeah, that's what I think too. They'll just parrot what you said or they'll just confirm what you said rather than have their own idea. So I've learned to share what the problem is, get everybody's input, and then we work on it together. And that works much better than me being the answer guy.
David Hall [00:32:18]:
Yeah. And I mean, what I found is, you know, sometimes you might be the answer guy. You might come up with something great. But a lot of the great ideas aren't any one individual's ideas. It's kind of a combination. You bring something, they bring something, and you come up with something new.
Matthew Stafford [00:32:33]:
Yes, 100%, I agree with that.
David Hall [00:32:35]:
Yeah. And of course, another myth that we bust. Some people say introverts can't make great leaders, but that's not true. Introverts can be amazing leaders. They just have to understand their gifts and maybe, you know, how to collaborate or many, many other things, how to do that deep work. So many things.
Matthew Stafford [00:32:55]:
Yeah. I think that we have a tendency to enjoy learning, and being introverted gives you the opportunity where you don't need to be around people all the time, because that can also be a distraction.
David Hall [00:33:11]:
Yeah. There's a balance in there. Because another myth that introverts don't like people, which is absolutely not true. But we do need some time alone. We do need some time with family and friends, but also to collaborate in business, and we enjoy it. But we need that balance. That's. That's where, you know, we can bust the myth.
David Hall [00:33:31]:
It's, yes, we need some time alone. We do better for certain things. We don't mind it as much, but we also need the time with other important people in our lives as well.
Matthew Stafford [00:33:41]:
Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think one is better than the other. I think that they all serve their Purpose. Life would be a lot more boring if we were all one way. Yeah, it would. We'd be like robots. And so I like that some people can carry the conversation and I don't have to do all the talking.
Matthew Stafford [00:34:01]:
I enjoy that, actually.
David Hall [00:34:03]:
Yeah, yeah. We need everybody. We need everybody in our lives, you know, all kinds of strengths. Nobody is the same. We, we need introverts and extroverts on our teams and everybody brings something great.
Matthew Stafford [00:34:17]:
Yeah, for us, we have ones that are great at communicating. We have other ones that are much better at analyzing the data. We have other ones that are much better at writing. So there's all different strengths and that's really what creates the team. We always say the teamwork creates a. Yeah, the teamwork creates a dream. Makes the dream work.
David Hall [00:34:38]:
Yeah, absolutely. Matt, this has been a great conversation. Is there anything else you want to add today?
Matthew Stafford [00:34:44]:
Just grateful that you had me on and had the conversation. I like getting, like I said, getting out of my bubble and sharing what's worked for me. Definitely the darker, the dark retreats that you and I talked about previously made a huge difference. And yeah, I look at my, what I used to think were weaknesses as strengths and it's a much, much better place to view life from.
David Hall [00:35:12]:
Yeah, well said on that. Well, Matt, where can people find out more about you and the work that you're doing?
Matthew Stafford [00:35:19]:
Our business is build growth scale and the website is buildgrowthscale.com. so if you have a website or a lead gen and want someone to take a look at it, you can email me or book a call, we'll run through it and I would let you know if I could provide some value and if not, who would be a good connect for you? I've been doing it long enough now that we're very well connected and can for sure make sure that we point in the right direction.
David Hall [00:35:47]:
All right, well, thanks again, Matt.
Matthew Stafford [00:35:49]:
Thanks for having me.
David Hall [00:35:51]:
Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate you. I hope you take the time to explore other episodes and learn from other amazing guests. Remember, if you're interested in getting to know yourself better, there is now a free typ finder personality assessment on the Quiet and Strong website. This free assessment will give you a brief report including the four letter Myers Briggs code. I'll add a link in the show notes and I'd love to connect with you. Reach out to davidstrong.com or check out the quietandstrong.com website which includes blog posts and links to social media for quiet and strong and much more send me topics or guests you would like to see on the show. So many great things about being an introvert and so we need those to be understood.
David Hall [00:36:35]:
Get to know your introverted strengths and needs and be strong.