Matt Williams Story: Resilience in a Snack Bar

Resilience and reinvention take center stage as we welcome Matt Williams, founder of FroPro Snack Bar and recovery coach, to share his remarkable journey from rock bottom to thriving entrepreneur. 

Matt's story begins with a wake-up call in 2010 that led him to sobriety and a fresh start at age 28. What started as homemade peanut butter snack bars carried in his backpack while cycling around town (having lost his driver's license) transformed into a business through simple word-of-mouth at local juice bars. Today, FroPro's organic, plant-based bars are sold in Whole Foods and retailers across 36 states.

The conversation reveals fascinating insights into bootstrapping a food business, from kitchen experiments with a "perfect brownie cutter" to building a manufacturing facility and navigating the complexities of food packaging, production, and retail placement. Matt's deliberate decision to keep his product refrigerated—initially just personal preference—became a strategic advantage in a less crowded retail category.

Beyond the nuts and bolts of entrepreneurship, Matt opens up about the deeper purpose driving his work. Now approaching 15 years of sobriety, he creates employment opportunities for people in recovery, hosts the "Wake Up The Sun" podcast exploring successful people's routines, and serves as a recovery coach. With refreshing candor, he discusses the human struggles that persist even amid business success—those moments of self-doubt and the ongoing journey of personal growth.

Join us for this uplifting conversation about second chances, finding meaning through giving back, and building a business with authentic purpose. Whether you're facing your own reinvention or simply seeking inspiration, Matt's story reminds us that our greatest challenges often become the foundation for our most meaningful contributions.

Transcript

Introduction to Matt Williams & FroPro

Voice Over 0:00

This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design. Curator of interiors, furnishings and lifestyles. Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott, idesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends. Idesign Lab provides industry insight, discussing the latest trends, styles and everything in between to better help you style your life, through advice from trendsetters, designers, influencers, innovators, fabricators and manufacturers, as well as personal stories that inspire, motivate and excite. And join us on this elevated, informative and lively journey into the world of all things design.

Voice Over 0:50

Today, we're joined by Matt Williams, a true example of resilience and reinvention. After a wake-up call in 2010, matt embraced sobriety and founded FroPro Snack Bar, a company focused on healthy living and supporting the recovery community. Pro Snack Bar, a company focused on healthy living and supporting the recovery community. Now, as a recovery coach, matt mentors men, empowering them to overcome challenges and build fulfilling lives. With a background in teaching, personal training and behavioral health, matt's journey inspires us all to embrace purpose and transformation. Let's dive into his story.

Tiffany Woolley 1:24

Today we'd like to welcome Matt Williams to the iDesign Lab podcast, who is a true testament to resilience and reinvention, and we look forward to diving into an awesome conversation together.

Scott Woolley 1:38

So I think the first thing I want to ask is tell us a little about yourself. You've got an amazing company that we'd love to talk about.

Matt Williams 1:45

You've designed. Yeah, no, thank you for having me on the show. It's great to be sitting down with you both, as we met years ago through a mutual friend and it's crazy how time flies. But my name is Matt Williams. I'm the creator and founder of FroPro Snack Bar, which is an organic peanut butter snack bar that is sold in about 36 states, which is a organic peanut butter snack bar that is sold in about 36 states. Grocery stores, retail pretty much, you name it gyms, juice bars, doctor's offices and started from a little idea in a kitchen, in my kitchen, with a little kitchen maid and a perfect tray brownie cutter.

Tiffany Woolley 2:18

One of those, one of those things.

Matt Williams 2:40

My kids were obsessed with that thing. Yeah, so, yeah, just something that I started making for myself, had a lot of people that were super supportive and gave me a chance, our mutual friend that introduced us being one of them. And yeah, it's crazy how much as we were before the show was starting, just talking about how much time has passed and what's transpired and all the good things.

Scott Woolley 2:59

So what made you think of Snack, did you?

Matt Williams 3:04

feel there was a need for it. Well, it's funny, most of the brands that are out there, it's somebody that creates something where they think there's a need for it, and I always share that. I didn't create FroPro to be a business. I was making it for myself. I was bicycling around town as I had lost my driver's license due to my poor decision-making.

Matt Williams 3:26

Around town, as I had lost my driver's license due to my poor decision making, and in the and as a result of that, everywhere I went, I had these little peanut butter snack bars and my backpack with my change of clothes and you know all that stuff that I was, you know, out for the day with right and would share it with either my clients, the clients kids that I was either, you know, training, training yeah, that I was either training or tutoring in school and it just kind of went from sharing it with certain people to having the opportunity to share it in a friend's gym that I was training out of, and their clients, which led to one lady that happened to be there asking what was in the product and then giving me kind of some coaching and the fact that the ingredients I used were good but they could be better.

Scott Woolley 4:09

And.

Matt Williams 4:10

I took those suggestions and kind of reformulated the product so it would be plant-based, because a lot of people have trouble digesting dairy, and brought it to her and she said this is great, make me 100. And I had never done that. I had a tray.

Tiffany Woolley 4:26

So did you do that in your kitchen? Or did you go to one of those cooking? Yeah, no, I was.

Matt Williams 4:31

I literally was doing everything out of my little kitchen at home in Boynton beach, where I was living at the time, a little one bedroom with with my girlfriend who's now my wife, chelsea and, uh, figured out very rudimentary packaging, essentially glad press and seal wrap right I would cut and wrap the bars in. I put a little sticker on it and did the?

Scott Woolley 4:52

did the product change in taste or consistency when you changed the?

Matt Williams 4:57

not not entirely um plant you were happy with the second sort of yeah, I mean as long as it tasted good and tasted good, and I think everybody says, well, why does your bar stand out? One of the main reasons our bars stand out is because it's good.

Tiffany Woolley 5:09

They do taste good yeah.

Matt Williams 5:11

The actual product, what goes into it. We know the ingredients.

Creating FroPro: From Home Kitchen to Business

Matt Williams 5:13

We manufacture everything in-house since we started to today, we don't use a co-packer and some people have their thoughts on that, thoughts on that but we have an amazing facility, an amazing team, but in starting the product, in changing and listening to people that were, I would say, more well-versed in the industry, in food production and how people are able to eat, and nutritionists and all of that, I took suggestions and ran with it and the result was delivering 100 bars to this woman and her juice bar before juice bars exploded down here Right.

Scott Woolley 5:44

So she had a retail location that she was selling them then Yep.

Matt Williams 5:48

She asked for a hundred bars. I gave her a hundred bars. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what to charge her because I had again, I didn't create it to be a business. She basically said when I sell out of these, this is what I'll pay you. And cause he asked me she's like, what did this cost to make? And I was like I have no idea. You told me to do it, so I did it, right.

Tiffany Woolley 6:06

I love the look. She told you to do it. Yeah right, trial by error, exactly.

Matt Williams 6:12

Yeah, I had no clue what I was doing and still sometimes feel like I don't. But, what was great about it? Is I cool? How long ago is this? How many years ago? This is in 2011. 2011, okay. Yeah, so it was just. I dropped those bars off, ran out of there. Three days later she called me. She goes. Hey, I need 100 more.

Matt Williams 6:36

I sold out and she'd put them at you call point of sale. She put them right by the register because people were going there for smoothies, juices and other healthy items and mine was an add-on and at the point of sale it's like hey, would you like this healthy snack for later? It's not a meal replacement. It didn't take away from their business because they were selling essentially a meal.

Tiffany Woolley 6:57

Right.

Matt Williams 6:58

And mine was just a snack for later and I call that an impulse item, correct Impulse item, point ofof-sale item, whatever it is. And it worked. And she ordered 100 more and introduced me to another person who had a juice bar in Delray, which introduced me to another person, which introduced me to another person and that's how it started.

Scott Woolley 7:16

So now you're making all these bars at home in your cellophane, kind of wrapping them, correct? So at what point does a light bulb go off going?

Tiffany Woolley 7:23

Yeah, what was my question? It was like when did that design decision become like let's create a business or let's do this and take it more?

Scott Woolley 7:31

seriously Like we've got something here. Did you make or think about that, or did someone kind of plant the seed?

Matt Williams 7:38

or push you. Well, the initial idea when I was taking it around, one of my client's mothers was like I think you have something here, and I was like I don't know what you're talking about, because I didn't call it anything.

Tiffany Woolley 7:50

It was just like the bar, yeah, and I made it and it was frozen protein fro pro.

Matt Williams 7:53

And she's the one that bought the first website with my credit card. I was like super nervous because I didn't really have any money at the time. I was just starting over at 28. And that's kind of how it started.

Matt Williams 8:04

So, with getting to that point of like either taking it seriously, what I did know is that I didn't want to be making the bar in my house Because in Florida, with all the green markets and all the pop-up things, you could have a product under the Cottage Act which allows people to know that if you purchase this product. It's made in someone's home and some people are cool with that and others are not. I wanted it to be a little bit more legit, so I found essentially a commissary kitchen Right, I've heard that where they're all sanitized Rent space Locally, Locally.

Matt Williams 8:39

this kitchen was out in West Boca at essentially where the old post office was off of Clintmore and 441. It was tucked back as west as you could go.

Scott Woolley 8:49

Were they doing similar type products or were they a bakery?

Matt Williams 8:53

It was actually a juice company at one time and I knew the guy that owned it. He had the space used for certain like at certain times, and then the times that he wasn't using it. So I didn't get in the way. I rented space from him and I was there for a couple years and then I actually moved right down the road from here in Boynton, right off Congress and that industrial development. Oh, just right down the road, I forget the side road and I moved there and then in 20.

Tiffany Woolley 9:22

Were you still mixing the concoctions there? Yep Still doing using using you know tabletop mixers, right, right, I know they have those industrial sizes and yeah, not like we hadn't graduated to that until about a couple years ago okay the hobart mixes.

Matt Williams 9:35

Yeah, got the big hobarts, but we, you know, we went from like a tabletop to a slightly bigger, as much as we went to the biggest one that you could keep on a stainless steel table without it crushing under its weight. Right, and I had went from the essentially the little cutters and like the little metal trays or perfect brownie, the perfect brownie mixer thing, to a food mold company that I had connected with from a food show out in Chicago that essentially had imprints of our product in a silicone tray, right, and you'd make the product, put it in there and then we'd freeze it. And you know, at one point we had, I think, like 16 deep chest freezers that you could stack the product in.

Scott Woolley 10:15

So was it a frozen product. It started out that way, yeah.

Matt Williams 10:18

It started out that way and now we necessarily didn't need to. And everyone says, why would you go into the cold space? And, to my own ignorance, I don't know why I did. But what was great about being?

Scott Woolley 10:28

in there. What was your reasoning for?

Matt Williams 10:29

thinking behind that. I'm just a dessert guy.

Tiffany Woolley 10:31

Right, he liked it chilled.

Scott Woolley 10:33

I like it chilled Because it limits you from a retail standpoint?

Matt Williams 10:37

Sure, I didn't know that, though you know, I had no clue. I just said I like my food cold, and you know, there are people that you know, some mutual friends of ours, that know that kind of play devil's advocate and they're like, really, a cold bar in Florida. Isn't that a pretty stupid thing? And I said maybe it is. But what's great about it is the category that we're in now. The only other products that are there are maybe five or six, compared to if we're on the dry shelf there's dozens, you're right.

Tiffany Woolley 11:03

Compared to if we're on the dry shelf, there's 300, 400 that you can choose.

Matt Williams 11:06

And it sits. You listen to any nutritionist or you listen to anybody that back then the only one really doing it was Perfect Bar. Rx Bar had just come out too. But what was interesting is that you go into the grocery store and a lot of people say don't go in those middle aisles, don't shop where stuff is sitting on the shelves for too long. You shop. The peripheral staples are in the middle, correct? And they say, quote unquote, the fresher of the foods are in the refrigerated or on the outside.

Tiffany Woolley 11:39

That's so true, wow, so I didn't. That's just another positive, then, on your so.

Matt Williams 11:43

So I had no clue and that's how we started and I had many people say make it shelf-stable. I'm like it is shelf-stable. And one thing we did run into that was a problem was we basically said it's best served chilled, but it doesn't have to be. And when you tell a buyer that and they hear that. Oh, it doesn't have to be in the refrigerator. Oh, that's not my category.

Tiffany Woolley 12:03

You've got to get out of here. You're confusing them. She's the stuff you learn when you're out there, right? And?

Matt Williams 12:08

people still to this day. Well, I accidentally left my bar in my gym bag, or I left it in my golf bag, or it was in the car.

Scott Woolley 12:17

Does it say on the bar that it has to be refrigerated? No, it just says best're chilled, that's okay.

Matt Williams 12:22

So there's nothing in the bar that can spoil even the products that we do put into it. Freeze-dried anything, what's your shelf life. So in the refrigerator we say three to six months, in the freezer six to nine or longer. In the refrigerator it can last up to nine months. That's a short shelf life Compared to our competitors. It's seven to ten days, really yeah, so we can be in the refrigerator for a period of time. So when we produce we put a nine-month, essentially best eaten by nine months of production.

Matt Williams 12:52

But there's no dairy in it, correct. No dairy, yeah, no dairy. No soy, no egg, yeah.

Scott Woolley 12:57

So what's the reason? Just because you like it, chilled Selfishly, yes, okay.

Tiffany Woolley 13:01

But I love the idea because now that we are more paying attention than say we were in 2014 when you were starting. I mean, we are all about shopping the perimeter and we are about wholesome ingredients. Now we're all more mindful, I feel like, than ever.

Matt Williams 13:19

Yeah, I want to say we were ahead of the trend before it was a trend.

Matt Williams 13:22

Yes, without a doubt, but, like it wasn, wasn't intentional and I don't want to say what point did you put packaging or did you? Have to create a logo and design a packaging and so forth so it was interesting as my two older brothers my oldest brother was in, he's a professor and he taught marketing and he taught kind of that thing so I actually had exposure to people that were essentially doing projects for free. So one of the initials was like he had one of his students.

Tiffany Woolley 13:45

He gave it to his class to do.

Matt Williams 13:46

He basically said hey, create a logo for this company.

Tiffany Woolley 13:48

I love it.

Matt Williams 13:49

And that was our first logo. There's been many iterations since the packaging went from obviously plastic wrap to Uline, which you're familiar with essentially a package you could open and you could essentially open and close which was our next, but why we changed from the open and a close to a completely sealed was.

Matt Williams 14:11

We were still relatively new. We were in, I believe, one of the local stores we're probably like 10 stores in and the Department of Health was at that store and asked the owner what is this product and why is this missing on this product? She says oh, that's Matt, he's great, call Matt. And I had the Department of Health. This guy called me and he goes your product is not suitable for stores and I need you to pull off all your products.

Tiffany Woolley 14:36

Oh geez.

Matt Williams 14:37

What was the reason for that? Because of the ability to open and close said product. So what would-.

Scott Woolley 14:44

Well, I could tell you that there's a little bit of what payola that takes care of that with.

Matt Williams 14:49

Yeah, that was my first exposure, but what was great about it is they were very kind. They said we understand your. This is a learning experience and we understand that you're learning this process as you go and we're gonna help you out here.

Matt Williams 15:02

Fortunately, at that time we're only on essentially in 10 stores with in some shelves and we weren't doing a ton of volume yet and I was able to pull off the product um essentially repackage it re essentially give the, give the stores their money back, but they're like we want we want the product, which is a great feeling right, and so we then, um, were able to take our packaging and do essentially a heat seal which sealed the package completely, and it was a tearaway strip and, and since then we've moved to a full machine, a flow wrapper that you know it looks like, if you remember the I love lucy, it's like a full conveyor belt bar, goes in, wraps it, dumps it and we overcame an obstacle yeah, yeah.

Matt Williams 15:45

All the things that you overcame an obstacle, yeah, yeah, all the things that we overcame were learning situations Like it wasn't. Hey, we should do this because we knew what we were doing.

Scott Woolley 15:52

You'd be surprised how many people would just give up and say oh, the Board of. Health. The Department of Health just came down, had me pull the product. Oh yeah.

Matt Williams 16:02

Scrap this idea, and I've heard that over the years. Product oh yeah, let's scrap this idea, and I've heard that over the years. I'm sure you've talked to people that are entrepreneurs, oh, yeah, you guys have been successful in a lot of things that you've done, and a lot of the times it can be very devastating and it can be very like, oh, this is a stupid idea, I failed.

Packaging Evolution and Design Challenges

Tiffany Woolley 16:16

No, you can never go.

Matt Williams 16:17

Right, and there are days like that though.

Tiffany Woolley 16:19

Yeah, you know we have days where we're like what are we doing?

Matt Williams 16:22

This is ridiculous. Like this is so expensive.

Scott Woolley 16:26

So time-consuming so do you have your own facility now that you're packaging?

Matt Williams 16:30

Yeah, we're 1200 Clinton War Road, we tell people to drop by. You know, as long as we're not in active production, even though we have the hairnets and people can like the Department of Health can come any time and they have in the middle of anything they want. But Health can come any time and they have in the middle of anything they want. But, yeah, we tell people to come by and see it. You want to see the product, you want to see the raw materials.

Tiffany Woolley 16:48

I love that.

Matt Williams 16:48

Everything's right here.

Tiffany Woolley 16:49

We don't hide anything.

Matt Williams 16:50

We're very transparent, like that's what I think one of the cool things about our product is is not only can we have people and we feel confident in what we do and how we operate in our team, but we tell people come by you want to see the one line that kind of. So we have a giant Hobart mixer and we mix, you know, a very. It becomes very heavy, which is so funny when you think about where we started.

Matt Williams 17:12

But you know we mix this huge product. It goes on to one machine that we invested in two years ago, which essentially it's called a slab machine, and it you dump this what looks like cookie dough, right, essentially say like the dough or the bar material. It flattens it. One thing we customized that we always thought we, we thought was cool is our bar says our name our name on it, yeah and from the molds.

Matt Williams 17:34

It was like well, how do we do that? And the machine company basically said well, we can create a stamp. Yeah, that stamps the product. So it literally gets rolled twice, stamped carbon fiber cuts it into sections and then it goes through another cutter which you can make the bar as big, as small as you want Dimensions are really cool and then it drops onto a cookie tray. Cookie tray goes into the rolling rack, sits in the chiller for a little while and then it goes right on the machine, gets packaged and then into the boxes and out to the customer so what's the whole time like frame go to like from the time it's in the mixing, or even just the ingredients, yeah, so what?

Matt Williams 18:12

we like to do is we like to produce on one day, so make as many as we can on one day, and the next day run the machine. So could we do it in the same day? Absolutely. But what it's nice is it gives it a little break and we have the capability of running 24-7. As of right now, we don't do it because we're at a certain level where we're at that plateau of we're ready to punch through, we're ready for more territories, we're ready for more retail opportunities. We have the full capability to run 24-7. We just haven't done it yet.

Scott Woolley 18:45

So do you have a staff now that just handles that, or do you do it yourself?

Matt Williams 18:48

Absolutely amazing team. There are days that I do jump in because I miss it. I bet I do. My wife, chelsea, is the CEO. She runs the show. I think it was two years ago. We made it a women-owned business because she what we do really well is she sits at the control panel. She runs everything from the office. She loves that. I don't want to say behind the scenes, because she very much runs the show. We have an amazing director of operations that started. We've known her since middle school.

Matt Williams 19:16

She lost her job in COVID and started with us part-time and stuck around and now she is the director of operations right underneath Chelsea, and we've hired a lot of people that have come through South Florida for you know different reasons substance abuse, that get sober and need a job. That's.

Tiffany Woolley 19:33

Give them a fresh start.

Matt Williams 19:34

Essentially a fresh start in a place Because you're giving back to that community, Like you know, like our mutual friend did for me.

Matt Williams 19:40

Correct you know, gave me the chance and I think it's really important. We've had people come and go in a week. We've had people come and stay for a couple months, but it gives people a safe place, a good job where they can show up. It's a good environment. We have a great team. We hate to see people leave and we hate when they want to do other things, but we also understand you've got to do what you've got to do it's life 100%.

Scott Woolley 20:03

Life's a revolving door. People are that's right.

Tiffany Woolley 20:05

So do you plan on ever branching out and adding to the line? I know you have multiple flavors.

Scott Woolley 20:11

So how many SKUs do you have?

Matt Williams 20:14

Man, we've had so many SKUs.

Scott Woolley 20:16

Oh really, yeah, so you're changing SKUs.

Matt Williams 20:19

Yeah, so again, we base everything either off a cacao base, which is our chocolate we don't use milk products, so it's a cacao base which is our chocolate and or vanilla, and then we kind of go from there. So everything would be called kind of a sweet snack bar, and it's a variation on either of those two. We know which.

Tiffany Woolley 20:42

SKUs do better and have done better. What is the best-selling?

Matt Williams 20:43

one Toasted marshmallow.

Tiffany Woolley 20:44

Toasted marshmallow. Followed Toasted Marshmallow.

Matt Williams 20:46

Followed by Birthday Cake, vanilla Chocolate Chip and the regular, so how many different SKUs? Or flavors do you have? So we expanded, so we had. When we launched in Whole Foods, we launched with just four, which was Chocolate, vanilla, mint and Coffee, which are the only flavors we had.

Scott Woolley 21:02

And in the refrigerated section.

Matt Williams 21:04

In the refrigerated section, right at the checkout. Yep At the checkout.

Scott Woolley 21:07

So it's in a little. It's in the middle, one of those open-ended coolers, like in between the two.

Matt Williams 21:11

Yep and sometimes we have multiple locations depending Like. Whole Foods here has been really good to us. The Boca location. We did a special bar for the Del. I'm going to share this because it's a cool, fun fact. We did more sales the first week of Delray Beach Whole Foods opening. We beat water, water, bottled water. We beat water, which was outrageous At that time. Beyond Meat. Those things were like the rage. We did more than them and it caused a little like wave where National was like what is going?

Matt Williams 21:45

on with this product and they're like it's their hometown. Right and you're like that's great, but these numbers are ridiculous.

Tiffany Woolley 21:50

That's so exciting.

Matt Williams 21:52

Very exciting.

Tiffany Woolley 21:53

Well, I know myself. When I first went to that Whole Foods when it opened, I thought it was so cool. I hadn't seen that many flavors ever together. So I was like, oh, I get to grab a few additional flavors.

Matt Williams 22:06

And it like, oh, I get to grab a few. Yeah, we additional flavors and it's like not common, right? So, as as we expanded nationally with them into new territories, we are now just doing the top three flavors. We started with nine and whole foods and then we went down to six, the top six, and as we expand out of florida, we're doing the top three flavors, which is toasted, mallow, chocolate chip and birthday cake. Yeah, so, it's yeah. So, to answer the initial question, how many SKUs? I think over the years we've had up to 20. Okay, but we focus on the top five and then we have the other ones and we have fun. We just launched our first savory bar.

Matt Williams 22:38

Which people were very curious about Savory, so it's like the it has a cheesy, or herby?

Matt Williams 22:47

yeah, like people like you think of like a cajun turmeric, right, okay, those kind of things, but we didn't everything. So who's designing these different flavors? We've tried so many different flavors. So when people do offer, I'm sure like people are you like, oh hey, should do this and they offered unsolicited opinions to you. You can take it with a smile and say thank you, but we try it, we've tried it all. We've tried different citrus ones. It hasn't worked. That was the initial flavor. They wanted a pineapple flavor for Del Rey because, like beech, and pineapple, but they all have a peanut butter base to it All, a peanut butter base.

Matt Williams 23:25

We'd had an almond butter line, that was great and it just wasn't. Essentially, we weren't I don't want to say making money on it, because that sounds terrible, but at the end of the day, it wasn't selling. It was selling, but the price of almonds went up. Oh, okay, so your margin wasn't there, and when you sell a bar, that's the same size peanut butter versus almond butter.

Matt Williams 23:45

Now, if you go buy a jar of almond butter, it's more than peanut butter, and people are like well, why is that? And it's kind of you can't charge more for an almond butter bar because people don't get it and that that they have to get it.

Scott Woolley 23:56

So are all your bars the same size. Same size, same, yeah, are they all the same price?

Matt Williams 24:00

Same price, same price, same price, same price. Yeah, same thing. And what is?

Tiffany Woolley 24:03

the price? I mean God, I don't ever look at the price of like protein bars. She doesn't look at the price of anything.

Scott Woolley 24:09

No, that's phenomenal.

Matt Williams 24:11

You're our best customer, yeah, so it'll retail as low as $2.99. And then some of the more high-end boutiques, like, if you look, I'll just say like the most I ever saw and it hurt my heart was $8. Oh jeez but it's like the same thing, like you can get a bottle of water for $0.50 and then you can go to a hotel in Miami and the same bottle of water will be $10.

Tiffany Woolley 24:31

It's so true.

Scott Woolley 24:31

Are you in any hotels or spas We've got?

Matt Williams 24:34

a couple hotels that we've just through knowing people, we've gotten in, a couple like Ritz's and Hilton's, and golf courses are a big deal for us. So if there are any golf course listeners out there that want to up their game and the snack bar game let me know.

Matt Williams 24:50

Healthy snacks, yeah, and there is that initiative. There are people looking for better ingredients and we're going up against some heavy hitters right. There are a lot of people, and you know influencers and people that have clout whether I'm going to say this in the nicest way, whether they deserve it or not and then they create a product and the product might be full of crap.

Tiffany Woolley 25:12

Yeah, you're right.

Matt Williams 25:13

But they have a following and the following will go out there and buy it and that's great and we've tried to channel into that.

Tiffany Woolley 25:20

It works.

Scott Woolley 25:21

You have a lot of competitors that you kind of focus on or think about.

Matt Williams 25:27

I want to say this in the nicest way that we don't focus on them. Good, I can't You've been successful.

Tiffany Woolley 25:34

staying in your own lane, I feel like, and it's tough.

Matt Williams 25:38

I mean, there's companies that have come out after me that have already sold for hundreds of millions of dollars and, you know, I've talked with people in the industry that have given me my time and, like the beverage or food industry, that are like, you know, you think, oh my God. And you know, I had one guy, you know, sit me down and he's like we spent X amount of dollars on marketing and it was a number that I was blown away by and he said, at the end of the day, we created this awesome brand, he's like.

Matt Williams 26:01

However, I own five percent right and I said well, five percent of and to grow it he had to do that, yeah, but at the same time, they're a nationally global recognized brand, right, and when they do get acquired regardless if they do or not he'll do fine and he did fine to get to where he is today, right, right. But you know, you learn the process and it's nice because the industry you can encounter some really I hate to say it shitty people like any business, right, any business, yeah, and you can meet some really cool people. And you know a recent conversation with a buddy of mine in the beverage industry he goes, everything looks really good on social media, he's like, but behind the curtain, curtain, he goes, it's, it's. You know, you got to remember and I and I appreciated him saying that because he's done very well for himself. But you know he too feels the same pains that my wife chelsea and I feel with trying to grow a brand oh, yeah, the same year.

Building the FroPro Brand and Team

Scott Woolley 26:54

So is the two of you the owners. Do you have partners? Yeah, no, we we.

Matt Williams 26:59

We had a uh. We had somebody come when we were going to do a safe round and and and have family and friends and people in the community that have always offered. We looked at doing that. And then we had somebody that came in that was essentially a unicorn. He's one of the greatest humans I've ever met and we knew him for a while and he was always just like silently rooting for us and when we ran it by him because we value his opinion. He's incredibly smart and very successful. He basically was like yeah, rather than do a bunch of people, why don't you just have one investor?

Tiffany Woolley 27:33

Wow, and he was like me, here I am. We were like oh, I love that.

Matt Williams 27:38

And I ran that by obviously my team and legal and everything and they were like yes, Did he bring anything else to the table besides oh yeah? Yeah, connections and fun yeah very strategic, very strategic.

Scott Woolley 27:52

That's the right type and we're super grateful for him.

Matt Williams 27:54

He's been very generous, he's been very understanding and and knows what it takes to grow a business in this, in this industry, and it takes a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of time and a lot of patience.

Voice Over 28:06

And we're here for it.

Tiffany Woolley 28:09

So what does the day-to-day look like for promoting the product, like with social media? I know you're, like in my opinion, a local influencer. I mean, you're pretty out there.

Matt Williams 28:20

Yeah, I want to say it's a very curated look that is run by a lot of really smart women, not me. And I have no problem saying that because they're really good at making it look good as it is. We've, over the years, had people come and go. As mentioned, we have a great team that are really good at PR. We have a great team that's really good at the channels like the Instagrams, the Facebooks, the TikToks and all of the things.

Scott Woolley 28:48

Are they?

Matt Williams 28:48

internal or are you using companies? Yeah, we tried the company route. We had some success creatively, performance-wise, let's just say it wasn't the best.

Tiffany Woolley 28:59

That would make sense.

Matt Williams 29:00

And it's fine. You know, some things work, some things don't, and I guess, as they say, it's like hire Makes sense and it's fine. Some things work, some things don't, and I guess, as they say, it's like hire, hire, what is it? What's the saying? It's hire this and fire fast.

Voice Over 29:09

Yeah, hire quick and fire fast.

Matt Williams 29:10

Sometimes you're locked into these contracts where you're just kind of you can't really do much until the time is up, and that's been in creative companies, that's been in brokerage houses and I think at the end of the day no one's going to sell the product like I am.

Tiffany Woolley 29:22

Right, it is true, and even somebody with the in-house passion, people, if they hire you, they want you.

Matt Williams 29:29

You have a team and sure. But, you can't be everywhere.

Tiffany Woolley 29:32

Right.

Matt Williams 29:33

But I think it's really important at the core of it is we're authentically us. We don't come off in a certain way, we just are who we are are and we share when it's hard, we share when it's good, and sometimes people would say we overshare, but that's just our journey and that's what we love to be about and be real about it. Like we don't post every day behind the scenes because, like, not that it's boring, but it's a business and it's running.

Matt Williams 30:02

You know we have a lot of fun in our team, Like we really love our culture, we really love. You know, people are excited to come to work and I've heard countless stories of people that hate their job and hate showing up to what they do and working for other people, and we strongly encourage the people that work with us Anytime you want to leave or do something yourself, like we get the entrepreneurial spirit. We love it.

Scott Woolley 30:21

We want you to do it, however we can support you.

Matt Williams 30:23

Let us support you even people that have gone on to start their own snack bars really, which has happened?

Tiffany Woolley 30:30

wow, yeah, that's so crazy. It's tough, but you know.

Matt Williams 30:35

If people want to do it, go for it yeah you could. You could call a place in california and have your own snack bar tomorrow, if you wanted to.

Tiffany Woolley 30:42

So true, but it wouldn't be from the same passionate heart.

Scott Woolley 30:46

I've experienced that in so many different scenarios and businesses.

Tiffany Woolley 30:51

Well, as you juggle pro-pro, you also have a podcast. You're in that space too, which I love. I feel like your niche is kind of wake up the sun, which I feel like it's a lot of successful people's morning routine.

Matt Williams 31:06

Yep, yeah.

Tiffany Woolley 31:08

And you know part of when I started I design lab. My passion was I love everybody's stories. I feel like everybody has so much to tell and we have so much to learn from people and I feel like it's fun to hear that little niche of what the morning routine is, because it's so important to our successful day yeah, I think you, I think you learn a lot from successful people right, and I've had business owners, moms, doctors, athletes, entertainers, um every walk of life, people that have had, you know, overcome tragedies.

Matt Williams 31:43

I've had somebody on the show that was at one point pronounced dead, that is living and making the most out of life and I'm open to interview anybody. I mean you need to come on my show. It's not as nice as the studio but it's quaint. But it's really great to ask people and to just drive those same questions. Some of the questions, the majority of the questions, are the same for everyone. Some have gone on Some stories. I've interviewed people.

Tiffany Woolley 32:10

Multiple times.

Matt Williams 32:12

Multiple times and we've gone off topic and talked about returning your shopping cart, which I think is very important. It is Returning what?

Tiffany Woolley 32:20

The shopping cart when you're done with it. Yeah, yeah, what.

Matt Williams 32:22

The shopping cart when you're done with it. Yeah, yeah, but it's really good to understand what drives people and makes them successful, and everybody is successful in their own right whatever they are.

Scott Woolley 32:30

So Tiffany told me earlier that you had a podcast. The first thing that I think is the podcast must be about Pro pro, must be about your product, because the other thing that I've also realized is that, knowing you and hearing about you today, I'm learning. It really seems like your wife is. She should be sitting here. Yeah, let's talk about it.

Tiffany Woolley 32:52

Well, you designed it, though she's taking your baby and grown it.

Matt Williams 32:57

Yeah, I will say that she is forever way smarter than me and way better at running the company in the day-to-day. When it comes to being a founder, doing this and doing FaceTime and doing the speaking engagements and doing the demos and standing and.

Scott Woolley 33:13

And dancing in front of hundreds of people.

Matt Williams 33:15

Dancing in front of people and slinging snack bars. She's great at it. But that's like the give and take of the relationship. It is I could not. Could I sit at a desk and do what she does? Sure, she's great at it, but that's like the give and take of the the relationship. Like you know, I I could not. Could I sit at a desk and do what she does? Sure, would it necessarily be the best place for me to serve?

Tiffany Woolley 33:30

probably not and recognizing that is such a blessing and a gift at the same time. I mean as scott kind of got pushed into my world of the design world, it's kind of he knows where I need help and where I struggle. So I'm good at one thing and I feel like there's such a gift and a blessing in knowing our roles and where we're served best.

Matt Williams 33:51

Of course.

Tiffany Woolley 33:52

Right.

Matt Williams 33:53

Yeah, it's truly. It's like when you have a, you know you guys work together.

Scott Woolley 33:58

You've been together for a long time? Well, for only in the last three, four years, right it's covet well, yeah, kind of. Maybe during covert I kind of got involved, but for 15 years or 16 years that we were married I never got involved we never even spoke all day long about her business.

Matt Williams 34:18

It's crazy and and and it's. It's interesting to be, you know, in the same essentially office doing things and going to do your own thing and and doing what you do outside of here, and that's what I think works like. I see my wife all the time, but there are days where we see each other at a time.

Matt Williams 34:35

But you know, one of our biggest things that we do for connection is at the end of every day we eat a meal and then we go for a walk and I love that we might have talked about something or it needs to be brought up again, or sometimes like it's rare, but they're those walks where we're just quiet and just being outside and just being together I get a charge working with my.

Scott Woolley 34:54

I'm sure she's a very dynamic woman well, I've I've said this number a number of times on this podcast to other people. I've worked with probably some of the most talented people on the planet, from Paul McCartney and Billy Joel and so many different names but no one is more creative than what my wife does.

Tiffany Woolley 35:13

That's a little biased.

Scott Woolley 35:15

No but I'm amazed by what she does every day.

Matt Williams 35:18

Yeah.

Scott Woolley 35:19

Amazed. I mean, like what she does to people's homes. I mean I can tell you a quick little story. When I first started with her, she was doing a house. The people were spending like $400,000 on wallpaper and I was like I said to her one night after dinner. I said are you sure you're doing the right thing by picking? Because I looked at all the wallpaper she had picked. I was like these people are going to this wallpaper is going to go up. People are going to freak out.

Recovery and Personal Transformation

Scott Woolley 35:47

They're going to want their 400,000 back because I didn't understand how it all went together because it was wild stuff but when the house was and you know what she said to me she says don't question me and what I do. And I stood back and go, okay, and I, for the next two months I was expecting these people to call the office saying you screwed up our house, we want our $400,000. Totally the opposite. People were over the moon when it was done and when I walked into the house I was like holy crap, this is the most unbelievable place I've ever seen.

Matt Williams 36:22

I think the best advice that you've probably heard is just get out of the way when you're doing your thing yeah, exactly, and that's kind of the approach.

Tiffany Woolley 36:28

Well, there is such success in that.

Matt Williams 36:29

Yeah.

Tiffany Woolley 36:30

I mean, I definitely have my strong suits, but I definitely have things I need help on.

Matt Williams 36:36

Yeah, I joke around a lot where, like someone will ask me something, I'm like that's a question for the boss.

Scott Woolley 36:40

Right right.

Matt Williams 36:41

Because, like I don't want to give you the wrong answer.

Tiffany Woolley 36:43

Well, I say that all the time too.

Scott Woolley 36:45

I say that probably three, four times a day when people ask me you've got to talk to Tiffany about that.

Matt Williams 36:49

Talk to the boss.

Scott Woolley 36:50

So getting back to the podcast what is the podcast about.

Matt Williams 36:54

So it's a podcast based off like rituals routines and consistency and not everybody has to be a morning person. Rituals, routines and consistency, like what. Like what do you do every day to make you successful in whatever it is that you do, whether you have a business, whether you're an athlete, whether you're an entertainer, whether you're a mom, and you're running the shit out of everyone else's life, which is typically what moms do and it's and it's cool to just hear everybody's story, right and and everyone's like are you monetizing this?

Matt Williams 37:23

Are you doing this? I'm like, yeah, I've gotten some cool things, I'm not getting paid for it. I just like sitting down with people and hearing their stories and what they came from and what they have done. And one of the best podcasts was from a good friend of mine that I've known for years. She had a rough go and she came on the show to talk about what I wanted to ask her and we didn't talk about one of the things, not one question. I I didn't get to answer or ask any of my questions and she talked about the two years of struggle that she had and it was one of the most downloaded episodes to date.

Tiffany Woolley 37:56

Wow, and that people because people knew her and didn't probably know she was even knew that there was some, some didn't know she was struggling.

Matt Williams 38:03

Some did. But it gave so many people hope because she talked about, like we're talking about, to the point of not wanting to be on the planet anymore, type of struggle when she was like I don't want to be here To what she's doing now and she's a successful woman, and so many people reached out and were like thank you. Wow, I needed that and like I'm not, and it was truly like it was really good for me to hear that, because I played it for my kid or I played it for my family member and said like everybody has their stuff.

Tiffany Woolley 38:36

Everybody, everybody, everybody, and it doesn't matter.

Scott Woolley 38:38

So that sounds like a very personal and rewarding podcast for yourself to do Again.

Matt Williams 38:43

I hate saying it, but like making the peanut butter snack bars selfishly. I like peanut butter and I like dessert, so I share it with everybody Selfishly. I like talking to people and spending time with people.

Tiffany Woolley 38:53

So it was a good fit.

Matt Williams 38:53

If I can, share and do it, and people are like you know what's the point of doing it? Now, yes, is it good to make money? Sure? Now, yes, is it good to make money? Sure. But I think there's so much in putting out other people's as our friend would say tragedies, turning them into triumph.

Tiffany Woolley 39:08

Triumph yeah.

Matt Williams 39:09

It's so important it is, and it's not all the time. But you know, I go through these phases where I'll have five or six people on the show. I'll let the episodes go and I don't force it. It's like we have to do one a week. We have to do this, we have to do that, and then it becomes not really fun. Right, and like I want to have fun, like I'm having fun here, I'm sitting down.

Matt Williams 39:31

I was looking forward to this, because you guys have busy schedules and I was like, man, I don't want to wait. You know, but everybody's busy and it truly is. It's really great to get to know people and it's really good to also understand that you know you might be struggling with something and feel like the only one struggling with it, and then hearing that you're not is incredible.

Tiffany Woolley 39:56

I agree, Considering we didn't touch much on it in this story yet, but you're somebody who's overcome a lot and you've used that transformation as quite a launch.

Voice Over 40:08

Thank you.

Tiffany Woolley 40:09

And how do you still give that attention each day?

Matt Williams 40:15

Well, I was given a lot of suggestions when I got sober in 2010, from the very basics and kind of built off those. It's like you had to build a foundation first. As I'm sure you've heard and it's been, I mean, in May will be 15 years of sobriety, which is just wild. But taking those little things and like those little principles that I learned along the way integrity being one of the most important and just really trying to practice those in all of my daily activities. Right and and I fall short often Um, I don't always, you know, speak the most eloquently. Um, I, I, you know, I can, I can have human moments, which you know I've talked about on the podcast, which is tough because sometimes, when you're, I don't want to say in this ego, egotistical way, but when you're the go-to guy or you're always the positive guy, and then you have a human moment and everyone's like, hey man, what's wrong with you?

Matt Williams 41:11

And I'm like I'm having a moment and I'm not handling this accordingly, but I'm aware of it and I have people in my life that hold me accountable, even Chelsea. I had a rough patch about a month ago and I opened to sharing about it, when the fact that we were sitting there and like everything is good- right business is good.

Matt Williams 41:31

Yeah, training is good, my health is good every family's health, like all the good things are good, yeah, but I was just stuck in this like shitty space in my head. Did something bring it on? No, because we had just gotten back from like an amazing trip and work and family and everything and I just I wasn't celebrating and grateful for it. I was focusing Like I say, if there's like 10 things to do and I do 9 out of 10 right, I don't focus on the 90 percent I did right, I focus on the one, 10 percent, that I might have kind of like, yeah, and I sit in it me too and and she, you know she's very, very loving, but like knows when to turn it on.

Matt Williams 42:11

And she's like, and she basically said, I don't know if I, I don't want to kind of language wise, but she basically at dinner, she's like I don't know who the fuck is sitting across from me because it's not you, and I was like, oh and then and she goes, I love you.

Matt Williams 42:20

I don't really who the fuck is sitting across from me because it's not you, and I was like, oh, and she goes. I love you. I don't really know what's going on with you because all this stuff is great and I was like you're right and I just I was sitting in some things that I wasn't. I was trying to put it off and blame and it was just my own stuff that I had to kind of work through.

Tiffany Woolley 42:42

So how long does that process take to work through? Like when you finally recognize it, I feel like I could get there too.

Matt Williams 42:48

Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot shorter, um than it used to be, um, you know, I, I, if I'm sitting in it longer than like two days, it's a problem. Um, but you know, I normally realize when I'm not 100% or I'm a little drained and I still, on my own, try to figure it out without talking about it, and try to be like the hero and realize that that's not the place to be.

Scott Woolley 43:12

But I think most people who are very driven go through that every so often and most people think that people who are very driven or you look at someone who's a person, I'll say an athlete you know, at the highest pinnacle they don't think. Most people think well, those, they don't have any problems, they're perfectly fine, everything is great, yeah.

Matt Williams 43:33

Yeah, you know it's interesting. I was at this really cool event and this gentleman spoke who's a professional baseball player and he tried to kill himself and he didn't succeed in that, and is permanently scarred but talks about how he was.

Matt Williams 43:52

The probability of him being a professional athlete is in the single digits To make it to the league that he, to make it to the level that he made it single digits to succeed in that even less. And he did. He had done that, yet he was still in pain and still I'm not enough and that's the biggest thing that I struggle with, which I can share about, because I've done like Tony Robbins and all these, like I've read the books and I've gone to seminars and it was a lot more intense when I was starting over, and then I just recently went to one and I still had that I'm never going to be enough, right, and I'm a loser. I still can tell myself that stuff and no one's telling me that except me. I know, and that's the wildest thing because, like I wasn't raised that way, my parents were loving my brother, everybody. But like you get to a place where you're like, why am I talking to myself that way? I know because the, the, if you look on paper, it's all like you said.

Matt Williams 44:58

I've overcome a lot, yeah but there are times where it's like I don't know if you guys do like a major project or you work on something and rather than be like so happy that the $400,000 wallpaper worked and the people are like here's another check for being awesome, you're like what's next?

Tiffany Woolley 45:16

Yes, yes, right, and you're not like wow, that was really.

Matt Williams 45:20

you know how long we worked on that, I know, but that's the mark of somebody that's constantly going forward.

Scott Woolley 45:27

I have a lot of friends that are former or professional athletes and I've had a lot of conversations with friends just about this. Yeah, you know different aspects and you'd think, okay, you're making nine million dollars a year, you're on, everyone knows your name and you're going through this little situation.

Scott Woolley 45:49

Yeah, I mean human we're having a human experience, we really are having a yeah, I'll tell you, one of the biggest things with a lot of buddies is when they retire. I'm sure that you know the career ends. It's a real shock for the average person.

Tiffany Woolley 46:04

That's another thing in general. Just yeah, life changes.

Scott Woolley 46:08

I went through it for many years in running a company, and what I did and it only came about by accident is that I used to ride motorcycles a lot, but I started going on these trips. I'd go across Australia Before kids. I was just saying this is before kids, but I'd go from one end of South America all the way to the very tip with two other buddies, but it would take 30 days to do.

The Deeper Purpose Beyond Business

Scott Woolley 46:34

Some of these Went across Russia on a motorcycle, but I enjoyed doing it because I was running a business that was so intense with so many employees that that 25 or 30 days on a motorcycle I was able to clear my head and think about life. I mean, just imagine.

Matt Williams 46:54

You went on Walkabout.

Scott Woolley 46:54

I've talked about this.

Matt Williams 46:56

We need those moments.

Scott Woolley 46:57

But I would be on a motorcycle and for days I would think about why are we here, why are we here on this planet, like who am I and why am I here and why is this planet and why are? How did this all happen? And you start thinking about, like you can't tell anyone you're talking about something like this because it's so deep.

Matt Williams 47:18

Well, you could probably talk to the right people about it yeah. I love that question, I do too.

Scott Woolley 47:22

Back then I wouldn't tell people. That's what I was thinking about.

Matt Williams 47:25

Yeah, like what is it all about?

Scott Woolley 47:26

Yeah, yeah, and when you really start thinking about it.

Tiffany Woolley 47:31

Well, and we're so big in our own heads too, I mean, and we're such small morsels you know of a big picture.

Matt Williams 47:37

Like there's a comedian that talks about I won't say his language, but he's like you know, we're spinning on a ball in the middle of expanding nothingness, Correct. And then he follows it up with some intense language. I know, it's true. Who's the comedian? I forget it. I literally Neil deGrasse Tyson is the scientist that was listening to him talk about his bit and was like Well, listening to about his bit and was like we're literally like we're like so insignificantly significant, correct.

Tiffany Woolley 48:09

I know.

Matt Williams 48:11

And it's sad to think is you work at a company or you sell a company or you do all this stuff and then it's over and it's like even in today's world like you could be the hottest thing in whatever you're doing, and then something else will come out. Or you'll stop doing it or you'll retire yourself, and it's great. Hopefully, you make a lot of money and you're good with that. Well, look at it from a different perspective, right?

Scott Woolley 48:34

Sitting on a motorcycle, thinking about one of the trips my grandfather had just passed away.

Matt Williams 48:38

Right, oh right.

Scott Woolley 48:39

And I'm thinking about my grandfather, who I had the greatest times as a kid with was born in the early 1900s. But every single person, millions of people are gone and have been forgotten about, right. So there's going to be a point where I'm going to be gone and forgotten about. And forgotten about, right? So what does that all mean in the scheme of things?

Matt Williams 49:04

Right, we're just like Even the people that are very well-to-do, that have their names on buildings.

Tiffany Woolley 49:08

Right Once they're gone. Yeah.

Matt Williams 49:10

There's going to be another person with probably, if not more, that will have their name on the building that you had your name on. Yeah, I know you will be long forgotten and and you will be long forgotten and that's the whole thing is, you can look at it in a negative way, which is, in 100 years, no one's going to remember any of us sitting here.

Scott Woolley 49:28

That's correct.

Matt Williams 49:29

Right, correct. We'll probably have made an impact on the people that we know and passed down from your kids to their kids to their kids, sure so.

Scott Woolley 49:38

I was recently having a conversation with my three girls about can they name all the presidents of the United States?

Tiffany Woolley 49:44

Yeah, there's maybe four or five, me neither but think of a person who was a president of the United States.

Scott Woolley 49:50

There's so many of them that people today never even heard of before, but he was the president of the United States, yeah.

Matt Williams 49:56

The most important position yeah.

Scott Woolley 49:58

Yeah, but all of this thinking for me has made me realize is that we're all on this planet for such a short, fairly period of time. You got to make the most of it, you got to enjoy every moment of it. You got to overcome all your situations and problems that you because we're here for a reason too.

Matt Williams 50:16

Yeah, yeah and you're, and, and I think, if you're creating a change or you're doing something that you love and it impacts the community, like that's the biggest thing, like this community helped save my life. You know, the people in this community, the parents in this community, the certain businesses that were like let's give this guy a chance, like I'll never forget that.

Tiffany Woolley 50:36

No, and you've given back to this community so beautifully. I mean you really have. I appreciate that and it's always a champion of positivity and you know creativity and grace.

Scott Woolley 50:46

You've got a great reputation in this town. I mean you're very well liked.

Matt Williams 50:51

There was a period of time where that was not the case.

Tiffany Woolley 50:53

But isn't that? I mean years?

Scott Woolley 50:55

ago. You turned it around miraculously and wonderfully. Thank you, I appreciate that.

Tiffany Woolley 50:59

And the only one who probably says that now is yourself. Yeah, accurately and wonderfully. Thank you, I appreciate that, and the only one who probably says that now is yourself, yeah.

Matt Williams 51:04

No, there are times where it's like, you know, I definitely damaged a lot of relationships in my addiction and my use and, you know, ran over people that were just trying to be helpful and kind and caring and I wasn't able to receive it. And you know, I'm really grateful for that now because it is everything to me Right, you know. And there are days don't get me wrong where I'm like man. I just, you know, chelsea and I are like let's just move to a mountain where there's a lake.

Voice Over 51:31

I think we all say that and no one's around.

Matt Williams 51:32

That's normal too, and she'll respond. She's like yeah, that would be cool until you wanted to hang out and play pickleball or golf with someone or hike with someone, and then you'd go nuts.

Tiffany Woolley 51:40

Correct. Want to have a conversation. Probably right, I know, I say that to my kids Unless you want to go to the mall and you want to go to, like you know buy something Sure. Stuck in the middle. Go to a nice restaurant you know, absolutely.

Scott Woolley 51:56

I think that's where balance is, the beautiful balance that we all strive for every day. Well, it's podcast. We're all redesigning our life constantly. Yeah, I love, I love that right there.

Tiffany Woolley 52:02

Well, I was one of my morning routines I started this year was doing catechism in a day I'm catholic and I do it and I was. I'm like I listen to podcasts all day long like the least I can do is give you know a little bit back, and one of the very first ones on day three was how wherever there is design is a designer. So god designed the planet, the chief designer, right, the chief designer.

Tiffany Woolley 52:31

I was like that just made me like more into this journey of podcasting, because we all are constantly wherever there is a thing, an item, a feeling, a routine it's been designed.

Matt Williams 52:45

Yeah, I love that. I know that's a great gift.

Tiffany Woolley 52:49

So that was my little morning tidbit.

Scott Woolley 52:52

She listens. She's a podcast junkie. It's been the last month she's been listening to what did you just call it?

Tiffany Woolley 53:01

It's like church listening to yeah, but they're positive.

Matt Williams 53:05

Yeah, no, I mean, I listen to, like I said, some of the motivational stuff and podcasts and like little blurbs that I can find online and things that connect, where you're like, oh man, this is great and it's little tidbits and that's how we digest everything right. Nowadays, for sure Are you, you know if I'm going to walk or my long drive, I can listen to a podcast, you know. But for the most part I'm not sitting. I'm always doing something else right, wow.

Tiffany Woolley 53:30

Movement, yes, which is also a big part of who you are training, personal training, health and wellness lifestyle yeah, it's important, I, you know it's got to listen to your body and train a certain way.

Matt Williams 53:41

And so are you still training people now? Yes, I am really. I, you know, and it's important, you know you've got to listen to your body and train a certain way.

Scott Woolley 53:43

So are you still training people now?

Matt Williams 53:45

Yes, I am Really, you know, and it's interesting. I thought when I was young I was like Frobo's going to do this and then I'm going to stop training. And my older brother, he's like well, you're going to stop training? I said, well, yeah, yeah, I guess you're right. He's like yeah, you're good at it, you're helping people. Am I training as much as I did when I restarted?

Tiffany Woolley 54:13

No, no, but there's the balance Like you get to still have that.

Matt Williams 54:16

And I love it, like it truly is, when someone comes to you right and they want to do a project or whatever an overhaul in the house or just like a minor thing.

Tiffany Woolley 54:28

Yeah.

Matt Williams 54:29

They're coming to you for a reason because you're the professional, you're the one they trust you. Yeah, you're the one right and they know your history, they know who you are, they know other people that have worked with you and they're like well, we want to work with you and you can't help everyone no but you know, when you do it you're not just half-assing it, right? And?

Matt Williams 54:49

and there are days I'm sure we're like I don't do this and I have those days too, even though I love it right, but at the end of the day, you're helping someone, you're creating, you're creating an experience and you're designing something that's going to hopefully improve some portion of their life.

Matt Williams 55:03

And it's true Right, and you know and I've worked with, it's crazy. I've worked with, I've worked with families, huge families every every kid, adult, aunts, uncles, you know, and you touch it. You become part of a family, right, and you become part of like the the story a little bit and yeah, I think that's pretty cool. And the other thing that I got really into was like the coaching and the mental health, substance abuse space, working with private practitioners that are like intensive therapists that I can kind of assist what they meet with these people on in the day to day.

Matt Williams 55:38

Wow in the day-to-day, whether it's just kind of like performance coaching, right when you're helping them achieve the things that they're talking about and trying to, either whether it's business and life relationships. The only thing I can't really speak to is being a parent. Even though I've worked with kids forever, I don't have kids. So, like when someone's like oh, I don't want to give you advice on that because I might be a little bit harsh in a little bit harsh in certain areas.

Matt Williams 56:03

how I operate, I know they say yeah, I just I can speak to the experience that I have and hopefully shed some light on it, but if I don't, I'm very clear like I wouldn't be able to help you with that, I don't have the answers for that.

Scott Woolley 56:16

So do you go to people's homes or do you go to our People meet you at a facility? Yeah, they come to our.

Matt Williams 56:21

So right next to our production facility we do have a fitness facility, so people train there. It's private training. You have to work with the trainer. Three of my friends run their clients out of there. It's a nice little small family of you know people that get along, work really hard and then Committed people, yeah, and then Committed people yeah.

Matt Williams 56:40

And then with the other coaching, like I said, work with private practice, Like I've had people reach out and I've been in, you know sober for 15 years and worked with different organizations and done run clubs and done different things.

Tiffany Woolley 56:50

I love that too.

Matt Williams 56:52

So when people are like, hey, I got this guy that could use a little Maddie Williams in his life, and I'm like, oh, that's very nice of you to say how do you think I could possibly help this person and kind of work with them? And there's people that I've been very clear on Like I don't know if I can help them. It might be something out of my bandwidth, but you know, this person might be able to help them better, and I think that's what a community is right Without a doubt you have to find the go-to, without a doubt.

Matt Williams 57:19

You have to find the go-to, without a doubt and you have to hopefully be able to say you know, if I can't do it, this person or this person would be good for that person.

Tiffany Woolley 57:26

I know, and there's wealth of information in letting that go so that person does get to the right one.

Matt Williams 57:31

A hundred, percent, a hundred percent.

Scott Woolley 57:36

So what do you see in the future for yourself?

Matt Williams 57:38

Well, Do you think far out? Yeah, no, I mean like the grand, like three to five to ten-year plan. Yeah, Well, like you, have a goal with you know FroPro, yeah, I mean our goal is to be nationally sold in all the Whole Foods, so that would be every Whole Foods in I would say in the galaxy yeah, there might be one on Mars in the next 20 years.

Tiffany Woolley 57:58

Yeah, who knows who?

Reflections on Life and Legacy

Matt Williams 57:59

knows? Yeah, who knows who knows? Yeah. I would love to just keep expanding ProPro. I think, in addition to it being an excellent snack bar, the story behind it and what you know we share with. That is super important, I think will help change and help people along the way. Personally, yeah, just continue to work out and enjoy, you know, the walks with my wife and traveling and doing really fun things that you know we can do within reason. That you know. Allow us to, yeah, do a little bit more. Yeah, I think you know with yeah for Oprah. Personally, yeah, I mean, I love it here. I don't want to go anywhere.

Tiffany Woolley 58:35

I know we love our home.

Matt Williams 58:37

Yeah, we love the things about South Florida. I would love to eventually maybe have, like I said, a house somewhere on a mountain by a lake where I could hike a couple months out of the year.

Scott Woolley 58:50

Are you from Florida?

Matt Williams 58:51

I'm from New.

Voice Over 58:51

York, originally when in New.

Matt Williams 58:52

York, right outside of New York City, westchester County. Yeah, I grew up there and yeah, I just love what I'm doing and I look at. You know, my mom is 84. She's just starting to think about not working.

Tiffany Woolley 59:06

Oh, my God, God bless.

Matt Williams 59:08

Wild right Like she's starting to be like.

Voice Over 59:12

But working is so good for your brain.

Matt Williams 59:13

I'm the youngest of three boys and we're all like mom. You could have stopped working years ago, like when dad died. You do what you want, but I look at dad as like maximizing and enjoying as much as you can while you can, because, again, am I going to be here tomorrow? Am I going to be here 50 years from now? I don't know.

Scott Woolley 59:34

None of us do.

Matt Williams 59:35

Right.

Scott Woolley 59:36

That's why you've got to live every moment and enjoy it.

Matt Williams 59:39

And not every moment is positive and everybody is like oh you're so positive all the time, not every moment's positive and everybody's like, oh, you're so positive all the time, like not every moment. I have my human moments, I know, but like while here I feel like I wasted a good 12 to 13 years being a selfish asshole Really in my addiction. You know, still doing things that I love, but for the wrong reasons.

Matt Williams 59:56

Right right that, that, coming up on 15 years and being able to just watch other cool things happen and, as my sponsor would say, be a lighthouse and just watch the sunrise, watch the sunset, help people, guide people when you can and just do it that's kind of like it's a good place to be. Yeah, it feels good. I feel good today. That's good, it's a good feeling, that's good. Yeah, how about you guys? What are you guys going to like?

Tiffany Woolley 1:00:25

I mean, we're going to.

Matt Williams 1:00:28

How old is your youngest now?

Tiffany Woolley 1:00:30

Well, we have twins who are 15.

Scott Woolley 1:00:31

Yeah, okay, they're the youngest. They're the youngest we have an 18. They're freshmen in high school right now.

Tiffany Woolley 1:00:38

And I like I mean I say I'm in denial a little bit because it's going so fast.

Scott Woolley 1:00:45

Yeah, the whole. You know Tiffany's all worked up that we have four more years.

Tiffany Woolley 1:00:51

Now we're down to three and a half.

Scott Woolley 1:00:53

We've got to pack it all in Travel the world before they want to venture out into the world.

Matt Williams 1:01:02

So we've been doing that Family time is important.

Tiffany Woolley 1:01:04

I know as being a working parent and a perfectionist in my own way. I know way I live. It's very hard because I do love what I do and I can't imagine what I would do every day if I wasn't doing what I do. But then it's so hard to find that balance.

Scott Woolley 1:01:20

She loves what she does yeah you're very good at it.

Matt Williams 1:01:24

It's interesting. The only reason I ask that is I'm going to visit my mom this weekend. She's 84. And I heard you know Jesse Itzler, no, married to Sarah Blakely Spanx. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. So he started and sold several different companies. They were both wildly successful. I follow both of them.

Matt Williams 1:01:40

But he shared something once. He's like, as we grow up and this is probably not going to help your thinking that your kids are old at this point, but he said if you don't live near your parents or your family and you see them twice a year, and I was like, well, that's about accurate, I see them twice a year and you look at like the median age of how long women or men live, and I was like, okay, yeah, so like women 88, so four years he goes. If you only visit your he was saying his family, if you only see them twice a year, and they have X and you compare it to the median average. So I did the math and like this is a while ago, but let's just say, well, my mom was 80.

Matt Williams 1:02:18

Most women lived to 88. I was like.

Scott Woolley 1:02:21

The lowest of any country Right In the United States 88.

Matt Williams 1:02:29

And my mom's a healthy lady. But it's interesting because he said if you see your loved ones, twice a year and you have eight years left. That means you have 16 visits and I was like I literally yeah, I literally sat there and I was like that's really sad I know and and not that, like me, living next to my mom would be any. You know what I'm saying.

Tiffany Woolley 1:02:49

Well, sometimes, I've often said, with family who doesn't live nearby, sometimes it's a blessing to not live by, because when you do go see each other depending on the dynamics, of course, it's a celebration, it's a holiday. People aren't just working, where if you're in your everyday routines, your visits just become pass off. They're not truly like time spent.

Scott Woolley 1:03:12

I talked to my mom just before we walked into the studio. I love that.

Matt Williams 1:03:16

No, I say, talking to them is one thing, and it just made me think Spend time with those that you love, if it's possible, because everybody has things going on and kids running around and travels and this and that happening.

Tiffany Woolley 1:03:28

It's so true. And then?

Matt Williams 1:03:29

all of a sudden, like they're not there.

Tiffany Woolley 1:03:32

I know.

Matt Williams 1:03:33

Yeah, so it's. I mean, I guess that's done by design.

Scott Woolley 1:03:37

Yes.

Tiffany Woolley 1:03:37

It is. I know. Well, you got to design to get yourself started. Our business is. We were so into you know, the social life and charity things and building on, you know, to our careers that way too, and the minute we had children, like, yeah, it just all that went away, all went away.

Scott Woolley 1:04:00

It's focused was on kids, of course, as it should be right. That's the deal right.

Tiffany Woolley 1:04:04

So it's kind of all we know right now and it's like they're getting older and they're getting their own little social world.

Matt Williams 1:04:12

Not fun hanging out with mom and dad anymore.

Tiffany Woolley 1:04:13

I mean they still like to hang out. Yeah, I'm sure I have a hard time saying no to them when they want to go grow up a little bit, because I feel like it's healthy.

Scott Woolley 1:04:24

We try to design and create everything that we do around with them. That's great. So you know concerts and music.

Tiffany Woolley 1:04:30

They're big into concerts lately. That's like their thing All right.

Matt Williams 1:04:35

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, you got to make that a priority. Wow, it's a priority to them until they're on to the next thing.

Tiffany Woolley 1:04:40

Yeah.

Matt Williams 1:04:40

Yeah.

Scott Woolley 1:04:41

So we like to wrap out the podcast by asking a couple of design questions. Go for it. You've mentioned a few times that you like when you've been traveling. You like traveling, so let me change a little bit. Go on where we're going here. So, in your travels, are there any hotels that you would say were really cool from a design standpoint, that stick out, oh man, or that you thought were like wow, that was a really cool hotel, or really designed, or yeah, we love hearing what people's thoughts are.

Matt Williams 1:05:15

This is a chelsea question. Um, because I'm gonna just butcher this. I mean, we've been. When we go places, we like to stay like what we can and in the like I've traveled. We've traveled separately, we've traveled separately. I've traveled and lived abroad. So I've been to a lot of really cool places, like in terms of design.

Scott Woolley 1:05:33

But design doesn't necessarily mean to be expensive. Oh yeah, no worries.

Matt Williams 1:05:38

It could be just. One of my favorite places I ever visited was the Alhambra, which is just a wild. I forget the city that it's in. I went three times because I lived in Mexico.

Tiffany Woolley 1:05:52

Wow.

Matt Williams 1:05:54

And we went there a bunch and it was just like a cool city. It was like a cool historical building, so like that the first thing I thought of was, like, design-wise, it's like visiting the Taj Mahal. You know what I'm saying.

Scott Woolley 1:06:07

Yeah, yeah yeah.

Voice Over 1:06:08

Just the design aspect of it.

Matt Williams 1:06:10

In terms of feeling man, I mean in terms of feeling like I'm not.

Scott Woolley 1:06:20

Where were you?

Matt Williams 1:06:20

living in Mexico. I was living in Cuernavaca, which is right outside of like Were you teaching there. I was a student, so I was living in immersive, in an immersive experience with spanish I hate saying yes, but um, I understand it way better because I don't practice it, but yeah it's what airport do you fly into on the? You fly into mexico city, okay, and then you're about an hour and a half. It's called like the city of eternal spring.

Matt Williams 1:06:47

I want to say I haven't been there in years, but it always made an impression because it was such a cool place to be.

Tiffany Woolley 1:06:51

Oh, you guys should go back together. I need to go back. Have you been with Chelsea? No, oh, that would be so fun yeah.

Matt Williams 1:06:57

And I lived abroad in Spain as well, and you know Madrid was really cool. I want to say like one of my favorite places I ever went was like Portugal, for my 21st. I don't remember a lot of that day or those couple days, but like just the life there was pretty laid back. They lived in homes, you know right by the beach.

Tiffany Woolley 1:07:18

There was everything you needed Right by the sea. All the food is like decadent. The food is incredible.

Matt Williams 1:07:21

Like the experiences, I loved it. But in terms of like the states, I, there's certain parts of cal like encinitas, california. I know people, some people don't like california no, how can you not like california?

Tiffany Woolley 1:07:36

yeah?

Matt Williams 1:07:37

I just you know that that's such a cool little beachy kind of good vibe town. Um, you know, growing up right outside of new york city like being back in the city. It's nice. I'm not a city guy. My wife loves the city. I'm just like fortunately, we have friends that allow us to stay there because they have homes there. Um, yeah, you know, like those feelings, like, like, like when the seasons are different.

Tiffany Woolley 1:08:05

Obviously, we're in hot weather all the time down here, but there is something about being, like I said, in a mountain in the carolinas like grow like you know, like in ashville growth park in yeah, oh sure, it's such a cool place that's really nice like anything up there is really enjoyable, so you love that.

Scott Woolley 1:08:24

My parents had a a home in lynnville ridge and then grandfather mountain. They had a number of differentville Ridge and Grandfather Mountain.

Matt Williams 1:08:30

They had a number of different.

Scott Woolley 1:08:31

they moved around a little bit, I love that it was like a second or a third home for them.

Matt Williams 1:08:37

Yeah, and I love that there's a bunch of places on my list. I haven't been in Scotland and Ireland, Australia. I'd like to go to. I'd love to go to a certain part of Asia and see. You know, like some of those major cities that you know, just look incredible.

Tiffany Woolley 1:08:53

They do look incredible, Wild right.

Matt Williams 1:08:55

I know, but yeah, no, I mean I think you can get a good feeling where, anywhere you go, if you're with the right people, if that makes sense. As corny as that sounds, but like, yeah, design-wise, like my wife and Chelsea and I have a lot of places we'd love to visit at some point. We know that you just have to go do those things.

Tiffany Woolley 1:09:11

Yeah, you have to make the time.

Matt Williams 1:09:13

You have to make it a priority and you have to invest in it. We're not very good about that we're okay.

Tiffany Woolley 1:09:19

No, we're not very good about that.

Matt Williams 1:09:21

Well, I mean, in another four years, you guys do whatever you want Every trip around a work thing.

Tiffany Woolley 1:09:26

It makes him feel better.

Matt Williams 1:09:27

I feel like I totally relate to that, though For years we traveled a lot but work somehow always A day here.

Scott Woolley 1:09:42

I would disappear or whatever, and it's because I had a litany of different retail products that I've taken to market. So, depending on where we were, if it was going into a Petco or a PetSmart or a Target in a different city, I was doing that.

Travel Stories and Final Thoughts

Matt Williams 1:10:02

Listen, I totally get it. I would say, the last major trip we went on for my 40th, we went to Palm Springs.

Tiffany Woolley 1:10:08

Ooh, I've never been there, yeah and it's the drive there.

Matt Williams 1:10:11

It's a little creepy interesting yeah, you're like in like that movie.

Scott Woolley 1:10:14

Like the hills have eyes, like yeah, so you drove, you drove from la yep, drove from la and we got there and we were ending.

Matt Williams 1:10:21

We were going to end in la per my wife at the, at the one, of course, um, but we went out there and it was really nice. It was hiking, biking, golf, there was no work and it was just like eating heaven quality time, like it is heaven even though I'd wake up early and do my morning routine, like there were days, like it was a lot of sitting around and just kind of, like you said, like the, the clearing yeah and then you know, we were there and palm springs is unique.

Scott Woolley 1:10:51

It's different did you get to go tour around a little yeah we.

Matt Williams 1:10:54

We bopped around a little bit, then we said you know what like this has been fun, let's drive to encinitas okay and go visit some friends, yeah, and then make our way to santa monica, and we just did like unprompted which is rare for for us.

Tiffany Woolley 1:11:08

Yeah, you just let it flow.

Matt Williams 1:11:09

Right, and that was like the last, like vacation vacation other than like a work, like we were just in Nashville to see family, but also demo at Whole Foods. Like we're going to Asheville for a wedding, we're going early to demo at all the. Whole Foods and staying after to demo at the. Whole Foods. Does it make sense? You're there, I've been to.

Scott Woolley 1:11:27

Palm Springs a few times for parties. Yeah. And I went one time and John, who's in the studio with us. I took him and a bunch of people. I won the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year and then they had a big thing in Palm Springs where I was inducted into the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame. That's awesome. Congrats, Ernst.

Matt Williams 1:11:48

Young Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame. That's awesome, congrats.

Tiffany Woolley 1:11:50

That's a big deal. That is a big deal. Back then it was.

Matt Williams 1:11:53

Still pretty cool, isn't?

Scott Woolley 1:11:54

it, yeah, it is.

Matt Williams 1:11:55

That's a big deal. It is Love, that Nice yeah.

Tiffany Woolley 1:11:59

Nice. Well, thank you so much for your time today.

Matt Williams 1:12:02

Of course, and your story.

Voice Over 1:12:16

Yeah, I love it. Thank you for having me Appreciate it. Yeah, it's always great to see you both and keep crushing you too. The iDesign Lab iDesign Lab's podcast is an SW Group production in association with the Five Star and TW Interiors. To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit twinteriorscom.