Dream Bigger This Season with Mitch Matthews

What if the thing standing between you and your biggest dream isn't a lack of strategy, resources, or time — but the story you've been telling yourself for so long you stopped questioning it? And what if the permission to dream again was never lost for good — just buried?

That's exactly what Mitch Matthews has spent his career helping people uncover.

Mitch Matthews has coached leaders inside NASA, Disney, and the Fortune 500, hosted 450+ episodes of the top-ranked Dream Think Do podcast, and is on a personal mission to launch one million dreams in his lifetime. Today he brings all of that to Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors — and y'all, yes, you heard that right, he is a man. One in 100, to be exact. Mitch sits down with Erica to talk about where our permission to dream gets buried, why chasing the "shoulds" is the ultimate sticky floor, and how high-achieving women can start dreaming again without burning their lives down to do it.

Inside the Episode:

• The 6-9 Window: Why most of us lose permission to dream between ages six and nine — and why it's not the failure that buries the dream, but what we're told right after it
• The Dream Think Do Framework: Why moving into planning mode too fast is the enemy of big thinking — and how giving yourself space to dream first is what separates incremental goals from quantum leaps
• It's Not Selfish to Dream: The powerful reframe for every mom who has quietly put her own dreams last — and why Mitch says not dreaming is actually the more selfish choice
• Drop the Word Dream: The surprising prompt Mitch uses to unlock big thinking in high achievers who freeze when asked "what's your dream?" — and the simpler question that gets you to the same place
• The Disappointment Equation: Why the quality of your life is directly connected to your willingness to disappoint someone — and how every yes is secretly a no to something else
• Dream for This Season: How to stop overwhelming yourself with dreams that don't fit your current reality and start experimenting with what's actually possible right now
• The Fish Climbing a Tree: Mitch's own bad fit job story — what it felt like when his creativity was being crushed, and the moment he started swimming again

Resources & Links:

• mitchmathews.com — Free resources and everything Mitch
• Making Time for Your Next Chapter — Mitch's training for high achievers: mitchmathews.com/time (use code STICKY for free access — a $97 value!)
• Dream Think Do Podcast — 450+ episodes, top-ranked
• Her Collective — DM Erica for a personal guest invite to a live session

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Erica Rooney: Welcome to Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, the podcast where we stop playing small, start calling things out, and actually do something about it. I'm your host, Erica Rooney, executive coach, speaker, and a little bit of a movement maker, and I'm on a mission to get more women into positions of power and keep them there.

Because let's be honest, we've been told to lean in, but not too far, to speak up, but not too loudly, to be ambitious, but somehow still likable, and y'all, we're done doing that. This is the space where we break it all down, the sticky floors, the ceilings, and the gaps that are shaping who gets ahead, especially in this next era of AI and leadership.

Some of it's mindset, some of it's burnout, and some of it is the system working exactly as it was designed. Either way, we're not staying stuck in it. Each episode is your nudge to move. One decision, one shift, one bold [00:01:00] step forward. No overhauls, y'all. No waiting until you feel ready, just real momentum. So if you're ready to think bigger, move smarter, and build power on your own terms, you're in the right place.

Let's smash the ceilings and close the gaps What if the thing standing between you and your biggest dream isn't a lack of strategy, a lack of resources, or even a lack of time, y'all, but it's the story that you've been telling yourself for so long that you've stopped questioning it? Now, today's guest has spent his career helping people dismantle just that.

He has coached leaders inside NASA, Disney, and the Fortune 500, and he has sat across from thousands of high achievers who were stuck, not because they lacked talent, but because they had quietly given themselves permission to stop dreaming. He is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and the host of the top-ranked Dream Think Do [00:02:00] podcast.

And y'all, it's got 450 episodes, and he is on a personal mission to launch one million dreams in his lifetime. And today, he is bringing all of that here to the Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floor podcast. And y'all, you did hear that right. I said a he. It is a man. Welcome Mitch Matthews to the Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floor podcast.

How you doing, Mitch? 

[00:02:27] Mitch Matthews: Erika, I am doing fantastic, especially after that intro. Come on. Yeah. Are we- I feel like I could run through walls right now. 

[00:02:34] Erica Rooney: Ah. 

[00:02:34] Mitch Matthews: I love it. 

[00:02:35] Erica Rooney: I love it. Hey, look, the most- I'm honored to be here ... uh, amazing credential there is that, you know, and we talked about this earlier, there are 300 Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floor podcasts, and you are the third man.

So that means for every 100 episodes, we decide that we have a man who is interesting enough to bring on. So hey, man, that, that should put you through a wall. 

[00:02:56] Mitch Matthews: Today I am literally one of 100. Like, [00:03:00] that's, that is amazing. You are. And truly- You're 

[00:03:02] Erica Rooney: one in 100. I 

[00:03:03] Mitch Matthews: love it ... I love what you're doing with this show.

So I, it is truly, truly an honor to get to be here. I love this. 

[00:03:09] Erica Rooney: Well, now we gotta know more, right? Like- Right ... I wanna hear more about you. I especially wanna know your personal story, your professional story. I already know a little bit, a little teaser, that it was not really the best fit, but I want you to- Right

describe it for me. Talk to me about all that you do and how we got here. 

[00:03:30] Mitch Matthews: Yeah. So now we have a training company where we offer coaching, speaking, and online training. Um, and I love, love, love, love what I get to do. Um, but the way that we got here was I, uh, got introduced at a very y- early age. I was kind of an extreme kid, and so I, uh, fell in love with bicycles early on.

And I grew up in a small town in Iowa, so it was [00:04:00] a little bit like one of those towns you see in a Hallmark Christmas movie with the courthouse in the square and all these cute shops all around the courthouse. And then two blocks off of that was this corner bike shop. We were next to the Goodwill and around the corner from the only strip club in town, so it was really the place to be for a teenager.

But I fell in love with bikes. I fell in love with the bike shop, and I basically stalked the bike shop owner, uh, the year that I w- I turned 12 and did everything I could to not be arrested for loitering, but I hung out in the bike shop all the time, and he found- finally hired me. Um, and then at an early age, he just taught me all about entrepreneurism, and I just, I loved it, and my passion turned into that.

So I started reading books about selling and adult learning and, uh, building relationships with c- with customers, which didn't make me popular in high school, but it did make me a lot of money. Uh, but then [00:05:00] after, you know, I went to college. After that, I went into business to business sales, then I got into pharm- pharmaceutical sales, and when I got into that industry, it was a really good fit I loved it.

It was a high- highly technical sell. I could really build relationships with my clients, all of those things. But just like you've said, uh, you hinted at, I, I moved through that industry, got promoted th- in- throughout that industry, had a lot of great experiences, but my last job, um, I, I got promoted into what I now call a bad fit job.

It looked good on paper, but within days I knew it was a bad fit. You've, you've probably ... Hopefully, you've never had that experience, but I'm sure you've helped a lot of people in those experiences. And, uh, it was one of those that I knew instantly this was gonna be a bad experience, and I, I was committed to still delivering, still, you know, doing my best work, [00:06:00] but I used that as a wake-up call.

Actually, my wife helped me to realize, like, "Hey, it's time for you to get back to those roots, those dreams of being an entrepreneur." And so I started to hatch this idea of a business al- alongside this bad fit job and started to build that, uh, to the point where we could finally ... I could step out into our own business, and I've been doing that since, uh, 2002 full time.

[00:06:27] Erica Rooney: Hey, I love it. I wanna hear more about, like, how did you know so instantly that it was a bad fit for you? Like, what were the red flags? 

[00:06:36] Mitch Matthews: Well, it was interesting because, uh, I took the, the position for a number of elements. There were a number of circumstances. So part of it was, uh, we, I, uh, we had lived in Montana.

So when I first got into pharmaceuticals, uh, I, I managed what I said the northern half of the Louisiana Purchase. So I had Montana, [00:07:00] Idaho, Wyoming. I basically covered God's country as a pharmaceutical rep, which was pretty awesome. Um, and then I got promoted into the training department of this pharmaceutical company and helped to run this, you know, training department for a $2 billion pharmaceutical company, which was a blast, and I really enjoyed it.

But we figured out pretty quickly that Chicago was not where we wanted to raise our kids. Great place, fun town, but not necessarily where we, my wife and I, wanted to r- you know, raise our boys. And so I started to look for opportunities that would allow us to move back to family in Iowa. And so I took the promotion, uh, partly because of circumstance, what it allowed us to, to move into.

Um, and I probably as I was, you know, making that decision, I, I probably didn't pay attention to some of the f- the red flags. Uh, it was moving me back out into the field, which I was excited about, but it was moving [00:08:00] me into a product I wasn't excited about. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I could tell as I was interviewing management in this area wasn't a, wasn't as good a fit for me.

I had come through ranks and, and departments that were really entrepreneurial. This one was more industrial. They didn't really want me to make decisions. They wanted me to just follow, you know, kind of rote, whatever they wanted to teach, all those things. And so almost instantly I felt my creativity getting limited.

I had no- little to no autonomy, um, all of those things. And I thought, "Oh, my gosh, the very things that got me into this position are the very things that make me a bad fit for this to be, you know, g- be a longstanding relationship with this position." And so I said, "Okay, I'm still gonna deliver." Um, I had to make this commitment to myself and to my wife.

I'm like, "I'm still gonna deliver, but I think in some ways this is my opportunity [00:09:00] to start building something of my own." Sure. And, um, I, I will say, you know, there were days where I, when I got in the car to drive to that job, it was such a bad fit, it felt like a part of my heart was dying. Um, and that's

My wife was very concerned about that. Uh, she could see that it was weighing on me, that it was, it was really not allowing me to be in my zone of genius. And, you know, what does Mark Twain said? "If you try to convince a fish to climb a tree, it will always think it's stupid," right? Um, and so it's that thing of that's where, that's what I felt like.

I felt like I was a fish trying to climb a tree. Um, and but when I started to dip my toe into building my own thing, I started to swim again, and it made all the difference. Like, "Oh, this is what I was made for." And so, so we s- we started to do that. 

[00:09:54] Erica Rooney: Oh, I love that, and I think there's just such power in [00:10:00] trying things.

And this is what I tell people because same like you, I was building my business alongside of my corporate career- Yeah ... which is exhausting. But I would sit down at my computer and I would be click-clacking away, which is what I did for the last 10 hours before that. Yep. But I would be so excited about it, and I would

I remember my husband would come in, and he would be like, "Are you still working?" And I was like, "Oh, no, I'm doing my own thing." And he's like, "But you're working." And I'm like, "But no, it's my own thing." Yeah, you're still at your 

[00:10:27] Mitch Matthews: computer. 

[00:10:28] Erica Rooney: And I mean, he's not an entrepreneur, so it's a little different mindset.

Yeah. But it took him a while to understand, like, no, this was the work that lights me up. Yeah. And I've got a woman in her collective, her name is Susan. She calls it her joy job, and I'm like- Mm ... I love that term. But- 

[00:10:45] Mitch Matthews: That is beautiful. Yeah. It is so true. And it is that thing of, you know, helping people find their zone of genius, whether it's within the organization they're in or starting their own thing.

Boy, when you do, when you start, you would get to back to [00:11:00] that, it is, it's like the fish getting to swim again. Uh, you can just go, oh. I, I know for me, I can remember those moments of, of sitting down and doing my work, you know, the thing on my business. And I can go, oh, yeah, this is what I'm made for. This flows out of me.

I can do this even when I'm tired because it also energizes me. So I'm with you on that. Oh, my goodness. So true. 

[00:11:26] Erica Rooney: Well, I'm excited to talk about Dream Think Do, the podcast. Yes. And I'll tell you, too, I end a lot of my podcasts, I try to do it every single one, but sometimes I forget, with the question of like, what would you tell your younger self?

And it's hilarious for me because that advice changes on the daily, like how I'm thinking, how I'm feeling. But one of the most common answers that I always come back to about myself is I wish I had, uh, dreamed bigger, right? Mm. Like, I think I dreamed, but it was the cookie cutter dream. It was the dream I- Yep

was supposed [00:12:00] to follow. It was the roadmap that I was given. And so you talk a lot, Mitch, about giving yourself permission to dream. And I wanna know where does that permission, like where do we lose it in the first place, and when do we normally see this happen? 

[00:12:16] Mitch Matthews: Uh, it's so true, and, and it's interesting.

It happens in different, uh, different windows for different people, but it usually starts for all of us around six, seven, eight, or nine. I hate that. And what's interesting about that, which is, which is tragic, especially as a parent, uh, you're like, "Ugh, that's- it's so sad." You can almost see it happen in kids- Yeah

where sometimes they try something, and it doesn't go the way they thought, and, uh, what's interesting is, as you well know, kids are resilient, but what they're told during that window is, is the crushing part. It's, it's often, you know, kids can navigate disappointment, but then what they are [00:13:00] told during that window is what sticks with people.

Yep. That's what tends to bury things. So as a kid would go out and, you know, try to hit the ball for that first baseball game or softball game and they miss, what they're being told after that is ... You know, it's amazing how many times you'll hear a parent say, "Well, maybe it's just not for you," or y- you know, "You tried it, but, but you're not as good as Jenny," or, "You're not as good as Johnny."

So, you know, it's that thing, maybe we should look for something different, right? And what, what I ... I, I love this conversation because it's so important, um, because the good news is, is even when dreams get buried, if we can be intentional about them, we can, we can uncover those dreams. We can rediscover those dreams.

And I know I ... You know, you've got a lot of moms that listen to your podcast. You got rock stars that listen to your podcast. But this is such a wildly [00:14:00] important conversation to have for moms, um, because I think moms, 9 times out of 10, moms would do anything for their kids. They would do anything for their families.

They would, they would put their kids' dreams up against their own any- and, and always pick their kids' dreams often. So I'll hear women often say, "Well, it feels selfish to dream." Right? Um, a- and I think sometimes it's like, well, if I take time for my own dream, I won't have time to be able to, you know, pour into my kids' dreams or help my kids with their dreams.

And I think it's the reverse. I always say, e- especially as a parent, but, uh, most importantly as a mom, um, I'd say to not dream is more selfish than, than to dream. Because, and here's why I say that, is that we can tell our kids all day long that they should dream, but if they don't see us [00:15:00] doing it, they won't believe us.

Mm-hmm. But if they see us doing it, it's amazing. That will speak at levels a- and say more to them than our words could ever deliver. I, I'll give you an example. We've got somebody in our... We have a program that we call the Authority Bridge, which is a program that allows professionals, um, successful people, executives, entrepreneurs, professors, um, to, to take what they do and also add speaking and coaching to that.

And we've got somebody in our program that's a PhD. She's a college professor, total rock star, amazing. Uh, you know, they would do surveys on campus, and she was always a favorite professor, and she was in administration, all these things, and very busy. But she had a heart for wanting to have impact off of campus, and she wanted to actually help other professional women to do that.

And so she joined our Authority Bridge process. But we talked about this wrestling match. She's like, [00:16:00] "Gosh, if I devote more time, you know, and, and, and actually double down on this dream, am I, am I being selfish with my kids?" And I said, "Well, you're an amazing organizer, and, y- you know, you're incredible with your time and your schedule."

But I said, "What will it show your kids when they see you walking out this dream, see you walking out something that you're pursuing intentionally, not because you've been assigned it, not because it's a part of your job, but it- because you chose it?" And she's like, "You know what? That's right." And so she went ahead and, and started to do that.

And it's not always convenient and like you, you know, like you were saying, sometimes you had to work some long hours. But she started to have breakthroughs, and her kids, eight and nine, had a front row seat for all of that. And then, uh, what's amazing is around the, the table they would start to talk about projects and experiments that she was running with her business and, and she would share the things that didn't go as well, [00:17:00] as well as the things that did go great.

And what she, what she said is, she's like, "The funniest thing is, especially as the kids have seen the, you know, the success grow, they're now both talking about- having their own businesses. Not someday, but like at eight and nine, they are talking about the kinds of businesses they can launch right now.

And, and I said, "Well, were you having those kinds of conversations before?" She's like, "No." And I said, "Remember, remember when you used to think that going after your own dreams might be selfish? Look at this now." Yeah. And, and this is something now she speaks on all the time too, is that, that thing of it's not selfish to dream.

Um, but also invite your family in, invite your kids into these dream pursuits. And it doesn't mean you have to burn down your current life, doesn't mean you have to quit your job and move to Fiji, but it's these little experiments. I'm a big believer in experimenting. I know you are too. It's that finding different ways to experiment, try things out, [00:18:00] and, and learn what you can learn in a controlled way.

Um, I know that's what we had to do with our business, is I couldn't just quit my job, so we had to find little experiments, try little things, and grow those things. So I love this conversation around dreaming because it's so important, and I know so many of your audience, like you have rock stars that listen to this, and there are dreams that have been buried over time that they need to come back alive because I truly believe, like your audience, they- they've got dreams that could change the world for the better.

So I'm so glad we're having this conversation. 

[00:18:34] Erica Rooney: I mean, I absolutely agree, and I want to dive in because your framework, your framework is just dream, think, do. It's three steps. Yeah. It's very simple. But- I, I 100% agree. The people who listen to this podcast, I think they get stuck, Mitch, under this like, "These are the things I should be doing," right?

"I should go to school. I should get married, have kids, take this job. I should be [00:19:00] the PTA person." And all of their shoulds stack up. Well, you know what's not on a should list? Starting a podcast, right? Right. I put that off for two years for multiple reasons, right? 

[00:19:10] Mitch Matthews: Right. 

[00:19:10] Erica Rooney: So for all of these women, that's their sticky floor, right?

"I should do all these things. I can't." You've got this Dream. Think. Do. You're saying, "Nope, you've got to dream." Yep. Tell me about the framework. It sounds simple, but I know that's gotta be intentional. 

[00:19:23] Mitch Matthews: Exactly right. So that's, that's the thing, and I'm so glad you've picked up on it, is that Dream. Think. Do.,

my hope is it's a catchy name for the podcast, right? But it is absolutely a three-step process, and they are three very different steps, and it's important to give yourself time and permission to take each step. Mm. Because so often what happens is we dream, and then we move into the thinking phase too early.

And in the thinking phase, it's not bad to think and strategize and plan. I'm a, I'm a to-do list guy. I'm, I'm so [00:20:00] extreme on my to-do lists, I, I did something this morning that wasn't on my to-do list, so I wrote it down so I could check it off. You know, like, I'm that, uh, that kinda planner, that kinda thinker, right?

But what often happens is we give ourselves a little permission, a little window to dream, but we move into the plan too quickly. And so what we get is incremental goal setting as opposed to really allowing yourself to say, "What if? What could we do?" One of my favorite examples of this, uh, it's kind of a funny example, but there was a guy in the '70s named John Howard.

He had a big handlebar mustache, look ... you know, crazy-looking guy, but he loved bicycles. Um, and he, he thought, "I wonder, you know, if we could go, if I could go really fast on a bicycle, um, I wonder what kind of attention we could draw to bicycling." And so he said instead of saying incremental goal setting, like thinking too [00:21:00] quickly, 'cause what we tend to do is when we start to think about a goal like that, we start to think, "Okay, well, what do we know?

What's our experience?" You know, and i- if I said, you know, "Erika, like, how fast do you think somebody could go on a bike?" What would you say? 

[00:21:16] Erica Rooney: Uh, like pedal? 

[00:21:18] Mitch Matthews: Yeah, pedal bike. No motorcy- not motorcycle, pedal. 

[00:21:21] Erica Rooney: Yeah. I mean, this is ... I'm terrible. I couldn't even tell you the last time I actually ... No, I rode a bike not too long ago.

But- 

[00:21:28] Mitch Matthews: There you go ... 

[00:21:28] Erica Rooney: I don't know, maybe 10 miles an hour? 

[00:21:30] Mitch Matthews: See, this is the thing, right? This is what we do. This is incremental goal setting. It's totally, it's totally the norm, right? Well, what's the answer? This is what we do. Am I 

[00:21:37] Erica Rooney: passing someone riding a bike? 

[00:21:38] Mitch Matthews: Well, we'll get to it. We'll get to it. 'Cause it's that thing of being able to say, "All right, what do I know?

How fast could I go?" Like, could it go, okay, well, I think I've gone maybe 10 miles or 15 miles or 20 miles an hour on a bike. Maybe somebody could go 30, right? Or maybe you watch Wild, uh, you know, some sports channel and you see, you know, the Tour de France and the guys all wearing the short shorts, [00:22:00] and the women, and all the stuff, coming down mountains, and they're going 70 miles an hour.

Well, maybe we could go a little faster than that, right? That's incremental goal setting. Yeah. Taking what you know and just adding a little bit to it. Whereas when you say, you know, basically we're talking about dreaming allows us to take quantum leaps forward. So what John Howard did was he said, "I wonder how I could go, what if I could go 150 miles an hour?

How could we do that?" And so he started to work back from this bigger dream. And what's wild about it is, if you can actually go to YouTube and watch him do it, but he went out on the salt flats in Utah- He actually got behind a drag racing car that actually got him to 125 miles an hour, and then under his own power on a specifically designed bike, he got to 154 miles an hour on this, on this pedal bike, right?

And it's because he didn't think too early. He gave himself s- permission [00:23:00] and space to dream first. And so, I, you know, I, I talked about Danielle, but, you know, we've got somebody else in our program that, that we did this. We said, "Okay, you know, you think about speaking more. Like, what does that look like?

Let's, let's dream about that. What kind of stages would you love to be on? Like, imagine, what does that feel like?" And, and we were able to, like, pinpoint, uh, you know, this ... Vanessa is her name, and she was like ... Well, I imagine she thought of these conferences that she'd been to with the big screens and thousands in the audience or stadiums, and I was like, in her mind's eye, she actually was able to see that.

Like, she was able to experience, like, what it would feel like to step on a stage like that. And then we started a plan from that to say, "Okay, well, if you would love that, let's work back from that." Like John Howard did, you know, he figured out, "Hey, I gotta get drug behind a race car to get to this." Well, then, then you can work [00:24:00] back from that dreaming.

It's not bad to think. We just don't wanna start thinking too early. So to be able to say, "Hey, what are some of those dreams?" Allow yourself some space, some permission to do that, and then you can start to think, to be able to say, "All right, let's work back from that big, audacious dream." And then of course, with dream, think, do, maybe the most important step is the doing, right?

It's the stepping out. But it allows us to get back to that really critical concept we talked about before of experimenting, to be able to say, "All right, how can I experiment with this idea?" So, like, with Vanessa or with Danielle, we didn't just burn down her current, their current careers. We said, "All right, what are some small steps that you could take immediately to start moving towards this big goal?"

Right? To be able to say, "These are a number of things you could do. What's that next thing? What's the right thing in this season to experiment with?" [00:25:00] And then you start to do. So it's the dream, think, do that makes all the difference. 

[00:25:05] Erica Rooney: Mm. I love it. It definitely makes me wanna spend a little bit more time dreaming, because it is such a challenge.

Like, when you're so busy and in the day and you're just thinking of all the things I have to do next and to even just hit that mile marker. So what is your best you know, prompt question that's thought- Yep ... provoking that can really make somebody be like, "Yes, I'm gonna sit down and dream bigger"? 

[00:25:29] Mitch Matthews: Yep. Uh, this might surprise you, but one of my, one of my first suggestions is throw out the word dream altogether.

[00:25:37] Erica Rooney: Okay. 

[00:25:39] Mitch Matthews: It might be shocking. Then what 

[00:25:40] Erica Rooney: though? 

[00:25:40] Mitch Matthews: But I know, right? Because here's the thing is, I know for you, like, you're ready to go. You're ready to dream. But I'm guessing, I know your audience is a bunch of fricking rock stars, right? Hyper achievers, super performers, and that's fantastic. But what's interesting is when you start to talk about dreaming, that can be [00:26:00] a really loaded word.

There are gonna be some people who are like, "I just don't dream." Or maybe their dreams got so hammered when they were growing up, it's a really hard subject, or there's so much weight to it, or there's amb- ambiguity to it. Some people wrestle with, "Well, do I have dreams or do I have goals?" You know? Or- Mm-hmm

you could ask that huge question, that weighty question of, "Erika, what's your big dream?" And now what we've got is we've got competing ideas. Not only are we trying to dream, but we're also trying to prioritize. Do I only get one dream? And if I only get one dream, what's that one dream? Like, ah, it's t- too much pressure.

So when somebody's giving themselves a little space and time to dream, one of my suggestions is don't worry about the word dream. Ask yourself, "Hey, what would I like to experience more often?" What would I love to experience more often? Because when we're thinking about [00:27:00] dreams, often what we're, we're thinking about is that question.

What do we wanna experience more? So like somebody might say, "Well, I w- I would love to go to France. I would love to go to Italy for a month." Okay, well, with that, what do you hope to experience? You know, are you hoping to experience new culture? Are you hoping to taste different food? Are you hoping... Could you, you know, maybe it's taking a cooking class in Italy.

I was just talking with an executive that I coach, and that's one of her dreams is she wants to go to Italy for a month and take a cooking class. And we talked about it. Okay, that is a great dream. What do you wanna experience? Like, what, what is that? And she's like, "Well, adventure, and I wanna be open to new things, and I wanna feel like what it's like to work in a, w- you know, to wake up in a country that I don't know the language, but I'm a, I'm choosing to be there."

You know, those kinds of experiences. And what's interesting is for a lot of people when you ask them, "What's your big dream?" or, [00:28:00] "What are your dreams?" boy, they, they can lock up because they just feel a lot of pressure. But when you ask them, "Hey, what's something you'd like to experience more?" Uh, that one doesn't have as much weight, but it gets you to the same kinds of results.

[00:28:17] Erica Rooney: You know what it makes me think of, and I don't know if you've heard this before, but when, if someone were to say to me like, "What's your dream, Erica?" my initial brain goes immediately to like my body of work, right? Yeah. How do I wanna be known? How do I want my community, Her Collective, to grow to? What are, it's gonna have a million people.

You know, like- Yeah ... those are the big dreams. But that is where my brain goes. But then when you tell me like, "What do you want to experience?" the first thing that came into my head was travel. Like, I wanna do- Yeah ... more travel, more relaxing on the beaches. Like, that's what I want to experience. And all while you were talking, my ping pong brain is going, Mitch, and I'm like, "This is how our body of work really connects here," [00:29:00] because you're taking this end result of what do you want to experience, and then you are saying there are infinite possibilities in the way that you can get there.

And like that's- Yeah ... what Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors is all about is it's once you get unstuck from the shoulds and the imposter syndromes and all that other bullshit that's floating around out there, there's different paths to get to that. And I think- That's so true ... women, we're also just so conditioned to be like professional, professional, grow, grow, grow, that that really, that question and the way you phrase it really shifts it.

So I think that's awesome. 

[00:29:37] Mitch Matthews: Well, I, well, thank you. And I'll, what I love about that question too is it helps to make sure you don't miss it. Yeah. Because even when you think about your body of work- Mm ... when you think about The Her Collective and the amazing things that you're doing there, right? To ask yourself, "Okay, what do I wanna experience more this year with The Her Collective?"

Like, is it [00:30:00] that satisfaction of s- of seeing the breakthroughs of the women that you're helping to, to, you know, get their, their, like, the perfect job for this season of their life? Like, to be able to say, if that's one of your goals, if that's one of your hopes for this year is that experience of the satisfaction, when it happens, 'cause I know it happens a lot, right, is when you're aware of it, you're like, "Oh, I'm gonna savor that."

Like, you get that email from one of your members and, and it's, it's easy to go, "Oh, that's great for her. That's awesome," and then move on. It's like, wait, no. That's one of the things I really wanna intentionally experience this year, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna savor that. I'm really gonna soak that in. I'm gonna create this list.

And, and it's, even at the end of the day, to be able to go, "Of the things that I wanted to experience more, even with my business, what's something I experienced today from that?" 

[00:30:54] Erica Rooney: Yeah. 

[00:30:54] Mitch Matthews: And it, the experience question really does help to open people up. It [00:31:00] helps that they don't, you know, they, then they don't miss it.

Because I know you've got a lot of rock stars, um, we're high achievers, and we kinda have that thing of you clip off goals and then- Yep ... keep moving, right? And we, we miss it. I, I'm, I'm right there, too, right? And to be able to go, wait, when we're looking for those experiences, then it also helps us to be able to, to really watch for them, savor them, celebrate them- Yeah

as we do it. And, and true as, as parents, too, as we do that, as we intentionally do that, your kids will pick up on that as well. Our- we've got adult- we've got two boys and, uh, you know, they're doing a form of that now both in their, their careers. And, you know, it sounds different, but they're doing it.

They're, they're savoring more and more of the experiences. So that's, that's what we wanna try to do. 

[00:31:54] Erica Rooney: Yeah. All right, Mitch, you are one in 100, right? We know this. [00:32:00] We talk to these women every day, and I'm like, "What are your sticky floors?" And we talk about imposter syndrome, perfectionism, fear, and burnout.

So when I get a man on this show- Yeah ... I wanna hear from you directly, like, what are those sticky floors in the man's world? What did you experience? 

[00:32:16] Mitch Matthews: I, uh, can I just say, just as a tangent, I told you I was gonna say this before we, we got ... But I didn't tell you what I was gonna say. But I like, I like Dream Think Do as a name, but every so often I come across a podcast where I'm like, dang, I've got name envy.

Like, your podcast name is one of the best podcast names because it's immediate. Like, it, it allows you like, oh, I know what she's talking about with sticky floors, 'cause physically I've been in those rooms, right? Like, um, we had, we had Stebs, uh, at my college town. Sticky floors, right? And glass ceilings, absolutely.

So I'm, I'm like, oh my gosh, that's such a great name, so kudos to [00:33:00] you for that, Erica. I love it. Um, but as far as sticky floors, um, what's interesting for me is, and I, I, I spoke to this very briefly, but growing up, um, I was a very anxious kid. Mm. I, I was a, a black belt level worrier. I was the Tesla of worriers.

I could go from zero to 60 in 2.3 seconds on worrying. Mitch, I was gonna say, 

[00:33:24] Erica Rooney: does that just make you really efficient at worrying, with your 

[00:33:26] Mitch Matthews: talent? Yeah, no, not at all. I was just fast at it. I was very fast at it. Um, and, and what's interesting is, is that, like, I would worry myself sick, and then I would miss school, which of course then I would stay home and then worry about what I was missing in school.

Oof. And kind of confound the doctors' level issues with my health and all those things. And then as I got older, I didn't get better at handling it. I got better at hiding it And so I would just push down these fears. And so for me, as I [00:34:00] moved into my professional career, uh, those were the things that limited me.

I m- I mean, I'm very creative. That's one of my strengths. But the challenge with being creative, I'm also a visionary, so the challenge with being a creative and a visionary is I can see way out, I can see possibilities, and I, I mean, that means I can see, like, vast opportunities, but I can also see the 100 million different ways things could go down in flames.

And so for me, I was my own worst critic. Um, I would worry myself sick on, on the career track, you know? And, and part of me, too, even when I got, uh, uh, you know, elevated and hired into that, uh, that bad fit job, and I started to even give myself permission to experiment with my own thing, I know one of my sticky floors was, "Who am I gonna disappoint?"

Like, even though my [00:35:00] manager was kind of beating me up and the management above him was beating him up, and it was just, it had become a very toxic situation, there was a big part of me that didn't wanna disappoint anyone. And it's interesting. One of my, one of my great friends, I just had him on the podcast, and he laid down this wisdom that I wish I would've had at that time.

Um, his name, uh, is Travis Ensley, and he said, um... And he's, he's basically my boys' uncle in many ways, a longtime friend of mine. And, and he said early on to them, "Boys, the quality of your life is going to be directly connected to being willing to disappoint someone." 

[00:35:44] Erica Rooney: Hmm. 

[00:35:47] Mitch Matthews: And when he said it, I was like, "Stop.

Say that again," right? Um, but we have to be willing and able to disappoint some people in order to do [00:36:00] more of what we're put on the planet to do Because I know for me, I had to be willing to disappoint that manager who didn't want to see me go, even though he even in the end knew it was a bad fit job for me.

I still was delivering. I was still hitting my numbers. I had, I had to be willing to disappoint him when it was time for me to step out. And what's interesting is is I, you know, I would lose sleep over, "Oh, what is he gonna think? What is he gonna say?" Yeah. Um, you know, uh, how is he gonna be disappointed?

And no matter how many different ways I saw it playing out, and most of those were negative, when it actually happened, he actually said to me more, "I think I'm gonna work for you someday. Can I just go with you now?" You know, like it was the complete reverse of all of the nightmarish situations I'd, I'd played out in my head.

And so I've realized over time more and more that, that you do have to choose who you're gonna disappoint, 'cause every yes is a no to something. So I know sometimes, you know, [00:37:00] when I get invited to, to do something, even something good, like it could be something good for my business or it could be, you know, getting invited to volunteer for something or to be a board member for something, whatever, right?

Um, it might be an ego stroke. It might even be nice economically, but I also have to say, "Hey, what am I saying no to if I say yes to that?" And so that, that was a, a wrestling match early on. I would definitely not say that I've perfected it, but I'm getting better every day of choosing my yeses, choosing my nos, and being willing to disappoint a few people along the way so that I can do more of what I've put on the planet to do.

[00:37:44] Erica Rooney: Yes. I hear the women always refer to this as people-pleasing. We love to please- Mm, yes ... all the pl- all of the people all the time. But I love that. Right. And you know what, ladies? We're gonna be a little bit more willing to disappoint other people, not ourselves. Yep. Okay. [00:38:00] Mitch- I love that ... if there's a woman who is listening right now, she's been playing small, not because, you know, she lacks the talent or the drive or the vision or any of that, but because somewhere along the way she just kinda stopped dreaming, right- Yep

which happens to so many of us, what is the one piece of advice you would give her? 

[00:38:20] Mitch Matthews: Think about seasons. Mm. One of my favorite other questions to ask when somebody's wanting to give themselves permission and time to dream just a little bit, even if it's just an extra 10 minutes at Starbucks sitting down with your favorite journal, one of my favorite questions to ask someone is, "Hey, what's a dream?

What might be a dream for this season of your life?" Because sometimes when we give ourselves permission to dream and dream big, um, we come up with dreams that are not right for this season of our life. That's not a bad dream. It's just not for this season. So to be [00:39:00] able to ask yourself, "Hey, what's, what's a dream?

What could be a dream? What might be a dream for this season?" So then to be able to say, "Oh, for this season, well, maybe it's not the month-long cooking class in Italy, but maybe it's a cooking class from a community college night class. I could do that right now on a Tuesday night, couple of Tuesdays back to back.

I could do that. Maybe Italy, Italy isn't for this season, but the cooking class experience might be." Right? To be able to say, "What's, what's something for this season?" Maybe you don't have a ton of time. That's okay. What's something you could experiment with right now in this season to help you continue to move towards those bigger dreams, but to help you start experiencing more of them now?

[00:39:49] Erica Rooney: Yes, I love that, and it makes me laugh a little because, Mitch, I'm also an AI educator, so I do a lot of work with my AI. And I've got a chief- Yeah, you do ... of staff that I have [00:40:00] specifically told, like, "You've got to keep me in my lane," because as a visionary and a girl- Yeah ... with a ping pong brain and a little bit of A- ADHD, shiny object- Yep

syndrome is real. And so all the time- Yeah ... my AI chief of staff will tell me, "Erica, this is probably not the season for that, but I'll put it on a, a to-do list for you later." That's right. 

[00:40:22] Mitch Matthews: And it's sure gonna- It's on the list. We're gonna put a pin in that ... put it on the list. Yeah. 

[00:40:25] Erica Rooney: But, I mean, that just brings us full circle, Mitch.

But okay, where can our listeners find you? We're obviously all gonna go listen to the Dream Think Do podcast, but if they want to take- Uh-huh ... the next step with you, where can they find you? 

[00:40:38] Mitch Matthews: Yeah, absolutely. I'll give you two different options. One is to go to mitchmathews.com. That's kind of where everything lives and breathes.

There's f- some fun resources there for free, all of that. But we did put a gift together for your crew. Um, I did some training that's been really, really popular. It's called Making Time for Your Next Chapter. 'Cause especially for rock stars and high [00:41:00] achievers like your listeners, um, we often will start dreaming, but to be able to go, "When and how would I ever have time for that?"

Hmm. Um, and so we have this training called Making Time for Your Next Chapter, and we've got some specific strategies to help people do that. It's $97, so what we did was we, you can go to mitchmathews.com/time. Hmm. And for your crew, we made a coupon code Sticky. Um, so they can use the coupon code Sticky and get it for free.

So go to- Whoa ... mitchmathews.com/time and use the coupon code Sticky, and they'll get it for free. You can send an email to Erica to say thank you. Um- Mm-hmm. Um- ... and, uh, we really, it's been really blessing a lot of people, and I think your crew might really enjoy it. 

[00:41:44] Erica Rooney: Oh, that's so fun, Mitch. I love it. I'm gonna dive into it.

Come on. So thank you so much for- Come on over ... being here. Oh, so great. 

[00:41:52] Mitch Matthews: I love it. Thanks so much. I love what you're doing, and it's such an honor to be a part of it. One in 100, I'll take it. 

[00:41:58] Erica Rooney: One in 100. [00:42:00] If this episode resonated with you, don't let it stop here. Send it to a woman you care about, a colleague, a friend, someone who's been on your mind while you were listening.

These conversations are meant to be shared, and you never know what one small shift can unlock for someone else. And if you haven't already, make sure that you're following the podcast. Leave a rating and write a quick review. It helps more women find this space, and it keeps these conversations going. If you're ready to go deeper, come a little closer.

Send me a DM. I'll invite you to sit in on a live Her Collective session as my personal guest. No pressure, no strings attached, but you get to experience it, feel the room, and see what happens when women start moving together. Until next time, y'all, keep going. Keep choosing differently, and let's smash the ceilings and close the gaps.