#awinewith Marie Matter
MEET Marie Matter, Founder of Australian Baroque Riding Academy
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
So good. Marie, welcome to Spark tv. I'm so excited to have you here.
Marie Matter (00:12):
Thank you so much. I'm very excited to be here.
Danielle Lewis (00:14):
So good. Let's start out by telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Marie Matter (00:21):
Okay. So my name's Marie Matta and I own the Australian Riding Academy in Mount Gambia, south Australia. I am a classical dressage instructor, so I have eight horses on the property at the moment, and I teach people how to connect with horses. I teach brain training so people can be calm before they even interact with any of my horses. I have an equine assisted activity program for disabled people who can come and do brain training, interact with horses. We talk about trauma. I'm a trauma informed coach as well. So the healing properties of horses is amazing, and I've been doing some of my own research about how horses affect our brainwaves and change our brainwave patterns from being really chaotic and working really fast into starting to come into an alpha brainwave state, which is when we get into a bit more of a focused but relaxed mode.
(01:31):
So I've done a degree in cognitive neuroscience. I finished that when I was in my early twenties and then worked for the world's first database of brain function. So I was a research assistant for many, many years with them and then realized something was missing from my life. And I realized that was horses, I've always loved horses for since I was two and embarked on a remarkable journey, going overseas, training with lots of different people and then finding my niche, which is classical dressage, sort of what you would see or what you might see at the Spanish Writing school in Vienna. And there's lots of places all around the world who are trying to preserve art form of classical dressage, which is working in harmony with horses, not for competition, but for their best welfare and humans best welfare. So I come at it from a horse and human perspective. So I want the humans to understand horse welfare and understand themselves and horses at the same time.
Danielle Lewis (02:44):
Oh my God, this is incredible. This is just wild. That's right. Having that academic background, having something that you're so passionate about and that you love and bringing them together to create a business that obviously supports you and your passion, but a lot of other people and makes a huge impact. This is
Marie Matter (03:07):
Wild. Yeah, it's incredible. And I went on quite a crazy day to get here because my husband fell ADA six years ago, maybe seven years ago now, and fractured the base of his skull and an air pocket went into his brain and he's now has a permanent disability and has a brain injury. So I was working in the corporate space in HR and practice management for a dental clinic and a medical clinic, and was using my academia as well as some of my admin skills that are amazing. But I've got admin. It was more the people management skills that I had. And when I realized that I had to give away corporate work, I needed to find something that really lifted me up, and I always wanted to start a school. So in Covid, I started my school because when else would you start a business? When you me, when would you start it?
Danielle Lewis (04:14):
Oh my gosh. You're a sucker for punishment. I can tell already. Sucker.
Marie Matter (04:19):
A total sucker for punishment. Exactly. But the business is going really well, and I've got lots of students, and now I'm trying to embark on, I've got an online mindset course, I've started a podcast and I'm writing a bushfire ready course at the moment. And a course for instructors to improve their business, improve the way that they teach, the way that they interact with their students, and how to get more students and how to keep the horse's welfare is number one throughout all of that. So there's lots similar pipelines.
Danielle Lewis (04:57):
I love it. You sound like a crazy entrepreneur, which I just love. And so interesting that it came about as a part of having to leave your corporate career and support your husband. But how amazing, and I am sure that would've been absolutely horrific, but how amazing that something like that has turned into something so incredible.
Marie Matter (05:23):
And it was a really big decision because I was earning great money corporately, but incredibly not where I wanted to be.
(05:36):
And it was making great money to the family. I could have sustained it, but I'm never here. I was never at the farm. I had two horses. I never got to see them because I was working 60 to hours a week mentally I was so fatigued. But now I only get physically fatigued, not mentally fatigued because I'm out on the farm every day doing exactly what I want to be doing. And I sort of said to my husband, well, if I don't pursue my passions now, despite what we've been through, when am I going to, it's never going to happen, and it's me. I have to pursue this and this is what I want to do. And off I went, learning everything.
Danielle Lewis (06:23):
How did you find that transition? What was it like going from corporate to business ownership for you?
Marie Matter (06:30):
I really noticed that I didn't have a lot of faith in myself. So I underpriced right from the beginning with a really difficult position to put myself in. Now that I'm four years down the track, I wish I had have started where I was worth back then so that I could have valued what I was doing more because I was starting to feel like my skills and experience weren't being recognized because I was charging. I think I started at $30 a lesson and now I'm up to 85 and I'd love to be at a hundred, but I haven't managed to get there yet. And I'm just going along that journey of self-discovery and realizing my worth and realizing that every experience I've been through has led me to this point of being able to share my knowledge in a really safe space. I've created an amazing, so through all of that, I converted 10 stables into an indoor arena, two stables, a kitchen and a viewing platform.
(07:41):
So now I have somewhere indoors that I can work rather than having to be out in an outdoor arena, which is where I started. So I've come from the beginning of the business to now we've pumped every cent that we have had through the door into the business. And now I'd love to recoup some of that, but the business only just pays for itself. Having eight horses on the property is, yeah, it's really expensive. So it's where I'm looking to launch off a little bit further and just share with everyone my passion. And you start to find that the people that don't resonate with you start to filter away and go to where they do resonate. And that then leaves space for the people who really, really want to learn this work. And it's been hard to say no to people.
Danielle Lewis (08:34):
Yeah. It's so amazing that you are talking about this. I just had another call today and we were talking about how business has got to be the biggest personal development experience that you can possibly go through. And I don't think a lot of people talk enough about how you're not a millionaire on day one or year 10. In some cases, businesses are, and just depending on the type of business you have, they can be very expensive to actually run. So you are coming out of the gate at a loss and trying to make up that
Marie Matter (09:15):
Ground. Yeah, that's right. I mean, we don't even have a tractor, so we can't move manure around or dig out paddocks. We need to or put fencing in. We need to yet, but that doesn't mean that we won't get there because I've always had this dream. And so probably 15 years ago, I decided that I wanted to ride. I wanted to run a riding school. And so I stuck little post-it notes all over the house on the doorknobs, on the mirrors, on the windows in my car, on my desk at work, on my laptop. Literally everywhere I went, I saw establish a writing school. And it happened, and it wasn't,
(10:03):
Was through a lot of hard work, but it was almost like the universe was conspiring to get me there through whatever it is that we went through. That's such difficult, horrible time that we had. We also tried to flip it into a really big positive that neither of us were working. We got to have another honeymoon period, although he was exceptionally ill. We got to spend 14 hours a day, seven days a week together for six months. It was incredible. And our daughter was being looked after by my parents, and it was just like we were reliving our dating days again. But it's all about turning that really negative situation that you're in into a positive, how can I help make this the best situation that we can given what we've given at the moment? So we've conquered that. That's one of my strengths there.
(11:02):
So I wrote positive quotes up on the doctor's boards every day. I was there, and one day I didn't do it. And it's funny, the neurosurgeons and the ENT surgeons and the plastic team all said, where's your quote today? We love that quote. We love that you change it every day. We take it forward with us into our work. And I went, I didn't know I had an impact. I was just riding it up there for me, not for anyone else, but I'm glad that you read it and that you took it forward. And so every time we would go back to the hospital, I'd just say to the nurses, okay, I'm here. I'll fluff pillows. I'll get everybody water. I'll mop the floors if I have to. I'll change beds. But when we ring the bell, it's something in this room needs to be done now.
(11:55):
So that was a really good way of acknowledging all of the nurses hard work that they do isn't just a fluffer pillow for somebody, or I found I ended up becoming a confident for a lot of the families that were working through, because I was so old hat being in hospital, they would bring a lot of their, and people do this at work as well, they bring their problems in, and person that's sick can't handle. They're just trying to survive, particularly in a neuro ward, they're just trying to survive. So bringing in all the drama from outside absolutely doesn't help. And you just feel the room when the families leave and you go, everybody breathes, everybody's calm Again, we've got this team that was a really amazing but horrible opportunity to see how much impact I can have from being me. And it really started my journey of, oh wow, I have stuff to offer and I can change the vibe of a room by being who I am. And so I was diagnosed with a DHD last year, which was one of the best things that ever happened because finally tell me why I didn't have to mask my quirks anymore.
(13:25):
I didn't have to be quiet because what I was about to say might be perceived as weird or that I have so much energy sometimes that, Ooh, that's a lot. I've learned how to, through horses, how to be calm and relaxed. But when I'm talking about it, I get excited because it's my passion and it's what drives me. And being diagnosed gave me more resources. Even having worked in psychology knew I probably had it for a very, very long time, but no one was willing to listen or get to the point of diagnosing. And then when I went on medication, my whole world changed. My thought thoughts were less chaotic.
(14:18):
I was doing less circles in kitchen, trying to make a coffee. We still, we have something called the matter reprise, so every time we get in the car, we forget something. So somebody comes back into the house and gets the next thing. And sometimes it's four times before you actually leave so perpetually late, and it doesn't stop who you are, but it just helps you be on a little more of a straight and narrow track than doing this and doing that and doing this and doing that. And those A DHD videos that you see are real, it happens in real life. Exactly. I really resonate with the social media content creators that put a DHD stuff up. I'm like, yep, I do that every day. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (15:04):
Wow. It's so cool though that we do live in a time where people are starting to get it. They're starting to understand, they're starting to diagnose more, they're starting to support more, have more conversations. And I love how, again, so not only have you taken a really crap situation and turned it into something amazing, but again, you have taken parts of you that perhaps we didn't understand before and gone, no, this is now my superpower. This is when I'm standing in front of a group talking about this topic that I'm so passionate about. That's the thing that people love about you.
Marie Matter (15:44):
Yeah, exactly. And it then allows a different type of conversation. So people who have been through trauma feel more relaxed around me. People who have a DHD or autism feel more relaxed about me, more relaxed just being around me because I'm now being authentic and showing up as being vulnerable. So I love Brene Brown. I don't know if you've seen some of her videos and she did a talk about being vulnerable, and it's so true. And you get up there and you take that lid off and you just open up a piece of yourself that is quite vulnerable that people judge, but that's not for me to take on. That's their judgment, and that's their thoughts, and that's their belief system happening. Nothing to do with me necessarily. It might spark something in them,
Danielle Lewis (16:47):
Which isn't
Marie Matter (16:48):
Me, but it's their journey, not my journey. So learning to have a thick skin, particularly in business, is really important.
Danielle Lewis (16:56):
Well, that was going to be, you can be a question that I asked was if you had tips for other women in business who might have had that, because I know a lot of women in business who have had the A DHD diagnosis in the last couple of years. Has there been anything that you've found that's helped you in business?
Marie Matter (17:20):
Trying to structure one day off a week where I solely look at admin has been remarkable. Having Wednesdays where I don't organize appointments and I don't organize lessons that isn't admin day, that's where I can create content. I reconcile my accounts on that day every single week, because otherwise it gets to a thousand and they'll want to actually do it, and it just becomes insurmountable. So breaking those big tasks down into just starting AI has been revolutionary. So at uni 20 years ago, makes me sound old now. We were just starting the AI journey back then 20 years ago, and I was working on making a robot baby, learn how babies learn.
(18:17):
I mean, it was incredible. Some of the stuff I got to do at university was brilliant, but now to see how much it's evolved and how you can use something like chat, GPT, and I'm absolutely not sponsored by them at all, but I've been using it to wrap marketing to look at, I've got this idea for a course. What do you think the target market would be? Or just throwing around those ideas with something that has access to the search engines that has all of that knowledge is just, it's revolutionary. And then learning prompts of what to write in there to get a better detailed description of something that you want, and then taking it, it gets you off the blank page. That's where a lot of us sit of, where do I start? I don't even know how to write this course. I don't even know how to make a second, third, fourth, fifth income stream. What do I do? And type that in, chat, type that in. I want know the incomes, what do I do? And this is who I am. And so I've done a lot of learning with Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi.
Danielle Lewis (19:36):
Oh, amazing. I love them. Yes. I just signed up for three day event with Tony Robbins.
Marie Matter (19:42):
Brilliant, brilliant. The Mastermind community. It's amazing. I got up in the middle of the night and did a course with them, I think it was called launchpad Live last year or the year before. And it helped me write my mindset course, and I wrote it very quickly and I pumped out. And although I haven't had the traction that I want, I know that I will get there, but I haven't worked out funnels yet, and I haven't. I've got those pieces and gaps missing in my knowledge, and I know that. And sometimes A DHD gets in the way of that because then I procrastinate about it and go, oh, I'll just go and feed a horse or ride a horse. That'll be easier than dealing with a funnel.
Danielle Lewis (20:31):
But I love it because it just highlights how business can be messy and you still have a business. I sometimes think people think that you have to have everything perfect. You need to know the products on day one, messaging websites, funnels, like you said, all of these different things. But I'm like, no, it all comes as a result of just starting. You do one thing and you're like, oh, I learned about that. I could do that. And oh, okay, now I need to learn about funnels. Oh, now I need to do this. Now need this. You'll fill all of those gaps over time. I think the best thing is for anyone in business is just to start and put one foot in front of the other and just give something a go. That's the only way you know what you love doing and or what your gaps are.
Marie Matter (21:24):
And I think there's a lot of worth in knowing what you don't want to do, but it's okay to start and go, oh, this is really not for me. I'm out of here.
(21:35):
That is okay. And being genuinely okay with ourselves when we make mistakes that it's as long as we learn from them and look to solve them and solve bigger problems, the bigger we get in business, we're solving bigger problems. The stress isn't different. The stress is the same, but it's how you approach that challenge. That's really important. And if you approach it with a solution focused attitude, you'll get there as opposed to, I can't do that. I built my own website through Squarespace, and it's functional. It works. One of the things that really sticks in my mind from one of the courses I've done is that do it messy, do it scared, but do it anyway.
Danielle Lewis (22:30):
Yes. I love that.
Marie Matter (22:33):
Do it messy, do it scared, do it. Anyway. The first live, the first run of the website, the first time you use the accounting program, the first time you meet an accountant, the first student I had through, I knew how to teach, but I didn't really know what I was doing. I had all the building blocks there, but this was my first time. So being authentic with that and taking on feedback, but not taking it on as a dig at you that you can always get better. You can always be moving forward. And the best way you learn is through making mistakes. It can be fixed or it can be moved on from not holding onto that. You can't hold onto that because we all make mistakes, and that's a part of the learning journey. You can't start a business knowing it all. You just can't.
Danielle Lewis (23:33):
Oh my God, I love that so much. And because I think too, once you've been in business for a little while, sometimes you do get that in your mind. It's like, I can't change my product. I can't change my pricing. I can't change even the industry that I'm in, but I'm like, yeah, you are the boss. You are literally the person that gets to change it because you made it up in the first place so you can make it up again.
Marie Matter (24:02):
And I think I've had a lot of conversations with people being a HR manager previously of Why are you coming to work in a job that you hate? You are not a prisoner. We'll replace you. No one is irreplaceable in a business. It's a hard, horrible truth.
Danielle Lewis (24:25):
It
Marie Matter (24:25):
Doesn't matter how much you give to that business. They will find somebody different. And yes, they might split it up into two or three roles if you have a DHD and can handle a big workload, but it doesn't mean that you, it doesn't mean that you should burn yourself out. And I've had so many of those conversations and I have helped people get into, there was one nurse who loved sewing, so I said, why aren't you working at the sewing shop? Why aren't you doing your own sewing and selling it? And she ended up resigning and moving on to something bigger and better than where she was tasting it. And I don't have time for people who complained so much about their jobs because they can change it. You can learn, you can study. Yes, you may be eating noodles for a while, but have we not all been there?
Danielle Lewis (25:22):
Yeah, totally. Don't we all go through those phases anyway?
Marie Matter (25:26):
Oh yeah. We've gone from two really good ages to living off the pension because I'm a carer for my husband, and he gets the pension and we are broke. We have never been happier. And I think that sometimes having money is amazing. I've had a lot of money through our pockets, but it's not what makes you happy. It's finding your why, finding passion and then pursuing it.
Danielle Lewis (26:01):
Yeah, there's a real big shift, I think at the moment for redefining what success means. And I always, if anyone's listened to this podcast, I know I always rant about Instagram, people who talk about six figures, seven figures, eight figures, and I'm like, they don't talk about the reality behind them. And I see so many people follow processes and are miserable, like that's not the life they wanted. They're using somebody else's benchmark of success to build a business and then hate it. Oh my God, you are so lucky. That's my husband. Hi. Brought
(26:43):
Is the dream. I'm living the dream. Right? Totally. Living the dream. That is absolutely incredible. Of all the things that have happened on podcast recordings, a husband bringing in a super duper has not happened. Welcome to the Matter household where we never know what's going to happen next. Oh my God. Well, look, it's perfect timing because we should wrap up. So I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be a piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her business journey?
Marie Matter (27:26):
Just do it. It doesn't matter if it's not perfect, if it resonates with you, it's going to resonate with somebody else and you will find your tribe and they will be attracted to what you're offering. There is always someone out there who wants what you are able to give
Danielle Lewis (27:52):
You are absolutely incredible. Marie, thank you so much for sharing your story and your insights. That's been phenomenal. Thank you. Thank you so much.
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