Pivot With Purpose Season 6 Episode 9 Matt Marcotte Full Transcript

Meghan Houle (00:04.369)

Hello Matt, welcome to the Pivot Purpose Podcast. Hello, how are you today my friend?

Matt Marcotte (00:06.144)

Hello, Megan.

Matt Marcotte (00:11.79)

I am so good, I'm so excited to be here with you after what seems like a forever trying to schedule, right?

Meghan Houle (00:18.417)

I know, but that's like the way of the world. And I just, for everyone listening, like, please just give everyone space and grace. I laugh at like all of the Instagram posts that are like, if I'm delayed, like, you know, five to seven days on your email, imagine what I'm not doing for myself. So I just feel like, I mean.

Matt Marcotte (00:35.854)

I love that. It's true though.

Meghan Houle (00:39.729)

you know, we just try to keep up with it. But also, you know, it's like you got to get out there and enjoy life. I know you've been traveling and doing all kinds of fun things. So divine timing, we all come together at the right moment. We're diving into summer. It's good times. There's lots of pivots in there. And I love our connection that stems back from retail and sharing so many people in common, you know, with that wonderful industry that has just evolved so much. So I can't wait to tell your story.

and all that you're doing now. So to dive in, talk to us a little bit about like, where are we catching you in the here and now? Like, what's going on in your world? Like, what's lighting you up these days? Like, tell us about the here and now. What's Matt up to? Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (01:22.254)

Yeah, sure. So many pivots. Yeah, I'm actually you're catching me in the midst of a very large pivot. I essentially decided professionally to make a leap from corporate life, right? The arena that I spent the last 34 years, even though I'm only 38, investing to invest in my own practice, right? And really what it came down to is I wanted to follow my passion around leadership.

and experience transformation, which really, if I look back, that's what I've been doing my entire career, right? And it's been something that I've done formally, informally, part -time, you know, all the things like you who do 75 ,000 things in your careers. I decided it was just time for me to go out on my own. And we can talk more about kind of the why I felt like now is the right time. But yeah, so you're catching me kind of in the midst of that. I just, I left.

my last company at the end of February. And so we're find ourselves what in June now. So it's only been a couple of months.

Meghan Houle (02:23.921)

Yeah. Well, yeah, no, can't wait to dive into all of that. But early highlights, going back to maybe where the retail bug bit you, was it something that you knew early on where you were always in the mindset of service? Did you have a lot of jobs at a young age? Were you in service? Where did this initial sort of industry come into this view for you in terms of that professional?

career trajectory that I know you have for so many years. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (02:53.486)

Yeah, you know, it's interesting that Steve Jobs had this incredible quote that said you can never connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, right? So as I think back to my earlier stages, I think I always did have that service or that experience. I think it's probably a better way for me to phrase it for myself, the experience bug. So I remember early on, I wanted to go to college. I wanted to actually go to a school to go to hotel management school. Like I really wanted to,

own a hotel and be able to build something really cool. And I didn't end up doing that, obviously, but I think that was like in my bones from the very beginning. And then I worked, those of you listening to this podcast, old enough to remember Jordan Marsh, I worked there like part time in the shoe department when I was actually like later in high school. And so retail was kind of in my bones that way a little bit, or at least my experience. But the reason I ended up in retail, and I think this is actually,

a really important thing that I try to share with people about kind of following, not your gut per se, but a little bit of your gut. I went to Boston College and Boston College is a big university for on -campus recruiting. And so a lot of companies come when you're a senior to try to get you, or well, not to try to, but you essentially recruit on campus. And so I had job offers from then what is now Accenture Anderson Consulting.

Citibank, Citicorp, which were some really, those are the big players, right? So, as an economics major, that sounds great, but I also had this job offer from May Company. Do you remember May Company? Filings, like department stores, essentially back in this is about 1990. And the reason that I actually took the job with May Company is because they had the best dinner. And so what I mean by that is when I was going to my last interview in New York for Citicorp,

Meghan Houle (04:33.297)

Mm -hmm.

Matt Marcotte (04:51.662)

They were very much use your student ID to get a cheaper flight and then take the subway. And like, I was like, you're already nickel and diming me and I haven't even started yet. But May Company, because they realized they were fighting for talent with much bigger, more well -known, more expected organizations. The chairman of May Merchandising flew from St. Louis out to Boston. They put all of the finalists up in a hotel.

in downtown Crossi, even though most of us lived in the general area. I was actually on campus at Boston College, which is like five miles away. They had this huge dinner where they had all these people come and it was a big investment. And so I knew that wouldn't be my every day, but I remember being so impressed that they were so focused on getting the best talent they possibly could that I knew at least they had an understanding that that was important. And so that's why I ended up choosing them.

Meghan Houle (05:43.505)

Mm -hmm.

Matt Marcotte (05:46.414)

over the other bigger, more, I guess, expected and traditional companies.

Meghan Houle (05:52.049)

Mm. Yeah, no, that's so interesting. And I gosh, I know so much has changed now in our world. Where but I think there's still brands that do a really great job of setting candidates not only up for success, but kind of showing them the way the culture getting them excited to work, you know, for a team. And you know what I always say, and I know some people fight me on this, but a brand will show you their true colors, like through an interview process.

Matt Marcotte (05:58.414)

No.

Matt Marcotte (06:21.678)

Absolutely.

Meghan Houle (06:21.681)

So you always kind of have to do that gut check. And I don't know. I mean, I obviously never got into banking or finance, my husband is. But I do feel like there is this sometimes sense. And I think it happens in retail. You drink the Kool -Aid, like, you should want to work here. So then whatever it takes to get here, we're not going to wine and dine you. You just work here, drink the Kool -Aid. And you're like, mm.

Matt Marcotte (06:43.598)

Absolutely.

I feel like, and I'm curious because I think this is kind of what you're saying too. And once again, having grown up in the 90s, let's just say, being Gen X, we grew up with a we're just lucky to have a job, right? Like, thank you for hiring us. And I think the awareness and the agency and the confidence of people now who are saying you're lucky to have me versus I'm just lucky to be there is different. But I think to your point,

Meghan Houle (06:48.881)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (07:00.177)

Yeah. Yes.

Matt Marcotte (07:14.478)

Early on, I had that sense of, I'm interviewing you as much as you're interviewing me. And I agree, some of the more traditional companies at that time, especially, and maybe it is still true today, were like, you should be lucky just to work here. And you're like, no, actually, that's not true. That's much more, I think, an okay way to think today. But back then it was more like, my God, you're offering me, I'll take it. You know?

Meghan Houle (07:25.297)

Yeah. Yeah. No.

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (07:36.594)

No. Right. And then your family is like, how dare you not take this like certainty job? And why would you go into retail? That's not a real job. Remember those conversations?

Matt Marcotte (07:47.566)

I mean, luckily with me, my family wasn't that way. But yes, that was the general population, especially if you spent all this money going to Boston College and you're going to go work in retail. What people don't realize about retail or the ones that aren't in it is that very early on, you own a business. I owned a P &L years before any of my friends who went to other companies had that kind of ownership, accountability, opportunity.

In fact, I remember a lot of my friends would be like I was still I was at May Company for six years and many of my friends had changed up three times. Like they just jumped from jump to it because it wasn't what they expected it to be or whatnot. But I had to say, like, I think you were talking about the way people set us up for success. I mean, May Company was back in the day when they did what you were saying, which is they had these incredible training programs. I mean, you went in and we were in a classroom for I think six weeks before we even

Meghan Houle (08:44.433)

wow.

Matt Marcotte (08:45.39)

got into a buying office, at least full time. And then there were the rotations. And I think, you know, one of the great things, and this is something I talk a lot about with younger generations, was they believed in spider webbing. And by spider webbing, I mean, they wanted you to have as many different types of experiences as possible. So I was, I started off in the women's dress department, and then I moved to young men's.

And then I was in accessories and then I was out in the stores as an apartment manager so you could see what it meant to actually build an assortment and see how the customer reacted to that assortment and all the things that happen in a physical location. And then I was in furniture. I mean, so I was all over the place and you see the customer experience and you see the brand experience through different lenses because each of those product categories operates a little bit differently. They have nuances. So,

Those are experience. And then of course, being back in the buying office, I was in planning and distribution and advertising meetings and out in the warehouse with returns to see what didn't work and damages and building assortments because we were a regional department store. So that was back at a time where you got so much 360 degree experience and it's invaluable. It's so invaluable.

Meghan Houle (10:01.969)

No, so invaluable and gosh, I mean, unfortunately, I don't feel like we find that today as much anymore. Specialized, I guess like not a not sexy word, but like pigeonholed. And I will say, I mean, at levels where I feel very fortunate early on to work also for some big companies where I felt like I got good operational training.

Matt Marcotte (10:09.166)

No, people who get much more specialized.

Meghan Houle (10:26.993)

service training, you weren't just like thrust it onto the floor and you're like, good luck. And if you didn't have that confidence, you're like, no, this is like not going to work for me. But I also feel like pivoting to Louis Vuitton and LVMH, like, I'm actually really glad when I started off my career there, going back into stores and not being multi store, I was able to work inside of a lease department where I got to do all operations, like the coordination with sex, like all of that.

Matt Marcotte (10:50.286)

Mm -hmm.

Meghan Houle (10:55.601)

where when they flipped me over to the big store, the big mothership here in Boston, I became very specialized. And it's like, well, we don't touch that. We don't do that. We don't operations. We don't pay bills. So you kind of are like, but I was doing all of that. So I mean, gosh, like, I don't know. There's a bigger conversation there. But I'm certain, and you probably feel this in all that you learn after those six years, like, when did you know that it was time to leave? And then what in that experience did you find that you were really loving that?

Matt Marcotte (11:05.262)

Yeah!

Meghan Houle (11:24.145)

gravitated towards as you were looking for bigger pivots after the May Company. Yeah, what was the next?

Matt Marcotte (11:28.846)

Yeah, yeah. I mean, like I said, six years and I think I just I knew it was time to leave because I felt like I wasn't learning anything anymore. And I knew it wasn't where I wanted to be my entire life. In fact, I will tell you one very big piece. So as a regional department, we're back at those days. You had the ability as a buyer to create assortments that were really relevant to your consumer. And as we know, the New England consumer is very different than the L .A. consumer.

We were still selling like wide well corduroy like years after everyone else has stopped buying it because it was doing good. And so you were able to really think about who your customer was and what was important to them so you could build these assortments and then make company. And this is where you realize what's doing what's right for the bottom line, meaning what seems right for the bottom line is not always what's right for the bottom line. So what I mean by that is as example, instead of allowing us to have our own assortments,

they wanted to leverage the supply chain. So for example, instead of, you know, two department store chain, regional department stores buying polo shirts, they wanted every single department store to buy polo shirts so they could get a better price on the polo shirts when they were being made. But if I wasn't selling them, I still had to buy them. And so what happened is we became glorified accountants. And I was just like, essentially pushing paper and executing somebody else's vision, which then you saw reflected in the sales because the customer wasn't relevant to them.

Meghan Houle (12:42.513)

Hmm.

Matt Marcotte (12:51.406)

And so I was like, okay, if I can't help to build this and own this, I don't want to be here anymore. And at that time Gap was actually trying to recruit me. And I thought, okay, if I'm going to stay in retail, how do I start looking at it from multiple different lenses? And so I had done department store and the merchant organization, like I was saying before, I'd been out in stores for a little bit and I really enjoyed it. So going to Gap would have been specialty and the field.

Meghan Houle (12:55.697)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (13:17.87)

So that would add another lens to the same conversation around consumer retail. And so at the time when I went, Gap was like the darling of Wall Street. I mean, it was, they could do no wrong. And so I just thought this will give me another set of experiences that will actually help to round out my context. And that's why I went.

Meghan Houle (13:38.545)

Yeah. Is there a pivot in there? Because I know there's a few more after Gap, but like thinking about your career as a whole, is there a pivot there that you feel like went wrong? Or, you know, a move where you're just like, hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (13:53.902)

the

Matt Marcotte (13:58.894)

no, let me back up. Here's what I would say. No, my my the pivot that was hardest for me, believe it or not, was going from college to to the first job at May Company because, you know, the idea of actually like, you know, working hard and all those things in a different way than you did college, right? Like, I think I was probably probably took me a little bit of time to get my sea legs underneath me. And I think,

Meghan Houle (14:01.777)

Spill the tea, spill the tea, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Meghan Houle (14:22.513)

Yes.

Meghan Houle (14:27.537)

Mm -hmm.

Matt Marcotte (14:28.91)

So I was paired with at the time when we actually gave these assignments. So they gave assignments out to us. They paired assistant buyer with a buyer. And so I was paired with like the superstar buyer of the men's division. So you want to be in the men's division. And then this buyer was like, she was the, she was definitely the buyer. And so I thought this is great. And then within six months, they moved me out because they wanted to put somebody else in there who they were more invested in than me.

and they put me with a more old time buyer that had been there for 20 years. And that was a huge blow to the ego. I mean, that was like, I went from, you know, kind of the chosen one or in the field of the chosen one to kind of being like roadkill. And I remember that was really a wake up call. It was a good wake up call in a way, but then I'm a big believer in, I will probably say this several times in our time together. I think everything happens for a reason.

Meghan Houle (15:25.873)

yeah.

Matt Marcotte (15:25.902)

And I think if you're smart, you look for the kind of the silver lining of every situation. Sometimes you can't see it at the beginning, but you can have. So the person I ended up working for ended up being the best boss, one of the best bosses I've ever had because he was so invested in development. Whereas the other buyer was invested in her career. She was about her. So I wasn't getting the mentorship or the.

Meghan Houle (15:43.857)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (15:52.433)

Mmm.

Matt Marcotte (15:55.31)

partnership or the teaching that I probably could have benefited from, but he was all about, and I remember he would allow me to do the buy back in the day when you'd own a piece of paper, big yellow spreadsheet with like all the store numbers and you do all the, and I would bring it to him and he would put, he had one of those teachers' desks and he would put it on his desk and he was a little chubby. So he would scoot back from his desk, open up the top drawer, pull out his red pen and then he'd go to town on,

kind of this is, but he would explain why he didn't agree with what I was doing, but he never was upset about it the first time. If I made the same mistake twice, different conversation. But it was like that kind of mentorship and that leadership and that investment that really benefited me. So what at the time seemed like a crappy pivot and it was a tough one to swallow, ended up being probably the thing that kept me in the retail world for, you know, for where I am today.

Meghan Houle (16:33.137)

Hmm. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (16:48.881)

Yeah. Yeah.

Meghan Houle (16:55.441)

Wow. Yeah. And what a beautiful message like in that for all individuals that I know listen the podcast, I'm sure follow both of us on LinkedIn, where you get so frustrated or annoyed that a job doesn't work out or a company is just only going to look at me like that for this. And I agree. I think rejection is redirection. Everything happens for a reason. I know I say that a lot too. And people probably want to like choke me via email. They're like, shut up Megan.

Matt Marcotte (17:18.574)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Meghan Houle (17:23.153)

But I agree, and there's so many learnings. And I think sometimes we put these people on a pedestal where we're like, we can learn so much. And sometimes there's a lot of smoke and mirrors. Or there are people that are very much just focused on themselves and the development. So I love that. And I'm sure it sounds like you got such valuable advice early on. And for any of the college listeners listening in, I know there's a lot of grads pivoting. It's just like your first job probably isn't

Matt Marcotte (17:33.678)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (17:38.094)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (17:52.017)

necessarily a dream job, but you make the best freaking out of it that you can because you can learn so much, move on. I mean, you stayed with what you were doing for a long time, right? And it kept going and growing. So yeah. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (17:59.31)

my god, absolutely. I'm a huge, huge believer, and I'm curious if you disagree, don't say so, and I'm kidding. I'm a big believer in when you are young in your career, try as many things as you can. Because once you start making a lot of money or a good amount of money, it's harder to change. But yet to me,

Meghan Houle (18:25.425)

It's hard to change, yeah.

Matt Marcotte (18:29.006)

Context and experience and multiple different skills and kind of understanding are what make you successful long term like I was talking about that spider webbing and I think it's so much easier to do when you're You're not held like the you don't have the golden handcuffs so to speak right and there's this interesting This is interesting theory and economics Called the curse of the middle class and it's really essentially a completely about financial risk averse risk

Meghan Houle (18:46.513)

Totally. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (18:58.158)

risk aversity based on your income. So they say like, people who have no money are not risk averse because they have nothing to lose. So they will try things. People who are wealthy are not risk averse because they have plenty of money and they will try things. People in the middle are very risk averse because a change of $10 ,000, $20 ,000 in income by taking a risk can affect their lives, their family's lives. So they become paralyzed. And that's why the people they talk about 70 % of Americans hate their jobs.

those people are sitting in that world. And so to me, I always think like, while you're young, try as many things, learn as much as you can to your point earlier, and really like just like test and learn and have a good time and don't be afraid to take on a project or try a new this or if someone says, hey, would you like to do that? Yes, would love to. Sure, great. What can I learn from it? So yeah, big advocate for that.

Meghan Houle (19:32.849)

Do it.

Meghan Houle (19:36.593)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (19:45.585)

Yeah.

Yeah. no, it's such great advice. And I guess going back to your retail pivots after Gap, where did you find yourself with Gap at the end of it? And then I know there's a couple of pivots there leading to kind of getting out of retail and being on the CRM side of it, which we can go into. But what did that career journey look like for you going into the end of your time working with brands, so to speak? Mm -hmm.

Matt Marcotte (20:11.438)

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, here's what I will say if I back into it. I've been very lucky that I've worked for some incredible companies and incredible companies that also were very aligned with my value system. And I am not a gun for hire. I never have been. I have to believe in what the company does, the purpose. That's why brands are so interesting to me. The good ones, at least. I mean, when I say good, I mean, the true brands, everyone calls themselves a brand, but they all aren't brands. That's a different conversation. But,

Meghan Houle (20:17.777)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (20:22.801)

Mm -hmm.

Meghan Houle (20:41.969)

Right? Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (20:44.846)

But I've been very lucky to have chosen or been chosen by companies that are very much aligned with who I am and what I believe in. So, and when that alignment was gone, I left. And so, pivots were very much based on, did I feel like I was aligned with where the company was? So Gap, I was there for nine years. I bled blue, if you remember that conversation. As you know, I mean, maybe this is before your time as a recruiter, but,

Meghan Houle (21:08.017)

Wow. yeah. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (21:12.846)

You couldn't get people to leave that company. It was such a wonderful, wonderful organization and one that invested in employees, one that was incredibly culturally relevant, progressive, and really walked the talk about how they believed in investing in their employees and super successful at the time. I was there when we were the, as I said, the darlings of Wall Street. I was also there when we lost our minds and went after the tween market.

Meghan Houle (21:15.633)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (21:40.238)

which didn't want anything to do with us, alienated our core customer. We were down 40 % every single day. And so I saw all these different things and I was lucky enough to be pulled out of position with three other executives to run essentially a startup within the company to reinvent GAP. And so we had a team of 25 people and we worked with some incredible outside companies like IDEO and SY Partners and...

Meghan Houle (21:58.385)

Hmm. wow.

Matt Marcotte (22:05.838)

really went after this idea of who are we as a brand and more importantly, who is our core customer psychographically, not demographically. And so, you know, for me and, you know, in retail, there's always been this debate about whether people need MBAs, don't need MBAs, blah, blah, blah. And so for me, I've never been an MBA person, but that experience was like getting an MBA. I mean, to run a funded startup within a company with resources, but you're also, it wasn't like a fun thing as far as it was.

Meghan Houle (22:31.633)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (22:34.478)

do or die. We were hemorrhaging money at that time and so learned a ton. It was incredible. When we finished that pilot, I'll say, unfortunately, the direction of the company was not in a place that I thought was working for me anymore. That's when Apple was recruiting me. I thought, okay, once again, staying with consumer, but I hadn't done technology yet.

Meghan Houle (22:37.329)

Wow.

Meghan Houle (22:54.353)

Mm -hmm.

Matt Marcotte (23:03.406)

I wanted to get back to the East Coast. I was living in San Francisco and I'm from the East Coast. And so I was like, sure, super fun, could be really cool. And that's right after they had introduced the iPod to PC customers. And if anyone understands what that means, it just means the business went from like zero to 6 million. And it was an incredible ride. I mean, we were opening 50 stores a year. I went from leading 10 ,000 employees to 25 ,000 employees in a year and a half.

Meghan Houle (23:11.601)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (23:17.169)

Ha ha!

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (23:30.414)

When I got there, my PNL was like $2 billion and I left was like $6 billion. It was crazy. This all in the course of five years. I went over to Europe and actually helped to open up that market for Apple. And so I learned about what it means to actually do business internationally and labor laws and all the things that you don't in real estate and what that looks like. So it was one of those things where I was so lucky to have these opportunities to really be able to try something new and do something. But then when

Meghan Houle (23:30.481)

Wow.

Matt Marcotte (23:59.662)

the Apple thing when I left Apple was because I had to move to California and I didn't want to move there again because I'd lived there once before. And then I went from, like I said, this huge P &L and this, I mean, the most probably the most relevant company in the world. And then I went to Tory Burch where literally my entire P &L was less than some of my stores did when I was at Apple. But the reason I pivoted from Apple to Tory in that was because it

Meghan Houle (24:05.937)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (24:13.713)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (24:20.913)

Yeah. yeah.

Matt Marcotte (24:28.75)

You were just talking about the big companies where you're more specialized in pigeonhole. When you're in these huge organizations, you have to be more linear. Like, so I was in charge of the field and I was a key stakeholder to many people, but I didn't own marketing. I didn't own finance. I was the, you know, the, the recipient of a lot of that, but all in a partner. But when I went to tour, even though it was a much smaller P and L or much smaller business at the time,

Meghan Houle (24:32.881)

Mm -hmm.

Meghan Houle (24:38.321)

Mm -hmm.

Meghan Houle (24:49.777)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (24:55.342)

I had essentially a president's role. So I actually had all the functions for retail. And so I was able to, it wasn't necessarily about ownership. It was about the idea to be able to bring all those teams together to create alignment and one really high performing team. And that was super fun. So to me, that trade off quote unquote of like, yeah, it's a smaller business from the optics of the financials, but it was a much bigger opportunity and a challenge because I now had a bigger, wider job that was going to actually.

make me more valuable in my career because I now understand once again going back to the May company example, many pieces of the pie, not just one.

Meghan Houle (25:28.753)

Right. Yeah. Wow. Well, and tell me because I mean, it really seems like you've had tremendous success, not only being recognized and attracted from a recruiting point of view, but nailing the interview process. Like, what is your secret? I mean, anyone that meets you and sees you in person, like that's a no brainer. Like I would, you know, you want to work with Matt, like, you know, in my retail days, I'd be begging you to hire me for your team. Like you are just so inspirational.

Matt Marcotte (25:55.982)

Yeah. Thanks.

Meghan Houle (25:58.193)

You get it. There's such a human element to you. But also there's this busy business savvy ness where you're right. You're not screaming at people and shaming people with mistakes. And it's very inclusive, supportive environment, but also do your job. But what has been your secret to success in nailing all these amazing interviews? How did you prepare for those big interviews? What are some of your interview tips and tricks?

for someone listening in that's struggling right now. So tough right now, Matt. It's so tough right now. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (26:32.526)

Yeah, I know. I know. Here's what I would say. I think, you know, there was that phrase, you always want to be in the club that doesn't want you or whatever the version of that is. And I think for me, I never wanted to be in the club that didn't want me. Like I was never trying to get a job to get a job. In fact, when I said I wasn't a hired gun, I think I was because there are many interviews that I have gone on that have not worked out. I mean, you know, luckily I've ended up where I ended up. But what people don't see behind the scenes of all of us is,

how many companies we talk to. I mean, there are many, many, many, many, many companies that I interviewed with that were like, no thanks, right? And at the time it's disappointing and it's frustrating. And I know for a lot of people who've been trying to get jobs, it just can't, I don't wanna simplify to say, yeah, it's tough, but however, I think when you look in the rear view mirror, it becomes a gift that you didn't end up in a place that.

Meghan Houle (27:04.177)

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (27:29.327)

wasn't aligned with who you were and vice versa. So I think for me, when I would get these jobs is because it was so easy for me to speak with these companies because we spoke the same language. We valued the same things. And I think one of the things that I think I have brought, especially as I've gotten more and more advanced in my career, let's just say older, is what I said earlier about I've had a lot of,

experiences. I've taken a lot of opportunities. I've been blessed by people giving me a chance to take on a, you know, that that reinvention project had told you about, God, you know, much mileage out of that, right? Because it was an incredible experience, but you could talk about it in such a way that people really understood the skills you pick up and the way you think about the world. So I would say part of it for me was always being true to who I am, speaking from the heart. When you talk about

being inspirational. I think people are inspirational when you feel authentic, they're authentic and they believe in what they're saying. And so for me, I have always talked from a belief perspective. I also think it's important storytelling is really an underutilized skill, but probably one of the most important skills that anyone in life can have. If you know how to articulate your experience,

Meghan Houle (28:35.249)

Yeah. Yes.

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (28:46.577)

I wonder.

Meghan Houle (28:51.473)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (28:57.454)

in a way that actually speaks in languages that the people you're talking to understand and is compelling, but you're also doing the work for them of saying, here's what I've done, here are the skills that I've actually picked up, here are the results I actually delivered, here's what I know, here's what I've learned, here's what I can offer. And you do all the work for the person on the other end of that phone or chair or whatever, it puts you that much further ahead because...

They don't have to try and be like, no, does this person have what I want or not what I want? It becomes much clearer. But I think people don't always spend time thinking about how to tell their story in a way that is compelling. I don't know, do you find that? Is that just me?

Meghan Houle (29:27.921)

Yeah, yeah.

Meghan Houle (29:38.989)

for the two decades very much like you that we've been hiring and recruiting 13 years on the agency side. It is something where, and I will say when I work with someone as a recruiter, so let's like debunk the myths of a recruiter, right? Like I can work with individuals when I have jobs for them, right? So I'm typically working with somebody when we have a project and we're getting through the next steps and we're doing a little prep before the interview and.

Matt Marcotte (29:47.818)

I'm gonna go.

Meghan Houle (30:07.441)

Exactly that. You know, I'm laying out like you need to tell a story of what you did in this scenario What was the action? What was the result and? There is so much struggle bus with individuals, you know being like this job is a no -brainer like I make sense is a no -brainer I'm like what it's a no -brainer maybe to you on paper But if you can't like relay that message on the other side to the interviewer

That's not your no brainer to decide. That's someone sitting on the other side saying, this person can either do the job or they can't do the job. And it's your job to show up and tell them why. And I think also, like from a confidence and like culture fit personality, those soft skills, you know, I feel like obviously people get very nervous in this day and age, especially in front of like, you know, big level CEOs and some the nerves go away at a certain level. But you know, it's sitting down and if you don't prepare and you get caught up in your head,

Matt Marcotte (30:48.526)

Yes.

Meghan Houle (31:00.529)

And then you're like, shoot, it's all jumbled. And then you're kind of not bringing your authentic self. Like you said, you almost have to, I say, treat it like it's a job you don't even need and stop putting so much force behind it. And just flow with it. And it's like, you're going to be OK if you get hired for this job or not. But it's the energy, right? It's the energy behind it. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (31:12.494)

Absolutely.

Matt Marcotte (31:18.702)

You know what's interesting? So I think one of the things my father, when I was going into high school, so back in the day, it was really like a cool thing to go to a private high school and I take entrance exams. And so he made me take like six or eight entrance exams. And most of them were with schools I would never have wanted to go to. He probably wouldn't have sent me to.

But when I finally got to the entrance exam for the school I wanted to go to, to your point, just to reinforce what you said, I was so overtaking them that I was relaxed and ended up getting a scholarship because I did so well on that. But the idea being what you said is that like getting out of your head. And so when I talk about the fact there were so many companies that didn't hire me,

Meghan Houle (31:51.921)

Yes.

Matt Marcotte (32:07.918)

I entered with a lot of companies, not just because I wasn't doing it all the time, but like, you know, I would, so you get, as you said, you get used to it after a while and that thing. The other thing that I would probably suggest to people that I've always tried to do is because like you said about getting nervous and then you're in your head and you've got 55 ,000 things. I always think what are the three to five things I want them to walk away knowing about me? And if I can just boil it down to, if I can just make sure that these three points,

or three experiences that I think encapsulate who I am as a leader, as a business person, and what I can offer. If I can just get those and everything else is okay. And I think when you can simplify it and not try and boil the ocean, it makes it easier to stay focused.

Meghan Houle (32:50.673)

Yeah.

Yeah, no, it's such great advice. And I know since Tori, is that when you, was that your last stop before pivoting to sales? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (32:59.31)

No, no, no, no. So, well, so I was at Tori for six years. That was such an incredible ride. Once again, I have to say I have been so lucky and I've worked with so many incredible people. And then there's the iconic part of like the people that run the business, the founder of the business, but there's also just the people you work with. Right. And so if you're lucky enough to work with teams that like, especially in Britain, just like get it and they work hard and you have fun and I've been super lucky. But.

Meghan Houle (33:10.161)

So iconic, you know? Yeah, yeah.

Meghan Houle (33:19.825)

Mm -hmm.

Meghan Houle (33:27.185)

Yeah, so fun.

Matt Marcotte (33:29.038)

That being said, my parents had some health issues, so I left Tori. I was in New York, I had to move back to Boston. So I took about a year, year and a half off, and I was doing some consulting stuff because I wanted to keep my relevancy. And I was talking to companies, but I wasn't able to go back to work. And then, very quickly, I did a very short stint in healthcare, which I won't get into other than to say, it was another setting of how do I actually do some good in the world?

And I was actually hired by this man who was like one of Forbes 30 under 30. He was trying to reinvent the home healthcare industry by bringing more of a consumer focus, employee centricity technology. And he was smart and wanting to have people from other industries that have done this kind of stuff. I thought, well, if I can take my experience and actually do some good in the world, what this matters versus just selling another pair of shoes, wouldn't that be actually meaningful? What I didn't realize was actually I knew nothing about healthcare and the regulatory environment that that is. And,

Some of the stuff happened that, anyway, that didn't last all that long. And so I went back to retail and that's where I ended up at Bergdorf, which was amazing. Another one because at the time I went, it was 111 years old. One of the most iconic luxury retailers really, even though it's a department store, even though you would call it that, in the world, super stale and needed a reinvention.

Meghan Houle (34:36.113)

yeah, yeah.

Matt Marcotte (34:53.198)

And so the president and myself were hired within like six months of each other to help kind of reinvent it. And I have to say, once again, I went into that place and the people that worked there had been there for, you know, anywhere from two years to 34 years. What an amazing, amazing, amazing group of individuals. I was so lucky. And we all worked, but the thing is we all worked together to understand who the brand was, why it existed and what we needed to do to reinvent.

Meghan Houle (35:14.609)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (35:19.47)

quote unquote, or really just breathe new life into an existing and wonderful place. And so I was there for a couple of years. And then I wanted to, you know, I was in, you know, this as being in retail, I think, especially in retail, there's that champagne, taste, beer, budget conversation, which everyone talks about technology and everyone talks about we have to go, but that no one wants to invest in it. And so I thought, okay, if the world is going more technology focused,

Meghan Houle (35:42.257)

Mm -hmm.

Meghan Houle (35:47.377)

Mm -hmm.

Matt Marcotte (35:48.75)

I need to learn about this and I need to go where the puck is now going to be. Salesforce had come calling and I was like, you know what, what can I do to learn about the world of software and CRM and technology and all the different systems that we use, right? Marketing and data and all that stuff. And it got me back to Boston, which I wanted to get close to my parents. And so, yeah, it was, so when again, it was a pivot to say like, let me try something.

Meghan Houle (35:51.569)

Mmm.

Matt Marcotte (36:17.326)

new where I can hopefully add value, but also keep learning. And that's how I ended up at Salesforce running their industry advisor practice, which was a good fit because I don't sell anything. My team didn't sell anything. I'm not a salesperson. That's a really hard job. And that's not my skill set. But being able to wax poetic about the industries and all the be an advisor and a partner to these amazing companies was super fun. So I did that for three and a half years.

Meghan Houle (36:21.489)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (36:33.617)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (36:46.958)

And then decided that it was time. I mean, I was 55 years old, still am. And I was like, I have such a passion around leadership, strategy, employee and customer experience, and just how to create these incredible brands that you want to see in the world. And I would say what I saw was that there's such a leadership void.

and it's only getting bigger as the world gets more complex, right? And I thought to myself, this is something I'm passionate about. If I look back at how my career has been successful through really unleashing human potential of the people that work with me, they're all amazing and they're helping to develop them. So how do I, I still have the energy to, at my age, to start something, to a huge new pivot and chapter. So let me do it. There's no reason not to. I mean, we have a dog, but he's not going, she's not going to college. So I don't have to worry about that.

Meghan Houle (37:33.105)

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (37:46.254)

And I was like, now's the time, right? And so, yeah, so February of this year, I resigned and left. And really, I'm starting this new pivot, huge pivot, but new journey into starting my own practice.

Meghan Houle (37:46.289)

now's the time. Yeah.

Meghan Houle (38:02.865)

Yeah. So tell us a bit, you know, and maybe this is coming to life like in your practice, but talk to us about leadership now versus 10, 20 years ago, you know, as you were pivoting out and through these companies and like what you're seeing today, because I'm sure you're still very connected to a lot of the retail individuals. Like, how is it different? And like, what are we, where are we struggling right now that we maybe weren't dealing with back in the day? Beyond the obvious, you know?

Matt Marcotte (38:31.406)

Yeah, I mean, I think like I was saying, I think like when I was coming up in the world, it was different because I think there was more of a command control environment from the top down. It was more hierarchical, patriarchal, all those different things. And our generation was probably the last generation that was just happy to have a job. And I think leadership was probably more management, to be perfectly honest. And if you were lucky, you found some great leaders, but I think people were much more kind of like soldiers.

Meghan Houle (38:48.333)

Right. Yeah.

Meghan Houle (38:54.033)

True, yeah.

Matt Marcotte (39:00.942)

And I think one of the great things that's happened is that there have employees have found their voices and have said like, I need more as they should and should always have done. Right. And so I think the challenge probably now the complexities, so many of them, I mean, I think we can go from the hybrid and remote work world that we live in, which is people aren't together often. Right.

Meghan Houle (39:23.537)

Right, which is challenging in itself still, yeah, yeah.

Matt Marcotte (39:27.342)

technology in general. I mean, we didn't have social media when I was growing up, and just all the pressures that that puts on how people show up. But I also think that companies and brands have in some ways lost sight of what leadership actually looks like and the importance of leadership. And I think, you know, it's, it's, there are programs, a lot of companies have programs.

But I see a lot of people who get still, and this hasn't changed, this is probably still the same as it was or similar to what it was when I was growing up. People get promoted into positions of leadership based on skills that are much more about individual contribution. And that to me is you've got people who are ill -prepared to lead teams because they're used to managing process and there aren't a lot of...

I'd say company -wide investments in preparing people for the turn to going into leading others before they get there. So what you end up with is a lot of people who are super whatever they were the role before. And I remember back in the day when I was at Gap, we used to love, at least my team, I loved to promote internally. And so we had at the time when I was a regional,

Meghan Houle (40:37.229)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (40:44.561)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (40:48.366)

a lot of our DMs, district managers, were previous general managers, which is awesome. And except as I learned, I realized was, wow, I probably didn't do as good a job teaching them the skills of what it means to be a district manager because district management is more about influence versus hands -on doing because you're not in the store. So what you found is these general managers were being super GMs.

Meghan Houle (40:53.457)

Which is great, now it's something, yeah.

Mmm.

Meghan Houle (41:06.801)

Yeah, like, not... Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (41:14.222)

They were showing up at every store doing what made them famous because at times of stress, you always revert to what made you famous. And so they weren't ready for the other job. And so I think today, I think with a pace of the things moving and all the different complexities of, you know, productivity and technology and having to learn all these different things, the fundamentals of development and leadership and authentic connection and understanding and curiosity are harder, I think, to

Meghan Houle (41:17.521)

Right.

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (41:44.398)

for people to get their heads wrapped around and maybe some of their skills built, because the pace of the world is just, as we know, is crazy. So in some ways, I would say that the challenges of leadership are no different than they were 20 years ago, right? Like how you get people to perform and how you help them to be the best version of themselves it can be, fundamentally, those are still the same things. The environment that we live in now, I think is more complex and more challenging.

Meghan Houle (41:53.425)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (42:00.689)

Mmm.

Meghan Houle (42:10.961)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (42:14.03)

than it seemed to me back when I was coming up in the world.

Meghan Houle (42:18.609)

Yeah. And also flipping to that, when we're talking about physical retail and now what? Almost five years out of this global pandemic where everything was shut down, shuttered, and it took a few years for people to feel comfortable getting back into stores. And now we have to give people reasons to be in stores and continue on that retail is not dead. Obviously, the brand's doing really great. Obviously, brands still falling short. But where do you think companies and what have you

seen, you know, in terms of companies really falling short with like the customer experience piece, delivering exceptional experiences, like, what are you seeing out there? And maybe how can how can we be better? Or where? Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (42:59.054)

Yeah. Yeah, here's the thing. I think it back in the day when there was just physical stores, there was no e -commerce. There wasn't like, it was... I think it was... my God, I love it. But I think it was more... That was the one place customers went, right? So people focused their energy on making that experience really, well, as good as it could be. Meaning like some brands were better than others, right? That's always been the case.

Meghan Houle (43:06.769)

so easy right here. Like, let's go to the mall. Yes. Yeah.

Meghan Houle (43:17.169)

She did.

Meghan Houle (43:24.593)

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (43:28.046)

I think with the advent of e -commerce and social and all these different, I won't call them distractions because they're a huge part of the business, but there are other channels where they take energy and focus away. They become in some cases the bright shiny object. Like when e -commerce became a thing, it was like, that's the fun thing to do or that's the place where all the growth is. So let's put all the money there. And the experience for consumer on e -commerce is different than the experience for consumer in stores. And so,

Now you actually had this kind of like, you know, where do I spend the money? Where do I spend the effort? Where do I invest? And I think people kind of lost sight of what customer experience needed to look like, because it is different in both places. You can't have the same, right? I think what I see now is from a brand perspective. And I think there's a cycle, like a circular kind of reference that happens, which is,

all the huge companies or the H &M's, the Sarras, LVMH's of the world, the big players, they get so big, so big, so big, then all of a sudden you start to see out of the ashes of like specialty, which has been decimated because it's not fast fashion and it's not luxury, it's that middle ground that's been hurt the most. You start to see these small brands pop up again and you start to see the mom and pop situation. You start to see people who are really building things that are authentic.

Meghan Houle (44:34.737)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (44:45.041)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (44:48.689)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (44:54.51)

and they know how to build store experience because it's manageable and the founders there and they're trying to create something special. And so all of a sudden, you have these little pockets again, pop up where like, wow, it's super fun to shop in a store again, because this is really cool boutique that I go to that like is called X, Y, and Z. I think there's also the Instagram world of shopping, right? How many Instagram brands have you bought from? Where they're very specific about the product that they actually sell. So they're trying to be everything to everybody. And so I think people are,

Meghan Houle (44:58.225)

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Meghan Houle (45:20.081)

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (45:24.014)

are cool with these ideas of these small unknown, I found this or this cool little store. And I think that that works in places like New York City and LA. I think the challenge becomes, and this is by the way, this is if you look back in history, right? This is the same thing again. How do you scale that? Like how do you scale a moment and something cool and hip and special and kind of grassroots into something that's mid to big company? And that's always the challenge.

Meghan Houle (45:29.681)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (45:48.369)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (45:53.71)

So I think, but I think those are the bright areas for me. I think the challenge is if I were to advise retailers on the store experience, first of all, if you're going to be in stores, be in stores. The amount of stores I go into where the assortment is non -existent. And if you're, so why would I go into a store if the thing I could see online isn't even available or it is, but not in the size that I need?

Meghan Houle (45:53.841)

I know.

Meghan Houle (46:13.969)

crappy, right? Yeah.

Meghan Houle (46:23.953)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (46:24.238)

And so I think if you're going to try to build a store experience, you've got to figure out how to allocate resources, allocate merchandise, all the things that have always been a challenge, but really decide what the purpose of the store is. And if the purpose of the store is experience versus product, which is fine, then invest in the experience. You can't not do either. And so you've got stores with not product, not enough product and minimal staffing.

Meghan Houle (46:42.305)

Mmm. Mmm. That's good.

Meghan Houle (46:49.393)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (46:54.222)

and no investment in giving these people a helping hand to make something great. And so you've got a lot of this, like kind of, you're not this and you're not that. So I think there's still a huge amount of opportunity to reset. Why do we exist each channel? How does that actually help us overall to build a brand, to build customer stickiness, to build these exceptional experiences, whatever that might be.

Meghan Houle (46:54.225)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (47:00.337)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (47:23.502)

And then what role does each play? And then how do I make sure we execute on that exceptionally? And I think there's, I think people need to slow down to go fast. I think there's a little bit, you know, and it's easy for me to sit here and say this because I'm on a podcast with you. I know it, I trust me, 34 years, I know the complexity of this, but the, but the thing doesn't mean the question's not valid. That doesn't mean the advice isn't true and right. How you get there is hard.

Meghan Houle (47:35.633)

Yeah. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know. Yes. Yeah.

Right.

Matt Marcotte (47:50.382)

And I absolutely remember and appreciate that. But yeah, I mean, retail, like you, retail has such a very special place in my heart because it's where I grew up and it's an incredible industry. And so how do we help people to be successful in a really challenging environment?

Meghan Houle (47:55.537)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (48:06.225)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (48:10.257)

I know. And I agree with you with the product piece of it. We'll go on said, but I think there's a lot of brands that have come over from overseas, Italy, UK, that are opening in New York, Soho, whatnot. But the product is so scarce. And I don't know whether they got this from Hermes or whatever, but it's like, scarcity in product is going to create interest. I'm like, no, people want instant gratification. When it's fashion.

I was in touch with a brand manager that just opened a new store and so I was like literally met texting her pictures of like what I'm like, I want to give you my money. And she's like, I can't take your money because we don't have the product. And I was like, what do you mean? Like, okay, I'll just buy online. You know, it's so crazy. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (48:44.685)

Right. Right. I feel like it's interesting. I feel like your point like and you also have to know like what what game you're playing, meaning scarcity is interesting. Like Hermes, to use your example, when you sell one bag that's $20 ,000, that's your day in a mall. That's your day. And that, by the way, that customer never walks into the mall. You're doing it over the phone. When you're selling, you know,

Meghan Houle (49:03.121)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (49:09.201)

yeah.

Right.

Matt Marcotte (49:14.35)

hundred dollar shirts, you got to sell a lot of shirts to make $20 ,000, right? And so aligning what your offering is and what your business model is with how you can execute and achieve that, to your point is really important. Like you should never have a customer trying to give you their money and not able to. But I think people sometimes kind of get a little lost about what they're trying to solve for.

Meghan Houle (49:36.081)

Yeah.

Yeah, you got to work out the kinks. But no, and I feel like you see brands that come in and they just scale too quick in their opening stores all over the place. And like the tension really starts to get watered down. But that's like a whole other podcast. But you know, I think that in giving all this incredible advice and knowing how much we love retail industry, like, where do you feel like we need to improve to like,

Matt Marcotte (49:52.206)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (50:04.081)

get people excited to work in retail. I think there's also this competitive retail market we're living in, but there's definitely positions in retail that are so challenging to fill. Some of those sales entry, and I'm not sure if anyone's grooming people, Matt, to get excited to work in retail. I feel like we've gotten a bad rap over the years of retail stuff, leaders are mean. Don't work for that person. They're BS crazy. So I think...

Matt Marcotte (50:26.926)

YES!

Yeah. Yeah.

Meghan Houle (50:33.873)

What is what are some of your advice to like maybe like give words of wisdom to someone to say like retail is great. Like it's a great place. Like look at look at all that you've done. But like we need to be better. And I think brands need to be better at attracting talent. And I think there's a lot of companies struggling because they just don't have great names, reputations anymore. You know? Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (50:53.134)

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a great, if I had the answer to that, I'd be, you know, a very rich man. But I do think here's what I'd say. I think, you know, retail is a very human capital heavy industry. Our secret sauce is the people that work in the industry. And I think until the industry really gets their heads wrapped around what that means,

Meghan Houle (50:58.801)

Yeah. We would have our house in Napa Valley, but it's coming, you know.

Matt Marcotte (51:23.726)

product is to me product is the souvenir of experience because product is everywhere and the thing that actually gets great stickiness is the experience you have and who creates the experience the people that work for the company and so it's interesting I was reading this article a while ago that it's a Forbes statistic that 70 % of employees would consider leaving their current job for another organization that would invest in their development and training.

And there's already a 60 % or otherwise, you probably see a better stats than I do, like turnover rate in retail. And some of that's always gonna be the case. There's the hourly and all that stuff, so they're never meant to say, but there is a portion of people that want it to be a career and it's an incredible career. I mean, 34 years or 30 something years, right, of being in it. But I think, I hope this isn't offensive to anybody, but there used to be an advertisement or marketing campaign out in California for cheese.

Meghan Houle (52:03.601)

Right.

Matt Marcotte (52:22.734)

And it was like happy cows make happy cheese. And that has been a mantra of mine my whole career since I heard it, which is if you want the external customer to come to you, then you need to start with the internal customer. And I think too many brands, retailers, companies leapfrog over the internal customer to actually focus on the ex. What they say is to focus on the external customer. And my big belief is you can't give what you've never gotten.

And if you're actually not getting invested in or developed or given opportunities or your life doesn't feel great or you don't feel that connection to the brand because they've invested in you, you're not giving that experience to a customer. You're just not. And why would you? But I think this idea of thinking about how you invest in your employees. And by the way, I grew up in, as you know, being in retail, we don't have any money. There's no budgets.

Meghan Houle (53:05.841)

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (53:22.574)

So I'm not talking from a champagne perspective. I'm talking like we've all been scrappy. We've all figured out how to like rub two nickels together, make a dime. It's not about the budget. It's about the intention. And I think if you believe that employees are your most valuable asset, if you truly believe it, you will figure out ways to make them feel that. And by the way, I also have my whole life, a very high standard.

Meghan Houle (53:22.673)

All right.

Meghan Houle (53:34.545)

Mm -hmm.

Meghan Houle (53:41.425)

Hmm.

Meghan Houle (53:47.377)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (53:52.078)

I did not suffer fools, but I was super clear about what the expectations were. I allowed people to rise to those. And if it wasn't for them, then we made sure they were able to be retired, so to speak, gracefully and with dignity. But what you want is you want to build the best team around you. So clarity is super important, but investments, super important. And I just think, I used to be so afraid that like I'd be on a conference call with say like 10 ,000 employees.

Meghan Houle (54:04.081)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Meghan Houle (54:13.233)

Mm -hmm.

Matt Marcotte (54:21.518)

and I'd be talking about something and they would be rolling their eyes going, does he even know what's going on? And so I think to be connected to your employees, to know what they need, to know what reality looks like and be an advocate for your constituency and make sure that they get what they need is the most important job a leader in any industry can have. And so I'll get off my soapbox, but you can tell I'm very passionate about this topic.

Meghan Houle (54:41.841)

Yeah, yeah. That's so great. No, well, thank you. And I feel like, you know, such a great way to wrap things up for anyone listening, leading teams. And I also feel like there's so many resources now that don't have to be super expensive. Like with LBMA, they were flying people to France and then that like shut down. I'm like, we don't need that type of induction. Like,

Matt Marcotte (54:57.934)

No!

Meghan Houle (55:03.793)

Give us a personal development day or a volunteer day or something where you're giving back to something we care about and we feel seen and valued and blah, blah, blah. So I know we could go down, that's another two hours, but maybe in what you're building, tell us a little bit about what we can look forward to and how we can stay in touch with you and who's going to be your ideal client as you put this incredible new business together. Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (55:10.126)

Yes!

Matt Marcotte (55:25.87)

Yeah. Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah, so I think, you know, kind of what my approach it, I'm too collaborative, the name of my company, exciting. But, but, but right now, that's the first step to name it, right? I think my approach is really helping leaders to drive results. And it's really grounded in what I was saying before unleashing human potential, and that can be individuals.

Meghan Houle (55:34.225)

Yay! Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (55:50.51)

that can be teams and cultures, right? To create like this idea of commitment, not compliance. And it starts with having a really clear and compelling brand vision and strategy. And so I work with companies, and this is across industry. So I'm working with some companies that aren't in retail, the furthest thing away from retail, which is interesting, but it just goes to show leadership's leadership, right? To help them lead better through really creating meaningful, relevant connections and relationships with.

Meghan Houle (56:07.505)

awesome.

Matt Marcotte (56:18.286)

their employees first, as we were talking about, and then their customers. So there's strategy work, there's customer and employee experience work, there's leadership coaching, there's team dynamic coaching, there's building high performing teams. So I work in a few different, you and I have talked about this before, I'm kind of creating this ecosystem of there's the one -to -one, the one -to -many, the strategy piece, like I said, there's a leadership coaching, there's a bunch of different things that we have. And I think one of the things that actually has been beneficial,

Meghan Houle (56:33.713)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (56:48.142)

in my work with clients or as I'm talking to potential clients is having someone who's actually been in the trenches, having someone that's actually done the work, having someone that's actually run companies, build companies, turn companies around. It's a different relationship because we speak a language and there's an understanding of the reality. Sometimes I think consultants and they're all wonderful, but consultants come in with an academic, here's a PowerPoint presentation with the perfect solution.

Meghan Houle (57:16.017)

Yes.

Matt Marcotte (57:17.294)

on paper, but if you haven't done it, you don't understand the barriers and the challenges and the obstacles that you have to account for so that your vision doesn't get watered down so much by the time it becomes execution because of all those things that it wasn't worth the money. And so I think being able to hopefully leverage 34 years of working with some amazing brands, having pivots that were great. And as you were saying earlier, some that didn't go so well, right?

Meghan Houle (57:18.641)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (57:32.017)

Right.

Matt Marcotte (57:44.174)

that you learn a lot and I want to be able to bring that experience to bear to be helpful and to really kind of pay it forward to this next generation of leaders.

Meghan Houle (57:54.321)

Awesome. When will it be rolled out? Like when can we expect to have clients start signing up? Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (57:59.95)

Yeah, I'm doing it. Yeah. Well, I'm lucky enough to, and you'll appreciate this because I think you are the master networker. You know, I've, I'm working with a few different clients now through the kindness of others, of people I have relationships with who have brought me in or introduced me. So the best way to get in touch with me is through LinkedIn, Matt Marcott. It's on LinkedIn, pretty straightforward. And yeah, that's, that's kind of,

Meghan Houle (58:06.193)

Yeah. Aw, thank you.

Meghan Houle (58:13.041)

Yeah.

Meghan Houle (58:23.121)

huh.

Matt Marcotte (58:28.238)

Right now I'm in that process of, like I said, like starting to bring on new clients, starting to kind of think through where I can be useful. And a lot of that happens through the conversation and the individual of saying like, yeah, this is what you need, this is what I offer, it's a match, or this is what you need, this is what I offer, it's not a match. And that's totally fine. So yeah, so the best way to get in touch with me is through LinkedIn.

Meghan Houle (58:31.792)

Awesome.

Meghan Houle (58:41.937)

Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Okay. Awesome. And like on LinkedIn, I guess from there to identify like whether a client is right, do you have like intake forms? Do you like set up calls or kind of get to know them then and what they're doing? Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (58:55.694)

Yeah, it's all about exactly. It's all about the meeting and really understanding what it is they're trying to solve for and what their challenges are and really that spending time to really unpack that to figure out first of all, there's if I could be useful and helpful and yeah, so that's that's how it starts is as you know, it's all about the conversation, right?

Meghan Houle (59:00.273)

Cool. Yeah.

Meghan Houle (59:05.265)

Mmm.

Meghan Houle (59:15.889)

Yeah. Cool. yeah, I feel like there's many, many things that I'm going to be linking you up with, many individuals. So stay tuned with my master number. So many people that can use your help and guidance and expertise. No, yeah.

Matt Marcotte (59:25.87)

Yeah, yeah.

The thing too, and I didn't mention, is I've been doing a lot of keynote speeches at conferences and I think, and with brands, I think can be really helpful also when you're trying to people rallied around a vision or understanding kind of from a meta perspective how to think about things. So yeah, that to me is just super fun, right? To be able to share that. Yeah, anyway, so that would be the last thing I would just add.

Meghan Houle (59:39.441)

Yes.

Meghan Houle (59:53.041)

Awesome. Well, I feel like there are so many ways that we can pull you into events. I mean, events are back and your voice has so much value. So please everyone find Matt, reach out if you feel like he can help you with your business. He's going to tell you otherwise if you're the ideal client for him. But you know, he is someone who I know we've been in each other's sphere for a very long time.

And finally, over the past year, I've just built more of a meaningful connection. So thank you so much for all the love and support you've given me in a short period of time. I just love your energy. I feel like we're cut from the same cloth. I am a big advocate of all that you're doing. And I can't wait to see all that is to come. And I'm sure lots of fun collaborations that we can work on too. So stay tuned. But thank you so much for being here with me. Yes. Awesome. Of course. Thank you.

Matt Marcotte (01:00:20.91)

Yeah.

Matt Marcotte (01:00:33.582)

You too.

Matt Marcotte (01:00:42.158)

Yeah. Thanks for having me, Megan. It was awesome. I really appreciate it.