Who Is Matt Jones?

Way back when…..

Matt was born in Melbourne, Australia and spent most of his early childhood there. Seeking the warmer temperatures, his family moved to Banora Point, Northern New South Wales where he completed his education.
During his 15 year career working in performance theatre as a professional stage and lighting technician, Matt was allowed to work in the various venues across the Eastern seaboard of Australia, which gave him an excellent understanding of property prices and market trends. He completed his stint in theatre as Lighting Manager at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane. This then became his base for investing in property.

The Snap Point….

Matt recalls opening his pay packet from the Arts Centre one Thursday afternoon. After doing some quick calculations the realization that 40hrs of work equated to only 3 hrs annual leave, just didn’t seem to fit any more.

“Loving my J.O.B. was not equating to the value I put on my own time and worth” he said. Things had to change

The Book….

Valuing time for money had been slowly moving into Matt’s vision. Steve McKnight’s book ‘From 0-130 properties in 3.5years’ became his best friend, devouring every page and giving him licence to get out of the rat race and into real financial freedom. Matt made so much progress, he even became a contributor to Steve’s latest book.

The Transition…..

For things to change, Matt had to change so he quit his career of 15 years and became a postie. Matt laughs now when thinking of his transition from postie to property developer.

He realized that he had to have a real mind shift in his thinking to achieve the outcome he was looking for. Matt took on a joint venture partner. The partner had the money and no time and Matt had the so called time and no money so, the equation worked very well.

He cut his working hours by 50% as a postie and of course his income; he notes that this wasn’t a ‘fly by night’ decision to throw his security up in the air. It would require 110% commitment on his part every step of the way.

For two years he was out of bed at 5am to do his postie role to ensure he was completed by lunchtime to work on property investing.

In 2006 his first renovation came into being. “It nearly killed me” he said, “but wow was it worth it”. The postie role in the morning and on the tools in the afternoon was tough but so rewarding.”

This was crunch time for Matt as the pace was full on, so yet another decision had to be made. Seeing the financial potential he had at hand, he ditched his postie job and at the same time he notes, how scary it was leaving the security of his PAYG job.

Together with his joint venture partner they then moved onto some subdivision projects and by now he was well on his way to achieving an abundance of success and financial freedom.

Personal Growth

Matt says, “life was very full on in those days and my personal life was becoming non existent. I certainly didn’t have a balanced lifestyle”.

Over this period Matt soaked in as much as he could from self help books and personal development input. He knew that to have financial freedom alone was only part of the deal he was looking to achieve. Money without a balanced lifestyle didn’t suit him so there lay another challenge.

He describes his life at this point as being at the crossroads and not knowing which way to move forward. He felt as if he was against a brick wall that he couldn’t climb over. Matt says, “to be successful in anything, I needed to become personally developed. They go hand in hand and I can’t have one without the other.”

Whilst searching on his quest for balance in his life, Jill McIntyre crossed his path. She became and still is his personal mentor and coach. Matt says, “through Jill I was able to overcome my personal barriers and self sabotaging traits that had been manifesting within me for many years. I can honestly say at that point that I had never honestly addressed my inner fears and self doubts and by doing so, it gave me the freedom to be where I am today.”

Soul Mate

Up to this point in time, Matt had the lady of his dreams that was already a part of his life, but with all the turmoil around him, he failed to recognize her as his life partner. Matt said, “yes, I had a lot to overcome with my fears of commitment and with Jill’s support I got the guts to propose to my beautiful Marisa. We married in September 2009 and together with Marisa’s twelve year old son Morgan we lived in utter contentment in our rain forest retreat on the Sunshine Coast and the birth or our son Elijah in October 2010 cam shortly after. We now have a third child, our beautiful daughter Emily, born in July 2013 and have since moved to France to provide an amazing experience for our kids by exposing them to a different culture, language and way of life!”

The Way Forward…

“My goal is total financial freedom by the time I’m 45 and with a number of projects under my belt, 2 developments currently on the go and a number on the drawing board, my vision is well on the way to becoming a reality’, says Matt.

Matt and Marisa have a number of online businesses that they have been working on with Jill’s support, as other streams of income. Marisa’s passion is personal training and her business Maternity Fitness has certainly taken off. Marisa also runs her own graphic design and printing business We Create Business Cards

Final Thoughts….

It has been number of year since Matt commenced on this awesome journey and he notes, “I have no doubt the best is yet to come.” He has discovered that it is critical to have clearly defined goals in place and even more importantly to realize that its not about the goal, its about the growth along the way. Matt says, “If you don’t set the goals in the first place, you don’t have a platform to grow from….. Goals, Growth and Greatness!”