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Matt Vincent
Competing with Joy, Performing When it Counts, Transitioning to Entrepreneurship

Matt Vincent is a traveling strength athlete, two-time Highland Games World Champion, and founder of HVIII Brand Goods. Through his travels, Matt was lucky enough to spend time with exceptional people who were chasing strength, fulfillment, and personal growth in every imaginable way. In Matt’s first book, Training Lab, he spelled out the philosophy of “The HVIII,” and tried to capture the spirit of self-improvement through self-loathing. This idea would serve as the spark that led to HVIII Brand Goods and a ton of adventures afterwards. Matt chronicles his travels and conversations with people in the strength game and beyond on his podcast UMSO.

We talk to Matt about his evolution from World Champion Athlete to founding a highly successful company by way of a number of other ventures and a total knee replacement.

For more info on Matt, check out the HVIII website, his podcast, and follow him on Instagram and YouTube.

Quotes, Athletes, and Jorts mentioned in the episode:

06:39  The debate continues: If Juliet had better ankle mobility, would she have won all of the CF Games? Unrelated: does being a World Champion lead to World Champion entitlement?
08:30  Matt talks about the path that led him here (here being an entrepreneur and world champion athlete)
09:20  Matt’s brother Andy was also a successful pro-athlete, professional strongman, top 10 Highland games athlete
11:37  Unpopular opinion: Matt is actually smaller than Kelly and weighs less. However, True Fact.
12:26  Matt did a traveling show called Drifta Lifta for 5 years and that is how he and the Starretts originally met
14:07  Matt knew that being a Highland Games athlete would come to an end eventually
15:48  What are the Highland Games anyway?
16:46  How come no one steals the original stones that have been used for hundreds of years? Short answer: Too heavy.
17:58  Knife Boots and Kilts
20:45  “Big Matt” is hard to beat
21:50  “Competing with joy” and “intensity” can co-exist
23:22  Being a gamer: Juliet and Matt are major gamers
24:05  Drifta Lifta, bringing everyone along for the ride
24:45  “Always Party” is about performing when it counts
27:00  The transition from day job to entrepreneurship, learning from doing and failing
30:44  “Fast carbs and lean protein”
31:08  Matt wrote his first book in 2011, Training Lab
33:13  “That was a thing we did, not who we are.” – Juliet
34:40  Explaining HVIII
35:30  If you’re not willing to want your success more than someone else does for you, what are you doing?
37:00  “That’s what HVIII’s about. It’s about not tolerating the “good enough”. If you want it, go get it.”
38:40  Puka Shell Kel
40:00  Carrying those quads around isn’t helping Kelly in most of life, except jorts
41:47  Competition strategy, a learned skill; If nothing’s on fire, that means no one’s on the gas and your coasting
43:30  Matt and the Starretts initially bonded over their deep love to Mid-Century Modern architecture and design, and fake joints
46:30  Surround yourself with people that are more successful than you
48:45  What’s next?
54:07  Matt might be the youngest person to get a total knee replacement, and now Matt is training for the Bryce Canyon 30k 
62:15  Kelly and Lisa are in an ongoing hike competition for speed. No matter how hard he trains, Kelly can’t win.
64:15  “What does success look like to you?” – Bill DeWitt
66:25  Matt was one of the first to understand that Juliet and Kelly were a partnership and want to interview them together; then Juliet took him to the Larkspur stairs and gave him calf rhabdo.
68:15  Bonnie Schroeder, Dana Linn Bailey, Stefi Cohen, Geo Antionette Kwan
70:43  Matt’s Socials
71:32  “Low hanging fruit is still fruit” – unknown
72:24  Matt actually invented The Mobility Sleeve
73:00  “Success is a worse teacher than failure. If you can figure out to fail small and fail often so you’re constantly getting course correction.” – Matt Vincent

Full Transcript

Sponsors

This episode of The Ready State Podcast is sponsored by Paleovalley Essential C Complex. Created to be the most powerful, completely natural and organic source of vitamin C on the planet, Essential C Complex is one of the only supplements the Starretts take every single day. Because nothing’s funny about scurvy. For more info and 15% off, click HERE!

This episode of The Ready State Podcast is sponsored by Kabuki Strength. Kabuki designs, engineers, and manufactures novel strength equipment, provides research-based education, world-class coaching services, and gives back by serving others in the community. The Kadillac Bar has been so crucial to Kelly’s training that he keeps one at work and at his home gym. To check out all of their innovative products click HERE!