Real Estate Happens

Matt Patterson's Road to Redemption and Innovation (Mini Split Matt)

• Aweigh Real Estate-Kenny Letner • Episode 54

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What if your past doesn't define your future, but instead propels you to greater heights? Discover the astonishing journey of Matt Patterson, the visionary behind Mini Split Matt, as he candidly shares his transformation from an illegal marijuana market player to an HVAC industry pioneer. Journey with us through Matt's bold transition during the COVID-19 pandemic, where his story of redemption unfolds, revealing how a decade in federal prison shaped his unparalleled customer service ethos and business acumen. Listen to Matt's personal anecdotes, like his rapid response to a client's need for a Wi-Fi-enabled mini-split system, and learn what it takes to turn adversity into entrepreneurial triumph.

Matt's narrative is one of resilience, independence, and the power of positive thinking. From discovering a new path in HVAC through chance encounters at a print shop, to facing resistance and overcoming obstacles with sheer determination, Matt's story is a powerful testament to hard work and vision. As he discusses franchising his thriving business and his success in cities like Tampa, Florida, Matt emphasizes the transformative impact of maintaining a healthy mindset and finding inspiration in "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. Join us for an inspiring conversation that highlights how Matt gives back to his community and redefines success, both personally and professionally.

Kenny Letner:

Hey guys, welcome to Real Estate Happens. We're back this week. I haven't been on here for a while, but we're super excited. We have a great guest today. Today with us is Matt Peterson, with a company called Mini Split Matt, and Matt has one of the best stories that I think I've heard about entrepreneurship in this country that I've ever heard. So I think it's really great. Matt, welcome to the show.

Matt Patterson:

Thanks, ken, thanks for having me that I've ever heard.

Kenny Letner:

So I think it's really great, Matt. Welcome to the show. Thanks, Ken. Thanks for having me. Well, look, so tell us a little bit about yourself, what you kind of do and what your company is kind of about.

Matt Patterson:

I started this company right as COVID hit. I saw the opportunity and I felt like I had something great to bring to the community. And it wasn't easy. But once I figured out that it was more of not a job, not a career, but a calling, I was called to deliver a product that was reliable, affordable, dependable and just a wonderful product.

Kenny Letner:

You know it's amazing. So my nephew calls me one day and I'm like hey man, I'm getting ready to put some stuff in my garage and I'm going to put a mini split in, because I already had one in my house that somebody else did. You still have to come by and look and make sure that guy did that shit right. I'll be right there.

Kenny Letner:

Yeah, I know you will. I called him and I was like, no, you got to call this guy mini split Matt. I'm like mini split Matt, what the fuck is going on with this? Right, Mini split mat. Right, you know, he gets ahold of me, he comes out to the house, he puts in this entire system in like three or four hours and it's installed perfect. I mean it's just perfect, your guys that you sent out right, they were so professional, so respectful, they just really did a great job. But the one thing that really really I appreciated right is the job was all done and I'm like, hey, is this thing Wi-Fi capable? And you never missed a beat. You went absolutely stand by. And I'm like, okay, I don't even know what the hell that means. Absolutely stand by. It didn't tell me how to do it. I'm thinking, well, maybe it's going to come out. The man goes on to Amazon and finds an adapter that will make this thing Wi-Fi enabled. Not only does he buy it for me, but he has it Ubered to my house so that I would have it as quickly as possible. That was pretty. And you know, that thing works great. Man, it's not that hard, it works fantastic.

Kenny Letner:

Shout out to Uber. Shout out, yeah, Shout out to my nephew who works at Uber. So I'm not an Uber driver. He does some shit up in New York. I don't know what all he does, but you know. Then Matt comes in and does a presentation on many splits and residential real estate and commercial real estate. For all my agents and Matt, that was just such a great day. What I'd love for you to kind of do now just just take us through your story, man. Take us through your background. Let's go back. How far do we need to go back to get?

Matt Patterson:

you before back as far as you want to go, ken. Well, let's go back to. It's a long story, but here.

Kenny Letner:

Here a little teaser, little teaser. Let's go back prior, just prior to you being arrested, okay, okay, let's do that. Go ahead, matt, take it away, tell us all about it.

Matt Patterson:

It's a crazy story, but we were dealing with some marijuana when it was illegal and we saw an opportunity in the marijuana market at the early age of I was 22 years old and we just started shipping it through FedEx and UPS at 25, 50 pounds a day and we were making $10,000 to $15,000 a day off these boxes and it was just unbelievable.

Matt Patterson:

The money was crazy and you know we couldn't stop. There was no stopping it and I mean, that type of money in your 20s is absolutely insane. So that kind of conditioned me for the next 10 to 20 years. But yeah, so I was a great businessman, I was always on time and didn't miss a beat. But the packages came and everything was good until it wasn't. And then one time the package came and we got locked up and caught a case and wound up doing 10 years in the federal system. I know that sounds like a lot of time for some sort of miscellaneous drug charge, but when you cross state lines and you start dealing with the federal government, you have a mandatory minimums and all sorts of things like that that you get, you know, pencil whipped for, so to speak, and yeah. So it was all good until it wasn't and yeah.

Kenny Letner:

I think it's amazing. I mean I don't think a lot of people think about this. I mean it was marijuana. It's not that big a deal. But you know, you have to have a certain level of hustle and dedication to put at 22 years old to put together something where you're making that kind of money and it takes a lot of organization and it takes a lot of things. I'm not saying it was right at the time, but I I think you were able to translate that work ethic right yeah into what you're doing now.

Kenny Letner:

right, and that level of customer service I think you said to me one time you said hey, listen, if you want to learn customer service, have somebody that wants their drugs, you know, and not provide it on time, you get your ass hated to you, right? Yeah, hell, yeah.

Matt Patterson:

So a couple of things that come to my mind off the top is this One I flew to Atlanta, I flew to Tucson, arizona, and I flew out to California. And when I flew out there, I flew out there with $25,000 cash and I didn't know where I was going to plug into. I just knew that they had the price. The price was right Because, guess what, just like real estate, you win when you buy. So I'm going to win on the front end of this deal. So I'd buy 10, 20 pounds of weed, whatever 450 a pound they go back east is what they call it out west. Back east they go for 12. So if I get it for 450, 450 times 100 is 45 000, 45 000 to 120 000 anyways, it's easy math. So I got caught up in that. We were shipping and dropping and doing all sorts of shit and it was great money. But at the end of the day, on june 7th 2007, that was it for me. That was the beginning of transforming into a real businessman, and I got 10 years. I got 10 years in federal system and I went in there like a real fucking pro, showed up, didn't know what to do, but I looked for that first guy and that first guy jumped out there. I whooped his fucking ass and I set an example and I'm not a small guy by any means, but he jumped out there. I whooped his fucking ass and I set an example and I'm not a small guy by any means, but he jumped out there. His name was Spooky G from Kansas City. He was like a blood and all this other shit, but he called me a coward. So I whooped his fucking ass in front of everybody. So from that day forward it was known don't fuck with Fat Pat. And Fat Pat was in there getting by off of a fucking paperclip and that's another story in itself fat pat's radio shack.

Matt Patterson:

So any business that I've been in from the young age of cutting grass or stealing car stereos or any sort of bullshit that I was involved with, it was always a niche market. So I realized this recently, whether it was matt pat, where the weed at, or fat pat's radio shack. Well, now it's fucking mini split matt and that shit is legit and we're getting more money to crack. So it's, it's crazy and this is my calling. So now I get to give these systems with the best customer service in the world to the community. It's not illegal, it's's 100% legal. God blessed me with this calling and here I am to deliver this product. You can even pay at closing. And yeah, just a wonderful thing that I found with a wonderful product. And then people I get to bless, like Ken that had a garage, beautiful house, fucking garages off the hook. All he needed was a mini split to really enjoy his garage to the fullest.

Matt Patterson:

So just imagine how I feel, coming from the dark depths of hell in federal fucking prison, bloody boma if you look up bloody boma in texas, I finished up my last four years there. It's called murder, mayhem and all this stuff. So day in and day out, I had to figure out how I was going to survive in here. But remember, I had that paper clip, the smallest little paper clip ever.

Matt Patterson:

I was the radio guy, the headphone guy, all this stuff right here. If the jack went bad or the, the female jack went bad on their radios because everybody had to have a radio to watch tv, it was entertaining. Uh, some guys had cell phones because the cops brought them in because they were getting money too. Anyways, the whole system is fucking corrupt. Shout out to bloody Beaumont. Beaumont, texas is the wild ride.

Matt Patterson:

But that is what really formed me and molded me into be the strongest, best businessman that I could ever be, businessman that I could ever be.

Matt Patterson:

And what happened was was they are the scum of the earth, the fucking, the dope, fiendest people that ever could be, because there's drugs and alcohol and any sort of vice that you could imagine was in there. And my goal was to fix headphones the best that you could ever fix headphones and keep these guys radios going, because that's what you had to have to watch TV. The TVs were on FM transmitters so everybody had to have an FM radio with a set of headphones. So I fixed it with a paper clip, a flame that I lit with a battery and a piece of tinfoil that kept the flame going. It was like petroleum jelly in like a tinfoil can or whatever aluminum can and I was able to solder, got the solder from the plumbing guys, plumbing and a little bit of flux and I cleaned. Anyways, I fixed the headphones with thread and hot glue from the factory in Unicor. Unicor was a factory where they sewed BDUs and fatigues and stuff for the military.

Matt Patterson:

That's just an absolute genius racket that they have slave labor wages for paying these inmates 40 cents, a bundle for 40 pairs of pockets and this and that he was putting pants together, fucking five, 10 bucks and selling them to the military for hundreds of dollars. But that's what they do. Unicor does that. That's where we got the supplies and I made a living for nine years. There was some court stuff, whatever. Nine total years in the federal system, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and I took care of myself the entire time.

Kenny Letner:

Well, I just think the story's amazing because we talked about all this stuff and all this stuff really sounds bad. But I mean you really took that opportunity, those nine years, to turn your life around, to really come out and go. I'm going to do something different with my life. I'm not going to be in this and I don't really think you're doing anything that bad either. I just think you were a young man, uh, that saw opportunity in everything around you, uh, and just needed somebody to kind of show you the direction to go to really make that good. And I don't know where that came from, where that inspiration came from, but somewhere along that journey you have turned into just a phenomenal businessman. So let's move forward to when you got out and you got out just before COVID hit, and what kind of? I mean obviously, where did you get the skills to be able to fix headphones with thread and aluminum foil and a?

Matt Patterson:

paperclip. There was another guy in there. His name was Beaver Robert Gabriel. He's from Minnesota. I met him in theisconsin first prison I went to and in that factory they had a cable manufacturing thing for the military. It's a cable plant. Well, he showed me how to fix the headphones and radios and stuff like that.

Matt Patterson:

That's amazing at a desk in his cell to the flame cops are doing rounds, walking by co's and they would just not care, because it was cool when we were helping the community. So I just kept thinking evolving of things. How am I going to help the community? So I would practice and practice things. That was in the beginning. That was when I first landed in 2011. So I caught the case in 2007, 8, 9, 9 and 10, I landed in Wisconsin.

Kenny Letner:

That's amazing? Yeah, because they move you around and you meet different people different things everywhere. So so you do your time, you get out, uh, what happens next?

Matt Patterson:

so I got out 2007, 2016, october, and I went to the print shop and I was at the print shop with print shop steve print republicnet. Thousands of t-shirts a day. They're printing everything, especially this one right here. This is what this is our iconic image, love that the mini split, merlin, moreau, but anyways.

Matt Patterson:

So yeah, print shop steve gave me a little shot so I was there for two months but I'm printing shirts for electrical hvac. And then guys would come in and be like man, you're tripping, man, you need to come do what we're doing. There's real money in hvacAC you need to get out of here.

Matt Patterson:

This is crazy. How much are you making here? $400 a week, and he was giving me that Like I wasn't even earning $400 a week. So thanks, steve. Once again love you. But anyways, he pulled me out of there. My friend, joe Moss, who owns Rescue Air, he came in, he pulled me out of there American Mechanical when it was still a privately owned company by the guy John, and I got a job there. I went to the interview. He asked me what my favorite football team was.

Kenny Letner:

I don't have a favorite football team, but I knew to say the Redskins were in his area.

Matt Patterson:

So he's like, yeah, you got the job, $12 an hour. So that's when I learned out of all the parts and all the stuff. But I was a plumber because I was good at digging ditches. That's what they said I was going to do when I grew up, anyway was dig some ditches, so I had to get that out the way.

Matt Patterson:

So I dug a couple ditches and learned all the parts and understood business. But Joe wound up getting fired on Christmas Eve because his Christmas bonus was going to total up to like $20,000 or $25,000. So he got fired and I'm a loyal person, straight up, I'm probably I'm a very, extremely loyal person when it comes to any sort of things like that. So he got fired. Well, I quit. And then I went to work for Steve Conyers at Conyers Electrical, where they were blowing this company up from nothing to 30 guys, whatever matter of time. So I was still learning everything.

Matt Patterson:

So the first two years I learned everything. I hopped out, learned electrical, hvac, gas, plumbing, just everything Generators, tankless water heaters, mini splits. Well, they sent me on a mini split for this guy off of Mount Pleasant. I'll never forget it. They gave me all the wrong parts to do it and I understood why people hated mini splits. All the installers were like this is crazy. You had to put a water pump on it to send the water up. Hence the reason why mini split mat does not install units that need water pumps, or nor do I install a mini split that has to pump water up. Every mini split needs to be gravity drained out and down, and that was one of the main reasons. So that was after two or three years of being out. Fast forward 2019, 2020, what's game time, I see them. They're about to shut the world down. Well, I'm an opportunist that worked with the door locked, sometimes for three weeks at a time. If something bad happened on the compound gang fights, race riots, anything like that the door's shut.

Matt Patterson:

Guess what, guess who's still fixing headphones on lockdown sending fishing lines out underneath the door with a soap and a wrapper on a fucking string down the line. Yeah, pablo, send that down here. Papi, I'll get it back to you in a little while fixing headphones on lockdown, sliding shit down the range under a door. So there's nothing I can't do. I have the mentality of a real manifesting positive thinker. I can do anything.

Kenny Letner:

You know, I have a saying that I talk to my agents about all the time and I think it describes you perfectly. And it basically says it's a warrior's creed. And it says I don't know how I'm going to win, I just know I'm not going to lose. Precisely, right, we're going to figure that out one way or the other, right, yeah, so let's move forward a little bit.

Kenny Letner:

Matt starts doing many splits. You start doing some installations and you start doing great customer service. You start taking over quite a bit of a market share and you're doing it better service at a better price. And I'm not going to say cheap, I'm going to say better service at a better price because I really believe that's what it is better service at a better price, because I really believe that's what it is. And you hired some guys help you with the installs that you know you hired the right people because they're very professional when they show up. But let's move forward to where, all of a sudden, you become a little bit of an industry disruptor in the area. You want to talk about that.

Matt Patterson:

Yeah, sure, we can touch on that. So. I started getting banned from buying uh materials from certain supply houses when there was a little bit of a supply shortage. So it was a little little bit of friction going on there, because I would go in and I would try to buy every single thing they had, michibishi, I would pay the guys at the desk, hey when? When it comes in, I'll buy it all. But this is just normal strategy for any businessman. I want first dibs, first right of refusal.

Kenny Letner:

I love that.

Matt Patterson:

Let's go, yeah. So I would just do things like this and I had like four supply houses that loved me, but I had this one that didn't, so it made a little bit of friction, it caused a little bit of a disturbance, but but I had this one that didn't, so it made a little bit of friction, it caused a little bit of a disturbance, but we got through it. There was a supply chain shortage and all that stuff, but I was able to figure it all out and make it work. But there was a lot of people who didn't because they thought they thought of it first, but they didn't execute.

Matt Patterson:

I'm an executor, I execute. I don't need a buddy to do anything. I go to the gym by myself, I started this business by myself. I went to federal prison by myself and when I was in the joint and when I was out there doing that, I didn't call. It was so depressing to call somebody and ask them for $25 fucking dollars and nobody would send me a damn dime except for my mom, and I could get emotional right now about that.

Matt Patterson:

My mom barely had $25 to send me. But you know what I did this summer I sent mom on that cruise. Yeah, I fixed her car for her and I did all these things for mom this year and it felt so great to be able to give back to mom and the community.

Kenny Letner:

So what's amazing about this? And then, look, he's one of the most successful when it comes to mini splits. In this area, there's nobody holding the light to him, so much so that you're starting to franchise out in other states.

Matt Patterson:

Yeah.

Kenny Letner:

Right, so you franchised out. Now to where.

Matt Patterson:

Tampa Florida.

Kenny Letner:

Tampa Florida Right, god knows, they need them, right. Yes, how's that going?

Matt Patterson:

It's going pretty good. Shout out to Trey Maddox. Trey Maddox, a good friend of mine, came to me by way of Thrash TV. He's a comedian. We were doing some sort of crowd work in the streets just playing around and it didn't really take off. Thrash TV didn't really take off, but it was fun and I always joke about it. Well, we didn't make a mil off of Thrash TV, but we're going to make a mil off of Thrash TV. We're gonna make a mill off of thrash tv.

Matt Patterson:

So, anyways, trey came up. He was like man, I'm interested in what you're doing. I was like what do you got going on? He's like man, fuck what I got going on. Let me let me get down with mini split matt.

Matt Patterson:

Trey came up here from tampa. He had only lived there for a couple months, trained with mini split matt, used every technique, every sort of specialized tool that I have. In three to two days went back down to Tampa, florida, had his business all that structured, set up correctly, and I told him. I said, trey, just advertise on Facebook and you'll do two or three a week. Well, trey did two or three a week and he has been doing two or three a week and he can call Mini Split Matt for tech support. So he was like hold on, man, I'm doing two or three a week and he has been doing two or three a week and he can call mini split matt for tech support.

Matt Patterson:

So he was like hold on, man, I'm doing two or three a week. But I still got time. I'm gonna start drawing up this paperwork. We're gonna blow this out the water because if I can do it, I feel like we can train somebody else to do it, so let's go. So, um, yeah, man Trey is in the process, right this second, of drawing up the paperwork and we meet with the attorneys this week and we're about to open up I don't know two or three more locations. First, the business model will be for sale and, yes, it's emotional, it's real emotional for me, but being able to draw up a plan that says if you follow these instructions, you can win this much money, if you work hard and you follow these instructions, and you also have somebody to call who's a specialist and it's already proven. Look at the numbers 3 million, $4 million since COVID. This is what Matt did. Are you ready to buy in?

Kenny Letner:

Yeah. So here's one of the main reasons why I wanted you on the show. There are so many real estate agents in this area, right, and it doesn't matter what industry you're talking about. It could be. I'll say it could be anything else.

Kenny Letner:

But the point is is that if you get up every day and you have a positive outlook and you work hard and you take on that mantra, I don't know how I'm going to win, I just know I'm not going to lose, and you get to where you can success, you can have success and you can do anything you want to do and you can do anything how you want to do it, but it all starts with that positive mindset.

Kenny Letner:

So if there's anybody out there telling me that you know, man, life is so hard and it's a problem, I'm going to just say, hey, you need to talk to Manny Splitmat. The man spent nine years in a federal penitentiary and was successful at taking care of what he needed to do there and then changed his life, brought that back around, come out and started out just an incredible business with a high level of service who is now getting ready to franchise out into not just one, but three, four, probably at some point all across the country. I don't. You're a young man. How old are you now? I'm 41. 41 years, young man. I don't see much stopping you right. I really don't. I don't think there's just much in your way, no-transcript.

Matt Patterson:

Yeah, I try not to really tell them my strategies, but I'm an opportunist and I will go to the port and see what's going on. But the number one thing is health is wealth, whether it's mental health, physical health or whatever other health there's there are. If you get up in the morning and have a positive, get that coffee going, drink some water and go straight to the gym the guy who founded Nike he puts his Nikes on and he puts his shoes on and he goes running, he goes out and that's what he says to do and that's what I did. I used the book A Law of Attraction, the Manifestation, positive Affirmations and that's how I did it. Two years before release, I grabbed a book Rhonda Byrne, the Secret and I applied every single thing in that book. I asked for more money to give it away Abundance of money, abundance of this, emotions, treating people, love those who love you. Stop loving people who don't love you. You'll see what happens.

Kenny Letner:

Believe when somebody you know does the actions that says they don't love you. Believe them, right, right, believe that, right. Hey, listen, today's podcast been brought to you by Revolution Mortgage. Carrie Williams here has a local branch and she's just killing it out there taking care of people. So, revolution Mortgage, let's make that move. Matt, just love having you on the show, I love what you're doing in the community and I just wanted to kind of bring your story forward. How can people they want to get something done by you, matt, how can they get ahold of you?

Matt Patterson:

Well, first you can go to our website, minisplitmattcom and you can sign up for an estimate there or a cleaning, and you can call our direct number, 757-752-4397, which actually today our call service begins, because when you call, I want to answer, but I can't answer every single call, so the call service starts today. I've trained them through and through very nice call service based out of Texas, and yeah, they're going to answer the phone. Hi, they're going to log you in the system. Me and my assistant will be able to filter all the emails and immediate emails and texts and then we will return the call. A technician will get back to you shortly.

Kenny Letner:

And if you're in Tampa, how do they get a hold of you?

Matt Patterson:

if you're in Tampa, Same thing Website minisplitmatcom Choose the Tampa location or call the number for the Tampa location.

Kenny Letner:

Well, that's incredible, Matt. We're going to let everybody get back to their regularly scheduled programs. Thank you so much for being on here. Matt's got a pretty fast car. What car?

Matt Patterson:

do you got? That's it. Yeah, he's got a little Hellcat going on. I got a 2018 Dodge Challenger Hellcat Widebody, which I thought it was going to be the last one they ever made, but anyways it's not. How many horsepower? 1,000 horsepower.

Kenny Letner:

I told Matt. I said, man, I'm going to have to drive that car. He goes alright, but we're going to have to start you off on 500 horses before we're opening up to 1,000.

Matt Patterson:

On traction control.

Kenny Letner:

Yeah, way on traction control. That would be a really good idea. I'm going to get done with that car. It might not be in one piece anymore. I'm not riding with you either. The hell you aren't Can you drive. Your ass will be in the passenger seat. Fuck that, send us both back to jail, matt. Thank you again for being here. Guys, thank you for all of us here at Real Estate Happens Really enjoy having you. Look for a lot more content coming out here in the future. Have a great day. We'll see you soon.

Matt Patterson:

Thanks, bye.