I lay in bed wide awake.

My heart was racing, my mind was rearing to go.

It was 3:30 a.m., but this time was different.

I wasn’t awake due to stress and anxiety, like I’d been many nights the prior 18 months.

This time, it was excitement.

A lot has happened with our company since 2023. Massive growth, an acquisition, and for the first time since 2008, FAILURE!

From 2008 until 2022, I’d been on a run, a streak, one that people dream of, and the future was bright.

But by the Summer of 2025, that streak had come to an end.  

I had failed.

A future that once looked so bright now looked bleak, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t have the answers…yet!

YES, YET!

I wasn’t giving up, fuck that!  If I’m going to go down, it’s swinging.  

It was time for me to man up.  To own the mistakes, but more importantly, figure out what happened.

What happened was:

• Debt

• Wrong People

• Dataless Decisions

The first domino to fall was on a Friday in July.  As I sat there with my notepad, studying our situation, it hit me: debt was a big culprit.  But not really debt, it was deeper than that. 

The real issue was my comfort with debt.

Outside of the mafia, I’ve borrowed money from everyone to get where I am.  But it wasn’t always this way. Until 2020, we did this right, without incurring debt.

So on that day, I declared I was DONE WITH DEBT and I built a plan to erase every cent of it.  Then I looked at my calendar to see the date so I could document it…Ironically, it was July 4th.

So, July 4th, 2025, will forever be known as the day Matt Plapp declared freedom from debt.

Next up were a few people living in my head rent-free, in my life without my permission, and influencing my core values.  

I remember driving to a meeting and thinking, “When I walk out of this meeting, I’m DONE letting them influence me.”

My mind kept going to the Under Armour commercial from the ’90s, “WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE!”

So just like that, I made some tough decisions and eliminated one person from my life, next I altered how I chose to handle another relationship, and last I decided that MATT PLAPP needed to become the #1 person in my life again.

I got us here, and I’ll get us through this and to the next rough spot 🙂 

And finally, last but not least, DATA DRIVEN DECISIONS!

My guy David Scott Peters would love this one.

If you know me well, you know I’m a creative thinker who moves quickly. 

Moving fast and finding failure is good, but it can’t become your default. 

In business, we must learn to pause and analyze the data. 

Like DSP would say, don’t price your burger by pulling a number out of your ass!  You price it based on your food costs. You know, based on the “accurate up-to-date recipe costing cards.”

Well, for me, it’s the data from the past 10 years.  Everything I need is there; I just hadn’t looked at it enough.  

When I decided to launch the ABR Roadshow and drive around the country filming thousands of restaurants, it was based on a HUNCH. 

$10 million in expenses later, it’s no longer a hunch.

For the past 60 days, I’ve been back in the trenches meeting with clients, analyzing our growth, and figuring out what 2026-2029 looks like.  However, unlike the past three years, the next three years are based on data, not a gut feeling.

Friends, give yourself permission to have a reset like this.

To accept your failures, to acknowledge your badass accomplishments, to eliminate jackaasses from your world, and more importantly, to BUILD the best version of your company based on data. 

– MP OUT 

Oh, by the way, this week you get 5 songs! Why? Listen to them in a row and then read what’s below it.  

 This week’s songs:

1st –  Feelin’ Good by Norman

2nd – These Days by Connor Price

3rd – Marathon by Connor Price

4th – Not Afraid by Eminem

5th – Here We Go by Norman

I’m feeling really good about where we’ve been, where we are, and where we are going. 

I’m also done listening to people who don’t know me, my journey, and who’ve not been where I’m going.  

I’m comfortable knowing this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.

I’m not afraid to be vulnerable, to be wrong, and to TAKE A STAND

And last but not least, HERE WE MOTHERFUCKING GO!

 This week’s book: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight – YES, it’s a duplicate that I’ve already told you about. But it’s the best book I’ve ever read, and if you can’t get STOKED by Phil’s insane journey filled with failure that built the biggest shoe empire in the world, then you’re not an entrepreneur.