William S. Matthews is a modern-day renaissance man. With interests in philanthropy, event planning, real estate, and marketing, his unique blend of skills and characteristics makes for a powerful offering to his clientele, business associates, and community. He just released his third book, “Everything I Needed to Know About Corporate America,” on succeeding in corporate America geared towards young professionals. Previously, Matthews has written guides to personal finance and event planning.
A native of Houston, Texas, Matthews combines his insights and knowledge gleaned from over 10 years working with some of Houston’s most important social, corporate, and non-profit institutions. Named one of Houston Business Journal 2019’s 40 under 40 honorees, his work includes community outreach, project management, workshop felicitation, fundraising, and keynote speaking.
Beginning with the Houston Real Estate Association, where he managed more than 300 financial professional volunteers, Will quickly established himself as a leader in nonprofit management through his work at Neighborhood Centers where he led efforts to bring together corporate entities to solve pressing social problems. In his most recent role with Central Houston, Inc., Matthews managed stakeholder relationships with Central Houston’s 130+ corporate members and developed successful partnerships with companies such as Chevron, Shell, Comcast, Wells Fargo, Deloitte, Houston Rockets, Home Depot, United Airlines, Walmart, and others. Will Matthews is also a passionate community advocate and spends his time volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Greater Houston Partnership, as well as a host of other civic and social service clubs.”
Tell us a little bit about your background.
My background in real estate development, event planning, and fund development has shaped my signature approach that combines my entrepreneurial alter-ego with an uncompromising personality and philanthropist mindset. I strive to resonate with my audience at each speaking engagement with my sense of humor, wit, and descriptions of the challenges that I have faced. Growing up, I had a major chip on my shoulder after being kicked out of five schools and told by many I wouldn’t amount to anything. Since then, I have achieved two degrees, written three books, raised millions of dollars for organizations, and completed a leadership program at Harvard University.
What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
Whether you are a recent graduate from high school or college, in an entry level position, or an executive, I think there is something for everyone in this book. I think it is really helpful for those trying to navigate through the complicated world of Corporate America, no matter what stage you are at. Readers can learn how to network, how to discover their brand, the importance of finding a mentor, and how to deal with conflict.
When will you consider your book a success?
I would not measure my book’s success by the amount of sales, or likes, or the amount of interviews I can be featured in. It’s really about people saying that my book really helped them. My book really stemmed from my speaking presentations at Universities. After one of them, a student came up to me and told me he was almost going to drop out of school, that he almost didn’t come to my talk, but he did and I inspired him as another black man in this crazy world, to continue his education to reach his goals. I didn’t write this book to make money or to be rich, I really just want to help people.
“What is a personal brand? Your brand is how you promote yourself. It is the unique combination of skills, experience, and personality that you want the world to see. It is the telling of your story, and how it reflects your conduct, behavior, spoken and unspoken words, and attitudes. Think of your brand as your walking business card.”
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
When people ask me “how did you write a book” I always tell them that writing the book is the easy part, but getting it out there is the hard part. Anyone can write a book, it just takes extreme discipline. I am using the word extreme, because we have learned throughout this pandemic that people have so much time on their hands, yet they haven’t accomplished anything. Time isn’t the problem, but discipline is.
The hardest part then is getting it out there. I have been fortunate enough to find a niche that can really work with the marketing team which has really helped me. Whether it’s a publicist, a manager, or an agent, you really have to find someone who can take it to the next level and get it into people’s hands. That’s the challenging part. So if you decide to self publish a book and try to get it out there yourself, I think that can really only take you so far. I believe that I am really great in marketing and public relations, but even so, it was important for me to stay in my lane because it is hard to market your own self. That’s why I strongly recommend people to bring someone on board. Even if you can only afford to do it for a week or two, or a month or two, really try to set that aside in your marketing budget in order to take yourself to that next level.
What is one thing you wish you knew before publishing your book?
I wish I knew how to handle reviews. I remember on the night of my first book launch, I made the mistake of reading a review because I got so excited there were any reviews at all. I remember there were four reviews, three were positive, one was negative and all I could focus on was that negative one. I walked out thinking my book is horrible and nobody was going to like it.
I approached writing my second book knowing that I wasn’t going to read any reviews, positive or negative, and also knowing that it comes with the trade. You are going to have people that are going to be commenting, and not all the comments are going to be positive. Not everyone is going to like your book. Even if you are the strongest or toughest person, those negative comments do hurt, but I think it is important to know to be prideful of the product that you put out there. If you do decide to read reviews, do it with a thick skin and don’t let reviews define you. Not everyone is going to like what you put out there, but that does not take away from your discipline, energy, and the passion that you put into it.
Utilizing social media is a really great way to promote your book. Also using word of mouth, reaching out to family, friends, and any other connections you have, is also extremely important. It really goes back to the old school marketing methods. Sending out email blasts to family and friends or sending text messages to all of your contacts. It is so important to reach out and catch up with people, especially during this pandemic, and with that you can also have a way to talk about what you have been working on. Not everyone will be able to buy five or ten copies of your book, but they can support you by spreading the word even more. Posting the book on social media pages, or going to Amazon and writing a positive review is so helpful. It can be time consuming, but if you just stick to it, it will pay off.
If you had the chance to start your career over again what would you do differently?
I want to start by saying that I don’t live with regrets. I think everything happens for a divine reason and nothing happens by mistake. I believe your path has already been planned out, whether it’s God or a higher power, or whoever you believe in. If I had to say, I probably would have taken school a little bit more seriously in junior high and in high school so that I could have had more options as far as the colleges. Having options is always important. Some of the things that I did do too, like having internships and mentors, I probably would have taken them up a notch or two.
I think the biggest lesson when I got out of school happened when I didn’t know what I wanted to do, just like so many other recent graduates. I took the first job that came my way and I think I gave too many years to a job that I should have only been at for a year. Even though I learned a lot, I stayed for too long, and those are years that I won’t be able to get back. During those years, I was doing a lot of other things on the side, but it is really important to know when it is time to leave.
Sometimes you have to just step out of your comfort zone for another opportunity. That can mean that you take a pay cut, but it may be a better opportunity for you because you have more chances to grow. Don’t get content or complacent. Everyone has to know when the time is to walk away from a relationship, whether that be a personal one or a professional one.
I would encourage people to read a lot of autobiographies about people that they are inspired by. I have always loved reading autobiographies because I get a behind the scenes look at their life, while also learning some of the challenges that they had to go through. It puts me at ease when I realize their paths weren’t as easy as what I may have seen in magazines or on television.
Some of the ones that I have really read about have been Oprah Winfrey, Jay Z, Sean Combs, and Tyler Perry. It doesn’t even have to be a biography on a household name, because there have been autobiographies that I have read about people that you have never heard of, and it has been very motivating to me.
If you only had $1000 to promote your new book, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
I would spend it all on marketing. Whether that be through PR, or an agent, or a publicist, or just on hiring someone for graphics, or social media, there are so many different ways that you can put that money towards marketing. Again, writing the book is the easy part, and getting it out there is the hard part.
Knowing your audience before you write a book is really important, otherwise you are going to be all over the place. You need to go into writing a book (from a nonfiction standpoint) with the mindset of solving a problem for this audience. That is going to be the reason why people will want to pick up your book. For instance, in my latest book, I am addressing a lot of problems whether it is systemic racism, or how to deal with conflict at work, or how to stand out in a crowd. These are all questions that I am answering for my audience.
The second thing is utilizing your network, which is something that most people don’t do. Even if you only know ten people, those ten people also know ten people, and on and on. When I wrote my first book, I had a life coach who told me “look at your self published book as an expensive business card.” I think what she meant by that is you just need to give it out. For that first set of books, you are just passing them out to spread their message. I always remember that for every book that I’ve written.
What is your favorite quote?
“I will give you my opinions, but my beliefs are never up for debate”
Who should we interview next and why?
My life coach that I previously mentioned; Thecia Jenkins. I don’t work with her anymore, but she was the one that really inspired all three books because she gave me that push that I needed and helped me out so much. She primarily works with organizations that help women in abusive relationships. She gives people a sense of empowerment and I think she is phenomenal. She has helped me answer so many of my own questions and if it were not for her I don’t even think I would be here answering these questions.
How can we get in touch with you?
You can go to my website williamsmatthews.com. Feel free to check out my books on amazon. My Instagram handle is @williamsmatthews, my Twitter handle is @mrwsmatthews, and you can find me on LinkedIn, Youtube, or Facebook by searching for “William S. Matthews”.
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