Meet Matt

Hi! My name is Matt Shoup. Here is a collection of stories from my life.

Stories from my Early Days (1981-1992)

Born in New Jersey. Oldest of four kids. Got bullied growing up. Scared of the world. Not confident. Not certain. Didn’t feel loved. Collected baseball cards. Dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Moved to Loveland, Colorado when I was 10. Started a lawn mowing business that summer. Made $2,000. Bought the boombox I wanted. Started a candy peddling business in middle school. Got suspended for that. Got kicked out of class a lot. Discovered my love and addiction to peanut M & M’s. Was too smart and creative to be contained. Was told I had ADHD and should be drugged. Never bought into that much. Got bullied some more. I felt scared and angry most of my life and into my 30’s. Had a lot of harbored resentment. Had a lot to prove. Always loved telling stories. School told me to sit down, shut up, follow the rules.

Stories from my Awkward Years (1993-1999)

First JOB was at 13. Busboy at a Chinese restaurant. Was goofy looking in middle school. Head gear like Cartman’s sister. Massive overbite. Very easy target. Still got bullied. Was called all the names. Got laughed out of a high school youth group by a bunch of Bible thumping Christians. Worked a lot of JOBs through high school. Work gave me purpose. Graduated Loveland High School in 1999. 4.0 GPA. School was easy. Kicked butt in DECA. Really loved Spanish. Worked all the time. Work was my escape. Work was my passion. Started lifting weights a lot. Girls started to pay attention to me. Got those braces and headgear off.

Stories from my college days (1999)

Attended Colorado State University 1999-2003. Got recruited by college painting company at CSU. Made six figures over four years with college painters. Spent 3 times what I made. Took off for a semester to study in Spain. Fell in love with Spain. More on that later. People started telling me about this Jesus guy. Crazy people. Judgmental people. Annoying people. Started experimenting with a lot of drugs and alcohol when I was 18. Was fully addicted to drugs and alcohol at 19. Living the life. Making tons of money. Parties. Chasing women. In all the chasing, I was actually running. Running from my hurts, my pains, and God.

My Awakening Story (2001)

January 1, 2001 1:30 A.M. I found Jesus in the back of a police car. Drunk, high, almost dead. Freezing cold in a Fort Collins field. Police officer took me home instead of taking me to jail. His parting words to me “next time I give you a ride, I hope it is not to the morgue.” This was a massive wakeup call. I spent the next two weeks struggling. Fighting, battling. I did not want God’s love to be true. I tried everything to disprove it, deny it, and run from it. So did Lee Strobel. I read his two books. Case for Faith and Case for Christ.

My Jesus Story (January 14, 2001)

I decided that the story of Jesus is true. I decided to give my life to Him and live a life for Him. This was the beginning of a new chapter in my life. A new life. New Matt was born.

Watch these videos below that share more of the details of Matt's entrepreneurial and leadership journey.

My Spain Story (2002)

Spring semester 2002, jumped on an airplane to take the adventure of a lifetime. Landed in Madrid Spain. I fell in love with the country, the people, the history, the culture, the cuisine, and the coffee. I traveled thousands of miles through the country experiencing countless adventures. I met some of the most amazing people during my time there. I returned with a deep admiration and love for the country. I knew I would continue to return there in the future. Today, Spain is a big part of my life. I travel there frequently with my family and I love sharing the culture, cuisine and coffee with others here stateside. Over the years, I have pursued the art of perfecting Spanish paella.

My Love Story (2002)

Thursday evening. September 2002. Went out with friends to go salsa dancing in Fort Collins. I met Emily Earll in the basement of a bar in Old Town Fort Collins. She asked me to be her fake boyfriend for the night. I told her I would be her real boyfriend forever. I fell in love right away. She didn’t. It took her a while. A long while. We became great friends first. We spent tons of time together getting to know each other. She finally fell in love. She became Emily Shoup August 2004.

My Business Origin Story (1999-2005)

My last JOB was in March 2005. Suit and tie. Mortgage Matty. Working at a local very conservative bank. Hating life because I hated this job. Plotting my escape. Then walks in Chad. New bank President. Chad calls me into his office, tells me: “put all your shit in a box, you’re fired.” Six figures in debt. Back against the wall. Really pissed off. Not going to let Emily down. March 2005, I took the leap into entrepreneurship. Started M & E Painting with my last $100. M & E grew fast. Really fast. Million-dollar company in 3 years. Multimillion in 5. Still really angry about everything. Won lots of awards. So many. Too many to count. I was an jerk to work for. Still really angry. Became a millionaire. Failed to create other millionaires. More about this later.

Our family story (2004)

As the business was growing so began our family. Our son, Riley Shoup was born November 2007. Our daughter Hailey Shoup was born October 2010.

My Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Story (2007)

In 2007, I stepped into a mixed martial arts academy. I was 27, full of ego, attitude, and big muscles, all with alot to prove. I was introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (known as the “gentle art”) when a kid half my age and half my size showed me what jiu jitsu was all about. He used all my ego, attitude and strength against me as he proceeded to throw me around the mats, cranking my joints, choking my neck, and ultimately having my cry “uncle” and tap out repeatedly. I was immediately hooked and began my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu journey that day. Over the past 16 years, BJJ has taught me so much about life, leadership, and business, and obviously a lot about self protection and the protection of others. It is one of my life’s passions, and I love sharing the lessons learned from the mats and how they translate into life, leadership and business. I am the co-owner of Northern Colorado Jiu Jitsu and Self Defense and the lead children’s instructor at our academy.

My Author Story (2011)

Wrote my first book, Become an Award Winning Company, in 2011. Writing a book was a bucket list item for a number of years. Although I wrote a great book, I had a hard time identifying as an author. I did not realize the reality of being an author. Books don’t sell themselves. Started Painted Baby in 2015, and kept putting the book down. Still struggled to become a true author, and go all in. When my painted baby story was published in another author’s book, this lit a fire in me to continue to share my message and story with others. In 2022, I decided to finish Painted Baby. Painted Baby was released in 2023. In 2024, I released an illustrated children’s book JJ Learns Jiu Jitsu.

My Leadership Story (2012)

Although my business was growing and I was successful, I was poor at leadership. I was not growing others, of really caring for others to be honest. I was called out by a coach when he noted that “I sucked at leadership.” It was at this moment I decided to work on myself, to improve, to grow, to deal with my struggles and issues that prevented me from being the best version of me. I went all in with focusing on developing myself and others. Leadership and people became my focus. I realized when you pour into people, that is when you will ultimately grow a thriving and successful business.

My ALL IN STORY (2023)

In April of 2023, I attended a gala where Lee Strobel was the keynote speaker. He discussed boldly sharing and standing for your faith. I realized while he was speaking that I never did this. I never boldly shared my faith in Jesus. I had given myself and those around me the credit for all of my successes and accolades, yet never fully declared and realized the role God played in my life. I went up to Lee, shook his hand, and shared my story with him. I shared how I fully committed to my faith after that January 2001 evening, and after reading his book. He challenged me to be bold and open with my faith, and I accepted his challenge.

My Purpose

As a follower of Jesus I was created to relentlessly, joyfully and lovingly pour into people, passionately sharing my story to inspire, ignite and encourage others, while diligently protecting, journeying alongside and celebrating with those I love, especially my family.

Life, leadership and business is a journey. Don’t take it alone. Journey with me. I will be with you every step of the way.

See awards and media features below: