🎙️ New Episode: Curiosity, Creativity & Lifelong Learning with Matt Rauscher | Real English Conversations | Speak Clearly & Confidently at Work
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This is the Real English Conversations podcast, where we help you to communicate clearly and confidently in the conversations that matter most in the workplace and your professional life.

Hey everyone, it's Curtis here from the Real English Conversations podcast, helping global professionals speak clearly and confidently at work. And I'm super pumped and excited to share today's episode with you because it was something really special to me.

And especially if you've ever felt stuck in the day-to-day and wondered what it would be like to live a life full of creativity, adventure, and hands-on learning. Today's guest and why it's so special to me is my old high school best friend from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Matt Rauscher. These days, Matt's living a pretty inspiring and

unconventional life, you could say. He's into everything from welding, 3D printing, dual sport motorcycling, curing and smoking his own meats. He's a foodie. And even making his own beats and music. We share a passion for DJing and music. And he makes it on a little Akai beat machine, whatever the hell that is. Maybe we'll dive into that in this episode. Who knows?

He's the kind of person who is always learning something new, pushing his limits and building a life that's anything but ordinary. What I love about Matt's story is that it's a reminder that learning doesn't stop when school ends and that doing things with your hands or heart and a little bit of inspiration, confidence, and courage can open up a whole new world.

Whether you're working on your English skills to unlock new opportunities or you're just looking to spark some inspiration to try something new or different, Matt's story will sure to encourage you to get you thinking about what's possible when you follow your curiosity and keep growing. Please welcome Matt Rauscher to the Real English Conversations podcast. It's awesome to have you here, man. Well, thank you for having me on. It's a pleasure.

It's good to talk like this for sure. How many damn times have we tried to record this episode? Third time is the charm. Third time is the charm. That's practice. We're going with that one. Practice. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Practice and preparation. Let's take it back to the high school days where, you know, we know each other from. What do you think your personality was like back then? What type of person were you back then? And what do you think has changed since?

over time to make you the most improved or something that has changed about your mindset or how you see the world now? I think it's fair to say that I haven't really changed much. My level of curiosity has increased to find out more about as much as I can, not only because it helps me do my day job, but, uh,

I have to, and for that, I have to stay up on top of technology and machining type, like machining type, just new types of machining or things like that.

I have to have my nose in the book, I guess, in not so many words, just so that I can understand how new technology can affect how I do my job and how I can also use it to make the company that I work for succeed. You've built some amazing hands-on skills from welding, fabricating, cooking, 3D printing. All these things require hands-on skills. What was the first project that made you step back and think,

Yeah, this is something I really love doing. I remember, well, it goes back to food, I guess. And working with my mom in the kitchen at the age of like seven or eight and just being given a remedial task, you know, while preparing something. And it's not that I was inspired by the...

you know, beating an egg or something like that. It was just like, this stuff is kind of cool. I want to learn more. Was the inspiration that exact task? I don't think so. But it was, you know, it definitely helped. It spurred that on and allowed me to develop those skills that I have. I didn't, I've never, I shouldn't say, I was never a cooking professional. I worked in a restaurant. I was not a chef. But I like to think that I've absorbed certain skills and utilize them almost every day.

because we have to eat every day. So

It's important, you know, it's a necessity. And if you don't, well, you'll go hungry or you rack up the Uber Eats and the skip dishes type bills if you don't. So that's, you know, we get into it later, I think. But one of the things that Curtis didn't mention is that I live out in the country about 30 miles or 50 kilometers outside of Edmonton now. Oh, okay. And the...

The fact that Uber Eats and Skip the Dishes doesn't deliver that far has probably been a good thing. We're either figuring something out with ingredients we have at home or we're stopping on the way home and that happens pretty rare unless we need to have something at other errands to run after work where we have to stop. It's an inspiration because I have to do it every day. Sometimes I'll eat the same thing two or three times in a week, but it's not because I'm stuck in a rut or bored. It's just I need something quick.

This one I know it's satiating and that's good enough. Other times it gets way more complex and takes hours. And while it's still the same, it's satiating. It's fun to eat and go from there. Leave it at that. Who does most of the cooking in the house? It's sort of a blend. For a time, it was six or seven years, my wife was actually vegan.

So there were no animal products that she ate. And I remained a nominivore. So it got to the point where I was cooking my own dinner right beside her while she was cooking hers. Usually it was something very similar where mine had animal protein in it and hers did not. But it was essentially the same dish. But before that,

I was doing a lot of the cooking. We wouldn't share it. And we carry that on today. We'll make dinner unless I'm, you know, grilling something or something like that. It's still shared, but we're not doing the exact same thing anymore. She'll be in the house prepping a salad or whatever or prepping something else and I'll be grilling or...

other things going on and we're creating the meal together. I would say it's a pretty 50-50 split now. Now there's a learning curve, a learning experience when it comes to cooking, learning a language, learning to play a musical instrument, learning to DJ and beat match, learning anything. So when you compare

what you learned through your culinary experience to someone learning English? What is a lot of patience and time and trial and error? What would you say is the best way to move forward when you're learning how to do anything like cooking? Usually the most fun that you can have by making a mistake is while you're cooking.

And the reason for that is you still get to eat the mistake. Nine times out of 10, it's still going to be delicious. You're still going to eat it, but you'll know where you might have made a mistake and where you can correct things for the next time you decide to make it. I think that's really important. You know, you have to understand that you can't give up.

Because you had the idea or found the recipe and were just like, I think this sounds delicious. I'd like to make it. And if it doesn't turn out, the idea is, well, ensure that you're still motivated because you still want to taste it because of how it looked in text on a page or on the food channel watching a chef cook.

The difference between that and learning a language is no matter who you talk to, I guarantee no one's going to make fun of anyone who makes a mistake, says a word wrong, uses the wrong grammar or something. And nine times out of 10, you know, the somebody makes a mistake, the other person that they're having a conversation with is going to help. They're

They're going to be like, you know, I know I've tried to learn several languages and trying to utilize them in other countries where there is no English spoken and I'm stumbling through it in Polish. And, you know, they realize that I don't speak the language.

and I'm trying my best and they offer to help. I say a word wrong and they're like, "This?" And I'm like, "Yes, that's the word." And I'll use English, they'll communicate in Polish or whatever and it all comes back together. And we don't have a conversation per se, but we're able to communicate and

We both leave with a smile on our face because we managed to make it work. And I tried my best and they were happy to help somebody. So you kind of win on both sides. And if somebody's out there who's going to make fun of somebody for how they say something or how they're speaking and they're trying their best, to me, that's just a cheap shot. It doesn't bode well with me at all.

No, not acceptable in any way. What the heck is a dual sport motorcycle? Dual sport motorcycle? Well, see, I didn't tell you that I was racing cars for a while, too. But then I rode a motorcycle and found the motorcycles were way better. We'll leave that for another conversation. So a dual sport motorcycle is a lightweight motorcycle capable of riding on and off road. And off road is defined as anything off pavement or off.

you know, unmaintained gravel roads. And it can take you from point A to point B in a way that it's, you know, sort of out of the ordinary. It's off the beaten path and it can carry luggage and, and stuff. And you go traveling. My wife and I spent, uh,

three weeks traveling through Canada and the Pacific Northwest. And we racked up, you know, not a huge number, but about 7,200 kilometers on that trip in two and a half, three weeks. Wow. Did you go coast to coast? No, that was, you know, west into British Columbia and then down the Pacific coast, down the Pacific coast inland, and then back out and back out to the coast and just sort of

zigzagging all through Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho. It was absolutely amazing. Yeah, beautiful natural nature landscapes in that area as well. Yeah. So what draws you to that dual sport motorcycling and the adventure? What really drives that passion for you? So it's being able to go places that you wouldn't normally get to in a car. And when I say that, I mean...

And you know, anywhere, whether it's paved or gravel or whatever, you know, that part has nothing to do with it.

it. The enjoyment of sitting on something that can basically take you anywhere. Doing it in the outdoors versus a car where you're cooped up and you can't, you know, you don't get that fresh air as much. It's not in your face, so to speak. The ability to, you know, turn your head in any direction, up, down, sideways, and see something different without any obstruction. There's no, you know, the body of the car isn't in the way. There isn't, you

you know, things like that, where you can't look up because the roof of the car is there. Sort of, we transitioned from traveling in a car, doing that a lot, to I ended up with a Mazda Miata, a little tiny convertible. And it was amazing that first trip we took through the mountains, like, well, this is how everyone should do it.

do it. You know, the top was down. We could, we could, as we were coming around, we could hear birds chirping, you know, depending on how fast we were going. It was just, it was just, it was magic. And you're, you're in the environment as opposed to separated from it by, by the walls and windows of the car. The, uh, what came next was the motorcycles. Um, and that happened by accident. Um, I was handed the keys to my brother-in-law's, uh, motorcycle and he, he looks at me and says, what's the worst that can happen?

And I said, I could die. You know, I've never done that before. And he gives me his helmet and a pair of gloves. And he's like, you understand how it works. And I'm like, I understand the physics of the operation of this bike. And he's like, just go and try it. And within five minutes, I was essentially Googling, you know, motorcycle safety training courses in my area just to, uh,

Just because I wanted more. And there's the inspiration to learn something. It was something that I didn't think too very highly of when I first started it. Five minutes later, it's just like, I need to know more. I want to be able to do this in the safest way possible. And how do I do that? So...

It was quite remarkable. I'm so glad that you mentioned that, Matt, because so many of my students are stuck at confidence first. And I put them through a confidence training program and they're like, but I'm going to sound stupid or dumb or...

I'm going to sound, people are going to judge me. And so I always say that same phrase that you just used. What's the worst that could happen? All right. Well, you might miss a word. Your message gets across and mission accomplished here.

You're successful in your business meeting. You're successful in your job interview. You're successful at whatever you want to do. So confidence really plays a big part there where it's like, what's the worst that can happen? There are no, you know, language police are not going to get thrown in jails for making a mistake.

pronunciation mistake when the whole message is clearly understood or if you leave out a word same sort of thing so now getting getting back into food because I'm a foodie too and maybe I don't know I'm hungry I don't know but

What I really miss about living in Canada that I had to leave behind in Canada to a friend was my meat smoker that I won from a beer and wine store. I used to run a liquor delivery business and there's a delivery business podcast episode talking about this too. But it was like,

Uber Eats or something before it's time. So we won a meat smoker from a local beer and wine store because we made the most purchases as the business grew. So you had every receipt went into the bin, to the meat smoker bin actually, to

win the prize and we won it. They were like, yeah, okay, well, congratulations. We'll just give it to Drinks Delivered, which boosted our business and things like that too. So you've been into this meat smoking and curing meats, making sausages and all sorts of things from scratch. What got you into that or inspired you? And what do you love most about preparing your own food in this way? Well,

Got me into it. Simple curiosity. The idea of making something, call it that complex, over the course of a few days and waiting for it to be, you know, you have to wait for success, so to speak. You have to maintain that inspiration the whole time. The practice runs, I guess, as far as smoking sausage or making sausages is you start with a simple sausage.

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tension on the sausage casing, you know, how full is two-fold before it bursts and just getting that feel. So without putting a whole bunch of work into it where you would have to with the cured and the smoked or the simply cured and dried sausages, you learn the simple stuff and perfect that with the simple sausages. So like an Italian sausage or something like that, that isn't cured and it's just, you know, it's cooked.

and frozen or, or, or, or sorry, made and frozen or it's cooked right away. And that's where you perfect everything. And then you get into the, you add the next level of complexity where, you know, you're having to calculate how much, you know, the, the curing additives and whatnot to use based on how much meat you have. And it's sort of a,

I would equate it to baking, which is a considerable science as far as managing things like acidity or pH and things just to make sure that it's going to work right. And sausage making is very similar. You can change the recipe a little bit. You can change how it's flavored, but the base process has to stay the same.

Otherwise, it ends up being a mistake. And in some cases, it can make a person ill. And that's not something that you want. So you don't want to mess up and do that to either yourself or anyone. Are you a beekeeper? I heard it through the grapevine.

You and your wife have raised livestock and kept bees. What have those experiences taught you about patience, responsibility, or living closer to nature? So I think, you know, a lot of people, wherever they're from, they've either had one themselves or they've had a friend that had a pet that lived in the house, like a dog or a cat or even a hamster or a gerbil.

some people at a very young age learn how to take care of it and understand that level of responsibility i think for me it was fish i had fish because my parents were allergic to cats and dogs so they really weren't in the house my sister had a guinea pig but yes to answer your question my wife and i living out on an acreage we did have a small apiary if you will or beehive and uh

That, that experience was absolutely amazing. I was quite nervous about it because I've always been scared of bees. You know, I used to run away whenever one would approach, I would run away screaming. I've never been stung by a bee, but I've heard that that hurts. And you know, the worst case obviously is, you know, finding out the wrong way that you're allergic. Uh,

um to where you you know anaphylaxis takes over so we received our our packages of bees which i think was 5 000 bees we received two of those and there's there's a queen in a little tiny box and that's the one that's keeping everybody happy and together in their in their

tube and you take the queen out with her in the box and you place it in the hive and you basically just invert the tube and give it one big good shake and the bees fall out into the hive that you've built. The frames with the honeycomb that they start building on. And we had these, you know, incredibly elaborate bee suits with screens over our faces and everything. And, you know, they were sealed with tape and

It was absolutely insane, but it gave me the comfort level and the confidence to be like, they're not going to hurt me. And I'm just going to do what I need to do to help them. And it was basically immersion that did it, where I was immersed in with 10,000 bees when we first got them. And it's like, they're not going to hurt me because I had the suit on, but it allowed me to get really close to observe them.

And I think that was the most fascinating part was being able to watch them. A couple of very common sayings in English are, you know, it was a hive of activity, activity and staring, you know, pulling out a frame with honeycomb that the bees are working on and they're filling with either honey or they're laying eggs and letting the pupae develop, looking at it. And the bees are all doing something.

They have a job, they know what it is, and they're trying to take care of things. You've tried to relax them a little bit with the smoke. You see that the beekeepers with the smoke generators and whatnot, and that calms the bees down. It's not really anesthetizing them, but it's just calming them down. They tend to congregate in the hive because the smoke is kind of a warning to them where maybe there's a fire nearby. We just need to stay together and not do anything too drastic. So that's why the beekeepers do that.

The fact that when they're in the hive or on the frame and they're completely ignoring you.

and they're just doing their job. I think ants, ant hills are similar. They will be frantic if you happen to kick an ant hill open by accident when you're walking through somewhere, but they're just trying to protect themselves, and they're very organized. So a hive of activity. They're always doing something. Busy as a bee. Busy as a bee. That's the other one. It's almost like those sayings, they made no sense to me whatsoever,

until I pulled up a frame in front of my face and was watching the bees do something and then safely put it back. We unfortunately did not, we didn't manage to keep the bees. They didn't winter over. You basically insulate the hive and give them a whole bunch of food and there will be some loss over the winter. A bunch of them will pass away.

but all they're trying to do is keep the queen warm and make sure that she and a few of the other bees survive i think we had the bees for two years we managed to you know get get make our own honey or they made honey for us but it was it was a really interesting journey so you know fast forward to well last week there was a bee that was in the house that got into the house and me without any sort of protection or anything like that i go over to the bee that's on the screen you

you know, trying to get out. It's on the screen in one of the kitchen windows that are open. And I basically just coaxed the bee into my hand and make sure it's not injured or anything like that with the damaged wings, just sitting, walking around my hand. And, you know, I couldn't, I couldn't care less that it's a bee, but...

You know, I feel that much more secure with the bees now. I feel safe. I feel confident. And it's through that experience that we had. I kind of recommend to anyone who has the ability to, meaning that they're not going to offend their neighbors too much. And it's legal to, in the place that you live, to have backyard bees or backyard chickens. They're fascinating watching the mother hen, so to speak, teaching the young chicks, basically showing them how to scrounge for food and scratch around on the ground and

It's amazing to watch. And, you know, it's a really cool experience, you know, whether you're, you know, an adult or a child. Yeah, it's really, really cool to watch. I think it's really cool to watch because you can learn how to learn from an experience like that. Many of my listeners will probably want to know how you experience

truly connected as best friends in high school. And I would say it's through music, DJing, some radio shows, a lot of records and vinyl. And you're still dabbling into whatever this Akai beat machine is. I have no idea what it is. I'm a seasoned DJ and

I kind of know what it is. I looked it up on Google before the interview and I'm like, oh, okay. Kind of like a drum machine or something. That's basically what it is. It's a two octave keyboard. So I think, what's that? I don't know. There's a bunch of keys on it. They're black. And there's 16 program mobile pads or a bank of eight that you can switch to.

that you double up with beat pads and you can start slicing samples. And whether it's your own voice or recorded instrument or a sample that you've taken from another piece of music and through their software, you can start slicing it up and using it and creating beats with that.

There's a couple very, you know, a few famous people on the internet, specifically Ari Insta. I think his name is in New York and he's doing live beat creation, walking down the streets of New York with a battery powered, you know, setup. He's using a little bit more than the $125 keyboard that I have, but he is, the work that he's done is absolutely amazing. He's getting, he's getting a lot of recognition because the,

how creative, you know, he's able to be with somebody that he's basically just, you know, bumped into in the street and said, Hey, do you, you know, do you want to make me make a song? And he does it right there. Each one is different living

Living in New York, it's a lot of guys that like boom bap, but it is what it is. What's on your playlist? What are you listening to these days? What would you say are your top five tracks or groups that you're listening to these days? So I listened to a bunch of music while I was working in the shop before this interview, and I couldn't tell you any of the artists' names. I don't know the song titles. There's only two kinds of music, music I like and music I don't.

but generally it revolves heavily around, you know, house, house music, which is, I think, you know, really that's the piece that brought us together as friends. Oh yeah. UK R&B is another one, you know, sort of like this, this, I wouldn't say it's a, it's a hidden genre and it's really quite popular. You just have to, you know, punch it into your, to your Spotify, Spotify search. And then there's tons of playlists, but I, I,

Artists like, well, you know, Omar. He's been playing for who knows how long. On the jazz funk side, there's Jamiroquai. Again, UK R&B, there's artists that made mainstream popularity. You know, and most people didn't know she was from the UK, but Joss Stone was another one. And, you know,

came out of nowhere in the in the late 90s and it's just like well yeah that's uk r&b that's that's what it is that's why it sounds different just because we don't hear it you know unless you're going to search for it there's there's some some uk garage on rotation a little bit of speed garage every now and then depending on my mood all right but uh sort of you know instrumental centric music is mostly what i'm after i i couldn't be bothered with lyrics i forget the name of the

not disorder, but I don't hear the words that are spoken, but I hear the sound that they make. And to me, it's just another instrument and they can be there and they can not be it, or, you know, they don't need to be there. It could just be another, it could be replaced with another instrument. I did, I've, you know, shared music with my wife. I've sent her the link to something to listen to. And it turns out that it's like the saddest song you've ever listened to, but I thought it sounded cool. I was enjoying it. And it's just like, you know, it,

Her response was, why did you send this to me? It's so sad. I'm like, I wasn't listening to that part. Honey, did you listen to the words? The answer is no, I did not listen to the words because I can't hear them. Yeah, yeah. That's what kept us blocked was that passion that I saw in you that when I saw you groove into whatever I'm playing on, on Strictly Rhythm or Nervous Records or...

You know, that early 90s really good stuff. And I knew you were feeling that. I could tell this guy's into this music and it's never going to leave. And it never has, which is great. It never has for me. And I'm almost, what, 50 years old now. So, yeah, getting there, 49. Your birthday's coming up. It is, it is.

You clearly thrive on learning and trying new things, as we discussed throughout this podcast. But how do you stay motivated? What keeps you motivated, especially when something's frustrating or times get tough or things don't come easy at first? Be motivated by failure. I think those are pretty strong words. Motivated by failure maybe isn't correct.

motivated by the lack of success. If you need to try again, try again. You know, it's like tasting a piece of food. Sometimes a lot of people say, well, I have to taste it twice before I'm able to make that decision. You know, try the thing at least twice. You know, whatever it is. Two years ago, I was, you know, heavily...

not heavily. I was trying to get into indoor rock climbing and that was a lot of fun. But after going on a big, long motorcycle trip, my wife and I got back and I just had other stuff to do and I couldn't get to the rock climbing gym. And now I'm dealing with carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands, which is absolutely terrible. It's been an interesting journey. I'm dealing with my doctor now, but the biggest thing is to staying motivated is, you know, if you

Well, for an example, if you're at the rock climbing gym and you fall off the wall, you know, you get back up and you keep trying. The philosophy there is that, you know, each new boulder or route that you're working on is a project. And you go to the rock climbing gym multiple times and you work on that project. If the idea of going rock climbing, unless you're just going to, you know, stay on the easy stuff, which is totally acceptable. But as you get into a higher level of difficulty,

you start to being only able to do portions of the boulder at a time. And you have to start, okay, I'm going to work on the front part and then I'm going to work on the middle part. And then there's what's called the crux, which is, you know, a difficult aspect within the boulder that you're climbing. And then, you know,

you know, I need to understand that. But then you have to put it all together to go from point A to point B. And typically indoor bouldering, it's not, it's not, you know, very high off the ground. The safety device is, you know, your common sense and a giant floor mat. And, you know, the community there is incredible, able to help. They offer tips, you know, what's called, or the people started calling it the beta because somebody was climbing this

This was like they were doing traditional climbing and bouldering outdoors. And this particular climber was recording them on Betamax cassettes. And people would start asking, you know, do you have the beta? Because they wanted to go climb that same boulder. So it's still called that today. Be inspired by the lack of success. Don't be afraid to try something new.

You know, just keep trying. Eventually you'll get good at one of those things that you've tried. And then once you feel confident, you'll be, you'll be happy to keep going onto something else or you work on, on protecting even, even more that one thing that you've done.

You know, if your goal is to learn to communicate in English, you know, very easily, you know, and have it be done without any sort of hesitation. Even I'm hesitating in my words sometimes and I'm just trying to choose the right word. But don't, it gets better over time. And even people who've been speaking English their entire life still struggle. That's just the nature of the beast, I think.

Yeah, you're listening to two Canadians here and we make mistakes or fumble up on our words or say something that's not grammatically correct, but that's just the way we speak. And that's why we call this real English conversations, you know?

And it's to detach that worry or low confidence of making mistakes because we make them too. We make them too. And I tell my students, have you ever made a mistake in Japanese? Yeah. Have you ever made a mistake in Portuguese with your Brazilian friends? Yeah. Well, it's the same. We don't judge each other.

And if someone's going to judge you, then you shouldn't hang out with them. Madman, this has been an awesome conversation. You've always been someone who follows curiosity, builds new skills, and finds meaning in doing things with your hands. And hearing how you've built this life of yours piece by piece is a huge reminder that it's never too late to learn something new or to start living with more passion.

purpose. Thanks for being here and sharing your story. It means a lot. And I know it's going to inspire a lot of people listening and push who needs a push to try something new, to step outside of their comfort zone or someone who's ready to shake things up a bit. Thanks again, Matt. Thanks, Curtis.

If you're ready to take your English to the next level and start speaking with confidence at work, whether it's in meetings, job interviews, presentations, or important conversations with your boss, co-workers, or clients, I can help you. You don't have to feel nervous about finding the right words, worrying about your accent, or struggling to keep up in fast-paced conversations.

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Let's start with a trial lesson. We'll go over what you want to improve, do a quick evaluation, and map out a plan to help you feel strong and in control when you speak English. I only have a few trial spots available each month, so if you see an opening in my calendar, grab it while you can. Click the link below to book your trial lesson with me now.