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I'm Matt Macdonald, owner of Men with Manners.

I'm 35 and I live in Sydney, Australia, with my wife, Amie, and baby girl, Madeline.

Hobbies: cooking, singing and playing guitar, walking, video games.

Interests: family and friends, writing, film & tv, horror stories, business, football.

Lifetime goals: To be the best father, husband, and son I can, and to instil confidence, authenticity, and gentlemanliness in over one million men.

Matt and Amie

MEN WITH MANNERS TIMELINE

  1. 2010-2020

    After 7 years in recruitment, I started my own agency. I was a successful recruiter and commercially minded, so it seemed an easy decision.

    The business failed miserably.

    Turns out it was missing an ingredient I didn’t realise was so important at the time: Purpose.

    This isn’t to say a career in recruitment is purposeless. Rather: I knew what to do and how to do it, but I didn’t have a big enough reason why.

    I always promised myself that if recruitment didn’t work out, I’d move to tech sales. So 18 months later, I began my employment with a marketing software organisation named HubSpot.

  2. NOVEMBER 2020

    Although I enjoyed my software sales job, I felt something was missing.

    At first, I believed it was my desire to start another business. Eventually, I realised I simply needed a fulfilling hobby.

    So I started a blog.

    But I didn’t just want to muse about my life. I wanted to provide value and make an impact.

    Given how many friends and family had commended my sound dating advice over the years, I figured this was the best place to start.

    I also wanted to encourage men to be gentleman, thus the name “Men with manners.”

    In November 2020, I launched the "Men with Manners" blog and shared my articles on Reddit and Medium.

  3. FEBRUARY 2021

    Over the following months, I dedicated around 3 hours each night to writing and posting blogs online. Early in 2021, with about 25 blog posts under my belt, I struck gold on Reddit with one titled: "Women don't like nice guys. Women like good men." The post garnered over 100,000 views, 7,000+ upvotes, and received an outpouring of positive comments, appreciation, and DM requests for further insights.

    Realising I had something valuable to offer, I decided it was time to take my insights to a wider audience – Instagram.

    In February 2021, Men with Manners Instagram page was born.

  4. MAY 2021

    My first Instagram post received only 2 likes.

    But after a month, my most popular post had garnered 10 likes.

    With time, my posts started getting 10 likes within the first 30 minutes – a promising sign of progress.

    Within the initial 3 months of creating my Instagram account, I received numerous DM requests for 1:1 coaching.

    Given I lacked credentials and coaching experience, I always politely turned these requests away.

    Then, one of my followers was going through a severe confidence crisis. I agreed to a video call, and over the next two hours, I watched as my guidance melted away at his stress and anxiety. He told me, "I can't believe how much better I feel."

    This sentiment had me hooked. I had to be a coach.

    In the following months, I immersed myself in research, took online courses, collaborated with psychologists, offered free sessions to my followers, and hosted advice Q&As on Instagram.

  5. AUGUST 2021

    Satisfied by my preparation, I felt ready to start coaching clients.

    I put a post out on Instagram advertising my services, and a few days later, conducted my first paid coaching gig.

  6. FEBRUARY 2022

    Between my coaching and eBook sales, I wasn't quite earning enough to replace my full-time salary, but if I ever wanted to, I couldn't do it while working a mentally taxing full-time job.

    Thanks to my extremely supportive wife, I quit my job in February of 2022 and began pursuing Men with Manners full time.

  7. MAY 2022

    Men with Manners reaches 100,000 Instagram followers.

  8. MARCH 2023

    For the previous 12 months, all while coaching and creating content for Instagram, I'd made a note of every useful piece of advice, technique, and information I shared with my dating coaching clients.

    II collated all of this data in March, 2023, to create my first interactive online course: THE FEARLESS GENTLEMAN.

  9. MAY 2023

    I hit full capacity for my coaching services (35 sessions per week), and for the first time ever, had a waitlist for new clients.