Paul Conley

Together Achieving Dreams Foundation

Managing Director 

The Conley Group 

- Built a Men’s Mastermind that has helped 17 individuals launch or transform their businesses
-Coach Executives around excelling in leadership, business planning, and significant personal and business growth
- Lead dynamic team leadership workshops and trainings helping create higher quality results for small and mid sized businesses.

Founder/Coach

7 Figure MSP™

Accountability Coach

Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA

-Mentor and manage a high-performing team of 130+ people, fostering a collaborative and results-driven work environment.
-Transformed and re-organized key operational pieces that has led to a 22% increase in retention and 37% revenue growth since 2021.
Reimagined and developed financial and board development which has led to an increase of 45% in fundraising since 2019.
Launched a leadership development program that aims to increase retention and redesign organizational training

District Executive Director

YMCA of Greater Cleveland

Executive Director

Continuously take on new responsibilities within 100+ year old Cleveland institution. 
Strategically plan and manage all aspects of youth, adult, and family programming for the 12 branch association.
•	Oversee 12 program departments within the YMCA of Greater Cleveland Association.
•	Manage a budget of over $900,000.

Director of Operations Youth Sports

Continuously took on new responsibilities within 100+ year old Cleveland institution. 
Strategically plan and manage all aspects of youth, adult, and family programming for the 50,000 sq. ft. facility that hosts over 11,000 members.   
•	Boosted revenue by 21% with ~ gross profit margin of 30% over prior year
•	Only director of 12 branches to be ahead of 2015 budget year to date
•	Streamlined new marketing strategies within the department
•	Hired 4 part-time employees who have been promoted to full time positions

Program Director, Athletics

Successfully assisted in management and planning of all aspects of youth, adult, and family programming for the branch and supported the Regional Program Director.
•	Increased program registration by 10% from prior year
•	Helped develop youth sports partnership with Cleveland Cavaliers
•	Implemented new communication system that was modeled throughout 12 locations
•	Successfully hired and trained 3 part time staff

Program Coordinator

JPMorgan Chase

Identified customer needs and worked in a team setting to find the best solution to ensure the customer felt comfortable and understood their financial options.
•	Successfully added and maintained over $1 million of deposits annually  
•	Serviced and simplified client needs that attributed to branch being ranked 1st in customer satisfaction
•	Consistently referred business to licenses specialists

Personal Banker

Start a Side Business Not a Side Hustle

I was on the search for something. 

A group for guys where you could develop friendships, learn from one another, help each other. 

A group where people could share their dreams and put actual action behind them. 

A group where experts from all sorts of fields came together to educate and learn from one another. 

And most importantly, a replacement of traditional networking, where true friendships were made. 

Oh yeah, and by the way the group wasn't stuffy, it was filled with fun and social events. 

There was one little problem in my search though....I couldn't find it.

So, I decided to build it.  

If this sounds like what you have been missing, we invite you to apply on my profile, it will be a decision you'll never forget.

Effectively lead a diverse team of 130+ associates and 100+ volunteers in leading a $2.8M operation. 
•	Led the Tampa market in sales in 2019 and improved sales by 15% YTD.
•	Fundraising of $300K cumulatively and highest fundraising year in 2021. 
•	Increased revenue by 10% in 2019 and improved net margin position by 8% YTD.

Graduate corporate life for entrepreneurial freedom — without jeopardizing your income or family 💚 | Pod: UncageYourself.FM 🎧

Directors. VPs. Executives.Ready to go Corporate → Founder in ONE Year?This is the smart path out — without blowing up your life.We help corporate veterans turn their employer into an investor, compress their job by 50%, and launch a 1-of-1 premium business.Corporate becomes a short-term asset — not a lifelong trap.The system is called Corporate Graduation™.And it works.You’ve built a strong corporate life. But you’re likely facing 2+ of these:1) Your time isn’t yours.2) Work consumes everything.3) Family &amp; health get leftovers.4) You’re just going through motions.5) You know you’re meant for more — but have no idea what.It’s costing you — emotionally, physically, financially.You feel stuck. Fading.That was me.Divorced. Burnt out.Later — remarried, rebuilt, and free.I made my employer my investor.Cut hours in half.Launched a business around my genius.Graduated corporate life — forever.Now I help others do the same.Corporate Graduation™ is the system.160+ have used it to:✅ Compress their job into 20 hours/week✅ Exit with runway, not regret✅ Build a premium service business that reflects who they are✅ Create leverage through proprietary IP, not more hoursThis is how you build your founder future — without burning bridges.This isn’t about dabbling.It’s about reclaiming your life.For your family. Your future self. Those you’re meant to serve.No “passive income” BS.Just active transformation — with revenue, clarity, and sovereignty.Ready to graduate?👉 DM me “GRADUATE.”

Matt Doan

When I graduated corporate, I wasn’t confused.

I was exposed.

Exposed to the fact that I’d outgrown the role.
Exposed to how badly I wanted real ownership.
Exposed to the reality that once I chose, there’d be nowhere left to hide.

I see this constantly with Directors, VPs, and execs.

So let me say it plainly:

Indecision at your level isn’t confusion.
It’s fear dressed up as intelligence.

You call it “being thoughtful.”
You call it “waiting for clarity.”
You call it “timing.”

Here’s what’s actually happening:

---

1) Choosing makes ambition visible.
And visible ambition can be judged. So you stay hidden.

2) Waiting feels safer than being wrong.
But waiting has a massive cost.

It compounds quietly.
In lost opportunity.
In regret.

3) Corporate gives just enough comfort to delay.
Golden handcuffs aren’t just financial. 
They’re emotional. Familiar.

4) Optionality has become your security blanket.
You keep “exploring” so you never have to commit.
Research replaces action.

5) You’re protecting an identity that no longer fits.
The “Responsible Provider” identity — the one that avoids risk 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 — is now costing you more than it protects you.

---

None of this means you’re unqualified.

It means you’re standing at an identity edge.

The people who actually change their trajectory don’t wait until January.

They decide before the noise comes back.
Before the calendar refills.
Before corporate urgency crowds out conviction.

When January hits, they’re not debating.
They’re building.

No more blaming the market.
The timing.
The spouse.

They own it.

That’s the leverage of deciding now.

Clarity before the year starts.
Momentum on day one.

---

PS - If this landed:

I’m having a small number of 1:1 conversations in the next few days with people who are done debating and ready to make 2026 their Founder year.

DM me “NOW” if you’re done waiting.

-Matt

Your employer has a plan for 2026.

Do you?

If you’re a Director, VP, or executive, you already know this isn’t about burnout or chasing a new title.

You’ve outgrown the system.

Not because you’re failing...
But because your judgment, IP, and lived experience are worth more than a calendar owned by someone else.

And here’s the truth most people can't bear to face:

If your calendar isn’t yours, neither is your future.

What won’t get you there:

✘ Passive income fantasies
✘ Slow, uncertain side bets
✘ Years waiting for something to maybe work

You don’t have time for that.

What you actually want at this stage is the trifecta:

1) Money
Not just income — leverage tied to your judgment and IP.

2) Meaning
Work that welcomes your full lived experience, not just what your resume says.

3) Freedom
Control over your time, pace, and priorities.
A life not dictated by someone else’s urgency.

Not someday.
Now.

And here’s the uncomfortable reality:

Some of your braver — and frankly less qualified — peers are already moving.

They’re not louder than you.
They’re just earlier.

They’ve put themselves in conditions where 
Corporate → Founder becomes inevitable.

That process has a name: Corporate Graduation™.

Meanwhile, most senior operators stall.

Not because they don’t see it.
But because acting would make the ambition visible.

So they stay sensible.
They keep optionality open.
They wait for clarity that never comes.

Indecision at this level isn’t confusion.
It’s fear dressed up as intelligence.

The people who actually graduate corporate don’t blow everything up.

They compress corporate into a short-term asset.
They move without wrecking what they’ve built.
They decide before the noise returns.

So January starts in build mode — not debate.

---

I recorded a short video walking through what graduating corporate actually looks like — how senior leaders move from Corporate → Founder with high odds of money, meaning, and freedom.

If you’ve outgrown the system, watch it here:
👉 matthewdoan.com/2026

If it clicks, you’ll know the next step.

There’s no extra time hiding in January.

—Matt

You can scroll away. Or choose better. Your call.

No one who truly graduates corporate in 2026 waits until January to decide.

That’s not motivational talk.
It’s a pattern I’ve watched play out — for years.

Right now, 41 Directors, VPs, and execs are actively going through Corporate Graduation™, doing the hard work of turning 2026 into their Founder year.

And they all share one defining trait:

They decided.
They didn’t waver.

Decisiveness isn’t just important.
It’s the trait.

Because you can’t graduate corporate as a half-believer. You can’t build a Founder future while keeping one foot in safety and one foot in fear.

The people who succeed don’t “try this out.” They put themselves in positions where success becomes inevitable.

They invest to create the conditions that produce the key outcomes they need.

They wrap an environment around themselves (structure, peers, energy, accountability) because they understand a hard truth:

High-stakes transformation cannot be done alone.

Here’s what actually happens when people wait:

✘ December passes
✘ The holidays blur everything
✘ January becomes recovery, not execution

Corporate gravity pulls you back in.
The calendar fills.
Decision fatigue resets.

By the time you resurface, it’s spring. Maybe summer.

And the cost isn’t just time — it’s the quiet regret of realizing you’re compounding in the wrong direction… again.

Waiting feels safe.
But it steals certainty.

Deciding on your Corporate Graduation™ before January does the opposite.

It creates a calm, private certainty over the holidays.
January becomes build mode, not debate.
You enter 2026 with extreme momentum and energy.

That’s the difference between hoping the new year is different — and knowing it will be.

This isn’t about recklessness.

It’s about Directors, VPs, and execs deliberately graduating corporate while keeping their families in a strong place — compressing corporate into a tool instead of a trap, rebuilding belief and Founder identity, and turning years of IP, judgment, and lived experience into real leverage.

Something uniquely valuable.
Something that actually lights you up.

One important note:

The January cohort is the final entry point before 2026 financial terms kick in. Current pricing (plus a set of incredible bonuses) won't be available again in this form.

If this landed, watch this 11-minute video:
matthewdoan.com/2026

If it clicks, you’ll know the next step.

To your graduation,
Matt

---

PS - This is genuinely the best deal this program will ever be. Not because of pressure — but because early commitment always carries leverage. The people already inside understood that.

One holiday party felt like Gatsby.

The next felt like a Groupon.

The first was electric.
Posh hotel. Open bar. Champagne flowing. 
Fat bonus just hit. I felt untouchable.

12 months later — same company, same role — tiny venue, two drink tickets, 30% of the bonus.

I had worked harder the second year. 
Way harder.

Didn't matter.

Standing there with those two tickets...
My stomach turned.

I had zero control.

My income? Someone else’s decision.
My bonus? Someone else’s budget.
My time? Someone else’s calendar.

External forces owned my future.

That was a line in the sand moment. I refused to spend another decade building their empire while renting my own life.

Maybe you’re at a holiday party right now.
Maybe the bonus was good. Maybe you feel secure.

Or maybe you’re holding two tickets, wondering how the hell you worked so hard and still ended up here.

Either way — your paycheck, your stocks, your real estate — all of it answers to forces outside your control.

After that second party, I quietly took command. I joined a mastermind for entrepreneurs. 30 founders and me — the lone corporate guy.

I watched them own their days. Build from their genius.
Operate with energy I didn’t know existed.

They weren’t renting. They were creating.

That room changed everything.
Within a year, I was on a wildly different trajectory.

This December, you have a choice:

Another year of two-ticket parties and fake stability…
Or 2026 becomes the year you take control.

👉 matthewdoan.com/2026

Watch it. You’ll know what to do next.

This is your Gatsby moment, ol’ sport.

You became the provider.
And somewhere along the way,
you forgot you were also a person.

The job got bigger.
The title got shinier.
The income kept climbing.

And so did the invisible weight.

Now you're the one everyone depends on.
The mortgage. The tuition. The stability.

You've built exactly what you were supposed to build.
Did exactly what your parents impressed upon you.

But here's what no one told you:

The provider identity has a ceiling.
And you've already hit it.

And it's f***ing heavy... and lonely.

---

5 signs the Provider Trap has you:

1) You've already done the math.
You know your runway to build a new future — and it's long. You've calculated the "what if" more times than you'll admit. You just haven't said it out loud. Or dared to use it.

2) Your best ideas die in the shower.
You have vision. Clarity. IP. But it gets uploaded to company cloud drives — or evaporates by the time you open your laptop to 47 unread messages.

3) You're faking calm.
You're not at peace. You're managing the appearance of peace — for your spouse, your kids, your parents. There's no "compartmentalizing" what you're feeling.

4) You've convinced yourself "later" exists.
Later, when the kids are older. Later, when the market settles. Later, when you feel ready. "Later" is the lie you tell yourself to avoid the discomfort of now.

5) You're avoiding the real conversation.
Not with your boss — with your spouse. Because what if they don't support it? What if disrupting "provider mode" costs you more than staying stuck?

---

Here's the truth:

The Provider Trap isn't solved by working harder.
Or saving more.
Or waiting longer.

It's solved by environment.

You will not think your way out of this alone.
You need a tribe of people walking the same path.
People who've carried the same weight — and found a way through.

That's how you shift from Provider to Founder.
That's how corporate becomes optional.

Not by blowing up your life, but by building a new one alongside it.

December is almost over.
Most people will coast into January, allowing the same reality to rinse and repeat for another 12 months.

You don't have to.

If you're ready to make 2026 your Founder year — not "someday," but actually — I made something for you.

👉 matthewdoan.com/2026

Watch it. If it resonates, DM me the keyword.

Let's build.

Last week, a room of Directors/VPs made bold decisions.

11 insights from our private workshop:

They said: "2026 is my Founder year."

Not someday. Not when the timing is right. Now.

The 11 biggest lightbulb moments from our Founder Era workshop that changed everything:

---

1) You don't need to risk it all to start a new chapter.
The "burn the boats" narrative is a lie. You can build your future while employed — and get your life back immediately.

2) No one else can give you permission.
Not your spouse. Not your boss. Not your mentor. They can't feel what you feel — the "provider" weight you carry every single day. This decision is yours alone.

3) A "supportive" spouse doesn't cut it.
Their biases and conditioning shape what they consider "safe." Ask yourself: How can you do this FOR them instead of waiting for their blessing?

4) You can't start by building a business.
This is why 90% fail. They skip the foundations. Without upgrading Space and Self, your business will collapse under the weight of your old life.

5) "Coach" or "consultant" isn't the answer.
That's just corporate replication — trading time for money with a different title. Founder means ownership. Leverage. Equity. A business that compounds and scales beyond your hours.

6) Your beliefs are the real bottleneck.
Not your resume. Not your network. The doubts, fears, and old stories running in your head — they're preventing bold, exponential action. Recode your Self.

7) Money plays won't save you.
Real estate. Franchises. Buying a "boring business." They're out of your control, and don't give you meaning or freedom anytime soon. They're just money — at best.

8) Your IP is sitting in company shared drives.
Years of frameworks, insights, judgment — uploaded to systems you don't own. That IP is yours. It's your leverage.

9) Your future self already knows the answer.
Participants stepped forward 3 years and asked that wiser version for guidance. The answer: stop waiting. Commit. Create the conditions so you can't fail.

10) The cost of delay is intolerable.
They've been thinking about this for years. Researching. Watching others move. Enough. The price of inaction is too high.

11) The "lone wolf" approach won't work.
You need a gym. A tribe. People who've already drawn the line — or are drawing it alongside you. Environment is the forcing function. It's why they moved... and you're still reading.

---

These weren't reckless dreamers.

They were Directors. VPs. 40+. Families. Mortgages. Tuition. Complex lives.

Every reason not to act.
But they decided differently.

They committed to doing the hard work of reinvention in 2026 — so they could finally flourish in work they love... b/c everything depends on nailing this.

If you're reading this and feeling the same pull…

DM me "GRADUATE."
I'll show you how to make moves like them.

“You don’t need to build a founder mindset.”

That’s the single biggest misconception I see.

We’re taught that founders are a different species.
The business school case study types.
All hype, hustle, and hoodies.

It’s a cultural caricature — and it’s everywhere.

An identity you’re "born with."
Or you need to build from scratch.

But for the Directors, VPs, and operators I work with...
people with 15+ years of real-world weight behind them?

The founder mindset isn’t something you build.
It’s something you uncover.

Because it’s already there.
Buried under decades of fitting in.
Of optimizing for approval and credentials.
Of being brilliant inside the lines.

And then one day...

Your inner world starts boiling.
Your title feels too small.
Your judgment is rented.
Your calendar isn’t yours.
Your creativity is dead.
Your IP is siphoned.

That's the shift.
Not the mechanics of becoming a founder.

But finally admitting you already are one.

And that you've been driving with the corporate handbrake on.

Time to release.

---

PS - 11 minutes that can change everything.
Corporate to Founder in 2026:
matthewdoan.com/2026

The saddest part isn’t going back to school.

It’s shrinking your ambition to fit in.

They’re not chasing freedom.
They’re chasing approval.

Still waiting for a syllabus.
Still asking institutions what’s next.
Still believing the next credential will save them.

It won’t.

You didn’t outgrow the system because you need skills.
You outgrew it because your value can’t be contained in a tiny box anymore.

No credential will fix that.
It just polishes the cage.

I see the posts:
"Accepted to [Top 10 MBA]!"
$200K to relearn what they’ve already outgrown.

(And don't tell me school is where you build yourself in AI and entrepreneurship. You're smarter than that.)

Meanwhile, founders are moving at light speed:
Small, focused tribes.
Building businesses, not résumés.

They’re not waiting for permission.
They’re building leverage around their lived experience.

This isn’t about learning faster.
It’s about finally opting out.

Owning your IP.
Turning insight into equity.
Creating something no school could ever certify.

This is Corporate Graduation™:
Going Corporate → Founder in ONE year.

The next decade won’t belong to the most credentialed.
It’ll belong to the ones who stopped playing defense.
Those who stopped living in the Old Economy.

School doesn’t kill your future.
But shrinking your vision just because it's all you know?
That sure does.

---

Join the New Economy → matthewdoan.com/2026

Everyone's telling you to rest and recharge.

I'm telling you to decide.

Right now, a small group of Directors and VPs are doing something quietly.

They're not "winding down."
They're waking up.

Using these final weeks to make the one decision that changes everything:

Founder.

The founder of a new business, legacy, and life.

Not next year. Not Q1. Now.

While everyone else scrolls, snacks, and "recovers" from another draining year, they're choosing a different 2026.

The next couple weeks aren't a wind-down.
They're a window.

And most people will sleep right through it.

---

Here's what I've learned:

The decisions that change your life don't happen when you're "ready." They happen when you break patterns.

December isn't downtime.
It's decision time.

The people who enter 2026 with real momentum?
They're not relaxing right now.
They're moving.

Choosing to stop wearing the mask.
Choosing to stop deferring the dream.
Choosing to stop saying the timing isn't right.

Because the timing is never right.
And your family isn't waiting for perfect timing.
They're waiting for a version of you that's fully alive.

---

I've watched it happen too many times:

Someone spends all of December "thinking about it."
Then January comes. Then Q1. Then "after summer."
Then another year vanishes.

The gap between who they are and who they could be?
It's as vast as the Grand Canyon.

Meanwhile, the ones who moved in December?
They're already building. Already free.

Don't let that be you, watching from the sidelines again.

The next couple weeks can either confirm your current trajectory... or completely alter it.

One decision.
One commitment.
One move that tells yourself — and your family — that 2026 is different.

That's how Founders are made.
Not in January.
In December.

---

If you're ready to make 2026 your Founder year, I made this short video for you — explaining everything.

👉 matthewdoan.com/2026

Watch it. You'll know what to do next.

Make this the most decisive December of your life.

2025 broke me into pieces.

One word put me back together.

Last year felt like a rocket ship. 
I was soaring in my post-corporate life.

Momentum. Insane money. Things working. You start to believe the good just keeps compounding.

But by mid-2025, it came to a screeching halt.

AI slop hid me from my people. I could see gaps everywhere in how I was helping clients. I knew, deeply, that I was playing below my standard — below what I was capable of delivering.

I'd slipped into cruise control. 
Assuming progress would just continue.

Instead, everything forced a reckoning.

Hard conversations. New mentors. New investments in myself. New skills. New commitments to clients. A lot of time, money, and energy spent rebuilding the plane while flying it.

Uncomfortable. And necessary.

What finally brought it together was one word: 

FOUNDER.

Not as a title. As an identity.

Here's what that word gave me:


1) It named who I was all along.

"Founder" gave me permission to stop orbiting other people's systems and take responsibility for the whole thing. My work, my impact, my trajectory. I wasn't an employee anymore, but I wasn't owning the role of architect either. This word closed that gap.


2) It clarified who I'm meant to help.

Not consultants. Not coaches. Not dabblers. People ready to build something real from lived experience... with their IP. Founders of businesses, yes — but more importantly, founders of entire lives. People who understand that freedom isn't found in someone else's framework. It's designed from the ground up.


3) It unified money, meaning, and freedom.

I stopped treating those as competing goals. For too long, I'd kept them in separate buckets — like I had to sacrifice one to get the other. Founder made it clear: they belong together or none of it works. You can't build a life that matters if you're broke. And you can't build wealth that lasts if it's disconnected from who you are.


2025 wasn't about scaling faster.
It was about rebuilding correctly.

That word didn't hype me up. It grounded me.

If you're having your own moment where what used to work no longer fits — that doesn't mean you're off track.

It usually means you're being asked to step into who you actually are.

This is the work of Corporate Graduation™.

Not leaving a job. Not chasing an exit. But becoming a Founder in the truest sense of the word.

My aim is simple: to build founders. Of businesses, yes. But more importantly, of entire lives.

If this resonates, I go deeper here:
corporategraduation.com

Remember:
You're not behind. You're becoming.

—Matt

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