America's 250 & Community Leadership with Matt Smith
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America’s 250 & Community Leadership with Matt Smith:
“I grew up in Sanford, and when I look back on my journey, I don’t think I ever could have planned it exactly the way it unfolded. I knew pretty early on that I wasn’t a traditional college-bound person. The classroom wasn’t necessarily where I felt like I learned best. My grandfather served, my dad served, and I was already an outdoorsy kid who couldn’t wait to get home from school, drop my books, and run into the woods. Hunting, fishing, being outside, that was just part of who I was. So, in many ways, all roads led to the military.
I enlisted in the Army, served three years of active duty, and then nine years in the National Guard. Right out of the gate, I was sent to Mogadishu, Somalia, and that experience shaped the rest of my life. When you serve in a combat theater overseas and see up close how other people live, it gives you a deep sense of gratitude for what we have here. I was a 19-year-old kid from Sanford in a foreign country, surrounded by a different culture, and my eyes were wide open. When I came home, even simple things felt different. You realize how fortunate we are to walk out our front doors, get in our cars, and go where we want to go without thinking twice. That kind of gratitude stays with you.
The military also taught me something that carried into everything I did after that: you get up in the morning, you put your boots on, and you go to work. Nobody is going to do it for you. That mindset became incredibly important when I became an entrepreneur. After the military, I worked a couple of different jobs, but I had this pull toward building something of my own. I was a member of a gym at the time, and I kept thinking, ‘I can do this. I think I can do this better.’ I didn’t have a business degree. I had never worked in a gym. But in some ways, that was perfect, because I had only been a consumer of that service. I knew what people wanted, what they deserved, and how they wanted to be treated.
So, Julie and I started Smitty’s Iron Works in early 2003, and that season of life lasted until 2015. It was a beautiful season. It was hard work, but it was also one of the most meaningful chapters of my life. It taught me about people, about relationships, about community, and about the responsibility business owners have to be involved. This community gave me so much. How could I not give back?
That’s really how a lot of my community involvement happened. It was organic. If I saw a mission I believed in, or people doing work that mattered, I wanted to be part of it. Whether that was coaching track at Meridian, volunteering with The ROCK, being involved with Leadership Midland, supporting youth development, veterans, or other community efforts, I kept seeing the same truth: people need people. Young people especially need reliable adults who will listen to them, mentor them, and help them build the soft skills that can change the direction of their lives. In a world where people are becoming increasingly isolated and dependent on technology, we have an obligation to open doors rather than close them.
When I transitioned out of Smitty’s and eventually into real estate with Modern Realty, I realized the work wasn’t as different as people might think. Fitness and real estate are different services, but they are both built on relationships. In both, you listen to people talk about where they are, where they want to go, and the challenges they are facing, and then help them find the path forward. Whether someone is buying their first home or selling a home after a life change, it comes down to empathy, communication, and trust.
That is also why America’s 250 means so much to me. I remember 1976, and now, 50 years later, we have this chance to create something that people will remember 50 years from now. This celebration is about history, but it’s also about unity. When we look at the Declaration of Independence, we can talk about the people who wrote it, the imperfect lives they lived, and the complexity of our history. But we can also look at their vision and ask what we can still learn from it.
For Midland’s celebration, we want people to walk away with a deeper understanding of how that document came to be and why it still matters. Thomas Jefferson was only 31 when he wrote ‘A Summary View of the Rights of British America,’ and that helped plant the idea that the colonies might not be just rebelling. Maybe they were becoming something new. Two years later, he was chosen to help write the Declaration of Independence. That document became one of the most defining pieces of writing in the modern age.
My hope is that people come to this celebration on July 4th on the west side of Dow Diamond at 3:00 PM and feel that sense of connection. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you believe. This is still part of what binds us together. We will have a 50-foot-tall replica of the Declaration on display. I came across a quote from a soldier at Fort Ticonderoga after the Declaration was read: ‘Now we are a people.’ That’s what I want people to feel. Not that we are divided people. That we are a people. As a community, we will have the opportunity to reflect on the Declaration of Independence and sign it together.
Looking forward, my hope for Midland is that we keep choosing each other. We may not be able to fix every national problem, but we can be an example of what it looks like when a community steps up, listens, serves, and works together. I want Midland to continue being a place where people feel connected, where young people are supported, where families want to stay, where people who left want to come back, and where everyone can look around and say, ‘I belong here, and I have a role to play.’”
Do you have a Midland County story you would like to tell that aligns with our vision?