An Inspired Chat with Michael McGoey of Boulder

Michael McGoey shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Michael, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Energy and intelligence are wonderful attributes but prove worthless in the absence of integrity.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Michael McGoey, I live in Colorado and run a gemstone business known as Turquoisematrix. As a business, Turquoisematrix provides turquoise, variscite and various other gemstones to jewelers and collectors around the world. The business was born online in 2008 selling first through eBay and later through Instagram starting in 2015. Since joining Instagram, the business has amassed over 54,000 followers, providing hundreds of thousands of stones to jewelers – primarily in the United States. In addition to the invested efforts selling on social media, I run a website as well at www.turquoisematrix.com.

The business is unique in many ways. The Sunday sales on Instagram each week offer a variety of over 30 different types of turquoise to my clients. This is turquoise mined mostly in the United States, but also internationally, from Mexico to China, from Egypt to Kazakhstan. I am very demanding when it comes to quality. My clients will say over and over again that the business provides them with the most consistent, highest standard in cabochon quality. This is incredibly important for a jeweler as a poorly cut stone will not show well in a ring, bracelet or pendant. Instead, a well cut stone with unique character can actually bring more interest to a piece of jewelry for sale, serving as a differentiating factor.

I am grateful each day that I get to be involved in this business. It has fostered a broad community of impassioned makers that continue to inspire me every day. As a jeweler myself, I feel connected to my clients and believe strongly that positive energy is carried forward through these stones to not just the maker but the end client who gets to wear, cherish and pass down their one of kind jewels for generations to come.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
Growing up in New Jersey I had very little exposure to the outside world. My family traveled by station wagon on vacations, mostly to upstate New York to be with extended family. Living so close to New York City I was exposed to the glamour and grit of city life but generally knew little of the rest of the US, not to mention the world.

At 17 I had the opportunity to travel to Oaxaca Mexico to spend a summer doing service work in a small mountainous town with no electricity or running water. This tiny one road town was filled with indigenous people, primarily of Zapoteca descent. Over the course of that summer I came to understand a great deal about values in life. The people I lived with had very little in the form of material possessions, they lived in earthen homes and subsisted on small farms and trading. There was one car that came through town once a week that sold bread.

Despite the lack of possessions and living a life often filled with hardships, the people of Yuvila were the warmest, most endearing people I had ever met. I was embraced by the community and shared my time learning and laughing to the point of crying. Up until that point in my life I believed that happiness came from wealth and the accumulation of material possessions. I returned to the US with a different perspective on what true joy actually looked like. It was like a veil had been removed from eyes, one that could not put back.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering has taught me to value the moment. To live fully in each moment as best I can with little to no attachment to a future that I have no control over. This presence also requires the release of a past that I cannot change. The struggles in my life have served as a catalyst to help others, understanding that there is always someone who has it harder. By investing my time and energy to help relieve some of their burden, I actually heal myself in the process.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Is the public version of you the real you?
I believe it is. The chronic health issues I’ve battled through most of my adult life have forced a grounding truth to my life. This truth, for better or worse, is not built on illusions. I do not have the capacity to show up in public as anyone besides myself. I don’t have the energy required to live a life lying to other people, myself included. I will say there are a few versions of Mike that people in public may or may be exposed to. I may come across as a bit introverted but I assure you when the reggae, funk, afro-cuban, brazilian or old school hip hop come on the radio, I’m the first one on the dance floor.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I already live this way. I’m doing what I intend to do and spend time with the people who bring joy to my heart.

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