Matt Smith is a nationally recognized musician, founder of Six String Ranch, and Music Studio Director of Phoenix Academy Austin, a youth residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility. Here he recounts how, as a young street musician, he came to understand both the importance of deep listening and the power of manipulative rhetoric. In addition to saving him from a potentially dangerous situation as he encountered the California-based People’s Temple cult, these insights have also become foundational to his current work as a musician and teacher.

– Matt Smith (Musician, Founder of Six String Ranch in Austin, TX)