09/10/2026
We always want this Popcorn Shoppe page to be used for purposes that enhance our business.
We do this by showing pictures of new recipes, field trips, events we attend like Farmer’s Markets, weddings that have our popcorn at them, or random deliveries of popcorn to unsuspecting people, and other such fun things. Our goal is to make every post we create make those that read it smile.
Rarely do we ever deviate from only posting things relevant to what is happening at Popcorn Shoppe.
Today, this post is going to be different, but for a very good reason.
The owner of The Popcorn Shoppe, Matt, the person writing this post today, is celebrating a massive milestone. While that milestone does not officially come for 10 more days, I have been anxiously awaiting September 19, 2026 because that day for me means:
5 YEARS SOBER CLEAN FROM ALCOHOL! WHOO
I was an alcoholic from age 21 until 36 - 15 years of my life. The man that many of you know as “Popcorn Guy” used to be known as “alcoholic guy.”
September 19, 2021, I gave up that life once and for all. About 5 months later, February 1, 2022, I purchased Popcorn Shoppe in Lacon, from a different owner who already started the company, and who taught me about the world of gourmet popcorn.
That decision to purchase Popcorn Shoppe forever changed my life, but had I not made the decision 5 months prior to forever change my life in a completely different way, and sober up, I never would have purchased Popcorn Shoppe.
What I am about to say next may be very heavy for some people to read. It was very heavy for me to experience in my life, but I am here today writing about it with conviction more than ever to want to help anyone else that may be experiencing what I did.
Where it began: As a child, I was bullied. A lot. Like everyday. Sometimes physical, but most of it mentally. Name calling, picked last on teams and laughed at when that person who had to pick had to pick me. If a girl knew I liked her, she was mocked and ridiculed for even talking to me. Knocking books out of my hands or shoving me into lockers. There was a lot more that does not need listing here.
That sort of kid cruelty caused within me a lot of undiagnosed anxiety and depression and subsequently, confidence issues.
I learned to live with it, and some days really functioned okay, and other days just wanted to hide from everybody and everything.
I never enjoyed b**r. Never. In fact, try to find another alcoholic that spent 15 years drinking, and never once finished a b**r. Wh***ey was my poison. However, I did not know that until after I turned 21, and had people in my life determined to see me drunk for the first time in my life.
That day, the first day I was drunk, I really actually loved it. I did. It was great. I felt dizzy and light and couldn’t walk straight….and also didn’t feel any anxiety at all. For the first time in years, my body just relaxed and I wasn’t stuck in flight or fight mode.
And that began what turned into a 15 year love/hate relationship with wh***ey that I used to self medicate myself into many different situations. Going to Wal Mart? Let me do a few shots to “help me put up with people better.”
Anyone maybe feel that statement a little bit?
Everything in my life became dependent on the feelings I get when I do that activity once alcohol came into my life. I became very good at knowing what liquor I could handle in what situations where I could have booze in me, and very few people around me would even know I had drank anything.
I was married once, in 2015, and sadly we divorced in 2019. I was an alcoholic trying to quit during that time, but my choices pushed away an incredible woman who I once was able to say proudly was my best friend.
In 2019, I was expecting my first child to a different woman. As some of you may know, and some of you may be finding out for the first time right now, my life forever changed on Nov 4, 2019, when my son, Ryan, passed away in the womb at 36 weeks old. One week prior to that, I had a dream and I was told in that dream by a man all in white, that if I ever wanted to see my son again, I had to promise him that I would be bigger than myself.
One week later, my son passed away.
Nearly 7 years later, every single bag of popcorn that we sell out of Popcorn Shoppe has the words “Be Bigger Than Yourself” at the top of the label.
I had been trying to quit alcohol with my son ready to be born, and after his passing, I went back into it hard. Like, I was drinking a 2 liter of wh***ey a week kind of hard.
I weighed about 50 pounds more than I weigh right now.
I needed to have my gall bladder removed because I had damaged it so badly from alcohol. I was given a death sentence by my doctor at 35 years old.
I used to be able to run 5 minute miles in cross country in high school, now over 100 pounds heavier than I was then, and being told my choices were leading to my own destruction.
In 2021, same mother, I found out I would be a father again. Life started to look up again. And then, 16 weeks into the pregnancy, I watched the mother miscarry the baby. 10:30 at night driving her to the hospital, and not leaving until after 2 am, lucky to have mother alive, who coded in the ER, and baby did not survive that night.
That night was June 1, 2021. That night broke me. But it broke me in a way that said I no longer want alcohol to have control over me. And it was a struggle, but September 19, two and a half months later, when I said I quit, that would be the very last time I would ever have to feel alcohol’s power over me.
Now, nearly 5 years later, who am I?
I’ve been called an alcoholic plenty of times. I know I am. I go to Celebrate Recovery meetings Friday nights at my church when able, and speak to other men dealing with addictions about how I was over to overcome mine, and what my life is like now.
I have given speeches to groups about my addiction. I have been blacked out drunk over 1,000 times in my life. Trauma is no joke, and addiction had me way harder than my ability to resist it. It is a very real force that I underestimated. I did not start drinking to become an alcoholic, but I became one regardless.
Months after quitting alcohol, I decided to purchase The Popcorn Shoppe in Lacon. Some of you remember that little corner store downtown. I do. And I remember all the slow days having 2 customers walk in the door in 7 hours.
I loved the idea of Popcorn Shoppe, but not the location. I needed people. So I moved it to The Metro Centre in Peoria. September 8, just one day ago, but also now 4 years ago, we opened our doors to Peoria for the first time.
Our first hire was Daniel, a Down Syndrome individual who was absolutely amazing. His smile was infectious and he came to work everyday ready to pop! He loved Elvis and would dance to Hound Dog as the popcorn was popping.
Community Workshop and Training Center was where he came to us from, and needed a job coach. CWTC that year had an awards banquet, and in front of all attendees, Popcorn Shoppe was given their Employer of the Year Award for hiring Daniel.
We also joined the Chamber of Commerce for Peoria, and in 2024, at their awards banquet, they gave Popcorn Shoppe their highest honor, the Above and Beyond Award. There are hundreds of businesses that could have received that award, and it was given to us.
In November of 2024, we were partnered with April through Best Buddies of Central Illinois. She is a deaf woman who makes almost every single batch of cheese popcorn for us, and is also one of our poppers. April is a fantastic employee for us, and we love having her on our staff. In front of about 300 attendees at their fundraising gala last year, The Popcorn Shoppe was given one of only two awards for the night, and that was their Employer of the Year Award.
The Peoria Journal Star does a best of the best competition each year, and we have entered the previous 3 years only. All 3 years we have been voted Best Gourmet Shop, and 2023 and 2025 Best Specialty Store, getting 2nd place in 2024.
This year The Popcorn Shoppe has conducted 60 different tours for groups to come and enjoy watching how gourmet cheese and sugar coated popcorn is made, trying all our different recipes, and going home with bags to enjoy later. We absolutely love these experiences. It warms our hearts to see so many people getting a behind the scenes tour of something that we get to have fun everyday doing.
I joined my first ever board of directors over 2 years ago, for the Association for the Developmentally Disabled of Woodford County (ADDWC), and am currently the vice chairman of that board.
And now the part that some of you may not want to hear at all, but is the reason for why this entire post is being made.
All those awards listed above are only possible because Popcorn Shoppe is owned by me, and all the things that have happened to move it to Peoria, hire the people we do, and have the desires we do toward the community we want to serve.
Without sobriety, I never would have purchased Popcorn Shoppe.
For 15 years, alcohol ruled my life. I would come home and want to immediately pour myself a drink to “calm my nerves.”
The only reason I was able to quit the booze was because, and here it is, I accepted Jesus Christ into my life as my personal Lord and Savior. April 27, 2025, I was baptized. It was the absolute greatest day of my life. I watched Jamie MacDonald and Seth Schleuter play back to back Heaven and Running Back to You on stage at a concert in Indianapolis, and those songs were number 1 and 2 on the Christian Top 20. What concert anywhere gives you the number 1 and 2 hits back to back, two different artists?
That is how God sets up testimonies.
And I have many more.
I used to be an enemy of the church, speaking out against God. I was glorifying a liquor bottle, and wanted everyone to be as mad at God as I was for the traumas of my past.
Turns out it was God I needed all along.
Now you will find me in church, which is my home away from home, arms raised to the ceiling, praising God every single week.
No more alcohol. Ever again. That is poison for your mind. The Bible explicitly says Do not be a drunkard. The kingdom of Heaven will not be granted to you. I took that warning seriously.
I listen to praise music everyday. I love it. I have been to 3 Elevation Worship concerts, seen over 45,000 hands in the air singing “Praise” at those 3 concerts.
The point is, you don’t have to have a story like mine. But we all have stories. We all have hurts, habits, and hangups that keep us from having our best lives. No matter what that is, and trust me, I was a lost cause that really thought this world would be a better place if I was not living in it. That was 2024 for me.
And then I did something radical, and I prayed for God to change it. And he absolutely did.
2025 was the absolute best year of my life. Choosing Jesus Christ was the greatest decision I ever, and will ever, make. And no matter where you find yourself in your life, he will meet you right where you are at. He met an alcoholic a week before his son would pass, and gave me a dream that would forever change my life, and now be the 4 words that guide my everyday.
Popcorn Shoppe has two mottos: 1. Be Bigger Than Yourself. Always Choose Kindness. And 2. Every customer leaves smiling more than when they arrived.
We do this by offering you a free bag of popcorn, every single day, every single time you walk in our store. I started doing that on day 1 as owner, and never want to stop. I had so many smiles taken from me when I lost Ryan and Claire, and I want to give all those smiles back to the community. If all you want is a bag of popcorn, I am so grateful to hand it to you, see you smile, and be able to tell you to have a nice day. Some people have told me that was the only time that day someone was nice to them. That keeps me always wanting to do that.
I love Popcorn Shoppe. More than I can ever explain to anyone. I am the first to be here and last to leave almost everyday. I pour my heart and soul into this business, because I love what it has become to the Peoria community. I love that I am able to do this everyday and it gives me purpose and worth.
And most importantly, I am so very proud to be able to call myself a child of God. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me has made me the strongest, most confident, and most successful version of me that I have ever been. But I had to say no to all the things holding me back, and be willing to surrender to Jesus and his will for me. It truly was the greatest decision I ever made.
To celebrate 5 years, which the actual date is Saturday 19th, but I want to celebrate all week long, so starting Monday 14 - Saturday 19, every single person that walks in my store, once per day, can have a FREE lemonade shake up. No purchase necessary, come in and get a free bag of popcorn and a free lemonade shake up.
I am so absolutely grateful to be here today doing what I am doing, and I want to do this to give back that love, and celebrate yesterday being 4 years open in Peoria.
Thank you for all the support and love and kindness I have been shown by this community. Truly, thank you. I would love to see all of you in store, and, as I say in almost every other post I write, I would love to be a reason why you smile today 🙂
Cheers!
Our mottos:
Be Bigger Than Yourself. Always Choose Kindness.
Every customer leaves smiling more than when they arrived.
