Matt Smith

The Man Behind the Book

He has lived enough to know the difference.

Matt Smith didn't set out to write a book about joy. He set out to figure out what joy actually was — and whether it was something a person could build toward rather than wait for.

That question grew out of an early morning moment with a smiling dog, a Scottish girl's handwritten list tucked inside an old book, and a sense that life was passing in a way that deserved more attention than he'd been giving it.

Matt and his wife Jane are the founders of Pizza Pie Cafe, which began as Craigo's Pizza in Rexburg, Idaho in 2003 and grew to six locations before they began franchising. They have built, lost, rebuilt, and grown through every stage of their business life together.

Red Rabbit Grill opened in 2017 in Delta, Utah — his father's old restaurant, renamed for his high school mascot. Now three locations. Sparks BBQ was co-founded in 2024 with Chris Sparks and Jacob Muller.

Outside the restaurant world, Matt is an avid cyclist, hiker, and reader. He and Jane have hiked 650 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Matt has finished Lotoja three times — 206 miles from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming — and completed the Beaverhead Ultra in Salmon, Idaho three times. He and Jane split their time between Rexburg, Idaho and St. George, Utah.

Matt is also a man of faith, and he doesn't hide it. That perspective is woven through the book honestly and without apology. But the principles he writes about are universal — confirmed by science, affirmed by wisdom from every tradition, and lived out by ordinary people across centuries of human experience.

The Joy List is his first book. He dedicated it to Jane, who said “I love you” first.

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