Matt George Wants To Amplify ‘Maritime Minds’ With New Media Company
SAINT JOHN — A New Brunswick entrepreneur wants to amplify Atlantic Canadian voices with a new media and podcast network.
Matt George is the founder of the Unsettled Media, a company aiming to produce shows that elevate brilliant minds and ideas out of Atlantic Canada.
The idea to start the network came from George’s experience producing his own podcast called Unsettled with Matt George, where he explores the intersections of culture, business & technology through interviews with thought leaders, entrepreneurs and more.
“It’s a really incredible way to meet people you want to make a connection with and dig deeper into their story,” he says. “If you’re going to ask them if they want to sit down with you for a coffee for an hour, it’s maybe a 50/50 chance they’ll say yes. But for a podcast, it kind of takes it to a new level because they get to amplify their message and it’s a great way to dig into their story.”
Podcasting could also be a great way to make money, he says. The industry has seen some very hefty transactions over the last year, including most recently the Joe Rogan Experience podcast being acquired by Spotify for what’s been reported to be over $100-million. The music streaming service also purchased The Ringer podcast network earlier this year. That’s not even mentioning the advertising revenue podcasts can make and other untapped markets for the medium.
“I thought, ‘okay, there’s something here.’ I’ve seen the growth in the industry, specifically with advertiser revenue, the industry growth has been absolutely incredible as people shift from standard traditional media over to do new mediums like podcasting,” says George.
“Podcasting itself isn’t all that new but there’s a lot of communities that haven’t yet dug into the medium and there’s a lot of blue sky available within that industry.”
George had previously worked in economic development and immigration, working on a lot of the province’s immigration programs, including the Syrian response in 2015. But he recently decided to pursue the growth of Unsettled Media full-time.
“On the one hand, a pandemic for some is a terrible time to be an entrepreneur … But on the other side, it’s an incredible time to be an internet-based entrepreneur and build an online business, especially as people go to build out their platforms. Businesses want to get their message out in a different way. We’ve seen every organization put out a webinar series of some kind to try to reach their audience,” says George.
“I thought okay, what we really should be doing is setting up a network here where we become a production company that tries to amplify Atlantic Canadian podcasters and Atlantic Canadian companies that are trying to reach their audience through audio.”
The Unsettled Media Podcast Network currently has three shows: Unsettled with Matt George; Growing Pains with David Campbell and Newcomers in Businesses with Karla Briones. All these shows fit into the company’s mission of highlighting Atlantic Canadians and fostering conversations around economic growth. George says the goal is to have five more added at the end of the year.
When it comes to revenue, Unsettled Media has two sources of revenue. The first is through developing and fostering shows with talents. When the company finds a host/show they want to have on the network, they’ll cover the upfront costs of producing and branding the show. Any revenue from things like advertising and events will be shared between the company and the host.
“What we want to be able to do is attract an incredible Atlantic Canadian voice or Maritime mind that otherwise wouldn’t explore the medium either because it’s too complicated to get into, or they’re just so focused on their traditional media streams. What we want to do is say, ‘all you have to do is show up and be great.’ That’s it,” says George.
“We’ll handle the audio production. We’ll host the audio. We’ll complete an entire branding and image for the podcast … We’ll do all the work. You just show up and be you and hopefully, we can share in the upside and we look to gather advertiser revenues or as we look to do paid webinar content.
The revenue stream is producing podcasts for businesses and organizations. Unsettled Media can be hired to help an organization of business produce a podcast or podcast series that explores a topic or issue. For example, Unsettled is helping produce the Turning Point Series being put on by theNew Brunswick Business Council and nine other economic development, business and community organizations.
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“If you’re a business or an organization that wants to get your message out there or explore a branded podcast, we can absolutely look at doing an agreed-upon run of episodes that dig into the topics that your business is dealing with and give your clients a completely different way to interface with what you’re doing,” says George.
Unsettled Media also has its newsletter, which features content curated and/or written by George and will soon incorporate content from show hosts and more. There is a free version of the newsletter as well as a subscription model for those who wish to receive additional content.
“We want out listeners and readers to engage with us in literally any medium they want,” says Geroge. “So supplementary to the podcast, we have the Unsettled Newsletter which we publish on Substack. We monetize through patron contributions.”
One of the appealing things about podcasting is that it’s accessible and relatively easy and inexpensive to do. It takes a lot of work for shows to get beyond “hobby status” and reach a point of growth where it can generate considerable revenue. But George plans to do that with Unsettled Media, making it a go-to place for quality and thoughtful podcasts out of Atlantic Canada.
“It’s something that I’m so focused on, is amplifying Atlantic Canadian content by Atlantic Canadians,” says George.
“The mission is to amplify the best Maritime minds on offer and to send that message out to the world because I think we have a lot to offer.”