Name
Matt Malone
Company/Organization
Mid-West Family – WSJM, Inc.
What Does Your Company/Organization Do?
Content creation, business development, marketing and an entertainment medium.
Age
34 going on 94
Accomplishments
I’ve been able to help bring awareness to campaigns in our community for needs like food commodity distribution for the Southwest Michigan Community Action Agency and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where our audience has been able to set records for monetary and product donations. We’ve been able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in my five years of being in the community. That’s something I’m very proud of from our listenership!
What else do you hope to accomplish by the age of 40?
I started a new event this year called the Hero Climb that happened on September 11th, and my hope is that within five years we will be able to raise as much money during that event for our emergency services personnel as we do for Stuff-a-Truck and St Jude.
Education
- Associate Degree in the Applied Science of Marketing.
- Digital Marketing Mastery certification
- Sales University Graduate (Mid-West Family)
- Programmers University Graduate (Mid-West Family)
Residence
St. Joseph, MI
Where were you born?
St Paul, MN
What was your first job?
(First taxable job) Custodian at my school district.
Best advice you ever got?
- Never let success go to your head, and never let failure go to your heart.
- Never pass up an opportunity!
- Never burn a bridge, you never know when you may need help yourself.
Who inspires you most?
I have to say my Uncle Perry. He is a prime example of hard work, dedication, and success while finding the opportunity to still have fun and enjoy life. I also have to say my brother-in-law Jean for all of the hard work that he’s put into being able to have the life he has today, my twin sister as she also is a very hard worker and passionate individual, and my girlfriend Jena who is so caring about so many causes and the first person to say “I’m in!” when I bring up an opportunity for us to volunteer or help an organization.
That one thing about you we’d be most surprised to learn.
I’ve never seen a Rocky movie!
What do you love to do in your downtime?
I really love fishing. Not a whole lot better than getting the line wet while sipping on a barley pop. I also love hunting and if I had more free time I would love to get into woodworking as I really enjoyed doing that when I was in high school.
What book are you reading now?
Listening to an audiobook The Stand by Stephen King
Volunteer activity you love the most.
I really enjoy doing food distribution for the SMCAA, and honestly, I wish I could do it more! I’ve made friends with so many people in the organization that it feels like I actually am part of the team!
What motivates you to give back to your community?
I’ve shared this information many times on the air, but I’ve been very lucky in life to have had so many people help me and my family growing up. A few examples: Getting food commodities while my mom was going to college while raising twins, having teachers drive us to and from school 45 miles one-way while our mom was sick in the hospital, my father getting custody of us after our mom passed away and having our community donate Christmas presents to us the first year so we would get a Christmas (delivered to us by our Superintendant’s wife dressed up like Mrs. Claus). My mom had pediatric cancer when she was a teenager and without treatment and research done by leading hospitals like St Jude she wouldn’t have survived – meaning my sister and I wouldn’t have been born…so I kinda, in a way, owe our lives to organizations like St Jude as well as the great lives we live today because of great organizations like United Way and food commodity distributors like the SMCAA. I’ll never be able to repay what I’ve received, but I will continue to try until the day I am no longer able to open my eyes.
What Superpower would you most love to have?
I’d love the ability to have supersonic speed so I could get more work done and make more time to go fishing!
What has been the most eye-opening thing about the coronavirus pandemic for you, personally?
I think the most eye-opening thing is observing our human population being able to adapt when absolutely necessary. As a perfect example, QR codes were never highly used because so many people didn’t fully understand what they were or how to use them…but then you look at going to a restaurant during the time of the pandemic and people didn’t have a choice, if they wanted to read a menu they had to use a QR code. Resilience might also be a cliché term at this point, but I do believe it is very fitting, too.
What does the honor of being named to the 40 Under 40 most mean to you?
Outside of being Student of the Month in middle school, the Outstanding Marketer award winner in my college graduating class, and one Wisconsin Broadcasters Association award, I really have never received an award professionally. I’m humbled by the fact that individuals took time to nominate me – that they felt I was worthy of recognition like this. I’m very appreciative and am happy I snuck in with 6 years still left in my eligibility! 🙂
