What's Your Repeatable Format?

Alex Cooper’s media company Unwell just took its first outside investment at a $500 million valuation, on its way, Matt suspects, to making her a billionaire. It started as one person (with a co-host) talking candidly into a mic and grew into a podcast network, live events, streaming projects, consumer products, and a creative agency. Matt’s quick to say this isn’t the path most of us are on, and he sets the controversy aside to get at the business lesson — because there’s one underneath the empire that’s genuinely transferable, no matter your scale. The lesson: find your repeatable format and commit to it. Cooper found a medium that let her show up over and over, hone her craft, and build an audience until she knew exactly who she served — and then she drilled in. That’s the move. What’s the format that lets a bit of your personality out, tells people where to find you in a chaotic feed, and lets you keep practicing? A newsletter isn’t one thing; it’s a blank palette for your unique expression. Same for a podcast, video, or audio-only. The magic isn’t the medium, it’s the repetition — Call Her Daddy has run many hundreds of episodes, and that consistency is what compounds. Matt reframes the goal, too: you don’t need Cooper’s millions, you need your first couple hundred true fans. Do it right and your audience becomes a market that becomes a community, and the overlap of those two is where the signal gets strong enough to tell you what to build next. It scales however you want — a media empire, or a two-person consultancy doing $3 million a year. The question is the same either way: what’s the repeatable format you’ll keep coming back to, fall on your face on, and show up for until the inflection point arrives? (Matt’s own answer is this show — still hovering around 50 Substack subscribers, and honest that losing even one stings, but growing across every platform, and he’s grateful you’re part of it.) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mattstone.substack.com