Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Eliason & Matt Meade
Hi Nick & Matt, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
We got started in March of 2020, while looking to secure full-time jobs. This was during the peak of the pandemic & rather than hiring, most companies were looking to cut costs and/or payroll. There was zero question that we wanted to remain involved with athletics & find a way to build a brand or community that reflected our passion for Minnesota sports. With Nick playing football at Minnesota-Duluth, Matt interning for MSU athletics in Mankato, & Max studying business at The University of Oregon, our schedules were very different. One thing we could always connect over was our hometown team, The Minnesota Vikings. Nick & Matt decided to start VikesVerified on a whim that spring, not really knowing what to expect or how to build a community of fans. One thing we always say is that the content is the driver of the vehicle. The more value & knowledge that we can provide fans, the more fulfillment we get from VV as a whole. As tough as it can be to stay consistent after tough losses, injuries, & busy schedules, the responses & feedback from our following keep us going!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest challenge is just continuing to evolve. Growth comes in many different forms, but it can certainly be frustrating trying to implement new strategies or seeing new ideas struggle to take off. Our main focus is just laying one brick at a time. When we started our podcast, we were recording in the basement of our house in Golden Valley. Using Nick’s college MacBook & a podcast kit from Amazon, we were able to start churning out episodes & having friends on the show to give their opinion. Learning to produce the show, upload the show to different streaming platforms, & dealing with all the editing ourselves, it became a bit overwhelming to record weekly. We took about a year-long break from November 2021 to September 2022. Very glad we decided to pick it back up because 10 episodes later, we were partnered with PullTab Sports who was now providing us with a professional studio to record in.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
VikesVerified is a Minnesota Vikings Community + Podcast. Our largest community is on Instagram, but we are active on all major social media outlets. I think what we’re “Known For” would be interviewing Vikings players & personnel on our show, hosting watch parties for the fanbase in Minneapolis, & keeping fans locked in with the latest news & opinions from us. We would say being able to interview players & getting an inside perspective on who they are on & off the field is some of our proudest work. Our work ethic & constant desire to evolve in the industry is what we believe sets us apart. We want to be the best at what we do & inspire our fan base as we continue the quest for the franchises first Super Bowl.
How do you think about luck?
Starting at a time when podcast & social media pages started to rise & gain popularity. The pandemic also slowed life down for us. If we would’ve landed full-time jobs sooner, we may not have began in the first place. Luck is always a bit involved with networking as well. “Faces & Places” is a quote we like to live by.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vikesverified.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vikesverified/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vikesverified/
- Twitter: https://x.com/VikesVV
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@vikesverified
