Pineapple-Shaped Cheese, Six-Pound Goldfish, and Raising the Floor So You Don't Drown
From Backstage w/ Matt Stone by Matt Stone Enterprises
April 17, 2026 · 9 min
About this episode
Matt Stone discusses his experiences at a nonprofit event and reflects on the challenges of building a business.
Down to a lovely 77 degrees after almost 90 yesterday (65 days until summer), and Matt’s happy about it. Last night’s nonprofit event was packed with sweating professionals in jackets—met two women from Colombia working for a nonprofit, a writer, all kinds of interesting people. Not a community he’s heavily involved in, but he felt part of it instantly. Good for the soul. After sharing trivia about pineapple-shaped cheese (1810—truly a gift to humanity), Geraldine Mock’s solo flight around the world (1964), Apollo 13 returning safely (1970), and a six-pound goldfish caught in California (1996—imagine that thing), he dives into what’s really on his mind. He’s tired but working on next week’s presentation for a networking group. Yesterday the curtain started pulling back—the flow, a self-assessment, the stories and data he’ll bring in. Now he just needs to distill it down into something punchy and interactive. He’s 85% there. Put the call out and it comes. But here’s the thing: building any business is rocky and up-and-down in the beginning. You get a victory, wait for the next thing, keep plowing away. At some point you ask: how can I create a higher floor, a safety net, in the…
People in this episode
Host: Matt Stone
Topics covered
- nonprofit events
- business challenges
- self-assessment
- networking
- entrepreneurship
Keywords
- nonprofit
- networking
- business
- self-assessment
- entrepreneurship
- Colombia
- Apollo 13
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Colombia
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