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Jim Matuga (proud resident of West Virginia and Founder of Inner Action Media) has built a 14+ year agency, a statewide storytelling platform, and a leadership philosophy that flips the script: real influence often comes from the middle, not the corner office.
In this episode, we talk about:
- The hidden power of followership (and why it’s not “less than”)
- How to exercise influence right now without a title
- Why most people communicate, but few truly connect
- The “first second” reality of modern attention
- How a consistent local podcast became a compounding impact engine
Guest: Jim Matuga: jim@inneractionmedia.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmatuga/
Inner Action Media: https://inneractionmedia.com/
Book: https://humbleinfluencebook.com/
Positively West Virginia: https://positivelywv.com/positively-wv/
Positively West Virginia: https://positivelywv.com/positively-wv/
Host: Adam W. Barney
Transition Leadership Foundation Call (20 min): https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/foundation-call-20min
Creators and Guests
What is Is Anything Real??
Is Anything Real? is the Reality-First Leadership podcast for builder-leaders who want outcomes, not optics. Each week, Adam W. Barney sits down with founders and operators to unpack positioning, marketing, community, energy management, and influence - plus the numbers behind what actually worked.
You’ll hear: a quick Reality Check, a practical Proof Stack (inputs → actions → outcomes), and one EnergyOS habit you can run this week. Specifics over slogans; humane systems over hustle cosplay.
New episodes every Wednesday at 12:00 PM ET.
👉 Book your 20-min Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min
[00:05.4]
Some people chase influence by being loud. Others earn it by being humble. Today's guest has built an over 14-year agency, a statewide storytelling platform, and a leadership philosophy that flips the script. He's living proof that influence doesn't always come from the corner office.
[00:23.5]
Sometimes it's built from the ground up, one story at a time. Welcome back to "Is Anything Real?", the show where we cut through the hype and talk about what actually drives growth. I'm Adam W. Barney, and today I'm excited to sit down with Jim Matuga. Jim is the founder of Inner Action Media, a West Virginia agency he scaled for 14 plus years, the host of the Positively West Virginia podcast, and the author of Humble Influence.
[00:49.6]
His work blends storytelling, leadership and marketing in a way that's both hyperlocal and widely resonant. Jim, welcome to the show. Adam, thanks for having me. I love what you're doing, and I'm just glad to be here with you to have a conversation. Awesome. Thank you for being here.
[01:05.5]
Jim, let's start by, you know, take us back to 2010. What inspired you to launch Inner Action Media and what gap did you see in the market there? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I had been in the advertising business since 1988, believe it or not, Adam, way before you were born.
[01:23.3]
Oh, no, I was born. I was six in 1988, to be honest. All right, there you go. You look very young. So, so, yeah, 1988, you know, I graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in advertising. And what got me into advertising to begin with was a love of writing.
[01:38.6]
I didn't realize it, but, my background as a musician, as a drummer, as a songwriter, and just loving to write got me into the advertising field. And so I built the business. And in actually was 2010, I had the idea.
[01:55.2]
2011, October, I decided to start my own company. I had worked in media companies my whole career. Radio, newspaper, television, cable, direct mail. And I just love this. I love advertising, and I love marketing, and I love telling great stories.
[02:10.8]
And I started Inner Action Media really with the idea of trying to do something different. I didn't want to just take commissions off of media buys, 15% or whatever I wanted. I wanted to add value in different ways. And I didn't know it at the time, but that vision of creating something different has really evolved and morphed over the last 14 years.
[02:33.1]
And as we start our 15th year now, really building a culture of great people, that tell great stories, we tell brand stories. That connect people, not just communicate, but we connect and make those connections.
[02:50.2]
And I mean, I think we would both probably say 14 years is a long time in agency life. Right? Yes. 15 coming soon. You kind of started to talk about these key ingredients, but what are sort of the key ingredients in sustaining and scaling business in a region that I would say is not frequently seen as a marketing hub, actually?
[03:12.6]
Yeah, it's kind of neat because Morgantown is in West Virginia, but we're actually in the Pittsburgh DMA. So we're kind of like a top 25 market in the country here in America. But yeah, we're in an economically depressed state.
[03:27.6]
You know, let's just face it, we're at the bottom of all the good lists and the top of all the bad lists, here in West Virginia. And so, it makes it a little bit of a challenge. We're not able to define a specific niche, so to speak, like healthcare or tourism or, you know, whatever.
[03:43.6]
And so we have to be diverse, and so we have to have diversity of thought, and diversity of our people, coming from different backgrounds. But the thing that holds us together is this love and passion for telling great brand stories. And that to me is the essential ingredient to finding great people is having that camaraderie, that common vision of like, hey, we want to take our talents and abilities that we've been blessed by our creator and go out and serve the marketplace.
[04:10.0]
And that's what we're doing. And I mean, that sort of leads me to sort of wonder also. You know, I know you specifically have even mentioned a couple times already how storytelling is what connects so deeply with the community there. How do you balance that local focus, with that idea of bringing West Virginia to a more prominent place on the map, Of course, in the world of marketing?
[04:34.0]
But focus along with strategies that actually can scale nationally as well. Yeah, it's a great question. I appreciate that. You know, here in our state, you know, we work with some of the top brands, like the iconic brands like West Virginia Lottery and WVU Medicine, for instance, two of our long-term clients.
[04:52.5]
And we just love working with them. But we're also deeply entrenched in the outdoors community. And so we have a kind of a separate sister brand called IAM: Inner Action Media. IAM Outdoors. And what we're trying to do there, over the last couple of years, Adam, is leverage our passion for the outdoors and being able to go after national brands and some international brands I think of like, The North Face, or Patagonia, or Orvis.
[05:21.3]
And why can't we leverage the magnificent beauty that we have here in West Virginia, untapped by the way, here on the east coast, and be able to create content, true, authentic story content, video, especially, and photography here in our state.
[05:38.7]
And that's what we're working towards right now and having some good success with that. That's incredible, actually. To sort of shift gears a little bit, Jim, your book "Humble Influence" challenges the leadership-obsessed culture that we're in as well. What does Humble Influence really mean to you?
[05:55.9]
Yes, thank you for mentioning that. I'm very excited. You know, we've gotten off to a great start with the launch of Humble Influence, published by Spirit Media. And the reason I wrote the book, Adam, is because I believe that no matter what organization, whether it's an ad agency or marketing agency, it could be a nonprofit organization, it could be a Fortune 500 company.
[06:16.7]
And so much emphasis is placed on this idea of leadership. And I'm a leadership student. I mean, I eat it and drink it every day. But what I've learned is that real influence oftentimes comes from the middle. It's not somebody with a title or a corner office.
[06:32.5]
And what I'm trying to do with Humble Influence, the book, is to celebrate, dispel the myths that, you know, followership is bad. You know, I saw something the other day. It was, it was paying homage to somebody who was recently, you know, killed. And it said: Do like they did.
[06:49.3]
Be a leader, not a follower. And I'm like, wait, just, you could just, said, be a leader. Don't put not a follower in there because that has a negative connotation. And that's where really most of us are. We're in follower roles. And I feel like if we could dispel the myth that followership is second-class, or less than, or not as important, then we can go a long way in helping to equip people to be great followers, number one.
[07:15.3]
I have a whole plan of how to do that. But also that equips people to become, eventually, great leaders. If you can be a great follower, you're destined to be a great leader. I mean, it gets back into that realm of something that I learned through a certificate course at Harvard, that I went through around Power and Influence for Positive impact.
[07:36.8]
Right. It happens. And I know you've also said followership is the intentional, disciplined act of coming alongside a leader to advance a shared vision. That really does flip the usual script. You know, maybe a little deeper, why is followership actually so powerful, especially in that equation of power and influence, and how even the small cogs can influence the large cogs.
[07:59.7]
Yeah. So just in my, in my humble role here leading, you know, 13 or 14 people in my agency, you know, I can't do anything unless I have people that can take the ideas, and sometimes crazy ideas that I have, and actually implement them.
[08:15.1]
Right. And so the followership role, whether it's my number two person, or somebody who's just a new hire, they all play a significant role in making sure that vision and that objective is accomplished. So I place a lot of emphasis on followership.
[08:30.1]
I love people that are diligent followers and know how to do it well. And I try to equip them to be the best that they can be in that particular role. I love it. And I mean, you know, maybe, maybe pulling a little bit out and you can feel free to pick up a copy of your book there. But for those listening who don't yet, let's say, hold the top title.
[08:51.0]
How can they start exercising influence right where they are today? Yeah. One of the easiest ways, Adam, thank you for asking that, is to buy into the vision and, you know, whatever that is. So you have a leader who's saying, hey, I would like to accomplish this.
[09:07.6]
You don't necessarily have to buy in 100%, but find something that you can be passionate about. Right. And maybe it's the idea of humility, or maybe it's the idea of integrity, whatever that is that they're trying to accomplish, from the leadership perspective, find something that you can buy into.
[09:26.3]
Being part, you know, being part of that buy-in. You hear leaders talking about, I'm having a hard time getting buy-in. Well, you don't necessarily need 100% buy-in of every single thing that you're wanting to do, but find people around you, from, a leader's perspective, that can grasp into something.
[09:44.5]
Find, you know, tap into that passion, tap into that dream that they have and find that one thing. And from the followers perspective, I would urge them to do the same thing. Find something that you can grab onto and say, okay, I can get behind this. Let's go. I want to make this happen, too. Right.
[10:00.1]
I think that gets into probably dispelling one of the biggest myths about influence and leadership today. Flipping the script a little bit on that, though, think back, you know, 14 years, 15 years. If you could give yourself one piece of advice, your younger self starting the agency, what would it be?
[10:21.9]
Believe that it's going to work.
[10:27.8]
Yeah, I mean, honestly, it's just hearing you say 14 years is kind of crazy because I didn't know if this thing was going to last 14 weeks or 14 months, let alone 14 years. And so just believing, having confidence in myself, I really struggled with that as I started out.
[10:44.3]
You know, you're trying to wayfind. A lot of times, the first two years, I feel like, are just a blur. But, yeah, if I could have had a little bit more confidence and faith in myself that this was going to actually be like, if I could fast forward and say, oh, my gosh, you're going to be fine, Jim. You know, take.
[11:00.1]
Take those risks. Do the thing. You know, I would have definitely done that a little bit differently. Awesome. And I mean, you know, clearly it's a book and it's a philosophy for anyone seeking to make a difference, no matter position or title. Right? Yeah, absolutely. You know, leadership is influence, but so is followership.
[11:18.5]
And the funny thing about me writing a book about influence is that that's what the field we're in, you know, advertising and marketing is influencing people to take action, to buy something, to, you know, press a button, to subscribe, whatever it might be that we're trying to do as a call to action.
[11:35.4]
It's about influence. So I take that very, very seriously, Adam. And I know you do, too. I mean, we're out there trying to, you know, to influence people sometimes through an ad. Maybe it's a marketing strategy, it's a social media post. We're trying to influence them to do something, and there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that, and making sure that it's done the right way.
[11:56.8]
There's truth, and there's, you know, authenticity behind it as well. You know, talking about humble influence, also, you've hosted more than 300 episodes of "Positively West Virginia". Yes. What have you learned about the power in that sense of amplifying local business stories?
[12:14.5]
Yeah, I love that. You know, when I first started the podcast, it was me on my iPhone with the old tethered AirPods, or earbuds, or whatever they were called. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, you know, started it in 2017, and it's been hundreds and hundreds of episodes and what the goal is.
[12:36.9]
You know, I learned that there's so many stories out there of entrepreneurs and business owners, small business, even non profits, that have this startup mindset, and they took a risk, and they started a business. And I felt like there was an underserved market there, that people really needed to hear these stories.
[12:54.9]
Number one, as I mentioned, West Virginia, you know, we are an economically depressed state in a lot of areas. You know, certain markets, like where I'm at, is thriving very well, but most of the state is struggling. And I said, wouldn't it be cool if we could come around these entrepreneurs, tell their story, and maybe not only help their business, but also to inspire other people to say, hey, maybe I could start a business, you know.
[13:18.7]
And that's what we do. We tell the origin stories of these companies and sometimes they're very large companies that grew out of a mom-and-pop, or a one-person entrepreneurial venture. But I love telling the stories. The things that I learn every time I just, I.
[13:34.1]
It's one of those things, Adam, where when I get, when I have a podcast scheduled, typically I record on Mondays and Tuesdays. I look at who the guest is coming up that day. I can't wait to have that conversation. It's one of those things that I get to do, you know, in leading my company. And I just love it.
[13:49.6]
And I'm not, I'm not tired of it after all these years and hundreds of episodes. And I learned so much, and I, I just want to add value to people. Yeah. And I mean, the ties back into sort of what you started with today, talking about storytelling and those stories cut through the noise better than most paid ad tactics in a lot of cases.
[14:10.9]
Yeah. I'd love for you to share maybe one or two of the examples of how you've improved or helped a West Virginia business grow through promoting them there. It's a wider understanding, I would imagine, even beyond just the borders of West Virginia, actually.
[14:27.9]
Yeah, absolutely. Well, the Positively West Virginia episodes are recorded. The video goes out over YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and then the audio on all the popular podcasts, just like you do. But what's cool about it is, I encourage folks once their stories are out there to share them, because it helps us and helps them.
[14:49.5]
But what's really interesting is we've been able to develop some sponsors, so we put some paid targeted marketing behind that through social media. And each one of these episodes now is getting 50-60,000 downloads. Each episode.
[15:06.3]
So we've created this over years, and you know, the idea of, we've never missed a Thursday publication date for years and years and years. And so I think some of the feedback that I get, you know, is very profound. From, I had a company on, this is about a year ago or so.
[15:25.6]
We were talking about their. They make a a canned pepper like a, in a tomato sauce. It's called Oliverio's Peppers sent me an email. He's like Jim, and you're not going to believe this, he goes, but my, my orders have been blowing up from across the country. He goes, I don't know how you did that, but that was awesome.
[15:44.6]
Those kinds of things. And then, you also hear of people who write in, requesting to be on the show and they've heard somebody being on the show and they said this is out of my comfort zone. They'll say that and they'll say, you know, I'd like to come on and talk about my story.
[16:00.0]
And so it's inspiring people to talk about their business a little bit. And I try to talk to these founders and CEOs and presidents and entrepreneurs and really tell them like you're the hero of the story. I'm simply the guide.
[16:16.0]
So I just ask the questions and try to guide the conversation. Much like you're doing, Adam. You do a wonderful job. And it's just nice to be able to have those opportunities to leverage like what I believe are my God-given talents and abilities and help them. And I mean from Positively West Virginia, even back to your agency work, I can tell how critical place and community play in building authentic influence.
[16:44.9]
Yes. Outside of even maybe just the broad stroke of storytelling, is it connecting and inspiring others? I would say it's probably the biggest part of what that authentic influence brings to the table. That's right. That's right. You know, a lot of people communicate, but few connect.
[17:01.7]
Right. And that's what we try to do with the story is you know, find, find the nugget. And it's becoming more and more difficult. As your guests on the show talk about this a lot. You know, it's breaking through the clutter. There's so much noise, so much chaos in the media space right now.
[17:18.2]
You know, we used to talk about, you know, 10 years ago, we said the first five seconds are crucial. And what I, what I preach is the first second. If you cannot capture somebody's attention and stop them in the first second, you're done.
[17:35.0]
Well, how do you tell a story in a second? Well, you don't necessarily, but you, you have to have that attention, you know, and so those are the things that we talk about a lot with our storytelling is, is, you know, we want to be authentic, we want to be truthful. We want to make sure that we are representing the brands that we work with and to the best of our ability and to theirs.
[17:55.5]
But also doing it in a way that's going to break through the clutter, you know, and we hear a lot about AI and all this and AI is great. We, we were an early adopter of, of OpenAI back in 2022 when it first came out, created a SaaS application based around it.
[18:13.0]
And that had like a six month span of just awesomeness. And then, we were left in the dust, you know, but you know, just making sure that we're innovating in our technology, making sure that we're innovating in the ways that we're looking at things.
[18:28.5]
I'm a big fan right now of AI music. That's how I got my start. I mentioned it, you know, in advertising I have a love of music and so I've been rekindled, my songwriting abilities and passion for songwriting and creating music has been rekindled over the summer, just through Suno AI and some of the things.
[18:50.6]
You could hum a trumpet part, and it'll play it as a trumpet. Oh no, I want that as to be a baritone saxophone. Boom. Done. And those kinds of tools are so awesome and being able to unleash creativity. But how do we use those tools to really tell a great story?
[19:05.6]
Right? Because as you know, you see so many things out there like, oh man, that's cool. But, you know, that's not, that's not a connection. That's not going to drive sales, it's not going to help add value to people. Right. So, I love technology, I love innovating.
[19:21.3]
That's one of our core values here is making sure that we are, even though we're West Virginia agency, we're leading that charge. And thank you for dropping a little bit outside of West Virginia, with mentioning one of the most incredible AI platforms out there, that it's Boston-based, of course, you know, with getting back into that.
[19:40.8]
But it's incredible when we think about, you know, offering up people a platform where to be seen and heard, you don't just end up telling their story, you multiply the impact of their business. That's right. Yeah. I couldn't agree with that more.
[19:56.1]
And that's what we're trying to do. You know, that's every day. That's our, that's our mission, every client interaction, every piece of content we publish. And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention video, you know, being the number one way that we're doing that. We're a video forward agency and we love video.
[20:13.4]
We love all forms of video. It could be an iPhone video or you know, something shot on a cinema camera or whatever. So we, we love it all. Awesome. Jim, this has been fantastic. You know, you've shown our listeners here that building lasting influence isn't about being the loudest.
[20:30.4]
It's about really being consistent, intentional and humble. You know, I love how you said be all in with whatever you are doing. You have no idea how God is going to use your experience as a preparation for a greater purpose.
[20:46.3]
That's a takeaway worth underlining. You know, and just again for everyone listening, real influence doesn't require a title. It requires presence, consistency, and service. And that's what's real here. Yeah, Adam, you mentioned something there. You know, I'm a person of faith and I'm not ashamed to say this, but I view my business Inner Action Media as a ministry.
[21:11.8]
You know, I'm not on the mission fields of Guatemala or Honduras. I'm here in Morgantown, West Virginia, by God. And that's what I'm doing. I'm trying to equip those around me to be great leaders and to be great followers, also. And to, like I said, go out into the marketplace with our talents and abilities and bless people.
[21:32.1]
Awesome. You know, Jim, before we close, I know you mentioned a couple things earlier, but where can folks find you, connect with Inner Action Media, and Humble Influence? Yeah. Yeah. Our agency Is at inneractionmedia.com, and the book is humbleinfluencebook.com.
[21:51.7]
There's a video on there that folks can check it out and learn more about the book. And if somebody's interested, they could just send me an email. I'll send them a copy of the book just mention, Adam Barney. Adam W. Barney. Yeah. Awesome. Well, perfect, Jim. And we'll drop links to all of that, of course, in the show notes below.
[22:08.1]
But I want to say, you know, big thank you again for joining me today. Yes, sir. For, you know, Jim, for our listeners, you know, thanks for tuning in. Stay curious, stay energized, and keep questioning. We'll see you next time on "Is Anything Real?" Thanks, Jim.
[22:24.0]
Adam, that was awesome. You're very good at what you do.