When The Forecast Calls for Courage with Matt Lauban

Season 8 of Ignite Cast kicks off with one of the most recognizable voices in Mississippi weather — Matt Laubhan. In this episode, Matt sits down with hosts Taylor and Judd to share the story behind launching Mississippi Live Weather after stepping away from his longtime role as chief meteorologist. 

Matt opens up about leadership, faith, overcoming uncertainty, and what it takes to build something from the ground up. From creating a culture people want to be part of to navigating fear, mentorship, and entrepreneurship, this conversation dives into the mindset that helped him turn a difficult season into a new opportunity.

The episode also explores the importance of trust, teamwork, innovation, and community partnership, plus the vision behind Mississippi Live Weather and how it’s changing the way people consume weather coverage across the state.

Whether you’re leading a business, navigating change, or simply looking for encouragement to take the next step, this episode is packed with insight and inspiration.

🎧 Tune in to hear why sometimes the biggest setbacks can become the foundation for your greatest purpose.

Big thanks to iHeartMedia—our Presenting Sponsor for the entire IgniteCast podcast and the powerhouse fueling this season’s episodes! 🔊🔥 

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Transcript

Welcome to IgniteCast, where ideas spark action. Brought to you by the Community Development Foundation, your Chamber of Commerce and economic development engine for Tupelo and Lee County.

Thank you to our presenting sponsor, iHeartMedia, for powering this season of IgniteCast.

I’m Taylor.

**Judd Wilson:**
I’m Judd.

**Taylor Tutor:**
And welcome to IgniteCast.

**Judd Wilson:**
All right, it’s IgniteCast Season 8. Taylor, I was lonely during Season 7, I’ll be honest with you.

**Taylor Tutor:**
So lonely.

**Judd Wilson:**
That’s right. Taylor is back from maternity leave. Whoop whoop!

**Taylor Tutor:**
Whoo!

**Judd Wilson:**
Taylor, I had to do this all by myself last season. It just was not the same.

**Taylor Tutor:**
Sad, sad season. No, it was so good. I listened. Me and Roe, we listened.

**Judd Wilson:**
Good. Now, what’s Roe’s middle name?

**Taylor Tutor:**
Wilson.

**Judd Wilson:**
Thank you so much, Taylor.

**Taylor Tutor:**
The nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.

**Judd Wilson:**
It’s definitely after you, Judd.

**Taylor Tutor:**
Thank you.

All right. Well, we are back with Season 8, and we are so excited. We are starting it off strong with a special guest today, Matt Laubhan. Welcome.

**Matt Laubhan:**
Thanks so much for having me.

**Taylor Tutor:**
Yes, thanks for being here with us in person. We start every podcast with the same question, and I’m so excited to hear what you have to say, Matt. What is the best leadership tip you’ve ever been given?

**Matt Laubhan:**
Money is not the reason why people move on from their job.

That tells you so much, both in the positive and the negative. If you create a positive environment where people feel like they’re part of something and they’re growing, that matters. A lot of times we think, “Oh, it’s about the most dollars.” It’s not. It’s about the situation.

So it’s my job as a leader to provide a situation people want to be a part of. If you do that, you’re going to recruit and retain good people, and everything else is easier once you do that.

**Taylor Tutor:**
That’s great. A positive environment and the people you work with matter so much. I’ve always said I could do any job you give me if I like the people I’m doing it with.

**Matt Laubhan:**
Absolutely. There are really two parts of it.

It’s funny, Phil Sullivan, who recruited us to the TV station here back in the day, does not remember saying this, but the other best piece of advice he ever gave me was that, at least at the time in Mississippi, it cost $250 to file a lawsuit, and sometimes filing a lawsuit gets you what you want.

The idea being, you need to do what you think is best, but understand that sometimes people are going to try to twist your arm in certain ways. A lot of times, that’s just a desperate move in that situation. So look at things from the positive and understand that things are going to happen.

**Judd Wilson:**
I love that, creating that environment.

Another thing we do here on the IgniteCast podcast is we always play a clip from a previous Ignite. As you know, we host the Ignite Leadership Conference every January, and we’ve been doing that since 2018.

I’m loving this clip because it’s actually from our very first Ignite Leadership Conference back in 2018. One of our speakers that year was Inky Johnson. Inky was a three-year letterman and two-year captain on the football team at the University of Tennessee, where he was a starting cornerback. In his junior year, he was projected to go in the first round of the NFL Draft. But on September 9, 2006, he sustained a life-threatening, career-ending injury that paralyzed his right arm and hand.

We’re going to listen to Inky tell that amazing story and talk about what it takes to overcome challenges. Let’s listen from Ignite 2018.

**Inky Johnson:**
I picked up the phone, and the guy on the other end said, “Inky Johnson, Jose Morales, ESPN producer. Is this the same guy that said if you could change what happened to you, your injury, you wouldn’t change it?”

I said, “I wouldn’t change it for nothing in the world.”

He said, “So you mean to tell me you were a projected draft pick, probably an automatic multimillionaire, and if you could swap positions today and be playing on Sundays and making millions of dollars, you wouldn’t change it?”

I said, “I wouldn’t change it for nothing in the world.”

He said, “I want to understand. Why did you process what happened to you the way that you processed it?”

I said, “This is the one thing I can assure you. Everything I’ve ever aspired to do, been connected to, or ever wanted out of life, the purpose of it was always greater than the individual. And so when the opposition, the adversity, and the challenge hit, it was a lot easier to supersede it.

My mentality was always not a selfish individual, but a selfless individual. Nobody can come into the hospital room they were born into and say, ‘You inherit character.’ Character is something you’ve got to wake up every single day, fight for, and build in the midst of opposition, adversity, and challenges.

And so I fight every single day with a paralyzed right arm and hand. When a person looks at me, I want them to think, ‘I can trust that guy, and I’d go into any battle with him.’ When a person looks at me, I want them to think legacy and a guy that does it the right way.”

**Judd Wilson:**
Matt, you spent 14 years as chief meteorologist before stepping down and going through a major change. That could have easily been the end of your story, but instead you began anew.

Tell us about that experience, how that mindset helped you overcome disappointment, and how you rebuilt.

**Matt Laubhan:**
A lot of it comes back to my faith in God. I never intended to come to Tupelo in the first place. I was recruited here, and through the recruitment process, the place definitely grew on us. We knew it was somewhere we had to tour. We came and toured, and we knew it was the right fit.

I’m from Kansas originally. My wife is from Texas. Step after step, it was obvious that God wanted us here. This is where we were supposed to be.

So coming from that point of faith, when changes were announced that ultimately were retracted, my first decision was to go out into the woods behind my house, yell and scream at God for a couple of minutes. He’s okay with that. He’s big enough to take that.

Then there was a peace that fell over me, and I knew that with all that had been built over these years, I had to at least try to do something. That something was to start a weather business.

It was something I had considered for years, but I just didn’t think the timing was right. As we’re recording this, my son is sitting over there. This is a very formative period in his life, and I didn’t want to spend too much time trying to build wealth that will ultimately fade instead of spending time with him.

But God said, “This is what we’re supposed to do, and this is the time to do it.”

So we stepped out in faith. One of two things was going to happen. We were going to succeed or we were going to fail. But we were destined to fail if we just picked up and left, so we decided to give this a chance to succeed.

And it doesn’t hurt that hundreds of thousands of people were saying, “Hey, you should start your own business.” So we went ahead and did it. To a certain extent, it was a little bit of low-hanging fruit.

**Judd Wilson:**
Inky talked about character, and I think those people saying, “Please stay. Start your own thing,” were saying that because people trust you.

Why is character and trust such an important leadership trait?

**Matt Laubhan:**
People try to replicate that, but ultimately you have to lead by example. The trust doesn’t just start with people at home. The trust starts with my team trusting that I am doing something for a reason and that I’m going to work every bit as hard as they will.

I think they see that, and it has a trickle-down effect.

There are not a lot of jobs where people’s actual life and death depend upon you, your analysis, and you showing up to do your job. From my religious standpoint and from being a Boy Scout, that responsibility is something that is just bred in there.

It takes time. But it’s about reliability. The same reason your child trusts that you’re probably going to provide food on the table tonight is the same reason people trust us during severe weather. We’ve done it before, and that proves they can trust us again.

**Taylor Tutor:**
You definitely had a lot of eyes on you before, and even more now. Leaving that role and starting your own weather platform, Mississippi Live Weather, in such a public way took courage and vision. What can you tell us about that?

**Matt Laubhan:**
I have to give credit to the folks at Tennessee Valley Weather in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

Part of it came from the process of asking, “If we’re going to start something, what does it look like?” It could have looked like a bunch of different things. It could have just been me in front of a podcast microphone, throwing up graphics, because a lot of people do that.

**Taylor Tutor:**
You look good in front of a podcast microphone.

**Matt Laubhan:**
Well, thank you. I’ve always said I should do one. Maybe someday. I keep saying we’ll get there.

**Taylor Tutor:**
You’ve got a lot on your plate right now.

**Matt Laubhan:**
We do.

I toured their facilities in Lawrenceburg. It started in the back room of a radio station and developed into where they own their own building and have 13 or 15 full-time employees in a town of 10,000 people.

I thought, “If they can do that there, with the kind of backing I have here, this is not that huge of a step.”

So I have to give credit where credit is due. We’ve taken it a little further in a few different ways, and we’ve been very fortunate.

CDF put us in front of the right people at the right time. I don’t think people always realize what CDF does. When you talk about Liebherr or Toyota, people think, “Oh, they do things.” But what CDF does to support small businesses, and I am a small business, is huge.

Without that, we would not be successful. I don’t think I would have taken the steps. A lot of things had to fall into place, and I have to give Hunter Acock credit for calling almost immediately and saying, “Hey, we can help you.”

**Judd Wilson:**
That’s awesome. Talk more about those partnerships. The storm chasers here are a valuable part of what you do, and the camera system you are controlling is neat to watch when storms come through.

**Matt Laubhan:**
It’s always been a dream of mine to have cameras. We had them when I was in West Texas, and for one reason or another, they never fell into place at the TV station.

Sometimes we look at things and think, “The only way to maximize my piece of the pie is to control everything.” I don’t think that’s the case. I think the pie is much, much bigger than we sometimes see.

From the beginning, I’ve tried to feature and let people know that the North Mississippi Storm Chasers are their own thing, independent from us. I don’t tell them what to do. They don’t tell me what to do. We work together.

We’ve also tried to branch out and have partnerships with the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, The Columbus Dispatch, and The Daily Corinthian. The idea is that by giving them weather information, they also direct people back to us.

At some point in the future, I do think we’ll add more news. We’re doing some sports. I think there’s an opportunity for all of us to grow together, to feature quality content from other places and give it a better platform.

A rising tide raises all ships, and I think that’s the goal.

**Taylor Tutor:**
For me, if the weather got bad, I never once turned on a TV to a weather channel. I went straight to your personal Facebook page.

**Matt Laubhan:**
For years, right? People said that for years, and you’re like, “Oh, okay.” It’s the same way people tell me they watched me every morning before. I’ve done maybe 12 morning shows since we’ve been here, but I get it.

The reality is, they did watch. For years, you weren’t taking a television set off the wall and taking it to your shelter. You were taking your phone.

One of the big questions in the TV industry is, where are the viewers going? I don’t think the product has driven them away. I think their habits have migrated away from sitting around a TV and instead toward holding a device in their hand.

That’s the cool thing with Mississippi Live Weather. We’re still on legacy platforms. We have Roku. We’re on MaxxSouth cable and broadband. But we’re also mobile-first, right where people have been viewing us, especially during active weather, for years.

**Taylor Tutor:**
Whenever all of this was happening and it was announced that Matt was leaving us, I was like, “What are we going to do? I don’t know when to get in my safe place.”

When you started your own thing, you probably didn’t have everything figured out. You probably didn’t know all the marketing pieces, sponsorships, and business details. Talk about navigating that change and whether you had fear around it.

**Matt Laubhan:**
Oh gosh, I still have fear.

I’m an excessively conservative person financially. We joke that I can squeeze two pennies hard enough to create a third. That’s not the way we could start the business from the beginning. There was significant financial investment.

Again, credit to CDF for getting me in front of the right people to get financing through Three Rivers. Once we were able to put some of those pieces together, the weather end made sense. That’s everything I’ve used.

QuickBooks scared me to death in the beginning.

As we expand, one of the hard things I’m still wrestling with is who to put in what position around me so I can continue to innovate. The hardest thing has been that I am the bottleneck for everything.

For sales, I’m the one who helps put together packages. I’m lucky that we now have six different people helping me sell advertising in various levels of part-time to full-time capacity.

But sales is something I paid attention to without fully understanding all the details. Commercial traffic is another area I paid attention to but didn’t fully understand.

So we’re learning. I think the biggest failure is the step you never take. We’ll apologize when we mess up, but we’re going to try to do big things. I think we will do big things, and so far, that has worked very, very well for us.

**Judd Wilson:**
That’s awesome. Talk a little bit about mentors. You’re on the forefront of what you’re doing.

I went to school in Birmingham, so in college I watched James Spann. But I think you started your network before he did his side gig.

**Matt Laubhan:**
A little bit. I have opinions on the different ways to do this, and there are a billion different ways to do this.

I think exclusivity of content has been our secret sauce. It’s the same idea as needing the NFL Network to get certain NFL games, or now needing Amazon to watch certain games. My dad, who has no interest in Amazon, says, “I need to get on Amazon,” because the content is exclusive.

That’s what we’ve done, and that’s helped growth.

As far as mentors, I’ve been fortunate. The weather end of this we were good on. On the business end, there is a man named Hank Price who lives in French Camp. He ran TV stations all around the country, and he has a great book on how to do it and how to bring up general managers. I’ve had a lot of conversations with him.

I’ve also had great management over the years at the TV station, people I could ask questions. They’ve directed me, especially in the station management area. That’s obviously the thing I’ve struggled with most.

There are also people younger than me. Ben Luna in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, has been an incredible mentor throughout this process, especially in understanding some of the technical parts that I knew we could do, but where he really helped guide me.

**Judd Wilson:**
It’s important to have those folks.

**Matt Laubhan:**
It is. And it’s important to realize that a mentor can be younger than you. We always think wisdom comes with age, and it does. But if there’s something you’re weak in and someone younger is strong in that area, they can still be your mentor.

**Taylor Tutor:**
It goes back to your team, too. You mentioned having six people in sales. Your team shouldn’t be full of people just like you. It needs to be diverse in every way: age, skills, and different perspectives. That’s what makes up a good team and helps you be successful.

**Matt Laubhan:**
Absolutely. We’re trying to reach everybody. There’s not a person out there we’re not trying to reach, and I am not everybody. I have a perspective that’s narrowed by the life I’ve gone through. You want to expand that as much as possible to understand how everybody, including my son over there, utilizes the product.

**Judd Wilson:**
It’s neat because I think that builds credibility. You pointed out Leo over there, and what I enjoy with your network is that it feels real and extended. Sometimes Maggie’s cat or child will walk up. Sometimes you’ve had your kids reboot something. It’s kind of neat that we feel like we’re part of it, and I think that builds the credibility of who you are.

**Matt Laubhan:**
We’re real people, and I think that’s one of the things that brought people to us on social media to begin with. It’s not something we want to hide.

You mentioned Maggie. Maggie is an incredibly talented, sweet, kind, dedicated meteorologist who had very recently left television because she wanted to have a family. This is an opportunity for us to bring people like that back into the fold.

She has a studio at her house, so she can be both mother and meteorologist. She doesn’t have to choose. I’m excited to hopefully extend that to other people in the future.

**Taylor Tutor:**
Matt, we’re coming up on our time, and I wish we could talk all day. Thank you so much for everything you do for Northeast Mississippi weather-wise.

I joke with my husband sometimes that if he and I don’t do our jobs, no one is going to die. But if you don’t do your job, somebody might actually die.

So thank you for what you do, for being so diligent, and for not giving up when things got scary and you were in the valley. You chose to climb that mountain, and we’re very thankful for that. Thank you for your service.

**Matt Laubhan:**
I’m thankful to Judd and everybody here at CDF for being willing to partner and help me out with a lot of things I knew and a lot of things I did not know.

**Judd Wilson:**
Thank you, Matt. You’re a great leader. We appreciate you being on the IgniteCast Leadership Podcast with us today.

**Matt Laubhan:**
Thank you.

**Taylor Tutor:**
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of IgniteCast, presented by iHeartMedia.

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And remember, go forth and do good things.