This post is part of The Edmonton Do Gooder Project, a series of profiles on Edmonton folks doing good in creative ways.

1.     What is the good result you are hoping to create?

I’m trying to shine a light on some of Edmonton’s untold stories. That means meeting with and publishing the stories of people who might not be able to gain mainstream media attention.

We have a great city here, among other great Canadian cities. But unlike some of our bigger brothers, we’re terrible at explaining what it is about this place that brings us here, and keeps us here and makes us want to improve and grow here. I’m hoping that some of the stories we share on the Unknown Studio inspires other people about Edmonton, and makes them feel more connected to the larger community.

2.     What is your approach for making this happen?

Storytelling can take on a variety of forms. In an effort to illuminate lesser-known Edmontonians, I and my partner Scott make use of our website, which features a blog, as well as a twice-a-month podcast that publishes throughout the year. We also try to promote these individuals using social media tools like Twitter.

3.     What makes this issue/area the best fit for you personally?

A big part of starting to do this was a desire to just try something. The notion of finding interesting Edmontonians to talk to followed from that. One thing was certain in the initial concept, though: we wanted the show and the website to be about Edmonton somehow.

I’ve lived in Edmonton my whole life, and even with grand plans of leaving, there’s always been something that’s kept me here — I always felt as though there was something unfinished or unsaid. And I think I realized a few years back that my personality, and my approach to people (which is really about being nice, interested, and to try and find ways to help everyone) have turned me into something of a conduit for enthusiasm about the city. People come to me with ideas, stories, comments and questions about Edmonton — why I stay here, and how we can make the community better.

I’m naturally disposed to being around people. I love meeting people, I get energy out of being around people. And I’ve decided to channel that disposition into something actionable that can maybe inspire and excite others.

4.     How will you know if you’re making progress?

We measure the effectiveness of our efforts by assessing who and how many people are consuming the media we create — and how many people are further commenting on the content we put out “into the wild.” Some stories get a ton of attention, and some get very little or none. The one thing we haven’t gotten good it is a sense of which stories will resonate most with our audience.

5.     What have and haven’t you accomplished so far?

Among our proud accomplishments, we’ve had a chance to interview Mayor Stephen Mandel, to chat with a variety of other politicians, local businesses owners, artists, creators and celebrities. We successfully hosted our first ever live show, and now we’re working on trying our hand at some small-scale video production. Future goals include interviewing certain people, some from Edmonton, some not.

As for what we’ve failed at… one of the biggest problems we’ve had in the past was laziness. Sometimes it’s easy to think we’re only accountable to ourselves. But when we sit back and think about the number of people who visit our site on the monthly basis (over 4,000) and the number of people who download our podcast every month (about 4,000 as well), we realized that we’re accountable to our audience. So we try to remember that regardless of what we’re working on.