Welcome to Awarepreneurs, the world's longest running social entrepreneur podcast. I'm Paul Zelizer, your host. If you could take a moment and hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app, it helps more people learn how to make the world a better place through social entrepreneurship, and it costs you nothing. Thank you so much. Today our guest is Matthew Britt, and our topic is a new business model rooted in nature and regeneration. Matthew is driven by a lifelong passion for innovation, connection, and nature. He brings over 2 decades of entrepreneurial experience to his role at The Commonstead, a company redefining how we live, build, and thrive through sustainable, self-sufficient living technologies. At The Commonstead, Matthew is the Chief Execution Officer for the Food Biome And he also leads strategy and partnerships that empower homeowners, companies, builders, and communities to integrate smart regenerative systems for food, water, energy, and wellness.

The Commonstead is dedicated to accelerating the global shift towards resilient, abundant living by showcasing the world's best innovations in sustainability through education, technology, and demonstration. A former national champion hockey player turned entrepreneur— I was a lacrosse player, Matthew.

I played a little of that too.

People, people People say that lacrosse is like hockey on grass, right? Turned entrepreneur, Matthew has built and scaled multiple venues— ventures with a mission-driven focus. He is a part owner of Food Forest Abundance, a global movement designing and installing permaculture food systems that decentralize food and medicine production. He's also a founding partner of Unitree, a blockchain company aligning human energy with nature's regenerative Power through Land Back digital assets. Matthew is deeply committed to helping people reconnect with nature and reclaim self-reliance, blending advanced technology with timeless natural principles to create true abundance. He's also the co-host of Seeds of Abundance, a show that spotlights visionary leaders and entrepreneurs providing real-world solutions to the world's greatest challenges. Matthew Britt, welcome to Awarepreneurs.

Hey, Paul, thank you so much for having me here today. It's great to be with you. Happy 2026, and I look forward to bringing some value to your audience.

I'm super excited you're here. So, Matt, your path, it weaves through solar permaculture systems that help communities capture their own energy, food, and resilience. What early experiences or things that happened in your past kind of pulled you towards this direction? Especially at the intersection of self-reliance and shared abundance?

Well, I can say that in my mid-teens, I really started to question the story we've been told in many ways. And I think my first kind of real awareness came around the medicine world, you know, really pharmaceuticals. And I, I decided to really start diving into how the body can actually heal itself. And I believed so much more of our potential, the brilliance of our human design and our ability to heal itself. You know, I noticed that if I cut my finger, it healed, and I didn't have to do anything special for that to happen. And I figured, hey, if it happens on the outside, I'm sure there's things that going on the inside too, if we just provide the ideal nutrients for us to be our best. And that kind of kicked me off on my journey of questioning a lot of the official narratives, you know, not to dive into any conspiracies, but at the end of the day, I just figured that there's so much more potential that we're not necessarily aware of. And that happened at an early age for myself.