Tom McGowan’s media company, All Things Good, is aimed at weeding showing the more positive sides of humanity. Contributed / All Things Good
Divisive politics, racism, crime, natural and manmade disasters and certainly the pandemic bring a lot of dire reports to newsfeeds on a daily basis, but 3-year-old company launched by a Portland entrepreneur is working to combat that negativity with positivity.
All Things Good reshares good news on social media with the hope of creating a more positive world. Contributed / All Things Good
Tom McGowan’s All Things Good platform shares “smile-worthy good news” across social media and podcasts. It took off during the pandemic, with its revenue from ads and brand collaboration on the rise.
A 2013 graduate of Windham High School, McGowan started the venture in 2018 while pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at Husson University and realizing that too few companies focused on spreading goodwill.
“I felt like people were only seeing the bad side of humanity and that there should be an outlet dedicated to showing the good side,” McGowan said.
During the pandemic, All Things Good has seen a 500% increase in traffic and has caught the attention of high-profile celebrities, like actresses Courtney Cox and Kaley Cuoco, who have re-shared some of its content.
“To see that they love our content and support what we do is awesome. That’s when you know what you’re doing is catching attention when people like that start sharing and interacting,” McGowan said.
The All Things Good page on Facebook last week, for example, included posts from various sources about a man who feeds orphaned raccoons, a former homeless heroin user celebrating three years in recovery, and a 70-year-old woman who finally got her chance to be a bat girl for the New York Yankees, along with cute kids’ quotes and inspirational sayings.
S. Waleck Dalpour, a professor of business at the University of Maine at Farmington and McGowan’s academic advisor during his undergraduate years, said he is “not surprised at all to see Tom’s ability to be an entrepreneur.”
McGowan, Dalpour said, had the ability to create something and convince others of its potential.
“I love to help students to succeed and Tom was one of them who always communicated with me and asked for my assistant and direction,” said Dalpour, who still hears from McGowan when he is looking for feedback about his business.
All Things Good, McGowan said, is needed now more than ever.
“I think people started to realize there was too much negativity on the news and they needed to take care of their mental health by finding more positive content,” he said. “I get messages all the time from people thanking me for our platform. It’s been a good escape for people during these times, and I think that will only continue as people want more feel-good content every day and realize the importance of what you feed your brain on a daily basis.”
The goal of All Things Good, McGowan said, is to “provide as many smiles as we can worldwide.”
“People just want to see the good side of humanity like people helping each other, saving an injured dog, or whatever it may be,” he said. “I think All Things Good Co. can be that outlet for people that are tired of negativity and politics. You can come to us for that smile you needed after a long, stressful day.”
While the company operates on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, McGowan has visions of scaling it to be “the biggest source of good news and information for the world” by expanding beyond social media. That could include specialized television programming with local correspondents, he said, or helping nonprofits around the world tell of the good work they are accomplishing.
“It will be nice to have more face-to-face interactions with our stories, because I think humanity is at its best connecting with and helping others,” he said.
Although McGowan loves Maine and the company is based in his home state for now, he sees All Things Good operating one day in Los Angeles or New York.
“Those are the two biggest media hubs in the country. If we want to achieve our goal of being a big worldwide media company, we need to be in a bigger city.” he said.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
