Episode #4 - Finding Your Yay In Life And Business With Matthew Rolnick
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In our 4th episode, Kerry interviews Matthew Rolnick, an Amazon Best Selling Author of" Find Your Yay: Find Your Voice and Grow Your Brand on Social Media," We learn about intrapreneurship, mastering Linkedin to build connections, and how to handle your mental health after being furloughed.
About Matthew Rolnick
VP Strategy & Innovation with Yaymaker. Amazon Best Selling Author "Find Your Yay". Has three courses on Udemy with over 100,000 students have participated. Masters in Marketing at Northwestern. Thought Leader on Corporate Culture, Employee Engagement and B2B Social Selling. Helping Yaymaker grow their Corporate Team Building Events and Speaker Series.
Show Notes
Matthew Rolnick On Linkedin
Find Your Yay: Find Your Voice and Grow Your Brand on Social Media
Udemy Course: Entrepreneurship - Ft. Matthew Rolnick of Yaymaker, Groupon
Yaymaker
Groupon
Transcript
Kerry Finsand: 0:10
Hello there. And welcome to successfully depressed. And I'm your host, Kerry Finsand. This show is all about helping solopreneurs navigate mental and physical health. Today's guest is Matthew Rolnick, the VP of strategy at Yaymaker. He's the Amazon bestselling author Find Your Yay, has three courses on the Udemy Academy with over hundred thousand students that have participated has a master's in marketing at Northwestern. He's also thought as a thought leader, for corporate culture, employee engagement, and B2B selling, and at Yaymaker, he helps grow their corporate team through building events and speaker series. So welcome to the show Matthew Rolnick.
Matthew Rolnick: 0:49
Kerry. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be talking to you today.
Kerry Finsand: 0:54
I wanted to talk to you cause we have a lot in common mm-hmm and we both in our careers have worked for Citysearch and for Groupon,
Matthew Rolnick: 1:02
correct.
Kerry Finsand: 1:03
And Citysearch for people that don't know what that is. It's like what Yelp was before Yelp mm-hmm uh, I think that's the, the easy way to explain that. And then Groupon, uh, when I worked at Groupon, it was about 10 years ago when it was just kind of skyrocketing and, and everything. And I know that you worked there up until more recently. So could you maybe tell us a little bit of story about your background and how you got to where you today?
Matthew Rolnick: 1:27
Sure. So I've always been interested in marketing, in sales, entrepreneurship, and following trends in certain ways. So, you know, Citysearch was the leader of online reviews and I got into advertising sales and management. And then when Groupon became on the scene, I was excited with their business model and opportunity and grew with that. Um, and then I was actually managing a health, beauty and wellness team at Groupon. And when the pandemic. They furloughed the majority of their ma their sales managers. And I was one of them. Now I'm 52. I was 50. And it's a kind of, it was a scary time. Now, once the pandemic hit, though, I was reaching out trying to see if I could help people. Uh, a friend of mine who was an entrepreneur, we were entrepreneurs together. We even worked on a sports newspaper. We created together. Um, but Dan Hermann started the original paint night. Um, that he grew this company 10 years ago to 60 million revenues doing paint night events starting in Boston, but he's done over 300,000 events. But when the pandemic hit, his revenues basically went to zero or their companies. So paint night became Yaymaker. And I started talking to him about virtual events. And could the company go more from a B to C to more of a B2B company? Could they do more corporate team building events and help get talent , I reached out to a comedian. I saw on America's Got Talent, asked him if could do an hour virtual of my buddy's platform. And, um, anyway, he let me know he was gonna buy out. The original investors, got some PPP money, made me their VP of sales and kind of, I was able to really lean into my entrepreneurial side and really help grow new experiences, grow this B2B side. And it's been quite the journey since. So I've kind of found my own niche leaning into my own strengths. I feel with Yaymaker, right now.
Kerry Finsand: 3:20
I guess I really haven't paid attention to the intrapreneur term before. And, you wrote an article, in Forbes mag or in Forbes publication that talks about how to become an intrapreneur. Um, you wanna talk a little bit about that?
Matthew Rolnick: 3:34
Sure. I think most people kind of glamorize or elevate how excited you would be to own your own business. Now I've had my own marketing companies. I've done a lot of entrepreneurial things. It's challenging. It's hard. And I don't think it's for everyone. I think a lot of people want more stability. Um, want that consistency. There's a lot of ups and downs being an entrepreneur. So I know I have a lot of those. entrepreneurial thoughts, ideas. I like creating new things and collaborating with people. But I consider an intrapreneur, someone who takes that entrepreneurial energy tries to find new revenue streams, but does it with inside a company. So I consider myself more now of an intrapreneur than an entrepreneur, but, but I will say owning my own business. And I used to have my own marketing publishing company. Gave me a lot different perspective and more perspective in certain ways. So I think I understand, you know, our co-founder better and just the pros and cons when making decisions, how it can impact vendors, partners, employees, customers. So again, I think having an entrepreneurial aspect and having that experience can make me more effective inside a company.
Kerry Finsand: 4:48
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. And from my perspective, as well, as of doing my own companies, as well as working for other companies, uh, you do get kind of unique perspective, uh, on how something works and what it really takes. And at the end of the day, if you're a CEO of your own company, uh, you're the one that has to do it. Yeah. You're the janitor, you know, you have to do whatever the worst thing possibly don't want to do. So the nice thing about the concept of intrapreneur is, is kind of the best of both worlds where you're helping grow within an organization, but you actually have resources mm-hmm and a steady paycheck, which can be very nice.
Matthew Rolnick: 5:29
Yep. Again, there there's in certain ways being an intrapreneur it's less risk and you can be doing a lot of similar things. Um, but again, there's the highs might not be as high as the lows may not be as lows. But, uh, again, I think, I mean, a lot of people are intrapreneurial in many way, shape or form, but again, that's kind of my mindset, you know, whenever I work for a company.
Kerry Finsand: 5:49
Well, I know that for you. You were trying to kind of find your voice, um, at previous companies that you worked at and you kind of had the entrepreneurial spirit at Groupon, you really didn't have the opportunity to fully, use. Your potential, let's say, uh, from entrepreneurial perspective and, and growing something new with inside the company, is that correct?
Matthew Rolnick: 6:11
Well, I would say, I mean, I had mentors that were supportive of me. There was Silvija Martincevic, even Aaron Cooper would listen to some of my ideas. And so I had some mentors and some support. Darren Schwartz was actually very, uh, he was a VP of sales that time in Sara embraced some ideas. So I had a voice and I could present some ideas.. But not to the impact that I wanted. I wasn't getting invited to the C level meetings and sharing directions where I wanted to see Groupon go or things like that. But I felt I had a voice. I didn't feel heard, but not to the impact that, that I really wanted.
Kerry Finsand: 6:49
Yeah. I, I think for me, Groupon was such a great experience, you know, meeting you and some other interesting people that have done a lot of amazing things prior to Groupon or at Groupon actually post Groupon now. And just, I just felt like it was such a great energy there. And for me, I actually had that opportunity to be an intrapreneur at Groupon mm-hmm and my quick story is. I was in sales, uh, in the west coast for, for Groupon. And I kind of saw an opportunity to help out in local marketing. Uh, Groupon was kind of in the earlier days, trying to figure out the best way to use its platform. Um, everyone is learning. The customers are learning, you know, people at Groupon were learning and we had some negative press in Portland. And so I, I wanted. To turn that around. And so I put together a business plan and I was at a sales meeting in Chicago and I talked to a friend of mine, Ryan Noland, who was outside sales, I think in Arizona at the time. And, I talked to Darren Schwartz and I, well, I first talked to my boss, John Waller, and then to get his okay. And I talked to Darren Schwartz. And then while I was there, he, he gave me the ability. He said, okay, I, I think this has some merit. And I was able to talk to different departments I thought could help out. So I was talking to everyone from customer service to designers, to software developers and everyone in between. To kind of understand how this role would come to fruition. And then within six months, that job was created, it was kind of a dream job. Yeah. Yeah. I remember. And yeah, it was just, it was unreal. And then the kind of funny thing about it is I had this really cool job, but then on the side, I also was kind of I had a passion for craft beer and I had this side thing that wasn't even supposed to be a company that became a company called Taplister. And then I got accepted to a tech incubator, ended up believing Groupon to do that. So it kind of spearheaded me towards that. So I understand both perspectives and I think that it's great for you now. to be that intrapreneur at Yaymaker. I wanna talk a little bit more about your book, Finding Your Yay. Yeah. I read this last. Nice quick read. This book, you kind of talked about, how to find your authentic voice in social media. Uh, can you talk about your experience during the pandemic and how you leveraged LinkedIn and your networking skills to land your current job and grow Yaymaker?
Matthew Rolnick: 9:22
Yeah. You know, once the pandemic hit. It gave me and being furloughed. It really gave me an opportunity to self-reflect. I mean, even though I had some anxiety and not sure, um, I decided, you know, I there's certain expertise I have. There are certain ways that I believe I can help. Small businesses, large businesses brands, and, and thinking about how to navigate in this. So I started sharing content on ideas for business owners and dealing with employees with their business, how to engage. It started building traction. I started getting more founders, marketers, all different professionals, kind of paying attention to my content, engaging a little more, and I realized. This is a platform I can use even more. So I'm gonna be more of a thought leader. And once being in part of with Yaymaker, I realized I could really help Yaymaker increase their exposure, cuz this we were doing, I was focused on B2B marketing. And Yaymaker maker basically sells team building events, paint nights, trivia chocolate, tasting, things like that, which we were able to do now virtually. But I wanted to focus on topics like corporate culture, employee engagement, and employee retention. And I started doing a lot more content around that. And what I found is the more I was building content, the more I was growing followers, the more people are interested in what I was doing, what Yaymaker was doing, and eventually continued to lead to new clients. It became almost like an inbound marketing funnel. I think it helped probably 60 plus new corporate clients working with Yaymaker. And I think LinkedIn was a huge part of.
Kerry Finsand: 11:04
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. LinkedIn's such a great network. It's something that I personally have a decent size network on there, and I've actually just really been getting more into it more the last six months myself. Based off of what I read in your book and just, and knowing how you've done a great job in leveraging LinkedIn to grow your network and to grow Yaymaker, what are some tips you can give to people where they can leverage their LinkedIn to help grow their network.
Matthew Rolnick: 11:31
I guess I have several tips. The most basic would be simply really look at your profile and really make sure you have a professional profile that represents you well or the company or with, well, whether it's a professional headshot, whether it's a tagline of what your expertise is, what you're focused on. I think that's, I'd say step one and I'd say, step two is. Being more comfortable and having a little more plan on engaging, embracing more of the platform. So one is simply posting more. And I think two things I consistently hear. One is people are just kind of nervous to post. They're scared if they post something, if it doesn't land well, it's gonna be out there for, and then the other is they say, what should I post? And I would encourage people for one. Not to stress out about being worried. If your posts aren't perfect, you don't need perfect LinkedIn content. Um, even if something's dramatically incorrect, there's a typo, it's okay. I mean, it shows that you're human and I think that's okay. Then I would think about things that you wanna post. Some of it, I would think is more structured and some were organic. So it may be a framework. It could be, think of what you wanna major in on LinkedIn and what you wanna minor. So for me, I wanna major in team building events, virtual events, corporate culture, um, employee engagement. Those are the things I anchor on. Now there's other things I'll also post that I see in the business world or whether it's sales, leadership, or whether it's fun things to do in the world. I mean, there's other things I'll like to post and occasionally I'll even maybe even post a joke, but most of my content is serious. I try to position myself as a thought leader when it comes to employee engagement and corporate culture. And I try to be consistent. I mean, I try to. Almost every day. And I do think you could have themes where every Monday you could post about this topic. Every Wednesday you could do a poll. Which I've shared about the topic as well, too, about distractions while working or working remotely or setting up an off the right office space. And I'm a big believer in mixing up content and getting a little out of your comfort zone. So I, again, I do think there's a crawl, walk, run approach to start getting more involved. But in general, I would say a great LinkedIn profile start posting more, I'd say a third step would be engaging in other people's posts. So you posted, you know, you interviewed Jill Anderson and was it Danny Decker and things like that. Mm-hmm so I at least liked, I think I may have commented congratulations, like what you're doing or things like that. But me doing that with you is showing support in what you're doing. And by the way your followers are now paying attention to me too. So there are multiple benefits engaging in content, and I have posted comments on other people's content and have gotten tremendous engagement in followers or new partners because of that as well. So I would say those would be the first three steps that I would recommend,
Kerry Finsand: 14:22
I think those are great steps now to go along with that, uh, you know, one thing about social media is it can be a kind of a time suck and a mental suck as well. So how do you break out your time using LinkedIn? So you're not overwhelmed with using LinkedIn as well as to get your daily work done as well. I know it's part of your work, but how, you know what I'm saying? How do you incorporate LinkedIn into your daily strategy?
Matthew Rolnick: 14:45
So, for me, it's a little different because I utilize LinkedIn as a social selling tool as well. Um, but in general, I believe 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon. That's probably a healthy balance. I mean, with any social media platform, it's easy to be kind a little addicted to it, but I would say you wanna be very intentional in how you use it. Um, so I mean, for me, it doesn't zap my energy. Um, cuz I found a natural gravitation towards it, but, uh, again, I try not to be on it too much. I would say in the morning, I like to look and then the afternoon, um, is how to do it. Now. There are times where I have block time. For outreach. So even like another tip for some people, it's like, I like to connect with people and grow my network. So for me, you know, I'm working with a lot of human resources departments, um, and encouraging our diversity equity inclusion speaker series. Um, and so the most of those decision makers are head of HR, our head of diversity equity inclusion. So I will try to carve. 30 minutes a day, just to connect with some people I'll, I still do outreach and I it's just been in my DNA since my early sales days.
Kerry Finsand: 16:00
Since it's a B2B platform and if you're a person like both of us that likes to do sales and interact and you'd have those conversations with people. It's a great tool for that. And I definitely like what you talked about earlier in engaging with people and when you engage with people you put a little bit more thought into the engagement because it really will come back to help you in the long term. And I think that's one thing with social media in general is if you are helpful, kind of put good vibes out, good vibes will come back. I started using this practice recently and there's somebody in the mental health space that I would like to interview at some point. And they interviewed somebody else in the mental health space and they posted a like, what questions should I ask this person who was, I think they're a writer for Sports illustrated. And I actually spent about a half an hour researching. Topic. So cuz I really wanted to get on their radar and then they were just wrote this back. This great response saying, thank you for this really thoughtful answer and everything. Nothing's come of it yet, but it was great to kind of start that connection. And I know you have to kind of foster these relationships and that's just kind of an example of sometimes what it takes.
Matthew Rolnick: 17:03
Yeah. I love that. I mean, I kind of look at LinkedIn in particular or social media and content kind of like working out, you know, your first few workouts. You're not. To see necessary results. You're not gonna look much differently, but over three months, six months a year, it's gonna, it's gonna snowball. It's gonna build, you're gonna see those results. And I'm a believer. I'm not just like actively wanting to sell. I wanna create value. And I do believe in like the good karma. So anytime I see an article that I find interesting on a topic. You know, I've got 14,000 people that I'm connected to, or follow me on LinkedIn right now, but there might be, I might see this great article and six people might come to mind and I'll literally send all six, those people, Hey, this article you might find relevant because of A, B or C. And also I like making introductions. I've made. Hundreds, if not of introductions through LinkedIn, like these two people should connect with each other and just try to form these partnerships. Several of them have actually turned into helping somebody else get a job or getting a client or things like that. But I do find. The more I do that. The more people appreciate it and it's really come full circle. It amazes me how many times, two months later, all of a sudden I help this VP of sales get this job. This person reaches out to me and says, Hey, Matt, I've got a team. Now I wanna do a team building event. Can we do a paint night with Yaymaker and you help? And it's because of the relationship. And so I. Big believers in strategic partnership. So I still feel if you've got a strength and expertise or knowing people are match it, I kind of like to just be very proactive and connect with people and reach out to people that way.
Kerry Finsand: 18:43
Yeah. It sounds like, obviously you've kind of mastered LinkedIn and I, I guess one question I have, uh, let's say there's someone that you wanna connect with on LinkedIn? Do you send a video message or do you send them a thoughtful message saying why you wanna connect or, Hey, let's like have a quick conversation. I think what you're doing is interesting. What would you recommend to people to do?
Matthew Rolnick: 19:02
I don't think there's any right or wrong. I actually do like video, but I think as a first impression, um, message video is a little. I don't know about aggressive. It's a little forward, but I do like I do, but I do like it. And I do think it can, uh, make things much more personalized or things like that for me, for LinkedIn. And there's a balance for some people, especially sales people. They need that volume touch and reaching out. And it's not easy to just research everybody, but I, what I like to do is obvious. Look at their profile on LinkedIn, look at the, you know, all other things where they've worked, where they went to college when, see if we have any mutual connections. So if I see we've had some mutual connections, a few things of interest, there's a topic that's important. I will reach out and I will share something personal with them that, or about them that I'll tie in to any message. And then I'll try to think. I I'm not trying to sell. I'm really just trying to start with just, can we connect and basically saying, Hey, this is what I know about you. We have some mutual connections. We have an interest in diversity, equity inclusion. Um, I'll see that they did an article on this. I'm always trying to see if they're ever in the news. And if I'll reference that, if somebody gets any media exposure, you reference that they generally appreciate that. And then I'll try to find some commonality between me and them and share that. I do find that again, the right mutual connections, you know, like if we went to the same university, that makes a big difference. If we worked for the same company in the past or things like that, all those things help, but I'll try to find that common interest.
Kerry Finsand: 20:33
Yeah, I think that's, I think that's a great point. I have not tried the video message yet I've been kind of like, oh, should I try this? Should I not? And at some point I will when I feel, I guess, confident to try it, but I didn't even know you could do that honestly until probably last year or so.
Matthew Rolnick: 20:47
Yeah.
Kerry Finsand: 20:47
And I think that's great that you can send a video message to somebody.
Matthew Rolnick: 20:50
I'll share one other thing. I do send a lot of audio messages through LinkedIn. It's a free, it's a free feature on LinkedIn's mobile and I'm convinced for anybody. Knows about it utilizes I've actually sent people at LinkedIn, a LinkedIn audio message that I'm connected to. And they're like, I didn't even know we had this as a feature so it is something it's it's that way I'm sharing a tip. After I connect with someone. So again, my goal is first to connect with somebody. And then then I engage in their content that I feel like warms up a relationship. And then if I ever do want to talk about team building events or something for the holidays or something like that if they start to know me more and see me engaging with it's a much warmer intro.
Kerry Finsand: 21:34
Yeah, that that's great. I did not know that uh, I definitely appreciate any, any types of tips like that. One thing I wanna kind of circle back to is, you know, you were working that Groupon you worked there for a number of years, you left and then came back and, you know, things are going well. All of a sudden, then fast forward to the pandemic and you get furloughed. So for a lot of people, the pandemic has been a time for people, uh, to have, you know, collective they've had, I guess, a collective trauma, if you will. Uh, and they've had some negative things happen to them. I know for me, it's, it's been that way, but other people have actually thrived through through the pandemic. So when you got furloughed, um, from Groupon. How did you kind of handle your, your mental health to kind of be in a good head space to kind of look forward into what's gonna be next in your future professionally?
Matthew Rolnick: 22:26
You know , it was challenging. Some of it was my own self, you know, positive. Like I, I have to be in a positive mindset or do the best I can. You know, I did obviously have that fear. There was just a couple things that I realized. I decided, um, again, one, I'm just gonna try to help people and believe it's gonna go out to the universe when things can come back, which helped you. Dan Hermann when I reached out with the Amaker and shared ideas and it, it actually did now. My wife does real estate in the Chicagoland area. I was like, you know, here, I've got time. I'll help her on with some more things. For me, as I said, I got very lucky in the sense that it snowballed quickly my conversations with Dan and Yaymaker. So it wasn't a long period of time from when I was furloughed to finding a new opportunity. It was actually a matter of a few weeks and it was a good thing that I was sharing with him ideas a couple weeks before I was furloughed. Um, but again, my headspace was all right, I'm gonna continue to put content. You know, market myself as a thought leader. I stayed in close contact with people at Groupon. To me, that is still my Groupon network is, I mean, I recommend anyone who works for a company big or small, but especially big. I. Keep as many of those relationships nurtures the many of those relationships. Cause it's amazing the different opportunities that can kind of come about because of that. Um, but, and then I just made it, I was gonna be proactive on just looking for opportunities, um, asking people, and for the almost like informational interviews, like someone was happy at a company. I asked them, Hey, would you just tell me about 10, 15 minutes about what you do and why you like that? And again, just kind of a softer approach. So that's what I did. I just decided I'm going to maximize every day, who I'm gonna talk to, um, thinking about job opportunities and what, how I can help others. And again, and I was trying to help my wife a little bit.
Kerry Finsand: 24:21
I think that's a, that's a great, healthy way of looking at things. You know, trying to be positive, keeping that momentum going, cuz I think that's one of the biggest things when you are no longer working. I think it's kind of a twofold thing. I know for me personally, sometimes too much, maybe you are your work, you attach yourself to your job. Mm-hmm , I'm not sure if that is who you are as well. If that, if that's sometimes cuz you have that network of people and such,
Matthew Rolnick: 24:45
You know, there, there's a couple things that I was just thinking about. I mean, one is yes, I. For me, I probably over index in how I feel about myself versus what I'm doing and the value that I'm bringing. Um, I do think life's a balance. So even again, when the pandemic hit and when I was furloughed, I, uh, I made sure I took a lot of walks outside, which really helped my mental. Well, and worked out and tried, tried to eat healthy, which was, you know, I could have, you know, indulged myself with McDonald's and junk food and snacks and soda and things like that, which is easy for me to do. But, uh, I tried to eat healthier. I tried to work out and also it helped me a lot too, was talking to friends. I had several friends that were also furloughed with me or. Outside of the company or people I went to school with or things like that to me, talking to friends is a therapy in itself.
Kerry Finsand: 25:40
Just having those people to talk to and, and. Like what you were doing with your friend at Yaymaker and not turned out to be a job for you too. There, you just like, I wanna help you out. I have some ideas you had that, you know, get your creative, uh, juices flow and everything. And so I think that's one thing about when you do lose your job, if you have you have some stability, you have a spouse that's working, you can say, okay, well, I don't have to freak out or anything. I can kind of spend some time to kind of figure out what I'm gonna do and maybe take this time to kind of either better know myself. Like mentally, like what do I really wanna do professionally? Um, or maybe you wanna learn a new skill set, everything like that. And that's kind of with me, like with podcasting, it's something I've been wanting to learn for a while. And that's kind of why I, I kind of got into this as something to do. So I think that's, um, definitely a healthy way of looking at things. So your company, it seems to be kind of a fun type of company. And I love the logo behind you and how right now, right now it looks really great with you have, for the people aren't watching this. He's got, is a light bulb with like it's a light bulb? Yeah, yeah. With the little, you know, things coming out the side for an idea. So that's basically the Yaymaker logo and Matthew behind him has this big, uh, I guess kind of backdrop of that. So it looks like all these thoughts are coming outta his head. So I love it. And there's a lot of thoughts coming outta your head. My friends.
Matthew Rolnick: 26:59
It is an old logo, but it's one of those, uh, okay. Practicable screens. And, uh, again, we, but we do like to be bright and have ideas. Um, it's really worked well. Um, the combination of me with branding myself, as well as the company, having the name. Yaymaker. Everybody wants some more. Yay. You know, my book, I called fi Find Your Yay. And I wanna be a thought leader and idea. So it is, I think for, for me it works, it works really.
Kerry Finsand: 27:27
Well, yeah, cuz you, I think that's the reason why you ended up where you're at right now is cuz you're authentic person and you're trying to help people out. And like you said, these are the things I wanna learn more about, you know, leadership and uh, employee engagement. And then that's now what you're you're doing at Yaymaker. So you kind of thought it, you fostered that and it came true. What are some tips you would have for somebody who wants to build. Uh, kind of a fun, inclusive corporate culture. Uh, you've worked at a number of different companies and I think, I feel like with Yaymaker, the service that you're offering there, you can do some great different team buildings. So can you tell me a little bit about what you do at Yaymaker?
Matthew Rolnick: 28:04
So at Yaymaker, we're a piece. I mean, we wanna partner with companies and to help with the culture. And just things more fun. I mean, it, it can't be all work, no play. So we try to really help with that, that play part. Um, and so we want people to take breaks, not take themselves so seriously. We're best known , uh, the largest piece of our business has been still paint nights, which we can send people to their homes or to their offices. We can do it in person virtually, hybrid. That's that seems to bring people together, whether they're artistic or not. And then we do all these other creative experiences. So not to oversell Yaymaker, but we do like chunky blankets or ukulele making or plant nights or things like that. But. Virtually we'll do game shows and trivia and wine tasting and chocolate tasting. And then we also focus on, um, we work with a lot of HR departments with our speakers. So with trainings and a lot of diversity equity inclusion, as well as I mentioned, mental health speakers that we have, that a lot of them have Ted talks are authors and they come in and talk to a company. So that's what we do. So I love working with companies to help figure out what type of events that we can do to bring that culture. But in general, I don't think you necessarily need to do all that to bring a good culture. If from the top, you can share your vision and make sure everybody has a purpose for what they're doing and what you're trying to build. I think the vision is really important. You want employees to buy into it? I think over communicating is more important than ever these days. And I also think I hear a lot of employees feel like a number. I think they really wanna have that voice. And I think if you instill a culture where you're not scared to be yourself or share your ideas, I think that can really instill a good culture. And I think a lot of companies don't do that that well. And I feel like that's something that more companies could obviously work on.
Kerry Finsand: 29:55
I think for a lot of 'em people, empowerment is very important to them. Yes. And right now, having a voice and feeling like they can contribute to something is often more important than, you know, making the big bucks. Let's say, if you will. And, um, that's just kind of how the culture is changing. I wanna come back to one of the things you said, did you say chunky blankets?
Matthew Rolnick: 30:17
Chunky blankets. Yeah, it gets really popular. What is that really popular kind of, uh, fall winter, but basically these be, I mean, quilted warm blankets, you can make your own, you know, we send people this nice yarn and you get a host that teaches you how to do it. And so people are making their own chunky blankets. Now I've done most of our experience. I haven't made a chunky blanket yet. I've but I've done our. Plant nights and candle making and paint nights and things like that. But, uh, anyway, but supposedly, I mean, I've seen these beautiful looking blankets that people seem to really like
Kerry Finsand: 30:50
Well, that sounds like where you're working is a good fit for you too, because you know when we both worked at Groupon was, it was all about experiences. And so you're, you were used to selling and building experiences, and that's what you're doing to a certain extent at Yaymaker as well. Of all the different offerings that Yaymaker has ever done. What is the most unique one that you've either helped a put together or experienced?
Matthew Rolnick: 31:12
Well, I have a few, and I'll try to think if I had to just say one, one of my favorites, which again, ironically was connected through Dan Gruber, um, who used to work for Groupon. Um, and, uh, he was friends with the, the actor, Larry Thomas who plays the so Nazi. So he was actually at a restaurant. Um, association, uh, conference and I met him. Um, I once had him do a paint night with bunch of people a paint night event, we did it virtually. So actually, if you see this painting behind me, at least you can see half of it. It was like the, a skyline of like New York. He actually came out before the paint night event in all the garb and no soup for you, or I can't do an imitation, but anyway but then he painted and he shared stories. Everyone was paying, he painted along about working with Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Julianne Dreyfus. I mean, it was, and it was just the most engaging, amazing events. So that was something that was very unique or special. So we've done a few things like that for me, I think, um, you know, we have as mentioned like these chocolate tasting and wine tasting, but now we have a water sommelier as an event that we, if people can do. So that's unique. Um, and for me personally, also, what we're doing with the speaker series has been a passion project for me because you know, when people think about DEI, you hear a lot about black history month in pride month, but now I'm working with some really unique speakers and I'm getting like you I'm interviewing them, talking to them. I talked to, uh, this Aurora Higgs, who's a, a black trans who shared topics and things with me. I wouldn't have thought of, there was another woman who. Uh, Becky Kekula, who's, uh, a disability speaker with DEI and she's, um, she's the executive chair of little people of America. So she's a dwarf and shared perspectives that, that I didn't think of. Or that I, that I may have not thought of, but it's just, it's, that's been a really interesting experience and just, we have this whole plethora of all these unique diversity, uh, equity, inclusion, speakers. So anyway, that when I've seen them speak, some of 'em been amazing. Um, I even had Walter Payton's son, Jarrett Payton heard him speak at, uh, for a black history mother. It was just very, he was very motivational. So anyway, I go off on a tangent a little bit, but I get, but I would say the most unique to me still was probably. Doing a paint night with, um, the Larry Thomas who plays the so Nazi, that was it, but,
Kerry Finsand: 33:45
Well, your, your passion obviously comes through. And so when we're passionate, we can talk forever about things, which is great. And a shout out to Dan Gruber. Uh, I met him at Groupon. We became very good friends and I visited him every year. I'm a big Cubs fan. And, uh, I go every year and visit him and see the Cubs play. And we actually saw game three of the world series together with him and his dad and I, um, that was quite the experience. So, yeah. Uh, shout out to Dan Gruber there. Dan Gruber. Well, Matthew, I just wanna say, I really appreciate all your tips, a lot of great tips you gave today. Uh, I appreciate your passion. I appreciate that you're, you know, authentic trying to help other people out. Uh, and the other thing I wanna just mention to you is that, um, I'm available for speaking now. Um, great. um, but again, Matthew, thank you for, for being on the show. What are some ways that people can find and connect with you online?
Matthew Rolnick: 34:37
Great. Um, well, they can find me. LinkedIn is usually a great way to connect with me. My email is my first initial last name. So mrolnick@yaymaker.com. So always looking for strategic partners or companies looking for team building events or forming any type of collaboration. So that, um, but, one thing I wrote in my notes that I just before sure, sure. You talk about intrapreneurship and how you were at Groupon kind of carved out. Type of a great opportunity. I try to encourage a lot of people, you know, just because you're doing one thing, it might not be the perfect fit, and it might not be that perfect bullseye of what you're looking for. But if you are strong at something or there's something you're passionate, you see an opportunity. I love what you did. And I think more people can do that. Ironically, you know, you pitched it to Darren Schwartz. Who's very entrepreneurial. John Waller has Humble Nut Butter is now an entrepreneur with his wife. Um, but I I'm a big believer in paying attention to where you're working, where there could be opportunities where you can make a difference. And. Building an alliance and partners internally in your company that who can help you get there. So I love helping people finding how to improve their current role. And sometimes it's just taking on an extra responsibility or spearheading a new project that aligns with their interest and the company's interest. So anyway, I just wanted to share that, cause I thought you did that very well at Groupon and I think more people could learn from that, but that's one thing I enjoyed talking to people love.
Kerry Finsand: 36:08
No. I really appreciate that. Yeah. When you have the right culture and you're supported, that's when you're able to do that. When I went to work for Groupon, I actually, Steve Wilkinson, uh, I worked within that Citysearch. He actually is like, you should come work for Groupon. At the time I was working on my side project Taplister or then eventually I was like, okay, I, I need a job. This isn't quite working and so he helped me get on at Groupon. And when I got on there, I was like, there's me a lot of opportunities here. And I start off in sales and I was like, you know, , I'm not really wanting to do sales anymore. I wanna do something different. And that's kind of when I started, had this idea in the back of my head and I started working on it and that when I had the opportunity to then actually present it, and then when Ryan Nolan actually gave me some as a cheerleader and then help me out on it, you know, then it came to fruition. So it's that, it's that company culture where now. You and I are, are talking, you know, we've made all these great friendships from Groupon. So I wanna sell people too that if you're in a culture and you feel that you have some ideas and it's a very empowering culture, then go for it.
Matthew Rolnick: 37:13
Yeah.
Kerry Finsand: 37:13
There's so many opportunities out there and you never know what can happen. Yeah. But I always like to close the show with, remember you're not alone in life or business. Thank you.
