GIF Wars, Taco Tuesdays & Global Teams: Making Work Fun with Skyler Birk-Stachon

Summary:

In this episode of the Amazing Teams podcast, we sit down with Skyler Birk-Stachon, the go-to-market lead at Optemization, a Notion consultancy that helps startups and businesses organize their Notion pages. 

Skyler shares his insights on the importance of enjoying work, the cult following of Notion, and how he built a global team at Optimization. He emphasizes the role of fun in the workplace and discusses his unique approach to team building through community events like pickleball. Skyler also highlights the significance of gratitude and recognition in fostering a positive work culture.

We dive into:

• The cult-like following of Notion and how startups leverage it.
• How Optemization keeps its remote team connected with traditions like Taco Tuesdays and a culture of sending GIFs.
• The importance of gratitude, recognition, and having fun at work.
• Skyler’s background and the lessons he’s brought into his career.
• Building a thriving pickleball community in NYC—a fun and unexpected story!

Tune in for a lively discussion on workplace enjoyment, remote team culture, and the impact of community-building—both in and outside of work!

Resources:

• Optemization Website
• Their Story
• Client List
• Book: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
• Connect with Skyler – He’s super active, check him out!

Chapters: 

00:00 The Importance of Enjoying Work

08:01 Skyler's Journey into Notion Consulting

15:54 Building a Global Team

22:07 The Role of Fun in Work

30:07 Creating Community through Pickleball

31:46 Gratitude and Recognition in Teams

Chapters

• 0:00 The Importance of Enjoying Work
• 8:01 Skyler's Journey into Notion Consulting
• 15:54 Building a Global Team
• 22:07 The Role of Fun in Work
• 30:07 Creating Community through Pickleball
• 31:46 Gratitude and Recognition in Teams

Transcript

Skyler Birk-Stachon (00:02)

You should smile more, you should send more gifts, you should send more memes, you should joke around with your coworkers. You should just do everything that you possibly can to enjoy, you know, the thing that you're dedicating one third of your daily life to.

Doug Dosberg (00:17)

This podcast is brought to you by Hey Taco, the only peer-to-peer recognition platform that uses tacos to help teams around the world share gratitude. I'm Doug. I'm Una. This is our podcast, Amazing Teams.

Hey everyone. Welcome to season three of the amazing teams podcast where we explore all things that make work better. Today we are excited to be joined by Skylar Burks. That's awesome. The go-to market lead at optimization. Skylar. Welcome to the amazing teams podcast.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (00:49)

Nailed it.

Thank you. Thank you. So excited to be here. I've been looking forward to this all day.

Doug Dosberg (01:01)

Awesome. Tell us more about optimization and your role there.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (01:06)

So optimization kind of like optimization, but our founder's name is Tem. So it's optimization cause he's adorable and named the company after himself. are the world's largest, biggest and best and most humble notion consultancy in the world, helping large teams like discord, cash app, chime, either migrate onto notion, implement notion, or just help them get better at notion and or no code automation and.

tech solutions basically.

Una Japundza (01:38)

Skylar, I gotta ask you a question about Notion. People tattooed the Notion logo on their body. People are fans of Notion. You work with it all the time. Why do people love that product so much?

Skyler Birk-Stachon (01:40)

me with it.

So I try to tell people this in the most respectful way possible. Notion literally has a cult following for a software. And it's the most unbelievable thing that I've ever seen in my life. I did not know it was possible for people to love a software that much to the point where they have it literally tattooed on their arm. Look, I like Notion. I use Notion every day. Big fan. It's what I do professionally.

I don't think it's that cool that it's worth tattooing on your body, but hey, to each their own, which leads into the really funny story of how I got into this. And it all starts with the notion tattoo. So previously, this is like two and a half years ago, maybe even a little bit longer, honestly, I was first sales hire at this really small series a startup in New York. We relied heavily on like in-person partnerships. So

I was going to every networking event that you could possibly imagine. was kind of thinking about looking for my next role, but like was nowhere near that point yet. And somebody walks up to me and says, Hey, I've got to take it to this notion event. Do you want to go? And I was like, sure. Notions like that, like note taking app, right? And they're like, yeah, it's, mean, it's more than that, but like, sure. So I show up at this event and, transparently I walk in and very quickly realize that I am completely out of place because all these people are so much more technical.

nerdy than me and they love notion. I'm like, it's clearly more than note taking up, but I'm out of place. I have no idea what's going on here. And naturally as one does, I had probably one too many glasses of wine because I was trying to fit in with them. And I'm talking to this guy who happens to be 10 and I'm like, so what are you doing? He's like, I run, I run this notion consultancy. And I'm like, okay, tell me, lay it on me. I don't really get it. Notions like a note taking app. Like why do people need a notion consultant?

And he's explaining it. And honestly, I was pretty zoned out at this point until he unironically rolled up his sleeve and he had notion tattooed across his arm. And I'm like, what, what is going on here, dude? Why do you have notion patch on your arm? Well, I just, I just really like it. Software changed my life. I run this consultancy and I'm like, you're a lunatic. I like lunatics. You have me interested, got his number and about a year and a half ago out of the blue because of my LinkedIn content, we didn't stay in touch.

But he, I guess, remembered the conversation and like called me out of the blue and was like, Hey, Skyler, remember me notion tattoo guy. I don't really want to do founder led sales anymore. I just want to build. seem like a good sales guy. You want to come and work for me? I said, maybe remind me who you've worked with lately. And he's like, like cash app, chime, discord, companies like that. And I'm like, this is legit. Okay. Yeah, sure. Why not? Let's have some fun. And a year and a half later, here we are. Never looked back.

Doug Dosberg (04:39)

That's awesome, what a story. So, Tim is the one with the notion tattoo. I remember when that story kind of was in the news cycle. So, all right, interesting.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (04:49)

Yeah, yeah, he grew a decently large Twitter following with that being his cover photo and pinned tweets. So that notion tattoo is sort of how the company got. Well, it's not really how the company got founded, but over time that kind of became like the embodiment of it.

Doug Dosberg (05:05)

Makes sense. So now I'm waiting for the Hey Taco tattoo. Whoever's listening, gonna get that tattoo. I'm waiting.

Una Japundza (05:15)

I feel like that's a hint for me, but I'm just going to let it slide by. I'm just going to let it slide by to the next person.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (05:21)

How much ARR to get one for you?

Una Japundza (05:26)

my God, tattoos, that's a hard sell. That's a hard sell. But Doug, know, Tem is the founder and he has the tattoo.

Doug Dosberg (05:33)

I see how this is this

Una Japundza (05:35)

Right

Skylar, help me out here

Skyler Birk-Stachon (05:37)

Speed.

I'm not getting an ocean tattoo anytime soon and I didn't found the company. So Doug, think you might have pigeonholed yourself here.

Doug Dosberg (05:46)

Nine years later, get the Hey Taco tattoo. That seems kind of high risk. Maybe five years ago.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (05:52)

I'm sort of soft-locked in. It's not in writing. I want to clarify that. But I'm sort of soft-locked into when we hit 10 million in ARR that I have to get an ocean tattoo.

Doug Dosberg (06:03)

Mmm, I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep my mouth shut

Una Japundza (06:05)

Sounds like a worthy goal.

Skylar, tell us more about optimization now. So you're working with awesome clients all over the world. How big is your team? Where are they? Are they in New York? What's happening there?

Skyler Birk-Stachon (06:20)

No, funny enough. our team is 12 every other person on the team besides me as a certified notion consultant. I am our one man sales army, which means I am the VP of sales, the head of sales, the entry level, SDR, the mid market account executive, along with marketing lead account manager, any title that you can possibly think of except for doing client work and building is me. So our team is global.

All remote. Up until last week, I'm kind of bummed about this. I was the only person currently in the U.S., but we just hired someone else in the U.S. He's awesome. No shade to him. But I am no longer the only person working in the U.S. right now. Attempted in Argentina, we span three different continents. So we've got and countries represented. have Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, the U.S., Canada.

and Indonesia. Our 12 person team. So we're all over the place.

Doug Dosberg (07:26)

That's pretty wild, global team.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (07:28)

Very global. spend a lot of different time zones and it helps us because our plants are also global.

Una Japundza (07:34)

Skylar, tell us more now that you have a team that's global. By the way, you can always say you were the first person hired in the US. Just, you know, there's always a statistics you can use in your favor.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (07:46)

true, but it's not entirely true because Tem was in the US and he lives in New York with me. It's just that the New York winners are really cold. he smartly dipped out to Argentina to avoid the winter. Hmm. That's pretty smart. I'm kind of jealous.

Una Japundza (08:01)

That is pretty smart.

When you and I did a little prep call for the podcast, I asked you this question. You had a very direct, thought, no second thoughts about this answer, but what do you think makes work better fundamentally? Tell us more.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (08:22)

I think that people get so sucked up in like the stress, the hustle of their job that they forget that like you have to have fun with it. Especially like if you like really like take a zoom out and like really think about like work, right? You're locked into if you're working a nine to five as an example, you're working eight days out of the 24 in a day, 40 hours a week. That's like one third out of your time.

And so if you're dedicating that much time to a specific activity, like you might as well enjoy it. And so I really think that like people get so caught up in like, I have to be perfect. I have to do this thing. I have to satisfy my boss. I have to satisfy every single client. And like, I need to be so serious. And like, they forget that like in five years and 20 years, whenever it is, none of it would really have mattered. So you might as well enjoy it. And I think that like,

If you're not the founder, or even if you are, you should have some more fun with it. You should smile more. You should send more gifts. You send more memes. You should joke around with your coworkers and you should just do everything that you possibly can to enjoy, you know, the thing that you're dedicating one third of your daily life to.

Doug Dosberg (09:39)

I think that's right. mean, I, you wouldn't know is like I, I love having fun. think fun so important, right? You know, I have two kids that play sports and I'm constantly reminded that if they're not having fun, they're not going to be engaged in their craft. They're not going be engaged in their sport. And I think it doesn't change, you know, as we become adults, we need to be having fun in our job. We need to be having fun in our lives. That's what's going to keep us going. It's going to keep us motivated. It's going keep us engaged. It's going to keep us performing at a high level. So I totally agree with you.

that fun is super important, Skyler.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (10:11)

And I think, you know, one thing like to piggyback off of that is like, especially in sales and I can give some other examples, but like, especially in sales, I was talking with a buddy the other day and you know, we were going over and we're like, end of the quarter, end of the year, so stressed about like hitting quota and like getting some of these deals in. And then we were like, kind of joking and we're like, it's kind of crazy that like we're talking about, like, this is like the end of the world. Like we sell software, we sell services, like

We're not doing open heart surgery. whether or not we perform at the end of the day, like is not life or death. Like the world is not fundamentally going to shift if people buy our services or buy our software. We get compensated very well, usually to literally talk on zoom every single day as a living. like at the end of the day, you shouldn't be that stressed about it because it doesn't matter that much. And I think that like having that mindset and that mentality.

is going to actually make you that much more successful and crush those things because you're not like so worried about the outcome of every single thing. And I think that applies to like literally every single thing when it comes to work is like the more stressed you are, the more seriously that you take it. Obviously there's times to be professional, but the more seriously you take it, the less fun you're going to have in the less productive that you're going to be because we're all humans. We're not robots, right? We're not AI agents.

We're humans that are trying to do our best every single day. And the more that you like remember to smile, laugh and have fun with it, the more that you're actually going to be productive and be able to perform at the highest level to accomplish whatever it is that you're trying to do.

Una Japundza (11:50)

How did you come to know this? Did you have a very shitty job where you were being very serious and sucking and then you're like, yeah, I should have more fun. Or were you just always this way? like, you know what, I really like to have fun in my life and it's just carrying through everything I do.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (12:05)

Well, to clarify, I definitely was always this way. I just think that life's more fun when you have fun with it. Like, I don't know. I'm a very glass half full person. Like my mom always was just like, I mean, you can make excuses. You could be upset or you could not be like, it's all a mindset. Like, but my first job out of college, honestly, most of my jobs have been like pretty shitty up until this one. Like if you really think about it, but like my first job out of college,

I was cold calling for FanDuel. We had to make minimum 100 manually dialed cold calls a day. Minimum. Which is crazy, like in hindsight, especially the fact that we were literally manually dialing them. But like, I don't know, you just like get your teeth kicked in all day. You get told to fuck off. You get swear that, you know, you just get rejected over time. And I was like, this is so draining. And like everyone that I talked to that like had gone through that or within that position.

at like an entry level sales role was just like miserable. And like, was like, dang, I really don't want to be miserable. Like, how can we find ways to have fun with this? It was also like the height of COVID. And so was like, I don't know, I'm just gonna like throw out some like crazy things and like shadow box in my room, like while I cold call, like, I don't know, set like weird goals where it's like, you know, once I make 25 calls a day, I get to eat like a handful of Skittles or just like, I don't know, literally the randomest things that you can think of like.

Whenever I get my next rejection, have to do five pushups.

Doug Dosberg (13:34)

I love that. It's like you made a lousy job fun, right? So I think that's really smart.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (13:40)

gotta gamify it like set like, you know, mental stuff in your head that like gives your brain like dope and even like every single time you do something.

Doug Dosberg (13:48)

Gamification is such a wonderful fallback. Raising kids, I've realized that's a great motivator, right? Create a leaderboard, incentivize performance, do something that makes them want to achieve something and then recognize them. yeah, I subscribe to that belief that adding a little gamification helps.

Una Japundza (14:08)

I think it's important for kids, also like when you're training skills at the highest level. Like I was reading this book about this trainer that worked with Steph Curry that helped him get from like, Hey, I just graduated from Davidson that no one knows about to I'm going into the NBA. And he just set up these training skills with like, Hey, if you get 10 out of 10, you get this. If you do this, you get this. It made it more fun for him to do endless amounts of shooting, right? You're talking about thousands of shots a day. And as a result, he progressed cause he could see, well, today I got

Seven out of 10 tomorrow, eight out of 10. can see that progress. I think it works for kids, but it also works for adults who are at the top of their game. So are those the mechanisms you set up pushups and skittles? What else did you have?

Skyler Birk-Stachon (14:45)

Yeah, agreed.

Hmm. What else did I have? Um, I don't recommend this one, but I mean, that was like 100 cold calls a day is crazy. And like, at some point, you got to get a little bit loose. And like, it was also like, I was working like 12 to eight ish. So it was like, once you get to 75, you were allowed to crack a beer or a drink for the next 25, which again, I don't condone it. But if you want to have one, I think you'll be fine.

And it definitely made the last 25 a lot more fun.

Una Japundza (15:23)

How long did you stay in that job before you switched?

Skyler Birk-Stachon (15:25)

Well, so, okay, I think I should probably explain this job. So I grew up Oregon, in Portland, went to U of O, was like super heavily involved in like the sports business club. I was like dead set on I need to be somewhere in sport and business when I graduate. I didn't really know what that meant. And I got a job out of college selling tickets for the Met. Super excited was going to move to New York and then COVID happened. And

Obviously there was no tickets to sell. So they canceled my job, laid off half of their workforce, super bombed. But I was like, it actually ended up being the best blessing in disguise that could possibly happen. And I was like, all right, hit from Portland. If he can get a job selling tickets for the Mets, like I can just get a better job, I guess. And I got this job working at FanDuel, the sports gambling company. It was like an entry level customer service job. I just needed like something. So I started doing that. And then like after a few months, I was like, all right, great. Now I have like

something on my resume. Now it's time to get out of Oregon because as much as beautiful there, it's kind of a bubble where people don't reach their full potential. And I felt myself getting stuck into that. So I was like, okay, how can I get into a big city? San Francisco, Austin, New York. And I was like, I want to get into sales. I want to stick to sales. I don't really know how to get into sales, but like the same mentality I take to like most of the things that I do, was like, okay.

Let's think what would an average person trying to break into sales do right now? And let me do the opposite. And so I was like, okay, cool. Time to start cold calling hiring managers. And so I, I found this one hiring manager at Fandle who was running this successful or experimental team. like, I mean, I was called calling like 20 plus, like random hiring managers at Fandle or not, like a day and just like being like, give me a shot. It's all I asked. I don't have any experience. You're not going to hire me if I fill out a resume.

And so I got this guy who was a Fandle sales manager on the phone and I'm talking to him and he's like, okay, I like you. You were bold enough to give me a cold call. Like, did you apply? Did you send me a resume? And I was like, no. And he's like, well, why not? Like do that, like apply for the job and like, I'll take a look. And I was like, here's the thing, man. I'm not going to do that because if you take a look at my resume and you take a look at my experience, I guarantee you that you're not going to hire me because I don't have any experience.

But I'll tell you what, if you like my approach on this cold call, you liked the hustle, you should give me a shot at the very least. If you don't like it at all, that's cool. Tell me to kick rocks and hang up. Like I won't be offended, but that's the reality. And he was like, and I was like, cause if you liked the cold call approach, that's the same person that you're going to get every single day. So you might as well give me a shot. And he was like, all right. I like it. And like, by the way, the job description said you need like two or three years experience in sales and cold calling, you know.

things that I clearly didn't have. And then he ended up hiring me over 70 other people and was like, dude, I like you, I'm willing to give you a shot, but I need someone physically in New York and New Jersey in the next two weeks. Can you do it? And I was like, sure, see you in two weeks. So packed up my bags, moved across the country, never looked back, best decision I ever made.

Doug Dosberg (18:34)

That's awesome.

Una Japundza (18:35)

Now you're in a job that obviously you love. even made a bet that you bet, speaking of betting, that you might tattoo Notion logo somewhere on your body when you get to certain revenue. How do you guys, with your team that's all over the world, how do you have fun together? You were showing me some Slack channels when we talking. What do you guys do to have fun when you probably can't really talk live that much?

Skyler Birk-Stachon (19:01)

Yeah, well, the first one that we do and our favorite one is a taco. We are maybe the biggest Hey Taco fans in the world. I like to think that we are. It's just,

Doug Dosberg (19:13)

You know how we know, right? You know how you proved to be the biggest, right?

Skyler Birk-Stachon (19:18)

You

Una Japundza (19:18)

You walked right into that one, Skyler. Gotta get a tattoo.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (19:22)

Eat a lot of tacos and give a lot of

Doug Dosberg (19:25)

You need to go to what's heytaco.com slash store and get yourself a Hey Taco shirt.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (19:33)

I do need to do that. Me and Uno were talking about this and I was like, I really should do that. But I always use all my tacos to buy tacos. it's pretty perfect. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we do a lot of really, really fun things. We, I mean, we have Slack, Chan. I mean, first off, I've kind of instituted this culture, but I try to communicate as much as I can solely through GIFs and memes. If it's internally, clients are a different story. But

Una Japundza (19:42)

which is a great trade.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (20:02)

If I can, I will send a gift to communicate and I will send a meme if it's possible. we have really, really fun emojis too, as well. We also recently, one thing that I really like about, optimization is like everyone's like fairly like. Ultra Lee up to speed on what's like happening in the world with TV shows, despite being all around the world. So like, it's not like literally a requirement for HR purposes, but every person is caught up on severance.

And we talk about severance like nonstop in our like one meeting that we have every two weeks. And like we literally jammed out about it for like 30 minutes last week and like started giving like our theories. And it's now like when you're out of office, it says that you you're on the severed floor. So funny if you see that. And yeah, we have a lot of fun with that. Also, all of our meetings are named after TV shows and someone gets randomly assigned every single week of who gets to decide the title of the next one.

And then the icebreaker and then the music. And then you have to start it with the first five minutes. You talk about the title and why you gave that specific show and that specific theme. Obviously all of this is in a notion setup. It's all automated. It looks really cool. Fun stuff like that.

Doug Dosberg (21:16)

That sounds like fun. I'm curious about your thoughts, feelings around fun right now in the current climate that we're in, right? Like, do you feel like fun is something that is harder to achieve? Or do you think people are looking at fun differently? Or do you think fun is something that people are welcoming?

Skyler Birk-Stachon (21:38)

It's a good question. I think I'm going to answer this question in two ways. For me personally, I think the current climate makes fun easier because if you look around again, I kind of a backwards philosophy to a lot of these things. But if I look out into the world and I see negativity, I'm like, dang, that sucks. And whenever I start to feel sad about it, I'm like, how can I not make myself feel sad?

Right? Like how can I flip this into a positive? And that's generally with fun things. Cause I'm a very glass half full person. So if I'm feeling down or I'm feeling negative, or I feel like a culture around me start to feel towards that, I'm going to immediately shift into like, how can we make this more fun? And if I'm not getting the same energy and the same reciprocation, the honest answer is I'm going to ignore you. And I'm just going to let you be off in your world because I don't really want that negativity in my life. So.

I think when everything else culturally in the world is like, you know, being sad or whatever the climate is that you want to call it. think that's really an opportunity to double down on like the things that like you generally enjoy. like, are you allowed to swear on this podcast? Okay. So my favorite book of all time is the subtle art of not giving a fuck. Generally that book is so good. It is the title of the book.

Una Japundza (23:01)

That's title of the book.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (23:03)

And my favorite lesson from that book that like I take to heart is like, look, genuinely, there you only have so much energy in your world in your day in your life, that you can only give so many fucks. So really like think about and prioritize and like write down like here are the things that I genuinely give a fuck about in this world. For me, that's family, that's friendships, that's relationships that I developed, that's traveling and

that's just building a good life generally. That's like my five right there. And if it's not something that's a part of that core five, I can only spend so much of my energy giving a fuck about it. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter.

Doug Dosberg (23:47)

It really doesn't fucking matter. Hey, if we're if we're gamifying this, I would say Skyler, you're at the top of the leaderboard for the most fucks on one episode. Fuck yeah.

There we go. I love it.

Una Japundza (24:01)

Skylar, while we're on the topic of having fun, I'm dying for you to tell Doug and our listeners your pickleball community story. I feel like besides you getting the job at FanDuel by cold calling the hiring manager, I think this describes your hustle and the way you like to have fun. So please tell us how that got started.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (24:24)

Okay, so one of my favorite stories of all time, I am the one man sales army here at optimization. We are a very small company that nobody has ever heard of. We do not have a big marketing budget. And when I say we don't have a big marketing budget, it's actually zero. And so we have to get really creative with our prospecting and like figuring that out. So when I first got hired here, I was looking for ways to get created.

Notion has such a big cult following that I'm like, I need to get more involved in the community. Like, how can I get people to recognize us? Like I want to be the notion guy that whenever somebody thinks of notion and they need help, they're going to hit me up. Now I also have a fairly big LinkedIn following. That's a whole other story. So I see this guy, he was the VP of marketing at Apollo at the time, the sales enablement tool. He was posting about like their notion was a disaster and like they needed help with like an audit and like a full restructure and training, get their adoption up, et cetera.

Pay did not respond to any of my cold calls, cold emails, outreach, whatever. I see him post on LinkedIn one day and he's like, Hey, I'm going to be in New York for the next week for a bunch of Apollo events. I'm looking for people in the city who play pickleball. plays pickleball backstory. I'm a tennis player. thought pickleball was kind of lame. If I'm being completely honest with you, I thought it was only an old people's sport, but I live across the street from a park and I was like, I play pickleball. Like I'd love to set up a game.

And so he's like, okay, great. Let's set up a game. I'll invite, you know, my other buddies who are large tech executives. And I'm like, okay, cool. So I go and buy, you know, a pickleball net by four paddles. I go and buy some bagels and coffee and I show up, you know, the next day at eight AM on a Thursday and we play pickleball. I play it, you know, super cool. like, these people don't know that I've been cold calling them. And I'm realizing I'm like, holy shit. These are like four really large tech executives at like pretty massive, like tech companies. Like I couldn't pay to get in the room with these people.

This is really cool. And after they're like Skylar, that was amazing. Like I didn't know what to expect from it, but like we're having like, you know, this like rooftop happy hour tickets are like 800 bucks. I'll comp your ticket. Like you can be like my guest tonight. I'm like, great. We all have a blast. We go out the next day. They're like, we should play again. And everyone's like, yeah, totally. But only three people show up. Me, this executive and this other guy who's a founder of an early stage tech company. We go play just us three. have a blast.

Dude goes back to Vermont or wherever he lived and I'm walking home with the other guy and it turns out we're neighbors naturally, because that's the way the world works sometimes. And he's like, dude, what if we just like did this every week? Like who knows what would happen? Like people might show up. And I was like, yeah, sure. And so by the time I could open my computer, he had already spun up like marketing graphics and like a Luma page and like.

We made it a thing. So we started doing it every week, like about a year ago, and it quickly grew to a community of over 2000 people in the NYC tech community. It is the largest recurring weekly tech event in all of New York. And we get like 50 to a hundred people that show up to play pickleball physically in person every single week. Rain or shine. Yeah. Shout out to my pickleball community. Love y'all.

Una Japundza (27:33)

Rain or shine.

Doug Dosberg (27:35)

That's incredible.

Una Japundza (27:42)

Right? Is that a cool story, Doug?

Doug Dosberg (27:44)

That is cool.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (27:45)

And I wear this massive pickle hat every single time.

Una Japundza (27:48)

I mean, you're pretty official. have a LinkedIn page, right? That says nothing. Nothing says we're more official than a real LinkedIn page.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (27:56)

Yeah. Yeah. And if anyone's interested in it, you can find it. Just look up tech pickleball. We just relaunched, this year had an event that immediately sold out. last week was super fun on a Friday morning. We've got some really, really, really cool stuff planned for the spring, including curated tournaments, more events, swag paddles. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Una Japundza (28:17)

Do you not love pickleball?

Skyler Birk-Stachon (28:19)

So here's the truth. No, I very rarely actually play when I'm hosting. I like pickleball tennis is still infinitely better, but I just really like that it brings people together and it's really, really fun hosting events and like seeing really, really cool stuff happen in the community. I've literally seen like founders like get intro to VCs raise funds vice versa. I've seen people get hired there.

I saw a dude sublet his apartment there to somebody else. Like it's just really cool to like bring people together with like a commonality pickleball in this instance. Who knew? And just like see like what comes of it as opposed to just like your standard happy hour where like everyone's trying to sell to each other and like it's boring. It's awkward. No one's having fun. And like, this is just like so much better.

Doug Dosberg (28:56)

That's amazing.

Maybe pickleball's the new happy hour.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (29:10)

Dude, is. It's Pickleball's the new golf, is what I say.

Doug Dosberg (29:14)

Pick balls and new golf. There you go.

Una Japundza (29:15)

take that trade. A lot easier to get to a lot easier. It doesn't last four hours. You play for an hour and you're out. You have a cup of coffee at the end. You're good. Not like 18 holes. It's forever.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (29:26)

There's free coffee and bagels. You don't even have to play. Like people will come stop by on their way to work on a Friday morning. They'll just hang out. Like that's pretty common. Or they'll play one game. You know, we'll have people who have never played before. You know, people are very, very welcoming and nice. It kind of just works.

Doug Dosberg (29:44)

That's so cool. Should we talk about gratitude? Let's talk about gratitude. Well, Skyler, as you know, with Hey Taco, everyone has five tacos to give each day to either recognize someone for something they've done or to show appreciation or to just simply put a smile on someone's face. Who are you giving your five tacos to today and why?

Una Japundza (29:47)

Let's talk about gratitude.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (30:06)

Easy. Same person who gets my five tacos every day, which is obviously my mom.

I know, know. No, no, no, for real though, my idol, my inspiration, you know, my drive. She's freaking awesome. And yeah, I feel like she's the reason that I am the way I am and get to live this awesome life. So shout out mom, shout out all the moms. Y'all are the best.

Doug Dosberg (30:31)

I love it.

Una Japundza (30:31)

You

gotta make sure your mom listens to this podcast. You can't miss those five tacos publicly given. Of course you gotta listen to the podcast, duh.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (30:37)

Of she's going to listen to this.

What do you think that I sent her when I told her about Hey Taco? sent her the article about, was it McKinsey? You're at whichever consultancy, Goldman?

Una Japundza (30:49)

Which article? There's so many Skylar, we just can't keep talking about them all. I'm just kidding.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (30:53)

Just kidding.

Doug, it's the one where you were talking about like how you were at like the corporate job that you hated and you founded Hey Taco and Bootstrap with like two employees and like your future work. And I said that to my mom and I was like, I'm obsessed with this company's brand. They're so cool.

Doug Dosberg (31:11)

Hey, that's that's I love that story and nine years in and I wake up every day excited to continue on so.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (31:20)

Now you'll love this. One, when Una hit me up, I immediately sent her and I was like, my God, Hey Taco offered me to be on their podcast. I'm so excited. And she was like amazing. And she responded with, you know, taco gifts because she gets me. And then I immediately sent it to my Slack channel. And what did everyone do? Gave me tacos.

Una Japundza (31:41)

Truly.

Doug Dosberg (31:42)

That's awesome. Skyler, thank you for being on the podcast. Really appreciate it.

Skyler Birk-Stachon (31:46)

course, our favorite Hey taco thing that I was telling you about that I forgot to mention earlier. just so you have this is on Tuesdays, have an automated Slack message that goes out at 12 15 PM Eastern time every single Tuesday and it's taco Tuesday and you spend your five tacos, hyping up other teammates. And so it's like this awesome, like, here's all of our highlights. Here's a teammate that helped me out. And then everyone hikes them up with tacos.

So everyone sends out the five tacos and it's a really good way to, I mean, we do it anyway in our wins and brand channels, but like it's required that you send out tacos and give people love. That's great. Exactly.

Una Japundza (32:23)

special occasion on a top of Tuesday.

Doug Dosberg (32:27)

That's amazing.

Una Japundza (32:28)

Tyler, thank you for joining us and for sharing your energy. This was awesome. And if we make it to New York, we know where to be on a Friday morning.

Doug Dosberg (32:36)

Pick a

Skyler Birk-Stachon (32:37)

The only place to be on a Friday morning. I maintain that there's no better way to start your Friday morning. There never has been and there never will be.

Una Japundza (32:39)

place to be.

Thank you.

Doug Dosberg (32:48)

Thank you.

Una Japundza (32:59)

Thanks for listening. One of the important things about building a team is gratitude. If you're looking to add more gratitude into your team, check out heytaco.com. We are clearly biased, but it really does work. Use the code amazingteams to receive 15 % off for the first three months of your subscription.