Matt Olin built Charlotte Is Creative by following creativity instead of a business plan. What started in theater and writing turned into nonprofit leadership and community building that has helped reshape how a city values its creative economy. His journey matters because it proves that creative entrepreneurs and founders are not side characters in growth. They are the engine. As co founder of Charlotte Is Creative, Matt talks candidly about fundraising challenges, the constant runway every founder watches, and why social capital is often the most overlooked asset in business. His founder mindset centers on community building, creative entrepreneurship, and the belief that connection not perfection is what actually moves ideas forward. Those ideas translate into clear, practical lessons founders can apply right now.
Key Takeaways:
1️⃣ Connection Beats Perfection Every Time
Waiting until something feels perfect costs you momentum. Matt built community and credibility by shipping ideas early, gathering people fast, and letting connection do the heavy lifting. Founders grow faster when they move forward imperfectly instead of hiding behind polish.
2️⃣ Social Capital Is A Real Business Asset
Relationships create leverage long before revenue shows up. Matt treated community building as infrastructure, not a nice to have, and it opened doors money could not. Founders who invest in people early create options they cannot spreadsheet their way into later.
3️⃣ The Runway Never Stops Moving
Whether nonprofit or for profit, the cliff is always there. Matt’s experience shows that sustainability comes from staying proactive, asking bigger, and extending the runway before panic sets in. Founders win by facing the math early and choosing momentum over comfort.
Timestamps
00:14 Welcome to the messy middle and meet Matt Olin
01:46 The accidental nonprofit founder journey
03:55 What creativity really means and who it includes
04:50 Shifting Charlotte from a banking city to a creative city
06:17 Early support from sponsors and civic partners
08:43 Teaching creatives to think like entrepreneurs
09:25 Social capital as the most untapped resource
10:42 From small meetups to 10000 people, convening at scale
11:49 The COVID decision to serve first and grow anyway
13:05 Learning collaboration as a leadership strength
14:24 Co founder discipline and protecting the partnership
20:40 Why creative economies fuel city growth
23:48 The biggest challenge, fundraising and the cliff
25:26 If fear disappeared, going bigger on the ask
26:24 Magic wand changes, staff growth and faster momentum
27:49 Measuring success through funding and national stories
29:33 Best advice, connection not perfection
32:48 Finding inspiration through community and curiosity
33:39 One word for the journey, messy
35:08 Defining the next chapter with joy
39:04 How to support Charlotte Is Creative and give a HUG
Community grows through connection. Here’s where to follow Matt’s work and explore Charlotte Is Creative.
Website: https://www.charlotteiscreative.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattolin/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cltiscreative/
Jennifer Sutton (00:14)
All right, welcome to Hello Chaos, the unfiltered podcast for founders kind of in the messy middle. No fairy tales here, just the real grin, grin, the real grind, the grits and chaos of what it takes to build a business, to build an organization, whether you're for profit or nonprofit. Today we have on our show Matt Olin. He is the co-founder and chief community officer of Charlotte is Creative.
and co-founder and publisher of The Biscuit. Welcome to the show, Matt. Our little neighbors just north of us in Charlotte, I love it. Right, where are you in Charlotte? Just curious of you.
Matt Olin (00:47)
Thank you for having me, Jennifer. I appreciate that you asked.
a mere 90 minutes. mean, you know, a hop, skip, and a jump away.
We
live near Independence Boulevard, kind of the south side of Charlotte, which is an old Charlotte neighborhood, lots of trees, but within striking distance of so much that goes on in Charlotte, and there is so much happening in Charlotte.
Jennifer Sutton (01:05)
Okay.
Yeah.
So
you're near like the South Park area and okay.
Matt Olin (01:18)
Yeah, yeah, if you know Charlotte,
we're of between South Park and Independence Boulevard, kind of in that area.
Jennifer Sutton (01:22)
So
I have driven through there. I have two clients that are over in the South Park area and I think I drive through an older neighborhood that is all tree lines, beautiful. So I have probably been right in your hood. All right. Well, start us out. Tell us, so how did Charlotte is Creative? What was the inspiration? How did that get born?
Matt Olin (01:29)
Yeah.
I'll be sure to wave next time. Yeah, exactly.
Jennifer Sutton (01:46)
and your entrepreneurial journey, just like get us started.
Matt Olin (01:50)
Sure.
Yeah, I mean, so my co-founder, Tim Miner, and I sort of refer to ourselves as the accidental philanthropists or the accidental nonprofit founders. So, and we do run Charlotte is Creative. That's our nonprofit. But to go back in the way back machine here, I grew up in Charlotte doing theater. I went to the Children's Sea of Charlotte. I just fell in love with the art form of theater. And that was the first half of my career.
Jennifer Sutton (02:13)
Okay.
Matt Olin (02:17)
studied it in college, went up to New York, worked on Broadway shows, off Broadway, national tours, regional theater, things like that. A little bit in Charlotte as well. And just loved being in that world. The thing about theater, of course, is that sometimes it pays the bills and sometimes it doesn't. So along the way, I was always a good writer and English was one of my majors in college.
Jennifer Sutton (02:33)
Thank
Matt Olin (02:41)
So I started a freelance copywriting business and that's how I would keep the money rolling in during the dry times. So I'm really grateful for that because freelance copywriting was a way that I was able to sustain myself through the ups and downs of a theater career. And that informs our work now too. I think communication is a big part of operating any sort of organization ⁓ or company. So yeah, long story short,
Jennifer Sutton (02:47)
Right.
Right.
⁓ yeah, yeah.
Matt Olin (03:08)
Eventually, my journey led me back to Charlotte and my buddy Tim and I decided, let's see what happens when we start gathering the creative community together in Charlotte. What sort of magic could be unleashed? Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton (03:17)
Okay, yeah.
So when you talk about creative community, it more theatrical creativity or is it hitting, the reason I ask is because Greenville has such a great creative community as well of visual artists, but people that work in agencies of videographers and photographers and sketch artists and animators, but also
Matt Olin (03:43)
Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton (03:43)
copywriters and
Matt Olin (03:45)
Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton (03:46)
storytellers. you know, is it a broad creative community or is it really just focused on the roots of theater?
Matt Olin (03:55)
We subscribe to the broadest definition of creativity that you could possibly imagine. And yes, some of my old friends and colleagues from the theater and music worlds are in there too, but man, we try to get our arms around the entire creative ecosystem here. All disciplines, all of it. I mean, that's the thing. A lot of our creative convenings that we do in Charlotte doesn't just have vocational and avocational creatives and artists in the audience, but just people that love.
Jennifer Sutton (04:09)
Yeah.
Matt Olin (04:22)
the creative spirit of our city as well. So we really, it's a very broad stroke that we're using here and really trying to use it as a way to gather really the full community together around this idea that Charlotte is a creative community.
Jennifer Sutton (04:23)
Right.
Is it creative?
So when you came back to Charlotte, was it like a gap? Was it like a, or that you saw happening? Or was this more of like a natural, like inertia inside of like, I need to be around more creative people. ⁓ What was the pull?
Matt Olin (04:50)
Yeah,
it was definitely the latter. mean, you know, the truth is, Charlotte is a supremely creative city.
it's just never been a headline. Charlotte's known as a banking town, a great place to earn a family, you're close to the mountains and the beach and blah, and all that's true and all that's great. But the headline had never included this fact that we are also a deeply creative city. There have been artists and creatives that have been keeping the pilot light burning and sort of building that momentum for decades and decades here. What we were interested in doing is starting to shift the narrative so that this idea that Charlotte is creative is actually.
Jennifer Sutton (05:01)
Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Olin (05:28)
as big of a headline as Charlotte is a great banking, know, financial center as well. So it was really, that was a big part of the impetus. There was something in the water back in 2015 when we launched this 10 years ago that people needed, they wanted to gather together, they wanted to be together. And then, know, selfishly, Tim and I both have, raising girls and we kind of like the idea that our daughters might.
Jennifer Sutton (05:31)
Right, right.
Thanks.
Matt Olin (05:53)
grow up to say, you know, Charlotte is a really cool, creative place. Maybe I'll move back there or whatever. you know, part of it's trying to that sticking is a Charlotte trying to get that in place too.
Jennifer Sutton (05:56)
Right.
Did you, was that an easy kind of theme line or whatever to get out there? you get support from like Visit Charlotte, economic development people to go, I like what you're doing, we wanna support you? Was it ⁓ kind of?
Matt Olin (06:17)
Yeah.
⁓
We got a real wave of support early on. There were naysayers. Our first project that we rolled out was the Charlotte Chapter of Creative Mornings, which is a global community. But we decided to start by launching the Charlotte Chapter and gathering hundreds of people together every month. And we had some naysayers saying, you're going to run out of creative speakers in the next year or two. And we're like, we'll see about that. We're 10 years in, and we have a list as long as my arm of people we want to get on that stage. But yeah, lots of companies.
Jennifer Sutton (06:40)
Right.
Yeah.
Matt Olin (06:47)
as sponsors and even like CRVA and civic partners really saw what we were doing. They kind of saw the sort of lightning in a bottle that we were capturing and they were very aligned in the sense that they understood like, you know, this idea that Charlotte is a creative city, that's the sort of reputation you want to put out there. When you look at materials that let's say the city or pseudo governmental agencies are using to sort of attract headquarters to Charlotte,
Jennifer Sutton (07:05)
Yeah.
Right.
Matt Olin (07:13)
Those materials are covered in murals and other expressions of art and creativity. You're not putting, hey, here's how many Chipotle's and ATMs we have in Charlotte. Yeah, yeah. So in many ways, I kind of love this idea that Charlotte's growth is being fueled by the creative spirit of our city and all the creative talent that's here. The next step is making sure that those artists and creatives are being supported and valued.
Jennifer Sutton (07:22)
Right? Or just a guy behind of a desk, you know, looking at his computer.
Right.
Yeah, so they stay and to keep them, yeah, to keep them fed. So, and keep them here, It's retention. Well, congratulations, just wrote, know, 2015, that means this year was your big milestone of 10 years. I mean, that's incredible. So I hope you celebrated that win.
Matt Olin (07:42)
at that level. And that's a lot of the work that we're doing.
Keep them fed and keep them here. Yeah.
It is creative retention. That is exactly right.
Yeah,
well, we're sort of, I mean, we may be lagging by a year, but we're celebrating the kickoff of our 10th anniversary year this December. So, you know, we probably should have started it last year, but, you know, better late than never, I guess.
Jennifer Sutton (08:15)
Okay.
That's right.
That's right. It's got it. But you at least acknowledge it and celebrate. So what does creative or Charlotte is creative? Is it I know it's a nonprofit, like what is it you guys gather do events like once you said that you do like a morning. I'm not play like morning session like what what does does the organization provide?
Matt Olin (08:43)
yeah, we work in a couple of different, our programs fall into a couple of different buckets. One is knowledge and training. We have a cornerstone program called the Creative Entrepreneurs Initiative that really is designed to teach artists and other creatives.
Jennifer Sutton (08:48)
Yeah.
Matt Olin (08:58)
small business skills and sort entrepreneurial thinking and making sure that if you want to earn some or all of your income through your creative craft, that you're thinking about it like a business person, like an entrepreneur, and that you know some of that language. I mean, if you're going to do that in a business town, you should be able to speak some of that business language. you know, providing a lot of those resources, both from a knowledge standpoint, but also from a social capital standpoint. You know, is social capital.
Jennifer Sutton (09:00)
Bye.
Right.
Right.
Matt Olin (09:25)
very likely the greatest untapped resource in our community in terms of people building their businesses and their organizations. So we create a lot of convenings whereby folks can come together and exchange social capital to help lift each other up. So that's a big, big part of what we do. And then the other bucket really is sort of community building and convening. And so whether that's Creative Mornings Charlotte or some of our smaller events like Coffee with Creatives,
We have larger events like Makers and Creators, which is a gathering of younger creatives. Heck, we help produce an event called FOMO Night that happens quarterly. We had 10,000 people come to FOMO Night last week. So we have events, yes, yes, all from Charlotte. Yeah, I mean, I think there were folks that traveled here from Queensborough and other way too, but so.
Jennifer Sutton (10:06)
my gosh, all just from Charlotte?
Wow, that traveled it,
Matt Olin (10:17)
That convening is key. Bringing the community together where they can meet fellow collaborators, be reminded that they're not creative in isolation, that they're part of a community. And whether we're doing our 15 person Coffee with Creatives or our 10,000 person FOMO night, you can see the sort of wide variety of convenings that we do all year long.
Jennifer Sutton (10:26)
Great.
Right, oh that's incredible, 10,000 people, again that's another win in a milestone for you. you guys are like, was, were you guys expecting like a couple thousand and 10,000 people showed up?
Matt Olin (10:42)
Yeah, it kind of blew our hair back, that's for sure.
Well,
you know, one of my teammates, Michaela Benter is one of the sort of architects of the program along with some other community partners here in Charlotte. And, you know, we've done a handful of these over the last year or two and it's, you know, it's grown, right? We've gotten a thousand and then 2000 and then 4,000. And so I think you start to see that momentum building. I don't know if we necessarily expected 10,000, but we were ready for it and it happened. And so, you know, it's pretty, it's pretty thrilling.
Jennifer Sutton (11:08)
Right.
Yeah.
That's fantastic.
What do you think is the secret to that momentum of, you know, being in the space? Because nonprofit is hard, especially, you know, post COVID, it got even harder. Or actually, because of events and kind of the fun rate, the gala, all that stuff kind of. So, you know, here you're kind of boomeranging back and seeing that what's been the secret or what can you can you pinpoint like an aha of
this is why we're seeing it climb.
Matt Olin (11:49)
Well, I can tell you from Charlotte's creative perspective that when COVID, you know, in 2020, when COVID started, you know, there were a lot of people that were restricting, were tightening up, they were hunkering down, and we made a conscious decision to kind of do the opposite. We said, you know what, we're going to reach out. We're going to reach out to the people that have supported us all these years. We're going to say,
Jennifer Sutton (12:00)
Yeah.
Matt Olin (12:11)
Not, hey, we're struggling, we're scared that we're gonna lose funding, we're scared that we're gonna close. We actually reached out and said, how can we help you? How can we help you during this challenging, unprecedented time as we've over and over again? And I think that is part of the...
Jennifer Sutton (12:16)
Right.
Matt Olin (12:28)
magic or the sort of cosmic tumbler that fell into place to say, here's how we're gonna endure through COVID, here's how we're actually gonna continue to grow as an organization during COVID, even when we can't gather in person, we will keep doing our monthly events online, on Zoom.
push the limitations of the online convenings. So I think that was a big part of it. And just continuing to stoke that fire that just because we're going through a pandemic doesn't change the fact that Charlotte is an incredibly creative city that we need to keep coming together and collaborating. And that we will get to the other side of this and hopefully emerge stronger and better as a result of the creative energy that's here.
Jennifer Sutton (13:05)
And then as you have kind of journeyed through being a founder, co-founder, what did you discover most about yourself?
Matt Olin (13:13)
Mmm, yeah. Well, I love collaborating. I love being on a team. It's interesting, like I was, I'm an identical twin. So I've always been a part of a set, right? Like I've never been by myself largely out in the world. And I just have come to accept this about me, right? And I've done a lot of individual work, but given the choice, I will always prefer to collaborate with someone.
Is this me trying to fill the void of my identical twin off doing his work in higher ed? Who knows? But I don't know, there was something about these different twists and turns in the Securitas journey that I've been on that sort of has really driven that home. Like I wanna work with people, I wanna create with people, I wanna be on a team, I wanna collaborate. And that was a big aha for me over the years.
Jennifer Sutton (13:41)
Right.
Right.
Right.
And how is it going with co-founder and that partnership? Because that also takes some discipline and work there. How have you guys fueled that or invested in that relationship or boundaries or whatever you, what do you think is the success there?
Matt Olin (14:24)
Well, part of it, and we're in somewhat of a unique situation in that Tim and I have known each other since high school. We actually met.
Jennifer Sutton (14:29)
Okay.
Matt Olin (14:30)
in an audition line for a play in high school here in Charlotte. And we've been trying to cut each other up and make each other laugh, you know, ever since. So we've always been friends. We've collaborated in lots of projects over the years. We went to ended up going to college together. Here's a crazy thing. I go to Chapel Hill the year before Tim. The next year, because he was here behind me, Tim gets enrolled in Chapel Hill and randomly gets put in the suite next to me. You know, if you think about how many
Jennifer Sutton (14:57)
Well.
Matt Olin (14:58)
dorm rooms are at Chapel Hill. So that to us was the sign of the universe to saying, y'all aren't done yet. You know, we're going to throw you back together. You're going to keep doing things. And here we are 35 years later, you know, still, still building, still creating. And, and so, but you know, here's the thing, Jennifer, like you can be the best of friends, when money's on the line, when it gets tough, it gets tough. And so we've had to be very, very intentional about
Jennifer Sutton (15:00)
Right.
That's incredible, yeah.
That sounds like that stuff gets tough.
Matt Olin (15:26)
making sure that we sort of keep the friendship going, know, remind each other of our origin story. Just the other day, we came down to Greenville, just the two of us, for a day. We rented an Airbnb. Sounds very romantic, but it was meant to be a founders retreat, the two of us saying, hey, we're busy, we have a million things going on, but we are gonna carve out 24 to 36 hours to go away and actually do some
Jennifer Sutton (15:29)
Hmm.
Right.
Matt Olin (15:56)
envisioning together, have some fun together. And so you got to be super intentional about that because, you know, otherwise the busyness will just sweep it all away.
Jennifer Sutton (16:00)
Yeah.
No, and I think that's a good insight there of when we work with companies, it's amazing how people, especially owners, I know it gets busy, but we always say you gotta make time to plan, you gotta take a step back and just think. And also be with and surround yourself with people that are gonna question things and push on things. What other, other than kind of doing this annual retreat, are there other disciplines or?
tools that you guys use of, hey, once a month we do this or weekly we do this, that kind of ensures that you guys are intentionally focused on things together.
Matt Olin (16:41)
I will say that one of the things we do, mean, certainly we have our planning meetings and weekly check-in meetings and things like this, but I would say that the thing that comes to mind when you ask that question is that we encourage each other to stay in tune to their own creative desires. So for example,
Jennifer Sutton (16:45)
Right.
Matt Olin (16:56)
our program director, Sethu Ravel, has a career in film and running film festivals in LA. She's on our team now, which we're so grateful for. And she is the board chair of the Independent Picture House here in Charlotte, which is kind of our art house here in Charlotte. And so that keeps her.
Jennifer Sutton (17:11)
Yeah.
Matt Olin (17:14)
you know, connected with her love of film. And it's separate from her job at Charlotte as Creative. You know, I am a sort of a sloppy rock and roll keyboard player. I love playing the piano. And so I created a program called One Band where we pull our musicians together every couple of months and we learn these songs and we do one rehearsal and one performance and then we disband forever.
Jennifer Sutton (17:38)
Right.
Matt Olin (17:39)
So that's a fun way for me to stay and sort of remind myself on an ongoing basis, this is why I love art. This is why I love music is because, you know, it makes me feel a certain way. So that's one thing that sort of keeps us fired up, keeps us inspired and keeps things kind of fun and joyful, you know.
Jennifer Sutton (17:48)
Right.
Yeah.
So as you start, you know, doing the self discovery process, are there things that you're, you know, and you're starting to develop the team, are there things that you discovered about yourself that you really like about yourself that you wish other people recognized more of you? Or maybe it's something that you're, you know, Tim is like, people don't know this about you, Matt. Like, do you have any of those moments of, yeah, they, I don't know why people don't see this about me.
Matt Olin (18:24)
You know, maybe this goes back to being an identical twin, but I would say that I've learned about myself that I have a pretty collaborative leadership style. Like, I like to sort of let people have their opinions and thoughts and ideas heard. Often, I will defer to someone else's idea, right? I'll be like, you know what, let's go with that. This is not a hill I'm willing to die on. Yeah, yeah, so.
Jennifer Sutton (18:41)
I want to be amenable. Yeah.
Matt Olin (18:48)
Maybe this is people pleasing. Maybe this is collaborative leadership. You know, hard to say. You know, we could segue into a therapy session if you want. But yeah, it's funny. I was talking to Saithee the other day about this. I said, have you noticed this about me that a really good argument can easily sway me to the other side of a debate? Like I'd be like, no, this is the way we got to do it. And someone will come in and say, you know what, I think we should do this. And I'll say, you know what, think you're right. So.
Jennifer Sutton (18:55)
That's right.
That sounds right.
Matt Olin (19:16)
I don't know if that's a strength or a liability, but it's definitely part of how I show up in the world for sure.
Jennifer Sutton (19:22)
That's fascinating. And you're just discovering this like somebody's, you're like, let me ask this.
Matt Olin (19:27)
I'm becoming pretty in tune to it, I'll tell you that. It's very present, it's right here. Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton (19:31)
It's right there. Okay, I gotta,
so is your identical twin in Charlotte too? do you,
Matt Olin (19:37)
No, he is in Princeton, New Jersey. He's a dean at Princeton University, actually. So he's a total slouch slacker, as you can imagine. We do try to stay connected. mean, you know, it is hard to be apart from your genetic clone, but we play a wordle every day and we send each other our results. But the key is we send the result, but then you have to follow it up with a nostalgic GIF or link or something that
Jennifer Sutton (19:40)
wow. Okay.
You
Great.
Matt Olin (20:05)
just remind you of something from our past. Sometimes we'll even just drop a random phone number in there. And the only way you'll get it is if you call the number and they'll pick it up. And it's like, Pepe's Pizza Night in New York. And it's like, you know, our favorite pizza place from our childhood or something.
Jennifer Sutton (20:07)
Right.
Yeah,
did you guys both go to UNC?
Matt Olin (20:22)
We did, yeah. My brother
went to University of Dayton for a year or two and then he transferred over to UNC as well. Couldn't stay away, got an apartment together, you know, we just we just love each other, yeah.
Jennifer Sutton (20:28)
couldn't stay away from you.
⁓
So through your journey of starting, what has surprised you the most?
Matt Olin (20:40)
Yeah, mean, honestly, going back to what I was touching on earlier, one of the things that really surprises me is the realization that a city's growth is very much fueled by its creative economy, its creative community, and its creative energy. But very often, the way that that
ecosystem is supported is completely unaligned with how much they depend on the creative energy here, right? So it's like, we need Charlotte to be creative, but I don't know how much we're willing to invest in keeping them growing. So closing that gap, closing that delta has become a huge focus of our nonprofit. But when that realization kind of sunk in, I was like, wow, this is our mission from now on.
Jennifer Sutton (21:11)
Right.
care.
Matt Olin (21:25)
And it was very surprising to hit on that and realize that there's a big gap there that needed to be closed.
Jennifer Sutton (21:25)
Yeah.
Yeah. And like you said, it's what fuels typically, you know, the community's economy and sustains it long term. Yeah. And so to get the attention of, I call it the economic development, you know, agencies, a lot of times they will pay attention to like the innovation economy, but they forget that that's also fueled by the creatives.
Matt Olin (21:39)
That's right.
That's right. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right.
Jennifer Sutton (22:00)
are also a part of that. And oftentimes creatives are separated out. We try to bring them in as kind of our orange whip, kind of we look at the innovation economy as a broader spectrum of entrepreneurship, invention, innovation in that way. But it's interesting that is not held as a widely known thing.
Matt Olin (22:02)
That is exactly right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, and I
agree with you and we're making headway and we're so gratified by this. mean, this is another very surprising thing, Jennifer, is that when we started 10 years ago, it was more about, let's bring the creative community together. Let's see what magic unleashes. I never would have thought that 10 years later that we would, that I'd be, you know, close to the mayor, that I know a ton of city council members and county commissioners and corporate leaders and
Jennifer Sutton (22:30)
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Matt Olin (22:51)
you know, the sort of rooms that we have found ourselves in, sitting with Professor Raj Chetty around the study and the work that he does around economic mobility, I never would have thought that as leaders of an arts support organization that we'd be in those rooms, but those are the rooms that we're finding ourselves in. And that has been shocking, thrilling, a little intimidating, but it's allowed us to do a ton of really impactful work, I think, over the
Jennifer Sutton (23:05)
Right. Right.
Right,
well also in connecting the purpose to what the city cares about is the economy.
Matt Olin (23:21)
They care about the economy, they care about economic
mobility. If you start to get folks to realize that a creative path is a legitimate pathway to economic mobility, then the veil starts to lift and you start to, it's a mindset shift. You start to see artists in a whole new way.
Jennifer Sutton (23:29)
Right.
That's right.
That's right. that's fantastic. So those were big ah-hahs. What was the biggest like, shit, big challenge, big wall that you had to face and overcome?
Matt Olin (23:48)
I mean, it has to be around development and fundraising. I mean, I'm sure there are others, but the realization that it's hard work, it doesn't matter if you're running a for-profit or a not-for-profit, there's still a cliff there. I you look out and you're like, okay, I see the resources we've got, I see that the leads are there in the works, and I can do the math and see where the cliff drops off.
Jennifer Sutton (23:56)
That's hard work.
Mm-mm.
Matt Olin (24:11)
And how do we keep extending the cliff out further and further and further? And just that is the water we swim in right now. We are constantly trying to extend the cliff out another year and another year and another year. And so that's been, I mean, that's been a ton of shit moments there, know, it's just, running the math.
Jennifer Sutton (24:19)
Right.
Right.
Matt Olin (24:30)
We're so grateful for the support we have and things are looking good for a while, but you know, we can run the math and see the cliff and it just means we gotta keep going. We gotta keep running.
Jennifer Sutton (24:39)
So you said that you're, you you do like a one man or a keyboard little band. Is there anything that was, that's not like on your resume or like that's known that other people, our listeners would find kind of neat to learn about you.
Matt Olin (24:45)
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, mean, another way my brother and I stay together is we've been writing children's books together. That's been super fun. We haven't made any traction, even though these books are fantastic. We have made no traction yet. Part of it's because we don't have the bandwidth to focus on, you know, working with or networking with agents or what have you. But yeah, I'm an aspiring children's book author. You know, who knows? Maybe that'll materialize someday.
Jennifer Sutton (25:09)
Right.
That's right.
All right. What would you be doing if you had no fears?
Matt Olin (25:26)
wow, if I had no fears, what would I be doing? Well, I would probably be, I mean, I might be traveling more. I do like to travel, but I'm also a bit of a homebody. ⁓ it could be something around that. But also I think going in for the big asks too. mean, that's part of it is,
Jennifer Sutton (25:39)
Yes.
Matt Olin (25:49)
if you're making the case for the value of the work you're doing, it's honestly, it's just as easy to ask for $500,000 as it is for $10,000. It's just about reframing the conversation and teeing it up correctly. So I do think that swinging bigger might be something that would happen if some of those fears sort of came down.
Jennifer Sutton (26:12)
Yeah, yeah.
And if you look ahead, or I would say, if you got a magic wand and could change two things about the organization, what two things would you change today?
Matt Olin (26:24)
Well, would definitely grow our staff. mean, we have a small but mighty team of five doing the work of 50. So I would love to flesh out our staff into a larger workforce that could really allow everyone to not be teetering on the edge of burnout and be able to support each other.
Jennifer Sutton (26:30)
Fantastic.
Matt Olin (26:47)
with their zones of genius. that's one thing I would change for sure. And we can get there. It just takes raising more money to get there. The other, I think, would be to accelerate our vision. Our vision right now is for Charlotte to become known as the most welcoming and supportive community in America for artists and makers and creative entrepreneurs. And we're starting to see that reputation proliferate. We're seeing folks from
Jennifer Sutton (27:12)
Right.
Matt Olin (27:15)
big cities in California and New York and Nashville and other places, they're moving here because they're starting to hear that Charlotte is a creative place. It's a place where you can set up shop and do your creative work and make an impact on the city. But we have this five, 10 year vision where it's it's undisputable. And I'd love to accelerate that and make it happen right now, but we keep working.
Jennifer Sutton (27:26)
Right.
Right now, all right.
So if we meet like a year from now, so next fall, Christmas time, what will we be celebrating? What, when would we be celebrating?
Matt Olin (27:49)
man, yeah, we're gonna be celebrating, well, first of all, we're be celebrating a bunch of new grants that we've secured that just like extend that, we're gonna be celebrating our endowment that we are secure for the foreseeable future. ⁓ Definitely, definitely that. But also I have this vision, like I want some national press about.
Jennifer Sutton (27:54)
Very.
Fantastic, yes, yes.
Matt Olin (28:08)
Charlotte's creative scene rising. And we have had some of that. was able to, thanks to our friends at CRVA, I spent some time with a writer from the Chicago Tribune and she wrote an amazing piece about how creative Charlotte is. But I want more of that. I want to be celebrating tons of stories happening coast to coast and beyond about how creative our city is. That would be one mark of traction.
Jennifer Sutton (28:21)
Yeah.
That's.
well let's do it. We're gonna manifest it, put it out there. ⁓ Who is your biggest cheerleader? Besides your brother, it sounds like.
Matt Olin (28:32)
Let's do it. Yeah.
I mean, honestly, I gotta say my wife and daughter, I mean, they are definitely huge cheerleaders and it's an atypical job. I'm out a lot of nights, running events and trainings and things. So they support me emotionally and verbally, but also just saying, do it. We know what you gotta do. Yeah, yeah, so that sort of support.
Jennifer Sutton (28:58)
Right. It's good. You're good. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Olin (29:03)
is huge and I gotta say my mom and dad too. Very lucky to have my mom and dad here in Charlotte and they come to every, like for example, every Creative Mornings event that we've done and we've done 120 or 30 of these events. They're there every month and just to see them out there is a real gift, you know, to be able to have all these years later. They supported me as a creative child and now here they are cheering me on as a creative adult and I mean I couldn't ask for a
Jennifer Sutton (29:13)
Wow.
Yes.
fantastic.
Kudos to them. Yeah, exactly. So what's the best piece of advice you either received, know, starting this up or something that you've learned through your process that you share. Now it's like your mantra that you share to others that want to start their own because you are kind of creating that community of, creatives, you can, you know, open up your shop. What is the best piece of advice that you give out?
Matt Olin (29:33)
Kudos to them, right? They're just a model right there.
Well, right now the mantra is connection, not perfection. Connection, not perfection. And it really was born out of that one band program that I told you about, which again, 30 musicians sign up. It's always a random collection of people and instruments and skill levels, but we come together, we rehearse for one night, and then we put on a concert and that's it, right? It's like in and out. It's a quick musical sprint.
Jennifer Sutton (30:09)
That is inspiring.
Matt Olin (30:29)
But what we've learned is it is about the connection. If we're connecting with each other, if we're connecting with the audience, that's all that matters. My inner perfectionist that has haunted me for my entire life, I think the reason I launched this little side passion project was to tame that inner perfectionist, to actually create publicly a program that had a 0 % chance of ever being perfect. can't.
Jennifer Sutton (30:40)
Right.
Matt Olin (30:54)
rehearse seven songs in one night and have them be even remotely perfect. And so what happens is this new sort of source of joy where an audience comes out and is cheering you on just to get through the songs, not to hit every bridge and verse perfectly, but the win is that you just get through the songs, even if it goes off the rails, they're cheering you on for getting back on the rails. So I don't know, this idea of connection, not perfection.
Jennifer Sutton (31:18)
I think it's genius. Yes, it's inspiring. it's something that I think I have that kind of fear, that block of just go for it. Just do the ask, put it out there. And for whatever reason, I think sometimes we get crippled ⁓ by weird fear.
Matt Olin (31:18)
I'm finding that it applies to just about everything.
Yeah. Yeah.
We do.
It's a weird fear we want, we want to be putting our best foot forward, we want it to be as perfect as possible, but then, you know, the other side of it is you lose the moment, you lose, exactly. Yeah. So then that haunts you. Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton (31:42)
Bye.
then you lose the moment, you lose the connection. Yeah. And then that haunts you of, damn it,
that didn't take advantage of that moment.
Matt Olin (31:56)
Exactly. So, you know, this idea of just ship it, just ship it, like just just get it out into the world. You can work on getting it more and more perfect later, but don't wait. You know, I used to have actors when I was, you know, fully entrenched in the theater world would come up and say, I'm just not getting traction. And I would say, put on a show. Don't wait for a casting director to hire you. Just get out there, reserve a space, put a show on. I've produced shows in hotel rooms.
Jennifer Sutton (32:00)
Yeah. All right.
Right.
Right.
Matt Olin (32:25)
You know, literally like anywhere I could put a show up. So don't wait. Don't wait for perfection. Don't wait for the perfect time or venue or just do it.
Jennifer Sutton (32:29)
Yeah.
Just do it.
Everybody out there, that's great advice. Where do you go for resources? Or what's been a source of inspiration? Is it podcasts? Is it books? Is it your own community that you brought together and just feeding off of each other? Where's your go-to?
Matt Olin (32:48)
I mean, it's definitely all of that for sure. you know, the, it's amazing. Like this community that keeps showing up when we gather together every month at our creative mornings events, the first question I asked the audience, which usually has two or 300 people in it, is I'll say, how many people are here at a creative mornings event for the first time? And wholly a quarter to a third of the room raises their hands. So this source of inspiration and newfound connections, it keeps, it's not a silo.
Like it keeps its new blood churning. So that has been very, very cool. But also here at home, mean, my wife is an avid reader, so she's constantly finding new books that are either about money or business or self, know, self improvement or whatever it is. Plus a lot of fiction, of course. But, you know, so she's like my personal librarian here.
Jennifer Sutton (33:16)
Right.
Thanks.
You need to read this. ⁓ So if you had to sum up your journey in one word, what word would you use?
Matt Olin (33:39)
Exactly.
I mean, I have to use the word messy. It has been a messy journey, very sort of all over the place. And you can all see like as, know, this piece here behind me, which was created by 30 or 40 stakeholders in Charlotte throwing paint at a canvas. You know, this is very representative of the journey that it's, you know, that's taken us to this point anyway.
Jennifer Sutton (33:56)
Well...
⁓ that's great.
Matt Olin (34:09)
But there's beauty. There's beauty in the messiness. Creativity is messy. Life is messy. know, entrepreneurship is messy. It is messy. So how do we just go, okay, let's accept that, let's embrace it, and let's find the beauty and the joy in it. You know, can it be an adventure? So messy is the word I'm going to...
Jennifer Sutton (34:10)
Mm-hmm.
That's right. Entrepreneurship. It is messy.
That is a perfect word. Yeah, I love that. And I ask every founder and owner that comes on the show and we get, there's very, very little overlap, like duplication in words. And I think even though I say it out like, we talk about it's the messy, the messiness of messy middle, I think you're the first one that has used that word. And it perfect, I know it is and I love it. Like that's one of the reasons I.
Matt Olin (34:41)
interested.
I'm shocked, but yeah.
Jennifer Sutton (34:56)
I love doing this podcast is we all have our themes of struggle. We all kind of live in that messiness, but our journeys to get to where we are are all, it's a variety, ⁓ but we all live the same kind of in the same struggle. right, so if you look to the next chapter in your journey, what word do you want to define that journey or what that chapter?
Matt Olin (35:08)
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, joyful, joyful. And actually 10 years ago when Tim and I sat down and said, okay, let's start planning our very first Creative Mornings event, we identified the words that we wanted to kind of mark the character of it. And joy, joy was the number one word. So we always are trying to bring the sense of joyfulness into our convenings and our programs.
Jennifer Sutton (35:39)
Yeah.
Matt Olin (35:46)
But there's always room for more joy. You can never tap out on like, I have enough joy here. So I would love the next chapter to just be overflowing with joy. And I think a big source of that is going to be, you know, making sure that our community is coming together and is as tight and supportive of each other as possible, especially these days. I think we need it more than ever.
Jennifer Sutton (35:48)
No, that's right. No,
Ugh.
I love it. I love it. Like it's such a connection for me because we use we hold workshops for executives and founders trying to find their voice because we do branding, right? We work on a brand, do a brand, you know, guidelines. And then what we found is that founders or owners or executives get lost and then they go, well, what do I write about? How do I show up? So we created JoyLab.
of how do you find joy in better understanding who you are as a leader and how do you articulate that and then how do you show up in content to, know, whether that's in presentations or posting on LinkedIn, you know, for, so yeah, I love the, yeah, you're speaking to me, we're aligned.
Matt Olin (36:53)
We
are kindred spirits here for sure because that is the value that I think ⁓ drives it.
Jennifer Sutton (36:58)
I it. It is. Okay,
so I'm trying to think if I have any other questions for you. I do have a, where do you think you will be going? Like I know you said here you wanna kind of have that theme line of Charlotte is creative.
kind of put that on the mark. But what is that big, big, I mean, how do you know when you get there? Other than the stories, the reporting, do you guys have like a, hey, you know, this is our due north.
Matt Olin (37:35)
Hmm, man, that is such a good, hard question. know, it's like, because I do think it's about when we're out there connecting with each other and meeting all these people that are moving to Charlotte, mean, 100 and something, it's like 120 plus people.
Jennifer Sutton (37:39)
Alright.
Yeah. it's like the
southeast. We're like booming.
Matt Olin (37:51)
We're booming, we're booming. And when it's just, when you've heard enough of those stories where you're just like, it's indisputable that Charlotte is, you know, known as the most creative city in the country. if you want to launch a creative career or start a creative business, this city should be at the top of your list. Well, I don't know, maybe there's a tipping point where we've heard finally the right number of stories where like, we're there, we did it.
Jennifer Sutton (37:58)
Right.
Yeah.
Right? Or
Charlotte's on the top of every one of those, the lists, right? US News and World Report, the most creative city, Charlotte. that, like, hitting it.
Matt Olin (38:21)
at the top of all this.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And if
you have trouble finding someone to say that this city doesn't support me or I can't find my people or whatever, like if you are trying to seek those stories out and you can't find them, that's a mark too. It's like we want everyone to find their people, feel supported.
Jennifer Sutton (38:36)
Bye.
Matt Olin (38:45)
not feel alone in this creative journey and to feel like they're on their path to a fulfilling purposeful life. if you, if putting your creative work out into the world is a key part of you having a fulfilling purposeful life, then this is the place to do it. That's what we want.
Jennifer Sutton (38:52)
Right.
This has been such a joy for me. ⁓ I love this conversation. And before we go though, tell people how can they learn more about what you're doing, the organization, how do they support your mission?
Matt Olin (39:04)
Thank you. You're great.
I mean, the two places I'll point folks are to our website, which is charlottescreative.com. And of course on Instagram, where we really are very, very active, CLT is creative, is our handle on Instagram. And that's where folks can learn about all the work we're up to, all of our programs, how incredibly creative and active our city is. And also if they want to support us. I mean, we have microgrants called the HUG microgrant program. HUG stands for helpful unfettered gift.
These are $250 strings free micro grants. call them love bombs. It is, we call them love bombs of cash, love bombs of cash. And it's just meant to remove small obstacles from a creative idea moving forward. And people can both apply for a hug grant, but they can also give a hug. So go to our website and learn how to give a hug and support moving a creative entrepreneur's career forward.
Jennifer Sutton (39:46)
Like little random act of kindness, right? Of little, yeah.
Right.
my goodness, that is fantastic. Thank you so much. This was wonderful. And I know our listeners will be excited to and really connect with what you're doing. So kudos.
Matt Olin (40:11)
Thank you, Jim.
Thank you.
Well, I connect with the work you're doing too, and I appreciate the invitation and it's been a great conversation.
Jennifer Sutton (40:22)
absolutely. And I hopefully will meet in person next time you come down 90 minutes. Next time you come to Greenville or next time I'll send you a little ping and go, let's grab coffee or a cocktail or something. Yeah, let's do that. But that's a wrap on today's chaos. But the journey doesn't stop here. If you found yourself nodding along and feeling inspired by Matt's story, please be sure to
Matt Olin (40:25)
90 minutes.
That would be great. I would love it. Yeah, that would be great.
Jennifer Sutton (40:50)
you know, share, comment, give us that five star review on Spotify, or you can dig deeper into our founder resources, our tools, and more episodes over at OrangeWIP, and that's orangewip.com. So until next time, stay curious, stay scrappy, and remember, we are all a wip, a work, and progress. See you again next week.