Rolling Monkey

WRITTEN BY JENNY STARLING FOSS PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANK FORTUNE

There’s something extra sweet about a business that’s the winner of six Most Fabulous awards. Rolling Monkey is Statesboro Magazine’s Most Fabulous Ice Cream/Frozen Treat, Sweet Treat, Place to Have a Birthday Party, Place to Take a Selfie, Business that Gives Back, and Mascot, RoMo. Rolling Monkey is a finalist for Most Fabulous Customer Service, and Most Fabulous Boss in Garrett Clark. With so many wins, we had to find out what makes Rolling Monkey so Fabulous!

It’s the unlikely combination of Christian values, engineering principles, and Eastern philosophy. An inspiring work culture that permeates the way Rolling Monkey does business.

“Putting people first is the way to build a business,” said Garrett. “Whether you’re pouring into your employees or serving your customers, you must reach for the best possible outcome. We make it our mission to unlock the potential in all our employees, providing them with a workplace in which they can develop their best skills, experience joy in their work; which reaches in an impactful way the customers they serve, and the community.”

The Clark’s way of doing business is founded in the Christian faith, based on the Truth found in the Gospel, first and foremost.

“We approach everything from that perspective,” said Garrett. “Being partners in our marriage, being good parents, being good stewards, mentoring our employees, every aspect of creating our business is founded in our faith.”

Garrett builds upon that foundation by drawing from his experience working as a civil engineer for companies like Mitsubishi Power Systems of America and JTEKT North America in Sylvania, companies which incorporate Eastern ideals into plant production.

"“Ikigai (ee-key-guy) is the Japanese concept defined as a reason for being, or the thing that gets you up in the morning,” said Garrett. This appealed to the entrepreneur who was searching for meaning in the workplace beyond a paycheck.

“You have reached Ikigai when you have found your purpose and it meets four components: you’re doing something you’re good at, that you love, you receive compensation for your work, and your work gives back to the community,” said Garrett.

While value stream mapping complex production systems at his engineering jobs, Garrett discovered the most critical gap in performance and production was in how the systems related to people/employees, the company’s most valuable assets.

“I could envision the model that incorporated a deeper level of personal fulfillment for the employee and I wanted to work on developing it,” said Garrett.

After graduating from Georgia Southern with a special degree Education, Meagan started „ teaching elementary school in Effingham County.

“We had both achieved our primary goals within our respective fields,” said Meagan. “But we both felt that together, we could accomplish so much more.”

The couple put their ideas about personal fulfillment, job satisfaction and community outreach to work, when they stepped out on faith to start Rolling Monkey in 2018.

“At first we were going to call it Cold Roll Creamery,” said Garrett. “Using the initials of our son, Connor Riley Clark (16). But our market research showed that the name wasn’t particularly appealing. We tossed around ideas and in the process, we realized that we often referred to Connor as ‘Monkey Man,’ so Rolling Monkey it became!”

“Garrett is the real visionary,” said Meagan. “He can solve complex problems, find the most efficient way to operate, develop business strategies, and create and design things.”

The interior of the shop in Southern Square Shopping Center was Garrett’s design. It has trees constructed from two by fours that have branches stretching across the ceiling. There are swinging chairs, half-booths and high-top tables, with plenty of lighted Rolling Monkey logo signs to accommodate social media selfies. Customers form a line and get to watch employees creating the rolled ice cream treats from 12 regular menu choices accented by unlimited toppings.

“We knew when we started that we would be different,” said Meagan. “Our vision is to change the way businesses do business. We want to leverage our employees’ talents by allowing them to do what they are good at doing or what they love doing and nurturing those skills within our company.”

“Unlocking their potential achieves a triple win,” said Garrett. “Joy-filled employees, inspired communities and legacy partners. It’s a business model that we believe we can replicate.”

Garrett & Meagan quickly outgrew the office space at Rolling Monkey and in searching for new accommodations they discovered Georgia Southern’s Business Innovation Group in downtown Statesboro.

If you see the Rolling Monkey trailer outside the BIG campus downtown, now you know why. While working from their new office space, Garrett started brainstorming ways to add value to the Business Innovation Group’s offerings. He was instrumental in the development of the Learning Management System (LMS), a self-paced system utilized by entrepreneurs to achieve business development goals, and the BIGx accelerator, a peer-to-peer advisory group that meets monthly to support each other and problem solve. The Clarks have also been asked to share their revolutionary business principles with other BIG entrepreneurs.

“At Rolling Monkey, we create to inspire,” said Garrett. “Our vision is to change the way retail businesses do business by unlocking the potential in people. We aim to develop and showcase people-first business models that deliver the win-win. A model that brings the best in people out so that they can be fulfilled and have a positive impact in their community, wherever they serve.” S