King of Pops’ secret ingredient? Having fun at work. Its founder says you can too

“Work is going to be a slog,” Carse said, reminiscing upon that point in his life. “I’m still going to have fun, but it’s going to be on weekends and evenings and vacations.”

Little did he know, he was about to be laid off from that job, and what followed would change his life — and his view on how joy and work intersect.

Carse would soon cofound King of Pops from his brother’s basement, turning a single frozen treat stand into one of Atlanta’s most recognizable small businesses. The brand’s products are now stocked at Whole Foods Markets, sold at brick-and-mortar stores across Atlanta and are a staple at festivals and sports events.

Making and selling pops — his iteration of Latin American fresh fruit paletas — spurred a newfound satisfaction and exuberance during work hours that Carse said he never expected.

It’s an experience he aimed to capture and pass onto other working professionals in a book called “Work Is Fun: Seven Ways a Successful Ice Pop Company Makes Work Meaningful and How You Can Too.” The book releases April 1 as part of King of Pops’ 15th anniversary.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

It details the ways Carse learned about finding fun through the mundanity, tedium, frustration and challenge that tends to define how many people describe their workplace lives.

“Just like we work on our physical health or our relationships with family members, I think we should be working on how we approach and perceive going to work,” Carse said.

Passion through pops

Carse, 41, grew up in Snellville and followed in the footsteps of his two older brothers to study at the University of Georgia.

He said he caught his first glimpse of finding ways to bake fun into his work while toiling through monotonous shifts at the Snelling Dining Commons.

“It was fun to learn how to perfect the flip of an omelet on your 300th one,” he said, adding that there’s satisfaction in honing a craft.

Credit: Courtesy of Kirkwood Spring Fling & Tour of Homes Facebook page

Credit: Courtesy of Kirkwood Spring Fling & Tour of Homes Facebook page

Eggs may seem like a less whimsical art form than frozen treats, but Carse said placing sticks in molds and wrapping frigid pops gets tiresome when done by the thousands. He said that tedium led King of Pops’ factory workers, who are called “Frosty Freaks,” to start an Olympics-style competition with various pop-making events focused on efficiency. It’s a fun tradition that started in the company’s third year and has stuck around.

Carse first took a chance on turning paletas into his livelihood after being laid off in 2009 from insurance giant American International Group, also known as AIG.

As the self-described “hippie surfer kid in law school,” Nick Carse landed his first law gig in Gwinnett County as assistant solicitor prosecuting misdemeanors. When pops as a profession presented itself, he saw that as potentially more satisfying.

“It was going from putting people in jail and seeing them on their worst day to putting a smile on their face and letting them have a moment of joy,” Nick Carse said. “Even though pops weren’t world-changing or life-changing, they are a reprieve from anybody’s day.”

The entrepreneurial bug is something hard to ignore once it reveals itself, said David Cummings, the founder of the Atlanta Tech Village for startups and an investor in the South Downtown district. He met the Carse brothers a decade ago when King of Pops began its rise and contributed a back-cover blurb to Steve Carse’s book.

“For entrepreneurs that are really passionate about their idea, it becomes all-consuming,” Cummings said. “Bringing that idea to life is actually the least risky thing they can do, because they’re so maniacally focused on making it work.”

Pursuing fun

Steve Carse said many business books read like instruction manuals for entrepreneurs.

“Work Is Fun” has a different goal — finding joy at your current job through a positive mindset.

“The book isn’t about how everyone should stop and become an entrepreneur immediately,” he said. “A lot of what I love about work has nothing to do with pops or entrepreneurship.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Many of the examples he provides of the “fun times” at work seem like they should have been the worst days on the job.

At his first Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, he only sold a few dozen pops during the opening sets — but business picked up during the festival’s later days, which he said reset his expectations.

A sweltering summer event at the Starlight Drive-In Theatre turned into a race against the clock as the sun overpowered his cart’s dry ice, melting pops to puddles. But he still remembers some of the interactions and people he met.

An experimental tomato, strawberry and olive oil pop flavor inspired by the Georgia Organics “Attack of the Killer Tomato” festival proved divisive but was an offbeat experiment.

“A lot of people really love (that flavor) and go back for it, and other people are like, ‘What were we thinking when we made 5,000 tomato pops?’” he said. “But it was fun.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

King of Pops now operates its global headquarters in a former welding shop off DeKalb Avenue, where up to 16,000 frozen treats are made each day. When included within the Carse brothers P10 artisan product shipping company, it eclipsed $10 million in sales last year.

The brothers in January finalized a deal to sell P10 to Rainforest Distribution for an undisclosed price. Steve Carse said it was a seven-figure deal and one that allows the cofounders to focus solely on King of Pops rather than the logistics of shipping frozen goods.

He said he knows it’s easy for the “pops guy” to tell other people that work can be fun. But he said the strive to find passion in work, even in the mundane, is a worthwhile effort.

“I think the cynics are wrong and that their work can be fun,” he said. “But even if it can’t be fun, it certainly can be more fun.”