Meet Rachel Whinnery

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachel Whinnery a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?

I’ve been told a few times recently that I’m quite altruistic. Much of the energy I spend on running Everyday Akron doesn’t come back in a monetary fashion. Long story short, I’ve grown an online community out of the love I have for Akron and those who live here. I want everyone to succeed.

Nearly ten years in, Everyday Akron is well-known in the city and trusted by both people who grew up here and folks brand new to the area. People turn to the Instagram account to meet a different host each week who shares their side of the city. The team and I often write blog content and guides and offer ways for small businesses and non-profits to be featured — free of charge. With a large platform, I want to offer low-cost or no-cost ways to help entrepreneurs and community members get the word out about the products they offer and the work they do.

Our culture is so focused on the “hustle,” and many people seem to do things only if they directly benefit from them. But while I’m working my 9-5 job, I’m also managing Everyday Akron in way that’s as generous as I can make it. Would I like to make thousands of dollars from it each year or even make it my full time job? Sure. But then I wonder if that would take the magic out of it by being more focused on the bottom line.

Being generous comes down to doing what you can with what you have. Take your passions and share them with others to make a positive difference.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m a full-time marketing specialist for a park district while running Everyday Akron on the side. The latter stemmed from my love of the city and wanting to learn more about my new home after attending The University of Akron. More than 10 years ago, I really appreciated how social media could connect an introvert like me to others in the same town and around the world. After finding a few accounts that allowed different people to “host” for a period of time to share their life in their cities, I decided Akron needed something similar. So I started it.

At its heart, Everyday Akron invites a different local resident to take over our social media each week to share their unique perspective of life in and around Akron. Whether they’re an artist, small business owner, community leader, student, or someone who just really loves their neighborhood, the idea is to show how diverse and vibrant our city really is.

It’s now blossomed into blog posts that dive deeper into local businesses and nonprofits, guides to activities and events around town, in-person events to bring people together offline, and more. We just launched “Behind the Menu,” a YouTube series.

In Behind the Menu, each episode highlights a different food business — but in the way only Everyday Akron can. To produce this new 4-part series, we gave four local food businesses a filming kit — and some guidance — for a week to share their story. Then, we edited their story together to offer a peek into their lives as entrepreneurs and to discover what the community’s support means to them.

We see pretty food on social media all the time, but who’s behind it? How did they get into the industry? Where does their inspiration come from? And what does it mean to them to “eat local?”


So, we’re going behind the scenes to meet the folks who cook up delicious eats in the Rubber City. Drawing inspiration from our favorite food writers and content creators, the show gets to the heart of what makes small businesses run: great products made by even greater neighbors.

You can watch the Behind the Menu series on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@everydayakron

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Knowing how websites work

This has been key in running a blog and working in digital marketing. It’s a thread through nearly everything I do with Everyday Akron. Knowing how to create and update a website has been a major way to keep our budget very slim. I don’t need to hire anyone, and we can exist with basic features.

In the event we want to create a more complex website and I’d need to hire someone, I at least know many of the questions I would need to ask.

Most of this knowledge has come from on-the-job training and trial and error. I took a few web-related classes in high school and college, but that feels like ages ago.

2. High-quality writing

Knowing how to write, use proper grammar (unless I’m purposefully breaking the rules), and having a unique POV has helped me connect with others. Being honest, informative, caring and humorous draws people into the Everyday Akron community and makes them want to stay a while. Then, they meet new Akronties and learn more and more bout the city we call home.

3. Not fearing the need to improve or pivot

I’ll be honest, I hate change — especially big changes. But I know it’s often necessary to grow and/or deepen the relationship with our online community. If something isn’t working or I’m not happy with what I’m putting out there, I try to improve upon it. Quite often, it doesn’t need a big shake-up but instead a slight pivot. It’s important to consider different angles before running towards a decision.

I often see people shaking things up because others are pressuring them to or they see someone else’s success and want to copy them. But I try really hard to do things that I’m drawn to or that I know are for the greater good of Everyday Akron.

When it comes down to it, I encourage folks to be curious. Figure out that foundational skill you need to acquire in order to streamline much of what you do. Get curious about how you can better communicate with your audience and how you can develop a more distinct point of view. And peel back the layers of your business or hobbies to find out what can be improved and how that can be achieved.

Always ask questions of others and of yourself. You never know what you’ll discover.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

My biggest area of growth has been video editing. I had the basics down, but in my professional life and through Everyday Akron, I’ve been exploring more and more of the process. I feel my content and production levels have soared from continuously creating content.

When it comes to Behind the Menu, I’ve done a lot of behind-the-scenes work. However, we have two editors working on bringing the videos across the finish line. I’ve learned a lot collaborating with them, reviewing drafts, and discussing the process of storytelling across the four 8- to 10-minute videos.

I’ve enjoyed storytelling through writing for so long that it’s a lot of fun to now explore storytelling through videos.

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