Happy Employees, High Performance

Transcript - Happy Employees, High Performance

Rich Rininsland: On this episode of Team Building saves the World.

Mark DeCarlo: There are some people in society that are brilliant and there are some people in society that are horrible at it.

Rich Rininsland: Thank you. I have been both in my lifetime, so thank you.

Mark DeCarlo: Right, exactly. It’s not a constant. If your task is to. Think outside of the box.

You have to be in an environment and with a group where you can say stupid stuff and you’re not gonna feel like an idiot, right? As far as I know, this is not a dress rehearsal, right?

Rich Rininsland: Hello team.

It’s me. Your old friend, Rich Rininsland, host of Team Building Saves the World and have I got an episode for you today. In this episode, I have the absolute pleasure of interviewing an Emmy Award-winning actor, television host, bestselling author, as well as keynote speaker and workshop guide Mark DeCarlo.

But before we do, I have to share some love with all of my supporters at Team Bonding your team is ready to experience teamwork through the Power of Play, and visit teambonding.com to learn more. Now team, I will warn you, this is a long one, but each minute of it is as necessary as it is entertaining as I speak with Jimmy Neutron’s Dad, Mark DeCarlo. Mark, thank you so much for coming on. Mark DeCarlo, uh, for my team out there, you guys know him without knowing him. Or maybe you do know him because you’ve seen him on your television. You’ve definitely heard him. He has been all around the world. He’s been. And in several different things that you have seen, loved and adored, and now I get to have him here as my guest.

Mark, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it, man. I really, really do.

Mark DeCarlo: Rich, it is a pleasure to do this as part of my community service.

Rich Rininsland: Tell the judge you, you’ve earned a lot, and the orange vest looks great on you. Just from my audio doesn’t, it’s very slimming. I signed right and now cars won’t hit you.

It’s a fantastic, okay, but you have been an, an Emmy award. I mean, uh, TV host. You’re an improv actor. You’re all these amazing things. When did you, first off, let’s start with that. When did you realize that you wanted to be in entertainment?

Mark DeCarlo: Let’s see. It was sixth grade and we were doing a pageant at, uh, St.

Joe’s Elementary School in Downers Grove, Illinois. Nice. And we were, it was about the presidents and we were having a, a, there was a, a. Apart from Kennedy’s, uh, speech, his inaugural speech mm-hmm. That classic speech. Mm-hmm. And I copped a Boston accent and tried to do my best sixth grade version of, uh, president, uh, John, uh, Fitzgerald Kennedy.

And it went over really well. And I also realized that in the weeks leading up to putting on the school pageant in the basement of the church, I was, uh, exempted from much classwork to rehearse. Oh, lovely. And I. I despised grade school and anything that could get me out of class I was in. So I enjoyed that.

Um, I’ve always been, uh, I, I, I think some people are born funny and some people can learn to be funny. Mm. Uh, I’d like to think that I’ve was born with a certain thing and I’ve kind of worked on it, but I’ve always been, um, I, I, uh, my favorite quote about Groucho Marks one of. Arguably the funniest person of the 20th century.

Sure. Um, that he heard things. Funny. You could say a sentence. Yeah. And 99 people would hear that and Groucho would hear it a different way. Right. And then be able to comment on it. Right. And that’s just, um, how my brain works. And I’ve been able to, uh, through high school, I was doing comedy in the local clubs in.

The Chicago land area, playing my guitar. I went to college at UCLA, got into a group of standup comedians, all of whom are now multimillion dollar multimillionaire screenwriters. The guys that wrote Bill and Ted, uh, fight Club, meet the Fs. Excellent. Um, the lethal weapon chain. We were all a group together, and we would do standup every Friday, once a month on a Friday, and it would be four or five student comedians and then a headliner.

That was a real comedian and we would do the show and then in one of the brilliant, most brilliant ideas that our, our teacher had, the comedian would then go and sit down with us at a bar or something and he would go through everyone’s act. Alright, mark, and you get five minutes mark. You started with this, maybe not a great choice.

Maybe do this. Who’s your character? What’s your, and went through everyone’s act. As a peer.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah.

Mark DeCarlo: And we were clearly hadn’t earned that status in the standup world at the time, but because those guys, Robert Wool Seinfeld, Gary Sling, rest in peace. Mm-hmm. Um, uh, Kevin Neland, people that were not famous at the time, but went on to become famous, took the time on a Friday night, which is a busy night for standups Yeah.

To come and hang out with students and. Mentor us. Uh, the results have been spectacular for all the people in the, in the group and

Rich Rininsland: amazing

 

Mark DeCarlo: Taught me a really valuable lesson that teams are always better. Than an individual and any kind of creative enterprise.

Rich Rininsland: And I was just gonna say, I mean, what is it that brought you from this very successful career you’ve been having for yourself into the world of team building and, and you know, speaking with marketing companies and so on and so forth to to, to the corporate side of it all?

Mark DeCarlo: It’s the same thing. I mean, uh, my after college, after UCLA, I stayed in LA and won a bunch of money on a game show. I didn’t have to get a job, so I started acting and told my parents, I’m gonna give it two years. If I’m not making a living, I’ll go get a day job. And I never had to do that, thank God. Then, um.

I mentioned I was from Chicago Second, the Second City improv theater, which has been, I, I would say it’s the Harvard of improvisational comedy, right? Mike Myers, Nia Var. Most of the SNL people came from there. The Groundlings here in la. Uh, they opened a theater here in Santa Monica, and I was one of the founding members of that theater.

Along with Colin Mockery and Ryan Styles and Brad Sherwood and Andy Dick and Meghan Kavanaugh. Yeah. Andrea Martin, one of my comedy goddesses.

Rich Rininsland: Yep.

Mark DeCarlo: And improvisation. Group. Improvisation. Second city, improvisation is all about the team. It’s all about, there’s six of us and we’re gonna go out with zero script and we’re gonna entertain people for an hour and 20 minutes.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah.

Mark DeCarlo: So you have to trust the people that you’re on stage with. You have to respect the people that you’re on stage with, and you have to have a communication that is, it’s like jazz music. It’s, you know, it’s a, it’s an eye, it’s a look, it’s a feel. It’s listening. It’s all the skills that. Are important for people in business, whether you’re selling something or you are developing something or you’re on a creative team.

If your task is to think outside of the box, you have to be an environment and with a group where you can say stupid stuff and you’re not gonna feel like an idiot.

Rich Rininsland: Right,

Mark DeCarlo: right, right. Because if you’re okay, if that’s the box that exists. To, to do something better, you gotta come up with an idea outside the box.

And if people are afraid of being made fun of Yeah. Or scapegoated or, God, that was stupid. Shut up.

Rich Rininsland: Yep.

Mark DeCarlo: You know what, sometimes the best ideas come from the loading dock and not the C-suite. So teams have to build a, a, a system, uh, where everyone. Earns their spot at the table and is respected. And if you do say something stupid, which I do all the time, the correct response is, well, all right.

But I, I don’t think we wanna have monkeys picking their noses on the moon. But what if we had a monkey in a zoo and he was picking pictures off? You know, it everyone, leapfrogs of the person, the people that came before them. And eventually you can come to an idea that’s outside the box because you’ve been taking in all this material and.

Honing it a A according to whatever your particular remit or your job is.

Rich Rininsland: Nice.

Mark DeCarlo: And most companies, it’s changing now, but most companies, you know, you’re on a team. Why? Well, ’cause I said, this is what the org chart says. Go in the room with those four people and come out with a new product by Friday. Yeah.

But he doesn’t listen to me ’cause I’m a woman or you know, I’m from Puerto Rico. So they think I’m stupid. Right. Or I’ve got, I have a funny Boston accent. So it, it, it, it, it is both in the best interests of the individual’s personal wellness and happiness mm-hmm. And the enterprise that they work for to focus on these kind of things.

And that’s, that’s what I talk about in my workshops and in my keynotes, and that’s what I enjoy. Teaching. I teach a lot of the improvisational stuff that you and I have learned throughout our careers because it’s When you’re making a sales presentation, you’re putting on a show.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly. Right, right. Exactly right. Yes.

Mark DeCarlo: Yeah. And if people are not interested in what you’re saying, or you cannot communicate the pieces of your puzzle in a cogent fashion to arrive at that aha moment in the person you’re talking to, you’re wasting your time. So you need to develop presentations and ideas and a working group that is fearless, egalitarian, and, and fun.

And that feeds the soul of the individuals, which lowers your quit rate, lowers your quiet, quit rate. Mm-hmm. Keeps people engaged and happy and. Putting out better work and more of it. So what kind, it’s that simple.

Rich Rininsland: What kind of things were they, were these companies who were coming to you to speak with them, to speak to their larger groups?

What kind of things were they coming to you saying, here’s what we feel like we either need to fix or where we’re just not getting the, the, the lift off that we want for this program?

Mark DeCarlo: Ideation is tough. Okay. ’cause not, you know, not everybody is. Like, like everything else, creativity is the bell curve.

Right? Right. There are some people in society that are brilliant and there are some people in society that are horrible at it.

Rich Rininsland: Thank you. And I have been both in my lifetime, so thank you.

Mark DeCarlo: Right, exactly. It’s not a constant.

Rich Rininsland: Right,

Mark DeCarlo: and, and you know, most people are in the middle, so you need to create an environment that supports everyone.

And it raises all the boats. It makes everyone feel more creative. Even if every idea they say today is rejected, one of them might make somebody else think something and go, wait a minute. I never thought of that. What if we could teach dogs to talk? Then we could and, and, and so especially when you’re dealing with people higher.

Then you are on the organizational chart. Mm-hmm. People are afraid to look stupid. People are afraid to piss their boss off or to say something.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah. Yeah.

Mark DeCarlo: That makes ’em appear to be dumb. Right. So it, I think it falls to the leaders to create the environments that we had at Second City where there’s no dumb answers, there’s no, there’s no dumb questions.

Rich Rininsland: Yep.

Mark DeCarlo: Say what’s on your mind and. Together, we will arrive at a better solution. I mean, a a, another analogy I use a lot is sometimes if you’re on a baseball team, you have to bunt Now. Nobody wants to,

Rich Rininsland: nobody wants to bunt. Yeah. They wanna they always wanna be the home run hitter.

Mark DeCarlo: Yeah. Right. Exactly. You wanna hit the home run of the bottom of the ninth and win the game.

Yes. Yes. Right, exactly. But sometimes if it’s a one run game and there’s a big hitter behind you and there’s a guy on first base, the best thing you can do for the team is sacrifice yourself. Right. Put the bunt down. Right. Move the guy to second base. So a single scores him and run. Yep. And in the, in the celebration, they’re celebrating the guy who just crossed the plate, but it would’ve been impossible without your contribution.

Rich Rininsland: And there’s the key.

Mark DeCarlo: So I think if you develop a quality communication. Bubble, let’s call it. Mm-hmm. With a team, everyone owns the successes equally and takes the failures equally. Sure. Which, um, I don’t know. I know you did improv. I don’t know if you’ve done standup, but when you fail as a standup. It’s all on you.

Rich Rininsland: I gotta be honest with you, I never did it because of that fear. I would rather be on a stage with, uh, six other people who are, even if they’re looking to me as like, you’re the experienced one. Get us started, get us moving. I would much rather do that a million times than be that one person, no matter how charming I might actually be, or hilarious, I might actually be.

Mark DeCarlo: Yeah. Well, and, and you know, with the six people. You go out afterwards and you’re sharing the successes with the six people, right? Yep, yep, yep. And it’s great. And even when you bomb, it’s funny. Yes. Because it’s like, well, last week we were funny. I don’t know what happened this week. I mean, it was crap, but what the hell?

It’s only one six month fault. So it, it, it, and it, you know, it, it’s like going through a fire or a horrible event as, as a group. Yeah. It bonds you and brings out character and things like that. So just the, the, the. The concept of a team. Mm-hmm. Um, I think is very important. And this is one thing I’ve noticed.

I’m not big, big into data or studies or things like that.

Rich Rininsland: Okay.

Mark DeCarlo: But I have, I have noticed of with women my age, you know, forties, fifties. Yeah. There’s a competitive, and this is, these are just my personal observations for my lifetime. Sure. Single women, there’s a competitiveness among women that is far more cutthroat than the kinds of competitiveness, men experience.

And my theory is it’s because most guys, as they grow up, have been on teams and understand. Sometimes you have to bunt.

Rich Rininsland: Okay,

Mark DeCarlo: Women athletes traditionally, and that this is totally not true anymore. But 20, 30 years ago you were a tennis player or a swimmer or a solo endeavor where you were competing right against your teammates and one of you was gonna win and one of one of you was gonna lose.

And I think with the advent of. Uh, more proliferation of female team sports. Mm-hmm. I love watching college, uh, women’s softball. Yeah. Yeah. It’s impossible to hit that stuff. Right. And volleyball and, and lacrosse. These team, WNBA sports, right. WNBA. Yeah. It acculturate s women as far as team building goes in those same ways, and I think it’s, uh, better for mental health.

It’s better for wellness and it’s better for happiness. Right. A teammate – there’s a difference between a friend and a teammate. Teammates better.

Rich Rininsland: Exactly. Uh, back in my performing days, uh, when I started taking on the mantle of, of director and teacher and so on and so forth, I would always tell everybody that I know everybody I’m working with, I want you to be as stupid as you can be for this next bit, for this next scene.

Or if we were doing an improv group, it was always alright. Um, I’m gonna give five bucks to whoever is the, has the dumbest answer. For anything we have and then see how well everybody else builds off of it. And the thing that I noticed where, yes, I think men have the ability to recover more quickly from that moment of feeling that insecurity, that foolishness, women were always the first ones to jump on and accept that that’s where they were going to have to go.

I don’t know whether that’s a cultural thing where especially back in our day, you know, women were always made to feel that they are of lesser than, than everybody else that’s, that was in their team or surrounding them.

Mark DeCarlo: Right. And I think women’s sports, women’s team sports mm-hmm. Specifically has, it wires the brain in a different way.

Right, right. If you’re on a volleyball team, you could be the setter, you could be the spiker, you could be the defensive person. Right. Everyone has a role. And if you do, if you perform your role at an exceptional level, the team will benefit. Right. And there’s value in every role. You know, the CEO makes a lot more money than the guy putting packing peanuts in the boxes, in the loading bay and shipping them out.

Yeah. But if the guy packing the peanut screws up, the product gets there and it’s broken and you get a whole chain of returns and BS that you don’t need, that person needs to feel as much a part of the endeavor and as important as everybody else. Mm-hmm. Because they are. Right. It’s a different skillset.

Right, right. But it’s, it, it’s, it’s part of the pie chart. You, everyone needs to be functioning at an optimal level to get optimal results and,

Rich Rininsland: okay.

Mark DeCarlo: Mo, to get back to your question that you asked about four hours ago, it’s, it’s hard for companies to. Ask for help in this amorphous realm because A, it’s hard to know that you’re failing at it, right?

Because the same people that are afraid to speak up in meetings are not gonna go to their boss and say, you know what, you’re kind of a shitty boss because you don’t listen to everybody. I. Sure you’re not, you. The environment doesn’t exist. Where you can say that a good environment is you can go into your boss and say, you know what, boss, I think you’re missing this because you’re doing this.

We’re down here and this is what I’m seeing. Yeah. What do you think about that?

Rich Rininsland: Yeah,

Mark DeCarlo: and uh, I, I have an interesting. Uh, story on that realm. I, uh, when my first big TV job was hosting a comedy dating show for Fox, and it was the number one show in late night. We did 600 episodes. Um, very popular show.

Rich Rininsland: Can you tell us what it was called?

Mark DeCarlo: It was called Studs. It was the Dating Show. Yes.

Rich Rininsland: Okay. Now I remember, uh,

Mark DeCarlo: very popular, very, uh, of the moment, and it was all improvised. So it was really fun for me to, uh, perform it. Uh, we had an intern on our staff. This redheaded dude who had just moved here from Scotland. Okay. His name’s Gareth and the job of the intern.

And he was, he was either my age or a little bit older. I, you know, I was in my twenties and he was just starting out, but he was young. Mm-hmm. And his job, we would shoot six shows in a eight hour day. So we’d shoot a half hour show. I would come in, I would change my clothes, have a little snack, go back out, do that six times in a day.

Sure. So the pace was like this.

Rich Rininsland: Yep.

Mark DeCarlo: And I’d like to have a little, you know, some grapes or something in between every show to keep my energy up.

Rich Rininsland: Okay.

Mark DeCarlo: So, uh, he would come in every day and there would be some food, uh, uh, waiting while I was changing my clothes and being briefed on the next show. And after about a week, he came to me and he said, I noticed you’re not eating this, but you’re always eating that.

What would you like, you know, what’s your ideal thing? I said, well, I don’t know. I like red flame seed, the grapes. I like some cheese and maybe some Ry kris crackers, but whatever you want is fine. From that day forward, that’s what I had every single time, and it was in the right proportion and it was not, uh, you know, it’s not brain surgery.

Rich Rininsland: Sure.

Mark DeCarlo: He saw something helped me do my job better. Cut two, 15 years later, the guy’s running NBC Universal. Ah, because he pays attention. Yeah. And, and, and understands that even the littlest person, even this. This, I don’t know, $5 an hour intern, literally putting cheese and grapes on a plate was an integral part of the success of the show.

And that attention to detail and that self-respect and that initiative has served him extremely well in his career. And, and that’s, that’s what you can, if you build the right kind of team, which we had on studs and which they had in spades on Curb Your Enthusiasm when I worked on it and on Seinfeld, right?

And not so much on some other shows, right? Everyone feels invested in the overall success. So I’m going to do my job the best that I can because I know that the people at at at the top are paying attention. Realize that I’m helping and value my work and, and it’s difficult for companies to create that structure because the people that are not implementing it in the present are the people at the top.

So you have to be able to talk to the people in charge and say, guys, I know you mean well, but I think you’re falling short here or there and there. And there’s an easy way to fix it. A fun way to fix it. People come to these workshops, they have a great time. We play improv games. Sometimes we’ll put out, like if it’s a three or four day thing, we’ll put on an improv show at the end with people from the company.

Hmm. And it gives people skills that translate exceptionally well to business and endeavors. And I think every human being’s, number one job is to make themselves as happy as possible. Because as far as I know, this is not a dress rehearsal, right? Um,

Rich Rininsland: nobody’s come back yet to say otherwise, so let’s keep Right.

Exactly. Let’s keep living that way. Well, one guy, but you know,

Mark DeCarlo: who knows? He’s got quotes all over the place. True, true. Um, uh, there are, there are, there’s nothing. There’s no rebate. Right, right. And I know people that are incredibly wealthy who are miserable. Yeah. Because they hate their jobs. Yeah. And they wake up every day and they’re like, oh, I.

I wake up every day and I do something different every day, and it’s always fun. 99% of the time it’s challenging and enjoy enjoyable and even the bad days, you know, I audition a hundred times to get one job, right? Just the, that whole process, if you can find joy and happiness in it, because I’m doing what I want to do, right?

It colors the rest of your life. So if as a company. I can give those benefits to the people that are working for me. Mm-hmm. They’re gonna be grateful. They’re not gonna quit. They’re gonna work harder because to them, it’s their company. They’re not punching a clock. Right. You know, there there’s a mentality difference between, uh, entrepreneurs and people that work for a nine to five paycheck.

What you wanna do? Is bend the mentality of the nine to fives and make them see themselves as co entrepreneurs of your endeavor because, uh, like just philosophically, you’re being nicer to them. But if you just wanted to go crass, ROI, you will squeeze more work out of them per dollar if they feel invested in whatever your business is.

They’ll do the extra thing, right? We were talking earlier off camera, which was frankly way better than this actual podcast.

Rich Rininsland: Uh, about now they’re gonna wanna hear that

Mark DeCarlo: you’re just making more work for me. Mark. Michaela can put that out on social media. Um. WWW We are talking about Southwest Airlines.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah.

Mark DeCarlo: I fly Southwest all the time in my travel book. I say they’re the best airline in America. They’re flexible, but the, the funnest thing about them is they do the best FAA, uh, you know, your seat back, the seatbelt, the best, the safety

Rich Rininsland: checklist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.

Mark DeCarlo: It’s always funny. It’s the pilots can be funny and entertaining and everyone’s happy to be doing their job.

Mm-hmm. Even if they’re doing, you know, a crappy little puddle jumper from X to Y and they’re gonna be stuck in the middle of nowhere for two days before they route back, they are enjoying their job. People that wanted to travel, found a job with Southwest and are rewarded for their personal I idiosyncrasies and their personal contributions to the endeavor.

And those are the kind of people you want working for you because they are loyal, they work hard. And if you truly allow them to share in the success of your company, you benefit right as the CEO you benefit. And there’s studies out there that show that the ROI on Wellness and Happiness programs mm-hmm.

Is in excess of a hundred percent. So you’re, you’re, you’re, it doesn’t cost you anything. You’re making lives better just in general. And you’re increasing the vitality of your. Endeavor. It’s, it’s a win-win. But to, to convince companies that they need it, you have to tell them that you’re not perfect right now.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah.

Mark DeCarlo: Yeah. And it’s kind of your fault, Mr. Boss person. Not your fault, but it’s your fault. Sure. And there, and there are ways to fix it. And that’s always a fun dance to do with people because if it’s, if, if that mojo is not in place at the lower levels, it’s definitely not at place. At the top, and I’m sure you’ve run into companies where it’s very territorial.

Yep. And very cutthroat. And you know, people at those companies don’t last long because they’re the comp. They realize the company is in it for whatever the company can get outta you. Right? So now all the employees are like, well, I’m gonna get whatever I can out of these people and then get the hell outta here.

Mm. And it’s a totally different mindset. It is antithetical to teamwork, and it’s an antithetical to building a long-term low dropout machine that creates your product or service, uh, for the long haul. They’re, they’re two completely different ends of the spectrum. Yeah. So what I try and do whenever I work for a company is just move them more along the line of happiness and wellness.

And it’s a, it, to me, it’s, it’s. To get back to your original question, which was actually six days ago. It makes me feel good. It’s, and it’s very similar to putting on a show, which is what I’ve been doing since sixth grade. It’s just your, your goal is not necessarily just to get people to laugh, but it’s that aha moment where they’re like, oh, I get it.

I can be happy. Yeah. And you know, some people that I talk to are in the wrong jobs.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah, yeah, that’s very true. They shouldn’t be here. Right.

Mark DeCarlo: And you know, it’s easy to sell to tell a 23-year-old, you’re in the wrong job. Go somewhere else. Yeah. But if someone’s 45 and they have a spouse and some kids, it’s a more difficult transition for them to make.

Yet I still think that it is a beneficial transition for them to make because if you’re miserable, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, you’re miserable.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah. Yeah.

Mark DeCarlo: And the only person that’s ever gonna make you happy is you. So if you are not happy, you’ve got to change. And, and the, the courage it takes to enact those changes is something I also try and, uh, bolster in people.

Um, I gotta, I gotta

Rich Rininsland: tell you, mark, uh, I, I love everything that you’ve been saying, but I want to point out to my audience, you’re being very, very clever with me in the fact that you have already named at least two of your five simple strategies to win life. It. It’s like you do this for a living.

Mark DeCarlo: It’s what I do, rich.

Well, you know what though? It’s, it’s, again, I don’t, I’m not coming. I don’t, I’m, you know, I’m not a certified meeting planner. Right. I’m not a psychologist. I am taking the experiences that I’ve gathered through a 20 year award-winning. Show business career. Yeah. And, and figuring out the, the, the, the patterns in that success that can be applied to the corporate world.

And the more I research and the more I get into it, the more I see that it’s virtually identical. Mm-hmm. I, I, I did a week on Seinfeld. I, one of the, you know, one of the most successful television shows in

Rich Rininsland: history. Comedy shows in history. Yes. Right. Okay.

Mark DeCarlo: What was different about the process? The factory that makes that show compared to the factories that make some of the other shows that I’ve been on that were not as successful.

Mm-hmm. Is one of the things is you had brilliant writers and actors. Sure. But typically when you’re on a sitcom, when one of the stars isn’t in a scene that you’re rehearsing, they’re in their trailer on their phone screwing around. Right. All week long on Seinfeld. If, if one of the main characters was not acting in the scene, they were in their chairs two feet off screen going, watching and going, wait, wait, wait.

You know what, uh, uh, uh, Julia, you should take that ball. Jason, you should say that line, Michael, come in a little bit later. And they would try it because they, they were a team. Yeah. All peers. And the, the, the focus of all those people mm-hmm. Was. Larry and plus Jerry and Andy and all the directors and the writers, you know, top of their craft people in the, the industry at the time was dedicated to one thing, making people laugh their asses off on Friday night when they taped the show.

Rich Rininsland: Right?

Mark DeCarlo: Period. So if I have an idea that’s gonna maybe hurt Michael Richards feeling, but is gonna give Julie a bigger laugh, I say it. I saw the craft service guy. Interrupt a rehearsal and say, you know what, what you would, what you could do with that bagel is, and they used it in the show. Awesome. That, that would, that wouldn’t fly on a lot of sets.

Sure. Right. Get back to your, go back to the food. I’m the director, I’m gonna do it. Yeah. That, that team approach is exactly what. Uh, industry needs and business needs to be successful. You know, you have to assemble a team of talented people and then you have to get them to all work together. And a lot of times those two things are mutually exclusive or create a lot of friction, so you have to convince, what I try and do is convince everyone, every stakeholder that.

What’s best for you personally mm-hmm. And your checkbook and your career mm-hmm. Is to be part of a Seinfeld, not part of a whatever.

Rich Rininsland: Perfect.

Mark DeCarlo: And, and some people, you know, frankly are resistant to it. And, you know, I don’t end up working for them, but people, people that understand it and are open to it and, and who truly want to do something great.

They’re like, yeah, I, it’s basically free. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll make the money back because I’m not gonna be training 20% new workers every year. I’m gonna be training 3% new workers every year. Let’s give it a shot and then once I do it once, I would say 80% of my business are repeat customers. You know, I worked for the credit unions in North America for.

Seven years in a row until Covid came and they stopped having their meetings.

Rich Rininsland: Okay.

Mark DeCarlo: Um, and that, that, that particular group, the Kuna, now they’re called America’s Credit Unions. Mm-hmm. They’re kind of the little brothers of the banking industry. Can’t even say banking. Savings and loans are different because they’re technically owned by the people who put their money in.

And if you’ve ever seen Right. It’s a wonderful life. You understand what I’m saying? Right. Whereas banks are totally different structure.

Rich Rininsland: Yes.

Mark DeCarlo: So what the, the people in the credit union. Movement, what they call it is they are proselytizing about the importance of no fees, no, this, we’re here for you, you’re part of us.

And it’s a different mentality and they are evangelists for this because it helps people, right? Okay. Banks don’t particularly help people, but savings and loans do. So it’s, it’s that the, the, I watched their commitment to what their business was, and it really inspired me to go, you know what? I could probably do what I do in entertainment and bring this idea to companies, you know?

Rich Rininsland: Mm-hmm.

Mark DeCarlo: Uh, and, and, and it, it turns out it was true, has been true.

Rich Rininsland: I. I’m loving everything you’re saying man, and I’m so on board.

Mark DeCarlo: I feel like I’m talking too much.

Rich Rininsland: No, no. You’re doing great, dude. Trust.

Mark DeCarlo: I’m talking too much Rich .

Rich Rininsland: You’re not, you’re not. We’re a team here.

Mark DeCarlo: Burst it up.

Rich Rininsland: We’re doing Oh, oh, so you’re saying I’m slacking. Oh, alright. Now I get it. Well, let me ask you this then. Um, I, one thing we love

Mark DeCarlo: right now, you’re talking too much

Rich Rininsland: oh, sorry. No, I’m kidding. Um, I’m, I’m never sorry for talking too much. Um, at Team Bonding, the one thing that we love is, is the creative angle. We love creative ways of bringing people together. I think it’s part of the reason why since 2009 I’m still in this company is the fact that, that, you know, and I, here I am, proselytizing them as their, as the voice for their podcast.

Mark DeCarlo: And look at your face. You are a happy person.

Rich Rininsland: I Am.

Mark DeCarlo: Doing a job that rewards you in a variety of different ways.

Rich Rininsland: Thank you for going in that, that direction about my face. I appreciate it.

Mark DeCarlo: Well, you, you could, I’m sure you could be making the same amount of money that you’re making.

Rich Rininsland: No. So much more. I could be making so much more money, but I would be far less happy. You are absolutely right.

Mark DeCarlo: okay. There you go. Yeah.

Rich Rininsland: But let me ask you.

Mark DeCarlo: I interrupted you. Go ahead.

Rich Rininsland: No, no, no. That’s okay. What is the, the most unusual or most fun experience of team building that you’ve been a part of? Gimme some of that experience you’ve gone through. Tell me about it and tell me why you think that Even though it was so far left of center, it still worked.

Mark DeCarlo: One thing I like to do when I’m hosting, like a sales meeting or something is improvise with the audience, know who’s out there. Okay. Uh, another, um. Recidivist client, uh, as I call them, was the Sonic hamburger chain.

Rich Rininsland: Oh, nice.

Mark DeCarlo: And I did their, I did their meeting, their national meetings for a bunch of years. Again, up until Covid. And one thing we did that was really fun one year is they were launching a new, uh, burger or a new food product of some kind. Sure. And they had all the owners of all the franchises around the southeast there at this big event in Orlando probably. And, um. They were talking about we’re gonna do this big launch.

Big launch. So I came out and I, in one of my speeches and I said, you know what we’re looking for? We’re launching this new hamburger and we need a commercial campaign. So we’re gonna pick some people outta the audience here, and we’re going to improvise a commercial about this new product. And I picked a, a woman who was, uh, from Florida who owned a store.

And the vice president of sales of the entire corporation and had them on stage together. So you’ve got an Uber, Uber, uber boss, with someone far, far down the org chart. And they, and the, the, the, the set up of the commercial had them working together in a pair. And then we had a puppet. Uh, for some reason in there

Rich Rininsland: because why not? Puppets make everything better.

Mark DeCarlo: Right, exactly. You got one, you might as well use it. And they did a couple versions of this, uh, uh, a commercial that we made up on the spot. You know, give me a location, right? They’re selling the, but whatever it was, and it was hilarious. Mm. Each time I think we did it three times.

It was hilarious each time and each time we did it, the interaction between the vice president of sales and the, the, the lowly franchisee got more and more comfortable and intense. So by the third time that we did it, they were like Lucy and Ricky, nice bantering back and forth, and it made the, just the, the conceive of the commercial better.

But it, I think it also underlined to them, it’s like, you know what? Talk to your people. Good ideas come from your people. ’cause the, the, the, the scope of the commercial was the, the, the, the franchisee was pitching the guy a bunch of crazy ideas and I told her the crazier the better. And then he would justify each one.

Rich Rininsland: Awesome.

Mark DeCarlo: You know, we’re gonna give a, a, a ride into space for every purchase. And he had a, it was whatever it was.

Rich Rininsland: I gotta say, I know my team out there is wondering, what did the puppet have to do with him?

Mark DeCarlo: It was like a King Friday puppet from Mr. Rogers. And at one point, the woman, the, the VP was talking and she goes, shh, shh, shh.

Let’s hear what Gary has to say.

He’s like, I don’t think that’s a good idea.

Killed it. Killed. You know? Now part of that is being able to talk for five or six minutes.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah.

Mark DeCarlo: Me watching the audience and seeing who’s into it. You don’t want to bring someone on stage who’s gonna be a sad sack.

Rich Rininsland: Right. Right.

Mark DeCarlo: And this woman had had, uh. It was an open bar event, so she was feeling good.

Rich Rininsland: Nice.

Mark DeCarlo: Um, but, it worked and it, it kind of exemplified in a very compressed format. What I try and make people aware of, then I give them the tools to engage in this kind of creativity and communication and idea building and green hatting and not being afraid.

People right now are terrified of AI and what it’s gonna do, and I think Yeah. Right. Rightfully so. It’s gonna decimate a lot of jobs.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah. Yeah.

Mark DeCarlo: You know, if you go back and look at newspapers at the turn of the 20th century. There were tons of articles about how evil automobiles were. Mm, how it scared horses.

They were gonna ruin cities. They were gonna do all this stuff. And you know what? 20 years later, you couldn’t find a blacksmith in the world. So all the blacksmiths got decimated by the automobile industry, and that’s gonna happen again. But there are also ways to inoculate yourself to a certain extent from what AI can do and use it.

To your benefit as a tool. I still think, ’cause first of all, AI just feeds on human creativity.

Rich Rininsland: Right.

Mark DeCarlo: It’s doesn’t create anything of its own.

Rich Rininsland: It can’t Yeah.

Mark DeCarlo: It’s Able to steal from so many people that no one can sue them. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, there’s, there’s fear. There’s lack of agency where people don’t feel they can stand up in a meeting and say something.

All these things are fixable through what you guys do. Team building and, and making people feel like important stakeholders in their team or their company or their industry. And it just, I, I mean it’s, it’s the silver bullet, right? If you can make, turn that switch, your people, the recidivism and the quit rate goes through the floor. Mm. People are happier. They tell people that they’re happy. They enjoy their time at work, their work output is better. And it’s it. It doesn’t require a major financial investment. It requires an investment in the wellbeing of your people,

Rich Rininsland: right.

Mark DeCarlo: And even if you don’t care about your people, if you care about your bottom line, the dollars and cents of your business, investing in your people’s wellbeing is the best way to get there. So you can be a horrible human being and still pretend to care about wellbeing and happiness and it will serve your nefarious evil goals, voldemort.

Rich Rininsland: And that’s coming from Jimmy Neutrons dad, everybody.

Mark DeCarlo: That’s right. I know a thing or two about nefarious.

Rich Rininsland: oh, my team are there. That’s Mark DeCarlo everybody.

Mark DeCarlo: Oh, thank you. Yes. Good.

Rich Rininsland: Oh, see, that’s what a road caster does for everybody. It’s right there. That’s everything. Mark.

Mark DeCarlo: The applause should have been longer, but who am I to say?

Rich Rininsland: Well, we, if we do that, I mean, like you said earlier in the show, we’ve been talking now for three days, so I mean I gotta make this a little shorter for you. So, but Mark, uh, let me ask you, how can people find out more about you? What projects you have upcoming? You want to tell everybody about? You know, let’s, let’s, let’s let them reach out to you.

Mark DeCarlo: Oh, sure. If you’re looking for me to come and talk to your folks, the best place to go is mark decarlo speaker.com. Um, and I’ll put a car stereo in your car and also teach you, yo, you jumped me. You got me by that much. Uh, pioneer speakers in a subway to be beautiful. They’ll hear you’re coming from six blocks away.

Yep. Um, Mark DeCarlo speaker.com. You can follow me at Instagram at Mark DeCarlo tv. Uh, I’m on Blue Sky . I am sort of still on Twitter, but not loving that at the moment.

Rich Rininsland: Thank you.

Mark DeCarlo: Um. Uh, that’s the best way. Okay. Uh, to find me. And I’ve got, uh, a movie that I wrote and produced that stars a bunch of famous cartoon actors, uh, called Pinocchio In the Water of Life that’s coming out at the end of summer.

Rich Rininsland: Awesome.

Mark DeCarlo: Um, and a project that I’ve been working on that it’ll be the first of its kind is a live to air. Pixar quality cartoon character that hosts podcasts and talks to celebrities and, uh, causes trouble. It’s Baffo the Bear, and that’ll be coming, uh, probably in September.

Rich Rininsland: Very cool.

Mark DeCarlo: Um, and then, uh, maybe some Nickelodeon things. But there’s a big, big bottleneck there because of their corporate overlord and all that stuff. So again, even looking at my career from outside of it, Uhhuh, it’s not. I think a lot like your career. It’s not that I’m, my, one brother of mine is a lawyer, the other one is an optometrist. So their, their work is, they know what they’re gonna do all the time. And they love it and they understand it. My career has been so splintered and the reason for that is I always try and follow things that just interest me. And I, I could have made more money throughout my career. I think I’ve turned down some jobs that went on to be really big TV jobs, but I, I don’t know that I could have been any happier.

Rich Rininsland: That’s that. And there you go. I have always said it. I have always said throughout my entire life, I, I never wanted to be wealthy. I just wanted to be happy.

Mark DeCarlo: And Right. And if I can be wealthy and happy, great. But if I, if it’s, if it’s a choice between the two. Yep. If you’re happy, by definition, you have what you need to thrive right?

Rich Rininsland: Exactly.

Mark DeCarlo: So it doesn’t matter if you’re driving a $600,000 car because you’re lonely and you don’t have a spouse and you have to drive around and try and, you know, meet 23 year olds and impress them with your money and your wallet and everything that people in LA talk about. It’s such a simple concept. It’s hard to convince people that they’re not doing it right a and that they need someone else to come in and teach their people about it. But nowhere in school did I ever have a class where a professor said that to me. It’s like your job as a human is to make yourself and by trickle down the people around you that you love your friends as happy as possible.

That’s, that’s the game of life, in my opinion.

Rich Rininsland: Yep. Yep.

Mark DeCarlo: And you do, your happiness is probably different than my happiness. Right. Which is why there are firemen and garbage men and surgeons and, and people that do what we do. Hmm. You, you, you, your first job is to determine your purpose, so that we talk a a lot about that is what, what is it that makes you tick?

And it may be something that you’ve never even thought of before. Then once you figure that out. You build out happiness and that will lead you to making money and finding love and being successful and feeling important. Yeah. And all the things that people need. If, if you constantly focus on when am I happiest?

That’s the first thing I do in my workshops. Everyone take a minute Now, when was the last time you were deliriously happy? What were you doing? Rich, what were you doing the last time you were deliriously happy?

Rich Rininsland: Uh, it was actually not yesterday ’cause that’s when I was flying all day. But the day before, I was standing in front of an audience of 90 and they were laughing at almost everything I said,

Mark DeCarlo: do more of that.

Rich Rininsland: Okay.

Mark DeCarlo: That, that’s really the, the, the, the kernel of what I talk about. Yeah. Now the mechanics of how you can. Make more of that happen in your life. That’s the grit and that’s the work of doing it. But I’m sure you know the number one fear in the world among the general population is talking in front of people, right?

Rich Rininsland: Oh yeah, absolutely. Yes.

Mark DeCarlo: Which I find like I’ve been doing it so long, you know, I’m more comfortable sometimes in front of a thousand people. Uh, just because you know how it feels and it, it, it makes you feel good. So whatever it is that you do, number one, figure out what that is, right? And number two, do more of it.

Rich Rininsland: And the, I gotta, I gotta clarify about that. Happiness. The, the, the last happy thing I was doing, the thing that I loved most about it, thing that tickled me most about it was, in the beginning of it, it was definitely me. You know, I’m, I’m that guy we used to watch in seventies television who just put plates on little, on little sticks.

And tries plates all going. And that guy was a, was a comedic genius in my young mind, but that was me in the beginning where it was all like, here’s this goofy little thing that you all didn’t realize you were running, have to do tonight. And, but while you’re doing it, I, I start making a little bit of fun with everybody going on, you know, and I allowed them in that moment to laugh at themselves.

And once I did it. It was like a cork coming off the bottle of champagne. Everybody decided that they wanted to be funny, they wanted to be entertaining. When I called, you know, I would call volunteers up to do a a, a recreation of a scene, and all of them were ridiculously hilarious. And because they were free to do it, they didn’t know how to not look, how they didn’t know how to not be funny in that moment, including being the full, most foolish looking they’ve ever been.

Mark DeCarlo: Yes. And the failure didn’t bite them. It’s, you know, what you can do is if they do fail, you’re like, eh, give it another shot that you could have done better. Yeah. You know what, it takes the st It takes the stigma and the embarrassment away from doing crazy stuff. Right? And if you’re truly trying to be creative, you have to create something that doesn’t exist yet.

And you know, there’s a lot of good ideas that already exist. Yep. So you’ve gotta really open up your mind and there are methods for that. Creative people can teach people that aren’t necessarily innately creative to do that. There’s, there’s, there’s exercises and things that teach your brain to think in a different way and to hear things funny.

Mm. But yes, I always find the more people you can bring on stage with you, uh, and involve them in the process. And even if they do something foolish, you support them. Right. And you have fun with it. And instantly they go from mortified to laughing.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah. Yeah.

Mark DeCarlo: And it tells the next person that’s gonna come up on stage.

Oh, I, I don’t have to be afraid of being stupid.

Rich Rininsland: Right, right. It’s not foolish. It’s hilarious.

Mark DeCarlo: Fine line. It’s a fine line.

Rich Rininsland: Exactly.

Mark DeCarlo: Fine line Gallagher. Yes. The guy would smash watermelons if you did that on the street, they’d throw you in jail. The guy was a millionaire when he died. Uh, you know, it’s finding your thing.

And because we’re all individual, unique, idiosyncratic people, your thing may not exist yet. You may have to invent it.

Rich Rininsland: Right.

Mark DeCarlo: And don’t be afraid to do that. And, and that’s what drew me to your site and your podcast. Beautiful. You guys have a very fun. Team oriented approach to doing, uh, the kind of stuff that we do.

And it seems like you must love your job, which clearly you do ’cause you’re so good at it.

Rich Rininsland: Thank you. Thank you. Can I say the same right back to you? I mean the, well, you know what? For us, for both of us. There it is. Well, I’m still not doing the whole thing though. It’s like three and a half minutes, but.

Mark, this has been great. It has been absolutely wonderful. Um, for the first time in six years, we’re about to go to an hour. Because Is that good? Bad? It’s good.

Mark DeCarlo: Camille’s gonna have to cut it up.

Rich Rininsland: We might have, yeah, we might have to do a double episode on this one, which I’m very happy to do. It means I have to work less throughout the entire,

Mark DeCarlo: I think America needs more of us Rich.

Rich Rininsland: I think so too. I’ve been saying that to everyone who doesn’t wanna listen to me. Uh, but speaking of, listen,

Mark DeCarlo: do you ever get to, do you ever come out to LA and do improv stuff?

Rich Rininsland: I never get to come out and do improv stuff. I have gone out and done team building stuff in LA. I, the last time I was out there, we were doing a, an escape room that was based on werewolves.

So it was about trying to escape from a village filled with werewolves, and it was wonderful and, um, alarming because I had to try to navigate LA Streets and nobody told me that the actual event was taking place in Disneyland. They gave me an address and I’m trying to find it.

Mark DeCarlo: You’re kidding. They just said Harbor Boulevard and they didn’t tell you what it was.

Rich Rininsland: No. So it was such an experience.

Mark DeCarlo: You’re looking for a corporate headquarters and there’s goofy slapping Donald.

Rich Rininsland: But to this, but to this day, I, and the people I was, I was happy enough to work with during that event. We still talk about it.

We still laugh, we still have a good time talking about it. And that’s team thing. You were right?

Mark DeCarlo: If it’s horrible and it’s a team, it’s a war story that you tell. For years we, the improv group I had before Second City, we were opening for Robin Trower somewhere.

Rich Rininsland: Okay.

Mark DeCarlo: Bad booking for an improv group.

We walk out on stage and someone in the back yells, get off the stage you fat F That was our opening. And, uh, you know, the, we, the show went the tank and we laugh about it 20 years later ’cause it was so funny.

Rich Rininsland: Nice. I, I hope you do continue laughing because I gotta, I gotta, I gotta get to this eventually, man.

It’s time for my speed round.

Mark DeCarlo: Your sound effects need to be longer.

Rich Rininsland: thank you. Thank you very much. Alright, that’s better. Here’s how this is gonna work. Um, I’m gonna put, uh, 60 seconds of music on. During that time, I’m gonna ask you a series of completely silly questions you feel free to answer, uh, however you wish. This is a way for us to get to know you a little more personally, a little better, okay?

Um, but if you’re feeling it all, like you wanna be competitive and have a fun game of it, I’m trying to see if I can beat 15 questions. In 60 seconds.

Mark DeCarlo: Alright, so you want short, concise answers, not the way I’ve been talking for the last hour.

Rich Rininsland: whatever you like, man. You be you. I’m not gonna stop you. You’re the Emmy winner.

Mark DeCarlo: I’m just a dude sitting in his house and well, I mean, if I wanted to be a dick I could stiff you and just make one answer last 49 seconds.

Rich Rininsland: I have no doubt that you can. Alright buddy.

Mark DeCarlo: We can talk about nothing longer than me, my friend.

Rich Rininsland: Alright. Here we go. Put 60 seconds on the clock.

There we go. And as soon as I start to hear the music, I’m gonna ask the question. Let’s do this. What’s your name?

Mark DeCarlo: Mark.

Rich Rininsland: And if you could, what would you rather have?

Mark DeCarlo: Stop. Stop. You gotta be faster on the questions. I answered instantly. Oh, and I waited

three or four seconds for the next question.

Rich Rininsland: I have been doing this. We’re never gonna get to, I have been doing this for six years. You were the first person to call me out on that. Everybody should. Alright. Alright, we’re gonna do go. We’re gonna go again. I’m keeping this 60 seconds on the clock please.

By the way, I’m keeping all of this in. None of this is getting cut.

Mark DeCarlo: I think you should. I have a dragon mask. You want me to wear the dragon mask while I do this?

Rich Rininsland: Uh, I can’t stop you. You’re in la

Mark DeCarlo: No, that’s, everyone’s got a dragon mask here. Alright. Okay, here we go. Ready? Oh, even my dog is barking now.

Rich Rininsland: Alright, here we go. 60 seconds. Hey, what was your name?

Mark DeCarlo: Mark.

Rich Rininsland: Uh, would you rather have a robot helper or a dog who can speak English?

Mark DeCarlo: Dog who could speak English.

Rich Rininsland: What’s your favorite guilty pleasure TV show?

Mark DeCarlo: Uh, Mor, Rick and Morty.

Rich Rininsland: How do you decide to stay creative?

Mark DeCarlo: I just do weird stuff every day.

Rich Rininsland: Pancakes or waffles?

Mark DeCarlo: Waffles.

Rich Rininsland: Go to karaoke song.

Mark DeCarlo: I don’t sing karaoke. It’s the bane of the world.

Rich Rininsland: What’s your first job?

Mark DeCarlo: My first job was, uh, stocking fishing line in Sport Mart for about an hour before I quit.

Rich Rininsland: Uh, uh, anything on your bucket list?

Mark DeCarlo: Uh, we’re going to Rio, uh, for Carnival next year.

Rich Rininsland: Tell me when you can remember Laughing the hardest.

Mark DeCarlo: Borat in the theater the Friday night it came out.

Rich Rininsland: Nice. If you could be any fictional character for a day, who’d it be?

Mark DeCarlo: Benjamin Franklin

Rich Rininsland: favorite flavor of ice cream,

Mark DeCarlo: uh, Rocky Road.

Rich Rininsland: If you could work remotely from anywhere in the world, where would you choose

Mark DeCarlo: Italy

Rich Rininsland: best career advice you’ve ever received?

Mark DeCarlo: Oh, buck Henry told me to keep being funny.

Rich Rininsland: I believe we’ve hit 15, my friend.

Mark DeCarlo: Really?

Rich Rininsland: Yeah. Yeah. If I’ve done my math correctly, and I might not have, because I think you gave me a stroke about halfway through, but I believe we’ve hit 15. I will double check it and let my audience know. 15 is, is tying the record or It’s establishing the record, but it is tying the record over six years.

Mark DeCarlo: So I’m still trying to see if I can beat it.

Rich Rininsland: I did stutter on a couple. So did I. Uh, so did I. But remember, it’s, we’re, we’re a team bud. And we did, we did, we did 15. That’s awesome.

Mark DeCarlo: Exactly. Perfect way to land this whole thing. We are a team and, uh, yes, a thousand percent.

Rich Rininsland: And as a member of your team, if you ever need anybody who to do, uh, long distance voice work, please let me know. I’m always available.

Mark DeCarlo: Um, are we done?

Rich Rininsland: We are now. Give it up from Mark DeCarlo everybody.