The Inside Scoop on Team Building Events for Employees

Transcript - The Inside Scoop on Team Building Events for Employees

Rich, Host: On this episode of Team Building Saves the World..

Kevin, Guest: How is our interaction? How is our collaboration? How is our knowledge of each other going to help us be two things? Better people and do better for the company. That’s awesome. The fact that you just pulled that out is just like, no.

Rich, Host: So how do you get them, what’s your hook?

Kevin, Guest: I bring a pile of cash.

Rich, Host: Hello team. It’s me, your old friend. Rich, Host Rinnisland, host of Team Building Saves The World, the show where I speak to thought leaders from around the globe discussing variable strategies and tools to help you and your team build a better work environment. And today we’re finally talking about something I know about team building facilitation and its role in corporate culture.

Joining me today is my dear friend, a fellow actor and facilitator, Kevin Pertusiello.

The first I have to share some love with my support as a TeamBonding. If your team is ready to experience teamwork, the power. TeamBonding.com to learn more. Now team, join me in welcoming my guest facilitation, genius, and longtime friend of the show, Mr. Kevin Pertusiello. Hello, Kevin.

Kevin, Guest: Let’s see. That’s an applause that I could bring to the bank. How’s it going?

Rich, Host: Uh, so good, man. Thank you so much for coming on.

Kevin, Guest: Dude, I appreciate it. I love what it is that you’re doing, the people that you’re connecting, the guests that you have and I’m honored to be able to join.

Rich, Host: You’re one of the only people I’ve actually talked to that I believe actually has heard this podcast.

It’s true. It’s a fact. Um, and it’s funny because you don’t talk about murder as much as I thought you were going to.

Rich, Host: No, but..!

Kevin, Guest: When you, when you save the world, I guess you lean away from that.  

Rich, Host: Yeah, that rarely is involved in saving the world.

Kevin, Guest: Amazing.

Rich, Host: No matter what, as anybody else nowadays might want you to think.

Kevin, Guest:  It’s true. I mean, that’s why we need to bring teams together.

Rich, Host: There we go. Getting it back on track. That’s what I want to hear. So, uh, Kev, just to remind my team out there who are listening, uh, let’s go back into We, I mean, we’ve met you before, you’ve been on the show a couple of times already, but always in a group, it’s never been just you and me sitting in and chewing the fat as it were.

Let’s find out about your history, because we know you’re an actor, you’re in the New York area, but how did you get from that to TeamBonding and facilitation?

Kevin, Guest: That is so good, thank you for that question. Um, I ask myself that question all the time. And what’s crazy is that even though it’s like one did lead into the other, they’re still running concurrently.

Thank goodness, despite how crazy that may be. But I will say that, you know, I’ve been an actor for over a quarter of a century now. And, uh, a dear friend of mine was working with TeamBonding when it came to some of their, uh, murder mysteries, coincidentally. And, uh, I was brought on for a couple of those back in the aughts, as they say.

Rich, Host: Ooh, so long ago.

Kevin, Guest: I know, all of the sudden…

Rich, Host: You were all of 5 at the time..

Kevin, Guest: ..actually, the murder was much more about what was in my diaper than what was happening.

Rich,  Host: Laughter

Kevin, Guest: So I got brought on, but I could they let me stay, which was pretty impressive. And all of a sudden, you know, more of the corporate team building that they started pivoting to because it was what was it comedy theater productions back then, right? We’re going to go back into the archives and um, I got to meet some wonderful people that came down to New York to lead some great events.

I remember the first one I ever saw was this huge, it was a scavenger hunt, but it was a Polaroid Scavenger Hunt.

Rich, Host: Ahh, wow

Kevin, Guest: And if it wasn’t Polaroid, then it was a digital camera and we had to take the, uh, the cards and then upload the pictures in. And there was paper and there were stickers, the least digital thing you could ask for.

Rich, Host: I’m having flashbacks as you speak. Uh huh,

Kevin, Guest: uh huh, and we did that in the middle of Times Square. So immediately right off the bat, I was learning about what TeamBonding does and it was just like, Oh, this is, this is amazing. This is custom. This is exciting. And I had sort of jumped on board and this was, this was 21 years ago that I got to join up with TeamBonding.

Um, they learned a little bit about me. I got to start leading events, and uh, ever since then I’ve been taking care of both the New York City tri state area and beyond. Nice.

Rich, Host: Now, Lindsey, my producer, has uh, graciously put together some stats I didn’t know if you were aware of. Together, we have a combined almost 40 years of experience in this field.

Kevin, Guest: I believe that.

Rich, Host: We’ve led over 1,500 different events in the past five years alone.

Kevin, Guest: Only the last five?

Rich, Host: Only the last five years.

Kevin, Guest: That shows me that my family really never sees me. I see, I get it.

Rich, Host: Now you know, now you wonder why..

Kevin, Guest: Now I understand why the glares are. I get it, I get it.

Rich, Host: In fact, a fellow facilitator is your brother Andrew we’ve had on.

Kevin, Guest: That’s true. Yeah, I brought him on probably five years into me working with TeamBonding. Knowing that he was going to have those specific skills and organizational sets to really be an amazing facilitator. And he’s been doing this so long and seeing me and a lot of other of our great facilitators and has become a strong facilitator in his own right.

Rich, Host: Yes, indeed. In fact, I’ve always loved Andrew’s like technical expertise. So whenever he is assisting me, or if we come on a gig together, because I rarely consider like working with you and working with Andrew, anybody assisting anybody else. Of course, of course. Um, and point of fact, I do want to share this story if I can with my team out there before we start getting into the nitty gritty of the actual podcast.

The first time I worked with the two of you, I had been sent down to New York, actually upstate New Jersey, where we’re all from. Um, and the gig I was supposed to do was an escape room called Escape the Hotel California.

Kevin, Guest: Yes.

Rich, Host And all of the gear. That we needed to run this from this box breakout room that we had had been shipped to Vegas.

Kevin: Yes, that was in Newark, New Jersey. I remember the hotel and I remember the room so and we had to get iPads delivered to us as soon as possible

Rich, Host:  Right? Right! Yeah. So we wound up doing, uh, the art heist game instead, which I had never done, but you two were brilliant at it already. So it went from me leading the event to you two leading the event.

And I honestly think at that point we all got paid to lead that deck.

Kevin: You know, I, I hope that was the case because you know, I’m sure our client was just like, here you go. Take the money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just say, actually say it.

Rich, Host: I, I still remember that. Look on that client’s face. And we’re not gonna discuss names of course.

Oh, oh. Lindsey is telling me with Andrew, he has assisted LED over 500 as well, just on his own. So we have 2000 in the past five years.

Kevin, Guest: I mean, incredible. You gotta, you gotta get him on the, uh, on the podcast for these days.

Rich, Host: Oh, I’d love, actually, I’d love to have the two of you. That would be fantastic.

Kevin, Guest: Oh, the banter, including virtual. Of course it does. You gotta, you gotta take in 2000, 2021, that, that rocketed those numbers up a little bit

Rich, Host: Yep. Indeed. So, um, I always ask this, but it, cause it’s one of my fun, my, the easiest questions to ask, describe your favorite event. It could be, it could be a new one. It could be a classic, whatever you want to talk about.

Kevin, Guest: I’m going to, I’m going to bounce a little bit of both. Um, one that I’ve been really enjoying lately, actually, both of them have to do with some tech, actually. Um, but one that we did, and I feel like I was going to talk about this no matter what, especially if we, you know, talk about because the weather’s getting better and we talk about some outdoor events.

Rich, Host: Yeah.

Kevin, Guest: This one that I did last year, uh, was Quickfire Olympics, and what’s been so much fun about that is that these teams get all of these unique physical challenges that aren’t like, you know, not weightlifting or anything like that, but definitely have this Olympic theme to it.

Rich, Host: Nice.

But there’s also a degree in which they get to really be creative about pulling off the challenge.

Kevin, Guest: Yeah. Yeah. And we’ve done it in so many different spaces, whether it be completely indoors, whether it be some place that is both indoors and outdoors, completely outdoors and giving them the chance to be free and be physical and getting a chance to bring out another side of themselves. Um, has always been fantastic.

And, and one of the main reasons I bring it up is that last year, I mean, we, we definitely crossed this notch off. Um, we did one for a thousand people over at the Fort Washington armory right up by me, and it is a full Olympic size regulation track. It is actually the home of the track and field hall of fame.

So getting these teams. To, you know, get creative to get crazy to get silly and having these Olympic challenges be on a an actual track and an actual field. I mean, they have pictures and videos that they still love and talk about to this day. Um, so that’s been one that I’ve been really enjoying, uh, both indoor and outdoor and physical, but then something that.

I absolutely love doing all the time, and that I just did with, uh, one of our great repeat clients yesterday, is something called Beat the Box.

Rich, Host: Yes!

Kevin, Guest: And what I love so much about it, not only is it basically an escape room that we bring to you, but what you get to see about your own team in this, that just comes out naturally is mind blowing because we’re putting you in a situation that you’re pretty sure you know what you have to do for your team to win, right?

And then as things change and more realizations happen that the fact that you need to or not change your strategy to maybe succeed and go in the face of what you thought of before, all of a sudden different leaders rise, right? New ideas have to come to the front. And it’s, it’s new and different every time, whether it be for a group of 20 or for a group of 900.

Yeah. It’s. It’s amazing.

Rich, Host: I mean, I had been in, with TeamBonding, uh, assisting for years. And then, uh, our big head man boss, Dave Goldstein, decided that he wanted to give me a shot, but he wanted to find my niche. You wanted to find where he thought I fit the best and at this point escape rooms were on the rise.

Kevin, Guest: Yes-

Rich, Host: Back in the again the noughties and I just, he knew I loved puzzles That was just so like one of those things where I I have an eye toward those things So he was like you’re my go to guy when it comes to escape rooms now you’re gonna be that guy for me and I’m like, oh, okay great fantastic, you and we’ve done some fantastic ones.

I mean, the Hotel California that I was, we were talking about earlier, there’s the

Kevin: What’s the official name of the werewolf one.

Rich, Host: Escape From the Werewolf Village.

Kevin: So that I think was the first time I met you when you first came down. I don’t know. It was upstate New York or wherever, but you brought down Escape From Werewolf Village and had, you know, the packet where all the answers, the way that we have to give hints.

And I remember seeing you do this and I’m like this man, whoever this is, is in his element,  and you just like this, you ate it up like a, like a wolf.

Rich, Host: That one, that one actually got me the job to be honest with you, because there’s, it’s one of those, it’s very exciting game. We’ve kind of retired it, unfortunately,

Kevin, Guest: I thought I thought I haven’t seen it in a bit. I don’t know if it was like an animal abuse thing.

Rich, Host: No, no, it was, it didn’t, there was no way to translate it to virtual. And then, you know, the pandemic changed the world. So, it just kind of went by the wayside. And now we have beat the box and we have a few other games.

So we just,

Kevin, Guest: Oh, is that why we retired that game called outbreak?

Rich, Host: Yes, yes, that is why we retired Escape the Outbreak.

Kevin: I was so unsure-

Rich, Host: but, um, the first time I was doing, I was assisting on escape from werewolf village. Uh, the young lady, a dear friend of ours, Veronica, um, from, was from LA. Came out here because she had been doing it for another company out in L.A. Okay. Um, Oh! Lindsey is telling me the name for Outbreak changed to Atmosphere.

Kevin: Well then. So it now exists but in a completely different mind. A clean and filtered atmosphere.

Rich, Host: Exactly

Kevin, Guest: Very nice. All of the, all of the water food coloring is all clear blue.

Rich, Host: If you knew the game folks that would be very funny.

Anyway, um, So we’re, we’re doing Escape the Werewolf Village and the creators of this game very lovingly came up with an entire list of hints that we could give. And one of the other assistants, uh, had asked, why does it say give this hint instead of that hint? Like he came up with another hint that he could just give.

And I guess, I guess I can say this now because we don’t play this game anymore. But, um, In order to solve the puzzle one of the hints says tell them that like in this square here You should write the word full moon. Mm hmm, and They went why why do we have them fill out that square is the hint? Why don’t we fill out any of the other squares on this sheet?

And I went, um, well, that’s easy because this game’s psychology is this early stage in the game. They want them to start thinking about the full moon. They want it embedded within their psyches so that when they get to the end of the game, it’s still there and they can bring it about and they can be like, Oh, this, this is what the full moon is for.

Yeah. And the guy was like, no, that can’t be it. That makes no sense. And the woman who was leading it, Veronica, was like, no, he’s absolutely right. Yeah.

Kevin, Guest: That not everyone believes in burying the lead.

Rich, Host: Exactly. Exactly. Listen, cuz I want to keep going on and on about this. And actually I want to get to talking about corporate culture with you because that’s something I think you are both have a particular mindset towards.

But first I need to step away and tell all my friends out there about a company. We are both very proud to be a part of TeamBonding. TeamBonding was founded over 20 years ago with one simple question. How can employees have a great time while fostering strong, authentic bonds between people who work together?

No matter where your company is located, TeamBonding offers powerful, engaging, custom team building events designed to get the best out of your team anywhere in the world. They’ve created a catalog of innovative events using the power of play’s learning tool, and tapping into the correlation of work and play.

So whether it’s scavenger hunts or jeopardy or escape rooms, so much more. The TeamBonding of activities, whether they’re live, virtual, or hybrid maximizes the impact of team building with an accent on fun. Visit TeamBonding.com to schedule your event. Now TeamBonding when you want seriously fun results.

And speaking of fun, I’m so excited to have one of my dear friends and coworkers, Kevin Pertusiello back here with us, Kev. Let’s get into the nitty gritty of this. Um, I’m sure everybody has enjoyed listening for the past 15 minutes of us, just talking about us, but, um, I mean, we could do that for days

Rich, Host: Could you do me a favor and just define for me what you think corporate culture actually means?

Kevin, Guest: It’s such an interesting beast, corporate culture, because we, I’m sure, and I’m sure so many of our listeners, but we especially have seen the gamut. We’ve seen it where there’s next to no whatever you define as corporate culture. It’s just a place where people come, they do work, they leave and they’re really not interacting with each other, whether it be because it’s not a company that values that or because everyone’s remote and they haven’t really found ways to have people connect all the way to cultures and companies and corporations that honestly feel like families, that, you know, that all of these coworkers know each other and care about each other on such a deep level.

And we’ve worked with so many of those two and everything in between. So for me, you know, corporate culture is how is it that we are going to not only interact with each other as humans, because no matter what it is that we’re working on, we are still those things, right? But how is our. Interaction. How is our collaboration?

How is our knowledge of each other going to help us be two things better people and do better for the company?

Rich, Host: Good, good. And can you give me an example of in your event history of when you saw one that wasn’t working and what did that look like versus one that absolutely was from the minute the flag dropped and they were in the room?

Kevin, Guest:  You got it. So yeah, let’s go from something that’s a little bit rougher. Um, every now and again, uh, we’ll get called in as TeamBonding to connect a team that has either had previous issues or say there is some kind of a merger or a combination of departments. And it may be two groups of people that really don’t trust each other.

And whether that because of different kinds of histories, moments that happened, um, you know, layoffs on one side, but not on the other side. Why did that happen? Things that a lot of times there’s a lack of knowledge and and that can happen so often right and when different companies there’s certain departments that are even allowed to know certain things because of legal restrictions or things like that.

So sure, that can happen a lot. So there may be times that different groups are coming together. Because they really don’t know each other and that has sometimes fostered some issues when it comes to trust. So it ends up being our job whether the client knows it or not To get people just to the same table to the same page to be able to see each other that Hey, we’re just all here together.

It’s, it’s nothing about, hey, I have this title, hey, I’m in this office. We are, we are now on the same playing field. At least for the next two hours with us. So that’s been sort of going up that mountain. Can be, oh, always can be intriguing. But then every now and again you walk into places where it’s like Oh, you guys don’t necessarily need bonding.

You guys did that on your own. You guys just want to have a lot of fun together doing something you did that you didn’t expect. So you have people that you know that they hang out outside that workplace. You know that that person knows that person’s kids and their kids hang out. Like, you know that it’s like you guys.

You guys are great. Call us back because we end up getting to have such a great time. There’s less of us working and more of us just be like, wait, you wanted to invite us to the party. You guys are really, really kind. So you’ll have those, the great balance between work and play that they’ve already had, and they just want to bring us in because they know that we have the ideas and the thing that’s going to fit their group better than they could think of it.

Rich, Host: I’ve always said I could tell right away how a company is doing by watching what the management level people do when they come to these events. Because, I mean, you and I can count, or can’t count rather, on both of our hands how many events we’ve gone to where the managers of the department or whoever it happens, whatever it happens to be.

Um, has said, you know, we’re not going to play, we want them to play, we’re just going to take pictures, or we just want to say hello, thank everybody for coming, and then we’re just going to go.

Kevin, Guest: They, they, they turn us into babysitters.

Rich, Host: Right, right. And I, I mean, the first time I knew that I was actually, you know, that I earned the title lead facilitator.

Was the first time I turned to a manager and I went, no, you’re not, you’re staying, you’re playing, you’re going to have a good time. This is a great, you need to be here with them. They need to see you here with them because they need to get to know you as much as you actually need to get to know them.

Kevin, Guest: Yeah, that’s awesome. The fact that you just pulled that out is just, you’re just like, no, you’re not going anywhere. And instead of like, who are you? How dare you?

Rich, Host: Right, right. Well, I have been told that I have a gift. I have a gift where I can say things that sound insulting and yet they come off as humorous.

Kevin: I think that’s why we still have a job.

Rich, Host: Exactly right. But it’s so

Kevin, Guest: true, like, and I try to, um, I try to make it as attractive as possible to be like, look, I, and you know, I’m sure you might’ve scheduled a meeting. You might have a phone call. I understand, but you’re going to see this happen and you’re going to probably want to join us.

So when you do, you can go to team six.

Rich, Host: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve. The reason I asked this, the reason I was so excited to have you on, um, I, not recently, this was quite a while ago. I had a guest who came on and we were talking about corporate culture and we’re talking about how to get to a successful corporate culture for you and your teams and so forth.

And he was a brilliant guest. Do not get me wrong. He was fantastic. But I, I did the live read, like I had just done with you a second ago and coming out of it, I asked him, so how does like team building, help in you know in these specific instance that you’re talking about and he no like has went. Oh, I don’t think that it does

Kevin, Guest: What a great podcast for him to be on. Love for him to be talking to you.

Rich, Host: He was a great guest. Don’t get me wrong. He was an absolutely fantastic guest and he had such important things to share, but then he turned to me and he goes, I really honestly can’t see how putting bikes together helps people.

Kevin, Guest: So what, what. What title of this podcast did you tell him to get him on?

Rich, Host: Uh, I don’t, that wasn’t even my job at that time. I think it was just a matter of, we found somebody who was trying to pitch something. Oh, okay. He was a fantastic guest. Do not get me wrong, but I still remember, um, at the time I had Anna as my producer and her, the chat balloons were just lighting up with what did he just say?

Kevin, Guest: That’s so good. I, I, sometimes I’d almost, I’d almost want that. I mean, selfishly, even in like live events, I love it when I’m getting pushback from the get go from the client. Right. I mean, that’s, I mean, it’s a crazy thing because I’m a crazy person, but like, I love it because I know, and my team knows that we’re going to turn them around.

Rich, Host: Yeah, yeah.

Kevin, Guest: Because they, Oh, I did this. Oh my God. It was like a month ago. And she was so sweet. My client contact was amazing. But like, she came in right off the bat from the phone call two days beforehand. She was like, and I’m going to try to imitate her voice. Um, she’s like, Look, Kevin, I know this isn’t going to work.

I’m like, can you tell me more about that? Oh no, these guys aren’t going to like this. And I’m just like, I’m thinking, wow, that you, you put, you put some money towards something, you know, they’re not going to like, yeah, that’s press it. Your investment,

Rich, Host: Yeah, yeah- what a gamble..

Kevin, Guest: I mean, so good. And then like, yes, I totally knew the situation I was walking into, but at the same time, she, she made the expectations so low that I was, no matter what we did, we were going to blow her mind.

And the fact that she saw all of these people that she thought we’re going to refuse this activity, everyone working together to make it happen. And it was a charitable one too. She, her jaw was on the floor. Jaw was on the floor.

Rich, Host: Yeah. Would you agree with me? You can’t go wrong with the charity events.

Kevin, Guest: It’s so true. I mean, the fact that you’re being able to get your team together while being able to help a local organization of kids, of soldiers, of people who are dealing with, um, different kinds of illnesses. I mean, you, you name it, the fact that you’re able to help your team and others at the same time within one event, it’s, it’s a knockout of the park every time.

Rich, Host: I mean, the fact that we go from, you know, building bikes for, for kids for charity, and I would do a roller skating. We do skateboards. Fantastic event. I just led just the other day for the first time. Wonderful event. Yeah. I can’t wait to do it again. And from what I understand, it’s-

Kevin, Guest: The painting skills that come out, oh, oh, oh.

Rich, Host: Yep, yep.

Stuff that, like, could be in a museum.

Rich, Host: Exactly! Yes! Yeah.

Kevin: Incredible.

Rich, Host: Well, we go from that, then we go, on the other side of the spectrum, you have an entire event based on families escaping abuse. And then we flip it again to trying to save bees. I mean, the things, the, the mind blowing, just vastness of the, of the topics and the way that we can give back to the communities.

Fantastic. Um, I have been asked to ask, do we think all facilitators love that challenge you were talking about? That I don’t think that they’re going to really get this or enjoy this as much as we think.

Kevin, Guest: I mean, I, I cannot speak for all facilitators, but, um,

Rich, Host: You’ve worked with like 90 percent of them though.

Kevin, Guest: I have, it’s true. Even if they’re not at this company, I’m just like, hey, you, you know who I am. Um, I do it in that voice too. I’m just like, Kevin, it’s not gonna work. So, um, you know, as we’ve learned, especially with the killer team that we have here at TeamBonding, um, everyone is their own facilitator.

You’re never going to get a photocopy of any other facilitator. They’re so different, so varied, so wonderful. And like, I’m sure that, I mean, everyone’s energy is so different too. Like I, I will always put across, like, say you’re in my energy versus like, Debbie, who is so wonderful and chill and love the events that she does, you get into this beautiful mindset that’s like sometimes a night and day different energy than us.

So when it comes to that kind of, you know, you have that hurdle in front of you, I’m sure that everyone, you know, would, would rather maybe not have a hurdle, but, because of the team that we have, we always make that kind of impression that when someone is so unsure, because either, because there’s still companies out there, I’m talking to you out there, there’s still so many companies out there that have not tried team building, that have not tried to do events like this that are just unsure, because it’s just an unknown to them, and they’re just trying it out.

And I’m going to say that just about every single time, we’re going to win them over, because they sometimes people have in their head that it’s like, Oh, it’s going to be corny. Oh, it’s going to be something that people are going to drag their feet. It’s like, that’s, that’s not what we do. Because if that’s what we were doing, we wouldn’t want to do it.

And the last thing we want to do is have you do something that even we don’t want to do. That’s why I bring it to you.

Rich, Host: But how does that impact you think corporate culture? I mean, what is it we’re bringing to the table? Cause you’re right. We are all so very different and we’ve led and assisted and been assisted by of just a cornucopia of different personalities.

Whether you’ve got, you know, you and me, who are very big, broad personalities. Whether you’ve got the people who are like, I, I get the thing started, but my whole thing is, I love finding the music to play in the background that are gonna keep them going. Or you’ve got someone like our friend Veronica, who is, she shows up in an event, and it’s like your best friend is helping you walk through this thing you’re gonna be doing for two hours.

Kevin, Guest: Brilliant, thousand percent.

Rich, Host: Yeah. How can we so different people? So different personalities actually know we’re making that significant impact on corporate culture.

Kevin: I think sometimes it’s literally because we’re not part of that culture. Because we are not the people that they see every day that they’re having meetings with that know these deadlines that know, Oh my God, this person stepping down.

Oh, we know that this is, we need to move locations. Like we’re not amongst, the energy that they’re dealing with day in and day out we get to be the red dye in the clear water and that changes everything. The second you can you trust something to come in to be themselves us right to bring to the table what we have that every single time is gonna be different than what they have it’s gonna change them

Rich, Host: How do you start? Can I ask? Uh, I don’t, I mean, I don’t want you to give away any of your trade secrets, but what, what kind of energy you hitting them with when they walk in the door? Because that I think like everybody else that I’ve talked to about this, that first almost 30 seconds is going to make the difference between they’re going to be engaged or they’re not going to be engaged with you

Kevin: Completely.

Rich, Host: So how do you get them? What’s your hook?

Kevin, Guest: Um, I bring a pile of cash.

Rich, Host: That’s why you get all the jobs. That’s why I do it. But who’s cash? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause I know the office ain’t paying you.

Kevin: I can’t talk about that on this podcast. Um, what we have to do and that this obviously takes time. It takes experience.

Rich, Host: Yeah.

Kevin: What’s the energy that they’re coming in with? And what I try to do is I see where they’re at.

And sometimes we are the first thing that they do on what’s going to be a very long day. Right. They come to us at. 830 in the morning. They’ve just had a hotel breakfast that the eggs are questionable. You never know what we’re going to have. So, or it’ll be, they’ve already had a really long day. They’ve been listening to speakers, maybe drone on for hours since 7am and like, and then they have to drag themselves to us before they can go to dinner.

So, in many ways, we may be the obstacle to them having drinks. So it’s like, okay, what, what am I going to hit them with? And I just got to see where they’re at. So a lot of times I’m at the beginning matching where they are. So if they’re sort of like a little bit more chill, if they’re a little bit more, a little tired when I start them off with just a couple of things, I’m matching them.

So if they’re just like, it’s tough for me to stand. I’m honestly going to lean back and be like, Hey, I know what you’ve been through. And I’m going to ask so little of you that hopefully I’m going to ask the questions that you’ve been waiting to hear. And I’m just going to be really casual. I’m not going to be that guy in the front of the room with energy all the way up to here when they’re coming in dragging, or else they’re going to clock me out really fast.

So I’m going to match them. And then once they come along with me at their own energy and mine, then when I raise it up, Then they’ll come to meet me good because I’ll do a couple of things just to get them going and then once they’re with me Then I could ask them whatever

Rich, Host: What are your favorite warm up games?

Kevin, Guest: I mean honestly just getting people into groups according to this category or this category that uses no sound I’m gonna ask you next to nothing.

Rich, Host: Yeah,

Kevin: I hit that I’m gonna ask you next to nothing to be honest and like literally, you know finger raises, we’re moving over here, and I’m like, see, I’m not asking you to do trust falls.

I don’t have the insurance for that. Instead, it’s going to be really simple stuff. And if you can come with me for the simple, then I could just. Add a little bit more, and by the time we get there, you’re painting a skateboard, or you’re learning to play the violin, and you thought you were tired.

Rich, Host: I, I recently just out of the, just from the top of my head, it was another one, it was actually like a 7:15AM start time in the morning. Um, and it was in Connecticut, so I had to drive two hours to get there.

Kevin, Guest: Yeah, you watched the sunrise.

Rich, Host: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, did I? Um, what? I was doing, I was doing the categories just like you were talking about. And I said to them and I’m like, I’m going to throw in a new one. I have not done before.

I want to see how it works. I hope you guys don’t mind experimenting with me. Find everyone in the group who has, who matches you in this category. Favorite pet, but you cannot use language. Go. And I gave him, I gave him 10 seconds.

Kevin, Guest: Yes.

Rich, Host: Oh God. And the barking, the meowing, one woman started crowing like a rooster.

Kevin, Guest: Yes.

Rich, Host: It was so fun. And that is awesome. Boy, they were awake by the time it was over.

Kevin: Immediately. Immediately.

Rich, Host: Yep.

Kevin: Just the simple stuff. Like we don’t, cause they have every single person, not just team, every single person has their idea of what team building is. Right? They’ve either seen it in a movie, they’ve, they’ve heard other people complain about other companies that aren’t us.

They’ve like, they have their own ideas. And so, you know, they might be dragging their feet. They’re like, okay, it’s team building is what’s on the docket. All right, we have to because my boss will be there and if I don’t do it, then he’ll know. And then we get to completely change that and put it on set.

Rich, Host: Exactly right. Oh, my friend, thank you so much for coming and joining us today. Oh my goodness, of course. Do you have anything that you have going on outside of facilitation right now? Do you want to pitch to anybody? Do you want to see if we can get an audience going for you?

Kevin: Rich, Host, hold on. There’s something outside of facilitation?

Wait a second. You’re blowing my mind right now. Um, wait. Um, I’ve been, I’ve been traveling a lot, luckily a lot of it through facilitation, but, um, over the past, I think, uh, six to eight months, um, I’ve actually been able to travel for myself and then visit some friends and go see some things I never expected, which was great and something that I found that is, um, speaking of upcoming, that I think is, is a very fun coincidence.

Um, I’ve gotten a chance to lead something called Mission ImPAWsible. That we have started to do in which we are building canine wheelchairs. So for those pups that may have some back leg issues or things like that, we get to build canine wheelchairs and donate them to a great organization. And it’s been so great.

We also make some leashes, we make some collars and also have a lot of fun with different activities. Like those buttons that say different things that you can ask for stuff. We have a game with that. Um, so it’s, I’ve been getting a chance to do that, uh, lately, which has been really, really fun. Also recently and I, I, I can’t speak in greater detail, but I’m sure I can, uh, I can, uh, speak things later once it gets released.

But in the same week that I got to help people build canine wheelchairs, I also got to, uh, Act in a commercial for the ASPCA and another product with a celebrity and that celebrity’s dog. So it was just a really great kind of week when it comes to making sure that these pups have a home and a safe way of going about it.

So it’s, uh, it was a great, it was a great combo. I say,

Rich, Host: I still look forward to bursting out in laughter, watching some television and everybody going, what are you laughing about? That’s my friend, Kevin.

Kevin, Guest: Oh my goodness, he’s acting with a dog. It’s great.

Rich, Host: Oh. Alright Kev. Hey buddy, guess what? I know, I know, you know, it’s time for my speed round.

Kevin, Guest: I had a feeling..

Rich, Host: So, because it’s been a minute since you’ve been on the show, just to explain to you, remind you what this is for the next 60 seconds, I’m going to ask you a series of completely innocuous questions. We’re going to try to get as many questions knocked out of the park as we can in 60 seconds.

So, uh, my recommendation is let’s not be like we’ve been through this entire episode. Let’s give short answers, not long.

Kevin, Guest: Oh, I could try.

Rich, Host: Cause you’ve done this, you’ve done this before, but you’ve done this with like at least two other people.

Kevin, Guest: True. Everyone’s just shouting answers at the same time.

Rich, Host: Yeah. Yeah. So I am looking forward to seeing how you, Kevin, handle this on your own. I’m going to start playing some music and we’re going to go. You ready? Let’s try it in case you’re feeling at all competitive. We’re trying to beat 14.

Kevin, Guest: Oh boy. I’m not, I think too much. We’ll find out.

Rich, Host: All right, here we go.

Rich, Host: What’s your name?

Kevin, Guest: Kevin.

How would you describe me to your friends?

Kevin, Guest: Awesome.

Rich, Host: What historical figure would you most like to be?

Kevin, Guest: Oh, I would say president of, uh, Chocolate Factory.

Rich, Host: What’s the right age to get married? 32. Tell me something you remember from kindergarten.

Kevin, Guest: Uh, sharing.

Rich, Host: What would you do if you were invisible for a day?

Kevin, Guest: Oh, I would walk through a museum.

Rich, Host: Name Something you are proud of

Kevin, Guest: Uh, acting on TV regularly.

Rich, Host: What TV household would you like to live in?

Kevin, Guest: WandaVision, but the good episodes.

Rich, Host: Favorite Ice Cream flavor?

Kevin, Guest: Mint chocolate chip.

Rich, Host: Would you rather live in the past or the future?

Kevin, Guest: Past.

Rich, Host: Most embarrassing childhood memory

Kevin, Guest: Uh, not that great at sports.

Rich, Host: Twelve, buddy. We got to twelve.

Kevin, Guest: Okay.

Rich, Host: Very nicely done.

Kevin, Guest: That’s nice. It’s funny that that’s where I went for an embarrassing childhood memory cause I, and I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna say this really stupid story.

Go for it. I definitely did some sports when I was in school and I wasn’t terrible at it but I think in my mind and I think we’re all just like We grow up this way. I was one of the first, this is a stupid humble brag, I was one of the first people in my entire graduating class to get a varsity letter.

Nice. But it was for cross country so I was just like, oh I’m not good at sports, but I could run away really.

Rich, Host: Hey, I’ll be honest with you, I ran cross country in my freshman year and by the end of it my coach was like, you should not come back.

Kevin, Guest: Wow, what a supportive person.

Rich, Host:  Well, what he said was, I am clearly a sprinter.But I am not a long distance runner.

Kevin, Guest: Long distance is hard, but the funniest thing about the cross-country thing is that I, uh, you sign up for fall sports when you’re still in middle school. And so all the coaches come over. Right. And so I’m like, I was never thinking about sports. I was doing the arts and all that stuff.

And I’m like, I guess I’ll sign up for something because that’s what you do. I don’t know. Uh, they just, They’re not even bullying you. They’re just there. So you just show up. And I signed up for cross country thinking that it was biking.

Rich, Host: Oh, wow.

Kevin, Guest: They never mentioned that once. They never like, they didn’t bait and switch me.

They weren’t like, oh, you’re going to ride a bike. And then I show up and they’re like, fooled you. Like, it’s not that. I just had in my head that this cross country biking.

Rich, Host: Speaking of joining somebody with a preconceived notion, Kev

Kevin, Guest: Oh my goodness.

Rich, Host: Thanks, pal. Thank you again for coming on. Thank you for making this a brilliant, fun day for me.

Kevin, Guest: My utter pleasure. I love getting a chance to do it. Finally.

Rich, Host: And thank you, my team out there. That’s it. We’re wrapping up yet another episode of Team Building Saves The World. You’ve enjoyed this episode, whether you’re new to the podcast or an old fan of the show, please be sure to share with everyone.

You know, whether they’re your coworker, friend or family member, just like me and Kevin. It helps us to share all this vital information. You can find out all about us, including all past episodes. dot com slash podcast. You’d also find us wherever you find your favorite podcast, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you go, we’re going to be there.

And don’t forget to look for us in all the social medias at team bond podcast. Leave me a message. Tell me what you thought about the show. Tell me if you have an idea for a future topic you would like to hear about. We want to hear from you. But for now my friends before we say our farewell for this episode of team building saves the world Please never forget you’re within the sound of my voice You’re on my team now, and I am forever going to be on yours So long team.

We’ll see you next time.

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