Kevin Carroll: The Power of Play and Catalyzing Potential
“This idea that my actions may seem small, but their collective impact will be great. So do your part. Do your part. And the rest will take care of itself.”
— KEVIN CARROLL
I am incredibly excited to bring this conversation to all of you today. My guest is Kevin Carroll. And many of you will not know who Kevin is.
Kevin is a master at what he does.
It's Kevin's job to inspire businesses, organizations, individuals from CEOs, and school children to embrace their spirit of play creativity and maximize their human potential for more meaningful business and personal growth.
Here's a quote on his website where he sums up what he's all about.
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play.” James Michener.
I love this quote because it encapsulates who Kevin is to an insane degree. And in this conversation, you're going to hear the intensity that Kevin brings to the conversation.
And not only that, Kevin turns the tables on me. And in many ways, this conversation is not an interview. It is an active discussion in real-time we're playing in this conversation. And he picked me apart, and he understands what I bring to the table. And I think honestly, that's what this is all about, but we also talk a lot about how we can show up as humans in this crisis in this Great Pause so that we can be better people when we get through this.
And so with that everyone, please. Enjoy this amazing and wide-ranging conversation full of fire with Kevin Carroll. And I also want to give one more shout out is to check out his short-form podcast called Kataglyphs. It's well worth your time.
Connect with Kevin:
Show Notes:
[05:08] German Heritage and Learning Languages
[07:38] Who is Kevin Carroll?
[08:28] Where did the love of language start?
[11:13] Was there an unlocking moment?
[13:24] Where did movement become so integral to Kevin?
[16:14] Belonging and Community
“Yeah, because everything from me was predicated on belonging and community.
That's what it was about. Like how do I belong? How do I connect? How do I stay connected because I don't have a traditional family. Yeah. So what are we all seeking? That we all want to belong somewhere? We all want to be part of a tribe. And so I was figuring that out really quickly. And you know, you know, I was fortunate that I found positive ways to do it right.
Cause it could've been very easy. I could have gone to any number of other directions with my life because I didn't have one. That parental kind of influence or responsibility over me. My grandparents were older so they couldn't really raise us. They just did the best they could, but I got raised by that playground.
I talk about that quite a bit with a great deal of reverence at Preston playground, which is so funny, it would have a man's name. Preston was a really important part of my success, but I never was about personal glory. It was like, well, how can I be of help to you? How can I be of service? How can I keep the game going? Because I don't want to go home now.“
[18:50] The Power of Gaming
[22:02] Competing against themselves
[23:04] Engineers and Creativity
[24:19] A challenge to Erich
[26:30] Personal Philosophy
[28:39] Uncovering your potential and being a seeker
STAY IN BETA
“Another good engineering thing, right? Stay in beta right? Always improving, always updating. And I always say, we're so quick to update our apps on our phone, but we're the greatest app ever created. We are. Look at yourself like an app. How did you update you today? How did you improve? And it's incremental, right?
You know this, those improvements that they're doing on your app, they're incremental and they want to make sure you come back. Right? So these little unlatch, these little things are doing, they're not monumental most times. Cause if it got to that point, you've probably not be dealing with that app anymore.
So it's always little tweaks. It's always a little better. It's always little updates. But that's us too. That's us. So the more that we recognize and behave in a similar way that we are with our devices. Dude, it's game on then. Right? We got a fighting chance. So I just think that's the attitude that everybody should take, right.
And try to be your own personal catalyst first and have the right attitude around that.”
[30:44] Deconstructing movement for engineers
[32:34] Shakespeare - The play within the play
“Take the skills and learnings from what I'm involved in and invest in and directly apply them.
How do they have crossover, right? How do they, how are they able to cross over into this? And it might be only a little thing that you're doing to yourself, with yourself and understanding, right? It's the play within the play. It's very Shakespearean that way. Right? I did Shakespeare as a kid, so Shakespeare had two plays happening.
Most people don't know that. Right? There was the play for the aristocrats and then there was a play on words for the underlings, right? The commoners. And so I studied Shakespeare in school I was an English minor. So there's always this play within the play, the game within the game. So you were playing this other game.”
[34:26] Getting yourself to keep coming back
[36:45] Unlocking the inner creative
[39:18] Challenge to be of service to the next generation of engineers
[41:38] Elevating others around you
“How can we all be encouragers for each other? Right? So. My best friend's mom, Ms. Lane, who was probably the most amazing human catalyst in my life. I've always called her my CEO, my chief encouragement officer of my dreams. And we all need people like that death in our life, right? So there's a couple of adages, haters, haters, gonna, hate, creator's going to create, right?
And haters are my motivators. And so if you're going to tell me it's not possible. Just move aside and let me find the people who want to encourage me, but also hold me accountable. So that's that other piece that we forget. We gotta be held accountable for our hopes, our dreams, or aspirations or ideas. So someone's checking, Hey, what's going on with that, Erich?
You going back to the school and talking to those engineering students? Right? So, you know, I got you already now on that. But that's what we need because that's that loving shove. Towards your destiny, and we all need to be shoved sometimes towards it, right? A little bit of that positive reinforcement, a little bit of that, you know, encouragement that way.
And sometimes you have to be lovingly shoved toward your destiny. That's the reality. Because the people, you know, the hero journey, Joseph Campbell talks about the power of myth, and he talks about. The reluctant hero. They're always reluctant. It's part of the story. So most of us are very reluctant to embrace our destiny.
So what has to happen? Someone has to show up encouraging you. They have to keep telling you, you can do it, you can do it. And they also tell you when you're not on your path, they remind you, yo, you might want to check yourself. Okay. Fine. Right? Cause we will lose our way. We will doubt is success testing you.
I tell people all the time. Doubt is success testing that will show up every time to see if it can win and doubt has an amazing record. Sounds got a hall of fame and Dallas got a lot of names and that whole thing that they have taken down. Yeah. Right, but that's your calling. That's your challenge.”
Do you really want this? Good. Keep pushing through. Keep advancing.
[46:14] What can be counted doesn't always count
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” - Albert Einstein
[48:36] The entire world is having a mindful moment
[51:30] Reimagining humanity
[52:34] From doing to being
[58:39] The wake up call
[01:03:18] The sacrifice of essential workers
[01:06:08] The optimistic viewpoint
[01:08:35] Redemption arc
'If I get corona, I get corona' guy apologizes for cringe-worthy spring break comments
[01:11:13] The great disruptor - what direction should people look?
“This idea that my actions may seem small, but their collective impact will be great. So do your part. Do your part. And the rest will take care of itself. Do your part. If you, if you're working to keep your business aloft and keep it going and find a collective group of people and find the resources there, they're putting them out there daily.
Right. So. You put your energy and time into that, right? And you, you rally others too and find the other people who are, we're doing the same thing cause people are helping. The generosity is amazing. Hey, if you are wanting to get better or improve on something, you've got time. You've got time to work on something.
Hey, if you want to find a way to raise your game by it and do some of the things that you've always been putting off, you've got time. So let's do our part, right? But also believe that what I'm doing matters. So my actions may seem small, but they're a collective impact. The collective impact will be great. And just trust and believe in that.”
