Podcast Season 6 - The Impact of Great Teams

Season 6 of Team Building Saves the World takes an in-depth look at the profound impact of teamwork on company culture, employee morale, and the wider world.

Storytelling isn’t just about entertainment—it’s a proven way to engage audiences, influence decisions, and make messages more memorable. In this episode of Team Building Saves the World, Rich sits down with sales and communications expert Robert Mattson to explore the power of business storytelling and how it can transform sales, leadership, and communication. Learn key techniques, including the “33 rule” for keeping attention, balancing detail with brevity, and using emotional connections to drive action.

In this episode of Team Building Saves the World, host Rich sits down with Emmy Award-winning TV host and improv veteran Mark DeCarlo to explore the powerful connection between comedy improvisation and employee happiness. Drawing from decades of experience in comedy, television, and voice acting, Mark shares how the core principles of improv—trust, spontaneity, collaboration, and play—can significantly boost morale and connection within teams.

 In this episode of Team Building Saves the World, things get real as Rich chats with Haley Grayless, MSOD—leadership coach, founder of Vaxa Collective, and former survivor of a high-stress workplace where toxic leadership traits like fear-based decision-making, resistance to feedback, and zero appreciation ran the show.

In this lively episode, Josh Robinson—percussionist, teaching artist, and all-around rhythm enthusiast—dives into how music connects people in the most unexpected and powerful ways. He shares stories from his drumming adventures across cultures and communities, showing how rhythm breaks down barriers and gets everyone vibing together. Whether he’s in a school, a prison, or a hospital, Josh proves that music brings people together and creates real, meaningful moments of connection. It’s all about shared beats, feeling seen, and just being in the moment. If you’ve ever wondered “how does music bring people together” or “how does music impact society,” Josh’s heartfelt and high-energy take will hit all the right notes.

 In this episode of Team Building Saves the World, Scot Wirth from Little Free Library joins Rich to share how companies can boost community literacy with a little creativity and a lot of heart by building Little Free Libraries! These charming book-filled boxes are popping up everywhere, and businesses can join the movement by sponsoring libraries, facilitating a Little Team Library event, and teaming up with local organizations. It’s a fun, hands-on way to give back, spark joy, and promote a culture of reading in neighborhoods that need it most.

 In this inspiring episode, former pro basketball player turned global team leader Angela Lewis shares how her time on the court led to big wins in the workplace—especially when it comes to mentoring employees. From barely making her middle school team to playing professionally in Europe, Angela’s journey is full of lessons on grit, growth, and the importance of mentorship.

In this episode, Hall of Fame speaker Tyler Hayden shares practical strategies on how to accommodate different learning styles in the workplace using his Multiple Intelligence Quotient (MIQ) framework. He explains how recognizing and designing for employee learning styles—including kinesthetic, interpersonal, and linguistic—can enhance engagement, reduce absenteeism, and align team activities with business goals. By tailoring experiences to the different types of learning styles, organizations can create more effective, measurable, and meaningful development opportunities. Hayden highlights the importance of understanding learning styles in the workplace to foster continuous team learning and stronger performance.

In this episode, Melissa Richards dives into the essential connection between leadership and trust, sharing how leaders can create more resilient and effective teams through empathy, communication, and consistency. Drawing from her extensive background in higher education and her book, The 30-60-90 Day Handbook, Melissa explains how leaders build trust by focusing on three fundamentals: building trust, earning credibility, and demonstrating commitment. She outlines practical steps for building trust as a leader, from active listening and transparency to fostering psychological safety in creative teams. Melissa also explores the role of emotional intelligence and crisis communication in strengthening trust in leadership, showing that effective leadership starts with being genuinely people-centered. This episode offers real-world strategies for anyone seeking to understand how leaders build trust and lead with impact.

Krystle Starr, a performer and two-time LEGO Masters champion, shares powerful real life examples of teamwork that highlight the profound teamwork impact on achieving success. Drawing from her intense experience working together as a team with partner Michelle on LEGO Masters, she emphasizes the importance of respecting different working styles and maintaining open communication when working with others toward a common goal. Krystle explains how initial conflicts evolved into mutual respect and a strong partnership, illustrating that effective teamwork requires empathy, flexibility, and a shared focus on the broader perspective. Through creative play—such as LEGO therapy and her new game Cardio Quest—she demonstrates how fun and innovative activities can strengthen collaboration, trust, and communication, reinforcing the vital role teamwork impacts both personal growth and professional team building.

In this episode of Team Building Saves the World, host Rich is joined by Russell Harvey as they discuss how to help employees thrive in a VUCA world—one that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. Specializing in the VUCA framework, Harvey explained how VUCA leadership relies on resilience, or “Mojo,” built through purpose, confidence, adaptability, support, and energy.

In this episode, generational researcher Meghan Grace explains the benefits of leading a multi-generational team and dives into what it really takes to lead a cross-generational workforce. She shares why Gen Z shows up to work with a serious, informed mindset shaped by economic challenges, rising education costs, and a desire to avoid the struggles millennials faced.