Building Teamwork, One Brick at a Time

Transcript - Building Teamwork, One Brick at a Time

Rich Rininsland: On this episode of Team Building Saves The World.

Krystle Starr: Leg godt is a Danish word that Lego comes from. Okay. And it means ‘play well’.

Do you wanna wear the wings for every episode? And I was like, you know what? Yeah.

And because I allowed myself to open up and be open to her suggestions, I am now a much better builder because of her.

I love doing Lego classes.

Rich Rininsland: It’s making order out of chaos. It really is .

Krystle Starr: Exactly! Yes, a hundred percent.

How would I have done this in any other job? You know?

How do I deal with…

Rich Rininsland: Hello team! It’s me, your old friend, Rich Rininsland, host of Team Building Saves The World.

You know, a lot of times in the six seasons we’ve been producing this award-winning show, I’ve been asked if there’s anyone I’ve spoken with outside of the normal corporate setting, if only just to see if the topics are still relevant.

Well, if you’ve wondered this yourself, then this is the episode for you.

On today’s episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with performer, comic book creator, team building facilitator, and two-time Lego Masters champion Krystle Starr.

But first, I have to share some love with all of my supporters at TeamBonding. If your team is ready to experience team work through the power of play the visit TeamBonding.com to learn more! Now, team, I really hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did. Join me in welcoming Lego Masters champion and cancer survivor, Krystle Starr.

Krystle Starr, thank you so much for coming on. My team out there, I just wanna say this is very exciting because you are definitely something I have not had on the show in a very long while.

When somebody first approached me and said that I have this Lego master that I want you to interview.

I was like, that doesn’t sound like something I really need for this show, and yet, that they gave me a bunch more information about you, and I’m excited to have you here. This is gonna be a fun, fun interview. You are a cosplayer, a Lego enthusiast, a Lego master, a video game designer, a web host and YouTuber.

How did this become your life?

Krystle Starr: Lots of ADD, ADHD definitely fuels the fire.

Rich Rininsland: Sure.

Krystle Starr: And yeah, I cosplayed for a few years and then I wound up having a brain tumor.

Rich Rininsland: Oh my goodness.

Krystle Starr: And deciding that I didn’t really want to be in front of the camera much anymore. And ironically, Lego Masters actually called me back.

I’ve been on the show three times and we’ve won twice. One of the trophies is. Around there. The other trophy is packed in the other room for about to hit the road again.

Rich Rininsland: Excellent.

Krystle Starr: And then game design. You know, I went to college for that and I still dabble in it a little bit. Love gaming, and we actually just launched our Kickstarter for our newest game called Cardio Quest, and I’m really, really proud of this one.

It’s not your typical game. It’s actually about cardio and you have to get your heart rate up in order to move your player along through the different levels. And it is the coolest concept. There’s nothing really like it on the market right now. And I highly recommend you guys go check it out, again, we just launched the Kickstarter. We are almost halfway funded, so I’m very excited about that.

Rich Rininsland: Good for you. Excellent.

Now, through all the hats that you’ve worn, how has team building actually played across all of those different markets that you’ve been in?

Krystle Starr: Yeah, so, you know, after the third season of Lego Masters.

I think that was the hardest season for me, mainly because. The partner I had was an incredible person. Michelle is just this amazing human being, but our building styles are so incredibly different.

Rich Rininsland: Oh.

Krystle Starr: And we did not choose each other for partners. We kind of did. You know the casting director asked us if we would work together and we were like, heck yeah.

But we didn’t understand how different our building styles really were. And when you’re, you know, in an office setting, like any, any line of work, it doesn’t matter what it is. If you’re on a team, you have to play well, right? And Lego is a Danish word. Well, it’s a word from ‘leg godt’ is a Danish word that Lego comes from. And it means play well. And so the whole meaning behind this little tiny brick is to play well.

And Michelle and I had a really rough, bumpy road for season, whatever season it was the third time I was on it. We loved each other at the beginning and then we couldn’t stand each other for a few episodes because our building styles were just so different.

We both wanted to take the lead. We both were, you know, our creative juices were not flowing together. They were like meshing not, but not well. They were clashing.

Rich Rininsland: Gotcha, gotcha.

Krystle Starr: But through that, I started to have… As long as you can play well, no matter what your personal feelings are, no matter what you think of the actual person in that moment, in that time, I’ve always been a team player. May it be soccer, ballet, like, you know, all the things that I did as a kid growing up, volleyball, you have to put your emotional and your ego aside. And you have to do what’s best.

‘Cause we were team USA, so we were on a global stage, right? This was in Australia. And we were the only team from the United States. And so we didn’t wanna go home early for literally our country, you know. We had a bunch of young girls, like I knew from doing Lego Masters the other seasons, that a lot of my fans are young women, young girls, and we made a promise to each other: no matter how mad we were at each other or how upset we were at each other on a personal level, we were never gonna showcase that on screen.

We are always gonna be really polite, really passionate, and play well together. Because that was something that was extremely important for us. And because we did that, because we didn’t lower ourselves, because we kept that high moral our high moral values. We actually started really, really learning how to respect each other in that moment as creatives, as builders.

It allowed me to see her for not just the creative person that she was as a Lego artist. But I started to really see who she was as a mother, as a person. And the last build that we did together, which is our winning build in Australia. We had this moment where we had just such deep respect for each other, and we realize that we really, truly, not only respected each other as Lego artist, but really respected each other on a personal level, as a human.

And now Michelle and I are like best friends.

Rich Rininsland: Awesome.

Krystle Starr: It’s crazy, you know, because if you can put your ego aside, and this is something that I teach in a lot of the classes I do a lot of Google, like classes for Google Engineers on team building and how to get through certain problems.

May it be an actual problem that you have to solve with work or a problem that you have to solve with a coworker. These are things that really, really helped us on the show. And you know, now Michelle and I travel the country together. We don’t even get separate hotel rooms. We love each other so much that, and we don’t see each other as much ’cause we’re three hours away.

So we actually ask to be put in the same room. And we stay up until one in the morning talking to each other and just, you know it’s a really beautiful thing, once you do put that ego aside and once you can really focus on the work and the project and have that be the thing you focus on and put all of your energy towards that to me can just go beyond Lego.

It doesn’t matter where you work. I think that that is a really important thing to have just as a human.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah, yeah. So I know my team out there right now who are listening to this are going to start Googling to try to find out to see what it was that you built.

What was that winning build for you in your partner?

Krystle Starr: Yeah, that was the largest build I’ve ever created. In fact, it’s the largest build in Lego Masters history. And again, Lego Masters is worldwide. I think we’re on like 13 or 20 different countries. I don’t know. It’s a lot. And, you know, each country has multiple seasons and to date, this is the largest build.

It took 28 hours to build and we built the art studio. So we literally only got the floor palette and we built walls, windows of full easel. That’s why I kind of have these on display.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah, was gonna say, for those of you who are only listening to this in audio, right behind Krystle, we have a series of just… they look like art posters.

Krystle Starr: Yeah. This is the evil dead recreation of the poster.

Rich Rininsland: I was going to say, one of my favorite movie series of all times

Krystle Starr: Is it?

Rich Rininsland: It is, it absolutely is.

Krystle Starr: Oh my gosh. So Bruce Campbell actually just signed it.

Rich Rininsland: Nice!

So you built an entire studio out of nothing but Lego.

Krystle Starr: Correct. And it was powered by fairy magic. So on the show I have wings. Season one we did it kind of like, as a joke for one episode and they brought me back for the holiday special in which I also wore wings. And then in Australia, they were like, do you wanna wear the wings for every episode?

And I was like, you know what? Yeah, because that’s like the big thing that when little girls come to meet me, like when we do the meet and greets, a lot of them will have their fairy wings on to match. And so I just wore the wings for every episode, which was great.

Rich Rininsland: That’s fantastic. I love it. I’ve been very specifically trying not to call them Legos.

Because that’s incorrect, right?

Krystle Starr: Right, the Lego monster that will come in, get right in the ball of your foot next time. Yeah.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah, yeah. Oh, believe me, I have a child who’s now 19, but when she was a preteen, my God, that Lego monster was everywhere. And it just pushed that brick right under my foot every time I was barefoot.

So what is the craziest thing, if that’s the largest you’ve ever built, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever built?

Krystle Starr: I think I’m working on it right now actually. I am building a… well, we’re gonna call it the tiki hide and seek-y, and it is going to be roughly four to six feet long. And it is a tiki oasis, but Star Wars themed.

So we’re gonna have a bunch of different…. there’s a lot of indoor esque, a lot of Ewoks. I think we’ve got like maybe 20 or so Ewoks in the build and we’ll have some space crafts around. And it’s just really wacky and fun.

And it’s not a commission piece, it’s just a piece that I get to do for fun that I get to take on the road and share, you know, showcase it through different cities.

And I’m just really, really excited, ’cause it’s just so whimsical. And as I like to say, messy. I’m a messy builder.

Michelle, my partner is a very clean builder. That’s why we clash so hard. So this is a messy build that I get to do just for fun.

Rich Rininsland: I have some exes who felt the same way about me, far too messy, a builder while they were way too clean.

So can you share a collaboration with me beyond the ones you’ve already told us about, where you knew that the design and the build went so much easier because you had a partnership going on or a team involved?

As opposed to something you could just do yourself. I’m sure you could, I’m sure you could do all of these yourself, but you’re not gonna do it within 28 hours.

Krystle Starr: No, and that’s the thing. I’ll be the first person to tell you I can’t do all these myself. And that’s why the team building is so important. Especially once you can recognize that, and again, putting that ego aside and really knowing your strengths and your weaknesses and allowing your team to lead with their strong points is something that’s, you know, you have to do it, otherwise your team is going to suffer.

So as soon as Michelle and I partnered up, I went and researched her building styles and I was like, man, this woman is really clean. You know her, she doesn’t like to show studs.

And I’m just like, let’s put leaves on everything. You know? I like to put as much as I possibly can. And Michelle is quite the opposite. So when we were getting a project to start for the show, you know, we would both design it out. But I really kind of took a seat back, which is hard for me because it was my third season and the first and second time I was on the show, I was the team lead. I was the one who was coming up with the ideas, and kind of like in a sense direct my partner.

Rich Rininsland: Sure.

Krystle Starr: And one of my partners was Rob Riggle. He’s a comedian. He’s been in a bunch of a bunch of stuff and he was just like a silly goose, which I am too. So we kind of had to like reel it back and like really kind of like focus. But with Michelle, I told her, day one, when we partnered up, I’m gonna let you take the lead on a lot of this because I really trust you and I love your building style and I’m gonna listen to whatever you tell me to do, which was not always easy.

And I definitely, if you watch the show, you can see me kind of have tantrums every once in a while because I really thought we should have done it a different way or something.

Rich Rininsland: And and I’m sure the producers hated that drama.

Krystle Starr: You know, they didn’t showcase it as much as they should have.

Rich Rininsland: Oh wow. Okay.

Krystle Starr: Yeah. ’cause in Australia it’s less about the drama and it’s way more about the actual techniques. And in the US it’s very much about the drama. We would have gotten a ton of screen time in the US.

There were definitely times where I would get really frustrated because I would put a lot of time into the project and she would cut… you know, at the very end of each episode before we turned our piece in, we would stand back. And you do the 2, 5, 10 rule.

What does it look like from two feet? What does it look from five feet? What does it look like from 10 feet? Does it still make sense from 10 feet? Do you lose some of that, the detail?

And Michelle would take off certain flowers or something that I would make, that I spent maybe an hour or two on, you know? And she would be like, okay, it’s getting too messy. We’re gonna pull it. And that would infuriate me on the inside, right? ’cause I spent so much time and I was like, no, I did that. What? And as an artist, I wanted to make sure that my creativity was shown.

All the work that I did, I wanted to be shown, right? But I’m really glad that I bit my tongue and, you know, sometimes you have to bite the inside of your lip and just and take one for the team in a way.

And, because I was able to do that and because she was able to work with me and stand her ground, even though I was being… throwing a little tantrum or whatever. ‘Cause I would be like, are you sure? And I’d really try to push for it. But if she told me something like twice, I’d be like, all right, I’m gonna listen to her. Yeah. I’m really glad that I was able to do that, you know, to not be a super stinker, just a little. Just a little. But I’m really, really glad I did and I think I learned so much. She taught me a ton and because I allowed myself to open up and be open to her suggestions, I am now a much better builder because of her.

Rich Rininsland: Okay. Are these the kind of things that you have taken to helping team dynamics?

’cause that’s part of what you do now.

Krystle Starr: Yes, yes. It’s a huge thing. And when we do like one-on-one sessions you know, we do like a group thing and then we do the one-on-one, and then we do a big group thing kind of at the end. And that’s a huge thing. And I think that one of my favorite things from a woman, I, I can’t remember if she was from Microsoft or Google, but she said that after doing the Lego team building exercise, she was really quiet, very quiet at the workspace, and I think we had a team of maybe like 20 plus in that group. And she said that she had really felt seen for the first time because we gave her a space with Lego to create a story and tell the story and she was really proud of it because it, I guess she had been a huge Lego builder and her team had no idea because she’s so quiet. But when she got the bricks, her creativity just exploded and she was really able to tell the story.

And Lego is such an amazing tool for storytelling. And letting those creativity juices just flow and the bonding you get with Lego is on such like a deeper human connection. Because it’s not work, right? it’s play. And fostering connection through play is a huge part of what we teach, and allowing yourself to be that different person was just like a really cool story that I heard from her.

Rich Rininsland: Why is it you think play works?

Why is it so fundamental? Because everything you’re saying, as amazing as it all sounds, and I’m sure the experience was right there, like high adrenaline, high fun, but it also sounds incredibly stressful and high pressure. So how do you keep fun alive in that, and how important is fun in maintaining that for you?

Krystle Starr: So Lego, unlike a competitive game or you know, a structured task if you will. When you do create a play and just give someone like a bunch of bricks and no instructions, I think it invites that curiosity, the personal storytelling and the medium is so versatile and it’s tactile, so you’re using a different part of your brain than you would be when you’re coding or whatever it is your work is. And you know, Lego is also very flexible, like not as of brick, but the way that you can connect them and put them together, you know, you can take it apart really easily and like redo it.

And it doesn’t take any particular skill level. Anyone can kind of start. Like Michelle, my partner from Australia, she didn’t start until about six years ago. Now she has the biggest trophy on the Lego Master Scale, the Australia versus the world.

I just think that it’s a really powerful tool to, in certain settings, not on the show, but in certain settings, it’s to reduce stress and it can unlock different avenues with your brain. And I think that’s why it’s such a good tool to have when you’re doing these team building exercises.

Rich Rininsland: Can you explain to my team out there what My Possibilities is?

Krystle Starr: Yes! My Possibilities is a school for adults with abilities, the terminology has changed since I worked there.

But it is a place for adults with like down syndrome, autism and all kinds of different things and backgrounds. And I used to teach there many moons ago. I still work with them occasionally when I can. They actually have a wrestling club, which is really cool. And for those at home, I’ve got big wrestling posters behind me out of Lego.

And I used to be an art teacher there for a while and I also taught the Lego therapy class there, which I also then took to Twitch and did ADD Lego therapy with me for a while as well. I’ve done Lego therapy with vets. So, you know, people with PTSD, but My Possibilities was really great because the Lego therapy class with them, I would put them in groups of three and some of these students were nonverbal or their tactile skills were on all different levels.

And this is a great exercise to do with really anyone, but we would have… one was the builder, one was the architect and then one was the supplier. So only the supplier could find the pieces that were coming up next. ’cause you know, on the Lego page we would do sets and you would, it tells you what you need next for the steps.

So the supplier would find those parts, give them to the architect, then the architect was not allowed to put them together, was not allowed to build. The architect was then to tell the builder how they went on the build.

And it was hilarious and fun. And some people got stressed, but I think most of the students really, really enjoyed it.

And then every like, you know, 15 minutes or 10 minutes, whatever it was, we would switch. So then you’d have to switch positions. And I loved this exercise so much because I had students that were very quiet and just didn’t really feel comfortable talking to others. But in this situation they had to.

And they really kind of came outta their shells and it was really nice to see them working as a team and building this set together.

Especially when they changed positions, even if they were in a position that they didn’t like or couldn’t stand or got mad about, they would all finish, right? Like every team finished, every build. And I think it was just really empowering because once they all finished that build, even when you’re at home building a Lego set which has instructions, you didn’t build it from scratch, but you feel a sense of accomplishment and you’re like, I did it. And team building with Lego is just so cool in that way. And you know, there’s a company called Bricks and Mini Figs, which I work with still. And we do occasional classes and stuff with them. And we have people come in and build whatever the theme is for that day, whatever the challenge is, and watching these kids build something really cool out of nothing and seeing that pride that they have is just so amazing. I love doing Lego classes.

Rich Rininsland: It’s making order out of chaos. It really is.

Krystle Starr: Exactly! Yes, a hundred percent! A hundred percent.

Rich Rininsland: Although, I gotta tell you, I, I’m old enough to remember a day where Lego just was a giant bucket of pieces.

Krystle Starr: Yeah, and they were only white, yellow, blue, and red.

Rich Rininsland: Right. And as a kid, you just spilled them on the floor and spent the day trying to make whatever your imagination could. I miss those days.

Krystle Starr: I live in those days. That is still my days.

Rich Rininsland: Well, my kid loved them too.

All we could ever find was the pre-packs, the ” this is what you’re going to build by buying this pack.”

Krystle Starr: Yeah. You just buy a bunch of those.

Rich Rininsland: That’s what I told her. That’s what I told her.

Krystle Starr: Or the company that I said earlier, Bricks and Mini Figs, which are all over the United States. I think there’s like over a hundred stores. They have bulk bins where you can just go and buy pounds of loose brick, which is for me.

That’s my jam. That’s what I love to do.

Rich Rininsland: Excellent.

Krystle Starr: But going back to the students, I think having that team building with Lego was really cool because they got to use their eye contact and the power of connection through play is amazing because it really lets you just unlock so much within you that I think a lot of people don’t really understand that they have until they do it.

And I think that that is one of my favorite things to watch about people as a team coming together to build something out of nothing.

Rich Rininsland: Nice. And going back, you and Michelle, while you’re working together on Lego Masters, you were talking about how you were such disparate styles in the way that you do things.

Krystle Starr: Clean and messy.

Rich Rininsland: Yes. How do you, or how did you, because I loved the way you described your “aha” moment of the respect you found for each other. How did you learn to communicate with each other besides through frustration? Because I’m certain that that is something that my listeners out there go through on a day-to-day basis.

Krystle Starr: Yes, so hilarious. Actually, I was in my hotel room at night and I was kind of freaking out. I was like, how am I gonna work with someone who… we don’t even wanna talk to each other right now. And then I thought to myself, well how would I have done this in any other job?

You know, how do I deal with coworkers that you just don’t wanna deal with that day?

And I think it goes back to, even if you don’t like what that person is doing at the moment, I think you need to find some level of respect for them, for whatever it is. Think about the positives of that person and then also think about what that person’s life is like.

Put yourself in that person’s shoes. And even if you have a coworker, and this is not going towards Michelle at all. Michelle is not this at all. But, say you have a coworker who is just really stinky, right? Just being really rude and just constantly getting under your skin, someone that you just cannot stand.

I think you really need to meditate on it. And for me, I did daily affirmations every morning and I told myself that I was a beacon of light and that they would, eventually, see the good in me and just as I would see the good in them.

And I would make myself list five, not three. I’m typically with the rules of three, but five, five good things about that person. And this is something I did with other jobs too. And also just like really think about like their hardships. And I know that can be annoying, you know, “whatever, I’ve got hardships too”. But really, really think about their hardships. Think about what they’re giving up to be in the job that they’re with, with you.

And think about, you know what they’re telling you, you know what you see, but there’s a whole world of that person that you don’t see behind the closed doors when they go home.

You don’t know what’s going on in anyone’s life. And I think that if you can really focus on that person and have empathy towards that person. And give them the benefit of the doubt. And smiling. Smiling is such a key thing for me, especially when Michelle and I… there were only two episodes that we were like really, really clashing with, but I made sure to smile at her when I saw her, I made sure to smile at her. And that allows them to know that no matter what, you’re gonna have a good day. And I think you having a good day shows other people that they are also, in a way, allowed to have a good day. And I think that that is something that we need to do more as a society, is smile at people. And especially for me, it’s like extra important because the doctors told me I would never smile again when I got my brains tumor.

Rich Rininsland: Oh.

Krystle Starr: It paralyzed the left side of my face, which is still paralyzed, but it’s getting better . But I can smile today. And the fact that I can smile today means I should smile.

Rich Rininsland: Absolutely.

Krystle Starr: And that is a huge thing for me. A gift that you can give someone is to smile. And I think that once you do that, and once you show them that you respect them, that opens the door for them to feel like they can and should respect you as well.

Rich Rininsland: Excellent. Wonderful. Has that philosophy worked with you in all of the many varied projects that you’ve had in your life?

Not only Lego mastering, you’ve created a comedy club. Just one or more than one?

Krystle Starr: Comic book. Comic book.

Rich Rininsland: Okay. Comic book.

Krystle Starr: I wish I had a comedy club, that’d be awesome! Comic book. And yes, I’ve written a bunch especially during COVID. There’s a whole fun story behind that. But yeah, I think that anytime, anytime I get partnered with someone, I do a lot of team things.

Right now, Michelle and I travel across the country and we’re with different companies all the time doing Lego stuff, and you never know what the team is going to be like. You never know what the boss is going to be like.

And sometimes we get people who are really uptight and really closed off and just like, “da da da da da”, you know? And for me, and I think Michelle does this too, but we both smile and, I think for us it’s kind of like “how can we alleviate what your stress is?”

And I think that’s a really big question to ask your teammates too, is “what can we do to make the load easier on you?” And then when we’re bogged down, I think asking for help is huge.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah.

Krystle Starr: Because if no one knows you’re struggling, no one’s going to help you. So I think just being really vocal about it. And I know a lot of people were raised to be seen and not heard. And I’ve worked with a lot of people who are way too afraid to ask for help, but I think that just really ends up hurting you and the team, in the long run.

So I think just constantly being vocal and do check-ins. I think check-ins are really great. Michelle and I, because we do these shows and sometimes we’re up at like six in the morning and we don’t go to bed until nine or 10 at night. Or don’t leave the the hall until late.

Rich Rininsland: Until it’s done. Yeah.

Krystle Starr: Yeah. Yeah. We stay until it’s closed. We’re constantly doing that. We’re constantly checking in. ” Have you had enough water?”, “Do you need a break?”, ” Do you need some food?”, “You’re acting a little little off”, you know?

Rich Rininsland: Yep, yep.

Krystle Starr: So I think that’s just a really big thing for any kind of relationship.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah. I was gonna say, because not only is this important in a corporate world, you gotta have in your personal life as well, I assume with the bright person that you are, that I only met just now on my little square on a computer screen. I assume you have your own personal team that’s been helping you, especially during your recovery.

Krystle Starr: Yeah, definitely, definitely. And the recovery was really weird ’cause it was during COVID.

Rich Rininsland: Yeah.

Krystle Starr: So not only did I, you know… Lego Master Season one was, I think, the most watched season. And so I went from like… I wouldn’t say like stardom by any means, but I definitely like Girl Scout teams would recognize me and when I went out, people were recognizing me and I was really excited because I, I actually came from movie and film.

I did a lot of VFX work. But this was my first time in a long time, being in front of the camera. So to kind of not experience that and then get the world shut down was hard. But then I also lost all the VFX work because Hollywood completely shut down.

Rich Rininsland: Yep.

Krystle Starr: And then I was a life coach also, but I would have them come to my house in my office.

And at that point I was like, ” I don’t know if I want people in the house”. And then the whole convention circuit, that all got shut down. So all of my jobs, all of my sources of income got cut during COVID, and I don’t know if that’s what the brain tumor, you know, I don’t know if my brain just popped from stress or I don’t know.

But it was a lot to process and having a good support system for me was huge. Huge, huge.

And, I actually run a book club with about 50 women, in Dallas. We typically have like 20, 25 that actually show up. But building that is so important to me because not only do those women help me, but we’ve created this amazing community and support system that help all of the women in there.

We’re posting: “hey, this company is looking for a person to fill this job.” And, when one of us is down, again, being vocal and having those check-ins is really important. I do check in with all the women. I message them. I go through the list once a month and just see how’s everyone’s doing, see how we can connect.

We, at the beginning of the years, we write down our goals for the years and we do check-ins to see if we’re meeting those goals. Because I don’t have a real job. I have a job, but I don’t have like a nine to five. I don’t have an office job. So I don’t have that sense of community that comes with a workforce, and I was kind of missing that a little bit.

So creating this all Women’s Book Club there is just an amazing, amazing source of support for all of us, I think.

Rich Rininsland: Fantastic. And if you could give any advice to my listeners out there, say there’s some corporate manager, you know, who is trying to think of ways to strengthen the team that they have around them, what kind of advice you give them just in the importance of interjecting creativity and fun and keeping that alive in their team.

Krystle Starr: It’s been scientifically proven, to have these hands-on playing activities really boost your team on so many different levels. And I think even just get everyone the same set, it could be like a $10, $15 set. You don’t have to break the bank for this.

And then dump ’em all out. Open all the bags. Throw away the instructions. And then, have everyone build a space ship. Then have everybody break it down and then have everybody build something else. Or have themes and give them five to 10 minutes each and just see what your team creates.

It’s gonna be silly. It’s not gonna be amazing. Or it might be amazing. It might be the best thing ever. But the point isn’t about what you build, it’s that you build together.

Rich Rininsland: Wonderful. I think that’s the button right there that we’re looking for, Krystle. Thank you so much.

My team out there, give a big round applause for Krystle Starr, everybody.

That was fantastic! Thank you so much. Did you have a good time?

Krystle Starr: Yeah, definitely!

Rich Rininsland: I’m so happy you’re here. And I hope you continue to be happy to be here because it is time for my speed round.

Krystle Starr: I love that. I love that so much.

Rich Rininsland: Alright, Krystle, I already started telling you what this was before we came on the air, but just to remind you, I’m gonna play a song for about 60 seconds. In that 60 seconds, I’m gonna ask you a series of completely innocuous questions. This is just a way to get to know you a little bit better, but also if you’re feeling fun, we could also be a little competitive, and see if you can beat the number that we have already set for the season, which is 17 questions asked and answered. It’s a huge number. Don’t feel like you have to. This is just more fun. Okay?

Krystle Starr: I’m ready.

Rich Rininsland: Okay. As soon as you hear the song, I’m gonna start asking questions. Away we go. What’s your name?

Krystle Starr: Krystle Starr.

Rich Rininsland: Do you have any pets?

Krystle Starr: One dog, Stanley.

Rich Rininsland: If you could ask Stanley a question and get an answer, what would it be?

Krystle Starr: Are you hungry?

Rich Rininsland: What’s your biggest inspiration in life?

Krystle Starr: Oh my God. Could be… third time Lego Master Champion.

Rich Rininsland: Nice. Go to karaoke song.

Krystle Starr: Pat Klein.

Rich Rininsland: What was your first job?

Krystle Starr: Comic bookshop.

Rich Rininsland: What’d you like your last meal to be?

Krystle Starr: Cake.

Rich Rininsland: Best career advice you have ever had.

Krystle Starr: Play well.

Rich Rininsland: What job would you be absolutely terrible at?

Krystle Starr: Coding.

Rich Rininsland: Favorite vacation spot?

Krystle Starr: Hawaii.

Rich Rininsland: Favorite TV series of all times?

Krystle Starr: Friends.

Rich Rininsland: Favorite guilty pleasure TV series.

Krystle Starr: Ooh, Twilight. Just kidding. No. Yes. Go.

Rich Rininsland: Favorite way to stay creative.

Krystle Starr: Paint on your days off.

Rich Rininsland: Most embarrassing thing in your music library.

Krystle Starr: Ooo.

Rich Rininsland: If you could be a fictional character, who would it be?

Krystle Starr: Oh my God. Fictional character, Hermione.

Rich Rininsland: 15. 15. That’s amazing. We’re not Lego Masters. You don’t get a trophy from me. It’s fine.

Krystle, thank you again for coming on. Is there any way that my team out there can… actually any place they can go to find out more about you or just to see fun that you get to do.

Krystle Starr: Yeah. We’re working on the Building Bonds, which is the website for the team building for Lego that we’re doing.

It’s almost up, so if you guys would like to book me for any kind of team building session, you can hit me up on Instagram, Krystle Starr X K-R-Y-S-T-L-E-S-T-A-R-R-X. And I love doing team building projects to problem solve and I guess at the Kickstarter, the Kickstarter for Cardio Quest is like the biggest thing right now.

Rich Rininsland: All right. Thank you so much, Krystle Starr.

Krystle Starr: Thank you so, so, so much, Rich. Thank you.