Announcer: 0:00

Entrepreneur, author and financial consultant, Marc Bernstein helps high-performing entrepreneurial business owners create a vision for the future and follow through on their goals and intentions. Ang Onorato is a business growth strategist who blends psychology and business together to create conscious leaders and business owners who impact the world. Founders Forum is a radio show podcast sharing the real stories behind entrepreneurship, as founders discover more about themselves, while providing valuable lessons and some fun and entertainment for you. Now here's Marc and Ang.

Marc Bernstein: 0:35

Good morning America. How are you? You might hear we had to pivot this morning so we're on Zoom remotely rather than in the studio. This morning we did a last minute pivot, so if you hear any barking in the background, that is arlo, the wonder dog, who I always say hello to every morning and he's so good, he, he. I had limited time to walk him this morning. I knew he ate a lot for dinner, I knew he had to go out and I said arlo, we had a little talk and I said you've got to do this quickly, buddy, and he did it. He was, he's amazing. He knew there were treats on the other end of it, so I talked to my dog a lot. Anyway, hey, we're going to have a really fun show today and you'll know exactly what I mean by that in a minute.

Marc Bernstein: 1:19

And I was thinking ang about our topic for today and also dave, who's our guest, who we'll introduce in a minute. And I was thinking about the idea that I, in particular, have struggled the last few weeks with the strife going on in the world as a Jewish American of eastern European descent and you don't have to be that, by the way, to feel the strife, obviously, but, um, it's particularly affecting me. What's going on in israel, what's going on in ukraine? And you know there's. You know I'm a financial planner and there's things going on in the economy and interest rates are still high, although there's some signs that they're coming down. But there's a lot to deal with right now and I was thinking somehow we've all got to separate ourselves from all of that and stay in our way of being whatever that is, and that means to me. It means happiness, abundance, it means having fun. So I thought about what I've been doing because, unconsciously, is an unconscious competent.

Marc Bernstein: 2:21

After today's show, I know I'm going to be a conscious confident about this, but unconsciously I've been trying to have little bits of fun because I've been very busy and haven't had a lot of time to really have fun. I have played golf a few times we were talking about that. I have been riding my bike just to get outside, but when I need moments of fun, this is what I do. I'm listening to the beatles new single it's called now, and then it's their first new single in 30 years, or something like that, and their last single ever. And it's as a devoted Beatles fan, for since I was 12 years old. I it's. It's been. That has been a lot of rollercoaster ride of emotions, but a lot of fun to listen to it and it brings me joy, as the Beatles music has always done for me and for a lot of people. So that's what I do. Ang, what do you do?

Ang Onorato: 3:11

Well, I think it's a great topic, Marc, because there's so much heaviness in the world and I think, at least for myself in years past, when things would get so heavy, I would typically buckle down and try to do more and serve more and be more, and really that I found, especially in the last 2 years, that really was making the way that I was handling things worse.

Ang Onorato: 3:33

I needed to kind of stop for a minute, get some fun, get the energy kind of moving back inside myself. So I've really gotten back into getting out into nature and I know this sounds crazy, but you know, you know me, I'm always looking at alternative things, Marc, and I've gotten into grounding, which is kind of taking your shoes off and walking, you know, barefoot in in the earth, and that has just been. I just walk out my back door and I will go for a walk in in in nature and it's just it. I feel like the heaviness dissipates and it brings me to that level of the endorphins kick in and it's really really been helping me to kind of take a moment of fun and relaxation, so to speak, even if it's mental, and being able to kind of address, you know, whatever else is going on in the day. So great, great point, and thanks for bringing that up this morning. I think it's a good reminder for all of us.

Marc Bernstein: 4:23

I actually have a grounding blanket which I forgot about. I have to dig it out because I haven't used it for a while, oh, I have all of that.

Ang Onorato: 4:28

It actually kind of works.

Marc Bernstein: 4:29

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Ang Onorato: 4:30

I have them all.

Marc Bernstein: 4:32

So our guest today is Dave Raymond. Well, so I'm going to, since it pivots well into what he says, I'm just going to introduce that. So david raymond is an international keynote speaker, author and thought leader on sustainable happiness sustainable happiness. Today he will share lessons he's learned through his truly unique life and career at the original philly fanatic and he's going to tell us a little of that story. And dave is the hero of happiness. You guys hear arlo in the background, just curious. The hero of happiness.

Dave Raymond: 5:06

You guys hear Arlo in the background. Just curious if you're in dog parking he's our mascot, Marc.

Marc Bernstein: 5:09

He's our mascot. He's our mascot. Arlo is our mascot. So Arlo is out there. Of course, we're having a bed delivered, and it happened last week too. Exact same time we're doing a show. What can I tell you? Dave is the hero of happiness, happiness, and his work has been featured everywhere, from jimmy kimmel live to espn, the new york times, hbo, real sports. He also. I'm going to add a couple of things. He wrote the book the power of fund fun, which is available on his website, which is daveramonspeakscom. Is that right?

Dave Raymond: 5:39

correct. Yeah, yeah and amazon doesn't need to get any more money from me.

Marc Bernstein: 5:46

Good, we've had that conversation, so thanks for reminding me. That's where you get it. And he speaks to companies, associations and teams to want and teams who want to leverage his power of the fund message to motivate teams to believe in and follow a simple process that can change and save lives. And I just want to mention he's still developing mascots. That's part of what he does. We'll talk about that too, and he just did a new one that I saw on TV for CBS, which was pretty cool. So you want to mention that real quick and then we'll get into your story.

Dave Raymond: 6:19

Yeah, it was a GMA. They, good Morning America, wanted to do their their mascot and they took it seriously.

Marc Bernstein: 6:24

I'm sorry, abc, I said CBS. I'm sorry it was ABC, it's all right.

Dave Raymond: 6:28

I just I pushed. I pushed him away because I don't like.

Dave Raymond: 6:33

I have a wonderful time in my career where, you know, I can kind of select my clients too, and when we want to create another fanatic or another gritty, it's a whole different process than putting somebody in costume on a street corner and spinning a sign. So I kind of put them in that category. They wanted to do, you know, do a bit, and and their, their producer, would convince me if Farron Shiro she was amazing, she convinced me. Look, we, my, my, my leaders, they really want to do this right and they want this character to last. And so it was a wonderful moment to be with a group of people who knew how to write stories, because the crux of all of this work that has been done successfully to create the Fanatic and Gritty is it all starts with great, authentic storytelling. So I have to tell you, first of all, I'm really excited to be with you, but hearing you and Ang chat about what you do during stressful times is a wonderful illustration of what we don't typically.

Dave Raymond: 7:34

We're not wired to do that. So when we're involved in stress and strife or just in general, our brains are always focused on threats. It's our wiring, and so it holds on to very difficult topics and even visions and images in our head are all in the negative frame, and the way to break that chain or rewire brain is to do things that you might not think are valuable. Hence the time when Angie qualified to say this sound, this may sound crazy, or this probably is silly, or I can't believe I do this. That's your brain pushing you away from the things that are really healthy for you. So the grounding and walking in your bare feet in the grass, going out and riding your bike, listening to your favorite band, the Beatles, those are all things that can be done intentionally for you to turn off the negative wiring. And I love hearing that, because whenever people talk about what they do for a good time, they'll say, well, this sounds silly. Or basically, it's your brain saying it's not worthwhile.

Marc Bernstein: 8:42

And when we have those hands need to pay you for that little bit of therapy.

Ang Onorato: 8:47

No, I'm doing that for a plug, for grounding which I love all free, but we're helping all the listeners, because if they don't know what grounding is and Marc and I do, you know, I have a grounding mat too we can talk about it. But no, it's important to get out there, so everybody hears about it.

Marc Bernstein: 9:03

Listen, I have to mention too, dave and I. You guys can't see me today because you're on the radio. We're on the radio and you're listening to the radio, but I have my Fighting Blue Hens hat on fighting blue hens hat on and Dave and I were fellow blue hens at Delaware, at the University of Delaware at the same time, and we did meet once or twice. He doesn't remember and I just barely remember it, but we've gotten to know each other over the last few years and it's always a lot of fun to talk to Dave.

Dave Raymond: 9:26

So Dave, tell us your story. I have trouble remembering my kids' names, so I'm trying to go all the way back to my Delaware days, although your blue hands forever so. So we're connected to that regardless.

Marc Bernstein: 9:39

That's right. So tell us. You're speaking of stories. It all begins with a story, and I think yours begins with a story as well, so tell us how you arrived at. I guess the first stage of this was really becoming the fanatic, and then let's talk about what happened since then I, I just you know, my whole backdrop in my life was sports.

Dave Raymond: 9:58

My, my dad, tubby raymond, was a head football coach at delaware for 36 years, but he coached there for legendary football coach.

Marc Bernstein: 10:07

I have to say he was and he was my hero.

Dave Raymond: 10:10

You know, I wanted to become him and, uh, you know, my, my whole focus as a young person was just just to go play football at del, or had no idea about education, or all I wanted to do was go play football and and be a football coach. And my dad, uh was, was very supportive. But he said you're not going to replicate what I, what I am doing here at delaware there's in this world today of coaching. You're going to get fired a couple of times. Uh, you hopefully will find you're going to get fired a couple of times. You hopefully will find success. You're going to move your family around the country to find that success. And he said, and that's all well and good, but let me help you change your perspective.

Dave Raymond: 10:47

I was a sophomore at Delaware and he said you got a few more years to graduate. I'll help you get a summer job with the Phillies because, like Malcolm Gladwell's outliers, I had access, because he knew the Carpenter family who owned the team and a number of his football players would get part-time jobs back in the day when the NCAA allowed you to do that. And yeah, so I, 1976, 77, I started a two-year internship, and I mean within the first few weeks, Marc, I realized I could not believe that there was an actual potential for a career working in major league sports. There were no such studies as sports marketing back then and I couldn't believe it. And I decided right then and there, I don't need to be a football coach, I can. I can do everything I hope to do right here with the Phillies and and then the I had to go back to school to finish my final year at school and this was a two-year summer internship which was over, and I thought, geez, I'm going to have to fight my way back into their consciousness.

Dave Raymond: 11:47

And instead they called me in the spring of 1978 and said we need you to come back. And I said, oh great, what do you want me to do? And they said need to go to new york and get fitted for the costume. And and that was the start of of um geez, a, a fantastical with a ph? Uh career and opportunity for for um the next 16 years. And and everything that I'm doing today, everything that has shaped me, informed me, was that serendipity, that serendipity of my dad going hey, let me change your perspective. And then got the beauty and the wonderful, joyful opportunity to be driven by enlightened leadership and Bill Giles and Larry Shank. These were wonderful leaders that knew and understood the value of fun in terms of the business of sports and it was transformative for me.

Marc Bernstein: 12:44

I think that's great. We mentioned enlightened leadership. People wouldn't normally think about executives of a sports team as enlightened leaders, but and I only know from talking to you in the past that that wasn't the case, which is pretty amazing in and of itself. So you became the fanatic. You were the fanatic for 16 years. I thought it was a little short in there 16. That's amazing. And when that, how did you decide that it was time for that to end and to move on? And where did you go from there?

Dave Raymond: 13:16

that's a fabulous question, because I left as most would look back and see the greatest job on the face of the planet, right, um. But I, I was driven by a couple of things. Um, emotionally, I felt I was a little tapped out. I know what it's, I can guarantee you, I know what it's like to be a soap opera star, because you're you, you are, you are caught and captured by a role that you are fabulous at at performing and bringing to life. But you get, you get challenged creatively and and I was getting tired physically and I knew, even though I had many, many years of performance left in me, which I, which I was able to do, you know to do as I was building a business, was that I knew physically I would be done doing this before an age where I would be done wanting to work and wanting to create. So I left the Phillies at the right time, after the 93 World Series, when our hearts were ripped out by Joe Carter's home run, and I love that.

Marc Bernstein: 14:14

That was until the last time our hearts were ripped out again this year, but that's another story. Well, we're Phillies fans.

Dave Raymond: 14:20

We know that there's going to be, exactly that's part of our path and what we, what we appreciate and love about Philadelphia.

Marc Bernstein: 14:29

That's true Part of the deal.

Dave Raymond: 14:30

We're resilient and we're resilient.

Dave Raymond: 14:33

But you know. So then. That was one reason, and I and I also knew from a, from a legal standpoint, I had no rights or to ownership of the character, which, which was not unusual, that was case long law all the way back to the Lone Ranger and Clayton Moore. So I wanted to be able to work for myself, I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to be in control of where I would be, instead of retiring as the performer and having the Phillies say, okay, you're going to be in this part of the marketing department. I just wanted to do that on my own.

Dave Raymond: 15:05

So I left in 93 and I created, I went to business with the people who designed and made the Fanatic for seven years, and then that transitioned into making, you know, rolling out my first business on my own called Raymond Entertainment, which is still alive today, and that was in 2000.

Dave Raymond: 15:23

And we, we continue to do great things in that space. But all the work in in terms of the messaging of why we, why we undervalue fun and how it can be a great tool for us not only to be happier and healthier but to overcome the brutality of life, because that is part of our existence. You know this I, I was, I was living to leave at the beaver experience and then life came up and wrapped on my door, um, and I think that's where you know the real uh forming of this message and the value and understanding, uh, fun, and, and wherever we are in life but certainly in the corporate world as well that we have to figure out different strategies to enjoy where we are at the moment, and that's really all of those things I learned going back to my early days with the Phillies.

Marc Bernstein: 16:16

So today you work with corporations, you work with businesses and with their employees. You want to talk about that for a little bit.

Dave Raymond: 16:24

Yeah, that started it. Ang and I were chatting offline a little bit. It started back in 1976 when we had a couple of friends get in touch with myself and my partner, mark Doty, and said, hey, we're starting a new company, it's going to be a team building company. Partner, mark Doty, and said, hey, we're starting a new company, it's going to be a team building company, and we know you have this wonderful expertise in minor league sports about how they play games in between innings and we want you to come and help us gamify some of our deliveries during team building events that we want to do during the workday, not an off time. And they had some great understanding, belief, so we ended up becoming founding partners of that business, the fund department, which is still. It's actually a virtual delivery of team building now so they can reach around the globe.

Dave Raymond: 17:10

And so we had a great time developing the concepts of playing during the day for employees. And what happened was those the leaders there said okay, dave, you, you're the expert in this, so you need to tell our employees, uh, why we're allowing them to play meanwhile. I get in front of these employees and they go. We don't care, we're taking a break. This is great, and so we started to realize that that there was something to that.

Dave Raymond: 17:38

And then the bubble burst in 2008 and fun became a swear word. It became executive retreats to Carlsbad, california. It wasn't something that would seem to be valuable and we really thought we were going to lose the business, but we were able to, on the backs of companies like AstraZeneca, where they believed in this and understood it, that when tough times were here, that was the most important time for them to play, and that became the foundation or the keystone for my keynote and our training, which is starting by saying as soon as you say you think something is silly and you shouldn't be doing it, those are one of the things you should investigate and decide. That becomes something I'm doing daily.

Marc Bernstein: 18:25

And that's Dave with that. I'm sorry we have to take a quick break. I know he has questions for you about that, but let's have a quick commercial break. We'll be right back with founders.

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Marc Bernstein: 19:38

We are back on Founders Forum with our special guest today, David Raymond. Dave Raymond of. Dave Raymond Speaks. And Ang, I know you're bubbling with questions.

Ang Onorato: 19:47

Yeah, well, that's because, you know, every once in a while we get guests on here, Marc, as you know that we could just do three or four hours with, and Dave certainly is one of them. But you know, just before the break Dave you were talking about, you know how you bring this work into corporations and sort of the changing landscape that that's taken over. You know the last many years that you've been doing this. But you know, my mentor always says it's one of my favorite quotes he says adults are just deteriorated children and by that meaning you know we and I believe it's very true I've done a lot of work on my own inner child the last couple of years. Very true, I've done a lot of work on my own inner child the last couple of years.

Ang Onorato: 20:28

But you know, that's our creative center and our productivity center and you know the way that we can deal with stress and mental health and by bringing in funds. So I'm curious, we were talking offline and you mentioned how your father also kind of gave you perspective and pivot. How have you seen this work? You touched on a little bit about bringing it in in the work day. This work, you touched on a little bit about bringing it in in the workday? How are you finding the appetite for this kind of work today versus maybe when you first started this effort? I'm really curious how the corporate culture may have embraced or changed since then.

Dave Raymond: 20:52

It's been a whirlwind of change, so it's just obvious from the way I described it. The leadership wanted me to explain to the employees why they were allowing them to take a break during the day. We've shifted for many different reasons, the pandemic being the biggest lever, but certainly, as Marc mentioned, the world that we live in today. That's the way the world will always be. So I think what I see in and not everybody gets this.

Dave Raymond: 21:19

Not every leader is an enlightened leader, but enlightened leadership understands the most important thing they can do. Forget about pay, forget about the work that you're requiring somebody to do. You can tap into them emotionally, on an emotional connection, by letting them know that you care. So what's happening today is it's shifted all the way from hey, you tell them why we're taking a break to how can I show my employees that I care about them as human beings? That is a key. It's the simplest thing to describe and understand. It's one of the hardest things to do, and to do it authentically. So it isn't just hey, you're going to go play in the corner here now. I'm going to leave you to it and then I'm going to be up in the C-suite office doing important work. That is what the old focus was. I'm going to let my employees play and then I'm going to go do work while they're playing.

Dave Raymond: 22:13

Instead of the investing time with your employees and playing with them, and play being the term of whatever it is that you're deciding to do to show that your employees do you care about them, and then the other things fall in place. You know compensation is important, but time off may be more important to younger employees today. So there's been a tectonic shift in young people in the generations about what they're looking for. They're looking for purpose, they're looking for meaningful work and they do want to get compensated. But if it's not meaningful and they have no purpose they're looking for. They're looking for purpose, they're looking for meaningful work and they do want to get compensated. But if it's not meaningful and they have no purpose, that they're going to leave you. So you know it's a it's a tough challenge, but I really have been emboldened with my messaging to see that leadership gets it. They, you know, and that's who we gravitate to are the leaders that are investing in us.

Ang Onorato: 23:00

Yeah, absolutely Well that ties so nicely into conscious leadership, which is something I do a lot of, and we talk a lot about creating psychologically safe spaces for people, but what you're bringing up is equally important, which is letting them know that they're seen and heard and valued and cared about. So I love that message.

Marc Bernstein: 23:15

We have seen that theme actually on the show. We work mainly with small business leaders, you know, small to medium-sized businesses, and we've had some on here who have pressed to us really without asking what they do. We had someone, a leader of a manufacturing company, a few weeks ago, steve Pencala, who once a month does something special for his employees a different event but he loves to cook. He actually makes them breakfast or dinner, you know, he comes in and he's got, and he's got very loyal, loyal employees in a, in a business where it's tough to do that these days. So we've seen a lot of examples of that. So I think it's, and for some reason I don't know I don't know because I don't work as much with big business, but I know that small business is getting that message, you know, and they're working on things like that. You would know the big business world better, but it sounds like everybody's starting to look at that issue.

Dave Raymond: 24:04

They really the people that we're working with are less focused about what they're doing at work and more what they can do for their employees at home, because if you're talking to them about human beings, probably the place that their employees love to be able to be experiencing is joy and happiness and well-being at home. You get and that's what I do I give everybody a process that they can take home and I say, look, put your oxygen mask on first. Do this at home, then people around you are going to say, hey, I want to have what she's having. And then people gravitate to you and want to know what you're doing. And then you bring that whole self to work and you start sharing it with your teams and your peers at work, and and leadership allows that to blossom.

Marc Bernstein: 24:51

That's that that is the greatest way forward to work believe it or not, our 28 minutes is almost up. It's unbelievable how quickly time passes when you're having fun, which we, which we are. I have two kind of lightning round questions that we'll ask you. Number one I always like to ask people, if this is November, blah, blah, blah 2024, a year from now, and you're looking back on the last year, what would have to happen for you to consider that to be a successful year, in other words, your one-year vision?

Dave Raymond: 25:19

Well, we've actually put a huge goal in front of us to drive $1 million in speaking and training. And certainly, you know the financial is always important because it's a good measuring stick. But that means if we're driving that revenue, that means we're reaching hundreds of millions of people with our message. So it's our impossible goal and we're actually having a meeting on the 20th We've done a lot of work leading up to the 20th for for us to decide OK, what are the things we need to be focused on to reach that impossible goal.

Marc Bernstein: 25:50

By the way, I was speaking to a business owner yesterday, a founder who's founded a lot of companies, and he had a great thing. He said you know. He asked me you know why do people have businesses? And the typical answer you get is to make money. And he said no. He said what is your purpose in having a business? You have to have a purpose. Yours is. You obviously have a message. You've talked a lot about it. It's to teach people to have fun and to take breaks and to take care of themselves and to help have employers assist them in doing that. And then he said but your objective could be to make money, because you have to make money or else you can't keep working on your purpose. So there you are. So that's sort of perfect.

Dave Raymond: 26:27

They have to balance both of them out what's your favorite book, dave? Well, in, so I'm a.

Marc Bernstein: 26:34

Dan.

Dave Raymond: 26:34

Sullivan fan, so the transformative book I read um about a year ago, year and a half ago, is who, not how, and that is leading me to his new book. 10x is Easier Than 2X and it is part of why we're challenging ourselves with what we think is an impossible goal, and now that I'm really diving into it, it may be not impossible enough. Possible enough because it's. I just think Dan Sullivan and Dr Hardy, who writes his books, are just phenomenal leaders in something that's new right. It's something that you can really sink your teeth into and I'm on the backside of my career, but this is just as good for me as it is for somebody who's in their late 20s, early 30s and really starting to build a career to do the same.

Marc Bernstein: 27:25

We didn't plant this, but I don't know if we've ever talked about it, but I'm a strategic coach graduate and a big devotee of the Excellency.

Dave Raymond: 27:28

No, I didn't know that.

Marc Bernstein: 27:29

We'll talk about that later. We are out of time. Real quick hands. You have something Outro? Okay, listen, we thank you all. We're out of time. See you next week on Founders Forum. Thank you to Dave Raymond for being here and maybe we have to do a part two. See you soon.

Announcer: 27:50

We hope you enjoyed your time with Founders Forum today.