Get to Know Your Team & Laugh a Little: The Icebreaker Game with Ryan Kehoe!

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Allie from corporate podcast. I'm your host, Ali, and today we have special guest, my buddy, Ryan. What's up, Ryan?

Hey, team Ryan Keough here, retired Navy veteran and data center guru at your disposal.

Love that. Love the Margaritaville vibe. That's the vibe I'm feeling today, too. Friday.

It's a state of mind, Ali. I mean, it's Friday. It's Margaritaville. It's five o' clock somewhere.

It's five o' clock Somewhere. It's 108 degrees in Vegas.

It's.

Can't wait to go in the pool.

I'll probably make it 99% humidity on the east coast. I'm calm. Ignore the sweat. Like, I assure you, I'm in a good mental space. We're okay.

Okay. Good, good, good. So you and I, we could talk about work, but in this episode, I wanted to do something a little different. You and I played a game last time we talked, and I. I forget the name of it. What's the name of it again?

So it was an icebreaker game. Okay. And for some context, for those of you in TV land, it's bas designed to minimize tension in the room and allow you to get to know your team on a more personal level, despite the weird, you know, hologram construct of the work environment.

And I love. So you're. You're a manager at your job. I think you're even a senior manager. Yeah, but. All right, all right.

At least for now. I totally see this.

At least for now, Kane. You never know. But I love that you have this game and you probably bust it out once in a while, like, just to ease tension, because I agree there could be more room for humor in the workplace and just free thinking and authenticity. And I know you have a story about that right before we start playing.

I do. I do. So we'll keep it real. I do want to double tap the authenticity. Call it ally. When I was interviewing with my current employer after I got hired, you know, I just. I only have one gear. Like, I got to be me. Right? And when I joined the team, I had multiple interviewers reach out to me post facto, and they were like, hey, man, your interview was the most fun I had on the call all year. So it was kind of refreshing because I think it's really important to keep it authentic and to bring your full self to work. And there's so much tension and stress in the world right now, like, just to be able to laugh once in a while and shake it Off. And to get to know each other as humans outside of that work construct is key. It'll actually help you perform better in a stressful situation, you know, when the proverbial bullets are flying. That is not the time to get to know somebody. The time to get to know somebody is calls like this. So you can vibe with each other, you can better anticipate each other. You know how people respond to different communication styles. You can kind of customize and tailor your approach. It's a little more of like an EQ savvy approach, in my very humble opinion.

I love that. And emotional intelligence is very important in the workplace. So let's play this game. This is going to be a fun, maybe funny episode, but you have a game we're going to play right now, and basically, you just pick out cards or little pieces of wood and ask questions. And then I'm going to keep track of who goes first. So you're going to answer the question first for this first one, and then I'll go next and we'll keep swapping off. So I'll keep track of.

All right, I see it. Allie taking advantage of home field advantage.

Okay, let's see how you do.

So this is basically. These are little wooden blocks. They're not Jenga pieces. I have a whole bag full of these random. These random philosophical gems. Right. And without further ado. Okay, if you came with a warning label, this is already gold. If you came with a warning label, what would yours say?

Ooh, that's a good question. I love that.

So only one warning I might need. I feel like I would need a whole label, like a full shirt, maybe a suit with, like, just multiple layers of warnings. I'm going to go. I think the. I would say the most salient warning would be keep caffeinated. So I operate well with just a little bit of coffee. Right. Not too much. I don't want to be a force in nature and melting people's face off with energy. But just, you know, one. One or two cups a day. Iced coffee. We're good. Everybody wins. I type a little faster, things go smoother. It's a win for all involved.

Love that. Keep caffeinated. That's a good warning label.

Yeah.

Okay. My warning label would say, Beware. You might laugh. Keep breathing.

I love it. Yeah, the keep breathing thing is key. I would. I would maybe even tack on, like, a human at the end to make it weird.

Keep breathing, human. I love that. Keep breathing creature.

I'm an earthling like you.

Yes. But I like I love laughing. I think laughter is the best medicine. I'm always, like, looking for how I can make somebody smile or giggle, and I love it. It's just, like, the best way to lighten up a room, lighten up a mood, change the energy. So, yeah, that would be my warning label.

No, for me, too. It's basically a coping mechanism. I survive with humor. Not to derail this entire call, but a few years ago, my brother and I were at a funeral, and we were trying to just deal with it, right? And occasionally we would joke around, and I playfully made a comment, like, I put the fun in funeral. My mom was like, ryan, oh, no. Like, you don't want to say you put the fun in funeral. But it was off the cuff. And, yeah, I got through it, right? So I'm still here.

Hey, it's a good way to break. It's a good way to break the tension, break the. Break the ice. Even at a funeral.

That's how I grieve. So it's a process. Ally, I'm still grieving. All right, so without further ado, question number two. So this one is you first. And then. Okay, here we go. All right. This is. Oh, this is pretty. This is pretty deep.

Oh.

If you could share one of your memories with anyone and they could experience it like you did, what memory would you share?

Oh, God, I have a really good one. Yeah. Okay.

With it.

This. So this memory could be for anybody who wants to inspire or wants to teach or wants to share knowledge. So I used to be a horseback riding instructor back in the day, and I had a student one time. It was a little girl. She was 8, and she was. Was gonna go over this jump on her horse, and she was terrified, utterly terrified. The horse could feel it. She didn't think she could do it. She was just totally scared. And I'm like, look. She was like, what should I do? What should I do? And I'm like, you gotta believe that you can do it and just go for it and know that you're gonna survive it and get on that other side, and your horse will trust you and you will make it across the other side.

That's awesome.

Sure enough, she attempted it. And she had attempted it a couple times. It did not go well. But this time, she attempted it. She got it over, and she came over to me crying, and I was like, what happened? You did it? And she goes, I believed that I could do it. And then I did it. And I like to think that I changed this entire little girl's Life. But that memory made me feel like inspiration and inspiring people and helping people have the courage to do what they want to do. It's the whole reason I started my new private community. It's the whole reason I do what I do. Like, I love that memory.

That's pretty. That's a pretty magical memory. So, I mean, it's beautiful. It's genuine altruism, right? Yeah. No ulterior motive. Helping somebody attack a task like that and overcome their fear, it's pretty amazing. And really Ally, too, for that little girl, probably a core memory, probably drove her whole, you know, trajectory beyond that point. That could have been like a. Like a major pivot moment for her in her life.

So, yeah, a major, like, what do they call that? Like, a something event, a canon event, where, like, I hope she's able to use that mindset in her future too. Like, if I believe I can do it, I know I can do it.

So I have a similar one without even trying. It was kind of crazy that our minds went to the same place. So not to go all Dune quotes, you know, with fear is the mind killer. But I think overcoming fear, right? I think overcoming fear is key. And when I first started out in the Navy and even in corporate, it could be kind of ominous. Engaging a large crowd or being on stage or public speaking. And, you know, I'm an amateur musician. I play a little bit. I've done some shows. Nothing crazy, Pretty small venues. But it takes confidence to get up on the stage and to work a crowd. You know, that's not. It's more art than skill. And I was in. I was in a school with the Navy at the time. It was a department at school. And there was a gig opportunity in Providence, Rhode island, at a venue called Club Hell. It's like a crazy metal hard rock golf club. Right. And so I make electronic music at the time mainly where it's just me and like, a keyboard and a DJ booth and a laptop. Not as much fun to interact with the crowd as, you know, an army of one. But I had some classmates that had never played a gig, and I got invited to do this show. So I knew one or two of them played drums and guitar, and, you know, one guy played some bass. So I asked them if they wanted to do the. The gig as a live band.

Oh.

And these are not professional musicians, and nor am I. Right. So the operative word for me is amateur. What was it, like, a place of basic?

Were they, like.

They were. They were freaked out. Like, they were definitely spooked but they were intrigued. And my boss at the time allowed me to use a conference room that was pretty abandoned on the base as a rehearsal space. We had 30 days. So for 30 days, we picked a four song set. I'm like, guys, four songs. Like, I'm not, you know, I'm not like Jimi Hendrix. These are pretty basic songs, like three chords. We'll hammer them out or rehearse them ad nauseam or find our craft, and then we'll go forth and conquer and we practice these four songs. We got up to the venue, we did like a 20 minute, 30 minute set. And at one point, I could remember being in the booth and looking around and, you know, one guy's jamming out in the keyboard and another guy just laying it down on bass. And they were so in the moment and in their elements. And I just soaked it all in because it was, you know, like you were saying earlier, just that ability to help others overcome fear. And I've always felt that we rise by lifting others. And I'm seeing musically, it was an amazing set, but it was an amazing set for the positive cosmic karma of, hey, let's do it as a team. None of us. A solo act is very limited in impact and fun. And it was kind of cool because looking back now with a lot of them, they've reached out to me over the years. Like, hey, man, remember that gig in Providence, Rhode Island?

That was a core memory for them, too. They had the confidence to do something they probably never thought they would do.

That was your horse jump.

Yeah. It's the same thing.

It is.

You're like my brother from another mother.

Kindred souls. Kindred souls, for sure.

I love this.

So this one is going to be me now, right?

Yeah.

All right, here we go. I'll make sure. Let's see. We go here. Let's see.

And you have the. You have the authority to veto any of these if they're not podcast worthy.

Okay, I. I'll keep it. I'll keep it podcast worthy. I mean, that's a pretty high bar, but I will do my best.

Lower the bar a little bit and then keep it there.

I'll lower it to public access cable TV bar.

There we go.

Keep it. Think Wayne's World circa mid-90s. Okay. Would you rather have a time machine that only goes back or only goes into the future?

Ooh, is it.

Is this me or.

Yeah, this is you. This is you.

Okay, I'm going to get weird with it because I think for the past, I have a good Feel for a lot of it. And while the nostalgia would be absolutely magical, to go see, like a good early 70s show or hit Woodstock 69. Right. I'm going to go forward. I'm not going to go too far forward where we're enslaved by machines, Right?

Yeah.

But let's call it maybe like 100 years into the future. Hopefully by then, Crocs are no longer in style, and there is. There's. There's some other positive things happening in society. We'll call it, you know, 21, 24. Just to see the next century and how humanity is shaken out. If we're still here.

Yeah, we're definitely still here. I've been to the future. We're definitely still here.

It gets good time traveling alley added to the resume.

All right, let's see. I. I would probably go back, but let me ask you a logistical question. If I went back 10 years, would I still have the knowledge that I have today, just 10 years ago? Or am I going back 10 years and I don't even know that I was in a time machine?

And then you get stuck in 2014 and you're like, man, I have a lot of deja vu's lately.

As long as it's not 2008.

Let's go. Let's say you can keep your current memory set so you can really get crazy with it. Yeah.

Oh, I'd be like, years old. I go back to 5 years old, I'd say no to my parents a little bit more. I'd study in school a little bit better and not date so many jerks.

This is good life advice. Hey. For the time travelers out there.

Yeah.

I hope you're taking notes.

Wait a minute. But if I went back in time, I'm actually. I might change my mind. Oh. So if I went back in time and changed anything, you know about the butterfly effect, Right. I would not be sitting here today. I might not be married to my husband. I might not be living here. So I might only go.

Spoiler alert. I was trying not to reveal this on this particular podcast, but I am a time traveler, and this is the 37th take at this. I'm just kidding.

Oh, no. Like the day after tomorrow.

Like, it's just. Is it the loop? Yeah.

That'S like that movie Happy Death Day. Oh, that's like. Like Groundhog Day.

That's why we vibe, because I've known you for seven years.

Oh, no. Oh, shoot. Okay. I might. I might choose to go back in time, but not that long. Maybe like a couple years. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

All right, fair enough.

All right, I'm going this next one.

Nicely played, madam. Oh, this is gold. And I feel like you're going to kill me on this one.

Oh, okay.

What is the weirdest thing a guest has ever done in your house? And just so the audience can see, these are authentic, these are unscripted. This is not like an Airbnb plug. It's probably not coming in there focus wise, but I assure you, word is bond. I'm a man of integrity, officer and a gentleman.

So I have a funny story. I don't know if it's the weirdest. It's pretty weird, but now looking back, I'm glad it wasn't worse. Okay, so.

Manageable weirdness.

Okay, so this actually isn't that weird, but it's probably the weirdest thing that a guest has ever done in my house. So I used to live in a trailer park in Santa Cruz, California. And there was a. My husband and I were like standing outside, we were just, I don't know, watering the plants. And this man starts running up and he has like a 3 year old child and he's running towards us. And I'm going, oh, my God. What is. Is he coming towards us? And he runs up to us and he goes in a very thick accent. Excuse me, I'm so sorry, but can my son use your bathroom? It's an emergency. And I'm looking at him, I'm looking at his kid, I'm like, is this kid about to shit all over my. My house?

This is not gonna end well.

This is not. But I said. We said yes because there was no bathroom for a long time. No public bathroom. And I can only imagine how gross that could have gotten for him if he was nowhere near his car.

So we were like, yeah, you scared him.

Sure, you can use our bathroom. So we let this stranger go in our house with his son, use our bathroom. He was in there for like 10 minutes. And we're standing outside going, should we go in there? Do we need to. Do we need to go knock on the door? But everything was fine. It wasn't that weird. But it's just like I let a stranger in my house immediately upon him asking.

I mean, you probably averted a villain origin story. Where had you not? And this kid just shits himself. He goes on to become Bane.

Oh, God.

Oh, dude. Feel in control, right? Like you. You don't want any of that action.

Okay. What about you?

On that note, in a weird cosmic twist, I saw a meme earlier today. That stated, everybody's an atheist until you clogged somebody else's toilet.

Then you pray to God.

Dear God, like, what are the odds? I saw that today. End your story.

One in a million.

Okay, so I have a lot of weird stories. I'll try to keep it, you know, home, cable friendly. Like we were saying earlier, I had a house guest. Cool guy, right? Little quirky, probably on the spectrum, but love him like a brother. And I was going to work. He came in on a Friday, and I'm like, hey, man, I'll be back at lunchtime. I'll see you, like, at 11:12. We'll get some wings. It'll be a good weekend, right? This is on a Friday, and I come back from work, and he was staying in, like, a guest room, right? I'm like, hey, as long as you need to. He was going through some stuff. I'm trying to be a good battle buddy. And he took the liberty upon himself to paint the wall.

No.

Not only did he paint my guest room, he painted it purple.

No, like, he bought paint.

He bought paint. So I get home, and I'm trying to keep it cool because we have a good sense of humor in my squad. Like, my entire crew are all pretty ridiculous. And I'm like, hey, man, maybe a phone call or a text. Like, you know, right? I'm not feeling the soft gray. I'm gonna go lavender.

Oh, my God.

Heads up. So, I mean, but, Ali, the craziest thing was, this wasn't a subtle color. This was, like, purple. Like, I thought Prince moved in. I'm like, dude, is the joker in my house? Like, what have you done? Like, this is purple. I'm like, hey, Grimace, we're going to Home Depot, and we're fixing this today. And by the way, I got your room at the Holiday Inn, right?

At least you had help fixing it. Oh, my God.

Yeah. Hashtag boundaries.

Like, yeah.

What?

Okay, you totally win that one. That's way weirder than letting a stranger's kid use your bathroom.

Yeah, I mean, there's one in mind right now, so I hope he's. I hope he's okay. I'm just kidding. It's kind of what I do. All right. Oh, this is gold. Like, I love weird. Like, this is right. I think this is a good, like, zeitgeist theme question for this.

Okay.

What is your most.

You're going first this time.

Oh, man. Okay, okay, I'm going first. I'm ready. Okay, here we go. Mentally prepped, what is your most irrational pet peeve so this is really funny. Oh, I try. I try to keep it positive. Vibes only. And I don't have a whole lot of pet peeves, but I hate redundant statement of acronyms. Like, hey, the ATM machine. The pin number, right? I'm like, it's the pin, bro. It's the atm, it's not the atm.

Machine.

Machine.

Oh, I see what you're saying. That's. I've never thought of that before.

Automated teller machine. Machine. Machine. Machine. Machine. Machine.

What about Vista? Vista View for like, a name that's implied, right?

That is, yeah. It's just like, you know, Peak Point.

Okay, I. I see your pet peeve.

And now I'm fired up. Ali, this is your fault. You did this.

Oh, my God. Okay, so my most irrational pet peeve is when people mispronounce words like nuclear, like supposedly, and like, Valentine's Day.

So I swear, I swear on Chrome, whatever. Whatever diet you choose. It's the old Conan Kalam, Hear me now. But I was going to say mispronounced words initially. Like, that was the first norm that fired in my brain. And down that permutation. It was supposedly. That was the first example of the example.

Yeah, Yeah. I do not like that. And I want to correct people, but I also want to be an a hole. Like, I'm not gonna correct you. I'm just not gonna have a conversation with you again.

I may have stopped dating a girl because she couldn't stop saying supposedly. I'm like, this isn't gonna work out. It's not you, it's me. I'm a dick. I'm sorry.

And my dad. My dad says, chipotle. Chipotle. I'm like, it's Chipotle. And my mom says, sriracha.

What if we're all wrong? And they're just.

I wonder. Every time, I'm like, so this is. This is a good segue into self awareness, which I always advocate for. Every time it happens, I'm like, let me just look that word up one more time to make sure I'm not the one that's pronouncing it wrong. Sure enough, I'm always right.

This is why our conversations are pure gold and a grin of sand and the beach of reasons. I will never decline your call. Right? So on that note, self awareness is key. And I try to temper it with humility because you don't want to be like, just like you said, like some raging asshole. Right? Yeah. So when my brother and I were kids, my grandmother had a little can of like, spaghettio type noodle she would make for us. And we called it Chef Boyardee. My nan called it Chef Boyardee. And we thought that she was wrong because she's from Italy and, you know, she. Certain words she'd mispronounce. And years after she passed. Love you, Nan. I'm sorry. Right. I'm watching some bizarre documentary down a weird rabbit hole, and it came up that the guy's name was actually spelled and pronounced Boyardee, but it had been Americanized or Westernized to Boyardee. So I was like, oh, no, we were the.

It's Boyardee. Yes. I thought it was Chef Boy Rd. Like, what? I know. You just blew everybody's mind that is listening to this.

I'm here to change the game, Ali.

Wow.

Yeah.

Okay, let's have the next.

And call your grandma, call your moms, call your grandmoms. I guess call your dad's Father's Day this weekend. Okay.

Love those ladies. Yes. Father's Day. Oh, good reminder. Father's Day is on Sunday, right?

It is.

If anybody hasn't gotten a gift yet. And this is not an ad, obviously, but some Costco's right now have a really cool wireless electronic screwdriver with a bunch of different bit heads and. Very, very cool. Yeah, we just got one. But Costco.

Yeah. This might be intertwined. And you are first on this one, so I'm going to volley it back to you.

Okay.

Okay. What is the worst advice you can think of?

Oh, stay in your lane. Hate that advice. It is when somebody says, stay in your lane. What I hear is, back off. You're too big for your britches. And you're not all that in a bag of potato chips. Shrink down. Do not be confident. Do not try new things. And I hate it when somebody says, stay in your lane. I'm a lane. I'm a. I'm a swerver. I swerve in the metaphorical lanes of the world. Sometimes I use my blinker, sometimes I don't. No. So, yeah, I do not like that advice. Stay in your lane.

That's great. That is hard to follow. I'm going to go because I can't follow that one on the level of true impact. I'm just gonna cope with humor again. I'm gonna say, socks and sandals look awesome together.

You think that's bad advice? Yes. So you think they listen, as in.

Do not wear socks and sandals. No, no. The bad advice would be, hey, man, go out and paint the town with your socks and sandals.

Has anybody ever said that though?

I'm gonna timestamp it not tool right now.

Somebody has said that somewhere in the world and it was terrible advice.

I mean, they might have in San Diego. It's, you know, SoCal. It's, it's a unique vibe there. It's very, you know, I'm thinking now to the Derek Zoolander, like the derelict. Okay, here we go, Here we go.

Okay, you're going first on this one.

All right, I'm ready. What kind of cult would you start?

I just started one. It's called Career catalyst. We have 50 members so far and it's a private community of mid career professionals looking to enhance their career. So I already started one and I'm the cult leader and I'm loving.

I love it. Hail Ali. I'm gonna get you like a hood. Yes, I think it would be pretty funny. I've always, you know, when I was living in Southern California, Ali. It was interesting to me how like the media really propped up the entire Hollywood scene as if their word was gospel and they were larger than life when in actuality, it's like all of us are. They're people, they're doing our best. You know, I judge no one. I do think it would be comical to start a cult if I was going to start a cult and get ridiculous with it. I love Christopher Walken. I'm probably in a very small demographic. I love Christopher Walken.

That's a great impression. That's a hard impression to do.

It's not easy. I'm just Christopher Walking, you know, I mean, your tone, it's all wrong. So I think I would start a cult of walking where we could only talk to each other. Like walking, right? And then the other cult members get to kind of, you know, they give you the yay or nay on. Hey, man, that's a solid walking, like, dude, you're out. Like, go home and refine your walk in and come back in six months.

Oh my God. That was too much fun. It feels good to laugh, doesn't it? Well, thank you so much, Ryan, for being on this podcast, being a guest of the Ally from Corporate show, if you will. And if this inspires somebody to crack a joke in the office and get people laughing because it's a sterile environment sometimes, then we have done our job. If you are not subscribed, consider subscribing on YouTube or if you are listening on Spotify and Apple. Give us a five star rating if you enjoyed this episode and we'll catch you next time. See ya.