Kevin "Amazing Katalyst" Carroll.

I first met Kevin at the Portland Business Journals (BizGrowth Summit) that was held here in Portland http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/event/57061. 

Great Story Teller…

Kevin gave quite the captivating talk about his "story". Kevin is a fantastic storyteller and had us all on the edge of our seats. Because we (my intern, Daniel and I) were late (won't go into that right now-Daniel's fault) and we found ourselves in the back of a packed room. Through an hour of Kevin's presentation I had slowly wiggled myself up to about ten rows of chairs away and I couldn't get close enough. I told Daniel that we needed to go up and introduce ourselves to Kevin after his presentation was finished. We got up to the front of the line and exchanged business cards with Mr. Carroll and told him that I would like to do an interview for my Inkspot Graphics blog. I was shocked when Kevin said, "I would love to… just email me and I'll set up a time with you." Katalyst Kevin had no agenda, he was honest and opened the door for a further conversation with another passionate dreamer. Kevin is now one of my lifetime friends!

After talking to him about some of my problems with being a motivated entrepreneur with daily challenges. Kevin reminded me that sometimes our visions get detoured and there is a need to be flexible to solve other lingering issues. And sometimes by taking another route to our dream we happen across someone else that can be instrumental in our lives. It all doesn't have to be "black & white".

Author & Radio Co-host…

He is an author, motivational speaker, agent of social change and promoter of "pursuit of play". He breaks it all down to when we were kids we all used to go out into the playground with the big red rubber ball. We all need play in our chaotic lives! Kevin is also working with quite a few international & local charity events to promote play in kid's lives – no matter what socioeconomic area they live in.  Kevin also has a weekly radio show "About Face Radio" with co-host Jamie Mustard where they openly discuss some of Portland's success stories about local people with big dreams.

Example of Play at Work

How I related to an example of Kevin's "pursuit of play" was about 8 years ago I talked to buddy of mine that is an owner of a design agency that specializes in the sports athletic industry. He was working crazy hours out of his house to make a name for himself in the industry. I used to go over there a couple times a week to pick up some production work for my business. On numerous occasions he would be totally burnt out and I said, "Why don't we let some steam off and hit some golf balls?" When I got him on the golf course his competitiveness was getting in the way of relaxing and enjoying the beautiful day and some great shots. The next time that we got out I told him that I wasn't going to take the scorecard and when he hit a poor shot I told him "Hit another one!" It turned out that we had a lot better conversation and a realization that we needed to get out on a regular basis. 

It is funny that I brought a whole list of questions to ask Kevin and after our hour and half meeting he finally said, "So what were we supposed to talk about?" I thought about the printed list of 15 general questions that I was going to  ask him and I said to him, "Kevin, we covered more than I could ever think of and you should be charging by the minute!"

We need constant reminders in our lives to think about Kevin's message. Happy Birthday! Read his Book!