Cut The Tie | Own Your Success
Define success on your terms, then, "Cut The Tie" to whatever is holding you back from achieving that success.
Inspiring stories from real entrepreneurs sharing their definition of success and how they cut ties to what is holding them back.
This is not your typical podcast. This is a deeper dive into the entrepreneurial spirit, the journey, and what it feels like to achieve success.
Each episode is inspirational, motivational, and most importantly - actionable. You'll gain real strategies and mindset shifts you can immediately apply to your own life and business.
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Own your success.
Cut The Tie
Thomas Helfrich
Host & Founder
Cut The Tie | Own Your Success
“Hermie the HR Crab Has Legs”—Why Rich Cruz is Blending Humor, Art, and Business
What happens when your creative passion won’t leave you alone, even as you juggle work, consulting, and family responsibilities? In this episode of Cut The Tie, Thomas Helfrich reconnects with Rich Cruz—organizational development consultant, podcaster, and cartoonist—who is turning his lifelong love of art into something bigger than just a side project.
From a career in marketing to organizational psychology consulting, Rich has always carried the dream of being an animator. Now, with the launch of Hermie the HR Crab, he’s blending humor, workplace insights, and storytelling into a brand that goes beyond a comic strip—expanding into workshops, books, animations, and a growing YouTube presence.
About Rich Cruz
Rich Cruz is an organizational development consultant based in Chicago and the creator of Hermie the HR Crab. With a background spanning marketing, communications, and industrial-organizational psychology, he brings a unique mix of creativity and strategy to his work. He co-hosts the Harmonious Workplaces podcast and leads consulting engagements focused on improving culture, leadership, and organizational health. As a member of the National Cartoonists Society, Rich is pursuing his passion for blending art and business through Hermie, using humor to spotlight the challenges and quirks of workplace culture in a lighthearted yet meaningful way.
In this episode, Thomas and Rich discuss:
- The birth of Hermie the HR Crab → Inspired by a simple doodle for his youngest child, Hermie has grown into a cartoon series, a book, and an animated character. Rich shares how Hermie’s antics mirror real workplace dynamics, from leadership flaws to culture struggles.
- Balancing a side hustle with client work → Rich opens up about the challenges of growing a passion brand while managing consulting engagements. He reflects on lessons learned from past business failures, the impact of uncertainty in client work, and why his creative vision keeps him moving forward.
- Using humor to tackle workplace problemsHermie isn’t just for laughs—he’s a teaching tool. Rich describes how humor and cartoons help leaders and teams confront serious organizational issues in a way that is approachable, engaging, and memorable.
Key Takeaways
- Your past setbacks don’t define your future.
- Creativity is a business asset, not a distraction.
- Entertainment can be a tool for solving workplace problems.
- Confidence grows the more you practice it.
- Don’t wait for “perfect timing” to start.
Connect with Rich Cruz
📎 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardjacruz/
🌐 Website: https://www.harmoniousworkplaces.com
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HarmoniousWorkplaces
Connect with Thomas Helfrich
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfirch
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
📎 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfich
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: thomas@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 Instantly Relevant: https://instantlyrelevant.com
Serious about LinkedIn Lead Generation? Stop Guessing what to do on LinkedIn and ignite revenue from relevance with Instantly Relevant Lead System
Welcome to the Cut the Tide podcast. Hi, I'm your host, thomas Helfrich, and we are on a mission. We it's me, I'm on a mission. I'm going to try to help you cut the tide of whatever it is holding you back from success, and you got to own your own success. You got to define it yourself, otherwise you are chasing someone else's dream, and today I'm joined by Mr Rich Cruz, repeat offender. He's back on the show. How you doing, rich.
Speaker 2:Thanks, man. Thanks for having me back. This is awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rich, rich is a it's just guys context has been on the show. He's a one of these guys that's like everybody else out there in the respect of trying to find work, is working, has a better passion. He's trying to get the side hustle going. So this is you like, ah man, I'd rather be doing this thing, but I got to work to pay bills, but it's hard to find jobs. This is a good conversation to listen to because Rich and I had this and I think it's. You know, rich isn't famous, I'm not famous, but this is the most relevant conversation to the most people on the planet, at least in the US, who just want something else besides waiting to get let go or told they're not, they're just expensive or whatever agents and things happen. So, rich, introduce yourself where you are, who you are, and today I want you to focus on what your real passion is in your side hustle with my family and, um, I've had a marketing career, thomas, for most of my life.
Speaker 2:So, like the whole communication aspect has been, you know what I, what I liked, what I about what I was doing, but I went back into. I went back to school in 2020 after some career counseling and really got into doing organizational development after getting a degree in industrial organizational psychology from purdue and but none of this, man, none of this is what I wanted to do for you know I think we talked about this in the last podcast was I wanted to be, uh, an animator. That's what that was, like my goal. I went to new chicago for, for art, like who does that? You know?
Speaker 2:I mean a lot of people, I guess, al. But back in 98, I was one of eight people that graduated in that college and I'm really thankful that I've been able to use Blendy Arts with business throughout my career, but now doing OD work, it's really come out in a big way, you know. So that's yeah, that's why I want to talk about it today, cause I, we, we kind of put out a new book, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've started adding this part where it's for the ADHD year, but I want people to be able to stalk you while you're talking, so they have something to do while they're listening. Oh yeah, give me the one link this is where a lot of people fall apart One link where they should go look right now, harmoniousworkplacescom.
Speaker 2:You'll find everything there. You'll find our consulting practice, you'll find our podcast, which we just did, our 71st episode of this week. So you'll also find Hermie the HR, hermit Crab, which is the book that we put out. Yep, that's us, harmoniousworkplacescom.
Speaker 1:What's the show? A picture of it for those listening and watching. You have a picture of the ermine? Oh yeah, so it's a character. This is what's amazing. I follow Rich on LinkedIn, so I'll give you a different call. I actually go to Rich Cruz on LinkedIn and you see a crab. That's him on his stuff. But I didn't realize for the longest time. I thought he was just kind of reposting stuff and I didn't realize he was the one making that and I interviewed you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know what happened. Right, I hear from your watch right now Rich is a his camera's gone drunk. I'm all blurry, hold on.
Speaker 1:Give me one second, we're going to upgrade his camera.
Speaker 2:There you go. It's so crazy, you know. Thank you, log, that little glitch you could. You could see her me. Just all well and good here. But anyway, yeah, her me, the hr hermit crab came out of like.
Speaker 2:Again, I wanted to be a cartoonist. This is what I wanted to do, man, and I was like I have an opportunity. Cheryl volpe, who's our one of our collaborators, um, she comes from the entertainment world. She was in, if anybody knows, mystery science theater 3000. She was the. Uh, yeah, I saw the. I saw the smile come out. Uh, she was the chief operating officer over there for that for a couple of seasons. And then ben kleinman, who has a theater background, right, he's, we all have this podcast. And I was like, you know, we got to do something different. So I said, you know, I've always wanted to draw a cartoon and I always wanted to do something not quite like dilbert, but you know, in that, in that vein about the workspace, you know. And so harvey came out of out of that because, uh, I, my littlest kid, who just turned 18, gave me some idea about drawing a hermit crab, just a prompt, and I did this doodle and it was like super easy and I was like this guy's got legs Six of them Okay.
Speaker 1:So you have a character and you kind of have some knowledge of this and it's really pretty. I mean, it doesn't look amateur at all. I mean you see things, oh they're good, but this is. It's good To the point where it's like I had no idea that was you. I thought you were just reposting it. No-transcript, I thought you were just reposting it because it was one of your clients or something. And when you say it has legs, it really does. But now you face the business part of being an artist, right. And so, in the spirit of cutting the tie, I want you to first define what success is going to look like for this brand or for this endeavor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean success. A couple of things. One is book sales are great but they're not going to pay the bills, right? So one of the ways that we have started to use Hermey is doing organizational development, like workshops, so he can come in and you'll kind of illustrate some of the ridiculousness of the workplace, if that makes sense. So I just gave a presentation for a local university and we brought Hermie into.
Speaker 2:You know some of the things about customer service and some of the pitfalls of it and how people act in the workplace and all that stuff you know. So he makes it really approachable and we try to make it so that the characters like we're not vilifying any particular you know character or whatever, but everybody, I guess, sort of like Marvel, right, everybody has like a character flaw, right Of some kind, right, so he's at a pet shop. It's not an underwater thing, he's in a pet shop. So we don't exactly know what they do. One of the gags is all the hamsters are running out wheels. We don't. The hamsters are complaining. We don't know why we're running out wheels. Their manager, who happens to be a cat, is like I don't know why we're running on wheels all in your life to keep them running on wheels I like.
Speaker 1:I like that the cat's not the one being herded here like a right.
Speaker 2:That's right yes, yeah, it would be very hard to herd a whole bunch of cats it's the cats like.
Speaker 1:I gotta herd these other animals. You know right that do other cats, but this one's. Yeah, do you have a?
Speaker 2:cartoon that goes with this. Yes, so on the harmonious workplaces website, you'll find a page for a hermy. Uh, you could also go to hermy hr crabcom. Uh, hr is hermy, hr, hermit crabcom I think both of those work. But, uh, if you go there, you'll find a whole bunch of cartoons. You'll find some animations, so we actually have an animated puppet of Hermit too. So we just started exploring that on Zoom, doing some Q&A sessions and iVoice him. So, if you ever hear it, that sounds like this that's Hermit's voice. Yeah, so that sounds like this. That's that's. That's a Harvey's voice. Yeah, so that's we. You know, we just have fun with it. Um, and it's been getting. It's been getting some decent views on YouTube and LinkedIn and all of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, what's the monetization, monetization, monetization. God, I'm having troubles.
Speaker 2:The monetization method of those? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Are you going to focus on YouTube, I mean, and books behind it, because I mean YouTube is a scalable. I'm reading the question. I think you should be on YouTube because my kids endlessly watch stuff, like you.
Speaker 2:You're exactly right, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, are you voting New York if you get a YouTube right?
Speaker 2:Yep, I get a youtube right. Yep, I think I actually got some of the tips from you on how you grew, because you grew to remember, you grew to a million viewers, yeah, yeah, it was tremendous. So I started putting some advertisements to boost especially the hermy stuff, um, you know. So I get much better views on that, um, and then after that the flywheel keeps going organically, which is great. We are coming out with book two. So we just and the book two and going forward. They're going to be a little, they're going to be like a third of the size, a third of the length, right, but just jam-packed, and the idea is that we'll be able to kind of box set them and put them out faster. So, self-publishing I've self-published a few books before and help some other people do it. But this little guy was super easy, you'll go so I I think your youtube channel right.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't run ads. I think it's a good way to kind of test it, because you're on the other side. You're not selling from stage. Oh, and I think you know there's two parts of YouTube. You either sell from stage as a business, so you run ads with the fun, or a filter. Um, because typically you're in in the other side, is entertainment. You're definitely entertainment side and if it can be one of those things that you're keywording around kids, this entertain, like you're just trying to find that specific persona type for the kid or the adult, looking for something that's positive, whatever for their kid. You know, like you're we could take that offline, but the point being is you solve a problem for somebody by letting them watch it and it's entertaining, it's positive and whatever else. You'll make money from the ad revenue in between and that's very well and you might run an ad just to if you had something that goes to sales. But anybody out there, if you have entertainment content, you don't need to run ads. You need to get your entertainment better.
Speaker 2:And more prolifically right.
Speaker 1:Well, weekly is fine, because for you, the idea is, once it's out there, it's like, you know, people still watch the Simpsons or Spongebob or whatever else. Sure, once it's out there, it just becomes hey, start with you know, season one, episode one, and like it, just you know. And if you need, we'll take it offline, by the way, I'll introduce people for. So, as we're discussing this, I like to come back to some of the cut the tie moments.
Speaker 2:Right, what's kind of the biggest tie right now that you're struggling to cut in your life? I think one of the biggest ties that I have is my own. Just to be honest with you, man, I think part of it is like my own self-confidence and I mean I know I can do like what I do because I do it and my clients. I've got almost 60 positive reviews on linkedin, you know. But but moving forward with my own business that way and and I think I've shared this on the last podcast like I owned a business, I owned a storefront business right right before the recession. So that whole thing you know you want to talk about. You know, when you close a business and you go bankrupt and there's foreclosure and all that stuff, you know it shakes you up a little bit.
Speaker 1:A lot of it, A lot of it. The fact that you're still married and it tells that that person but I'm sure they're like I know you said to me offline like I'm not going through that shit again, that's right. And it takes you to a new level of I'm Ubering. I don't care, we're going to get money in. Yeah, Not matter how you do it, no matter how we do it, that's right. So you're not that. Just you gotta. You gotta be tight who it is. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I I picked a good one man. I mean 20, 25 years of marriage now, um, with a 25 year old. So put the math together. But we've known, we knew each other for like 10 years before we tied the knot. So wow, 10 years before we tied the knot, so wow. Yeah, that is not not dating, just just friends, you know we're not going to get into that right now.
Speaker 2:No, but it's good stuff and this is. She a character in me, she is not a character in here. We have explored how we're, how we can bring some of those in here and at the same time again, I don't want to vilify anybody or make anybody like oh I got to keep going with, you know, this type of thing or whatever. But there are elements of the people that I know that are in these books. You know, in this book and in the we've introduced a few other new characters, you know.
Speaker 1:but yeah, characters you know. But yeah, I'm trying to position everybody who's listening to become some character that's like the sexy voice dog or something like hey, I'm the lab.
Speaker 2:Oh man, oh baby, I can't wait.
Speaker 1:Just all the other female crabs want to walk me. Take your dog for a walk. You should let it.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't know, I don't know how putting putting putting the plural of crabs into romance doesn't seem to work all that well.
Speaker 1:You got the balance, I think, for a good humor show, in my opinion, is I think SpongeBob is an interesting example right when I find entertaining and the kids do, and sometimes it just gets to the line like, should I let my kids watch this? But then I'm like they'll crack and they'll know there's more there than what the humor was. All right, all right, so it's well done. So I'm offering my voice. It's that line you got him. I like to draw a line in the sand and I like to run back on concrete and jump over that line. It's like as much power as possible, maybe even add a trampoline. I don't want to be anywhere near the line when I land Right on Right. Oh, did I go too far?
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right. We did have one time where we auditioned somebody and he was auditioning for a boss battle, which is the. He's the same. He's fighting fish, he's the boss of the. So he's a little guy. I've seen a better fish, right, they're a little guy, highly aggressive, and if you put two of them in the in a tank together they'll kill each other, but he's just a little ball of of anger sometimes, right, um. So I, they'll kill each other, but he's just a little ball of of anger sometimes, right, um. So I had somebody who came in to audition and again, I want to make these characters so they're not completely vilified, right and he started swearing and having to try to smoke a cigar and stuff like that. I'm like this is not, it's got to be more approachable. So I ended up doing I had to take it over that voice for now, but I do need to find somebody to do that.
Speaker 1:I won't guess. I mean, that's a script line. We'll talk it along Um so um in real world. You know, before you get this going, you're you're trying to still find work and you're trying to, you know, get gigs. Uh, talk about the struggle a little you're going with with that Cause, because I think it's relevant to lots of people. Understand that. You know, I'm an entrepreneur at heart but I still got to.
Speaker 2:Yep, we still. I mean, I mean, don't get me wrong, I still have clients. I'm still, you know, I'm still working with several different organizations. You know, in my consulting gig I'm kind of between like bigger projects. I had a bigger project that ended in earlier this year and I'm trying to get into more of that stuff.
Speaker 2:Working in the manufacturing space, I think there's a ton of opportunity right now with new plants being built and particularly being in the Chicago area, there's a lot of like smaller manufacturing companies and a big focus on their ability to drive the economy.
Speaker 2:So as they do that, they're going to have people problems that I've uncovered that with some of the clients I've already been working with.
Speaker 2:But right now there's also a lot of uncertainty and we actually talk about this on our podcast, right when uh it. You know, when you have uncertainty, what happens is like that that fight, flight, uh, freeze or fawn um uh reaction happens right, the reptilian brain's like I either have to run away from this or I need a hold. And it seems like there's a lot of that going on in hiring, whether it's hiring a solution provider like us or even hiring new people on their team. So that's one of the things we have to get over, you know, and I think a big part of that is acknowledging some of that you know and asking more questions about hey, why isn't this working? Or what have you started, what have you tried to do? And I'm finding that like leveraging some of those open-ended questions, like I don't know if you're familiar with Chris Voss, former FBI agent, that was about the difference. Yeah, those open-ended questions can really start the conversation and keep it going.
Speaker 1:That doesn't work for you. No, that's what he says. Oh, yeah, that's not going to work for me. Yeah, that's right. I've been doing this, by the way, occasionally. It's fun to drill into a tangent. If you don't know, this book Never Split the Difference. Listen to it. Amazing, it's just a great story. I'm doing this. I'm going to buy a car next summer because I't like new cars. Just give me a new one. And so I'm already haggling with dealers now to see what I can do to push them, and I have literally written back that doesn't work for me. Sure, they're just coming back with new offers. And then they're like well, what can we do? I'm like you know, they went like we age different car. I'm like, yeah, but that doesn't work Right.
Speaker 2:Or or it's so much about it. And the one I really love is how am I supposed to do that? Right, Right, Like, how am I supposed to do that? That's as like well, well, how about? What do you mean? How are you supposed to question? Or, I'll go take that back to my manager. You know it's like oh yeah, that wrote that it really does work well, exactly, and and so yeah, or stuff like, um, would it be ridiculous if we, we?
Speaker 1:explored this. I do this with my kids, and specifically the ones who can't be there. It has to be their idea and I'd be like would? And I'd be like, would you be open? Would you? You know, would you consider if you'd be open? Would you? Would you open to give me an idea on this? And it's amazing how well that works. Um, cause, then they own it. And then I see, I told you, I'm like, right, uh, all right, let me ask him, when it comes to your book specifically yes, and your, your Hermie, excuse me, um, what's maybe the one thing? If you were to go back in your timeline in life, you would do different around that.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I would have started it. I would have started it years ago, like, if I would have, I mean, had had a thought that this is going gonna be as well received as he was, you know. Um, so that's one thing, um, the other thing I think is to I I was really thankful that I was able to get, like my, my youngest kid, involved in it. Um, he helped to ink in I. I got my nephew to help to like ink in the stuff, so I drew all the characters in the book, but they went in and helped to like do all the finishing stuff in there.
Speaker 2:Um, but I like the I the the collaborative process of this. I think that is what not only helps it to be a uh, a better piece of literature. But we also we got this thing done and like a couple of months it wasn't like a year Like we drew it, like like it was all drawn out. You know, it's like we put together 10, we said it's 10 gags, right, 10 gags. We're telling 10 stories go, and we just did that. So now that the, the next three books are, there are four gags each, a little longer each gag, but, um, yeah, this. This next one is about just a little teaser. Um, hr wants a place at the strategy table, but does hr ever get no, a chance at the strategy.
Speaker 1:Very, you know it's funny, my wife's in the space and it's something she struggles with a lot with which is, you know, hey, is it a strategy? Or it comes down to like, you know how you view.
Speaker 2:You know there's yeah, it's yeah, sorry, it's a tough, it's a tough role, thankless role it is, it is, and I I, I just taught a class at trinity christian college, where I teach as an adjunct, just taught a class on strategic hr and I'm like here here pay attention, guys, because this is, this is everything that you need to know and you need to know how to do, but you have to be persuasive about it, right? Yeah, if you're so asking those open-ended questions, that's you, you've you've got to be persuasive. Well, look at that.
Speaker 1:I could not agree more with it. Let me take it a little further, then. So, you know, could you think, because the alpha comes up, hey, you know, could you think, because the alpha comes up, hey, I wish I would've started earlier, do you? Do you think, though, now is it happening for you, as opposed to because, like you, have more life experience to make it what it is today?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or do you think that that time mattered, or do you it's happening when it's supposed to, or was it just really like? No, it's truly a regret. I could have done it and I should have done it.
Speaker 2:No, there's no regret on that. I mean, there is certainly the convergence of theory that I didn't have behind me I mean, I had an MBA before but the theory that came with industrial organizational psychology came at the right time. It also came a little bit out of pain, you know, because there was a. You know I got displaced from my VP position in 2023. So when that happened there was, you know, it's like how do you make light of all that crap? And then all the crap that you see with other things going on in the world, you know, um, I think all that came at a really good time. Plus, you know, the meeting Cheryl and Ben, uh, you know, and and putting the the podcast together in 2023. And putting the podcast together in 2023, I think it developed a rapport and a rhythm that we use in what we do.
Speaker 1:I love that and it's the right mindset, because you can't I mean you really can't go back in time and it's a waste of time to think you know what ifs are reserved for the future.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:And I really like that. I'm not going to go through some of the rapid fires, but I'm going to leave it with this as it pertains to the, the, the piece of contents that you're doing now, and the.
Speaker 2:You know, the side hustle, yeah, what's the one question though I should have asked you the one question that you should have asked me would be oh, oh, man, that's a great question and I should have been prepared with this, because you asked me that to the last and you asked that for every one of your guests. Yeah, yeah, I think you should ask me, like why doesn't anybody else talking about this book? Maybe that's the question.
Speaker 1:Well, that is a good question. Why do you think about it?
Speaker 2:And my answer to that is I think that we just need to be more prolific about it. I think we need to put out more content and you're going to see more of him out there and as we do more podcasts, as we do more of these q a things you're going to see like wait, I did, I just see a hermit crab talking to somebody.
Speaker 1:I see it on your brand right and on your personal profiles. And now I I see that I know it's you, so it works right. Yeah, um yeah you should do it. I love it. That's great, we're on it for sure. Uh, once again, how? Who should get a hold of you? How do you want to do that? Actually, on this one, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, influence you. Give me the youtube channel. How can they watch it?
Speaker 2:So we're over at the Harmonious Workplaces YouTube channel, so look up Harmonious Workplaces. It's at Harmonious Workplaces. That's our handle. You're going to find all of our podcasts there. You're also going to find Hermie there. Again, on our Harmonious Workplaces website, harmoniousworkplacescom, you'll find all kinds of Hermes stuff there. We even have a swag shop so like you can get like crazy little mugs like this, you know, and we've got stickers and all kinds of other stuff. But I'm just a real quick little thing. I'm also a member of the National Cartoonist Society, so that is like that's a huge bucket list item checked off. Like I'm meeting people who you know were working. They they knew charles schultz and and they call him sparky, like you know. It's like just awesome, so it's good to be among those people.
Speaker 1:That's great. Thank you for coming on there. There's the crab and the, and you got swag. So, like you know a little squeezy guy of that, you know you have to have some swag with it too. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Thank you, rich, for coming on today. Thanks for letting me talk. I appreciate it. Anybody who's still here listen, thank you for you know Rich's work. Find them on LinkedIn, check out the YouTube channel and yourself. Get out there. Go cut a tie to something holding you back. You got to own your own success. Start with defining it, what it means to you first, and let nothing stop you from achieving it. Thanks for listening.
