New book · out now
Howdy. I’m Steve. I got laid off in the Great Recession, and decided to give having fun at work one last shot. I started King of Pops with my brother on a gas station corner in 2010. Sixteen years later it’s the largest cart-based business in the U.S. My new book Work Is Fun is everything I’ve learned about making the whole thing worth the time you spend on it.
Get the book Book Steve to speak
On stage
A taste of what it’s like when I take the mic. Stories from running King of Pops, the ideas behind Work Is Fun, and a few surprises. Available for keynotes, fireside chats, and panels.
What hosts say
Steve Carse reminded us that work can be joyful. His energy was contagious. He had our group laughing while absorbing genuinely useful leadership principles drawn from his own incredible entrepreneurial journey.
Steven’s an absolute joy to work with — the right mix of professional, easy going, and relatable. He even surprised our team with props, which everyone loved. I highly recommend him for any team events you have coming up.
Steven isn’t like most company founders. He’s thoughtful, humble, and his fresh ideas on culture are timeless. And when he speaks, all of that energy comes out. He’s one of the sharpest business minds I know.
Different businesses, same umbrella. Pick a path.
Inside the book
Work Is Fun is built around the seven ideas that have shaped how we run King of Pops. Lessons from fifteen years of selling ice pops in the heat, hiring people we love, and building something that doesn’t feel like work.
01 · Featured chapter
Every business worth working for has a story. Mine starts in a gas station parking lot in 2010 — laid off, broke, slinging pops out of a cart. Then a neighbor named Don Lemon walked by, liked the pops, and the next thing I knew it was on CNN. The book is about how to find your version of that story and live it.
Read more about this chapter02 · Chapter
Why I keep telling myself to slow down and notice now, before it becomes the thing I miss later.
03 · Chapter
Even inside the most structured org, there’s more autonomy than you think. You just have to grab it.
04 · Chapter
Pride isn’t a perk. It’s a discipline. And it shows up in every small thing you ship.
05 · Chapter
Play isn’t the opposite of serious work. It’s the engine of it.
06 · Chapter
Culture isn’t a perk wall. It’s the feeling people leave the building still carrying.
07 · Chapter
Every business has seasons and trade-offs. The good ones don’t fight that. They design for it.
Read it together
Buy 20+ copies of Work Is Fun and I’ll bring the experience to you. No catch — I just love talking to people who’ve read it.
Book clubs, leadership teams, HR programs, college courses — whoever wants to read together.
What I’ll bring
We read Work Is Fun as a team. A week later we’d launched our own “super secret fun committee” — for random acts of kindness, surprise moments, and a little more humanity at work.
The newsletter
One short story about making work fun. Lessons from running businesses, the books I’m reading, and the occasional popsicle recipe. Free.
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