Rockne O’Leary sits down with Mark Steiner, founder of GigSalad, to talk through a career that moved from movies to talent booking to entrepreneurship. Mark shares how adoption, late ADHD diagnosis, and years of storytelling shaped the way he sees identity, purpose, and the choices that define a life. In this episode, they explore the difference between the story you tell yourself and the life you actually want to build. They also dig into presence, masculinity, creativity, and why Mark believes it is never too late to start again.
Key topics
- Mark Steiner shares his path from South Jersey to New York City, where he spent 10 years in the movie business before moving into talent booking and eventually founding GigSalad.
- He explains how movies gave him an early escape and how, as a child, he often felt like he was “playing a character” long before he understood why.
- Mark talks about being adopted at birth, learning to reframe that experience from rejection to being chosen, and how therapy helped rewrite the script he had been living by.
- Rockne introduces the idea of the character arc, using Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders as a model for becoming someone through the journey, not skipping to the end result.
- They discuss the “story I’m telling myself” and how people often protect limiting beliefs because they feel familiar, even when they are painful.
- Mark reflects on an ADHD diagnosis he received in his late 50s, and how it helped him understand masking, shifting, and the different versions of himself he had been carrying.
- He shares how riding his bike to work and making small changes sparked a childlike sense of freedom and reminded him he is still becoming.
- Mark explains how GigSalad came from noticing two sides of the market – entertainers looking for work and event planners looking for talent – and building a platform to connect them.
- He describes the creative reset he had after his youngest child left for college, when he realized he needed to create again, not just consume experiences.
- Mark also talks about his newer projects, including a Mount Rushmore inspired social gaming app and another startup centered on tattoo storytelling.
- Rockne and Mark spend time on purpose, presence, and the idea that success is not arrival but ongoing growth.
- They close by discussing men’s groups, community, and the value of being around people who want honest conversation without turning everything into performance or therapy-speak.