Erin Diehl — Succeeding With Improv

Are you thinking about how to grow your business with near and offshore staffing? But you're also wanting to make sure that it's reliable, cost effective and really well done? I think docsa talent is the way to go. Here's why. They don't just fill your jobs. They bring integrity, top talent, and a people first approach that's hard to find. I've known the people at Doxa talent for over 20 years now and I say that you can count on them. I have talent. Talk to Doxatant and you won't be disappointed. Go to doxatalent.com Bill G. Again, that's doxatalent.com Bill g. One more time. Doxatalent.com Bill G. Check it out today. I feel like I should screw something up today because we're talking about improv in business. Oh, business, like life can hand you a lot of smacks upside the head. And improv is all about embracing what is instead of resisting it, going with it, leaning into the difference. That's our topic for today. Yes. And it's interesting. Yesterday we posted a little clip about how life smacks you upside the head sometimes with a opening tease about Mike Tyson. Today we're talking with Aaron Deal, who I'll get into just a second. Who brings improv and many other cool things to business. Hey, everybody, it's Bill Gallagher, your show host and host of this Scaling up business podcast, Scaling Coach. I don't know, some other things. So we bring our show to you every week, 450 plus episodes now. And everything to do with getting your company growing, dialing in your people, strategy, execution, cash, and leveling up your leadership along the way. All those shows and more@scalingcoach.com or where have you found this? All right, so you can see here if you're watching a video, grooving alongside to my favorite theme music here. Aaron is founder and CEO of a company called Improve It. Improve It. And they bring improv and more to companies to help level stuff up. She's going to tell us some stories about that and we'll have some fun today. Welcome to the show, Aaron.

Oh my God, Bill, it is a pleasure to be here. I am feeling this vibe.

Yes. You know, I really worry about doing a show with somebody with a background in improv. Things could go wrong. They could get flustered.

Oh, I'm so ready for it. That's what I'm here for. Fail. Yeah, fail. Yeah, Bill, I'm here for that. You gotta, you gotta fail to go forward.

You know What I mean, fail forward.

Feel fluencer. I'm a fail fluencer. Feel fluid, but I feel fluencer. So it's not the influencer that you see on fail fluencer. Fail fluencer. So I don't.

I thought that was a new pronoun, links.

It is. It's a new pronoun. I don't promote links to Amazon. I promote links to yourself to allow yourself to fail forward and just celebrate failures. It's really, honestly been the most fraying thing I've ever done in my life, and I will tell you that is all driven from the improv stage. I have had many a flop and continuously will continue to have mini flops, but I never really learned anything from the good shows. It's only from the bad.

Yeah, you know, we're going to get into your whole story to start off things here, but I definitely think there's something extraordinarily valuable about confronting failures, confronting moments of crisis, things like that. All the breakthroughs happen there, in fact. Right. Breakthrough implies a barrier, which, you know, if you love having breakthroughs, then it's interesting that none of us love running up against walls, but that really is what's required.

It's true. That's true.

Yeah.

No, it's for real. And I will tell you, too, I mean, I have had. I'm going through my own sort of next evolution currently in life, but I've had many things that I have hit walls against. And then when you can actually break through those walls and get to the other side, you feel so freaking powerful and you trust yourself, which is really what leaning into failure and fail fluency is all about. And for me, all this was driven from the improv stage because I know, Bill, you've done some improv, so, you know, you got to do this.

I. I would say a lot of my life is improv.

Yeah, everyone's is. We're all improvising.

This is all. I haven't done any real improv except accidentally. Right. Improving with everything all the time. But I would like to. I have done a little bit of standup, so I did one set at a comedy club in New York, and. And then I've done a bunch of, like, little bits and conferences and things like that. So couple of three to five minute things, and then one 17 minute. Yeah. Tell us your background. How do you come to improv comedy? That kind of thing. Tell us kind of the arc of how you got here.

Yeah, well, it started at 3 years old in my family's Living Room playing. If you ever remember the show on Nickelodeon, Double Dare. Do you remember that? This is like back in the 80s and it was a show that people would play and it would hit the buzzer really quick and you, you try to answer a question and if you didn't answer it quick, quick enough, you got slimed. So I was, I was literally at 3 years old playing Double Dare in my family's living room. And then that just started my entire life being in community theater, show choir. Bill. I had jazz hands and yes, see, that makes you want to cringe. I did a J. And then I got into sketch comedy and literally went to Clemson University, got a degree in communications, graduated, told my parents I was going to become a talk show host. This is the early 2000s. Moved to Chicago because I thought, well, where does the talk show host go to get their training wheels? It's Chicago where Oprah. Yeah. Lives. So I was like, I'm going to be Oprah mom and dad. Thanks. Thanks for the loans and the degree. I am now moving to become Oprah. And I. Back then, there weren't many online classes for television hosting. There was limited resources. So I said, where should I start? And I started doing improv. And then magically that transitioned into a career teaching people how to pull the tips and tricks from the stage and utilize them into their life day to day. And you. And we teach professionals. It's in the corporate world, but I really believe a strong foundation of improv and a strong understanding just helps you be a better human. And it's, it's really spilled over into every area of my life. But I. That's the Cliff Notes version. There is a lot more in there that I could tell you, but it has been a journey and evolution. We've had this business eight years, went through the pandemic being a completely in person business, which was really interesting and. And now have a complete virtual side and back to our complete in person side as a hybrid company as well. So it's a really. It's been a really interesting three years. Let's say that it.

Ha. It has been an interesting three years. My mic was muted there. Yeah, it's really like. It's changed us in so many profound ways. It's so weird. And I think we're still kind of grappling with it. I mean, all the pivots that happened through and during the pandemic was really like a case study in life improv. Maybe not for the point of making us laugh, except in retrospect, but if you think about it. So there you are, you're pitching your company to an investor and they ask something that just seems to really be unexpected or throw you right. Moment for improv. You're talking to, you're making a big pitch, you're talking on the stage, and then somebody heckles you or whatever. Moment for improv, like all of it. You're delivering. Talk to a group of employees in your monthly all hands, and then somebody throws something that you were not expecting, did not want to. Moment for improv. Right? Like it is truly all that and more.

Oh, my. Yes, Bill, yes. You hit all of those things and more. And it's really trusting. This is what I, if I could boil it down, improv is postponing judgment of yourself first. So letting go of this mask, this hypothetical mask that we all wear to work, being okay with being vulnerable, trusting in yourself. And if you can do that, anyone watching you is going to follow suit. Anyone watching you is going to feel that. Think of, Think of, you know, you did stand up. Think of a standup comedian who's standing on stage and you know that they're bombing. The audience does not want to see you bomb. They want to see you succeed. They paid money, they got babysitters, they got. They got some booze in this. They pay for the ticket. They want the show. And so what it is, is really in those moments, pulling yourself back together and realizing you that you have all the answers. And if you can do that, your show's going to go forward, people are going to love it. It's going to be awesome. You're together, going to create this energy and this bond. But it's. It is not, let me say this on the same metaphor, while going down a real metaphor rabbit hole, but through this, it's not standing up on stage and being the funniest person in the room. Great improv in on stage and in life is actually listening and reacting to the last thing that someone said, processing that and then saying exactly what you have to say in the moment, reacting to their comment. And then that's where the comedy actually lies, is in that truth, in that reaction. It's not a knock, knock joke. It is a let me listen to what you say and respond. And those things are what get the biggest laughs on stage. And those things are what get the biggest responses from your team, from investors, from whoever it may be that you are giving a presentation or just having a conversation with. So it's really those moments of pure reaction and listening that make improv great.

You know, it's interesting. So I've had a lot of different speaker, spokesperson PR trainings over decades. And when I think about like corporate PR training, when I was an executive at Sprint years ago, they sent me to their internal corporate pr and you go to a TV studio and then they first did a thing where they just like blasted you with things and you failed. And then they taught you some techniques about being composed and then using whatever they asked to turn it into something. And. And I was fine at that. But like, so you have your, your three points or whatever that you want to reinforce, and then whatever question they give you just flip it. Right? But that does have. You sound like, like a horrible politician or a corporate sort of bland person who's always going to. I mean, you are in effect improving, but with no play, with no freedom. It's just like I'm going to twist that into something I want to say and then talk about that. And you're not actually related, but it's useful. And then later I had training as a speaker, and in that it was more about like, be able to get out with other people and so deal with what's in there. And if you're in here, then you got to name it, lean into it, deal with it, and then get back out with people. And that's a little more playful. But then with comedy, right, there's like really coming unglued and setting aside, like, I have to be a certain way and I could like talk about just anything almost and go with that. And there's like a total amount of like freedom and play that's available. And if you could really get to that place, like you could actually have fun with people. And then you're both entertaining and communicating and interacting with what's real in the moment.

Right?

Different.

Yeah. You know what we call that? Edutainment, Bill?

Edutainment.

Yes. Let me explain exactly what. Because I hear what you just said, and this is exactly why I use improv as a teaching tool. I think it's the most fantastic, magical teaching tool because it not only tells you and teaches you, it shows you experientially how to do whatever the lesson is. And so we teach on what I call power skills, right? So communication is something we teach, leadership is something we teach. But where we find that people have their, what I call this sounds cheesy, aha, haha, moments. So it's an aha moment while you're laughing. Okay, Made that one up. Trademark that, Bill. Trademark that, everyone.

Yeah. By all Means trademark it all, trademark it all.

But it's really where you are so in the now. You're so present in what you're learning because you are laughing. You forgot, oh my God, I'm standing in this room. If you're doing an improv training, you forgot. I'm standing in this room with my CEO, with several people in senior leadership. I am mid level manager here. And it doesn't matter that we're all laughing and cutting up and having fun because we're doing it together. Judgment is postponed. I don't feel like I'm standing in front of the room and everyone's staring at me thinking, and I feel like I'm naked. I feel like we're all together on stage in our underwear and it's having, we're having the best time because truly it forget. It allows us to drop those preconceived notions and it allows us to just focus on play. Which if you think back to even myself at three years old, right, three year old Aaron in her living room, that's what I was doing. I was playing and I was lit. My parents were like, that's what is she doing? But they loved it, right? Because I didn't care. I had no judgment. They, they weren't judging me. And that's what happens when you use, when improv can come in as a training tool for yourself. That is when you can just see yourself start to evolve. You can feel yourself become more confident, more present, a better communicator, a better listener, the list goes on. But I have never found a teaching tool to be as effective.

You know that room to play that three year old Aaron did and we all do at some point and then you watch it shut off and suppress and disconnect and self evaluate as a parent is really hard to watch, right? And then they go and they get really weird and then they're trying to be expressive of something but doing weird ass things all through their teens. And then at some point they meet, maybe get freed up again. But I think then the sort of weird thing is to remember, yeah, you did that, right? Like I think about like the playful joyful kid and then, but then, okay, I was a playful, joyful kid and then I went through a period of being suppressed and boring and not free and what is it that would give you some freedom? How could you access that? And I think that's the value of doing the improv kind of work, right? Is to any experience of that of like freeing yourself up a little bit to be ridiculous. Right. To. To go to those places that you are don't want to go to.

Abso freaking lutely. And let me say this. So many thoughts that I have. Let me just start at the very beginning of what you said. First of all, I have a three and a half year old myself and he is shocking to no one. Super verbal. I find him very funny as every parent finds their child. But I watch him just play with no judgment. And I watch him do what I did at my. My. My three year old self. Right. I watch him do as I did. And I know that there is going to come a time when he gets further into school where he is going to let that go, where he is going to feel judged. And I know that there will be an evolution, many evolutions of his life where he decides, okay, I'm going to let go of this judgment and hopefully I can teach him through this lens of. To live a life filled with. With joy and. Yes. And. But what it really does is when you allow yourself to give zero Fs. I'm just gonna say that. Okay. I didn't say the. When you just allow yourself that freedom. That is when your mind.

I'm all right.

I didn't say the word. I know.

No. Given.

No. Thank you. Okay, thanks, Bill. Thanks for saying it for me.

This is a show for adults.

Okay. I know, but I just, I just was filtering it out in case you're on a lunch break and we're. And you're listening and you're like, your. Your boss is in the other room. I said fs, but Bill said okay, so. But here's the thing. It's. I definitely f. I have found more freedom in my life. And that headspace is such a better headspace to walk around in than me 10 years ago. That headspace, it's a better mind. It's more freeing, it's more joyful and there's more room for play and less room for bullshit. And that's really where we're getting real here, Bill, because I'm swearing a lot. It's really where you can find your truest self is when you let go of that judgment and you just be. And that to me is through this improv journey, through the work I do teaching. When you teach, you actually have to process things. Right? So I have had to have many failures going back to F words, many failures to get to the place that I am now where I do feel a sense of peace. But it's through this play.

Yeah. Let's talk about some of these examples that we're talking all around, I love that we've introduced the F bombs here because there is something about really being yourself unreserved. And I was working with a client. I really admired their company, what they did, loved their work in the education space. Big company worth something to us as a coaching organization. And I remember in like the first session, I think I probably saw a handful of times, as I often did, and I'm like F that and F this. And then one of the people on the leaders on the team pointed out, said, bill, you've said the F word seven times before. We're not even at lunch yet. Like you need to tone it down. And I'm like, well I'll, you know, I'll try a little bit, but I, but I'm really for you. And in fact they said, no, you're not for us. Like your irreverence and your thing is uncomfortable for us. And so I recommended a different coach for them. And it seems as I heard very recently, that coach is still working out for them. And that coach does not say fuck every other word like I do. But I'm like, I'm, I'm gonna have you win. And you know, I'm not like fuf that I, I'm just like being like all in there dealing with something that's going on in the company and, and I am not editing in the way that some polite people do.

Yes. And you know what? I love that you said that because. And this is what I have to realize myself sometimes. We are some of coaches, leaders, facilitators. We are acquired tastes. If I'm not your cup of coffee, go get a cup. Or if I'm not your cup of tea, go get a cup of coffee. I butchered that one. But I gotta tell you, it's true. It really does because somebody might not like me because I have. I, I'm super extra. Let's look behind me. I have polka dots on my wall that I chose to put there as a 40 year old woman. Okay. I'm not for everyone. But I've realized that and it's so smart that you realize that too with that client.

It's not, not for everyone. Yeah, yeah.

No. And you can't be or you'll. You're just going to live a life where you're not pleasing anyone, especially yourself.

So you've done a lot of work with a whole range of companies and organizations. Why don't you tell us about a few of those? In preparation we took some notes let's talk. Maybe start first with the American Marketing Association. What does that work look like? What'd you do, Tell us that story?

Yeah. So they were one of our very first clients. We've been in business since 2014. And they took our fundamental. One of our core values at Improve it is to lead with yes. And. And they actually put that into their core values as an association across the US Due to the work that we did together. You'll go in their office, you'll see. Yes. And you'll. You'll see on there. It's actually amazing. We go and we.

We.

So we're very close with them. They let us use our off at their office for filming stuff. And so we'll go in and on the doors, it says, here's your meeting reminders. Number one, choose a person who is in charge of yes and remember to yes. And they incorporated it into their culture because they believe in the fundamentals so much about. Because they're a marketing team, they have to collaborate. They have to have this idea where everybody has a voice, all voices can be heard. So it started off with one workshop. Over the years, we've done many workshops together. And our workshops are two hours in length, and we have 10 different offerings that we can choose from. So basically, they'll come to us with a particular need or challenge an objective, and then we decide, okay, from our. From our list here, our menu of offerings, what is it that we need to focus on? We'll go in and do that work. I don't do all the facilitation. I have six lead facilitators, 17 co facilitators, who are all trained improvisers all over the US and so they've gotten to know so many members of our team. Their chief human resources officer is a dear friend of ours and could not believe more in this work and has really infiltrated that through their culture. It's been one of the greatest joys to witness, and it's one of our biggest case studies because it really takes leadership buying in and believing these fundamentals in order for it to work and trickle down.

Yes. And that's a terrible story.

Yeah. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Did I fail, Bill? Did I fail?

You know, I was thinking about how I have seen some people use yes. And in a. But sort of a way. Yes.

You just know. Because me while doing yes. And. Yeah, yes. And that's. That is. Can I tell you, that's an activity we do, and we have everyone say yes, and they're planning a party. Everybody has ideas. You have to share an idea. You have to say yes and to the person before I use idea. And then facilitators will walk around the room, choose a person in the group to say yes. But to this group of yes, Anders. The energy starts to shift. People start to get uncomfortable because they're like, no, you're supposed to yes, aunt, but they don't know this person was told to yes, but. And then we bring in a no, because person. And this is the fun fact. Vacuum. The fun vacuum comes in. They squash all the ideas. Yeah. And it's just this energy. The volume of the room gets lower. You can feel tension. And my favorite question to ask is right after we end this exercise, how many of you have been in a meeting like that recently? In almost all hands go up. Right. And so it's just. The negation really stifles innovation. It stifles momentum. And for American Marketing association, who is in charge of spreading great ideas to any company that has a marketing department or any type of creative. They have to be a yes, Anders, or it's never gonna work.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes.

And do you want to know? Because me, Bill, am I getting a no? Because again, no.

No, no, no. I was just effing with you that time. Right? For fun.

I liked it. I liked it. And see, here's the. Here's the fucked up part, because I, like. I could swear a lot on here I am. So. So my husband says that I live in this world of unicorns and rainbows because I surround myself with improvisers. We see and each other and we don't even say the words. Yes. And it's just a philosophy. So we'll be. It's. And this is also how I equate it, which. They're the best human beings on this planet. But when we go and travel together, sometimes there's a lot of us, depending on the size of the event. And I'll be the driver and I'll be the person in charge of this whole crew. It's literally like being the. The driver on the clown car at the circus. Because everyone is trying is. Yes. And each other so much that it's just bit after bit after bit after bit. There's no. There's no stopping it because there's no. No. And it's so fun.

Keep building and building and building and building. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

And imagine doing that for your team. Imagine doing that in a brainstorm session. Imagine doing that when you're talking about budgets Imagine doing that when you're getting ready to get a pitch together for investors. Imagine the. Imagine. Imagine. And that's where it goes. And you just heighten it. And sometimes you get really pie in the sky ideas. But those pie in the skies can help you find themes, and then you can pull those themes out and really come up with something great.

Yeah. So I think the only thing that's distinct, like, if we're just playing and performing and entertaining, then we stay in kind of that. Yes. And space. And I feel like every time we brainstorm or problem solve or explore something, we try to be there as much as possible, and we try to keep playing in that space and avoid the buzzkill argument debate kind of thing. And then at some point we figure out, okay, where are we most aligned? We look for alignment, and then we work on actually being decisive and picking a particular direction out of all the. Yes. And work, the exploration, the play. And in that moment. Right. Decisiveness is about killing off things. Right. It's the root of suicide, homicide, et cetera. Right. We actually are then going to kill off some alternatives and pick one and kind of go with it. But that's at the very end, after a lot of play and a lot of natural alignment, and we're kind of ready then to pick a direction.

Yeah. Yeah. And you know what's great about that is once you've gotten to that place, everybody has shared ideas.

Yes.

Everyone is reaching the collective success together. And then when you actually achieve the goal, it's not one person taking in all the glory. It's a team of people who came up with ideas together, celebrating and motivating and continuing to be inspired to do the next one.

So let's share some more stories. Why don't you talk about working with a former presidential foundation?

Yeah. Okay. And I'm not, you know, we're not going to share the name, but it's a. It's a big one.

Eight years president, two terms, not too long ago. Because we know that you were a kid in the 80s, but in the 70s, I went to the same school in Hawaii as this former president.

I love it. Well, okay, this is probably, besides American Marketing association, one of my favorite stories ever, because there's a hero in this story, and it's not who you think. Spoiler alert. So this all starts. This is 2017 in Chicago. It was the first ever, we'll call it Training Day. That's what it was called for this foundation not to be named. And Jenna, a girl on my team who started off as an intern. That same. Actually, the year before started off as an intern. The year before was going to be a participant in this because they were. We, as improve it. Were facilitating our team building workshop two. We were basically doing a train. The trainer. We were training the trainers who were then going to lead 250 people in these exercises at this big event. We were going to be on stage. They were going to be in the audience with smaller teams. So Jenna got to be a participant in this, and Jenna, again, is an intern. And improve it. Let me just preface who Jenna is at the time. Jenna was the shyest person you will ever meet. Jenna was.

I've never known any shy Jennas.

Okay. I know. Jenna's the shyest Jenna you'll ever know. Okay. Was. Jenna was. And so she would pick up the phone at our office and be like, hello? Like, she couldn't even say hi. She was. She could. She. I'll say this. She was just scared to communicate. She. This is her first internship in the real world. So she's in the. She's in the audience. And part of the day was coming up with a case study or an actual idea that could create positive change in Chicago. So each group again. Yes. And did each other to come up with the best ideas. Then they got down to the bottom, just like we talked about. They filtered out the very best one. And guess what? Through this. Yes. And approach, Jenna's idea somehow was chosen by her group. After we did our spiel on stage, rocked the house. Everybody was loving it. We had no clue that said former president was going to be there. I should have known, but I didn't. So they took all the facilitators in a back room. We got to meet former president. Then we found out that the former president was going to come out on stage and listen to these pitch ideas. And basically each person was going to pitch their story to former president. So Jenna, no pressure. No pressure, Right? Exactly.

Who's about as smooth as they come, right?

Yeah. So then we see literally Bill as she's stepping up to the podium and there's people behind her. A sea of new of media comes in the back. They had blocked this section off. A separate sea of media. Okay. Scared, shy. Jenna is at the microphone with a former president, and they have. I filmed the whole thing. You ever seen Mean Girls with Amy Poehler? Do you know when she's, like, using her video cameras, she's like, I'm a cool mom. That was me in the background watching Jenna's life about to change. She Held her own with a former president for. I am not kidding you. It was 20 minutes. I have a 20 minute video on my phone. They rift back and forth in front of an audience of 250 people and in front of this huge. This huge media team. I was so proud of her. She gets off stage and she can't even believe what she just did. I'm talking to her face to face. All of a sudden, news outlet after news outlet after news outlet comes and starts pulling Jenna away to get her sound bite. And I'm sitting there, she's like, this isn't real life. I'm like, I know. I. And so Jenna, that was 2016, has now evolved. She is the director of client experience at Improve It. She's been with me six years. If you ever call into our office, you will talk to Jenna. If you ever book a workshop, you will talk to Jenna. Jenna sells to corporations like Walgreens, Motorola Solutions, Uber Freight, Amazon. She, because of that moment, literally, I said, you are Improve It. I watched her become more confident. Trust herself. Trust her gut. Yes. And herself. And transform her own life. And she is now one of the most confident, amazing professionals that I know. And I told her after that day, I said, if you can't stand here and interview or get interviewed by a former president, you can do anything. And she has.

I love that. I love in particular, finding yourself suddenly in, like, this crucible moment, right? And you emerge from the fire an altered human being forever seeing yourself in a different way, knowing, like, deeply knowing yourself as someone other than how you knew yourself before. And then having access to all that's available like that. Like, oh, I've been through that. Firewell. I could do this now.

Yes.

I stood before the media in front of a. A powerful world leader and like, parlayed.

Crushed it. Crushed it. And. And they were riffing like he was joking with her. And she was. She's from McHenry, Illinois. He's like, oh, I know McHenry. And they had this whole big moment. It was funny. She was so wonderful and just poised and confident, and it truly did transform her. And I am. I will do anything for her. She is. She is. Improve it. I tell her all the time. I'm like, you are. This is what this work does. You are Improve it.

Embodies it fully. Yeah, it's really. It's a lovely story. And think about the opportunity of creating moments where people have to go right into something. I did a thing a couple years ago called vocal improv. And, you know, I was Saying I hadn't done any improv. I guess I did do that. So vocal improv is not words. Vocal improv is like music. Music with your mouth. I suppose you could slap and clap and things like that. That is unplanned. So we go to this thing, it sounds interesting, fascinating, whatever. Then we start and this woman with like a background in jazz and other kinds of things, sort of scat sings a whole groovy thing that she just makes up on the spot with some other people who've been there for a while and she's like, okay, now we're gonn. And I'm going to start this off and then he's going to add something in and then I want you to do this. And then they get to me and they're like okay. And then you're going to do like whatever. You're going to solo or you're going to fill in a thing and it's not words. You're just making sounds, right? Like rhythms or melodies or contrast or like whatever. And then I'm there with a group of young people, a lot of them women and some of them fairly attractive. Now I have to make an ass out of myself or sound awkward, not cool in front of attractive people. And I remember thinking I would rather just take my clothes off right now as a middle aged man than do what I'm supposed to do. That sounds preferable to me. And so I did this. It was a really uncomfortable day. The whole day was really uncomfortable, continually. And then at the end of the day I did notice I'm freed up and I was much looser with my self expression. And I don't start as a very inhibited person.

Yeah, I am so. I'm so here for this. And I gotta tell you, like that is what improv does. And I know it wasn't actual words, but you're still using the same. Yeah, I was gonna ask for an example. I'm so glad you came back.

You might like do a thing like that or you might like. And then like you're just going to pick a sound and make it up and go with that and then. And you're jiving off what everybody else is saying. So like they do a thing and you're like oh. And then you change what you're going to do in the moment and you like yes.

No, that's. And we do activities like that in our workshops. In any improv class you go to, there's something called human machine. It's very similar and it's one Person goes out and you have to make a noise and you have to make a motion. Okay.

And then noise and motion. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then they add to it. Yeah. So no. And it, it becomes this whole machine and then you have to name the machine and you're like, what the hell am I doing? But then you're having the best time. And we talk about that as, as an idea for collaboration is literally. And this is going to blow your mind. Are you ready? Here it goes. So this is truly. Think of it like this. Think of a project, right? One person comes out, they share an idea, they put in their effort. The next person has to. Yes. And that idea. Because you're collaborating. Right. And you have to understand this is this person's idea. I'm not going to jump on top of it. I'm going to add something to it and. But it's not going to, it's not going to take away, it's going to add. And so then you all keep adding different elements to that project because those are your strengths. And then collectively you've created this really fun, vibrant piece of work that everyone is bought into. Everyone shares in the collective success too. And it's really like you said too, for me, when I get home from any workshop, I do keynotes as well. Any type of thing where I'm talking about improv or I'm doing improv or a show, which I haven't done a show in a long time. I cannot go to sleep. Like, it's like, especially if I have a late night.

You're wound up. You're like, you're. You have to come down. Yeah.

Yes. And I remember like I would do when I first started improve it, I would go to work 9 to 5 and then I'd have like an hour for dinner and then I go to class from like 6:30 till 9:30 and then I'd try to like go home and go to bed and I could not do it. It was so hard because it's just. It works your mind. It's like going to the gym. It works your mind muscle these muscles in your mind that, yeah. Just turn your brain on to so many different things. You're just so more aware of the world.

Yeah. Yeah. There's something about being engaged, giving a talk, connecting with people. If you've done a really good job, if you've ended on a high note, you're like, like you're just jazzed up. You're still processing it, you're still kind of feeling it for A while. And it takes a while to kind of come down. You need to debrief it. You need to share about it. You need to, like. And. And it's hard to just be by yourself and. Okay, I'm gonna go back to my hotel now and cry.

Yeah, yeah. No, it's so true. Well, and then the flip side of that is, like, if, you know, you bombed, like, that sticks with you a long time too, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know?

God, how did I do that? If I could only turn that one back and, like. Yeah, yeah.

Let me tell you. I had a bomb recently, and I didn't know it was a bomb, which is probably, like, my own ego, like, not allowing me to process it as a bomb until I found out later it was a bomb. But I. I got off the plane and I was like, that. That was good. And it didn't feel like all the others. Right. So I was like, that was. That was good. And then I got. Convincing yourself feedback comes. Yeah.

And it's.

It's not good. It was. And it was not my audience either. So this comes back to an acquired taste. This was not the right room for me. This was. They don't want polka dots with teal. They don't want teal. Polka dots. They didn't want this. They did not need me at all. I was not their person. And it should have never. I should have never done it, and they should have never hired me. And that's okay. Like, that's something that I know.

No.

Right. I had to go through that flop to get. And let me say that that sucked. That sat with me a long time. But it makes the better ones, the great ones, which we typically just. I can literally count on my hand the number of flops, because improv really is such a positive space. It creates positive energy, but when you don't buy into it, it can flop in a heartbeat. And so, anyway, I will tell you, I learned more in that moment than any of the other wins that we've already had this year. Like, I'm like, okay, great. Another. Another good one. It was fun, you know? And that one has. I'm saying. I'm talking about it. Right. It still has stuck with me.

Yeah. There's something to learn from. To incorporate. It could be, like, making sure you choose something right. Or change your process or. Or. Or deal with something in a different way. Like, there's always a learning to take from it, but it can sting for a while because you had some intention. It was not realized.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think. Yeah. And I will tell you that that's. So it was. Yeah. We won't get more into it, but it can, it can last. But it can also be your greatest teacher and your greatest driver to do better the next time.

Yeah. The key, right, is, is moving, is moving through it, learning from it, incorporating it, using it in some way, not giving up because of it. Like, oh, that went well. I'm never going to do that again. Right. Which is more like the 12 year old kind of thing. Like, oh, you ask somebody to dance and then she laughed and talked to her friends and then you were humiliated. And you're like, I'm never going to ask somebody to dance again as long as I live unless I already know they want to dance against me. Right. Like that kind of trauma. And then at some point you're like, oh my God, how long am I going to carry that one around? And sometimes people carry it their whole damn life. Right. Like a lot of these things and, and never even notice that they've been carrying the thing except they turn around and go, oh, how come every job has been going like that? How come every relationship, how come all my family.

And that leads those unprocessed emotions. This is like a whole self healing journey that I've been on recently. Those unprocessed emotions can lead and manifest in physical pain. It doesn't just sit there with you. It manifests itself in some way. So I am a big proponent of processing those failures in real time. And I got a, I got a hack for you because this has really served me. And give yourself. So the thing I did was an hour and a half long. I gave myself an hour and a half to just feel like a huge pile of like, I gave myself.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lean into the thing. Don't try to suppress it, move through it.

Yeah.

Powerful.

Yes. And I, I mean, I cried, I threw shit. I was like, this sucks, you know, because I end.

Yeah.

And that you have to get that out in order and you have to own it in order then to verify the lessons that you've learned.

Super powerful. Right? You're. Yes. Ending the dark. You're. Yes. Ending the sadness, the grief, the anger, the betrayal. Your. Yes. Ending all of that rather than trying to suppress it. Because if you suppress whatever your grief, anger, sorrow, sadness, any of it, rage, if you suppress that, you suppress everything. You also suppress your passion, your aliveness, your joy, your exuberance, your. All of it. And then you just become another numb person who's looking for diversion. Yeah. Super, super powerful. We're going to put your link up in just a second. Let me say a couple shout outs before we run out of time. If you want to drop us a note or get in touch with us, the email is info scalingcoach.com you can find all our episodes here wherever you are or@scalingcoach.com you know, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, even like everywhere. So Apple, podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, etc. So like subscribe, get your notifications, that kind of thing. There big shout out to my friend and mentor Vern Hanish, the creator of the whole Scaling up framework and the original Rockefeller Habits and our producer in the background. They're getting our shows ready and out the door. Wanda Mitchell to the people at Pod Fly who get our show up and ready and sweeten our audio and make our show notes and all that kind of thing every week. So big shout outs to all of them. So let me just then throw up your info on the screen here. Learn to implement improveit.com is where to learn about Aaron's programs and what they do and that kind of thing and see if there's something that could fit you. I think there's such value in our well being, in our self expression, in our power and passion as leaders and the difference we can make in our company and with our teams, giving them freedom to deal with whatever comes up. Whether it's a crisis of a global nature or a personal crisis in your world. A breakdown of some kind or another. This idea is so healthy and so valuable. Bringing improv to it and play and yes, ending all that life throws at us. So there you go. There's that information. I want to thank everyone for listening. Thank you Aaron for joining us on the show today. To our listeners and viewers, we'll talk to you again next time. Keep Scaling up Foreign. Are you ready to turn your goals into daily wins? You should check out our Scoreboard software. Powered by Align, it's the official software for scaling up. With Scoreboard, you'll get an AI driven coach for priorities and KPIs and it'll help keep your team focused on what matters most. With Align you can track your goals in real time and you'll even see results on the go. With their mobile app you can rest easy knowing that Align has world class onboarding and support to set your team up for success. This is really more than just software, it's what I actually use to manage growth in our Scaling up client teams. Unlock clarity and results with Scoreboard by Aligned to Try it now. Go to aligntoday.com Bill Gates one more time. Aligntoday.com Bill G. That's aligntoday.com Bill G. Check it out and try it now.