Create Your Best Life 2017 - Live Yes, And with Travis Thomas

What I want to talk about, and I have only a short amount of time today, so I want to talk about this idea of yes and. What do I mean by live yes and? And I didn't create those 2 words, yes and, and I want to give you the 1.0 version. From an improvisation standpoint, for those of you who don't know what improvisational comedy is, if you've seen Whose Line Is It Anyway, or if you've ever gone to a Second City show, or you might have seen some really, really bad college College of Improv somewhere, which really gives us a bad name. But what yes, and is— yes, and is the basis of improvisation. I didn't create it, but if you run into any improviser, you'll say, what's improv all about? And they'll say, it's 2 words: yes, and. 2 words: yes, and. And those words, for me— the reason I call it 1.0 version, because I got into improv 17 years ago in Boston. I've always been on a real spiritual journey, but when I took my first improv class, I was hooked. And it was like my spirituality on steroids. And so the more I've gotten into improvisation, it's just become intertwined in every aspect of my life. I've gotten into corporate training, life coaching. I work with professional sports teams, college sports teams, and corporations now, as well as individually, to help people develop a yes-and mindset. So there's the 1.0 version, the 2.0 version, and the 3.0 version, which I hope to leave all of you guys here with today. But improvisation is all about collaboration. So my 3 words with my brand is purpose, authenticity, and collaboration. That's what a yes and mindset allows you to create. But I need someone who is admittedly an introvert to raise your hand. Admittedly an introvert. So give Susan a round of applause. And the reason I look for my introverts are two— it's two-pronged. A, extroverts are looking for any excuse to get on stage.

I steal this from them.

Introverts, it's the complete opposite, right? It's like they're a little more reserved. I'm an extrovert. I spew stuff out of my mouth all the time. I need a little bit more introvert because usually when introverts speak, you listen because they've got something good to say. And so you and I, we're gonna demonstrate sort of improv 1.0, and we'll share the mic. How many of you guys have seen the show Shark Tank on TV? Big Shark Tank fan? Fantastic. So what's gonna happen— I couldn't get rights to use Shark Tank, so this is Guppy Bowl.

All right, we're on Guppy Bowl. You good with that?

So you and I are inventors, and we are, we are presenting a product to all the guppies out here that are hopefully going to invest in our product. All right, now here's the thing, a little shameless product placement for my good friend Sarah. I have a Fidelity bag, but this, for the next few minutes, this is not a bag. All right, this can be anything we want it to be, but it's not going to be a bag. So we have to come up with something completely different. But you and I have already come up with this product, and so we're now going to pitch it to the Guppies. Now here's the thing, here's where the yes and comes into place. My job right now, my job right now is to make you look good. All right? My whole intention for the next few minutes is to make you look good. No matter what you say, I've got your back. You cannot say anything wrong. I've got your back and I'm gonna try to make you look good and make us look good. Really simple? Because I'm gonna let you drive this a little bit, but I'm your partner. We co-created this together.

Okay?

All right, welcome back. Hey, Guppies, really excited to be here on Guppy Bowl.

Wow, are we excited?

I know, um, I know we've invented some huge projects, huge products over the years. My favorite product that we've created is clearly the—

The sit ball.

The sit ball, right? The sit ball that all the companies use to help with your posture for chiropractic reasons. We invented that. But that's not what we're here to talk about tonight. We're not. In fact, we're here to talk about our newest product, and I don't want to— I don't want to take all the credit for it because you really came up with it.

Tell everyone what our new product is.

This is that you can bring any place where there's a lot of germs and everything, everybody's really germ-phobic. Just put this on your seat and you sit down and it protects you from everybody out there.

Yes, that's exactly what it does.

That's exactly what it does. But, but the better part of this is the name that you came up with. We call this the Germ Seat. Germ-free. The germ-free seat cover. So whenever you put this on your seat, it completely protects your ass and other parts of your body from any of those harmful germs that are gonna try to infiltrate this. What I love about this product is that you thought of this— you're on vacation. Tell us where you were on vacation.

Tahiti.

She was in Tahiti. You were in Tahiti and you got a bad case of gonorrhea. And if you've ever been to Tahiti, it's a germ festival. So we came home, I said, I've got gonorrhea. Right, she apologized for having gonorrhea in the first place, and we sat down. Well, it took us a while, but she eventually sat down, and we came up with this product. And the target audience for this is clearly everybody. Everybody. Now I know there's some investors out there. If you see our target audience is everybody, that's a big pool. What I'm most excited about though, and she She napped him. Most excited about the celebrity endorsement we have. We just nabbed— we just nabbed this celebrity. Tell them who we nabbed.

Goldie Hawn.

Goldie Hawn. And we know that Goldie Hawn is a huge germaphobe, right? She's a huge germaphobe. She's really into natural and herbal remedies now. I know she's a big fan of 21 Drops. So Goldie Hawn is going to be our celebrity spokesman. And you came up with the tagline for, uh, for our germ bag. What's our germ bag called again?

Get out.

Get out.

Get out. You put it on the seat. Germs, get out.

And, uh, I have to tell you, I've been humming it all day. You guys don't realize that she's also a musician. She came up with the jingle. She came up with the jingle for our bag, and we're gonna sing it together for you. We're gonna sing it together. Here we go.

Get out now, bad germs. Get out now, bad germs.

Get out!

Get out! Yes.

So we'll be over here on the break if you want to invest in our product. Thank you so much. No matter what one person says, the other person fully accepts and builds off of that idea. So whether I was saying yes and or not, every time she had something to say, I immediately jumped on it and built off of it. That's all an improvised story is, 2 or more people building off of each other's ideas, never saying no, never disagreeing, never creating that conflict of this, right? So that's what Yes And is. That's why I love to perform. I had a show on Jupiter last night. 2 of us did a 2-hour show, and we just got to play. We've known each other for over 12 years, so we get on stage, there's no fear of failure. There's no fear of anything because we know that we've got each other's backs. And one of the mantras in improvisation is, my goal is to make you look genius, right? I didn't have to work too hard because she looked genius on her own. But a goal in improvisation is my— your goal is to make the other person look genius. So when I go into companies and I work with sports teams and I work with different people, a yes-and mindset is all about creating an environment where people feel safe, trusted, and respected. And when you feel safe, trusted, and respected, you can be authentic. That's all any of us crave to have is relationships where we can be authentic. And when you are authentic and you are living your purpose, That's where true life-transforming collaboration takes place, because I'm no longer worried about my safety. I can just focus on you and the team and taking care of each other. So imagine when you have a relationship or a team or a group or a company where everybody shows up on a daily basis trying to make the other person look good, because I don't need to worry about me looking good because you're trying to make me look good. So all I have to focus on is, hey, what can I do for you today? Hey, how can I make you look good today? Hey, that project you're working on, is there anything I can do with? Hey, can I help you? Or imagine coming home, right, with your spouse, and instead of saying, wow, I had a crazy day today, is dinner ready? Going, hey, I've had a crazy day today. You look tired. You look exhausted. What can I do to help you? So if you really want to transform the relationships in your life, Instead of thinking about what can I get, start thinking about what can I give. And that's a yes-and mindset. Anytime my wife and I— right there, the pretty one with the camera photographing me— anytime we've had conflict in our 20 years of marriage, it's because one or both of us have been in competition with the other person instead of being in cooperation and collaboration. And improvisation is all about collaboration. So that's what I do on the 2.0 level when I go in and work with companies and teams. And here, to close with, is yes and on the 3.0 level. Our whole life is about saying yes to whatever is happening to us. If you're sick, if you're dealing with job struggles, relationship struggles, you have to say yes to it. Yes is acceptance. But you don't stop there. That would be the victim mindset. The and is how are you going to respond to it. Yes, I lost my job, and I finally get to pursue my passion. Yes, I lost my job, and Yes, I finally get to pursue my passion. this relationship isn't working out, and I finally get to find out who I truly am. And so when we say we have to say yes to anything in our life or else we will be stuck. So when we say yes, we accept it. Yes, this is happening, and we take our power with the and. And is how we're gonna choose to respond. We respond with purpose and authenticity. There's nothing we cannot accomplish. I like to say your setbacks, your, your failures, the difficulties, they don't define you. But when you say yes and, they reveal the divine you. And so that's all we are ever trying to do is yes and, yes and, yes and.

Yeah.

Thanks so much for the time.