Developing Leaders Through Improv and Experiential Learning with Erin Diehl

Welcome to the Athletics of Business, a podcast about how the traits and behaviors of elite athletes and remarkable business leaders frequently intersect. The real stories and hard lessons to help you level up your leadership and performance. Now, your host, Ed Molitor.

Thank you for coming back to the Athletics of Business podcast. I am your host and CEO of the Molotour Group, Ed Molitor, and we are going to have a lot of fun today. My special guest, Aaron Deal, is just an incredibly special, charming, insightful, funny, witty, engaging. Did I say that already? Human. I mean, she's just incredible. And the amount of positive energy that's going to come through this podcast episode and the takeaways are absolutely phenomenal. And Aaron is a founder of Improve it, where they develop teams and leaders through play, improv and experiential learning. I first met Aaron back in February of 2018 when I was looking to up my game, so to speak, in terms of presenting, being able to respond and pivot, whether it's in executive coaching, one ones, whether it was in trainings or on the stage.

When I'm doing my keynote speaking. I was looking to develop the skill of improv and I did a ton of research. I was looking at class at Second City and something really caught my eye about Improve it and the way they went about things and they had a workshop. So I jumped into that workshop, downtown Chicago, and first met Aaron and an incredible team there and had an absolute blood blast. And I walked away realizing the significance. Like we think of improv sometimes as just laughter and just fun. But improv isn't standups, where you're going after that cheap laugh. Inside of this podcast, Aaron shares so much, but she's going to talk about this. Improv is truth. Our whole life, our whole world. In the business world, whatever walk of life you're in, things just aren't scripted every single day.

We think we'd like to operate with this process that's laid all out for us and everything's going to go to script, and that's not the way the world works. Improv is unscripted, one of the things it demands that you do and it teaches you to do, which is why I think it's so critical in being a great leader. It teaches you to listen and postpone judgment, and there's going to talk a lot about that. And she's going to talk about why her and her team have transitioned from calling them soft skills to power skills, which I absolutely love. You know, we talk about psychological safety all the time and often I think people mistaken psychological safety for soft. And that's not what we're talking about at all. Why? Power skills.

And Aaron will share with us that they are the skills that we need to do the work that we do. And some of the benefits that we jump into are your increased vulnerability and how critical it is. And she'll share some stories with us about that and increased empathy. One of the things that is kind of lost in the conversation, not this conversation, but when people talk about improv. Absolutely increases your decision making skills in the real world, in your business settings, with the team that you lead. So I don't want to sit here and give away the whole conversation. But I'll tell you this. Make sure you have a pen and paper handy and do make sure that you're ready to laugh because we have a great time. Aaron, welcome and thank you for joining us today on the Athletics of Business podcast.

It is so. It's so good to see you again. It's been a minute.

I know. Ed. I am so happy to see you. I mean, literally, we've been chatting before we hit record and I feel like this was a nice catch up. It was a needed and necessary catch up. Yeah.

And I think we came to the conclusion that the last time we saw each other was February of 2018.

I know. Which a lot has happened.

A few things.

A few things. I mean, no, actually I've been bored. Just been sitting around twiddling my thumbs like, oh, nothing. Nothing needs to completely pivot or change in the world or my business.

We need a curveball. Yeah. It's all good.

I feel good.

We'll go down that road.

Holy cow.

I mean, so much has changed. But tell us. You know, obviously I include listeners in about, you know, all the amazing work you've done and the journey that you're on. But I'd love to hear from you. Tell us. Let's jump right into improve it and where this vision came from and the people that you serve and the whole why behind it and everything.

Oh, my gosh, how much time do we have? No, I will boil it down. So long story short, grew up performing, singing, acting, dancing, wanted to become Oprah Winfrey, moved to Chicago because that's where Oprah lives. This was early 2000s. How do we become Oprah? There was no roadmap. There were very little digital courses at this time. I mean, literally, Facebook just came on the map. So I said, okay, I guess I need to start improv trading. Cause that just seems like the right thing to do. I Actually started booking hosting gigs. And so I would come back and forth in between these hosting gigs to improv. And every time I would walk in the door to a class at Second City or IO or wherever I was, I would come alive. I felt at home.

And I felt like the barriers that I would put up around myself would come down. And so this training I started really getting into improv led me into my late twenties where I was. I'm aging myself where I was.

Don't forget who you're talking to.

Okay, okay. But I was performing at night and then I started working at a corporate market or. Well, I was in marketing. But then the more I started doing things, I was in a recruiting firm doing business development. Everything I was doing on stage in my classes started spilling over into my day to day. I became a better listener, I became more empathetic, I was thinking more quickly on my feet. I was literally more present with the people that I was serving in my day to day. And so lucky for us at the time, I had an amazing leader who I told. I said, I have this idea for a company or just a workshop that I'd like to pitch to one of our clients. And our client happened to be United Airlines that I wanted to pitch to. She said yes.

And I piloted Ed, pun intended. My very first workshop to United. They liked it, they gave me feedback. I came back and did it again. And then I realized that I wanted to improve it, to be bigger than me. So I started hiring a team. And then we launched in 2014. Now have a team of 22 facilitators between New York, Chicago, Louisiana, Charlotte, North Carolina, and then a lean, mean team of five.

Now internally, we gotta push pause for a second. Cause Hero's the best. Like we see each other for the first time. We jumped on the recording here again. Now let's change. But you know, I don't live in Chicago anymore. I'm in Charleston, South Carolina. And we've got folks in nyc, we got folks in la, we got. I mean, a lot has changed. I love it. I mean, that's amazing.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, so much change. Some may call it change fatigue, but I'm going to keep going. No, it's. It is, it's been awesome, but it is not. I'll say this, in 2018, Ed, probably right around when we met, I was a part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 small business program. And that program is an amazing program if you're a business owner. I highly recommend it. Did it in Chicago long Story short, you walk away with a five year growth plan for your business. Our five year growth plan included expanding markets and hiring people specifically in these markets and bringing our work to these markets. All of this. Ed was in person. Then comes 2019. I had a baby. Some maternity leave happened. Just a few.

Life is good.

Life is good. 2020 and things hurt. The 85 page growth plan was ripped to shreds. And now we are on this virtual path. And I've moved. You're right. We were able to move because now everything, most of what we're doing right now is virtual. And it's just been a really crazy journey and not one that I thought we would be on, but it's the path that I think that is leading me to impact more people and help more people globally. Like we said earlier, I mean, it's crazy. We're globally now. We're working globally now.

Will you do. First of all, do you still have the cool space in Chicago that you hit?

You're so nice. Well, so you came to us at Catalyst branch. Yes. So we are still friends with them. We still utilize. So that space was actually our meeting space where we would do public events. Our office was in a co working space in River North.

That's right.

We had the best ankle view of Chicago. It was in the lower level, not to be confused with the basement. And were scrappy in our office space because we. What we did was mostly in offices at client events or businesses, corporations. And so Catalyst Ranch was a beautiful partner for us. Still is. But they're coming back to. They're starting to see more meetings come back.

So you do in person eventually. And you mentioned you're still mostly virtual. But we do stuff in New York City, we do stuff in la. We do stuff in Charleston, South Carolina.

Yeah.

Oh, I want an event on the beach is what I want.

Yes. Well, were just in Arkansas two weeks ago. We've got some stuff coming up in Florida, we've got some stuff in California. I mean, before the pandemic were traveling to. But what has been really cool is using platforms like this, like Zoom, to host workshops. We're working with people all over the world. I mean, we've got people india, we've got people in Singapore, we've got people in the uk. I mean, it has been really wonderful to see the reach that we've been able to find during this crazy time that I never, ever would have expected. And I'll tell you this at. If you would've asked Me in the beginning of 2020. Hey, can you put what your offerings are, which you know are in person, highly interactive, engaging offerings online? I would've said no. That is not an improviser mindset.

And I will literally say it's not gonna work when you're forced to do it. And when the world is also looking to a virtual space to professionally develop their teams and themselves, you figure it out.

Well, it's interesting because the whole improv is. Yes and right.

That's it.

If that question was posed to you. But I got to give a shout out to your LinkedIn profile because I. And we're going to talk about some stuff you put in here, but business improv edutainer, Fail fluencer and Professional Zombie. I love it. Talk about making a positive of a negative.

Thank you, thank you. Hashtag fail Fluencer.

So let's talk about the people because I, you know, I went to an event and what was the event title that I. That I went to a little workshop. It was.

Well, it was a quarterly workshop, so I can't remember the exact one you saw, but we have 10 different power skill training workshops. So it was a public one, which we always do every quarter. And you rocked it at. You nailed it.

No, you're just saying that because you don't want me to feel too bad about my performance with the chicken.

No, you nailed it. I have pictures. I have to find them. I got to get.

I actually saw one today. I actually saw my website. No, not the chicken hat. I just saw one my better angles my backside when were all holding hands and bowing.

Oh yeah.

But it's just an incredible, I mean, incredible work that you do in the folks that you do it with. And we're going to circle back. So I want to talk about the Goldman Sachs 85 page business plan. We'll get back to that. But can you tell our audience if like who you work with, what it is you do with the improv and what power skills that it helped? And I love power skills and explain power skills. I don't want to steal your thunder on that.

Oh, well, you can still take it away. Take it away. Get the lightning with the thunder. So it is improve. It is a company, it is the company I founded that uses improvisational training to train on power skills. Okay. And power skills are the word choice that we use instead of soft skills. When you soft. Right, Ed? It just feels like it's. You're a softball. Like you're. It is nothing that is important. It shouldn't stick. Whereas soft skills land people jobs, they help them grow their careers, they help them grow their professional and personal lives. And they're the skills that we need to do the work that we do. So they should be the skills that define us. Right? So we don't want to give SAS power. Skills are the name of our game here.

So we have been in business now for about seven years. And we work. We're a B2B company with anywhere from Fortune 500, Fortune 100, to small mom and pop shops. And what we do is we help them engage their people through laughter, learning and play. It is experience. So we take the tools of the improv stage and put em into a workshop format. So we're training on a specific power skill. We, we train on 10 skills right now. Anything from team building, effective communication, leadership, presentation skills, networking, thinking quickly, on your feet, taking Initiative, Creative Risks, Career 101, Sales 1 01. What am I missing? Vision, setting. Missing one. I don't know what it is, but I will come back to that.

Did you only get nine? I thought you hit 10.

Did I hit 10? I might have hit.

We're gonna say you hit 10, but that's pretty impressive, by the way.

Thank you. But I will say, like as an actual human being, improv really did help me in all of these areas. And it helped me to really understand that in order to connect with people, which is what we are wired to do, we are wired to connect as human beings. We have to fine tune the way that we communicate, the way that we listen, specifically the way that we react in the moment. So being completely present and if we can really ground ourselves in these fundamentals, then we can change the course of the way we lead our teams. We can change the course the way we lead our organization. So it's a transformational experience. And I'm glad you've done it, you.

Know, well, barely not even scratching the surface. And there's so much to do. But I love how you talk about connecting. Right. And here's the thing, and I remember stepping in there and looking at all these people and looking at you and you don't ask the folks to do anything that you're not willing to do. Oh yeah. And I remember everyone there seemed to have an epiphany about something and the walls came down. Right. But I'm curious, when you first started doing improv and you were, you know, pursuing a hosting career, pursuing all these other things, but were you aware of the significance it would play in your ability to connect with people and build the relationships you did and to lead people and the impact it could have in the business world.

Like, going into it, did you have kind of an idea, or were you pretty clear on what it could do?

I didn't have an idea. This is funny. I was with my high school girlfriends a couple weekends ago. I was voted class clown in our high school. You know.

No way. I don't see that at all.

Yeah. Okay. Always been an energy.

Let's add a boring.

Yeah, yeah. And just, you know, always trying to make people laugh, I always said. I always joke, too. I was. I knew my life's calling was to make people's day better or to bring laughter, levity, and positivity to their life. So I was like, what? Who does that? Oh, a florist. I should maybe become a florist, because they always brighten somebody's day when they give them flowers, right? And then I realized I sucked at plants. I had an orchid named Zoe Day Plantel, and I was like, this. This isn't working out for anybody. She died. So, anywho, wait, say that name again.

How.

Zoe Day Plantel. Yeah, that was before we got a dog. My husband and I decided we should get a plant. And so, anyway.

Dare I ask what the dog's name is?

Well, my last name is Deal. His first name is Big.

Big. Okay. I was gonna go with Real, but Big. Okay.

Yeah, real's good, too. Maybe that's, you know, maybe that's a second dog. Yeah, it's all, you know, punny. But my whole point in all of this is I didn't know. I did not know. And so I just wanted to actually try improv because everything I'd done up to that point went to Clemson. I danced my entire life. I danced at Clemson for the Rally Cats. Go Tigers. I was constantly performing. All of it had a script. And improv scared me, to be honest. It actually gave me that icky armpit sweat that we talk about in our workshops. I would walk into a. Like, a class, an improv class, and I'll be like, oh, my God, I'm so nervous right now. I feel so disgusting in my skin. I hate it.

So did you go sleeveless or did you go black shirt?

I would go sleeveless. I would go sleeveless. I would air them out. You know, as I'm doing as. I'm chicken dancing now. We didn't chicken dance. That's our thing. That's our. But, yeah, it's it. Truly. Then a light bulb went off, the more that I started exposing myself to improv. And it became almost like a drug, like the euphoric high you feel when you're so present in the moment and you're creating something with other human beings that you can never recreate. It was this. It's so rewarding. And you feel almost like it's therapy at the same time because you're transforming out of your own body.

Right.

And it became this. This drug for me that I kept coming back to and back to. And of course, when you get laughs, you're like, yes. And when you have really bad nights, you're like, that sucked. What could I do better? So I just started to really see the beauty of it. And. And I didn't know it would be my life's calling. I really did not know. I always wanted to be Oprah. I did not know what I wanted to talk about, but it is my favorite. I love improv and I love comedy, and I love the people who do it. It's like they breed a very special kind of human being because you got to have trust and support all of those things. So that's my long winded answer to.

Your question, which is a perfect answer, by the way. And now I don't want to move away from the joy of it. Right. And the laughter, because there's so much of that. But all of a sudden, here's this thing that they call Covid. Right. Here's this BS pandemic. Not bs, but you know what I'm saying? Like the stuff we had to grow through, I mean, these challenges. But yet there's a way improv can be very real and very serious in terms of helping you grow through adversity, helping your decision making, helping the conversations during tough times, you know, because I've got to imagine if you're doing a workshop for someone who's just been drilled organizationally by Covid.

Yeah.

Getting them to laugh is not your intention. Right. Okay. Can you talk about that a little bit? Because I just think it's really apropos for what we're. We're still living right now.

Yes. Okay, so this is a really great question because I think a lot of people think we're going to come in, teach you to bark like a dog, get you to stand up and embarrass yourself. It's absolutely the opposite. Improv, that's stand up. Stand up comedy is a one person show. You're going for the cheap laughs. Improv is truth. It's reacting in a moment to the response of somebody else. It's listening and postponing judgment. It's making your scene partner look better, which is ultimately making your teammate look better. It is what you, as we know. Yes. And is a huge rule. And it's all about listening, postponing, judgment, adding to the idea and creating something together. So the beginning of a workshop, even the one you went to Ed, where you walked in the room, you were one individual.

I want to ask you this. When you walked out and you didn't know anybody, Right. You didn't come with a friend, right?

I didn't know anybody at all.

Yeah. Did you feel more connected after this two hours?

Yes, absolutely. And here's the best part. There was one thing you asked the student. I can't, it's been a minute. So like we have said, I can't remember what it was, but I was like, I, there's no way I'm going to do this. Like, I thought I was a funny person. I'm not a very funny person. There's no way I'm doing this. And a lady next to me who I didn't know from Adam or Eve goes, you got this. It's okay. And I'm like, what are you talking about? You don't know me. But she actually talked me through the whole thing. And I, it's like, even though I didn't know her, I left, like, thankful for her and a little bit more trust for the whole process.

Totally. Because that's what it is. You can't stand on stage with seven people and make something up for 30 minutes without having complete support. We always say, we got your back, so you can't stand up there and not have each other's back because you're not going to have a scene if you don't support each other. That is why it's such a beautiful teaching tool, especially in business. It teaches teams to support each other, number one, to have each other's back and to really facilitate conversation in a way that allows everyone to feel heard, seen, and like they belong, which is what everyone is chasing in Covid. So to get back to your question, truly, the underlying fundamental of everything we teach it is teamwork. It is support.

And then we're going to train you using that framework on a specific power scale so you're going to feel that connection no matter what we're teaching you on, because we're going to get you to that safe space first and foremost. And we always do everything intentionally with a low risk activity to a higher risk Activity to the highest risk activity at the end. And by the end of a session, you walk out, you're like, wow, I just did that. And you did it with a smile on your face.

Right.

And it's. It's like we almost trick you. Because I will say this, the smiles lead to the vulnerable conversations. We do the games that make you laugh. Then we talk about it. And that's where the aha moment occurs.

Let's talk about vulnerability. I mean, it's huge. It's so big. And the tool that improv is to get people to be more vulnerable. And you said improv is truth. And that just keeps ringing my head. And it's listening and postponing judgment. That's something that our society could use right now. But we won't go there. Right now. We're going to talk about vulnerability. What? Tell me about that. How significant of a role your improv, low risk to high risk exercises has played in helping people in that process.

And I love this question. And I'm going to say this. People wore masks to work before 2020. And it's a hypoth. It's a hypothetical mask.

I get it. Yeah.

And I think, what if there is a silver lining in all of this? Those masks have started to come off, especially being virtual. We see into people's homes, we see they have dogs, they have kids, they have plants that they care about. And vulnerability was this scary word in corporate America for a really long time. To be a big leader, a CEO, whoever, and to be vulnerable. Those two things didn't go hand in hand where obviously we're seeing it with the great resignation. People want to feel, they want to know their leaders. And I always say this. If I'm facilitating a workshop. Think about a leader, a coach, a mentor, whoever in your life right now who impacted your life.

Right.

If you got that person in your head, think about them and then ask yourself, were they vulnerable and did they care about me as a human being? And almost. I've never heard a person say that. Those two things didn't go hand in hand. Those leaders were not transactional. They were supportive. They cared about you. My old boss at my recruiting firm is the reason that improve it exists because she. I didn't love that job. You know, people say you don't leave jobs, you leave leaders. I did not leave my leader. I left that job. I. The opposite was true for me. I loved my leader so much.

And you more pursued a dream and you pursue a passion. So it wasn't really like you were Leaving it was like, you use that as a springboard and, you know, she was putting that world right there to influence you to go do what it is you wanted to do.

Oh, my God. She's still my biggest cheerleader today. And, you know, I always told her when I left, she. She asked me to stay two months, and I said okay. But I truly would have done anything for her because she was vulnerable. She was such an amazing and powerful leader who inspired and wanted the best. She put our needs ahead of hers. And she also was real and honest about the things that she needed from us as employees, but also as people. So vulnerability as a leader in 2021, 2022. Oh, my God. If you are still leading with a transaction, I want you to think about the way that you're showing up, because it is really an employees market right now, and people are finding where they feel like they belong and also where they feel like they can impact the world.

That is a people really reevaluated in 2020 and 2021.

You know, it's funny you say that, so I just spoke out on California a couple weeks ago to a global company, Europe, North America, and the European mindset, it is transactional. Right? It's about dollars. And they're not. They're not giving the dollars away. Well, they're bleeding people in the industry. Not bleeding people, but people. They're people who are incredible performers. Producers are being poached. They're coming like they're the best of the best. We're going to offer you more money. And so it was an absolute blast seeing a light bulb go on in their head when I posed a question to them, what is it that you can do for them that is way more valuable than dollars and cents?

And we know that people want to know that the work they do is important, that they're valued as people and they want to be coached. So you start talking in terms of transformational. I think you would sell a lot of challenges right now, a lot of issues.

Yeah, I do too. And it's. I feel like people are figuring out how to lead in this hybrid workforce. What I really saw out of a lot of leaders that we work with and improve it last year was just beautiful moments of hopping on a zoom call and just saying, how are you?

Yeah.

And asking, truly, deeply caring. Because there were so many things that went down over the course of that year as a nation, as a world. And I felt like people really started to see beyond the conference rooms, beyond the things that we show up at work. And we're so used to going and doing and kind of seeing a person through that lens. People really saw each other as human beings who have cares and wants and wishes and desires. And it's been really interesting. I've. I've even myself as a leader leading my team, have really started to care about what does that team member want long term out of life and how can I put that into play for them here? So they want to stay here long term.

And how can I help you outside the proverbial walls of this office? Right.

Yes.

Now, so how did you, during the pandemic with being virtual, still find a way to get to that vulnerability piece where people, obviously it was assisted by having to see people on Zoom and stuff like that. But in order to persist. Right. And then we always talk about sacrifice business. What are you willing to give up to be successful? A lot of it has to do what we're willing to endure. Not so much sacrifice. Right. So how did you help that with improv? And how did you do it? Virtually.

Oh, my God. So it was. And. Oh, man.

And it's okay to say, I don't know. I'm not real sure we did it.

We did it, we did it. We got there. Trial and error. But I'll tell you what, without. We use Zoom and so Webex, I think, made a lot of updates to its platform last year. But we started with Zoom. We, we live on Zoom and we use the breakout room. So a lot of what we do in person is activities. Right. So we're doing games and activities in small groups, partners. So with Breakout Rooms on Zoom, we're able to still do those activities, put people in a breakout room, have them engage, have them with a partner, with a small group, we'll use the main room. If we don't, we only have up to 50 people in our virtual sessions now. But really what it does is it still creates that conversation.

And I've had clients, long term clients who've been in person with us for a long term, and they were like, I did not think this was gonna work. And it does. And it really translates because it's that connection piece. Once you get people in that first activity moving and grooving, I mean, their light bulb starts to go off. Their movement is a big part of it, having them actually move. Physical movement on Zoom is huge. I mean, we're in and out of breakout rooms. We do an hour and a half session on Zoom. Nine times. Nine times. And then we're using the chat Box. Like everything we do is. I'm asking a question, you're responding. If we've got a like 20 people or less, we'll have them come off mute. And it is. It has proven to really work.

And it's because I think people are craving connection. People are wanting to see. See their coworkers in a different way, virtually. This is a different way. It's super outside of the box and thankfully it works.

That is so cool. Had you done any virtual before? So this was all like, you're talking like a true zombie, right? Like, you've got the breakout rooms, you got the chat, you got this. I mean, you're speaking the language. Oh, I mean, that's big time.

I had a client hire me last year. I called it Zombie Productions just to facilitate their holiday party, because I'm that good on Zoom. I mean, honestly. No, it is truly. I talk about a crash course in technology. I mean, I used to have our director of operations, like, fix the printer in our office. I didn't even know how to change the toner. And now I was like, we had to figure out so much so quickly. It was nuts, Ed. But it did work, thankfully, and we are here.

What happens? And it's. There's a little if to it still. But when everyone comes back together, right, and you're going back to in person, which you've done, but you're going back to this in person. Were the walls harder to come down face to face or are they harder to come down virtually?

It's a great question.

And do the walls go back up when you're in person?

That's right. I have all psychological, right. The ones that I've. We've done recently. People are so happy to be in the same room together. I mean, it's like a high school reunion, you know, but it's like the people you really want to see, you know what I mean? Not the people you don't want to see. It is so much easier from. From what I have seen to get people to connect in the same room together right now because they are craving it virtually. What virtual does is it allows the people who, in person, who have social anxiety or who aren't as extroverted or don't speak up as much in meetings. That chat function right there is a godsend. They love it. They show up. They are so in it, because it's. You don't have to say anything.

And then I have a younger brother, he's actually staying with us this week. We were talking about this last Week.

Yes.

He is an introvert. He loves being virtual and he loves the way that he can show up and type in meetings. And for us too, having people in breakout rooms, it's. It's less anxiety than standing in front of people. So it works for everyone. And for me, I mean, in person is just like something. Even on virtual too, I just feel this, like, I can't even describe it. It's like something takes over my body and it's like it's not me talking, it's somebody else. And I just go. And it is just. I'm in this. This wonderful world of people who want to make themselves better. And there's so much positive energy. And when we create that on zoom too, I feel it. But there's nothing like that in person connection. There's nothing like it.

When we wrap things up here, we still have some time. Thank goodness. We'll talk about where folks can find all the information. Okay, but I have to ask you, out of the power skills, did different ones show up on virtual than showed up in person? Where was a focus more?

Yeah. And for sure, for us, effective communication was always big. But in virtual, oh, my gosh, it has been connecting. Communicating and working virtually is all about communication. If you don't have effective communication, what do you have? That has been the biggest power skill that we have seen. But then we've had, you know, it's always about the challenge of the specific team. So what is their challenge? What objectives are they hoping to achieve? And then our power skills usually have an offering that we can match to that. And if not, we're really honest. We'll give them somebody from our toolkit of that we know resource. We know that can help. But out of the 10, effective communication is huge and we're starting to see a lot more people.

I want to do vision setting towards the end of the year, and that's been really fun to watch and to witness too. It's really interesting because you got teams with people all over the world right now, and it's going to continue to be that way.

So what do you consider? Because your definition might be different than my definition, or it might be exactly the same, which I'm betting is closer to the second. But what is your definition of effective communication? I mean, what's your take on that?

Yeah, it is listening. Here's where I stand with it. And this is thesis statement we use in the workshop. What you say and what you don't say, it affects how others listen and respond. So the way that you show up with your tone, both verbally and non verbally. Your non verbal body movement. So what, you don't say the way, you know, you show up on a zoom with your arms crossed, your head down, or like, you know, you're drooling on your keyboard. That's. That sets a tone. Right? And then you've got listening, which is all about, in my opinion, is the most important power skill. Listening is crucial, especially as a leader or especially as a person who is engaging with people and clients. I mean, if you're not listening, you can't accomplish anything.

And you're also not building a trusting relationship and then responding in a way that is meaningful and also does not negate the person who gave information before you is literally the key to great leadership, in my opinion, is postponing judgment and encouraging new ideas. And that's. Yes.

And that is awesome right there. I mean, that's a complete home run. But give us. And that's no pun on the athletics.

I was just.

But I am talking to you. Yes, but I am talking to you. Give us an exercise that you would do for. For great listening skills, like listening with postponing judgment. Give us an example.

You want to go with me, Ed? You want to do a little activity?

This is totally great. I will, I will. This is totally unscripted. All right.

I've been on this show with you.

Let's go.

You can do this. You can. Okay, so this is called last word response.

Don't forget I have an editor for the podcast.

Okay, okay, but listen, you don't need it. You don't need it.

I need it. I know. We're good. Let's go.

All right, so we are going to talk about today's Thursday. We're going to talk about our upcoming weekend plans. Okay. And I'll go first. All right. And so whatever. The last word of my. Actually, let's have you go first because I can show you how it's done. The last word of your sentence is going to be the first word of my sentence. Okay. So what are you doing this weekend, Ed?

A lot of basketball.

Basketball is not my sport. I actually played it in middle school and I went to the wrong hoop on the basketball court.

Court. You know, speaking of court, it's funny. Driving home from Omaha yesterday, really comfortable, my new truck. And all of a sudden, next thing I know, I had dancing lights behind me.

Me, too. That happened to me a few weeks ago, and I was not happy. And I got a ticket.

Ticket. Who gets a ticket? I got a Warning.

Warning would have been great. There you go. You did it. That's it.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

And then. But you pause. You pause because you try to process it.

Yes. And then what that activity does is it allows you to. To. Number one, you can't think ahead, so you have to be present. You have to listen to every word, which I always ask this question too. If. If my arm is a sentence and the listeners at home cannot see this, but if the tip of my finger is the beginning of a sentence and my elbow is the end of a sentence, at what point in a typical sentence do most people stop listening? What would you say?

Halfway between.

Halfway between. Yeah, that's good. I've heard cuticle. So this feels right. Right? So this specific.

Are they manicured?

Cuticles are very manicured, yes. I mean, this is the color I do. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yes. But this is literally the middle of the sentence is where we stop listening. We miss the end and we miss.

So funny you say that because I was just going to say to you what this exercise taught me was I am still bad sometimes poor at listening to. Instead of listening to understand, listening to, waiting for my turn to talk. Right. So I was trying to anticipate the way you were going to end the sentence instead of just waiting for the last word to then figure out what I was going to say. And I probably shut it down. Little did I know. Halfway through your sentence.

No, you nailed it. You did it. Well, if you're thinking those things, you. You actually used my last word every time to start your sentence. That is the key to great listening, is listening to understand, not to respond.

And which sometimes that would be good.

Yes, exactly. But then it's. It's really just this idea of making sure when we are in that moment, when we are present, that's when the magic happens, is when we're listening and when we're responding in a way that is non judgmental and also allows other people to feel heard.

I love that when we are present, that's when the magic happens. That's. It sounds so simple. It's not that easy. And yeah, I've got to ask you a question because, you know, before we jumped on a couple of days ago, I was reading some stuff on you and you said something that I find so important in my world, and this podcast has given me the opportunity to do that. And I consider you one of these people, like who you surround yourself with, like who you invite into your orbit or who you're fortunate, who are Some of the people in your circle who you've surrounded yourself, like, what are their characteristics? What are their traits? What have they given to you? How does that show up? Because you are just an incredible leader, and you're such. I mean, you are.

And you radiate so much positive energy, and you make me laugh every now and then.

Oh, my God. And stop. Keep going. I'm. I'm trying to learn.

We'll be out of time if I keep going.

I know. I receive this. Thank you. This is my new way to receive a compliment. I receive this. I love that you found that because truly, I'm such a big believer in energy. And the energy that we put out is the energy will receive back. And I have been very blessed, unintentionally. When I was younger, I just did a girls trip. Same girls trip I was mentioning with my high school best friends. And, oh, my God, I guess I had this notion when I was young, when I was 13, because they're the most supportive. They're all smart, brilliant, kind, loving people who all they want is for each one of us to succeed. And our success is the collective success. So, so cool. So cool. And I have this really, you know, I've got, like, a type 5.

I've got so many great friends that I feel like I get so much from. But it's like the people who I call with a problem are the people that I will support and will pull them out of a ditch, and they will come get me whenever they need. They. I will go help them no matter what. And I saw that last year. We talked before the show started going. My mom had a stroke, and I just never. In the midst of everything happening with our business, I felt the most support from the people that we surround ourselves with. And my husband is legit. Like my best friend in the whole world. He is the best. So his. He makes me want to better every day, and that's the person I see the most. And he's also, you know, he's my husband.

He's also the one who sees me at my worst, but he is the one who wants to see the success of. Of improve it. And helped me so much at the beginning, just get it off the ground. So I'm grateful for the people in my life. I'm very cognizant, too, of who we let in that circle, too.

And sometimes you got to get people out.

Yeah. Sometimes they're there for a season. Not a reason, you know?

Love that. Love that. Say that again. Say that again.

Sometimes they're there for a season, not a reason. And that's. That's okay.

Yeah, it is. Okay, well, as we start to wrap this up before my last question, where can folks find out everything about you, about Improve It? Anything you want. And we'll take everything you say. We'll put it on the show notes, obviously. I already have the links that you asked us to share, which we will, but go ahead.

You're the best. Well, first of all, thank you so much, Ed. You're the. You're so fun. I had my chicks heart from laughing. But you can find us at Learn to Improve it. Com. And then I'm Aaron Deal on LinkedIn at Improve It. The only one keeping It Real Deal is my Instagram handle and that's keepin with no G, K I, P P I N. Okay. Keeping it Real deal. And then you can listen to our podcast, the Improve it podcast.

Love your podcast. We even get a chance to talk, but we have to have you back on. This is not enough time.

We. I know. And we have more to discuss. I have so much more to ask you.

Yes.

And then also for your audience, we'd love to give you our hybrid Hype handout. So it's all about how to engage your team in this hybrid.

Do I have a link for that? I'll put that up.

I'll make sure I get that to you. But it's a free download and it's super fun and it gives you some really tangible icebreakers, really tangible things to do to lead and facilitate your team through what we're going through.

I love it. I love it. Now, what other question would I ask you or what other thing would I ask you about? But the chicken years. Yeah. Never in a million years I think I would celebrate my 48th birthday. Because that's when I do what I celebrate my 48th birthday with strangers, right? With the chicken.

That's the coolest story. I remember you telling me it was your birthday. So the chicken is our Improve it mascot. And literally it started when I was building the very first workshop. I was like, how do I get people engaged? So I had this random chicken hat I bought at some little boutique and I said, we're going to use this chicken. And every time you hear the word improv, we're going to pass the chicken to the right, and whoever ends up with it at the end is the improv chicken champion. Well, one of my improvisers, Andrew, he's still mad at himself to this day, said, let's heighten that let's add the chicken dance to it. So literally, we have been doing this for seven years, andrew is still one of my lead facilitators. He's like, I ha.

Every time I hear the word improv, I chicken dance. So. And now on Zoom, we've actually just started making it like your own, like, happy dance. You know, it's like you do a chicken, but it's. You don't. We don't do the full wedding chicken dance. Fun fact for you.

Yes.

We have now convinced over 26,000 professionals to chicken dance.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

I mean, seriously, I never chicken danced at weddings before until I went through your workshop. Now, I love chicken dancing.

You nailed it. And it was a birthday and it was. It is it. It sounds insane to like. To the person listening to this, you're probably like, this sounds insane, but it's so fun. And it breaks down the barriers of just that wall that we put up every time right before we get started. We started off like that, and it just. By the end, whoever has the chicken hat, so happy, and they. They feel all the love at the end of the workshop.

Well, you know, I read something today. This morning. I sent it to a bunch of friends and some clients. It's. It's. Legacy is not something you leave for people. It's something you leave in people. And the legacy you folks are building is pretty amazing because you do. I mean, I don't know if it's, you know, if you're aware of how many skills, power skills. That's power skills you help these people with. And I got to think that's some of the greatest joy you find. And when you have the repeat customers, you hear the stories, people reconnect with you. Tell us about that as we wrap this up.

Yeah. Oh, man, that's so cool. I. It is. I could literally cry because some of the stories we've heard recently are just. People are craving this connection. And I, you know, I've witnessed it. I'll just leave with this. One of my girls on my team. We actually got to work with the Obama Foundation. This is not political. This is just a very former president. And she ended up being able to participate in it. And through it, I saw her find her confidence. It was a training day, the first ever training day for the Obama Foundation. And I was actually a facilitator at it and did a keynote with Christy, our director of talent. We got to meet him.

But little did Jenna know that she was going to get picked from this audience of 250 people to present an idea to the audience, but that audience was Barack Obama. And so I got to watch this introverted young. She was fresh out of college. She's now our director of client service. Present to a former president with power, with confidence, with just the most amazing delivery I've ever seen her delivery. And I was like Amy Poehler and Mean Girls with my camera, like, filming the whole thing. Like, I'm a cool mom. I'm a cool mom. But I was literally just in tears watching her transform. And that was five years ago. And Jenna is the most just amazing professional woman I've ever. I have had the pleasure of watching her grow in her career, and hopefully she'll be with me forever.

I don't know what I would do without her, but she is improve it. And the people we've been able to transform using the way that we train people is. It's just a. It's a blessing to be able to witness and to facilitate it. So I'm grateful.

Transformational. That's for sure.

That's it.

Hey, we've got to have you back soon because we're on it. You got to scoot. And I absolutely love everything you do. This has been a blast, and we will connect soon. But thank you so much, Erin.

Thank you, Ed, for having me. You're the best.

And I was going to get a chicken hat and have it, you know, I should have put the turkey head on my head. I should have, but I didn't.

Hold on.

Here she goes. There it is. There it is. This has got to be on LinkedIn right here.

Don't worry. I got a chicken hat bin in here, Ed. Okay, so there's a bin of chicken hat.

This is going on LinkedIn right here. This is perfect. Yeah, it's awesome. Thank you so much, Aaron.

You are the best by Ed.

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