Erin Diehl
Appearances
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
So in that one training session, we're not going to be able to change the course of your culture, but we're going to be able to be a conversation starter. And then the second way is something that we call a culture shift. So that is three workshops over the course of one year. where we are guiding participants, building off of what we learned in the last session and continuing the conversation.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And that we're able to measure some behavioral change over time. We're actually to see the results because we're still working together. The third way is called culture change. And I know you love this word, culture change. So that's six engagements over the course of two years. And that is we allow people to see that culture change over time.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
We're actually able to get in there, integrate what we've done with their core values. For example, American Marketing Association was a client of ours in the very beginning. And we worked with them with what we call culture change. And over time, they actually integrated one of our core values, which is yes and, into their core values.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And it was prominent every single place in their office, in their meeting rooms. And it was a core tenet of how they operate. So that's really over time how we can build and change cultures, have the conversation shift to more meaningful behavioral change.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
With the culture jumpstart, it is a conversation starter, but that return on objective is measured not only from the participants with a survey at the end, but also from the client participant or the client who we've worked with, I should say. And we talk with them after to make sure that we hit the objectives.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
It was what they were looking for and talk about ways that we could improve it pun intended, which is our name in the future. So it's soft skills are much more hard to measure, but ultimately what you are getting is higher collaboration, Less frequent problem solving because people are coming up with solutions versus problems.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
You get more people interacting and cross collaborating with each other. And it overall creates this sense of positivity, which is psychological safety at its core. So that's what we're aiming to do is to bring this positive experience to your organization. How you take it and run with it is left to you if we don't work together over a series of time.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
Yeah. So this is actually a keynote that I do called F words at work. And there's no swearing, Vince. Okay. There's no swearing. Spoiler alert. The F words are all about failure plus the frequency of failure equals the fundamentals of success. And truly the reason I even created this is because I was living a crash course myself in failure.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
Yes, I am in Charleston, South Carolina. It's morning for me. It's evening for you. So I'm having some coffee and just enjoying the start of the day. When I was born, my mom said I came out of the womb dancing and saying, hello world, I'm here. So that was my first foray on earth. And then as I grew up, I fell in love with the stage. I was a dancer, I was an actress. I sang but not well.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And I decided early on I wanted to be a talk show host. That was my goal then. And so I went to Clemson University and graduated with a degree in communications. And this was the early 2000s. So there wasn't a ton of... internet coaching or there wasn't a ton of opportunity for me to learn how to be a talk show host. So I said, where should I go?
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
Naturally, the home of Oprah Winfrey, my dream talk show host. So I moved to Chicago, started taking improv classes and really fell in love with it as an art form. And over the years, I did book some hosting things, but I kept coming back to improv. And finally, in my late 20s, I decided to stop traveling. I was doing a ton of traveling at the time.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
take a nine to five job at a recruiting firm, which I had never done recruiting. And the job that I took was actually business development. So it was sales. And so I worked nine to five and then six to 10 every night. I took classes at the second city or improv Olympic or the annoyance, which are huge theaters in the U S and in Chicago.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And I just saw everything I was doing on stage really spill over into my workplace. I was becoming a better listener. I was more empathetic. I was thinking more quickly on my feet. And I knew that there was a connection between improv and the professional world. So at the time, one of my clients at this recruiting farm was United Airlines.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
I asked my boss if I could pilot, pun intended, a workshop to United using improv. And of course they said yes. And the first couple of ones I did were for free. And then United said, we're going to pay you. And so my very first client was United Airlines. As time progressed, I knew that this was my calling.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
I knew I wanted it to be bigger than just me, so I left my full-time job and started Improve It in 2014. Improve It is an improv-infused talent development company for the new generation of work. We use improv to teach people how to lead teams, how to be the highest versions of themselves, but it's ultimately all through play, and we've been in business 10 years, and here we are.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
Yeah. Oh, you're so right. We didn't have podcasts. There wasn't Instagram. There wasn't even Facebook at the time. Truly, when I went to college, Facebook did not exist until I graduated. So here's what I can tell you. I just remember When I was 13 years old, I was homesick from school.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
I don't know if you remember back in the early 90s or late 90s, there was a catalog called Delia's and it had all these like girly pajamas. I had on like the rattiest pair of Delia's pajamas. I was sitting in my family's living room on this like old 90s floral couch and I was sick. I was homesick and the Oprah Winfrey show came on.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And I just remember watching it and watching how she made the people in the audience feel. And watching Oprah just be such a compassionate, empathetic, kind human to her guests and also really care about humanity. And so I sat up, sick as I was, and I said to my mom, I'm going to do that, mom. I'm going to be a talk show host like Oprah.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And I know that I have something to talk about, but what happened was in my early twenties and even going through my twenties, I didn't have really enough life experience to have a platform to talk about anything. I feel like I do. I didn't have the life experience that I do now.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
Let me just say that, that, that I don't want to discount myself, but I feel like I needed more life experience to be able to.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
have a voice and know my voice and own my voice and i just equate talk show hosting to almost like being a florist when you get flowers you're almost always happy and i thought about becoming a talk show host so i could bring joy to other people's lives whether it was through television whether it was through an audio platform like podcasting
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
It was always my goal to use my voice for good and to make people feel really good in my presence. And so that was the goal. I had no clue it was going to be improv as the change catalyst. I had no idea it was going to be improv as the teaching tool, but I just knew I wanted to help people and bring joy.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
I love it. Okay, noted. It was heard here first. I will love you every time.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
Yeah, such a good question. To be honest with you, I don't remember. I think it was, I think it was something about team building and building trust, but it was my very, we barely had a, I didn't even have a logo. I just put slides together on a random slide deck and I said, okay, what do you want me to teach on?
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And I put together just a very small one hour presentation using improv as the teaching tool. And I actually found video of myself doing this on my computer. I need to post that video because it's clearly from like 2013. I had no clue what I was doing, but all I can see in that picture, coming back to your word joy, is joy. I just felt so joyful doing it and teaching.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And I knew every time I got in front of a group of people that that I was there to serve them. And I have to tell you, when I am in front of a room of people, something comes over me. It's not necessarily me. I feel like I am talking through just this greater good, and I'm here to help the greater collective find joy in their day-to-day. And so...
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
For me, I watched that video back and it's not necessarily what I said. It's how I felt in that moment and that energy that was in that room. And just the feeling of watching somebody else trust themselves enough to gently guide themselves out of their comfort zone and being the teacher to help them do that was incredible. And so it was a high and I kept chasing that high and wanting to do more.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
So here's just blanket how we work. When a client comes to us, we will get really specific on what are you hoping to achieve? What are your objectives? And then what challenges are you having? Over time, we've developed 10 different workshops. that can host up to 100 people.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And each workshop has a pre-work component with a video that shows them how not to do the skill that we're going to train them on. So there's comedy there. It's about a two to three minute video. And then it guides the participant. These And in that survey, we ask them their challenges and objectives.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And so we take what the client says and what the participants say, we marry it together, and we bring it to this in-person or virtual training. And so let's just use effective communication as an example. This is one of our most popular workshops. So every workshop has an overarching thesis statement to it.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And then we break down that thesis statement into chunks, most of the time three to four chunks. And in those chunks, we do one to two improv-based activities. So the thesis statement for effective communication is what you say and what you don't say affects how others listen and respond.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
So that first piece, we're doing two activities about what you say, your tone, your verbal tone, your written tone. We're doing two activities.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
they're high energy you're standing on your feet you're interacting with those around you and after each activity there's a debrief and in that debrief is what we call the method to our madness that's where the magic happens where we take what we just did we put it into context into your day-to-day and help you think differently about how you're communicating how you're using tone
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And then we do a separate activity at the end of every two, which is we ask them to take what we've just talked about as the larger group and put it into context in their role, because we really want them to get specific and bringing it back to their organization.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
So then we go to the next piece, which is what you don't say, which is all about non-verbal, two activities with a debrief and a partner activity at the end. We do effects how others listen. So two activities about active listening. and then a debrief, and then the partner activity, and then finally how all of this affects the way people respond.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
We do two activities there, and then we wrap up everything with a key takeaway, which I will tell you, Vence, one thing that sets us apart is that we have successfully coerced over 40,000 people to chicken dance. So in our workshops, whenever you hear the word improv, we chicken dance. And at the end, when we do our key takeaways, we crown an improv chicken champion.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
This is somebody who has gotten out of their comfort zone, given their all, and we have witnessed just being above and beyond the most enthusiastic person in the room. We celebrate that person. We do the key takeaways. And then we round with something we call the circle of yes, which is just this really high vibe, positive moment where we give each other praise.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And then we give love to that chicken champion and we end the session. And then after every workshop, we have an e-learning course built in conjunction with each workshop that then takes what we've done in the session and continue to learning for Monday, Wednesday, Friday for the next three weeks. And the lessons get sent to them via email. So it's really robust.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
We are a professional development first and foremost. Improv is the teaching tool, but we have 10 of those experiences, not to mention our keynotes, book clubs, all of that. So We really developed a lot of material over the past 10 years, and we're actually getting ready to come up with some fresh new ideas in 2025 that I'm super excited about. Everything that was built on client-esque.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
And so we created it with the client's challenges in mind and just kept listening and building to get us to this point.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
Yeah, such a good question. So we tell clients at the get-go, we don't measure your ROI, we measure your ROO, your return on objective. So that's why we're getting super specific with clients in that upcoming call. We have a consult call prior to every engagement. where we make sure we nail down their challenges and objectives and pair those with the participants.
Chief Change Officer
#160 From Talk Show Dreams to Improv CEO: Erin Diehl’s Business of Joy — Part One
So, and the way we work with clients is threefold. We have something, the first one is just a one and done workshop. We call it a culture jumpstart. So you might use this for a team office offsite in 2025 and then not hire us again until 2027. That's a culture jumpstart.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
What are the two to three things that you're gonna take with you from this experience? How are you gonna get through that experience? What are the things that you won't do in the future? And the E is evaluate the next steps. So you're going to put together an action plan. It could be two steps. It could be three steps. It could be one step. But whatever that action plan is. And then the O is that.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
So it's sitting in the again and marinating on what you just processed. The things that you're going to take away. The action steps you're going to put into motion. Because the N is the next failure step. There will be another one. And this time you've got another tool in your toolkit to help you move on from it. And you've also got the where all and the know all to see that this is part of life.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
When you allow failure to happen for you, not to you, you can bring it into the scene of your life and We say this in improv, there's no mistakes, only gifts. You can start to look at failure as opportunity and opportunity for innovation and change is a good thing, which you're listening to this show. You believe in change. So that's the move on methodology. And I hope.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
whatever failure was in your mind Vince it helped you work through that and I hope whoever you know all of our listeners today whatever that failure story was that WTF you were able to apply that and write it down and think about how you can come back to it I can tell you exactly why I connected with that question because I experienced it myself
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
Love it. Yeah, and know you're not alone in those thoughts. I do it too. I've caught myself many times today. Just know you're not alone. I think I do have a gift for your audience. If you're open to that, it's an affirmations list. It gives you a literally a list of 50 affirmations that you can use and they're not cheesy.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
They're really good affirmations that you can use to pull yourself out of a funk. So I'd be happy to send it to you. the second thing is i just want to say this if today made you laugh it made you smile it gave you food for thought and it gave you a positive piece of energy my only ask is that you pay it forward to somebody else today
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
we need more laughter more levity more positivity in this world and so my goal is joy then but you led me to my goal is joy and the greater we feel the more we attract into our life and my goal every single day is to feel good and if i don't feel good i can't make you feel good so make yourself feel good today and then pass that joy on
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
Yeah, I'm here for it. I love that. A smile goes a long way. You never know who has not had a smile today. So even that simple act of kindness can really pay it forward. And I'm here for your guest. I love that guest. And I love that you're spreading it too, Vince. So thank you so much for the opportunity to talk with you.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
Yeah, so this is actually a keynote that I do called F-Words at Work. And there's no swearing, Vince, okay? There's no swearing. Spoiler alert, the F-words are all about failure plus the frequency of failure equals the fundamentals of success. And truly, the reason I even created this is because I was living a crash course myself in failure.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
I created this content in 2021 and it was coming off of the pandemic in 2020. I'm sure you can remember. I'm sure our listeners can remember where they were in March of 2020 because it was a global pandemic, right? No matter where you were in the world. You were affected by COVID-19. And so at that time, myself, I was going through a period of time which I call the three P's.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
And I could also call them the three P-U's because it was the stinkiest period of my life. I had just delivered and had given birth to a miracle baby boy. And when I say miracle, then it's a miracle. There was a lot of science involved, if you will. My husband and I went through many years of infertility. We also had a shared genetic mutation. And...
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
It was a really long battle to conceive our son. And he had just been born in July of 2019. And so I came back to work in December of 2019. And then at about two months of work, when T-double hockey broke loose and as a business started to pivot and pivot. So my first P was pivoting and we were pivoting so much. I was legit pivoting.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
taking everything that we had done in person, this completely in-person, completely face-to-face, completely human-to-human professional development company had to become completely virtual overnight in order to survive. And so on top of being a new mom and figuring that out, I was perpetually pivoting our business, which led to my second P, which is people-pleasing, which...
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
is a pattern I've had my whole life. I grew up moving around a lot. And so how I got people to like me was being a giver and a pleaser. And I also use comedy as some of the mechanisms I use to please people. I was the person that was the clown, right? That walked in and made you laugh. And in 2020, I really saw this pattern take over.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
And I was at the time giving to this newborn miracle who was my son. I was giving to my family and my mom who was recovering from a stroke, by the way. I was giving to my team who was careful for their jobs. I was giving to my peers who were small business owners who were closing their doors, laying off their staff. I was giving to my clients.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
and helping them navigate these contracts that we had with them and how to figure out our next steps. But I was truly giving and giving to everyone except myself. which led to the third P, which was pain. And I'm not talking about, ouch, I stubbed my toe type pain.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
I'm talking about chronic pain, pain that lasted for two years, that was in my back and shoulders, that was undiagnosable by doctors, that was undiagnosable through x-rays and blood work and chiropractors couldn't crack. And this pain made me cry myself to sleep at night. It was physical pain like I'd never endured before.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
And it was pain that I later realized was due to these unprocessed emotions that I had been sitting with for years, from years of infertility, from the anger I had at the pandemic for taking away my identity and my business, pain from people pleasing and not even realizing that I was doing it.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
And so I had to set off on a self-healing journey because this period of time, the three P's was what I call my WTF story, my worst terrifying failure. Again, I'm not swearing here, but that worst terrifying failure ultimately led me to my greatest success. And I was able to heal myself.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
through a lot of healing work, which I can get into, but I was able to do that without surgery, without medication, without doctors. I was able to dissolve my pain. I was able to come into a new line of sight for myself, which I call the three P's.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
And I ultimately went from pivoting people, pleasing and pain to this life of purpose, which is helping people understand their own failures and how to move on from them. I have a serious toll on my priorities. I understand them. I even have an organizational chart for my priorities now. And I have the third P a deep sense of peace.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
And that is something that I've never had in 40 plus years of walking this earth. But it was ultimately that three-piece story that guided me to this place. And that's what I'm here to teach people is that failure isn't the end. It's not a door closed. It's opening you up to something greater. And
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
I sit here today and say this story without tears and without heartache because I've lived it and now I'm through it. But when I was in that story, it was so hard and every day felt like an uphill battle. And physical pain on top of mental pain is not something I would wish on anyone. So I share that to say you can change. There's such a thing as a mind-body connection.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
But you can also be the catalyst and the inspiration for other people. But you have to give to yourself first. And ultimately, that story guided me to write the book that I wrote and released in February of 2024. And I can talk about that too, but it was that healing that allowed me to be in alignment to write that book to help other people live the life they were meant to.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
Would you agree? Yes, I'm so with you. I have a methodology that I use, and this is something I teach in my keynote. I'm happy to share it with you that has really helped me, and it's helped me with that story and more what I call WTFs, worst terrifying failures that have come since then. Can I share that with you, Benz?
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
Yeah, yeah. And I definitely want to point out, it's not a hard sell. It is a tangible tool that I want to give you for free. That is something that I've used with my human intelligence and life experience to get me through these failures. And I think anybody listening and anyone going through any type of moment where they're beating themselves up, they don't know how to get through it.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
They don't know how to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's a tried and true method. And it's called this. You ready? move on okay and it is an acronym move on and i'm gonna break it down because honestly this method is so easy to remember because obviously you want to move on but the m in the move on stands for marinate
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
So when you think about your worst terrifying failure, actually, Vince, I'm going to have you do this with me. So I just want you to close your eyes for just a moment and everybody listening, just close your eyes. And I want you to think about your worst terrifying failure, your worst.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
worst fall on your face flop, that story that comes up when you think about failure, when you hear the word failure, and it could be one circumstance or a series of circumstances like my three P's story. It could be something where you were at home or at school or at work. I want you to think about who you were with and where you were when this happened. OK, got it.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
And then what we're going to do is we're going to apply this story to this move on methodology. OK, so take this story now called your WTF story, your worst terrifying failure. And let's start with the M. So the M is marinate. And so whatever this failure that comes up for you is, you've got to take the time to sit with it. Marinating is not like a steak. It doesn't happen overnight.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
You're probably going to need days, weeks, maybe even months to process. So sit with it within every way you feel comfortable, whether it's just going on a walk with no music or sitting in a meditation or journaling, but really allow yourself space to feel and process that failure. And then you move to the O of move on, which is own it.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
And it doesn't mean that you give full responsibility to anybody else or to yourself. You're just acknowledging that you were a part of this. And you are forgiving yourself for those negative thoughts that you've been thinking. Because here's a really fun fact for you. The average human thinks between 50 to 80,000 thoughts a day.
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
Of those 50 to 80,000, this is from a study from the National Science Foundation. Of those 50 to 80,000 thoughts, we form what are called thought worms. We form 6,200 thought worms. And of those 6,200 thought worms, what percentage of those would you think are negative? What do you think percentage-wise of 6,200 thoughts, what percentage of those thoughts do you think are negative?
Chief Change Officer
#272 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part Two
Yeah, it's 80%, which is so good. Yeah, it's 80%. And then what's worse is that we are repeating those same negative thoughts 95% of the time. So the O is so important because you have to own it and then you have to forgive yourself because you're a human being. We all do it. It's part of the human experience. And then the V, you're gonna verify the lessons that you learned.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
So, and the way we work with clients is threefold. We have something, the first one is just a one and done workshop. We call it a culture jumpstart. So you might use this for a team office offsite in 2025 and then not hire us again until 2027. That's a culture jumpstart.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
So in that one training session, we're not going to be able to change the course of your culture, but we're going to be able to be a conversation starter. And then the second way is something that we call a culture shift. So that is three workshops over the course of one year.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
where we are guiding participants building off of what we learned in the last session and continuing the conversation and that we're able to measure some behavioral change over time we're actually to see the results because we're still working together the third way is called culture change and i know you love this word culture change so that's six engagements over the course of two years
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
And that is we allow people to see that culture change over time. We're actually able to get in there, integrate what we've done with their core values. For example, American Marketing Association was a client of ours in the very beginning. And we worked with them with what we call culture change.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
And over time, they actually integrated one of our core values, which is yes and, into their core values. And it was prominent every single place in their office, in their meeting rooms. And it was a core tenet of how they operate. So that's really over time how we can build and change cultures, have the conversation shift to more meaningful behavioral change.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
With the culture jumpstart, it is a conversation starter, but that return on objective is measured not only from the participants with a survey at the end, but also from the client participant or the client who we've worked with, I should say. And we talk with them after to make sure that we hit the objectives.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
It was what they were looking for and talk about ways that we could improve it pun intended, which is our name in the future. So it's soft skills are much more hard to measure, but ultimately what you are getting is higher collaboration, Less frequent problem solving because people are coming up with solutions versus problems.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
You get more people interacting and cross collaborating with each other. And it overall creates this sense of positivity, which is psychological safety at its core. So that's what we're aiming to do is to bring this positive experience to your organization. How you take it and run with it is left to you if we don't work together over a series of time.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
Yeah. So this is actually a keynote that I do called F words at work and there's no swearing vents. Okay. There's no swearing. Spoiler alert. The F words are all about failure plus the frequency of failure equals the fundamentals of success. And truly the reason I even created this is because I was living a crash course myself in failure and
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
Yes, I am in Charleston, South Carolina. It's morning for me. It's evening for you. So I'm having some coffee and just enjoying the start of the day. When I was born, my mom said I came out of the womb dancing and saying, hello world, I'm here. So that was my first foray on earth. And then as I grew up, I fell in love with the stage. I was a dancer. I was an actress. I sang, but not well.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
And I decided early on I wanted to be a talk show host. That was my goal, Vince. And so I went to Clemson University and graduated with a degree in communications. And this was the early 2000s. So there wasn't a ton of... internet coaching or there wasn't a ton of opportunity for me to learn how to be a talk show host. So I said, where should I go?
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
Naturally, the home of Oprah Winfrey, my dream talk show host. So I moved to Chicago, started taking improv classes and really fell in love with it as an art form. And over the years, I did book some hosting things, but I kept coming back to improv. And finally, in my late 20s, I decided to stop traveling. I was doing a ton of traveling at the time.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
Take a nine to five job at a recruiting firm, which I had never done recruiting. And the job that I took was actually business development. So it was sales. And so I worked nine to five and then six to ten every night. I took classes at the Second City or Improv Olympic or the Annoyance, which are huge theaters in the US and in Chicago.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
And I just saw everything I was doing on stage really spill over into my workplace. I was becoming a better listener. I was more empathetic. I was thinking more quickly on my feet. And I knew that there was a connection between improv and the professional world. So at the time, one of my clients at this recruiting farm was United Airlines.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
I asked my boss if I could pilot, pun intended, a workshop to United using improv. And of course they said yes. And the first couple of ones I did were for free. And then United said, we're going to pay you. And so my very first client was United Airlines. As time progressed, I knew that this was my calling.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
I knew I wanted it to be bigger than just me, so I left my full-time job and started Improve It in 2014. Improve It is an improv-infused talent development company for the new generation of work. We use improv to teach people how to lead teams, how to be the highest versions of themselves, but it's ultimately all through play, and we've been in business 10 years, and here we are.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
Yeah. Oh, you're so right. We didn't have podcasts. There wasn't Instagram. There wasn't even Facebook at the time. Truly, when I went to college, Facebook did not exist until I graduated. So here's what I can tell you. I just remember
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
when i was 13 years old i was homesick from school i don't know if you remember back in the early 90s or late 90s there was a catalog called delia's and it had all these like girly pajamas i had on like the rattiest pair of delia's pajamas i was sitting in my family's living room on this like old 90s floral couch and i was sick i was homesick and the oprah winfrey show came on
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
And I just remember watching it and watching how she made the people in the audience feel and watching Oprah just be such a compassionate, empathetic, kind human to her guests and also really care about humanity. And so I sat up sick as I was and I said to my mom, I'm going to do that, mom. I'm going to be a talk show host like Oprah. And I know that I have something to talk about.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
But what happened was in my early 20s and even going through my 20s, I didn't have really enough life experience to have a platform to talk about anything I feel like I do. I didn't have the life experience that I do now. Let me just say that. Not that I don't want to discount myself, but I feel like I needed more life experience to be able to
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
have a voice and know my voice and own my voice and i just equate talk show hosting to almost like being a florist when you get flowers you're almost always happy and i thought about becoming a talk show host so i could bring joy to other people's lives whether it was through television whether it was through an audio platform like podcasting
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
It was always my goal to use my voice for good and to make people feel really good in my presence. And so that was the goal. I had no clue it was going to be improv as the change catalyst. I had no idea it was going to be improv as the teaching tool, but I just knew I wanted to help people and bring joy.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
I love it. Okay, noted. It was heard here first. I will love you every time.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
Yeah, such a good question. To be honest with you, I don't remember. I think it was, I think it was something about team building and building trust, but it was my very, we barely had a, I didn't even have a logo. I just put slides together on a random slide deck and I said, okay, what do you want me to teach on?
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
And I put together just a very small one hour presentation using improv as the teaching tool.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
and i actually found video of myself doing this on my computer i need to post that video because it's clearly from like 2013 i had no clue what i was doing but all i can see in that picture coming back to your word joy is joy i just felt so joyful doing it and teaching and i knew every time i got in front of a group of people that I was there to serve them.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
And I have to tell you, when it's when I am in front of a room of people, something comes over me. It's not necessarily me. I feel like I am talking through just this greater good. And I'm here to help the greater collective find joy in their day to day. And so
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
For me, I watched that video back and it's not necessarily what I said, it's how I felt in that moment and that energy that was in that room. And just the feeling of watching somebody else trust themselves enough to gently guide themselves out of their comfort zone and being the teacher to help them do that was incredible. And so it was a high and I kept chasing that high and wanting to do more.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
So here's just blanket how we work. When a client comes to us, we will get really specific on what are you hoping to achieve? What are your objectives? And then what challenges are you having? Over time, we've developed 10 different workshops.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
that can host up to 100 people and each workshop has a pre-work component with a video that shows them how not to do the skill that we're going to train them on so there's comedy there it's about a two to three minute video and then it guides the participant these are for the participants to a survey
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
and in that survey we ask them their challenges and objectives and so we take what the client says and what the participants say we marry it together and we bring it to this in-person or virtual training and so let's just use effective communication as an example this is one of our most popular workshop so every workshop has an overarching thesis statement to it and then we break down that thesis statement and to chunks you most of the time three to four chunks
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
And in those chunks, we do one to two improv-based activities. So the thesis statement for effective communication is what you say and what you don't say affects how others listen and respond. So that first piece, we're doing two activities about what you say, your tone, your verbal tone, your written tone. We're doing two activities. They're high energy. You're standing on your feet.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
You're interacting with those around you. And after each activity, there's a debrief. And in that debrief is what we call the method to our madness. That's where the magic happens, where we take what we just did. We put it into context into your day to day and help you think differently about how you're communicating, how you're using tone.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
And then we do a separate activity at the end of every two, which is we ask them to take what we've just talked about as the larger group and put it into context in their role, because we really want them to get specific and bringing it back to their organization.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
So then we go to the next piece, which is what you don't say, which is all about non-verbal two activities with a debrief and a partner activity at the end. We do affects how others listen, so two activities about active listening, and then a debrief, and then the partner activity, and then finally, how all of this affects people, the way people respond.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
We do two activities there, and then we wrap up everything with a key takeaway, which I will tell you, Vence, one thing that sets us apart is that we have successfully coerced over 40,000 people to chicken dance. So in our workshops, whenever you hear the word improv, we chicken dance. And at the end, when we do our key takeaways, we crown an improv chicken champion.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
This is somebody who has gotten out of their comfort zone, given their all. And we have witnessed just being above and beyond the most enthusiastic person in the room. We celebrate that person. We do the key takeaways. And then we round with something we call the circle of yes, which is just this really high vibe.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
positive moment where we give each other praise and then we give love to that chicken champion and we end the session and then after every workshop we have an e-learning course built in conjunction with each workshop that then takes what we've done in the session and continue to learning for monday wednesday friday for the next three weeks and the lessons get sent to them via email so it's really robust we are professional development first and foremost
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
Improv is the teaching tool, but we have 10 of those experiences, not to mention our keynotes, book clubs, all of that. So we really developed a lot of material over the past 10 years, and we're actually getting ready to come up with some fresh new ideas in 2025 that I'm super excited about. The everything that was built on client-esque.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
And so we created it with the client's challenges in mind and just kept listening and building to get us to this point.
Chief Change Officer
#271 Erin Diehl: Talk Show Dreams, Improv Realities — Part One
Yeah, such a good question. So we tell clients at the get-go, we don't measure your ROI, we measure your ROO, your return on objective. So that's why we're getting super specific with clients in that upcoming call. We have a consult call prior to every engagement. where we make sure we nail down their challenges and objectives and pair those with the participants.