The Beginnings of You, Yes!
I’ve always been an equally right and left brained person.
I graduated from college with a degree in business management and immediately started work at an improv theatre. I’ve spent the last 15+ years of my life in crunching numbers by day and cracking jokes by night. I’ve worked in development, marketing, management, as an independent consultant, and most recently, a coach. I’ve also performed in hundreds of improv comedy shows, making up countless scenes in front of thousands of people, and have taught the basics of improvisation to hundreds of students. Here’s what I’ve learned: it’s all the same. Not the work itself (please don’t improvise your next big presentation - or if you do, please post it on YouTube and @ me), but the principles that make you successful in both improv and business - those are the same.
Although the content is different, the lessons I teach to my improv students and my business clients are almost identical:
Be authentic
Trust yourself and your team
Have confidence in your choices
Take decisive action
Don’t be afraid to change course when new information arises
Fail, and then get up and try again
Sound familiar? If you’re a freelancer, entrepreneur, or small business owner, it probably does. Here’s the cool thing: improv makes learning these lessons a lot funner, more palatable, and easier to retain. Don’t believe me? There’s actually quite a bit of research on it. Check out this article in MIT Sloan. (If you’re looking for more reading, I have several more articles linked on my Testimonials page.)
Most of my clients tend to be creative types themselves and I thought “Hmmm. I bet using improv philosophy to inform the business coaching I do would make things more enjoyable and easier to digest.” Turns out, it does! And so, You, Yes! Coaching was born. Welcome! I’m so glad you’re on this journey along with me!