When you think of building skills at work, improv probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind, but Erin Diehl has made a career of it.
Erin is an improv veteran and the CEO and founder of improve it!, a unique professional development company she started in Chicago.
It turns out improv is rooted in many skills we need to succeed at work—like trust, teamwork, creativity, and communication. Erin and her team have used improv to teach thousands to build their storytelling and presentation skills.
When it comes to leadership, Erin’s new book “I See You!” teaches leaders how to use radical empathy as a superpower to become the best version of themselves for their co-workers and employees.
Here’s to taking risks and taking your business game to the next level with Erin Diehl.
Resources from the episode:
- Connect with Erin on LinkedIn and Instagram.
- Read more about Erin’s new book and order it here.
- Get your 4-step consistency planner from Erin and improve it! here.
- Learn more about improve it! and the work they do here.
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
[00:00:00] Mark Wright: Erin Diehl. Welcome to the BEATS WORKING podcast. It’s so great to have you here.
[00:00:03] Mark Wright: I’ve been looking forward to this.
[00:00:05] Erin Diehl: Me too. Thank you for having me. And I’m excited to chat. I love the concept of the show. So let’s do it.
[00:00:13] Mark Wright: We’re going to talk about your new book, which came out in February. That’s awesome. I see you a leader’s guide to energizing your team through radical empathy. I want to start though with improv because I think I’ve, one of my favorite shows is whose line is it anyway,
[00:00:27] Mark Wright: and I absolutely love improv. I’m terrified by improv because I’ve never actually done it. But, , I’d love to know more about why you got into improv and then you made this cool switch to take improv to the business world. So take me back to how you got involved in all of that.
[00:00:45] Erin Diehl: Oh man, it’s a wild ride. It was a dare. , and here we are. No, it was okay. So it’s interesting that you said you’re terrified of improv because I was too. My mom was in community theater her entire life. She’s 70 still doing it to this day. [00:01:00] I was put in a performance of My Fair Lady at three years old with my mother as Eliza Doolittle.
[00:01:05] Erin Diehl: Okay, so I was, I was put on the stage at a young age. I was a dancer. I danced collegiately at Clemson, competitively. I did all the things on stage with a script. And here’s what’s funny, and you’ll like this, Mark, because you’re in journalism. I went to Clemson University, not known for its journalism school, but I went there and had a major in communications in the hopes of becoming Oprah Winfrey.
[00:01:31] Erin Diehl: , yeah, this was the early 2000s. There weren’t a ton of classes. The internet was still like, Getting off the crack, snapple boom of AOL, you know, this was like not, there weren’t a lot of ways to become Oprah at the time. And so when I graduated with my degree from Clemson university and communications, I said, what’s next?
[00:01:50] Erin Diehl: Well, I should probably go to Chicago where Oprah lives. And somehow through osmosis, her vibes are gonna get to me and I’m gonna become Oprah. [00:02:00] And so I moved to Chicago with little to no plan. And I thought, well, what would be something that would be impactful as a talk show host? So I started taking an improv class and it really scared the living crap out of me.
[00:02:15] Erin Diehl: I grew up with a script and I would get the sweaty armpits every class. I was so used to having control, and oh man, I was a really bad improviser in the beginning because I wanted to control the scenes, and it was really hard for me to let go, and then it became like exposure therapy, and then it became like therapy, and then it became like a drug, and I just couldn’t get enough of it, and I, Really started getting into improv probably in my late twenties.
[00:02:42] Erin Diehl: And that’s when I was working as a business development associate at a recruiting firm, not ever anything I thought I would do. And I just started to see the things I was learning in class and on my shows and on my stage, just start to spill over into my professional life. I was a better [00:03:00] listener. I was more empathetic.
[00:03:01] Erin Diehl: I thought more quickly on my feet. Can I use words? I thought more quickly on my feet. And, uh, I got this idea for Improve It and talked to my leader at the time who I talk about in the book. She is the case study for selfless leadership. And I said, Jen, I have this idea to start a company who uses improv as a training tool for corporate America for professionals.
[00:03:25] Erin Diehl: And she said, I love this idea. Let’s pitch it to one of our clients, which are piloted. I should say to one of our clients, which just so happened to be United Airlines. Pun intended on the pilot and they loved it and they hired me for free and then they started paying me and then I knew Improve It had legs and I knew I wanted it to be more than just me.
[00:03:46] Erin Diehl: And so after a year and a half of staying in that job, after building the idea, I left and Improve It was born. And now 10 years later, here we are.
[00:03:54] Mark Wright: love it because. If you think about what improv really is, it [00:04:00] is forcing people to be publicly vulnerable. I think number one, which kind of glues people together in a weird way. But also, like you said, it builds trust. You have to , be a team member. You have to communicate, you have to problem solve, you’ve got to listen.
[00:04:17] Mark Wright: , so when you lead corporate people through improv, what does that look like? And, what is the end result , when you’re done with the day?
[00:04:25] Erin Diehl: Yeah, I love that and I will tell you I love that you said it’s you’re vulnerable, right? Like it’s like you bond in this vulnerable way and that’s really what happens So before we ever work with a client we get super clear on their objective and we don’t say we don’t measure ROI In success of a program, we measure the ROO, the return on the objective, and we get really clear on what it is they want to achieve and then what their challenges are.
[00:04:52] Erin Diehl: And from there, we have 10 different soft skill training workshops and experiences that they can choose from. [00:05:00] And those range from things like presentation skills, leadership, communication, effective, communication, team building. Thinking quickly on your feed, I can list the whole 10, but just to give you a few examples.
[00:05:13] Erin Diehl: And from there, we really get close with the client. We understand what they’re looking to achieve from it. We also send a pre work video and it uses our improvisers to show you, it’s comedic, what not to do. When training this soft skill. So we’re showing you the opposite of what let’s say we’re training on effective communication.
[00:05:33] Erin Diehl: We show you what effective communication does not look like and then we send the participants a survey to understand their challenges and objectives. We marry all of those things together. Go into the live session, it could be virtual or in person, super on your feet, super interactive. There’s no technology except a PowerPoint with very few words on the screen.
[00:05:54] Erin Diehl: You can’t have a phone in your hand or your laptop and you are just, In play [00:06:00] with your team or whoever you’re there with, there’s laughter. And I always say there’s like a very much method to our madness. We have, or even though we’re improvisers, we have planned this workshop in a way that goes from low risk activity to high risk.
[00:06:15] Erin Diehl: And so people walk in this group of 20 individuals, they’ll walk out this cohesive ensemble of. a collective team of 20. You can feel the energy shift as the workshop progresses. And then we have a three week e learning course built in conjunction with everything we do , to continue the learning. , it’s now in a full experience.
[00:06:32] Erin Diehl: It used to just be the live session, but the pre and the post work came from clients saying, well, you know, how do we make sure we’re knowing what the participants want? And how do we continue this great conversation after you leave?
[00:06:44] Mark Wright: Wow. There’s something about doing. Things in a group. There’s this thing called pub choir. I don’t know if you’ve heard about it. This crazy woman who was a music teacher in a school in Australia decided [00:07:00] to launch a business that taught complete strangers in huge auditoriums, how to sing three part harmony together.
[00:07:07] Erin Diehl: Hmm.
[00:07:08] Mark Wright: one of the iconic rock venues in Seattle where all the bands like Nirvana were born. And 750 of us sang a Whitney Houston song. And, and she led us through this thing. And it just made me think that when you’re leading these group sessions, like at the end of the night, that, I mean, literally that experience was the most fun entertainment experience I’ve ever had of any kind.
[00:07:33] Mark Wright: And we just belted out this song and it sounded really good. I’ll have to
[00:07:37] Erin Diehl: What Whitney’s song
[00:07:38] Mark Wright: uh, I want to dance with somebody.
[00:07:40] Erin Diehl: Oh, classic, classic. So
[00:07:44] Mark Wright: But there’s something about group activities. Do you find that when people do this improv, it’s kind of like going away to summer camp when you spend all that time with people and you, you’re vulnerable. , I’m guessing that teams are transformed after they go through this with you.
[00:07:58] Erin Diehl: A thousand [00:08:00] percent. I love that you used a summer camp analogy. I went to Camp Kolomoki every summer. Okay. As the, as a youth. And, uh, when I came back from Camp Kolomoki, I was like, it took me like a week to get back together because it was just such a bonding experience. Same with these workshops. It’s so transformative to witness, to be a third party watching it from the outside, because I know what’s going to happen.
[00:08:26] Erin Diehl: They have no clue what’s going to happen. And we’ve raised, I mean, Any industry, we’ve worked with any industry, any team within an organization, name it, we’ve worked with it. And I’m talking about like from accounting teams to interns to, I worked with a group of a hundred roofers, men who worked on roofs, like literally, they have to have collaboration in order to do their job.
[00:08:52] Erin Diehl: It just works. It’s such a wonderful teaching tool because it’s so experiential and it’s such a [00:09:00] wonderful way for people to take that hypothetical mask on that they wear to work and just be in play, just enjoy each other. without title, without rank. I really don’t know a better teaching tool.
[00:09:14] Erin Diehl: I want to try this pub choir because that sounds cool, but, I’ve never seen a better teaching tool than improv , in my
[00:09:21] Mark Wright: So what’s the key to improv, Erin ? Like if you and I were doing an improv right now, what, what would it sound like? Mm hmm.
[00:09:28] Erin Diehl: Yeah. So the biggest rule is yes. And if you’ve heard about improv, you’ve probably heard about yes. And which is whatever you just said, I’m not going to negate it. I can say Mark. Now, I’m not going to talk about improv, and then where does our conversation go? But I could have been like, yes, Mark, improv is such a wonderful teaching tool, and did you know?
[00:09:47] Erin Diehl: And continue that conversation, and then we have something to build off of. And then for you to yes and me would be building off what I’ve just said and adding to it. You don’t have to agree, you just don’t negate it. And [00:10:00] so it’s such a collaborative teaching tool. It’s great for brainstorming. But improv in itself is really this idea of you build a brick, or you bring a brick, I bring a brick, together we’re building this house.
[00:10:12] Erin Diehl: And the house is going to look completely different than if one of us just built it. It’s actually going to be more dynamic and diverse and beautiful because each one of us has had a hand in building it.
[00:10:23] Mark Wright: That’s awesome. I’ll have to try it on stage someday. I think that would be, that would be super fun. Erin , let’s talk about your new book. , it’s called I See You. It kind of reminds me of that line from, uh, Jim Cameron’s movie Avatar, where they say, I see you, which
[00:10:36] Erin Diehl: Yeah. Ha ha ha.
[00:10:38] Mark Wright: you know, the blue people and others as you know, they acknowledge them physically and spiritually.
[00:10:43] Mark Wright: , I see you a leader’s guide to energizing your team through radical empathy. You’ve described the book as kind of a leadership book mixed with comedy and spirituality. I’d love to know, I mean, first, I’d like your perspective on something, Erin . I’ve been interviewing a number of people lately [00:11:00] who are in this same vein that you are, and that is, it’s kind of, Very related, I should say, to our mission of redeeming work.
[00:11:10] Mark Wright: Shine, the new book by Gino Wickman and Rob Dubay, two amazing entrepreneurial coaches for decades. Their new book is, is all about bringing the humanity back to business, that you can be a, you can be a hardcore driven entrepreneur, but , you can have peace. And serenity at the same time. And, and we’re getting, I mean, 20 years ago, people would look at these ideas and go, you are crazy.
[00:11:32] Mark Wright: Where, where are these ideas coming? Do you feel like we’re turning the corner when it comes to creating a more human centric workplace?
[00:11:40] Erin Diehl: A thousand percent. I think to get real deep and spiritual. I’m gonna go there. I was like, do I go there? I’m gonna do it. I think a lot of people are having an awakening That was a long time coming, you know My for example, my dad his generation was all about going [00:12:00] to work working long hours getting a pension getting You know 401k retiring boom and I I think I’m an elder millennial and I think millennials and Gen Z are seeing missions beyond the work.
[00:12:14] Erin Diehl: They want to feel mission critical. They want to feel like they’re adding to the greater collective of humanity and not just going in and punching a clock and punching out. And I have awakened a part of me that I know was always supposed to be there. I guess you could say I’ve remembered who I was supposed to become.
[00:12:34] Erin Diehl: And I have really found this profound use of my work to help people achieve higher consciousness through play. And I think everyone has the capability to be the highest version of themselves at work, whatever work, whatever industry, whatever job title they may have. They just don’t know [00:13:00] how to get there.
[00:13:01] Erin Diehl: And so I got myself there. I’ve helped people all over the world do it, and that is my mission, is to help people achieve the highest consciousness they can of themselves, be the highest versions of themselves, and show that, and not just in their personal life, at work. And I can do that, if I can help one person every day, I’ve done my job.
[00:13:26] Mark Wright: Our founder, Dan Rogers, one of his core tenants is business leaders need to create an ecosystem that allows this stuff to happen, just like a farmer. My family has an organic vegetable farm. And. , the way that you successfully grow vegetables is you have to create the environment that causes the seed and the plant to thrive.
[00:13:48] Mark Wright: And, , Dan very much believes , it’s on leaders to create that ecosystem. , I know you believe that you talk about, , starting with self love and inner peace and positive energy. I’d love for you, Erin , to [00:14:00] talk to that business leader. Who is interested in doing it a better way. , and maybe they, you know, cause let’s face it, companies are very structured and there’s a lot of history.
[00:14:08] Mark Wright: And a lot of times we enter into companies and we haven’t created this structure, but we have to live by it. How, how does a leader in an organization start to transform it?
[00:14:19] Erin Diehl: Yeah, well and I, this is why I structured the book the way that I did, and I love that you brought that up. First, you have to know and not just like yourself. You have to really embrace who you are and that sounds so cliche and someone listening probably is rolling their eyes right now, but you cannot, you cannot tend to the garden.
[00:14:41] Erin Diehl: You cannot grow anything in that garden unless you’ve watered yourself. Unless you are giving yourself the nutrients and the sunlight and all of the things to blossom and then you’ll create this ripple effect of change in the garden when you’ve done that. It really takes inner [00:15:00] work and I believe, like, I’m so grateful for coaches and therapists and people that are out there, but you could go to therapy your entire life and if you don’t do the work internally to actually like who you are, then you’re just, you’re in dry land, man.
[00:15:16] Erin Diehl: Like you’re not gonna, nothing is going to get watered. Nothing is going to get soiled. Nothing is going to reap and sow because there’s nowhere to grow because you’re stunting your own growth. I really took your metaphor and just ran with it.
[00:15:32] Mark Wright: I
[00:15:32] Erin Diehl: So, but the first thing is that self love and I have so, I have tangible activities that I could talk about and I could definitely do that.
[00:15:40] Erin Diehl: But just to kind of continue the question, after you love yourself, you have more love to give and you can become a selfless leader to other people. That doesn’t mean giving up yourself. That just means giving and serving. And I, I did not use or make up this acronym, Jen Gottlieb. I’ve heard her say this, hope.
[00:15:58] Erin Diehl: H O P E, [00:16:00] help one person every day. If you can do that as a leader, It’s and you’re giving from that full cup. You’re then helping other people. That’s what leadership is It’s serving others and then when you do that people want to stay in that garden. They want to grow with you They want to continue their growth because they have an opportunity to do that because you’re growing yourself You’re growing them and you’re gonna attract more people.
[00:16:27] Erin Diehl: Your garden is gonna flourish and you’re gonna magnetize people Partners Organizations to you that you wouldn’t have otherwise. So it really starts with self. And that’s why I see you. And I love that you talked about avatar. That’s so funny. It’s kind of that spiritual thing. Like I see you when you hold up a mirror, you see yourself.
[00:16:51] Erin Diehl: And because you’re able to see that person looking back at you, you’re able to then really, truly see the other human beings in your life.
[00:16:59] Mark Wright: When you [00:17:00] talk about radical empathy, what does that look like in the workplace?
[00:17:05] Erin Diehl: so, and I love, can I just tell you, we just did a book club and I asked this question to the group and I just got chills even thinking about it. Everybody has their own definition, but ultimately what it looks like is mattering, belonging, feeling seen, and feeling heard. For me personally, I talk about this in the book.
[00:17:30] Erin Diehl: It’s not about putting on somebody else’s shoes. It’s, hey, let me borrow your Nike dunks, wear them for a minute, get a blister, and then hand them back to you. And now, oh, I see what you’re talking about. They are tight, you know? So it’s literally, and I have a wonderful activity that I use and I, I use it every single day in my professional life as I’m leading teams, as I’m leading clients called empathy, which is literally repeating [00:18:00] back a challenge or whatever somebody said to you in the first person as if you were them.
[00:18:05] Erin Diehl: Cause that just filters that lens a little differently. It makes you think about the other person and take yourself out of the equation. And when you leave from that place of. Oh, you know what? Mark’s shoes are tight. We should probably get him a new, I’m just really leaning into this metaphor, but when I really filter in something that you’ve said to me that might be a challenge, I’m seeing it completely differently.
[00:18:28] Erin Diehl: So could I ask you, Mark, just to play along with me on this? What’s a, what’s a challenge you have going on right now? It could be personal. It could be professional.
[00:18:37] Mark Wright: Wow. That’s, that’s interesting. I think. I think probably my biggest challenge and I’ll, be really honest with you. This, , the work that we are doing now and the jobs that we have at work P2P, which is our company that, Dan founded a non traditional media company. There’s no job description.
[00:18:57] Erin Diehl: Hmm.
[00:18:58] Mark Wright: He says, if you [00:19:00] want a job description, it’s be Mark and be awesome. , and Dan is a brilliant entrepreneur. , And he is expecting us to figure out the future. So we are on a mission to redeem work.
[00:19:15] Erin Diehl: Okay.
[00:19:16] Mark Wright: and I have never had a job where all of that is on me. I mean, Dan’s doing his part, but he’s not telling us what to do. It’s the scariest, most exciting, job that I’ve ever had because of that.
[00:19:33] Mark Wright: So inventing. idea, getting this idea out into the world of redeeming work. It’s, um, it’s mind blowing and it’s scary all at the same time.
[00:19:44] Erin Diehl: Okay. Okay. I’m so glad you told me that. You made my job really difficult because now I have to repeat back everything that you’re saying in first person. I’m going to try my best. I’m going to try my best, but I’m going to sum it up. I’m going to miss a few parts I bet. [00:20:00] Okay. So I’m repeating back what Mark said in the first person as if I am Mark.
[00:20:04] Erin Diehl: It’s okay. This is a great challenge. I’m up for it. Here we go. All right. My biggest challenge right now is that Dan Rogers, our founder, he is building this and we don’t have a job description. And when I ask him for one, he says, be Mark and be awesome. So It’s kind of a scary challenge because I’m doing this as I’m building it.
[00:20:32] Erin Diehl: And I’ve never done anything like this before. I totally botched it. And it was, it was a few lines. It was a few lines, but I summarized it as best as I could. So what that did for me, repeating back your challenge, like I kept wanting to I visualized an airplane in like you wanting to build this plane, but you’re building while flying it.
[00:20:59] Erin Diehl: [00:21:00] It’s while I was saying those words, that’s like the visualization I had, but I was saying it as if I was me and I kind of got a pit in my stomach when I was like, it’s scary because it is. And that’s, that’s what that activity did for me. It was like, I visually saw what you were going through and I had an emotional response to it.
[00:21:20] Erin Diehl: What was it like for you to hear me repeating back your challenge?
[00:21:24] Mark Wright: When I heard you repeat back, what I had said. It actually felt really good. And I was like, Oh, wow. And even if you intellectually don’t get it or buy in or whatever, just the fact that you are repeating back, what I said made me feel good and made me feel heard. It made me feel heard like, wow,
[00:21:47] Erin Diehl: so and that yeah, that’s empathy right like that right there And so this is an activity like you could use this with your partner. You could use this with your kids You could use this anywhere anytime [00:22:00] anyplace because people really care, but they don’t really care what you say. They really care about how you make them feel.
[00:22:09] Erin Diehl: And empathy is a vibration. It’s a frequency. It’s a feeling of energy that I am in a safe space is really what I think it means is I am, I was told I have a four and a half year old son and he, let’s just say has a flair for the dramatic , and definitely is my child. And, uh, when he’s freaking out big drama.
[00:22:32] Erin Diehl: I’m like, you’re safe and loved. You’re safe and loved. And he’ll repeat it back. I’m like, tell me you’re safe and loved. I’m safe and loved. I’m safe. And so really this feeling of empathy brings us back to a feeling of safety. Like we’re okay. And we are okay. And that’s really, I think what humans at work really want to feel is that they’re in a safe space.
[00:22:55] Erin Diehl: Their nervous system can calm down. They don’t have to be on edge [00:23:00] and That’s why I think this work is so important to humanity, and to professionals specifically.
[00:23:08] Mark Wright: Yeah. And I’ll tell you, you know, broadcasting is kind of a weird business, but I think, I think a lot of businesses. Get so caught up in the numbers and the P and L and all that stuff that, that a lot of times when you go into a business, you can feel that tension and you can feel that people are on edge.
[00:23:26] Mark Wright: And, uh, that’s why Dan says, just be yourself and be awesome. , and we’ll figure the rest out. And I just, it’s just, it’s brilliantly simple. I’d love to talk more about. You’ve covered abundance versus scarcity, and I’d like to know why. You think that’s so important? I came to the realization recently that I have been living with a scarcity mindset for a long time, but I haven’t had to worry about money for decades,
[00:23:58] Erin Diehl: Hmm.
[00:23:59] Mark Wright: was a [00:24:00] really interesting light bulb that went off. I grew up really poor. We were, you know, we had, I didn’t know we were as
[00:24:05] Erin Diehl: on the farm. I know you’re on the farm.
[00:24:07] Mark Wright: I didn’t, I didn’t know we were as far as we were, and I’m just amazed that my mother was able to keep food on the table. And, I think a lot of us don’t examine our own mindset when it comes to scarcity and abundance. And I’d love for you to cover why that’s so important.
[00:24:23] Erin Diehl: Oh my god. Well, first of all, thank you for sharing that and know you’re not alone. I also had a scarcity mindset for a long time. So this is actually a backed by data and science. So I’m going to give you some facts and I’m going to give you like my version of it. Okay, so there was a study from the National Science Foundation in 2005 that the average human thinks between 50, 000 to 80, 000.
[00:24:51] Erin Diehl: 50, 000 thoughts per day, and of those 50 to 80, 000 thoughts, they form 6, 200 [00:25:00] thought worms, or sentences, words formed together to form sentences. Of those 6, 200 thought worms that we think, what percentage do you think of those thought worms were negative?
[00:25:12] Mark Wright: I’m going to say. Overwhelming majority. 75%.
[00:25:17] Erin Diehl: 80%. Exactly. Yeah. So here’s the other kicker. We are repeating the same thoughts 95 percent of the time. So, you’re not alone, Mark. You’re literally not alone because everyone does it. So, this idea of scarcity, we repeat these scarcity statements for me. I lived with a scarcity statement for a very long time.
[00:25:46] Erin Diehl: I am not worthy. I probably spent the first eight years of my business in this mindset, truly. And I had to change that I am not worthy to I am worthy. That took intentional effort. I have a [00:26:00] shortcut effort I could share with you that I use on the daily called New Choice that could, okay, so let me, do this one on you.
[00:26:08] Erin Diehl: Okay, so this is actually, it’s pulled from the book. It’s also a, it’s a activity pulled from the improv stage, but the great news is you don’t need a stage or a scene partner because the scene partner is. Your mind, mind, mind. That was your mind being blown. Okay, so here’s how it works. , you are going to tell me that scarcity statement, that thought that you’re thinking 80 percent of the time that is negative, that is a limiting belief.
[00:26:35] Erin Diehl: What is that thought that usually comes up for
[00:26:37] Mark Wright: Yeah. It usually just sounds something like, I don’t think I have enough money. I don’t think I have enough money to secure our financial future.
[00:26:44] Erin Diehl: Yep. Okay. Let’s just remove, think I don’t have enough money to secure our financial future. Okay. Cause you’re thinking it. I don’t have enough money to secure. Our financial future what’s going to happen when you say that the next time it comes up you’re going to clap And tell [00:27:00] yourself new choice This is a pattern disruption.
[00:27:03] Erin Diehl: You could clap under like right now You could just like do it with your hands clasped if you’re in a meeting You can just kind of like do like this, but that will disrupt the pattern Step two in your mind. You’re going to forgive yourself Because you’re human, 80 percent of the time, all of humanity is doing this, and then you’re going to have a reframe for that scarcity statement.
[00:27:22] Erin Diehl: It will become your abundance statement. So how could you reframe that statement?
[00:27:26] Mark Wright: I have enough.
[00:27:28] Erin Diehl: That’s it. I have enough. So the next time that, I just had a show with a woman, and she told me, she called it head trash. The next time that head trash pops up. I want you to clap, tell yourself new choice, forgive yourself and say, I have enough. Or if you get to the point, you don’t need the pattern disruption.
[00:27:46] Erin Diehl: You’re just going to replace it with, I have enough. I have enough. I have enough. More is coming. More is coming. I have enough, or you don’t even have to say the more is coming, but you genuinely changing your thoughts, changes [00:28:00] the words that you say, which changes the actions that you take. And so when we go from this scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset, we’re actually giving not only ourselves the gift of inner peace, but we’re giving the world around us peace because we, actually control every single cell in our body with our thoughts. So you’re saving yourself doctor’s visits. You’re saving yourself visits to the chiropractor cause your back won’t hurt because you’re going to heal the emotions that you’re feeling by removing the scarcity and, bringing in more abundance into your mindset. It’s a mindset.
[00:28:40] Mark Wright: And it’s just like early in your career when you didn’t believe in yourself, when you started to believe in yourself, I’m guessing you showed up with a completely different energy at those, pitch sessions or those business meetings, things like that.
[00:28:52] Erin Diehl: Yeah. I, I like know the shift. I probably couldn’t watch an episode of my own podcast for like probably the first 50 episodes. I wasn’t, [00:29:00] I was a different person. I had to go through a healing journey of my own to, to release those emotions, and I’m so glad I did, and I know part of my purpose , in helping people reach their highest consciousness is helping them do the same thing.
[00:29:17] Mark Wright: It’s interesting that you, Talk about the number of negative thoughts that we have in our heads every day. I was first exposed to that idea. I met, , do you know, Russell Wilson, the quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos, he’s a famous quarterback in the NFL, , iconic sports figure in Seattle, and I had a chance to get to know his mental coach.
[00:29:39] Mark Wright: , who’s no longer with us. Trevor Moad is his name. And Trevor was a brilliant mental coach. But how he transformed Russell, who was one of the shortest quarterbacks in the NFL, , is that he got Russell together. They got Russell to just truly believe in himself and to take those negative thoughts , and [00:30:00] just get them out of there.
[00:30:01] Mark Wright: So Russell actually believed Trevor said that since he had a lower center of gravity, he was quicker on his feet and was harder to catch. Don’t know if that’s actually true, but Russell believed it long story short. Russell, you know, is one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the history of the NFL, one of the most successful quarterbacks.
[00:30:21] Mark Wright: And it was that self belief that, , Trevor Moad helped him, but you, they couldn’t get to that self belief until they took care of those negative thoughts. And it’s such a radical, idea , for a lot of us. And the other thing that Trevor taught. Russell is that we need to think about our mistakes to the extent that they will benefit us in the immediate present and future.
[00:30:47] Mark Wright: So
[00:30:48] Erin Diehl: Yep.
[00:30:49] Mark Wright: first play of one game, Russell’s on his own five yard line. He fumbles the ball, the other team recovers, they end up scoring. A reporter asked Russell after the [00:31:00] game, what were you thinking after, after you fumbled on the first play? And he goes, honestly, I, I hadn’t thought about it until you just. Just talked about it now.
[00:31:08] Mark Wright: Russell realized that if he thought about things, negative things, that in a way that didn’t benefit him, he was wasting his mental energy and he was sabotaging his future performance. So it’s that idea, , all those negative thoughts and stuff. Let’s think about the ones that benefit us. Okay. I did this and that probably was not a good idea.
[00:31:30] Mark Wright: So to take those and reframe them in, in a way that we use them in a positive way, but, uh, I love that lesson that you led me through right there. That was really interesting.
[00:31:41] Erin Diehl: Huh. Thank you. And I love that story. That’s a really cool story. And you know, I just, uh, piggyback one thing that also improv teaches in this is another major tenant is there are no mistakes, only gifts. It’s a massive rule on the stage. If anything happens in the scene, not a part of the scene, it [00:32:00] becomes a part of the scene and you make it.
[00:32:01] Erin Diehl: So, and same with life. You can see mistakes as mistakes or you can see them as opportunities. And that mantra is also kind of built into my DNA now. And I, say, Phil, yeah, you know, when things happen, it sucks. I’m going to take, I’m a human, I have to process it. I’m not always happy about it, but there’s always a lesson.
[00:32:21] Erin Diehl: And if I can take that lesson and apply it, then there’s a reason it happened.
[00:32:25] Mark Wright: Yeah. It sounds like you’ve learned a lot, Erin , over the years. , if you had to go back and give your earlier self some advice, What would what would you say
[00:32:36] Erin Diehl: This is so interesting. Mark, you’re really bringing up things for me today that, like, the universe is trying to get me to actually apply, because I have a, I work with an energy healer and she actually told me right now, I need to honor my inner child and I need a picture of my younger self to look at, to consciously give compassion and love to her.
[00:32:56] Erin Diehl: But I think if I could say anything at this point in my [00:33:00] life, it would be to surrender more. And what I mean by that is I’m a type a control freak Yeah, and like the most anomaly of an improviser you’ll ever meet and my whole team is actually like we can let go on the stage, but like we’re like You know trying to control the details over here and so Every time i’ve held too tightly to something in my life I have i’ve you know sort of messed with the plan and I I think that surrender You To me, it means just trusting myself, trusting my inner guide, trusting my intuition, just knowing that there is a reason.
[00:33:40] Erin Diehl: And if I looked at the puzzle, that is my life, everything, every puzzle piece leads up to, you know, the, the big final masterpiece. And there’s always a reason for that puzzle piece. So if I could go back in time, I would tell my younger self to stop worrying about the future. I think there’s periods and seasons of my life that I didn’t and I [00:34:00] recognized the beauty in those seasons.
[00:34:02] Erin Diehl: I was really fulfilled and I felt very joyful and a lot of gratitude in those moments and I had seasons which they were learning seasons and they were gray and they were darker and that’s okay, but the need to control, I wish I let go of a long time ago.
[00:34:20] Mark Wright: it’s really interesting Yeah, I, I have two sons, 20 and 27 years old, and what I’m trying to teach them is very similar, and I always tell them, and I say this often, don’t worry, don’t worry about the future, don’t worry about whether things are going to work out, things will work out, and the amount of energy that you spend worrying about it is going to do nothing but make you feel anxious.
[00:34:46] Mark Wright: , and that’s, I, I spent way too much time worrying. I remember reading a scripture in my twenties and, and, uh, I was a train wreck before I, I, uh, before I found religion, but, uh, in college. , but there was a [00:35:00] scripture I remember reading about not, don’t worry. Each day has enough worry, , you know, of its own.
[00:35:05] Mark Wright: Look at the birds of the air, you know, they don’t worry. And yet your father provides for them. And I remember reading that and saying, I’m just thinking that is bologna because I am trying my hardest not to worry and it ain’t working and what Until you can live it and feel it, it doesn’t work. And that’s the hardest part of all this is to truly, you know, believe in yourself and to trust, but yeah, we all spend way too much time in our twenties and thirties, worrying about success and the future.
[00:35:43] Mark Wright: And, and it kind of sabotages. I wanted to go back to what’s the, I saw that you have a bracelet that you wear that says, be here now. And, and
[00:35:54] Erin Diehl: How’d you know that?
[00:35:55] Mark Wright: did a little thing. And,
[00:35:57] Erin Diehl: Yeah, okay. Yeah. I got her.
[00:35:59] Mark Wright: that [00:36:00] kind of speaks to, to this idea of kind of, that’s what it’s all about. Right.
[00:36:06] Erin Diehl: Yeah, what a good, what good fact finding. There, Mark. That is great. Yeah. Yeah, I keep it on. It actually, sometimes I have to take it off for these shows because it kind of dangles. It like makes a jingle. But it is a reminder. If I could get a tattoo, that’s probably what I would put on my wrist. But I, I’m scared of needles, but you know that I keep the bracelet on as the reminder, and it really is this moment of like, Just surrender to the moment.
[00:36:34] Erin Diehl: I’m a big future tripper. Stop future trippin. Just be aligned with who you are in this moment. We’re so, and this is, let me just say this. I’m a human being. I’m not like this every single moment of every day, but in my highest consciousness, I’m grateful for the moment that I’m in. I am looking for an opportunity to see a win.
[00:36:55] Erin Diehl: I’m looking for an opportunity to serve someone and help someone [00:37:00] and that in itself is, I think, relating to the purpose of why I’m here and what I’m here to do. And I, I didn’t know that for a very long time. This is, again, years of, like, self discovery and finding my true self. But, It is such a testament to surrender when you can be present in the moment that you’re in.
[00:37:21] Erin Diehl: You can give to the other person freely. The other person feels that. Again, people remember what you made them feel, not what you said. And it’s just this really, people feel connected when you are together in spaces where you are living presently in that Mm.
[00:37:39] Mark Wright: I’ve been talking to a lot of business leaders, not necessarily connected to the podcast, but I’m involved in some leadership groups in Seattle. There’s a real concern right now among business leaders in America that, you Everyone is spread out and to give you an example in downtown Seattle, about half of workers have returned to the [00:38:00] physical workplace full
[00:38:01] Erin Diehl: Mm
[00:38:02] Mark Wright: So we have people spread out all over the place and, you know, there’s, there’s a debate over productivity and there’s some really good evidence that people are pretty productive at home and when they don’t have to spend an hour and a half in their car every day. What I’m hearing over and over, Erin , is that business leaders are concerned about how do we build culture and how do we build teams when we’re all spread out and when we’re looking at each other on screens all day.
[00:38:27] Mark Wright: And I’d love with your experience, you know, with the improv, uh, consulting, , I’d love your perspective on that. And what advice would you have for those business leaders who are they really are at their wits end to try to figure out. I, one of my friends is very senior executive in a very major corporation.
[00:38:47] Mark Wright: He’s like, I can’t get people to come in one day a week.
[00:38:51] Erin Diehl: hmm. Mm
[00:38:51] Mark Wright: I throw a pizza party and they’re like, nah, I think I’ll just stay home. How do you fix that?
[00:38:57] Erin Diehl: Yeah. Okay. A lot of leaders might not like what I’m [00:39:00] going to say, but I’m going to say it. You got to meet people where they’re at. And what if the pandemic did anything, I think to leaders and to businesses is we started, it was actually the opposite of what was happening. I felt like we all wore masks to work before the pandemic.
[00:39:20] Erin Diehl: And then it was almost like we took masks off.
[00:39:23] Mark Wright: we had our jammies on,
[00:39:24] Erin Diehl: Theater jammies on and we saw the human beings like we saw the kids. We saw the dogs. We
[00:39:30] Mark Wright: would run through and
[00:39:32] Erin Diehl: Yeah, like it was this really great moment in humanity and we all felt I mean it was a horrible time Like don’t get me wrong. It was a horrible Disease people died like it was devastating to businesses my businesses included and so The human part of that, though, was that we saw the human being, not the human doing.
[00:39:57] Erin Diehl: And I think if you’re a leader and you [00:40:00] need your team to be on a line at work, working the line, and they need their physical hands, or if you’re in healthcare and you need to physically be in the office, that is one thing. So if you physically have to be in the office to do your job, you should be in the, you should be in the office.
[00:40:14] Erin Diehl: If you are a person that can do your job from anywhere, but you just want to see your people doing their job in front of you, ask yourself, why? What is it about that? Because clearly, I’ve tried to ask them to come in. I’m giving them pizza. I’m throwing booze at them. Like, come in, and they don’t want to.
[00:40:35] Erin Diehl: Why? Why? And why do I, as their leader, need that? What about that? Is it control? Do I need to surrender? What would be the highest good of my company and of my team? And if you really ask yourself those questions and you don’t have the answers that match up to them coming in, I think you got to take a good [00:41:00] hard look at the reason why.
[00:41:02] Erin Diehl: And again, I’m not saying if you’re a company that has Physical, you need physical hands on deck to complete the job. You gotta, that is like, if you work and do anything physical, you’ve got to be , on site. But there’s so many things that can be done remotely now. Half the time I was in, we, we let go of our office space in 2020.
[00:41:21] Erin Diehl: We were in Chicago. Half the time I was there, I was in a cubby at our co working space in my own little silent corner of the office anyway, doing calls. And It just, it did build culture. It does build team, but there’s so many ways in a remote environment to build culture. We use Slack, which is our primary communication tool as a culture builder.
[00:41:44] Erin Diehl: We have channels for all different types of things. You can plan. days where you’re in the office, like you have a team building event. We do team building virtually at Improve It. Like, there is a variety of options at your disposal now that can enhance the [00:42:00] culture. I think the first step is understanding why you want the team in the office.
[00:42:04] Erin Diehl: And if the answer is beyond, you know, you just want to see them physically there. Figure out how you can enhance step two, how you can enhance the culture in a virtual environment so people can connect. And really that’s what they want to do anyway. They want to connect, but they also want freedom to live their lives.
[00:42:23] Erin Diehl: And that’s what the pandemic did. It gave us an opportunity to live and blend our work and professional life in a different way.
[00:42:31] Mark Wright: which goes back to, I think what we talked about at the beginning and that is this shift to see the quote unquote worker as a, complete human, as a total person. You mentioned Improve It, the name of your business, also the name of your podcast. When did you start, the podcast, Erin ?
[00:42:48] Erin Diehl: This is a really convenient time was April of 2020. Uh,
[00:42:55] Mark Wright: were started right about then.
[00:42:56] Erin Diehl: oh my God, but I had planned on it. Like this was like a launch [00:43:00] we planned in 2020 or 2019. And you know, it was like the podcast boom. So it kind of fell in a void for a couple of years. And then we. It was called the failed it podcast at first actually and that was just great foreshadowing But then we changed the name to the name of our business and it’s just it’s been a really Joyful ride ever since and we’ve just created a brilliant community of people leaders.
[00:43:25] Erin Diehl: But yeah, it’s been an evolution It’s been an evolution.
[00:43:28] Mark Wright: what’s the purpose of the podcast? What do you hope listeners take away?
[00:43:32] Erin Diehl: It’s kind of the same thing as my life’s purpose. They achieve Their higher consciousness. They learn to trust themselves and guide themselves through life and live at the highest place possible through play. So we use improv as sort of the teaching tool there. When I do my solo episodes, we bring on guests from a variety of topics, , it’s self and professional help, I would say.
[00:43:57] Erin Diehl: So it’s personal and professional [00:44:00] development. It’s real fun, and I just like to keep it joyful, but also we get real, like, it goes deep, and I’ve cried several times on that show, and it’s, a really interesting platform, and I know you know that too, but I’ve really enjoyed the experience to go deeper with the people who Are a part of our community.
[00:44:21] Erin Diehl: It’s been Vulnerable and scary at times similar to like your improv journey, but it has been so fun and rewarding
[00:44:30] Mark Wright: , just about ready to wrap up, Erin . I have to ask you about your proud claim. , that you have coerced more than 35, 000 professionals to do the chicken dance.
[00:44:42] Erin Diehl: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yes, please make me a plaque
[00:44:46] Mark Wright: uh, I guess the only question is why
[00:44:51] Erin Diehl: here’s how this went down mark, okay, so we started improve it Really in 2015, but 2014 is where I started getting the [00:45:00] idea. And as I was building the workshop, I said, we need something to keep people on their toes. So anytime I say the word improv, we’re going to do something.
[00:45:08] Erin Diehl: And I just so happened to be at my dining room table where I had a a bin full of hats and one of them happened to be a chicken hat. So I pulled out the chicken hat and I was like, this is it. Anytime you hear the word improv, you’re going to pass the chicken hat. Well, a guy on my team, Andrew, he still is mad at himself to this day.
[00:45:24] Erin Diehl: He decided in the workshop to yes, and my idea. And anytime we pass the hat, we also did the chicken dance, like from weddings. Okay. , So we kept the chicken hat and the chicken dance alive until 2020 when germs became a real thing. We got rid of the chicken hat. Now it’s just the chicken dancing. , but literally every workshop we have a chicken dance and it’s, we’ve, now it’s like 36, 000 and something people that over the years have chicken danced with us in our workshops.
[00:45:52] Erin Diehl: And it is a claim to fame. , I would like to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. Actually, that’s a great goal. I need to see like [00:46:00] how many people have officially chicken
[00:46:02] Mark Wright: It’s gotta be just maybe 1500 in Iowa or something like that. You could, easily be beat that.
[00:46:09] Erin Diehl: Oh man, gotta get a flash mob. I just got some ideas here. That’s gotta, that’s gotta happen today. Gotta go down that rabbit hole. Wow,
[00:46:16] Mark Wright: Erin , it’s been so great to have you on the podcast because it’s so clear that what you are doing for work in your life , is redeeming work for other people. And that is to make the workplace more joyful, more positive, a great experience. I’d love your perspective on that.
[00:46:32] Mark Wright: The idea of redeeming work and making work better. What are you most proud of in terms of the work that you’re doing in that space?
[00:46:44] Erin Diehl: supply needs! And it’s again, that idea of hope helping one person every day, but I have a very important case study internally at my, at my team. Jenna McDonald is our [00:47:00] VP of client experience, but she started off as an intern for us and she was the most shy, timid intern. Our phone would ring. She’d pick up the phone.
[00:47:08] Erin Diehl: She’d be like, improve it. Like she could, she was so nervous. We got asked to speak at the very first training day ever for the Obama Foundation in Chicago And Jenna got to be a participant in the audience. Little did we know that the day would culminate in somebody presenting an idea to the whole group of 250 citizens to create positive change in Chicago.
[00:47:34] Erin Diehl: Jenna’s idea was chosen by her group. She not only presented in front of 250 people, which I thought she was going to go into cardiac arrest, she also presented to the former president himself. And crushed it. And then after she came off the stage, there was like media outlets taking her over. Every time I would try to talk to her, she was pulled away from a new outlet.
[00:47:57] Erin Diehl: That day, I witnessed her life [00:48:00] completely change. And she went from this shy, timid intern to this incredible, professional woman. She is If you call our office, you’re going to talk to Jenna. She’s brought in fortune 500. She’s made our workshops happen overseas. Globally. We’ve worked with all types of amazing clients because of her.
[00:48:22] Erin Diehl: And that to me is still one of the greatest joys of my career is having a front row seat to witness. The evolution of Jenna McDonald. And I write about this in the book too. It’s a whole chapter, but it was, she wrote an offer letter to herself to change and to believe in herself. And she did the work to get there.
[00:48:44] Erin Diehl: And it’s been, I think for me, that’s just a testament of one person, but I know our work does impact a lot of people, but I get to witness that every day. And I’m, so grateful for that. That, to me is one of the greatest joys of my career.
[00:48:58] Mark Wright: Wow. [00:49:00] That’s what it’s all about.
[00:49:02] Erin Diehl: Yeah,
[00:49:02] Mark Wright: Wow. Erin Diehl. This has been so much fun talking with you. If you ever get out to the Seattle area, give us, give us a shout. We’d love to, to have you connect with the, uh, work P2P team and, uh, man, what a, what a cool way to make a living. You’re using improv in the corporate setting.
[00:49:19] Mark Wright: You’ve got your podcast. You’ve got a book changing lives. And you’re changing your own life at the same time. It sounds like you’re a work in progress. Like we all are. Right.
[00:49:30] Erin Diehl: Oh man every day every day, but i’m doing that work mark I’m putting in the work. I’m doing it.
[00:49:36] Mark Wright: Okay. Refresh us on the, the clapping thing. So I don’t forget that
[00:49:40] Erin Diehl: Yes. Okay. So your first step is clap new
[00:49:44] Mark Wright: after a negative thought,
[00:49:46] Erin Diehl: After negative thought step two, you’re going to forgive yourself step three reframe
[00:49:52] Mark Wright: Amen, sister. I love it. I love it. Erin Diehl. Thank you so much for your time. Keep in touch.
[00:49:59] Erin Diehl: [00:50:00] you too mark