Episode 24: How Improv Can Transform Your Professional Skills

Melissa Reaves, Host
Well, hello, you storytelling Mind Movie Makers. It's Melissa again, and I welcome you back.

We love to talk and explore the science to the art form of storytelling, especially in business. So I work with rec you know, with talent at all levels in the corporate and nonprofit world. And one of the things that I consistently do with clients when I see that there's a little more apprehension to expanding their speaking.

And public speaking presence is this nervousness, right? Because so many of us had a traditional science, technology, engineering, math, neocortex side of the brain training in our education system, that the limbic system part of the brain, which is the colorful, sees pictures, hears things, smells things in our minds, creates those images, the mind movies, if you will.

And that side's a little bit in need of development. So one of the first things I do is I encourage take an improv class.

Take an improv class. No my god, that's so scary. There's no way I could do that, is usually what I hear. Or I hear, you know, I've always thought about that. I've always thought that maybe that would be fun. Well, the answer is both. Yes, it is a little scary, for sure. It's new. Anything new is frustrating, scary, and whatnot until you start to do it.

Melissa Reaves, Host (01:47.521)
Last night I was in an improv show and I actually felt a little bit of nerves and I'd been doing this professionally for eleven years multiple times during the week. But this particular format was something I hadn't done before, and I hadn't done a long form, which is a where we create a play right before your eyes with characters who have conflicts and relationships and all of it's made up on the spot. and it was it was Sonnheim. It was musical too. So let's just say

that to it. Our scenes would be sung in a Sonnheim kind of level. Now, would I throw a new person into a level like that? No, I wouldn't necessarily unless they wanted to. But I felt a little nervousness, but as soon as I just surrendered and I said, you know what? Just see where this goes. Let's see where it lands.

I relaxed and everything worked out. The entire show was wonderful. All the actors in the various formats brought their game because we've learned how to trust, listen, and flow. So those are the reasons why I send people into improv. And

I want you to think about like where if you're in a city, like if you're in Chicago, there's second city. If you're in Seattle, Unexpected Productions is one that is known for its school in improv, but there are other groups around here as well. So go Google it, find out who's doing an improv class. Because here's what you'll learn. When I send the clients in, I ask them.

What are you learning? And they're like, well, first off, it's the two hours of the week that I look so forward to because it's just different. It's not me in a spreadsheet. It's not me listening to someone complain. It's not me on the hunt for the next big thing. I'm just going there to get to know a new side of myself and have fun. It's silly. It feels good to laugh. Let that sink in.

Melissa Reaves, Host (03:57.185)
It feels good to laugh, doesn't it?

And when you watch not just yourself, but you see other people pushing past their boundaries of nervousness or fear. It's a really bonding situation. I see so many of the students when they get into a class, they become friends. Many of them do. Some continue on, they go to the next level, and they go to the next level. And as they get more serious about it, because they start to see, wow, I'm getting better and better, some of them even go on to formulate their own improv troops and just have.

Something fun to do on the side, but you don't even have to go that far. If you just take maybe the first two or three levels, you will learn one, listening. Because in improv you need to listen, and it gets busy. It's something that even the professionals always have to remember to do. And it's something I have to work on myself. You have to listen and pay attention because.

Just like in business, your client or your prospect might say something to you, and if you're not listening, and then it comes up later and you're hearing it for the first time, that's a problem for the client. Why? Because they said it, you didn't really hear it or own it. They are maybe not going to fully trust that you're on board with their mission. So you're learning in improv how to be a better listener.

Another thing is you learn that you have to think on your feet. But guess what? You're thinking on your feet all day long. You don't know what conversation is going to happen with any person that you meet. And it could be a stranger, it could be a sibling, it could be a child, it could be a spouse, a partner. You don't know what you're gonna talk about. But a conversation is improvised.

Melissa Reaves, Host (05:54.603)
It's improvised, but because you know your own character, you have a relationship in some way, shape, or form, it's either familiar or unfamiliar. The objective of the conversation is to complete a thought together, explore an idea together, and you're all in aware. You're in a physical place, you're also in a state of mind.

And you are in a age, age and era time together. Okay? So all of that's happening. That's C.R.O.W. And that's what I teach. And that's what improv teaches. C.R.O.W. So what I've brought to the business world is what I've learned in improv, C.R.O.W, characters, relationship, objective, and where. And so when you're learning to think on your feet, you're just becoming conscious of how to pull that all together so that you can just walk through life more confident

Alright. You learn to trust your partner, right? Think about your work world. Think about your most inner circle. Do you trust them? And if you don't trust them, is it because the relationship is new, or is it because the relationship has had its bumps and after a while you're getting a little nervous about it? That all comes with time.

Alright, but you learn how to adjust to get through it. And that itself might be its own, its own podcast where we actually talk about trust. But an improv, you have to trust. You have to trust that your partner on stage is with their with you in that scene 100%. And so trust is a very big part of what improv teaches.

You also learn how to paint pictures, which is what I'm also teaching you with storytelling. You have to be able to, on the fly in an improv team, be able to paint that you're in a library. And how do you do that? You learn how to go, you talk quieter, you know, you're looking for the books, you're pulling them out, you're looking at the Dewey decibel system, you're you know, there's all sorts of things that you're doing in a library that you take when you go to the library and you bring.

Melissa Reaves, Host (08:16.558)
It on stage. If it's a restaurant, you know, are you drinking a glass of wine or are you sipping a cup of coffee? Is it black? Do you need cream in it? All of that when the waiter shows up, one of your people are playing the waiter, what's that relationship? You're learning how to paint the pictures on the fly as you play inside this scene. Isn't that fun?

That transfers right over into business, right? And when you're starting to tell a vision story about your technology, you need to be able to paint the picture of where your solution is going to take us. You also have to be able to paint the picture currently of the now that we're all in together, where the problem lies.

So when you learn how to describe something by using words, by tapping words that will create a sensory response inside us, that's when you are in control. Because you know how to paint pictures. When I was in enterprise sales,

Vision stories were how I became one of the top producers in the companies that I would represent. Is because we were selling something that no one had seen before. Right? Advertising technology, they had not seen a banner ad follow people around the internet and give them a topic to think about that was relevant to their lives before behavioral targeting had really even been seen at this level. And it was trackable. So it was a really fun thing.

To use vision storytelling. Another thing is that obviously you're connecting emotionally as well. Now in business, we believe that we're supposed to be almost robotic.

Melissa Reaves, Host (10:10.982)
And you can be, or you can stay inside your head and allow that negative narrative to continue because you don't want to break the rules. You don't want anyone to think poorly of you. You don't know if anyone's gonna like your ideas because of an litany of excuses. Your gender, your race, your religion, your your marital status, all of those things are creating your character that's created.

creating your ability to think small.

To think limited. Improv shatters that. Improv says, go, just find out what's gonna happen.

And if you don't think you don't take that from your workshop out into the world because when you see that you've gone through a scene with a partner and you both were listening and you were both learning to trust and you just played in the silliness of it, that you can't go out there and handle it.

When I first got into enterprise sales, we were learning how to do it. It was it was a big, more more sophisticated level of sales. This was not just door to door, like, may I speak to the owner, please? I've got a yellow page ad I want to pitch them. no, this was where you had to know who was who up and down and sideways in the organization. Who did what? What did they care about? All like well, who were the characters and what was valuable to them, and then how would you speak to them so that they would respond to you? If you were speaking to a

Melissa Reaves, Host (11:51.241)
very technical person you would make sure that you had technical people with you and that you knew enough about their vernacular so that you would come off genuine and and incredible but

It's not on you as the enterprise salesperson to know how to talk code when that's not your thing. But it's Steve's. And you bring Steve in, you set up his character, bring his relationship forward to the prospect, and allow him to be able to explain things at a level that that person would be able to understand. Alright? Improv helps that. Improv helps that. So

You're learning to trust and you're learning team building. I also recommend that as an organization, bring an improv school into your organization. Let them teach your team how to trust, how to listen, how to be able to learn, how to tell stories on the fly.

When I was in the enterprise sales and I had started taking improv, I remember I was talking to a very large company. You would know their name. They're in the travel industry. And everyone said, You know that you've done a great job when you walk into the room and all those conversations, all those emails that you've sent, you've pulled together, you have pulled together everyone for that boardroom meet meeting. And it's really exciting and it's a little stressful, but you did it, and now you're

gonna have a big meeting and you're probably gonna get the sale. Or not, but you're probably gonna get the sale. Well I was on the phone with someone who found this is when I was at Oracle. They found us and they wanted to know more about our technology. They were very curious about it. And so they said can you come in? And I'm like Absolutely let's let's let's let's find a time. He's like like today. Can you come in today? I'm like okay sure. Now I'd already been taking improv, I'd already been an improviser.

Melissa Reaves, Host (13:55.779)
For a little bit of time. I think maybe I'd been a year and a half, two years into it, but a committed two years. I walk in.

And there's the senior vice president of this of this company. And he has before me six people. There are six people in the big boardroom. And I thought, I thought this was supposed to be hard to get everyone into this room. And here they are. my god, I'm in the big meeting. Now, old Melissa probably would have freaked out in her head a little bit more because like I'm not prepared for this. I thought I was just gonna have one conversation with this guy. Like I didn't expect that. And who are they? And what does she work? And I don't know who they are.

Instead, I went and inside I went, Yes and I can handle this. I can handle I can do a hip hop show and do rap when the beatboxer comes out on stage based on a play that we're creating off of a one-word suggestion that the audience gave us. This is just a business meeting that might have questions that I can answer.

Okay. And I walked in and I handled that meeting. Way bigger than I thought. But because I did improv, there was a different level of confidence, even in a more uncomfortable situation. I had already learned how important mastering going with the flow really is. And that's something improv teaches. And finally,

You'll surprise yourself. You'll surprise yourself. So many people will say, I'm not funny. You don't have to be funny. In improv, we just want genuine answers. And then you yes and it. You you agree with what was given to you in the scene, and you add on to it. And you create this story together. Isn't that happening in business as well? You have an idea.

Melissa Reaves, Host (16:03.32)
You tell it to someone, they like it, they add on to it. Now the idea is getting bigger. Then Renee comes in and she adds something, and then you pull in Paula and Paul, and they come in and they add something, and now you have a group and you're creating an energy. You have an ensemble of idea makers, and you're feeling it together. Improv teaches that.

Improv teaches the magic and the power of what human beings really can do. And by the way, human beings are really funny. They're brilliant. We are. We're brilliant. We're funny. And we love connection. And improv is one of the best things that I think someone can do in their career. So if you haven't taken one, challenge yourself. Go find a class.

Even go see a show. Go watch Whose Line Is It Anyways on TV. It's easy to find. And watch how they yes and it. Watch how they give offers to each other. Watch how they just take it and run with it.

That's why I do improv. And that's why I'm a good storyteller. And that's why I am on the planet to help more people, especially business professionals who are taught you need to be this way in a box. No, you don't. No, you don't. This is your life. You're creating this reality right along with us. And let's yes and that. Okay.

That's all I have to say about improv right now. More later, but thank you for tuning in and I'd love to hear your comments. I'd love to hear, have you taken an improv class? All right. Thanks so much everyone. And yes and we'll be back for the neck up next episode.