429 Lynn Harris - Comedy, Creativity, and Community
In today’s episode Sarah Elkins and Lynn Harris discuss the importance of comedy and creativity in the heart and soul of a community and how overcoming the doubts and assumptions of others can not only strengthen yourself but as well as the people around you.
429 Lynn Harris - Comedy, Creativity, and Community
In today’s episode Sarah Elkins and Lynn Harris discuss the importance of comedy and creativity in the heart and soul of a community and how overcoming the doubts and assumptions of others can not only strengthen yourself but as well as the people around you.
Highlights
How we defy the expectations and assumptions of others.
If we can’t talk about a problem we can’t even begin to fix it.
The power of community and contributing to it and encouraging others to contribute.
Quotes
“As with all industries and all context; Girls would have to work twice as hard to get half the applause and half the credit.”
“That’s something we’ve learned about community, is that it’s not just us. It’s -especially a creative community of any kind- there’s skill building you can kind of do on your own, and some cases not all, but then what do you do with those skills? Making stuff in other words. So we really encourage our members to actually make things and actually do the thing and do the thing together.”
Dear Listeners it is now your turn,
What I love about this conversation is that accessibility to humor, and we all need this probably now more than ever in our lifetime. We need to find humor, we need to laugh together, and it is one thing that can connect us very similar to music and story. And I can tell you that in just a recent experience where I was talking to somebody on the opposite side of the political spectrum to me, I was reading a book by John Scalzi; When The Moon Hits Your Eye, and I asked him if I could read out loud that had made me laugh so hard I was almost crying, and it was one way that I connected with this person next to me. So I’m asking you listeners, what will you do to find humor today?
And, as always, thank you for listening.
About Lynn
Lynn Harris is a culture-shifting producer, award-winning journalist, and author/co-author of six books. Her comedy and campaigns for social justice and gender equity have changed laws and conversations from Capitol Hill to NASCAR. She is founder and CEO of GOLD Comedy—the comedy school, professional network, and content studio where women and non-binary creators grow their comedy careers, build powerful communities, and make funny stuff. Harris co-created Breakup Girl (acquired by Oxygen), one of the first multiplatform internet success stories, and co-hosted, with Ginna Green, The Forward’s A Bintel Brief: The Podcast. Lynn served as the first VP of communications at global human rights group Breakthrough, where her blend of humor and advocacy powered some of the team’s most effective U.S. campaigns. She has also worked as a Tonya Harding lookalike, which is a long story.
GOLD Comedy is the online comedy school, professional network, and content studio where women, non-binary creators, and other “others" build their comedy careers, join a powerful community, and make funny stuff that gets seen on all kinds of stages and screens. Unlimited classes, community, shows, and more, all online. Join from anywhere, anytime!
Be sure to check out Lynn’s Facebook, her personal Instagram as well as Gold Comedy’s Instagram, and LinkedIn! As well as Gold Comedy and Gold Comedy Club!
About Sarah
Sarah is a Montana based workplace communication trainer, TEDx speaker, DisruptHR speaker, public speaking coach, professional storyteller, musician, and podcast host. Her workshops and coaching packages with teams and their leaders are known to address and reduce miscommunication – the most common cause of tension and stress in the workplace. Using the team’s results from the StrengthsFinder assessment, she guides teams in learning to speak each other’s “language”, learning to value each other’s strengths and connecting with each other through enhanced self-reflection and effective listening.
Sarah’s nearly 20 years working in government agencies inspired her to complete her MBA and to achieve her StrengthsFinder certification to improve work environments for others, guiding teams toward increased satisfaction, productivity, and happiness.
Visit her website to purchase her book, Your Stories Don't Define You in paperback or audiobook.
Episode 167: Keen Observation is the Key to Finding Humor Almost Anywhere
Kat’s mom was a therapist and her dad a writer. They self-analyzed themselves into a mess, and she struggled to find ways to address her inner emotions. She craved something completely different, and worked hard to avoid a career in any field related to her mom’s.
What's the perfect contradiction & complement to therapy? Comedy, of course!
After finishing her degree, she moved to Chicago to try her skills at improvisation, and landed a career with Second City.
A Skeptic and a Believer: There Are So Many Things We Experience That Cannot Be Explained
Another great introduction from Shelley Brown, Kat Barker was a fabulous guest on this episode of Your Stories Don't Define You.
Kat Barker Quote, podcast cover art
Kat’s mom was a therapist and her dad a writer. They self-analyzed themselves into a mess, and she struggled to find ways to address her inner emotions. She craved something completely different, and worked hard to avoid a career in any field related to her mom’s.
What's the perfect contradiction & complement to therapy? Comedy, of course!
After finishing her degree, she moved to Chicago to try her skills at improvisation, and landed a career with Second City.
It was her exploration into her own healing that changed her path. As much as she loves the work of improvisation as a business tool and strategy, she found herself continually drawn toward not only the observation of humanity necessary to be great at improvisation, but the part of humanity that needs serious attention - our internal dialogs, the way we hold trauma and stress in our bodies and neural pathways, our thoughts about who we are and how we show up.
Her first foray into something that wasn't traditional therapy, but did lean in that direction, was cranialsacral therapy. It appealed to the comedian part of her, which might seem strange. It's a process of using light touch and attention to address trauma and unexpressed emotion caught in the body, to stabilize the central nervous system. It's what people call "energy work." Her first story in the episode explains why humor plays a big role in her work.
If you loved this episode, please give it 5 stars and maybe write a review? And be sure to get in touch with Kat to learn more about her, visiting her website: Sheholdsthelight.com
Here are references for topics from our conversation:
Somatic Therapy: https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/somatic-psychotherapy
Akashic Records: https://www.edgarcayce.org/the-readings/akashic-records/
Sarah walking on Mt. Helena, Helena, Montana, Fall 2020
ABOUT SARAH:
In my work with coaching clients, I guide people to improve their communication using storytelling as the foundation of our work together. What I’ve realized over years of coaching and podcasting is that the majority of people don’t realize the impact of the stories they share - on their internal messages, and on the people they’re sharing them with.
My work with leaders and people who aspire to be leaders follows a similar path to the interviews on my podcast, uncovering pivotal moments in their lives and learning how to share them to connect more authentically with others, to make their presentations and speaking more engaging, to reveal patterns that have kept them stuck or moved them forward, and to improve their relationships at work and at home.
The audiobook, Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will is now available!
Included with your purchase are two bonus tracks, songs recorded by Sarah's band, Spare Change, in her living room in Montana.
Audiobook cover art
Episode 117: Uncovering a Life Pivot Point, And Why It Matters
When she was 17, her public speaking course final was to perform at a local comedy club's open mic night. She wasn't nervous, though she thought she would be. Brynne stepped into the spotlight that night and never wanted to leave it. Even now, after decades of training and performance, she steps onto the stage and simply owns it.
We Can't Know at the Time, Our Stories That Will Inspire Others
Brynne Tillman and I met on #LinkedIn many years ago, just before she received the LinkedIn #Influencer title in 2016. I loved her content because it always included #humor, I could tell that Brynne took her work seriously - but never took herself too seriously.
During our conversation, we uncovered a life pivot point that she didn't realize was a big part of what shaped her future until she began to share it with me.
When she was 17, her public speaking course final was to perform at a local comedy club's open mic night. She wasn't nervous, though she thought she would be. Brynne stepped into the spotlight that night and never wanted to leave it. Even now, after decades of training and performance, she steps onto the stage and simply owns it.
That first evening at the comedy club, the manager pulled her and another student aside and invited them back the following week. After a few weeks working through her bit and performing at the open mic, she was invited to have her own time on stage - paid. She was officially a professional comic.
Similar to my conversation a few weeks ago with Ash Rao, Brynne and I touched on the topic of work ethic and being a good ambassador for yourself, no matter where you're working. In Brynne's case, being aware of her surroundings, and being driven to be good at whatever she does, was the key to her first opportunity to truly shine in a professional environment.
She remembers the day the big boss came down from his office to the call center she was working at in a Dun & Bradstreet office. He looked straight at her, then walked into her boss's office. She was sure that was the end of her career, sure she had said something her internal filter didn't catch, which happened a lot, and that she was being fired.
Instead, her boss and his boss called her into the office to ask her to create and facilitate training. They were so impressed with her skills of connecting with people and adding value, that they wanted her to find a way to basically clone herself through creating training for others.
Listen in on our conversation to hear more about Brynne and her entertaining, inspiring stories.
Connect with Brynne on LinkedIn, visit her website, and pick up her book, The LinkedIn Sales Playbook: A Tactical Guide to Social Selling.
Use Humor to Engage and Connect
Storytelling is Best with an Element of Humor
Ron Feingold, like other brilliant and well-know, but not necessarily famous comedians, has worked for nearly 30 years to make people laugh, to entertain them, and to connect with them for the brief time he has on stage for each show.
Every story he shares has some element of humor in it, though sometimes it's subtle. What I love about his style is that he's doing his own thing. He's not trying to be like anyone else. He's also combining comedy with his love for music, something unique and very entertaining.
There are pivotal moments in our lives that we recognize immediately, and that we know within seconds that they have changed us and how we see the world - and ourselves. But most of our pivotal moments aren't that obvious. Most of them are hidden in our brains until an experience that may feel similar happens to wake the memory and bring it to the conscious mind. I love discovering those moments with people, uncovering them and making necessary adjustments in order to take responsibility for our current actions and decisions.
The first pivotal moment Ron shared in this episode was one he didn't necessarily know would change his world, but after processing it for a few weeks and months, he was able to identify it as a turning point.
That first story might just take you back to a similar experience, one where a virtual stranger offered time, patience, kindness and wisdom at exactly the moment you needed those things. I know it brought back a couple of memories for me. Your lesson may be different; my lesson was simply a reminder to be as present and engaged as I can when I see someone who needs that same time, patience, and kindness. A moment of kindness like that can truly be the difference between life and death.
I'll be curious to hear your thoughts about this conversation, please let me know if you have a memory pop into your head that is similar, and maybe the lesson you can take from it now, possibly decades later.
Ron Feingold is a comedian and musician, and always has an entrepreneurial idea in his head. You can find more information about him, and even book him for your next event by visiting his website. My favorite thing he does is "The Power of the Smile", exactly the inspirational performance that any organization will appreciate at a conference or training.
You can also connect with him on LinkedIn, and please take a few minutes to enjoy this: