Leveraging Improv Skills To Grow Your Business
This article was adapted from Episode 12 of the Elevated Entrepreneur Podcast. Click here to listen.
In today’s episode, we are joined by Chris Trew.
Chris is a creative coach who uses improv to help people improve their creativity. He works in corporate, doing workshops and team-building activities.
In this article, you will learn what improv is, and how you can leverage it as a business owner to improve communication, productivity, collaboration, and team-building.
Read on!
How Improv Helps Overcome The Fear of Standing Out
It’s important to train yourself that things change.
Whether it’s in business, a relationship, day-to-day life, or a hobby, not everything is going to go to plan. This is why studying improv is beneficial — you’ll learn how to trust yourself and be more confident. It’ll even teach you how to celebrate change.
Improv is the primary tool in helping you face the unknown.
It’s not possible to plan out every step, but knowing we are responsible for, and capable of change, we can harness the power to step up and stand out.
Many projects, relationships, and even vacations will go wrong, but to move on, we must accept the change.
Improv teaches you how to take the next step.
The Sneakiness of Improv
Many business owners view improv as exclusive to comedy.
But improv can also help you improve presence, listening, communication, collaboration, and brainstorming skills — all of which can help entrepreneurs and companies in team building.
The same way improv incorporates each of these aspects.
According to Chris, comedy is a byproduct of improv, not improv itself.
Having been in comedy for many years, he is now on a mission to rebrand and repackage his improv. He wants companies to understand that he’s not coming in to do comedy, but rather transformational coaching for their team members.
Learning To Be Okay And Giving Yourself Grace
Failure isn’t a bad thing.
Chris says that you must learn to give yourself grace with failures. You must learn how to be okay with things not going right. By giving yourself grace, you give yourself credit for showing up, attempting to do it right, and staying present — even when things go wrong.
Don’t let the fact that you lost take away from the fact that you learned something.
When you combine work, ethics, grace, and improv, you will become someone who is open-minded, willing to put in the work, and is able to have fun while getting there. You’ll be able to look at the world a lot differently, making you much happier each day.
Feelings And Understanding The Logic Behind Them
How we feel about something is a choice.
It’s not somebody else’s fault if you’re upset. By allowing the people around you to dictate how you feel each day will only set you up for failure. This creates resistance and an inability to access creativity for the next thing.
It’s hard not to judge, but by judging the moment, you prevent yourself from fully experiencing that moment. Being judgemental of the moment only denies your ability to build and invite the potential for conflict, which sucks away creativity and positive energy.
According to Chris, everyone should learn improv.Improv teaches us not to judge the moment, but rather let things happen and build off them.
Life is a long-term game — judging every moment will only slow you down
-Raylen
Want Support and Accountability in Your Business in Just 5 Days
Join the Elevated Challenge for FREE and in 5 days you will:
Implement daily changes that compound into huge impact
Cultivate strategies that actually move the needle in your business
No longer rely on “hacks” and “tricks” and instead craft a sustainable business