Chief Change Officer
#72 Erin Diehl: The Fail-fluencer Behind The Business of Joy—Laughing Through Limbo — Part One
Mon, 18 Nov 2024
Part One. Today’s guest is Erin Diehl, founder and CEO of Improve It, a company that uses improv to help teams grow and thrive. Like me, she’s also a top podcast host! From a young age, Erin dreamed of becoming a talk show host. Why did she choose that path? And how did her journey lead her to combine improv and business? I told Erin, “You’re in the business of joy.” But beyond joy, we also talked about failure. Erin calls herself a “failfluencer”—a blend of failure and influence. This two-part series dives into her unique approach to joy, failure, growth, and learning. Key Highlights of Our Interview: Improv Meets the Corporate World “I didn’t plan to merge improv and business. But during my nine-to-five at a recruiting firm, my nights were dedicated to stages at Second City and ImprovOlympic. Suddenly, I saw how listening, empathy, and quick thinking from improv transformed my work life. The dots connected.” United We Innovate “Pitching an improv workshop to United Airlines was a gamble, but it paid off—literally. What started as a passion experiment became a calling when United became my first paying client. Improv wasn’t just for the stage anymore.” The Teacher’s High “That feeling of guiding someone toward growth is intoxicating. It’s a high I kept chasing, and the more I taught, the more I wanted to do it. Seeing others find joy became my own source of joy.” From ROI to ROO: The Objective Shift “We don’t measure ROI; we measure ROO—Return on Objective. Every engagement starts with a consult call to pinpoint your specific challenges and objectives, ensuring everything aligns with the participants’ needs.” Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Erin Diehl Chief Change Officer: Make Change Ambitiously. Experiential Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives Global Top 3% Podcast on Listen Notes World's #1 Career Podcast on Apple Top 1: US, CA, MX, IE, HU, AT, CH, FI, JP 2 Millions+ Downloads 50+ Countries --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.20 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 1% Podcast.Top 5 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>180,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who is Erin Diehl and what is her background?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chan, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today's guest is Erin Deal, founder and CEO of Improve It, a company that uses improv to help teams grow and thrive. Like me, she's also a top podcast host.
From a young age, Erin dreamed of becoming a talk show host. Why did she choose that path? And how did her journey lead her to combine improv and business? I told Erin, you are in the business of joy. But beyond joy, we also talked about failure. Erin calls herself a fail-flu-lancer. a blend of failure and influence.
This two-part series dives into her unique approach to joy, failure, growth, and learning. No more waiting. Let's get started. Welcome, Erin. Good morning to you. Where are you exactly?
Yes, I am in Charleston, South Carolina. It's morning for me. It's evening for you. So I'm having some coffee and just enjoying the start of the day. When I was born, my mom said I came out of the womb dancing and saying, hello world, I'm here. So that was my first foray on earth. And then as I grew up, I fell in love with the stage. I was a dancer. I was an actress. I sang, but not well.
Chapter 2: What inspired Erin to pursue a career in talk show hosting?
And I decided early on I wanted to be a talk show host. That was my goal then. And so I went to Clemson University and graduated with a degree in communications. And this was the early 2000s. So there wasn't a ton of... internet coaching, or there wasn't a ton of opportunity for me to learn how to be a talk show host. So I said, where should I go?
Naturally, the home of Oprah Winfrey, my dream talk show host. So I moved to Chicago, started taking improv classes, and really fell in love with it as an art form. And over the years, I did book some hosting things, but I kept coming back to improv. And finally, in my late 20s, I decided to stop traveling. I was doing a ton of traveling at the time.
take a nine to five job at a recruiting firm, which I had never done recruiting. And the job that I took was actually business development. So it was sales. And so I worked nine to five and then six to ten every night. I took classes at the Second City or Improv Olympic or the Annoyance, which are huge theaters in the US and in Chicago.
Chapter 3: How did improv influence Erin's professional life?
And I just saw everything I was doing on stage really spill over into my workplace. I was becoming a better listener. I was more empathetic. I was thinking more quickly on my feet. And I knew that there was a connection between improv and the professional world. So at the time, one of my clients at this recruiting farm was United Airlines.
I asked my boss if I could pilot, pun intended, a workshop to United using improv. And of course they said yes. And the first couple of ones I did were for free. And then United said, we're going to pay you. And so my very first client was United Airlines. As time progressed, I knew that this was my calling.
I knew I wanted it to be bigger than just me, so I left my full-time job and started Improve It in 2014. Improve It is an improv-infused talent development company for the new generation of work. We use improv to teach people how to lead teams, how to be the highest versions of themselves, but it's ultimately all through play, and we've been in business 10 years, and here we are.
You mentioned as a teenager, you were determined to become a talk show host. I find that intriguing. Honestly, most people in their teens or even in college don't really know what they want to do, let alone something as specific as hosting a talk show. I mean, when I tell people I set my sights on getting into business school and earning an MBA at age 15, they often say, seriously? At 15?
It seems so young to have such a focused goal. But back to you, why talk show host? I imagine some might dream of being a news anchor or getting into show business. But for you, what was it about talk show hosting that drew you in? Especially back then, before podcasts even existed, what was the story behind that ambition?
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Chapter 4: What was Erin's first client experience with United Airlines?
Yeah. Oh, you're so right. We didn't have podcasts. There wasn't Instagram. There wasn't even Facebook at the time. Truly, when I went to college, Facebook did not exist until I graduated. So here's what I can tell you. I just remember when I was 13 years old, I was homesick from school.
I don't know if you remember back in the early 90s or late 90s, there was a catalog called Delia's and it had all these like girly pajamas. I had on like the rattiest pair of Delia's pajamas. I was sitting in my family's living room on this like old 90s floral couch and I was sick. I was homesick and the Oprah Winfrey show came on.
And I just remember watching it and watching how she made the people in the audience feel. And watching Oprah just be such a compassionate, empathetic, kind human to her guests and also really care about humanity. And so I sat up, sick as I was, and I said to my mom, I'm going to do that, mom. I'm going to be a talk show host like Oprah. And I know that I have something to talk about.
But what happened was in my early 20s and even going through my 20s, I didn't have really enough life experience to have a platform to talk about anything I feel like I do. I didn't have the life experience that I do now. Let me just say that. Not that I don't want to discount myself, but I feel like I needed more life experience to be able to
have a voice and know my voice and own my voice and i just equate talk show hosting to almost like being a florist when you get flowers you're almost always happy and i thought about becoming a talk show host so i could bring joy to other people's lives whether it was through television whether it was through an audio platform like podcasting
It was always my goal to use my voice for good and to make people feel really good in my presence. And so that was the goal. I had no clue it was going to be improv as the change catalyst. I had no idea it was going to be improv as the teaching tool, but I just knew I wanted to help people and bring joy.
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Chapter 5: What does 'business of joy' mean to Erin?
So you're essentially in the business of joy. That's it. The short form. not keynote speaker, not founder or CEO. If someone asks you for your elevated pitch, this should be the first sentence out of your mouth. Hey, I'm in the business of joy. Thank you, Vince. Yes. Let's say we're at a party. I introduce myself to you. Hey, I'm Vince. You reply, I'm Erin. Nice to meet you.
Then I ask, what business are you in? And you hit me with, oh, I'm in the business of joy. Instant curiosity triggered. Naturally, I would say, oh, tell me more about that. Such a great icebreaker.
I love it. Okay, noted. It was heard here first. I will love you every time.
So no problem quoting that. I'm in the business of droid. And hey, I got it on record now. I promise I won't charge you for copyright. Yet. But seriously, something else fascinating from history is your first client. You mentioned you tried things out with United Airlines UA and eventually they pay you and everything took off from there. So what was that initial experiment with United like?
What exactly did you do? I mean, Today, your business, Business Improv, is this successful franchise, but let's rewind to the beginning. What was iPhone 1.0 version of your business? What did it look like back then?
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Chapter 6: How has Erin's journey shaped her approach to teaching?
Yeah, it's such a good question. To be honest with you, I don't remember. I think it was, I think it was something about team building and building trust, but it was my very, we barely had a, I didn't even have a logo. I just put slides together on a random slide deck and I said, okay, what do you want me to teach on?
And I put together just a very small one hour presentation using improv as the teaching tool. And I actually found video of myself doing this on my computer. I need to post that video because it's clearly from like 2013. I had no clue what I was doing, but all I can see in that picture, coming back to your word joy, is joy. I just felt so joyful doing it and teaching.
And I knew every time I got in front of a group of people, that I was there to serve them. And I have to tell you, when I am in front of a room of people, something comes over me. It's not necessarily me. I feel like I am talking through just this greater good, and I'm here to help the greater collective find joy in their day-to-day.
For me, I watched that video back and it's not necessarily what I said, it's how I felt in that moment and that energy that was in that room. And just the feeling of watching somebody else trust themselves enough to gently guide themselves out of their comfort zone and being the teacher to help them do that was incredible. And so it was a high and I kept chasing that high and wanting to do more.
Chapter 7: What was the early version of Erin's business like?
So here's just blanket how we work. When a client comes to us, we will get really specific on what are you hoping to achieve? What are your objectives? And then what challenges are you having? Over time, we've developed 10 different workshops that can host up to 100 people.
And each workshop has a pre-work component with a video that shows them how not to do the skill that we're going to train them on. So there's comedy there. It's about a two to three minute video. And then it guides the participant. These are for the participants to survey And in that survey, we ask them their challenges and objectives.
And so we take what the client says and what the participants say, we marry it together, and we bring it to this in-person or virtual training. And so let's just use effective communication as an example. This is one of our most popular workshops. So every workshop has an overarching thesis statement to it.
And then we break down that thesis statement into chunks, most of the time three to four chunks. And in those chunks, we do one to two improv-based activities. So the thesis statement for effective communication is what you say and what you don't say affects how others listen and respond.
So that first piece, we're doing two activities about what you say, your tone, your verbal tone, your written tone. We're doing two activities. They're high energy. You're standing on your feet. You're interacting with those around you. And after each activity, there's a debrief. And in that debrief is what we call the method to our madness.
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Chapter 8: How does Erin measure the success of her workshops?
That's where the magic happens, where we take what we just did, we put it into context into your day to day and help you think differently about how you're communicating, how you're using tone.
And then we do a separate activity at the end of every two, which is we ask them to take what we've just talked about as the larger group and put it into context in their role, because we really want them to get specific and bringing it back to their organization.
So then we go to the next piece, which is what you don't say, which is all about nonverbal, two activities with a debrief and a partner activity at the end. We do affects how others listen. So two activities about active listening. and then a debrief, and then the partner activity, and then finally, how all of this affects the way people respond.
We do two activities there, and then we wrap up everything with a key takeaway, which I will tell you, Vence, one thing that sets us apart is that we have successfully coerced over 40,000 people to chicken dance. So in our workshops, whenever you hear the word improv, we chicken dance. And at the end, when we do our key takeaways, we crown an improv chicken champion.
This is somebody who has gotten out of their comfort zone, given their all. And we have witnessed just being above and beyond the most enthusiastic person in the room. We celebrate that person. We do the key takeaways. And then we round with something we call the circle of yes, which is just this really high vibe.
positive moment where we give each other praise and then we give love to that chicken champion and we end the session. And then after every workshop, we have an e-learning course built in conjunction with each workshop that then takes what we've done in the session and continue to learning for Monday, Wednesday, Friday for the next three weeks. and the lessons get sent to them via email.
So it's really robust. We are a professional development first and foremost. Improv is the teaching tool, but we have 10 of those experiences, not to mention our keynotes, book clubs, all of that. So we really developed a lot of material over the past 10 years, and we're actually getting ready to come up with some fresh new ideas in 2025 that I'm super excited about.
The everything that was built on client experience And so we created it with the client's challenges in mind and just kept listening and building to get us to this point.
What are your key performance indicators? How do you measure success in your business? And just as importantly, how do you identify areas for improvement?
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