Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - Welcome to the G.E.M. Series powered by rocket level. On this podcast, we empower entrepreneurs to succeed by setting big goals, executing like a pro, and having a fearless mindset. The G.E.M. Series is all about investing in yourself. We're here to share the path to getting what you want out of life, by sharing the stories of entrepreneurs who have done this themselves, providing thorough research from our team on what careers and habits are yielding the best results, and discussing the mindset it takes to overcome the obstacles that all future entrepreneurs will face. Investing in yourself starts with putting in the work every single day, and this podcast is here to help you do exactly that. My name is Blake Chapman. I'm the vice president of the ambassador program here at Rocket Level, and I am thrilled to be your host for the G.E.M. Series. Welcome to another episode of the G.E.M. Series. I can't tell you how excited I am to have Nathan Minns on the pod today. Nathan, how are you doing, sir? I'm doing fantastic.

Speaker 1 (00:00:58) - How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Better, better. Now that you're here. You know, it's funny, Nathan. He has a strong background in the improv world and has brought that over to the entrepreneurship world, and I found that totally fascinating. And I'm just super excited to kind of hear about your journey and, and learn a little bit more. So for the guests that don't know a ton about you, would you mind just like sharing the mission that you've been on right now?

Speaker 2 (00:01:27) - Yeah for sure. So the story really starts in 2019. Well, actually in 2016, 2016, I saw my very first improv show, and immediately I knew there was something there that I wanted to do myself. I think that it was. I saw people on stage creating something new on stage with their friends. Yeah. And as a freshman in college at the time, I was like, friends, number one. Want those? And to it seems like there it's that performative art that I haven't tried before, and it's something I wanted to give it a shot.

Speaker 2 (00:02:07) - So I went out, auditioned, and I did incredibly well for those auditions. Later that night, I got a call from the two improv groups, and on that call, I found out that out of everyone in the entire room, I was the only one that thought I did. Well, no. Yeah. So? So it didn't get in. I was really confident there, but I didn't get in. Took a step back, started taking classes, auditioned again, exact same thing. And again and again and again. And in total, I auditioned seven times before I got in. But what I realized through those seven auditions is that as I improved as an improviser on stage, I improved as a communicator, as an entrepreneur, and even as a team member off stage. And that led me to create green light improv in 2019. And the whole principle of green light improv is, how can we use just the principles of improv comedy to help us to become better entrepreneurs, better communicators, and team members? I usually do that through keynotes and workshops, although there are various products that are are in the works as well.

Speaker 2 (00:03:19) - And so that's the that's the mission I've been on for about the last year full time, because I quit my corporate innovation job about a year ago, and it's just been riding this green light improv wave for the last year.

Speaker 1 (00:03:35) - Man, that is so cool and just gets me gets me pumped up, you know, because I just think about, you know, the context of bringing somebody like yourself into, you know, to a company. And I can see that you'd probably totally recharge the energy over there, you know, and get people out of their shell just a little bit and don't know, there's, there's so many practical applications for, for for improv, something I was kind of curious about, too. I think I heard somewhere because you've married this entrepreneurship side into this improv side. Have you always been sort of entrepreneurship minded? I think I read somewhere or heard something that you were a rock and stick vendor at an early age, which I was like, sign me up. I'd be buying those rocks and sticks right now if you if you still had them.

Speaker 2 (00:04:20) - But yeah, they were cool rock. So essentially what happened is I started seeing we had a big neighborhood growing up, and at some point you can't have everyone have a lemonade stand. And if you all have one lemonade stand, you don't make very much money. So there started to be competition where we would start one lemonade stand at one end of the street and another at the other. But people aren't buying two lemonades. So I started thinking, you know, what do my customers really want? And I was looking around my house and thought, I bet that they need some more rock. Some sticks in their house. So when my backyard found the coolest rocks and sticks I could find. Probably kept those for myself, put those under my pillow and then went back out. Found the second coolest rocks and sticks. And with those I just set up a sign, got a little chair and started selling these rocks and sticks. And I use that story as a way to exemplify that in entrepreneurship. It's very much a trial and error process where you try eliminate stands and you're like, that's not working for me right now.

Speaker 2 (00:05:34) - And then you start doing customer discovery. So I took those rocks. I showed it to my mom. She thought it was very cool and thought, this is perfect. That's exactly what I need, and went back. And then I actually put it out there and tried to sell it. And very quickly I learned that nobody wanted to buy rocks and sticks, although I did sell some, I sold I sold some rocks. I didn't sell any sticks. But yeah, but but that was a useful process. And knowing that. I don't think that I had something radically special about me as a child, but knowing that a child understands this process of iteration, and when we get older, we just complicate how we start new projects. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:06:26) - Was this sort of the mindset that you have when you're like, well, gosh, I've, you know, I have all this corporate experience. I'm starting to, you know, see that, you know, improv is something up in me. Maybe this is desire.

Speaker 1 (00:06:41) - So what was yeah. What was it like kind of putting the pieces together in your mind before starting, you know, green light and getting to that point?

Speaker 2 (00:06:49) - Well, the thing that initially kickstarted green light improv is that I was in a meeting. This is in 2019. I was volunteering somewhere and I was in a meeting, and I had some idea that I shared, and someone turned to me and was like, what do you know? You haven't even started a company. And I thought, okay, that's harsh, but I get it. Yeah, not the nicest thing you could have said, but I get it. And that was sort of the kick start to say I've had all these ideas. Why aren't I doing anything with them? Of course, at the time I could tell myself, I don't know how to code. I don't know, I'm not a designer, so I can't. I felt like I couldn't just mock something up, but I realized no one really knows that when they start.

Speaker 2 (00:07:46) - So you just sort of someone tells you you should start something. And then once you commit to it, you figure out, how do I make a website? How does a logo work? And like, you might think you're great at making logos and then you try and you're like, that's way harder than I thought it was going to be. Yeah. So yeah, I think that was the the immediate kickstart. But to answer more directly, yes, I was seeing that improv had an effect on me. I had read research on the effects of improv in these different situations, even in from business use cases to startups to even some medical approaches. There's a lot of ways you can use improv, and I wanted to give something that was in the entrepreneurial sphere.

Speaker 1 (00:08:44) - And tell me a little bit. So because you were working, you're working a job while also, you know, having green light improv. And then what was it like 2022 when you said, you know what, it's time to go all in.

Speaker 1 (00:08:56) - Like what? Yeah. What was going through your head at the time? What was your relationship with your job like even then or. Yeah, I'd love to hear. Yeah. What I always love to hear what people were, were thinking about at that time of life.

Speaker 2 (00:09:10) - Yeah. So at that time, I had a great relationship with the company. Was that still do? I talked to some of them this morning, so I, we ended on very good terms. Yeah. But I think what was happening is my job before this was because I've always worked in startups. My job was I was running a startup for a corporation in this job. And I started to think, while I can do this and run this company for a corporation and start it up, go from 0 to 1, I think that I could also do this on my own, and I'll have. And I found this to be true over the last year. I have significant ownership over what it is now. I'm 100% owner of Green Light Improv, so I have a lot of ownership.

Speaker 2 (00:10:04) - I can control the direction, and I also find that I have to own all of the mistakes of it. So I find sometimes working a salary job there, if something goes wrong, it's bad, right? Like everyone knows this is bad. I might, I might lose my job, but. And it can be a little grave. But what I find with this is that if this fails, then it is all my fault. Like there's no one else that I can possibly go to and say, I can't believe this person made the decision that this was fireable. It's like, well, you didn't you didn't make enough money to live. So. So we have to we have to shut this down. And I think that level of ownership is what I need to keep going.

Speaker 1 (00:11:01) - Absolutely. Well, I mean, it keeps you it keeps you accountable to a level that's well to the highest possible level, which is my own survival, you know, and getting to a point where you're like, hey, look, there's nobody else that I can blame other than myself.

Speaker 1 (00:11:18) - So what that means is you end up figuring out ways to become the kind of, don't know, the kind of worker employee, you know, that you know you want to be, which is the person that thinks like three months out ahead of time or foresees problems before they get there. And a lot of that is getting bit in the ass over and over again. But but you do learn, right? And it's and it's really cool to see people go through that, go through that process. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:11:48) - And I find too, I find that here I can I can just have an idea, do it. And it fails in like one day. Yeah. Or it succeeds or it does really well. But more often than not these ideas aren't working. So and that's fine. That's part of this process. But I think that's part of the difference between having full ownership over what you're doing and having someone else that has a stake in what you're doing, because if you fail and you're running a startup for a corporation, there's a decent amount of people that may be upset.

Speaker 2 (00:12:29) - Yeah, but for me, if I fail, I'll be upset. Maybe some people close to me and my clients and customers, but I can just make decisions immediately. Although I should probably slow myself down a little bit.

Speaker 1 (00:12:44) - Yeah, yeah. Have your parents always been pretty, like, supportive of whatever mission you've been on along the way? Or. Because I know sometimes that's a that's sometimes that's a hard thing to navigate is being like, my parents are like, what the heck are you doing over there? You know? Or how has that been for you over the years?

Speaker 2 (00:13:01) - Yeah, I think my parents, they come from a different world. My mom was a teacher for a long time, and my dad managed malls and still does. So it's a different world than like the the VC startup world. But they they are definitely supportive of of what I'm doing and very happy of, of all this. I think for any parent, when someone quits their job that they're getting a salary for and going into something that you know, could turn belly up at any time, especially with the news recently with some some founders that are really hit in the news.

Speaker 2 (00:13:46) - There's some fear in all of that. Um, yeah. You look at any of the founders that now are being investigated or are in jail or something. Yeah. And I would bet that at least some of them didn't think that they would end up where they are now. Yeah. And so I think there is some fear for sure from going from a very secure place into an insecure one. But they have understood why I'm doing that and supporting me along that way. No, that's.

Speaker 1 (00:14:26) - That's and that's great. You know, that's something I've always been really grateful for, is my parents are always like, I'm like, yeah, my parents are always like, you know what? They're going to do their check in. They're going to be like, you sure this is okay? And then they'll be like, you know what? Just trust your instincts and you'll be fine. Like, you just keep moving forward. And they might be worried a little bit on their own, but that's that's the best.

Speaker 1 (00:14:49) - The best thing ever is whenever you can have somebody that's just in your corner knowing that, hey, you know, I know who you are as a person. And I think that what you've got to bring to the world is something that a lot of other people, at least a couple of other people would like, you know.

Speaker 2 (00:15:06) - So, yeah, at least somebody else wants this to be.

Speaker 1 (00:15:11) - Somebody.

Speaker 2 (00:15:11) - You know.

Speaker 3 (00:15:13) - Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:15:13) - No, that's that's great man. And you know, I love the story about you auditioning seven different times before you got to your, your final home for your, your improv group. How did that kind of shape your relationship with, I don't know, failure over the, over the years that that do anything to you mentally going through that process?

Speaker 2 (00:15:35) - Yeah. So when I think about the seven auditions, it didn't exactly feel like I was running full speed and then I just didn't get in. Yeah, it felt more like I enjoyed doing improv. I. Auditioned, didn't get in.

Speaker 2 (00:15:55) - It's upsetting, but I had a good time in the audition. And then I started taking classes, and when I auditioned again, I didn't really. I tried to not put as much pressure on myself that like each scene, every line I say has to be incredible, but more so that when I when I go out there and do a scene, I'm just having fun. This is a performance opportunity, and at the end of the next five auditions. The next. Yeah, the next five auditions after the first one, people also thought that it wasn't very good. Yeah. And that's like. It definitely hurts a bit, but I would look at it as. It's not like that's the only way I can do improv. I can still take classes, still do improv with just actor friends I have. Yeah, but I think that there is some amount of experimentation and the mindset that we're going to try things and they might work and they might not. And. That's part of it. And it applies now to when I'm thinking of I'm making two products at the moment, and when I talk to people about them, I very much want them to work.

Speaker 2 (00:17:15) - Yes, obviously I would like them to work. And at the same time, we're consistently running experiments to see we think through customer research that this is something that they would want when we actually have something that they can use. Do they use it? Do they like it? Yeah. Because often times you try, you think you have a deep understanding of the customer. And then once you build something and they don't like it, you realize. Mm, I missed that. I missed this one thing with this client and this customer segment. And, and I find that having that experimental approach that's similar and improv similar in my seven auditions. And as an entrepreneur, that's very helpful in creating new things and taking more ownership over the process. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:18:20) - And I what I really like about that too, is it sounds like, because I see it especially in people that are in any kind of creative field, is it initially it feels so like personal where you're like, this is this is me. So if they don't like it, they don't like me, like, oh, that sucks.

Speaker 1 (00:18:38) - And you're like, no, like, it seems like you found sort of a way to be objective about looking at, okay, this is what I've you know what I've done. I'm going to, you know, keep tweaking this and experimenting until I get to the place that I'm finding the optimal results, whether that's more laughs or more connection with clients or just generally more clients that are reaching out. You know, it's it's always really cool to see people. Yeah, go go through that process. When did you start seeing that? You were like, I think I've got a little bit of traction here. Like, did you ever have that kind of moment with, with greenlighted where you're like, oh, think I've found something here? So a number of you have probably seen the words rocket level thrown around a little bit here and there. And I wanted to take a moment just to explain what that is. So the G.E.M. Series comes from Rocket Level, who is somebody that I work with directly? And Rocket Level is a marketing technology company that specializes in meeting the unique needs of small and medium sized businesses.

Speaker 1 (00:19:42) - So over the years, through strategic collaborations with national brands, franchise groups and local partners, Rocket Level has become a trusted ally for SMBs operating in the market. And right now, Rocket Level's primary focus is to provide a comprehensive range of marketing solutions for SMBs, including website development, SEO, paid ads, email marketing, social media management, and just about anything you can think of by offering a done for you approach. Rocket level takes care of all aspects of digital marketing, allowing SMBs to focus on their core business operations. I know that everybody talks about this all the time. It's so hard to focus on the fulfillment side of things and been an absolute honor getting to partner with Rocket Level throughout the years, and be able to see them provide a solution for people that maybe don't have the talent right now, maybe don't have the time, and maybe don't have the playbook or the tools available. It truly is buttoned up in such a way that you can give somebody your high level objectives and get this stuff knocked out.

Speaker 1 (00:20:42) - So if you're curious, you should definitely, definitely give us a shout.

Speaker 2 (00:20:47) - Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, when when it's first starting, the whole goal is. To to do work, but a lot of it is like, I'll do a workshop for anybody who needs it. Yeah. And because you don't want to close the doors on yourself, although that might be hurting you because you're not specific enough with who you're trying to go after. But I find that I think that after probably about six months of of being full time on the company, I really started to feel like there was some momentum moving. I've also found that it tends to happen, that I'll write a lot of proposals, and then they'll all close in like the same month. So, so like, you know, you do all this work for months and you're like, this is not working. Yeah. And you just stare at stare at the wall. Stare at a table, like, what's happening here? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:21:54) - And you're like, I don't know what's wrong because I've talked to the customers. They all seem to love it, but they don't seem to be closing. But I think what I realized is that I'm in the business to business sales world at the moment, and that's a lot of especially with the clients I work with. Sometimes it's that there are a lot of layers of approval that we need. And I would say when that cycle first hit, about six months in and they all closed in in January, I was like, this is great. Yeah, I can't believe it's working.

Speaker 1 (00:22:35) - It's easing.

Speaker 2 (00:22:37) - But, you know, then I still like to tell people that after after that, you know, January hits and I'm like, this is incredible. February comes along and I'm like. What's happening? Yeah. You're. Like, why is this not working? But I think it's it's important to recognize that some people have called me in, especially in the last couple of weeks, and said, looks like you're doing a lot.

Speaker 2 (00:23:08) - It's going really well. How can we get to where you're at with the company right now? And I like to tell them that this is it's going well. It's definitely going well. And from the outside it also looks like it's going well. So that that is a true thing that's happening. Yeah. But at the same time, internally, it very often feels like the house is on fire and you're and it always it consistently feels like I need to revamp the sales flow or parts of these workshops, and the clients are very happy. It's all going well, but I think it's an important realization that no matter what level you're at, at least the people I've talked to, it really seems like the founder generally has just a little bit of terror in them all the time. Yeah, like the.

Speaker 1 (00:24:11) - Ducks legs are paddling, don't you worry. You know, it's like, no, it's real though. It's real. I mean, building runway, that's like one of the, one of the biggest stresses, even if that runway is if you even if you have a year of runway, you're still going to be worried about, you know, how do I get to two years, three years, four years.

Speaker 1 (00:24:29) - There's no such thing as like as as as comfort in the same way that I don't think there's such thing as like. Arriving. Right. It's it's it's a I've arrived. I've completed my mission. It's like. No, it's just it's it's perpetual movement forward. And finding joy in those moments is going to be what, what makes this whole thing feel.

Speaker 2 (00:24:56) - Yeah. Usually. Yeah. And and no matter how much money you have in the bank, no matter what that number is, when that number starts going down, when you, if you first quit your job or, you know, do something like that when that number is first starts to go down considerably, no matter how what that number is, no matter what it started at, that's a little terrifying. Of course. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:25:27) - And now it's it's it's it's so true. I mean, it's something that you always have to balance in your mind. So how do you. Yeah. What's your do you have kind of a sales process for being able to find these people now.

Speaker 1 (00:25:40) - And how do you do that usually.

Speaker 2 (00:25:43) - Yeah there's definitely a sales process now. What makes it easy and easier at least, is that one of the things in this business of professional speaking and workshop shops is that the, the vast majority of workshops come from people who have been in the workshops or clients who have booked me for those workshops. So at the very beginning, it's quite hard to get someone to trust you enough to bring you in, because thinking from their perspective, they're bringing me in and trusting me that I won't waste their entire team time. Yeah, even let alone the money. But throw that one to the side. Everyone in the room knows that this individual brought me in, and if I do a bad job, they're all going to know that it's that person. So at the beginning, it's tough to convince someone of that. But at this point, quite a lot of the workshops come either inbound from people who have already seen me do my thing. Yeah. Or I can see where these people work and sometimes and I can talk to them and realize that there are various opportunities at each one of these corporations, universities, school systems.

Speaker 2 (00:27:11) - And that simplifies the process just a little bit.

Speaker 1 (00:27:15) - Of course. Yeah. I mean, I saw on the website you've got all these glowing testimonials and, you know, I could already see I'm like, yeah, you probably got a pretty good built up a referral network that first few. That's always that's always the hard one though. Is there like, am I going to bring the crazy guy into into here that I don't know what's going on. And, and then somebody does. And the most important thing it's like, yeah, let's absolutely capture some sort of like, hey, will you please just if you had a good time, will you please, please do a quick video for me because it makes a world of difference. No, I think that's that's that's great to that's great to hear. I wanted to ask two more specifically about your process. Like whenever you're meeting with these people, what are some of the ways that you are introducing improv into their into their lives? You know, like, how does that how does that typically work whenever you go over there?

Speaker 2 (00:28:09) - Yeah, for the sales process or for the actual workshops for the workshop.

Speaker 1 (00:28:13) - Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:28:14) - Yeah. So for the workshops, what I typically tell people is that they need to tell their group that we're doing improv adjacent things in this workshop, because otherwise people come in and someone says, all right, Nathan Minns with green light improv. And they're like, I'm not doing improv. I'm not going to do that. Yeah. And and there's a lot of anxiety immediately in the room. And what I found is that these people that get anxious at the idea of improv, you really need to give them some warning so that they can prepare themselves for this experience, for sure. Now we're still not in the workshops. We're not like throwing people on stage against their will and just saying, entertain us for an hour. Yeah, but I usually start off defining improv and as to make it a little wider. I define it as any time we don't have a script, and then what we do from there is make it very clear that we're not going to put anyone on the spot that doesn't want to be on the spot talking in front of the group.

Speaker 2 (00:29:23) - And then everything we do is it's a lot of like quick thinking exercises, more than like you are doing an exercise that you would commonly find in an improv theater, like you wouldn't see any of these, almost any of these exercises performed there, really to teach the principles of improv comedy. And I find that introducing them in the workshop, making it. Clear that they are not going to be put on the spot, and giving them a slow ramp into participating is helpful in getting everyone involved in the room.

Speaker 1 (00:30:09) - That's no, that's excellent. And I can see that, you know, you probably see I bet you because think I even heard one where you're like, somebody stood up right at the beginning and they were like, hey, just so you know, we're all introverts. We're not going to do any of this stuff. Do you run into, like, people giving you that kind of a resistance a lot. And then they. Yeah. How do you how do you deal with that typically.

Speaker 2 (00:30:33) - That one was fun. Yeah. That was that was fun because she said we're all introverts and we're going to hate this. Just thought you should know. And I'm like. Thank you for letting me know. Thank you for that, I appreciate it. But I just asked her to give me, like, think it was 15 minutes. Just give me 15 minutes. Really participate 15 minutes. And if you hate it, you don't have to participate the whole rest of the two hours that I'm here. And then she was participating the entire time, volunteering in front of the group, doing everything. I would say, though. There's certainly anxiety around the concept of of this. Even sometimes at the beginning of the workshop I'll ask, how are we feeling? Just we're about to get started. How are we feeling about what we're going to do? And my two favorites are dread. I've heard that one before, and I've also heard regret. I came and and I'm like, well, it's not going to it's not going to be like, it's not going to be.

Speaker 2 (00:31:40) - You're going to be put outside of your comfort zone, but only to the extent that you want to be outside of your comfort zone. There are ways in most things that are uncomfortable that you can ease some of the anxiety and stress, and you can make that choice. I invite them all to lean in to the growth that they're feeling when they feel just a little bit uncomfortable, but there is certainly some amount of I've seen improv, and I don't want to look foolish in front of my boss or in front of my peers. And that's that's not fun for them, and it's not fun for me. So I don't want to do it. Yeah. And yeah, I find too, that people don't understand the some of the. They have some misconceptions of improv, like I used to volunteer and help people check in at an improv theater in town, and we like to fill the front of the the front row, and then the second row just keeps all the energy right there. And they would check in and I would say, yeah, just sit in the first two rows and they're like, very funny.

Speaker 2 (00:33:02) - Not gonna do that. And every person that walked in into this theater to see the show would say, ha, very funny. Um, I'm like, no, like really mean we're not going to pick on you. That's not. Yeah. We don't. While it is a conversation with the audience, we typically when performing we typically like we don't have hecklers. It's not a it's not a common thing not crowd.

Speaker 1 (00:33:33) - Work or something like that which think people think is going to happen. They're going to be like, your hair is terrible.

Speaker 2 (00:33:39) - You know? Yeah. It's like if anyone starts participating in the improv very often, you're like, thank you very much. Yeah, you can you can have a seat again. Because that's just not like it's not the art form. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:33:57) - Yeah, absolutely. Do you ever have the opposite happen at your workshops where you find somebody that's like, I've been waiting. This is my moment. I'm a little bit. I'm a little bit of a wise guy over here, you know.

Speaker 1 (00:34:10) - Have you ran into that scenario before?

Speaker 2 (00:34:13) - I find that the workshops are a great equalizer. So what I like to tell people is that people that are like, I don't know if I should do it because I'm the boss, and these are all people that report to me and like, that's very nice of you, but it's also likely that you're going to mess up and then you probably don't want them to see that. But when you mess up, all of the people that report to you are going to see that, see that you are valuable just like any other person. Yes, there are people that participate quite a lot, and that's appreciated because having a couple people that that participate a lot pulls out everyone else, pulls everyone else in the group out of their shell. But but I find that it's not as predictable as you might think, because it's it's a great equalizer because no one has done these exercises.

Speaker 1 (00:35:11) - That's so that's so cool. And I mean, whenever you named dread and I regret that I came as two of the feelings, it just made me think there's probably a lot of people have those feelings every day in different work interactions.

Speaker 1 (00:35:26) - You know, that they maybe they're not labeling it as intentionally because they're not showing up to a workshop to, like, do something like this, you know? But there's all kinds of things, whether you're in sales or maybe there's some like conflict on a project or anything like that. What are some of the most useful translations you've seen, I guess, come out of come out of some of these workshops and people shared some feedback?

Speaker 2 (00:35:50) - Yeah. I think the biggest concept that commonly comes out is this idea of yes and and yes, ending each other and the basic idea usually people have heard of improv, they've heard of Whose Line is it anyway? And yes, and but yes, it often hasn't been explained and very quickly. Yes and means. Yes, I hear you. I understand what you're saying. I'll make a real effort to honestly consider it, and I'm going to try to find a way to make this work. So it's not about actually saying yes, actually doing all of the ideas that come our way, but it's about holding space for just one moment to honestly consider it before we make a decision.

Speaker 2 (00:36:36) - We use that in improv because you can't see anything on stage. So we're like, this is a bat. And if the other person says no, but they know about the situation and they say, no, but that's a snake, then the whole audience is confused. What's in my hand? I just said, it's a bat. They said, it's a snake. What is it? And there's no there's no source of truth because they can't see it. Whereas in a movie you'd be able to say, that's clearly a bat. Yes. That's not it's not a snake. But yes, Anding allows us to build these worlds on stage together. And the way that it applies into a team context is that it allows you to be more collaborative with each other and allows everyone's voice to be heard, and for them to feel like they're heard because they actually are. So. That's how we typically use end, where we just say, have a more open mind. Just for a moment, honestly, consider this idea, no matter how wild it might be, because there might be something in there that is useful, even if it's not the initial idea presented, there's probably something in there that tells of some greater solution or some greater problem that can be addressed.

Speaker 1 (00:38:01) - Oh, that's yeah, that's that's such a good context for being able to utilize this. You know, I can I can see because I can't tell you how many times we're I'm sure we've all experienced that where you've been in a meeting and maybe people aren't even fully grasping the idea that you're trying to convey. But if you if you had more of a, you know, an atmosphere of yes, and then, yeah, you have a much greater likelihood of arriving somewhere positive together and getting a deeper understanding. So think that's think that's lovely. So Nathan, you know, I know you've mentioned you're doing two products, two new products. You're working on all these big things. What would you say is, yeah, on the horizon for you right now and what you're working towards.

Speaker 2 (00:38:43) - Yeah, I would say on the horizon. It's doing a lot of entrepreneurship programs, a lot of programs. When I and when I say entrepreneurship programs, it's not only doing doing programs with an entrepreneurship department or with accelerators or startups, but rather it's about teaching the entrepreneurial mindset and teaching this iterative cycle that that things don't always work.

Speaker 2 (00:39:14) - That's part of this. But together you can iterate and get much further than if you plan for two years, have a big launch, and then the idea doesn't work. It's much easier to just plan for a little bit launch, planned launch plan, launch. And so planning that iterative cycle. And so that's that's the main focus at the moment is doing just doing a lot of these workshops and usually based around this idea of entrepreneurial thinking. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:39:43) - Well everybody, you know, where can everybody keep up with you and sort of learn more about what you've been doing. And yeah, how can people find you?

Speaker 2 (00:39:53) - Yeah. So you can find me on LinkedIn at Nathan Minns, or you can find our website at Green Light improv.com.

Speaker 1 (00:40:02) - Amazing, amazing. All right. And then my last question I always ask everybody, what is one piece of advice that that you've received or picked up in life that you think is a piece of advice that you know, anybody could benefit from?

Speaker 2 (00:40:17) - Yeah, I think that it is.

Speaker 2 (00:40:19) - It's that when we walk in a room, no matter where we're going, we can make the choice how we'll show up in that room. And I always tell people to bring their ten out of ten fantastic energy into the room, because even one person bringing that energy helps everybody else in the room to bring the energy level up. And somebody has to be first, and that somebody can be you.

Speaker 1 (00:40:47) - That's amazing advice. I adhere to that advice myself. You never know how that that ripple effect will impact everybody in the in the room. Think it's it's really important. Well, Nathan. Thanks, man. This is. Oh, stay on there. Be fantastic.

Speaker 2 (00:41:04) - Yeah, I got I got a bracelet that has the logo on one side. Be fantastic on the other.

Speaker 1 (00:41:08) - All right. I might have to get one of those. I have.

Speaker 2 (00:41:10) - To go. Yeah. For sure.

Speaker 1 (00:41:12) - It's been a half thousands. I'm really glad we got the talk. You know, I appreciate you hopping on the show.

Speaker 1 (00:41:20) - It's been. It's been a total pleasure.

Speaker 2 (00:41:23) - Amazing. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:41:25) - Absolutely. Everybody check out Nathan. This has been an episode of the G.E.M. Series. I'm going to be launching a course soon that goes over some of the amazing insights that we've gotten from all these great guests. So stay tuned for that. And until next time, I hope you all have a wonderful day. All right. Take care. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the G.E.M. Series, where we're always here to share the goals, execution, and mindset of thought leaders around the world. If you're listening to this, I'm sure that you have some pretty big goals for yourself, and I would absolutely love to hear them. Actually, here at Rocket Level, we just launched our newest partnership program where the goal is to, well, build a relationship with you guys. I want to talk with all of you coaches, consultants and entrepreneurs. This program is going to be providing free sales and marketing training, giving you access to a massive network of small businesses, and even paying you to allow us to handle the fulfillment side of things.

Speaker 1 (00:42:23) - Over the last 20 years, we've been able to learn a lot about how to handle digital marketing for a small business, and frankly, we want to pass that along. After working with business coaches and consultants all over the world, we decided, let's make it formal. Let's make this thing happen. So if you're at all curious, check out the links attached and please reach out directly. I would love to meet you all. Remember, I'm always a email, text, phone call or DM away. Everybody remember to be awesome and do awesome things a whole lot more coming soon. Take care.