[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: The podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Duraney, and I'm your host, Andrea. It's so good to see you. Thank you so much for coming on. I really, really appreciate this.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: Thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to it.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. And it's funny because the intro to this podcast talks about me having discussions with men who have gone through hell and come out stronger. And, you know, since this is my baby here, I can interview woman if I want. You are the first woman I'm having on my podcast, and you are amazing.
And I was doing more reading about you and the thing I absolutely love, and I don't know if anybody in the world has done this. Andrea is a social worker turned comedian. There's so much in that. Can you just tell me? I know life is not linear. So first, how'd you get to be a social worker? Like, the why behind it? And then how the heck does a social worker turn comedian and improv? So I. This is just fascinating.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Good questions. Good. You're doing great so far with your first interview of a woman. I'm going to let you know right now I'll be grading you as you go. And you're doing a great job so far.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: I appreciate that. I can always learn.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Thank you.
So I became a social worker because I. I think I shared with you before. I am a survivor of sexual assault when I was a child. And it was social workers who stood in that gap for me and helped me figure out how to move forward and how to feel safe again, you know, in environments that it were. It was important for me to figure out how to feel safe in, you know, and so I kind of felt this indebtedness to this profession.
But I also knew that in the situation where I was victimized at my church, there were other little girls who were victimized who, for different reasons, hadn't come forward or hadn't shared their story. And it wasn't until I was a teenager that some of the people came forward to me privately at, like, youth group Lock Ins. And they were like, hey, that thing that happened to you, it happened to me too.
Or like, it happened, my brother did this to me, or, like, these sorts of things. And they were, like, sharing these things with me. And I realized, like, oh, my gosh, like, there's so much hurt in the world. And like, this thing that had made me feel so alienated truly connected me to so many people. And I thought, you know, because. Because these people have helped me heal to the point where I'm able to share my story without it causing me nightmares, you know, for weeks on end. And because I've been able to heal and process, like, I would love to be able to help other people do that. Right? So that had been sort of my impetus. You know, it was, like, personal for me. And then I, you know, went to school. I was a double major and a double minor. My two majors were social work and religion. My minors were teaching English as a second language and missions. Because my whole plan was, I want to be able to have a job no matter what happens. Like, if anything happens, I want to be able to, like, no, I haven't.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: You are covered.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: I. That was the plan. So at any rate, I had lots of interests. Is really the bottom line there. Lots of interests. But the common thread was, I want to be a helper. I want to know how I can contribute in this world and be helpful.
So became a social worker, moved to Pittsburgh after school, and was a social worker while I was a social worker. Are you ready for this? Because my path to comedy is not the path that you're expecting. I, like, I had this idea for a tech startup at work with my friends.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: A tech startup at work as well. You're a social worker? Okay.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Yes. And so I was like, we need to make this app. So I go to Startup Weekend in Pittsburgh, pitch this idea for an app. We won. I'm like, 23, don't know what the h e double hockey pucks I'm doing at all. And so I am now, like, in charge of making this app happen. I had, like, recruit software engineers, try to raise capital. Like, all this stuff. I did a horrible job. It fell apart in a year and a half. We lost, like, all of our money. I learned a ton, though. Like, a ton.
But part of winning this Startup Weekend was that I could go to any of the Pittsburgh Tech Council workshops for free.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:04:55] Speaker A: And one of them was called improv for CEOs. And I was technically the CEO of this flaming crap circus. But I'm being so mean. Share Closet was a beautiful idea, and the people who were helping me build it. Beautiful humans. And I still love all of them. All of them, at any rate. So I go to this workshop mainly because I knew Share Closet was falling apart. So I. I wanted something to be joyful about. And I knew it seemed like, fun, right? And I knew that it would be fun, but, like, I didn't realize how deeply meaningful it would be and how I would hear in this workshop so much that was so familiar about living a brave life, you know, and being resilient and. And building trust with people that you don't know and might have reasons not to like, and figuring out how to keep being vulnerable and keep building something with people who have failed in front of you or choosing to be vulnerable when you're the one who has failed, you know, and there's just so much about improv that are, like, the skills that it takes to make it work well are the same skills that help life work well, and it's fun to practice them. And the stakes are so much lower, you know, like, it's. It's really an interesting environment to learn these incredibly helpful life skills. And so as a social worker and as a. Well, we don't need to get all into this, but, like, person of faith who was estranged from my faith at that time.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: I felt this, like, deep resonance of, like, oh, there's something that's really, really good here. There's a lot of love that is present here. And, yeah, so that's. That's how it happened for me.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Wow. All right. So there. There is a lot here. So if I. Thinking about even. Even the double major, double minor, the fact that religion was one of the. The majors where you could have. Or did you kind of turn your back on religion because of what happened to you with the church, which I could completely understand.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: So, interestingly enough, no, it. It really wasn't about that. Like, I had in the time of, like, I've been going to therapy since I was so young because of what happened to me. And so I'd sort of come to an understanding that, like, this kind of thing happens all over the place.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: It happens to people in their homes. It happens to people at school. It happens people in Cub Scouts. It happens, like, everywhere, you know, like, it happens in so many different places. What happened for me as a religion major was learning for the first time, like, the history of where the Bible came from. And the. The type of Christianity that I had grown up with was very much like, there is one right way to do it. And fortunately for me, it's the way that my culture does it. Like, how fortuitous is that of all the way. The one way that doesn't lead to hell is my way.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: And anything that didn't fit in with that, it was like, the Bible is the actual truth. My understanding of it was like, it was dropped straight down from heaven, and I'M exaggerating a little bit, but it was just this idea of, like, this infallible book.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: And then as a religion major at a Christian school, I'm learning, like, where this book came from and the way that people killed each other over what would be put in this book and. And the texts that were written that weren't a part of it. And so for me, that was like, the. The first thing that made me be like, what if I don't know everything?
[00:08:34] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: Like, what if. What if?
Basically, I couldn't handle that. Like, I couldn't handle this. This thought of, like, so many decisions about who's in and who's out, who's right and who's wrong, who's good enough and who's not good enough.
My church has made those decisions based on what's in this book.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Yeah, because.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Because we're telling folks and ourselves that this is the perfect book. Everything we need to know about life is in this book. And now here I find out that there is, like, major question marks about where this came from. And so I don't know how this is.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: You're in your 20s at. Or, like, late, Right?
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Well, I'm in college. I was. Ye. Was 18, 19.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Well, you know, I got. I got to give you a ton of credit for that because, you know, most of our belief system is kind of written for us. Half of, you know, 50% of it, maybe. Maybe a lot more. At a young age of like 7 or so. By the time we're, like, ready to go to college, we're basically told what we're supposed to believe. And it is. It must have been. Yeah. Eye opening for you at that age to say, geez, all that stuff that I'm supposed to believe that people told me is not all true. And I give you credit for bucking the system because a lot of us don't do that that young.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: It was very alienating. Well, and this. This was the whole reason why improv was such an important thing for me, because I, like, Christianity is a part of my home culture. Like, it's a part of my identity, you know, and so feeling alienated from the faith of my ancestors, you know, the. The way that they understood how to walk in the way of love was, like, heartbreaking for me. Like, it didn't feel to me the same as being like, you know, before. I can't even think of a comparable, like, trying to think of, like, a comparable thing, but it felt like a huge deal, you know, to. To lose this out of my Life. And then when I found improv and started hearing some of these similar threads of truth, like, really, what. What was Christianity ever supposed to be about? It's supposed to be about love. You know, it's supposed to be about, like, you know, Jesus taught. I don't know what you want from me right now, and I don't know how this, any of this is going to land with your. With your listeners, but the truth of my story is that many of us.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Think like this and have these dichotomies where we're wondering. And this is totally. You're going to resonate with a lot of people listening right now.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Okay. And. And if there's people listening, I hope what you deeply hear from me is that it is not my intention to proselytize or anything, try to convince folks one way or the other about anything.
The only. Yeah, it. Anyhow, but for me, I.
I understood that, like, Jesus teaches this message of, like, radical love, like, dangerous love, like, vulnerable love.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: And so that had been impressed upon me because in the midst of all the hubbub about, you know, Christian nationalism and just all this stuff that was so familiar to me growing up, they're also inside of that were people of love, people who deeply wanted to make the world a better place and who, you know, were just like, so. So there's. It's a. Both and, you know.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: But for me, finding improv and hearing this sense of, like, what if we let all of this go and it's not about any of that.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: Right, Right.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: And what it's actually about is listen with your full attention to your scene partner. Listen to them, look for ways to support them, and then be about that. Like, be sacrificial in your support of your scene partner. Your job is not to be hot. Your job is to not be, like, focused on what people think about you. And like, you know, you're. That's not what we're doing here. What we're doing here is looking for ways to make our scene partner look good.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: And you'd be silly as whatever needs to happen right now, you get out there, you put your ass on the line, and you support your scene partner. Even if you don't get it yet, even if you don't understand what their idea is quite yet. You build whatever it's going to be together.
And to me, I just was like, well, I can get behind that. Like, I love that. And it's probably not immediately clear from this conversation, all the parallels that I found, and it wasn't like, in one class, my faith was restored, but I actually wrote about the experience of understanding God differently and, like, finding this faith that actually was, like, deeply meaningful to me on the other side of becoming an improviser and a comedian, because it was like, for the first time, I felt, like, drawn toward love without all of the legalism.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: I wrote about it in Mennonite blog, which I'm happy to share the link with your followers if they like. And also, it's totally fine if they are not interested.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: But no, you know what, what you're saying is, is. Is something that most of us would benefit from because you talk about authenticity, you talk about unconditional support that you're giving. You're talking about emotional vulnerability. You're about giving and putting yourself out there, not worrying what other people are going to think. You're there to help others lift. Lift them up. Right? And yeah, all of that is. Is such a healthier way to live, regardless if you put it under the religion or improv or whatever, just being who you are is so fulfilling. And I mean, I mean, it took me. I'm 54. It took me 53 years to realize that.
The last year, it's been unbelievable because we have a choice who we bring into our world, and we. And it's up to us, and we make all those decisions ourselves. We don't need to be influenced by anything else. So I'm very.
I mean, for this to be a good thing. I'm proud as hell for you. Proud of you for where you are now. I want to learn a little more about improv from you because I know the. This is one of the things I'm hearing a lot about because it does free a lot of people improv. So can you tell me some more of the. You told me some of the basics. If we could just dive a little deeper into improv and how it can help people in life, not just have to be what you do for a living, but in life.
I'd love to hear.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: So the core foundation of improv is this concept of. Yes. And which your listeners may have heard before. And the way that I think my work is all rooted in.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: As opposed to. No, but yeah.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: It's more of an abundance mindset seems than a scarcity mindset, right?
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Absolutely.
One of the things that is important to me as someone who teaches mindful improv thinking. Like I teach mindfulness practice.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: And improvised comedy skills together. And I call this mindful improv thinking.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: So when I teach. Yes. And I teach that really what we're talking about is acceptance and courage. Like, we're talking about like the yes is like accepting what has already happened.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: That's what it's about.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Wonderful.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: It's not like saying yes to everything. And I'll tell you right now, as a woman improviser who now there's more and more and more of us, right. It was not uncommon for me to be the only girl on stage for a while.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: And so there is different times where. And my guys, I'm going to say right now, they were respectful and like, I deeply love my. My fellow improvisers. And I can absolutely think of a couple times where I'd be like, hey, I don't want you to grab my butt off stage. I don't know what type of stuff. Like, I get that it's all silly and it's easy to get carried away in the moment. And like, maybe on stage we were husband and wife, but offstage, that's not what's going on here. And I'm a married Mennonite. So like, boundaries, y'all.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: I was gonna say you set boundaries around your self identity and what's right and. Yeah, good for you. And you spoke up for it.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: So. Yeah.
And what was important was for me to learn that whatever's gonna happen on stage, let's say that I'm in a scene where I'm married to someone. Like, if things start going in a direction that doesn't work for me, right? Yes. And does not mean I have to keep building more of what's not working for me or what doesn't honor me, you know, like, I don't have to do that. That's not what. Yes and means yes doesn't mean yes like there's a deeper thing that's happening. Yes means acceptance. Yes means we don't ignore the thing that's not working for us. Yes means we acknowledge and accept whatever has already happened in the scene. And then. And is where we use vulnerability and courage to build something of our own on top of it. So what I'm encouraging people to think of when they hear yes. And from me, there's lots of different ways to hear this, but the way I teach it.
Yes. And when we apply this to life is about marrying humility with courage. The humility to believe the next right thing can come from anywhere.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: The next right thing can come from the person that frickin pisses me off. The next right thing can come from someone that I have reasons not to trust.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: And it's not just about me being sensitive. It's like I have freaking proof verified by a judge or whatever. Like, it can be like, yes. And is about accepting, like, that this is my scene partner.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: For better or worse, this is my scene partner.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: And sort of like, this humility to believe and understand that, like, we are all more than the worst show. That doesn't mean the worst show didn't happen. That doesn't mean we didn't get it wrong before. That doesn't mean you're not correct, that this person was unprofessional, unhelpful, unkind, whatever. It's just that it means. And we are all more than the worst stuff about us. I know. I am. I know. Like, I need that grace from other people. So that's like this yes. Piece. The way I teach it. And then. And is like, you have got to get brave, because we do not need people who are sitting on the sidelines watching their scene partners get their asses handed to them or, like, fail miserably or whatever. And they're on the sidelines. Like, that's what happens when you try. That's why I stayed over here miserable in this job I hate so much. That's what happens when you try. You know, like, if you want to stay on the sidelines criticizing whatever is happening on stage, you're not improvising. Like, you might as well be in the audience.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: And this. Maybe the entrepreneurship example isn't the most powerful one, but maybe it's like watching something happen in your family, watching an argument happen. And it's like, I don't want to get involved with this. I don't want to say the wrong thing. I don't want to make it worse. That might be a more relatable example. And maybe it's not around the Thanksgiving table. Maybe it's in the boardroom.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: Maybe it's somewhere else, but there's something happening. A scene.
Because all of life is improv. A scene is happening. And you're watching from the sidelines. Like, I don't want to make it worse.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: I don't. I'm scared I'll make it worse.
[00:20:03] Speaker B: Yeah. There's a. There's a time when neutrality is not the best.
You know, Action.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: Well, it's like you're. And there's times, like, Sharna Halpern wrote this book called Truth and Comedy, which I love. I've read it several times. It's called Truth in Comedy.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: And she says one of the most important Skills of an improviser is to notice when they're not needed on stage. So there is this truth in mindful improv thinking that sometimes you're not needed. I. When I'm working with groups on like micromanagement, for example.
[00:20:33] Speaker B: Right, right, right.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: There's times, there is times when it's like take a step back, like not your way and wrong are not the same thing. You know? So like there's. But there's just this understanding of like needing to know, like when is it my time to get out there and when is it not? And if you are asking yourself right now, how do you know where are.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: The cues to know whether you should go on and help or stay back and let it go?
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So this is why I talk about being in alignment. When you're in alignment, you have that answer for yourself. Alignment means I have trust in myself. I have trust in my seen partners. I have trust in the process. Okay, so trust in myself means I am not telling myself some kind of story that, hey, remember what happened last time you got involved? You frickin made it worse or it was really embarrassing, or you failed and lost all the money in your savings account or whatever. You've kind of forgiven yourself for those past failures or shortcomings. Beautiful trust in other people. Same thing you're reminding yourself like, oh, I am seeing right now manifestations of not the best that these people can do. I've. I'm watching these people in my family say things that do not represent the people of love that I know they truly are. Or whatever. Whatever is happening. You're seeing what's happening and you're reminding yourself like it is safe to trust people that aren't perfect. In fact, that's my only option if I'm going to trust anyone. Because this, a whole planet is made up of imperfect people. Maybe I'm watching people be imperfect right now. And I am correct in seeing that imperfection is in front of me.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: I can still trust that beautiful things get made every single day by the hands of imperfect people. Absolutely everything that exists in this world was made at the hands of imperfect people.
So we kind of restore that trust in our scene partners.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Right?
[00:22:25] Speaker A: The other people trust in the process means I understand that I don't know 11 steps down the road how this thing plays out. And that's okay because it's improvised. It's not written in stone how it's going to play out. We are building that right now, piece by piece by piece by piece. Whatever story I'm So afraid of in the future.
I can decide right now to get present in this moment and get brave and do my part to build a future that I don't need to be so afraid of.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: But right now is my opportunity to do that. And every second that I spend second guessing myself, berating myself for getting it wrong, telling myself that I need better seen partners in order to do something that feels good to me instead of just accepting these are the people that I have right now and what exists is enough. That's a core belief of mindful improv. Thinking what exists is enough.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: You know, so when we put that leg of the tripod in place and we kind of reestablish that trust in the process, like, we're going to build whatever it's going to be together when those three legs of the tripod are in place. Me, you process, you will have the understanding of like, okay, now it's my time to get brave. Or they've got this.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: I would say it has to be in that order too. In order to attain alignment, you first have to trust in yourself. If you don't have that trust in self, you can't really trust in others. So how do you build that trust in self in order to be able to take that next step of trust in others?
[00:24:02] Speaker A: So not to sneaky style plug my book.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: No, no. This is kind of what I'm gonna.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: Sneaky style plug my book right now.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: I want you to put it out there right now.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Yeah. So I wrote a book called the Funny thing about Forgiveness. And I was fortunate to have Colin Mochrie from Whose Line is It Anyway? Write the forward for my book.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:24:20] Speaker A: And it really gets into this exact thing. Like, the work of forgiveness is work that we can do proactively. We do not have to wait until we're feeling forgiving ish in order to really get inside of ourselves and be like, how can I let go of the shame, the resentment, the. The regret that I am just beating myself over the head with all the time? You know, how can I do that? And so much of it. This is what's beautiful and what I just, like, hope your listeners are ready to, like, really receive.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: When we allow ourselves to believe the future is not written in stone. This is improv. All of life is improv. It is improv. That means it's not decided yet, right? We can let go of that venom we dump into ourselves. Because the reason that you are berating yourself over and over and over and just cannot take your own claws out of your own heart is that you're telling yourself some kind of story that says now, because I did that now this bad thing has to happen in the future. Now things are limited now. This relationship is beyond restoration. Now my career is effed up beyond what can be restored. Whatever. You're telling yourself a disaster story about the future in some way, shape or form, your future, freedom, growth, success, expansion, connection, whatever, some way, shape or form, you're telling yourself this is not possible for me. Now.
What I deeply hope any person that interacts with me or my work will walk away from knowing is that all of life is improv. That is the deepest truth that I know to be true. And that means there is hope, right? There is hope.
[00:26:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I agree with you wholeheartedly.
You know, if we embrace forgiveness and we forgive ourselves first. Right? That just like trusting ourselves first.
It does, it does. You can replace regret with forgiveness and it does help you alleviate those, those errors of your ways and others. And, and that's, that's a great point you make.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: And it's what I say in the book. My opening thesis of the book is that this proactive forgiveness, which I teach in the book, using both mindful improv skills and background as a social worker, understanding behavior modification, which we can get into or not get into, we probably don't have time to get into. But all of that is in the book, Right? But the hypothesis or thesis, I mean, at the beginning of the book, is that this is not just the right thing to do. There's no moral obligation here, right?
[00:27:09] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: But it is the most critical leadership skill. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, if you want to succeed at whatever is important to you as a pastor, a teacher, a community activist, a parent, leader of a company, non profit, whatever, you have got to get proactive about forgiveness. Because any other leadership skill that is important to you, holding a big vision, being a good includer, motivating your people, trusting your people, instead of micromanaging, you know, delegating well, communicating well, all of these things that we know are important for leaders to do hinge upon whether or not you have forgiven yourself or you have forgiven past templates of poor leadership or whatever.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: Because that's what enables you to consistently do those things well when we are not consistent in those behaviors.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: What I teach in the book is that you can get curious and I give some examples in the book and some exercises people can do to practice this, but when we're not consistent in any of those behaviors, we can get curious and figure out where there is an opportunity for forgiveness that will help us increase our batting average at whatever that healthy skill is that we're trying to implement.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: Absolutely. Because forgiveness allows us to be grateful, and grateful keeps us in that present moment that you talked about with improv. I could talk to you forever.
Two final questions.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:39] Speaker B: Okay.
Andrea, what advice would you give about life to young Andrea? 7 to 10 years old?
[00:28:50] Speaker A: 7 to 10 years old were challenging years for me, sharing what I've already shared about my story.
And there was this deep darkness for me that I felt like I was constantly treading water, just constantly trying to keep my head above the waves and not believe that I was worthless. Because when you come from that type of sexual assault and then are raised in purity culture, where it's like, the most important thing a woman can ever be is a virgin, you know, and, like, sexually pure and all this, and then these things have been taken from you, it's so confusing to know, like, am I good? Am I good enough? Like, you know, like, am I valuable? Am I desirable? Do I. Am I. Do I belong here at all? You know, so just, like, constantly, you know, things I would hear in church, which I come from a family of. Almost all the men in my family are pastors, so I was always in church at least three times a week in church.
[00:29:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: And so hearing these different messages, people say something, some kind of way, and it would just fire up this shame storm for me of, like, just constantly wondering, is there any hope for me? Like, am I good enough at all?
I would tell that precious, precious little girl, you are enough.
You are enough. That's what I would tell her. I would just give her the hugest hug and be like, that's beautiful. You belong in the world.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Absolutely beautiful. So put on your entrepreneurial hat. And Andrea, the entrepreneurs. Andrea or Andrea?
[00:30:28] Speaker A: Andrea.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: Andrea. And what would you tell the. The young Andrea who's ready to go out in the entrepreneurial world? What advice would you give her about life and about business?
[00:30:43] Speaker A: So, you know, I don't know if there's any advice I could give her different than what anybody else says. Drink more healthy routines, be proactive with sales. Make your bed in the morning. I don't know. I'm just kidding. Like, there's so much good advice out there. I think maybe what I would say to her is, the things that are hard for you to do consistently that, you know, are the right thing to do, you know, it's the right thing to be brave and go introduce yourself to new people.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: You know, it's the right thing to ask to get paid more. You know, it's the right thing. You know, these things are the right thing. There's nothing novel that I can say in this space other than why aren't you doing it?
Get curious with gentle curiosity about why aren't you doing that stuff and work on that because that's going to increase your batting average and help this go a lot more smoothly.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: Yeah. The reason why I love asking those last two questions is because in life we were always taught separate life and work. Right. Work life balance, which to me does not exist. I think that was a myth and a lie that we've been taught because the two pieces of advice you just gave help. Each of those pieces of advice help both the young Andrea, 7 to 10, and the Andrea, the young entrepreneur. Yeah, they both do. So I suggest to people, don't separate work life. You have strengths in work. You can adapt in your personal life and you have strengths in your personal life. You can adapt at work. Yeah, that's you 16 hours of the 24 hours, so to speak. So don't separate that. You have been a wonderful, wonderful person to talk to. I'm so glad we're friends and you're in my life and community and you are making such a wonderful difference in the world. How can people find you? How can people have more of Andrea?
[00:32:37] Speaker A: Well, I love to connect with people through the mindful improv community. I am on social media some and I'm on the places where you find folks. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn especially.
But the best way to stay in touch with me is through the mindful improv community. It's for free. There's no upsells happening here right now. But if you go to and beyond improv.com and scroll to the bottom, there's of that homepage. You can join there. I can also send you a link. Do. Do you send this out to people via email or.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: I will. Give me the link. I'll put it in the show notes.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: Oh, great.
[00:33:13] Speaker B: There with the link in the show.
[00:33:15] Speaker A: On the link in the show notes.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: Is what I meant to say by all that.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: No, I should have told you that before. I am so, so.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: And yeah, and so you can join the mindful improv community and that's where you can learn more about mindful improv thinking. And I'd love to have you as a reader if you are someone who's up for a book that has personnel. This is my, my thing that was important to me was I want to write a book for leaders that is fun to read because I know what it feels like to have been given books by bosses that was like this is important for your career. And it was like real hard to push through it. So I tried to write a book that is fun to read, meaningful on a soul level, and practically helpful in your day to day life as well.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: Give the audience the names of all your books and how to get them.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: So right now there is one book out. It is called the Funny Thing About Forgiveness. What Every Leader Needs to Know about Improv Culture and the World's Least Favorite F word, which is forgiveness.
And you can find that on Amazon and it's linked. If you want fewer than 50 books you can get that on Amazon if you want to buy them for everybody at your company or then you can bulk orders you can place through me directly. Beautiful on my website.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: Use the plural word of books because you have so much knowledge and stuff to give. I hope you're going to be writing a few more.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: More are coming.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: All right.
Andrea, thank you so much for for being here and you've made my day.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
[00:34:47] Speaker B: Absolutely. Take care.
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