Episode 1: Three Things I Learned as a Leader During COVID-19
Each week, your failed it! podcast host and improve it! founder Erin Diehl, will take you on a comedic journey that flips the “highlight reel” of Instagram on its head and shows you the grit, creativity and determination it takes to overcome your disappointments, embrace the suck, and design the career you’ve only dreamed about.
The world has shifted and in a matter of just a few weeks, everything has changed. This episode, host Erin Diehl addresses how she and her company, improve it!, are adapting to the effects of Covid-19 and the most important things she learned as a leader during this time.
Welcome to failed it!
What a crazy world we live in right now. This pandemic has affected everyone in so many different ways. On this week’s episode, you’ll hear the “real Diehl” on how Covid-19 looks like a huge failure for a lot of businesses and teams. Erin invites you to think about how this “fail” can be the fuel you need to put you and your team into overdrive to create new revenue opportunities and scale in a different way.
Today, Erin discusses her new norm during the quarantine and three main tips and tricks to help you lead your rockstar team during the pandemic.
● [1:11] Day in the life of a small business leader
● [2:45] The pivot from in-person to virtual
● [3:33] Team zoom calls
● [4:59] The brightside
● [5:35] Gratitude
● [6:32] Quarantine is hard
● [7:59] “I was letting go of what once was, and making room for what is. A new normal, a new beginning for me, my business and for the world.”
● [9:13] 3 things Erin learned
● [9:26] Focus on what you can control; “Your attitude and the way you show up is controllable”
● [14:34] Your effort is controllable; “you can show up, you can speak up and you can fail up”
● [18:52] You can control your support channels - George Gerbner Cultivation Theory
● [22:17] You can do hard things
● [23:24] Improvise your butt off
Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the failed it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running by the lake and patio dinners with her husband and son, and their eight pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! Podcast @learntoimproveit on Instagram and facebook, and you can follow Erin here on Instagram. We can’t wait to connect with you online!