Episode 84: Not SHRM Approved: A Safe Online Community for HR Professionals to Say EXACTLY What They're Thinking with Jan Janerson
Welcome back, improve it! Fam and happy Wednesday! Today, we have an anonymous guest on, Jan Janerson, the avatar of Not SHRM Approved community, who has so many nuggets of wisdom regarding the HR professional life.
Not in HR? Don’t worry! This episode will benefit any professional leader.
During this episode, you’ll learn more about...
What inspired Jan to create the Not SHRM approved community
Why HR can be a lonely position
Being understood and how to find your people
Jan’s content creation process and why she chose HR as a career
Tune in for some wonderful advice not only for HR leaders, but for anyone who leads a team.
Get your notebooks out for this one and enjoy improve it! Fam!
Show Links:
Connect with Jan Janerson:
Connect with Erin Diehl:
Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the improve 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 and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
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Episode 84 Transcription
Erin (00:00):
Improve it fam it's Erin here. I got a guest you'll want in your ear. She's funny snarky and kind. If you got little ones, get some ear muffs this time we laugh and swear a bit. Let's go improve it fam it's time to improve it. Okay. Yes. Welcome to the show and prove it fam I am thrilled for today's guest because our guest today is an anonymous avatar. You heard me say that, right? Anonymous avatar. Jan Janerson from the not SHRM approved online community. She is the real person behind this account, but chooses to stay anonymous. Okay. Jan is so fun. I cannot even tell you the amount of times I laughed during this show. I had a little tear in the tear duct from laughing so hard I cried. She has heart. She has soul, and she loves this world of HR, but she's chosen to harness her 25 plus years of experience to transform the trials and tribulations of HR professionals into relatable and humorous memes and stories that you can find on Instagram, Twitter clubhouse, TikTok all the social media places.
Erin (01:19):
And she is not only, uh, an HR executive, but she is the host and the person and the brains behind the not SHRM approved community, which is helping the next generation of HR leaders. So she is just absofreakinglutely fantastic. She has had a wonderful, wonderful career in HR. And you're going to hear today, several things. You're going to hear what inspired her to create the not SHRM approved community and why HR can be a lonely position. She's going to talk about being understood and how you can find your people, give you some insight today on why she is called a snarkfluencer. We're going to hear about her content creation process. So if you are not following at not SHRM approved on any of these social platforms run, go follow and you can see some of the snarkfluence in action. We'll talk about why she chose HR as a career and some wonderful advice that she gives to HR leaders, but any leader that leads teams of people.
Erin (02:33):
So go ahead, get some coffee and, sit back, relax, grab them, grab the popcorn for this one, because it is so fun. Let's welcome. Jan, Jan, from not sure I'm approved to the show. Let's go. Are you a leader or change maker inside of your business organization or corporation? Are you looking for new innovative ways to drive morale through the roof? Are you looking for fun and exciting icebreakers team-building exercises and activities that will foster team growth, friendships, loyalty, and completely transform your organization from the inside out? Have you been searching for a fun and unique way to create change instead of this same old, dry boring leadership books and icebreakers that aren't actually working. Hi, I'm Erin Diehl, business improv, edutainer failfluencer and professional zoombie who is ready to help you improve it. My mission in life is to help you develop teams and leaders through play improv and experiential learning. And this podcast, we will deep dive into professional development team building, effective communication, networking, presentation, skills, leadership training, how to think more quickly on your feet and everything in between. We have helped everyone from fortune 500 companies to small mom and pop shops transform their business, their leadership, and their people through clay. So grab your chicken hat. We are about to have some fun, welcome to improve it! the podcast.
Erin (04:24):
Oh my gosh. I feel like the coolest person on earth. We have the one, the only Jan Janerson from not SHRM approved on the show today. Jan Janerson. Welcome to the improve it! Podcast.
Jan (04:41):
Thank you so much. I am extremely excited to be here. Your audience and your people are just exactly who I want to have in our community and who I'd like to connect with.
Erin (04:56):
Oh my gosh. Okay. So they, they are now in on the secret that Jan Janerson is not your real name, but I usually dive right over the guest. I'm like, what is a fun fact about you that we couldn't find on your profile? Or, but we really can't ask you a fun fact. So I'm going to go straight to it. Why the choice to stay anonymous, which is literally Jan, this is cool for me. Like this is so important on every level. So why the choice to stay anonymous?
Jan (05:27):
Um, so at first it was somewhat self-serving. Um, when I found that there were a number of people that were connecting with the content in the community, uh, and we were first getting started. Uh, I was working for a more open kind of a workplace and I don't think they entirely would've been upset about it, but a majority of my content was from real life from experiences. And, you know, you have one of those days and I'd meme about it. So, you know, for, at least in the beginning, it was very self-serving reasons. And then I moved on to take a leadership position with a company that is, uh, based in Asia and they are very, very traditional. They are publicly traded. And I sincerely doubt that their board of directors would want someone, uh, you know, using, you know, the F-bomb as, you know, an adjective and a pronoun and an adverb, and basically every other part of a structure representing their human resources, their, uh, north and south American human resources department.
Jan (06:39):
So we stayed anonymous. Then it just became fun. It became part of the community. I had one community member tell me she worked as a, a blogger and a journalist, uh, in the fashion industry. And there was one blogger who was like completely rogue would say the most controversial things would have absolutely no problem putting people's, uh, dirty laundry out there. If it was in the name of social justice. And they would just say what was on their mind. And, uh, she would talk about how much the foreign journal, the foreign press would like pull resources to try to figure out who this person was. And so it just kind of became like fun for me. And now it's part of the brand. And you know, now I don't even know if I ever want to do a reveal. I actually toyed with it for just a very small while. And I had more people say, no, no, no, stay, stay anonymous. No, this is fun. This is good. You know, then I did people who are like, who are you? I don't even get the question anymore. Now. It's just, it would be the opposite if I said, oh, I'm going to do a reveal. They'd be like, no,
Erin (07:58):
That is amazing. Okay. So obviously there's people who know this is you behind it. Right? And your, your family I'm assuming knows this is you.
Jan (08:07):
They do.
Erin (08:07):
oh, that is so fun. This is, this is fun for me. I'm not going to lie. I'm like, it's like Oz, who's behind the curtain. So I am, I am loving all of this. And I want to ask you, we were talking before we hit record, but I want you to tell the improve it! Fam, why the name Jan, Jan Janerson, what was behind it? Such a good story.
Jan (08:29):
I I'm such a lame nerd. Uh, so I'm, I'm grateful that people think I'm funny, but most of the time, I don't think I'm funny. But the first podcast that I ever had the privilege of doing, uh, was Adam Connors who's in HR. And he agreed to do the podcast and agreed to keep me anonymous, but he said it would throw him off. Understandably calling me the admin behind not SHRM approved. He said, so, you know, what can I call you? And I said, oh, uh, Jan, he goes, Jan. I'm like, yeah, Jan Janerson. And it just stuck. It just stuck. So now, yeah, that's, that's me.
Erin (09:13):
You are funny because the name alone, Jan Janersen, I was, I can't remember who I was telling about this interview today. And they said, oh, well, that's so cool. And I said, yeah, her name is Jan. And they said, Jan, when I said Jan Janerson, and they, I can't remember who this was, but conversation. And they just started dying, laughing. So it's amazing. It's amazing. All of it in itself is so fun. So, so humorous, so whimsical, but also it has this meat and heart to it, which I love bending your account. Okay. I've been benched by bench, but I want to say this, you are the source of so much laughter and levity and positivity. So I'm sure you, you also probably binge other accounts. I've been to not sure, my approved, there's so many other corporate comedians that I love to watch online, but who were some of your favorite accounts to binge and go back and watch their content or their means, whatever it may be.
Jan (10:09):
I actually binge a lot of TikTok. Uh, I, and I would, I mean, I'm way too old for the platform, but, uh, I would love to get into it, but you kinda, it's a little difficult to do that anonymously, but uh, on Tik TOK, I binge, a lot of Ellen. Oh my God. I'm so embarrassed. What's her last name? She's, she's an introvert and she's a tech engineer. She's introverted. She does the funniest content that I can't really remember right now. So we'll move back to Instagram. There we go. Uh, so on Instagram I have, I kind of waver between two niches. I've got the HR circle. So, you know, I love the at, uh, baked HR ladies. They are hilarious. Um, I love the content put out by Cassandra rose and all of the incredible content that sort of focuses around benefits and bettering yourself and DEI. And I just, I can't get enough of that. Um, but then there's another circle that I slipped into about a year ago. And it's the med meme crowd.
Erin (11:23):
Oh, you say more? Yeah.
Jan (11:26):
So, uh, there's a hilarious account, uh, lashes and lorazepam, um, which I just learned is an anti-anxiety med because it was prescribed. Um, but, uh, and then, uh, there's a coated wine RN. She's hilarious. There are all kinds of just medically based, uh, uh, meme accounts. And then there's, uh, our, our T memes. She's a respiratory therapist. I think it's a shame, shame on me. They, they are a respiratory therapist. Um, and I don't understand half the they put out. I really don't, but you know what, it's hilarious. And being like the world's worst sick patient, I have so much respect for the medical industry, especially with what the entire world has been going through. So that's, uh, that's, that's kind of the two circles of social media that I binged the most. And then there's all kinds of, you know, I just slip into a Tik TOK hole from every now and again, you know,
Erin (12:28):
I'm with you, I have, I've tried to be a Toker or whatever you call them a tick, a ticky-tacky or I can't do it. I cannot like, I literally, we had one thing that we posted get like 64,000 views, but we're like, oh my God, we're going for, it's not, that's not viral, Erin. Um, but it was, it was so hard. It's so hard to, to, to create over there. I feel like, especially if you're anonymous and then also I'm loving. Okay. So Cassandra rose, as you know, was on this show, so so much. And then I'm loving also this medical, I've got all of these, uh, written in my notes. We're going to, we're going to tag them in the show notes for our audience to go back to, um, and fun fact, we had, I'm a fertility warrior. Okay. Uh, and we had my fertility doctor on this show and she and her team of all female doctors have literally gone crazy on Tik TOK and Instagram. And that's how they find their patients. Now, how insane is that like, wow, it is, it is a platform that can bring patients, clients, people together. So, and I love that you call the not SHRM approved sort of followership, uh, community, because that's what you really have created is a community. And I want to know too, what was the mindset that you had when creating this? What, what inspired you to create the community that you've created?
Jan (13:55):
So where the not SHRM approved community started, um, was just really a meme page. Like it was just, it was, it was a personal outlet for frustration. Um, and actually, uh, Christina Maynard and I were talking about this today, which is human resources and whether or not, uh, it can be considered a lonely position and why it would be lonely. And it stemmed from, um, a, uh, a post about, you know, if you're someone, if you're in HR and you're hosting a holiday party, you know, oh, you can sit there and have like one glass or you can, you know, you stand in the corner and you watch everybody. And, um, we were talking about kind of that stigma and it led to a conversation about loneliness and about being understood and finding, you know, finding your people, especially when you're in a small company or if you're a department of one who the hell understands what you're going through, not your colleagues.
Jan (15:03):
And then do you really want to talk about it when you get home? I mean, you have to, in some cases, but in others, like I've watched my husband's eyes glaze over. I'm not emitting it. Like, and then there are some times when hell actually listened to me, but that's a complete tangent. Um, but the reason that it started was an outlet for just frustration. Like I said, all of the content that I put out comes from experiences, inspirations, real world situations that happened to me that day or recent history, something of that nature. Um, and what I found was that people started connecting to it. Uh, and when you have, when you're putting out sarcastic shit and calling out a vertical that is traditionally, and unfortunately seen as like tight asses, uh, you can get a, you can get a couple of tight asses in your DMS going, wow.
Jan (16:04):
And they're mostly SHRM like Kool-Aid drinkers. And then there's this entire genre of like SHRM, you know, recovering SHRM people of which I am one. Uh, and, and it's just, it's been a place to just say what you want to say in a space that is completely safe for you. I spend a lot of time, you know, not, I'm careful not to suppress opinions if they are well thought out opinions. If you are a troll, I will shut you down quickly. Like a troll I will delete. I will. My block hand is swift and my appeals process is labyrinthian. So don't piss me off. Okay. Don't, don't come for me and mine. All right. I, I don't keep it to yourself. Not, not a train station. Don't announce your departure. Just get the fuck out.
Erin (17:07):
This is going, I mean, the soundbites from this show, this is my ghost. I am dead. I mean, truly, this is exactly what HR needs. I mean, I've been a part of SHRM before in Chicago, Chicago SHRM, shout out to miss SHRM family in Chicago. Um, however, I do know that there are still a lot of politics involved. There's still a lot of, you know, people who are trying to do things as they've always been done. And when you try to step outside of that box, it becomes you become one of the recovering SHRM people that you've mentioned. And there's new organizations like disrupt HR who are doing different things with HR, but the fact that you have this outlet and you've literally created such, you have so many followers, you have a great community and people who are resignating with that content because they see themselves in that content, which I've laughed so hard at so many of your memes. So I want to know what's, can you take us through the process? Like if I'm talking to an author, I'm like, what's your writing process? Like, Jan, what's your meme process? Like, like where you're like, where is this? I see this visual and I connect these dots. What, how do you create the content that you create?
Jan (18:26):
So for the most part, it is just inspired. In other words, I'll see a picture, I'll watch a video or I'll hear a sound clip and it will connect to a memory or a thought. I was very, very flattered. Uh, one of my favorite public speakers, Mike and Nino, he does, uh, the mic drop and he called me a snarkfluencer. And I absolutely loved that. And I'm going to ride that out for as much as I possibly can. But it's my trauma response question mark. I'm a Sagittarius. So I don't know if it's an actual trauma response, but a sarcastic, very, very sarcastic. And in my real life, it is very, very difficult for me not to have what ever is going on in my head plastered across my face. I do not have a poker face. Like at all, if I'm annoyed, you will absolutely see it. Uh, my resting bitch face is pretty active.
Erin (19:38):
RBF RBF.
Jan (19:41):
Yes, that's right. Mine's ABF means a little more ABF than, than RBF, but it has, it just, it clicks. I, and there are times where I will struggle to put out content and I'll be the first person to tell you, I'm not an analyst. So maybe if I was an analyst, I would be able to understand this better, but I'm pretty good with patterns, but for the life of me, I can not figure out what is going to hit and what is going to flop. I will put an hour into crafting something and I'm finding the right image and I'm putting it with Ray and I, and I rewrite it and I rewrite it. And I'm thinking, this is gold. Uh, this, this, this has layers. This isn't even a meme anymore. It's that sensation. And it gets like seven likes. And I'm like, oh, okay.
Jan (20:32):
My mom, my husband, my best friend. And then I will just, I'll be in a mood and I'll see something and I'll be like, all right. And I'll throw something together. And I will just throw it out there just because I haven't posted a lot. You want to make sure that you're posting content. You know, at least every couple of days, if you can write rest, rest is needed. Uh, and it will go to the moon for 5,000 likes. And it's like, what that was a throw away? What are you talking about? Listen, comedy is so, so individualistic and so subjective. And so I would tell people in terms of my process I don't have a lot of process. It's just, I get on mematic, that's my favorite app to create. And I get on mematic. I steal a bunch of. I try to give con credit as much as I know when, when credits, they're big, big thing with creators.
Jan (21:29):
You've got to give credit first. But as far as my process that, you know, it's, it's just mostly inspiration, but I have. And what I would advise anyone who was looking to get into content creation, just do it. I don't care if you think you're funny, you don't think you're funny. You've been told, you're funny. You've been told you're not funny. do it. Just do it, do it for yourself. And you would be absolutely amazed at how people will relate to the same things that frustrate and give you joy and, and, you know, just become challenges for you. Everything you just, you find your people
Erin (22:09):
Find your people. Okay. Jan, I got this. I have so much like, yes, yes. Right here, because, okay. First of all, we were emailing about this snarkfluencer is your, is your title. I I've coined myself a fail fluid answer. And I'm going to tell you straight up. It was March of 2020 when I hit my Instagram to public. Okay. And I said, Hey, remember when you used to be in person completely as a business, and how you showed up was to networking events, into association meetings and connected with human beings in person. That's not gonna happen for a long time here. And so, uh, I really leaned in, I bought a ring light, which I never thought I would do. I talked to my phone, I show my face, Jen, which is a whole other vulnerability piece, you know, other thing. Um, but I will tell you too, that is so spot on because the stuff that I feel like, you know, we took like an hour and a half to edit and we do these little sized videos and things like that.
Erin (23:06):
But the things that we spend so much time on sometimes flop and just don't get seen. And then the things that, like you said, I remember I was like, I'm going to slide down the slide on the playground behind my house and do this lip dub with one of those filters with gigantic big lips. Like I just came from the plastic surgeon. I don't have on makeup and I'm in my gym clothes. I'm going to just do this real quick. Cause I think it's funny, blew up out of like, that was the one thing that never failed.
Erin (23:40):
You know, for a third, for 20 minutes. And then you just don't put a filter on it and run with it. But I love that the process of this, I love it. You've found this outlet. I love the inspiration that you're giving to anybody listening. I'm also super curious. What drew you, what are you, what drew you to HR as a career? Like what put, what, what did the person behind Jan love about HR when you first got into it are still today?
Jan (24:10):
So I love that you asked this question. Uh, I was very fortunate that I absolutely chose HR. It wasn't one of those things where due to sexism or due to just lack of, of anything else, I was shoved into the role because I was the only like girl in the group. Right? Cause I've seen that happen right. Way, way, way too much. Uh, but I chose HR as a career and I think it came specifically from my love of service of people for a very, very long time. I was in the restaurant industry. I was a server. I was a bartender. I was a bar manager and I love listening to people's stories. I love collecting those stories. Um, and in hindsight I probably should have been a psychologist. I'd be making a whole lot more money, but, uh, you know, HR really, when I saw the ability to come back, I also love rules and compliance, which is ridiculous because I am chaotic neutral at best.
Jan (25:22):
And I, where I guess it's just appealing to me to have that kind of structure. I also love education. So when I first got started in my adult career, I say that out of bartender, like I bartended all through college. I graduated, I went into, uh, uh, graduate school. Uh, and then I guess I was about 23 when I started, uh, at an insurance firm. And it was like my first quote, unquote adult job. It was suit and tie, you know, suits and, you know, skirts and you know, all the different insurance from, for an old school insurance firm. And I just started gobbling up everything I could about being educated in really, really tricky things, really compliant, laced things like insurances prospectuses, and just taking these seemingly overwhelmingly bureaucratic processes and going, oh, that's how that works. So, you know, it's kind of like, uh, Kyle Peru is another creator that I just binge on Tik TOK every time I see him. But he, he has this thing where he says to, uh, his feature is things you can say to off men. So, you know, the chaotic and may really love shit like that. So one of the things he said is, anytime a guy starts talking about cryptocurrency, you respond with, oh, like Kohl's cash.
Jan (26:58):
So like that, but that kind of thing related to actual real world stuff. So medical insurance, disability insurance, uh, you know, all of that stuff, I just loved being able to digest it and actually teach it to somebody in a way that you could just watch the light bulb go on. You can watch the light in your eye, in their eyes when they understood. And that became addicting. And so when I figured out that you could combine compliance service and education into one job, I was like, yeah. Okay, I'll do it. Let's let's go. So I was in a professional employer organization. I was working in their client services division. So it was a lot of education. It was a lot of onboarding of clients and explaining clients. And so, um, moved my way up to trainer. And that's when, uh, the company allowed me to, uh, invest in getting my certifications and in going into human resources. So, and I've been doing that for the last 18 years.
Erin (28:07):
Yes, Jan, I can't, this, I mean, truly that answer is one of the best answers I've ever heard because I also, I also find it so interesting, um, that you're a rule follower, but I love that you also have this very sarcastic side to you. So you're like, I will follow these rules, but I'm going to make fun of them while I do it. You know what I mean? I feel that vibe and I love it because I think that SHRM in itself and not SHRM approved is this outlet that you, like you said, you've created this safe space for people to really just say what they're really thinking. But at the same time you have this light and this educational component to what you do, because really HR is a heartbeat of an organization. You are educating, you are a therapist within an organization. If you think about it, if you really are. So I love that you've combined all these talents and created this community. And I want you to, I want to ask you this for our improve it! Fam, if you could give HR leaders one piece of advice today, cause we have so many people in the people space here in the improve it audience. What would that one piece of advice be?
Jan (29:22):
Duplicate yourself. Fine. I'll I'll I'll explain. So stop holding all of your knowledge as if that is the only value you bring to an organization, find someone up and down to mentor up and down. I believe every single person in every organization should have someone, uh, uh, ahead of their career. Either someone who's put in more years with the company or someone who's put in more years in general and someone who is beneath, you know, uh, younger than them in either career years or age years, but you need a mentor in the generation above you and you need a mentor in the generation below you. And I don't care what level you get to. You are never, ever going to learn everything that you need to know, because especially in this vertical, you turn around and it's like tech. It's like OSHA, you know, release number 13.1 0.7.
Jan (30:35):
And that's just the California version. That's not even like the Washington version. It's not the New York city. It's not the New York state. Like there is, you will never convince me that you will ever know absolutely everything. And then once you've mastered it, it changes. So you need a mentor up and you need a mentor down and you need to do the same thing. You need to find someone to mentor and educate above you. You need to find someone to mentor and educate below you and you need to always be thinking, how can I help someone step into my shoes? Wherever you are in your life. You have some form of privilege. Um, um, don't don't ask me, okay, I get everyone is going to be rolling. Maybe not your audience, but I do not see this as controversial or political. It's just a fact. You have an advantage in some way in your life.
Jan (31:36):
Your goal needs to be, to take whatever advantage or advantages you have and gift them to somebody else. Whether you're helping them step into your shoes or you are passing something along, it doesn't matter. Everything is temporary. Everything is moving. Everything is changing and adjusting and you are no different as a person. And so in order to, if you really care about your legacy, your reputation, your career goals, then one of those goals, if not the constant annual goal needs to be, who can I help take over my job? Who, who can do what, what I'm doing. If the answer is no one you're failing, you're failing. Find somebody find somebody that you can teach. Even if it's four different people. Even if it's 10 different people and each of them does something different, you can not move on your life. And you're going to look to, maybe you don't retire until you're 80. That's a personal decision.
Jan (32:47):
At some point, you're going to want to move on whether that's a new position, whether that's a new life goal, whether that's a new town and we, we need to be able to leave things better than we found them. And so that's what I would tell leaders, stop thinking that you are the top. Someone came before you, someone is going to come after you make it easier on that. Someone, because the more knowledge you give away, what I have found in my experience is that I have never, me personally, I have never been duplicated and no one ever will be. Someone will do it better than me. Someone might do it worse than me, but it doesn't matter. The fact of the matter is someone else is going to want to do that unless you literally want to stay in that one position and you don't want to grow or change. And I don't believe that that's true of any human being
Erin (33:49):
Jan, Clapping it out
Erin (33:59):
No, she's not. No, she is not. Oh my God. Yes. Okay. See, and that's, that's what you've done. I believe with the number approved community. You've not only do you understand HR, but you are also, you have the depth and the heart and the soul behind HR to create the funny to shed some laughter, some levity and positivity in there, which I think is so important. And I love what you said, duplicate yourself. I mean, first and foremost, I'm going to, I'm going to take that entire conversation and make that a sound because it's so passionate and it's so true. So many HR leaders, I think listening today are going to resonate with that so much. So Jan, I have, I have a couple more things I want to ask you and it's, it's kind of fun. Cause you know, this is the improvement podcast and we use improv to train on soft skills. So are you ready for just a tiny, tiny, a little bit of improvisation? It's not hard. You've been improvising this whole time, but my first question is, have you ever improvised before?
Jan (35:01):
I did, I went to Catholic school, uh, growing up, I'm a recovering Catholic, not just a recovering shore member. I'm a recovering Catholic, but I was one of the, the drama kids. I was a theater kid, not shocking. And uh, we went to temple university, uh, cause I grew up near Philadelphia, went to temple university and we took an improv class and there was a moment there that I haven't forgotten when I was God, how old were 16, 17. I've never forgotten this moment. And it always comes back to me as a moment of accomplishment. I know it sounds really weird when I tell you what happens. You're going to be like really, but we were doing this improv class and I was up there with one of my classmates and they gave us a scenario where two people were talking to each other and they gave us different emotions and the first emotion was happiness and then the next emotion was anger.
Jan (36:03):
And then the next emotion was regret. And I don't know what happened in that moment, but when I went into regret, I must've pulled from something because later the acting coach said, I have never seen a student pull an emotion and that quickly, and that succinctly before that was amazing. I was like, oh, thanks. I couldn't. I was like, okay, thank you. But it always stuck with me in, in that. So I love improv, which is why when you, you know, had asked me to be on the podcast, I was like, I love what improve it stands for. And I absolutely love the way you deliver, uh, the education that you do.
Erin (36:52):
Oh, that means the world. Okay. Yes. We'll write that down. Going to keep that in my diary. Um, okay man, that means so much to me. And also that's what, what you just said is why I personally love improv as a teaching tool because it is such a therapeutic thing. You feeling that regret made you take whatever took you to an experience where you pull from that emotion and then you were able to portray that. And that's really what we do. We use the funny side, the silly side of improv. There is some real to it though. There's a lot of raw and you play and by, by playing, that's how you, I love it as a teaching tool because when you play, you break down those barriers that we all carry to work every day. And when we break down those barriers, that's when people learn and that's when people really absorb the information.
Erin (37:42):
So you felt it you've done it. So let's, this is super easy. You're going to nail this, but it's just a little fun. It's fun. So I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you just to respond in three words or less you're okay. Okay. So this is called word. All right. So it's a little fun game. Just so just a weekend. We can hear just the word and the emotion. You can add some emotions to those words too, just to throw it a little bit more fun. So if you could sum up the real Jan Jan person in three words or less, what would it be? Three words
Jan (38:17):
For the real Jan uh, chaotic, loving people pleasing.
Erin (38:27):
Yeah. And there's a high fence. We're going to give you that's three words. That's three words. Nailed it. Nailed it. Okay. I'm also a recovering perfectionist slash If you could sum up the not SHRM approved community in three words or less, what would it be?
Jan (38:44):
Collusive chaotic. I really love that word. Uh, inclusive, chaotic, nurturing.
Erin (38:53):
Okay. And then last one, if you could say what your it is and what we say it improve, it is your, it can mean whatever it means to you. It's the, the thing that you feel like you were put here to do, if you could sum up just like, you know, a really easy question, your life's purpose in three words or less yen, what would it be?
Jan (39:14):
Give away knowledge.
Erin (39:19):
She did. Yes, she did. Okay. Jan, I want to like talk to you for a really long time. Um, but I know that our improve it family will want to reach out to you. They want to find you, how, how can they find you? I know we've got at not SHRM approved, but tell them all the things.
Jan (39:36):
So, uh, yeah, I tried to keep it really simple so that you can find me whatever social media platform you enjoy most were, uh, at not SHRM approved on Twitter, uh, uh, Instagram, TikTok, who were not there all that much. But if anyone wants to send me some tips and tricks on how I can do this anonymously, anonymously, I I'm all in. Uh, but, uh, we're also, uh, on clubhouse and in Q1 in 2022, I'm going to be, uh, featuring a series of talks weekly with Cassandra rose. So really excited about that. Um, and yeah, that's, that's where you can find me.
Erin (40:18):
That is so awesome. And I will have to check that out and then prove it. Fam can go back and listen to that episode with Cassandra as well. And also we're going to link all the things that you just said in the show notes, but Jan, let me tell you this. You may not be sure I'm approved, but you are improvement approved. Okay? You are welcome to know you and to have you on this show. So please just keep spreading more. Laughter levity, positivity, snarkfluence, all the things because the world needs more. You Jan, thank you so much for being on the show.
Jan (40:50):
Thank you so much.
Erin (40:59):
Oh, K. And improve it fam I am dying. Like I said on the show, I am dead. This is my ghost, boo. I love Jan. I said to her, after we stopped recording, I really want to know who you are because I feel like we would be good friends. Uh, she's hilarious. And I know you've got so many fun tips from that show. I also know that today's show was one of those inspirational shows where you just sit back, relax, and I've gotten some tangibles. I really want you to take away from today. So she talked a lot about duplicating yourself. That was her biggest piece of advice. So mentor up and mentor down and then find people to mentor up and down. We need both of those things because I love what Dan said. We really do need to create a safe space within our organization so that we can grow, right.
Erin (41:56):
We need to mentor other people so that we can grow ahead in our careers. Let's grow ahead. Y'all that's right. Grow ahead. Jan has a 25 plus year and so many different types of verticals. She's worked in financial services, professional employer organizations, government services, fashion design restaurants, global distribution. And now she serves in an executive HR leadership role for the past nine years. So she has been there, seen it all and done it, got the t-shirt and then created the Instagram account for it. All right, Jan knows what's up. And I love that. She brings laughter levity and positivity into everything she does. So I'm proud of you improve it! Fam thank you so much for tuning into today's show. If you liked what you heard today, please go follow Jan on any of her social channels and consider leaving us a review here at the improve it! Pod.
Erin (42:51):
Oh, we can get more really awesome guests like Jan on the show with the help of you leaving us a review, just flip the iTunes, go to improve at podcast, hit five stars. And we will receive that and know that you're listening. I know you're listening. I see that you're downloading this. So I would love for you to help us just keep paying it forward so we can get more fantastic people like Jan, my cheeks are hurting. Oh, they hurt. I hope yours are hurting because this was one of those episodes that I could have just made last for two hours. It was so fun. So thank you so much for being here. I hope you have a great rest of the week by improve it family. I want you to keep failing, keep improving because the world needs that special that only you can bring. I will see you back here next week.
Erin (43:47):
Hey friends, thanks for tuning in to improve it. I am so happy you were along for the ride. If you enjoyed this show, head on over to iTunes to leave us a five star review and subscribe to the show. So you never miss an episode. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Now, if you're really feeling today's show and you've improved it even just a little bit, please take a screenshot and tag me at keeping it real deal on Instagram and share it in your stories. I'll see you next week, but I want to leave you with this thought, what did you improve today and how will that help your future successful self? Think about it. I am rooting for you and the world needs that special. It only, you can bring see you next time.