Minisode 23: The FailFluencer Files with Nicole Entzeroth
Absolutely post your vacay pics, your girls night outings, and your latest promotions. You never needed anyone’s permission to share your wins.
At the same time, think about this: when you view someone else’s wins on social media, you may share in their joy, send them congratulations or well wishes. You may be jealous. You may compare yourself. And the most important question to ask yourself…
Did you learn anything from seeing their win?
Sometimes a little bit. Maybe you now understand what it takes to earn that type of promotion or where you want to schedule your next flight.
Now ask yourself this: when you read about someone’s demotion, embarrassing moment, or W.T.F. (Worst Terrifying Fail), what did you learn?
Most of the time it’s A TON. You learned perhaps what not to do, what actions to take instead, or simply how to move on from that occurrence.
The point? Folks learn more when we share our fails than when we share our wins. Hence, why we started The Failfluencer Files on The improve it! Podcast. Listen as Erin and improve it!’s very own Client Experience Associate Nicole Entzeroth discuss the failure of a mystery call-in guest.
ICYMI – Your Post-Episode Homework: Think of your own failure story. What is a story that has happened to you and given you a lesson in life that you want to share? Use the link here to send us a voice message with your Failfluencer File story. We'll use this audio clip in a future episode to talk through it through the lens of failure in order to teach all of the improve it! Peeps a lesson that wouldn’t exist without you.
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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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Minisode 23 Transcription
Erin (00:00):
Welcome to the Improve It Podcast. Nicole, welcome to the Improve It Podcast.
Nicole (00:17):
Erin, thanks for having me.
Erin (00:19):
I'm so thrilled. And it's, it's funny that you're here because you listen to every episode and create so much content surrounding each episode, but now you're here on the show.
Nicole (00:32):
Now I'm here. Full circle.
Erin (00:34):
Full circle moment. Okay. Tell everyone what you do at improve it!
Nicole (00:41):
So at Improve It I am our Client Experience associate, which is code for: I do content creation for our social channels, copywriting our newsletter. I'm behind that. I do podcast research and outreach, and I do prospecting research in sales sales stuff. So I'm kind of wearing a lot of hats and it's really fun.
Erin (01:12):
You wear so many hats and you look great in all the hats. You rock them, you're fashionista and all the hats. I'm so excited that in the Improvement Peeps can get to know you today and we're gonna talk all about failure, but what I think is an awesome story is I want you to share with everyone how you got here. How is Nicole this client experience associate?
Nicole (01:36):
So it is a long story. Back in, I think it was 2018 it was, so I went to Loyola University of Chicago and one of my sorority sisters told me there's this really awesome internship. I'm, I am finishing up. They take one intern at a time. You should do it, you should apply next. So I applied, I met Erin and the team and it was great. And that was the summer of 2018 when we still had the office in Chicago. And then I graduated in 2020 like right as the Pan Pandemic started in March. And then I taught first and second grade for two years because I did Teach for America and now my partner and I are building a van to travel in for a year. And I have been looking for a remote job. And Erin was like, this is gonna be perfect. This is the right time. So she reached out to me on LinkedIn, we connected and we decided it was, it was right and it was meant to be.
Erin (02:48):
Right. I know. Oh my god, Nicole. See that is the power, first of all. Well, the internship program was amazing. Jenna was also an intern and you were also an intern, but then you hadn't graduated. You had two years left, and then that's the power of LinkedIn. Two years after you graduated, you wrote a a LinkedIn note and I was like, yes, we need Nicole <laugh>. And it's just the power of making yourself invaluable and also the power of connections and network and bringing you back here has been the best thing. We have such a strong team. I'm so grateful for all you do. And if you see anything on social, if you look at the show notes of this episode, if you go on our website or get our new awesome wellness work at Work Workbook, which will be coming out soon, we'll talk about that later. You will see the work of Nicole. So I'm so excited that you're here and we get to share this with you. And I wanna talk about, because, and this sort of just kind of came to mind for me. You did Teach for America. I wouldn't call it a failure. You loved it. You learned so much, but you ultimately knew it wasn't the right fit for you. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, how has or why would you say failing is so important?
Nicole (04:12):
So I think that this is, it's definitely a lesson that I'm still learning because I am like you Erin. I'm a recovering perfectionist for sure. And for me, failure just with every failure, small or large, it takes some type of pressure off. Like nobody is expecting me to be perfect, really besides myself. And that's just a lesson that I'm learning and it's honestly not my business or my responsibility to care how others perceive my failures. That's something that's it huge too, is like, and that's why I realized that I cared so much about them was because I cared about others' perceptions and because I was caring too much about impressing myself when I was just like, that's pointless. Yeah. but those are two big things that I'm still learning. Like I think right in the failure moment, I still like, those are my auto, those are what I go to. And then it takes like reflection and time and conversations with people I trust where I can like, okay, like now I understand now I can like move forward from that. Especially if it's a bigger one. Those, I mean, it's tough. Like failure I think is something that we talk about and it's easier to talk about than actually processing do like when it happens.
Erin (05:46):
Amen. Hey man, there's a choir. Hey man. That leads me to talk through our MoveOn methodology, which I'm not gonna give right now, but that's something that we really, and I will say this applying, it's called the MoveOn method. It's in our keynote f words at work. That application is essentially what you just said, but there it gives you tangible steps on how to move on from a specific failure. Because we are human beings. We're not just gonna fail and be like, okay, next thing. And it's, we really do have to process. We really have to come to understand, okay, this happened. Why did this happen? How can I move on from this? What are the lessons I learned? How can I go into the next steps? And that's why we're here. Date to feel fluid. Okay? We are not your typical influencers that you are gonna see on Instagram, giving you the Amazon links. We're gonna give you the link back to the most important person or thing in your life. And that is you we're gonna help you understand that failure should be celebrated. That's this idea of fail. Yeah. So Nicole, we've had one of our improvement peeps call in to share one of their fail flur fail flur files. We're calling this one of their fail fluer stories with us. So are you ready to listen to I'm ready. Let's do it. Here we go.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Hey Erin, how are you? This is Tom Lare with M three learning. You asked about a fail. I've got a spectacular one, one that has pretty much defined my career. I believe so I'm 58 years old. I've been doing the sales and sales management thing for almost all my career. But my very first job, I was promoted from an inside window expeditor to an outside salesperson in the building materials business. And I'm doing that job and you know, I remember they didn't give a whole lot of training. They basically just threw you out there, put their thumbs up and said, go get 'em kid. You've got a great personality and figure out, you'll figure it out. Right? So I'm about three months into this job and my regional manager comes out for the very first time and we're gonna spend two days together driving around and I'm gonna be able to show 'em all the things that I'm making happen, right?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So I pick 'em up at the airport, we drive to go to the first call and I can't find the account. You know, this is the days when you're using maps the days before a computer would tell you where to turn. Well, needless to say, we don't find the account. The next two days are not much more productive than that. And I get let go two and a half weeks later when his boss comes into our branch. Well, I'll tell you, define my career. I became a student of sales and decided I would never let that happen again. And it really became the space where I tried to learn how to be a professional.
Erin (08:48):
Okay, so that was Tom. What a what a ringer. What go, what a what a time to be alive, Tom. And actually I know Tom really well. He's an improve it peep. He's a client, he's a friend, and Tom is one of the most successful sales professionals and sales coaches that I know literally in the US of a And to hear this story is so shocking to me because he's had this successful career. And you always, you always see the success. You don't see the humble beginnings. What did listening to this story do for you?
Nicole (09:29):
I think it just, it's like sharing our failures is, is half of the battle. And it's, it helps take the pressure off of others too. When we hear that somebody who we see who's very successful, which good for them it helps to know that it wasn't like exactly what you said, always like that. And I think just listening to his story specifically, like those are moments that he's not going to forget in moments that fueled him to, to wanna be better. And I think failures don't always have to do that for us. Like, yes, I think there's a lesson to learn in every failure but that can look different. And for him it looked like, okay, this happened and I don't want this to happen again. I don't want this to be my professional identity. Like I wanna, I wanna change. And, and that's awesome that, that that's the lesson that he took away from it.
Nicole (10:33):
And I think with other failures it can just be like, okay, that happened and I'm, and, and that was an accident or that was out of my control and I'm just gonna keep moving forward. You know, that could be sort of the takeaway. So, but it was really cool that his was a direct lesson to him that it revealed to him. And if he wouldn't have had that happen, you know, it's hard to say where he would be now. Not that he wouldn't be super successful, like I'm sure he would be, but it's just like, it'd be interesting to think about, we could sit here in what if all day, but that was also something that came to mind.
Erin (11:12):
So true. Well, and it's, that is what I think is the issue with some of the, of social media. We're seeing the highlight reels of people. We don't necessarily see the failures, which is why the fail flu our files exists. And you know, I will say this, in my own experience, I have learned more in failing than I have from succeeding. And in Tom's case, in Tom's journey, he learned so much in that space that it, like you said, it drove him to be a student of sales. So I'm sure that story is a story that he can use now to teach. And that's something to really think about too, is failure can be our best teacher and also it can help us teach others. And I think that makes people feel less alone. What do you think about that?
Nicole (12:05):
Totally. I totally agree. And going off of what you said too, we don't learn very much from being successful, but we learn a lot from our failures and through the lens of social media. I think it's the same. I think it's, it's cool to share your successes and the things that, you know, on social media, like that's helpful, but people learn the most when you share about things that did not go well. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, like that's a deep truth. Like if I'm on social media scrolling and I'm like, okay, I'm happy for this person. Like this is awesome. But it's like when I get to a post about my interview didn't go well and this is what happened and now this is what I'm gonna do, I'm like, wow, that's, that sticks with me. So I just think it's, it's so interesting that we our, like our brains learn the most from our own failures and other people's failures. And I think like there's a reason for that cuz they're important, like they're necessary.
Erin (13:05):
Yes. That's what we're here to do. We're here to be the best. We're here to figure out who we are and we're going to have to fail in order to do that. So if we can just lean into this idea, if we could celebrate them even with a little fail. Yeah. Imagine what kind of head space that would be to walk in or, or walk around with what kind of mind would be the best type of mind to walk around with more freedom. I think we can really find that light in ourselves through the lens of these dark failures. So this is what I want everyone listening to take away today. I want you to think of your own failure story. What is a story that has happened to you, that has defined you, that has helped teach you and has helped given you a lesson in life that you wanna share? There's gonna be a link in the show notes that we would love for you to click on, share your Fail Flur failure file story. And we'll use this audio clip in a future episode and talk through it and teach you through the lens of failures. Nicole, I'm so happy you are here today. This was short, this was sweet. But we have a very important question to ask you, Nicole. What is your it or the thing that you are supposed to do here on this earth?
Nicole (14:32):
My it is, it's not polished or pretty yet. I'm still experimenting, but for now I really think that it is my, it is storytelling in a way that that connects people. Like I think that that's it.
Erin (14:51):
Yes. And you told some, we we heard a story and then we told our own story here today. So nailing it. Pun intended. <Laugh>. I'm so happy you were here. Nicole, thank you so much, Ian, to our improve IT peeps. Keep failing, keep improving because the world needs that very special it that only you can bring. We'll see soon. Boom. <Laugh> amazing. Hey friend, did you enjoy today's show? If so, head on over to iTunes to rate and subscribe. So you never miss an episode. Now, did I mention that when you leave a five star review of the Improve It podcast, an actual team of humans does a happy dance? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. That's right. So leave a review for us on iTunes, screenshot it and send me an email at info learn to improve it.com. I'll send you a personalized video back as a thank you. Thanks so much for listening. Improve it! Peeps. I'll see you next Wednesday.