0 (2s):
Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like Being Boss. Today, we're pulling a timeless EOFire classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down how to rock the eight tools of improv comedy and work and life to drop these value bombs. I brought to Katie Goodman and to EOFire studios. Katie is a comedian author and speaker, her comedy videos have a mass over 3 million views, and she's taught over 10,000 people. How to use the tools of improv in life and foundation. Today. We'll talk about how you can't escape change in chaos. We'll talk about the trick involved here.

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0 (1m 13s):
Business made simple hosted by Donald Miller takes the mystery out of growing your business. Recent episodes, like how to attract and retain top talent and how to make more money with your current products are straight fire. Listen to business made simple wherever you get your podcasts. Katie, see what's up to Fire Nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people don't know.

1 (1m 38s):
Hey, Fire Nation. I am so excited to be here. I was about to say I'm lit, but I think that's when I'm stoned. Let's see. Well, I started my entrepreneurial career in second grade, so I not only started in, but also directed the musical. I don't know if you know that called really rosy. And what's funny about it is it's a musical about a little girl who stars in and directs her own film. So it's very meta, although I didn't know what Metta was at the time. So I was like, okay. Yes, I like being my own boss. That is definitely for me. So that's when it started.

0 (2m 12s):
Ah, love it. You are at a young age already on the path to entrepreneurial greatness and Fire Nation. As I mentioned in the intro, we're going to be talking about rock and the eight tools of improv comedy and both work and in life and Katie, Goodwin's gonna drop the mic here, value bomb after value bomb. We're going to go through those eight steps. And Katie did ask slash warn me that she's going to actually have a little back and forth game for the two of us later this episode. So stick around for that Fire Nation as I fall flat on my face, which I'm happy to do, but it'll be a lot of fun. So let's talk about one of the eight skills. We'll start at skill, number one, staying present.

0 (2m 55s):
Talk to us about that.

1 (2m 56s):
So, you know, this is a mix of like I was a yoga teacher a million years ago, and I started noticing how all those skills mixed with all the schools, that skills of improv, because I was doing at the same time and how you need the same skills just to make your life work. And so staying present is obviously about being just mindful and connected with others so you can connect better and you can be more aware of the creative possibilities that are like right in front of you, right in that moment. So one of the things that we teach and improv is to let go of habitual reactions and to let go of like fear based on your past experiences, because that's not actually relevant or going to help you in any way in the present moment.

1 (3m 39s):
So the only way to really live is fully, fully present and improv brings us into the present moment very easily. What's nice about it is you don't have to work too hard. You're just sort of forced to be present. Okay.

0 (3m 51s):
Let go of habitual reactions. So what would be an example of this Katie?

1 (3m 56s):
Well, I'll just tell you, like in my workshops, a lot of times people will have a, if, especially if it's like a corporate leadership workshop, you'll have some people who take over, you know, they're in a game with three or four people and they don't let anybody get a word in edgewise and that's sort of, and that could be many different things. It's my job to sort of help them figure out what as like a more Shaq test. Like what do you do? And man, what, why is that happening? And for some people it'll be, they feel responsible for everybody. You know, I worked with Martha Beck once in a, in a workshop and she, that was her. She was like, oh, my family is the pirates who don't do anything. I'm the one who always has this. So she feels responsible for everybody. And that was a really interesting moment.

1 (4m 37s):
And somebody else might say, I thought, that's what I was always supposed to do because I'm the leader. That's what a leader does is they save everybody or someone's just so nervous and I couldn't not talk. So that's sort of an example of when you, so when you, one of my teachers, Buddhist teachers actually said to me, you know, the way you do anything is the way you do everything. So when you do something completely new and John you'll know this from your work life too, but when you do something totally new, you fall to kind of your lowest common denominator, like your habits. And that's why it's so great to take these workshops into places where people haven't ever done improv before, because it's immediately obvious what are their good or bad habits.

1 (5m 20s):
And then they can see them and they can go, oh, it's actually working for me in my life. You know? And then if it's not, they get a chance to play and practice doing it differently.

0 (5m 29s):
Fire Nation, just a lot of things to think about like aware in life. Are you having habitual reactions? You're just reacting a certain way because maybe you've always done. So, and one phrase I'd love to use all the time on this show is all the magic happens outside of your comfort zone. Like your habitual reactions, those are in your comfort zone, which we get, like, we all love that. Like once you're good at something you want to stay there once you know, something as comfortable and as easy we get it. But listen, the magic happens outside of the comfort zone. So let's there and skill number two, Katie is yes. And I know that every improv comedian knows all about this, but maybe foundations, like what the heck does that mean? Break it down.

1 (6m 8s):
So if you've never been forced to watch a friend's improv show before, which means you don't live in New York. So yet the yes and principle is that you don't want to negate an idea. So picture you're at a staff meeting and someone has an idea and everyone needed to just sort of shoot sit down or doesn't really listen and even validate that it's the beginning of an idea. Like nobody's going to come up with the perfect idea in the first three seconds. And that's not even how good creative processes work. So what you want to do. So instead of saying, like someone says in an improv game, someone says, look at that pink elephant on stage, this is the classic one. And someone else says, or your partner says, what?

1 (6m 50s):
Pink elephant. So like, what happens to the scene then?

0 (6m 53s):
There's no pink elephant. What are you talking about?

1 (6m 56s):
And then you have nowhere to go. And you're like, thanks a lot. So what you wanted to say instead is like, yes. And yes, meaning I hear you. I accept the information that you've given me. I'm present with you. And then you're adding something to it. Cause you also don't want to just go. Yeah. Pink elephant, man.

0 (7m 15s):
How about like, yes. And there's a little leprechaun with a lollipop. Who's riding that pink elephant.

1 (7m 21s):
Excellent. I was vet that's a much funnier answer then I was going to do, you're not going to vomit this,

0 (7m 27s):
But I had to like, think about that for like 30 seconds.

1 (7m 31s):
I don't think you had 30 seconds. That was good. So exactly. And then you're like, oh, leprechaun, okay. The other person, it helps give them some ideas and then you can move it forward together.

0 (7m 41s):
Never negate an idea. So I get that one example that you shared about the pink elephant and someone saying like, oh, like what pink outfit? Like what would be another example may be in life where somebody like negating an idea.

1 (7m 53s):
I mean, our kids do this to us all the time. If you have a teenager, you know what I'm talking about? So I am my teenagers and improvisers. So I give them a hard time. I'm like, no, buddy me, you did not. Yes, Amie, but let's say it's something more like at work, if someone you're in a staff meeting and you're trying to come up with ideas for a new product or you know how to change marketing and branding and someone comes up with an idea, the problem is you want to create, this is really important. You want to create a culture of yes. And-ing meaning that you're not going to go like, yes, that's a great idea. If you don't think it is, that's not what we're talking about. You're just accepting it. Like, aha.

1 (8m 34s):
I hear your idea about the new light bulb. That's more energy efficient. That's in the shape of Mickey mouse or whatever. And then someone else adds onto it because they don't quite like the Mickey mouse part. I don't know where I got this, but you know, and, and they don't think they can sell that. So then they, they say yes. And let's also talk about different for the design or something. So the idea is you're, you're not saying no, that's stupid because then what happens? The whole room just deflates and nobody else wants to speak up. And as a leader or a coach, a partner, a creative partner, the last thing you want to do is have people feel like they can't speak up,

0 (9m 15s):
Create a culture Fire Nation of yes. And grow off of the ideas. There's not going to be a perfect idea. Spit out of somebody's mouth moment, one, but that could be the birth. The beginning of something that grows into something really incredible. If you don't snip it off at the bud,

1 (9m 33s):
I was just gonna say everyone who's done anything in innovation and sciences, but certainly in like creating new artwork, the whole point is it's not done in the first five minutes. Like it's the process that we all love and we get juice from, you know,

0 (9m 48s):
And just to take a real Ariel big world example. I mean, think about Jeff bayzos back in the day, he was like, Hey, what can I sell online? This is not going to expire that I can store that people are going to want, that I can just start with. And that was books. And that was just the way he could start. But then there was a yes and what's next and he added something else. And then something else until now, they're literally the everything store. So you never know what that one first little nubbin of idea could grow into if you just let it. But someone was like, no, you can't sell books online. If it's just books that's so one-dimensional and blah, blah, blah. No, that was just the start of what is now the logistical kingdom of drones dropping out of the sky, delivering everything.

0 (10m 30s):
Like I want an ice cream cone. Like literally I could probably open my window in 10 years and an ice cream cone. That's been scooped 10 minutes ago, you know, somewhere in Puerto Rico, it's still not dripping because it came here so fast in 87 degree weather, like that's going to happen Fire Nation because of that first birth of an idea.

1 (10m 49s):
The third thing to do to add onto that is what's called the ready fire aim principle. Now the con you've probably heard that phrase before and it got kind of a bad rap in the corporate world. Cause it's like, they're just all ready, fire aim personally. They didn't work it out, but it's actually exactly what you want. Because like you're saying with Jeff, he, they, they put it out there. They couldn't come up with the final product without letting people try it. And when I was creating my first website, I remember my designer said, okay, stop fussing with it. You have to ready fire aim this. And I was like, what are you talking about? And he said, put it out there, get feedback, look at it through other people's eyes, which always happens when you have a new speech.

1 (11m 30s):
And you're like, oh God, you know, you're up there, you're in the middle of it. And you're suddenly seeing things through other people's eyes who are in the room with you. And then you have to re aim it over and over, but you can't wait until it's completely aimed to fire it. Am I saying that right?

0 (11m 48s):
We don't like that term in the army, so to speak because that can get us into trouble, but Fire Nation as entrepreneurs, you got to get it like you've got to get, Yeah, you've got to put that imperfect action out there. Get feedback because you're like in a closet thinking that you're creating the perfect thing, it could be the completely wrong solution to that problem. You've got to get it out there and get real feedback on it. That's why things like Kickstarter and crowdfunding can be so powerful because you're getting real world feedback before you invest a ton of time, a ton of money, a ton of effort into something. And that leads us to point number three, Katie, which is be flexible. Talk to us about that.

1 (12m 24s):
So that's kind of, I think the thing that everybody thinks about being spontaneous and flexible when they are thinking improv, right? That's what that's going to teach me. So let's just start with the idea that nothing's going to go exactly as you expect it, not work, not your life, not your health, not parenting, not your business and not even like, you know, the world politically or anything like that. So if we can, it's just a fact. And I think we all get into trouble when we try to nail stuff down. And when we are rigid, you can't be really creative when you're being rigid. You're just going to end up stuck back in the old version that nobody wants anymore of whatever the product or services, right?

1 (13m 8s):
So the idea is to have enthusiasm for the unknown. And I don't mean to be like a Pollyanna, like, Hey, everything's going to hell, I'm going to be enthusiastic about it. But I mean, you have to cultivate this as just part of your life. So all these tools are Lilly practices that you want to build the sort of mental muscles of, so that you become somebody who it's just easy for me to be flexible, you know, in your daily life,

0 (13m 31s):
Be flexible Fire Nation because you just never know what's coming around the corner. What's going to change by the way, what's going to shift in the world and people's wants desires needs. If you're flexible, you can say ahead of the curve. And by the way, there's a killer podcast called business wars. And I love the podcast because it talks about how two massive companies back in the day, battle it out. And I'll tell you one thing that companies that win are the ones that are more flexible that adjust to the new needs, desires, and wants of their customers. Those are the companies that win period. End of story. And for you, Katie skill number four is give up the goal, which I'm really curious about. What do you mean by giving up the goal?

1 (14m 13s):
I think more specifically, it's give up attachment to the goal or specific expectations. So, you know, we're always reinventing ourselves. And I think the idea is that if we're, if we're changing and our world is changing and we want to just live authentically, like really, truly who we are, we have to get comfortable giving up the ideas of where we're headed. Exactly. Like what it's going to look like. So we start a business. It's just exactly what you just described about all the other businesses sort of tweaking it as they go. But I think if you can start knowing it's not gonna be exactly what you picture, you're going to be much better off.

1 (14m 55s):
It's going to be easier to be flexible. You're going to, yes. And a lot more. You're going to stay much more present all these things and you're going to end up being much more authentic and authentic, not just to who you are, but to what the times need. Does that make sense?

0 (15m 7s):
It makes a lot of sense in Fire Nation, authenticity, being genuine, really going down to the core of who you are and what you're trying to achieve in realizing that, Hey, things are going to change. I mean, you know, going back to that analogy of that plane that takes off from New York city and is going to Paris, they're not just setting a destination and forgetting it. That plane is adjusting thousands of times an hour in the air because of the different winds that are happening, the barometric pressure, like all the different factors that come into it. It's making all these little tiny tweaks and adjustments to get to its final goal. So that's the key thing going on. And Katie, what do you want to add to that?

1 (15m 42s):
And caveat to that is the idea that you have to commit. So they seem like they're opposite, but they're not. So in improv, somebody gives you an idea. I had this ridiculous scene one time where I was coming in and it was set in a hospital and there's the guy who actually has something that happens to be my husband. Who's in my improv show with me. He comes in looking very like confident and I'm thinking, okay, he's the doctor. So I say, doctor, do you recognize this? And I point to my nose and I'm thinking like he did my nose job. I'm back. Cause I have a crush on him like, oh, this is going on in my head, like all these ideas. Right. But I had to give up attachment to the goal because then he said something like, oh my gosh, everybody look, the nurse has stored the missing nose on her face.

0 (16m 31s):
You became a nurse and now the nose.

1 (16m 34s):
Right. So now, but here's what I want to say. You don't have to give up everything, right. You don't have to just like throw, gosh, it just throw everything out the window and start over. I kept that I had a crush on him. I kept that. I was excited about the nose, you know? So there was pieces of my character and you might, this is a metaphor, but you might say, keep your authentic self, your ethics, your, you know, things like that, that you are not gonna give up. Meanwhile, adjusting and the things that are just sort of more logistics or ideas that you can give up. Does that make sense? It's so it's like one really funny story. Just recently I was doing a keynote for Hewlett Packard and it was like being live-streamed at 30,000 people around the globe.

1 (17m 17s):
And I wasn't really thinking that because I'm so present with the people in the room. Right. So I have this one joke at the beginning of my shell, which is like, you know, be the change you wish to see in the world. Like Gandhi said, you know, Gandhi, he writes for Oprah magazine. So that's, that's the joke halfway through the joke. I'm like, oh my goodness, this is being livestream to India. That they're going to like this job so I could have just bailed, but I decided to commit and be playful and comfortable. And it came across that, you know, I loved Gundy, you know, it wasn't offensive. Like I've checked in with people afterwards. Like the whole thing kind of worked because I committed.

1 (17m 59s):
So the trick is how do we know when to give up our attachment to the goal and when to commit. And that is a very personal decision, but I think it comes back to, you're committing to, like I said before, your sort of your ethics, your essential self, and you're giving us specifics,

0 (18m 18s):
Fire Nation, Katie's been dropping value bombs. And if you think she's done, just wait till we get back from thanking our sponsor because not only are we going through skills five through eight, but Katie's got a little game that we're going to play together, where again, I might get an F, but I'll get an A, I'll get an eight for participation, but we'll see, time will tell we'll be right back Fire Nation.

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0 (21m 47s):
So Katie we're back and man, the value bombs are going to be dropped left and right with skills five through eight. So talk to us about skill number five spot and 80 thinking on your feet.

1 (21m 59s):
Okay. This is a little bit like being flexible, but it's a little bit more where you have to create kind of a blank brain state. So one of my favorite lines from the movie, the matrix is where Trinity says, no one's ever done anything like this before. And then Neo says, that's why it's going to work. So I love that concept of total trust. And to be spontaneous, you have to have trust. You have to have trust in yourself and your partners. And just in the process that the creative process is more, the process is more important than the very specific product, right? So being spontaneous, lets you, once you have that trust and you have it like as a, you practiced it as a mental muscle, then it allows you to take creative risks, which is where the good stuff is.

0 (22m 49s):
No one's ever done anything like this before. That's why it's going to work. Think about that interaction, Fire Nation. That's really powerful. And by the way, Kate, I'm kind of curious for your feedback on this. Like what if it doesn't work? Because that's where so many entrepreneurs are terrified. They're like, oh my God, what if it doesn't work? I'm so terrified if it doesn't work, I'm obviously going to be under a bridge somewhere in some scary city eating out of a sewer pan that's on fire or something like what is the deal? If it doesn't work,

1 (23m 18s):
I have a terrible answer to that first, which is my Buddhist teacher once said to me, well literally somebody said that to her and she said, well then I'll be meditating under a bridge in a box. None of us are that enlightened. So that's not going to work. It's a great question. So I think some of the answers to that are one. What does success mean to you? So, and as a life coach, I work with so many creative people who are trying to create workshops and creative entrepreneurial businesses, where they have an image of what success looks like and they, they don't reach that image. So it's like, I'm G I was talked to them about, what do you want to feel?

1 (24m 3s):
Do you want to, you know, you want to feel pride. You want to feel freedom. Okay. Is this job actually going to get you those things? Because they sort of run headlong into this business, not with the, with the image that like money and being on TV means success or somebody else hiring me for millions of dollars. And then you're like, but wait, is that giving you freedom? You know, that may not actually be giving you the things you want to feel. It may just be giving you what you were brought up by the culture or your parents or wherever you got it, what success means. And as someone in, by the way in comedy, I deal with that all the time because success in comedy means you have a show and I don't want any of those things.

1 (24m 45s):
I write my own show. I do whatever I want whenever I want. And I learned a long time ago that that's more valuable to me. So when you say you fail, that's the first question that's really important is did you fail at what somebody else or the culture pictures is failing? Or did you fail because you didn't sort of meet your ethics and you weren't excited and interested at every moment what you were doing. Cause those are that's success to me. And I've also known, I worked with a lot of very wealthy people who are not happy. So I also know that money is not the answer most of the time. So the, so you have to ask, what is success first?

1 (25m 26s):
Let me really get a grip on what really will make me happy and successes. What makes you happy? But let's say you are doing all that I think is your question. So let's say you are, you're like you're in alignment, you're being authentic and you fail. Meaning like the business didn't get off the ground. Nobody wants it or something like that. Then you just, first of all, the word failure is so useless. Like that is an inner critic thing, which we're getting to in number six. But that is just a completely waste of time. The whole trick is readjust, readjust, ready? Fire aim, ready, fire aim. Give up the goal like you do all these practices and you won't ever believe you're failing

0 (26m 4s):
Fire Nation. We are so often our own worst critic. I mean, it's just a reality. We're sitting there. We're judging ourselves. Those inner voices, that imposter syndrome. It is just something that we as human beings have to deal with day in and day out. But let's talk about skill number six, Katie, which is gagging that inner critic break it down for us.

1 (26m 24s):
That's my favorite process that we do in all of my workshops and trainings. So

0 (26m 29s):
They should change gagging to just choking out your inner critic. I mean, let's get even more aggressive.

1 (26m 36s):
Yes. I work at a lot of like yoga centers.

0 (26m 41s):
No, your audience, you know, you can shift

1 (26m 47s):
Back. So, okay. There's, there's a process that I use and it's 12 steps and it's in my book and I will send it to Fire Nation folks who want it, I'll tell you how we'll give you guys a little link for that at the end. The first the deal is, and a lot of people might already have a sense of this, but let me just sort of spell it out. The inner critic, I'm doing the like four second version of this, but the inner critic is a, a protective mechanism. Something happened at some point, or you learned at some point that you were in danger from generally embarrassment, shame being like, you know, kicked off the island in some fashion, right?

1 (27m 29s):
And this is no joke. I mean, by evolutionarily biologically, we are bred for, you know, hundreds of thousands of years to be terrified about being ostracized from our clan because we will literally be kicked out and we'll start. So it's like, it's, don't feel bad about yourself if you're afraid of this, because it's just very, very natural. So the deal is to just go, okay, my inner critics coming up now the problem is that the inner critic over time for a lot of us, most of us, it becomes something that not per it, doesn't protect you as much as keep you from trying or feeling good about yourself. So usually what you hear instead of like something helpful, like, you know, last time you went out for that job interview, you didn't really research the company and you didn't get the job.

1 (28m 18s):
That would be helpful. Right. But this is not that the inner critic is like, you suck on some level, right? Like you are not smart enough. They're gonna find out you're not capable. Or you know, everybody else here is X and you're not. And, and it's usually something you can't argue. The inner critic gets clever enough because if you can argue, then you work your way through it. Right. But the inner critic gets clever enough to just stop you in your tracks. And you're like, okay, fine. And then you quit. That's what failure is. I think so what my worksheet and process is, is to walk you through, first of all, understanding what it's saying to you and just even noticing it.

1 (29m 1s):
Some people don't even notice it. They just take it as fact. They're like, I do suck. You just walk around, like I'm terrible and you don't know why. And so to kind of recognize that it was something to protect you. So then you're like, okay, thank you. I appreciate you. You're protecting me, but you're terrible at your job. And then we want to kind of turn it into an inner coach and I won't walk through every step because it is a little bit longer and more involved. And I think it's more helpful if you do the process, then I just sort of whip us through it. But basically ideas. We're trying to turn it into an inner coach, slightly cheesy word, but you know, fun picture to picture. So it's like, you know, it's, it's that fun. I dunno if anybody has a fun personal trainer, but you know, it's that putting training, do you do?

1 (29m 44s):
Okay, good. I have not found that yet. Who's encouraging and is very specific with neutral objective language. So it's not dissing you. It is like, here's how you can fix this. Or here's what went wrong last time or here's what I'm afraid of for you.

0 (30m 1s):
So Fire Nation, Katie has this whole 12 step process that she mentioned. She can't go into super depth about cause a tighten the strengths, but this is a 12 step processes she has in her book, which we'll mention in more detail at the end, but just real quick, Katie, for right now, people that are listening are like, yes, this 12 step process sounds intriguing. Where do they go to get more information about that process in your book?

1 (30m 23s):
Let me also just give you a freebie too, so they don't have to put in my book, but it's, I think it's chapter 12, but I also, if you go to KatieGoodmanSpeaking.com and it's K A T I E Goodman speaking.com/fire. We made that for you and you go there and just give us your email and we'll send you that. Plus these eight steps that we're also talking about today.

0 (30m 47s):
Well, that’s at KatieGoodmanSpeaking.com/fire. And it makes sense of this chapter 12, since it's a 12 step process and let's talk about getting lost. I mean, most people think getting lost is a terrible thing. If you're driving, you get lost. I don't even know if people get lost anymore because of GPS actually in Puerto Rico, they do because the GPS is just all kinds of wonky, but skill number seven, the art of getting lost. Break that down for us.

1 (31m 13s):
This is one of my most favorite things. And in improv, it's the idea it's a little bit related to giving up the goal. So allowing yourself not to head straight to the goal, but to kind of wiggle around and play. And in improv games, you're adding more conflict and you're taking it down unexpected roads and enjoying that, right? Like you don't want to just go from the problem to the solution in theater like that. It's the most boring thing. There's no story. So in real life though, the reason that it's important to get lost is because you are changing all the time, which is kind of bad news. Some people are like, I, you know, finally they figured themselves out and they're like, I've got it.

1 (31m 53s):
Now I'm going to hold onto. It just does not work that way. You just keep changing. So your authentic self will just keep evolving your whole life. The way to get to the next iteration of you is by letting go of who you were being lost. And then finding the new, you, you cannot go from letting go of the past you to bouncing into the new you without being lost. It just does not work that way. And the example of this is everybody knows somebody who just got out of like a terrible relationship or divorce. And then three months later, they're with somebody who's exactly the same as the last person. And they're right. You're just like, oh, and the reason for that is because they didn't do any self-exploration or being lost.

1 (32m 38s):
Like they didn't sit in it and go, okay, wait a minute. That was the old me. Who's the new me. And the way to do this, it's so fun. You can be so playful about it. It doesn't have to be like, oh my God, I'm putting myself in like horrible, dangerous situations in cities. I don't know. That's not what we're talking about. But again, it's practicing the mental muscle. So give yourself some tasks. This will be on the eight steps. There's a bunch of examples here that I'll send you. But so it's things like, you know, obviously going to a new part of a city you've never been to, but it can also be like go to the bookstore. And you know, I always go to the science fiction area, but you know, for some reason today, and you just look around, you're like, what intrigues me? You're like, oh, male body building.

1 (33m 19s):
I don't know why. And you know, just let your eyeballs kind of take you on a little fun, playful journey and children do this all the time. Right. They never walk in straight lines. So, you know, and they're like, oh, look at this thing on the ground. And it was look at this. So it's kind of, it's that kind of feeling and it's that kind of state that you want to make sure to almost build into your life. So it's not like everything's great now. And then this is the guest get last week. And then next week I'll be the new me. It's not quite like that. Although I'm sure some type days listening would be like, oh, dang it. But it's more like, you know, just keep that explorative, playful child, you know, curious muscle growing all the time.

1 (34m 8s):
You know, every day have a little something you get lost at and don't try to, you know, it's not, you don't want to start this with really big, heavy things. Like I'm going to quit my job. Like start it with like, I'm gonna maybe try something different on this menu at this restaurant I always go to, so baby steps,

0 (34m 24s):
Fire Nation, the windy path, the windy path from the problem to the solution. That's where the magic happens. So get lost, literally get lost. And we've all done this on YouTube when we've gone to watch one thing on YouTube and we see that little sidebar and we're just like, oh my God, the top eight baseball highlights of all time. And I'm like, I have to see those unbelievable. I don't even like baseball, but I have to see the top eight of all time. And next thing I know, like I've gone down this windy road and who even knows where I end up on like, why gold is going to go to 5,000 pounds? Like what's I need to buy gold. I'm like, how did I get here in Fire Nation? Getting lost. Sometimes it can be where the magic happens. It can also be a huge waste of time, but it can also be where the magic happens.

0 (35m 7s):
So get loss and the final skill skill, number eight, how to be authentic. Katie, break it down.

1 (35m 14s):
Everything leads to that. I think that's how I see it all is that that's our mission as people is to be our authentic self when we are not in alignment with our authentic selves and everyone knows what that feels like. You take the job, you didn't want your with the person you didn't want, then nothing works. I mean, it really doesn't. You can push boulders uphill all day, but in end, it's not going to work. And then it's going to feel like a failure, like we talked about earlier. So practicing all these skills really leads to having an authentic life. But the thing is, you kind of want to, you want to, so it's like, I call it excavating your authentic self. And, and of course, one of the tricks is how do you excavate your authentic self from what your family of origin is, or even your culture at your work or your friends or your spouse or whatever, or even just what the culture tells you, you should.

1 (36m 9s):
And shouldn't be in that. You know, there's a lot of self-help books on that specifically. But I think what I have seen is if you're practicing being flexible and you know, gagging your inner critic, which is not your authentic self, right? And you are giving up the goal and you're practicing being lost. Like all these things are going to end up with this really juicy, authentic you that you just feel really good about. And you're relaxing. You're like sitting in it and you're like, yep, that's me

0 (36m 34s):
Fire Nation. That's what you're striving for. To be able to say yes, that is me. And I see this over and over again to people that launched their podcast, you want to be finding how your personality becomes your podcast. And it might not be their episode one or 100. It takes time to get comfortable behind the microphone to say what you want to say to do what you want to do. It's the same thing for everything in life, but you want to strive to get there and be authentic. So Katie, before we wrap up here and talk more about what you have going on, what is the game that we're playing

1 (37m 4s):
When you asked about the failure thing? I thought that was really interesting and I hadn't quite explained it before the way you got me to. And I think we think that there's a game at all, right? We think there's a game that's very specific and it's supposed to look a certain way. And one of the things that I really have learned from my teachers is it doesn't matter what you do, it's how you do it. So it really doesn't matter what you're picking as your entrepreneurial business or in a way, it doesn't matter exactly who you're picking to be with or where to live or any of those things. That's how you do it. So if you're doing it with an agenda that is not authentic, you're going to be unhappy.

1 (37m 48s):
And if you're, if you're picking something and you're committing to it because you, you know, that it feels like it's going to get you to the feelings you want to have. Like for me, pride, freedom, connection. Those are three of my big ones, creativity. Then that's the right answer. And that's how you sort of win the game.

0 (38m 9s):
Okay. I love where you went with that answer because I just want to let you go because I could tell you're going to get lost and make some magic happen, which is exactly what you did. But what I was meaning by what's the game we're playing, you had said that we're going to play a game together.

1 (38m 26s):
You know, you didn't want me to pontificate more. Okay? Yes. We're playing a game. I'm going to write a blog about the game.

0 (38m 34s):
It's going to be the most viral posts.

1 (38m 39s):
Right? Okay. Here's the game we're playing. That's a note to self don't be so serious. Okay. So the game is, this is super easy. And the reason I want to do this is because anyone can play this like around the dinner table with their family or a staff. It's kind of one of the first exercises you learn as an improviser. It's just one word story. And literally you're only allowed to say one word at a time, but you and I are making a story together. So for example,

0 (39m 5s):
Over and over again,

1 (39m 6s):
Over and over and over podcasts pocket. So you, we go back and forth. So an example would be like I say, you know my, and you say dog,

0 (39m 18s):
I totally get the game was kicking off. All

1 (39m 20s):
Right. So we need a subject. So give me like a random subject for us to talk about Puerto

0 (39m 27s):
Rico.

1 (39m 27s):
Okay. Puerto Rico, which I don't know that much about. Okay. So I'll start and we'll just see where this goes. And you can only say one word, but we're going to hype in Puerto Rico just for fun. Cause it's gonna, I can tell it's going to come out yesterday

0 (39m 40s):
In

1 (39m 41s):
Puerto Rico,

0 (39m 43s):
We

1 (39m 44s):
Ran

0 (39m 45s):
Down

1 (39m 46s):
The

0 (39m 48s):
Beach

1 (39m 49s):
Where

0 (39m 51s):
Dolphins

1 (39m 52s):
Jumped

0 (39m 54s):
Out

1 (39m 54s):
Of

0 (39m 57s):
The

1 (39m 58s):
Ocean

0 (39m 59s):
And

1 (40m 1s):
They

0 (40m 3s):
Landed

1 (40m 5s):
Smartly

0 (40m 7s):
On

1 (40m 14s):
People. Okay. A tragedy in Puerto Rico with adults, it's just an exercise. You can do it at dinner, going around in a circle.

0 (40m 24s):
But I doubt anybody's going to get to the place where dolphins are landing on people, which is amazing because every story is going to be completely different. It can be a lot of fun.

1 (40m 33s):
Actually. It's one of the great things about improv because you're not actually competing since everyone has their own experience that they're bringing to it. It's a real treat about impact.

0 (40m 41s):
How was that? Not more of like a car game when people are traveling in a car of like four people, you just go around clockwise and everybody says one word.

1 (40m 49s):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he just like grab a subject by looking out the window, you know, like

0 (40m 54s):
Literally be a podcast by the way, like people just record themselves saying one word.

1 (41m 1s):
That'd be my next book.

0 (41m 4s):
Katie. Let's wrap things up here. So give us the biggest takeaway you want to make sure Fire Nation gets from our entire conversation. Then give us a call to action on where we can find out more about you, your book, your work. And then we'll say goodbye.

1 (41m 17s):
I think for me, it's like that you can't escape change in chaos and it's all chaos. And the trick is learning to be comfortable in the chaos, right? So to like, but just really thrive in it to look forward, to change and to get lost often and be playful so that you, you can seek the new version of your authentic self.

0 (41m 36s):
Love that. Where can we find out more about you and your book?

1 (41m 39s):
Well, let's do the KatieGoodmanSpeaking.com/fire and everything will be there. Just curated for you guys.

0 (41m 47s):
Fire Nation. You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with KG and JLD today. So keep up the heat and head over to EOFire.com. Just type Katie. That's Katie I E and the search bar in her shows page will pop up with all the links to everything we've been chatting about today. But your direct call to action Fire Nation, KatieGoodmanSpeaking.com/fire. Katie, thank you for sharing value bomb. After value bomb with Fire Nation today, for that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation today's value bombs were brought to you by Katie Goodman.

0 (42m 28s):
And if you're ready to accomplish your number one big goal, check out the Freedom Journal. Cause you'll do just that in a hundred days and use promo code podcast for a little thank you and discount for listening to my podcasts over at thefreedomjournal.com.

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0 (43m 8s):
Business made simple hosted by Donald Miller takes the mystery out of growing your business. Recent episodes, like how to attract and retain top talent and how to make more money with your current products are straight fire. Listen to business made simple wherever you get your podcasts.