Hi. I’m really glad you’re here!
To understand my work, and why I do it, it helps to know a bit of my story.
Since childhood, I’ve experienced fainting episodes. They were unwelcome. They were scary. And they felt completely outside my control. So from a young age, I was forced to confront something most of us spend our lives trying to avoid... the realization that we are not actually in control of very much.
As a teenage entrepreneur (I started a gelato business at 15), I tried to control what I could, like my grades, my schedule, my exercise, my output. In my professional life, I built teams, led teams, and supported leaders, teams, and companies. If life felt unpredictable, I would double down on discipline.
But reality kept reminding me that I was not in control.
Then I signed up for an improv class, and my life was never the same.
Improv is a practice of letting go of control, and in doing so discovering you’re still okay. Even more than okay. You’re creative. You’re connected. You’re alive. Onstage, you walk into a scene with nothing. There's no script. There are no guarantees. All you have is the present moment and another human being (or beings) and yourself.
Over the past fifteen years, I’ve studied improv comedy at The Second City, The Groundlings, and the Upright Citizens Brigade.
Somewhere along the way, I started to notice that practicing improv was not only fun, it was changing how I felt in my body, in my nervous system, and in my response to uncertainty. It was helping me face not just awkward scenes, but unpredictable fainting episodes, business curveballs, and life’s bigger plot twists.
But it wasn't just improv for improv's sake that was helping me, it was intentionally combining these improv techniques with other things that I was learning about leadership and also about my brain and nervous system through these chronic medical episodes. Though I’m not sure I realized it at the time I was slowly developing not just a thesis, but actual methods that combined what I was practicing as an improviser, what I was living in a chronic condition, and what I was learning about the mechanisms underlying what was happening.
Without realizing it, I was developing more than an after-work hobby.
I was developing a method.
It wasn't improv for improv’s sake. It was using improv intentionally, with tried and true business frameworks, neuroscience and nervous system research, mindfulness and other research and performance backed methods.
Eventually, all of that became The Improve Method™ - an improv-inspired, research-backed approach that helps people and teams respond more flexibly and creatively to complexity, change, and the unexpected.
It’s fun.
And it works.
Like candy packed with vitamins.
The Improve Method™ principles and practices have delivered lasting impact - to me and to others. I've advised startups that have raised over $50 million and played a key role in several startup teams that have collectively raised over $3 billion, gone public and been acquired (one by Facebook, another by Lawgix). I’ve delivered workshops and keynotes for global Fortune 500 companies, startups, universities, and global conferences, and even gave a TED Talk on how improv can improve leadership and life. In the trainings I've designed and delivered, participants report improving communication skills by 30%, listening skills by 25%, ability to adapt by 49%, with a 95 NPS score and a 5/5 enjoyment and 4.8/5 learning experience rating.
But the impact that matters most to me is harder to quantify.
It’s the executive who says, “I handled that board meeting differently.”
It’s the team that realizes they “thrive when problem solving together.”
It’s the person navigating illness, layoffs, or transition who says, “I feel less afraid.”
Because these tools didn’t just help me onstage.
They helped me let go in a grounded, resilient way. They changed how I show up in moments I cannot predict or control, including every unexpected fainting episode.
And that’s why my company is called Improve.
Not because we’re trying to be perfect. But because we’re practicing getting better at handling whatever scene we’re in.
And though I am a huge proponent of improv comedy as a means towards serious personal and organizational transformation, I also create entertaining humorish things with an eye toward impact. I’ve written, directed, and performed in the award-winning short film Dating Apps in Real Life. I associate produced the documentary Act Social featuring Colin Mochrie. I created and hosted Startup Late Night. I’ve performed at Gilda Radner’s Laughfest and comedy festivals across the country.
Whether I’m launching a gelato brand, designing a leadership experience, writing a book, or illustrating food puns, I bring things to life.
Sometimes from a blank page.
Sometimes from a messy, complicated reality.
Always by saying yes, and to what’s here.
Because life is unscripted.
And we can learn to handle it anyway.
☺
