I don't want your success story. I want your fiasco and the fact that you made it through.

So when I think about comedy and improvisation, I think about mess and struggle and hard stuff

and the ability to navigate through it and laugh our asses off.

Welcome back or welcome to The Finding Mastery Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Jervé,

by trade and training a high-performance psychologist. And I am thrilled to welcome

Kelly Leonard to the podcast for this week's conversation. If you've ever appreciated the

comedic stylings of talents like Tina Fey or Stephen Cobair or Amy Poler or Seth Meyers,

you may want to give today's guests some credit. As the executive director of Learning and Applied

Improvisation at Second City, the world's premier comedy theater in school,

Kelly Leonard has spent over 20 years shepherding the kind of creativity and collaboration that

not only catapults comedy legends, but has the power to transform people's lives. Turns out,

improv isn't just good for laughs. Looking at behavioral science through the lens of improvisation,

Kelly helps not just build performers, but leaders, innovators, and everyday professionals

develop transformational skills in business using the yes and principle, mastering the art of

co-creation, leading by listening, and innovating by making something out of nothing. Like improv,

life is not scripted. The more tools we have to navigate it, the better. So whether you're ready

to laugh, or learn, or cry, or a bit of all three, you're going to love hearing the insights

in this remarkable conversation. So with that, let's jump right in today's conversation with

Kelly Leonard. Kelly, I am stoked to learn from you today, and just as sincere thank you for coming

on the podcast with us. But before we dive into your insights, can you just set the scene

for our audience and explain what Second City is? Your role's there, and then please feel free

to name drop all of the amazing people that you've been able to work with. But like, so can you just

...