Becoming a Better Podcaster Through Improv with Meridith Grundei

Our guest today is an expert in communication. Meridith Grundei has spoken to companies like Amazon, AWS, Panasonic, and Merck and was a teacher at the Second City in New York.She has 90,000 dedicated fans on TikTok and was recognized as one of the top ten speaking coaches by Yahoo in 2022. She is the driving force behind Grundei Coaching, where she incorporates improv theater techniques to foster trust, empathy, and creative thinking.Meridith shares so much practical advice and specific strategies that we can use for improving performance as podcast hosts and as guests. And of course, these are skills that you can transfer to sales, to your marketing, to how you pitch yourself, and how you network.I took pages of notes and even took a stab at the half-life exercise she gives us in the call as homework, so you'll get to hear that at the end of the show.Meridith has been so giving of her time and knowledge and her improv skills are so interesting and so engaging and can make such a difference in how you create your content.
Listen to the episode below or continue reading the blog post!
Tune in to the full episode to learn about:The transformative power of improv theaterHow to enhance presence and mindful communication through ImprovThe power of smiling in podcastingThe Half Life exercise for condensing communication
Don’t forget to join us for our free monthly strategy calls on the third Thursday of every month!
How Meridith overcame fear and found her voice“I have been a performer my whole life and on many stages. But I started off as a dancer. I didn't use my voice. I was afraid to use my voice because I was afraid of having the wrong answer or sounding stupid if called upon.I liked to hide. I hid in the back row, often away from teachers. And it was because I found acting through dance that I was able to really find my voice and develop my confidence, and because I got to play with a script and characters and all that good stuff.Then I found improv theater, and that forced me to use my own point of view and my own feelings towards things. And that's when I really started to blossom and develop my confidence as a speaker.Today, I get to use those skill sets that I've learned to help other people, mostly in leadership, develop their confidence so they can deliver their message and communicate not only with their colleagues, direct reports, whomever, but to customers when they're releasing new products and services.”
The importance of charisma and presenceThat idea of feeling like you're going to have the wrong answer or say the wrong thing, it can cause so much anxiety for those of us in podcasting. It can prevent people from starting shows.It can prevent people from promoting shows when the