Making it up as we go

Guys…believe it or not I am not perfect.

I still have plenty of room to grow, personally and professionally.

So I thought…why not try a little professional development? But instead of going to another webinar about “what content is working in B2B SaaS,” I opted for a more fun approach.

That, boys and girls, was an improv comedy class.

This all started after I had a chat with one of my B2B social media homies (shoutout Travis). He swore that every social media manager should take an improv or comedy class to get better at their job.

I was skeptical at first, but when you (my beautiful subscribers) all voted that I should side quest into comedy…I knew I couldn’t disappoint.

A few learnings from the stage:

1. Creativity under pressure:
   
   We did one exercise where we were given random prompts and had to instantly create characters. We were all on a live love advice panel, each assigned a super generic “way to act.”
   
   My assignment: give terrible love advice.

   
   Within 5 seconds I became Chelsea: the type of girl who chews gum with her mouth open, is just a little too perky, and you would definitely find her number in your husband’s phone.
   
   Was she helpful? No. Entertaining? Absolutely.
    

2. Storytelling! Improv forces you to listen, build on others’ ideas, and keep the audience engaged (kinda sounds like a regular day in the life doing social)
   
   We were put in partners & had to sell a random household item to the class. We pitched the Refrigerator 5000, a “smart” fridge that:
   

   • Spoke fluent French (editable voice options, of course)

   • Had six doors

   • Cooked your meals

   • Came with a pet food spout

   • Predicted exactly what snack you’d grab and served it to you

   • Could somehow teleport you 5000 miles away to your location of choice

   
   The whole class was sold… for the low, low price of $19.99 Jupiter dollars.
    

3. Quick thinking & adaptability. You have to be able to think on your feet without overthinking.
   
   Anyone who has ever created a single piece of content knows that overthinking will literally ruin everything…and that’s true in improv too.
   
   Whatever you say, people roll with it and build on your narrative. Even if that means we are throwing a space party for your mom with a zebra-print dress code. (I’m bringing the cake!)
    

4. “Yes, and”-ing
   
   In improv, you don’t say “no” or “but,” you say “yes, and” to keep the story flowing.
   

   It hit me that in my work, I sometimes over-critique my own ideas: “This is good, but…” or “We should change this…”
   
   Sometimes that’s necessary, but too much of it kills the fun and momentum.
   
   And who doesn’t love fun and momentum????

I almost chickened out and tried to come up with every excuse to not go to this improv class, but then I decided that it never hurts to “just go see” and, if anything, it’ll make good content (duh).

Am I the best social media manager I have ever been because of this? Probably.

And at the very least I was reminded that nothing is ever that serious ✌️

Who knows? I might be coming to a stage near you!

See you next week!!

Xoxo,

Bella Rose