147. Make Choices Instead of Excuses…And Find the Laughs in Each Day with Lisa David Olson the author of “Laughs on Wry, An Improviser’s Memoir”

Brad Miller: 00:00:00

Dr. Brad Miller here with you on beyond add

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versity the podcast where we really seek to serve you by

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helping you to deal with and navigate adverse conditions in

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your life and come out to a better place place we call the

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promise, life of peace, prosperity and purpose. We do

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that by teaching and leadership and monologues, a teaching that

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I do, but also by dialogues that we have with great folks who in

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their own right, have overcome some adverse condition, and have

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something to contribute to your to your life and such as the

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case with an author and humorist Lisa David Olson. She's a

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creative coach, a speaker, and she deals with folks in

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leadership. And she talks about how humor has helped save her

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life. Lisa, Welcome to Beyond adversity.

Lisa David Olson: 00:00:51

Thank you for having me on this show, I'm

Lisa David Olson: 00:00:53

honored to be among your guests, you have a fabulous show that is

Lisa David Olson: 00:00:57

worth listening to catch all the episodes because there's some

Lisa David Olson: 00:01:01

nugget in there. For whatever you're feeling that day. That's

Lisa David Olson: 00:01:04

what I found. Well, awesome.

Brad Miller: 00:01:05

Thank you for sharing that I really, really

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appreciate that Lisa and, and you're going to be a part of

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that process here. Because I know that you have had some

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challenges in your life to overcome and you've done so by

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project with humor, and by speaking and teaching and

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leadership. But tell us a little bit about your story about where

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you found yourself in life, where you needed to find some

Brad Miller: 00:01:27

process or place to cope with the situation to your life. Just

Brad Miller: 00:01:33

tell us your story.

Lisa David Olson: 00:01:35

I grew up with three siblings, and two parents

Lisa David Olson: 00:01:39

and my mother was a functioning alcoholic. And when you grow up

Lisa David Olson: 00:01:45

that way, you don't know that that's not just the way

Lisa David Olson: 00:01:47

everybody has houses. I there was many nights where she would

Lisa David Olson: 00:01:53

be in one of her rages and pull pull us out of bed or, you know,

Lisa David Olson: 00:01:58

make you admit who did what, it was always a physical abuse

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:02

thing. And screaming or screaming at my dad, my dad

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:06

would kind of just fade away disappear, ignore it back in the

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:11

day, you know, because I grew up. I was born in 65. So when I

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:15

grew up, people didn't jump into situations or interrupt a family

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:19

dynamic. And like they would now a teacher would help or an adult

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:23

would would say something seems off. So back then it was just

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:27

you dealt with it. So you couldn't have friends over

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:31

because you didn't know what what happened in the night.

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:33

Sleep overs just weren't a thing. And I always felt quite

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:37

the outcast at school, I thought everybody knew what was going

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:40

on. And you know, once you figured out other houses aren't

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:43

like that, and you find out what normal families are. So it was a

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:48

long road of dealing with being physically abused and the

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:53

dynamic of how my siblings dealt with it. So one is very

Lisa David Olson: 00:02:59

different. She ended up with fibromyalgia, which I really

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:02

find must be connected somehow to the mental abuse and the

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:05

physical abuse, as well as she became obese. And she ended up

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:11

having surgeries for that. Then my second, next second sibling

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:16

also dealt with obesity, addiction issues, and he's doing

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:22

great right now. And then the last one, the fourth one, the

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:25

baby was pretty much not really pulled into those situations.

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:31

Somehow he was protected. And so he definitely has mental issues.

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:35

And I'm not in touch with him anymore. But I've offered to get

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:39

him help. But it wasn't. It wasn't welcome. So when you grow

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:43

up that way, and you all go your own ways. Instead of becoming

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:47

obese, I became scared of food. I didn't want to become fat or

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:51

big or anything like that. I don't want to be that different.

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:53

I'm already different. So I had an eating disorder the other

Lisa David Olson: 00:03:56

way. My escape from all of that was humor. Humor saved my life.

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:03

Because there was a night I was about 15 or 16 and I was holding

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:07

a handful of Darvocet. I can picture them there. There were

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:10

blue capsules at that time. How I got them. I don't know. Wow.

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:15

I'm assuming I got them from my mother's stuff. I don't know.

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:19

And I held them and I had water and I can picture the room I was

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:22

in it was a paneled bedroom and you know a blue plaid bedspread

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:26

and you know the whole 70s bedroom vibe, a dark basement

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:31

bedroom, and I'm holding the pills and I'm trying to decide.

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:35

And I thought you know, Carol Burnett Show is on. I don't want

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:39

to miss Carol Burnett. We didn't have DVR and all these things

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:42

you you either saw the show or you didn't. And I chose to go

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:46

watch Carol Burnett. And from there, I knew that laughter was

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:51

an excellent endorphin buzz, excuse me. I knew that laughter

Lisa David Olson: 00:04:59

was a an endorphin buzz, although I didn't know the words

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:01

at that time, really, but it was a great escape. And you could

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:05

pretend to be whoever you want it to be. You could just seek

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:09

humor, and escape in a sketch, or a parody song, or, you know,

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:14

putting two ideas together to make a new idea. And from there

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:17

on, I was hooked on comedy. And growing up, when I later, I left

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:25

at 17, I was out of that house, I did not finish school, I quit

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:29

school, I took off, I've always worked. And my parents were not

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:33

really engaged with me in the sense that, you know, we should

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:37

really look at how school is going for you, we should really

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:40

make sure you're going to graduate and stuff. That wasn't

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:42

a thing. So I took off at 17. And always found my way through

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:48

work and found good relationships. And humor became

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:54

my business years later. So I ran and performed in a comedy

Lisa David Olson: 00:05:59

troupe for two decades, where we wrote sketch comedies, and do

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:04

improvisation shows where we go into a business party and give

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:08

me a place where two people would meet kind of like that

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:10

show. Whose Line is it Anyway, right? I'm

Brad Miller: 00:06:12

very familiar with that. My son. One of my sons has

Brad Miller: 00:06:15

been involved with that. And so yes,

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:16

yes. So you know what that's like, and then

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:19

great escape. So that's where I come from. And so I when I

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:23

speak, I speak about the trauma I speak about coming through it,

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:27

and I eventually wrote a book. And that came out in 2018.

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:31

laughs on ry wr y. And I share about my journey, but it's a

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:36

book of joy and pranks. I'm a prank queen. I'm horribly

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:41

annoying, because I'm always pranking people. And, well, I

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:45

don't find it annoying. I say it's a gift.

Brad Miller: 00:06:47

Well, let's just hit the pause for a second here.

Brad Miller: 00:06:50

Let's hear about one cool and awesome prank that you did. I

Brad Miller: 00:06:52

know we've been talking about serious stuff here. But let's

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just take a pause and hear about some cool prank that you really

Brad Miller: 00:06:57

got somebody?

Lisa David Olson: 00:06:58

Heck yeah. How do I choose one by day I work

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:02

with police officers and I find it very fun to hide and jump

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:09

out. Although it's it's really more of joy for myself because

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:13

they don't react. You know, they're trained, so it's really

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:15

dumb. So I love to put bubble wrap under rocks or snap in pops

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:21

in. Do you know what those are? Brad? You know what those little

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:24

Oh, yeah. You throw them down and they pop out. They

Brad Miller: 00:07:27

pop on the sidewalk or whatever. Yeah. I've scare

Brad Miller: 00:07:31

people with those things before suddenly. Yeah, go ahead. But

Brad Miller: 00:07:33

finish your story. Yeah.

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:35

The wonderful thing to do with those is you

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:37

tape them into the door hinge at the bathroom. I'd say six is the

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:41

right number. Yeah. Okay. So when someone goes into the

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:44

bathroom and shuts the door. So I love to do that. I've gotten

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:49

my sons up in the night to go to school, and they believed it was

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:52

school time. And it really, it wasn't a school day. And we

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:55

would drive to the school and I go to drop them off. And it's

Lisa David Olson: 00:07:58

nobody's there, the shades are down, so that I took them to

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:01

breakfast. I've moved my husband's car when he's at an

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:05

appointment, because I have a spare key. I mean, there are

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:08

I've hidden, I'll hide in a closet for a half hour if I know

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:10

you're coming back. I'm so good. I can bring water and a granola

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:14

bar and I'll hang out just because I know you're going to

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:16

go put the vacuum back or you're going to come to the laundry

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:19

room because

Brad Miller: 00:08:19

you got to be a blast to hang around with and

Brad Miller: 00:08:22

also a person that sometimes people probably go Enough

Brad Miller: 00:08:25

already.

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:27

Well, I am on my third husband.

Brad Miller: 00:08:31

Okay, I wasn't going there yet. But hey, you

Brad Miller: 00:08:35

know, that teaches us something, doesn't it? So?

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:38

Oh, I do tend to wear people out.

Brad Miller: 00:08:40

Okay, very good. Very good. So you used humor,

Brad Miller: 00:08:44

and you ran improv groups to help you to deal with this

Brad Miller: 00:08:48

trauma growing up? And how's it going? How's it working out for

Brad Miller: 00:08:52

you?

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:53

Yeah, I decided to sunset the group this

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:56

past January, because two decades, I thought, you know, I

Lisa David Olson: 00:08:59

always like to leave something when it's still good. And boy,

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:04

did I not realize that I would not have a choice that we

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:06

couldn't have shows, but I did sunset it in January. It's not

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:10

to say I wouldn't still do an improv show. But our full on

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:14

comedy shows, we would write for six months and perform for three

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:19

weekends. So we would write parodies about our town, whether

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:22

it would be many potholes on this Main Street, and we would

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:25

do a musical about potholes, or, you know, roundabouts in traffic

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:30

was a big deal in our town. So we had a whole theme about that.

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:35

So we also, my husband has is in the troop as well and was also

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:41

the director. So we still continue to write comedy and do

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:44

creative things. But that was a beautiful thing for me because

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:50

finding my comedy troupe and accepting people that I trust

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:56

was one of the biggest lessons for me because I'm not a person.

Lisa David Olson: 00:09:59

That's Well, their family, what are you going to do? That's just

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:03

not me. I only speak to one sibling nowadays.

Brad Miller: 00:10:06

So the trust, the trust issue is enormous here. So

Brad Miller: 00:10:09

the Trust has led you to putting greater faith really on your

Brad Miller: 00:10:15

friends that you've made through comedy, then really the family

Brad Miller: 00:10:18

you grew up with, in many ways, is that a fair thing to say?

Brad Miller: 00:10:21

Absolutely

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:22

true. It's, it's because when you've been in

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:25

a comedy troupe with people for that long, and we didn't have

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:28

people in and out that much, I had a core group. And when you

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:31

enter a scene, and I'll use my my great friend, Tracy, as an

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:35

example, let's pretend I missed my name, the audience chose that

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:39

I was going to be Betty and I'm at the library. Let's pretend

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:42

I'm I, my mind went somewhere else, and I missed it. Just by

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:47

looking at my eyes, she would know that she needed to fill in

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:51

my name. So maybe, I'd say, hey, Linda, and then she'd she'd know

Lisa David Olson: 00:10:55

that I forgot my own name or something. She had my back on in

Lisa David Olson: 00:11:01

that scene, I committed to the scene anyway. And I committed

Lisa David Olson: 00:11:04

and I knew that no matter what we were going to go forward

Lisa David Olson: 00:11:07

together, having each other's backs to make a great connection

Lisa David Olson: 00:11:11

with the audience, to to have a conflict and an outcome that's

Lisa David Olson: 00:11:16

committing to a scene. And when I work with people, now, I use

Lisa David Olson: 00:11:20

that analogy, because you commit to whether you have a partner,

Lisa David Olson: 00:11:25

whether you have a co worker, whether you have a child, you

Lisa David Olson: 00:11:28

commit to that conversation, as you're seen, and you go with it,

Lisa David Olson: 00:11:32

you let them be heard. Yeah. And you have their back,

Brad Miller: 00:11:35

there's a bit of a taken a bit of risk or a leap of

Brad Miller: 00:11:38

faith, what are you going to call it with that other person

Brad Miller: 00:11:40

that has to be built on trust, you know, there's a book I read

Brad Miller: 00:11:43

a while back, called the speed of trust that things go well, in

Brad Miller: 00:11:48

an organization or relationship, when you have a high level of

Brad Miller: 00:11:51

trust, if you have distrust, which you sound like you had

Brad Miller: 00:11:54

from your, you know, kind of rough upbringing there, then,

Brad Miller: 00:11:58

things don't go as well, they get stalled and stuck. And, and

Brad Miller: 00:12:01

you you did some stuff here, but you took action. You know, a lot

Brad Miller: 00:12:04

of people, Lisa get stucked out they a lot of people getting?

Brad Miller: 00:12:08

Yeah, you mentioned already about your siblings have had

Brad Miller: 00:12:11

their own challenges their own ways of coping, or not coping.

Brad Miller: 00:12:16

And in this world we live in right now a lot of people are

Brad Miller: 00:12:19

either not coping or they're coping in some destructive

Brad Miller: 00:12:21

manners. And tell us a bit about you've already mentioned a

Brad Miller: 00:12:24

couple of things I believe. But I believe when you in order to

Brad Miller: 00:12:29

get out of these ruts, we find ourselves and you got to break

Brad Miller: 00:12:32

the pattern, you got to do something out of the ordinary,

Brad Miller: 00:12:34

you got to call a bold action and just say, Tell us more about

Brad Miller: 00:12:38

some of the things you did that kind of broke the patterns or

Brad Miller: 00:12:40

really stressed yourself a little bit to help you move

Brad Miller: 00:12:43

beyond that place of your home life to something better here.

Lisa David Olson: 00:12:49

I believe life is choices, not excuses. And you

Lisa David Olson: 00:12:54

can scroll through Facebook and find plenty of lining and

Lisa David Olson: 00:12:58

excuses and victim mentality. Yes, you get one spin on this

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:04

big rock and whether you believe in the next realm or whether you

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:08

believe there's nothingness. People are wild about what's

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:13

your word for the new year. And what's your resolution, I don't

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:16

do that. Because you set yourself up to to be stuck in

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:20

that and you have to prove it to someone Why? Because tomorrow, I

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:23

might decide, I'm going to paint with my feet. Tomorrow, I might

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:27

decide that I'm going to cut off all my hair. And when people

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:32

state, this is my resolution. I'm and congrats if it works for

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:37

you. That's great. My world because of the way I grew up is

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:41

each day is a new year resolution each day is your

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:45

chance to set an intention and make it work for you. Some

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:49

people want to be outward with it, but it's choices, not

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:52

excuses. So yes, things are going to happen to you and as a

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:56

young child, explain that to them out of the bat in the

Lisa David Olson: 00:13:59

smallest and you know gentlest of ways. But it's how you deal

Lisa David Olson: 00:14:04

with it and how you choose to go around it.

Brad Miller: 00:14:06

Yeah. And that's adversity, adversity is

Brad Miller: 00:14:08

circumstances that happen, whatever it is, certainly in the

Brad Miller: 00:14:13

year 2020 we had all kinds of stuff happen that was just

Brad Miller: 00:14:17

traumatic and traumatic, and some people handle it Okay, and

Brad Miller: 00:14:20

kind of reset and reframed and reformulated their life, then

Brad Miller: 00:14:24

other people devastated by it and sound like you I have chosen

Brad Miller: 00:14:29

this pathway and humor and and writing and creativity to to do

Brad Miller: 00:14:34

some things and that's good. And tell us about how you've

Brad Miller: 00:14:38

mentioned about how you made those kind of those conscious

Brad Miller: 00:14:40

decisions yourself and then you connect with other people. Was

Brad Miller: 00:14:43

there any sensitivity about a force greater than yourself,

Brad Miller: 00:14:47

meditation or spirituality or anything that kind of was

Brad Miller: 00:14:52

entered your life from outside that helped you in this process

Brad Miller: 00:14:56

of moving out of bed Place to a better place.

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:02

I think, early on, noting that the way my

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:07

siblings would handle different things, and it didn't seem the

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:11

healthiest of ways, I know it now that I would see that and to

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:15

me, I, I really thought I gotta go. And it is fight or flight.

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:21

And that's not a great thing to have. But that's where my

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:24

anxiety lies. And I still have a therapist. So every but

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:27

everybody should have that professional to bounce ideas off

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:30

of. And it's it's a fight or flight thing. And when you

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:34

realize that that's your pattern, you try and grab it. So

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:39

for me my grounding my my aha, is that we don't know what's out

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:46

there, whether you believe it, or you don't awesome if you can,

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:50

I, but for me, it's, this is the day I have just this past

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:55

summer, we lost somebody to a car accident, and it is

Lisa David Olson: 00:15:58

devastating. And it was a young friend of my son's and if you

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:03

don't think that looking at that situation and seeing how my son

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:07

is is. It's he's forever changed. You're you better make

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:13

the most of today. And working in a police department and, and

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:17

being very aware of how things can change like

Unknown: 00:16:20

that, right?

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:21

You better do your thing. Don't say, Oh, 2019

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:25

can just go out the window cuz 2020 is my year. Look how that

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:29

went. You were saying that all your hope is in a year. And now

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:34

we're saying I'm glad 2020 is in the past. Yay, you can't put it

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:38

on a year. Because we don't know that 2021 isn't going to have

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:42

some other kind of issue. We don't really know about this

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:45

vaccine. I'm sorry. I'm like, huh? Yay, we don't know that

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:49

hand gel isn't gonna affect us. Better go, you know what, I'm

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:53

having dessert. I'm gonna have ice cream for breakfast, I'm

Lisa David Olson: 00:16:56

gonna, I'm gonna start running. And if I don't continue running,

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:00

that's my thing. It's choices, not excuses. And you don't have

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:03

to prove it to anyone. Just do what makes you healthy, happy.

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:08

grounded. So for me speaking of grounded or, or the next, the

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:13

best place that I I am at is either doing yoga, or out in my

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:20

garden, pulling weeds and being in the dirt. And that is so

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:26

meditative to me. You just can't believe it. There's so many

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:29

lessons with plants. And I told my husband recently because it's

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:32

winter here in Minnesota, and I said, I missed the garden so

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:36

much. I've got to find my thing. I said because I don't know if

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:40

I've told you this honey, but I think my plants and he's just

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:43

looking at me I go I knew I wanted the flowers. I say thank

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:46

you for your beauty. You're doing great Hang in there. You

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:48

know the rabbits nibbled you know what you provided? But I do

Lisa David Olson: 00:17:52

yell at the rabbits I have to admit.

Brad Miller: 00:17:55

Well, you I just Yeah, well, the what you're

Brad Miller: 00:17:59

talking about connecting with something, you know, nature.

Brad Miller: 00:18:02

And, of course, a part of yoga is the meditative sort of

Brad Miller: 00:18:06

things. It's about centering, you're integrating your physical

Brad Miller: 00:18:10

body with your spiritual form, whatever we want to call that,

Brad Miller: 00:18:13

and your breathing exercises and all that type of thing. That's

Brad Miller: 00:18:16

also important, but I just saw something here recently, you're

Brad Miller: 00:18:19

about plants. I know, my, my, one of my my sons. I have two

Brad Miller: 00:18:23

sons, we had to move in with our adult sons in their 20s he moved

Brad Miller: 00:18:27

in with us during the COVID crisis.

Lisa David Olson: 00:18:29

Yes, we all have our creative family right

Lisa David Olson: 00:18:32

now. But

Brad Miller: 00:18:33

yes, and he bedding out he's been looking more and

Brad Miller: 00:18:35

more at his house plants and other gardening type things. And

Brad Miller: 00:18:39

I did love research with it. And there are this process that some

Brad Miller: 00:18:43

people are doing where they singer their plants and or they

Brad Miller: 00:18:47

have music playing or whatever, different things and they find

Brad Miller: 00:18:51

that those plants are thriving more than the ones that are just

Brad Miller: 00:18:53

kind of left alone. So who knows I don't know much about it. But

Brad Miller: 00:18:59

there is some research on that that I found.

Lisa David Olson: 00:19:02

Well if your son wants to share a video, I

Lisa David Olson: 00:19:03

definitely would would watch it. I can learn from that,

Brad Miller: 00:19:07

that encourage that to encourage him to do that.

Brad Miller: 00:19:11

That type of thing. And

Lisa David Olson: 00:19:12

certainly a lot of us say goodbye to our

Lisa David Olson: 00:19:14

pets when we leave I'll be right back fluffy.

Unknown: 00:19:17

Yes.

Lisa David Olson: 00:19:17

Up could fluffy. Yes. We could do that to

Lisa David Olson: 00:19:20

our house plants. Little philodendron

Brad Miller: 00:19:23

Yeah. And that's kind of what we are doing for

Brad Miller: 00:19:26

our own well being you know, we're trying to have a

Brad Miller: 00:19:30

conversation a dialogue if it was a were to make a connection

Brad Miller: 00:19:35

with something, you know, beyond ourselves, even if it's our

Brad Miller: 00:19:37

plant or a pet, or whatever, you know,

Unknown: 00:19:40

yeah, some

Brad Miller: 00:19:41

people I know some people who have names for their

Brad Miller: 00:19:43

car for instance. Come on Betty start up this morning. You know,

Brad Miller: 00:19:47

it's called this morning or whatever it is.

Lisa David Olson: 00:19:49

Does your car have a name?

Brad Miller: 00:19:52

My car has a name, but I'm not going to repeat it.

Brad Miller: 00:19:56

Oh, right. Right now you know, just not It's a I'm intrigued by

Brad Miller: 00:20:02

now you're one of my old cars. I used to just call it Norton, you

Brad Miller: 00:20:05

know?

Unknown: 00:20:05

Oh, that's good. Oh, I like that. Yeah.

Brad Miller: 00:20:09

I guess I call this one when I'm feeling good about

Brad Miller: 00:20:11

the one I have. It's a Goldie because it's gold. It's a gold

Brad Miller: 00:20:13

car. So

Unknown: 00:20:13

Oh, cute. Yeah.

Brad Miller: 00:20:15

But hey, let's talk about people. First April, it's

Brad Miller: 00:20:19

you see, you have a podcast where you like to connect up

Brad Miller: 00:20:23

with unique characters. And I've every comedian I've ever known

Brad Miller: 00:20:28

pretty much most of them, they have some sort of a sensitivity

Brad Miller: 00:20:32

about being really good. Notice errors or observers of people, I

Brad Miller: 00:20:37

certainly know that folks who are doing any kind of improv

Brad Miller: 00:20:40

type theater have to be very sharp about observing things and

Brad Miller: 00:20:45

that type of thing. Let's talk about the importance of

Brad Miller: 00:20:48

relationships with people to help you to navigate some of the

Brad Miller: 00:20:53

bad stuff about healthy relationships. You mentioned

Brad Miller: 00:20:55

some negative relationships that you had, and some challenges you

Brad Miller: 00:20:59

know, you may have had in marriage and things like that.

Brad Miller: 00:21:02

But let's talk about the power of your troop of your family of

Brad Miller: 00:21:05

others. That helps you to navigate some of the bad stuff

Brad Miller: 00:21:09

in life. Tell me about functional people in your life

Brad Miller: 00:21:13

that you may be helpful to you. And maybe they can be a lesson

Brad Miller: 00:21:16

for others.

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:17

Well, yes, I am twice divorce. But I'm also

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:19

friends with my both my ex husband, and my first husband.

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:24

And I had two sons. And now my husband and I share five sons.

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:29

And my husband is friends with my first husband. And you know,

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:35

since we've been married, they became friends. So that part is

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:39

because I believe holding the bitterness and, and yelling

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:43

about your ex, you're still holding on to something that you

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:45

haven't worked through. And so if you make a kid with somebody,

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:48

you're connected forever. So you better know that for ever. I

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:52

don't care if you get divorced. But looking at relationships,

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:56

one of the things with my podcast, stranger connections

Lisa David Olson: 00:21:59

you brought that up, is that I want to know the quirkiest

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:04

careers, the strangest life stories. And I don't know if

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:09

it's a Midwest thing, if it's a comedy thing, but I'm a

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:11

storyteller by nature. And I seek those. I've had people on I

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:15

had a Zen monk, he was a Zen monk for nine years. And then he

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:18

left. Guess what I want to know what made you leave you What are

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:22

you doing now? Are you married? You know, excuse me. And so the

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:28

another guest I had he is young guy who carries around a 40

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:33

pound wooden gnome. Think of the shipmate gnome would not go

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:40

around doing adventures. And it's gege and Ahab, and they go

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:45

and travel they have done skydiving. They've done

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:49

adventures. They've climbed mountains. And so you can go to

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:52

his website, Gigi and Ahab adventures and see all these

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:56

pictures of this gnome, and people want selfies with this

Lisa David Olson: 00:22:58

gnome. Well, that's the kind of people I'm talking to one lady

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:02

can talk to your pets through zoom chats. Liz Murdoch, she can

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:07

she's a pet psychic. So she did that for me and my dog. And she

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:11

came up with some stuff that was really interesting. have an open

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:15

mind and learn people's stories. And even before my podcast, I am

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:21

a very curious beast. And I came up with a project to myself a

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:25

dare to myself, which was I want selfies with somebody. I don't

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:30

know, How weird is that? How random is that? And obviously,

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:33

it was pre COVID. I went up to these two young ladies who had

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:38

just gotten big scoops of ice cream picture. One is big in

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:41

blue, and one is probably cotton candy bright and pink and a

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:44

waffle cone. And they're standing next to the ice cream

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:47

shop by a brick wall. Look at that picture. Isn't that

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:50

beautiful? You know, in your mind. And I went up to them and

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:53

I and they were so jovial. You can't be sad and eat ice cream.

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:56

Let's just say,

Unknown: 00:23:56

there you go, of course.

Lisa David Olson: 00:23:59

So I went up to them. And I said, Hey, can we

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:01

get a picture together? I'm so sorry. I am so sorry that you're

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:06

gonna have to probably edit everything. No problem. Let's

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:10

keep keep I said, I walked up to these young ladies. And I said,

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:14

Can we get a picture together? And they said, Well, sure. And I

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:17

said, here's the caveat. We can't smile. Let's be serious.

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:22

So I bring up my phone. And I said, All right, ready? And we

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:25

took this picture. They're standing there with ice cream

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:27

and straight faces, no smiles. And we laughed so hard. And thus

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:32

began my project which is serious selfies with strangers.

Brad Miller: 00:24:39

All right, awesome. Yeah. And those

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:40

are in my book as well. So then what I did was

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:42

I would write the story with some of the photos because a lot

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:45

of them are on my Facebook page. But I would write the stories of

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:49

the blues guy in Chicago who really had a hard time not

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:53

smiling and the lady I met in a garden she had this big hat on

Lisa David Olson: 00:24:56

and a public garden not my own. There's no stranger in my yard.

Lisa David Olson: 00:25:00

But all these stories, but what came of this was true and

Lisa David Olson: 00:25:04

lasting friendships, I did not expect that simply by engaging

Lisa David Olson: 00:25:10

by getting your head out of your hand computer, and speaking with

Lisa David Olson: 00:25:14

someone, and we've learned each other's stories and become

Lisa David Olson: 00:25:17

friends. And some of them are at my book signing. And I mean,

Lisa David Olson: 00:25:20

it's just, we've gone out to dinner, we've stayed connected,

Lisa David Olson: 00:25:23

we check on each other, we watch each other's dogs, simply from

Lisa David Olson: 00:25:27

the act of connecting.

Brad Miller: 00:25:29

Well, that is, that is awesome, because then you've

Brad Miller: 00:25:32

got out of your comfort zone, and you did some things unusual,

Brad Miller: 00:25:35

involve building relationships in unusual ways. And, and even

Brad Miller: 00:25:41

what you mentioned earlier about how you had a bit of a

Brad Miller: 00:25:44

connection over kind of a tragic event, you know, the loss of the

Brad Miller: 00:25:47

for your son's friend, you know, those are, these are memorable

Brad Miller: 00:25:51

times when you boat with a, you know, kind of like comedic and

Brad Miller: 00:25:54

the tragic are kind of, you know, two sides of the human

Brad Miller: 00:25:57

drama there. But we remember those times when we have had

Brad Miller: 00:26:02

relationships been built on something out of the ordinary,

Brad Miller: 00:26:05

you know, extraordinary things. And I know I just my mic, my

Brad Miller: 00:26:09

selfie story I'll share with you real, real brief is that several

Brad Miller: 00:26:13

years ago, my three kids my two sons, I have three kids, three

Brad Miller: 00:26:16

adult kids, my two sons are kind of smart Alex and they, my

Brad Miller: 00:26:20

birthdays in the summertime, and they gave me a T shirt. As a

Brad Miller: 00:26:23

goof as my getting old. It was about Aiden picture Mr. Rogers

Brad Miller: 00:26:27

on it and just hit it's all good in the hood, you know. And so

Brad Miller: 00:26:32

but we all went to the State Fair, which was a couple weeks

Brad Miller: 00:26:35

later, and all of a sudden, all these people started coming in.

Brad Miller: 00:26:38

Well, I love your T shirt man. And because it's Mr. Rogers all

Brad Miller: 00:26:42

good in the hood, you know, play on the kind of stuff, I'm

Brad Miller: 00:26:45

getting old, whatever. And my son's be there. I said, Come

Brad Miller: 00:26:47

here and take a selfie. And so I took 35 selfies, from just

Brad Miller: 00:26:51

random people at the State Fair who just wanted my their picture

Brad Miller: 00:26:53

taken with this old fat guy with a let's go into the T shirts. So

Brad Miller: 00:26:57

my kids were trying to all so these kids are trying to goof on

Brad Miller: 00:27:00

how big would a big you know, big old nerd I am. Suddenly I

Brad Miller: 00:27:05

was super cool about that. So I turned the tables on

Lisa David Olson: 00:27:08

how did that feel? You're

Brad Miller: 00:27:12

still got those pictures. And actually, I did it

Brad Miller: 00:27:14

two or three years in a row at the State Fair. So there you go.

Brad Miller: 00:27:18

You know,

Lisa David Olson: 00:27:19

that could be a great photo book, you can do

Lisa David Olson: 00:27:22

that online and make a buck and give it to your kids next year,

Brad Miller: 00:27:26

I got those in my phone. And that is a good idea.

Brad Miller: 00:27:29

That might be a good idea there.

Lisa David Olson: 00:27:30

Because they because they brought all that

Lisa David Olson: 00:27:33

joy and all those people wanted to be in on it. And that's what

Lisa David Olson: 00:27:36

I'm talking about humor as a connector. But then now you can

Lisa David Olson: 00:27:39

return the gift to your kids and going, huh, you probably thought

Lisa David Olson: 00:27:42

I wasn't gonna wear it out there. But now we are famous

Lisa David Olson: 00:27:45

guy. And we all remember that we

Brad Miller: 00:27:46

have good Good, good good time with it and

Brad Miller: 00:27:49

stuff. And they especially liked it when there was a bunch there

Brad Miller: 00:27:52

was some sort of a cheerleader contest going on. He all these

Brad Miller: 00:27:55

high school cheerleaders run around, you know, all their

Brad Miller: 00:27:58

little outfits and everything. And they all want their picture

Brad Miller: 00:28:00

take with me too. And it's all my gosh, I would love to see,

Brad Miller: 00:28:04

yeah, whatever. But I'll do something with that. But the

Brad Miller: 00:28:08

connection of humor is so important, you know, we can't

Brad Miller: 00:28:11

laugh, we have a good time, then what's gonna be really hard to

Brad Miller: 00:28:16

get through bad stuff as if you can't have a laugh at some

Brad Miller: 00:28:18

times.

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:20

Humor is healthy, it raises your

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:23

endorphins, it's a buzz. And when you were talking about the

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:26

group, of course, they were the let's just go to the

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:28

cheerleaders, and they're all in their uniforms, and you're all

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:31

giggling, and you take this photo, and then there's the

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:33

second wave of laughter. And what happens is the next

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:37

interaction that they go to, it's also the passing along the

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:42

ripple effect of joy. Yes. And if you're in an office, and

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:46

there's laughter over by somebody's desk, you're drawn to

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:50

it. If there's laughter in a public area, a store, we're

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:53

drawn to it, it crosses the boundaries of age, ethnicity,

Lisa David Olson: 00:28:57

you know, language barrier, anything, it doesn't matter. If

Lisa David Olson: 00:29:01

we're laughing at a visual funny thing, somebody walks in, and

Lisa David Olson: 00:29:04

one of those blown up T rex costumes, we are going to laugh

Lisa David Olson: 00:29:08

and we don't need to speak the same language, or be in the same

Lisa David Olson: 00:29:11

neighborhood or anything. And it takes all your attention for

Lisa David Olson: 00:29:15

that. Let's just say 10 seconds of engagement. You're not

Lisa David Olson: 00:29:19

looking in your phone, you're not transacting, you're not

Lisa David Olson: 00:29:23

doing your other things. You are absolutely in that moment. And

Lisa David Olson: 00:29:27

humor is the only thing that will actually do that besides a

Lisa David Olson: 00:29:30

tragedy, of course, but then your ripple effect is that joy

Lisa David Olson: 00:29:34

that you're going to give to the next phone call. You're on

Brad Miller: 00:29:37

the next flight even on the tragedy thing. You

Brad Miller: 00:29:39

know, I've been privileged by image to you I'm a pastor. So

Brad Miller: 00:29:42

I've done hundreds of funerals in my life. Oh, sure. And one of

Brad Miller: 00:29:46

the things I find interesting when I do a funeral is at home

Brad Miller: 00:29:49

many times when people talk, they talk about, you know, the

Brad Miller: 00:29:52

times of laughter and pleasure and joy that the person who

Brad Miller: 00:29:57

passed away brought and so there's often at a funeral or

Brad Miller: 00:30:01

the dinners and that kind of stuff, a lot of laughter. And

Brad Miller: 00:30:03

that's very healing and life affirming and that

Lisa David Olson: 00:30:07

Oh, and thank you for the work you do that is

Lisa David Olson: 00:30:09

so important, because I'm sure that you are the one that can

Lisa David Olson: 00:30:13

bring the peace to people and open that forum to make the joy

Lisa David Olson: 00:30:16

happen. And right now, that's what we've been missing with

Lisa David Olson: 00:30:20

quarantine, as much as people would say, I'm not going to that

Lisa David Olson: 00:30:23

service. I don't I don't do funerals. I don't do hospitals.

Lisa David Olson: 00:30:26

Now people crave that because now you know, that we need that

Lisa David Olson: 00:30:30

connection.

Brad Miller: 00:30:31

Well, the connection is crucial, as you're

Brad Miller: 00:30:34

saying, and that's one of the things I think it tried to help

Brad Miller: 00:30:37

people get through adversity, you know, if you go through it

Brad Miller: 00:30:39

alone, if you go through it with isolation or disconnected from

Brad Miller: 00:30:44

others, it's really tough. And that's part of the isolationism

Brad Miller: 00:30:48

is trying to, you know, the quarantines and so on, is trying

Brad Miller: 00:30:51

to find a way to, to respond to that in a healthy way that still

Brad Miller: 00:30:58

safe and healthy, and so on. And by humor is one of those things

Brad Miller: 00:31:02

that can do it. But let's let's talk for a minute about I really

Brad Miller: 00:31:05

am interested in this connection, who has returned,

Brad Miller: 00:31:07

which can return the emotional and the spiritual and the

Brad Miller: 00:31:11

physiological and also the cognitive mental part of it. And

Brad Miller: 00:31:15

I think is that a part of the cognitive part of this, Lisa,

Brad Miller: 00:31:17

how, how we kind of are become very intentional about our

Brad Miller: 00:31:21

actions. So tell me about any habits or disciplines or

Brad Miller: 00:31:25

processes or practices that you may have that help you, you

Brad Miller: 00:31:31

know, I'll give you a quick example, I'm in the comedy

Brad Miller: 00:31:33

world, I just happen to hear a podcast with Jerry Seinfeld,

Brad Miller: 00:31:35

where he says, he writes like 30 minutes every day, some comedic

Brad Miller: 00:31:39

type thing and keeps that going, what are some practices or

Brad Miller: 00:31:42

things that you do to keep you sane or keep you healthy,

Brad Miller: 00:31:45

keeping moving forward, forward here.

Lisa David Olson: 00:31:48

I've never been called sane. And that's,

Lisa David Olson: 00:31:50

that's okay. I am definitely I have to be organized, I have a

Lisa David Olson: 00:31:57

wall in front of me with all my notes, and all my reminders, and

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:02

that sort of thing. I wrote a journal. And it is all about

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:07

tips that I learned from my 20 years of performing. There are a

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:12

lot of tips from just improv life and all that. So that's one

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:19

of my things is creativity. And in my journal, if you just flip

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:22

to a page, it might inspire you to try something new, to finish

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:27

a project, or to look at it in a different way. So when I have

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:31

clients, and maybe one friend is trying to get more traction on a

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:37

book that she just launched, well, what an awful time to have

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:40

this book launch, because you could normally do a big party.

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:44

And people, if they're sipping adult beverages are more likely

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:48

to buy or just to gather and support you, you can't. So we

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:54

talked about different ways to launch her book online. And she

Lisa David Olson: 00:32:57

has been having very good success that way. And I gave her

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:01

like four different branches that just, you know, when I talk

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:04

to somebody, I guess I have an intuition with knowing what they

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:07

have. I'm not saying I'm psychic, but to listen to Yes,

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:12

and it to build off what they are, and to make it very unique

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:15

to them so that people are drawn to them. So it's all about

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:19

creativity and trying new things. And put two ideas

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:22

together. I mean, I could go on and on about improv tips. But to

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:26

put two ideas together, an improv looks like it's the, it's

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:30

a grocery store within McDonald's, why not? So now

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:33

we're going to do a scene like that. And it's crazy, and it's

Lisa David Olson: 00:33:35

silly,

Brad Miller: 00:33:36

where you're starting to kind of put down the

Brad Miller: 00:33:37

process and, and put a framework on it, put some direction to

Brad Miller: 00:33:43

that. And that's, that's what I mean, you know, we can we can

Brad Miller: 00:33:45

have all these random thoughts, and all these types of things,

Brad Miller: 00:33:47

or emotions and whatever have you. But there comes a time, I

Brad Miller: 00:33:51

find people who successfully overcome adverse conditions,

Brad Miller: 00:33:54

oftentimes, I've had some sort of a system, some sort of a way

Brad Miller: 00:33:57

to organize their life in order to process stuff. And that's

Brad Miller: 00:34:01

awesome. And

Lisa David Olson: 00:34:02

one great example is with the quarantine,

Lisa David Olson: 00:34:05

look how many people and I don't know if you're active on

Lisa David Olson: 00:34:07

Facebook as much as I am, but look how many people thought,

Lisa David Olson: 00:34:10

I'm going to learn how to make sourdough bread just from

Lisa David Olson: 00:34:12

scratch.

Brad Miller: 00:34:14

If so many creative things, people just finding ways

Brad Miller: 00:34:18

to use their time, yes, in some ways out of their, you know, do

Brad Miller: 00:34:24

the experience many of us had myself included, of I just

Brad Miller: 00:34:28

didn't have the time to do this. They didn't apply anymore, all

Brad Miller: 00:34:30

of a sudden your home nice, you know, you're stuck at home and

Brad Miller: 00:34:33

you either can veg out on your phone or your computer, your TV

Brad Miller: 00:34:37

or you can do something else and a significant other, if you will

Brad Miller: 00:34:41

have chosen to do something else, but also share it with

Brad Miller: 00:34:44

others. And that's part of the joy we have to be able to share

Brad Miller: 00:34:47

on things like you know, zoom and Facebook and other things.

Brad Miller: 00:34:50

You know, there's lots of challenges to modern technology,

Brad Miller: 00:34:53

but it's certainly a lot more blessings I think, to I agreed

Brad Miller: 00:34:56

we have going on I mean if this crazy pandemic thing had happen.

Brad Miller: 00:34:59

But even 10 years ago had been much more challenging in terms

Brad Miller: 00:35:02

of people to, you know, work at home, for instance, you know,

Brad Miller: 00:35:05

the very

Lisa David Olson: 00:35:06

true that went to Bennett thing. No, that's

Lisa David Olson: 00:35:08

very true. So everybody's becoming more creative because,

Lisa David Olson: 00:35:12

you know, I started painting, I do a little miniature paintings

Lisa David Olson: 00:35:15

and it just settles me. So it's, instead of thinking, what a

Lisa David Olson: 00:35:19

crappy thing 2020 was, what about your reset? What about

Lisa David Olson: 00:35:23

your creativity you tapped into? What about the books you've

Lisa David Olson: 00:35:26

finished? Or the people you connected with? Simply because

Lisa David Olson: 00:35:29

you can't say, well, we can't go out? Well, you sure can do a

Lisa David Olson: 00:35:32

quick zoom chat like this and, and stay in your pajamas and

Lisa David Olson: 00:35:36

whatever.

Brad Miller: 00:35:37

What speaking of books and also things that

Brad Miller: 00:35:40

people can be doing to help one another you you're you're so

Brad Miller: 00:35:44

your site is Lisa David Olson, calm and your book is laughs on

Brad Miller: 00:35:49

MRI and improvisers memoir. And there are some things that I

Brad Miller: 00:35:53

think that could be helpful to people. And particularly I'd

Brad Miller: 00:35:55

like to speak if you don't mind, to, you know, you know, you work

Brad Miller: 00:35:58

with people as well, and consulting and coaching. What

Brad Miller: 00:36:02

are some things give us I'd like to hear a success story, a

Brad Miller: 00:36:04

success story, or was someone that you've had an interaction

Brad Miller: 00:36:08

with that you've had some influence on that, that you've

Brad Miller: 00:36:10

seen some transformations transition happened, and I'm

Brad Miller: 00:36:13

sure you have some of those. So share with us. One of those

Brad Miller: 00:36:16

stories, if you will?

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:18

Absolutely. One of the the great things that

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:22

happened when I wrote my book, and then there's a lot more

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:25

laughs than there is tragedy. But I do openly share a lot of

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:28

things about my life. But it's it's the whole roller coaster.

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:31

And each section has my own life lesson at the after this short

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:36

chapter, I call them snippets. And one of the great things that

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:40

happened from that is people coming to me, and I didn't

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:43

expect us and saying how brave I was. And I was like, Well, I was

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:48

scared. Yeah, I guess I was brave in sharing this actual

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:51

story. And it certainly didn't sit well with with certain

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:55

family members. And that's okay. They can tell their side, they

Lisa David Olson: 00:36:57

can tell their version, because we all have a version, but to

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:00

have somebody come up to me. And it was a grown man older than me

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:05

in tears. And he held on to me at this was when I could have my

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:09

my book launch was in person, right. And he told me how brave

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:13

I was, and that he was now brave enough to share his story. And

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:17

that he had a background like that as well. And he was holding

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:19

it in all these years. And he was just crying. I didn't expect

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:22

that. Yeah. And when I when I'm doing my speaking because I can

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:26

do virtual speaking I was, I've been doing speaking for a long

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:29

time. And I share those things and it. And it's it's the

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:33

interactive moment that when somebody could come up to me

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:36

after an event, because I'm interactive, and I encourage

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:40

them, they find the bravery of trying something new. Or they

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:44

try you know, they say I hadn't thought of that. And it's really

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:48

a permission to play. And we all have it inside of us. So that's

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:52

my challenge to listeners is dare yourself daily. And that's

Lisa David Olson: 00:37:58

what my journal is what ifs and why nots. And I encourage people

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:02

to dare yourself daily. And that could mean simply getting

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:07

dressed, actually doing your hair even though you're going

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:09

nowhere. It could mean learning guitar, learning something

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:14

online, we're all very creative. And there's no reason not to try

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:18

it today. Because we have today. And that's, that's a great gift.

Brad Miller: 00:38:23

And that's all we're guaranteed is today. So

Brad Miller: 00:38:26

yeah, Dad, I love that phrase Turner phrase, dare yourself

Brad Miller: 00:38:29

daily. So that's awesome. Well, he said, folks go to your

Brad Miller: 00:38:33

website and want to get your book. How can they do so? What

Brad Miller: 00:38:36

are they going to find their what's gonna they're gonna find

Brad Miller: 00:38:37

to help them in their life?

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:39

Yes, yes. My website is basically about my

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:42

book. I am going to revamp That and more about my speaking and

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:45

my creative mentoring. And if you need an accountability,

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:49

buddy messaged me on Facebook, and we can connect. I love to do

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:52

zoom calls. And so Facebook is my main thing. And on Facebook,

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:56

besides Lisa David Olson Facebook page, I invite you over

Lisa David Olson: 00:38:59

to find my comedy page, which is counter clockwise. And it's my

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:05

cyber clubhouse. Have fun. And all we do is we interact, we

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:09

share memes and it's it's pG 13 nothing rough. And people can

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:14

interact with each other. And it's puns and it's silly. And I

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:17

got 1000 people in two months, I had no idea and I get messages.

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:23

Even last night. Thank you so much for bringing joy when I

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:25

need a laugh, I go to counterclockwise. And that made

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:29

my day that made my day for sure to get a compliment. Well, the

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:33

thing is, is make sure that you reach out to somebody when you

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:35

think of them just to send them a quick message, text or email.

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:39

And that's my other thing I want to challenge people to do is

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:41

invite you. You thought of Sally, send her note. Hey,

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:44

Sally, I thought of you today and I just want to know I

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:46

smiled. I hope you're doing well. That's awesome. It makes a

Lisa David Olson: 00:39:50

difference.

Brad Miller: 00:39:50

Yeah, that's awesome. So thank you for

Brad Miller: 00:39:53

sharing that. I love the message of humor and puns and that type

Brad Miller: 00:39:56

of thing. In fact, I've got a book of my wife and kids got me

Brad Miller: 00:40:01

a book of puns. They want this for Christmas here a week or two

Brad Miller: 00:40:04

ago because they think I need to add new material. So maybe I'll

Brad Miller: 00:40:07

go to you and your your Facebook page for some new

Lisa David Olson: 00:40:09

please you can take a picture of something and

Lisa David Olson: 00:40:12

share it and counter-clockwise We would love it and everybody

Lisa David Olson: 00:40:15

will upon with you.

Brad Miller: 00:40:16

It's there you go. There you go. And we'll

Brad Miller: 00:40:17

certainly put the links to all of that on our on our website,

Brad Miller: 00:40:22

Dr. Brad Miller calm but for today it's been our pleasure and

Brad Miller: 00:40:26

joy to have Lisa David Olson with us. She's the author of

Brad Miller: 00:40:30

laughs on rise. She is a creative coach and she could be

Brad Miller: 00:40:34

helpful to you at her website. Lisa David also.com. Thank you

Brad Miller: 00:40:39

for being our guest today, Lisa on beyond adversity.