Get Out of the Home – the Home Office, that is!

Carolina Improv Company's remote office at Collins + Company

I haven’t blogged in nearly seven months! I’m not exactly sure why but I have some ideas. Perhaps I feel guilty about blogging. It takes time to do and it steals time from what I perceive (or perceive that others perceive) to be a more productive and efficient use of my time. I’m trying to successfully run two businesses (Carolina Improv Company and Uptown Theater) with limited resources and assistance in the loneliness of my home. In addition I have a little thing called a wedding coming up in October that I should also be working on and feel guilty about. With so many priorities, how could I possibly find time to write a blog? And yes, I know, I find time to Facebook and Twitter, but that’s like walking to the water cooler to find someone to talk to for a few minutes while the boss isn’t looking. And if you work from home you understand what I’m talking about. It gets lonely, even with “Law & Order” reruns running in the background as white noise. The dogs are sweet and cute but not helpful  … and they are demanding of my attention (like high maintenance employees) “take me out”, “feed me”, “look at that cat across the street”, “Lola won’t share her treat”.

When you own a business you are supposed to revisit your business plan every year. I’m two years behind in revisiting one and six months behind in revisiting the other. I’ve realized that I’ve been hiding behind the “urgent” things (marketing, admin, operations) instead of attending to the “important” things (strategy, vision, sales, financial). So, I started delegating to and asking for help from those in our organizations and that’s been amazingly helpful on the “urgent” side of things. Awesome, I made room for the “important” and then I hit a wall. The “important” things take deep thought, brainstorming, visioning and other activities that require creativity and innovative thinking. No problem – I’m thoughtful, creative and have vision. Piece of cake, right? Stale, hard-to-eat cake, more like, and maybe because the "important" still wasn’t happening.

And then I went to a conference in my industry. The The Applied Improv Network (AIN) Conference in June 2011 and it slowly became clear to me. All of a sudden I was surrounded by 100+ applied improv practitioners who do what I’m trying to do and the creativity and energy was both inspirational and motivational … not to mention satisfying to my need for empathy from others. We all need people to relate to – it gives us a sense of belonging and helps justify and/or support our needs and goals in our personal and professional lives. More importantly I work in an industry that centers around applying improv techniques to collaboration, teamwork, leadership, etc. Talk about an oxymoron – I spend my days alone WITHOUT a team or group dynamic to bounce off of. OH MY GOODNESS! I’ve become a fish-out-of-water and didn’t realize it. I’ve been gasping for the oxygen of others. And note that I still didn’t even realize this core emotion until now as I write this.

Prior to this epiphany, at this very moment, one of my biggest take-aways from the conference came from a panel of veteran improv practitioners who gave advice about our industry. And this man Bard (pronounced “bored”) said, “Do not start your business out of your home. Find a coffee club of other entrepreneurs. Find an ad agency with creative types that can inspire you. Just don’t work at home.” Oops – “too late” is what I inwardly cried to myself. Ah, but I’m an improviser. It’s NOT too late! “Explore and heighten” is our mantra. Just because I started working from home doesn’t mean I have to STAY working at home. I can still get out. I also need to share that I DO actually have a real office at our theater (Uptown), but there’s no one there but me and I said to myself “If I’m going to be alone, I might as well be comfortable at home, save money on gas, save money on lunch ….” and every other justification I could come up with.

The bottom-line was that working alone has stifled my creative self. I thrive on human interaction and collaboration. I NEED ideas and suggestions from others to build upon and I need this more than ever or my collaboration muscle will continue to atrophy. I need the oxygen of others. So, as soon as I returned from the conference I sought out the very short list of ad agencies in our area and I simply asked, “Can I hang out at your office if you have any spare space?” And without hesitation (or too much), someone said “yes” to me later that day. It was just that easy. Another ironic thing is that in the world of improv we practice and preach the concept of “yes, and”. I had almost forgotten how to “yes, and” myself and put out offers for others to “yes, and”. The chances of someone saying yes are at least 50%, but if you have no one to ask for a yes, the chances increase to 100%. Basic math. We need people around us to improve the odds of getting a “yes” – of moving forward and progressing to the next level in life and work.

This week I started working from my remote office of Collins + Company. I knew I would love it the second I walked in to visit. The music playing, the sunny colors, the sound of people talking and laughing, the energy … and at least five more people to add to my network who don’t really know me yet, but let me in without reservation. I had planned on going only once this week, but the energy was so great that I re-arranged my schedule to be there twice. There I sit in the conference room and every now and then someone pops in to chat about something … my business, their business, personal things like “why do we procrastinate?” or “do you know what the theme of this playlist (on the IPOD) is?” I even reviewed an intern’s resume and gave advice. My collaboration and creative muscles are stronger already this week. AND, while one could think that one could become distracted by others throughout the day, I welcome these types of distractions instead of being distracted by the laundry, the dogs, the retired neighbors knocking on my door because they see my car in the drive way.

The biggest benefit so far is the mere exposure to idea people. And while I’ve often become irritated when people say “you know what you should do?”, I welcome it in this environment. I used to take that as a judgment from others that I didn’t know what I was doing. And the “yes, and” technique helps me at least listen to what others have to say because maybe I don’t know everything OR maybe I forgot about something so basic, such as putting video clips from our show on Facebook every day to continue to educate people about our business. Many new ideas have come out of this week and the "new office"! The dogs, nor the neighbors, have ever given me such good ideas!

And oh yeah, I’m blogging again! Welcome back creative muscle!