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Improvly Speaking

Improvly Speaking

Dayna Gowan

Dayna Gowan is a speaker, improviser, and Facilitator of Fun, and the Founder of Improvly Speaking. Each episode, she brings you golden, beautiful, delicious nuggets of wisdom about public speaking, improv, performance, creativity and anything in between. Learning public speaking and improvisation skills has changed her life and made her a more confident speaker, colleague, and friend. Listeners will be inspired to face their public speaking fears, try new things, flex their creativity muscles, and say “Yes, and...” to challenges and roadblocks in both their personal and professional lives.

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Top 10 Improvly Speaking Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Improvly Speaking episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Improvly Speaking for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Improvly Speaking episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Improvly Speaking - Access the Issue and Push It Out of the Tissue with Susan Bartley

Access the Issue and Push It Out of the Tissue with Susan Bartley

Improvly Speaking

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05/09/24 • 99 min

I promise the episode title will make more sense once you listen to the episode. :)
It's amazing all that can happen in a year! My bestie Susan Bartley joins the podcast again for a part 2 episode to give some updates about all that happened in her business in 2023.
In the first episode, which was released in April 2023, Susan shared all about her pole journey and why and how she got into pole fitness in the first place. In this part 2 episode, Susan tells us about her new pole studio called Studieaux Heaux! Yes, that's right — Susan now has a brick and mortar pole fitness and aerial sports studio in Columbia, SC! It was always her goal to own a studio, but she thought it would take a few more years to reach that point. However, the opportunity presented itself in 2023, and Susan knew she had to take it!
We talk all about the new studieaux and also about Be Activated, which is a technique that can help reset the nervous system and correct dysfunctional breathing and movement patterns to decrease injury risk and chronic pain. Susan has been using the Be Activated principles for over 5 years to prevent injuries and stay grounded. She has recently developed a workshop around incorporating the Be Activated principles into Pole practice. The workshop is called Activate Your Pole. She has also added Be Activated techniques into the warm-up routines at Studieaux Heaux.
This episode has lots of giggling and a little bit of everything else — including Susan calling Dayna out for being a perfectionist (which she's right...for now at least).
You can find out more about Susan here:

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Improvly Speaking - From Trails to Tales: Embracing Nature, Health, and the Improv Life with Dr. Jay Maddock

From Trails to Tales: Embracing Nature, Health, and the Improv Life with Dr. Jay Maddock

Improvly Speaking

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03/30/24 • 86 min

Jay Maddock, PhD, is based in College Station, Texas, where he is a Regents Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the School of Public Health at Texas A&M University. He is also the Director of the Center for Health & Nature and serves on the Brazos County Board of Health.
In this episode, Jay shares all about his public speaking experience — from teaching college students to presenting at large conferences in front of public health and non-public health audiences. Jay loves storytelling and uses stories to help his classes, lectures, and presentations be more memorable. He also looks at speaking and teaching as a performance that he can make engaging and interactive.
Jay also shares fascinating research about nature and how beneficial nature is to our lives. Both "nearby nature" and "big nature" can have a profound effect on our mood, attention, and well-being, if we choose to get outside more and experience all that nature has to offer.
Dr. Maddock is a true delight to talk to and listen to. He is so passionate and excited about all that he does! He is a lifelong learner and embraces the improvisational approach to life (aka improv life) as he says that his "entire life is a yes, and."
P.S. This episode title was generated by AI, which is something we discuss at the end of this episode.

You can find out more about Dr. Maddock here:

Loved the episode? Now you can send us a text message with your thoughts and comments! Your message might just get a shoutout in another episode!

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Improvly Speaking - The Mysterious Notebook of Goals and Creativity with Dr. Jana Hirsch

The Mysterious Notebook of Goals and Creativity with Dr. Jana Hirsch

Improvly Speaking

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03/15/24 • 107 min

What would you do if you received a notebook from your local Buy Nothing Group that you thought was empty, but then later you noticed that it had a list of goals written in it? Would you tear out the pages and start with a fresh, clean notebook? Or would you take the list of goals on as your own?
If you said you would tear out the pages and start fresh, you aren't alone. I would totally do the same thing, and I assume many others would too. However, special guest Jana Hirsch decided to take the goals on as her own last year in 2023, and she came on the podcast to talk about it!
Jana Hirsch, Ph.D., is an an Associate Research Professor in the Urban Health Collaborative and Department of Epidemiology at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health. Their research aims to understand the way neighborhoods shape health behaviors and disparities. Jana is also an improviser and urbanophile based out of San Francisco, CA (and yes, they explain what an urbanophile is in the episode).
We talk all about public health, public speaking, running, improv, and the story of this mysterious notebook. You may think Jana is crazy for taking on someone else's goals, but the lessons she learns and takeaways she forms are so powerful! You don't want to miss this episode - it is such a wild and fun story!

You can find out more about Jana here:

Loved the episode? Now you can send us a text message with your thoughts and comments! Your message might just get a shoutout in another episode!

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Improvly Speaking - Become a World Champion Speaker with Ramona J. Smith

Become a World Champion Speaker with Ramona J. Smith

Improvly Speaking

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03/01/24 • 89 min

Ramona J. Smith is a dynamic international speaker who holds the prestigious title of the 2018 World Champion of Public Speaking. She is based out of Houston, Texas, and she is on a mission to inspire, connect and transform lives globally using the power of words (and she's really great at it too)!
In this episode, Ramona shares her journey to winning the World Champion title, and she also talks about what life was like pre- and post title. She also reveals that there was an unexpected, improvised moment during her World Champion Contest speech titled "Still Standing."
Ramona coaches Toastmasters speakers who are competing in the speech contests, and she also helps speakers outside the Toastmasters world become more authentic and genuine on stage. She graciously puts her coaching hat on for most of this episode and gives very helpful tips and suggestions for improving your presentations and speeches.
While the World Champion of Public Speaking Contest happens once a year with one person winning the title, you can be a World Champion Speaker on every stage that you step on. They key is to practice, practice, and practice some more, and also continue to grow and try new things, even when you're nervous and scared.

You can find out more about Ramona here:

Loved the episode? Now you can send us a text message with your thoughts and comments! Your message might just get a shoutout in another episode!

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Improvly Speaking - Bringing Your Authentic Self to the Stage with Neil Curran

Bringing Your Authentic Self to the Stage with Neil Curran

Improvly Speaking

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02/22/24 • 103 min

Our first international guest, Neil Curran, joins the podcast all the way from Dublin, Ireland! Neil is a professional improviser and communications and teams expert who has performed in shows and festivals all over the world. His signature show - Neil+1 - brings an audience member up to the stage to perform the improv show with him! (Would you be up for that as an audience member??)
When he's not on stage as an improviser, Neil facilitates interactive corporate trainings about authentic speaking and presenting, conscious communicating and influencing, storytelling in business, creativity and innovation, and much more!
This is a podcast of platitudes, as Neil points out throughout the episode. Both improv and public speaking trainings are riddled with platitudes, like make your scene partner look good, don't try to be funny, and be more authentic on stage, but what do all these overly used statements mean?
In this episode, Neil dives deeper beyond the surface level of these platitudes and explains what they mean in more context for performers and speakers. He also shares how he helps presenters become more confident at speaking as their authentic selves and not relying so heavily on the presentation slides.
Neil's passion for improv and teaching/facilitating is infectious! You can tell that he loves what he does, and he loves sharing the joy of improv with others...even the unsuspecting audience members who come to watch his shows only to then become the +1 part of the show.

You can find out more about Neil here:

  1. Website - https://www.lowerthetone.com/
  2. IG - @improvneil - https://www.instagram.com/improvneil/
  3. Twitter - @improvneil - https://twitter.com/ImprovNeil
  4. Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/neilplus1/
  5. LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/curranneil/
  6. Improv Fest Ireland - https://improvfestireland.com/
  7. Camp Improv Utopia - https://improvutopia.org/

Loved the episode? Now you can send us a text message with your thoughts and comments! Your message might just get a shoutout in another episode!

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Improvly Speaking - Takeaways From Musical Improv That Can Boost Your Public Speaking Skills

Takeaways From Musical Improv That Can Boost Your Public Speaking Skills

Improvly Speaking

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02/02/24 • 56 min

The previous episode with Ashley Ward talks all about her journey into the musical improv world and why she loves teaching musical improv classes. This solo episode highlights my experience over the past year with musical improv, why I took musical improv in the first place, and how it's helped me with my public speaking skills and stage presence.
In this episode, I share with you three takeaways (and maybe a bonus takeaway) from a year of musical improv experience that can also apply to your public speaking skills. We are always "on stage," whether at work or in our personal lives. Being able to deliver our messages and points well, even when put on the spot, is a gamechanger!
I say this a few times in the episode, but you of course don't have to take musical improv classes to be a good speaker. Try out these takeaways when delivering your next speech or presentation and see how they help you. Give some breathing and vocal warm-ups a try to see how they strengthen your voice. Keep going, growing, and glowing in your public speaking journey so that you become the best speaker that you've always wanted to be!

Loved the episode? Now you can send us a text message with your thoughts and comments! Your message might just get a shoutout in another episode!

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Improvly Speaking - Improvly Singing and Trying Hard Things with Ashley Ward

Improvly Singing and Trying Hard Things with Ashley Ward

Improvly Speaking

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01/26/24 • 94 min

Ashley Ward is an improviser, actor, writer, snack lover, and singer who has performed everywhere from the Kennedy Center to The Sydney Opera House. She can be seen on Dropout TV’s Play It By Ear and in Hello Jack! The Kindness Show on Apple+ as Delivery Delores. She is also a Jeopardy champion (and yes, we talk about that in the interview!).
In this episode, Ashley shares her improv journey of how she got started in improv and then shortly after musical improv. Even though Ashley had a musical theatre background, she was still very nervous starting out in musical improv. Once she got into it though, she enjoyed the world of musical improv where she could play any character and sing any kind of song that came up.
Ashley now teaches a ton of musical improv classes and enjoys seeing people learn the structure and form and discover that they can do hard things. Improv in general requires a lot of focus and attention to be present in the scene, and musical improv requires double or triple that focus. There are a lot of plates spinning in a musical improv scene, but it can still all come together to create magical and fun scenes, songs, and shows.
You may be elated or disappointed by this, but there is actually no improvly singing in this episode. However, there's a whole lot of talking about it, which is super fun as well. Musical improv can help level up your improv skills, stage presence, and public speaking. Also, musical improv is just an overall good time because there's music involved!
Fair warning - give this episode a listen, and you may find yourself signing up for the next musical improv class in your area!
You can learn more about Ashley Ward here:

Loved the episode? Now you can send us a text message with your thoughts and comments! Your message might just get a shoutout in another episode!

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Want to learn more about Improvly Speaking? Here are all the ways to get in touch:

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Improvly Speaking - Letting Go of My Need for Alcohol, Thanks to Improv and Conquering My Fear of Public Speaking

Letting Go of My Need for Alcohol, Thanks to Improv and Conquering My Fear of Public Speaking

Improvly Speaking

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12/18/23 • 44 min

One day, my solo episodes won't be considered special solo episodes because I will do them more and will be putting out more solo episodes than just 2-3 times a year. For now though, here is another special solo episode about my experience with alcohol and how I feel like I don't need it much anymore.
Thanks to improv and overcoming my fear of public speaking, I am not nervous anymore to go up on stage or be put "on the spot" in a social situation. In fact, I thrive in it now! I used to think I needed alcohol to get me through networking events, social situations, and even performing in improv shows. In my mind, I needed alcohol to make me a more exciting, lively, fun, and lovable person. Now I realize I can be that exciting, lively, fun, lovable person all on my own - without the use of alcohol or other substances.
In this episode, I share some examples of times where I used alcohol to get me through a grad school presentation and improv show, and (spoiler alert) alcohol didn't help or make the performance better. In fact, it put me in my head more and heightened my nerves because I am not using other tools - like breathing or meditation/mindfulness - to calm the nerves.
It's taken me a while to get to this realization, but I am proud that I have come to it now. I recorded this one on a whim after a lovely night of hanging out with my improv team and not needing a single drop of alcohol to have a great time.
Hope you find it helpful! Feel free to reach out if anything resonates about this topic. 😊

Loved the episode? Now you can send us a text message with your thoughts and comments! Your message might just get a shoutout in another episode!

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Improvly Speaking - Consistency in Comedy and Creativity with Fernando Funes

Consistency in Comedy and Creativity with Fernando Funes

Improvly Speaking

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11/30/23 • 113 min

Fernando Funes is a poet, writer, improviser, and performer in the Los Angeles/Orange County, CA area. He has performed in hundreds of shows in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Oakland, and even Brazil! Fernando loves to bring people of all backgrounds together, and lately, he has been producing a ton of local improv shows in the Southern California area. At this point in 2023, he is producing multiple shows a month around the LA area!

In this episode, Fernando discusses showing up and putting in the work to be successful in comedy and in pursuing your dreams in general. Many times, people want to hit the easy button and get discouraged when their dreams don't come to fruition quickly. Fernando has been on this comedy and creativity journey for 14 years now, and he has had many ups and downs. However, he continues to show up, put in the work, learn, and grow, and he is seeing both artistic success and commercial success with his improv shows and poems.
Fernando writes a poem a day, and he shares why he started doing the poem-a-day journey six years ago. Some days he doesn't love the poems he writes, but he still posts them anyway. He has learned that not all poems are going to be homeruns, but in order to have a homerun poem, he has to show up and put it out there. The more he does poem writing and comedy, the more he learns, and the better he gets.
Be prepared to take notes, whether written or mental notes, because Fernando is full of so many helpful tips and quotes in this episode! Keep showing up and continuing to learn and grow - the best is yet to come for you! As Fernando says in the episode, "If you show up, magic will happen."

You can find out more about Fernando here:

Loved the episode? Now you can send us a text message with your thoughts and comments! Your message might just get a shoutout in another episode!

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Improvly Speaking - Improv-ing Your Video Presence and Performance with Chris Bogue

Improv-ing Your Video Presence and Performance with Chris Bogue

Improvly Speaking

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04/23/24 • 113 min

Chris Bogue is based in Chicago, and he coaches people to get on camera and create mercifully short video content for business. He is also a long-time improviser, sketch comedy writer, improv trainer and host of the podcast Chris Sells His Soul.
In this episode, Chris shares about his improv and sketch comedy journey and how it led him to creating short (mercifully short) video content on all social media platforms, with a special focus on LinkedIn. Yes, Chris even uses humor and comedy in his LinkedIn videos, which is a nice break from the serious and pretentious type of business posts you might be accustomed to seeing on LinkedIn.
Dayna asks Chris to put his video coaching hat on and answer ALL her questions about video creation and coming up with content. Dayna admits that she struggles with making videos, and Chris provides some super helpful pro tips and tricks to make the video process easier. (Look out, world! That means that Dayna will be using these tips to create more Pod Mom videos...stay tuned!)
If you have wanted to improve your video presence, revamp your video content, or get over your fear of making videos, this episode is for you! You will feel motivated and inspired to create some new video content that can help you develop your brand and ultimately lead to more sales and clients!
You can find out more about Chris Bogue here:

Loved the episode? Now you can send us a text message with your thoughts and comments! Your message might just get a shoutout in another episode!

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Want to learn more about Improvly Speaking? Here are all the ways to get in touch:

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FAQ

How many episodes does Improvly Speaking have?

Improvly Speaking currently has 38 episodes available.

What topics does Improvly Speaking cover?

The podcast is about Creativity, Performance, Improv, Comedy, Podcasts, Self-Improvement, Education, Public Speaking and Communication.

What is the most popular episode on Improvly Speaking?

The episode title 'Improv-ing Your Video Presence and Performance with Chris Bogue' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Improvly Speaking?

The average episode length on Improvly Speaking is 86 minutes.

How often are episodes of Improvly Speaking released?

Episodes of Improvly Speaking are typically released every 15 days.

When was the first episode of Improvly Speaking?

The first episode of Improvly Speaking was released on Nov 2, 2022.

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