Improv.
Inspiration.
Authenticity.
Change.

These are four of my favorite words.

All my work centers around these ideas.

Reach out if you want to explore how I can help you, your project, or your company.

Discover all the ways improv can unleash your fearless, creative and authentic self

the part of you that’s ready to play big, inspire  others, and make an enormous impact in all that you do.

  • “Hands down the best training I’ve had in my six years here. Most relevant, most eye-opening, and most fun too. Everyone here should do this!”

    — Gary, DIGITAS: Boston / The Power of An Improv Mindset Workshop

  • “Holly’s wisdom, warmth, and emotional intelligence is profoundly life-changing. The work is not about fixing the past. It’s about being magnetized by the future.”

    — Michael, author, theater director // 1:1 Consulting

  • “This talk by Holly Mandel legit changed my life. For me, it is THE answer to understanding & negotiating the tricky mischief of gender dynamics- on stage and off. If I were Queen I’d make every woman, man, and child see this. ”

    — Lindsey, LA: Good Girls Aren’t Funny Seminar

  • "Holly's improv training adamantly established a safe, caring, low-stakes environment that even a stubborn mutt like me could thrive in. Truly awesome."

    — Raffael S, improv student NYC

  • “There are lots of books and seminars about women and leadership but I’ve not seen a hands-on workshop like this — actually tap into real confidence and transform the women in the room.”

    — Kristin C, SKADDEN: NYC // Good Girls Aren’t CEOs Program

  • "Improv...and Holly...teach you how to focus on growth, not problems. How to build and fortify trusting bonds with your co-workers. It was invaluable."

    — Ben W, IBM // Improv for Team Building Workshop

  • "There were so many women in the room, yourself included, who impress me with their achievements, have made me laugh and inspired me with their comedy. To hear them speak about how they have struggled with the exact things as me was a turning point."

    — Clemence, London: Good Girls Aren’t Funny Weekend Workshop

iMergence

new york los angeles washington dc stamford

A business transformation consultancy using improvisation as a key catalyst for your workplace culture to become more productive, positive and thriving. Team workshops with tailored content for groups of 30 or 300.

Good Girls Aren’t Funny

When you learn you can’t win by playing by the rules you were handed - like being perfect, pleasing everyone around you, following whatever script has been written for you - it’s time to shed your GOOD GIRL and claim your powerful, authentic whole self.

Whether it’s in comedy or your career, you want the bold, opinionated, fearless part of you to show up. That part will never be the GOOD GIRL.

Improv
Training

improv training new york groundlings keynote

After becoming a performing Main Company member of the GROUNDLINGS in Los Angeles, I began teaching and directing there. I then started my own improv school in NYC — the first female-founded, owned and run one by the way (#humblebrag) — bringing CHARACTER-EMPHASIZED improv to the Big Apple for over 24 years.

I’ve taught and traveled all over the globe to help newer and seasoned improvisers embrace a character approach to their improv, as well as unique styles of improv I have created over my almost 30 years of teaching: EMERGENT IMPROV and LONGFORM CLAP-INS (the style seen every Wednesday night at THE GROUNDLINGS since 2001!)

Private Professional 1:1 Coaching

Improv is just one of the fabulous tools I use to unlock the version of you that is free from trying to constantly please others or get everything perfect; that gets anxious speaking up in meetings or is confused why you haven’t gotten further at your company.

I’ve worked with business executives as well as entrepreneurs. I’ve learned a ton of cool stuff — brain science, cultural mapping, energetic recipes for either undermining you or liberating you.

Through talks, teaching, and trainings, I inspire you, your team or your company to evolve.

There’s lots of ways it can happen. The how isn’t as important as the why.

Reach out to set up a time to talk so I can find out how I can help you
make more impact in everything you do.

KEYNOTES with interactive workshops

GOOD GIRLS AREN’T FUNNY

After years of performing, teaching, and directing improv at The Groundlings in LA, Holly couldn't help but notice a trend in her women students and fellow improvisers...and herself. It was a strange shift that they would do seemingly without rhyme or reason; slipping from brave, confident, bold performers to meek, slightly insecure, safe ones that were happy to follow and let others take the lead and show up big. Clearly, this was happening outside of the classroom as much as within.

At the same time Holly was noticing while working at Comedy Central a lack of the same edginess, risk-taking, and uniqueness in the women stand-ups on the channel. It led her to investigate what the heck was going on and she found some very interesting pieces of a puzzle that seem to be on many women's minds, but hard to unravel. The answers span the biological, historical, psychological and cultural terrain with a focus on a very interesting moment in our collective history...when the "good woman" was born.

The result is a unique talk based on Holly’s research and experience that she has given to both the performing arts world as well as the corporate sector, and has opened the conversation up around these motives, strategies and "voices" that up until now have usually been perceived as personal. Once women see that it ISN'T just them...AND they can make a different choice in the face of the "good girl" things can begin to change very quickly, as women get more and more clear on who they want to be, how they want to express themselves, and where they want to get their confidence from.

GOOD GIRLS AREN’T CEOs
UNLEASHING LEADERSHIP & AUTHENTIC CONFIDENCE IN WOMEN

Every woman knows what being a “Good Girl” means: pleasing everyone, playing nice, getting things perfect while never being “too”-fill-in-the-blank. Adhering to a set of roles and rules we’ve been handed in order to gain access to the room where it happens.

We hear endlessly about IMPOSTER SYNDROME, CONFIDENCE GAP and GLASS CEILINGS. Discover what is at the core of these things and how the “Good Girl” in all of us is preventing us from leading, making real change and profound impact.

More importantly, learn how to get beyond the “Good Girl” and claim the fearless, bold, and authentic leader in yourself.

ACCESSING JOY, RESILIENCE AND CONNECTION WITH IMPROVISATION TECHNIQUES

Stress affects our brains and bodies in specific ways, eventually causing disconnection, stagnation, and attrition. Luckily there are methods that can spark a different part of ourselves - a part that is energized, engaged and committed.

Improvisation is not only a fun process to learn, its sole purpose is to connect people to this part of themselves and provide tools to get there and stay there. Joy, curiosity and connection are the result of increased energy, so why not give your team a surefire way to tap into that endless energy source?

EMBRACING CHANGE WITH “YES, AND”
IMPROV FOR WORKPLACE SUCCESS

Change and ambiguity is the new normal. How adept is your company to handle the uncertain and constant fluctuations in your business?

Improvisation provides lifelong skills that will set your team up for ongoing success and instill them with a powerful growth mindset. Plus, it’s a lot of fun to learn!

UNLOCKING DIVERGENT THINKING & INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS
THE ADVANTAGE OF AN IMPROV MINDSET

When presented with challenges and new problems to overcome, divergent thinking becomes paramount to creating new and innovative solutions.

Nothing taps into a DIVERGENT MINDSET faster than improvisation. Give your company the time-proven shortcuts and tools to unleash creative, dynamic and effortless ideas.

SOME OF THE ORGANIZATIONS I HAVE WORKED WITH

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.

To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

— Buckminster Fuller; American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist

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