Catching up with Karyn

Whether you’re a business under a lot of stress, or you’re just trying to add a little humor to your leadership style, I can help!

Feeling the Pressure?

Sometimes an organization will wait too lo

If your organization is inundated with stress, then let’s nip it in the bud! Waiting until the eleventh hour to ask for help isn’t nearly as effective as acting on a situation before it becomes dire. I can teach you how to leverage high-pressure situations in order to:

• Increase Productivity
• Boost Engagement
• Improve Communication
• Increase Your Bottom Line

Adding to the Team?

Mergers are tough. You have to help people from two different companies become comfortable in a new setting and learn how to work together. I have tips and strategies to make the transition easier for everyone!

Are You an Effective Leader?

Learning how to employ strategic humor in the workplace is an essential skill, and it has a positive domino effect on organizations and the...

Employee Engagement and Corporate Culture

These are two buzzwords that have been trending over the past few years. But there’s a reason they’re trending – these circumstances can make or break an organization!

I’ve worked with a lot of executives and high performers who have been passionate about improving employee engagement and their corporate culture, and it’s incredible that leaders are recognizing the impact these two factors have on today’s workplace.

But let’s back up for a moment. Why are employee engagement and corporate culture so important?

New Workforce

A recent study reports that 35% of working Americans are aged 21 to 36 (Pew Research and MarketWatch). That’s a huge percentage. The workforce is getting younger, and in addition to this, people are moving in and out of organizations with increasing speed. Your organization needs to put effort into attracting and retaining this large new talent pool.

A...

Growing Up

My story begins with being a nurse. Growing up, I always wanted to follow in the footsteps of my mom and dad.  Both were medical professionals. I felt that helping other people was my calling – so you could say that nursing was always in the cards for me.

Within nursing, I’ve worked in the OR, ER, home health, hospice, and much more! (I know what you’re  thinking…”She couldn’t hold a job?”). It wasn’t that I felt more at home in one area than another; it was actually quite the opposite - each job was a great fit for me! I attributed this to one particular constant in my life: I LOVED learning. After mastering one skill, I was on to the next learning opportunity. This passion for knowledge eventually led me back to school to earn my master’s degree, where I discovered my true calling.

My Passion

I was knee-deep in research when I stumbled upon a small paragraph in a journal. It was about a nurse...

Stress is a HUGE problem in America.

A recent Gallup study revealed 8 in 10 Americans are afflicted by stress! So how can Americans begin to reverse this trend and reduce their stress levels? An easy way to start is with humor!

You might be thinking…

Stress relief from laughter? Really, Karyn?

It’s no joke!

Now, a good laugh isn’t going to cure all ailments, but it certainly helps most! Here are some of the short and long-term benefits of laughter (Mayo Clinic):

Short-Term

• Stimulates many organs (heart, lungs, muscles) – laughter increases your intake of oxygen-rich air, which stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles!
• Activates and relieves your stress response – laughter cools down your stress response, giving you a nice, relaxed feeling
• Soothes tension – laughter can stimulate circulation and reduce some of the physical stress symptoms (tight shoulders/neck, jaw, back, and chest)

Laughter can also provide some benefits over time. Check out...

There’s a little part of your brain called the reticular activating system (ARAS) which acts as a filter for finding funny!

When you make finding humor intentional, your brain will start showing you things you’ve found amusing in the past.

It’s kind of like the internet!

Have you ever been shopping for something on the internet? Let’s say some shoes.

You do your research and think about buying them. Then decide, well…I really don’t have the cash flow right now; I think I’ll hold off.

Then you close the page and go to one of your favorite news websites…

BOOM! There’s an ad with those shoes staring right at you!

That’s kind of what the reticular activating system is doing for your brain. Oh, you found something funny over here, well check this out!

The key is to be intentional!

If you set your intention on seeing more humor, your reticular activating system will show it to you more often!

Pretty cool if you ask me!

If you...

So, you want to make people laugh, huh? That’s easy! Okay, maybe not. But don’t worry! I’m here to help. Let’s dive into some scenarios and I’ll give you some things to keep in mind before your meeting, performance, company party, or whatever you’ve got going on! 

There are a lot of steps to leveraging other people’s laughter. So, let’s break it down. 

What’s the setting?

• Are you in a meeting?
• Are you performing?
• Are you at work?
• Are you at a company party?

The setting matters! Things that are allowed to be said during a performance versus a business meeting are COMPLETELY different.

Be sure to keep in mind: 

1. Where you are
2. Who you’re with

Before letting all of your family holiday party jokes fly, consider your audience. If you have to think about whether or not something is appropriate—play it safe and leave it out. You’re a creative person! Find a better alternative.

Details, Details,...

When I’m speaking to nursing and healthcare professionals, certain issues are always top of mind for my audience. At a macro level, their major concerns revolve around the state of flux in healthcare today.

On a day-to-day level, their concerns turn toward stress related to

• High workloads (too much to do, not enough time to do it)
• Poor communication (I know you think you understand what you thought I said…)
• The competitiveness of the job market (recruitment/retention)

But I can help!

I come in and talk to leaders in organizations or staff about how to take better care of themselves, so that they, in turn, can take better care of others.

The two main ideas of this talk are

1. Stress management/self-care

2. Wellness

You don’t want someone taking care of you or a loved one who’s stressed out, sick or tired.

Why?

If the answer isn’t obvious enough, studies (NCBI.gov) have shown that people who are stressed tend to:

• make more mistakes
• give the wrong...

My friend and fellow medical professional, Dr. Lee Berk said it best when he said: “If we took what we now know about laughter and bottled it up it would require FDA approval.” It’s true that when we laugh, we feel better. There’s a reason why Facebook is clogged with funny cat videos and those “fail” videos that always seem to hurt a little but ultimately are just there to make us laugh. 

So, my question to you is, would you rather go to the gym and sit on the rowing machine for 30 minutes, or would you rather sit down on your couch and put on a really funny movie? Now, I’m not judging if you chose to go to the gym, but I feel like most people out there (including myself) would decide to put on their favorite, belly-ache-inducing, movie and call it a day.

The effects of a good bellyache, top-of-your-lungs, barely-getting-any-air-into-your-lungs laughter can be seen in the immune system and even the cardiovascular system. It’s...

Think about what you’re looking for in a partner or influencer. Odds are you’re looking for someone with a good sense of humor, and if you did, you’re not alone. A sense of humor is on the list of top three traits that someone is looking for in another person. So, why not make sure that you are the person someone else is looking for by being as humorous as you can be!

So, for this video, I want to talk about how you can use humor as a tool to persuade, educate and defuse a situation and make you an overall better human being; basically, I’m going to teach you how to be an excellent influencer. If you’re able to use humor to persuade someone to do something that means you’ve mastered being likable and you’ve also established yourself as someone who has some authority—which is something we should strive for in our work environments, no matter what position you hold.

Not only can humor be a tool to establish authority, but it can...

Are you funny? Do people laugh with or at you? Or maybe you just want to be funny or simply, be funnier? Maybe you want to make people laugh without having to try so hard to be funny. If you can identify with any of these questions, you're in the right spot because I'm going to try my best to address these questions in today's video.

If you've gotten this far into my video series, odds are you're already familiar with your humor quotient and how it can help you with your goals to be a better humorist. It also is going to help you apply humor in your everyday life, but why is that so important?  Whether you're using humor to influence or get closer to your family, friends, or at work, you're using it for a reason, and I want to make sure that you're able to be as effective as possible without having to put too much effort in. Applying humor to make someone or a group of people feel good is obviously going to boost morale wherever you are, and it's important that you know that...