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”

Dr. Brad Miller here with you on beyond add

versity the podcast where we really seek to serve you by

helping you to deal with and navigate adverse conditions in

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

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

that by teaching and leadership and monologues, a teaching that

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

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

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

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

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

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

life. Lisa, Welcome to Beyond adversity.

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

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

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

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

what I found. Well, awesome.

Thank you for sharing that I really, really

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

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

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

project with humor, and by speaking and teaching and

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

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

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

tell us your story.

I grew up with three siblings, and two parents

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

long road of dealing with being physically abused and the

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

different. She ended up with fibromyalgia, which I really

find must be connected somehow to the mental abuse and the

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

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

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

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

baby was pretty much not really pulled into those situations.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

work and found good relationships. And humor became

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

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

improvisation shows where we go into a business party and give

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

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

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

been involved with that. And so yes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

got somebody?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

finish your story. Yeah.

The wonderful thing to do with those is you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

room because

you got to be a blast to hang around with and

also a person that sometimes people probably go Enough

already.

Well, I am on my third husband.

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

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

Oh, I do tend to wear people out.

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

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

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

you?

Yeah, I decided to sunset the group this

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

finding my comedy troupe and accepting people that I trust

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

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

not me. I only speak to one sibling nowadays.

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

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

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

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

Absolutely

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah, you mentioned already about your siblings have had

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

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

either not coping or they're coping in some destructive

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

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

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

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

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

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

really stressed yourself a little bit to help you move

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

I believe life is choices, not excuses. And you

can scroll through Facebook and find plenty of lining and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

each day is a new year resolution each day is your

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

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

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

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

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

with it and how you choose to go around it.

Yeah. And that's adversity, adversity is

circumstances that happen, whatever it is, certainly in the

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

kind of reset and reframed and reformulated their life, then

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

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

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

mentioned about how you made those kind of those conscious

decisions yourself and then you connect with other people. Was

there any sensitivity about a force greater than yourself,

meditation or spirituality or anything that kind of was

entered your life from outside that helped you in this process

of moving out of bed Place to a better place.

I think, early on, noting that the way my

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

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

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

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

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

everybody should have that professional to bounce ideas off

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

being very aware of how things can change like

that, right?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

yell at the rabbits I have to admit.

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

talking about connecting with something, you know, nature.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

in with us during the COVID crisis.

Yes, we all have our creative family right

now. But

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

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

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

people are doing where they singer their plants and or they

have music playing or whatever, different things and they find

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

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

there is some research on that that I found.

Well if your son wants to share a video, I

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

that encourage that to encourage him to do that.

That type of thing. And

certainly a lot of us say goodbye to our

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

Yes.

Up could fluffy. Yes. We could do that to

our house plants. Little philodendron

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

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

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

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

plant or a pet, or whatever, you know,

yeah, some

people I know some people who have names for their

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

it's called this morning or whatever it is.

Does your car have a name?

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

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

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

know?

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

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

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

car. So

Oh, cute. Yeah.

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

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

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

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

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

certainly know that folks who are doing any kind of improv

type theater have to be very sharp about observing things and

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

relationships with people to help you to navigate some of the

bad stuff about healthy relationships. You mentioned

some negative relationships that you had, and some challenges you

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

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

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

in life. Tell me about functional people in your life

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

for others.

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

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

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

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

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

because I believe holding the bitterness and, and yelling

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

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

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

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

one of the things with my podcast, stranger connections

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and travel they have done skydiving. They've done

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

his website, Gigi and Ahab adventures and see all these

pictures of this gnome, and people want selfies with this

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let's just say,

there you go, of course.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

began my project which is serious selfies with strangers.

All right, awesome. Yeah. And those

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

lasting friendships, I did not expect that simply by engaging

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

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

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

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

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

the act of connecting.

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

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

involve building relationships in unusual ways. And, and even

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

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

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

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

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

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

relationships been built on something out of the ordinary,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

how did that feel? You're

still got those pictures. And actually, I did it

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

You know,

that could be a great photo book, you can do

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

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

That might be a good idea there.

Because they because they brought all that

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

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

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

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

guy. And we all remember that we

have good Good, good good time with it and

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

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

high school cheerleaders run around, you know, all their

little outfits and everything. And they all want their picture

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

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

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

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

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

times.

Humor is healthy, it raises your

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

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

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

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

second wave of laughter. And what happens is the next

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

neighborhood or anything. And it takes all your attention for

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

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

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

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

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

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

the next flight even on the tragedy thing. You

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

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

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

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

times of laughter and pleasure and joy that the person who

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

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

that's very healing and life affirming and that

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

connection.

Well, the connection is crucial, as you're

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

am interested in this connection, who has returned,

which can return the emotional and the spiritual and the

physiological and also the cognitive mental part of it. And

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

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

actions. So tell me about any habits or disciplines or

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

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

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

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

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

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

keeping moving forward, forward here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

creativity and trying new things. And put two ideas

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

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

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

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

silly,

where you're starting to kind of put down the

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

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

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

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

find people who successfully overcome adverse conditions,

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

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

awesome. And

one great example is with the quarantine,

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

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

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

scratch.

If so many creative things, people just finding ways

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the very

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

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

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

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

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

finished? Or the people you connected with? Simply because

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

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

whatever.

What speaking of books and also things that

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

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

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

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

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

with people as well, and consulting and coaching. What

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

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

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

seen some transformations transition happened, and I'm

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

stories, if you will?

Absolutely. One of the the great things that

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

interactive moment that when somebody could come up to me

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

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

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

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

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

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

to dare yourself daily. And that could mean simply getting

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

nowhere. It could mean learning guitar, learning something

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

to help them in their life?

Yes, yes. My website is basically about my

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

my creative mentoring. And if you need an accountability,

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

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

besides Lisa David Olson Facebook page, I invite you over

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

difference.

Yeah, that's awesome. So thank you for

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

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

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

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

go to you and your your Facebook page for some new

please you can take a picture of something and

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

will upon with you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

for being our guest today, Lisa on beyond adversity.