In this episode of The Verbal To Visual Podcast I chat with Gary Hirsch about how he uses principles of improvisation to help groups work together and individuals see opportunities. We also chat about a recent sabbatical he took which yielded some valuable insights related to his art, his work, and his life.

Notes & Links

Gary and I met at the 2013 TEDxConcordiaUPortland event. Check out his impressive talk titled Meet Your Monster that kicked off the event.

Gary is the co-founder of On Your Feet, a consultancy that uses improv to help people work better together.

He illustrated the book Everything’s An Offer, written by the other co-founder of On Your Feet, Robert Poynton. This is the book that pulled me out of that slump I mentioned on the show.

What improvisation principles can do for you personally:

• Seeing opportunities (recognizing the many offers around you), even in hard times.
• Being present. Here. Now.
• Letting go.

Gary’s recent insight: the value of stopping and asking that question of why you do the things you do.

A few subway artists turned famous that inspired Gary: Kenny Scharf and Keith Haring.

Check out Gary’s unique art – bots painted on the back of dominoes.

On his recent art-making sabbatical, Gary painted a mural at Daimler Innovation Lab in Portland, Oregon and another in Boulder, Colorado that got some press here and here.

We saw some connections between Gary’s work, the Before I Die… wall, and the work of Rebecca Shapiro – a previous guest on the podcast.

I mentioned Austin Kleon’s book Show Your Work while we chatted about the benefits of capturing and sharing not just the final product, but the process as well.

Gary will be leading a co-creation workshop as part of The World Domination Summit this July in Portland.

Where to find Gary:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Botjoy
• On Your Feet

The post VTV 010 : Gary Hirsch – Improv Applied To Business And Life, And The Power Of Asking Why appeared first on Verbal To Visual.