Speaking
The average 4-year-old laughs 300 times a day.
The average 40-year-old laughs 4 times a day.
No joke. (Obviously!)
As a humor strategist, I help leaders understand how their teams and their business audiences crave humor, humanity and happiness. And science agrees: Leaning into levity in professional settings can deliver a whole host of successful results. Here’s just a sampling of the outcomes scientifically associated with leaders who exhibit humor and humanity at work:
- Improved employee engagement, morale and productivity
- Higher employee retention rates
- More innovative and creative solutions to problems, large & small
- Teams with bolstered resilience to stress
- The ability to attract better, happier employees
- Reduced stress and burn-out
- Workplace environments that foster genuine connection, trust and intellectual safety
And when it comes to branding and marketing strategy, using humor in messaging has been shown to:
- Delight audiences and improve their brand perceptions
- Increase marketing ROI
- Deliver greater audience engagement and improved word-of-mouth referrals
I facilitate workshops, deliver keynotes and perform 1×1 coaching for corporate professionals, organizational leaders, associations and professional audiences from a variety of industries.
Ready to delight your team and your audiences? I’m here to help. Go ahead, reach out!
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Laugh More, Lead Better:
How Humor Will Make You a Workforce Whisperer
Today’s leaders are facing a consistent set of frustrating challenges: a stressed and burned-out workforce; low employee morale and engagement; high turnover and an inability to find employees to bolster the employment pipeline; meeting fatigue and challenge overwhelm.
But research shows there is an easy, FREE tool that can counteract all of the above, resulting in teams that are more bonded and trusting an increase in creative problem-solving, and employees who want to stay put, longer.
And that magical-sounding business tool: humor. (Seriously!)
In this engaging keynote, we’ll discuss the science of humor and the ROI of leaning into levity as a leader. We’ll also talk about why humans crave humor in their daily lives (and what happens when they don’t get it), how leaders who encourage a sense of playfulness are seen as stronger and more effective, and how to easily identify humor tactics to employ tomorrow at work.
And no, this is not about training stand-up skills and writing a tight-five comedy routine to deliver at work; instead, with just a few easy strategies, leaders can identify their own humor style and choose from an arsenal of tips for adapting that style in their own workplaces.
audience feedback
Mikalee- I really loved your presentation, it was fun, funny, engaging and so so true! Thank you for entertaining and inspiring us!
I sincerely mean it when I said you’re an excellent speaker. You could read the phone book and make it appealing and compelling!
Best NCET presentation I’ve ever been to.
Ask my mom to speak more often; she’s brilliant, beautiful and a bright ball of light and she KILLED today!
Hi Mikalee, your talk has my brain buzzing. The bit about the science showing that we are more able to learn when we feel happy and safe is so important and not very widely accepted, it would seem. I think you are a great messenger of the power of happiness because you’re not one of these unrelatable, chronically happy people that are more than likely hiding some deep wounds…Super interesting. Thank you for doing it!