{"id":15187,"date":"2019-12-17T10:31:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T10:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hooplaimpro.com\/?page_id=15187"},"modified":"2020-01-07T16:09:59","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T16:09:59","slug":"jared-foley","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hooplaimpro.com\/jared-foley-interview","title":{"rendered":"Jared Foley"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1574085549258{background-color: #f6f6f6 !important;}”][vc_column el_class=”padder”][vc_column_text el_class=”makechildblue orange-underline”]<\/p>\n

Client and Student Interviews<\/strong><\/h1>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text el_class=”top-bottom-padder”]Hoopla facilitator and teacher Liam Brennan interviewed a diverse range of Hoopla clients and students to ask how they\u2019ve applied improv into their work life and businesses. Here\u2019s what they had to say.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row el_class=”interview-padder”][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_single_image image=”13450″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_circle_2″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Jared Foley: Account Director at Marlin PR<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Liam: <\/strong>Can you tell us more about you and your job?<\/p>\n

Jared:<\/strong> I work in public relations with a company called Marlin PR. We\u2019re one of the top technology agencies in the country and we are in the pursuit of better. We only have clients that we believe in, clients that are good for the economy, for the country, for the people. This means we don\u2019t touch certain categories of business.<\/p>\n

We have some very high-tech clients including 7 technology unicorns ie. they\u2019ve got billion dollar evaluations before they go public at IPA, some of which have. We\u2019re fairly unique in that we\u2019re a small agency with some massive technology clients such as Slack, Sony and companies that handle cyber security products. It\u2019s quite a big roster of some big people in tech.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very fun but it can be quite intense, you need to have the right thoughts, be creative, be professional, be strategic at the right times. So balancing all that is very stressful, whatever PR role you happen to be in.<\/p>\n

Liam: <\/strong>What originally made you sign up to a Hoopla impro course?<\/p>\n

Jared:<\/strong> My company is very progressive and allows a certain budget that we can spend on well-being or self-improvement that can help us out in our business. I struggled for a long time deciding how to spend that money until I came across a podcast presented by three comedians who were improvisers. I thought these guys were really funny but they were talking in a terminology that I didn\u2019t understand, so I googled it and found out this is a thing you can learn and it sounded amazing.<\/p>\n

Improv sounded like something I wanted to do as it sounded really useful for building self confidence and being able to communicate better with people who I was meeting for the first time. There can be occasions when you\u2019re going into a meeting cold and your mind isn\u2019t picking up on conversational cues, so you end up sitting there awkwardly and giving false smiles. In that sense, improv has delivered for me in being much more adept in those situations.<\/p>\n

Liam: <\/strong>In what other ways has improv impacted your professional life?<\/p>\n

I think the main takeaway really has been self confidence. In my job in public relations, the stakes are high and you need to get it right. However there are opportunities in team meetings and brainstorming sessions to go a bit crazier and riff off everyone to improvise and see where ideas can take you. Improv creates a safe space and allows you to do more creative things than an office environment might usually allow.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve set the right agenda in a meeting or a brainstorm and people are working towards a brief, if you think in a yes-and mindset you end up with something more creative or authentically true. If you\u2019re in a more inhibited mindset and are playing things very safe, you end up with smaller or boring ideas. If you can be more creative and if people can \u2018yes and\u2019 you can say: \u201cThat\u2019s great and I\u2019ve got a bit more to add onto that\u201d and you end up with a bigger and better idea. It also creates an idea that people can really believe in as they\u2019ve had a cooperative part in creating it.<\/p>\n

On a personal level improv has been one of the most fun things I\u2019ve ever done in my life, I think everyone should do it. I think if you\u2019re an extroverted person it gives you a platform to be loud and crazy. If you\u2019re an introverted person it\u2019s even better as you can do the same thing as it\u2019s one of the only platforms that lets you expose that part of yourself. The only warning I would give people is that you can pull some serious facial muscles from all the smiling, it\u2019s a genuine problem I\u2019ve discovered.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1513269911583{padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner el_class=”light-testimonial” css=”.vc_custom_1573824139002{padding-top: 60px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}”]