Episode 62 - Kari Ginsburg: Go Big or Go Eff Yourself

This week, Samantha talks with professional actor and coach, Kari Ginsburg. Kari is the owner of Uproar Coaching, LLC, a boutique coaching practice that provides coaching support and tough love to female entrepreneurs. Lastly, but certainly not least, Kari is proud to be mom to rescue dogs.

Kari walks us through her experiences to explain how lessons from the stage can apply to everybody's day-to-day. She got into acting as a child because a pediatrician recommended it to her parents to help with her shyness. Now, she considers herself to be an "overcompensating introvert" and looks back on getting into acting as such a young age as a freeing exercise that allowed her to play many different parts as many different people and grew her ability to be silly and outgoing.

Kari explains that each one of us does some degree of acting every single day. As a coach, she likes to explore what she calls the "Funknown." This is the area between where you are and where you want to go; a place to explore and play. Kari believes that people, in general, should try to fail really hard. She explains that there are negative feelings associated with failure and the more power that we give to those feelings, the harder it is for somebody to want to fail.

She explains what it means to take care of our "scene partners," even when we're not on a stage. Scene partners are those who are sharing the stage of your life. Kari explains that we should take care of ourselves first, but that we have to be aware of our scene partners and provide them with enough nourishment so they can continue to grow themselves. You have to give more to get more.

Her motto, and the title of this episode, is "go big or go eff yourself." She believes that you have to make the big choices in your life and that if you don't get out of your comfort zone in life, you won't be able to grow or learn. It's a pretty simple cycle; make big choices, learn from your experiences, and try again.

Kari goes on to discuss the importance of breathing and the life force of breath in theater. You need to breathe to be able to speak and to emote. Holding your breath creates tension and you aren't able to speak or emote, so when life gets intense, you need to remember to breathe and to take a moment. She expands the idea of breathing further into the element of shared breathing. Kari wrote an article about this at the beginning of the pandemic. The article explains that the actors and the audience share the same air and that there's a point just before a show begins that the audience and the actor have a "shared inhalation" where there is an unspoken agreement between them that they are ready to suspend disbelief and go on the journey together.

Kari wraps things up by talking about tough love. It's not about being aggressive, it's about understanding that it's scary to want something beyond what you have today. You have to meet people where they are without judgment and you have to honor the human experience. The idea behind tough love, for Kari, is to push that person toward brilliance. Kari wants to root for people when they can't root for themselves.

Kari Ginsburg can be found at:
kariginsburg.com

If you are interested in coaching with Kari, visit:
uproarcoaching.com
(Enter the word "Flush" into the referral box to receive a discount with Uproar Coaching!)