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Erin Diehl

CEO of improve it! | Keynote Speaker | Host of the Workday Playdate podcast | Top 1% Global Podcast | Author | Business Improv Edutainer

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Fee Range: Contact Speaker Exchange Agency

  • Founder of the professional development company, improve it!
  • Named “most electric keynote speaker” by clients at Amazon, US Cellular and more
  • Top 1% global podcast host, with “The Workday Playdate” podcast, and #8 in Top 100 Self Leadership Podcasts
  • Spoken on stage with Former President, Barack Obama
  • Amazon Best-Selling Author of “I See You! A Leaders Guide to Energizing Your Team Through Radical Empathy.” I See You! was also a #1 Top New Release, and #1 in Business Health and Stress.”
  • Self-proclaimed #failfluencer
  • Successfully coerced over 56,000 professionals to chicken dance

*Fee ranges are presented as a guideline only. Speaker fees are subject to change without notice. For an exact quote, please contact your Speaker Exchange Agency representative.

Erin “Big” Diehl is a Business Improv Edutainer, Failfluencer, and Keynote Speaker. Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin created improve it!: a unique professional development company that uses improvisational comedy and experiential learning to sharpen leaders and teams so they can thrive in ever-changing environments and do it with a whole lot of laughs along the way.

Erin Diehl is a graduate from Clemson University, a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional, and a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theater.

Having spoken on global stages with companies, including Amazon, LinkedIn, McKesson, and the Obama Foundation, Erin has an energy and message to share with the world that creates lasting ripple effects for change. As a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program and member of The Chicago Innovation Awards Women’s Cohort, Erin is a living testament to the power of life-long learning, and how working to understand ourselves helps others to do so, too.

Erin is the proud host of a Top 1% Global Podcast, The improve it! Podcast, which you can find anywhere you listen to pods! She is also a first-time author to the Amazon Best Seller & Top New Release book: I See You! A Leader’s Guide to Energizing Your Team Through Radical Empathy.

Among her many accolades, Erin is most proud of successfully coercing over 35,000 professionals to chicken dance.

When she’s not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys walking on the beach with her husband, son, and eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG DIEHL.

“F” WORDS AT WORK

Redefine Failure, and #Failfluence Your Way to Success

The Global Pandemic created a feeling of extreme failure for many people. This demonstration of defeat led to The Great Resignation and stifled innovation and less-than-ideal foundations of company culture.

Is there a secret sauce to redefining failure in the workplace? Yes. The answer is celebrating our failures (FAIL, YEAH!)

Erin Diehl has facilitated this keynote for companies globally and all over the US. She is your “keepin it real failfluencer bestie” who teaches you that failure is not an option – it is a MUST.

In this extremely interactive session, attendees will be on their feet as they practice viewing failure as “gifts” and gain an understanding that failing frequently leads to the fundamentals of success. Audience participation is required as Erin edutains through storytelling and improv-based activities. Wear comfortable shoes (shout out to the #slippersquad), and get prepared to get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

If you want to innovate, ideate, and up-level your professional presence and company culture – getting comfy with failure is the only way.

Participant Learning Objectives:

  • Understand that the fear of failure is very common, and learn tools to change the narrative
  • Learn ways to see your failures as “gifts’ versus mistakes – Hold yourself accountable to failing frequently
  • Become a #failfluencer to those around you
  • How to failfluence using the m.o.v.e.o.n. method
  • Overcome perfectionism and embrace failing your way to success!
Human Leadership in the Age of AI

Be prepared to use movement to START a movement of positivity and self awareness that will awaken your mind, body, and soul. Re: this is an extremely interactive 1-hour keynote session that infuses play, improv, and experiential learning.

Leading Yourself and Others When Everything Accelerates

Erin Diehl believes that leadership is not defined by titles but by the actions leaders take every day. In the age of AI, that belief matters more than ever. As technology accelerates decision-making, communication, and expectations, leaders are being asked to move quickly while still creating trust, connection, and clarity for their teams.

While AI can process information at scale, it cannot build culture, model humanity, or create psychological safety. That responsibility still belongs to leaders. In this interactive keynote, Erin Diehl brings human leadership back to the center of the conversation, showing why empathy, emotional intelligence, and intentional communication are essential leadership skills in a fast-moving world.

Throughout the session, leaders explore how their thoughts act as inputs, their words become prompts, and their actions create outputs that shape culture. AI does not create culture. It scales what already exists. When clarity, fear, empathy, or ego are present in leadership, acceleration simply makes those qualities louder, which is why unexamined leadership becomes one of the greatest risks in the age of AI.

Be prepared to use movement to START a movement of positivity and self-awareness that will awaken your mind, body, and leadership presence. This is an extremely interactive one-hour keynote session that infuses play, improv, and experiential learning to help leaders reconnect with themselves and with others.

If you want to enhance empathetic leadership at all levels and create a culture rooted in abundance rather than scarcity, (especially in the midst of rapid change and innovation), this is the session for you.

Participant Learning Objectives

Participants will:

  • Shift from scarcity-based thinking into more intentional, abundance-driven leadership that supports clarity and confident decision-making in fast-moving environments
  • Understand how thoughts act as inputs, how words and tone become prompts, and how both directly shape behavior, culture, and outcomes
  • Recognize how personal energy influences empathy, and how empathy impacts trust, communication, and team performance at scale
  • Reconnect with their visionary leadership power and learn how to harness it with intention, especially during times of acceleration and change
  • Create and implement their own i.D.i.e.h.l. Day, a practical framework for aligning thoughts, language, and actions in daily leadership moments
  • Translate thoughts and words into consistent, values-driven actions that model the kind of leadership they want to see in their teams
  • Walk away with a stronger understanding of self-awareness, empathy, and a clear roadmap for leading with humanity, confidence, and purpose in the age of AI
PRESENTATION SKILLS WORKSHOP: 90-minute virtual workshop or 2-hour in-person workshop

By the end of this experiential and interactive workshop, attendees will have practiced how to exude positivity before a presentation, understand how their emotional state affects performance, utilize their natural presentation style and creativity to prepare, and concisely communicate and connect with an audience.

improve it! conveys the theme that “Positivity + Preparation = Productive Presentation” and does this by incorporating improvisation activities. After each activity, we will debrief and relate it back to the key message. Following the live training, participants will receive three weeks of virtual training in an eLearning course called ‘Productive Presentations’. This course includes podcasts, pdfs, and worksheets in each email to guide participants through coaching and continue the conversation.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP: 90-minute virtual workshop or 2-hour in-person workshop

By the end of this experiential and interactive workshop, attendees will have learned and practiced how to use verbal and non-verbal techniques to enhance their interpersonal communication skills, more quickly build rapport, utilize ‘yes, and’ in their interactions, and establish trust with others.

improve it! conveys the theme that “What You Say and What You Don’t Say, Affects How Others Listen and Respond” and does this by incorporating improvisation activities. After each activity, we will debrief and relate it back to the key message. Following the live training, participants will receive three weeks of virtual training in an eLearning course called ‘Active Communication’. This course includes podcasts, pdfs, and worksheets in each email to guide participants through coaching and continue the conversation.

NETWORKING WORKSHOP: 90-minute virtual workshop or 2-hour in-person workshop

By the end of this experiential and interactive workshop, attendees will have practiced how to be fully present in the moment, how to offer support and engage in finding common ground with internal and external customers, and that the best way to connect and engage in conversations is to listen deeply and build on the other person’s ideas.

improve it! conveys the theme that “Being Present + Offering Support = Engaging Conversation” and does this by incorporating improvisation activities. After each activity, we will debrief and relate it back to the key message. Following the live training, participants will receive three weeks of virtual training all about Networking. This course includes podcasts, pdfs, and worksheets in each email to guide participants through coaching and continue the conversation.

TEAM BUILDING & COLLABORATION WORKSHOP: 90-minute virtual workshop

By the end of this experiential and interactive workshop, attendees will have practiced how to use communication as a tool to move forward in a positive way, and how to create supportive relationships and work in partnership with cross-functional teams.

improve it! conveys the theme that “Showing Up + Support = Collaboration” and does this by incorporating improvisation activities. After each activity, we will debrief and relate it back to the key message. Following the live training, participants will receive three weeks of virtual training in an eLearning course called ‘Strength in Support’. This course includes podcasts, pdfs, and worksheets in each email to guide participants through coaching and continue the conversation.

Please contact us to see testimonials.
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