Laughter, Leadership, and Learning: A Business Comedy Extravaganza | Merit Kahn | Ep 153

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:00

Welcome to the Better Business better life Show. I’m your podcast host, Debra Chantry-Taylor. In this podcast, I interview business owners, iOS implementers, and business experts who share with you their experiences, tips and tools to help you create not only a better business but also a better life. At the end of each show, you will have three tips or tools that I get share that you can implement immediately into your life. If you want more information or want to get in contact, you can visit my website, Debra dot coach, that’s D B R A dot Coach, please enjoy the show. I’m coming to you from very rainy New Zealand at the moment. But my host today is actually coming from the other side of the world. She’s coming from the US and a mesmeric con. And she is a CEO of select sales development. She’s an author. She’s a speaker, and she is also a comedian. So lots of different facets to that personality. Welcome to the show merit.

Merit Kahn  00:54

Well, thank you, Debra. I appreciate the invitation to be here. No,

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:58

I’m looking forward to chat to you. That is a really unusual combination. So a writer, professional speaker comedians sales development, there’s a little bit about that have merit got to be where she is today.

Merit Kahn  01:11

Oh my goodness, let’s see, I’ve always been a writer and a performer. And I think those two things, were always fighting for my time and attention. And so I found a way to honor both of my passions by performing on stages and leading companies and teams in sales and leadership programs. And then the comedy just kind of, you know, when you can teach something, but you can teach it with some humor, people remember it more they share it, and it it really resonates. So. That’s a little bit about me.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  01:49

And so, you you do a lot of work with sales development. Tell me what that was about. Tell me a little bit about what you actually do?

Merit Kahn  01:57

Well, my business is really focused on working with companies and organizations that really want to grow and serve their markets and really provide the right solutions. So I early in my career was in radio advertising sales, I should back up, I should tell you that my father was in advertising sales, my mom sold real estate my my grandfather had a used car lot. And my grandmother sold Avon. So it was really it was never a question of what’s marriage going to do with her life. It was more a question of who am I wonder what marriage is going to sell. And it turns out that I started off selling radio advertising. And because I had become a very young manager early in my career, I went out to the marketplace to find some sales training, because I wasn’t really skilled in that area at that time, to be able to lead and help develop my team, which was one of the most important skills that a manager could provide. So I outsource that part. But in the course of doing that, I I got some great leadership and manager and sales training. And then when the radio station was on the chopping block to be sold, not because we weren’t good at what we do, but because that’s how you make money in radio, we I decided that it would be a good career move to actually work for the company that did our sales training. And so I did that for a number of years and then decided, I think I could build a better mousetrap as most entrepreneurs do. And that’s what happened.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  03:36

Perfect. Okay. And so it’s interesting. I know that for a lot of business owners, sales can be a little bit nerve wracking a little bit scary, right. So tell me a little bit about how you overcome that fear?

Merit Kahn  03:53

Well, I think the challenge is that most entrepreneurs open their business because they’re very good at what they do. In fact, they’re so good at what they do, they’ve earned the right to do this for themselves. The problem is, what they don’t realize is or they don’t realize early enough is that it’s really not good enough to be just good at what you do, you have to be great at getting the business. And what’s frustrating is that the guy or the gal down the hall is maybe not as good a service provider, you know, not as good in terms of their expertise, better and marketing and sales. And so that’s where it becomes very frustrating for entrepreneurs and when I, you know, share with them when I come along with my little program and they realize that look, it’s all of these things can be learned. You know, just like you learn to get good at the services and the expertise that you have. You can learn the techniques in that will make you better at developing business. And I think the most important thing is to keep your focus on solving problems for other people. That Challenge, the biggest challenge is to make sure that you’re not giving away all of your expertise to use your expertise so that you are able to ask the best questions, so that people really understand that you have something of value to share.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  05:14

That’s actually really good. So when use Yeah, you don’t want to completely solve their problem by giving away all the expertise, but show them that you know, enough that you can actually help them because you need to solve their problems. Yeah. You’ve done a lot of work around emotional intelligence, haven’t you? I have done a lot of work around emotional intelligence. Yes. Tell us, I mean, how does that sort of fit into what you’re doing? And and does that have a part to play in the whole comedy thing as well? I just wonder how those are interlinked?

Merit Kahn  05:43

That’s an interesting question. Um, you know, emotional intelligence was really a game changer for the the training, coaching, consulting, work I’ve been doing with entrepreneurs and, and businesses, because, you know, you can know all of the right things to say and do. But if you have a mindset that is not supportive of you implementing all of those things, you know, to say and do, you’re going to be in, you’re going to end up working against yourself, right. So it’s, it’s really important in terms of making sure that you have a solid foundation upon which you’re building the strong strengths and skills that you’re learning in a program like mine as an example. And so, I learned that, too, even when I was training and coaching people, or, you know, which I still do, I had to adjust my approach to meet the profile that somebody has. So for example, if you don’t have a strong impulse control, as an example, right, if somebody asks you a question in a sales conversation, then you are more likely to just answer it, as opposed to ask a better question to find out what they’re really getting at to find out what their challenge really is. And so when I work with somebody who doesn’t have impulse control, I’m first giving them some language to use that will help them put a pause on answering the question so that they can get the real question and answer that.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  07:21

I’m intrigued myself, I’m just thinking that guy can see that I’ve got some challenges, and myself being a little bit ADHD, but I’m also I know that I work with a lot of men, men are very much kind of solutions focus and want to jump in and want to provide an answer. And I try and encourage them encouraging for the EOS process to to ask more inquisitive questions and try and get to the real root cause of what’s going on rather than trying to jump in and solve things straight away. Is it? Is it just men? Or was it that is that just my perception? Maybe there’s, it’s more around personalities?

Merit Kahn  07:51

You know, it’s an interesting question. I, my personal philosophy, and yes, there’s some different, there’s some definite differences in, you know, in gender, in general, just in general with between the two genders. But I, I tend to look a little bit more beyond that, because there are certainly women that are very focused on the bottom line, when I can look into the perfect world is when I can do an emotional intelligence assessment, prior to coaching somebody, and then I’m coaching to the profile that I see, regardless of the packaging that it comes in. And I think that really kind of takes some of the the stereotypes out of play, which allows me to cut to the chase for each client, and really meet them where they are and how they need to learn. So I think one of the things that I impress upon all of my clients is the idea that questions change outcomes. And if you want someone to really appreciate you, as an expert, appreciate and be able to hear and be open to the solutions that you have, the very first thing you want to do is not, you know, come at them with all of this, you know, intense like, I’m so great I’ve got this is not your problem, you don’t want to you don’t want to push it on push yourself or your solutions on somebody, you want them to relax and make the decision for themselves. So you really want them to select you. In fact, the training arm of my business is called select sales development. When we spell it s e ll E, C, T, not because we don’t know how to spell the word select ever, but but because we actually want people to stop selling and start getting selected. And so in order to be selected, you have to ask somebody good questions so that they figure out for themselves. They want what you have.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  09:57

And there’s certainly an element of kind of building trust and rapport. Before we even get into solving solving their problems, right? Absolutely.

Merit Kahn  10:03

Which is where the comedy comes in.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  10:08

So how do you use the comedy in your sales training?

Merit Kahn  10:12

You know, I think people want to laugh, right? Comedy is a great equalizer it, you know, when you can help somebody laugh, they’re more relaxed, right? There’s a lot of research that shows, you know, laughter is good, right? That old expression, like laughter makes the best medicine, you know, I’m not sure about that. If you were in a car accident, I don’t want ambulance drivers like coming over and cracking jokes, I want them to hook me up with an IV, let’s go. But I do think that, you know, laughter just it, it lessens the stress. So when we are feeling stressed, we are less likely to be open and to have all of the neurons firing in our brains that allow us to, to come up with new solutions, or be able to hear solutions when they’re presented to us. So if I can use humor as a tool in my training, to help people, reduce the stress, be present in the room, relax and have a good time. They’re, they’re more receptive to the good lessons that are going to come in this program. And, you know, I think, in that respect, studying and really being a practitioner, and now a professional comedian has really helped set aside the programs that I deliver, because people enjoy going to them. Now, like, who doesn’t want to laugh?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  11:47

It’s absolutely true. I’ve actually very fortunate, I’ve got a friend who owns an improv theater, just around the corner here in Ponsonby. And we often go there, and we just love I mean, I don’t actually do the improv, but I go watch it regularly, and I really enjoy it. But it brings me to the question, do you think that comedy can be taught? Or is it something that is naturally inherent in a person?

Merit Kahn  12:06

I think like anything, there’s people that are gonna have some natural skills, it’s hard to teach timing, but I have seen people learn it. You know, like, you could probably teach me basketball, but I’m five foot nothing. And there’s, my natural skills are probably not available, but you could teach me how to shoot a free throw, and you could teach me how to block and guard and all those things. And I do think I mean, I, when I took a comedy workshop back in 2014, I didn’t know the structure of a joke. I didn’t know the the element like how to use a pause, and I didn’t, well, I I knew a little bit about that for my professional speaking. Because at that point I had done I had been a speaker for more than a decade. But, but how to craft a tight joke is definitely a skill that I learned. And there are definitely questions that I was taught as a comedian to ask about every situation. So now, you know, I wrote for the example a couple of weeks ago, I got a speeding ticket. And it was it was deserved. It was well earned. not proud of that, but that’s the truth. And so, you know, initially I’m upset, right? Like, Darren, you get caught, right? Like, ah, and you’re upset. It’s like, oh, I didn’t want to spend this money. And then I thought, all right, well, as long as I have to spend $135 on a speeding ticket, how am I going to turn that into money? How am I going to make a couple of good jokes that are going to get me some more stages just from this experience? And so you learn to ask yourself questions like, what’s funny about this? What’s embarrassing about this? What’s unusual that has me observe, like how I’m observing this, right? And so, you know, there were things that came out of it. I haven’t written the joke yet. But I think that the whole point is, they say that tragedy plus time equals comedy. And from my perspective, no one said it had to take a long time. So my worldview really is how quickly can I get to the comedy? How quickly can I find what’s funny about this? And, you know, there’s, there’s plenty of examples and as an entrepreneur to find the funny in situations that would otherwise be stressful.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  14:33

And I don’t think it’s the only way I can cope with it personally. I mean, I’ve I’ve had some pretty major sort of tragedies in the business and I’ve had to just about the time yeah, of course, it was devastating, but you have to look back and just laugh at it. And now I use it when I’m working with iOS clients. You know, I talk about about finances particularly because I talk about where we are the delegate and elevate you know, where I God given talent is what we’re really really good at. And in that bottom right hand quadrant, which is the stuff that you’re not good at and that you don’t like, is account thing for me, it’s just not in my nature, I have zero desire to do it, I understand it, I get it, but I don’t like to do it. And I always laugh and joke as of when I’m talking to them about that stuff because I run an event center for many, many years, and it got closed down due to COVID. And when we actually closed it down, we had something like $30,000 worth of overdue invoices that had never gone out. Because I was ultimately the person was supposed to be accountable finances. I’m not a finance person. So yeah, and I think when you look back on it, I can laugh at it at the time, maybe not quite so much. But you know, that’s, yeah, you’ve got to love. You and

Merit Kahn  15:34

I are wired exactly the same. That was my that was my Achilles heel, too. And I had, I had to learn the hard way about accounts receivable that yeah, that’s.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  15:46

Well, and I think also, I mean, one of the things I just picked up from we’re talking about is that even in comedy, there’s actually a process, right? So it’s a little bit like, selling has a process, people have approached everything in the US probate process, but comedy actually has a process. I mean, yes, it doesn’t mean that because you follow the process, you’ll naturally be hugely funny, but there is certainly a way of approaching it that can be replicated, I suppose. And I

Merit Kahn  16:08

think there were a lot of lessons that I learned from the business world sales in particular, that helped me in comedy, in ways that I couldn’t have known otherwise, right. So for example, in sales, you know, sales 101, you are taught, you know, know your buyer, right? Like, you have to understand certain things about the buying persona, so that you can adjust your approach not so that you can, you know, be what they need, and like, you know, be wishy washy, but so that you can really speak their language. And there’s lots of things, you know, your audience is probably familiar of, you know, like disc profiles and behavioral based assessments and things like that, that you can, you know, just so you can understand who you’re talking about, are they bottom line? Are they story? Are they numbers oriented? Right, like all those different things? Yeah, well, in comedy, I could do the same exact comedy set for two very different audiences, and one is going to go crazy for it. And another one would be like, it was okay. You know, and so the difference is that, so for example, I did a set in Toronto, Canada one, this was back in 20 2016, I think it was. And at that time, I was going through a difficult divorce, and all my jokes were about my, my terrible marriage, and you know, my difficult spouse and all of that. Well, I did this comedy said, at about 1030, at night, on a Wednesday in downtown Toronto. Now, think about that. Who do you think is in the audience at 1030? At night, in downtown, they were not the people who have been married for 10 years. They were young 27 Somethings dating, right. Like they couldn’t relate to my my jokes. At that time, I didn’t have enough of a range to look at the audience to think intelligently. I wonder who’s here at 1030 on a Wednesday night. And so I learned the hard way that it was important to pick the right set that would appeal best to that audience. And, you know, I think I learned that from the sales world. But it became really obvious to me on that comedy stage.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  18:25

Yeah, yeah, has it there’s a lot of lessons isn’t a between the two that you can actually apply, which is fantastic. I was reading your profile that that your agency sent through. And I have to say there was one sort of little bullet point that really caught my attention. There was three magic questions to transform what’s possible. Can you tell me a little bit about what that is? What those three magic questions are?

Merit Kahn  18:49

Well, you know, there’s, there’s actually, I think, maybe I need to update that there’s probably just one magic question now. So, and it really comes? Well, okay. Let me just say it this way. When I, the first thing that I used to teach people in sales or leadership program, was, you know what to say? Right? Like, what do you say, to be effective with somebody? And how are you, you know, how can you match your solutions to their pains, right, so those are all sorts of very, you know, standard things that you would expect in a in a training program. What I didn’t realize early enough in my career, and sometimes I feel like I should pick up the phone and call all of those early clients and be like, wait, wait, there was one other thing. I realized that the first step to a close deal is always an open mind. And once I figured that out, I realized that what I first had to do before I could get anybody to Before anybody really kind of implemented some of the good questioning and the rapport skills and all the other things that I was teaching them in a course, I really had to help them, open them open their minds first as to a new possibility, and then open the mind of the person next to them that they’re trying to be influential with, not in a manipulative way. But just, you know, I can’t solve your problem if you’re not open to hearing a solution. And so, you know, there’s, I tried to make it fancier and more complicated and, you know, like, sexy, but the truth is, it’s really four words. And basically, it boils down to asking the question, Are you open to? And when I asked something like, Well, you know, let me tell you why this works. Yep, please. First of all, most of us want to be perceived as open minded. So a lot of times, I’ll ask an audience in a keynote program, you know, how many of you are would consider yourself open minded and everybody raises their hand? Oh, all right. Well, how many of you consider yourselves to be more open minded than the average person? And a couple hands go down, but most of the hands still stay up? Okay. Great. You know, and then I asked, well, how many of you know somebody who is not open minded? Right, and everybody raises their hand? Yeah. So, you know, you and I have established we’re not great at the accounting side of things. So I don’t know math is not my super strength. But I do know that 95% of us cannot be better than the average that one I know. And there was a study done in Pepperdine University a number of years ago. And they asked those questions. And they found that 95% of people do think that they are more open minded than the average person? Well, I think that, you know, we all the thing is, we all want to be perceived as open. So if we tap into that, if I were to ask you, Hey, are you interested in hearing about the programs, I lead for conferences? And are you interested in hearing more about my one woman show, it will be very easy for you to say, No, thanks, not interested. And you could still sleep at night, you’re very nice person, like you are losing no sleep over telling me you’re not interested. But it would be a little bit harder for you to say, you know, if I said, Hey, Debra, are you open to hearing a little bit about the work that I the programs that I lead for conferences and events? And would you be open to hearing about my one woman show and it’d be much harder for you to say, no, no. That said something about who you are. Right, that says something about, about how you’re wired? And we don’t want to admit that we’re not open. So it’s, it’s not like so that’s why are you open to is a great short phrase works for everything. It has been known to even work on teenagers in certain situations. So that would be my my magic phrase.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  23:08

And you’re absolutely right. And that completely repositions that entire question. And yes, it was back on the person. Okay, brilliant. Well, I’m tell accommodate. So the other thing is, you know, you have got a basement comedy stage.

Merit Kahn  23:24

Yes, I do. That was kind of a fluke. I was rehearsing my one woman show with my director in New York, and I’m in Colorado. So I had my set, all my costumes, props, everything set up in my basement. And with my laptop on Zoom, and we were rehearsing one day, we had this fantastic run through, and I said, Gosh, it’s a shame that nobody’s here. Nobody else saw that. That was a that was a killer performance. And she said, you know, like, Yeah, you should probably put some tables and chairs in your basement. And I was like, hmm, maybe, maybe I will. Well, then I got out of hand as most things that I get involved with do. And the next thing I knew I had a carpenter friend build a stage and I had a, you know, a guy who’s done the AV for a very big concert concert hall out here. Red Rock has actually, you know, installed lights and the sound system for me and I bought professional mics and the whole bit and seating for 52. And now I have comedy shows in my basement. So it’s fun.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  24:32

That sounds like a lot of fun. So how many can you actually sit down there?

Merit Kahn  24:35

I can see 52 And then I’ve got sort of this like, sort of side greenroom area for all the comedians to sit on these nice couches next to it and see the show but you know, I live in a neighborhood right in the suburbs. And so I have to kind of do it a little bit on the down low. I don’t want to upset any of my neighbors and it’s not really a business because You can’t run a business like this out of your house. But, you know, it runs on suggested donations so that my comedians get paid because I do believe in paying for talent. And everybody just brings, you know, brings their own whatever they want to enjoy as a beverage. And, you know, we have fun nights.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  25:16

That sounds super cool. Okay, good. Now, I will be recently because we actually spoke before the actual podcast and you said that you are a big EOS fan. And obviously, my, my listeners know that I am a big EOS advocate. So can you tell us a little bit about your journey with EOS? And why you even decided to take on board EOS?

Merit Kahn  25:36

Yeah, I really love the EOS system, I read all the books in the category. What I what I think most, you know, shifted for me by learning it was that, you know, I really ran my business for so many years as a lone ranger, right? Like, I’m a visionary, I can be the implementer when I have to. And I have those skills. And as most entrepreneurs can kind of ride both of those, you know, sections of your brain, but I, I would get distracted, right? Visionaries coming up with so many ideas. And really, once I understood the distinction between a visionary and an implementer, and how those two styles can really support each other, and I, you know, I just got so much farther, I worked with an implementer for two, more than two years. And every Monday, we would meet at noon. And he would basically tell me all the ideas that I wasn’t allowed to do, we had our L 10. Meetings, but I loved having the structure of it, right? Because for years, I would get in on a Monday morning, and I would you know, be overwhelmed by all the things that were to do. I didn’t have my, my priorities for the quarter really clear. I didn’t. I didn’t have a good system to process issues. And learning that l 10. structure was super helpful for me. And in terms of being able to say, Nope, this is a good idea. But I’m going to park this for later because, you know, these, these are my my priorities. And it just, you know, even as an entrepreneur, I mean, I’m not the ideal. Personally, I’m not the ideal client for EOS just because it was really just me. I didn’t have the team, but even that accountability chart, you don’t call it that right? Well, no accountability. Yeah, that is the right language. You know, when I saw my name and all the boxes, I was like, oh, something’s got to change. But then I was able to see oh, okay, I can outsource this one I can, you know, this one really should be an employee, this one could be a contractor, like, this one doesn’t need to be full time, right? So I was able to see my business from a very, very different vantage point than I really ever had. And it was a game changer for me. No,

Debra Chantry-Taylor  28:08

No. that’s awesome. Yeah, no, I think the accountability chart, it really does. When you start seeing your name, it gets all the boxes. It’s, it’s a bit of a wake up call, because you realize why you feel like you’re completely overwhelmed. You can’t do everything. And I think that, you know, yes, obviously for us as implementers we work with much bigger companies. But I mean, in my own business, there’s only actually two of us and a couple of outsource people, and still have not if when I wasn’t having level 10s, it was very easy to put your head in the sand, ignore things, try and juggle all the balls keep everything up in the air. But when you’ve got that level 10 meeting and that accountability, there’s there’s no escape becomes pretty obvious what the issues are, what you need to do where the focus needs to be. It’s pretty cool. Yeah, how cool. Well, thank you for sharing that. Now, I always ask our guests to give us kind of three top tips or tools you’ve always been, or would have been very generous in terms of sharing that magic question. What else would you like to share? What are the three things you’d love other people to know? That will help in their business?

Merit Kahn  29:04

I think some of the things that I share with my business audiences, number one, questions, change outcomes. So you know, really play with that question, Are you open to and just see how it shifts somebody else’s response and their ability to really hear the solutions that you provide? So that would be my first thing. The second thing I would recommend to people is just, I think it’s really valuable to have more information about your own wiring. You know, I was taught early on if you want to be successful in sales or leadership, learn everything you can about other people. And you think that’s good advice to a point, but what it left out was one of those other people is should actually be yourself. So everything, every little nook and cranny you can learn about your self and how your how you process how your what your worldview is and the foundation that you’re layering all of The training that you get, and all of the experiences that you have on top of is super important. So I’m a little bit biased, but as an emotional intelligence certified coach for more than a dozen years, I really think there’s a lot of value there. And so I would highly recommend to people that they find a certified coach using a validated assessment tool like me. But I think that, you know, in a couple of coaching sessions, you just get a lot that spills over into really every aspect of your life. I would say the third thing is get a little bit more laughter in your life, go see comedy, whether you like improv or stand up or, you know, something. But you know, that’s come see my theater show, if that’s available to you, or, you know, it’s just, it’s fine. I think, I think, you know, laughter lightens the load you hold. So especially if you’re feeling stressed out, and you can’t imagine going outside and like you’re too stressed to be entertained. That’s exactly when you need a little comedy in our life.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  31:01

Perfect. So a couple of questions for you for you. First of all, where are your shows? Where can somebody come and see you if you’re doing doing your comedy? First of all?

Merit Kahn  31:09

Yeah, well, right now, I’m setting up tours for the US. And I set up my tours and in a kind of a unique way from other performances, I booked my keynotes at conferences, because that’s the you know, the the bigger revenue stream in my business right now. And once I’m there, I will put together a show. So either a theater hires me to bring my show to them, or I rent the theater and produce it all myself. So you know, if you are thinking, Oh, that would be kind of interesting. We’d like to, we’d like to have her at our theater. I am happy to get on a plane. And by the way, New Zealand’s one of my favorite places on the planet. Been there three times. So yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  31:56

I guess they are, you know, I really want to come to New Zealand. I keep going. Why don’t you have such a long way? Unless I’m, I came to Dallas for a two day conference in January. If I can come to Dallas for a two day conference, I’m pretty certain you can come here for three or four. We call it I don’t do we just make it up?

Merit Kahn  32:11

Yeah, yeah, no, I’m a huge fan. So I’m happy to get on a plane and come perform for you wherever you need. But the best the best place to find me. And to get on the list for upcoming shows and announcements. I also do workshops around the experiences and the lessons from my show that apply and can help people rewrite their past to rewire their future, which is kind of a theme of my show, I basically, my show is my life story as told through the lens of comedy. And so there’s a lot of rich lessons that I share with my business audiences and my theater audiences. And and now I’ll be delivering workshops so that people can find the lessons in their own life. So that the hub of all things is my my name, my website is merit con.com. So M er ay t khn.com. And there, you can find out about all three of the types of stages that I perform on and how we can connect.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  33:09

Perfect. And tell me just very quickly a little bit about your keynote speaking. So what is it that you do for? Um, I’m assuming it’s for companies who are looking to have some inspirations, motivation, but learning what, tell me about that? Yeah.

Merit Kahn  33:24

You know, it’s interesting, because I have a training background, so I have lots of content, and I can go very deep. And oftentimes, when I’m invited to perform at a conference, or for a company, I’m actually doing a keynote and a breakout session. So in the keynote, will, will be fun and inspiring. And there’ll be laughter and it’ll be very entertaining, and also very interactive. So what I actually do is I take stories from my show, and I bring some of the costumes and props to make it a little bit more fun. And I and then we unpack I take a take people in a sort of Let’s peek behind the curtain. How does that story relate to you as a leader? What are you pulling out of that for you? Right? And so it’s a it’s a really fun, I tell several stories, and then we have all these interactions and people leave going, Wow, that was the most unique keynote experience I’ve had and the time flies by and the lessons are sticky, and people really love it. And then in a breakout session, I’m like, alright, we did the entertaining thing. Let’s roll up our sleeves. Now let’s, let’s do some, some deep work so that we can you you have something that you can really implement and take back to your teams. And you have a lot of you have a deeper knowledge about some of the things that we started talking about in the in the keynote. So sometimes I will actually in a couple of weeks. I’m doing the breakout session first and then I’m the closing keynote. And that works really well too. So cool.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  34:56

Okay, perfect. Well, look. So that was Meerut. khan.com to me nyati khn.com And that’s got all of the information on the comedy on the keynote speaking on the workshops and of course about yourself as well. So please do go visit that. He wrote. Look, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate you joining us. Thank you for sharing your your knowledge and your wisdom and a bit of humor to make this happen.

Merit Kahn  35:19

 Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  35:21

Thank you. Thanks for listening to the podcast show better business better life. My name is Debra Chantry-Taylor. I’m an EOS implementer family business advisor, business and leadership coach podcaster and speaker. However, I’m also a business owner with several current business interests. I’m fortunate to have live the high life with all the lifestyle, the toys, you name it, and then I’ve lost it all. Not only once but twice in two spectacular train wrecks. I know what it’s like to experience the highs and lows. I came across EOS when they launched into New Zealand using my entrepreneurs playground and Event Center in Parnell Auckland. I love the simplicity of the tools and their philosophies fitted my personal brand statement perfectly. The brilliance is in the simplicity. I’ve always been passionate about seeing entrepreneurs live the life they love. And now I help them live that EOS life doing what they love with people they love making a huge difference in the world being compensated appropriately and with time to pursue other passions. If you want more information or want to get in contact about using ELS and your business, you can visit my website at Deb Deborah dot coach that’s dub dub dub Deborah D B R A dot coach. Thanks for listening.