Show Notes

Episode 218 Part 1 of 2 

Guest: Karith Foster

Title: How to say “yes,” use humor, and keep perfection in check

THIS WEEK’S TOPIC: 

Ever have self-doubt and perfectionist tendencies keep you from saying yes? Yes to the big assignment, yes to the new, “stretch” job, or yes to the new client because you’ve convinced yourself they will say “no” before you even bother to make your pitch? 

We essentially talk ourselves out of even trying because we are afraid we might fail. Does any of this sound familiar? 

This week, we’re tackling the importance of overcoming self-doubt and fear of failure in order to say “yes” to those stretch goals and big opportunities, even when we may not (and frankly shouldn’t) have all the answers up front!  

But, the story doesn’t end there. What happens when saying “yes” holds some complications that make it more challenging than we could ever have imagined? What then? 

This week’s guest is our “Sherpa” for how to make sense of an incredibly difficult experience. How to use humor, reframe the story (and the pain) into something that can actually lead us closer to where we are ultimately supposed to be, and how that process is incredibly important for building our influence in a way that can also have a real and powerful impact for ourselves and for others. 

THIS WEEK’S GUEST: 

Karith Foster is a reformed stand up comedian and journalist who found a way to make humor a transferable skill. Her company Inversity Solutions was born out of an experience that forced her to take a good, hard look at what was most important and how she could use her talents to help others. 

Her incredible resume includes: working for Barbara Walters in the early days of The View, managing Human Resources at Estée Lauder, countless gigs in television, rapid and film, and working as on air talent for Don Imus at Imus in the Morning. Today’s she’s the founder of her company “Inversity Solutions,” which is taking a different approach to diversity training and to bringing people together. 

Karith has written two books including her latest: “You can be perfect or you can be happy: how to let go, worry less, and enjoy life.”

KEY TOPICS in Part 1, Episode 218: 

“INVERSITY”: what it means and why words matter in helping us find common ground, and why Karith built her company on this concept. 

SAYING ‘YES’: What Karith learned about missed opportunity, and how it propelled her into her most challenging job. 

USING HUMOR: Is humor a good choice for everyone? What if you just aren’t that funny? 

HOW HUMOR BECAME A ‘TRANSFERABLE SKILL’ for Karith. 

WORKING FOR DON IMUS: Karith tells the story of how she came to work for the late Don Imus. In her telling of the story, she shares the racially offensive language used by both Don Imus and Bernard McGirk in a 2007 exchange about the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team. Neither Karith nor I condone this language, but we agreed that it was important to include as context for her story, and how the experience impacted the way she now thinks about her work at Inversity Solutions. 

NEXT WEEK: I’ll share Part 2 of my conversation with Karith in Episode 219, and we’ll dive into her terrific book: “You can be perfect or you can be happy: how to let go, worry less, and enjoy life!”

Please let me know what you thought of the episode! And, please share some love in the form of a review! Reviews and feedback help me improve our content and ultimately help me give YOU a better product week over week. And, it’s what FRIENDS do! So I’d be really grateful! 

I’ll also be sharing some additional takeaways about this and our other episodes on social media. Please be sure to follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Linked In you’ll find me @LauraCoxKaplan 

LINKS 

About Karith

Inversity Solutions

Karith’s book: “You Can Be Perfect or You Can Be Happy: How to Let Go, Worry Less, and Enjoy Life!”

The Policy Circle [where Karith and I met]

She Said/She Said Podcast Episode 217 “Seven Ways to Use Story to Tame Your Fear”

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