BOLD ENCOUNTERS PODCAST with Mark Cook + featuring Holly Mandel
Improv leadership in real time:
“Authenticity connects faster than expertise.”
“Perfectionism suffocates the best ideas.”
“Presence unlocks chemistry you can’t manufacture.”
What if your strongest leadership moments happened unscripted? Holly Mandel, founder and CEO of iMERGENCE Corporate Improv, brings decades of experience as a Groundlings alum who coached Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, worked with Lisa Kudrow, and taught by Will Ferrell. Holly reveals how the instincts that make iconic performers magnetic also make leaders compelling, trusted, and creatively alive. She and Mark explore how improvisation dismantles perfectionism, how presence builds instant rapport, and why embracing mistakes turns teams into co-creators instead of spectators.
Holly Mandel shows that leadership isn’t performance—it’s presence. When we stop trying to be perfect and start responding to the moment, we create teams that trust, collaborate, and innovate with us, not around us.