Gayaneh Davoodian on the Ability to Quickly Adapt in Startups and in Life

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How to Handle Anything

Mary Lemmer

21 episodes

4 days ago

Welcome to How to Handle Anything, the podcast where we talk about, well, how to handle anything. There’s one certainty in life, and that’s that it’s filled with *uncertainty.* One of the things that helps us navigate chaos and change is the ability to improvise. This podcast is all about how we create, adapt, navigate change, and improvise in our own lives and work, so that we can handle anything. Join us for conversations with entrepreneurs, business leaders, athletes, entertainers, and more about their stories in how they improvised and navigated change in their lives and work.

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Self-Improvement

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Gayaneh Davoodian on the Ability to Quickly Adapt in Startups and in Life

How to Handle Anything

42 minutes 16 seconds

2 years ago

Gayaneh Davoodian on the Ability to Quickly Adapt in Startups and in Life

This week's episode features Gayaneh Davoodian.

Gayaneh took improv classes in high school, college, and the Upright Citizens Brigade. Currently she works as a venture capital (VC) Scout for an accelerator and a couple of seed stage funds.

Previously she was Chief of Staff at Sequel.io, Head of Enablement at a Stealth Startup, and Program Manager of People Operations and Talent Acquisition at Curated, where she developed the company’s Talent and People Operations department at the start of Series B, through Series C, oversaw headcount growth of nearly 3x employees, built processes from scratch as well as identified and implemented necessary tools to maintain this rapid growth.

She has a Master of Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from USC, and an Associates degree in Fashion from the Parsons School of Design.

During this episode we discuss…

When and why she first took an improv class
Improvising as a media buyer
Overthinking
Improvising as a recruiter at a Series B startup
Her ‘aha’ moment
Career paths outside of being an engineer, doctor, or lawyer
The unknown of startups and the need to improvise
The Chief of Staff role
Working with different kinds of people
Reacting in improv and what it teaches us about reacting in the workplace
Using improv as a venue to practice expressing yourself differently
The toppling over of suppressed emotions
Creating 2 creative t-shirts

From Gayaneh, when asked how improv has improved her life offstage,

“In a work setting, it helped me stay dynamic. You end up working with all different kinds of people (especially in startups). The improv skills I learned allowed me to listen and react to a person/situation as opposed to assuming/staying rigid in my thoughts and expressions. It helped me connect with people more.”

Connect with Gayaneh on LinkedIn and Instagram @gaya_dav

If you liked what you heard, Subscribe, write a review, tell a friend. If you didn’t like what you heard, well, try again next time. Each episode is different and we’re always improving (see what I did there?!)

Visit www.chooseimprove.com for resources and ways to improve in your life and work.

Join us for at chooseimprove.substack.com for weekly improvisations and monthly virtual sessions to practice improvising in your life.

Connect with us on Instagram @chooseimprove and linkedin.chooseimprove.com