Resistance has a way of pointing to exactly what a person needs to do next. It’s not always just the easy things. It’s the things that feel too big, too exposed, too far outside a comfort zone to seriously consider. For Leisa Reid, that thing was stand-up comedy, a form of public speaking she once ranked as the scariest in the world, even though speaking in front of crowds was already her career.
This is the tension so many people live inside without naming it. There’s a gap between being good at something familiar and being willing to try something unfamiliar in the same general category, and that gap can hold a person in place for years. If you’ve ever brushed off a suggestion that you try something because it felt too exposed, even as some part of you wondered if you could actually do it, this is for you. It’s for anyone who has noticed themselves saying no a little too fast, a little too automatically, to something that scares them.
Reid had heard for years that she should try stand-up. Friends and family told her constantly that she was funny. Her answer was always the same. Then a stranger at a conference made her an offer that removed every excuse she had left, and Reid found herself making a deal that would change how she saw her own capacity to grow. Her story is less about comedy and more about what happens in the space between resistance and action, and what a person can learn about themselves by paying attention to what they keep avoiding.
Why saying no fast can be a clue worth examining
Reid had a script ready anytime someone suggested she try stand-up. She said thank you, then explained why it would never happen. “There is no way I would ever do that. That is so scary, period,” Reid said. She also believed she lacked the raw material, since she considered herself naturally funny but not someone who could plan a joke or remember a punchline.
That changed when a woman she met at a virtual event, who happened to manage a comedy club, offered to coach her for free. Reid tried to find a way out of the offer, and the harder she tried, the more she suspected that reaction meant something. “I got an opportunity that I really tried to get out of and then realized because I want to get out of it so bad, I should just say yes,” Reid said.
She describes this as a pattern she recognizes in herself now: when something she wants collides with what she currently has, resistance shows up first. Rather than treating that resistance as a stop sign, she has learned to treat it as information. “I know the human body and behavior enough to know there will be resistance,” Reid said. “I’m pretty down for like, okay, let’s expand.”
Turning a scary yes into a plan with guardrails
Agreeing to try stand-up didn’t mean agreeing to unlimited risk. Reid was careful to describe the offer as “a safe, risky yes,” something different from being asked to jump off a cliff. The coaching sessions gave her a structure, and she built her own guardrails around the rest, including a firm decision about the kind of comedian she wanted to be.
She chose material that made fun of herself rather than other people, ruling out jokes about her husband or anyone else in her life. “What can I do about myself that’s funny? So I thought, that’s the kind of comedian I am,” Reid said. The plan also had a deadline. Instead of hosting a birthday party, Reid decided her birthday would be the night of her comedy debut, giving herself roughly three months to build a five-minute set.
That timeline forced a level of preparation that surprised her. She spent far more time rewriting and rehearsing than she expected, cutting material, adjusting timing and searching for a style that actually landed. When Amy asked what the hardest part of getting ready had been, Reid didn’t point to the fear of the stage. She pointed to the work itself. “I spent so much energy and time on that 5 minutes,” Reid said, adding that her next goal would be learning to write comedy more efficiently.
Rehearsing discomfort before performing it
Reid didn’t walk into her birthday show cold. She found an open mic that guaranteed her a slot, then did a dry run there a full week ahead of time, in front of a room of strangers who were also working out their own sets. “I need to just get eyes on this place,” Reid said of that decision. She paid for a second recording that week, meaning she effectively went through her debut twice before the people she loved ever saw it.
The difference between that rehearsal and the real event was audience. At the dry run, she was one of several amateurs performing to a small, unfamiliar crowd. On her birthday, she filled the room with friends and family, asked to go on last, and, in her words, brought the house down. She’d told her guests exactly what she needed from them. “You do not have to bring me a gift, but you do have to laugh,” Reid said.
That two-step approach, rehearsing the hard thing in a low-stakes setting before doing it in front of people whose opinions mattered most, offered Reid a way to test her material and her nerves separately, rather than facing both at once.
What changed once the fear was actually faced
Reid’s biggest fear about public speaking, aside from stand-up, had already been resolved by years of professional experience helping entrepreneurs prepare talks. Stand-up exposed a fear she hadn’t tested. Getting through it shifted how she saw herself, even if the shift was subtle. She described forgetting, at times, that she’d done it at all, until a friend introduced her to someone as a stand-up comedian and she found herself correcting the label.
She hasn’t chased a comedy career or the lifestyle that comes with performing in clubs late into the night. What she has kept is a running list of material, jotted down whenever something strikes her as funny, in case she ever wants to build on it. The larger takeaway, for her, wasn’t about comedy at all. “I believe everybody has a brilliance to share,” Reid said. “There’s no one who can do your pushups for you when you’re on stage.”
That belief connects directly to a broader pattern Reid has noticed in her professional life, where clients wrestle with the same instinct to say no to visibility before they’ve tested whether the fear is still accurate. Fear doesn’t disappear with experience, she said. It gets faced in stages, through decision, preparation and performance, whether the stage is a comedy club or a keynote.
Reid’s stand-up debut wasn’t really about comedy. It was about what happens when someone stops treating resistance as the final word and starts treating it as a prompt worth investigating. She had years of evidence that she was funny and years of certainty that stand-up was off limits, and both of those things were true right up until she tested the second one. The gap between the two didn’t close because the fear vanished. It closed because she built a plan small enough to survive the fear, then followed it anyway.
That’s the part worth borrowing from her story, whether or not stand-up comedy is anywhere on the list. The next time a suggestion gets an automatic no, it might be worth asking what that fast answer is protecting, and whether the thing on the other side of it is actually as dangerous as it feels.
This article was inspired by an interview with Leisa Reid and Amy Stone on The Art of Imperfect Adulting podcast. https://imperfect-adulting.captivate.fm/listen or https://www.youtube.com/@imperfectadulting To hear more compelling conversations like this one and receive special offers from our guests directly to your inbox, join our email community today.
Stand-Up Comedy: Interview Transcript Leisa Reid with Amy Stone | The Art of Imperfect Adulting | August 2026
Amy Stone [00:00:00]:
This is The Art of Imperfect Adulting. I’m your host, Amy Stone. I share stories from real people who have already been through some hard stuff.
Amy Stone [00:00:10]:
Why? So that you don’t feel alone while you’re busy figuring out your own life.
Amy Stone [00:00:15]:
Let’s do this. Hello, friends. My guest today is Leisa Reid. Leisa, are you ready to have a fun chat? I am.
Leisa Reid [00:00:27]:
Absolutely.
Amy Stone [00:00:28]:
All right.
Amy Stone [00:00:28]:
I start all of my conversations with the very same question. What part of the world do you call home? And secret, secret part of the conversation or the question, what do you like about what you call home?
Leisa Reid [00:00:40]:
I call home Rancho Santa Margarita in Southern California, specifically Orange County. And what do I love about it? I love that it’s peaceful, that it’s safe. That it’s beautiful weather and I live like I’m on vacation.
Amy Stone [00:00:58]:
That sounds like a lot of really wonderful stuff to love. I appreciate you sharing that. Okay, my second question is my variant on how to ask the age-old tale of, you know, how old are you without actually asking how old are you. So which of the following generation descriptions matches your age? Are you a Silent Generation, a Baby Boomer, Gen X?
Leisa Reid [00:01:26]:
Well, I’m technically 28, but I identify as a Gen X.
Amy Stone [00:01:29]:
Very good.
Leisa Reid [00:01:33]:
And I’m just kidding. I am officially a Gen X.
Amy Stone [00:01:36]:
Very good. Very good. I would say I— so I haven’t always asked this question. It’s, you know, just part of the way to give people who are in the audience a way to align and match and build rapport with the guest. But so I haven’t been categorizing it, but I would bet that the majority of the guests I’ve had so far are actually Gen X, which is interesting because part of the premise of the show is to hopefully, you know, cross over the age groups. But, you know, we’ll see how I do with that. And so here we are. All right. So the topic of the day, not whether or not one person is Gen X and is not, is actually stand-up comedy. And so I’m very excited for this conversation. Are you ready to talk about comedy?
Leisa Reid [00:02:16]:
Let’s do it.
Amy Stone [00:02:18]:
All right.
Amy Stone [00:02:19]:
All right.
Leisa Reid [00:02:19]:
Very good.
Amy Stone [00:02:21]:
I don’t think that stand-up comedy is what most people know about you. I think that you have, you know, some definitely, but that’s the question. What percentage of your connection group, your professional and friend group and family group, knows that this is a part of who you are?
Leisa Reid [00:02:38]:
Well, probably a very small percentage. My close family knows. And some of my close friends know, but it is not something I share publicly. And I’ve had a very short, let’s say one-night stand relationship with standup comedy. So, okay. That’s partially why people don’t know about it.
Amy Stone [00:03:03]:
All right. I, I appreciate that. That is one of the questions that we’ll talk about later is like, how, you know, are, is this gonna, are you, we, is this gonna be a big thing? All right. So like, let’s figure out, and I will explain later. why we’re talking about stand-up comedy, because one of the fun things about this particular conversation is that I had this idea to talk about it, not you. Usually it goes the other way around. Guests pitch what they wanna talk about, but I actually came to you and was like, I was like, yeah, yeah, we could talk about that, but how about we talk about this other thing that I know about you? So how did it come to be though? Like, how— did you dream of being a comedian when you were a kid? Did you have a friend who was already doing stand-up comedy? How did this start?
Leisa Reid [00:03:44]:
Yeah. None of that happened. So I, up until maybe a year and a half ago, in my mind, I always thought that would be the scariest thing in the whole wide world. Or, you know, one of the scariest ways of speaking, I would say, would be stand-up comedy. And I, I had that thought because I am— the irony is that I’m a public speaker. I mean, I teach people about public speaking and I also happen to be fairly funny and would get a lot of feedback from people. They would always say to me, oh my gosh, you’re so funny, you should be a stand-up comedian. And I would have my answer and say, oh my gosh, thank you for saying that, but there is no way I would ever do that. That is so scary, period. So it wasn’t a dream from childhood at all. And I— another objection that I had was I am funny naturally, but not planned.
Amy Stone [00:04:42]:
Okay.
Leisa Reid [00:04:42]:
Like I am the worst when it comes to remembering jokes, punchlines. I usually botch the whole thing. I don’t, I have, sometimes I’ll take a picture of a joke because I know I will not remember it, not even like an hour later. So there’s, that was my other objection of like, I couldn’t do it because I can never remember jokes. Okay.
Amy Stone [00:05:01]:
So extemporaneously in the situation, you can react with One-liners.
Leisa Reid [00:05:07]:
Yes, I call it quick-wittedness. Like, I’m very quick-witted. I am really good at coming up with funny metaphors. I am quick on the ball if something occurs. I usually am saying something funny. And so because of that, my friends and family are constantly cracking up at what I do. The issue up until about a year and a half ago was But once it was over, I would never remember what I said.
Amy Stone [00:05:35]:
Okay.
Leisa Reid [00:05:36]:
So it wasn’t like I had a trunk full of jokes.
Amy Stone [00:05:40]:
So you were getting feedback from people that you were funny and you had people randomly suggest, which this is definitely a thing. Like if you have some punchlines in your book, people will say, I’ve had people say that to me, you’re so funny, I can see you doing standup. I’ve never done it because like you, I don’t have— it’s not— I don’t have a— it’s a performance. Like the standup is a performance. And I don’t have that ready to go. So— but I’m fascinated that the fact that part of this is that in your mind this was the scariest form of public presentation that you could think of and you were— you never had any intention of doing it and then you did do it. No.
Leisa Reid [00:06:23]:
Yeah.
Amy Stone [00:06:23]:
So you didn’t have a set ready to go that you just jumped onto an open mic. Um, and it was a scary thing. How, how then, let’s walk through, tell me more about how that changed. Cuz that’s not just a, oh, maybe, and then yes, it was like a hard no to, oh, well now I’ve done it.
Leisa Reid [00:06:41]:
Yes. This is one of those times where you, I got an opportunity that I really tried to get out of and then realized because I wanna get out of it so bad, I should just say yes. So it was one of those opportunities. And so I was speaking to virtually to to a group in Vegas, and one of the attendees booked a call with me, and we were chatting, and she said, you know, I’m a manager of a stand-up comedy club, and I think you would be great. And I went into my regular spiel. Oh my gosh, thank you so much. That’s— I get that all the time. There’s no way in God’s green earth I would do that. And she said, well, what if I coached you on how to create a set? Again, I’m thinking, how can I get out of this? And she’s like, I’ll do it for free. And I’m like, oh, come on. And she’s really like, just stop being so generous.
Amy Stone [00:07:42]:
Yeah.
Leisa Reid [00:07:43]:
And I— she really overcame every objection that I had. But the deal was, and I am not a person to go back on my word, the deal was she would coach me for free. And, you know, we had X amount of sessions and give me tips. And my agreement was to do a live set at an open mic and send it to her and record it and send it to her and like give her a testimonial, of which I did. So this was in the fall of 2024 and my birthday is in January. And so I made a deal with myself. I said, well, instead of a birthday party, I am going to have a stand-up comedy debut.
Amy Stone [00:08:25]:
Okay.
Leisa Reid [00:08:26]:
Which meant I had about 3-ish months to figure out what I was going to do for 5 minutes on stage.
Amy Stone [00:08:33]:
Okay. All right. So I want to go back to something that you said and ask you to talk a little bit more about it, because I don’t think that anybody has talked about it directly on the show, or at least not in the way that you brought it up. But you said that because You were so resistant to it. You saw that as a signal to then lean into it and go the other way. Talk a little bit more about why that, why, like, why that was a signal for you.
Leisa Reid [00:09:03]:
Well, and it was a safe, risky yes. You know what I mean? It wasn’t like she was saying jump off a cliff. There’s this thing in my head that I was scared to do, and yet there was this person saying, I got you. Like I’m gonna make it safe for you, and I could hear and feel the resistance of wanting to stay comfy and in my own little safety blanket zone and not put myself out there. And then I’m like, why am I saying no to something that actually wouldn’t hurt anybody? It would it would quell this. Like I get so much feedback saying that I should do this. Maybe I should do this. I don’t know. Maybe like I don’t know. I’ve never. tried it before and at an open mic, probably not gonna be the worst thing. Uh, you know, no one will really hear it or see it or whatever. So I had to right-size my fear about it.
Amy Stone [00:09:59]:
Okay. And so is this, is this a cue that you’ve looked for in other spots in your life? Is this something that you’ve learned to lean into based on experience that if you feel yourself resisting something, that’s something to look closer at? Or is this the only time that’s ever come up in your life?
Leisa Reid [00:10:15]:
No, I, I definitely will. If it’s something I want and it’s different than what I currently have, there is going to be resistance. So I know the human body and behavior enough to know there will be resistance. And I am pretty down for like, okay, let’s expand. Let’s, let’s see what’s out there. Even if I’m scared, I’ll do it anyway type of a person. Um, in, in some respects, I’m not like a daredevil. I’m not an adrenaline junkie or anything like that, but I definitely, I think secretly was like, well, maybe I am funny. You know, I am funny. Like, what’s my deal? Come on, Leisa, get over it.
Amy Stone [00:10:54]:
All right. So that, yes. So that’s, that’s very interesting. That is interesting. So, cuz people, you had gotten this feedback, you are a person who does speak in public. So the, the normal fear of, you know, visibility and speaking generally that we, you know, we know that Some— for some people speaking publicly is such a— it is equivalent to jumping out of a burning building. It is a very big fear that some people have. But that wasn’t you. It was just this limited thing. And then you ended up in this situation where, you know, even though you’d said no a bunch of times, this person met every single one of the objections with a way that made it safe enough that you no longer needed to say no is what it sounds like.
Leisa Reid [00:11:39]:
It, yeah, it was, it was definitely not something I still was scared. I was still scared because I’m like, I have no idea what I’m going to talk about. I don’t know how to write a joke. I don’t know if I could say anything planned funny for 5 minutes. Oh my gosh. And everyone’s staring at me. So I definitely was not sure at all what I was going to do or say, but I was willing to trust her. And, um, I’m glad that I did. All right.
Amy Stone [00:12:02]:
And so this sounds like it was a one-on-one coaching, not a cohort.
Leisa Reid [00:12:07]:
No, just me and her.
Amy Stone [00:12:08]:
Of people developing a script and all going through it together. So you didn’t have group support as you got ready. You were not surrounded by other newbies who were also going through their same round of jitters.
Leisa Reid [00:12:19]:
No, and not at all. And one of the things that I did do, of course, because I do— I help people get their signature talks ready. So, I mean, I’m not like a stranger to like putting something together. I thought, okay, I’m gonna start with 3 things. If I can do 3 jokes that all kind of are around the same type of thing, that will fill the 5 minutes. So, and I had to also ask, because of course I’m not just thinking of this one thing, I’m thinking of the whole thing. I’m like, what’s my brand? What’s my message? What kind of comedian am I? I totally go into like this whole like entrepreneur marketing, you know, specialist. I even never done it before. Um, and so I thought, okay, I don’t want to make fun of other people. Like, I don’t mind making fun of myself, but, you know, my husband does a lot of things that are funny, but I didn’t want his family to watch it and go, wow, she’s just, you know, giving him a hard time, or anyone to think anything bad about anyone I’m around. And so I thought, what can I do about myself that’s funny? So I thought, that’s the kind of comedian I am. I’m a kind of comedian who’s gonna kind of joke around about my own personal experiences and, um, and leave everyone else out of it.
Amy Stone [00:13:32]:
Yeah. And that is definitely, that is a thing with comedy. Like what, what are you gonna, what kind of comedian are you gonna be? Are you gonna be, you know, somebody who makes fun of situations? Are you gonna be, you know, so I think that that’s a good reflection. I love that you said that you threw, that you went immediately into the entrepreneur mindset that’s like, okay, if I’m going to, Be shopping in this store, how would I turn this shopping experience into a business? Like, you immediately, like, your brain just turned on and were like, how would I brand this? Who am I in this situation? Because that is a thing that people do when they’re in business, so that’s very good. What was the hardest part that you would say of getting ready for this now that you’re looking back?
Leisa Reid [00:14:11]:
I spent so much energy and time on that 5 minutes and I thought, Okay, I need to figure out a way to make that faster and easier. So my next step would definitely be learn how to really like write comedy, write a set. Like I thought, gosh, if I had, if I had 10 5-minute sets or 5 10-minute sets, like I’d have an hour. My Netflix special’s right around the corner, you know, when I have that hour of comedy. Um, so it was more of like how to, how to write more content that really lands because I do.
Amy Stone [00:14:44]:
Yeah.
Leisa Reid [00:14:45]:
want to do a really good job. And so I spent a lot of time rewriting, rehearsing, rewriting again, rehearsing, switching things up, taking things out, timing, because you can’t go over your time in comedy either. And so there was a lot in my mind in terms of the energy put— output in making it a presentable set.
Amy Stone [00:15:09]:
Oh, it doesn’t surprise me at all. I have a feeling that I’ve always, had the perception that even though comedy looks very casual and easy and extemporaneous, I’ve always had the perception that I think there’s hundreds of hours of practice that go into making it look that relaxed, even though I’ve never done it. I think that, you know, especially the things that look like they’re very, very relaxed, like sitting on the couch on a talk show, I feel like there must be just days and days of practice behind that. But that’s— I’m just guessing. All right. So the hardest part was this new style of writing. How did you So you have feedback in your life that you are a funny person, but you were writing this material that was gonna go live in this open mic night. I have 2 questions. One is, how did you— did you find the open mic night or did your coach like help you find it? And then the other thing is, how did you— did you have people you were bouncing these jokes off of? How did you figure out whether or not you thought it was gonna be funny?
Leisa Reid [00:16:06]:
Yes, I found the open mic night and it was in a part of town I don’t ever go in and it was in this really obscure little comedy club. And honestly, it was like magically the perfect scenario. And I, what I didn’t wanna do is go to the event and then not know if I was gonna get a spot. Like I needed to know, like you’re guaranteed a spot. And this place had that cuz not every, I don’t know, open mics are different. It depends on the rules of the house.
Amy Stone [00:16:34]:
Yeah.
Leisa Reid [00:16:35]:
Um, the other thing that was super cool was they videotaped it for you, uh, for $15 and they would send you a, an edited clip where it was just you getting introduced on stage and you ending. and they had it all set up perfectly dialed in. So I was like, oh, this is great. I’ll just pop that right onto my YouTube channel, which I did. And that was, that was an amazing gift because that’s not always the case. You know, then I didn’t have to worry about anyone in my family trying to get a video of it or anything or get a certain type of, you know, approach that way.
Amy Stone [00:17:07]:
That is really interesting. So it’s, so it’s very interesting. So I have a friend who did improv class as an adult, a community improv class. And they also had a stand-up type class where they would do— so this was like a cohort that she was doing. And then the people who were doing that school, they then hosted these open night performances so the people in the class had a spot. But you jumped into somebody else’s open mic, and so that’s really— I think that feels brave to me. Did you just Google open night Orange County?
Amy Stone [00:17:41]:
I did.
Leisa Reid [00:17:41]:
I Googled it and then I emailed the owner and, you know, had a few different questions and scheduled it. And part of this was because I was doing this for my birthday party.
Amy Stone [00:17:51]:
Yes.
Leisa Reid [00:17:51]:
So I’m inviting everyone. Uh, it’s, so I need to know how many, you know, seats, what’s this whole deal? And so what I did is I actually, I figured all that out and then one of my best friends and I went the week before to do a dry run. ‘Cause I’m like, I need to just get eyes on this place. Like, how big is it? What’s the deal? How do we do this? And I did, I put my name in and I did a dry run there. And I got that. I paid the $15 for that one too. And I, so technically I’ve done it twice.
Amy Stone [00:18:21]:
I was gonna say, so when you say you did a dry run, what you mean is you went to the open night, open mic night, like a few weeks ahead and just did it.
Leisa Reid [00:18:28]:
One week ahead. One week ahead. One week ahead. Yes. And the only difference then— One week ahead and I did it.
Amy Stone [00:18:33]:
Wasn’t your audience. You didn’t have the people you normally have.
Leisa Reid [00:18:34]:
Yes. It was just, it was just the open mic people. And so there’s like, you know, 6 people there or something. All of them there to do their own set. Their own, they’re all doing their own thing. Yeah. And so the next time I came in, I filled the house like it was packed, but it was all my people and probably the largest audience they’d ever had.
Amy Stone [00:18:56]:
Yeah.
Leisa Reid [00:18:56]:
I don’t know. But, um, and then I asked if I could go last because, you know, I’m the headliner in my mind already on my first, my first performance.
Amy Stone [00:19:07]:
Right.
Leisa Reid [00:19:09]:
And I brought the house down. But I had a very warm audience.
Amy Stone [00:19:14]:
But yeah, what did people in your, uh, invitation list, you send out an invite or a printed card inviting them to the birthday party. What did people think about this when you, when they found out that this was what you were doing for your birthday party?
Leisa Reid [00:19:25]:
They were so excited. They were so excited. Yeah. They were like, oh my gosh, they couldn’t wait to, to be a part of it and to watch me. And I said, you do not have to bring me a gift, but you do have to laugh. That is the only requirement.
Amy Stone [00:19:37]:
You must laugh at my jokes.
Amy Stone [00:19:40]:
All right.
Leisa Reid [00:19:40]:
Leave your gifts at home. Leave your gifts at home, but bring your smiles.
Amy Stone [00:19:44]:
So the YouTube video is how I knew that you did this. So at some point in the past you and I crossed paths and had a conversation and it came up and you sent me the stand-up video, which is how I knew that you did that. And then fast forward when we were conversing via email about having you on the show and talking about choices and decisions, you pitched something wonderful that would have been great and I then came back to you and was like, Oh, yeah. Leisa, this would be great, but would you be willing to talk about comedy and doing this? Because I think that that would be a fantastic thing to talk about. And so that is the backstory of this. And I don’t think you have talked about it very much. I think it’s very smart. I have not. I think there’s a lot of things in here that are— these are the decisions that are behind the decision. It’s like the decision to do this. You made the decision to, like, take it seriously, to turn it into an event where you had support. All of those I think are very big decisions. So how do you think— so you have already answered this actually, but I feel like you almost hedged it. You did this one-night stand, which is actually 2 two-night stands because you did a dry run, which says so much about your personality, but that is a conversation for a different day. And then— but do you have any Do you have any itch or desire or intention to do any more stand-up type comedy?
Leisa Reid [00:21:11]:
That’s a great question. And I also realized I didn’t answer your other question, so I’ll come back to that one. I wasn’t sure how I was gonna feel about it. And then when I went to the— on the dry run and saw the other people, and obviously, you know, they’re amateurs, it’s an open mic night, it’s not, you know, it’s not in Hollywood or anything like that. Um, I thought, okay, you know, I’m actually— I think my stuff’s funnier than any of these other people. And I kind of had it all dialed in where they were, Some people had their notes out and were just like coming up with something on the fly, and literally, and I thought, okay, I, I know what I’m doing here. And then the second time I did it, like with the, with my warm audience in a full room, I definitely got that speaker high. If, if you’re, if you’re a speaker and listening here, I always call it the drug-free drug. It just, it feels so good to be up there and really resonating with the audience. And I definitely felt, ooh, I definitely want to do this again, but I would like more, more content. And so I thought, I want to get, uh, like a comedy writing class. I want to take a class and like start to learn more like the structure of it and really, uh, get that down. Now, all that to say, I have not yet done that. I’ve reached out to a couple people, but, um, whatever. Comedians sometimes aren’t in the best business mindset, so they’re like, we don’t have anything available. Right.
Amy Stone [00:22:28]:
Okay.
Leisa Reid [00:22:30]:
And what I— so I let it lay dormant for a while, and then I thought, you know, the best thing I could do is at least just jot down funny things as they come to me, because I’m not gonna— like I said, I’m not gonna remember. So I do have a full, like, Google Sheet of all my— if something occurs to me, I’m in the shower, or something occurs to me in the middle of the night, I will jot it down. I’ll tell stories about things. Um, and it could be something as innocuous as, like, trying to get the Ross sticker off the back of a shoe, which is, like, super impossible.
Amy Stone [00:22:57]:
Oh, yes.
Leisa Reid [00:22:57]:
If you’ve ever tried that, it’s like you need the tweezers and the WD-40. And, you know, it’s ridiculous the amount of sweat and equity that I can put into getting a sticker off the back of— off the bottom of a new shoe. So something like that, I’ll just be like, I’m going to just jot this down and maybe someday I’ll be telling a joke about it.
Amy Stone [00:23:16]:
All right.
Amy Stone [00:23:18]:
So that’s very cool. Yeah, I think that, you know, we call that, you know, practicing the craft, right, of anything, whether it’s, you know, podcasting, extemporaneously speaking, writing a newsletter, speaking, right? You’ve got a lot of craft. And it’s like so many things, there’s more to it than meets the eye. And so your professionalism shows through that you’re like, all right, I will— I would like to— if I’m going to do any more of this, I would choose to learn about it. And then I think you highlight something that is a very real thing in any profession, but definitely performance, which is that it can be tricky sometimes to figure out where you go to practice your craft, and who do you learn from, and who can you trust.
Leisa Reid [00:24:00]:
Yeah. And I also think the other part of it is like, it’s not like I’m trying to create a comedy career. I am somewhat joking and like, okay, I’m ready for my Netflix special. I just did my one comedy night. But I don’t— and I knew this very clearly, you know, that day when I did the My one-time show is I don’t want to be in comedy clubs till 1 in the morning or 10 at night. I don’t want to be in that kind of environment. That’s not the kind of lifestyle I want to have. I like comedy and I like going to comedy clubs, but I don’t want that like traveling lifestyle. That’s not something I’m interested in. I also am horrible at putting videos on, you know, TikTok and all the things. So I’m just like, just because I enjoy it doesn’t mean, oh, now I need to have this as my new second career or anything like that. I think.
Amy Stone [00:24:49]:
Yeah.
Leisa Reid [00:24:49]:
Just as long as I’m having fun, that’s the path I’m gonna take.
Amy Stone [00:24:54]:
Yeah. I mean, it’s a complicated hobby if you’re gonna do it as a hobby, cuz you need the audience, but you know, if you— right. So it’s not like playing piano where you can play at home for yourself, you know? Um, and, and I’ve ha— I’ve had conversations with many adults about hobbies that require these complex setups. If your hobby is playing in a quartet, that’s more complicated. If your hobby is playing on part of a team, You know, you need the support of a league.
Amy Stone [00:25:19]:
Yeah.
Amy Stone [00:25:19]:
You know, it’s like, it’s a little different than if your hobby is going for a walk by yourself with your dog, which you can just do at any time. So I see that, I definitely do. So how would you say that making this choice to do this impacted your life? Like, what’s the effect of having made this decision to go ahead and do this?
Leisa Reid [00:25:43]:
I think it allowed people to see me in a different light. And also, even though I did it, like when you came back to me about stand-up, I was like, oh yeah, I forgot I did that. Like, I literally am like, oh. And I have other friends who are colleagues who I’ve sent the video to because they wanted to see it. And they’re like, meet my friend Leisa, she’s a stand-up comedian. And I’m like, well, not really.
Amy Stone [00:26:04]:
I mean, am I? Yeah.
Leisa Reid [00:26:06]:
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, everybody. But that’s what they really love. And I’m like, oh cool, if I’m bringing joy to, to people in that form, I’m happy to do so. So it’s definitely an accomplishment. I would say I’m very proud of myself for doing it because I still think it does take a lot of bravery. And it was something that, that I was scared to do and that I did it. And so that’s, that’s a gift in itself.
Amy Stone [00:26:33]:
It definitely is. And I think that you’re a great person to reflect on that because you do do a different type of presenting with a different feedback loop and a different sort of self-identity. So I think it’s a really interesting comparison. Okay, so normally at this point in the conversation, what I do is I ask people why they wanted to tell this story on this show. That question doesn’t make any sense talking to you because this was not your idea, it was my idea. So I’ve modified the questions a teeny tiny bit, which is, you know, what do you kind of hope that people get out of hearing this story of you, you know, pushing your boundaries and trying a different type of presentation and putting yourself in that spot of being uncomfortable? What’s your sort of hope, if you have one, of what people will take from listening to this story?
Leisa Reid [00:27:16]:
Well, the reason I do what I do outside of my vast comedy experience is that I believe— 2 sold-out nights. Yeah. Well, one sold-out night, but yeah. Is I believe everybody has a brilliance to share, like some kind of gift that they bring to, that they could, if they choose to, bring to the world. And when people do that, it raises is the consciousness of our planet, which I’m a huge fan of. And so being able to, um, give one of my gifts is, is really awesome. And that’s what I do. I do professionally. I help people create their talk. It’s just they’re creating their signature talk. But one thing that’s really nice about it is that they can see, even though I’ve spoken over on 600 stages and whatever, I can still get nervous. Like, I still take risks. And that’s what it’s all about. There’s no one who can do your pushups for you when you’re on stage. It is you, you, and you, baby. And it can feel scary. It can feel vulnerable, but that’s also the juicy part of it. Like, that’s the exciting part of it. Like, you can do this and affect other people. And it’s not about us. It’s about what you can do for others, in my opinion.
Amy Stone [00:28:31]:
So I think there’s a lot to unpack in there. Like, so there is in, in self-help, in self-help, self-development, um, sports, so many things, there is this sort of message of the, you know, your success is on the other side of your discomfort, you know, get comfortable with being uncomfortable, those messages about that. And yet sometimes it’s hard to actually understand what that sense of discomfort actually feels like. And there is this misunderstanding that it just goes away. So you might get very used to doing something like standing up and speaking as an educator or walking people through through their keynote talks, their signature talks, but you have now been an example of putting yourself in a spot where you were uncomfortable. And I think that one of the things that’s helpful about your story is how much buildup time there was. There was discomfort in making the decision. Like, you really wrestled with that with yourself, and probably for a long time you had been just like, no, no, no, which is a set of discomfort. Then when you were invited to do it, you were like, oh, no, no. And then you’re like, oh, well, maybe. That’s discomfort, like being in that there.
Amy Stone [00:29:36]:
Mm-hmm.
Amy Stone [00:29:38]:
And then doing the work of all of those things and to highlight how uncomfortable you were is the week before, like, well, let’s go try it out to be sure I don’t die. So that definitely is a thing.
Amy Stone [00:29:52]:
All right.
Amy Stone [00:29:52]:
Comedy is not your main gig and you have talked about it a little bit about getting people ready for their signature talk.
Leisa Reid [00:29:58]:
I’m gonna—
Amy Stone [00:29:59]:
I want you to take a second and actually tell people what you do because it’s like we’ve talked around it.
Amy Stone [00:30:04]:
Yeah.
Amy Stone [00:30:05]:
But go ahead and tell people what it is that you do professionally.
Leisa Reid [00:30:09]:
Yeah. When I’m not on the comedy stage, I work with entrepreneurs who wanna use public speaking as a marketing strategy. So they somehow just like love the idea of being a speaker and they wanna use it to attract their ideal clients. So we, you know, work on, you know, giving birth to their brilliance, you know, which is the signature talk, having that aligned brilliance, aligned visibility, meaning like, let’s figure out where those talks need to be given, what kind of audiences are best for you, what’s your customized speaking strategy so you can get booked, and then getting that momentum of support throughout the rest of the year so that you can continue to craft and evolve your message and learn how to use the speaking model to attract your clients.
Amy Stone [00:30:55]:
So I can see how that is actually similar. I can see how you would just really get right up against the— and given the opportunity in comedy, how you would immediately begin to be like, oh, well, is this the same sort of model of what I help people do just in a different genre? And be like, how if I was to build a comedy— it’s different because it’s performance versus business-oriented, but I can see the alignment, or I think I can.
Leisa Reid [00:31:18]:
Yeah, there is some alignment in— I work with a lot of people who might have some nervousness. In fact, I just led a talk earlier this morning, and there was people talking about hesitancy and nervousness and shaking and questioning and imposter syndrome. All those things were discussed. And the reality is we— and you even naturally mentioned, you’re like, oh, people would rather run out of a burning building than be a public speaker. And I’m kind of like, no, they wouldn’t. Like, we oftentimes will just kind of poo-poo like, oh yeah, It’s a normal phobia.
Amy Stone [00:31:54]:
Hahaha.
Leisa Reid [00:31:56]:
It’s actually just a conversation we haven’t had yet with ourselves. Like there’s something way back in the past, some baggage that we’ve been carrying around for a while saying like, the body says, we’re never doing that again. We’re never going to get humiliated or have that embarrassment again. And then we just carry that with us until it’s questioned. And you’re like, wait, why do I always have this desire to share something? Like, why am I like dreaming of myself being on stage? I hate public speaking. That would be the worst thing, but maybe it wouldn’t, you know?
Amy Stone [00:32:20]:
Yeah.
Leisa Reid [00:32:21]:
Like, so it’s like a really common occurrence and I’m here to say like, We can overcome all that. And if you have a message to share, it starts to overcome that fear.
Amy Stone [00:32:31]:
I wonder if that— so many of those performance-based fear presentation type things are rooted in school-based scenarios where we’re doing something that we don’t have competency yet and we feel judged. And there could be communities. So that can happen in a classroom, it can happen in a parochial setting, all of those things that happen. Having to read out loud in school and you’re caught unprepared and you mispronounce a word or whatever. I was in a classroom once where somebody said Quixote instead of Quixote.
Amy Stone [00:33:05]:
Sure.
Amy Stone [00:33:06]:
A very smart person just had never seen the word, but we did all laugh and I’ve always felt terrible about it. And so all of those things. The thing that I wonder is now we have such a different view of and window into people who are performing all the time. All of the stuff that’s online and all of the shorts and all of the reels and all of the Netflix specials and all of those things, it’s just changed so much in the last 30 years. People are doing all of this sort of creation and Zooming and showmaking really a lot earlier. I wonder if it’ll change. I wonder if they did that same sort of survey that’s like, you know, public presentation, is that the scariest thing? I wonder if you’d get the same numbers today as you would in like 1950, 1960, 1980. There’s no answer to that. It is interesting.
Leisa Reid [00:33:58]:
Well, yeah, and what’s funny is that there’s also a massive increase in social anxiety, right? So it’s like 2 extremes. Like, I’m gonna share every single part of my life and not look perfect and be super messy and all this to don’t everyone, hopefully no one ever asked me a question at the store or I never have to make a phone call. Never have to talk to a human being on the street. You know, so there’s this like very vast, um, continuum of our comfort level in terms of communication.
Amy Stone [00:34:30]:
That is really true. It’s one of the things like, because like you, I have had, uh, you know, a presentation element of my life for such a long time that Sometimes people will ask me to speak about the anxiety and the fear. And one of the things I tell people honestly is I don’t experience that the same way I would if I was starting today because I’ve been doing it for such a long time. And like you said, a safe space. I was young enough that I was introduced to it in a— it didn’t feel as scary as it would if it was new. But yeah, one of the things that catches me off guard which doesn’t make me nervous or anything, but it’s an uncomfortable moment, is when you have a public profile, even a small one like mine, and somebody knows you in their own way, but you don’t actually know them. And then you have a real-life encounter and it’s that lopsided conversation because they’re a total stranger.
Leisa Reid [00:35:21]:
Yeah, that parasocial relationship.
Amy Stone [00:35:24]:
Right. And it’s like— and those can create some sort of funny moments because they’ll talk to you and you’re like, I don’t actually know you.
Leisa Reid [00:35:30]:
And they’re like, you know me, but I don’t know anything about you.
Amy Stone [00:35:32]:
Yeah.
Amy Stone [00:35:33]:
It’s not like it just feels stressful. It’s like, I’d love to get to know you or have this conversation, but I am at a disadvantage at this particular moment. And so that’s where that goes. All right. So you have— so this is your main gig and you have a special offer for the people in the audience who are listening to the show, which is top 5 tips to get speaking gigs now. And the links to where to find you and your website and get that freebie are available In the show notes for anybody that is watching. So if you’re listening, that’s in the audio show notes. If you’re watching on YouTube, that’s in the show description. The easiest way to get the links for things like this is to be a subscriber to the Imperfect Adulting newsletter for everybody who’s in the audience, because then it comes directly into your email box and you can just click on the links. And that’s my little plug for my newsletter. Are you ready to wrap this up with my final 2 questions?
Leisa Reid [00:36:24]:
Let’s do it.
Amy Stone [00:36:25]:
All right, very good. So we have no shortage of information in 2026. You can just speak your question into the air, where do light bulbs come from, and the algorithms will feed you the answers. But personal recommendations are even more important, I think, than ever before. Share with us something great that is like aligned with podcasts. So like a good podcast, a great movie, a fun TV show, a book, something that you’ve enjoyed lately that you think that the audience might also enjoy.
Leisa Reid [00:36:54]:
Um, well, one of my favorite podcasts besides yours is Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman. I’ve been listening since 2018 when they launched, and I love it. And a good— let’s see.
Amy Stone [00:37:10]:
Yeah, that’s, that’s— yeah, no, that’s, that’s a great answer. So yeah, that’s the answer. So Armchair Expert, that’s the recommendation. So I do have a follow-up question with that because you were talking about comedy. Have you watched So did you ever watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is like the story of a comedian, or Hacks is another one that’s a story about a— have you seen either one of those shows?
Leisa Reid [00:37:28]:
I have seen, uh, several seasons of Hacks, not all of them. And then I’ve seen 1 or 2 seasons of Mrs. Maisel. She’s great. And I would say her comedy is— in fact, someone was like, oh, you’re kind of like her.
Amy Stone [00:37:41]:
And, well, obviously not.
Leisa Reid [00:37:43]:
Like, that’s more my, like, you know, making fun of my life type Yeah. Comedy would be mine.
Amy Stone [00:37:48]:
Oh, I thought— in terms of television, I thought that was a really well-done show in all of the levels. Like, just very, very good. And I think The Crew and Hacks, a totally different plotline, really. And one has the benefit of being sort of nostalgic, pastimey. Hacks is supposed to be present day, so it has all the modern angst and— All the ice cream sandwiches and stuff.
Leisa Reid [00:38:13]:
Right, exactly.
Amy Stone [00:38:14]:
All of that stuff. The characters, the characters in Hacks, I think, also very well done. Pretty good show. So anyway, that was off topic, but there we go. Okay, last question. I call this section of the show unsupervised online shopping. Share with us something that you have purchased online, because we all shop online, that you thought was pretty great and other people should go run out and buy it themselves.
Leisa Reid [00:38:36]:
Oh my gosh, I’m such an Amazon, like, fanatic. What have I gotten lately? Oh, you know what? I got these markers. Okay, I’ll show you. So if you’re watching on video, you can see this. I love colorful markers.
Amy Stone [00:38:55]:
Yeah.
Leisa Reid [00:38:55]:
And instead of— I used to just keep all my notes in a black with a black pen, but I thought, you know what, I’m sitting here at home working virtually, I’m going to make it fun. So I just pick a different color every day and use those as my As my note-taking tools. Like, today is turquoise, so I’ve got my 2 turquoise pens.
Amy Stone [00:39:14]:
Very good. Yeah, I saw, I saw your gel pens that you use. Like, I get, I get very cliquey about pens. I’m like, these are the pens that I use.
Leisa Reid [00:39:22]:
So like, for a very long time, right? The Pilot G2, the marker to like, you know.
Amy Stone [00:39:27]:
Very good, very good. And the finely tipped Sharpie for a long time was my like go-to. I was like, don’t steal my Sharpie. So there we go. All right, that’s it.
Amy Stone [00:39:38]:
Leisa Reid, thank you very much for being a wonderful guest today on the show.
Leisa Reid [00:39:41]:
Thank you.
Amy Stone [00:39:43]:
Thank you for joining me today.
Amy Stone [00:39:47]:
I hope you enjoyed the show.
Amy Stone [00:39:49]:
Before I go, I want to encourage you to become a bigger part of the conversation. Please subscribe wherever you’re listening or watching the show. That helps my stats. A request from the bottom of my indie creator heart is to please tell your friends about the show. That is the real way new people discover it. If you feel motivated, I would love it if you rated the show or wrote a review on whatever platform you are using. Please be sure to head over to imperfectadulting.com and sign up for the email community. I call this the village. You’ll get some free stuff right away, and you’ll begin to get the weekly emails that I send. This includes the links for special offers from any guests on the show and cool stuff I put together for the community. There’s a lot more going on than just this show, and the only way to find out is to get the emails. Plus, you’re busy. You don’t have time or desire to follow every single tidbit on social media, and you don’t have to because I’m happy to send it to you. If you have a story you’d like to share with the audience I have an open application for guests. Guess where you’ll find it? That’s right, on the website and in the emails. And that’s a wrap for this episode. Until next time, remember that the journey is the destination. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that, not me. Well, until just now. I did just say it. But what I want you to hear today is that if your adulting journey isn’t going the way you expected, that just may not mean you’re lost. It may mean That you’re just on your way. And now, the fine print. The Art of Imperfect Adulting podcast and streaming video show is a copyrighted work created and produced by Amy Stone and Amy Says So. The music was written and produced by Todd Thompson at Dharma Bomb Studios. All rights are reserved. Anything expressed on this show is offered as entertainment, and the views of the guests may not always represent the ideas and viewpoints of the host.
Amy Stone [00:41:44]:
Thank you.
Amy Stone [00:41:44]:
That’s me. Amy Stone does not intend to hold myself herself out to provide professional advice or recommendations of any kind. In the end, you and you alone need to make those kinds of decisions based on your personal and individual situation, needs, circumstances, and comfort level. Yeah, it’s a little weird for me to talk about myself in the third person, but you get the idea. This is Amy Stone, signing off.