Unleashing Your Inner Improviser: How Nathan Minns Uses Improv to Enhance Creativity, Resilience, and Communication, A Founder’s Story with Nathan Minns

Nathan Minns is the founder of Green Light Improv (https://greenlightimprov.com/), a professional training company that cultivates resilience, enhances creativity, and improves communication, all while inspiring connection through improv comedy. Green Light Improv doesn’t teach improv comedy but instead uses improv comedy as a tool to teach other work and life skills. In 2022, Nathan quit his job and is now working full-time to spread applied improv training. An Ohio State University graduate, Nathan has previously spent most of his career in the startup ecosystem as an employee and a 3x founder.

Tell us about your childhood and where you grew up

As a child, I had my first experience with entrepreneurship when I set up a lemonade stand in front of my house in Dayton, Ohio. Being a rambunctious kid, I quickly grew tired of just selling lemonade and decided to branch out. I gathered what I believed were cool rocks and cool sticks from my backyard and made a sign to sell them to my neighbors. While this venture wasn’t very successful, I learned a lot about taking risks and adapting to new situations. This lesson has stayed with me and is reflected in my work as an improv comedian, where I often find myself in unknown situations and have to improvise. I lived in Dayton for the first 12 years of my life before moving to Columbus, Ohio, where I have lived ever since.

How did you get started as an entrepreneur?

I discovered my love for improv in 2016 and knew I wanted to get involved in the community. I auditioned for two improv groups and gave it my all. Unfortunately, it turns out my all wasn’t quite enough, because I was rejected by both groups. I enrolled in a couple of improv classes and continued to audition, being rejected a total of 7 times before finally being accepted into an improv group. Through these 7 auditions, I learned that improv is a skill that can be developed with practice and persistence and that the skills I learned through improv were affecting me off-stage as well. It turns out improv can have positive impacts on communication, creativity, resilience, and overall happiness in daily life. This realization led me to explore the concept of “applied improv,” or using improv skills in everyday life, and eventually inspired me to create my first company, Green Light Improv. We help others experience the joy and benefits of improv training without necessarily pursuing a career in comedy performance. Specifically, we focus on communication, creativity, and resilience.

What is one business lesson you would tell a startup founder?

Play the long game! Starting a business is almost never an overnight success and it can take years of hard work before a business becomes financially viable. For me, it took about three years of part-time work before I was able to make the transition to full-time entrepreneurship. As I’ve continued to put in the work and listen to my customers, success has followed.