Ep. 100 - Julie Trell - Founder, Chief Play Officer, Explorer and Applied Improvisor!

The Occupational Philosophers - A not-so-serious business podcast to spark Creativity, Imagination and Curiosity

In Episode 100, The Occupational Philosophers chat with Julie Trell, whose career has been an adventurous journey spanning three decades and various corners of the world.

She started as an inner-city classroom teacher and later became a middle school technology specialist, where she embraced inner playfulness (as well as fixing - and breaking - the computers and network).

Through serendipity and curiosity, she evolved into the VP of All Things Fun, Meaningful, & Rewarding at a (then) startup called Salesforce.

Her path then took her through the vibrant landscapes of Atlanta, San Francisco, Singapore, and Sydney, venturing into the realms of technology and corporate foundation leadership with the Salesforce and Workday Foundations.

In Australia, she led Telstra's corporate startup accelerator, muru-D - There she managed a team and a portfolio of over 140 companies, focusing on supporting the founders across various cohorts.

As the Chief Play Officer of Playful Purpose, she embraces the power of an improv mindset to foster growth and playful spirits among adults. She co-designs and facilitates dynamic workshops for accelerators, portfolio funds, and corporate teams, helping participants unleash curiosity, build confidence, and deepen their understanding of DEI and empathy. My passion for new technologies and continuous learning blends artificial intelligence, AI, with applied improv, AI!

In this episode, they explore:

• Exciting job titles to share at your next dinner party
• How applied improvisation is the AI we should really be focused on!
• Using play to help individuals, teams and organisations fire up their creative synapses
• How Generative applied improv helps us exercise our critical thinking skills
• How to make people feel heard and feel good when working together
• What is curiosivity?
• Julie’s work with startups, founders and incubators
• Techniques to tackle the ‘play skeptcis’
• And how to create floral bouquets out of old toilet roll tubes!

And as ever, enjoy the Thought Experiments …this time it’s:

• Through the port (manteau) hole
• Listeners questions

Learn more about Julie

https://www.linkedin.com/in/julietrell/

https://playfulpurpose.com/

References

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8erpgy727jo

https://www.nosuchthingasafish.com/

Toilet paper roll flowers - You can check link here.

https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1163022-act-social

https://www.appliedimprovisationnetwork.org/

The quote: "Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable”. (David W. Augsburger) - BOOK:Caring Enough to Hear and Be Heard: How to Hear and How to Be Heard in Equal Communication

https://muru-d.com/

https://www.sxswsydney.com/

Clip from Whose Startup Is It Anyway

Books:

https://www.breakthroughplay.com/playful-rebellion/

https://www.improvwisdom.com/index.html

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44333271-playful-mindfulness

Say Hello to the Occupational Philosophers

www.occupationalphilosophers.com

Their day jobs:

JOHN: www.bowlandconsulting.com

SIMON: www.simonbanks.com.au

SIMON SHOWREEL: https://youtu.be/YZQdJI6qGvg