Ep. 57: Catie Lazarus, Host of The Employee Of The Month Show, Created A Job She Loves

"Just because you're good at something doesn't mean it's actually something you want to do."

Comedian Catie Lazarus hosts The Employee of The Month Show, a monthly live talk show in New York City and podcast. "Lazarus honors and interviews people she admires who (mainly) love what they do." Her guests have included Gloria Steinem, Jon Stewart, Lin-Manuel Miranda to name a few. Catie also writes for TV, digital, film, print, and video. Listen to Catie's story of pivoting from getting her PhD in psychology to stand up comedy to hosting her own hilarious show. She'll make you laugh and inspire you to be yourself.

"To the extent that we can be honest with ourselves and true to ourselves, the better we are."

We discuss what what gave her the confidence to get up on stage and do stand-up, how her career transformed, why being yourself is the key to performance, loving everything about the business not just the moments on stage, the importance of not taking things personally, her experiences of sexism in comedy, embracing the positives, and more.

"I feel like we're all the same. I don't look at someone as higher up on the ladder that I should somehow worship that human. I admire their tremendous work, their imagination, their creativity, their brilliance, their gifts, and their discipline- but I don't look at them as higher than me. I have everyone at the end of my show get an award and we all get the same silly plaque. I give everyone the same employee of the month plaque because I believe that however you choose to spend your time, you matter."

In this episode, you'll learn:

Catie is the host of Employee Of The Month.
EOTM is a talk show and podcast featuring guests with amazing jobs.
Catie dropped out of a doctorate in Clinical Psychology at 27 years old.
Her psychology career up to this point had been interesting, stable and the “right thing to do”.
Just because you’re interested in something doesn’t meant that it’s actually what you want to do.
Catie’s turning point was when she started writing for a satirical website as Dr Lazarus and was well received.
She worked in a women’s aid organization where Tina Fey also worked, and later based Mean Girls on it.
Catie doesn’t believe in being fearless, it’s just a matter of perspective.
She tried to get into TV writing but wasn’t successful so started to interview people who had already been a success.
She reaches a point where stand up was too painful and the criticism impacted her self esteem, so she stopped.
Catie enjoys writing and hosting her talk show because she doesn’t need to be either/or and can be both a writer and host and comedian.

"I don't believe in being fearless. There are some things that are really scary that you should be scared of. But understanding and having perspective, that's important."

Advice:

Try to find out what you want to do in life sooner rather than later.
Just always be yourself, it’s difficult sometimes because you can lose yourself in stressful situations, but everything is easier when you're just yourself.
Enjoy the positive moment and only take the critiques that feel real to you; the ones that resonate.
Some critiques are just people lashing out.
Don't take things too personally - it might not be about you.

Learn more:

http://www.lazarusrising.com/
http://www.employeeofthemonthshow.com