Episode 361: Saying Yes Before You’re Ready, Building Creative Power & Changing Comedy | Lynn Harris | Journalist & Founder of Gold Comedy
What if the only thing standing between you and your next big creative leap is simply saying yes? Producer, journalist, and founder of Gold Comedy Lynn Harris joins Kara Duffy to explore what it really takes to build something from nothing - even when you don’t feel “ready.” From co-creating the cult phenomenon Breakup Girl to launching a comedy platform for women and non-binary creators, Lynn shares how following curiosity, not certainty, can lead to powerful impact.
They dive into why comedy is a vehicle for social change, how to stop waiting for permission, and why making the thing matters more than feeling confident. This episode is a call to create, collaborate, and take up space exactly as you are.
“The goal isn’t just to learn [at Gold Comedy], it’s to make something that exists in the world.”
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361 - Lynn Harris
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Kara Duffy: Welcome to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. I'm Kara Duffy, and today's guest is Lynn Harris. She's a producer, award-winning journalist, author, social activist, and a woman who is prolific at creating new spaces for new voices to be heard from being a co-creator of Breakup Girl to being the founder and CEO of Gold Comedy.
She is as she says on her 73rd, I think is the name, career that she has done. She's making things all the time from her own comedy and shows and stand up to spaces for other people. And Gold Comedy in particular is a comedy school professional network and content studio where women and non-binary creators grow their comedy careers, build powerful communities and just make funny stuff.
This is a great episode. Join us as we talk about who gets to be funny, the drive to create what we see missing in the [00:01:00] world, and how all things are possible when we say yes and
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies podcast.
Lynn Harris: Thank you. Oh, is that for me?
Kara Duffy: That's for you.
Lynn Harris: I didn't know if that was for me or your, all your multitudes of listeners.
Kara Duffy: It's, that was for them and for you all at once. Let's begin by telling everyone your name and where you are in the world and a few of the things you're up to because you're up to a lot.
Lynn Harris: Sure. My name is Lynn Harris and I'm literally right now in Brooklyn, New York. I have a sort of enviable view right now of the Manhattan Bridge right there. And, i, well, the sort of biggest and most sort of current and recent thing is that I'm the founder of Gold Comedy, which is the comedy school most, almost all online.
So wherever you are, you can find us comedy school, professional network, and content studio where. Women and [00:02:00] non-binary creators and other others build comedy careers and passion projects or side hustles. Join a powerful collaborative community and make funny stuff that actually gets seen on all kinds of stages and screens.
And the key words that kind of went before that all funneled into that include journalist and author and producer. And I did stand up for a long time. And long story short, the what brings it all together is that is my, and I'm not the first one to like. Say this at all, nor will I be the last.
But the idea that pop culture, including comedy, can really be part of driving social change. So, that's kind of, that's been my, it's the through line. And you know what gets me outta bed in the morning and keeps me up at night.
Kara Duffy: And you also are known as the breakup queen, I believe.
Lynn Harris: No close. Close. I co-created with [00:03:00] my, I was gonna say thought partner. What is that? With my creative partner, also with thought partner, but I.
Kara Duffy: It's who you think with. I get it. Yeah.
Lynn Harris: No. Yes, he is that, but I meant to say creative partner breakup girl is a superhero who helps people with all people with romantic emergencies.
And my partner Chris, and I'm a creative partner, thought partner. Chris and I co-created Breakup Girl a long time ago as part of a humor book that we were writing. Turned it into a website where no one else had websites. It was 1997. And the whole, the concept, the character, all that turned into a massive.
Thing with a cult following that got acquired by Oxygen. We had animations on tv, we had live shows, we had extremely popular website and device column. And now, and there was some legal wrangling after the.com bust, which is a topic for another podcast where it's after five o'clock somewhere and we can drink.
But we have the property back now and we've been. Playing around with different [00:04:00] things. 'Cause we will never let her go. And so working on some stuff right now to be revealed but that was, that whole thing was, I like, I'm proud that it was one of the earliest.
It feels quaint now, but, or, earliest not breakup girl, but this, what I'm about to say, feels quaint now. It was one of the earliest internet driven success stories and brands that appeared on so many different platforms, which was unusual then now it's normal. Then it was really in the nineties.
It was very unusual. And also the project, the whole enterprise really fits in with what I was saying before, which is that we didn't invent her for this, but what we realized we were doing along the way, and I think why people were drawn to the character and to the whole kind of comic world that we created was we were. She was really a way to help change the way people talked about [00:05:00] relationships and really a very , fun, literal cartoon delivery system for important conversations about kindness. Everything. Everything from like kindness to. Gender justice and everything in between. And when you have a cartoon superhero moderating that conversation, you're more apt to listen than you are to someone lecturing you, scolding you, giving you an encyclopedia, so we realized we didn't intend, we didn't set out to do this, but we were ahead of our time because people found the character and the world that we created so accessible that we were able to have conversations that, are pretty common now, but about. Sexual orientation about sexual assault, things like that because we had such a colorful package to put it in.
Kara Duffy: You are also the co-founder of Persist Con and a Jewish Advice podcast as well.
Lynn Harris: Well, okay, so, I'm a co-founder. There are a whole bunch of us who did who, and we're not done, but who [00:06:00] did? We hit a, I'm gonna say we paused. We hit the, we slammed on the brakes during the pandemic. 'Cause we did public events, like that's what we did. Primarily in Brooklyn, all in New York City.
Driven by comedy and art. Fundraising events and conversations around politics especially around especially around fundraising to elect women and pro-abortion candidates. But we, but the mission grew bigger around that, and we just brought people together and created, massive comedy events and talkbacks after films, that kind of thing.
So, and then. Yeah we're plotting what would be, what'll be the next thing. so that's Persist It Con and really just great community building. Also, we raised a bunch of money, but we created a community that that was really what also was needed at the time. And then I was for two seasons, co-host of the Forward, which which is the oldest is it the oldest?
Oh gosh, I'm gonna forget. Ah I'm gonna forget the actual, like, [00:07:00] what's the word? Superlative. But it's the continuing it's in English now, also Yiddish, but the continuing newspaper that Jewish immigrants to the States read. And speaking of community also really the offices were also a community.
At the time, the building's still there, and one of the most famous creations of that paper was called a Bittle Brief, which is a bundle of letters, and it was the advice column. And the, it is, it's never really it's taken on a lot of different iterations but it's never really gone away, at least not for long.
And so the one, one form it took was a podcast, so I co-hosted it with Gina Green and we answered letters and had guests and we had a ball.
Kara Duffy: Well, and this speaks to how on your Instagram account, I think you say that you're on like your 79th career or something.
Lynn Harris: my 73rd rodeo.
Kara Duffy: Yeah. And when I remember being in [00:08:00] college and people telling me like, oh, you're gonna have seven careers is the current expectation today, I do think it's closer to 70. especially if you're someone who knows how to cause and create. Something. When you see an opportunity, like I know in my world, everything I've made is either from a, Ooh, that sounds fun or that's stupid. Like, it's one of those things I'm either like,
Lynn Harris: This one's stupid matrix.
Kara Duffy: Yeah. Either like, I want that sounds fun or that's dumb.
You have to fix it. And so when you are that type of person who, you know I think a big thing I'm seeing in your story is just if you believed you could make it, you've made it and. Like, is that an accurate portrayal? And if yes, where does that come from for you?
Lynn Harris: It is partly accurate. And I see and and I think I see why you would say that. I think sometimes I don't know who told me to do this but I have [00:09:00] certainly done the thing where you say yes and then you figure it out.
Kara Duffy: Mm-hmm.
Lynn Harris: Which I doesn't always work, but I think it's a good orientation to not know exactly. I honestly, I think a lot of mediocre white dudes do that, and it serves them well. To be like, yeah, I could do that. And so, and I'm kind of being snarky, but I think this is absolutely not shading women because I think anything that might sound like criticism of women or things that women need to take care of is what I'm saying is I'm actually.
Who is I'm throwing under the bus and who deserves to be thrown under the bus is the architects of Patri architects and supporters of patriarchy, because they're, that's where we get the ideas and messages that we, that, that are in our bloodstreams, that cause us to do what we do.
So I think, if there's one thing we can learn from mediocre white dudes it's saying like, yeah, I could do that. And then like the minute you say like going, how am I gonna do this? Okay, now I gotta figure this out. And or it's that thing where like [00:10:00] men apply to jobs that when they have 40% of the qualifications and women wait till they have a hundred, which again, no shade to women.
Why we do that is that we are actually held to a higher standard. So we're smart to do that. So like it's not a bad thing given the, it's not a bad way to navigate the stupid world we live in. But I also think that there are those times when it serves everybody to say yes, before you know how to do it, and you figure it out.
Or you try to figure it out, like, I still haven't exactly figured out. I'm still learning on the, I'm still, learning on the fly. You know how to run a business, which I am. There are a lot of people who I. There are a lot of people who run businesses because they like to run businesses, like it's the business first.
And I'm not saying they're not committed to the point of the business, but it's like what they like to do is run the BI is run a business and then they do it really well. They may not be, they may not live and breathe the mission. [00:11:00] Of the consumer good that they're running or whatever it is, and that's fine.
It's completely fine. That's not me. I know how to produce things. I know how to make things. I know how to build a team. But the specific thing of running a business, I had to learn on the fly just like I would've had, I would've have to learn how to, make pastry or do oil painting or fix a motorcycle. Like I just haven't been told how to do. I don't know how to do, I just legit don't know. So I would've to learn. So there is a lot of stuff like that I've learned on the job rather than before the job.
Kara Duffy: Well, and you're reminding me why I have job security, when I'm not doing powerful ladies. I'm a business strategist and coach and it's exactly for that reason. I love working with creative Heart led people who are just making the thing they know how to do. And I'm like, yeah, let me show you the boring stuff. Another thing women do and not just women, because I work with men and women, but there's people who put their craft, or their customer or the thing before themselves, [00:12:00] they make themselves feel so guilty for being like, I don't know how to do taxes.
I'm like, me neither you're not supposed to.
Lynn Harris: not supposed to. Right? How would you know?
Kara Duffy: Yeah. It's. When you leap in and say, I don't know how, but I'm gonna figure it out. It allows so much room for other people, experts to come in and give their gifts also, like we're not supposed to do all these fun things alone. and I don't know, it just, the more we say yes, the more we get to allow other people to say yes.
Also, like I, I really do think that the yes and from improv is. If you live yourself in a yes and space, things tend to work out.
Lynn Harris: Yeah.
Kara Duffy: something that I thought was really interesting when in an article I read about you launching gold comedy 'cause you were very brave, I believe, and launched it in 2020.
Lynn Harris: brave and bored. But yeah. I launched this version that that you can see now. Yes.
Kara Duffy: Okay, perfect.
Lynn Harris: late 2020. That was, I [00:13:00] launched at beta, I think at the end of the year. Yeah.
Kara Duffy: Amazing. So, but there was a quote I saw about how you were trying to do it for teens, but all these women kept showing up and like middle-aged women. And I saw that and it, I'm like, it made total sense to me because especially with what's happened in the past couple of months, that all the people being called wine moms could easily do.
A standup set 'cause they have lived enough life to have ridiculous shit happen.
Lynn Harris: Yeah.
Kara Duffy: And so I'm like, of course. Of course there's hilarious, authentic, raw stories that these women are like bursting to tell 'cause they don't have anywhere to
Lynn Harris: Yeah.
Kara Duffy: use that creativity's. Like when you look at the people who are participating in gold comedy, like what are you so excited about for them?
Lynn Harris: Oh, that's a great question. You mean jealous of for them? 'cause they're doing all the fun
Kara Duffy: Yeah.
Lynn Harris: Well, I do, well, I do the spreadsheets and sharpen the pencils. Yeah. Well two things. One is, we, so what happened was, yeah, we had teen girls who were [00:14:00] great. We did some pilots with teen girls, and they were great.
They were hilarious. They were ridiculously funny. And we still quote them like the folks who were around my collaboratives were around since then. We literally still were still remember Brianna when she said Yeah. Oh my God. When she did the thing with the mic. Yeah. But yeah, it was like their mothers, it was friends and
it was also working comedians who were like, teens, what about me? 'Cause what they were looking for was not, was a place with no bro vibes. Which is what we are. We have, they're dudes and they're, I don't police people's pronouns. Gender, what? I mean, people are, I don't, it's, I don't know your life but we do say that we're for, women and non-binary folks and other others and who are typically marginalized from comedy and everything.
So, so what we get is a place where you. Everywhere else. You don't come first here, you do whoever you are. So anyway, so that's why there's more of those spaces now. But this was a while ago and in internet years, I guess at least, [00:15:00] and yeah, so comedians were like, can I join with a pill? Right. Can I just, I mean, I'll just lurk 'cause that's fine.
So I was like, okay, I have this, I was, I could do this with teens. But the market is telling me that they're not the primary people. So that's what happened with that. And so what makes me really happy to see p is honestly whoever they are, whether they're already established creatives, or whether they're, let's call 'em middle-aged, women who have not done this before. I love when they actually, this is gonna sound broad, but you'll see what I mean when they make things and do like, they actually make the things and 'cause I love to kind of bust the idea.
A lot of you didn't say this, but a lot of people say, oh, yo, you must, build so much confidence, those are important skills, which yes and yes. I have a separate rant about confidence, which we'll get back to, but yeah, we do that. But like, but how do we know? Well, they made a [00:16:00] thing, they, of course that, doing standup sets that counts. But then they started doing them, they started going to Mike's and like built a standup career. Or they created a solo show and now they're touring it with other goldies, or they finally wrote that damn pilot and now they're winning prizes and they're considering, they're figuring out how to make a proof of concept or, they wanna pitch competition with the pitch for their film idea, whatever it is.
And so, like actually the concrete stuff they didn't just sort of walk out feeling funnier. Again, that would actually not be a bad thing. Like that's, but that's kind of, that's table stakes.
Kara Duffy: Mm-hmm.
Lynn Harris: it's making and doing the things and people have done all of the things that I just said. Made a web series.
We have two web series that are like out there, two full complete web series, series that are out there in the world, made by Goldies. So, with more to come. So, I don't know, I just like to see the things, it's like people can tell me they're having a good time all day long, but I, when I see the things, I'm really happy.
Kara Duffy: Well, it's such a different level of Yeah. It's like, it's great if you're getting the kind of intangible, oh, I [00:17:00] left, I have newer friends. I have the confidence. I made someone laugh today. I feel good. But when you, we look at what changes the stakes in our world and culture, we do need. These people like making their things like there seems people get so caught up in I don't know how to do it.
Going back to, I was saying before like, I don't know how to pitch this screenplay idea. I have, I dunno how to produce something. I don't know how to film this short. I wanna do, and when we look, people will complain like, oh well, women and non-binary folks aren't making enough stuff.
And you're like, well we are. And. We haven't been shown like the advanced path in very often.
Lynn Harris: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, there's I was gonna, you mentioned women who have just live, have more material just 'cause years.
Kara Duffy: Yeah.
Lynn Harris: like we mathematically have more material. It's just like if we just do and to exactly your point. We have a [00:18:00] class that is, I think the, I always joke that it's the, that it's like Christmas, this class is like the final class of this, the final meeting of this class at Gold is like, is my Christmas, because it's it's a premium class taught, led by the. Producer, a Broad city and search party, and Inci, Amy Schumer, and a whole bunch of shows that you love, and she realized exactly what you're saying, that no one had ever told anybody how to, in a visible way, how to create a pitch for their creative idea that would be true to their idea and also understandable.
Translatable to people in the business. And all of these pitches took place behind closed doors. Like there's a million investor pitches out there, but this kind of thing was hard to see. And if there's one way to enable the under heard voices it's tell how to pitch. Like that was her like, problem, evaluation of the problem and the landscape.
And so, and she used to teach it. Her name is Ryan [00:19:00] Cunningham. She's amazing. And she used to teach it. She developed it at risd, Rhode Island School of Design, where she was an alum and she became a trustee. She couldn't teach it there anymore, but she loved it. She brought it to us. We are happy.
But what, she always said two things about this. What she says about it. And then a little bit more about the people. She always said that she loved her youngsters at risd loved them full of energy and, creativity. And so many other shows were, so many their shows were like, elaborate sci-fi and which is great. It's totally great. But then like, I couldn't do that. But the people who are drawn to her class at goals there's a chunk of them who are women in their forties, fifties who may or may not be in entertainment somewhere.
Some aren't, may or may not be planning to quit their day job. They may or may not be pivoting. There might be like an actuary and that's fine. It might be one of them was a a veterinary oncology surgeon, but they have this idea. For a thing, a TV show, a film [00:20:00] that they have decided that they must do and they must do it
now. Whether it's there, whether it's empty nest, whether it is lingering after COVID, is this all there is? Whether it's they're comfortable in their career growth so that they're not hustling so much that they can sort of do both. Whatever it is, they're like, it's now. And the, but the problem they have is like, I'm a veterinarian, like I don't know anything.
And I'm like, I can think I can write 'cause I have a blog or whatever it is. But I don't know, I don't know how to like. Pitch, like develop a pilot and pitch it. Why would I know? How would I know? And so they are the ones who are having immense success in these classes. 'cause as Ryan says, like, even if their stories aren't autobiographical,
Kara Duffy: Mm-hmm.
Lynn Harris: there's just some, there's a way you can see and feel that there's decades of life, put into them.
And they take the class super seriously. They take the outcomes of the class super seriously. They go on and do more things. And she's just like. [00:21:00] They just, yeah, they slash we, have bring so much to the table and really create amazing stuff.
Kara Duffy: I like it because there it's real. Like it's coming from the froth of like day in life and living. It's not, people in a writer's room, like throwing darts at ideas and being like, well, let's start that one. When these things are like crawling out of you, there's such an energy behind it.
And it just, it's, it has more, I don't know, soul or staying power or like activation behind it. Mm-hmm.
Lynn Harris: Yep. Yep. Yep. And yeah, you really see that, you really see with, we have, people who've gone on from that class to like, let's see. One of them is one of them has, they're doing proofs of concept of their shows. They've won pitch competitions, they've got talent attached and production companies attached.
They've got, like, they've got representation and like they're doing the thing, they made the thing and now they're doing the thing, or they're gonna make the thing, or they got ready to make the thing and now they're gonna make the thing. Or, And yeah, there is that kind of depth [00:22:00] of experience.
It's not just like an idea that's sort of sprang randomly from their heads. Even if it's not even if it's not auto autobiographical, it's, I'm I mean, God, people have done the most creative, but the most creative pitches and it's such an important, and it's, I'll say this, it's. How you know, or where the reason you feel it so hard is that they're pitching the right way, which is that it's actually not a pitching class.
And this is like a freebie for anyone working on a pitch of anything. It's not about just having a, you don't start with the slick deck in the class. You don't even start thinking about the pitch until the sixth or seventh week because you spend the time before that developing the idea. So the pitch is a representation of a fully developed idea.
It's not just , everyone can do. I mean, Canva, we can all do an amazing deck now, but it's the, it really shows and that the freebie is, don't start the deck until you really can like [00:23:00] breathe and, breathe and in and out. The idea where you know the idea so well, you can answer any question.
The why, the why you.
Kara Duffy: mm-hmm.
Lynn Harris: You know the why now, all of those things. Then no Canva. No Canva until you know that stuff.
Kara Duffy: This is exactly what I'm saying, all day long to people who wanna start a business because to, to me, life is a bunch of art projects and whether it's a business you wanna start or it's a play you wanna make, or it's a t-shirt, like whatever the thing is, like I'm so mini people who are. I'm gonna minimize everyone's super fancy MBAs real quick, but saying, being someone who has one, but business is ultimately like project management on speed. That's all it is.
Lynn Harris: Mm-hmm.
Kara Duffy: And so, but it's like if we don't apply it to the things that matter to us, like it should be helping us bring things to life and ideally making money like hobby, not business, but it's exact same thing and I'm losing my mind over here. So I'm just gonna add to what you were saying. For anyone [00:24:00] listening, whatever you wanna make, follow Lynn's, same advice. I hearing your voice and your speaking intonation, I immediately hear Rachel Dratch in
Lynn Harris: Oh my God, everyone says that. That is so funny.
Kara Duffy: Well, and so I consider a Massachusetts home, and you were born in Lexington.
Lynn Harris: Yeah.
Kara Duffy: She's born, I believe, around the corner.
Lynn Harris: In Lexington.
Kara Duffy: Amy PO's of the two towns over Steve Carrell is from Massachusetts.
Like there's so many people from Massachusetts who end up in a comedy space.
Lynn Harris: I know.
Kara Duffy: Why, like, is it so, and I'll say like, I think there's something in the water that tells us we can do it. I don't know why, but like that there's people, every time someone's doing something, I'm like, are you from New England by any chance? Or the Northeast, because someone told us we could up there and I don't know why we're not spreading that message elsewhere.
Lynn Harris: I [00:25:00] know. I honestly, I've, I have no clue. I don't even have a joke about it. Like I don't know what it is. I don't know. I are we funnier? Are we are we, what's the mindset? It's not because funny isn't the outcome. It's like, you're right. It's like, what's the mindset that gets you, that makes you funny?
'cause we're all different kinds of funny, right? Like Rachel Dratch is completely different from Adam Sandler, who's from New Hampshire. And and Seth Meyers also from New Hampshire. I mean, come on. This is crazy. I can name a million. I was about to say, what's his name, the one from that show.
That's what I was about. It was from Marblehead. There's so many fun fact, this is one, this is for your listeners. You probably know this. So Rachel Dutch is from my hometown and she's an advisor to Gold, which is not unrelated to the fact that we grew up in the same synagogue. But and then Amy is from Burlington and those towns were stand-ins, or that's where they got the i inspiration for oh, see here I go. The towns on the show the parks and rec, the two towns, Eagleton and Pawnee is are [00:26:00] lexington and Burlington, which I died when I, because like I, I read that in.
Memoir and I was like, of course. Yeah. There you go. Fun fact inside little inside baseball. But there you go.
Kara Duffy: Yeah, no, there's, it's even looking at like what Ben a and Matt Damon have done, like there's a level of audacity of like, of course we can raise screenplay. Like, and I don't know that it's like, we believe it will happen, but we're like, we're gonna try.
Lynn Harris: Gonna do it. Yeah. Yeah. We're just gonna write his screenplay. Yeah, we're just gonna fucking do it.
Kara Duffy: Mm-hmm.
Lynn Harris: You with me? You with me, Damon? Yeah. Fleck. Let's do it. They and Rachel are and. Mark Wahlberg are the only four people that when I am president, will allow to do a Boston accent on the screen.
Well, obviously obviously Amy also, and I said Rachel, right? Yeah. Everyone else can just I literally, the other day my son was like, oh mom, I just finished this great book named, called Eileen. I'm just gonna name it. Great book. And then I watched the movie, you Gotta, you and I, you [00:27:00] gotta watch the movie when you finish the book.
And I was like, sure. 'Cause I thought the book was beautifully written by someone in Massachusetts. And I went to watch the movie and I had to be like, son, alas, I cannot watch the film. And he was like, why? And I was like, 'cause I can't listen to Anne Hathaway's Boston accent. I can't, I couldn't do it.
It's like fingernails on a blackboard.
Kara Duffy: Yeah.
Lynn Harris: Fingernails. Fingernails on a blackboard. Cannot do it. Yeah.
Kara Duffy: mm-hmm. No it, because it's, it starts sounding like someone's doing a parody and you can't take it seriously. You can't like, actually, like let the character just become a person that you're with. Yeah. Mm-hmm. How do you think growing up in Lexington and the Boston area influenced you?
Lynn Harris: I was always really into my kids will utterly tease me all the time? Because I was a big nerd for the all the American history stuff, big nerd for that. I was a tour guide, it was certainly part of my like, comfort it. [00:28:00] I, who knows what the chicken and the egg is. But I definitely like.
Early on, developed comfort, talking to people and being funny. And 'cause of course the tour guides had to be funny. And we basically, just like the jokes got passed down from the previous tour. Like there was the tour guide at Slade Sam, his name was Art Slade, but I can't, his name was at, I can't, that's how it is in my mind.
So, and we got, and that was hilarious. So we had a bunch of, so we like, stole his jokes, which is fine. Not if you're a comedian. It's fine if you're a tour guide. And so. I just, I really just loved it. And, I'm trying to think of, so that was, that's a concrete thing that it inspired me to, be a tour guide and we made a killing.
They, we were, they, we didn't get paid, but we made tips. And that was my first job. 'cause I was, did that before I could, like, before I was 16, before I could get like a job. And I, that's a great question. I just was always thrilled by it, and I was always happy to, like, when people came to visit, we always had people visiting from all over the world for [00:29:00] reasons cousins and just other people that we knew, and I was always so excited to like, take them to the green and tell them the whole thing and, I can't tell you there was a direct connection.
I don't know. I went to, I didn't go to high school in Lexington, so Rachel and I didn't go to the same high school.
Kara Duffy: Yeah.
Lynn Harris: But I went to I went to the Windsor school. I went to a girl's school in Boston, and that was, it was not, people were very afraid of the word feminist back then, so I wouldn't, like we had Gloria Long story.
We had Gloria Stein of speak at our high school graduation, and that was a schedule except for the people who were into it it like not by the administration, but there were like some parents who were, but it, but if nothing else, that school. Had as, as priority making sure that girls spoke and spoke up.
There were speaking prizes. There were like, it was just really in the water to the point where I went to college and I was like, why are the boys talking?
Kara Duffy: Yeah.
Lynn Harris: And I was intimidated at first, because it, I mean, I knew boys like I did plays in the newspaper and stuff and I knew them, we were already like [00:30:00] on equal footing 'cause we were doing the same hobby together.
Whether it was. Whatever, as I said, the newspaper or theater, but like all of a sudden they were in my classes and they were talking and they seemed to know shit. And I think they didn't, I think they just talked, but we were talk, we were taught to speak, but we were also talked, taught to , know what we were gonna say, know what we were saying.
So it, it intimidated me for a few months and my mother was like. To, she was like, Lynn, don't listen to them. Don't like, just, don't worry. Like welcome to the real world. Aside from that blip. I also think, and also like it's not the only way to learn how to be comfortable speaking up, is to go to a preppy girl school, which was great.
It's definitely not the only way, but I think that certainly helped that certainly helped.
Kara Duffy: I do think like, for those of us who are from there it's kind of just part of the air, this interesting balance of very liberal perspectives. Also very [00:31:00] preppy, conservative. Like there's this interesting balance that only makes sense there and I don't know if it can be extrapolated to other places because you can have these legacy families who at, who believe at the same time like, yes, we should give all kids school lunches.
And you're like, it's it kind of doesn't comprehend how. Those two things can exist in the same place. Like even like when I was living there, Mitt Romney was the governor
Lynn Harris: Yep.
Kara Duffy: and he was a Republican governor who passed universal healthcare and the Gay Rights Act in Massachusetts,
Lynn Harris: The only times I've ever voted for Republicans was were living in Massachusetts and Connecticut, also New England and the, and sometimes it was the lesser of two evils, but it wasn't someone you couldn't vote for.
Kara Duffy: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Lynn Harris: decent humans who had clear core values.
Kara Duffy: Mm-hmm.
Lynn Harris: that you could get behind there. Remember there was Lowell Liker in Connecticut. There was I didn't, I wasn't living there for Romney, but we voted for weld,
Kara Duffy: [00:32:00] Mm-hmm.
Lynn Harris: who was that? There was this like Patrician,
Kara Duffy: Yeah.
Lynn Harris: if not Democrat, Patrician. And also not Progressive, but like Patrician.
Okay. People,
Kara Duffy: Yeah.
Lynn Harris: Which I know is hard to, it's hard to reconcile. I know.
Kara Duffy: but I feel like the New England origins have given me like a, an expectation of like being an activist. Like I, like, I feel like I was taught there, like we take care of each other and we speak up for each other and we use our power, influence, wealth to help other people.
Lynn Harris: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kara Duffy: And I see in everything that you've listed of your 73 potential things, it's all rooted in how are we pushing someone else into a spotlight or how are we helping people?
Lynn Harris: Yeah,
Kara Duffy: can you imagine your life not doing that? Like not Yeah.
Lynn Harris: I mean sometimes I think it would be nice, as I [00:33:00] said, with the people who are doing their fun comedy projects, I'm like, I wanna do my fun comedy project. Wait a minute. What happened? I did, I have done fun comedy projects and I am working on, I'm writing a pilot now. That is the, my favorite part of my day.
But but I do miss the, this, the sort of making stuff for no reason. But no, you're right. I mean, not no reason, but like, just to delight, but yeah, I don't wanna sound so noble, but I just never. It, it was just always my orientation. My parents, I'm sure they played a role.
They were very nice and giving, and they weren't like massive activists, but my mom kind of was. But it was normal, for me to be, I put it this way once before, like for me to be a feminist and all the things I am was not a rebellion.
Kara Duffy: No.
Lynn Harris: Absolutely not. And it was, nor it was completely normal and welcomed in, in the house.
So that was, that worked. And thank God I didn't like choose to rebel against that,
Kara Duffy: yeah.
Lynn Harris: and become that kind of [00:34:00] kid. But I don't know. And I guess maybe my, I don't know, maybe my parents had. We did, they did have a big influence on me. So like maybe and like for them sending me to Windsor was like, what?
Like my mom came from a long line of socialists and my dad was the first person in his family to go to college since ever in the south. And and like this, they went, they met at MIT, which is fancy, but they didn't, but this was not their, like MIT is not fancy in the, in a preppy way. Right.
So they just, they didn't know anything about preppy, any, like that kind of old fashioned, they knew nothing, but they got inspired by the education piece of it. 'cause they were both academic and academic adjacent. And so, I don't know, I think I just grew up around people who were nice,
not all of them were activists or advocates or, but who were oriented toward, being part of the public discourse. 'cause it's what you do.
Kara Duffy: that's the other thing that I find so interesting, right? Like I, i'm so used to like going into a [00:35:00] bar and you sit at the bar, the actual bar itself. You're waiting for your friends. You talk to the people next to you. It would be so normal in Boston to what hears, what sounds like people having a fight.
They're just really having an active discussion about politics and it's so normal. And then you go other places in the world and you're like, oh no, we don't. We don't talk about that. I'm like, isn't this where we're supposed to be talking about this
Lynn Harris: Right now. Where else would you talk about it? I think that does happen in New York also, but I but but I totally know what you mean. Yeah. Yeah. And you, what? You just talk to people. You just talk to whoever. Just talk to them, what you know. Yeah. Yeah. It's I know whatever it's about.
Yeah, totally.
Kara Duffy: Well, so coming back to what you're creating for the people and giving them some room to be in the spotlight, you mentioned for the people you mentioned you know that program to like write your pitch and craft your idea.
Lynn Harris: one of our premium classes. Yeah.
Kara Duffy: What else can people expect from gold comedy?
Lynn Harris: Ah, thank you for [00:36:00] asking. So the one thing that's cool is that the core way we work, there are exceptions, but the core way we work is it's a membership model. So you join for the year rather than you dip in and dip out. I mean, you can still do that, but but in that way, we emphasize that what you're joining is a community.
Kara Duffy: Mm-hmm.
Lynn Harris: in that community you take classes and you do other things, but what you're joining is a collaborative community and network that is there for your success. So whether it's small things like, two people, we didn't know each other now co-host one of our open mics that we have online, or whether it's big things like three people.
Who did a class we used to do on comedy and trauma wound up creating solo shows built out of that class, and then touring those shows to, doing those shows as sort of a trifecta together. Or whether it's one of our web series our web series, but it was created out of one of our classes.
And the with and the writer and producer are both members of gold. And then they had to it's great. It's called Rat Za. Everyone should watch it. It's a fictional, it's like the [00:37:00] real. There was a person whose job in New York City was rat czar, like rodent mitigation basically. So it's like that, but parks and rec ish and hilarious.
And so they basically staffed the whole production with almost all goldies. So it was just, 'cause there was like, it was people ready to there like, I know how to do lighting, I know how to do sound, I'll be scripty, like, it just, it came together so. That's the, that's like the baseline. And then we have all sorts of classes that are included in your membership.
So you can take them, you can take all of them, you can take them more than once. You can, we're always rolling out new ones, they're all included. And so that way you can create your own path. Whether it's to jump around or really focus on one thing we have, yeah, so we have two mics every week. We have a celebrity, and we have a speaker series with comedy celebrities and professionals.
We have hundreds of hours of on-demand content. We have members teaching workshops. So if you have a skill that's relevant or even like one that's not relevant, like I'll teach crochet, whatever it is. [00:38:00] We just had someone teach we had people teach editing all the time. Like, 'cause people, like that's a major skill that you need and you probably already know how to do it.
If you've made a TikTok ever. And and then, yeah, so there's just a community of people doing different things, but it all overlaps and you collaborate and you meet online and maybe you go do a thing in person. So it's all the skill building and making stuff. Grounded in a collaborative, supportive, professional community that's there 24 7.
Kara Duffy: I love this. And the business strategist to me is like, yes. Like, I creating memberships that last a year, 1000% because no, we want people to meet us where we are. You're giving them so much stuff and to have them be like, yes, I'll be friends for a whole year. You're like, great.
Now we can do all the fun things together because. It's so we wanna minimize the selling side of things. We can focus on all the juicy stuff you just talked about and that's it. Just, it's a smarter model. So, gold star. [00:39:00] Gold star for Gold Comedy
Lynn Harris: Thanks. I mean, we're still figuring out how to not over, over deliver. For what they get and for really encourage the members, like what are all the things that can run themselves, make themselves, what can the members do?
We, our joke is our inside joke that we say on the team, you heard it here, is like, we can't be the giving tree,
Kara Duffy: Yeah.
Lynn Harris: which is my least favorite book ever written. It's disturbing and it's about an abusive relationship and I can't stand it. And there you heard it here. Hot take. Hot take. Sorry if it's your favorite, I'm really sorry.
I just hate it. But in any case but jokingly, we always think when we're, when we cook up an idea, we're then we all go, we go, me and the team, we go like, okay, how do we make this. Build on something we already do. How do we make the members do this? How do we, so that, and plus it's more valuable to them if they're making it as opposed to us just giving new stuff.
So, that's always the challenge, but that's what makes us be creative. Like we just realized, wait a minute. And also technology helps, like we just realized, wait a minute. [00:40:00] We run two public open mics a month great lead generator, all those things. Super easy. They run themselves, members host them.
We have it automated and templated and all those things. They're very friendly, easy to do. And then we just realized that our, the technology of our platform, my teammate Maggie, just said, well, why don't we just create a space on our, we can create a sort of a non-paid part of our.
Platform where that's only for people who do our mics and that's it. And then, and it's a limited, they have limited functionality but we get their emails,
Kara Duffy: Yes.
Lynn Harris: and they get a Yep. And then they get a little bit more of an enhanced experience because if they saw someone at a mic. And they like them, they can see them on our platform and it's just like, duh.
We can do that and set it and forget it. But it's another that's a little bit more, less about, I should say, that's a little bit less about building community and more about lead generation. But like we're always thinking like, what can we do that we already do? 'cause we're a tiny team and mostly part-time, like we're tiny.
And so how can we [00:41:00] be smart about maximizing and optimizing their experience while minimizing ours?
Kara Duffy: Every, everything that we do that I think makes a business feel like it's serving the business actually has an equal service to the people who are the customers and clients of the business. If we are able to actually look at it, like actually guiding people through a journey and be, and like.
PE people have entered your net and then like, we have holes that are too big and they're gone. They're like, but I thought you liked me. And they're like, offload, you have to like, come back in the door again. And like, so it's I think for memberships, people are underestimating how hard it is to like, make it self moving.
It's really easy to be like, I wanna hang out with blah, blah, blah. Cool. You can make the containers super easy, but you. It's a thing to, it's a big thing to manage and maintain. But yeah,
Lynn Harris: Well, one thing that is helpful is I'll shout out the platform that we're [00:42:00] on, and there are many, I just, I can't speak to other ones that are like it. I'm sure there are very high quality ones that are like it. But we're on Mighty Networks. And yeah, and they exist to solve the problem that I was stuck.
I was stucky stuck, stuck, stuck for years noodling on this while also like trying to, make, pay, rent and earn, earn money doing other things that I do because I'm not a tech founder. And so, I had to figure out how, I was trying to figure out how do we create this community experience mostly online.
That does all these XY 1, 2, 3 things that I wanted to do without being like, okay, well this lives on Facebook and this lives on Udemy or do I raise money? Do I raise a hundred thousand dollars to build an app that I haven't tested? Because I can't test the app until I build it.
Like what? And so, and then Mighty Networks was like. Oh, do you wanna build a community with X, Y, and Z functionality all in one place without having to build an app? And I was like, that is, yes.
Kara Duffy: Yep.
Lynn Harris: there are other companies like it [00:43:00] and I'm, I'm sure they're all great, but it's a great, that was a great understanding of a problem that they could, that needed solving that they solved.
Kara Duffy: One of the things that we ask everyone who's on the podcast is, what does powerful ladies mean to you? Like, how would you define that? What does it mean to you when you hear it?
Lynn Harris: I think a lot about this because I think that. I am happy to use the word powerful. The word that I try to avoid is empowered because I feel that we have all the power already and we don't have to be empowered. Other people need to stop taking away our power or just get out of our way. And so when I think of powerful ladies, I think more of that.
In other words, we know that we already have the power. and some, sometimes people get in the way of it. Sometimes culture gets in the way of it. [00:44:00] Sometimes individual dudes like that guy get in the way of it. But we already have the power. It's not about empowering us, it's really just walking into a room and.
Knowing that, for example, if we don't feel as powerful in that room, it's not 'cause we have imposter syndrome or anything like that, it's 'cause the room wasn't built for us and to do the thing anyway and they'll catch up.
Kara Duffy: You know there some people have said that they get triggered by the word ladies, and we should call this powerful humans.
Lynn Harris: Oh, I don't care about that. I don't care about that. I don't, I just don't care. I don't care. I don't, I, I mind if someone like addresses a bunch of us as ladies, especially when not everyone identifies that way. Like, as in, in a moment. But like, to me it sounds kind of ironic, that like, we know how to behave, when we need to, when it serves us.
It sounds like we're in on the joke, like that we, yeah. So I don't, yeah, I don't. [00:45:00] It's it, to me it's a good combination.
Kara Duffy: The origin for me was Missy Elliot when she's like, Hey ladies. I was like, yeah, who's the group I'm gonna call? And we're like, we gotta go. We got a problem to solve. Like this is, when I need to send the bat signal out. That's who we're inviting to this podcast.
Lynn Harris: Right. And it's like, I know when you say it, you're like, it has a whole bunch of meaning. Right. Whereas if some random dude is like, okay ladies, I'm like, shut up. So it's all context.
Kara Duffy: Yeah. And it's ama it's a, it's the tone of it too. Right, though I do love. I was reading a list of ways that women are like quietly being anti patriarchal. And this one woman said that when she goes into a room now, she's like, okay, ladies, let's begin,
Lynn Harris: Oh yeah.
Kara Duffy: matter who's in the room instead of guys.
And
Lynn Harris: Oh my God, that's so good.
Kara Duffy: It's so good. And
Lynn Harris: don't mind guys, but that's good. That's
Kara Duffy: I don't mind guides either. And so, but it's so funny, especially when she's the only woman in the room [00:46:00] and everyone looks at her, is like, what are you doing? She's like, we're just normalizing this. Thanks. Bye.
Lynn Harris: Yep. I love that. I love it so much.
Kara Duffy: for everybody who wants to work on one of your projects, invite you to something else, go join be a Goldie. Where can they find follow support? You sign up all the things.
Lynn Harris: Well, thanks for asking easy gold comedy.com. Also Instagram Gold Comedy, and I'll also give you some goodies for the show notes, some links and a discount
Kara Duffy: amazing. The last question I'll ask you today is how can we help you? What do you need? What do you want? What's on your, to manifest your wishlist? Big, small what do you wanna ask Of me and the community?
Lynn Harris: Oh, thank you. I would say, and this is really, this is a win-win. This is a win-win. Come check us out. Don't count yourself out of comedy. You don't have to be, you don't have to give up and join the circus. You don't even have to do standup. You don't have to perform even. You could be, we need, comedy, we need writers.
We need people who do lighting, sound editing. [00:47:00] We need we need project managers. We need producer. Like all those things. You it's, and you don't have to like, be a certain personality. You don't have to be like loud or quote unquote confident, which I think is a giant red herring. Or you really, you've you're ready.
Like there's no ready, there isn't any ready. Ready is just doing it. There's no ready there's no not ready. So, and that also helps me because what I need is revenue. I'm always looking, I'm always figuring out, of course, new revenue streams.
But our bread and butter and the thing that makes, the thing that makes us win and the thing that makes us great as something that people wanna keep coming back to, which they do are the people. So come be one of those people.
Kara Duffy: I love it. Well, this has been such a delight. Thank you for being a yes to me and the powerful ladies and sharing your story. I cannot wait to see like who are other future Goldie graduates,
Lynn Harris: Thank you.
Kara Duffy: Thanks for listening to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe. Leave [00:48:00] us a review or share it with a friend. Head to the powerful ladies.com. We can find all the links to connect with today's guest show notes, discover like episodes, enjoy bonus content and more.
We'll be back next week with a brand new episode and new amazing guest. Make sure you're following us on Instagram or substack at powerful ladies to get the first preview of next week's episode. You can find me and all my socials@karaduffy.com. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life.
Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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