About the Author:

Mary Lemmer is the author of How to Handle Anything: Four Improv Principles for Navigating Life’s Curveballs, and the creator of The Improve Method™, an approach that uses the principles of improvisation supported by research and nervous system science to help people navigate uncertainty, adapt to the unexpected, and move forward when there is no script to follow.

Mary started her first business as a teenager, beginning a career that has since spanned building companies, venture capital, leadership in fast-growing startups, and advising founders and organizations, all while training and performing as an improviser. For more than a decade, she has brought those worlds together to help people and teams become more adaptable, confident, and creative in the face of change. She has brought her work to organizations including Google, Verizon, Square, TED, and Pfizer.

Mary is a graduate of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and trained in improvisation at The Second City, the Upright Citizens Brigade, and The Groundlings. She delivered the TED Talk “How Improv Can Improve Your Leadership and Life,” hosts the How to Handle Anything podcast, and writes Life, Improvised on Substack. She has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, and Fast Company.

About How to Handle Anything:

Drawing on more than a decade spent training leaders and teams — plus a career that has taken her from executive boardrooms and high-growth companies to TED and the improv stages of The Second City — Mary Lemmer translates four core principles of improv into a practical, research-backed toolkit for navigating uncertainty with greater resilience, creativity, and confidence.

It’s a guide for anyone who wants to meet the unplanned, the unexpected, and the unscripted with a little more steadiness, and a lot more joy.