Lighten up. It'll surprise you the good it does you.

Me: Scott, I'm glad that you're willing to take the time to speak with me today. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your history, and what you're doing now.
Scott: Sure, I'll start with what I'm doing now. From a professional standpoint, I've kind of been a jack of all trades type of communications professional. My initial ambition and dreams were to be on the creative side of communications. But the economical necessities and familial responsibilities sort of forced me into a direction that is slightly less creative and more practical and tactical and corporate and professional.

So, I've been a keynote speaker for 20 plus years and a corporate trainer. I've traveled to every reach and climb on every continent. It seems because there's always a meeting going on somewhere where they, they want someone like me. I speak on having fun at work, lightening up. Kind of the softer side of business leadership. And I've been an actor for television shows and little film projects and other documentary type series and things like that.

Me: You're president of a company called Levity Matters, where you do keynotes for businesses. What brought you to that path of sharing the power of levity?
Scott: I noticed that many people in corporate America were miserable. They just took everything so seriously. Like no one's going to die on my watch. You know, we're not NASA. We're not sending a man around the moon. I mean, truly no one is going to die on our watch here at Acme Nut and Bolt or wherever we work. And I just thought I can't imagine how they expect their employees or especially their clients and customers to react favorably and positively to grumble, grumble, knitted eyebrows, clenched jaws all the time, just a sense of gravitas that exists.

I figured there must be something else. People need to lighten the heck up. And so I convinced my boss at the time to coauthor a book with me called the levity effect, why it pays to lighten up. And that's kind of the Genesis of it.

Me: Can you give me the short version of what some of the key messages are in the keynotes you give?
Scott: There's three words that I've landed on, either by inspiration or frustration or just time passage: Latitude, attitude and gratitude. So, levity is not In its essence, just about being funny and wearing a red nose and telling jokes. It is truly the act of becoming lighter. So, that includes things like latitude as a boss as a parent, as a coworker; allowing others to be who they are to express themselves the way they do to innovate, to collaborate with them and accept their feedback and their ideas, give them credit for them.

The gratitude component was sort of sewn into my DNA. It's helping companies learn how to be more grateful. So, if latitude is letting others be who they are, gratitude is thanking and praising and acknowledging them. And Attitude is your own contribution in terms of lighten up having a sense of humor.

Me: You make a distinction between humor and levity. Can you explain that distinction a little bit more.
Scott: I think humor is part of levity. That's the main distinction. It's not a synonym for levity in my world. It's how we treat people. The degree to which we are appreciative. The degree to which we are gracious and kind. For many people that is lightening up. In fact, usually when you say lighten up to someone, you mean it that way.

And so when you think of levity in that sense of lightening up, it's not as much about being funny as it is about being lighter, more forgiving or just fun. A fun person isn't necessarily funny. They're just fun. They have a twinkle in their eye.

It's not so much about your sense of humor. That's just one sense. There's also a sense of compassion, a sense of fairness, a sense of equality, a sense of timing, a sense of style. There's all kinds of different little senses that are hard to quantify or to define. And a sense of humor is one of them.

Me: Why is levity important in relationships and, and how does it help us in our interactions with others?
Scott: Almost all of the answers that I would give would be purely anecdotal. There's simply no need for any academic response to that, because generally, I don't have one. But when I ask people, especially women, okay, what do you look for in the ideal partner, looks are not the number one thing. It may be what initially attracts them, but very few of them will ever put that at the top of the list. Women appreciate and value a sense of humor. And that can mean and a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but it's having a sense of perspective in a relationship that is part of the levity. That's also part of having a lightening up perspective.

The above has been edited for length. To see and hear the rest of the interview and get even more insight on the positive impacts of levity, watch the full interview at www.kenbakerbooks.com/expert_scott_christopher

To learn more about Scott Christopher and Levity Matters, visit scottchristopher.net