What Makes an Inspired Leader? with Corporate Trainer Bruce Mayhew

In this inspiring episode of "Humor in the C Suite," Kate Davis welcomes Bruce Mayhew, corporate trainer and author of the newly released book "The Path of an Inspired Leader." Bruce shares his journey from 11 years at Scotiabank (where he helped launch debit cards) to becoming a sought-after leadership trainer specializing in authentic communication and team building.

The conversation explores how Bruce uses humor strategically in leadership—not as performance, but as a tool for building genuine relationships that enable difficult conversations. His famous "Grease Wednesdays" story demonstrates how simple, authentic fun can dissolve departmental tensions and create lasting team bonds. Bruce emphasizes the importance of authenticity over forced humor, sharing practical strategies for leaders who want to incorporate levity while remaining true to their natural style.

Key Takeaways:

• Authenticity trumps performance when incorporating humor into leadership
• Building relationships through humor creates trust necessary for difficult conversations
• Simple team-building activities (like "Grease Wednesdays") can transform workplace culture
• Email humor should be used extremely cautiously due to misinterpretation risks
• Cultural sensitivity is crucial when adapting humor across diverse teams
• Leaders often fear humor after being "burned," but authentic fun is always accessible

Notable Quotes:

• "Humor helps us humanize each other. It allows us to understand each other, to see each other more than just a job or a coworker."
• "Be really careful that you're never laughing at somebody... but allow yourself to laugh, allow yourself to have fun."
• "Humor helps prime the pump beforehand so that when you have to have the difficult conversation, you can be serious."
• "Be authentic... don't be something you're not."
• "Find authenticity is really important... I still tried to be who I was."

Resources:

• Book: "The Path of an Inspired Leader: Authenticity, Courage, and Impact" - Available February 16, 2026. Available on: Amazon, Indigo, Barnes & Noble
• Bruce Mayhew Consulting
• Bruce's Instagram
• Connect with Bruce on LinkedIn

This episode offers practical wisdom for leaders seeking to build authentic relationships while maintaining professional effectiveness. Bruce's approach proves that humor in leadership isn't about being funny—it's about being human.

Additional Links & Resources:

• Interested in being a guest on Humor in the C-Suite? Reach out to book a call with Kate!
• Learn more about me and my work at katedavis.ca

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Humor in the C-Suite! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the podcast, share it with your friends, and leave a rating or review. Your support helps the podcast continue to grow. 

Hosted by Kate Davis
Edited by Chris @ Wider View Studios

Transcript

0:00:03 - (Kate Davis): Hello, I'm Kate Davis and this is Humor in the C Suite, a show about how leaders use humor to create an extraordinary work culture. Hi, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of Humor in the C Suite. My guest this week is Bruce Mayhew. Bruce has a passion for helping his clients achieve professional development goals. As a corporate trainer and keynote speaker, Bruce Bruce helps clients communicate clearly and express their values in a way that sets them apart in the minds of their customers and coworkers by delivering customized and interactive training solutions.

0:00:36 - (Kate Davis): Bruce has over 20 years experience helping people and organizations succeed. At the beginning of this career, Bruce spent over 11 years with Scotiabank designing and developing corporate marketing strategies, working on merger integration teams, and training the national sales sales team. In his upcoming book, to be released this week, the Path of an Inspired Leader, Bruce distills years of expertise into a transformative guide offering readers insight and the framework to lead with authenticity, courage, and impact.

0:01:08 - (Kate Davis): Whether you're a seasoned leader or stepping into it for the first time, Bruce's book promised to be a catalyst for growth and innovation. I was thrilled to have him on the podcast. We had a great conversation how he leads and led with humor for all those years and and all about his new book that's coming out this week. I am thrilled. So please welcome Bruce Mayhew. Hey, Bruce. Welcome to Humor in the Sea Suite.

0:01:35 - (Bruce Mayhew): It's so great to be here. I can't tell you how, how thrilled I am.

0:01:39 - (Kate Davis): I'm thrilled. Oh, my gosh. I was reading through your bio and you've done a lot of stuff off. I thought we would just start off by telling everyone your story a little bit about yourself and then we'll get into all the questions.

0:01:52 - (Bruce Mayhew): Sure, sure. And it depends how far back you want to go, but let's just start.

0:01:58 - (Kate Davis): Away in a manger.

0:02:00 - (Bruce Mayhew): Exactly. Let's just start. At the beginning of my career at a university, all I ever wanted to do was work for a big bank. And that's what is going to be my. My full career was going to be working for a big bank. I was fortunate, fortunate enough out of university to start working for Scotiabank. Had a whole bunch of years that I just loved, loved, loved what I did. There I was. I launched debit for Scotiabank.

0:02:28 - (Bruce Mayhew): I did a. Yeah, I did a bunch of really great projects with Scotia that were really leading edge and new and exciting and I met a lot of fantastic people. And then it got to the point where I realized that banking wasn't going to be my future anymore. And when I realized that it took me two years to leave and which is really remarkable in today's world to take two years to redefine your future. But I did, and long story short, I started Bruce Mayhew Consulting and started doing some training around helping people be better people.

0:03:06 - (Bruce Mayhew): And I've been doing that for now, 20 some odd years, and I love it.

0:03:11 - (Kate Davis): Wow, that's amazing. And I love the fact that, you know, you really embraced wanting to work at a bank, which is just such a weird thing for a kid to want. Exactly.

0:03:23 - (Bruce Mayhew): Like, it's not that I'm good at finance because I'm not. Right. Because I was on the corporate side.

0:03:29 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, you were on the marketing, right?

0:03:31 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah, yeah. And, and I remember when I first started working at Scotia, people would say to me, like, when they first met me, they would say, hey, you'd be great in a branch. You're so good with people. You'd be great in a branch. And then about two weeks later, after they got to know me, they were like, don't you ever go work at a branch? Because everything show, everything shows on my face. Right.

0:03:56 - (Bruce Mayhew): So they're like, yeah, you have a really bad poker face.

0:04:00 - (Kate Davis): I love that. I love that. So you learned a lot during your, your corporate life. So if we can go back to that for a second. Did you incorporate leader like humor into your leadership style when you were leading your teams, launching debit and stuff like that?

0:04:17 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah, it was like, I was really young compared to now. Like, I was really young then. So I still trying to find who Bruce was as a, as a, as a business person, as a professional. So I would say that I was a little bit more reserved than I am now. Like, I certainly am reserved, sort of natural. I'm an introvert, but I do extroverted things. And so I was always sort of a little bit in my head about things.

0:04:44 - (Bruce Mayhew): But what I realized is that almost organically, I would have fun in the world that I was part of. Right. Like the friends that I made, we would have fun. But it all happened organically more than intentionally. So.

0:05:02 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, that's great. I, I love that because then, even then, back then, you were bringing yourself to work.

0:05:10 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah. And it was a tough time. Like, I, I'm gay. Thirty years ago, being gay in the banking industry was not a thing that you wanted to do. So, you know, part of me was, was sort of compartmentalized. But the other part, I still tried to be right me. Right. And I tried to be who I was. I tried to be authentic. I, I, I Find authenticity is really important. So I still tried to be who I was. Right. So.

0:05:34 - (Kate Davis): Yeah. So now in your coaching, because you do a lot of executive coaching and stuff like that, are you teaching leaders how to trust themselves and bring that part of themselves to the job?

0:05:47 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah, it certainly is part of what I do. I, I would say I do a lot more training and facilitating over the, of course, coaching part. Right.

0:05:57 - (Kate Davis): Okay.

0:05:58 - (Bruce Mayhew): But even in my training part, I really look at building trust and transparency in the work that they do. As an example, one of my, my most popular workshops is difficult conversations training. And you really have to be authentic. You have to. People have to trust you if you're going to have a difficult conversation with them, them and for it to be successful. So I, I really help people understand what it takes to build trust and to keep trust.

0:06:31 - (Bruce Mayhew): Right, okay.

0:06:32 - (Kate Davis): But when you say like a difficult situation, can you like, give us an example or conversation, like, what would that be like? You're fired.

0:06:41 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah. Yeah, usually you're fired. Is way past difficult conversation.

0:06:46 - (Kate Davis): Okay. Okay. Okay.

0:06:47 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah. So I, I like to think difficult conversations are the things that you should be doing, like every day or every week kind of thing. So it's providing people with constructive feedback. It's. Right, Right. Because what, what I've seen over so many times in a workplace environment where if you're not giving somebody constructive feedback and helping them grow and change, then they're going to keep doing this thing that's not a hundred percent productive or not a hundred percent in line with the, with the company values and the company goals, which starts creating animosity. It starts creating tension.

0:07:32 - (Bruce Mayhew): Like, it just builds until it becomes conflict. Right. And then it becomes very difficult. But if I'm able to say, you know what, something that Bruce is doing isn't really online, it's not on point. It's not. Not exactly what we want to be in the market. You know, I'm going to have a conversation with Bruce and help Bruce be better.

0:07:50 - (Kate Davis): And are you using humor within those conversations? Is there room for it?

0:07:55 - (Bruce Mayhew): I would say be really careful. Right. Be really, really careful with humor there. But where I think we can use humor is in building the relationship for the difficult conversation. Right. So if, if you and I can have fun and, and be transparent and, and like, just really enjoy the work that we're doing together, then when it gets to having a difficult conversation, we can be serious.

0:08:21 - (Kate Davis): You're going to be more open to it.

0:08:23 - (Bruce Mayhew): Absolutely. And that's 100%. And that's where humor comes into the Equation is humor helps prime the pump beforehand so that when you have to have the difficult conversation, you could be serious. But know that I trust you, you trust me, we have each other's best interests at heart, and then we can get back to our really great relationship again. Right.

0:08:48 - (Kate Davis): So it's coming from a good place. It's not coming from an authoritative, like.

0:08:54 - (Bruce Mayhew): Absolutely.

0:08:55 - (Kate Davis): Yeah. And I think humor, and I. I absolutely agree with that, because so often I've said on this podcast that if we build up the relationships and use humor in the good times, we work better in the hard. And do you believe it plays a role in building strong relationships as a team? So you're talking one on one, but as a team, do you find that, like, it helps with collaboration and all that sort of stuff?

0:09:22 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah, 100%. Humor helps us humanize each other. Right. It allows us to understand each other, to see each other more. More than just a job or a. Or a coworker. Humor helps us see each other as people. And as soon as I see you as people, my empathy clicks in a lot faster. My compassion clicks in a lot faster. My desire to help you clicks in. You know, we. We become better teammates. Right. And.

0:09:55 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:09:55 - (Bruce Mayhew): And we learn each other's strengths so that I can help cover you. You can help cover me. Like, it just makes us better people.

0:10:02 - (Kate Davis): That we learn each other's strengths instead of each other's weaknesses. That is so great. Just positive, like, focusing on the positive and. And really building upon that. That's amazing. I. I love that. It. And you know what? And it's so. It's so interesting because, you know, we. That is such a saying. We focus on each other's weaknesses. But the fact that you said strength there, I was like, oh, okay, we're going there.

0:10:29 - (Kate Davis): I really, really like that a lot. Have you encountered challenges or misinterpretations when you have used humor?

0:10:38 - (Bruce Mayhew): That's a really great question. I. I honestly can't think recently or even in the distant past where I've personally experienced misinterpretations. But what I. But where I see misinterpretations happening frequently is with the email etiquette workshops and work that I do.

0:11:00 - (Kate Davis): Okay.

0:11:01 - (Bruce Mayhew): And. And what I recommend to people is never try to use humor in email unless you really, really, really know the person that you're emailing with. Because email humor in an email draws flat really fast, and often it goes even worse. It actually sounds condescending or rude or abrupt.

0:11:28 - (Kate Davis): That's interesting, because I'm sort of. I'M sort of like of the other belief where I am. Like, if you want to bring humor without taking a risk or, you know, of a joke or anything, like, how do you feel about, like, email signatures, like my email signature? Like a lot of times, instead of thanks or whatever, I'll say highly caffeinated, like just something silly like that off the cuff. Are you okay with that kind of thing?

0:11:52 - (Bruce Mayhew): I think it's great, but. And it's especially great for you, right? It's. It's your brand, right? It is, it is who you are.

0:12:00 - (Kate Davis): I mean, I also have autocorrect as my worst enema, so don't.

0:12:07 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah, well, I can't, I can't tell you how many times I've been autocorrected as Bruce Mayhem.

0:12:14 - (Kate Davis): So have you found, like, during your career, both as a speaker and as a coach and all that when you're dealing with different cultures, how you're having to switch sort of your humor or how you're approaching it, you certainly need.

0:12:31 - (Bruce Mayhew): To be careful, right? You have to, you really have to know, as you well know, as a, as a comedian, you have to know your audience, right?

0:12:40 - (Kate Davis): Yes.

0:12:41 - (Bruce Mayhew): And, and you have to really be aware of, of that, that level of trust that you each have for each other. And once you, once I know you, once you know me, then we, we can go in different places and we can really, you know, we, we have a lot more latitude in our, in our relationship, certainly when you're dealing with somebody new and especially a culture that, that you're not completely familiar with.

0:13:13 - (Bruce Mayhew): My recommendation to people is be a little bit on the conservative side. Right? Get some foundation under you. Right. Build that level of trust and awareness with each other's intentions. And as soon as I really understand your intention, then, you know, now you can start expanding. You can be a little bit more relaxed, you can be a little bit more fun.

0:13:42 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, absolutely. I wholeheartedly agree. And you know what? I do come across a lot of leaders who are dealing with. Our company is in four different countries around, globally, and then you're dealing with four different kinds of humor. And you have to be so strategic. But it's also absolutely what you said. Know your audience, you know, like, that is such a big part of it.

0:14:05 - (Bruce Mayhew): Well, I, I think, I think, you know, if, if you're dealing with an audience that you're not really sure of, but you still want to have fun, right? Because I, I, in my world, I try to have fun. I, I know I'm, I'm not funny. Right? But I try to have fun, and, you know, I. Every once in a while, there's a magic thing that happens, and I'm actually funny. But. But for the most part, I try to live my world on fun, and that's really important for me. Right.

0:14:33 - (Bruce Mayhew): But. But I would say if. If you're dealing with a culture or people or. Or a country that you're not familiar with, I think you can still have fun, especially if you're bringing that fun back to yourself. Right. So I'm, I'm. I'm laughing at myself is safe versus laughing at somebody else, which is. It starts getting challenge.

0:14:58 - (Kate Davis): I love what you're saying right now because I think it's so important because so often, you know, I'll mention humor to people and they're like, I'm not good at telling jokes. And this is what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about you have to be good at. I am talking about bring your fun to yourself. Bring your fun to work. Bring your, your, you know, that attitude, that energy to your team and just let it evolve from there. It doesn't have to be a force, you know, creepy dad joke or, you know, or anything like that. It really. So you're. I think you're right on, like, a perfect pitch for this because really, so often trying to explain this where really we're just trying to take it from transactional to human.

0:15:41 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yep, yep.

0:15:42 - (Kate Davis): Absolutely right. And. And bring that fun, knowing, you know, there are lots of ways we don't need to tell a joke to say we have a sense of humor and we can have fun together. And I think what you said is just perfect. Anyway.

0:15:57 - (Bruce Mayhew): Awesome. Yeah.

0:16:00 - (Kate Davis): So, so good. So good. Hi, it's Kate. I can't believe you made it halfway through the show. Look, if you or anyone you know would like to be a guest on Humor in the C Suite, I would love to have you. So email me. KateAITDavis C. Seeing. How do you think a leader's authenticity and vulnerability through humor inspires the same in their team? Because I know your book that's coming out, the Path of an Inspired Leader is about authenticity, courage, and impact.

0:16:34 - (Bruce Mayhew): Right.

0:16:35 - (Kate Davis): So do you. Do you think humor has a place within that?

0:16:38 - (Bruce Mayhew): I totally do. I totally do. I think humor is just. Humor is a basic instinct for us. Right. It is a natural thing that lives with, like, we don't have to teach people to laugh. Little babies laugh all by themselves. Right. So humor is so instinctive within us, and I think it just naturally draws people to each other. It's, you know, it's, it's like what I said earlier. Be really careful, especially on new relationships, that you're never laughing at somebody.

0:17:12 - (Bruce Mayhew): Right. You're always bring the humor to yourself or, or a situation, but it can never ever feel like an attack on somebody or something or something like that. Yes, but, but, but allow yourself to laugh. Allow yourself to have fun. Right. And it doesn't have to be silly games. I hate silly games. Right, but, yeah, but, but you know.

0:17:36 - (Kate Davis): I won't invite you for games night, I promise. Oh, now you're invited. I'm gonna make you play dumb. Do you feel like as, as you've gotten more mature in, in both in your career, you know, and, and more comfortable with yourself, you're saying in your 20s you didn't feel like, you know, rest on the side of caution and everything, and now you're coaching these people, be their best selves. Are you bringing up advice like, do you find that leaders are hesitant when it comes to using humor within their leadership?

0:18:14 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah, they're, you know, I think they, they've probably been burned once or twice and they are really terrified, you know, and it gets to the point like they probably tried to tell a joke and it landed really badly. So.

0:18:27 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:18:28 - (Bruce Mayhew): So now they're just pulling back. But I really think it allow, like it, it really, they really have to find. I encourage people to find ways just to bring fun into the equation. And I know I might start sounding like a broken record about this, but I think it's one of those easy, easy ways. Like there's an example that I give and I give it in the book and I give it also when I'm speaking, when I was, when I was at Scotiabank and we were in the corporate marketing team, there was a little bit of tension at a team level. But you.

0:19:05 - (Bruce Mayhew): Between the corporate marketing team and the product development team, right. So there was, it was like they wanted to do things and we were like, no, this isn't, this isn't the brand message that we're trying to give. And they're like, well, so there was always this tension that existed when I, when I joined the department. And shortly after I joined the department, one of my teammates in the corporate marketing team started having what we called grease Wednesdays.

0:19:34 - (Bruce Mayhew): Right. So we were trying to be health, we were trying to be healthy, right. But we're just getting tired of it. So we decided, you know, on Wednesdays we would eat whatever we wanted, right. So you'd go off, you'd go off, get Whatever you wanted. And. And the two of us, if we go in our own different ways, and. But we'd come back to the. To the office, and we went into a boardroom, and we'd eat our grease. Right. Whether it was McDonald's or KFC or whatever it was. Right? Yeah. And we. And we had Grease Wednesdays, and within a couple weeks of. Of us doing this, we started having other people sort of looking into the. Into the.

0:20:12 - (Bruce Mayhew): Into the. The boardroom or the conference room that we were in, saying, hey, what are you guys doing in there? Right. And. Yeah, within a. Within about two, maybe three months, we had to migrate to the large boardroom because. Because everybody wanted to join us for Greece Wednesday. And it was a time when, like, you were not allowed to bring a salad. That was the only rule. Right.

0:20:38 - (Kate Davis): Perfect.

0:20:40 - (Bruce Mayhew): And what it did was it brought people into the. The having lunch together, and we started doing just really relaxed, laughing at each other's grease and. And having fun together. And suddenly, across the team, like, across the department, we started becoming better teammates. Right. We. Everything started working so much better. Right?

0:21:08 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:21:08 - (Bruce Mayhew): So, like, there's. There's ways where you don't have to fight it together.

0:21:13 - (Kate Davis): Yes.

0:21:14 - (Bruce Mayhew): Sometimes you just need to let. Let it in. Like, find a way, whether it's Candy Tuesdays or Pizza Fridays or, like, I think food is a great way to. To do. Like, to do all of this. Have potlucks, where you're bringing each other's cultures in to the office.

0:21:34 - (Kate Davis): Oh, I love that. That's a great idea.

0:21:37 - (Bruce Mayhew): And you're learning about each other's backgrounds and personalities and history. Like, just find ways to.

0:21:45 - (Kate Davis): To make that connection. That's such great advice. It really is. I want to. I'm going to bring in Grease Wednesdays. Although when you first said it, I'm like, are they kicking this, like, go, Grease line? Anyway, My mind did go to Greece. No. But I really do love that. And so often they're breaking bread together, as I like to put it, is a great way to bond. It's a great way to connect and, you know, and it doesn't have to be a pizza lunch, you know, kind of thing.

0:22:17 - (Kate Davis): It could be so much more exciting than that. And, And. And just having that build your team when there was tension there, just this little gesture of, you know, and. And having to move it. I. I love that story so, so much. Are there specific techniques or strategies that you would say you could interject humor, like, into a leadership approach when you're dealing with groups that you've Known for that you've been working with.

0:22:44 - (Bruce Mayhew): I, you know, I, I go back to my, my sacred rule is be authentic. Right. And, and you know, I, I don't like, I think as long as you're being authentic and transparent, you'll be great. Right. So like some people just aren't. Some people aren't built even to be like they're, they're naturally reserved. Well, be that, Allow yourself to be that. And, and if anything, announce that. Right. Let people know, hey, you know, I really admire you because you can go out there on a limb and I can't. Right. It's not who I am.

0:23:24 - (Bruce Mayhew): And I think allow. Putting a voice to it really helps connect people and humbleize people. But just don't be something you're not.

0:23:35 - (Kate Davis): I love that. Put a voice to it. You know what? Yes, absolutely. And I find like for me, like I'm really outgoing, I love bringing people together. I'll talk to anyone. But if I'm in a group where I'm a little intimidated or I feel like people like, I'll shut down, I'll become that, you know, that sort of 13 year old me that's sort of insecure. You know, the 11 year old me was super goofy and amazing, but the 13 year old me was like, oh no, everyone, you know, is looking at my pimple.

0:24:07 - (Bruce Mayhew): Anyway, I think, I think all of us had that 13 year old thing.

0:24:12 - (Kate Davis): Yeah. But I find she sort of creeps in sometimes if I'm intimidated. But knowing yourself and knowing that that's a part of you I think is okay too. But I, I love the fact if you are an interviewer, you know, it's okay to be that, you know, but you can still have fun. You don't have to be funny, but you can have fun. And I think that's the most pressing thing.

0:24:34 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah. And if you're a leader and, and you're bringing people together then, then you know, bring in shish kebabs or something or, or like do have something around the meeting where people can play games. Right. Like you go to the dollar store and, and go down the kids aisle and there's so many fun little things that you can grab, lay them across the boardroom table and open up the meeting with all of those things on the table that will immediately tell the whole audience that they can play a little bit.

0:25:06 - (Kate Davis): Yes. And yeah.

0:25:08 - (Bruce Mayhew): And it, and it doesn't have to be forced.

0:25:11 - (Kate Davis): And when teams are playful, they're just more innovative, they take more risks, you know, they work better, they want to Be there. All those great things that a great company makes. I know your book is coming out. What you must be. So can you tell us a bit about it? Do you mind or.

0:25:27 - (Bruce Mayhew): Sure, sure. It's. It's been a great project of mine. It was. It's sort of been in the back of my head for the last 10 years or so about what I wanted to do with this book. And finally at the end of. Near the end of 2024, I connected with a publisher and told them what my vision was and they loved the idea. And amazing. Last in 2025 was all about writing the book and having it edited.

0:25:54 - (Kate Davis): Writing's lonely. I hate it.

0:25:57 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah. Yeah. What. What? I. And I've been like, I've written a blog. I've been writing since. Aggressively writing since 2014, but mostly just for myself. But writing a book is very different and. Yeah, so. So my writing the book was.

0:26:19 - (Kate Davis): Oh, there it is.

0:26:20 - (Bruce Mayhew): What? Yeah, writing the book happened for me between 2am and 5am in the morning.

0:26:28 - (Kate Davis): Wow. Interesting.

0:26:29 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah.

0:26:30 - (Kate Davis): I always find I'm most creative around like 7:00am okay.

0:26:34 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah.

0:26:35 - (Kate Davis): Which is so weird for a comic because I'm up so late a lot of times. I'm like, ah, I get gotta do it, I gotta do it. And did you, did you keep your sense of humor about it as you were finding it more or just a different sort of challenge?

0:26:50 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah, absolutely. Like, it's, it's, it was, it ended up being a game for me. Right. Because the, the first, the first two months were completely terrible. Like the. Honestly, the first two months of writing the book, I got like one chapter written. It was awful. And then I realized that my voice came at me at 2:00am and, and that's when I, that's when I started playing my games with myself about, you know, how would I approach things and how I did things and that. And, and then.

0:27:22 - (Bruce Mayhew): But it worked out beautifully because the, the book is designed as it's 20 chapters and they're all different situations that a leader will find themselves in.

0:27:33 - (Kate Davis): Oh, that's so great. So I love that.

0:27:37 - (Bruce Mayhew): So. So any reader only needs to read one chapter. Like if, if hiring is your thing, like if you need to hire someone, then read chapter. I forget what chapter it is. I think it's chapter 18.

0:27:48 - (Kate Davis): No worries.

0:27:48 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah, so. So whatever you need, like if you're having a difficult conversation, read chapter 12. If you're having to onboard someone, reach. Right. And so it actually, it actually worked out really well because I was able to compartmentalize all of these chapter at 2am in the morning. Yeah.

0:28:07 - (Kate Davis): I love that. Okay, well, I know who to drunk call now.

0:28:11 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah.

0:28:14 - (Kate Davis): I'm like, Bruce will be up.

0:28:15 - (Bruce Mayhew): Bruce will be up.

0:28:18 - (Kate Davis): I love that. Okay. Are there any benefits you've personally experienced from incorporating humor into your leadership?

0:28:26 - (Bruce Mayhew): Personally, I would say it's my success, you know, And I'm not wildly successful, like I'm not Simon Sinek or anything, but I actually really love what I do when I do it, who I do it with. I love the people that are around me because I just feel like it's part of me now. Right. And I, I, I took on a glass half full kind of mentality about 15, 20 years ago and I just love that perspective.

0:29:00 - (Kate Davis): Right. Yeah.

0:29:02 - (Bruce Mayhew): And so I just feel more comfortable in my skin because I get to laugh and play and joke and keys and just be me.

0:29:13 - (Kate Davis): Yeah. Amazing. I love this. I've loved our conversation. Okay. Bruce, we always like to end the episode with, what is the funniest thing that's happened to you? Do you have a story you can share?

0:29:24 - (Bruce Mayhew): Sure. So there's two that come to mind. But one, one is, but one is professionally. So I was teaching a workshop and I, so one of the things that I like to do if there's time in the workshop is to, to, to build scenarios that the participants can work through. And what I like to do with these scenarios is get them, get the participants like a week or two weeks in advance to contribute. So, so one of the funniest things that ever happened to me was probably about eight years ago, I was putting together these scenarios with the person that was hiring me. They reached out to the people that were going to be in the, some of the people that were going to be in the workshop.

0:30:09 - (Bruce Mayhew): And I worked really hard after receiving these scenarios to clean them up so that nobody would be burned for that scenario being them. Because it was, it was like, how can we, how can we, how could we redo this situation? And I honestly, I worked really hard to, you know, take the, the client out of it and to take the person out of it. So it was just left with the situation. And I'm in the middle of this workshop and I put up the first scenario and somebody in the audience goes, hey, that's mine.

0:30:45 - (Bruce Mayhew): That was me. And I was like, I was like dumbfounded. I was like, are you kidding me? And there was an, it became really funny, right? The whole, the whole group just laughed and really participated. So I put up, I put up the second scenario. Same thing happened. Hey, that was mine. And wow. It really taught me not to be surprised by an audience. Like you can. You can never really. But what a fun thing to happen.

0:31:18 - (Kate Davis): And.

0:31:18 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah. But completely surprising.

0:31:20 - (Kate Davis): It was just really funny and someone to admit to, even.

0:31:25 - (Bruce Mayhew): Right. I would say, you know, you're always going to be surprised and just be ready for it, you know? Yeah.

0:31:30 - (Kate Davis): Yes. Do you want to tell your other story?

0:31:33 - (Bruce Mayhew): Sure. So it was. It was probably when I was about 7, 8 years old. Like, I was really young, and it was Christmas Eve, and I. We were at midnight mass and I was with my cousin who was just like a couple months younger than I am, and we were like two peas in a pod. We were like, you never really wanted us to sit beside each other because it was going to go bad. And. And. And it was so the. The. The. It was a massive church and.

0:32:08 - (Bruce Mayhew): And it was pin drop quiet, except. So they were. The. The. They were singing oh, Holy Night, and the choir was singing oh, Holy Night and somebody had a solo. And so there was one voice that you heard from the choir. And my cousin reached out, leaned over to me and said, who's singing? And completely naive. I reached back over and I said, the one dressed in red. They were all dressed in red. And seems silly as an adult, but as kids in a completely quiet church, when suddenly we realized what I had just said and the two of us were hysterical.

0:32:58 - (Bruce Mayhew): It. It was just. It was just one of those really awkward.

0:33:01 - (Kate Davis): But you know what? That's the power of humor. Like, you're always going to remember that because you. If you brought it up with your cousin, you'd still laugh, you know, and that is the power. It brings us right back to that moment.

0:33:14 - (Bruce Mayhew): Yeah.

0:33:14 - (Kate Davis): And that is magic of humor. Bruce Mayhew, thank you so much for being a guest on Humor in the C Suite.

0:33:23 - (Bruce Mayhew): Oh, it's been my pleasure.

0:33:25 - (Kate Davis): I'm so excited for people to get your book. Where's the Path of an Inspired Leader? Authenticity, Courage, and Impact. Where can people find it? Everywhere.

0:33:35 - (Bruce Mayhew): Online. Online. So we're. We're starting with it only online. And. And depending on how it goes, we'll maybe put it into a bookstore. But. But yeah, Indigo, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. So we're. It looks like as of 16th February, it will be everywhere.

0:33:53 - (Kate Davis): Yay.

0:33:55 - (Bruce Mayhew): Very exciting.

0:33:56 - (Kate Davis): You did it.

0:33:57 - (Bruce Mayhew): Very exciting.

0:33:58 - (Kate Davis): Oh, so exciting. So grateful to have you as a guest. Thank you so much.

0:34:02 - (Bruce Mayhew): It's been my pleasure.

0:34:04 - (Kate Davis): Thank you. All right.