“We love to say we’re not from Colorado,” Bolder Company co-founder Jenny Drescher told the CBIA BizCast about how the company got its name.
“It does not have a ‘u’ in it. It’s Bolder, like ‘be a Bolder version of yourself.’ That’s how the name was born.”
Drescher founded the professional training and coaching company in 2014 with her longtime friend Ellen Feldman Ornato.
At the time, Ornato owned a training and development company and Drescher had an executive coaching business.
“We were taking courses in theatrical improvisation and realizing that the skills that we were learning in improv were directly affecting the way that we were facilitating conversations with other people in our individual businesses,” said Ornato.
“I immediately just said, ‘Oh, this was the toolkit I was looking for,’” added Drescher.
The two decided to take that toolkit and start their own business.
“We don't teach improv, we don't teach comedy,” Drescher said.
“But improvisation is an applied toolkit that works really well for learning.”
Drescher and Ornato said they work with companies to create tailored and customized programs for their teams.
“If their goal is to enrich the whole team,” said Ornato.
"We found it's most effective to have people learning the same things together, and then applying them together so that they have a common language so that they have the energy of having gone through that process together, and they deepen their relationships.”
Their programs can include conference speaking and one-off sessions.
But Ornato and Drescher said long-term programs have a deeper impact.
“When you learn with your team over time,” Ornato said, “we're celebrating each other's successes, we are acknowledging that sometimes we mess up and we didn't die, and we support each other forward.”
Drescher added they work to take deep dives to find out what’s hurting a business.
“We help people find hope in the midst of the things that are hurting them the most,” Drescher said.
“We like to drill a little further down, because nine times out of 10, it's not the culture.
“It's specific behaviors, inside the culture, inside the working climate, that are working for or against what the company is after.”
At the beginning, Drescher and Ornato focused The Bolder Company on working with entrepreneurs.
The business evolved to work with nonprofit organizations and eventually with the architecture, engineering, construction, and manufacturing industries.
“If you look at manufacturing, there's like, 150 year legacy of, you're a part of the machine," Drescher said.
“And manufacturing is, across the board, changing that, which is wonderful and amazing.”
Ornato and Drescher’s passion for manufacturing has now led to a new venture.
They recently launched a new podcast, the Manufacturing Shake-up.
Sponsored by the Connecticut Office of Manufacturing, the goal is to promote and highlight women at different levels of the manufacturing industry.
“And there's some great stories there,” said Ornato.
“So that's really what we're highlighting as well as the skills that women need to develop—things like becoming better at networking, understanding emotional intelligence, understanding presence and presentation, and how you walk into the room and finding a seat at the main table.”

Related Links:

The Bolder Company
Website: https://www.theboldercompany.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-bolder-company/
Jenny Drescher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bolderjenny/
Ellen Feldman Ornato on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellen-feldman-ornato/

The Manufacturing Shake-up
Website: https://www.manufacturingshakeup.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-manufacturing-shake-up/posts/?feedView=all
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ManufacturingShakeUp

CBIA
Website: www.cbia.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/cbia/