He honed his comedy chops writing satire for the Onion, then helped Stephen Colbert keep humor alive during COVID-19 — and won an Emmy and a Peabody in the process. Today Greg Reutershan ’11 is using that same creativity to share lessons on life and business alongside inspirational speaker Simon Sinek. Meet Reutershan, the man redefining how we think about leadership, one podcast at a time.
Prologue
Reutershan discovered his love for comedy his first year at Colgate when he joined the newly formed satirical publication, the Monthly Rag. Later on, in his senior year, Reutershan met the CEO of the Onion, Steve Hannah ’70, during a campus visit. When Reutershan spotted an internship posting a few months after he graduated, Hannah’s business card came in handy. “I didn’t realize comedy could be a career until I saw that job post, and I thought, ‘I like making people laugh, I enjoyed doing that at school, and I want to see how the pros do it at the Onion,’” Reutershan remembers. “It seemed too good of an opportunity not to take a nice big swing at, and [my career] all flowed from there.”
Act I
After working as a writers’ assistant at the Onion for a year, Reutershan entered the NBCUniversal Page Program, where he worked in a variety of departments and positions. “I had really enjoyed comedy, and NBC was the home to a lot of it, so it seemed like a good next step for me to figure out what it was that I wanted to do next.” One of these experiences included working as a “talent escort” for Saturday Night Live where, among his other responsibilities, Reutershan was backstage for the show’s dress rehearsals and live shows and worked the comedy institution’s famous after-parties.
Act II
For the next two years, Reutershan took on executive assistant positions at NBC and Broadway Video where he took a step back from comedy. He looks back on those roles as vital learning experiences: “It was not as glitzy or as glamorous, but those were important phases in my career.”
Act III
In search of his next opportunity, Reutershan arrived at a defining moment of his career when he joined The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Over six years, Reutershan worked his way up from an executive assistant position to working directly with Colbert. “I would race home from high school to watch The Colbert Report, so the chance to work with Stephen was what I had been building toward the whole time,” Reutershan says. In 2020 the show won an Emmy and, in 2021, a Peabody for its remote coverage during the pandemic. Yet for Reutershan, the most meaningful recognition didn’t come from the industry accolades but from the audience: “People were really thankful for those late night shows and [that we were] able to keep that show on the air,” Reutershan says.
Act IV
In his current position, Reutershan has shifted gears, leaving behind his comedic roots for a new passion: business and leadership education. As head of content for Simon Sinek’s The Optimism Company, Reutershan oversees Sinek’s podcast, A Bit of Optimism, along with a growing suite of projects focused on improving leadership practices and workplace cultures. Sinek is a leadership expert and author who works with a range of industries and governmental agencies. “[My work] doesn’t make people laugh most of the time, but it’s very earnest and it’s very needed,” Reutershan says. “[The work I do now] is about leadership and helping people trust each other.” Last October, Reutershan reached another career milestone when he traveled to the White House to record a podcast between Sinek and then-President Joe Biden.
Throughout his career, Reutershan has maintained the mindset of a student, seeking mentorship in every one of his roles. Now as a team leader himself, he prioritizes treating those around him as equals from whom he can continue to learn. “We’re just peers,” Reutershan says. “Sometimes I have more experience and can teach you what I know and model the behavior that I wish people had modeled for me, but I ask for the advice of those below me because they’re on the front lines and might know more than I do.”