Your prospects’ (and my) peeve
Some of the stuff that makes me laugh is squeaky clean and some is highly offensive. If it’s thoughtful, and makes a point or just plain silly – without being mean or intending to harm anyone – I’ll laugh. I don’t care what the topic is, how many cuss words are inserted. So don’t judge […]
Drum Puns & Niche Audiences
SNL Alum Fred Armisen released a Netflix comedy Special called “Stand-Up for Drummers”. Can you guess who his audience is? Your chance of answering correctly should be 4/4. Drummers and other musicians reading this will get that joke. It will fly over everyone else’s heads – and that’s ok. Drummers are a unique audience. They […]
Zillions, I Tells Ya!
Together, we can save your company an incalculable sum of money. How? One day, they may be bandying about the idea of hiring me for a keynote. However – if enough of you listen to me on Rob Jeppsen’s Sales Leadership Podcast, you can tell your leadership “I already know what he’s gonna say”. You’ll save […]
My First Reaction Video
In prospecting or marketing efforts, you don’t need to be a stand-up comedian, gut-bustingly hilarious, an alpha clown, or spur-of-the-moment funny. But if someone takes your cold call, opens your cold email or checks your LinkedIn connection request, you need to give them reasons to keep giving you their attention. Which is why you just […]
“Get Back (to Where you Once Belong)”: Beatle Sales Career Lessons
Name the first Beatle that comes to your head, I’m confident the most common answers will be: 👌 Paul McCartney ✌️ John Lennon 😤 Who cares? Beatles suuuuuck! Ringo Starr’s name is more likely to come up before George Harrison’s. Which brings us to my whacky “salesiverse” thought for today… Due to his strong guitar […]
Hitting the Stand-Up Trifecta of Suck
Usually, I share stuff you can learn from awful stand-up comics. Once upon a time, long before my ego grew to that of a moderately competent comedian, I too was pretty goddawful. My third time performing stand-up was an unmitigated disaster. It was for an “audience” of mainly stand-up comics at an open mic. I […]
Gary Shandling on “Shortcuts”
If you’re curious about stand-up comedy (what it is, what it isn’t, and what it takes), highly recommend “Dying Laughing” on YouTube. It’s a 2017 doc featuring takes from Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Hart, and a lot of lesser-known (but equally funny) names. I’ve seen several such docs, and this one […]
Bad Comedians #3: It’s About Them
In my last 2 posts, I discussed how open mic comedians often perform material based on topics that isn’t relatable or relevant to their audience. This wastes the audience’s time, energy and doesn’t make them laugh – which is what they paid for. Some will even actively disdain, and tune these comedians out entirely. To […]
Bad Comedians #4: (Don’t) Ramble On!
Some open mic comedians (i.e. ones who never get booked for a paid show), come onstage and launch into a long-winded, rambling story with lots of conjecture & context. EVENTUALLY, they close the story out on a punchline. The audience’s face lights up, but not because they’re laughing – because they’re on their phones (note: […]
Bad Comedian Lessons #2: Listen More
My previous post highlighted how being completely about yourself and being unable to relate to your audience, leads to negative results in both stand-up and sales. The same way that I don’t want to hear 15 minutes of jokes about specific experiences most people have never had, no marketer wants to be told how great […]
