Warning: Funny Stuff Enclosed…

My friend Mike walked into his boss’s office last week and said, “I know the economy’s a little shaky right now. But I have three companies after me, and I’ve come to ask for a raise.”

He and his boss haggled for a few minutes before agreeing that Mike would get a 5% raise. 

As Mike left the office, his boss asked, “By the way, which three companies are after you?” 

Mike replied: “The cable company, the electric company, and the water company.” 

Ha!

Happy National Tell a Joke Day

Seriously. This is a real holiday – every August 16th. And I have the holiday spirit. 

But when the holiday is over, I’m not going to pack up my joke books, whoopee cushions, and hand buzzers and tuck them on the shelf behind the Christmas lights, Festivus pole, and giant, inflatable Easter bunny. 

Nope. For me, joke-telling and humor are year-round things. Because…

Humor connects humans. 
Humor helps leaders lead. 
Humor helps sellers sell. 

Did you hear the one about people negotiating the sale of high priced paintings? The parties were more likely to reach agreement if the person making the “final offer” said, “I’ll throw in my pet frog.”

(I’m not kidding. That really happened  – repeatedly – in a peer-reviewed study.)

Or, do you know the one about Steve Jobs when he introduced the iPhone at the Macworld conference in San Francisco, January 2007? 

Jobs said, “Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is…” 

The room went silent. And the giant screen behind him displayed…

…a big white iPod music player, with a rotary telephone dial attached below the track list window.  

The crowd exploded in laughter. 

Jobs slipped humor into all of his presentations.

Why? Because he knew…

…Humor breaks the ice.  It builds bonds.  It makes you memorable.  It earns you trust.  It helps the bottom line. 

Peter McGraw studies humor for a living. He’s a marketing and psychology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. And he directs the Humor Research Lab (HuRL).

In a 2014 Washington Post article, McGraw said, “Humor can help brands cut through a cluttered marketplace. A well-executed joke grabs attention, sticks in customers’ memories better than most ad campaigns could, and injects brands into water cooler conversation. It also has the benefit of making companies seem more human.”  

More human, as in…

…less robotic…

…less boring…

…less overlooked. 

In today’s world of paint-by-numbers spam, AI-generated “blah-blah” copy, and other boring, uninspiring content…

Humans stand out. 

But just because you have flesh and blood, that doesn’t mean your content is human. That doesn’t mean you seem more human. 

I know too many business people who bury their humanity. They think business is a “serious” thing – no room for humor, not the arena to show their personality. 

Those are the humans who dish out the same old, boring, blah-blah content. Those are the humans who feel stuck when prospects tune out and turn off. 

If you want to stand out, if you want prospects to tune in and turn on…

…you must put personality in your copy. 

Tell a joke. Share some slice of life details. Drop the serious mask. Be yourself. 

When you do this, you’ll have more fun. And more sales will follow. 

Every week, in the Story Power Content Transformation Academy, I work with VIP members to transform their content from boring to brilliant.

Lately, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing ways to add personality to copy.

You can join the Academy this month. If you’re interested in learning more, let’s chat. We can discuss what’s working in your marketing, what’s not, and whether the Academy could give you what you need to get over the hump… and beyond. 

Reply to this email if you’d like to schedule a Story Power Hour. I’ll shoot you a calendar link.