Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Carried Away with FunnyBizz



Last week I attended a new kind of business conference. Not on marketing technology (see my post on THAT one!) nor on the business of food (though my friend Sheree puts on a great one for that field) and not on the business of travel, either, though I’ve spoken at a great event for tour guides. Nope, not on social media (there are plenty of those, the best being Social MediaMarketing World which I did love) and not even on design (I often attend as well as speak at these, like SF Design Week, where I will be on a panel on VR in design, but I digress….)



I went to a whole conference about using humor in business! FunnyBizz is in it’s 5th year, and all I can say is, why didn’t I discover it sooner? I literally screamed with laughter (my goofy mug is all over the event graphics, because I was caught laughing my ass off) for 8 hours and took 6 pages of notes which are mostly illegible, but for the multiple exclamation points I used after each point.



My top takeaways from the event:

1)      Be sure to attend next year (I think this is poised to become the next TED talks).
2)      Comedians are much smarter than they want you to believe. They know what they’re doing.
3)      It takes vivid stimulation of the brain to move an event into memory. If you can activate an emotional signal, you will be memorable.
4)      Use humor on yourself first, then you can select other targets.
5)      Serious topics CAN use humor – see realtor.com
6)      Job titles are ridiculous. (Chief Evangelist of Evangelism)
7)      If it’s embarrassing for me, it’s funny for you.
8)      Do NOT do what works! (That’s what everyone else is doing.)
9)      Make other people look good.
10)   You are at your funniest when you are just being yourself.
11)   Comedy = tragedy + time
12)   The structure of every joke is 1..2..4!
13)   Talk about pain to get empathy.
14)   Comedy tells the truth about being human.
15)   Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want to read about in the paper.

16)   If you are told “No” find another way and make it happen.

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