There’s just one issue: you’re not sure how to make the case to your boss who you worry won’t pay for this if it looks like you’re having too much fun.

Worry not! We’ve got your back.

Your boss probably says stuff like “synergize our value-adds” a lot, right? Which makes you nod your head…and go look at pictures of cats or tacos on the internet. You’re not the only one. We’re here to show you how cats, tacos, cats eating tacos and other forms of humor actually help your business capture people’s attention, build consumer loyalty and even “synergize your value-adds.”

This is a global event, held in San Francisco. It is an opportunity to travel to America and experience a large conference that looks to enhance business by incorporating humor into it. For those coming from another country, you might even be able to use your international credit score in America, so you don’t even have to worry about finding other ways to fund your trip. With a credit score, you’ll be able to apply for a credit card, improving your conference experience. You never know what you might want to purchase at a conference, so having some extra money can be helpful, just in case. You just need to get to the conference now. There are some excellent exhibitors at the event who display such great products and services which could improve your day to day business operations and make numerous business functions run more smoothly. If you were to introduce those to your boss, you may just make their day or week! However you phrase it and whatever buzzwords you use to escape the office for the day, here are some ways you can support your winning case to join us at FunnyBizz:

Point Out Rave Reviews:

“I learned more at FunnyBizz about marketing than I’ve learned at a dozen ‘normal’ conferences. Whether it be SEO marketing like Victorious and other leaders in the industry provide (https://victoriousseo.com/verticals/magento-seo/ for more examples) or other forms like content marketing, social media marketing, and so on, you can learn more at a convention like this than you can in other ways. Smart marketers know the value of making people laugh and FunnyBizz gave me real-world examples of how to incorporate humor without looking stupid.” David B. Thomas, Senior Director, Content and Engagement, Salesforce

“Original and super interesting idea of a conference: how to use humor in business to boost sales and have fun while you build a brand and a business. Great stuff.” Loic Le Meur, Serial Entrepreneur and Co- Founder of the Le Web Conference

“A very satisfying mix of entertaining and informative. That’s good content! Also enjoyed community vibe. Did not feel like a “normal” conference atmosphere. I left inspired to share my experience with coworkers.” Jamey Austin, Content Marketing Manager at Atlassian

“I have never seen the audience SO ENGAGED and speakers (who are experts) SO FUNNY.” Vasil Azarov, CEO Startup Socials

“Most conferences are like swimming in a nice comfy bowl of familiar oatmeal. This one was more like putting on a cape and diving off a building. FunnyBizz delivered more than take-aways and actionable ideas. FunnyBizz delivered a mode-changing experience right into my brain. If you can only go to one conference a year, it should be this one.” Suzanna Stinnettt, Founder, Bay Area Bloggers Society

Talk About Who Has Attended In The Past

In addition to all the amazing speakers you will learn from, FunnyBizz Conferences value lies in the connections you’ll make with other awesome professionals.

In the past, we’ve had attendees from:

Atlassian, Optimizely, LinkedIn, Airbnb, Lyft, Dice, Marketo, Nasdaq, Salesforce, Contently, Zendesk, Google, Facebook, Esurance, Glassdoor, Intuit, Upworthy, GoPro, Twitter, Prezi, Betabrand, Toptal, and lots more!

Give Me Job Titles Your Boss May Say

We tend to have a mix of Content Marketers, Content Strategy Directors, Chief Creative Officers, Creative Directors, CMO’s, Marketing Directors, Content Producers, Social Media Marketers, Advertising Professionals, Copywriters, Brand Managers, Sales Professionals, CEO’s, Founders, and Female UFC Fighters. The last one may be mildly fictional but you get the idea. Overall we have a very fun mix of professionals looking to create and market more engaging content.

The Media Are Excited About It And Say I Should Be There

Huffington Post: 5 Reasons Every Content Marketer Should Attend the FunnyBizz Conference

Forbes: The FunnyBizz Conference Teaches Silicon Valley To Stop Taking Itself So Seriously

Fast Company: Can This Conference Teach Brands How To Be Funny?

Huffington Post: FunnyBizz Conference Brings Serious Fun to the World of Business

LinkedIn Marketing: These 5 Takeaways from FunnyBizz Are No Laughing Matter

Entrepreneur: Content Is Boring, So FunnyBizz Was Born

Normally We Pay Much More For Employees To Attend Conferences. This Looks Like A Crazy-Good Deal. What’s The Catch?

No catch. Seriously. The purpose of FunnyBizz is to build a strong community and bring a dose of humor to a business world that sorely needs it. That’s why we make FunnyBizz as affordable as humanly possible. (Plus, if we charged $900/ticket, every joke would land like, “I paid $900 for this?”) You are, however, encouraged to give us more money if it makes you feel better.

Borrow Wisdom From Others In Your Company

Your boss might not get why you need to go to a conference, especially if she doesn’t go to many herself. But you might not be alone! Find some time to chat with co-workers in other departments. How often do they go to conferences? How do they justify them? This gives you great insight to bring back to your boss.

Bring Your Boss!

It’s one thing for you to tell your boss that humor and engagement is important, that there’s a whole industry around it, and that you should go to this conference. But better than telling your boss? Showing them what FunnyBizz is all about.

Bring your boss, so they can hear from our expect speakers. Your boss will come away with new appreciation for your role, for the use of humor within it, and it might even lighten them up a bit (and they will probably send you back next year!).

We do offer group rates for a group affair. Bring your team and your boss and make it a team-building activity you’ll never forget! Leading companies like LinkedIn have sent their whole content team the last two years running and you can read about their experience here. Email team@funnybizz.co for more information

Need An E-mail To Send? Grab This And Personalize Away!

Dear Boss,

There’s a conference being organized specifically for creating more engaging content called FunnyBizz Conference. It’s on (insert date and place here).

It’s an extremely high quality event that a lot of my peers will be attending. It’s the 5th time the organisers have run the event and it has received extensive write-ups in the likes of Fast Company, Forbes and The Huffington Post.

There are a few clear value points that make a ticket for this conference a smart investment for our company:

– I’ll pick up clear tactics to apply directly to our content strategy that will help us improve X metrics and plan for the future.
– I’ll be learning from people who have created great content and I’ll get to network with some great people (in the past, people from Salesforce, Google, Marketo, Facebook, Atlassian, Upworthy, Go Pro and more have attended). Personally, I’m hoping to ask [speaker name] about [topic] during the Q&A.
– It will improve my ability to communicate with the rest of our team around our content strategy.
– You’re investing in me and this is an extremely important event for my professional growth. I (read you) have been boring potential clients for way too long. Just kidding on the you part. You are amazing.
– I’ll have a much larger network of peers to support and receive support as we face content challenges in the future.
– The good news is tickets are very affordable, currently at $289 for a full day of talks or workshops or $449 for both days (though prices will increase a bit soon). If you’re interested in attending as well, I believe it will give you additional clarity around the work I do and the role that humor can play in our business. It will also help us work together to elevate the level of discourse we’re able to have internally about the value of humor in increasing engagement rates. We could also get funnier together. Not that you’re not funny already, because of course you are…anyway…

Please let me know if I can answer any questions for you. The FunnyBizz Conference Team is available to answer questions directly as well at team@funnybizz.co

Thanks,

Your ambitious content guru. Working hard to make sure folks engage with the content we work so hard to create.

What’s This All About, Anyway?

It’s simple – business works better with a level of entertainment. People open emails with funny subject lines at a 5x higher rate than ones with subject lines like “Global High Level Leadership for the Digital Enterprise.” You want people to engage with the content you spend the time and effort to put out into the world, right? We can help you do that. Very few bosses will be worried that you’re trying to help up engagement rates. While humor all to often is a nice to have, engagement is a need to have. Finding proactive ways to work on this is a great way to show you’re serious about your career and get it on your boss’s radar. Content engagement rates are a problem for all businesses.

FunnyBizz is the only conference of its kind, bringing leading thinkers from the seemingly disparate worlds of comedy and business together to help the world stop synergizing its valueadds and learn to find its funny. Modern businesses succeed or fail based on their ability to connect with consumers through content, social media, and viral marketing. FunnyBizz is a conference dedicated to teaching those businesses the essential principles of comedy, improv and storytelling. The goal? To use humor to make an impact, add value and connect with customers on a level that not only inspires loyalty, but causes coffee to shoot out their noses.

Do business and humor really work together? Yes they do. Just like Steven Seagal and a strong male ponytail.

For more information please visit: http://conference.funnybizz.co/

The post How to Convince Your Boss to Send You to FunnyBizz Conference– And Why They Should Come Too! appeared first on FunnyBizz | Where Business Meets Humor.

Might as well draw some pictures. Despite being overlooked for the main prize itself, one Irish startup actually did manage to disrupt Disrupt with a presentation focused not on wearable sensors or exponential returns, but the brain-eating undead. (Who, despite rumors to the contrary, have not formed a VC firm.)

Artomatix founders Dr. Eric Risser and Neal O’Gorman’s “zombie graph”, showing the degrees of artistic variation their company can produce, (with hipsters scoring the lowliest levels of ‘uniqueness’,) seemed to get a better reaction from the crowd than three days of scatter charts aimed at blue-skying the value adds of content-based wi-fi enabled underwear.

Or maybe it was just the humping rabbits on the founders’ t-shirts. (A reminder for gaming fans that Artomatix “populates your game faster”. Get it?) Artomatix’ real point? 60% of game development costs are spent on the painstaking process of designing in-game art.

This program lets developers build infinite legions of zombies easily by just throwing Artomatix a few quick designs of the developer’s desired zombie aesthetic. Then the program parses the similarities and differences of the developer’s characters and creates an essential “average” of unique figures and randomizes them. This is either going to be great for game developers or the end of humanity.

The Artomatix team is based in a refurbished Guinness brewery in Dublin, where the smell of the black stuff wafting in from the factory next door surely goes some way towards explaining their creative flair and passion for animal husbandry.

They may not be Merry Jane, but these cross platform bunnies are worth watching out for in a crowded tech space, where a little humor can go a long way. 

The post AI-Powered Game Designers Employ Chart-Based Zombies, Oversexed House Pets to Disrupt TechCrunch Disrupt appeared first on FunnyBizz | Where Business Meets Humor.

1. First, Do No Wrong

Great advice for doctors or would-be corporate jesters. Make sure the humor you use is laughing with people, not at people. Laugh at yourself, not in a, “I’m a loser” kind of way, but in a way that lets people know you don’t take yourself overly seriously. Stay clear of political, ethnic, gender or sex-based humor. Remember that having permission to use more humor at work is not permission to act like a jackass, a bore, or a jerk. It doesn’t give you license to offend or humiliate people, or disparage their character. It’s about being more human, having a bigger heart, and demonstrating greater humility.

The number one fear corporate clients express about using humor at work is that it will invite all manner of obnoxious behaviors eventually leading to lawsuits. Yet, companies such as the Las Vegas based online shoe retailer Zappos, that embrace an enormous amount of fun and humor in their workplace, rarely – if ever – experience anyone crossing the proverbial humor line. Why? Because the style of humor employees use reflects the culture. If you create a respectful workplace culture, as Zappos has done, then the humor will remain respectful.

2. Be Authentic

Humor can break down barriers and build trust, provided the humor used creates and reflects authenticity. As Jerry Seinfeld once said, “The whole object of comedy is to be yourself. The closer to that you get, the funnier you will be.” This applies at a corporate level as well. Customers are savvier than ever and more cynical than ever. They’ll see through half-hearted attempts at humor that seem to be nothing more than manipulative and insincere window dressing. The need for authenticity applies to leaders and employees as well.

The Canadian airline WestJet, modelled after Southwest Airlines, understands the importance of authentic humor. As with Southwest Airlines, flight attendants and pilots at WestJet Airlines are encouraged to bring their personalities to work and to use humor when delivering announcements, but with one large caveat: Be your authentic self. The last thing WestJet wants (or their passengers, for that matter) is a flight attendant pretending to be funny or feeling forced to sing a rap song when they aren’t comfortable doing so. But allowing employees to be their authentic selves and use their own style of humor while delivering great service is what has helped WestJet and Southwest Airlines soar to success.

3. Be Congruent With Your Brand

The humor you use at a corporate level must fit your style. It needs to be congruent with your brand. if you have a classy brand, then your humor, for the most part, should be classy. If you want to be known as an edgy company, then use edgy humor.

Kentucky’s Big Ass Fans, for example, uses a fair amount of edgy humor on its website, which seems appropriate given their name (even though the ass they speak of is a donkey). Their name generates controversy, which Big Ass Fans uses to their advantage by including some of the hate mail they receive on the kudos section of their website. They even have a hilarious video that pokes fun at the entire controversy. It’s edgy humor befitting a company that has embraced an edgy name, but the humor they get away with wouldn’t be appropriate for a more family-friendly or conservative business. Make sure the humor you use contributes to and reflects the brand image you want to project.

4. Be Relevant

The more the humor you use at your workplace is relevant to your business, the more memorable and effective it will be. Humor for the sake of humor can be a fabulous tool, but relevant humor that ties into your unique challenges, issues, products, local attractions, branding, and industry is far more effective.

The Dirty Laundry winery is one of my favorite wineries in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. The name comes from an historic Summerland laundry that reportedly housed a brothel, earning the business the nickname “The Dirty Laundry”. It’s a playful, fun name that invites a lot of humor – and the key to their branding success is that they keep the humor relevant to their name and theme. So the winery’s logo features a red-hot iron with images of women in the steam; their tagline reads: “The Okanagan’s Dirty Little Secret”. Their newsletter is called Laundry Lines, and their welcome sign resembles a giant sheet hanging on a clothesline. The entrance gate posts are giant clothes pegs. The tasting room/gift shop is reminiscent of an old-fashioned bordello (not that I’d know what one looks like) complete with lingerie strewn about the display cases. They sell products such as pink stiletto wine bottle holders. And of course their wine names include such gems as, “A Secret Affair”, “Naughty Chardonnay”, and “A Girl in Every Port”. Even the descriptions of the wine are playfully suggestive.

The more relevant the humor, the more likely it is to reinforce and strengthen your brand, your image, and your products.

5. Embrace a Spirit of Fun

Beryl Health is a call center company that has built a wildly successful business with an employee turnover rate that’s the envy of their competitors. The key to their success has been to focus relentlessly on nurturing a positive and fun culture. Who, after all, wouldn’t want to work in a company where the human resources manager has the alternative job title The Queen of Fun and Laughter? Beryl embraces a fun culture that starts at the very top, with CEO Paul Spiegelman. And yet, Spiegelman admits to being an introvert, and not a particularly funny person. “I’ve come to learn that it’s not about being funny, but about encouraging and creating a culture that embraces a spirit of fun.”

Ultimately, using humor effectively to brand your business is about embracing a spirit of fun rather than trying to be funny. Embracing a spirit of fun suggests a lightness, a willingness to play, and a spirit of inclusiveness.

Michael Kerr is an international Hall of Fame business speaker who travels the world researching, writing, and speaking about inspiring workplace cultures and the use of humor in business. His latest book is called, The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank

The post Five Keys to Branding Your Business Effectively With Humor appeared first on FunnyBizz | Where Business Meets Humor.

Michael Baumert, the head of design at Dice, an established online platform for it’s users to find and hire the best tech talent wasn’t listening that day and it’s a good thing he wasn’t. His idea was set the shift, at least temporarily, the accuracy of Gary Vaynerchucks’s texting sample. San Francisco Bay Area commuters would not be texting while driving over the coming months… at least when they passed Dice’s new billboard campaign.

Michael wanted to make an impact amid an array of boring, numbers driven, buzzword laden advertisements in his industry. Finding the best talent was difficult in a space with a 1.5% unemployment rate. Michael’s idea was set to leave his wife temporarily questioning her marital decision. Inspired by one too many half naked David Beckham posters he wanted to showcase the hottest tech talent… in their underpants. Hot in this context being very much tongue in cheek. Michael is a big comedy fan.

Management initially thought he was crazy but the resulting shoot (after teaming up with advertising firm Barkley), although not easy for Michael to explain to his wife, had some eyebrow raising results. Born was the slogan “the hottest tech talent” and accompanying those words across Bay Area billboards were coders laid bare in their finest underpants. The president of rival firm tweeted a picture in amazement. That was the signal Dice needed to focus their efforts on this new breed of supermodel.

The campaign was so successful it still runs with an updated version and made it all the way to Times Square. The unusual approach triggered an emotional response in many and a powerful one at that: Laughter. Some questioned its potential sexist nature, only displaying male developers. Some asked what if you are not blessed with the David Beckham physique that these fine coding specimens display in obvious abundance. Some suggested that these radiant beauties might have been only hired for the lavish looks. Some lobbied for males to be protected from this sort of objectification. Others wondered if they had stuffed their underpants for the occasion.

Not everyone always gets a joke nor agrees humor is the best approach. But one thing is certain with Dices’ campaign. They made an impact with a medium of advertising seen by many as dead. For a short time at least, drivers took a break from their smartphones to look at something real that grabbed their attention. When they returned to their devices many had something out of the ordinary to share.

Michael’s 3 main lessons from the experience (aside from having a tolerant spouse):

1. Take a Risk

“When you’ve got a limited ad budget, take a risk and do something provocative and potentially unsafe. You can still use Super cheap signs and have an effective campaign. When you’ve got a war chest of Coca-Cola ad dollars, you can afford to play it safe.”

2. Trust the Creatives

“Trust the creative people to be creative and don’t involve yourself unless it’s absolutely necessary. The best part of our campaign was the fish-out-of-water aspect of putting engineers in a totally uncomfortable place and this wouldn’t have been possible without a great photographer and his staff–they got the best out of our “models”.”

3. Keep What Works

“Don’t deviate from a good idea that’s working. We just wrapped up a second shoot and it was tempting to try and evolve the campaign. Tweak a little here and there, but really keep what

You can see Michael talking about the campaign here at FunnyBizz Conference

The post DICE: BRINGING HUMOR TO AN UNFUNNY BUSINESS appeared first on FunnyBizz | Where Business Meets Humor.

Folks these days are busy “drowning in work”, “getting snowed under”, “coming up for air”, and “getting swamped” amid a host of other excuses for just having too much work (read angry birds) and too little time. Global warming has a lot to answer to for these extreme office conditions, but one thing is for sure, when a life raft of happiness in the form of something funny comes by, folks are quick to get on board. Our average response time to funny follow up emails is 18 minutes.

Earlier this year rather than send the same old email… ”hey, just wanted to follow up, touch base, and touch you” we got a wee bit more creative and sent this video.

The result? Instant response…a blog post by the recipient on his own company’s website, a mention on the Salesforce blog and also on Hubspot. The follow-up message has over 2,000 views. By no means astronomically charged viral YouTube gold but about 2,000 more so far than your typical follow-up email. The CEO who received it even build it into some of his keynote talks.

After a one-time, random experiment, Funny follow-up and email quickly became a habit. They now go together like peanut butter and jelly or Steven Seagal and a strong male ponytail. Why? Because *it works…consistently. (*funny follow up and email. Not being a muscular dude and having a pony tail. We don’t encourage that)

When we didn’t hear from Optimizely, (a target client) we sent them a video with similar results. They not only shared the video within their company, but also invited us to speak about humor and conversion at Opticon, their conference.

Sometimes you are so focussed on getting your need met that you forget to add your own personality. We firmly believe humor and bringing a smile to your recipients face makes you stand out from the crowd. Try it and see. Remember people buy from people, and fun people at that.

But first, do you use email marketing to boost your business? If so, you might be interested to learn more about how to sync HubSpot and Mailchimp. Integrating these two applications can help you to manage your customer database more efficiently. Tempted to give it a try? Head to the PieSync website for everything you need to know.

Follow these three simple steps to send your own funny followup video for $25 or less.

Go to Fiverr.com
Select a fun freelancer like folks
Give them your followup email to read outloud
Wait for the happiest reply you’ve ever received from a follow up

Join us in spreading the humor on #funnyfollowupfridays. Tweet @FunnyBizzSF with your latest video.

If video seems to much effort take a leaf out of Derek Siver’s book and add humor to your emails, as he did to great effect during his time running CD Baby. Read about it here on Tim Ferriss’ blog.

Where you can, add humor. We all need more of it.

The post How to Add Humor to Typically Boring Follow Up Emails appeared first on FunnyBizz | Where Business Meets Humor.

Lee is one of a growing number of comedians equally at home on a business stage. As the lines between information and entertainment blur, speakers like him are in high demand. (Lee actually has sold out shows where people pay money to see him give PowerPoint presentations. Sounds strange, I know.) Apart from being funnier than most, he has one big additional advantage over regular business speakers: He is onstage way more often.

Comedians’ content and delivery are honed through years of practice as they master their craft. In doing so, they are among the few public speakers that clock up the 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell says make a master. It’s forcing regular business presenters to up their game.

With that in mind, public speakers may be able to get some tips from comedians. Of course, if you are a nervous public speaker or have anxiety at the thought of speaking to large audiences, it might be worth trying to control your nerves before trying to make an audience laugh at your presentation. To do this, CBDistillery may have some products that could be useful to become more calm and relaxed before these presentations. By using products like that, you should feel much more comfortable in front of large crowds. Then you just have to listen to some of these tips in order to make yourself a better public speaker. Here are 23 tips from Lee and other top 10,000-hour comedians for you to become a great and funny public speaker:

1. Use the Rule of 3

“This rule is a basic structure for jokes and ideas that capitalize on the way we process information,” says Lee. “We have become proficient at pattern recognition by necessity. Three is the smallest number of elements required to create a pattern. This combination of pattern and brevity results in memorable content.”

2. Draw Upon Your Real-Life Experiences

The safest humor involves personal stories, because they are guaranteed to be original and can be easily practiced and perfected. As Ricky Gervais says, “As a creator, it’s your job to make an audience as excited and fascinated about a subject as you are, and real life tends to do that.”

3. Identify the Key Part and Get There Fast

U.K. comedian Jimmy Carr says, “Writing comedy isn’t really about writing; it’s more about editing. It’s about what you don’t say. What are the fewest words I can get down here in order to get to the funny bit?”

4. Find the Funny in Pain Points

“To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it,” Charlie Chaplin said. While he likely didn’t mean customer pain points, the same wisdom applies.

5. Think Fails and Firsts

“So many people ask me for help creating a funnier speech,” says Darren LaCroix. “They want to know where to ‘find funny.’ I suggest starting by looking in the mirror! Start by looking at your fails and your firsts. The first time you did something wrong. Audiences love the humility and openness.”

6. Screen Your Jokes

“Presentations have an extra advantage over most traditional standup sets–a giant friggin’ screen that the audience is staring at the whole time you’re onstage,” says Sammy Wegent. “And in a world where funny Photoshopped images, memes, and GIFs dominate our devices, visual humor has never been bigger. So don’t just say funny things in your presentation. Show funny things, too.”

7. Think Fun Over Funny

“Making people laugh is only one type of humor; getting them to smile is another,” says Andrew Tarvin. “When starting out, focus on making things fun as opposed to making things funny.”

8. Tell a Joke

If people laugh, a joke already added value. “It helps if it segues into a point. But it doesn’t have to,” says Rajiv Satyal. One of his favorites that’s both hilarious and yet clean enough for a corporate presentation: A guy joins a monastery and takes a vow of silence. He’s allowed to say two words every seven years. After the first seven years, the elders bring him in and ask for his two words. He says, “Cold floors.” They nod and send him away. Seven more years pass. They bring him back in and ask for his two words. He clears his throat. “Bad food,” he says. They nod and send him away. Seven more years pass. They bring him in for his two words. He goes, “I quit.” One of the elders looks at him and says, “That’s not surprising. You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here.” I’ve never had that joke miss in any context, says Satyal. And it’s easy to tie it into something going on at a company, e.g., a reorg. (Every place is always doing a reorg.)

9. Like Jerry Seinfeld Does, Use Inherently Funny Words

Some words are funnier than others and can be amusing without any given context. Words with a k in them are funny. Alka-Seltzer is funny. Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny. L’s are not funny. When writing his bit about Pop-Tarts, Jerry Seinfeld took foods from the ’60s in all its strange, frozen, unhealthy forms and narrowed his focus on Pop-Tarts. Why Pop-Tarts? Because Pop-Tarts sounds funny. “The Pop-Tart suddenly appeared in the supermarket … and we were like chimps in the dirt playing with sticks.” According to Seinfeld, what makes the joke, “is you have got chimps, dirt, playing, and sticks. In seven words, four of them are funny. Chimps, chimps are funny.” (See the interview here.)

10. Paint a Picture for Others to See

“Comedy is in the details, but you don’t want to over do it,” says Reggie Steele. “Just enough to set the scene. Talk to people as if you’re talking to a blind person or you’re doing something for the radio. Details matter.”

11. Do Something Memorable

“This can be good or bad. But memorability is more powerful than likability,” says Sammy Obeid.

12. Jokes are: 1, 2 … 4!

“They look like they’re about to establish a pattern but then break it just when it’s about to become one,” says Rajiv Satyal. “In this example, you think I’m counting but, when you hear “4,” you realize I was doubling the numbers. It makes sense in retrospect. (But they’re not 1, 2 … 7! That would just be random.) Jokes work due to the element of surprise. Too many business presentations are stuff people already know (1, 2 … 3!) or stuff people don’t know what to do with (1, 2 … 7!). Give ’em something both memorable and fun.”

13. Use the Art of Misdirection

“The beautiful thing about a business presentation versus standup comedy is that the presentation audience can be misled into a funny line much easier,” says Cody Woods. “Due to the many boring presentations they have been subjected to, they are suspecting it less. Use this to your advantage.”

14. Put the Word the Joke Hinges on at the End of the Sentence

For example, if the fact it’s a cat is the surprise or twist, don’t say, “There was a cat in the box.” Say, “In that box was a cat.” That way you’re not still talking when they’re meant to be laughing, says Matt Kirshen.

15. Use Tension

“There has to be tension for a punch line to land,” says Zahra Noorbakhsh. “Tension sets up the desire to see a problem–however big or small–get resolved. If you can identify what is making your audience restless, anxious, or uncomfortable, you can work backward to find the joke that chills them out.”

16. Avoid Ever Going Blank Onstage

Use the Memory Palace memorization technique. To do this, it is useful to have the image interact with the environment, Richard Sarvate says. “For my sushi joke, I picture a sushi chef,” he says. “If I put him in the elevator in the lobby of my apartment; I picture him mashing the buttons on the elevator in frustration. Now that he is interacting with the environment, it’s a lot easier to visualize and recall. It’s useful to make the image bizarre in order to make it more memorable. For my Mexican Indian joke, I picture Krishna wearing a sombrero. A ridiculous image, which is almost tougher to forget.”

17. Use Your Hands

“Speak with your hands in front of you, not flopped down to your side,” says Matt Morales. “Pretend your double fisting a couple of drinks that you’re going to spill if you put your arms down. Or just double fist a couple of beers. Granted, that might not make your presentation better, but eventually you won’t care anymore.”

18. Use Metaphors and Analogies Combined With Hyperbole (Exaggeration)

“Figure out the pattern of something you’re criticizing, and then choose a metaphor that makes that look ridiculous,” says Brian Carter. “For example, I might teach that trying to do organic social marketing without ads, maybe hoping for it to go viral, is like trying to drive a car that only other people can fill up with gas when they feel like it, and hoping they will. Exaggerating anything makes it funnier. So I could exaggerate the previous example and say that it’s like the Star Trek Enterprise trying to fly to a new star system without any dilithium crystals, and hoping that some Klingons show up and give them some. Now, I just made those up and they’re probably horrible, but that illustrates the process (Trekkies get it).”

19. If the Energy Is Down, Bring It Up

“If the host didn’t introduce you with a strong round of applause, this is a good time for you to ask the audience to offer a round of applause,” says Sarah Cooper. “Feel free to ask for a round of applause for the presenter, the host, some of the presenters before you, the sponsor or organizers of the event, and even one for the audience themselves (even though they think they’re clapping for themselves, it still feels like they’re clapping for you).”

20. Trust Your Funny Bits

“Your jokes are funny, so have confidence in them,” says Brandon Scott Wolf. “Deliver your punch lines emphatically, and then give the audience a moment or two to process what you said so they can laugh.”

21. Have Fun

“Don’t put something out there that bores you. If it bores you to tell it, you can bet it will bore your audience to hear it,” says Sal Calanni.

22. Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Overpreparation will help you be ready for anything and give you the knowledge and confidence that you can handle whatever comes your way onstage. As Steve Martin says, “Persistence is a great substitute for talent.”

And last but not least, from Irish comedian Dylan Moran:

23. Don’t Rely on Potential

“Don’t do it! Stay away from your potential,” Moran says. “You’ll mess it up. It’s potential; leave it. Anyway, it’s like your bank balance–you always have a lot less than you think.”

As Mark Twain said, “The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.” That type of arms race may be one worth all our time. Most presentations are really boring. With applications of these tips, yours will not be.

(Originally published here by David Nihill in Inc.com)

The post 23 Tips From Comedians to Be Funnier in Your Next Presentation appeared first on FunnyBizz | Where Business Meets Humor.

His passion for entertainment comes across loud and clear from the title of his book, “Welcome to the Funnel: Proven Tactics to Turn Your Social and Content Marketing up to 11,” ever so slightly influenced by his nightly adventures in rock ‘n’ roll and a Gun’s and Roses album in particular.

Jason believes B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring. “Adding humor and some of your own passions to your content marketing strategy is a great way to help break through the noise and differentiate your brand from the millions of other companies who are bombarding their social channels with nothing but self-promotion,” he says.

Here he shares five tactics you can apply immediately to “sexy up” (this is now an expression it seems) B2B content and messaging:

1. Ask yourself WWJD? (What Would Jerry Do?): When creating a piece of content or writing the messaging to support, take a cue from master comedian Jerry Seinfeld. His simple formula for comedy is to take everyday situations and ask himself, “What’s funny about this?” A good content marketer can apply this type of thinking to a brand, product, or company.

2. Inject some personality into your content: The best advice Jason ever received in his marketing career came from fellow content marketer Ann Handley a few years back. She told him that if he could figure out a way to inject his personality and love for heavy metal into his content (especially during a time when B2B content was sort of stale and boring) that he might be onto something. It appears she was right.

3. Wittiness is terribly underrated: When creating content at the top of the funnel a little bit of wit can go a long way when it comes to both conversion and sharing. People gravitate toward witty people because they are clever, amusing, and likeable. As a content marketer your job should be to apply those same attributes to the content you create. Done right, your brand will likely be viewed as much more approachable and ultimately human. Making sure you’re using your wit across all platforms will be easier to manage and implement with some great community tools. If you’re interested in learning more check out this website.

4. Take Some Time for Spitballing: Urban Dictionary defines spitballing as tossing ideas around with no expectation of them coming to pass. While that’s a pretty solid definition, Jason swears from experience that some of the most creative and hilarious ideas for marketing campaigns and content ideas are born from embracing this technique. Once a week he pulls his team together for at least 20-30 minutes of spitballing and riffing on content ideas that are captured on a whiteboard. Jason preface’s the meeting with an anything goes, there are no bad ideas type of scenario and lets the brainstorming take on a life of its own. He documents everything because even if an idea sounds terrible at the time it might spark something genius later on. He then takes a photo of the whiteboard activity and shares it with others for even more ideas from outside the immediate team.

5. Take Nostalgia, Please: Using nostalgia as part of your content marketing strategy is a great way to invoke warm and fuzzy feelings of the “good old days”. For instance, evoking nostalgic imagery can work particularly well for marketing books. Book bloggers and BookTubers (YouTubers that feature books on their channel) often use nostalgic imagery and references in their blogs and social media content to appeal to their intended audience. You can learn more about how to market a book by taking a look at some of the resources on the Reedsy website. It also presents a fun opportunity to mashup the old view with the new view to grab attention and ultimately inspire action. Still need convincing? Jason encourages you to take a look at the incredible traction that throw back Thursday has achieved on social media. #TBT. There is a huge opportunity he says to have some fun with your brand by simply looking to the past, thinking retro, and sharing your brands history with a new audience. I hear that SEO services in Canberra can help you brainstorm how to invoke that nostalgia in your targetted demographic.

Nowadays companies when hiring often ask to see your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles. They want to know the professional you and the fun you. Just because you have a job doesn’t meant the fun you should steer clear of the office.

On the surface B2B marketing, rock “n” roll and humor seem to go together like Gary Vaynerchuk, Led Zeppelin and Eddie Murphy. However in modern times, where you are faced with expressions like “sexy up”, maybe they should. At least in Marketing.

Originally published in Inc. here

The post How To Inject Personality Into Content Marketing appeared first on FunnyBizz | Where Business Meets Humor.

And they are not alone. Big companies are using GIFs in their external communications. Instead of saying “just following up”, “sorry about that”, or “I’ve been swamped” express yourself with a GIF. For every time a meeting gets cancelled the last minute, every time you can’t get a response to a beautifully crafted email, every time someone says regards instead of kind regards, we’ve got you covered.Here are 20 tried and tested favorites that you can send straight away to deliver some inbox happiness.It takes less than 15 seconds with Giphy’s nifty Google Chrome extension.Instructions: Right click and save to your desktop.

Happy GIFs

"I'm very excited you signed up!" 

"I'm thrilled you're a new customer!"

Apology GIFs

“I slipped on getting back to you."

"Next time, you can count on better support."

“I dropped the ball on this one.” 

“I've been swamped."

"I forgot to press send. Doh!" 

"We got the rug pulled from underneath us." 

Funny Follow-up

"Just checking in." (Don't write anything, just send the GIF.)

"Just following up."

 

"Just checking in to follow-up...again..."

"Are you still alive?"

 Instructions: Right click, save to your desktop, embed in e-mail and spread the happiness.

The post Inbox Happiness: 12 Proven GIFs You Can Use Now! appeared first on FunnyBizz | Where Business Meets Humor.

After eight minutes of watching Matt Ellsworth’s standup routine, I knew what we were in for.

Before Ellsworth stepped down from the stage to rejoin us at our table, his comedy coach, David Nihill, turned to me and smiled. “We have a lot of work to do,” he said.

Let me back up. Nihill had sworn that he’d used open-mic nights like these to become a better public speaker within weeks.

Doing standup comedy to overhaul your presentation skills is not a terribly new idea. But Nihill so believes in the idea that he’s built a company, FunnyBizz, around training businesspeople to be more entertaining.

Getting better at presenting in front of groups is one thing. But how much can comedy training–and a crash course in standup–help you become a truly entertaining speaker? I was putting Ellsworth to the test.

Read More

The post Can Standup Comedy Make You a Better Public Speaker? An Inc. Investigation appeared first on FunnyBizz | Where Business Meets Humor.

A week passes, and you still haven’t heard back—that first email has gone AWOL and it’s looking like all that time you spent schmoozing was for nothing.

Does this scenario sound frustratingly familiar to you?

If you’re like most professionals these days, wearing multiple hats and meeting countless people means that you’ve probably experienced your share of head-banging-into-the-wall moments where an important email goes unheeded.

While one of the best ways to ensure a prompt reply is to treat others’ emails as you would want them to treat yours, sometimes setting a good example isn’t enough. Recently we sat down with Digital Media Guru Earle Richards, Business Operations Manager for custom men’s apparel company uSuit, and he shared some out-of-the-box ideas for clever and effective email follow-up.

 Follow the 3 P’s: Persistent, Polite, and Positive

As a general rule to email correspondence, don’t dally too long with following up. While it’s smart to keep on your toes, respect the fact that whoever you’re emailing is just as busy as you are, so use common sense and don’t come off as pushy. Time kills all deals, but so does desperation. In a situation like this, do what Earle does: keep calm and follow up about how you can help someone, not just about how they can help you.

Keep calm and follow up
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Make sure it sounds like you, not a robot.

One of the problems with email is that it’s too easy to end up sounding mechanical and unemotional. Barring the unfortunate possibility that you’re literally an office cyborg, if you get in touch with someone via email, sound like yourself, not a robot. Says Earle: “I think the more fun you have and the more humor you show, no matter what type of communication it is, the more people want to work with you.” This doesn’t mean you have to use humor—if you both happen to be huge fans of Game of Thrones or some other popular TV show, it could be just as effective to throw in a blurb about how you’re really looking forward to seeing if so-and-so finally gets what’s coming to them in the next episode.

Don’t be afraid to use GIFS!

Whether you know someone well or not, a well-placed funny GIF such as the ones below from Giphy.com can only put a smile on the face of whomever you’re trying to reach.  We’re talking about sharing a GIF here, not mixing hazardous chemicals. As long as it’s not a super obscure reference or a joke that pushes good taste it probably won’t explode in your face–you don’t need to overthink it.

via giphy.com

via giphy.com

A well-placed funny GIF can only put a smile on their face.
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In fact, it can’t hurt to keep a GIF library handy for the next time you’re sending out a follow-up email. According to Earle, a self-confessed “Google ninja,” finding the perfect GIF is as easy as doing a Google Images search, and Giphy.com is a great alternative as well. We’ve moved past relying on mere words to get the point across in casual conversation, so why stick exclusively to them when writing emails?

via giphy.com

via giphy.com

via giphy.com

You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how many people simply missed your e-mail and appreciate the light-hearted follow-up. Humor won’t necessarily seal a deal, but it will make you more likeable, and that will lead to positive results. As Earle says, people like to do business with other people that they like. So don’t be afraid to incorporate a little humor in your emails. It will ease the awkwardness of communication, get you a faster reply, and maybe even be the je nais se quoi that gets a new client to commit to you instead of the competition.

If you’ve never tried sending a GIF in an email follow-up before, why not try it out? What other tried-and-true email follow-up tactics do you use? Leave a comment and let us know!

The post The Pursuit of Polite Persistence | GIF Me a Follow-up! appeared first on FunnyBizz | Where Business Meets Humor.