In the waning days of 2017, many of us are deciding on New Year’s resolutions to tackle, including getting in better shape, curbing vices, and binge re-watching the Sopranos (I’ve already gotten a head start on that last one).
I don’t normally bother with resolutions. It comes with the territory of being a perfect human who eschews self-improvement in the name of good tacos. BUT…my sole 2018 resolution is to (to quote Keenan.): “up my social selling game”. To make this all possible, I’ll create more video content demonstrating the intersection of sales & stand-up comedy, lessons sales folks can take from comedians, and playfully chime in on LinkedIn.
However, when branding one’s self, the tactful, shame-free, self-promotional notion of blogging arises. I’m a tech sales rep turned stand-up comic/trainer/coach who shows sales reps how to get funnier. Should I:
1) Put myself on a regular, rigid writing & release schedule where I dump new & insightful thoughts of onto an empty web page, share them with the world, build up a rabid, yet niched fanbase who hang on every gag in every post, declare myself a “thought leader” (whatever that means), post a photo on it (and on LinkedIn) where my arms are folded non-ironically, and eventually run out of meaningful things to say, only be torn down in other blogs;
or
2) Push ahead with my Sopranos binge re-watch?
According to the Joint Global Self-Branding & SEO Council (don’t bother Googling it, they have no online presence), the choice is clear. But whatever that choice is – I’m punting it. Kind of. The Sopranos was too good a show to sacrifice second viewings.
Since I began performing comedy in 2011, I’ve rejected many by-the-book practices put forth by self-professed social media experts, all while desperately clinging to others. I definitely have some things to say & share, but like all of history’s most genius (& unknown) artists, art isn’t conceived on a schedule predetermined by social media algorithms. It comes when it comes.
That said, insight and ridiculousness relating to the rewarding intersection between sales & stand-up comedy are indeed coming, if only intermittently. I’m covered off for January, as I have a solid way to kick all of this off. Sales culture has no shortage of mind-numbing jargon used to describe objectives, success, failure, and verbs (many of which are rather violent). Sadly, stand-up shares many of those phrases. My goal over my next few blog posts is to take advantage of the latent laziness of jargon-creators from each of these cultures, and draw parallels (and differences) between the two. A lot of people asked me how I got into stand-up, and how “it works”, and I’ll be explaining it all in a way that’s as relatable as it gets for sales reps.
I’ll close this post by inviting you to check back come early January for to stay abreast of my further ramblings (which will be pretty cool if you like sales and/or stand-up comedy!). It never hurts to sign up for my mailing list (head to my homepage, and wait for the Sumo box to pop up). I promise to make it both relatable, insightful, all with no Sopranos spoilers.
Happy 2018!
