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The Laughter Factor: Using Humor to Lead with Adam Christing · Business Roundtable

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Business Round People podcast. I am
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, David Carr, founder of Steward your business bringing
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: people together to accomplish great things. And I am so
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: honored to have a guest, Adam Christy, who I've known
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: for years, here on the podcast today with us. Welcome Adam, Hey.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Thank you, David. Great to be with you today.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well you and I go away back and I'm
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: super excited because you are. You're not You've just done
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: so many things. We're gonna get into it today, but
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: you have. You are the founder of Clean Comedians. You
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: have done so many events and MC. In fact, you
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: were ranked I think number one MC in LA Best
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: of La. You've over done thousands of events. I mean,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: just so many different events.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Well I thought I thought my mom was the only
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: one who remembered that. David. Thank you.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: See there you go. See we're gonna get lots of
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: comedy in here. Adam is great, Thank you, and I
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: had the honor. And some of you guys don't know
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: because I've done I'm not doing it as active as
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I once did. But years ago I had my own
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: dj MC company and I love entertainment, and Adam, I
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: had to give me the honor of being able to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: be the MC of his daughter's wedding, which I felt
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: really a privileged to do because he is a pro
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: at this and he invited me to be a part
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of that, and we've known each other ever since. And
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: now it has a great new book coming out called
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: The Laughter Factor, which we're going to get into as well,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: which I'm super excited about. But Adam, just thanks for
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: coming on here. Thanks for bringing humor. We haven't got
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: to get to humorous on this show. Sometimes it gets
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: a little more serious, and I'm glad, glad to have
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: you here bringing some levity and just bringing your wisdom
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to our listeners. I hope that I freeze Adams.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Kind of that we go every crass, but in the
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Hollywood entertainment.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Is oh hold on, let's see here.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: It's great that you mentioned all of this because I
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: think there's a link between funny and money, and I
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: believe that humor is a shortcut to trust, and really,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: when you get down to it, business is about relationships,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: and so people like to buy from those that they
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: like and trust, and I can't think of a better
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: way to connect with people than putting a smile on
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: their face and also receiving a smile. It's like a boomerang,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: you know, when you smile or make someone laugh, you
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: feel better too.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely so, Adam. I liked our guests that come
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: on the show because our listeners may have never heard
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: of you before, even though you've been around, You've done
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: a ton. And by the way, connect with Adam on LinkedIn.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: He has some great content. But for those that aren't connected,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: don't know you, Adam, give us a little bit about
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: your background. I give a little bit, but I love
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a little bit more context about why do you do
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: what you do? And you have you're an EMCR, you're comedian.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've just done a ton of things. But
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: talk a little bit about your journey as a business
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: owner and a leader, and now why you wrote this
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: book The Laughter Factor.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you. Yeah, it really started from being broke,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: from having no money. My background. I took a bunch
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: of classes. I went to Biola University. I majored in
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: speech and so I got to be on the speech
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: team and my favorite topic was called speech to entertain.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: And what I didn't realize was it was preparing me
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: for the two worlds. That I'm really in now, which
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: is doing comedy but also weaving in an empowering message.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: And so then I became a youth pastor, and then
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I quit. And now if I were to quit something,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I would probably line something up ready to you know,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: take its place. But back then I'm like I I quit,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: And so I had no income. My wife was student teaching,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: so there was a time when we were returning wedding
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: gifts just to pay our bills. My gosh, and I
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: had this feeling. I thought, if I'm going to make
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: this happen. I always wanted to be an entertainer, a speaker,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: have a background doing magic, and so I just started
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: literally dialing for dollars back when we would pick up
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: the phone.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, back when we.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Use phones for phone faults. Right. But one thing I
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: learned David was to lead with a mindset of service.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: So rather than calling a business or a school or
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: a church or a college, instead of saying, hey, book me,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I would say I'm calling to see if I can
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: be of service to you for your school assembly program
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: or for your after dinner entertainment at your banquet. And
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: I might get rejected nine out of ten times but
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I started to see a pattern that if I was
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: willing to offer service and genuinely help, number of people
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: would book me. So one month, going way back August
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: of nineteen ninety two, I did sixty two gigs in
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: one month southern California, and my favorite one was near
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: where you live. I was in Big Bear, California, really
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: and David. I was so exhausted that night, I think
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: I had six I think I'd done three things at
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: a school and then a business event, so it was
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: like my sixth performance that day. I repeated the same
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: joke three times. I was so mentally wiped out, and
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: the first time I got a nice laugh. The second
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: time I didn't really get a laugh, and so it
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: kind of hit me. Oh, And I told it the
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: third time and it got a big laugh again, so
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: it looked like I did it on purpose. But I
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: don't do quite as many we call them gigs in
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: the comedy world as I used to. But I still
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: I'm probably on a stage about one hundred times a year,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: still as an MC, as a humorist, as a keynote speaker,
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  Speaker 2: And every single time I counted a privilege, because when
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: someone invites you to whether you're speaking to ten people
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: or a thousand people, you're representing that organization. There are people,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: whether it's a sales goal or a faith based goal,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: or bringing unity to a nonprofit or an association. So
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: I've learned a lot of things the hard way by
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: making just about every mistake you can make.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Well, you're very humble, Adam, and I'm so grateful that
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: you have you here because you have such a history
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and and you really do have a servant's heart. I
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: definitely see that, and I have experienced that myself. Anybody
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: that gets a chance to be in your world and
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: the way that you help and lift up. I know
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: that you've raised a ton of money for nonprofits, helping,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: you know, make a difference in the world. And I
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: so appreciate that. And and the deal in the humor,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I got to say I showed this. I was before
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: we recorded, but I put I wanted to show this
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: to the audience. If those are you that are watching this,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: this is the Adams humor. You know. He sent me
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: soap on a rope, uh you know, and I thought
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: that was so hilarious.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: You have to tell them what's at the end of
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: the rope, though.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we got the microphone. There go those of you
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: that are listening. It's hope on a rope microphone. It says,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: you know, no slip, just grip. We've got you know,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: hold on the microphone. Rock on. So I thought that
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: was so hilarious, and so you adam, Yeah.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I've identified these five laugh languages because
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: sometimes we think, well, I'm not a I'm not a comedian.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Someone might say you might not be maybe you're not
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: going to get a Netflix special. That's okay. But one
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: of the laugh languages is surprise. And I noticed when
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: you told me you got the gift, you were you
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: were smiling. And so there's something about simple gesture of
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: sending someone a surprising card, a funny birthday card. We
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: send these giant bouncy balls in the mail with no box,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: and after I do an event, I will write with
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: a sharpie I had a ball at the chevron. Oh.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: And so imagine the mail carrier walk into the office
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: with this like a bouncy ball that a preschooler would use,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: like you get it Walmart, and people it's funny. I've
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: sent expensive chocolate gifts, but something that makes them smile
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  Speaker 2: and laugh. Is more memorable.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, no, that's that is that is so true, Adam.
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  Speaker 1: And I think sometimes we just don't think about that
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: things being proactive like you said, and just saying how
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: could I make somebody smile? And I know you You've
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: got this new book coming out, The Laughter Laughter Factor,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: which go if you guys want to go check it out,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: go check out. It's just that The Laughterfactor dot com.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: You guys, go check it out. But in that you
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: break down some things, like you just said, kind of
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the the humor tactics if you will, uh for us,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: and you mentioned one of them is surprised, But what
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: are the other ones that you you would say, Adam,
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  Speaker 1: that help us? And Andrea humor.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: A quick backdrop, you've probably heard of that very famous
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: book called the Five Love Languages. Yes, scary Chapman. It's
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: sold a little bit more than my book, mays twenty
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: million copies, yep. And we gave a copy to our
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: youngest son, James, who's now twenty onenties in college, and hey, buddy,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: what is your love language? And he said venmo. So
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: that was fascinating, but it got me thinking that sometimes
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  Speaker 2: people feel like like I mentioned that maybe they're not
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: a stand up comedian or like, hey, I'm not a clown,
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  Speaker 2: But as a human being, you're also a humor being.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: And when you find and discover the tactic or the
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: laugh language that fits your personality. So we talked about
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: one of them surprise, yes. Another one I simply call poke,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: and this is where you make fun of yourself and
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: eat people to the rush and where you gently tease
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: other people. And the third one is one of my favorites.
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  Speaker 2: That's called in jokes, and this is where you do
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: you have a knack for developing like nicknames, inside jokes, stories,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: and this is all about the unbelieve believable fun you
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: can have with shared experiences. And you know that kind
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: of stuff wouldn't work at a comedy club, like if
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I was at the Ice House in Pasadena, California, where
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: a lot of great comedians have played, and if I said, hey,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: I want to talk about Jerry and the coffee Maker,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Well that's going to bomb at a comedy club. But
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: in the right setting where everybody knows about Jerry and
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: the Coffee Maker or whatever it is, it becomes this
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: inside humor. The fourth one is for all the dad
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: joke fans out there, all the punsters. I like to say, Hey,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: it's fourth down and you're punning.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: This tactic is called wordplay, and it's people who love,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: you know, bancher clever language and wit. And then the
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: final one is called amplify, and this is people have
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: this laugh language if they're like to exaggerate, tell stories,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: like somebody goes to the grocery store and they might
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: just say there was a long line, and then somebody
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: else turns it into like this epic tale. You know,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: they were going to make me the mayor of Produce.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: I was there so long and it's just like and
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: so finding. And we created a quiz, David. It's really
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: fun awesome. It takes like four or five minutes to
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: complete the quiz and it tells you it describes your
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: laugh language and gives you some suggestions on how to
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: best use it.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: I love that, Adam. I mean, I've talked on the podcast.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: One of the tools I use in my toolbox is
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: called the five Voices is your leadership voice. It's similar,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: it's a similar concept, but it just breaks it down
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: in a simple way. And I'm super excited because hey,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not typically that humor guy. But like you said,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: this could be different ways. You could use this in
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: a way that builds relationship. And I think that's fantastic
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: because probably would you say, Adam had a question for
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: you on this. So when you understand this, you know
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: how you speak that. Like you said earlier, you joked
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: about your son's love language, but if you understand the
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: love language of your others too, how do they like
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: to be joked with?
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: How do they like to be interact with? So it's like,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: here's my preferred style, but what is it like would
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: be also to be playful? Is that something that you
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: get into? Hey, hey, hey, there we go, you're back
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: to pause there for a minute.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna let you work the magic of editing.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll get that. Yes, absolutely.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Many years ago I worked at a magic shop and
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: I met this gentleman named Earl Nelson, who turned out
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: to be one of the all time great slide of
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: hand artists. But his personality was not fun, not zany.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: It was like almost like the caricature of the accountant personally.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: But I noticed something. He would have you pick a
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: card and the card would disappear and they would end
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: up in his wallet. Then it would catch on fire
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: whatever the illusion was, and just like you laugh, people
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: would they'd start laughing. I thought, well, he's not telling jokes,
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: he's not being you know, wacky, But surprise is. I
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: would say, even if you're not sure which of your
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: humor tactics fits you best, you can't go wrong when
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: you say something when you send the gifts that people
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: aren't expecting. So I've told my team at Cleancomedians dot
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: com that we want to make people sad. And what
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: I mean by that is the acronym sad. With your clients,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: with your co workers, with your family friends, you want
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: to sad them. And here's what it stands for, surprise
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: and delight. It might just be a little thing, could
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: even be a meme or something in an email, or
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: something silly you wear or gifts are always great, but
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: you break up the pattern of what everybody's used to
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: and it just I don't know why it works. It's
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: like maybe it's brain chemistry, but we get used to
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: certain patterns. Yeah, when you flip them, it just makes
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: us laugh or smile.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: No, you're you're right on the money, Adam. I think
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: pattern interrupt disrupting in a good way. It gets us.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Oh that was something I wasn't unexpected, and yeah, we
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: love to be And then you said, I love that
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: you have surprise and delight those we don't want to have,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: you know, go into something where we're not frightened. It's
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: not scary. It's actually a good thing. It's like, oh
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: my gosh. You know, I love watching those videos. You
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: know this what you watch those surprise videos? Right, America's
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: spending some videos where people come in and surprise and
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: they can all you know, thrown off at first, but
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: then they're literally happy. They're excited person, you know, if
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: they're delighted and in a good way of like when
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: you see the transition or when you see somebody. I
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: love the you know, there's all those videos of like
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: the servicemen coming from home right and surprising them, and
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: I'm like, goodness, yeah, those are just amazing.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: They touched the heart. And so when we talk about
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: the other laugh language, another one of them is called
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: poke mm hmm. One time, I'll tell you a quick
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: funny story. I was hired by one of the top
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: accounting firms kpmg uh huh, and they flew me to Washington,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: d C. And they said, we're going to honor and
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: roast eleven retirees. So they gave me five minutes to
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: roast each one of them. And so here's what I did.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: I got to know what actually made them great and
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: what people loved about them. And so instead of saying, well,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: you know, she's short or he's heavy set, I never
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: go after that stuff. But it turns out this guy's
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: a great golfer, Well that's something we can actually tease
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: him about. Or she's known for saying certain expressions. We
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: could tease her about that. And they they were roaring
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: with laughter. But most important to me was the retirees
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: felt not just roasted, but actually celebrated, like when you
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: give a toast at a wedding. And by the way,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I still remember how awesome you were and what a
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: contribution you made at my daughter. You never forget it.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: And I'll tell you why you did that. Not only
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: were you very good with the equipment and you have
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: a great voice, but you brought heart. And so there's
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: a link between positive humor and coming from the heart.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: And so another little secret I'll share with your listeners
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: is the unbelievable power of what I call authenticity, where
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: you make fun of yourself a little bit. So we
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: think that by leading with a story. I'll give you
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: a quick example. Many years ago, I was profiled in
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Success magazine, so I could get on stage and say, hey,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: I was profiled in Success magazine, and you know, self serving.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: But when I tell the truth of what really happened
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: is the night before the reporter came to interview me,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: I was in such financial straits they towed my car away,
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: and so Herry was talking about, you know, how to
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: make money and yeah, and I'm like, I'm being interviewed
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: by Success, right, So now if I tell that story
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: and just like tell the whole thing, I think two
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: things happen when they say I like this guy because
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: he's being honest, and two we see ourselves in each
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: other's flops and failures. There's a delicate balance, Like I'm
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: not talking about self defeating humor, right about self effacing humor.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: It's like a window. And as leader, this makes you
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: so much more approachable. Like and you know people are
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: afraid to laugh at the boss, right, but yes, absolutely
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: you go first. If you laugh at yourself first, now
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: it's safe for for us to have fun with each other.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Well, I think that's you're hitting on so many good points.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: And then on the Business Around Table podcast, we're talking
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: about the business owner or we're talking to those focause
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: that maybe in a leadership role, whether you're a group
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: manager or director department and whatever the case might be.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: And I think to your point, Adam, they feel like, oh,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I've got to be stoic, i gotta have all the answers.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I've got to hold it all together or they won't
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: believe me. And it's like it's counter to that. In fact,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: they don't know that. They don't they like there's no
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: relationship there. And so by you said, I liked you
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: know that going first in being in a in a
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: good way because I think, what when I say that, Adam,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I know you're so successful and that that the event
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: that experience isn't is it? It's part of your history,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't define you. That's not like, well, Adam,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: that's all that. That's just one moment in time and
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the clip, and so you're not defined by that, just
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: part of your story. And I think I've noticed too, Adam,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: because I look at LinkedIn and I see these things,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and I fall into this trap too of telling story.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not telling stories but actually just just saying like
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: I wasn't a success magazine, but this is why you
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: used to listen to me, right, this is my accomplishment. Instead,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: it's not as relatable and your your others, your the
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: way you broke it down. It's like, oh man, he's
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: actually been through that or had that experience. I want
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: to lean in a little bit more. I can tell
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: he's more authentic and instead of just trying to be
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: this perfect you know, picture perfick person.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: You know, you're so right. I just posted seriously about this.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if you saw this one, but I
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: said I'm not always awesome, but I've learned to be flawsome.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: And it's it's kind of a bad pun, but there's
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: something to it. Because when we embrace our flaws and
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: we're not afraid to own them and share them, people
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: the opposite happens what we think might happen. They feel
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: like they can trust us, they feel, maybe most importantly,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: like they can relate. And I've noticed a link in
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: the word in fact, the word comedy and community. Same route.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: And so probably the first human beings were sitting in
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: front of the cave or whatever around the fire place,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: but or the fire pit. And so when you're at
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: the campfire, what happens? You tell stories, you baby do skits.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: I know for me, when I was leading youth groups,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: people still talk twenty thirty years later about remember the
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: time around the campfire when you sang or you did
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: a magic trick. And so it's just kind of letting
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: our hair down. Of course, as business owners, as leaders,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: there has to be a balance. I've seen some people
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: go too far where they feel like they have to
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: do a forty five minute stand up routine. It might
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: be as simple as weaving a few more POWs into
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: your presentation. So can you hit them with a funny
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: a funny visual aid. Can you do something that invites
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: audience participation? Can you share a vulnerable story. Can you
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: do a quiz that's interactive? Can you give away some prizes?
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Pretty soon, the forty five minutes feels like fifteen minutes
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: because you've made it entertaining.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you're you're you're. What I hear you saying,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Adam and any good that, any good presenter, and you're
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: so good at this is and I've seen some of
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: your great presentations with magic and other things where you're
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: involving the people and being a part of the process.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: And I think whatever that is, like you just give
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: a whole list of examples, I think it's taking it
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: off of you and realizing how can I involve these
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: other people? And I think that's where, like, you know,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the role that humor brings in, like team building, because
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of burnout, people are feeling disconnected and
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and I feel and a lot you know, even though
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: we're trying to get people back in the work offices
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: go back to work. What I found, even when we
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: were back in the office, quite honestly, Adam, before COVID
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: and all this stuff, there still was a disconnect for people.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I could be sitting in the cubicle or officex door
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: and I haven't really built a relationship with him. There's
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of stress and how do you see you know,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've got highlights, but I mean I think
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: if humor's done well, he's just like how you find
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: it and start to de escalate when things are really
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: stressed right intimes.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I think it's a great question. Sometimes I think
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: it's about identifying shared pain. A lot of times people
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: think that comedians, for example, are just funny wacky all
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: the time, But think of someone like a Robin Williams
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: who sadly we lost or Steve Martin is actually a
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: kind of a shy, introverted guy. So it doesn't mean
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: you're not a serious person. Means that you're taking moments
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: to let people have a moment of refresh, a reboot.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: And so for example, right after COVID, when live events
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: started happening again, I would come out. One of the
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: first things I would say. I would say, Wow, I'm
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: so glad the pandemic is over. I sanitize my hands
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: so many times. I actually found the answers to my
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: eighth grade Spanish quiz and so it's a cute joke,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: but I think it reminds people like, oh, yeah, we
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: went through that together. And then I talked about how
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: great it is to be gathered together again, and so like,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: right now we're seeing each other through the screen face
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: to face, and that's cool. But there is something so
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: magical about like, for example, let's say you went to
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: see a movie. My daughter and I went to a
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: movie and there were a couple of funny moments and
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: what happens You look at each other and you just go, oh,
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: we just experienced that together. Yes. So what I tell
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: leaders is you don't have to be a comedian, don't
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: have to be a stand up or a magician or
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: even a professional speaker. But the word embedded in the
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: word funny is fun. All you need to do is
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: make it a culture where it's okay to have fun.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: You don't set that example as the leader, it's really
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: hard for people to feel comfortable doing it. And again,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: it doesn't mean you have to get up there and
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: do you know, juggle or something. It might be that
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: you invite participation. Like one thing I've done, it's crazy
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: dad jokes. It becomes so popular. Again. I will go
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: to a group and we'll hand out like four terrible
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: dad jokes and we'll have four different people read them,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: and then we'll have a sound effect of you know,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: but them bunch, and then somebody gets a silly prize
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: for delivering the best dad joke. That might only take
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: five minutes, but you've just changed the whole mood of
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: the room from you know, what's the information to more like, hey,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: we're connected.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: M h.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: I mean that that I think is so important, and
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: sometimes different leaders are going so fast sometimes I don't realize, hey,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I'll actually if I slow down and I do this,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: you know in any end, Like I like how you
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: are saying, it doesn't do forty five minutes. This is
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: just being intentional here engaging them. You'll go further, You'll
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: get greater engaged, because I mean, I know when I,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: like you just said, if I if I have a
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: positive experience and laughing, and I know that you've got
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: this new group that you're inviting folks to come on
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: and check out to where you can laugh together have
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: this experience, I think, which I think you know, we'll
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: let you share us more on that. But I feel
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: like when you get that, you know it's releasing literally,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is science, the endorphins in our brain,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the way where we're experiencing it right, and you're like,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: oh my goodness, it's it's creating this neural pathway, if
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: you will, my science background. But I geek out on
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: this because you know, we don't want we'd rather have
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: that than having you know, our cortisol go up, our
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: stress level, hormones go up, and that that also gets
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: embedded and we're like, so, how many of us have
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: ever got like, you see the phone call coming from
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: your your boss, do you feel good about that? Or
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: do you feel like, oh, cred you know, I don't
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: you don't call me? And so the stress level goes up, right.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: I actually mentioned this in the book, David, in The
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Laughter Factory, there's a chapter called leading with Laughter. And
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: the question I ask leaders is this, when your name
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: comes up and you're not there, do people smile? Like?
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Do they feel feared? Do they feel worry? Do they
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: feel dread? And so we have a lot of impact
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: on how people perceive us by whether we connect first.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: And as a leader, there's a lot of responsibility. I
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: get it. I've had employees, I still have staff today,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: I have many clients. But what I've learned is that
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: it's relationship first. And my research surprised me because of
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: course I saw what you just mentioned that humor, no question,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: all the scientific and medical research is showing it makes
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: us feel better. But what surprised me was the research
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: is also showing that it makes us feel more cohesive,
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: more collaborative, more playful. And you think about this in
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: the work that you really can't be mad at someone
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: when you're laughing with them. When I was in I
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: think it was third or fourth grade, there was a
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: bully chasing me around the playground and by the way,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: we were still friends. Name His name is also David,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: and he ended up winning a Super Bowl ring, so
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: this is a big kid, and he ended up in
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: the NFL later. But I knew that I knew he
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: could take me. I was a scrawny kid, and I
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: don't know how it hit me by I thought, I
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: wonder if I could make them up. I started teasing him,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: making fun of myself. You'll never care. I don't even
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: know what I said, but he started laughing and he
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: literally fell down on the grass and he stopped chasing me.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: And I think today as leaders sometimes were chasing and chasing,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: and we can come across as controllers. Yes, if we
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: just let things breathe a little bit. And one temptation
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: people have is if you do try a joke and
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: if you want to talk about I have tips for
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: how people can improve their joke telling, but this moment
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: of vulnerability where I don't know if they're going to laugh,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: and it's tempting to fill it in and laugh at
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: our own jokes. That's a no no. It's also attempting
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: to say to someone like, oh, you don't get it,
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: and then they feel put down. But if you can
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: just have the guts to let it breathe a moment
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: and it's okay if they don't laugh. In fact, that
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: can become funny as well.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been I've been there at him. I put
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: the joke out there and it completely fell flat, and
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, yeah, I.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Had that happen about one thousand times in my career.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah right, I mean I guess that. I mean for
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: those I love learning about the craft. You know, you've
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: done this adam for standup comedia, like be doing all
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the jokes, but to get a full set of jokes
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: to go up there for whatever it is, fifteen minutes,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: twenty minutes, half hour. That takes a long time to
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: get all that in there, right, I mean, you didn't
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: just like come up with those overnight.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Well here's the mistake. They say. The difference between an
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: amateur comedian and a pro entertainer is an amateur has
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: the same audience and is always trying new material, and
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: a pro has the same old material and different audiences.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: This is challenging for a leader because you probably have
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: the same customers, the same sales or HR team, and
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: so your challenge will become keeping it fresh. But there's
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: another secret for that is not only do you want
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: to learn your laugh language, but get to know the
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: laugh languages of other people. If you have someone who
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: works for you who belongs in a punt a tentrey,
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: well by one of those. There's a button that I
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: sent someone. You got the microphone, nope, thing, But I
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: sent another one of our laugh launchers, this button where
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: you push a button and the worst dad jokes of
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: all time, just a loutily presented, and I knew that
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: he would appreciate that. So if you listen, people will
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: give you clues, Like if someone on your team is
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: a great storyteller, why not have them start to meet
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: and say, hey, I want you to tell the story
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: of the time five years ago we were at the
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: staff retreat. And you give them five minutes and it
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: makes them. You put the spotlight on them, everyone's laughing.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: And so I think the more leaders can give away
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: some of their authority and some of the spotlight, the
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: better for everybody.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm. That that is so true, Adam. And that's
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: one thing I work with business owners and their and
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: their teams. I was like, how do we get you
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: as potentially the apex out of the way a little
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: bit and let some others have the light on them?
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: And oftentimes they're like, yeah, I totally would like to that.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't even think about it. I didn't even think
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: just to what you're saying, Adam, invite them. I just
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: didn't even considering that. So as you're listening to that,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I want to hopefully, like Adam said, consider that. And
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: I think more than ever today, Adam, because I work
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: with a lot of companies that are distributed to workforce
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: that don't come in the office all the time, and
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: so how you know whether it's even on the video
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: or at the beginning just being intentional leaving space. But
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: to your point, Adam, I think I found at least
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: more businesses or leaders trying to they go to I
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: think too long between bringing those people together to have
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: that shared experience. It's kind of like an oil change, right, like, Hey,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: we could go longer and keep the guard going for
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: a while, but it will break down at some point.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: So why don't we do it? You know, it doesn't
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: have to be every day, but it's do a little
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: bit more frequently to create these touch points. Like you're saying, Adam,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: has that been your experience?
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? You know there's a saying I'm sure you've heard
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: and David and your listeners have heard called read the room.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: But I think even deeper is feel the room. So
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: a lot of my work is serving as an event
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: host as an MC, and I might have a joke
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: that I'm ready to get up there and share, or
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: I'm going to queue a video that's coming on the
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: screen or whatever. But what I've learned is, in fact,
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: my Irish grandmother totally. You know, you have two ears
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: and only one mouth. Yes, and so I listen my
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: way into the laughter. So if someone, for example, let's
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: say I'm doing a nonprofit event as the MC and
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: we see a video about a family that's been through
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: the ringer, I'm not going to get up there and
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: do a dad joke, right, might I might give the
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: audience a moment to feel what's happening in the room.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I might even say, let's just take thirty seconds and
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: process what we just watched. Now, I can then take
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: them to the next place. So as leaders, I think
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: we lead by listening first. And it doesn't mean you
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: don't get to your message or your vision. It's just
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: really goes back to almost communication one oh one, which
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: is there's a sender and a receiver, and so more
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: often than that, we need to be better receivers and
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: that will enhance our ability to send the message.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, I like how you said read the room,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: but read the feelings. And I think today I was
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: actually at a conference yesterday and they were talking about
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: doing performance reviews and all these other things and and
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: and you know, I think we've got some great technology
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: out there, those AI's out there and things like that. However,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: it doesn't replace that emotional connection and understanding that. And
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: I think what I'd be curious Adam, your experience, because
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I'd love to just confirmed this when
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: you go to a room or an event, when you
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: could tell the difference and the feeling of these people
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: are really filled Are they coming and filled up? Or
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: you can see like they're really like, oh they don't.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: These guys are running on fumes here. You know, you
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: see the difference in the way they're reacting.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: I remember walking into a room where it almost felt
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: like there was a ghost or some you know, dark
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: cloud in the room. It felt thick, and so they
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: asked me, as a outside kind of consultant person, to
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: share and I thought, I've got to break up this
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: tension that everyone can feel. And so I found out
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: that there was someone in the in the room, in
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: the group who was known for wearing funny ties and
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: really nice ties, but like every couple of days you'd
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: have a cool tie, and this was kind of risky.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: But I said something like, oh, I know what's the
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: problem going on right now. It's Tod's tie. And that
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: would never have been funny at a comedy club or nightclub,
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: but that group, it was like a pause and then
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: everyone laughed, and Todd laughed the most, and it just
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: changed the feeling. So first you have to I guess
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: it goes back to the classic improv trick David, which
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: is called yes. And so you say yes to what's happening.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: If you have tension in the workplace, you've got a
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: union dispute, you've got customer plans, whatever, don't you're not
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: trying to laugh over it. You're not trying to just
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: ignore it. You have to feel what's happening and maybe
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: me share that pain. You know, I've noticed my grandfather
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: was sober from alcohol for forty five years. He told
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: me that he was drunk for fourty years. He was
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: sober for forty five years, and he said something to
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: me said, I respect wisdom, but I obey pain. So
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: sometimes we need to be listening to the pain and
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: then we can share our wisdom or our wit or
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: the humor. But I always go back to listening. One
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: more thing I'll share with your listeners, so I know
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: many of them are leaders and business owners. Is be
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: intentional about it. Like some people say, well, hey, if
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: the funny happens, and that's always great. You know, there
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: are moments that just happen. I've dropped things. I one
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: time let a stage on fire and the alarm way. Yeah,
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: just about every mistake I've made it. But maybe the
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: greatest humorist in American history is Mark Twain. And Mark
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Twain gave hundreds and hundreds of speeches and lectures. But
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: I love this quotation. He said, it takes me three
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: weeks to prepare good impromptu speech, meaning it came off
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: as spontaneous. It came off as perfect for the moment,
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: but he we gave that some thought and reflection before
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: he shared it. So as a leader, you might look
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: at your sales presentation or your annual report or whatever
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: it is, and think, where can I intentionally insert a
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: moment of participation, a joke, a memorable story. But leaders
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: are visionaries who are intentional about moving people from one
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: place to another.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: M hm, wow, that is that is that's profound. I
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: mean I really appreciate what that is. And we and
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: I think as you hopefully you guys are listening into that,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: I mean you're getting all these different nuggets because he
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: is just a wealth of them. And again follow on
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: his LinkedIn particularly because I think almost every day you've
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: got something coming out there.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: I got it.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: It's just so fun and and.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: And you know, I even I do love LinkedIn. And
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: I talk about this in the Laughter Factory that we
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: think that we are like leaders. For example, think I'm
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: a thinker. The best leaders are linkers, and I think
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: LinkedIn and other It's not really social media so much
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: as the point is, like I've met people in person,
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: I've had zoom calls with people I've met on LinkedIn
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: because you can find a common interest like you and
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: I have a lot of common links where we've lived,
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: the kind of work we've done, faith based organizations. But
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: I have learned that I can find a link with
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: pretty much anyone who's breathing and humor is a shortcut
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: to trust. So if I can make them laugh or
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: even better, I meant to share this earlier. Yes, even
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: better than making other people laugh is when you laugh
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: at something they said, or did not laugh at them,
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: but laugh with them, you know what. The times that
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: makes it feel like, oh they like me, they get me,
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: they understand, and most importantly, they're listening to me. Again,
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: I would tell managers, leaders, entrepreneurs, the temptation is to
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: kind of be a show off. And what I tell people,
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: for example, when I speak at an event or i'm
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: the MC, I tell them I'm not the star, I'm
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: the cement. I'm trying to bring all these pieces together
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: and create an experience where everyone goes like this is
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: the best event we ever had.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: No, I mean that is that that is great? Yeah,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: we're here as servant leaders. I feel like, yeah, helping
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: and I love you just said that. If you can
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: create a space for this person to be the star,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: to be to share, to help to make you laugh,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: like hey, oh my goodness, we're we're connecting. And I
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: think it's what I can't remember who said this, but
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: it's to not think less of myself, but to think
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: think of myself less often, right yeah, right, right uh
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: And and so it's just about you know, I know
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: who I am and I appreciate that, but I want
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: to be able to connect with others. And so, like
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: you said, listening and creating a space intentionally instead of
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: like going going on, we gotta go so quick quick,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: gotta get this thing done. It's like you're not building
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: that really, and I think that's where there's that's the opportunity.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: And if you're going and I know you get these, Adam,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: and that I was talking to somebody else on the
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: negative side of things, if you're just trying to push
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: your idea without that and I get them all the
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: time through emails or messages, and they're not there's no
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: opportunity to encounter and build a relationship. But I love
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: that you're you and I on the same page about
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: building a relationship first before the opportunity that's so important,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: and humor is definitely one of those ways, no doubt.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: You know, everybody's heard of the eighty twenty rule, which
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: is I think is preto principle and it's it's great,
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: and it basically says that twenty percent of your customers
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: or twenty percent of your activities result in eighty percent
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: of your impact or your income. It's a great principle,
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: but I would take even further from me. I've had
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: several thousand clients over the years, certainly in the hundreds,
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: and I can count probably twenty of them where I
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: can make a really good living, and I think about it.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: I know their spouse's name, i might even know their
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: their pets name. I'm having dinner with them and lots
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: of laughs, and so look for ways to deepen the
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: relationship and humor it's it's a bridge to that.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I know we're getting to the end of
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: the podcast here. I would love to go longer with
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the Adam because it's just a blast talking with you
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: and learning from you. We're going to make sure that
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: everybody you guys connect with Adam go to the Laughter
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: factor dot com. Laughter the laughter you.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: Got, don't forget the word the it's the laugh right
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: dot com.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because everything's in there. The new book. The new
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: book is coming on Is it next month? Adam?
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, September sixteenth, and I'm so grateful it's being distributed
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: by Penguin Random House around the world. Last week I
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: did the narration and David, that was challenging, guys. I'm
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: so used to having a live audience. So there are
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: lots of jokes, so I'll give you an example of
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: a tactic for creating laughter. Yeah, and they don't have
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: an example of a joke or a way to do it,
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: and there's no audience, and so I have to leave
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: space like I think they would laugh there. No, it
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: was fun for me to record. But the book will
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: be available on audio and certainly in print and digital
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: on September sixteenth.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: That is great. So you guys told this is if
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: you've been intimidated by humor in any way, like I
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: don't know how to do this. You know, Adam is
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: giving you a roadmap here, some great tactics and to
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: empower you and ultimately, you know, like we were talking
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: about here, to be an effective leader, you know, leading
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: with humor and heart and connection, and again, I'm so
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: grateful having here on Any last thoughts you want to share,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: any is people are listening to all cause we've covered
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: a lot, anything that you would just want to impart
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: to them as we're as we're wrapping up the podcast today.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually maybe a bit a bit of a
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: more serious note. Most of the entertainers and comedians I
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: know are actually serious people. And here's what I would
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: tell my younger self and what I would tell your listeners.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: I think is you're probably great at something. Maybe it's writing,
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: or maybe it's marketing, or maybe it's sales. And my
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: encouragement would be this, make sure you're giving yourself some
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: of what you give to other people. Many of us
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: are wounded healers, right, so we give and serve, but
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: make space to receive that back. Like so for me,
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: I need to stop sometimes and say, hey, I need
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: to sit down and watch some good, clean comedy. Well
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: I need to not just write a book, I need
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: to read books that will encourage me. So bottom line
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: would be, make sure you're receiving what you're giving.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: Oh that's good, that's good. Adam, thank you so much
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: for being here on the podcast. We are so appreciative
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: of you and you guys make sure you go check
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: out the Laughter Factor dot com and Adam's all stuff's
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: on there. Adam again, thanks for being here on the podcast.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: David, I've had a blast.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Great to see you absolutely everybody. Of course, you love
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: it when you subscribe and follow along. Leave any comments
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: we have, We'll make sure that Adam gets them whether
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: you're watching this on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Come back again and we appreciate y'all being here with
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: us on the Business Roundtabele Podcasts. Until next time, be well,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: Thanks everybody,