Business Storytelling Instant Teleseminar: Captivate, Connect and Convince!

“Get Naked” Business Storytelling for Leaders:
For Stronger, Memorable Communication and Presentations

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Would you like your message to be remembered and repeated? Would you like to build trust and gain buy-in from all your audiences, from clients to team members to stakeholders? Would you like to feel confident that your presentations engage your listeners?

You can do all that and more with strategic storytelling. Strategic storytelling is nothing new. Scheherazade, the ancient storyteller of 1001 Arabian Nights, beguiled a king and saved her own life and the lives of countless others by telling stories. In our own times, Steve Jobs was a legendary storyteller, who engaged the imaginations of millions with his strategic, engaging storytelling skills—and helped his company make billions of dollars and build a brand mystique while he did it.

Their storytelling secrets can be yours.

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• 60-minute mp3 of the teleseminar
• 14-page reference workbook pdf
  
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This pre-recorded teleseminar has the same content that Diane provided to a major training company which sells it for $229.  You are getting the same content at a $200 savings!

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Storytelling is a powerful way to captivate, connect and convince. If you want people to remember your message and to remember you, tell a story. Let Diane show you how!

Learning Objectives:

• Why storytelling is a communication tool that gets results
• The number one thing all stories must have
• How famous people, such as Steve Jobs, use storytelling to be more memorable
• How to uncover your own unique stories
• Which stories should you use in different situations?
• How to craft a compelling story that’s true to your personality
• Master storytelling techniques that ensure your audience doesn’t “check-out”

Who would benefit:

• Managers
• Directors
• Professionals
• Business owners
• Sales professionals
• Business speakers

Fast, convenient learning with no travel or out-of-office time lost!  

100% Guarantee:  If you are dissatisfied, you are entitled to a complete refund.

Presented by:

       Diane Windingland     

Diane is a speaker and the author of Small Talk, BIG Results: Chit Chat Your Way to Success!, and the co-author of Perfect Phrases for Icebreakers. Diane speaks internationally for organizations that want to help their people have better, more profitable conversations.

Audiences find her Small Talk Big Results presentations engaging and authentic. An engineer by training, Diane has owned several small businesses and has trained business owners, corporate employees and non-profit volunteers on how to become better networkers, conversationalist and presenters. She also has a presentation coaching business, Virtual Speech Coach

Only $29!  Register Now!

School Lunches: My 15 Minutes of Field Research

I decided to eat lunch at my son’s high school today as “research” for an upcoming presentation at the Minnesota School Nutrition Association Annual Conference, but also because I recently read Free For All:  Fixing School Food in America (an engaging analysis of the complexities of school meals).  I wondered how much the school lunch experience had changed since I last had lunch in a high school cafeteria 32 years ago!  Yep, I graduated in 1980.

Now as then, I don’t think parents eat in the school cafeteria very often.  When I called the school to see if I just needed to check in at the office, the secretary had to call me back because she “didn’t know the protocol.”  And then, when I got to the cafeteria, and went through the salad line, when it was my turn to “pay,” (all the students were using PINs) the woman at the “register” said she couldn’t take my money.  She told me to leave my food and go pay at the cashier in the middle of the cafeteria and then come back and get my food.  When I got to the cashier, he told me to tell  the salad lady that “Mike said it was OK to take my money.”  I traipsed back to the salad area and cut in line to pay—it was $3.60 and she didn’t have change for $4, so I told her to keep the change and I’d take a milk (maybe that came with lunch . . . I don’t know.  I would have much preferred water, but oddly, I didn’t see any water).  This process took about 4 minutes.

When I brought my food to sit down across from my son, I noticed he didn’t have any food!  “What?” I said, “I come to eat lunch with you and you don’t eat?”

“I already ate,” he said.  “You took too long.”

Four minutes was too long?

I’ll have to have a conversation with him about it being considerate to pace yourself to your dinner companions.  I felt incredibly rushed to finish my food and ate so fast that I started coughing!  I really could have used some water.

Not much has changed in 32 years when it comes to cafeteria “atmosphere.”  Crowded lunch room. Long cafeteria tables. Noisy. Rushed.

What has changed tremendously was the food! There was better food and more variety.  When I was in high school, we had 2 choices—regular hot lunch or the “new” McDonald’s-style lunch of a hamburger, fries and a chocolate shake.   I was pleased to see offerings of a hot lunch with pasta, a few sandwiches and the salads.

Although I thought that the school lunches looked pretty good, the four students I spoke with at lunch were less than impressed.  They all wished there was more variety (“When we have pasta, it’s for the whole week.  When we have the taco bar, it’s for the whole week, too.”) and “better food.”  I asked them what they meant by “ better.”

“Better tasting and better for you—healthier” was basically what they said (actually the 2 guys didn’t say anything about health; just the 2 girls did).

Interestingly, they all also said that schools in the suburbs get better lunches than schools in the city (two students, one being my son, had direct experience with this—Rogers, MN and Wayzata, MN).  One student even said, “the rich, snobby kids get the good food.” The other two students formed their opinions from talking with friends at suburban schools.   Why would lunches be better at suburban schools?  Is it because there is more property tax money?

Getting my food, eating and talking with the students took all of 15 minutes.  Even though there were 10 minutes left of the lunch period, almost all the students had left to go outside by the time I finished.  I don’t blame them for wanting to hurry through lunch to be outside with their friends on a beautiful spring day.  I couldn’t wait to leave myself!

What do you think about school lunches?

Or, what kind of interesting “field research” have you done in the interest of understanding your client or customer better?

Love Letter Found in a Thrift Store Purse

While searching for a summer purse that would hold my all my stuff (I was especially looking for one that would hold my new Logitech tablet keyboard), I stopped at a thrift store in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, MN. I tried out several purses, and in one I found a surprise. A love letter.

It was so touching, I couldn’t believe that its recipient wouldn’t cherish it forever, even if the relationship might have ended. I didn’t get the purse, but I took the letter and went next door to the Panera Bread and typed it into this post. Every woman should have a letter like this. And, Cynthia, I left the big “cow print” purse at the thrift store, but if you want your letter from Greg Haywood, I have the original. I tried to find Greg online (and even looked for Cynthia Haywood, in case you married him), but Haywood is too common a name. So, I will just print the letter here and maybe it will find you.

The letter was written with no capital letters, so added those, but left everything else as written.

Cynthia,

I don’t know where it is that we are at in love. I look at love as an entity. If it were in physical form, like a country. And maybe we are on the coast or maybe we are smack dab in the middle of it.

When I think of where it is we are at, I am amazed at the transformation of the relationship. For obvious reasons, our foundation was made on something strong. It could be argued that it could be built on something stronger, if the circumstances had been ideal, but as we clearly have learned by now, nothing about this journey has been ideal. It has been a fairly unique set of obstacles that we have had to overcome.

There are times where the love that I have for you seems really overwhelming. I would label myself possessive, but I do want you all to myself. I do acknowledge that you are hot. Very attractive. And those same qualities that drew me to you probably are sensed by other men. It’s just something about you. Maybe it’s the way you carry yourself. Your demeanor is sexy. Your smile rocks. There are those that probably see the great conversationalist/friend side of you, and also get the sense that you’d probably have some sexy things going on in that head of yours, and that you’d be great in bed. I think there is a part of you in denial about it. Either way, there are men that probably see that in you and think “jackpot!” and they’re right. You are a jackpot and you are a keeper. My keeper. My diamond in the rough.

I will try and do all I can to keep you happy. To make you content and satisfied and not neglect you or make conditions such that you wander to the “other side of the fence.” I feel I only have one chance to do this and to do this right. I played such a secondary role during my last foray into love. This time? I leave noting to chance. If I can’t make it work in something that has felt as effortlessly as this has and as easy going as this relationship has predominantly been, then I will walk away from love forever. I picture us discussing this and your response would be something like “you shouldn’t feel that way” or “even if this doesn’t work, you have so many great qualities you should love again.” But, honestly Cynthia? No. Because I’m not this teen in love. Or this kid that sees the world, and love, with blinders on. There is so much that is right with us. And you know that. And if all those rights don’t translate into a committed, happy, everlasting, ’til death do us part, loving relationship, then true love must just not be what I am meant to have.

You are looking on the verge of drooling over there. I love you enough that I will wake you before the saliva falls or I will break out a napkin, or use the bottom of my shirt to catch it (insert my creepy trademark laugh here). I look forward to this weekend, another adventure for you and I. Hopefully, we find good deals, good gifts, good food, good times and maybe some new hoop earrings while we’re at it. We’re a great team Ms. Cindy. I’m glad for whatever it was that made you fall for me despite the world I was in at that time. Maybe you really wanna be Mrs. Greg Haywood. Hmmm . . .

Loving you more with each fairly silent snore,
Greg

Stop the Complaining at Work!

Are you tired of workplace drama?  Would you like to nip complaining in the bud but still show that you are listening?  How would you like 3 simple techniques to help you do just that?

Marlene Chism, author of Stop the Workplace Drama, shared 3 techniques at the end of a recent teleseminar:

1. Technique #1 Four Words

When people are complaining and want to draw you into their drama, let them know that you hear them and understand what they’re saying, but get them into positive problem-solving mode by asking, “What do you want?” as in, “I hear what you’re saying.  Here’s my question:  What do you want?” (said with no eye-rolling or raised voice, but with respect).

2. Technique #2 Empowerment Technique

Get people out of the victim mode and get yourself out of the rescue mode by asking, “What are your choices?”  It may take a while to get people out of the mindset of running to you to solve their problems, but empower them by asking this question.

3. Technique #3 Collaboration Technique

Encourage collaboration in problem solving by asking, “Are you willing to . . .” type questions, such as “Are you willing to think about your choices and come back at 2 pm to talk about them?”

If a person is not willing to do something, then there would be some sort of consequences resulting from that choice.  For example, if you say, “Are you willing to come in 5 minutes early to make sure that you can be at your desk on time?” and the person says “No,”  then a consequence might be loss of the job after a certain number of  late starts.

Create movement toward employee empowerment with these three phrases when people complain:

“What do you want?”

“What are your choices?

“Are you willing to . . .”

Try them out at work, at home and in your volunteer organizations!

Toastmasters Clubs Build Conversation Skills, Too!

I recently received an email “interview” from a freelance writer who is planning on writing an article on conversation skills for The Toastmaster magazine.  The second question asked me to comment on how Toastmasters has helped me in conversation skills.  I had never really thought that out much before!  I realize, yet again, the great benefit I have received through my involvement with Toastmasters.  Please comment to add something about how Toastmasters has helped your conversation skills!

1: How important do you believe conversational skills are to the average Toastmaster, or the average businessman or woman, for that matter? Why?

Conversational skills are critically important to the average business person, especially if they don’t want to remain “average.”  From small talk that can lead the way to more profitable “big talk,” to the nuances of body language and facial expressions, to the more difficult conversations, in-person communication skills can still make-or-break many business or personal opportunities. Technology-enabled communications (texting, email, social media postings, and even video conferencing) cannot completely eliminate face-to-face conversation, nor should they!

2: Has Toastmasters helped you with your conversational skills? Please explain how.

Toastmasters has helped me improve my conversational skills in many ways:

1. Table topics cause me to think quickly on my feet and come up with a response.  This impromptu speaking has direct application to conversation.  Often someone asks us a question and we need to respond right away.
2. Prepared speeches give me both an opportunity to work on material that I might later use in conversation and also a chance to practice it out loud and receive feedback.
3. Prepared speeches specifically give me an opportunity to work on stories that I can tell later in conversations.  Nothing engages like a story!
4. Evaluations require that I listen carefully.  Listening is really the greater part of conversations.  Or, at least it should be!
5. Participation in club and district events, and helping prepare for events, requires lots of communication with lots of different people.  Toastmasters gives me practical applications for conversation.
6. Learning from other people’s speeches.  A few years ago, one of my club members gave a speech on dealing with mentally ill people in which he talked about the LEAP method (Listen, Empathize, Agree, Partner).  I started using that method right away with my teenagers in our conversations and it took our conversations from frustrating to friendly!

 3: What do you think is the most important thing to remember about communication in social settings? This might be making eye contact, having something noteworthy to say, expressing an interest in the other person, etc. 

You just never know where a conversation might take you, even in social settings!  My husband,  many of my best friends and even some business opportunities have come from conversations in social settings!  In a social setting, I think the most important thing to do is to “click” with the other person, because that’s really the only way you will open up the doors to potential friendships, romantic relationships or even business opportunities.  The easiest way to initially “click” with another person is to find “common ground” so that they can see the similarities between you both.  Many studies have shown that people who see you as like themselves will like you more!  How this happens, practically, is to first be engaging by being pleasant, by making eye contact and finding something to say that leads toward common ground.  It could be a comment about the event or the food.  And then, following up the comment with a question.  Here’s a blog I wrote about the “Observe—Transition—Ask”  technique.

 4: How important is it, in effective communication, to listen? Do you have any advice about how to do this?  

If you want to have a conversation, you have to listen!  You can communicate without listening, but that won’t happen in conversation!  In order to have the back-and-forth that is required in a conversation, you have to listen for the content and mood that your partner is conveying.  That means listening not only to the words that are said, but also to the tone of voice, and to use your “eyes” to listen for the non-verbal aspects of communication (body language, eye contact, facial expressions).  Then, as you take in the information, you can use it to further the conversation, even if only reflecting back what you heard, to let the other person know you understood (e.g. “It sounds like . . .So, what you’re saying is . . .).

Also, if you are listening carefully, you can ask questions that connect with what was just said.  The biggest tip to listening is to focus completely on the other person.  Don’t be thinking about what you will be doing later or how you can fit in that story you’re dying to tell.  Give them your full attention, lean in a little, face them and look them in the eye while they are talking.  Ask questions to get them to clarify or restate things to help you understand better. Then you can also restate or rephrase what they said to enhance your understanding.  It’s OK to ask them to rephrase something in a way that is easier for you to “listen” to.  If you really need a visual to understand something—ask the other person to sketch a picture.  If you need something more concrete, ask for an example.  You don’t have to be a passive listener in conversation!

5: Please add anything you would like with regard to learning or improving conversational skills.

Because so many people have a hearing loss (my husband is hearing impaired, and a Toastmaster), I feel it is important to realize that you may need to modify your conversation skills so that you can have effective communication with the hearing impaired.  I made up an acronym FACE for some tips in talking with the hearing impaired.

F: Face the other person so that he or she can see your lips and facial expressions.

A: Adjust volume and rate.  You may need to speak slightly louder and slightly slower than normal (but don’t over do this, or it distorts speech)

C: Clarify.  If your hearing-impaired conversation partner asks you to repeat something, try rephrasing in different words.  You may need to write down complicated instructions.

E: Empathize.  If you start to become frustrated, imagine what it might be like to converse while wearing earplugs.  It’s not easy.

Note:  I speak professionally on interpersonal communication and have written 2 related books:

 Small Talk Big Results:  Chit Chat Your Way to Success (the FACE and LEAP acronyms are in the book)

Perfect Phrases for IceBreakers (coauthor)

Dress the Naked Truth in Story to Get Buy-In

When I was a little girl, I had a very active imagination and would often tell “stories.”

OK, that’s just a nice way of saying I would lie. I would lie to get out of trouble. I would lie to get reactions. I would lie just to make things interesting.

It infuriated my mother.

When she confronted me, I would vehemently deny the lie.

Then, she got smart. She told me a story.

She told me the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” It’s a folk tale about a boy who repeatedly tricks the village people into believing that a wolf is attacking his flock of sheep. When a wolf actually does attack his flock, the villagers don’t believe him and his sheep are killed. Moral: Liars are not believed, even when they tell the truth.

That story struck a chord with me and I changed my ways.

If you are trying to get people to make a change, rather than being immediately direct, which might cause resistance to set in, clothe your message in story.

I’m reminded of an old Jewish teaching story, “The Naked Truth.”

Truth, naked and cold, had been turned away from every door in the village. Her nakedness frightened the people. When Parable found her she was huddled in a corner, shivering and hungry. Taking pity on her, Parable gathered her up and took her home. There, she dressed Truth in story, warmed her and sent her out again. Clothed in story, Truth knocked again at the doors and was readily welcomed into the villagers’ houses. They invited her to eat at their tables and warm herself by their fires.

Dress up the truth. Clothe statistics in story. Decorate the dull.

Telling a story can connect with people emotionally in ways that a direct approach can’t. Plus, people remember stories. If they remember your story, they’ll remember your point. I’ve had quite a few people tell me they remember a story I tell about my mom and the lesson I learned, “Listen from Your Heart.”

So, the next time you want to get a point across, tell a story!

Do you want to engage your audience with stories? Want to learn the secrets of storytelling in business? Do you want to create your own compelling stories?

Yes? Then, come to my Storytelling for Business Workshop on Saturday, February 25! The Workshop tuition includes 3 90-minute sessions, materials, lunch and refreshments plus a free 30-minute follow-up phone consultation. The Early Bird deadline is 2/5 for the $79 tuition (save $20). If you register with a friend, the tuition is only $69.  Love to see you there!

4 Easy PowerPoint Principles for Visually Engaging Slides

I have to admit it–I’m not a big fan of PowerPoint presentations.  Not as they are usually done, anyway!  A bunch of text or data thrown on a screen isn’t very engaging.  Worse yet is when people read their slides.  However, there are a few things you can do for your very next presentation that will make your presentation “pop” and engage your audience.  Do you have some other simple tips?

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Easy PowerPoint Principles

View more presentations from Diane Windingland

Slides with transcription of audio:

All too often a PowerPoint presentation is the Kiss of Death for an audience.  You don’t want to be THAT presenter do you?  Today I’m going to give you some EASY ways to make your PowerPoint slides “Pop” that your audience will love!I’ll briefly give examples of 4 EASY Power Point Principles:

1. Go BIG—Use Big Pictures
2. Create Contrast with Pictures not Words
3. Try the Photographer’s Secret—The “Rule of thirds”  for eye-catching slides
4. Less is More—the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle for PowerPoint Presentations

Here is an average PowerPoint slide:  Title on top, picture on the bottom.  It could be worse—it could be all text.  It could be a difficult-to-see picture.  Or there could be too many pictures.  So, it’s not too bad.  But there is something really simple that you can do to have a greater impact.

Yep—just use a BIG picture.  Let the picture take up the whole slide, if possible.  Rather than have a title, Just talk about the slide or maybe have a single word “Empowerment.”  When a picture takes up a whole slide our minds imagine the picture bleeding off the edge, so it’s even bigger than what you have on the slide.

Here it is again, the average PowerPoint slide

Big Picture Impact

A different crop—and maybe a little more interesting.  Try using the “Photographers Secret” The Rule of thirds for some of your images

Imagine your slide divided into horizontal and vertical thirds—the intersections are the “Power Points” of your Power Point slide —where the focus of your image can have greater visual impact.  It can also give a picture a different “feel”

Here’s the same picture with the grid overlaid. Now, you don’t actually have to have a grid.  You can just estimate it.

  Here’s another tree picture—quite different from the first!

  Notice that it is fairly centered.  This picture gives me a sense of foreboding and a feeling of being dominated –like I can’t escape.  What if I crop it just a little bit differently?

This is only a slightly different angle—but having more sky on the right gives me a feeling of greater hope.  Play around with your composition and evoke different emotions in your audience.

You can also use the rule of thirds with placement of people in your pictures.

Again with the grid overlaid.

So, Do you want to Stand Out in a crowd and have your PowerPoint Slides Be more visually interesting to engage your audience?  Remember to use BIG PICTURES and . . .

Try using the Rule of Thirds—You can use it to place pictures AND TEXT in the Power Point positions!  Another way to engage your audience is to use . . .

. . . Eye-catching contrast.  Our brains are hard-wired to notice contrast.

Don’t do this—don’t make your text color and background color too similar.  It might be easy for you to see on your computer screen but it isn’t so easy from the back of the room.

Easier to read, isn’t it?  However, some of the best use of contrast isn’t really in what you write.  For example, let’s look at the weekly groceries for 2 families. This information is from the book “Hungry Planet.”

Here’s a family from the U.S.  I could, like many presenters, also read the slide to you, which begs the question—why have a slide if you are just going to read it?  Just note that they spend a lot of money.

Here’s a family from Chad–$1.23.  It’s hard to imagine isn’t it!?!  But is there a more effective way to present the information—a way that will have greater impact?  Remember the saying . . .

 A picture is worth . . . a thousand words!  Here is another way to convey the contrast:

The groceries that the US family consumed in a week.

A week’s worth of food for the Chad family.  Pictures are a shortcut to our minds.  They are a short cut to our emotions.  A picture is worth  a thousand words.

And LESS is MORE!  With a picture you can convey MOREwith using LESS—fewer words can actually help people understand what you are trying to get across.  Let’s say I wanted to compare the percentage of people who own multiple dogs vs. the percentage who own multiple cats.

I could use a table.  Note my table contains extra information.  I really only want to talk about the fact that 40% of dog owners own more than one dog while 52% of cat owners own more than one cat.  Maybe a chart would be easier?

Well, Maybe not—I had to write out the statement “Cat owners are more likely to own multiple cats”  What if we just used a couple of pictures?

40 percent of dog owners own more than one dog while . . .

52% of Cat owners own more than one cat.  Much more appealing—Less is More, our final principle.

Also remember to:

Go BIG—Use Big Pictures

Create Contrast with Pictures not Words

Try the Photographer’s secret—The “Rule of thirds”  for eye-catching slides

I do have one bonus principle for you . . .

This is me.  I like to have fun in my presentations—and you certainly can add some fun to your slides

—even little changes can make them fun.   Don’t let your PowerPoint slides be the Kiss of Death!

Keep it Simple, Bold and interesting and your Audiences will love you!

Brainstorming Causes Brain-Freeze

“Okay, everybody! We’re going to have a brainstorming session today. We need some new ideas . . .blah, blah, blah.”

So, do those words inspire you to come up with innovative ideas?

More likely, they inspire brain-freeze. Brain-freeze is a survival instinct that our brains go into when forced to do something that could be dangerous. A once-a-year, off-site brainstorming session led by a big-wig screams “DANGER” to our brains.

As Stevie Ray pointed out in his column “Brainstorming: Death to Innovation” in the Dec. 1 issue of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, “The brain is much more interested in keeping us alive than in finding better ways of doing things.” So, if your organization “does” brainstorming as a once-in-a-while special event, you probably are wasting your time.

Good concept. Poor execution.

Is your organization doing any of these brainstorm-killers? Six Sure-Fire Ways to Kill a Brainstorm

I’ll do a post later on “Better Brainstorming,” but I’d love to hear from you.

Have you experienced effective brainstorming?  What have you seen work?

Ditch the Pitch: Build Your Business with Conversations

Quick, aside from business cards, what is the one tool that almost all networking books say is a must-have?

The elevator pitch.

You probably have one—a quick (60-second), appealing summary of what your business offers.

Being able to articulate benefits and speak about your business is important, but let me offer a contrarian view: ditch the pitch.

Here’s why:

1. Elevator pitches sound like sales pitches.  Nobody likes to be pitched right off the bat.
2. Elevator pitches are too long.  Sixty seconds is a long time to be talking when you meet a prospect.  You should be listening more.
3. Elevator pitches can get stale over time.  You can get bored saying the same thing over and over.  Your business changes.  Your customer changes. What you say should change, too.
4. Elevator pitches are often too general.  They don’t speak to specific needs.
5. Elevator pitches create anxiety when people try to memorize them.  It can be counter-productive to spend a lot of time coming up with the perfect pitch only to feel almost paralyzed when the time comes to use it.

So, what do I suggest?

• Start with a “bumper-sticker” version of your elevator pitch—something of about 8-12 words that is both natural and leaves people wanting to hear more.  For example, I might say, “I help people have better, more profitable conversations.”

• Come up with a few different “modules” of benefits or statements that you can use for different prospects or in different situations (a longer pitch may actually be appropriate in a formal networking situation in which everyone gives a “commercial.”).  Include “modules” of some short anecdotes to illustrate your benefits with a personal touch.  People may forget your pitch, but they will remember the story of how you made a difference for a customer.

Many of the articles on elevator speeches can give you great ideas, just don’t feel you have to cram it all in in 60 seconds.  Chunk it out.

• Plan on having a conversation with your prospect.  Listen for their pain points and “insert” your “modules” as appropriate.

What are your thoughts on elevator pitches?

Here’s Seth Godin’s thoughts on Nobody Ever Bought Anything in an Elevator

Self-Deprecating Humor: How to Find the Funny in Your Life

Have you ever tried to think of something funny to say and drawn a blank?

Have you ever wanted to incorporate humor into a presentation, but didn’t  know how?

There is a simple tool:  Self-deprecating humor.

Put yourself down to bring the laughter up!

In addition to being funny, self-deprecating humor makes you seem:

 

–more confident–confident enough to point out your faults

–more modest–not a puffed up egomaniac

–more likeable–your failings can make you more relatable

A great resource for developing your own humor is Judy Carter’s book, Stand-Up Comedy: The Book.   I’ve paraphrased and simplified some of the material in the book to give you a 3-step process for developing material that pokes fun at yourself.  I call it the LAF process.

1. Lists–write lists of traits and issues
2. Attitude—add attitude
3. Formulas: Apply some humor formulas

1. Lists

Brainstorm under the following categories.  I’ve bared my soul and listed some of my personal issues.

Negative Personality traits/shortcomings	Unique traits(esp. physical)	Things that make you angry	Things you worry about	Things that frighten you
controlling	2nd degree black belt	Losing things	Forgetting where I parked	Unprotected heights
Too task-oriented		Unaccountable people	Getting fat	Jump scenes In movies
Directionally impaired		Bad traffic when I’m in a rush	Running out of money

2. Attitude

• Rant and rave on a topic without trying to be funny.  I hate . . .
• Then try to take a mocking attitude. I love . . .  or I’m proud of  . . .

3. Formulas (all involve incongruity)

• Exaggeration
• Set up . . . Punch line
• Rule of 3’s  (expected, expected . . . unexpected)
• Use a prop?

Here was my attempt on ranting and adding some humor formulas to my trait of being “directionally impaired” (more politically correct than “directionally disabled”):

I hate getting lost.   I guess I’m directionally disabled.  It’s disability that gets no respect.  There are no special classes in schools for students who can’t find their way to the bathroom.  People make fun of me—“she gets so lost . . .  she can’t find her way out of a paper bag.”

I hate getting lost.  Nobody wants me to be the driver. My children don’t even like going places with me—they don’t buy the “scenic route” line any more.  The last time I told them we were going to the Mall, they ran to their rooms . . . and packed overnight bags.

I hate getting lost.  Now that I have GPS Navigation on my phone, you wouldn’t think it is such a problem.  But I think my GPS is defective—or not very good at math.  Almost every time I take a turn it says “recalculating.”

I hate getting lost.  When I get lost 3 things come to mind:  where am I?  Will I be late? And, I’m sure glad I always have  . . . my overnight bag!

Your turn!  LAF your way to being funny!

More Do’s and Don’ts of Self-Deprecating Humor