026 - How To Make Humor Part Of Your Content Creation Strategy: Tips From A Communication Coach

Susie Ashfield, Communication Coach, joined me for a lively discussion on how to use humor when creating content. And why you should.    

Topics included:

🔹How a simple photo of a cold cup of coffee generated engagement

🔹Generating ideas by keeping a photo scrapbook on your phone

🔹 Importance of remembering it’s about your message, not about you

🔹How being too perfect or polished on video can work against you.

🔹 Lessons learned from training to be a clown

🔹And the difference between British and American humor.

Download 25 Content Creation Ideas To Kickstart Your Social Media Posts  (Click Link Below)

🔷 Thank you for listening. I hope you found this episode insightful, educational, and inspiring. If you did, don't forget to hit that Follow to keep learning and growing with us.

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For additional insights, follow Annette Richmond and Black Dog Marketing Strategies on social media.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetterichmond/
LinkedIn Company Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-dog-marketing-strategies/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@blackdogmarketingstrategies
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@annetteadvises
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:45

Hi, I'm Annette Richmond. Welcome to Content Marketing School, where we will dive into content marketing strategies specifically for coaches, consultants and entrepreneurs. Discover how effective content marketing can elevate your brand and grow your business. And if you enjoy the show, don't forget to hit that follow button. Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are joining us from, I'm so excited to be here with my guest today. I'm Annette Richmond, and this is Content Marketing School and Sissy, we were talking a little bit before we went live about. I kind of found you on TikTok and I followed you to LinkedIn and then I invited you to come on and I was so thrilled when you said yes to me. So for anyone who doesn't know you, please tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Well, thank you so much for finding me on the internet, annette. I mean, I know there are a lot of strange things out there and I hope I'm going to at least your top five things you found. My name is Sissy. I am a public speaking coach, which means I help people look good, sound good and feel really good whenever they are talking publicly. So that's what I do in a nutshell.

Speaker 1: 2:08

Well, that is awesome. I saw you doing a live recently talking about communication, which was absolutely fabulous. So you know, as we were talking about, one of the reasons that I love TikTok is because I get to meet people who are like from all over that I would never stumble across otherwise. I mean, I don't think you would ever turn up in my LinkedIn feed if I didn't already know you so, and I know that this is such a hot topic and I'm so excited because you are so talented when it comes to creating these memorable videos that teach with humor, and it just buckles my mind. I am such a fangirl. So how did the whole your presentation coach, how did the whole video thing get started? And you know, and was humor kind of always part of the plan?

Speaker 2: 3:07

Humor is non-negotiable, but I would say it started as so many things started under lockdown. When I went from having a lot of work to almost no work whatsoever and I think out of boredom, loneliness, anything I started making short videos. I was stuck in my dad's office near a fax machine. I thought that was quite funny and then I think it just went from there and I very quickly noticed a correlation between the shorter you made the video, the more likely people were to watch it. So I started making shorter and shorter videos. And then I can't remember how I came across TikTok. I thought it was for teenagers and, to be honest, it is for teenagers and you and I are very much outside of the target market for TikTok. But here we are enjoying TikTok and making silly videos.

Speaker 1: 4:00

So you started it with the whole idea to you know, to do something. Was it to teach people about presentations originally? Because one of the videos that you did over the holidays which I love so much was the love actually satire. Can you talk a little bit about that and maybe where the idea came from for that, because that was, I think, fabulous.

Speaker 2: 4:27

I have always wanted to cover that scene somehow Because, if we're being honest, it is an absolutely baffling scene to have in the middle of a film. It felt even quite weird at the time that this chat just turns up outside another bloke's doorstep and tells him he's in love with his wife, to his wife, using a series of cue cards and a boombox, and I just think it's completely mad. So I thought this was the year to copy that, and something that always sort of I've been thinking about it for a few years. Something that I would almost add on as a piece of advice for anyone looking to make stupid videos on the internet is don't let the idea that the production values have to be good for you, because initially.

Speaker 2: 5:14

I have these great visions in my head. I could do different camera angles and I could edit it to look like this and I go no, it's just important I get it done at some point before Christmas, so I bring the production values right down. The audience will get it, they know what you're trying to do and I just made a video that people seem to like and I enjoyed making, although I did get a bit hot because it wasn't like cold and engulfed at that point.

Speaker 1: 5:37

You know, it's true. It's kind of one of those I would say universal things, because I don't know anyone who hasn't seen love actually. And then at the end, where he goes through the telling the truth and he says you know and, and you know, that's it. You know it's over now, but the truth is like I love you and your truth was you didn't need those last eight slides, no being needed them. But it's such, you know, it's so true, with the endless you know death by PowerPoint. It's so relatable. So so give me some of some of the other places that you come up with ideas, because I know a lot of people, including me. We struggle to come up with ideas. There's sort of lists of you can, you know events and this and that. But how do you come up with ideas? Because you're, you're prolific and educational and funny. That's like a neat trick there.

Speaker 2: 6:33

Well, that's very kind of you. Most of it is trial and error. You're probably not seeing a lot of videos that just, for whatever reason, don't work. What I would say is I think when I first started on LinkedIn, you scrabble around for ideas, you're desperate, what can I write about today? And you fall into some obvious traps. Today, I'm gonna post three things that will make you a better public speaker and no one watches. Tomorrow, I'm gonna do five things that make you more confident and no one watches.

Speaker 2: 7:01

And then I think one day I was just sort of looking around and I had an empty mug of coffee on my desk and it had gone cold and I microwaved it maybe three or four times throughout the day, because every time it went hot, the phone rang and I pick up the phone and talk to the client and then the coffee went cold. So I microwaved it and so on and so forth, and so I took a picture of the cold coffee. That was all. This picture was cold coffee in a cup. It was not an inspiring photograph. I think I wrote something really generic like cold coffee, client microwave. Cold coffee, client microwave, anyone else experienced in the same thing? Question mark. And, for whatever reason, people loved it.

Speaker 2: 7:40

And I think the lesson there is you don't actually have to be impressive, you just need to be relatable. If the audience goes oh yeah, that's me, I've got a cold mug of coffee here too and I understand what it's like to have a day like that, and they will like a picture of a cold mug of coffee because they can identify with that more than they can top 10 tips on how to do whatever. So you can get to a point where actually you just look at things and they inspire you to write stuff, as opposed to just you kind of scrapping around. But it takes effort. I go for little walks. You see an advert. You think, oh, adverts are pieces of communication. How well is this one done? You change your mindset and suddenly everything can be used as footage or content.

Speaker 1: 8:24

And so do you keep like a little notebook, or I have an app on my phone that I dictate into to keep ideas when I think of them. I come up with a lot of ideas while I'm taking a shower and then I run out of the bathroom and I have a big whiteboard in my office and I sort of write on that to keep the idea fresh. So what's your process for that?

Speaker 2: 8:48

Yes, I'm afraid I'm not as organized as that. So I just have notes on my iPhone, and mainly it's photographs, and I just kind of heart for things. And then every day when I wake up and go like I need to post something on LinkedIn, I can go into that and see what I can craft, and sometimes, even if I don't know what the message is going to be, if I've just taken a picture of something that I find interesting, for example, maybe I look at it at the time I go, I don't know how I post that. If I've got it there and come back to it a week or a month later, I go oh OK, I know what the angle is. Now I know how I can create something here. So it is just important just to keep stuff together, almost like a scrapbook of ideas that you can then use at some point. Most of it you won't use, some of it you will. You just got to find what works.

Speaker 1: 9:32

We love that. I love that because we are humans, are so visual, which I think is part of the reason where video is so powerful and, as we all know, it's the fastest way to build that, know, like and trust. I mean, I think a video is being the next best thing to being you people seeing you in person, Because they get the sound of your voice, which is fabulous. For the audio apps like Clubhouse that we talked about briefly earlier, which was great because you could hear people's voices, and now LinkedIn audio is great for that. Plus, you don't have to do hair and makeup, so I do those sometimes.

Speaker 1: 10:13

It's a nice treat to not have to get dolled up a bit. But what suggestions do you have for people that? Because I'm a big proponent of video, video, video and I was very sad when LinkedIn discontinued the profile videos, you know. But what do you tell people? Because I rack my brains to tell people that if you just do it and do it and do it, you won't think about it anymore and they just don't believe me? And do you have some advice, techniques that you can share for people who are watching or will be listening on the podcast for what to do, to kind of get over that pump and forget about like I'd like to be younger, I'd like to be thinner.

Speaker 2: 11:07

People are gonna judge me and all that other below me.

Speaker 2: 11:11

Well, as you know, Annette, before we came on, I was very worried about my hair and, to be honest, I still am. But I thought you know what the value of your message is, the thing that's gonna carry here, not whether you can get your hair right or wrong at six PM on a Thursday. So I think, focus on what you're saying. We all have those days when we look at ourselves and go, no, not today, not today. But actually it is more about the message. The quality of your content is actually what I care about, and I think faces are interesting. Faces should be interesting when everyone looks kind of on TikTok. If you've seen the bold if I said the bold glamour filter, would you know what I meant, Annette? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Nice, yeah, I mean it's fabulous, but it will make everyone look sort of like a slightly superficial Russian supermodel and that is sort of interesting, but only for a little bit. Faces are interesting, voices are interesting, stories are interesting. Just go for it.

Speaker 2: 12:08

Not a single client I have ever met likes the sound of their own voice played back. And there are a couple of things you need to remember there. Firstly, everyone's in the same boat and secondly, the speaker, the sound system on iPhone is teeny tiny, it's like that big, so you are going to hear a more whiny, more nasal version of yourself. If you want to hear how your voice actually sounds, you have to sort of set up in a professional studio a padded booth where you can take out all of the background noise and really listen to yourself back. But second of all and this applies to every aspect of public speaking or being on film or camera or anything your perception of yourself is the least accurate in the room. So, oh, okay, I think this is true.

Speaker 2: 12:56

You have a speaker, they deliver something and I think, oh, that was pretty good. And I sit down and my first question is always oh, how did that go? And they said, oh, it was awful. I went bright red, my legs were shaking, I froze for a couple of seconds. There, you must, and they're assuming I have seen all of these things and I haven't, and nor has anyone else. But those are the only things you retain. You don't think about how good the message was, how useful the case studies you provided were. You really can get in your own head and that's why your own perception of how other people are viewing you is completely inaccurate. Talk to someone else, see how they found you. That's a more accurate way of working out how you're coming across.

Speaker 1: 13:37

And so as I'm looking over at the live feed on LinkedIn and I'm seeing applause coming up that people are appreciating, that.

Speaker 1: 13:46

And I learned that many years more of 20 years, 20 something years ago, when I first started speaking to like job secret groups, I was really heavy in that in the whole career field and I went to see a presentation, a coach, and she said nobody cares about what you look like, they don't care about what you sound like, it's only about your message and you know. But it's one of those things that's like, well, of course, that makes perfect sense, but it's like to know something and actually believe it is the difference. So, yeah, I guess there is no way I just beat people over the head and I said just do it, do it, do it, do it. Because the thing is, your competition is.

Speaker 2: 14:31

Yes, if you don't, someone else will.

Speaker 1: 14:33

Yeah, and one thing that I would like to ask you about that I have found from TikTok is a lot of people. I had someone not too long ago, someone I know, a colleague, who I'm guessing is in maybe her early, maybe 50s, I don't think older, I don't think much younger but said, oh, my kids told me I can't be on TikTok, I'm too old, and I'm like, are you kidding me? There are a lot of people on TikTok business coaches, people like you that I learn from on TikTok and you know, I know that they are changing, they're wanting longer videos and all that you know and all that other business. So I mean, are there any platforms that you feel are just not right? You know you have to be, I don't know, 20 and hot or something to be on.

Speaker 2: 15:27

I mean, does being 20 and hot? Is there like a special category for that? Is there anything they're doing that we're not and are they enjoying themselves.

Speaker 2: 15:37

No, I'm dancing, you're dancing. I don't think you have to be hot and 20 just to have fun. I think just what I would say is we have to let go of perfectionism. We have to let go of the idea that anything we put out there has to be perfect or even good. Just put something out there.

Speaker 2: 15:58

This is one of the biggest blocks I see with my clients is they go, they rip. I like what you're doing, suzy. I want to put out videos, but I need it to be really good because this will represent me as a professional. So I have to be 10 out of 10. And I say well, there's no such thing as a 10 out of 10. They go no, no, I'm really aiming for 10 out of 10 here, and it will take them months to produce a script, hours of practicing, not to mention the weeks of putting it off and procrastinating, because they're really kicking themselves mentally because the bar is so high, and that is what's stopping them.

Speaker 2: 16:33

So I would say just put something out and go. You know what's not. I'm not even aiming for good, I am aiming for confidently average. And it's a similar attitude to my guys who get really worked up about public speaking, they say to themselves if this wasn't the same standard as a TED talk, then I have failed. And there's this huge middle ground the clients who go. You know what? I'm not brilliant at this, but I'm going to put myself out there, I'm going to see how I go down and that client is going to grow faster than the client who's really kind of waking up at night and going. Well, it needs to be brilliant and I need to spend hours on this, working out how it's going to be brilliant. And then generally they tend to go to them get in, it's not brilliant.

Speaker 1: 17:19

Yeah, you know, it's so true and you know I think about that too. People are so worried and I can't think of any statistics now but I'm sure you're familiar with there's many studies that show that people don't really want perfection. If they're watching a video of me or you, you know they're not expecting a, you know, I don't know Scorsese production or something they don't want, that they prefer it to be less polished. You know, and I'm wondering if maybe AI has something to do with it, with people thinking about that, because I know I just read a study where people are really suspicious about, you know, content they think is created that way. But that's like a whole other thing. But people do, right? I mean, there are studies that show that people would rather see you. I hate that word authentic, but I think. But I like real. They want to see real.

Speaker 2: 18:14

They want mistakes. When we say authenticity and you're right, it's a buzzword on LinkedIn at the moment we mean mistakes. We mean we'd rather have somebody who stumbles around and says the wrong thing and it's a little bit awkward, but shows personality Rather than someone who has printed out a script. In fact, this was exactly what my last video was on the net this exact conversation. You've got two people and someone's going right. This needs to be perfect.

Speaker 2: 18:38

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to print out a perfect script, then I'm going to load it into the teleprompter, will be auto cue and I'm going to read it out word for word, and that means I'm going to be perfect, because I won't freeze, I'm just reading out loud and I won't miss a single word, and you just see someone doing that and every single word is perfect and you get no sense of human. So you don't get a sense of I'm going to play with this or there's a risk that I'm taking here when you get someone who arms and urrs a bit and makes a few jokes and stumbles around and perhaps doesn't get it totally right. I love that, I really enjoy that, and I think most people do, because it's like the coffee mug thing. We identify more of ourselves in someone who is willing to fail and take a few risks than someone who is just going to be completely robotic about it.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Yeah, that's true. When I watched something I gave a presentation in September and I was watching Whenever I watched the replay of me giving a presentation and it's um and ah and everything and it makes me crazy. But yet people that I know who have been say to Toastmasters and I listen to them and they never, or rarely ever, um or ah or anything like that they say you know, it's not really so bad, people don't really notice it and we are so hard on ourselves. I mean, do we ever speak to anyone as harshly as we speak to ourselves?

Speaker 2: 20:05

No, absolutely not, and I think that comes back to my point earlier about you are the least accurate judge in the room as to how you are coming across. Yeah, it's not fair.

Speaker 1: 20:17

So so for people who are someone like me I do videos regularly. I think they're fun. I try to have fun with them. I feel like I don't enough have. I'm not playful enough on my videos Like I would like to be, because I feel like my personality is more that way. So how can people like me kind of put more personality into their? Like a short form video that's going to be a minute or two minutes or so.

Speaker 2: 20:52

It's a great question how do we find humor? I should say at this point, annette, I will let you in on a secret which I suspect my LinkedIn followers neither know about nor believe but I am actually a trained clown. I went to drama school when all of my friends are going to university. So I did some training in clown work, which is always funny, literally and I think one of the principles of clowning is you must fail. No one wants to see the clown succeed. If the clown fails, it gets around the flaws, but if the clown succeeds, then there's nothing funny here. Oh, wow, there's a brilliant story Stephen Fry has, which I really like, and he's being asked to explain the difference between American and British humor, and he talks about this scene in Animal House. Have you seen Animal House with John Belushi? You must have done.

Speaker 2: 21:45

I think years ago, national Lampoon, it's sort of the guys who then went on to create Saturday Night Live. And he says there's this scene in it where John Belushi who's this sort of drunken frat boy wearing a toga comes into a house party and there's this jock playing a guitar. And no, so he's not a jock, he's sort of this slightly poetic character. He's playing a guitar to impress a girl and you can tell it's kind of annoying. So John Belushi picks up the guitar and smashes the guitar against the wall. And Stephen Fry says the difference between American humor and British humor is in America John Belushi is the hero. In British humor it's the sort of slightly soppy romantic who's just had his guitar smashed. Who is the hero of this scene?

Speaker 2: 22:30

Oh, ok, I think I wonder if there's just an opportunity here to think about what perhaps might I not be willing to share with my audience. What am I going to give them that doesn't necessarily put me in the best light, but might make them feel a little bit higher than me? How can I put my audience higher than me? One thing I'll always do is, if I spill coffee on myself, immediately announce it to a room and then everyone else feels comfortable. I feel comfortable and I'm not kind of dabbing at my chest to work out how to get the coffee out. So I think sometimes for me, self-deprecation, that willingness to fail, that willingness to share something, that vulnerability really works well Like telling everyone watching you on LinkedIn Live that you're actually a trained clown. That might have generated some humor. Who can say?

Speaker 1: 23:16

No, well, I love that. I remember you one year post I think it was actually the Love Actually post where you talked about having been to drama school. This is what years of drama school has come to, and it was immediately like oh OK. And I also think I've heard from you maybe I've seen on TikTok or something the idea of improv.

Speaker 2: 23:41

Oh, yes, yes, absolutely. And yes is one of the main principles of improv. It's a really good tool for just creativity in your office life as well. In the corporate world we're always saying you know, stressors are saying this is not a good idea, we can't do that, there's no budget, we can't do that and it creates a bit of a block. In the improv world you have to create something out of nothing. So if someone says something, and no matter how stupid or ridiculous it is, you just go yes.

Speaker 2: 24:07

And this Tina Fey gives a brilliant example of that. Tina Fey says you know, here's a good way that improv works. Someone says they pick up a banana and they go this is a bank robbery, stick them up. If the person says this isn't a bank robbery, that's a banana, do you need medical attention? Then suddenly nothing is funny, it's a bit serious. If someone goes absolutely the money's at the back, then we've got a scene and something is happening. So I think it is just that willingness to go yes and let's, let's see where this goes, let's keep this moving, let's, let's pretend the banana is a gun and see what happens.

Speaker 1: 24:44

Yeah, you know, I love that. It's so interesting. One of the things that I've told people and we're just the time is just flying by so quickly is that being on like the LinkedIn Live is an easy entry into doing video because it's live and you know, I've been doing them for so long that I don't even think about it. To me it's you and me just sitting here in you know, together in a room talking, but I think it's just kind of opening yourself up to that, as you were saying. But I know I've had people contact me about my podcast. They want to be on my podcast and I say, well, it's my LinkedIn live show which is live and that feeds into my podcast. I never hear from them again.

Speaker 2: 25:36

I think it's never new. Goodbye Podcast is the buzzword now. Everyone wants to be on a podcast. But what if LinkedIn live is the next podcast?

Speaker 1: 25:46

So so here's someone from our audience, sandy. I love improv. You said daily in my field as a voiceover actor Very cool, I bet you like the sound of your voice. I've had other people do as well.

Speaker 2: 26:01

Thank you. I hear someone make what Rain Boy sounds like, which is good.

Speaker 1: 26:05

Yeah, yeah, well, I love that. Thank you so much for sharing. And yeah, it is, though People are, they just they don't want to be live. A lot of the podcasts the people I know who do podcast do follow the format that I do. Where my LinkedIn live interviews do go. Those are some of the episodes in my podcast, but a lot of people I know that do podcasts, they record them in advance and people seem to be much more comfortable there's so and that goes back to what you were saying they're so afraid of making a gap that they miss opportunities.

Speaker 2: 26:39

Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, Annette, your competitors will take those opportunities. Just try it and if it's not perfect, try it again, because another opportunity will only come up from the first opportunity. So don't fix yourself to it has to be perfect or I'm not doing it.

Speaker 1: 26:55

Well, we are. We are getting close to the end and we've talked about a lot of different things, and but what would you like to share that you think might be important, you know, for people to know? I haven't asked you and you haven't mentioned thus far.

Speaker 2: 27:14

That is a great question. Let me have a think about that.

Speaker 1: 27:17

Okay, and while while you're, while you're thinking about that, I will go and and share your LinkedIn page. I can always stumble around a bit with this part of the thing, so whenever you're ready, just jump in and I'm going to pull up your LinkedIn profile.

Speaker 2: 27:44

Thank, you very much. I suppose what I would say is do this, do this because it matters. Do this because, as you've said, you'll get used to it and you'll get better at it, and it's something that needs to happen. It absolutely needs to happen because, as you pointed out, if you don't, someone else will and you will start missing opportunities. Here, I think, is something absolutely vital. I have found I'm almost at the ratio of I post a video and I get a client inquiry, and all of that has come out of messing around under lockdown in desperate need of attention from the internet, and now it's actually a really useful marketing tool. Before I started doing that, I would say 75% of my business was word of mouth, 25% was LinkedIn. It's now 50% word of mouth, 50% LinkedIn, all because I'm willing to make a fool of myself on the internet. So if you're sat here going, what should I do? The answer is make a fool of yourself on the internet.

Speaker 1: 28:45

Well, you know, you're also a very good teacher. You're a very good teacher, so this is your LinkedIn profile. People, if you're not following Suzy, you absolutely should be, because her videos are fabulous and her information is really just to die for. It's really really so great. I learn from you all the time. Are you open to connecting with people?

Speaker 2: 29:08

Oh, please, yes, Spam me, I love it.

Speaker 1: 29:13

Is LinkedIn the best place to find you.

Speaker 2: 29:16

Definitely. That is certainly the place I will respond to you fastest. Don't send me, nina, but it could be months, maybe years, who knows?

Speaker 1: 29:25

Yeah, I have a friend who hates Messenger, linkedin Messenger or even like Facebook Messenger, and says, just, you know, send me a text. Here's my phone number. Don't do that, because you'll never hear from me. Well, we are like really down to the last minute here and I could certainly stay and chat with you for hours and somebody's just asking that. You know, are we taking questions? Well, we were, but we are just about wrapping up right now, so please message you or, if they ask, in the comments, yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, put your questions in the comments and that would be great and thank you so much. I know that we've had several people with us the whole time, because I see the emoticon sort of popping up, the applause and whatnot, out of the side of my eyes. So thank you so much for being here with me.

Speaker 1: 30:20

It's been such a pleasure, and to everyone else out there I will say have a great rest of your day. We are going to say goodbye from now and maybe Susie will come back again.

Speaker 2: 30:35

I'd love to Thank you so much, okay.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Yeah.