Welcome to a real-world MBA, where entrepreneurs guide you through what it really takes to start, scale, and sell your own business.
Your hosts: J and Carol Scott, who left careers in corporate management to launch their own house-flipping business. Every Tuesday, you'll meet a new guest and learn actionable tips for hiring, firing, marketing, raising capital and more.
So whether you're looking to boost profits or bring a new idea to life, you'll come away informed and inspired. Tune in, and learn how to treat your business like a business!
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Welcome to a real-world MBA, where entrepreneurs guide you through what it really takes to start, scale, and sell your own business.
Your hosts: J and Carol Scott, who left careers in corporate management to launch their own house-flipping business. Every Tuesday, you'll meet a new guest and learn actionable tips for hiring, firing, marketing, raising capital and more.
So whether you're looking to boost profits or bring a new idea to life, you'll come away informed and inspired. Tune in, and learn how to treat your business like a business!
94: How the Science of Humor Can Turn You Into a Better Businessperson with Peter McGraw
BiggerPockets Business Podcast
1 hour 17 minutes
4 years ago
94: How the Science of Humor Can Turn You Into a Better Businessperson with Peter McGraw
What does humor and business have in common? At first glance, not much, but after digging a little deeper, there’s quite a lot that humor can teach us about business. Peter McGraw, behavioral scientist, author of Shtick To Business and The Humor Code, and host of the Solo Podcast kept wondering why we find certain things funny. He decided to put it to the test in his lab, HRL, the Humor Research Lab.
Peter discovered that we often find things funny when they’re wrong, but okay. Threatening, yet safe. Things that make no sense, yet make perfect sense. Most importantly, you don’t want to be the person who thinks they’re funny, but actually isn't it. You have to think funny, not just be funny. You have to fight the status quo constantly, to make material that people will find outlandish, but true enough to laugh at.
But how does that relate to business? Peter brings some great business examples that followed the same flow of most comedy writing routines. Take AirBnB for example, when they first launched the idea, most people thought they were crazy. I mean, who would want to sleep in someone’s spare bedroom or mother-in-law suite for a weekend? It turns out, almost everyone in the world would.
These kind of outlandish but great ideas come through a process that Peter calls “Sh*t-storming”. Contrary to regular brainstorming, sh*t-storming is when you throw out crazy ideas, and sometimes, something will come out that is so crazy, it actually works. Besides AirBnB, Peter relates this to Tim Ferris’s cold calling method and the P90x workout system as just a few examples.
Comedy and business aren’t that far apart in the idea creation stage. Follow Peter’s advice and your business won’t get laughed out of your next meeting!
In This Episode We Cover:
The underlying theme of humor and why we find things funny
How writing jokes and creating businesses overlap
Fighting the status quo to create something that is great
How to create a “chasm” so your customers love you and you’re haters don’t
The importance of keeping an idea journal to write in
Saying yes to happiness, regardless of the financial outcome
And So Much More!
Links from the Show
Peter McGraw's TEDx Speech
Joel Osteen's Church
Tony Horton's Website
Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill
Airbnb
Tim Ferriss's Blog
Barry's Bootcamp
Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/bizshow94
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BiggerPockets Business Podcast
Welcome to a real-world MBA, where entrepreneurs guide you through what it really takes to start, scale, and sell your own business.
Your hosts: J and Carol Scott, who left careers in corporate management to launch their own house-flipping business. Every Tuesday, you'll meet a new guest and learn actionable tips for hiring, firing, marketing, raising capital and more.
So whether you're looking to boost profits or bring a new idea to life, you'll come away informed and inspired. Tune in, and learn how to treat your business like a business!
