What can businesses learn from comedians?

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By: Jason Goodall

What can businesses learn from comedians?
5 Principles of Financial Wisdom:

  1. God owns it all. Psalm 24:1
  2. Set Long Term Goals. Proverbs 16:9
  3. Spend less than you earn. Proverbs 13:11
  4. Avoid the use of debt. Proverbs 22:7
  5. Avoid a consumptive lifestyle. Ecclesiastes 5:10

What… comics and business? You must be joking? Maybe or maybe not; stand-up comedy is the most capitalistic of all the arts when your currency is the laughs you get from the audience. Comics view their routines with a metric called Laughs Per Minute (LPM) and the goal is at least 4 to 7 laughs per minute. If you think about that small of a time frame and the writing and performing skill it takes to achieve that… then read on to what comics can teach us about business and finance. I just returned from the Christian Comedy Association conference and here are just a few things that we learned:

Rik Roberts taught Us:

Impact over Image: It’s about your impact over image. You could have the “best,” brand but if you do nothing with it for the cause of Christ, it’s pointless.
Completion over Competition: It’s about completing YOUR race that God has given to youand not in competition with one another. It’s important to HELP your competition get better. In the comedy world, it’s giving a tag to a joke or an alternative punch line. In business, maybe it’s knowing your competitor is having a personal issue and you helping them fulfill an order. Maybe in your personal life, it’s not only praying for someone, it’s serving someone.

Ken Davis taught us:

Live like nothing to prove:Know that God will do all the proving through you.
Live with nothing to hide: He who is enslaved to the compass has the freedom of the seas.
Live with nothing to lose: Don’t live to gather what you cannot keep.

Nazareth taught us:

  1. Prayer: honor God in all your show (or business or personal finance).
  2. Tithe.
  3. Work hard on your craft (always be learning and growing in your skill).
  4. Tell everyone what you do for a living and for people.
  5. Market, Market, Market: Snail mail, email, social media. Put a sticker on their kitchen sink if you want.
  6. Network
  7. Give money not chocolate to those that help promote your business.
  8. Ask for referrals.
  9. Stalk your future clients.
  10. Get sponsors for the free gigs you do.

I hope you enjoyed these quick lessons and that you can use them in your daily life. Make sure you make time to laugh.
Just Jason

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