Unlocking Humor in Public Speaking: Elevating Your Personal Brand and Business Communications with Conor Cunneen

Tim Newman: 0:36

Welcome to Speaking with Confidence, a podcast that’s here to help you unlock the power of effective public speaking. I’m your host, tim Newman, and I’m excited to take you on a journey to become a better public speaker. If you’re like most people, just the thought of speaking in front of a crowd or talking during an important meeting can trigger all kinds of anxiety. Trust me, I know what that’s like. I gave my first speech as a senior in college. I was so nervous. As soon as I got to the front of the room and opened my mouth to speak, I threw up. I have learned a lot since then and I’m here to help others overcome their fear of messing up or sounding stupid. Thank you to everyone who has sent me messages sharing how the podcast has helped them. I also received a note from a listener from Santa Monica, california, asking about the possibility of listening without commercials. The only commercials I share are for joining the Speaking with Confidence community and registering for the Formula for Public Speaking course. They help support the cost of producing the podcast. If there is interest, I can create a subscription-based podcast with access to episodes in advance and no commercials. Please let me know if you are interested and we can get started on that service.

Tim Newman: 1:47

On today’s episode of the Speaking with Confidence podcast, you will hear the Irishman Speaks. Yes, that’s correct. Our guest is Conor Cunneen, otherwise known as the Irishman Speaks. Yes, that’s correct. Our guest is Connor Canine, otherwise known as the Irishman Speaks. Connor’s goal is to leave every audience and client with a smile on their face, a spring in their step and memorable, actionable takeaways. I have no doubt that will be the case for each listener. In fact, my guess is you’ll be laughing right along with us in no time at all.

Tim Newman: 2:17

The entire conversation is a living example of how to use humor in various types of communication models. We talk about the importance of telling stories, building a personal brand, choosing your attitude and fulfilling expectations. Here are takes on the role of personal connections, personal interactions and personal relationships as part of communicating as well as marketing. Connor also shares some of the acronyms he’s been known for and breaks them down, so you’ll leave the episode with tips you can immediately apply. He even provides the Speaking with Confidence community ways to stand out when interviewing for a job.

Tim Newman: 2:56

So sit back, relax and get ready for some fun as you listen to the funny, insightful and incredibly helpful Irishman, conor Cunneen. This man is happily exiled to the Chicago area where he says that Guinness is good, that people are friendly, and he has been forced to head more corned beef and green beer than he ever had in Ireland. Conor is a keynote speaker, an award-winning humorist and author of multiple books, including two books on Mark Twain. His mission is to improve people, performance and productivity with a smile. As an Irish immigrant, he is very proud to have received from President Obama the President’s Gold Medal for volunteer service for the work he does with the unemployed. He likes to play Metallica loud. His wife does not like him to play Metallica loud and, connor, I guess my question for you is why play Metallica if you’re not going to play it loud?

Conor Cunneen: 3:50

Well, that’s true, you see. So when my wife comes in, that’s the end of my happiness. You know, I promise I’m delighted I’ve been blessed with a lovely wife for so many years.

Tim Newman: 4:01

Yes, yes, yes. So yeah, sometimes across we got to bear. We can’t play music loud every once in a while. Indeed yeah, yeah, yeah, Before we really get started, you won the Chicago Humorist Speaker of the Year Award for Speech on Customer Service. I can’t even get out of my mouth in saying quitting. Kind of tell me you know you don’t have to go into the speech, all that, but kind of give us a little bit of what that speech was.

Conor Cunneen: 4:26

Right? Well, basically this was a competition. It was a Toastmasters competition, a humorous speech competition, and one of the things that makes humor effective, tim, is contrast. So I started just crafting out some lines on customer service and I said, all right, what based on would you not expect customer service? And I came up with San Quentin Prison. So I said, let’s try and develop something on that. So then what I did and I speak a lot to organizations on customer service, on improving people, performance and productivity and also having just clear goals and vision. So I actually use this line sometimes just to show the way you can create a clear goal and vision. But does it make sense? So, for instance, what I say is the mission for San Quentin prison is here in San Quentin jail. We are dedicated to your security. Your freedom is our number one concern.

Conor Cunneen: 5:29

So, the words in a sense make sense, but the whole thing does not make sense. So I just developed then the concept about the jail I’m having an idea about. So the warden might say are you a member of our frequent cell club, for instance? Things like that.

Tim Newman: 5:53

So it’s just a matter of taking something that is doesn’t make sense in one context, put it into a context that doesn’t make sense and create a lot of humor that way that’s hilarious, and I think that is really kind of going to illustrate some of the other points that we talk about today in in using humor and in the different types of interpersonal communications and talks that we give. When did you realize that you were funny or that you had the ability to make people laugh?

Conor Cunneen: 6:20

Well, I don’t know. I think back in my school days my teacher used to say to me, or one of my teachers used to say, kenean, do you think you’re funny? I probably wasn’t a good way to look at it. I honestly can’t remember when I realized I was funny as such.

Conor Cunneen: 6:38

But what I did appreciate, tim, is that when I was here in the United States and I came over originally for a corporate position, when I was making my presentations in marketing I was VP of marketing for Unilever food service and when I was doing presentations I realized that, hey, people resonated well with the content I had, but they also kind of said, hey, I like the way you said it, but also you were kind of funny.

Conor Cunneen: 7:02

So I kind of appreciated that the Irish way of telling stories had a certain resonance with a lot of the US population. And then when I left corporate and I decided to go into my own business consulting and speaking, et cetera I appreciated that there are certain things you got to do to differentiate yourself. And then what I tried to do was all right, we’ve got the Irish brogue, I created the Irishman Speaks brand as such and then started telling some stories that had some goofball element of Irishness in them, but there was a message in them and we can illustrate this with a few examples as we go further down the road in this conversation.

Tim Newman: 7:46

So you talk about the brand. You know what are three key things that are attributes of a personal brand. I talk about that a lot with my students and the young people that I coach and I talk about. You’ve got to have a personal brand and we go through it, but what are three key things that you have to have?

Conor Cunneen: 8:04

Well, I think the most important thing you have to have to create a good personal brand is know what you want to be famous for. By famous, I mean within the circle that you’re either working in or that you’re communicating with. So my thinking on this one, tim, is that it’s a really powerful question that people do not spend enough time thinking about. And the question is what do I want to be famous for within my circle? In other words, what is it that I would like my work colleagues to say about me when I’m not in the room? What is it I would like my customers to say about me when they hear he’s coming in again to make another sales presentation, et cetera.

Conor Cunneen: 8:44

And I think that is really critical, especially for the younger setters that try to create a brand. Knowing what it is I want people to say about me All right, that’s the brand promise as such. Now we’ve got to create the brand experience. So if I want to be seen as being proactive and helpful, I say, all right, that’s what I want people to say about me. I’ve got to do things to show that I am proactive and I am helpful. The critical thing is knowing what I want to be famous for and then working at it.

Tim Newman: 9:18

Yeah, I think you nailed it with. We don’t spend enough time actually thinking about that. Especially young people, young professionals, they really don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about who they are, what their core beliefs are, and that’s, like I said, it’s really critical in their development, not only, you know, going from a student to a professional, but as they go through life with no real direction.

Conor Cunneen: 9:43

Yeah, most definitely. And it isn’t even just the younger people, I think it’s everyone. And as you’re building a career and, let’s say, you transfer from one corporation to another, now you’ve got to create your brand again. I think when you’re walking into that job on the first day, you need to know what it is they’ll be saying about me at the end of the day Exactly. You need to know what they’ll be saying about me after three months, et cetera, and having a vision as to what that is. And when you have that vision, you have a reasonable chance then of making it happen, because you know what is required to make it happen.

Tim Newman: 10:17

Exactly. I agree. We talked a bit offline. I don’t think I’m very funny at all, but people tell me that I’m funny and I said okay, you got to tell me what I did. That’s funny, because I have no idea, I’m just being me. You say you don’t have to be funny to be funny. What does that mean to you?

Conor Cunneen: 10:33

Yeah. What that means to me, tim, is I mean you say you don’t think you are funny, but people say you are funny. So I mean it’s what people say about you is what reality is. So some people and many people do think that you are funny. And what I say to people when I’m doing my courses on Addy you, or to your presentation, is that all right? You say you’re not funny. Or to your presentation is that all right? You say you’re not funny.

Conor Cunneen: 10:56

Okay, that doesn’t mean you got to be a Jerry Seinfeld or someone like that or a Kevin Hart, but I would bet any money that sometime in the last seven days you said something to someone that put a smile on their face, or you heard something that put a smile on your face.

Conor Cunneen: 11:13

And what I’m saying to people is that capture those moments, just write them down, put them into your iPhone notes or whatever. It is Not specifically with the idea of saying I’m going to use that next week, but just having it in your phone and in your notes so that when I come to some concept that I want to reinforce and I believe that humor might be appropriate come to some concept that I want to reinforce and I believe that humor might be appropriate. Maybe one of those little elements I popped into my iPhone will be able to be used to reinforce the idea I’m talking about, and if I can get people laughing and or smiling during a message that I’m giving them, it does improve the brain chemistry, improves your alertness, improves a connection with your audience, and this is why I think that people who are not funny can be humorous, can put a smile on people’s face if they pay attention to the various things that are around them that made them funny or that they smile at and just capture those moments.

Tim Newman: 12:11

Yeah, I watch your videos and one of the you know stories you tell is about you know you drive down the road, you make a left-hand turn and you get pulled over by the, by the rolling disco right and, and the first time I was like the running disco. What’s he talking about?

Tim Newman: 12:27

right, yeah yeah, the police car and you know it’s, it’s things, you know little things like that. That just at least for me anyway just kind of makes you chuckle and say that’s, that’s a really good way of putting it and it and it really kind of hones in on the message that you’re actually talking about it does.

Conor Cunneen: 12:45

I mean, it’s just a matter of, uh, just looking at things in a slightly different way. So I refer to cop cars as mobile discotheques, all right, and what I say is that you’ve seen that video. It’s on Irishman Speaks, my YouTube channel, and the basic message is about choosing your attitude, and the question is what do I want my attitude to be, which is what the question was I had to ask myself when the cop was walking up towards me. But what I do answer Tim, though, is that I try to use mental triggers with my audience, so at the end of my presentations, I say when we’re recapping about attitude, I ask the question all right, how many of you are likely to see in the next 24 hours at the side of the road a mobile discotheque, ie a cop car with flashing lights, and invariably everyone raises their hand.

Conor Cunneen: 13:35

Car with flashing lights, and invariably everyone raises their hand. And what I say is all right, the next time you see that mobile discotheque, remember the story the Irish guy told, remember the question that he said you should ask when things go wrong, which is what do I want my attitude to be? And my belief is that if, over the next five, seven days. You see a mobile discotheque at least once a day, which is quite likely the mental trigger kicks in. What do I want my attitude to be? And you can actually bring that then to the workplace and help you to have the right vibe and the right attitude as you’re going into meetings difficult ones or just regular weekly meetings.

Tim Newman: 14:07

Exactly, and if you’re the one rolling by with a mobile disco and he’s off with somebody else, you can chuckle a little bit too.

Conor Cunneen: 14:16

Absolutely. Charles Dickens said that there’s nothing as contagious in life as humor and laughter, and there’s so much truth in that. Even I mean, there are areas where humor is not appropriate, but there’s not many areas where humor cannot be used. And I do think that in the business world, tim, that if you’re a salesperson, one of the objectives you should have when you’re making a presentation is I want to put a smile at least once or twice on the client’s face. Now, it does not mean I want them to be breaking their sides laughing because I don’t want to come across as a comedian. I want to come across as a professional person. But one of the ways I get my messages across is by adding a little bit of humor that is relevant and reinforces the message that I use.

Tim Newman: 15:04

Yeah, and it just kind of gets me thinking a little bit. And I use this example fairly regularly. You know, if I’m in front of people and I’m talking and I’m thinking about what I’m going to say to you know, on how to make a point, and if I chuckle, that means I’ve just told myself a joke in my head about about this, and then it’s okay for you to laugh if I’ve laughed and I may tell the joke, I may not, depending on the appropriateness of the joke and the time and and and you and it just kind of you know, a lot of times people will say, okay, it’s, it’s really okay laughing, yeah, it’s okay to laugh, and then we can get back to whatever it is that we’re talking about and not even me even telling what I laughed at, and then I’ve again brought them back in and got their attention back to the point that we’re talking about yeah, absolutely.

Conor Cunneen: 15:51

I mean, there’s a cliche people do business with people that they like and at the end of the day, most of the products that are out in the marketplace are not that different from their competitors. And that may be in tech there is some differences, all right. But in general though, for the average salesperson let’s say someone from Cisco Food Service who’s going into a restaurant week after week after week, their service and their delivery and their price is not much different to all the food service operators out there. But if the salesperson can come in and put a smile on the chef’s face or the buying manager’s face, if, before the salesperson comes in, the buying manager says, hey, we’ve got Billy coming in, the buying manager’s kind of saying, ah, I like seeing him, he always makes me feel good, kind of thing. They’re the kind of differentiating factors that are separate to the sales lingo or the sales skill that most of the time is spoken about, and I do believe that in the selling environment not enough attention is paid to just putting a smile on the customer’s face.

Tim Newman: 17:04

Yeah, and let’s just take that a step further. Everything that we do and let’s just stick with business for a second here it’s personal. It’s personal interaction. People can talk about AI this and AI that, and technology this and technology that, but at the end of the day, it’s about personal interactions, personal connections, personal relationships.

Conor Cunneen: 17:28

It absolutely is, and especially in areas where there’s not major differentiation between one product and another. And I mean, all right, let’s put it this way If I’m trying to sell a major piece of equipment to Boeing, obviously we’re going to have to go in with a lot of facts and figures and good documentation, et cetera. With a lot of facts and figures and good documentation, et cetera, and I’m not sure whether or not I’d make a kind of a humorous presentation to Boeing as such, but I would reckon, though, that sometime during that presentation I would try and make some comment, maybe a comment about Airbus, not necessarily knocking them too much, but maybe making some humorous aside about them. That might help to build the rapport with the Boeing. But in general, though, for the regular salesperson who’s calling on people on a pretty continuous basis, if you can get them smiling once or twice over every second call, or something like that, you’re going to get better business and better relationship.

Tim Newman: 18:35

Absolutely so. You talked a little bit about a couple of keys to creating relevant humor, but when we’re talking about attitude, let’s go back to attitude for a second. We control our attitude, and you’ve got to. We’ll talk about this here in a little bit, but I love making things simple and ways to remember with acronyms, and you’ve got three of them that I think are great. But let’s talk about GAB for a second, where the A stands for attitude and you can control your attitude. Talk about the G and the B in this acronym.

Conor Cunneen: 19:11

Right, we just said the GAB acronym. It’s about goals, attitude and behavior. Goals, attitude and behavior. Just a couple of quick, a quick point about that. That doesn’t relate specifically to the question, but my brand is Irishman Speaks. I’ve got this Irish brogue, obviously, and what I try to do is to try and create some content based around my Irish heritage or my background. So I was speaking, doing programs on attitude, I was doing programs on goals, I was doing programs on that behavior, personal branding, et cetera, and I can’t remember exactly what the exact moment was, but I thought Eureka, gab, the gift of Gab Irish can relate. It. It’s goals, it’s attitude, it’s behavior. So again, that’s kind of another example of reinforcing the personal branding around the Irish guy.

Conor Cunneen: 20:02

But when it comes to goals, attitudes and behavior, my basic view is that, tim, your behavior creates your brand. Your behavior determines what people say about you. All people say about you is your brand and one of the things that will determine what people say about you, or people say about you as your brand, and one of the things that will determine what people say about you is what your attitude is like. So if you’ve got a crummy attitude, people are not going to want to work with you. They’re going to say negative things about you and they’re not going to be brand ambassadors for you as you move through a corporate life or you move through new jobs, et cetera. So having the right attitude being seen to be helpful, caring, empathetic but I’m not looking this through rose-tinted glasses. You want people to be effective as well, but you can have a good attitude in a workplace. When you have that, you’re going to create a better vibe around you and have a more productive workforce in my opinion?

Tim Newman: 21:00

Yeah, absolutely, and you know we’re not always going to be at our best every day, and so we also need to be cognizant of, you know, if we’re having other issues or things are affecting us in one way or the other. Again, remembering that we do control our attitude, and if we want to be this way in private, when nobody else is around, that’s one thing. But when we start becoming customer facing or colleague facing or things like that, we really need to make sure that we remember that we can control our attitude and we don’t have to always be upbeat and positive, but we really need to make sure that we can control our attitude and we don’t have to always be upbeat and positive, but we really need to make sure that we’re not being negative or being a drain on our colleagues.

Conor Cunneen: 21:41

I completely agree with that. I also think that I’m not again being Pollyannish on this. I mean I have a, I would say, a very positive attitude, but that doesn’t mean I get peed up from time to time. It doesn’t mean that my arthritic, but that doesn’t mean I get peed off from time to time. I don’t get peed off from time to time it doesn’t mean that my arthritic center finger doesn’t come up sometimes when I’m on the highway.

Tim Newman: 22:03

Or, as we like to call it, get our Irish up right.

Conor Cunneen: 22:07

Get our Irish up, yeah, but in general, though, what I hope is that people don’t say Connor is a jerk, right? No, I might’ve been a jerk in one or two instances.

Conor Cunneen: 22:18

I guarantee that I would say with everyone, or in general, though I don’t want people to say that my brand promise is I have an E4 brand promise which is energize, educate, entertain and easy to work, and I’m talking with event planners, tim. The one that I really like is oh, I like that last one easy to work with, because in the speaking business there is a reputation as some marquee madonnas. Oh sure, yeah, yeah.

Tim Newman: 22:47

Well, you know my background is I’ve got German and Irish heritage, so I’m almost 50-50 each way. So you know I’ve got the good of each and the bad of each. So you know, when I get my Irish up or when I get upset, it’s pretty bad, and I never forget stuff either. Right yeah.

Conor Cunneen: 23:09

I know everyone has got some of those things in their background. I think yeah.

Tim Newman: 23:13

Exactly. But again, you know, I do try and model that same behavior, though too right, with my students or other people that I’m coaching, because, number one, you don’t know what they’ve dealt with before they see you and you don’t want to bring your baggage and lay it on them. So you want to, again, like I said, control your attitude, make sure that you’re being as helpful to them and helping them get to get what they want, or get what they need all the time anyway yeah, yeah.

Conor Cunneen: 23:41

And the question just to repeat the powerful question I put to people is that when something goes wrong, I understand you’re going to get peed off, I understand you can kind of explore, but the question to ask yourself is what do I want my attitude to be? I mean, something might’ve gone wrong, I’m now annoyed, et cetera. And after a couple of seconds I’m going to say what do I want my attitude to be? You’re not going to say I want to be annoyed. No, you’re not going to say I want to be frustrated. You’re more likely to say, ah, I don’t want to be angry, I don’t want to be frustrated, to be angry, I don’t want to be frustrated. And you can make some effort then not to be angry and not to be frustrated. Exactly, it’s a powerful question what do I want my attitude to be? Right?

Tim Newman: 24:23

And if we can remember that, then hopefully that can start making some changes or get people to understand how to get to where they want to be anyway. Yeah, so let’s talk about another one of your acronyms, which again I think is you threw the E4 on me. I love it Anytime that we can have a system for something and we can name it something with an acronym to make us remember it. And easy, I love it, I really do. But the other one you have is CHAPS.

Conor Cunneen: 24:55

Yeah, right, chaps is basically. It’s an element of the gift of gab goals, attitudes and behavior. And when I talk about goals, tim, I talk about having a macro goal and micro goals. And the macro goal basically is what do I want to be famous for, which is we spoke about previously, right? When we’re talking, when I’m speaking to organizations and senior management, that’s the same question what do we want to be famous for? It’s a simple question, sounds like a simple question, that creates really good conversation and it helps to create a vision for the organization or for the person. So that’s the macro goal.

Conor Cunneen: 25:32

So when I’m speaking to, let’s say, a group of sales executives, I’d say, all right, let’s look at the macro goal. What do I want to be famous for? I’ll give you time to think about that. I’m not going to ask you what it is you’re going to answer, but I will now give you five micro goals that will help you to create and to live that macro goal that I bet you have put into your mind. So the five micro goals, tim actually spelled the acronym CHAPS C-H-A-P-S, and what I say here is that they’re based around micro goals. So I’ll ask you a question, tim.

Conor Cunneen: 26:09

Give me a few words to describe how you feel when you achieve a goal good accomplished, excited relieved, all right, yeah, okay, so good, accomplished, accomplished, excited, positive, happy, et cetera when we achieve a goal. That is normal. The reason why we have those kinds of feelings is that we’ve got neurochemicals in our brain and one of them is known as dopamine, the feel good chemical. And what generally happens if something positive occurs, the dopamine kicks in, gives us a kind of a sport of feel-goodness. There’s a good Irish word feel-goodness, yeah, and you feel better.

Conor Cunneen: 26:49

So what I say to people is that all right, I’ll give you five what I actually wear phrases. I’ll give you chaps, five micro-goals, and then when I’m in front of the audience I kind of pause for a second. I’ll go sorry, chaps. Oh, there’s CHAPES in the audience as well. Okay, so we’ll give you CHAPS, and CHAPES is an acronym that actually spells CHAPS. So forgive me if I just use the word CHAPS to describe each of you. Quite forward, but the five micro goals, the first one is again, we’ll ask you a question, tim. Would it be fair to say that if someone compliments you, you feel more motivated? Yes, okay, would it be fair to say that if someone compliments you, you appreciate that person maybe a slightly bit better? Yes, absolutely Okay, all right. So let’s turn it around. Would it be fair to say, tim, that if you compliment one of your students, for instance, they’re going to feel more motivated?

Tim Newman: 27:42

Absolutely yes.

Conor Cunneen: 27:43

If you compliment one of your students, they’re going to appreciate you better, probably. Yes, absolutely Okay, All right. So let’s take that as a micro goal. And the micro goal is that tomorrow I will compliment one person, one person. Now, what happens when I compliment that one person? What happens when I compliment that one person which I have set as a micro goal? I will hear myself complimenting the person. I’ll realize I have achieved a little micro goal. The dopamine kicks in. I feel a little bit better. But what about the person you’ve complimented?

Tim Newman: 28:15

They’re going to feel better.

Conor Cunneen: 28:16

They’re going to appreciate you more as well. You got the dopamine kicking in for them also. It’s a win win situation, and I do believe that one of the critical ways that you can build employee engagement, retention and appreciation and a good workplace is by making sure you are seen to appreciate your co-workers, your employees in general, etc. When you do that, you’ve got to create a better environment, and one of the ways to do that is to complement them. Yes, so I’m often asked Tim well, what if you have difficulty complementing people? I kind of come back with them.

Conor Cunneen: 28:58

I’m going to rephrase a little bit more gently than this, but if you have difficulty complimenting your team, I’m just wondering who’s the problem? Is it you or is it the team? And what I do say is that, look, you can always find some way or reason to compliment someone. You can say something like whoa, your hair doesn’t look as bad today as it did yesterday. Something like whoa, your hair doesn’t look as bad today as it did yesterday. So I mean, that’s an example there, like a way to throw this piece of goofball humor Right, but it actually reinforces the message that I’m getting across about the power of complimenting someone, and when you do compliment someone, you’re going to create a better engagement with that person.

Conor Cunneen: 29:42

So that’s the first element of the CHAPS acronym and actually one of the things I do also say, tim. There is that people say, oh, I have difficulty complimenting people and I just can’t do it like this. What I say is that if you have regular meetings with your people let’s say once a week, or if you’re in the food service or in other areas where there’s a daily huddle or a daily meeting, the question to ask is what did we do well yesterday?

Tim Newman: 30:13

That’s a good one.

Conor Cunneen: 30:15

And if you ask the question what did we do? Well, yesterday, someone’s going to volunteer. Well, actually, we had a very good response to X, y, z, et cetera. What do you do? You said fair play, well done, that was really good. I appreciate the effort you put in and if you ask that question on a daily basis, you’re going to get the opportunity to complement your team. So the question is always as important to as the the actual. The question is important to allow you to be able to generate a genuine complement.

Tim Newman: 30:45

Yeah, so just to take that a step further, a friend of mine. What he does is he sets regular check-ins with each individual person on his team every week. So like he doesn’t tell them what the schedule is, but he’s got his own schedule Contact, so-and-so, at two o’clock, contact what’s the name, at 3.30 tomorrow, whatever it is, and that’s how he does it. He says oh, you know what I saw, what you did last week. Keep it up, anything I can do to help you, anything I can do for you. So there’s that compliment and it’s coming from the team leader every week and the team members where they haven’t realized that it’s on a schedule, but they do know that they’re going to talk to them every week and they never really know when it’s going to come. And there’s always going to be something positive that comes out of it.

Conor Cunneen: 31:32

Right, yeah. And the other aspect of that, tim, is that it does allow you to actually be, allow you to coach your people better. It allows you to be a critical of them or provide areas for growth that you think they can do something better, but it’s based on the fact that the person you’re speaking to knows that I am appreciated by the effort that I’m doing, but it does does allow the mentor or the leader to actually be more forthright sometimes and not get a totally negative reaction from the employee or from the coworker. Exactly so. That’s the first element of the CHAPS acronym.

Conor Cunneen: 32:11

The second element of the CHAPS acronym is H, and H is for hear, and the micro goal here, tim, is that I will set myself a micro goal that I will hear the words thank you tomorrow Now. You might already have been thanked a few times already today, but it’s gone over your head. But what I’m suggesting is that I want you to set a micro goal that I will hear the words thank you Now, to definitely hear the words thank you tomorrow. I’ve got to do something that will be appreciated by my co-worker or by my customers. When I hear the words thank you tomorrow, I realize, hey, I’ve achieved another micro goal in the CHAPS acronym. I’ve done something that’s been appreciated, but the person I’ve done the effort for they are also feeling better. They appreciate me more because I did something for them.

Conor Cunneen: 33:05

It’s a simple little element again of the CHAPS acronym that will help you to create a better employee engagement, better workforce, better bonding and productivity, et cetera. So you got compliment, in other words, thank you. A is for address. I want to say here, tim, when I was speaking to audiences and to groups, as I said, by address here I do not mean that it’s a pink chiffon outfit with sequins that was seen wearing on Facebook over the weekend. That should not have been published. It’s not the dress we’re talking about over the weekend.

Conor Cunneen: 33:40

That should not have been published. It’s not the address we’re talking about. Yeah, right, no. By address here I mean address the person you’re in conversation with with their name. I would suggest the most powerful word when I’m speaking to you is Tim. The most powerful word when you are speaking to me is Connor.

Conor Cunneen: 34:00

And if you can get into the habit of just using the person’s name once or twice in the conversation, you’re again going to make a better connection with that person. And I really do believe, for instance, with the students that you’ve got, many of them are probably doing interviews, you’re going job hunting, et cetera. I think one of the simplest ways for you to build a better connection with that recruiter is that at least once or twice in that conversation you deliberately drop their name. It’s a simple little thing. But if I’ve already joined that interview, if I’ve complimented the company so let’s say you’ve done some research on the company and you’ve seen that they have a new product that has been launched, et cetera you could go in and say I saw you launched a new product, it seems to be a really good one, fair play to you, et cetera.

Conor Cunneen: 34:52

You’re complimenting the recruiter. They’re going to feel better. They’re going to realize, hey, this person has done a bit of research, et cetera. You might hear the worst thank you from them, but then when once or twice during the conversation you’re addressing with their name as well, you’re going to create an even better bond. So in interviewing you’re selling yourself, but if you’re a salesperson using the CHAMPS acronym compliment hear the worst thank you, address people with their name. All of those things are going to help you to build a better bond with your customer or client as well.

Tim Newman: 35:24

Let’s talk about the research piece, because that’s something that I try and cover pretty extensively. One of the assignments that I really have people do whether it’s people that I’m coaching or whether it’s my students is to do informational interviews. Go out and talk to people in the field or job that you want to have, or maybe even the field or job that you don’t want to have, because maybe you’ll learn a bunch and I tell them that they have to do research on whoever that person is, whatever the company is, whatever products and service they are, so that when you go in and you have this, you know 25, 30 minute informational interview. You’re going in and you can actually have a good conversation. You’re not having you know basic who are you, how old are you, how long have you been here. You’re actually going in and learning something from these individuals and if you come in prepared, that conversation is going to have them look at you in a completely different light than when you come in unprepared.

Conor Cunneen: 36:25

Absolutely, and I think one of the things that will help you to win at the interview is that you can have it as a conversation rather than as an interview. An interview suggests Q&A. Conversation is kind of a one-to-one and simple little things, like when we had the pre-call. One of the things I did was I looked at your profile on LinkedIn so I knew what your kind of work history was, but I also saw what some of the other areas that you were involved in. And it’s the same with someone that they’re going for an interview.

Conor Cunneen: 36:56

If you can know who the recruiter is or the person that’s going to be interviewing. You get onto LinkedIn, look at their activities, the people that they like or follow on LinkedIn, et cetera. And let’s say someone follows Richard Branson. You go into the interview and you are asked who are your role models? Maybe you can say I saw that you actually were following Richard Branson. I think Richard Branson is the bee’s knees and the cat’s pajamas as well, kind of thing. That really is a simple way to make a good connection. You’re making a connection on a personal level, but you’re also showing that you’ve done your homework.

Tim Newman: 37:35

And as soon as you said that, that person’s going to smile.

Conor Cunneen: 37:38

Yep, absolutely yeah, and when the person is smiling, that’s actually a fifth one element of the chap sack and we can come to P in a second Tim, but the smile is about the micro goal should be. I want to put a smile on someone’s face today, and if I put a smile on someone’s face today, what’s going to happen? I’m going to smile back as well. Exactly, yeah, so you’re right. I mean, doing basic homework will help people to connect better and be appreciated better when they’re in that sales position or when they’re in the recruiting or interviewing position as well.

Tim Newman: 38:12

And it should also help them kind of relax a little bit and be open and willing to have conversations. One of the things that I’ve found is young professionals today really, really struggle with interpersonal communication, Just regular talking to people, whether it’s in a classroom, in a team meeting, sitting around a table at a meeting. They have questions, they’ve got thoughts, they’re so afraid to express them.

Conor Cunneen: 38:43

Yeah.

Tim Newman: 38:44

By being prepared and you know, knowing who you’re talking to. That in and of itself will alleviate some of that anxiety and, you know, you’ll feel better about yourself when you actually share those things.

Conor Cunneen: 38:58

Most definitely, I mean, and a lot of the interview situation, because it’s just pure Q and a. You don’t have a chance to get your personality out or your real feelings. But if you can actually drop something related to the company or to the recruiter, you’re kind of getting into a little personal not over the top, obviously, but I think you’re starting to shape the interview a little bit and the more you can shape the interview, the more you can get a conversation going. The more you get a conversation going, the better your chances of doing well at that interview stroke conversation.

Tim Newman: 39:31

Do you want to laugh? And I know that’s a crazy question, but I did an interview one time for a job. That was. That was. It was right, oh god, and we were talking about where we’re going to live and and this, that and the other thing, and, and you know, I told you I’m a full-time RVer and that came up, and so I started talking about being a full-time RVer and next thing I know I’m talking about, you know, the waste tube, right? Yeah, that we have to. You know I have to dump every now and again, yeah.

Tim Newman: 40:05

And this is, you know, in the middle of the interview and it was a phone interview and when I talk on the phone I pace and my daughter’s looking at me. She’s saying oh, dad, you got to stop talking, stop talking. You’re talking about dumping, the something you know, the poop, right, yeah, you know. But so, yeah, it’s, you know, you get you get comfortable with, you know with whoever it is that you’re talking to.

Tim Newman: 40:27

and and uh, by the way, I never heard from them again well, so you win some, you lose some, exactly yeah, but you get, you get so comfortable and you know again maybe that’s one of those times that it wasn’t really appropriate what I was saying. Uh, maybe, whatever, but it was my personality coming out and right, yeah, and yeah, yeah. So it is what it is, right so, uh, we’ve got.

Conor Cunneen: 40:55

Uh, just to recap, we first and the chaps acronym, which would help you to create a better work environment and employee retention, got, you’ve got compliments, micro-goal. Here are the words thank you, micro-goal. Address someone with their name as a micro-goal. The micro-goal for P in the CHAPS acronym, tim, is. I would set myself a micro-goal that in conversation tomorrow or in a meeting, I will use at least one positive word or one positive phrase.

Conor Cunneen: 41:22

Now, the basic idea here is that if you can get into the habit of using positive words like amazing, brilliant, cheerful, delightful, energetic, friendly Guinness Guinness is a positive word to an irishman what’s going to happen after a while, especially if you use the other elements of the chap sacrament, is that you’re starting to create a vibe, you’re bringing positivity to the meeting, to the conversation, etc. And if you do that, combined with the complimenting and addressing people with their name, after a while it’s quite likely that people will say about you that you are amazing, brilliant, cheerful, delightful, energetic, friendly. Let’s go for a guinness or whatever, a beverage of choice is every time you walk in.

Conor Cunneen: 42:11

Let’s go for a guinness that’s right, yeah, yeah, so, uh, now you gotta be careful. I suppose we can’t go over the top on that, but at the same time, uh, but again, though, it’s just another example of the way that, um, we’ve all heard, we’ve all been in organizations where Debbie downer comes in and she sucks the energy out of the room, and that her twin brother, danny downer, comes in and he’s worse than Debbie Donald. So this whole area is completely flat and deflated. But if you got people who can suck the energy out of a room, I do believe that you can pump energy into a room Absolutely. And you can do that with the chaps that are kind of complimenting people, hearing the words thank you, addressing them with their name, using positive words and finding some way to put a smile in someone’s face. All of those things can be done, and when you do it, they’re going to feel better. I want the people who are receiving the CHAPS concept. They’re going to feel better as well.

Tim Newman: 43:10

Absolutely, absolutely. And these can be done whether you’re the team leader or not. And if you’re the team leader, that’s going to be infectious and then that’s going to be the culture of your team, which then is going to affect the culture of you know you’re the team that’s next to you or above you or around you or what have you, and if and if you’re not the team leader, you can do it and then that’s going to affect, that’s going to you know, grow with the rest of your team members and then hopefully your team leader so you know again it goes back to you can control your attitude, and if your attitude changes, then people around you’s attitude will change as well.

Conor Cunneen: 43:48

Absolutely. And this actually raises a really important point. I’ve only been talking about this for the last day, year or two of the video you might’ve seen about the cop car and mobile discotheque. I don’t think I referred to it on that video, but I do now refer consistently. And the fact is, sim, that people mirror human beings’ reaction.

Conor Cunneen: 44:11

So if I come into a meeting where I know there’s going to be some tension etc. And I come in all guns blazing, what’s going to happen? Other people are going to have their guns blazing, they’re going to be defensive, et cetera. On the other hand, if, before I go into this meeting where I know it’s going to be maybe a little bit contentious, I ask myself the question what do I want my attitude to be? Going into that meeting, I want to go in with a mindset that I want to have a win-win out of this meeting.

Conor Cunneen: 44:47

One of the ways I can have a win-win out of this meeting is I can use the CHAPS concept at that meeting. I can go into the meeting and even if it’s a difficult role or a difficult employee, you can probably find some reason to compliment that person and say thank you for that. Probably you address them with their name. Use some positive words or phrases about all right, we’re having challenging times right now, but if we work together, we can make this a more productive organization, and all those kinds of things might well end up with putting a smile on someone’s face as well. I appreciate that the more tense the situation, the more difficult it might be, but I also do appreciate the more tense the situation, the more it needs the CHAPS concept to get a response.

Tim Newman: 45:25

Yeah, so let’s go from CHAPS to laugh.

Conor Cunneen: 45:28

Right, as you listeners have gathered, the Irishman is an acronym for free. I love it. I do believe that they’re really powerful, though. They really are powerful. So laugh is about five concepts that I use to help people to add humor to their presentation, and I preface it with you here as well, tim, if I say something, I’m looking for a five-letter word. We know the. I say something, I’m looking for a five-letter word. We know the word already, but I’m looking for a five-letter word. What is it that I hope you will do if I say something funny?

Tim Newman: 46:07

Laugh.

Conor Cunneen: 46:08

Or laugh Okay, all right. So we put that on a question note to the audience. Then I would say all right, if you want to add humor to your presentation, we’ll provide you with five concepts based around the word laugh, hey, all right. So I do sometimes say when I ask the question I nearly always get the response laugh. Or sometimes I do throw out. I know I was asking for a five-letter word, but who said groan, all right. But I could probably come up with an acronym for grown as well, but anyway, so laugh acronym.

Conor Cunneen: 46:42

Briefly, is the idea is that over the last few days you have heard something to put a smile on your face, you’ve seen something that you’re ready to put a smile on your face, or you’ve said something to put a smile on people’s face. And what I say, tim, is that when that happens, listen to what it is I said, or listen to what it was that was said, write it down, capture it. You don’t know when you’re going to use it, but it will help you to at some stage to add humor to your presentation, because if it’s not an offensive kind of gratuitous piece of humor, you probably would be able to relate to it at some stage sometime, somewhere. That’s the first element of the laugh acronym. The second element of the laugh acronym is A, and A is for antidote and telling stories. What it’s not antidote, it’s anecdote. Oh, yes, sorry, it’s anecdote. Tim, yes, yes, yes, we don’t want the antidote. Oh, it’s anecdote. Oh yes, sorry, it’s anecdote. Tim, yes, yes, yes, we don’t want the antidote to laugh, that’s right, yeah. But what I do actually say is the antidote to a weak speech, to a weak speech is a good anecdote, all right. So, uh, I?

Conor Cunneen: 47:55

The idea here is that most of the time when we laugh, it’s not a jokes that we laugh at, it’s a quip or a comment or an anecdote or something where someone is telling you a story. And the funniest anecdotes are the ones where something went wrong but we’re not laughing at it, and that is where the you in laugh comes in into it. You is about uncomfortable. So I’m taking anecdotes that were uncomfortable at some stage but now have no issue at all, and my example of the cop story. I mean that is a really good signature story for me now, but at the time I wasn’t over the moon when the cop pulled me. I mean, I thought it was ethnic profiling, I thought this was unfair, you know, but what happened was that, as I was telling the story to people, I realized hey, they were laughing at my reaction, and I realized I could have handsomely exaggerated a little bit. So I’ll give you another example about how I use anecdotes, or uncomfortable anecdotes, to get a message across.

Conor Cunneen: 49:04

I speak to a lot of manufacturing organizations, I speak to safety conferences, and one of the things I say is that a simple definition of safety is you come in with 10 fingers and toes, you leave with 10 fingers and toes. That’s not my definition. I just heard someone say it sometime okay, but you come in with 10 fingers and toes, you leave with 10 fingers and toes. That’s not my definition. I just heard someone say it sometime okay, but you come here with 10 fingers and toes, you leave with 10 fingers and toes. But to do that, though, you’ve got to be aware of your surroundings, and you’ve got to be aware of your colleagues’ surroundings as well. I’ll give you a little example. So I’m speaking out to the manufacturing organization or safety group. I’ll give a little example, a group. I’ll give a little example.

Conor Cunneen: 49:41

A few weeks ago, I went to collect my darling granddaughter, maggie, from soccer practice Maggie’s six years of age. We collected Maggie. I was with my darling wife, we collected Maggie and my daughter went off. We brought Maggie back to her car, put her into the car seat. My wife sits in the car seat beside Maggie and then, being a crazy grumpy, I sit in the back seat as well. And after a couple of seconds Maggie realizes grumpy, you should be driving the car. And I said I’d like to stay here. And she goes grumpy, you should be driving the car. So grumpy decides he’s got to get out of the car. I go to get out of the car. What happens? We’re on child law. I can’t get out of the car. I won’t back down, right. So what I’ve got to do is I suppose I could have clambered over, but I phoned my daughter who had left the parking lot. She’s got to come back to open the car door and leave me out of the car.

Conor Cunneen: 50:40

Now here’s a lesson for you as a manufacturing organization, where safety is important and you want to come in with 10 fingers and toes and leave with 10 fingers and toes.

Conor Cunneen: 50:50

That is a simple example of where I was not paying attention to my environment and my surroundings, and that’s what causes accidents. So when you’re driving home this evening and maybe you’re collecting your kid from kindergarten and you’re putting them into the backseat of the car, say to yourself all right, what are the equivalent of the child locks in my workplace that if I don’t pay attention to I’m going to be in trouble? If you don’t have kids but you’re going to work tomorrow and you have the traffic lights, you see mom in the mom mobile and the kid in the backseat, strapped in. Think about the child example the Irish guy gave as well, and that’s a simple little example of I’m telling you an anecdote that actually did happen. It was only marginally uncomfortable, that one, but it was a funny piece though, and now I can use that in my presentations about safety, about manufacturing and doing things right and paying attention to detail. So it’s an anecdote that could be used in virtually every presentation that I’m doing. Tim, absolutely.

Tim Newman: 51:52

And that’s a really good example. So I’ve got a four-year-old granddaughter and I’ve done the same thing, except for it wasn’t on child lock, so I was able to get out.

Conor Cunneen: 52:06

but but that’s right, um, yeah yeah, what really brought that home to me was that when my daughter came back into the park and as she’s walking up to us she is breaking her sides laughing and I realized this is gold sauce kind of thing. So it’s again now. I did not create that humor. All I did was I captured it and I promise you and your listeners that if you think back over the stories you were telling your friends at Starbucks or over at the water cooler in the last few weeks where they were laughing, say to yourself all right, can I take that and use it in some way to add humor to my presentation and use as an example or as a lesson to reinforce what I’m talking about?

Tim Newman: 52:46

yeah, yeah. And my guess is your daughter says the same old dad yeah, yeah, she’s uh, um, my darling.

Conor Cunneen: 52:56

I’m dead lucky. I’ve got a great uh daughter and a great son as well, so, and uh, two beautiful grandkids. So grandkids are a great gift and they really are.

Tim Newman: 53:05

They’re amazing, yeah, and so I’ve got three Right. So, and I tell you what it’s it’s being a father. I thought it was the best thing ever, but being a grandfather is way better than being a father. I think I mean way better. I am close.

Conor Cunneen: 53:26

Uh, I, I. I think it is good we can appreciate them more. We can appreciate how well our kids are doing bringing up their their own kids as well. I do remember one person saying to me on one occasion that grandkids are God’s reward for not killing your children.

Tim Newman: 53:42

There you go. That’s a good one too. I’m not kidding your children. There you go. That’s a good one too.

Conor Cunneen: 53:44

Yeah, yeah, it is yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tim Newman: 53:48

And my, my it’s just another quick story here my, um, my oldest granddaughter, she’s, she’s four. She’s going to come, you know, we live at the beach in Hilton Head. She’s going to come and spend a week with us and, uh, I, I sent my daughter some of the activities that we’re going to do, um, like get on a boat with no life jackets or seat belts and we’re going to go, you know, on the, on the zip lines, and she’s like you’re not doing any of that. I said well, can I remember I’m pops and pops can pretty much do whatever pops wants to do that’s right yeah.

Tim Newman: 54:23

And you’re not even going to be here, so forget it Right. So before anybody calls the cops, or or you know, mobile discotheques, no, I’m not putting on a boat without a life jacket.

Conor Cunneen: 54:34

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. What about? Wife has got a sign inside the kitchen that reads what happens at grandma’s stays at grandmas?

Tim Newman: 54:41

There you go, there you go.

Conor Cunneen: 54:42

Yeah, so G G in, in in, laugh, in laugh. Oh sorry, yes, forgive, me.

Tim Newman: 54:52

See what happens when you start talking about grandkids.

Conor Cunneen: 54:57

G is about Google. I know what I say Google and the being all right, I use the word Googler and the funny thing is when I just mentioned Google and the Bing, all right. Or I use the word Googler, and the funny thing is when I just mentioned Google and the Bing, people actually smile. Or when I use the word Googler, people smile as well. But it’s just again to reinforce that message. And a simple little example of capturing something I was back in Ireland a few months ago having some good pints of Guinness. I don’t know what you’re a bother.

Conor Cunneen: 55:25

I was talking with my brother-in-law in CORE and he raised some query and I said, finbar, just Google and the Bing. And Finbar said, huh, that’s kind of funny. And I said, finbar, I heard that from you about six years ago. You actually used that phrase about six years ago. You’d totally that phrase about six years ago. You’d totally forgotten about it. What I did was, when I heard Google and the Bing, what happened? I listened to it, went into my notes and now I use that. So the person who originated that had totally forgotten. He’d even mentioned the word or the phrase to me, kind of thing.

Conor Cunneen: 55:59

But the basic idea about Googling is, tim, that if you’re looking for content for your presentation and you want to use something that is a little bit humorous to reinforce your messaging, just google for things like funny leadership quotes, funny comments about sales, what did Mark Twain say about politicians? He said a lot. What did Lauren Hardy say about salespeople, or marriage, or something like that, and drop one or two of those quotes into your presentation. Give credit for them, but what’s going to happen is you’re going to have the audience smiling and it’s reinforcing your message as well. That’s one a way you can google on the bing. The other way you can do it now, this is brilliant, I think. Just google for funny newspaper headlines funny oh my god, I can only imagine I swear it is brilliant, brilliant.

Conor Cunneen: 57:04

My favourite one is the newer post-headlight. It goes up Headless body found in topless bar. Okay. But other ones are like something like teenage pregnancies, teenage pregnancies likely to, or teenage pregnancies on the increase, young kids responsible, something like that. Okay, phrases like that. But if you just Google the word the funny newspaper headlines, you’ll have a line of really humorous material and you can take just one of those and drop them into your presentation. And you can take just one of those and drop them into your presentation. You could do funny newspaper headlines about lawyers, for instance, or funny newspaper headlines about accountants, about professors, college professors. Steve, do you even know that I’m?

Conor Cunneen: 57:53

sure it’s funny, I’m sure, yeah. So what I suggest is that don’t go overboard. Just you make me a comment and you can make some comment about our, or I’ll talk to you about the importance of having good leadership in an organization and then you can put up some headline from I don’t know Mark Twain or something about leaders that does slightly humorous, et cetera. Make a comment, but this is might be the best way to have leadership in an organization. I mean just one or two little quotes. Pop them into your PowerPoint presentation. If you use PowerPoint I tend not to use it in general, but those are the things. Google on the Bing and come up with information, a humorous quote, a humorous comment, an anecdote or a story. Give credit for it when appropriate, Absolutely, and try to add humor to the presentation yeah, that’s a really good suggestion.

Tim Newman: 58:49

The problem is if I start. If I start doing that for funny newspaper articles, that’s the rest of my day absolutely.

Conor Cunneen: 58:57

Yeah, well, that’s the problem, isn’t it? It’s we all got on this rabbit trap, you know. The other thing that I do regularly, tim, is that if I see anything funny on uh, the Twitter, as I call it, um on the Twitter, uh, why does he change it? I don’t know. I mean, uh, it’s, uh, I mean, the guy’s a genius, a crazy genius, but this one in terms of branding, I mean, no one X’s anyone that tweet things, and so I don’t get it all. But what I do, though, is I want to see something funny on the Twitter, as I call it. I just do a screen capture and I just go into my photographs of my iPhone file, et cetera photographs of my iPhone file, et cetera and sometimes, somewhere, I might be able to use one of those screen captures to reinforce a message as well. Again, that’s a situation where you don’t have to be funny to be funny, all you do is you’re aware of your surroundings, paying attention to the humor around, you capture it and pop it into your presentation. Yep, yep, yep. So we’ve got listen anecdote, uncomfortable Google.

Conor Cunneen: 1:00:09

And the final one is H, and H is about he, he, he to ho, ho, ho, and the basic idea here, Tim, is that if I say something funny at a during a presentation, I mean, I’ve got a good idea in all my presentations when people are going to laugh, yeah, and when I know they’re going to laugh or are likely to laugh, I make sure I allow them to laugh, I don’t stamp on it, and but also, though, I might come up with something from time to time, a quip or a comment, just to add on comment, just to add up If it gets a good reaction, I’m paying attention to it, and then I say, all right, I got a hee, hee, hee from that.

Conor Cunneen: 1:00:49

How can I bring it to ho, ho, ho. That’s a bit more advanced than some of the other ones that we’ve been talking about here, though, but I do think that if you have got an audience smiling about something that you’ve said in your presentation for crying out loud after it, right then look at it and say, all right, is there some way I can tighten it up? Is there some way I can exaggerate it a little bit more? And if you can do something like that and I’ll give you a little anecdote about, uh, two minutes long before we finish up give an example of how this actually worked. But simple little things can make a huge difference to the reaction you get from an audience. Just putting some wording, just changing the way you phrase it, take the back 25% of it to the first start, et cetera.

Tim Newman: 1:01:38

Things like that can make a huge difference to whether you can go from he, he, he to oh, oh oh yeah, to whether you can go from hee-hee-hee to oh, oh, oh yeah, and just thinking to you that some of the best storytellers are comedians, and I saw a special I think it was 60 Minutes or Dateline or some show did a special with Kevin Hart a couple of weeks ago and he talked about his process of writing jokes and storytelling and he actually about you know, his process of writing jokes and storytelling and he actually does shows where nobody’s allowed to bring their cameras or their phones or recording devices and that’s how he practices and refines how he lands the jokes. We have to do that on the fly and so, okay, so we tried this way with this group. Didn’t really work, and then switch it up or go talk to a bunch of people and figure that out, but once you get it and you know that it works, it’s gold forever.

Conor Cunneen: 1:02:35

Yeah, it absolutely is, and you can always pull it. You can use it again and again. So an example would be for instance, I do some presentations to financial advisors. Okay, and financial advisors, one of the ways they try and generate businesses. They’ll invite you to the local steakhouse or something like that and they’ll give you the smallest piece of poron, a filet mignon on the menu and one piece of vegetable, et cetera. But I mean they’re bringing people in there to try and get them to stay connected with them. But it’s a different audience each week or each month.

Conor Cunneen: 1:03:06

Now if in that situation I’ve got two or three zingers that are built up over the last three or four months where I know people are going to laugh, well, the next time I’m making that presentation, maybe I just PowerPoint up of something I’ve Googled on the Bing. All right, maybe I drop in a little anecdote about maybe one of my clients where something went wrong but now they’re delighted and happy, et cetera. The important thing there is that you’re not criticizing the client. You’re having people laugh at me as a presenter rather than our financial advisor. But I do think that in those kinds of situations where you’ve got a different audience each week, all you need is three or four pieces of humor and as you get better at it you’ll find more and more pieces of humor. But it’s a simple way to just connect better with your audience.

Conor Cunneen: 1:04:00

I like that financial advisor he made me smile, et cetera. It was interesting. I wasn’t bored. Advisor, he made me smile, et cetera. It was interesting, I wasn’t bored. Waiting to finish up my meal, how long do I have to stay after the dessert, et cetera, which I may or may not get depending who the financial advisor is. But simple little things like that show the power of having just a few little anecdotes and quips and they can be used again and again and again.

Tim Newman: 1:04:26

Right, Connor Caneen is Irishman Speaks. Connor, thank you so much for spending some time with us. Where can people find you?

Conor Cunneen: 1:04:34

Right, they can find me here at my office. Oh, you know what that is. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Right, so the brand is Irishman Speaks Tim. The website is Irishman Speaks. I’m on LinkedIn, conor Caneen. Irishman Speaks Facebook. Twitter I formally know it as no ex-formally know it as Twitter. Irishman Speaks Instagram. And I’m going to go out on TikTok as well, which is an interesting marketing exercise, and we’ll see how that will work, but I’m getting good responses there in terms of appreciation. Whether they generate business or not, we’ll have to see, but the Irishman Speaks all one word Conor Caneen.

Tim Newman: 1:05:15

That’s awesome, and maybe you and I can talk about TikTok a little bit here, but Irishman Speaks Conor Caneen. Thank you so so much. This has been wonderful. I really think that if more people used humor and were ready or open to using it, relaxing a little bit and being open to having some fun and relax and just really have conversations with people, it would be much better. So thank you so much for this.

Conor Cunneen: 1:05:43

Absolutely. We’re speaking from the same hymn book there, Tim, definitely.

Tim Newman: 1:05:47

All right, my friend, you take care of yourself and we’ll talk to you soon.

Conor Cunneen: 1:05:50

See you, tim, take care. Thanks, I really enjoyed the chat. Take care, bye, bye.

Tim Newman: 1:05:54

Let’s take a few minutes to reflect on our conversation with Conor Kenean. As you heard firsthand, irishman Speaks is truly a humorist delivering memorable takeaways you can use to communicate clearly and create a better workplace. He explained a few different acronyms to help you remember key concepts and strategies. For example, when adding humor to presentations, remember to laugh. Start by listening for laughter and recording when it takes place. Collect these moments so you have them stored for later when you need them in a presentation. The A is for anecdote. The funniest anecdotes are about things that make you laugh, because either something went wrong, something made you uncomfortable or someone’s reaction to what happened was funny. The uncomfortable story is the you in laugh. The G is for Google and you can always do a search for funny stories related to your topic. But once you get the funny story or anecdote, be sure to tweak it so you go from hee-hee to ho-ho. Obviously, this is the short rendition of the acronym, and Connor explained it much better. I’d encourage you to listen to this episode a few times just to make sure you pick up on all the tips you may have missed when you’re busy laughing at the delivery. I also recommend visiting his website, irishmanspeakscom, to take advantage of a full range of resources and information.

Tim Newman: 1:07:19

On behalf of the Speaking with Confidence community, we all want to thank Connor for colorfully adding humor and content to help us on our journey to become more confident speakers. Be sure to visit speakingwithconfidencepodcastcom to join our growing community and register for the Formula for Public Speaking course. Also, subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss any episodes. Give us five stars and rate us a review that tells everyone why you love the podcast. You can also download, like and share the podcast with friends. Always remember your voice has the power to change the world. We’ll talk to you next time. Take care, thank you.