✨ The SPARK 167 ~ The Laugh-out-loud Secret- Unleashing Humor In Content

Welcome to the 167th issue of the SPARK. A weekly newsletter where inspiration meets real online strategies, behind-the-scenes stories, and a boatload of valuable resources.

Hi, Reader,

Every time I see these videos, I laugh out loud.

Ironically, I am not a fan of this type of humor in real life. In other words, please don’t prank me.

The types of videos I’m referring to are ‘invisible danger’ pranks. It’s usually a couple, and one person pretends they’ve come into contact with something dangerous and freaks out.

Naturally, the other person reacts similarly, freaks out, and starts shouting, “What, what is it?!?!”

They’re pretty funny (since I’m not the one being pranked 😉).

While I’m not suggesting you prank your audience, humor is a great way to connect with your audience.

Here’s a specific example of something funny that can be turned into content (#everythingiscontent).

I recently posted on FB that one of life’s simple pleasures is getting into a freshly made bed with clean sheets (am I right?).

So much so that I tend to make sure I wash my sheets when I head out of town, so it makes it that much sweeter when I get home to my bed.

My dear friend, Liz, posted this reply to my Facebook post 🤣:

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t laugh out loud at this.

Stuff like this tends to be even funnier when we know the people sharing the story.

Because I’m close friends with Liz, I could “hear” her sharing this story. I had empathy for “little Liz” – but “adult Liz” cracked me up.

Liz sharing this story deepened a connection, anchored in her sense of humor (which is fabulous), and triggered my own childhood funny-traumatic story (coming soon).

Storytelling works.

According to Psychology Today, this is why storytelling works so well:

Stories have always been a primal form of communication.
Stories are about collaboration and connection.
Stories are how we think.
Stories provide order.
Stories are how we are wired.
Stories are the pathway to engaging our right brain and triggering our imagination.

So… how would you tie this story into business in a way that connects with your audience?

There are a few approaches, but I would do it in a way that shows I don’t take myself too seriously and then pivot that story into an example where I’ve done something similar in my business.

The primary emotion in Liz’s story is fear.

Fear of being stuck in her bed (I’m literally chuckling as I write this – I swear I’m not heartless).

I’ve had plenty of scenarios in business where fear reared its ugly head. Sometimes, I fed it (only to realize most of it was in my head), and sometimes, I was able to put it into perspective.

And yes, I still have fear, but I’ve learned not to feed it.

At least not for too long.

I’d also share that often, all we need is a little perspective to kick fear to the curb.

There are a lot of horrific things happening in the world, and most of our business fears exist solely in our minds.

If you’re in fear that something you’ve created/produced/launched isn’t going to do well…

… or you’ve offended someone or dropped the ball on something – the best thing you can do is put your fear into perspective, which takes practice.

This isn’t to negate how you’re feeling as much as it’s to put your energy toward how you want to feel.

Most business fears are, as Marie Forleo says, “figureoutable.”

The more you practice this pivot (story => relatable example), the easier it gets.

SPARK Spotlight 🔥

This is the BEST way to get started with FB & Instagram ads (and yes, people are still on FB, contrary to what you may have heard).

Laurel teaches the long game – and I LOVE it. In fact, I was listening to an audio of her teachings in the car the other day, and she said something that really resonated with me. Excuse the language, but she said, “F*ck a value ladder. You need cash, not a value ladder.”
(Google value ladder if you’re not familiar with it).

Her monthly membership is only $7, but you can also get her book on Amazon.

A Little Brain Power 🧠

In case you missed it, Jason Resnick wrote a complete guide on cleaning up your email list. Read (and bookmark) “How to Clean Your Email List Easily.”

I am in LOVE with these case studies by Growth.Design. I’ve never seen this format before, and it’s BRILLIANT. Read “Newsletter Subscription: 5 small UX mistakes that make a big difference.”

This resonates with me deeply. “Reversing American Burnout Means Challenging the Way Our Society Thinks About Downtime.”

Tool Time 🛠

Video: Create personalized welcome videos. Record once and then use AI to customize. Use Ubique free here.
Social Monitoring: Track keywords and use AI to generate responses and engagement (sounds kinda creepy, but also kind of fantastic). Check out Sparksocial here.
SEO: I LOVE the idea of a ‘pay to use’ as opposed to a monthly subscription for keyword research. Check out SEO Stuff here.
Video: In case you didn’t know, the popular mobile video app, CapCut, is also available on desktop. Use CapCut free here.

What Worcestershire sauce does to people 🤣

Coming next week 📣

I’ve been digging deep into creating the framework for “Everything is Content” that makes it easy to create a content strategy that isn’t reliant on SEO, keywords, or appeasing the algorithms.

AND… I’ve even created my own Custom GPT to work through this.

Next week, I’ll be opening up some one-on-one sessions with me where I can walk you through the framework and custom GPT (which you’ll get).

This is still sort of in the ‘research’ phase, so these sessions will be offered at a significant discount.

I can’t wait to share this with you.

Have a fantastic day,
Kim