Humour, when used right, can strengthen your message and engage your market. But it can also go the wrong way.
In business, there is a particular type of humour that could damage your credibility or, worse… the reputation of your whole company!
Self-Deprecating Humour
As a Humour Coach, I often hear, “If you want to be funny, use self-deprecating humour.”
And I 100% agree!
Self-deprecating humour works really well if you want to get a laugh…
and that’s all you care about.
Self-Deprecating humour is being able to laugh at yourself and not take yourself too seriously. A commonly held belief is that people who can admit their shortcomings with a smile are much more approachable, and being able to laugh at yourself helps build trust with others.
HOWEVER…
Why Self-Deprecating Humour Doesn’t Work Well for Coaches, Speakers, or Content Creators
Self-deprecating humour is all about having a go, pointing out your inadequacies or attacking yourself so that others get a laugh from you being funny.
But as a coach, speaker, or content creator, using humour to “be funny” is the wrong focus.
Removes expert status
What self-deprecating humour does in a business context is it removes your expert status. If you are tearing yourself down, it permits others to do the same. It doesn’t position you as the expert. Sure, your audience will get a laugh, but in the end, will they trust you to be the one to solve their problems?
Feeds the impostor syndrome
When you start using self-deprecating syndrome, this feeds all the stories that you are talking about with impostor syndrome. If you tell others that you aren’t good enough or aren’t smart enough just to get some laughs, your impostor syndrome will kick in, and your inner critic will agree with these stories you are telling yourself.
Remember, what you tell yourself is as important as what you tell your market. So please make sure that you are having all of these things aligned.
The right way to use humour for your business
As a Speaker, Coach or Content Creator, a better focus for humour is to look at how you can strategically use humour in your business to get attention, connection, and engagement with your audience.
Instead of using self-deprecating humour to be funny, rather be funny on purpose. This means using humour in a way that is relevant to your message and engages your market. The main purpose of humour in business is not for laughter but for engagement.
If you want to find out what these steps entail so you can be funny on purpose, then sign up for my Funny On Purpose Humour Short Course today. It’s a three-part series that you can watch at your own pace focused on how speakers, coaches, and content creators can use humour for their business.
