There’s a lot of ways to promote yourself and I’ve certainly discussed a lot of them on this site – everything from How To Get Thousands Of Fans By Acting Like You Need 10, to How To Get More Twitter Followers. I’ve even talked about how to promote yourself by not promoting yourself at all.

But while tactics like those can be very effective if you choose to implement them, there’s an overriding guideline you can follow to ensure that anything you do to promote yourself will be more effective. And it’s so simple that it’s just three words you can apply to anything you do to promote yourself.

The secret to successful promotion is to tell your story. [tweet this]

Here’s why…

Stories Are Powerful

There’s a reason why stories have been around for thousands of years and why they get passed on from generation to generation – it’s because they’re incredibly powerful.

Stories take information and add an emotional bent to it that people connect with – in short, a good story makes people care about something.

It might inspire people, might entertain them, might anger them, or might make them feel some other emotion, but ultimately a good story will make somebody feel something. Stories get people’s attention, stick in people’s minds, and impact the people who hear them.

On the flipside, raw information is much more likely to be ignored.

Think about your own tendencies as a consumer – do you tend to be more engaged with stories or just raw information?

And yet, most comics focus their promotional efforts around sharing information as opposed to telling stories.

“I have a show this week,” “Watch my new video,” “Join my email list,” etc. – these are all common examples of comics pushing out information to people as opposed to telling a story that fans (or potential fans) would be more likely to care about.

Everybody has a different story and there’s no single way for you to tell yours, but it’s worth considering how you can incorporate stories into how you promote yourself and your comedy.

The Three Chapters Of Your Story

While your story will certainly be unique to you, there are essentially three “chapters” to it that are universal. No matter how you decide to tell your story to the world, you’ll want to tell it in a way that allows people to connect to all three aspects of it.

Where You’ve Been: People will be interested in your background and they’ll be interested in the experiences that have formed you. Don’t be afraid to let them know how you grew up, where you came from, what inspired you when you were younger, and how you got to where you are.

The more you let people know about your backstory, the more likely they will start to see similarities to their own and the more likely they will be to start to care about your future. The story of Where You’ve Been can function like the first chapter in a story – it’s your way of building interest in the main character (you), and in turn it will make any stories you tell going forward more interesting to people.

For example, how much less interesting would filmmaker Kevin Smith be to fans if they never knew about his background as a guy who was so passionate about making movies that he maxed out his credit cards to make Clerks?

Where You’re At: Comics tend to exaggerate the level they’re at in their career when promoting themselves or their work – that’s a mistake.Don’t be afraid to be honest about where you’re at in your comedy career (even if you just started a week ago) and tell the stories of what you’re actually going through at the moment.

The stories of an open mic comic can be just as interesting as the stories of a headlining comic…if they’re told well. [tweet this]

You know what’s not interesting? The stories of an open mic comic who pretends they’re more than an open mic comic. Look at the experiences you’re having right now as an opportunity to share those stories with people as opposed to thinking you have to wait until you’re rich and famous to have a story to tell. Most people aren’t rich and famous and can’t relate to the stories of people who are – it’s actually much easier for them to relate to stories of people who are struggling to succeed.

What you might see as a challenge is actually an opportunity.

Where You’re Going: Don’t be afraid to share your goals and dreams as part of the story you tell to potential fans. People will be more likely to connect to you (and rally around you) if they know where you’re hoping to go and more importantly, why you want to go there. A great non-comedy example of this is social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk who constantly references that he hopes to someday own the New York Jets.

Does that have anything to do with his business? No, but it’s become a big part of his story. His fans know that’s his dream and that makes him more human.

Your Story Should Influence Everything You Create

Now that you (hopefully) are starting to think through what your story is and how you can tell it to people, the next thing to do is to realize that your story should influence everything you create. Your content – everything from your material on stage, to your tweets, to your videos, to your website, to your blog posts, to anything else you create – should be a reflection of the overall story you’re trying to tell.

That doesn’t mean you can’t sometimes create stuff just for the sake of it being funny, but ultimately you want it all to reflect your personal story. That may seem restrictive at first glance, but it actually should make content creation easier for you because if gives you a focus. If you’ve always wanted to blog but have no idea what to blog about, then why not start by telling your story?

Let the concept of “telling your story” be something that can guide you, help you find your voice and use it as a means to make your promotional efforts more compelling and less spammy.

For example, the next time you’ve got a show to promote take a couple minutes to think about if there’s a way to promote that show in the context of a story as opposed to just telling people to come to it. This is just a random example, but which of these tweets do you think people would be more interested in:

The Info Option: “I’m performing at the Local Comedy Club this Saturday night. Buy tickets here! (with a link to the tickets page)”

The Story Option: “Here’s 3 things I’m going to try for the first time ever on stage this Saturday night (with a link to a blog post on the subject)”

That’s just a random example, but hopefully it helps get across the idea that you can use storytelling to change the way you promote anything and drive more interest, attention, clicks, and most importantly – caring.

One Final Thought…

While a focus on telling your story can be a really helpful tool when it comes to promoting yourself (and creating content for that matter), it’s important to recognize that it won’t work if you’re not a good storyteller. It also won’t work if you try to make up your story – it’s got to be real because people will see through you if you’re trying to create an “image” of yourself that isn’t accurate.

Just like anything, it will take time for you to get a handle on what your story is and how to tell it, but the rewards if you do it right can be huge.

Most comics fall into one of two categories when it comes to promotion – either they’re so uncomfortable promoting themselves that they never want to tell anybody about anything they do, or they’re so in love with themselves that they turn their social media feeds into promotional spam machines.

But I’ve got a strategy that can actually help both of these groups  – a way to grow your fanbase without promoting yourself at all.

It turns out one of the best ways to grow your fanbase is to promote others instead of  yourself [tweet this].

Here’s why…

Imagine what would happen if you decided that for a year you were not going to promote anything you did – not your shows, not your album, not videos of your act, not your podcast, nothing. Sure, you’d keep producing those things and performing, but you just wouldn’t actively promote them through your social media channels.

Instead, you would use your feeds solely to share the absolute best creations you could find from other people – the funniest videos, most interesting podcasts, or best stand ups you could find. You would set out to build a reputation for yourself as an incredible resource for great, cool, interesting, and hilarious stuff. To become somebody that other people had to follow because they would view you as a conduit to great things.

This might seem counterintuitive when what you really want is people to become fans of your comedy, but if you tried this and did it successfully, a few things would likely happen…

You Would Inspire Yourself And Learn What’s Truly Great

As you searched for great things to share to establish yourself as a must-follow curator of content, you would also learn a ton in the process. You’d likely expose yourself to inspiring stuff you otherwise might not have found, and you’d start to get a sense of what kinds of things people are drawn to, without being biased by gauging people’s reactions to your own creations. It would give you a sort of meta view on what works and what doesn’t.

Your Social Media Feed Would Become Infinitely Better

I don’t care how great you are at tweeting, making videos, or performing standup – there’s no way your own creations can be as consistently good as a curated list of the best stuff the world has to offer. As a result, your social media feeds will become much stronger (and less cluttered with your own self promotion), which in turn will give people more reason to follow you and tell others about you. Additionally, the sheer volume of content at your disposal will allow your feeds to be much more active than they might be if you were only posting your own stuff.

You Would Build Up Trust And Goodwill From Your Followers

Imagine giving people a year’s worth of great stuff without ever asking them for anything. Think about how that would shape people’s opinions of you as a person and their willingness to support you down the road in whatever you do. Think about how it would separate you from the thousands of other comics out there asking people to come see their shows every weekend.

You Would Build Valuable Connections

Any time you mention somebody on Twitter or share links to somebody’s video or blog post, there’s a good chance that person will notice and be appreciative. Again, imagine doing this for a year and think about how many people you could build relationships with after they noticed you consistently promoting their stuff without ever asking for anything in return. Now think about how those relationships could naturally lead to everything from stage time, to writing opportunities, to countless other things.

You Would Avoid Exposing Yourself Before You’re Ready

The earlier you are in your comedy career, the better a strategy this probably is for you [tweet this!]. That’s because no matter who you are it will take years to “get good,” and while there’s nothing wrong with posting clips of yourself online as you’re finding your way, spending all your time promoting those clips probably isn’t the best use of your social media feeds. By concentrating on using social media in a non-self-promotional way, you’ll likely prevent yourself from making some mistakes early on.

You Would Attract The Audience You Ultimately Want For Yourself

Ideally, the stuff you share with your followers over the course of the year would be targeted toward an audience whose interests match your own comedic voice or niche. So, the following that you build by promoting other people’s stuff and establishing yourself as a great curator of content would also be an audience likely to enjoy your own creations down the road.

You Would Feel Great About Yourself

I understand that promoting yourself can be tough sometimes – you’re making yourself vulnerable to rejection and it’s easy to feel like you’re constantly asking people for favors. But…if you eliminated self promotion from your social media strategy, then suddenly that pressure disappears. You go from feeling conflicted about what you’re posting to genuinely posting things for altruistic reasons. You should feel great about sharing other people’s great stuff and confident you’re truly providing a service to your followers – inspiring them, giving them a laugh, helping save them time.

Now For The One Giant Asterisk…

If you’re still reading this by now you probably think it’s either a great idea or you think I’ve lost my mind. But I want to say there is one big catch when it comes to this strategy – it only works if you curate GREAT stuff. If the stuff you’re sharing isn’t consistently entertaining or if you start just sharing mediocre stuff as favors to friends, this won’t work because people will never associate you with great stuff and want to follow you in the first place.

The whole advantage of not flooding your feeds with your own stuff (regardless of whether or not it’s awesome) is that it frees you up to ensure you only post stuff that’s amazing. Because when promotion isn’t a goal, your only goal becomes giving people things they’ll love.

I’m certainly not saying that’s easy to do and it will take some work on your part, but it’s absolutely do-able. And if you do it, it will work and you’ll attract a much bigger following that you will ultimately be able to convert into fans down the road.

So…are you ready to take a hiatus from promoting yourself and start promoting others instead?

More Stuff To Read About Being A Curator

Here’s a few other posts I’ve written about this topic:

• 5 Reasons You Should Curate As Much As You Create

• How I Got 2 Million People To Visit My Website In 6 Months

• 5 Things You Can Learn From The Success Of Chris Hardwick and Nerdist

If you found this post helpful, please take a moment to share it on Twitter – thanks!

“How do I find my voice?”

Everybody in the comedy business talks a lot about how important it is to find your comedy “voice” and as a result I get asked all the time by comics for some advice about how they can actually go about doing that.

Every comic’s voice is different and so too will be the process you undertake to find yours, however there are a few broad things you should understand that may help you discover your elusive comedy voice. Here’s a few of them…

1. Your Voice Is Your Attitude And Perspective

For starters, some comics don’t even understand what is meant when people refer to your “voice.” Essentially it means what is the attitude or perspective that runs through all of your material, your performance, your delivery, and ultimately who you are as a comedian. Everything you do should be reflective of a particular outlook on the world, and that outlook is what forms your voice.

2. Your Voice Is Unique

What can you say to the world that nobody else can? What unique viewpoint or message do you have to get across through your comedy that only you can have as a result of the experiences you’ve had in your life? The more unique your voice is, the more likely you are to break through and stand out from every other comedian out there.

3. Your Voice Is Authentic

You can’t fake your voice – it has to be genuine. While a lot of comedians don’t think the audience is very smart, that’s actually a misconception. The vast majority of people can tell when somebody is being authentic to who they are and when their material (or persona) is fraudulent. Don’t try to “create” your voice, try to discover it.

4. Your Voice Will Take Time To Find

There’s no shortcuts to finding your comedy voice – it takes a lot of time, effort, and experimentation. That’s because you not only need a lot of time to generate material and try that material on stage, but you also need enough life experiences to really shape what your voice will become. Be patient. And persistent.

5. Your Voice Will Evolve

Because your comedic voice will reflect your life experiences it will also evolve as your life does. Just like the person you are in your 40’s will be different than the person you are in your 20’s, so too will your comedic voice and that’s ok. Understand going into this that you will never be a finished product and that your voice should change to reflect your changing perspective on life.

For example – when Chris Rock first started out he certainly wasn’t doing material about what it’s like to be living in a rich neighborhood (because he didn’t), but now that’s very much a part of his voice as you can see in this clip.

6. Your Voice Is As Important As Your Jokes

It’s important to be able to write a good joke, but if you can combine that skill with a truly unique voice, then you’re really on to something. There’s a lot of comics out there that have good jokes, are solid performers, and never really make it past a certain point. And the reason for that is usually because they don’t have a distinctive voice that sets them apart from the crowd.

7. Your Voice Needs To Be Consistent

In order for your voice to really connect with people you need for it to be consistent. You can’t have an anti-establishment outlook on the world in one bit and then suddenly be pro-establishment in the next or else your voice will seem disjointed and nobody will be quite sure what to think of you. For example, if your comedic voice is that of a “nerd,” then it’s unlikely that bits about how you were a cool kid in high school are really going to fit your voice. This is another reason why it’s important when considering what your comedic voice is to choose carefully because it will ultimately impact your material and every other decision you make about your career.

8. Your Voice Is What You Stand For

If you think about any successful comedian, you can probably describe in an instant what they stand for – and that description is a reflection of their voice. You know why Doug Stanhope is different than Jerry Seinfeld and why Sam Kinison was different than Richard Pryor. Virtually every comic that succeeds on that level has a clearly defined outlook on the world that shines through their comedy – in short, you know what they stand for on and off the stage.

9. Your Voice Is Vulnerable

In order to find and develop your comedic voice, you have to be willing to be vulnerable. You can’t hide who you really are – in fact, you have to do just the opposite. You have to be willing and able to show the world who you are and be willing to accept that the result of that won’t always feel great. Because…

10. Your Voice Isn’t For Everyone

Just like not everybody is going to like your comedy, not everybody is going to like your voice either. And that’s ok. Actually, it’s better than ok. Don’t worry about trying to appeal to broad audiences – just worry doing what’s genuine to your life and experiences and know that there will be other people who connect to that. And it’s those people that are the ones that actually matter and the ones that will enable you to have a long and successful career. The haters? They’re meaningless.

More Stuff To Read About Finding Your Voice

Here’s a few other posts I’ve written that touch on issues related to finding your voice:

• 4 Reasons To Stop Comparing Yourself To Other Comedians

• How To Stand Out In A Crowd Of 10,000 Comedians

• How To Find Your Comedy Niche

“How do I start doing comedy?”

I get asked this all the time by people who have just decided to give comedy a try but have no idea how or where to begin. So, I’ve put together a few quick suggestions for comedy newbies that I think will help you get headed in the right direction no matter what type of comedy you’re pursuing – stand up, writing, acting, etc.

Also, if you’re a veteran comedian who happens to be reading this please take a moment to post a comment with some advice of your own for newcomers – I’d love to make this post as helpful a resource as possible for new comedians and I’m sure you guys can help me do by sharing the lessons you’ve learned over the years.

Here’s my suggestions for things comics should do when they’re first starting out…

1. Be Honest With Yourself About Why You’re Doing This

The chances are you don’t know exactly why you’ve decided to give comedy a try, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth taking a couple minutes to think about it. Are you trying to build a career in comedy or is it just something that you envision more as a hobby for yourself? Are you doing it because you’re passionate about it or because your friends keep telling you to give it a shot?

There’s no right or wrong answer to any of this – but the better sense you have of what you’re trying to get out of comedy before you even start doing it, the easier it will be for you to figure out what to do and to measure your progress along the way.

2. Immerse Yourself In Comedy

If you want to be a good comedian, you better be a good comedy fan first.

Thanks to YouTube, Netflix, podcasts and this list of classic comedy specials there’s never been better access to literally every comedian that’s ever gotten a laugh and one of the first things you should do is immerse yourself in the world to educate yourself. The more comedy you watch (and perhaps more importantly, see in person), the more you will learn about what works, what doesn’t, and what resonates with the type of comedian you’d ultimately like to be.

If you don’t love watching comedy, the chances are you’ll never be a very good comedian.

3. Make Stuff

No matter what type of comedy you want to pursue, it’s critical to start performing and/or making stuff as soon as you can. It will take a long time to find your voice and figure out how to “get good,” so you need to seek out opportunities to learn by doing. You won’t get better at standup by just performing to a mirror, and your great web series idea won’t be great until you start actually filming it (and probably not until you’ve filmed a bunch of them first).

Don’t worry about failing when you start out, just worry about making. Which leads me to my next suggestion…

4. Experiment

In the process of making lots of stuff, don’t be afraid to experiment with different formats and types of comedy in an effort to find out what you ultimately want to concentrate on. As I’ve said before, don’t fail victim to the fear that every comedian must conquer.

5. Broaden Your Definition Of What It Means To Be A Comedian

Even if your passion is stand up comedy, don’t pigeonhole yourself into thinking that’s all you need to do to succeed because that’s a recipe for frustration. Here’s why you need to think bigger if you’re hoping to have a career in comedy.

6. Network

One of the keys to building a successful comedy career is also one of the least talked about – the importance of networking with other people in the business. Every comedian, booker, venue owner, and assorted person you cross paths with in the course of pursuing comedy can potentially be a huge asset to your career down the road. Try to meet and connect with as many people as you can (regardless of the level they’re at in their own career), always be professional, and never be an asshole (easier said than done, I know). Ultimately, the relationships you develop will be almost as important as the talent you develop.

Too many comics think of the comedy business as a lone wolf industry where networking doesn’t really matter as much as it would in the business world, but in actuality networking might matter even more in comedy than it does in traditional business.

7. Be Patient

If you decide to go after a career in comedy get ready to be patient. Know that it’s going to take years (probably at least a decade) to make any kind of real progress financially and there will be tons of frustration along the way – and on top of that, there’s no guarantee that you’ll ever actually “make it.” In fact, the overwhelming odds are that you’ll never be able to make a living from comedy.

I don’t say that to deter you from pursuing it, because there will always be people that succeed and you can certainly be one of those people – but you need to understand going into it what you’re actually taking on. Are you prepared to be patient enough to put in a decade before seeing any real results? Because that’s what comedy is, and that’s the path you’re choosing if you want to be a professional comedian.

More Reading For New Comedians…

Here’s a few more things I’ve written that you might want to read as you get ready to launch your comedy adventure…

• How To Be A Comedian Who Succeeds

• What It Really Means To Be In The Comedy Business

• 10 Things Comedians Wish Somebody Told Them When They Started Comedy

If you’re a veteran comedian and have some suggestions to add to this post for newbies, please post your suggestions in the comments below. Thanks!