Lesson 30: A humorous review of some key principles that will come in handy soon

All about humor & other principles

Last time I talked about how Sam doesn’t feel much affinity with perfect people. You must be “real” with him.

This is obviously the principle of candor in action, forming rapport.

Today we’re going to look at another important technique for establishing rapport which is, in my opinion, as effective as it is underused: humor.

This relies on both candor and contrast.

Like all candor techniques, this is hard because it requires you to write in ways that conflict with “received wisdom” and even your own natural instincts. But if you think about how you tend to establish rapport with people in real life, you will see the method behind my madness.

Truthfully, however, I’m not sure it’s possible to teach humor. And I don’t mean for you to be a comedian in any case — rather, I want you to simply not stifle your sense of humor when you write copy. So to finish off this week, I am going to use a very old, very funny marketing campaign to inspire you — and also to reiterate some important concepts that you should review.