For the last ten years, I’ve had a difficult relationship with comedy.
If you weren’t aware, in addition to my “day job” as a small business advisor, I’ve also spent too many hours in front of a microphone trying to make strangers chuckle.
So I have an unique vantage point, as a sometime comedian with an MBA, on the attempted acquisition of Alex Jones’ Infowars by the famed satirical rag, The Onion.
The story involves two strange bedfellows, M&A and satire, and the power of comedy to heal.
And for the business owner it shows us:
Laughing to prevent the tears
Nearly two years ago, The Onion made a bid to acquire the assets of Alex Jones following the defamation suit against him from victims of the Sandy Hook massacre. For years, Jones made money selling fake pills to listeners while he lied to his audience, claiming (among other prevarications) that the 20 children killed by Adam Lanza on December 14, 2012 were, in fact, alive. I’ll pause to note that there is no horror I can imagine worse than losing your child to an act of violence.
Some feeble version of justice was brought to the families when Jones’ was held liable for defamation and causing emotional stress and ordered to pay over $1.4 Billion to the families he terrorized.
Jones said he would never pay.
Enter, The Onion.
The plan, however quixotic, was to acquire Jones’ assets out of bankruptcy in order to turn the profits from the empire into a paycheck for the victims’ families. By keeping the value of the brand alive, they could ensure that any eventual exit would provide compensation to the families.
Business and comedy: married at last.
A famed satirical site takes a stand
For the uninitiated, The Onion is a satirical news publication founded in 1988. They skewer corporate media, politicians and our society in general in turns absurd, but often deeply tragic.
Like all great comedians they have no fear of calling out lies in the hopes of revealing something true.
For years, after every heartbreaking American tragedy from gun violence, they would post the headline, "No Way To Prevent This’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
The abject failure of our political representatives to protect us from a self-induced epidemic of violence could rightfully be met with rage.
The Onion, instead, used satire.
All of this funny-business has actually been great for business.
According to a recent Fact Company article, The Onion’s print distribution stands at 65,000 subscribers. That’s more print readers than the famed Boston Globe. On a recent episode of The Daily, The Onion CEO, Ben Collins touted The Onion as the 5th largest newspaper in the U.S.
Brand values matter
You can’t ask for a better hero vs. villain dynamic here.
Instead of thinking about this as a media story, let’s just think of this as two private businesses with competing products.
As we have shared before, we are in a marketplace for our attention.
On one side you have someone whose fundamental business model is deception.
Jones attracted his audience with mendacious content and monetized them by selling BS pills. He pursued shameless profits through immoral means and there is a distilled form of schadenfreude in watching him laid low.
On the other hand, The Onion has made a play at acquiring Jones’ media assets for the purpose of restoring justice to families that have gone through unspeakable tragedy.
The one promising to reveal “truth” only lied and the ones telling jokes stood for something true.
And that could partially why The Onion is having such success in this brutal media environment.
They stand for something bigger than money.
What do you stand for? Do you live the company values you claim? Or are you just pushing fake pills on someone so you can get a bigger house?
Whatever the answer, your customers know and feel the difference.
“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”
~ Oscar Wilde
I first started doing stand-up about 4 years before launching Kasvaa. I was working at a consulting shop and investment bank and was worried my boss would find out.
I didn’t want him to think I was a clown!
Then one day a co-worker asked me how the joke slinging was going in front of him and to my disbelief, he was excited about it.
He said, in essence, telling jokes doesn’t make you a clown; it makes you interesting.
Indeed, I’ve had many business meetings with prospects and potential partners where they mention they were interested in my dalliance as a jester. Comedy seemed to open doors in business that I didn’t expect. I even performed in Vegas on a few occasions with my clients in the audience.
While I have had a smattering of decent performances, I’m not exactly a household name on the comedy circuit.
However, I think my comfort to fail in front of audiences speaks to a parallel authenticity I’ve tried to cultivate with clients.
The reason that the Sandy Hook families accepted and even celebrated The Onion’s plan was likely the authenticity of their position. They believe that even jokes should make a point.
Are you comfortable being yourself with your customers?
Or do you feel if they get to know you they won’t respect you?
While we should try to match the professionalism of the people with whom we work, it’s important to communicate your humanity and even your occasional ambivalence.
As a business consultant, our clients often think we have all the answers.
But I routinely remind my clients what I don’t know.
Similarly, I try to remind them how difficult the work can be.
Two things clients hire Kasvaa to do: sales and M&A.
Both of these things tend to fail more than they succeed.
If I told my clients that we would never fail, I’d be lying.
Instead, my job is to authentically represent the challenge and hope that we can find a path around, over or through it.
Authenticity is critical in trusting relationships.
Running into conflict
In business and comedy, conflict is inevitable.
Strong leaders and comics recognize this and approach it directly.
It was also the same week that some lunatic tried to blow himself up in his car in Times Square. Thankfully, the terror plot was foiled when police found the car emitting smoke out of the cracks in the windows. With the horrors of September 11 still closely behind, it was a bit unnerving for NYC residents.
But that night Letterman didn’t miss a beat. In his opening monologue he referenced the scene everyone knew about and then said, “Don’t worry. It turns out the smoking van was just Willie Nelson’s tour bus.” (Willie is famous for smoking certain plants).
Letterman brought a bit of catharsis to the audience. Here we were just a few blocks from an incident that could have been something truly horrible.
Dave’s response was to belittle the would-be terrorist and remind us of the fun we had in store with Willie about to take the stage.
Comics run toward conflict, because that’s where the juice is. Surprise, tickle, shock, offense are all just verbs on a spectrum that describe the audience’s reaction to a verbal missive.
And in business, we sometimes need to be okay with going toward the conflict.
Here again, The Onion sees that the best way to expose Jones as a charlatan is to make fun of him and turn profits over to the family.
And in pursuing conflict they turn an ogre into an insignificant mote of dust.
So how can you run into conflict with your customers?
One way is to ask about competition in your sales process.
Think about the last interaction you had in sales. Did you ask the customer what other options they were considering? Did you help them review rival proposals?
I love to do this for a few reasons.
One, it shows I am confident in my approach. I don’t mind complimenting a competitor if I think they have a good idea.
Second, I am just bringing to the fore what is already going on inside my customer’s head. Like a comic, I am not afraid to say what the audience is probably thinking.
Lastly, by diving into competitive conflict, I can help my customers think through tradeoffs. The outcome will not be determined by my suave presentation, but by their decision-making. Therefore, I am trying to get them to talk through why they might pursue the various solutions and force the conflict that will happen with or without me. For more on this framework, check out this article.
Conclusion
It seems obvious: authenticity matters.
Customers can sense it and feel it.
It builds trust.
On the reality show, Top Chef, the judges would often ask contestants if they “stand behind their dish.” It was a way of sorting chefs that believed in what they were doing versus the ones that just threw some food on a plate.
Do you stand behind your product suite?
If so, I’d love to talk and help you sell that baby to more deserving customers.