Chris, hi everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of relationships rule. This week, we're exploring the powerful intersection of video authenticity and online connection. My guest is Chris Bogue, a video coach, improv performer and sales strategist who helps professionals use short, impactful video content to stand out and build real
relationships on platforms like LinkedIn. Of course, LinkedIn, being my favorite, that's where we'll focus in a digital world where most people just scroll past, Chris teaches us how to stop the scroll and start the conversation. If you've ever wanted to show up more confidently and connect more meaningfully online. You'll love this conversation. So welcome to the show, Chris,
thanks for having me. My dog is making a bunch of noise trying to get my attention. That's okay. I can't hear him at all. Or put her in the I might need to put her in the crate. All right, go ahead. Go for it.
Okay, Chris, so first question I want to ask you is, can you take us back to when you first realized video could be a relationship building tool, not just a marketing tactic?
Ooh, yeah. So I stumbled into video kind of by accident. Do I was not an online content creator. I was doing comedy on the stage. I was not doing anything on video, but I had a little bit of experience on camera. I've done a little bit of work on television. I've done some web series, I've done some things on video. And I was selling to universities. At the time, I was selling AI based software to universities as part
of the job that I was doing that was my full time job. COVID happened all of a sudden the three best ways to reach our prospects were no longer available to us. So three best ways to reach college professors and university administrators was visit them on campus, visit them at an educational conference, or call their office, which all three of those suddenly were no longer available, right? Nobody on
campus, nobody's in their office anymore. I still had a quota to hit, so I was thinking about, how can I get these people's attention? How can I talk to them? How can I read? I reach these people who've been ignoring me and my company for
years? And I got on video, and I started talking straight to the camera, and I started sending super short, like 32nd videos to my prospects, and I quickly realized that I could get a meeting with just about anybody like people who were ignoring my messages and ignoring my company's message, ignoring our cold emails for years, all of a sudden, I was able to get their attention and get them in a conversation, and I hit my quota super early. So
let me stop you there for a second. So were you creating video on your phone and just sending it through in an email. What? Yeah,
so this was a very primitive version of, like, I was just emailing them like a YouTube link. Okay? I didn't know what I was I didn't know how to film videos. I didn't know how to edit videos. I didn't know how to if anybody goes and watches my stuff on LinkedIn today, it's very fancy. I've got multiple characters and transitions and all sorts of
crazy things on screen. I didn't know how to do any of that. I was not a video editor, but I figured out that if you just talk straight to the audience and you send it directly to them, they kind of got to respond to you, or at least when you talk to them and you're like, I'm a guy that sent you a video. Do you have a minute to talk? They will know who you are exactly. And it's this kind of wonderful format where you know when you cold call somebody, they're on the defensive, right?
They don't want to tell you the truth, because if they do, maybe you'll keep them on the phone longer. They don't know when like they want to get away. The video is nice, because even if somebody doesn't agree with me, they're listening. They're like, what is this guy? What is he saying? So I'm like, All right, I'm going to be a video sales coach, because I don't see
anybody else doing that. So I started coaching people to do the video thing, just like, on a whim, I started making videos on LinkedIn, because I'm like, Well, I want people to hire me as the video guy. They're not going to do that unless they can see that I'm good on video. So I started making video content, and then that just kind of blew up, because I have the secret background as a sketch comedy performer, not only a sketch
comedy performer, a sketch comedy writer and director. I spent many years in Chicago's writing shows, directing shows for actors that were not me. And I developed, you know, a set of chops over the years because I just I performed for so many hundreds of audiences, tourists from all over the world come to Chicago to watch these kinds of shows, right? So I got a lot of experience working small rooms do. Doing improv sets with small
groups of people trying to bring down the house. And I was like, I don't see anyone doing that kind of stuff on LinkedIn, right? So I started kind of finding my own style on LinkedIn. I was like, I have to teach people how to do sales. I have teach people to do video, but I'm gonna infuse my style into it. And my style involves sketch comedy. It involves a lot of interactive crowd work. A big difference between improv and theater is in improv, the audience is part of the show.
You constantly go into the audience and getting ideas from them. You're pulling them up onto the stage and into the games with you sometimes. So I'm very comfortable in a totally live moment with a random stranger, right? Most people aren't. So started doing stuff on LinkedIn. It worked like a charm. Started getting coaching clients, started getting consulting gigs, started getting voice acting gigs, all this stuff. I started getting all these opportunities. And people
would hire me, and I would come in. I'm like, Okay, I'm going to teach you video prospecting for sales. You make a little 32nd video, and you send it directly in the What are you doing on LinkedIn? What is this madness you're doing? Yes, in my news feed, because I keep seeing you there. And I want to learn how to do that too. And so I started teaching content, and now I teach this kind of infused system where it is is the outbound and the inbound. They are not separate things. They
are connected always. And I have a lot of fun doing it, and I just go out there and try to do things that I don't think the audience will expect well,
and I think that's, that's the biggest piece right there. One, that you're talented at it and and it's comfortable for you. But two, it's disruptive, because there's nobody out there doing that except you, and you are unique in in what you do. I mean, there's a there are other comedians or whatever out there trying to be funny, but it has
to come from. It has to be internal. It's funny. I was when I was driving home this afternoon thinking about the fact that we were going to be meeting and our interview, I was listening to a podcast. And I don't know if you ever do you listen to podcast? Well, you have a podcast too, right? Yeah, do you listen to smart lists at all?
Sounds familiar? It's not on my
it's probably one of the top podcasts out there for actually, entertainment. It's Will, Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes, and they were interviewing Amy Poehler, who was married to Will Arnett, actually, right at one point. So they were all very funny. And she's, I love her. She's She, of course, she's a writer too, at heart. Anyway, it just made me think it was ironic, because that's your world Second City,
right? And that's and she said in that interview, which I was surprised at she was never she said on the main stage at Second City,
now that no, no most, no ground on the main stage, that would mean
something to you more than me. But yeah, I thought that was interesting. Yeah, and she would have
been on the main stage she went to start the Upright Citizens Brigade theater.
That's right, that's right, that's right. Which, yeah, she
did improv Olympics. She did other stages at Second City. There's a lot of there's like, millions of people, I don't know about millions, but like, a lot of people have done this kind of training. Yes,
I know, I know. But most of them are not hanging out on LinkedIn like you. So let me yes, no,
you agree. Want to make your point. I've got, I've got things to jump off on whenever you Okay,
so what would you say, then, makes a great video introduction on LinkedIn. What do you include and what do you leave out? So you're doing a video intro with someone, or you're doing a video for the first time, or you're introducing yourself to this audience right on your news feed,
right? So let's take a step back and talk about Amy Poehler and improv for Okay, okay, so the reason why I started doing improv out here is because when you see someone like Amy Poehler or Will Arnett and they're doing stuff, you're like, oh my gosh, they're so fantastic. I could never think that fast. I could never do that. But actually, all improvisers are trained in this very simple framework, and that framework is called yes and yes and yes. I do know that yes and
yes comma and you have to yes and your partner. There's only and there's all these different schools of improv. Amy started her own School of Theater. So the Upright Citizens Brigade is its own thing. Second City is a different thing. There's the Groundlings, which is in Los Angeles. Us. They are a different thing. Each of the schools has their own kind of philosophy, like the own thing that they emphasize. Ironically enough, in Chicago, we emphasize the relationship. That's
probably why I'm on relationship rules, right? But a scene is all about the relationship. Who are you to each other? The Groundlings is more about the character. Okay? All about building a strong character. That's where Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell and them from the Upright Citizens Brigade, is more about the game of the scene. What are you doing together? What is the thing that you are doing that is really
what the what the UCB focuses on. So there's all these different types of schools to play, but you can throw anybody on stage who has been trained in any of these styles, and they can do a scene together, because they are always functioning on that principle of Yes, and you do not get to second guess your partner. It doesn't matter that your partner said something, and you have a better idea in your head. You have to take what they give you and go and then the and comes in, then you add on to
that. So how do you make a video for LinkedIn? When I am starting with a new cohort of people, when I am working with people for the first time on LinkedIn, before I have them make any video, the first thing I have them do is go talk to the audience. On week one, I give them assignment. I go go out there and ask your audience one question and report back to next
session. You mean in a in a post, is that what you mean in a
post? Make a post. Okay, make a poll. I use the poll feature all the time. I do too. Ask your audience something, and then in session number two, then we make the video, and we're doing it because you are yes, and in the audience, you're gonna go out there and you're gonna say, Hey, I am. I've been thinking about this subject. I want to know what you think. Then your audience is gonna tell you, and
maybe you agree with them, maybe you disagree with them. I actually think the most interesting videos are the ones where I disagree with my audience, or I might, hey, 70% of my audience thinks this. Here's why I think they're wrong. Here's what I think they're missing. But,
but it's a teachable moment in that case,
yes, building a shared context. Okay, that's the thing in improv. You have to snap into the scene immediately. That's why it's so important to say yes, because you don't have time for backstory. You don't have time to come up with the funniest idea on Earth. You have to have a shared context that you both agree to. You both need to agree with what reality is. So, yeah, it's like, what do you want to talk to your audience about? Who do you want your audience to be? That is the more
challenging question. Usually people want to appeal to everyone, right? A little bit, you got to get a little bit choosy about who would you like to be in the audience. Stop complaining about the algorithm. Let's assume you control the algorithm, right? And you can send your content to anybody you want. On Earth. Who would you want that to actually go to? It's
a good way to put it, yeah. Start there, yeah. And you go
ask them a question, and, you know, be creative about the question. I say it's good to ask questions about trends, about controversies. I like asking about things that I don't actually know the answer to. Like, which of these three things do you think is worth spending the most time on? Or which do you think people spend
too much time on? Or I've had a lot of my great comedy videos, because I will make a post being like, I do this literally every year, January of every single year, I go, which of these catchphrases are you most sick of? And I give like three of the top buzzwords of the past year. And then the fourth option is comment with your own right. And this gives your audience a chance to become the storyteller they're gonna they're gonna start giving you stuff.
Yeah, so then it becomes common ground, because you brought it up, they've answered you. Now you've got this base from which to to talk. And
we're gonna talk about how the blank page is the enemy, and how people get in their heads when they have to sit there and think of the most brilliant thing ever. But no, you don't have to think of the most brilliant thing ever, right? You asked a question. Your audience gave you a real answer. They commented and they gave you their real thoughts and feelings and opinions. And now you got to go do 30 seconds about that.
Got it. And speaking of that, is that the average time of a video post you would do between what 30 and 60 seconds. Usually, I don't
like to put a strict time limit on the video. Okay? I will say every five to seven seconds, you could lose your audience. Do you always could. We are in this one. World where everybody is competing for attention. So the longer your video is, or wonderful things, you have to keep putting in
there, to keep them going through to the very end. So it's harder sometimes to make a longer video, but if you do it with intention, if there is a reason, and if you have an ability to pull somebody through from beginning to end, you could put a five minute video out there. I think that's fine. The data says somewhere between like 60 to 120 seconds right now at
the time of the recording of this is the ideal time. But, you know, don't put yourself in a box if you got a really good idea and it's long like, what's more important is that you actually are intentional with your time and intentional with your message.
So do you cover in your course? Do you talk about the hook? Does there need to be a hook? Can you speak to that a little bit?
So the three part structure that I explain in my latest course is just hook, substance, call to action.
Got it makes sense, okay, but the hook is, right? That's what makes or breaks it. Yes,
it depends. So the hook is, so there's actually two different hooks when you're making videos, right? So hook number one is your first sentence that pops up in the feed, right? So the first this the sentence of your post, the actual text, so people see that, and then there's also the first 1.5 seconds of the actual video. So I love video because you have so many options for things you can do in that first 1.5 seconds, people are like, one and a half seconds, that's
that's not enough time. I said, No, no, that's plenty. That's plenty. You you can you have so many different ways to grab the audience's attention. You can be doing something interesting. You can have text on the screen. You can be in an interesting location. There's all these different things you can do to grab your audience's attention, but you do have to grab their attention somehow, because your audience probably was not coming there to watch a video.
Okay, that already makes me stressed. Okay, so, so when you want someone, when you're coaching them, you want them to come across as authentic and relaxed, not
awkward, right? So if this is new for them, if the video, like I've done video I've done off the cuff video, and I've done scripted video, which I don't really like, because I don't feel like me, I like more off the cuff, but then I lose, I get nervous, and so I might lose my my thought or whatever, and be umming and AWing that I don't want to but, or so, um, so when you're new at it, you're not thinking about being or you probably don't have as many ideas as you have. So can you
just give me? Well, you just gave us some ideas of of what you can do, but like, I'm just here with my camera on a tripod, and I'm not out in the world, and I just want to try it. So what would be a good hook? It's not going to be. Hi, I'm Janice, and I want to share this with you today. That's not a good
hook, no. So the you can just cut past the exposition, that's an easy thing to remember, is like, yeah, don't even bother with that. Yeah, don't bother with the exposition. If you're somebody who's nervous and you can't really think of a good hook, or it's it's preventing you from getting the video out, then my advice would be, the hook should be the last thing you come up with. And this is also why I come up with the three part structure is because you don't
need to do all three of those in the same order. Sometimes I see something, there's a waterfall, and I'm like, oh, cool, I'm right here, but that's such a beautiful waterfall. Of course, like that would be interesting if that reached out and grabbed my so I have the visual, but I don't have anything to teach my audience yet, right? I just know, okay, that would be really interesting. And again, as a comedian, you realize all the time, like, oh, it would be funny if I was out here doing X,
Y or Z. You know, sometimes I get the hook first. Normally, I get the substance first. Normally, the substance is the first thing I plan. So do you want to do? Are you going to convey something to your audience? It's usually the substance. Do you have something to say?
No, I interrupted you. I apologize, and you lost it. Okay?
So, yeah, you, let's say you want to start with the substance, right? I want to teach my audience one simple thing. Great. Now you've got that's an important part. You've got one of the three parts down, right? So go practice it. Improvise it. However you get that footage out. Your substance is the substance. But. Just because it's really useful substance does not mean it's going to catch the attention of
people who are scrolling through the feed. So if you do your substance first, once you have that done, once you have the edited, then I would probably do something like add some text on screen for that first 1.5 seconds. Maybe it's an interesting question. Maybe I've got it framed interestingly there. Oftentimes my attention grabber is an interesting first line of dialog, just one sentence that's a little bit
unusual, that can be enough to get someone's attention. And especially if you're posting video, I recommend everybody put subtitles in. If you can put captions in your video, almost all video platforms have it where you can do the auto captions. You can up. You can, you know, change those. You can make sure that the sentences are grammatically correct, but yeah, just an interesting first line of dialog, or again, just putting an interesting question. Sometimes the person is talking
about something interesting. If you just put the name of the lesson or the name of the question you're trying to answer on the screen, you just have one more tool to stop a curious person while they're scrolling through their phone, going, huh, that's an interesting question that they maybe don't know the answer to, and they're like, I'm gonna stick her. I'm gonna watch this for another three seconds to see where she's going with this.
Well, I'm just looking at a video you did about him, or, sorry, the post before the video that you did. And usually I would scroll through that first and before it looks like you're you've got someone else in here with you. I haven't gotten that far. So it says at the top, you want to get better on video. Cool. Let's start with the thing you hate the most, watching yourself. Yeah, my hands up. So I'm your I'm in right? So I like that. That's a good hook. And so that's what
you that's who you want for your audience, right? The people who are like that, who? So you, right away you've decided you've shown who you are attracting, and those are the people that are going to come and watch more and listen more. I love that.
The other thing that I want to jump here and say too, so I do in the newest course, I have a lot of material about repurposing. Oh, talk to me about that. So a lot of content creators, they make a lot of wonderful podcasts and live streams, and then nobody ever sees it. That's right, they make a video once it bombs, and then they just never try it again. You can just post the same video with a different hook
and see if it gets more traction. For example, yeah, yeah.
Like, literally, sometimes, I mean, I'll look through my videos, and the lowest performing videos are almost always I didn't have something dynamic enough in the first 1.5 seconds. Maybe I just had a title sequence, but they didn't see any human beings there, yeah, me or my guest on there. So they just, they, they kept scrolling. I didn't get them, you know. So sometimes it's just like you chop the beginning off and you put a little On screen text, and the exact same video does way better.
So if someone's just getting started, though, and they don't, it's enough to get used, to get comfortable, to be on camera, and to figure out how to do all that. I don't want to have complicated technology around putting this on the screen as well and doing the special effects. So how do how do new people start in when they come to you? Do we keep it simple? Well,
again, when they come to me that first week, I'm having them ask their question to the audience, so at the very least, you get an easy one for that first video, right? Because your attention grabber can be I asked my audience blank, yes, yeah. And now you give us your reaction. Okay? And it's another thing that I explained in the hooks thing in the hook section, that unexpected emotions, like interesting emotions, those are another thing that stopped the scroll. So you just starting
with, I asked the question and it made me feel blank. Yeah, that is inherently a strong hook. Okay,
that's good. That's great information. Do you have, like, an example, a real example, where a short video led to a valuable business relationship or opportunity, either for you or for one of your people?
Yeah? I mean, yeah. I mean all my clients, they, some of them use video better than I do, you know. But for me, it was like I lost my first coaching client because she wanted to pay me and I didn't know how to accept her money. It was the most embarrassing thing. I didn't have a business bank account. I didn't know what to do, yeah, and I asked her to write me a check, and she did. Good, and then we had to re up.
And I was just like, Okay, well, just mail me another check. And she's just like, why don't you just call me once you get your act together. But it was like, I lost like, a $12,000 contract because I just wouldn't accept the money. Yeah,
that naivety, though, got you going. I love it. Well, you
learn that it's possible. You learn someone was willing to and if you had simply been like, oh yeah, here's the payment link, thanks a lot. Yes, that would have been an extra $12,000 in your bank account. So it's like, once I realized that people wanted this knowledge, and people were willing to pay for it, but I just had to make it easy for them. Then, like, yeah, it changed my life. There's a reason why I'm doing video all the time. There's also a reason why I'm doing
entertaining video all the time. So I like to think that I'm very educational. I'm always trying to give my audience practical advice and, like, practical, useful knowledge, but I still always have a little bit of surprising sketch comedy out there. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, because it makes more money, yeah, that's when it's, it's who I am, but it's, it's also like the entertainment is in some ways more valuable than the knowledge, like the ability to grab their attention is half the
battle. And, you know, I call this talking about hooks and substance. I call it the broccoli cheese dilemma
of LinkedIn. So do explain everybody
comes to LinkedIn being like, I'm just gonna make valuable content. I'm just gonna make something that's useful for my audience. We all wanna be successful. I'm gonna give good knowledge, and that's the broccoli. That's your substance, right? You're out there giving people broccoli, and people, it's fine, healthy people, ambitious people, are gonna eat
broccoli. But somewhere along the line, you notice that people are more likely to eat your broccoli if you just sprinkle a little bit of cheese on so putting cheese on the broccoli, broccoli sales are up. People are eating it all the time. You're doing great. You're getting clients. People know who you are. Maybe you hire a marketing guru. They come in, they look at your analytics, and they're like, man, people really like this cheese. Yeah. Have you considered selling only cheese?
And then you do that, and then you lose your audience, because now you have to compete with cheese stores, and you were supposed to be selling broccoli. Yeah,
that's great story. Okay, gotta have the
substance in there, but the hook is the cheese. And unfortunately, even people who love broccoli are not necessarily gonna go grab handfuls of it from the break room. Just because you put it there. You gotta entice them with something a little bit
tasty. Yes, good point. So you you're a writer, you're an entertainer. Do you find with your um, your content, that you're getting, because you mentioned this earlier, that you're getting more people reaching out in your DMS and wanting to connect with you and wanting to find out more. Is that how you get your business? Because for me, I'm in the DMS trying to connect with people and finding more. Like we met on LinkedIn, and we had that I was curious. We had the
conversation, then we got on Zoom and had one. That's what I like to do, to meet people I'm not prolific with with content. So I'm looking at the, you know, the the yin and the yang of it really, do you get most or more of your clients through your content, or does it come down the
relationship about 5050, I and like, that's why I teach the courses I do, whereas, like most of my biggest clients, I got through outbound of some kind and like, maybe they're big fans. Maybe they click the Like button all the time. Maybe they click the comment button all the time. I do have to reach out and be like, Hey, we should chat. Yeah, okay, yeah, it doesn't. They don't just jump into the boat.
No, they know it's funny, isn't it, but you have to, okay. That brings me to an, actually, to an interesting thing that so somebody reached out to me yesterday to connect. I looked at his profile, I saw that he was connected to someone that was just on my podcast, so I kind of wondered if maybe that's how he'd heard me, because actually, I was on that guy's podcast as well, and and he said he just read an ebook of
mine, and he and great. So I started conversation with him, and I. There's a fine line between whether you say, oh, like, I asked him what brought you to reach out, you know, like, I'm curious. And he said it was something about doesn't matter. But it was, you know, it was about my touching base with
people with cards. You got a card for me, right? And so, so So then it was like, Okay, so now I've got to be careful, because I don't want to pitch him, but, you know, but he's mentioned that, so I kind of said in the next message, so do you have that's great. Do you have a system that you use? And he said, No, but would you recommend one? So now I'm in right to be able to say I do, and if you'd like, I'd be happy
to share it with you. That's it. I haven't heard back from him yet, and that just happened, but, but if you don't ask, you don't get but it's a fine line between when to do that. So you know what? What do you find in terms of how you balance sort of the genuine connection with the prospecting,
yeah, I don't really view them as, like, super different things. You know, it's like the calm I try to be well, yeah, I try to just be the same person with everybody, okay? And the call is always more like again, I'm always trying to figure out what my audience wants. And like, you know anything, whether I'm doing a regular call or a sales call, I
ask a lot of the same questions, you know? So one of my favorite sales questions, and you can use this in any meeting, as we sit here, and I say, before it starts, like, Okay, well, and again, I'm a sales guy, so usually when I come to a meeting, I have an agenda planned. I have the agenda up. I'm like, Hey, this is what we're going to talk about today. And you did that with me, actually, yeah, it's what I do with that. I don't, I don't have my titles up here, but, yeah, I
do. I it's a it's a business thing I learned, like, be intentional with your time. Let people know what you expect out of them. So I always say, here's what I had in mind. Usually it's some variation of, I'm going to ask you some questions about what you're doing, and then I'm sure you have questions for me. And then we'll talk about next steps. Like, that's a pretty
generic thing. But before I start, I ask, what were you hoping to get out of this today, or the variation that I go before I get into any of this, I'm curious, what were you hoping to learn during this conversation today? Super easy clarifying question. If somebody's like, Hey, I'm just a big fan, I've been making some sense. I just want to have like, a friendly chat. Then I'm like, Cool. I know. If somebody's like, where do I sign up? Do you have like, a payment link or
something? I know this person's
ready to close. You've got that one managed now, yeah.
But again, it's like, I have to be open to the audience, and this comes back to Yes, and where I have to accept whatever the audience says. If they if they don't give me an answer that I want, I can't just pretend like they did right, right? You have to say your partner is a genius, and everything they give you is a gift. What gifts is your partner giving you? And gifts is a word I throw around a lot. We say that in improv. Don't ask questions. Give gifts
is what we say. So set them up for the next piece, right?
Well, so what you're looking at right now, I've got so many gifts in my setup right here, like that saxophone?
Yeah, is a gift. Yes, I get it. So anybody
who's not who can't see the videos here for this podcast, I've got a saxophone and a clarinet and a synthesizer behind me. I don't need to say anything about that. I can't tell you how many people I've gotten on a call with, and it's the first thing they start talking about. They're like, I'm a musician too. I play saxophone too. They start telling me all this stuff about themselves. Yeah,
that's a great example. I think we did talk about it on our last call. Everybody,
yeah, because, yes, it's attention grabbing. Of course, put yourself out there. And again, if it that often leads naturally to a person talking about how they wish they were doing more out there. They wish they were expressing themselves more. They wish they were doing more stuff out in the feed that showcased their talents. And then I just get very curious about that. And do you
find in your teachings, in your coaching, that you are able to easily help people relax and be their true, authentic self. That's your gift, one of your gifts, I'd like to think so yeah. I think that's yeah. I think that would be really fun and and rewarding to watch them grow in that respect. Yeah. Yeah, so we came full Sorry. Go ahead.
I was say because people are already very talented. People have all sorts of wonderful gifts that they never share with the world. I think the average person feels like they wish they said more or did more, or put themselves out there more. And this style that I'm trained in is a very collaborative thing. It's not like, I know, stand up comedy, where it's a very selfish thing, where it's like Everybody look at me and what I'm saying. It's not like I'm roasting people or
insulting people. I let them say anything, and then I say yes. And then we find something together. We discover something together. And it's a very it's a great way to get people to open up, because once people realize that you're not going to cut them down, you're not going to criticize them, you're not going to poke them apart, then yeah, they just kind of relax and start actually saying what's on their mind. And you need someone to get into a state like that before you can sell to them.
Because if I'm just assuming what your problems are, then you're probably going to get defensive about it. But if you start telling me what your problems are, yeah, and I have some way to help you with them, well then that is actually what sales is supposed to be, right?
And you and by being so comfortable drawing people out that makes it easy, because they do give you what you need to help. So I'm going to test a new question on you. It's my last question, but before I do, I need to ask you a prelim to that, and that is, Do you ever watch Jeopardy?
Yes, not recently. But I you know the game. Okay, I'm familiar with the game. Okay,
so in I'm a huge Jeopardy fan. But one thing that always drives me crazy is the interview he does Ken Jennings and before him, Alex Trebek used to do with each of the contestants. He does it after the first commercial break, and everybody is introduced, and they all have to tell a silly story, or some story that's funny, or whatever. What would your story be on Jeopardy that you would share with the audience? Do you? Do you? Do you remember? Like, do you get an
idea of what I'm saying? They all have an anecdote that they share, and everybody laughs. And, you know,
yeah, see, it's like, this is tough too, because I, I am more comfortable talking to somebody about them what happened to them earlier today than me being like, what's the funniest thing that ever happened to you, you know? Or, like, that's the most amazing thing that's ever happened to
you. Yeah, and they've pre rehearsed this, right? They've got the question already set so that they know what they're going to say when Ken or before him, Alex would prompt them like, I know you traveled a lot when you were in university, tell us about that time you right. So that's kind of the premise of what so I'm giving you a chance to think about something. Okay,
so I would probably tell him that whenever I play two truths and a lie. I lie about being on Jeopardy. That's always my go to lie. Okay, I'll tell them. I'll be like, say, Okay, two truths and a lie. I go. When I was in sixth grade, I spoke to the International Space Station through a ham radio I was a college improv national champion, and when I was 14 years old, I went on teen Jeopardy and got demolished on
national television. Perfect. Those are perfect, okay? And it's because, like, people like, Oh, I could see maybe he's smart enough to be on Jeopardy, but probably not smart enough to win as, no, I was never on Jeopardy, but I have been that has been my go to lie for years, and I have stumped people, often by lying and pretending that I lost on teen it's always teen Jeopardy. I say lost on teen Jeopardy, and it was humiliating.
Thank you for sharing that with me. I think that's perfect, actually. What do you think of my question? Do you think it's okay?
I think on the spot, well again, I think it's illustrative of how people think improv works and stuff like that too. Where it's like people get really a lot of they try to think of the best thing ever, or the funniest thing ever, the most amusing thing ever, and that's very intimidating, yes, and when I do sometimes companies hire me just to do improv workshops with their team. I do improv storytelling
workshops, nothing content created, nothing sales. It's all just like getting people up and having fun and teaching them the improv games. And the first thing I do, and I do this with my clients too, is I get up, everybody gets in a circle. We all like shake it out. We're stretching out. And then I go, Okay, everybody, I want you to take a nice deep breath in, and now I want you to breathe out the need to be funny. Exhale. The need to be funny. You do not need to impress anyone. You do
not need to say anything funny. Today. We. Are going to say the 100% truth. And when you free people from the need to be funny, and you just start saying, don't come up with a joke, I want you to say the most truthful answer possible when we ask you a question, all of a sudden, everybody's dying of laughter. Everyone is just laughing so hard it hurts because the version of you that is funniest is actually the version that's not trying to be funny, and that's the
comfortable version of you. Everybody said, I can't tell you how many times people tell me, Oh, I'm not funny, but when I'm around my friends and family, I'm hilarious. Yeah, it's like, yeah, because that's the funniest version of you. That's the version of you that is relaxed. You are not thinking of being funny, and you just naturally do these things that are uniquely you. And that's the version I try to get on camera
of people, because everybody has that version of them. It's just, how can you get into that mindset?
So tell my audience, please where they can find you. And I know LinkedIn is you're on LinkedIn often, so that's one place, and you are you have your own website, which is yes,
so everybody go to Chris bogue.io, if you want to check out my content. I also have a free course that you can check out called the pattern breaker. So if you want to stand out on LinkedIn, make some cool videos, do some things that are going to grow your audience, and create interactive experiences, and create original content that's going to help you stand out from the AI. Go to chrisboog.io get on the newsletter. Check out the free course, and yeah, go check me
out on LinkedIn too. Look up Chris Bogue and make sure you ring the bell so you always get updates from my crazy new stuff. Sounds good,
and I want to thank you for being here. And I think that for my audience, I think that Chris has really shown us that relationships don't just happen. They've they're sparked by showing up, being real and reaching out in ways that break the pattern and and he does it so easily. You do it so easily, Chris, it's inspiring, actually. So whether you're new to video or looking to deepen the online your online connections, the key is to stop chasing attention and start
creating conversation. Thanks for tuning in to relationships rule, because in business and in life, it's the relationships that matter most, so remember to stay connected and be remembered. Thank.