What Comedy Taught Russ Powell About the Art of Marketing with Founder & MD of Sharper B2B Marketing #63
The life of a standup comedian couldn’t be fraught with more pressure, being tasked with single-handedly eliciting emotional responses from hundreds, if not thousands… is marketing so different?
Dell, Microsoft and Fujitsu have had the pleasure of Russ Powell’s company and marketing expertise, as do we on this week’s episode of Extrology, as Russ shares the invaluable and unique lessons that his standup career taught him as Founder of Sharper B2B Marketing.
Lee and Russ discuss:
Russ’ formative years in Brighton
Unexpectedly discovering his talent as a comedian
How comedy has influenced Russ’ approach to marketing and comms
The central tenets behind Sharper B2B Marketing
Making the distinction between being happy and being comfortable
Links & references
Lee Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecooperrecruiter/
Russ Powell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-a-r-powell/?originalSubdomain=uk
https://www.instagram.com/russ_powell_/
Sharper B2B Marketing: https://sharperb2b.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sharper-b2b/
https://www.instagram.com/sharperb2b/
Get in touch: lee@extrology.com
Episode highlights:
“I remember doing Business Studies GCSE. That was the book learning around business, but thinking back, without even realising it I was always doing business-y type bits in the background.” - 9:45 - Russ Powell
“So the options were either go back to project management, which wasn't an option, or essentially take voluntary redundancy and go and find something else. I took the voluntary redundancy and found something else, which happened to be my role at Microsoft.” - 20:30 - Russ Powell
“After a few years that I'd been doing the circuit and built up a routine, it got to the point where certain bits of material I could just do on autopilot. You’d just be saying the words, not really thinking about it, but what you are thinking about is how the crowd is reacting.” - 29:50 - Russ Powell
“Comedy is about how you use words delivered in a certain way to essentially get people to do what you want them to do, which is to laugh, to feel something, or to engage with something. For me, that's exactly the same as what marketing should be doing. ” - 40:00 - Russ Powell
“Dad passed away when I was in my early 20s. That gave me a mentality, in a positive way, of f**k it. If you want to do it, just do it. Life's too short. No one's going to just come up and hand you something that you want to do.” - 48:45 - Russ Powell
“There is a massive difference between being happy and being comfortable, and some people confuse the two. Some people get comfortable and think they're happy when they're not. They're just comfortable. They're just bobbing along.” - 54:25 - Russ Powell
Extrology is sponsored by Progresso Talent Partners who for more than 25 years have successfully delivered interim and permanent leadership talent to transform businesses and to hire the talent you need to enable your business to thrive: https://www.progressotalent.com/