Pershing Square Cafe

One of my first post-college roommates Bruse Loyd texted asking if I wanted to meet for lunch while he was in NYC this week. After some internal debate, I accepted hoping to finally get reimbursed for the October 1994 cable bill. No such luck, but at least I enjoyed the visit with Nick and Reese, who took me to Pershing Square Cafe located directly across 42nd St from Grand Central Station.

Pershing Square Cafe

My first job out of college was in sales with Xerox Corporation.  I’m pretty sure having that much fun on a job is not allowed anymore.  The job introduced me to corporate comedy as I used to write sketches and emcee the sales conferences.   Sales is an outstanding place to start a career as it forces you to learn the art of communication and negotiation quickly.

Pershing Square, NYC

After each copier sale, we were required to spend two hours training the customer on how to use the equipment.  Here’s a clip of my buddy Bruse :

And approximately 80% of our sales leads came from this commercial:

About the Cheeseburger & Comedy blog series.

FastCompany Interview: Corporate Comedy Video

fastcompany

After speaking at NYU’s B2B social communications leadership conference, I had the chance to visit with FastCompany’s Drew Neisser about how corporations can help use  humor to build online audiences.    Check out the article here, and an extended discussion on Drew’s blog.

Real-Time Marketing & PR Hits Bestseller Lists

RealTimeMarketingNov14

Congrats to David Meerman Scott! His new book has hit the bestseller list in under a fortnight.  He quoted me a few times, and referenced a Cisco comedy video we produced as a case study.

One of my all-time favorite videos that Scott Teems and I worked on is the series we created with David to promote his book Worldwide Rave.  See video #2 in the playlist below.

David’s new book is  filled with excellent examples and practical tips for using social media to connect with your market. Available on Amazon.com