March 3, 2022 • 11 mins
Wanna know why one person is a Debbie Downer who sucks all of the oxygen out of the room and the other is a funny, self-deprecating national treasure? It's called Marketing Your Misery. One of the many keys to my creative success. Finding a way to present your life in a funny, entertaining manner. All this, plus a hilarious example for you to enjoy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Frank Hannah (00:00):
The Best Worst idea is a weekly podcast
exploring how our worst ideasoften give way to our best
ideas. What's your best worstidea? Want to find out? Let's go
(00:23):
You're so ugly, you could be amodern art masterpiece. You look
like a blueberry. Who's gonnatake his place? Z is Jesus, you
this. This is my I want tointroduce you to a concept that
(00:44):
revolutionized my life as acreative person. It's the kind
of thing that can be implementedin just about all aspects of
your life. It's something I liketo call marketing your misery.
Let's face it, we all know thatlife can kick is when you're
down. We all have times in ourlife when we just need to vent
(01:08):
our frustration to unburdenourselves of a great wrong that
was done to us. Much like apressure release valve. The
question is, how do we do this?
And what form does it take?
Well, we all know that personthat just complains about
everything. They suck all theoxygen out of the room. Like a
(01:30):
psychic vampire, they drain yourlifeforce, they complain so
much, that it's unconscious,they don't even know they're
doing it. But what I'm talkingabout is the exact opposite of
that. I'm not talking aboutstraight up complaining, I'm
talking about marketing, yourmisery. It's the reason one
(01:50):
person is a Debbie Downer. Andthe other is a funny self
deprecating storyteller, whoreally knows how to paint a
picture of human life. And theamazing thing about this is, you
feel great after you tell thestory. You get to vent and
complain about your problems.
But you do it in a way that'sfunny and compelling and
relatable. Most stand up, comicsdo it to great effect. Some of
(02:14):
them are depressed and angryinside. But where you get to see
on the outside is a performanceof their pain, a marketing of
their own specialized brand ofmisery. This is how I approach
any type of story that I want totell. You wait patiently for the
right time to inject your story.
(02:39):
You don't want it to feel forcedor like a performance, but you
also don't want it to feelcompletely out of place. So your
moment comes, you set the scene,you have all the key moments of
your story in place, then youbegin knowing instinctively mind
you that you must make yourselfthe butt of the joke. This is
(03:00):
key. Because people don't alwaysrelate to being king of the hill
or on top of the world. But theysure as hell know what it's like
to have the weight of the worldon their shoulders. They know
what it's like when the bastardstry to grind them down. So if
you're successful in thisendeavor, your audience laughs
at all the right moments, maybeeven a few you didn't expect.
(03:22):
They're laughing at your pain.
But they empathize and love tohear about all of the high jinks
and shenanigans you seem to getinvolved with on a daily basis.
You want to know the addedbenefit to this technique. It
actually works on completestrangers. You don't have to
save all these stories up forjust your friends. They make
(03:43):
excellent icebreakers. And I'llproven why. Because at a party
or gathering of people who don'tknow each other people just
aren't comfortable. of checkingeach other out, or seeing who's
worth talking to and who's worthignoring. And if you're like me,
who was painfully shy in thesesituations, you're afraid no one
(04:03):
will want to talk to you at all.
So sometimes telling one ofthese misery marketing stories,
as I call them, is exactly whatthe doctor ordered. I was once
invited to a small backyardbarbecue by a friend. I didn't
want to go wasn't feelingparticularly social. But my
(04:27):
friend calls me from the partyand asked if I'm going to come
or not. I asked him how manypeople are there because I don't
like big crowds. I think hetells me six. So I agree. I
change and get ready for smallSunday barbecue. The address was
(04:48):
a place in Bel Air or I turnedup the street I was forced to
stop and a valet opened my cardoor and shoved a ticket in my
hand. That to be clear.
I wasn't really used used tothis kind of thing. I lived in
LA Yes, but I still work my dayjob and I get to have any kind
of real success in the industryup to this point. But my friend,
(05:10):
on the other hand, had enjoyed alot of commercial success. He
was fearless, and seems tothrive in these kinds of
environments. So as I enteredthe Bel Air home, I quickly
realized this was not a smallgathering, but a huge end of
summer BBQ bash, being thrown bya prominent film producer. The
(05:30):
entire guest list was made up ofa list film and TV people, all
of which I recognizedimmediately. I felt a bell
shaking tremor, my ass puckeredwith anxiety and panic. When I
eventually spotted my friend,the one that assured me this was
a small six person party, he waspointing at me, and he was
(05:51):
laughing. If you could see thelook on your face right now,
that was all he could say. Icouldn't believe it. One thing
was for sure. If he told me whatthis party was beforehand, I
would never have gone. Beforelong. I'm speaking to a couple
of actresses from Buffy theVampire Slayer. And I turned on
my friend and I say quietly,whatever you do, don't leave me
(06:16):
alone. Why you ask? Well, here Iwas making small talk with two
beautiful and talented actressesfrom a highly successful TV show
that was still currently on theair. What's not the like? Well,
if I'm being brutally honest, Iwas terrified. I was terrified
that they would allinstinctively know that I did
(06:37):
not belong there, that I was afraud. And that by rights, I
should be marched out of therein full view of the other
guests. Funny thing is, and Ibelieve this is true, that when
you find yourself at such anexclusive event, other people
simply assume you must besomebody by the simple fact that
(06:57):
you're standing there. And so itwas at this point, I turned and
saw that my friend had vanished,leaving me alone with these two
lovely actresses who I wasconvinced were going to become
bored with me and lead mestanding alone and helpless, in
the middle of the greatest partyI had ever not wanted to go to
(07:18):
was also at this point. Idecided it was a good time to
tell these two ladies, mysyphilis story. The syphilis
story. On my 30th birthday, Idecided I should use the health
insurance for my corporate dayjob and actually get a physical.
(07:42):
Up until that point, I hadn'thad any real medical issues. So
this was to be a regularcheckup. Upon arrival, as you
might expect, I was poked andprodded by my doctor. He
eventually turned to me and witha straight face, he asked me if
I was sexually active. I was alittle embarrassed to be honest,
(08:02):
but I answered all of hisquestions. I told him that in
fact, yes, I was sexuallyactive. He said, one partner,
multiple partners. Questionmark. I tried to be funny, I
said, multiple partners just notat the same time. He didn't even
crack a hint of a smile. Hesaid, while I should have you
(08:26):
know, Mr. Hanner, there's been asyphilis outbreak in Los
Angeles. And we really shouldhave you tested for it. Well, I
was all for it. I said, goahead. That's why I'm here. Test
me for anything and everything Iwant to know. Well, he nodded,
filled out some paperwork andtold me to go downstairs to the
lab where they could draw someblood for testing. So down the
(08:49):
stairs I went, I walked into thelab only to find the entire
place packed. What's the nutswith other people waiting to get
blood drawn? I gave them thekind of stink guy that told them
instantly that I resented everylast one of them for making me
have to wait. So I handed mypaperwork to the receptionist,
an older woman, probably in herlate 60s, and I find a patch a
(09:12):
wall to lean up against as allof the chairs were taken. Well,
not a minute later, I heard thereceptionist call out my name,
Francis Hannah. I'm ecstatic.
This must be what it means tohave the good insurance. I give
everyone in that room alonetells them that they are all
suckers. When I arrive at thecheck in desk, the receptionist
(09:35):
looks at me square in the eye.
And even though I am less thanthree feet away from her, she is
yelling, and she says,
Unknown (09:43):
Mr. Hanna, you're gonna have to go back upstairs and
sign a consent form for yoursyphilis test.
Frank Hannah (09:51):
I looked at this woman in stunned disbelief. I
was mortified. I wanted to yellat her for her lack of decision
But I knew it would only make itworse. I can feel the eyes of
the entire room on me. And theywere all too happy to see me
taking down in such a cruel andunusual way. I sidestepped my
(10:13):
way out of the lab and wentupstairs to get the consent
form. But then I had to go backdown to the lab, and wallow in
my own shame. It was likeshitting your pants in gridlock
traffic. It's happening andwrite a goddamn thing you can do
about it. Now, this was aThursday. It didn't take me long
(10:35):
to realize how hilarious thestory actually was. I was dying
to tell people but I had to waituntil the test results came back
to make sure that I didn'tactually have syphilis. Well, it
took till Tuesday. I did nothave syphilis. But I did get the
story out of it.
The Best Worst idea is a weekly podcast
exploring how our worst ideasoften give way to our best
ideas. What's your best worstidea? Want to find out? Let's go
(00:23):
You're so ugly, you could be amodern art masterpiece. You look
like a blueberry. Who's gonnatake his place? Z is Jesus, you
this. This is my I want tointroduce you to a concept that
(00:44):
revolutionized my life as acreative person. It's the kind
of thing that can be implementedin just about all aspects of
your life. It's something I liketo call marketing your misery.
Let's face it, we all know thatlife can kick is when you're
down. We all have times in ourlife when we just need to vent
(01:08):
our frustration to unburdenourselves of a great wrong that
was done to us. Much like apressure release valve. The
question is, how do we do this?
And what form does it take?
Well, we all know that personthat just complains about
everything. They suck all theoxygen out of the room. Like a
(01:30):
psychic vampire, they drain yourlifeforce, they complain so
much, that it's unconscious,they don't even know they're
doing it. But what I'm talkingabout is the exact opposite of
that. I'm not talking aboutstraight up complaining, I'm
talking about marketing, yourmisery. It's the reason one
(01:50):
person is a Debbie Downer. Andthe other is a funny self
deprecating storyteller, whoreally knows how to paint a
picture of human life. And theamazing thing about this is, you
feel great after you tell thestory. You get to vent and
complain about your problems.
But you do it in a way that'sfunny and compelling and
relatable. Most stand up, comicsdo it to great effect. Some of
(02:14):
them are depressed and angryinside. But where you get to see
on the outside is a performanceof their pain, a marketing of
their own specialized brand ofmisery. This is how I approach
any type of story that I want totell. You wait patiently for the
right time to inject your story.
(02:39):
You don't want it to feel forcedor like a performance, but you
also don't want it to feelcompletely out of place. So your
moment comes, you set the scene,you have all the key moments of
your story in place, then youbegin knowing instinctively mind
you that you must make yourselfthe butt of the joke. This is
(03:00):
key. Because people don't alwaysrelate to being king of the hill
or on top of the world. But theysure as hell know what it's like
to have the weight of the worldon their shoulders. They know
what it's like when the bastardstry to grind them down. So if
you're successful in thisendeavor, your audience laughs
at all the right moments, maybeeven a few you didn't expect.
(03:22):
They're laughing at your pain.
But they empathize and love tohear about all of the high jinks
and shenanigans you seem to getinvolved with on a daily basis.
You want to know the addedbenefit to this technique. It
actually works on completestrangers. You don't have to
save all these stories up forjust your friends. They make
(03:43):
excellent icebreakers. And I'llproven why. Because at a party
or gathering of people who don'tknow each other people just
aren't comfortable. of checkingeach other out, or seeing who's
worth talking to and who's worthignoring. And if you're like me,
who was painfully shy in thesesituations, you're afraid no one
(04:03):
will want to talk to you at all.
So sometimes telling one ofthese misery marketing stories,
as I call them, is exactly whatthe doctor ordered. I was once
invited to a small backyardbarbecue by a friend. I didn't
want to go wasn't feelingparticularly social. But my
(04:27):
friend calls me from the partyand asked if I'm going to come
or not. I asked him how manypeople are there because I don't
like big crowds. I think hetells me six. So I agree. I
change and get ready for smallSunday barbecue. The address was
(04:48):
a place in Bel Air or I turnedup the street I was forced to
stop and a valet opened my cardoor and shoved a ticket in my
hand. That to be clear.
I wasn't really used used tothis kind of thing. I lived in
LA Yes, but I still work my dayjob and I get to have any kind
of real success in the industryup to this point. But my friend,
(05:10):
on the other hand, had enjoyed alot of commercial success. He
was fearless, and seems tothrive in these kinds of
environments. So as I enteredthe Bel Air home, I quickly
realized this was not a smallgathering, but a huge end of
summer BBQ bash, being thrown bya prominent film producer. The
(05:30):
entire guest list was made up ofa list film and TV people, all
of which I recognizedimmediately. I felt a bell
shaking tremor, my ass puckeredwith anxiety and panic. When I
eventually spotted my friend,the one that assured me this was
a small six person party, he waspointing at me, and he was
(05:51):
laughing. If you could see thelook on your face right now,
that was all he could say. Icouldn't believe it. One thing
was for sure. If he told me whatthis party was beforehand, I
would never have gone. Beforelong. I'm speaking to a couple
of actresses from Buffy theVampire Slayer. And I turned on
my friend and I say quietly,whatever you do, don't leave me
(06:16):
alone. Why you ask? Well, here Iwas making small talk with two
beautiful and talented actressesfrom a highly successful TV show
that was still currently on theair. What's not the like? Well,
if I'm being brutally honest, Iwas terrified. I was terrified
that they would allinstinctively know that I did
(06:37):
not belong there, that I was afraud. And that by rights, I
should be marched out of therein full view of the other
guests. Funny thing is, and Ibelieve this is true, that when
you find yourself at such anexclusive event, other people
simply assume you must besomebody by the simple fact that
(06:57):
you're standing there. And so itwas at this point, I turned and
saw that my friend had vanished,leaving me alone with these two
lovely actresses who I wasconvinced were going to become
bored with me and lead mestanding alone and helpless, in
the middle of the greatest partyI had ever not wanted to go to
(07:18):
was also at this point. Idecided it was a good time to
tell these two ladies, mysyphilis story. The syphilis
story. On my 30th birthday, Idecided I should use the health
insurance for my corporate dayjob and actually get a physical.
(07:42):
Up until that point, I hadn'thad any real medical issues. So
this was to be a regularcheckup. Upon arrival, as you
might expect, I was poked andprodded by my doctor. He
eventually turned to me and witha straight face, he asked me if
I was sexually active. I was alittle embarrassed to be honest,
(08:02):
but I answered all of hisquestions. I told him that in
fact, yes, I was sexuallyactive. He said, one partner,
multiple partners. Questionmark. I tried to be funny, I
said, multiple partners just notat the same time. He didn't even
crack a hint of a smile. Hesaid, while I should have you
(08:26):
know, Mr. Hanner, there's been asyphilis outbreak in Los
Angeles. And we really shouldhave you tested for it. Well, I
was all for it. I said, goahead. That's why I'm here. Test
me for anything and everything Iwant to know. Well, he nodded,
filled out some paperwork andtold me to go downstairs to the
lab where they could draw someblood for testing. So down the
(08:49):
stairs I went, I walked into thelab only to find the entire
place packed. What's the nutswith other people waiting to get
blood drawn? I gave them thekind of stink guy that told them
instantly that I resented everylast one of them for making me
have to wait. So I handed mypaperwork to the receptionist,
an older woman, probably in herlate 60s, and I find a patch a
(09:12):
wall to lean up against as allof the chairs were taken. Well,
not a minute later, I heard thereceptionist call out my name,
Francis Hannah. I'm ecstatic.
This must be what it means tohave the good insurance. I give
everyone in that room alonetells them that they are all
suckers. When I arrive at thecheck in desk, the receptionist
(09:35):
looks at me square in the eye.
And even though I am less thanthree feet away from her, she is
yelling, and she says,
Unknown (09:43):
Mr. Hanna, you're gonna have to go back upstairs and
sign a consent form for yoursyphilis test.
Frank Hannah (09:51):
I looked at this woman in stunned disbelief. I
was mortified. I wanted to yellat her for her lack of decision
But I knew it would only make itworse. I can feel the eyes of
the entire room on me. And theywere all too happy to see me
taking down in such a cruel andunusual way. I sidestepped my
(10:13):
way out of the lab and wentupstairs to get the consent
form. But then I had to go backdown to the lab, and wallow in
my own shame. It was likeshitting your pants in gridlock
traffic. It's happening andwrite a goddamn thing you can do
about it. Now, this was aThursday. It didn't take me long
(10:35):
to realize how hilarious thestory actually was. I was dying
to tell people but I had to waituntil the test results came back
to make sure that I didn'tactually have syphilis. Well, it
took till Tuesday. I did nothave syphilis. But I did get the
story out of it.
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