How To Stand Out On Social Media (feat. a story about the Blue Jays, stand up comedy and a beer-related contest)

I’m crossing my fingers that this absurd episode title piques your attention. If you want to grow your business with social media, and that means standing out in a sea of same-ness… Tap play to hear a story about some Toronto comedians winning an obscure softball-related social media contest and you’ll leave this episode inspired to be yourself and show up online open and authentically.

Watch the Baby Zepps’ full submission video for the #BudHomeRunContest
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQddm0kytlc

Here’s the Globe and Mail article I mentioned by Toronto’s David Shoalts

“Comic-filled softball team gets the ultimate ringers”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/article-comic-filled-softball-team-gets-the-ultimate-ringers/

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Music by Jordan Wood

Hosted by Jenna Warriner, Creator of Magic Marketing Machine

Transcript

I gotta be honest with you. This is absurd. What I am about to share with you is ridiculous and absurd. And hopefully you're going to come away with it with two very valuable lessons about social media and showing up and being yourself.   Internal where I lived for something like close to 10 years. There are a lot of comedy venues. 

And in one of those venues, I worked as a bartender. One day, my girlfriend comes up to me and she says,  jenna. Do you want to be on a softball league with some people from the bar? Like, I don't think that I can do that. I am so not athletic. I don't play softball. I. I don't think that that's for me. And I was surprised that she was suggesting it because she wasn't an athlete either. 

And she says, 

I don't think we actually need to be good. I don't think that that's what it's about.   Considering the person who was inviting us to partake who wasn't an athlete either. she encouraged me. She was going to go. So I said, okay, I'll go. What had happened was all the comedy venues in the city had come together and created a Toronto comedy softball league. 

So each venue like second city comedy bar, bad dog, all of these different comedy and improv venues had a team and they would come together on Saturdays and play softball.

And there were more teams than there were venues because you know, you need a bunch of teams to fill out the league.  So what had happened was this guy, Dan Gallia, who was a comedy producer and a very funny standup himself had put together a team of stand-ups 

and it was all these stand-ups that were also like not athletic or maybe they used to play, but the people they're like so funny. A lot of, you know, weed smokers  who like spend their evenings going club to club to club. 

Some of them actually pretty famous now, or then. He put together this team of people who were really not there to win. Like our team was there to have a good time. And just to showcase that. They wanted to choose a mascot for our team and a team name that was the softest,  least intimidating thing that we could think of. 

So I remember when they were brainstorming like animals or whatever things that were like really gentle and they came up with a baby.  Cause  a baby would be. The least intimidating mascot. And one of the team members had a child that was a baby. And they had named him Zeplin. So we became the baby Zeppelins And then our jerseys had a picture of babies Zeplin on them. And over the years, every year we got a New Jersey babies, Zeplin would age on our shirts. 

We'd have a new picture of him year after year after year.  And he'd also come to the games and it was  pretty adorable.

 Held her Brum was I think our team manager, who's also a Toronto comedian and he coined our chant. Don't be sad. We would cheer. Don't be sad. Don't be sad. The team was like insanely . Supportive other teams would have a problem where like the women kind of got steam rolled out on the field and here it was like, you're always encouraged to find a new spot. 

If you mess up everybody cheers for you. Like it was such a loving environment. 

 Dan is also quoted as saying that we have the funniest team in the league, but we're also the laughing stock of the league. And because these comedians often have gigs all over the country. We have 31 players, which is absolutely monstrous so that if somebody was doing a gig out of town, they always had enough people . 

And just for laughs festival, which is this massive comedy festival, very well known across north America happens in Montreal. And the weekend of just for last, we would have like no team because because half of our team would be performing in that festival.



I distinctly remember showing up to the first game with my  girlfriend, the other bartender, and she didn't even own sneakers. 

Like she was in these black leather ankle, high lace up boots. And that's when she played it. 

Did other teams take the games more seriously than us? Yes. Did they probably hate playing us? Also, I'm going to, I'm going to assume. Yes. 



So it's 2018. The league has been going for awhile and this contest emerges online where to super famous Toronto blue Jays will retire Toronto blue Jays, Joe Carter, 

who famously won the Jays the 1993 world series with a home run, walk off. 

And Roberto Alomar who admittedly has a bad reputation. We won't get into that here, but.  The point is Budweiser had started this competition where any rec league in Canada would get to have these two blue Jays come and play with you. If you won the contest via social media. And the name of the game was. Post , why you deserved to have these iconic blue days on your team for a day? 

Hundreds of teams across the country submitted via Twitter and YouTube and Instagram and Facebook.

And a bunch of our teammates came together to submit, to win this to. 

But the thing is our submissions were absolutely ridiculous. Like they were so ridiculous. And it made sense because these are comedians and this is a ridiculous team with a ridiculous mascot  And it would only be authentic and on-brand for us, if our submission reflected that. So here's, here's a peek at it. I'll link the whole thing below, but here's a snippet of what I'm talking about. So these are the reasons why. These Jay's should come play on our team for a day.

 all right.  

Joe Carter,  do you ever come by?  

Technically I'm not allowed to, but I'll still do it.  

You get some free burgers and the pulled pork sandwiches for Joe Carter over to Walmart. They want to join our team and play for us. And. Lots of beer.   I will provide. Ties. I can make all the famed pies you want. I can make blue Jays pies. Blackberry pie.  I can make.  

Just rhubarb.  There's literally every pot. I'm going to Chuck a pot. You get even. Hang out with the dog. She's a great dog.  You come play for us. Uh, you can take my standup class.  

It's a fun time.  Hey, Joe. I just wanted to say. Uh, I'm number 29. So, if you played with us, you can't be 29. But  I'll let you put on my shirt for one minute and then. I guess I'll put on your sneakers.  

Robbie. Whatever you need.  I can help you out. I work at a paint store. I got. Got to stop this gown. We're talking 40 50%.  Whatever kind of thing.  Talk to me.  For a day.  

 



 Just so much nonsense. So.  

That was some snippets from the submission video, needless to say, we won. And it, and you know, a lot of people don't even bother submitting for contests like that. Right? Like something in your brain goes, well, social media is so big. There's so many teams across the country. Like why would we bother, man? 

That took however long to put together. It was fun. Everyone had a good time. And then , we won this massive prize. It wasn't just that they would come play with us. They sent us to a Jays game.  In the special box with food and drinks and all of that, they gave us so much swag,  hats and jerseys. 

We had hundreds of people come out to watch the game. That day there were film crews. I actually couldn't remember some of the details of how all of this went down because it was 2018 and I Googled it and there's a globe and mail article. I'll link it below. There's a whole globe and mail article about this. 

There's a national paper.

 Photographers, the guys came out and they like shook everyone's hand. They signed everybody used hats. It was a whole beautiful thing. And. What I love about that video and about that submission and about this story is the team immediately leaned into their own strengths, which is comedy and being silly, being a little bit silly and a little bit ridiculous. 



  I was just speaking in Orlando this weekend at a pretty major convention 

and they asked me to talk about how to stand out on social media. That was really the theme of the, of that whole presentation. And. 

I'm going to tell you what I told them, which is. 



The truth of the matter. Is the way to stand out on social media. Is to not be scared to stand out on social media is to be bold, is to take risks is to make the joke and it might flop, but that's the nature of comedy is to try something a little bit different. 



Talk about the things that you are a nerd for. Talk about the things that you're into. Talk about the shows that you like make nuanced references that only other game of Thrones fans will get like do that thing. That is how you stand out. If you just look at all of the other people in your industry on a platform and you go, well, all the other therapists are doing it like this. 

All the other coaches are doing it like this. And then you try and imitate that that is the fastest way to blend in. And not grow. Do it your way. Be a little bit weird. And if you're like, oh, Jenna. I can't be weird. Okay. Fine. Don't be weird then, but be specific, 



 Talk to the camera, the way that you talk to people,  the way that you talk to people in real life, because even that is going to be more specific than just trying to sound professional and use jargon and look like all of the other people in your field online. 





You are not boring. You are just used to you. You're with you constantly. So of course you're used to you. That's not boring. How you spend your day is tremendously different than how I spend my day. 

I went to posted a video where I just did like my normal Instagram stuff, my normal teaching stuff. But while I spoke, I shoveled a foot of snow off of a lawn chair on the back deck and then sat down in it. And anyone who doesn't live where there's a foot of snow was staring at that, you know, astonished that there would be that much snow and that I would be brave enough to be outside. 

And it presumably. Even little things your life where you live your neighborhood, the climate, like even those little things about your life are going to be so interesting to the people who are looking at your content.



So that's lesson number one from being on the Toronto comedy softball league lesson number two, this one. 

Oh, it hurts.  This, this hurts. , like I said, I played on this team for five years and then, you know, the pandemic happens during a pandemic. I moved to the woods in the middle of Canada. I still have not officially left the team nor have I gotten rid of any of my jerseys. I still like to believe that I am an honorary member. 

And if I'm ever back in Toronto on a Saturday, I might go and play. But, um, so I left the team. So my very last game. After. Oh, and I, I suck by the way. I'm not good at softball. If I caught the ball, it was like, Um, big moment for me, like I'd ride that high.  All week.

Also, I would often pay catcher and I still got injured as catcher in a slow pitch league.  Anyway, my very, very last game. And I don't think I even knew, no, I wouldn't have known at the time that this was going to be my last game, but turns out it was my last game ever. , one of the guys on our team who was actually really good, like an athlete, he played on other teams throughout the city and he had grown up in sports and he was like, we often really relied on him out there on the field. 

He was like one of the only people that did well. 

He asked me if he could give me pointers on my swing.  

Of the bat.  And I accepted. And he told me how to swing the bat.  And dude.  I had never been told. How to swing the bat? I had been swinging the bat. I had watched people swinging the bat. I thought I understood the dynamics of how to swing the bat. I did not. I was doing it wrong for five years. And as soon as he gave me that,  simple. Tip. 

And it was about how basically like centrifical force. Like, instead of trying to move the whole stick, you know, and control it. You're just holding the bottom and letting the top really like swing almost like a pendulum that might sound simple to you, but let me tell you five years. And I never actually felt what that felt like to do that properly. 

And he taught me before the game. And then I used what he taught me when I went up to bat and it worked and I hit that freaking ball. 

And all I could think was why didn't I ask for help sooner. And the reason this matters is because I know that this is what happens to people on social media, because you're on social media all day long. You're very familiar with it as a user, but then guessing how to use it as a business. 



Or looking at other people's strategies, by the way, 

you can't decode someone's strategy by looking at their content. You can't see it from that angle. You have to be inside it. You have to know the strategy in order to see it. You can't just like, look at someone's content and know actually what they're doing.



And people DM me all the time. Like, I love that I give away so much free advice on this podcast and so much for your advice in my social media and my Instagram and that what people tell me all the time that they've had leaps and bounds and social media growth just from my free content. 

And all I can think is like, imagine what you would get if you worked with me, right? Like there's. Do you think that that's all there is, there's so much more where that came from, but you need to ask for help and you need to. Believe that there's more for you to learn in order to ask for help.



I thought that by playing baseball and trying it and watching baseball and watching my team members, I got the broad strokes of how to do it. 

And then I learned in that moment that I should have been coached. I should have asked for help. I should have Googled it. I should have learned.  And I also thought that I was just bad. Like I was like, oh, I didn't grow up in sports.



I'm quote unquote, not enough athletic person, which is something by the way that I've been trying to undo in my brain, my husband. 

And I will  call me an athlete as I try it, like kayaking and I'm learning how to jog and stuff like that. And so  I'm trying to reprogram my brain to call myself an athlete, but I was definitely not thinking that way back then. So I just thought that I wasn't any good. And I just thought, you know, sports are for boys or something. 

I don't know what I thought. 

 

then I learned in that moment. I could be good at it. And I just needed a little bit of guidance, a little bit of how to should ask for help sooner. Shouldn't have just assumed that I wasn't going to be good at it, or that there wasn't a way to learn it. 



That's a direct correlation to like anything that you're trying to get good at right now, but especially social media and marketing and marketing your business. 

Right. You got into business to do the thing that you're good at presumably, or that you like to do, or that you thought you could make money on.

Not necessarily because you love marketing or are good at marketing. That's what I'm good at. Hey, that's my thing. 

All right, that's it for today. If you can hear my voice, that I'm a little under the weather. I'm so sorry. I really wanted to get an episode up this week. We just passed our one year anniversary. We just passed our hundred thousand, the download of the show. 

And so I didn't want to skip a week. But I am a little under the weather. So if you can hear it, I'm sorry to play you. And I hope you don't catch a cold through your earbuds. Just kidding you out.  Have a freaking wonderful week. Go try something new online. Go be your beautiful self and I'll see you in the next one.