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Speaker Darren LaCroix wows audience
at Chamber breakfast
By C. David Gordon
SHIRLEY – Darren LaCroix, named World Champion of Public Speaking in 2001 and co-author with Rick Segel of the book Laugh & Get Rich: How to Profit from Humor in Any Business, had his Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce audience laughing continuously while giving them a lesson on how to use humor in selling their products or services.
His was the kick-off feature of the Chamber’s Fidelity Bank Breakfast Series held at the Bull Run Restaurant on Sept. 24.
LaCroix illustrated the employment of humor even as he told the story of his career, which started with failure at a Subway Sandwich franchise. Humor, he said, is born out of tragedy and stress. And it can start with being able to laugh at oneself while still being serious about one’s business. To hear it, there was much to laugh about in the LaCroix career.
“How much fun are you to do business with?” he asked his listeners. He called humor a powerful relief from stress and “the best networking you can do.”
LaCroix said there is no truth to the adage that either you’re born funny or you’re not. Anyone can learn to use humor, he said, and since humor comes from tragedy or stress, a good starting point could be laughing at something one isn’t able to do properly. “It’s not what happened, LaCroix said, but how we process it.”
The person to avoid in any business is the one he calls “the funsucker” – a person who invariably “sucks the fun out of everything.”
The business person can start preparing fun in business through pinpointing the stress a business has or generates, LaCroix said. Work to know others, understand what their tensions are, then find out how to help the person over that tension.
A basic principle involved in all this – aside from accumulating wealth – is that “when you humorize you humanize.”
In addition to the book Laugh & Get Rich, LaCroix has created a series of CD learning programs to perfect public speaking and make people laugh. He is also the co-founder of the Humor Boot Camp and The Humor Institute. LaCroix’s free e-mail newsletter can be obtained by going to www.humor411.com.
Fidelity Bank is the sponsoring organization of the breakfast series. Host for the kick-off breakfast was president and CEO Edward Manzi. After introducing Fidelity staff members present at the meeting, Manzi had them pass out an unusual gift to all breakfast series attendees: a crisp $5 bill. He asked that people “spend it in the local economy” and maybe even put it in the bank.
Chamber executive Director Christine Bergeron announced that Dave Caruso of WBZ and Channel 4 will speak on “decoding” Wall Street at the next Fidelity Bank Breakfast on Tuesday Nov. 19.
As seen in the Ayer Public Spirit.
