Saturday, January 23, 2010

Conan O'Brien Can Sell For Me Anytime

I probably have never sat through an entire Conan O'Brien hour. I may have never sat through a whole Leno or Letterman show either, but I sure remember watching Carson most nights.

During the last couple of weeks, I've been tuning in to the beginnings of as many Leno at ten and O'Brien at 11:30 shows as I could because it was fun seeing how far they would go against the "suits," having been one for most of my life. They sure were fearless in telling us all how they felt. Friday night was Conan's last show and I caught his "good-bye." He was reassuring his fans that he was "OK." I would think so; A $32+ Million contract settlement and a likely gig at Fox or FX in September. Life is good for Conan O'Brien. And he, without mentioning the money, of course, had the grace to tell his audience in studio and at home that he knew that and was grateful to all that were responsible, especially NBC.

And then, toward the very end of his parting he said, "I have a message for you out there." (I may be paraphasing, but if so, only a tad). "If you work very hard and are kind, amazing things can happen."

Out of the mouths of comedians. Substitute "serve others before self," for "be kind," ... and "love your work and work tirelessly," for "work very hard,"... and you're on the way to identifying some qualities that separate great from average sellers.

O'Brien said, he's loved every minute of his work life.

O'Brien implied he's worked very hard (doesn't feel so hard when you love what you do).

It took him only a couple of weeks to negotiate a $32 million package for himself and a $13 million package for his staff, so he can collapse time.

And negotiating on behalf of his staff indicates to me that he's a pretty good team player.

He'd make a great seller.

Great Selling!
Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork

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