Sales Leader Turns to Comedy 

By Andrew Morrissey 

Hugh Hornsby Ventures Into Stand-Up 

Among Hugh Hornsby’s latest life adventure is learning how to get some laughs about a stage-four cancer diagnosis. It sounds like a tough gig, but Hornsby worked with a professional comic to learn how to find common ground with a crowd at a Manhattan comedy club by laughing at something so profoundly frightening.

Hornsby is a 40-year veteran sales leader and consultant in the wholesale distribution business in the HVAC and plumbing trades. Life was good until he was told by his doctor last December that he was facing a life-threatening case of prostate cancer. The news was devastating to him and his wife of 37 years, Beth.

“It was pretty scary and I remember leaving, being told on a Thursday that I had cancer — stage-four cancer,” he said. “And, as you would expect, we both broke down because we were just scared. But, what we didn’t know was that it was the beginning, not only of a of a new start, but it was the beginning of a stronger relationship between us.”

The couple met at Hornsby’s brother’s engagement party and have three children, Booth, Aubrey and Brice.

If his surname sounds familiar, it’s because his cousin is Bruce Hornsby, the singer whose band was called The Range. The song, “The Way It Is,” was a No. 1 hit in 1986.

Hornsby is the vice-president of sales for the New Jersey based distributor, Everflow Suppliers, but throughout his career he has developed a strong belief in the power of optimism and gratefulness to coach teams and sales reps.

“You can either keep worrying about it and go to the negative or you can go to the positive and that’s what I did,” he says. “You can’t go through worry and doubt and everything else and go through gratitude at the same time.”

He sought a second opinion and his physician reviewed a new MRI and further testing revised the diagnosis to treatable stage-two cancer. Hornsby jokes about the experience now, saying he’s likely the only patient who openly celebrated a cancer diagnosis with his doctor.

 

Drawing Laughs on a New York Stage

His entry into comedy came after sharing his story during a presentation at an American Supply Association (ASA) meeting in Philadelphia. “So, I just kind of talked about the whole cancer thing and next thing you know, they invited me to come to New York.”

Hornsby booked on the stage at the West Side Comedy Club, where his roughly five-minute show drew laughs from the audience.

In the lead up to the show, Hornsby worked with professional comedian Clayton Fletcher — who was impressed by Hornsby’s presentation at the ASA meeting — to understand how sharing vulnerability and delivering set-ups and punchlines can fuel collective laughter. “Cancer is not an easy thing to get people to laugh about,” Hornsby says.

Fletcher, author of a book called the “ROI of LOL,” also works with business leaders to use humor as a way to connect with staff. He describes Hornsby’s performance as honest, which is a key factor to success in modern standup comedy.

Standup comedians have skills that business leaders should learn, Fletcher says. “You know, building your personal charisma, your leadership skills, your storytelling, the active listening skills. And most importantly, how to build real human connection.”

 

Lots of Preparation and Training

Hornsby worked with Fletcher for about a month to learn the basics of standup, and he sees how humor can serve a role in the workplace to build teamwork and camaraderie.

“What I also started to understand was how laughter, bringing that into the workplace or just having people laugh, really does set off a chemical in your mind that makes you feel good,” he says. “We started talking about how you take the mindset piece and put it with the laughter piece and how that works … Gratitude does the same thing as what laughter does, because it makes you feel good. It’s like it’s almost like you’re getting married for a few minutes.”

Fletcher cautions that business and corporate leaders need to be aware of how a joke can also go bad. His advice is to be aware of the guardrails with a joke, and leave out anything that someone could find offensive. Hornsby hopes to get back on the stage in New York and he plans on using standup humor in presentations, using jokes about cancer to build relationships and reinforce the power of staying positive in tough times.

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