There he is, you missed that.

I do it actually feels. I was thinking. On the way home today I was like it feels like we haven't talked in forever.

It has been forever. There's been literal natural disasters since we've last spoken. Has it been that long?

Yes, holy cow.

Worlds have ended.

Yeah, there's been some severe damage to the whole entire state that we live in. Yeah, that honestly feels like forever ago.

Yeah, I know, it wasn't that long ago.

Life is like hitting it.

You know what else hits you. What's that Real hard. Welcome back to Corporate Strategy Podcast. Could have been an email. I'm Bruce and I'm Clark Hits you real, real hard, don't it?

it does every time. It's my favorite song, I listen to it and it just makes me so happy. Yeah, what's the name of the song if it's your favorite? No idea it's, it's elevator music. Um wait, hold on.

Hold on david avila yes, that that is the composer. Yeah, that's all that good job.

I know good job. I know the man that was off the top of the dome. I didn't look up anything, I'm just looking at you, I'm proud of you for knowing the theme music.

How about that? So let's go, don't bury the lead. I believe it is elevator music oh, I was right on both.

That was two for two.

I can't check right now because I don't have access to the notes, but I believe that is it.

Yeah yeah, good, I can't check right now because I don't have access to the notes, but I believe that is it.

Oh dear, yeah, yeah, good job, clark, it's been a minute.

There's so much. There's so much to talk about.

We're alive. We are alive. So it's been two weeks for our listeners, but it's been like three for us, since we last recorded our podcast. We'd survived Hurricane Milton Clark, lost the Internet for a minute, so we couldn't even record podcasts if we wanted to, and then I had to travel after that. So just a mishmash of schedules. Absolute chaos has ensued for us for the past couple of weeks, but we're here and we're alive. Now, how are you doing post Hurricane Clark?

Post Hurricane, post Hurricane, post Hurricane Clark, post-hurricane, post-hurricane, post-hurricane clark yeah, I just, you know, lost the ability to speak. Doing good doing, uh, yeah, we, we did a whole. We had a whole bunch of trees fall down. We had to clean them up. We had to do a whole bunch of renovating and fixing things up. We didn't lose power for too long. It was a few days for some folks around us, but we actually got our power back pretty quick, which is nice where we live, which was nice, uh, but overall, no major damage really fortunate and yeah, no same it's yeah, oh good, I'm happy to hear you guys are good too.

I know we we talked a little bit, but it's central florida did pretty good. You know that vicinity did all right this, uh, this term of the storm. Other than that, though, like ever since that happened, I've just been swamped. It's like it's sets you back a few days and then you're just playing catch up for weeks, and I didn't feel like I was really caught up until today. Actually, now I feel like I've caught up on everything, so I feel better. But that's what I was saying in the beginning it feels like we haven't talked in weeks because there's been so much going on every single day.

I can't even give you a vibe check, because you just gave my vibe check for me. Like you just described exactly my life. Yeah, exact same way. I've caught up today and that's how long it's taken post hurricane to get caught up. Yeah, yeah, we. I had a three-day week last week, right, because we had monday off for indigenous people's day, or columbus day if you're italian, which you know, oh, why is that Italian?

It just is. It's a New Jersey thing, so you get a three-day week. I worked more in the three-day week than I've worked in like two weeks. Well, I also took Friday off because I was traveling to be with family. But dude, oh my gosh, from hurricane to three-day week to this, it's just I'm dead, I'm dead.

I'm right there with you.

Yeah we have an international team at work and it was kind of nice because everyone was just super cool. They're like hey, are you okay? Like everybody from overseas and other places in the US, everybody was checking in, which was really appreciated, and also they just were. So I don't know about your organization, our organization just cared so much. They're like we're just going to shift their meetings. Like everybody around us started shifting their meetings because they're like listen, you guys go deal with that, we'll talk to you next week. And everyone just kind of acknowledged like we're not going to have these meetings until the following week, but because of that, your yeah, your next week basically turned into let's play catch up and make sure we cram all these meetings in this week instead. So last week was just a nightmare.

See, interestingly, because I'm the only Floridian. At my company I guess there's a half Floridian. They share a space, but I'm the only real native living here, full-time Floridian. No one shifted meetings, but nothing got done Because of course, I am the one who gets things done. So it was kind of as if they had shifted the work, they just waited for me to do it. Uh, so yeah, same, same problem, same stitch, but I'm just glad to be through it. I did have a really good trip.

Went to philadelphia with my wife to hang out with our little baby niece. She's a year and a half now, just a fun little squirt of a a child. We just had a good time with hanging out with her and we also got to go to Pennhurst Asylum, which is a. It wasn't abandoned. It was shut down for cruelty to the patients in like 1998, which is way sooner than you think it was.

Wait, wait wait, wait, wait, 98?, 98, yeah, so in 98 they finally shut this place down for, like you know, thousands of cruelties to human beings. But fortunately for us, we get to now go tour that thing during october season. They set it up like the most deranged, twisted, haunted house you've ever been through. So you get to go through the catacombs, you get to go through one of the wards, you get to go through the underground walkway, uh, that connects the buildings, and then you get to go through another building like it was four haunted houses across this, this now abandoned asylum, and it's just the creepiest, like just most deranged and like you kind of think like is this disrespectful? Is this disrespectful to the people who were tortured and died here?

And I say no, if anything, it's a good reminder like yeah, this is horror and this is all put on to be scary and like gross and outrageous, but like what was happening here is still somehow worse. So you know, like I think it's good that people one get to see this place and the, the fashion that it is now, you know, and to be to be reminded like yeah, people were tortured here. This is not a good place and you know if we can enjoy in this and find some enjoyment in the horror, that's great. But also, people who go there are never going to be like yeah, I think we should bring back insane asylums and just treat the mentally unwell like lesser people you know like. So I don't think it's. I think it's exploitation for for the betterment of society. And I just enjoyed the heck out of it was a good time right.

Yeah, yeah, it's like, on one hand, with historical landmarks or things like that, you know that haven't been great and they're kind of like a blemish on history of humanity. It's like in one case, you could say, just wipe it out, you know, because you want to get rid of the memory, you know, replace it with something better. That way we don't have to remember that anymore, we don't have to look back on it. But on the other hand, a lot of important lessons learned. To be like this was a lesson on why we don't treat people this way or operate this way.

You know, I've been to Germany and I went to some of the concentration camps that were part of the Holocaust and, holy cow, like it could have been the same thing. They could have wiped those out because of how terrible it was. But it's so important that you have a look back on that and be like man. You know, this is how we learned as a, as humanity, to not ever step back to this again, and this is a reminder of how terrible that was and how we can't do that as people ever again to each other. And so I like that to keep those things open, and I think it's great that you got to experience it, even though you didn't get a lobotomy. So really, how much of your experience was actual?

I did see a person eating out of someone's head.

Oh, like the candy bowl.

No, just like you know, it was like a body and the head was open. They were like scooping brain out and just kind of noming on it. Yeah, yeah.

Nom on it.

Ooh, just noming on some brain.

Well, we, actually I didn't even bring this up, but yeah, happy Halloween season, because this is your favorite time of year it's the best trees, those orange trees if you live up north.

They're beautiful, and horror is my favorite genre of movie and Halloween is my favorite holiday. So it's just it's good times. It's good times right now, although I wish it wasn't working as much, because I would like to go out and experience more of the Halloween festivity. It's just busy, busy busy, busy. We couldn't even record this podcast till like days after we normally post, because we're just busy yeah, we're just so busy.

Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate because this is like your favorite holiday and you should relish in that.

You should take some time off and go do the things you used to do, crazy stuff, like when we used to work together. You'd be like I'm watching a horror movie every single night. It's like 31 days of halloween or whatever it was. And then you used to play like video games. Like you used to have like some goals you'd have in the video games. You go hard, you take days off of work just to go hard in those games. I miss those days.

I do too. I think one problem is I've kind of run out of things to do, like there is no end of horror movies, but I've seen all the good ones and I've seen all the bad ones and all that's left is kind of like mid tier and mid sucks. Mid is worse than bad. There have been some good horror movies that have come to theaters this year, uh, but you know you get those throughout the year interspersed. There's not a lot during the october season, unfortunately. So I just do, I do the best I can. I did buy, we did buy a halloween decoration at home depot yesterday. It's a. It's a mouse that's dressed up like a mummy. It's like four feet tall. Got it for 20 bucks Great deal, nice On sale Great deal Mummy mouse From the Home Depot.

I love it For the yard. Why not? That's great. Why the heck not Someone around me? Because we don't live in like a suburban, really area. There is this giant I'm talking 20 foot dude With this giant scythe and the first time I saw that thing it scared the living crap out of me Because I was like, oh my God, it was taller than the house. It was incredible. So people just go crazy out here Because why not?

Why wouldn't you? And that's kind of the goal. Eventually. We live in a townhome in a pretty small neighborhood and it's mostly old snowbirds, so you don't get trick-or-treaters at all. But I would love to live in a place where, like, we could go full bore, like yeah, let's go creepy, let's scare some kids, let's give out some candy, let's have a good time.

It's the dream. That's the dream. I hope you get to enjoy the remaining part of the season, because there's not a lot of time left, so you're not I will.

Uh, you know what there is time to enjoy, though, is the topic for this week. You know what we're talking about this week?

clark, I have a feeling, but why don't you tell people and we'll see if I'm right, because if I'm wrong, then this is going to be real awkward.

Okay, so I was going to say individual contributor has posted something fantastic to the Tech Talk channel. If you don't know how to get to the Tech Talk channel, you go to the podcast show notes, go to the link tree, join our discord. Great conversations happen there and I also you know we talked about this last time and we've since set this up. Individual contributors have been on fire recently. They suggested we start a Is it Me or Is it Corporate which you can now participate in. All you have to do is go to the hashtag Is it Me or Is it Corporate channel and do forward slash confess and you can type in anything and we will respond to it. Forward slash confess and you can type in anything and we will respond to it and it's a nice anonymous way to, yeah, share your problems.

We will respond to them in real time and we'll actually do that after this episode, so we get a little backlog of these things going. But for this one we're just going to respond to individual contributors' topic, because it's good. Clark, why don't you talk us through what they said?

I'd love to tee it up because I wrote a book in response to this because it is so relevant to something I've been dealing with in my current company.

But yeah, individual contributor, thank you for posting this and I hope some of our responses helped you. But basically to tee it up, individual contributor posted in this channel that they've been working at their company for quite some time and essentially they have a director that they work with that is a little difficult to work with One. They seem super intelligent, super smart. They're really really technical and every single time that this person is approached with an issue, a problem or whatever it might be, it has to lead into kind of a grilling of sorts of saying like, hey, well, what about this, or how about this, or, you know, did you guys think about this? It basically turns into a let's go a thousand miles deep into the scenario and let's really dig through the issue from a technical perspective. That might even be out of the bounds of individuals, contributors, capabilities, and so basically it kind of puts this person in a bad place because every single time they need to communicate with this person, they kind of are always stumbling over like how do I approach it? How can I get to the point of what I need from this person, rather than like pulling them into every single conversation because we can't scale because of that.

And basically in the channel they asked hey, is this something? Is there something I can do about this? Does anyone have any feedback of situations they've had around this one? And is this just something like, hey, I need to prepare more, I need to practice more. Or is it really just hey, maybe this is this person's issue and there's not too much I can do in this scenario. What do you think? Did I tee that up? Okay?

You did, and I think to kind of boil it down to a singular idea. It's that classic problem of how do you communicate with someone that is difficult to communicate with. Yeah Right, like it resonated with me when I read it and then I read your reply, because I was like I deal with this too. This is something I've kind of learned to work around in my own way. It doesn't always work, but I'm curious like what are the solutions out there? So what did you say, clark?

Yeah, yeah, it's really interesting because you know some signs of people like this. It's when you send them a message because you're like hey, just wanted to give you a heads up, this situation is happening, and like you want them to trust you. You want them to just be like OK, cool, you got it. You know, let me know in our next one-on-one we'll figure it out. It really feels like this person is. If you send a message like that, they're going to be like hop on a team's call with me right now, a Slack call with me right now and let's hash it out. And like they want to just get into the weeds with them in the moment and fight through this with them. Everything's a fire drill.

Everything's a fire drill.

No, like they just don't trust anyone because they have to have their hand in every single little thing, in every single decision.

There's a, there's a lot of, I almost feel like there are. They're just looking for gotchas, to the point that it can almost fall to a little bit of absurdity, like you could say something like I don't know, we're going to post this to the website on Tuesday and they'll go so far as to say well, how do we know the website will be there? That's really not something anyone was considering or should be thinking about. Why are you asking that they look deeper than they ever need to for just to like the whatabouts, the whatabouts and the gotchas and the stump, the chumps? And I must show you that I know what I'm talking about. It's definitely driven from. I think they've been I'm going to use a word, and I don't know if it's definitely. It's definitely driven from. I think they've been. I'm going to use a word and I don't know if it's the right word.

They have been abused by corporate in the past and I feel like this is the scars of that abuse that's showing itself, because no normal human being thinks this way. You know, we've talked about this a lot. In the pod is the importance of trust and understanding, like letting people either make mistakes or go off and do the thing they've been hired to do. And these people can't trust, because I think there's some, there's some scar tissue there. They're dealing with that. They cannot let go and let lie when it comes to other people doing things Right.

Or they feel the need to prove themselves and, yes, like they always have to show like I'm the one who knows this. And or they're worried to your point, like because of that scarring, you know they. They're worried that if they don't know the answer to this and someone else asks them, that they're not going to be able to own up to their role or the expectation for them and they're going to be cut off guard. So, rather than trusting their team, they're like I need to know, I need to be involved in everything, so that way I don't run into any weird situations and I can just answer for the team on everything. So definitely some really bad corporate baggage. I'll kind of give my feedback.

I don't think I work with someone as toxic as this, but I certainly work for someone who is super intelligent. I mean, they always blow my mind. I'm like, how do you remember this thing from six years ago that happened with this one story, like and why? Why do you remember that? And I really, I really have struggled being a direct report of this person of, like, how do I communicate? So I feel like I'm driving these things and basically telling them to hey, back off, I got it, you know, trust me so I can have the autonomy. You know, going back to my CAC, my personal workplace happiness score, which is culture, autonomy, challenge, compensation I really value autonomy and challenge. And if I feel like someone's always answering for me or you know I can't, you know, essentially help guide the conversation and the decision, then I don't feel like I'm bringing value, because then I'm like what am I doing? Just reporting to you and being a middleman. So in this particular case, I gave a whole book of feedback but I basically had to think completely, shift the way I think, do a whole mindset shift, say, yeah, don't think like Clark, think like this person, like why are they reacting this way? And I really tried to put myself in their shoes, to be like this is not how I should explain it, how I feel like I would understand. It's more like what do they think about it and what information do they actually need for what they're concerned about? And when I was able to shift that mindset and gear my conversation that way, I actually feel like it's been much more effective.

And I try to use, you know, a super simple form of like okay, what, so what? Now what? And within that, you know I kind of laid out in a lot of detail. I won't go into all that here, but, you know, just lay out high level of challenge, let them know what the impact is because of it.

In the so what, and then in the now what, say, hey, we have three options here. You know we could go down this path, this path, or this path, there path. There's pros to this path, cons to this path, pros to this path, cons to this path. Here's my recommendation. And by doing that, you've expressed a few things. One, you understand the issue, you understand the impact and, lastly, that you've thought through a bunch of different ways to tackle this, probably things that are going through their mind. So you're probably answering their questions as you're going through this and you're telling them and I recommend this, and so it's showing like you're bringing the wherewithal to say, hey, I know what I'm doing, here's my recommendation.

And a lot of the times you'll just say get a. Hey, yeah, that's the right answer, go ahead. I'll tell you this, though, even though I do that and I feel like the message is getting across as I'm going through that, now what I often get interrupted like hold on, like what about this and what about that? And I'm like wait, hold on. Like I got to finish what I'm saying and I'll get to your points here. So I kind of have to.

It kind of feels awkward because it's like they're start grilling me. I'm like option one when I have three and I'm like just give me a second, I'm going to get there, I promise. And I kind of just try to control the conversation that way by delaying their conversation or their usually hey, yeah, that's actually I agree with that Like let's go down that path or make a slight tweak here. And I actually like that and I think that's going to drive us to the right solution. And so I found, by gearing it this way and I've been doing this for years with this person at this point they actually now kind of expect me to drive it. And I have felt that the conversations have shifted to be like hey, I don't even want to talk about this thing, I know you got it, which is a really, really good feeling. And it kind of plays into my CAC and my personal happiness where I'm at now.

That's a really positive outcome and, you know, I would love for that to be the outcome for everyone. I don't think, and I'm guessing individual contributor. Based on some of the things they said in their post, I'm guessing they've tried some of this, or you know, and the thing that really keyed me in on this topic was when they said I feel like the explanation would prompt a further discussion. That would just take just as long if I explained verbally in the first place. I don't want to rely so much on asynchronous communication to reconsider others' time. So the way you do it, I think, is the right way. So I want to state for our listeners if you want to be a good corporate citizen, stop listening to the podcast right now. Clark has given you the HR-approved answer and we'll put the stamp of approval on that. What I'm going to suggest is what if you don't want to do that and you're tired of playing those games? Or maybe this person isn't getting along, uh, or or moving smoothly with the clark approved answer? So my recommendation would actually be to play stupid and to, instead of ever telling them anything, make them work more. And this is gonna sound really bad, but what I like to do in these situations is actively act like I don't know what I'm talking about and set up questions that are going to get them to tell me what I need them to say or get them to approve what I need them to approve on their own, versus me actually having to suggest anything to them, and I just act like an idiot. So it basically makes them do the work I've already done, which is fine because I don't like them and they should be working and they're probably not because they live to agitate and make my life worse. So example let's say I need to go create some technical marketing material on some new feature and this person is the guy I have to go talk to about this feature. I already know what I know about this. I've seen the slides, I've been on the meetings, I've listened to it.

I'm going to go into this as if I didn't know anything at all, and the reason and what I'm going to do is say, hey, I need to make three bullet points based on what you've said. What should I say? And just get them to feed me everything, because this is the kind of personality they are right, they want to be the right one, they want to be the one that tells you everything. Just let them. No one likes this person anyway and that's the other thing I can tell you is no one in your department likes this person. Everyone hates them. Everyone gives them the runaround, just like Clark is doing. They're trying to work with them and make them better, but it's not getting anywhere because people don't change and people suck for the large part. So why should you suffer? Because this person is an a-hole who's going to be stuck in their ways forever. So just make them work for you and then push them through the process of giving them.

Hey, I need more detail on this. Can you go into that deeper? That third bullet's a little weak. Don't you think it needs more? Don't you think Customers aren't going to like that, don't you think? And then, when they start to sweat bullets because they can't give you answers, you can be like well, I guess I could go figure it out myself if you don't have something, and make them feel inferior and really make them recoil into themselves, like maybe they aren't the gods they think they are. But these are the games you can play with that personality that always puts you on the winning foot, cause you came in like an idiot but you left like a champion. It's just, that's the Bruce way of handling this situation. I you know again, the HR approved option was was given to you by Clark, so I'll I'll leave it at that.

I hate everything you just said, but I but I agree. I'm not going to say I I did.

It's not that I hate you and I disagree, it's I hate what you said it's.

I hate you and I hate your idea. So just overall, you're the worst. No, but I mean there, I think there's a spectrum, there's a this person has hope or they're meaningful to my career, and then there's this person's too far gone, like there's no way. Yeah, you can't fix them, and I think when that's the case, your option is not a bad one of basically, you kind of feel discouraged a little bit in that case, because it's like, okay, fine, then you just go do it and you basically kind of stay out of it and be like, hey, I need these things, but I don't really know what I'm doing. And it kind of turns into delegation of like you end up telling them what to do, even though they're a higher level, because last time you tried to actually take control. They took control and just did everything for you.

So in this case you can be like, hey, I'm going to go do this thing again. Like, hey, can you jump in and help me, because last time you were so helpful doing this, and they'll probably be like, flex their ego a little bit. Yeah, absolutely, like I'm so happy to do that for you, and then you just get them to do your work for you. I mean, that's realistically what's going to happen with this type of person is they're just going to end up doing your work and you can delegate to them. And then they can be like, hey, what if we geared this differently? Or what if this customer reacts this way to Bruce's point and you can literally get them to just kind of do your work and also, you know, feed into their ego. That's going to make them happier and probably make you look better.

The crazy thing is, psychologically it makes them like you more. And I don't like that and I can't explain it, it's manipulative stuff. Right there, bruce, it is.

It is very manipulative stuff it is. But you know, like, here's the thing. We're here to work, we're not here to make. I mean, unless you are curing cancer, please, please, don't do this. But like, unless you're curing cancer or sending rockets into space, we person. It's just a nightmare to get through the conversation. Or I have to spin up meetings to talk about the thing that should have just taken five seconds in a chat.

Like, don't let it get to that point. If you know this person can't be reasoned with, then treat them like a child and act like a child. Like it's kind of one of those things where a little bit of psychological profiling of people and just saying I don't actually care all that much about this and in many cases this person is probably a roadblock for you because they're either a higher level executive or approver in your performance and your evaluation. And if they see you as an ally and speak positively on your behalf because you use them for everything, and they feel like, oh, this person elevates my ego, congrats, you've now played the game to a point that you're probably gonna move up in the ladder because you've befriended this egotistical maniac you work with. So, unfortunately, that's the game right, Like that's the game we all play in corporate, and it's just a matter of choosing the right path for the right time.

Yeah, I agree. I think it is all about that. You know spectrum of like. Where are they? And to me, I always assume positive intent and want to try and help people. I think you should try to go that route. But, to Bruce's point, you'll hit those people that are just a pain in the butt and you just got to treat them differently and just acknowledge like, hey, I'm just not going to deal with this, I'm going to delegate for them, I'm going to have them give it back to me and then I'm going to be fine at the end of that. It's not really going to hurt how I look. It's probably going to help me in the long run.

I think the important thing, though, is evaluate your CAC Like this is a really important situation. Like, if, boss, and you, like me, you value autonomy and challenge, you're never going to get that from this type of leader. No, and you have to take a real hard look in the mirror and say is this where I want to be right now? Because if that happened to me, I would just be discouraged and I literally would be like I'm demotivated from doing work. I'm going to go do some other stuff or try to find another area that I'm interested in or a person that I'm interested in working with, rather than this person.

However, if you're there to be like I want to do the least amount of work and I just want to get paid and get that paycheck and walk out and do whatever I want to do in life, this might be the place for you, because it's like, hey, this person's just going to do your work anyway. This is a great scenario. So you got to evaluate your CAC to see is this where I want to be and is this a good situation for me? In my case, if I did what Bruce did, I'd be on the wrong side of that spectrum. I'd be like I want to pull plan E, I want to exit, I want out of this room.

I think there's one more thing to that too. I didn't even think about this till you said that is, both of our TACs can also have a negative approach too, Because if the person does value more independent thinkers, my road's going to get you in trouble because you're going to be like man. This person can't do anything on their own right, Like if they're not an egomaniac, but rather they're just like a perfectionist and they want to make sure you're doing everything to the best of your ability. Going this route will quickly get you pipped because they're going to be like they're just incapable. Or, on the other, hand.

If you were on my team, this would not roll. I'd be like you got to figure it out. I would literally tell you to go back, find three recommendations and tell me what you recommend. That's what that would be my advice to you.

Meanwhile, if you approach some of the people I've worked with in the past and try Clark's method, they will pip you because they see you as obstinate and headstrong. So like you have to is obstinate and headstrong, so like you have to evaluate and it is just you're basically doing psych evals on people in the workplace and evaluate your CAC. What works for you. Find an approach that works with this person. Whether it's one or the other, the one that works is the one I'd recommend you continue to do for your own sanity. If you can't plan, exit out of there or fix the problem.

Yeah, I agree. Going back to the interview that I did, people are the best thing about work and the absolute worst thing about work, and this is exactly why it's like you can't even do your work. I've got to focus on how Bruce feels today and his psyche, though, and how he's going to handle this. Like what a waste of time.

Absolute waste of time. And isn't that so much of work? Isn't so much of work, just wasting time?

Oh, a hundred percent. I mean we used to waste time but have a lot of fun doing it. Now we end up wasting time and really hating wasting that time.

I think we're at the point in our careers now where the wasted time is the worst part of work. We don't get fun anymore. Fun's gone.

Pizza party days are over.

So now, when you waste time, it is just painful, it is. I could not be working right now. That would be nice, but instead I'm wasting time.

Yeah, I 100% agree. So, yeah, hopefully you know that's helpful, not only to individual contributor. I think there were a lot of good discussion points and tips on here, as well as what else you could be doing on. But yeah, I think there are some people that it's just you can't do anything about it and it sucks. But, yeah, try to try to see what your options are and determine if you can get out of that scenario. If you're in that, if you're in that option, that's not the good place for you. Hop out, get out of there quick Yep.

I left another pretty good tip in the discord in that, in response to this conversation, not going to share it on the podcast, the only way you can get this bruce banger is by going to hashtag tech talk inside the discord, and you know how to get there because I already told you what a cliffhanger way to draw them in.

I love it well also, I mean just in general, we check this thing every day. We're talking every day with the folks in this, in this discord. It's so awesome in there. What are you doing? Get in there right now, and every single day there's new people joining. It feels like get in there, start contributing. You're going to get a ton of value. It's only a click away. You know what else is in the Discord Clark.

What's that? It's our favorite game show in a podcast. What Do?

You Mean.

We got a few in there. We do, we do, we'll take turns. We're going to alternate, so I will take the first, you get the second and then I'll take the third. How about that? So, for those who maybe just first time listening to the podcast or you just never made it this far before, it's fine.

We play a little game called what Do you Meme. Again, it's run through the Discord, just like our Is it Me or Is it Corporate. The what Do you Meme channel is a place where people can post memes based on things we said in the previous episode or just things that, in general, they want us to describe. But we have to describe the meme with our mouthparts on radio, because that's fun stuff it is. So the first which I will take is an individual, a man in a suit, red tie, looking confusedly away from a camera, and the prompt is when someone asks me, why am I doing the job and not following my dreams? And this individual confusingly says I was never in this, for the money. But then momentarily looks towards maybe you know, the sky, heaven, an alien that's approaching, and says but it turns out the money was absolutely necessity for me, and I think we can all relate to that, because none of us would be working if we had that money.

That's all I'm saying Especially not in the roles that we're in We'd be doing something wildly different, probably, than what we're doing today.

Yeah, certainly not a job where I'd be wearing a blue suit with a red tie.

No, it's a poor choice, I agree. Imagine putting that on every day. Yikes. All right, clark, your turn. Nice one, all right, my turn. I am looking at, I know, I'm reading it right now too. I'm reading it right now too. I'm looking at a Reddit post. You guys know what I'm talking about. If you're on Reddit, you get these ads that pop up. You know that Reddit and it's a Reddit ad. You know what I'm talking about If you've been on Reddit. It's a Reddit ad. It's not like your normal corporate ad that you see on LinkedIn or something. It's a Reddit ad and what it says, it's a hinting into what Bruce is. He's a meme of marketing. All he is is a meme of marketing. And this is tying in to one of the best memes ever where the interview he comes on, and this case it's a very, very hot computer and what it says is knock to a blow on that thing.

This is brilliant. I don't know if this is official knock to a marketing or not, but this is brilliant. Like they make the best PC fans. They're stupid, expensive People hate the fact that they're brown. I love them. I have an entire case full of them over there. Quiet, silent, super energy efficient, just blow air like nobody's business. Noctua, blow on that thing. You know what I'm saying? Noctua, noctua, blow on that thing.

You know what I'm saying? Noctua, If you guys have seen that meme you know what we're talking about.

By the way, that girl- making millions.

I feel like she's been on so many interviews and stuff just for having that five-second clip Her podcast Just Noctua on that thing Eclipsed ours in a week's worth of time.

So you know thing Eclipsed ours in a week's worth of time. So you know y'all. It kind of hurts my feelings. You're not helping us grow the way she got to grow. Last meme it's a Venn diagram, everyone's favorite construct to display data which it seems. Many people no longer understand. How Venn diagrams work, this one does, fortunately. This one understands the purpose of the Venn diagram. If you will, there are two circles overlapping each other, one blue, one yellow. Each category of the circle drive time DJs and Sisyphus. Which things have in common, bringing you the same great classic rock night after night? This one comes from bourgeoisie correspondent Alex Restrepo, and of course it does. It's about Sisyphus. Are we shocked? No, we are not shocked, but good job. Love the meme. It gets four laughing emojis from us.

A hundred percent and actually just shout out to. We had three different contributors play the game this week. We had three different contributors play this week.

We had Snizzle.

Lewis and we had Alex come in and give us those fire memes that we explained with our mouths. It's great radio, Great radio.

Absolutely great radio and I think that draws to a close this radio.

What do you say, Clark? You literally forgot our new segment that you talked about right in the beginning. How dare you?

Oh Well. I said oh oh no. I see my plan was we would do this segment when we have more. Oh okay, so you want to wait? Screw it.

You want to do a?

preview. I think this could get 40-minute pod. Let's shoot for an hour, shall we?

I just need to do it to draw people in. Let's draw people into this, let's do it. We'll try to keep it brief, but we just got to get more submissions.

Yes, we do, yes, we do. So is it me or is it corporate? Again, credit to individual contributor for coming up with this idea. The first confession we had. I think Clark should decline more meetings, that's just.

You know, I and I, I agree. I actually think that's something I can personally take on and do better. And you know what I have today. I didn't have any meetings after one o'clock, I just had some focus work to do. So look at me Good on you. I don't really know that it's a confession but I really do Good.

Good, I'm glad you do so. Uh, anonymous confession. Three is it? Is it corporate? I mean, they're not really. Is it me or is it corporate? But we're just getting through the first batch as we figure out our flow on this. Bruce makes me do all the editing of the podcast but takes all credit for it.

Huh Huh. I wonder who posts that. Is it Craig? Does Craig have access? I think Craig does you literally do nothing. You claim all this credit and Craig here does all the work for us. So I mean, is that wrong?

Go back to your corner, craig. I'm taking away admin rights from Craig is what I'm taking away from this one. Our last anonymous confession Back in the mid-aughts, the small startup I worked for had no equity or options had a pretty good year. For the first time, I got a bonus of $50. I don't think I was able to hide the look of confusion on my face Is it me or is it corporate? So this is a good one. This actually feels like an. Is it me or is it corporate? So thank you for submitting this and meeting the prompt expectations. That is definitely corporate.

Clark 100% Dude not talking dollars in the aughts we're not talking the 80s, no, literally talking the mid 2000s, like the iphone's about to come out and you got a 50 bonus for for your startup having a good year.

I would rather have nothing than 50. A hundred percent like. I would rather they're just like. We're not doing bonuses yet, we're going to wait until the company has more equity. $50, you could take that and use that as toilet paper. Get out of town, Charlie Brown. Unacceptable.

At that point you have to pass the bull face test. Should we just give them half a Friday off, or should we give them $50? The answer is half a friday off. Or should we give them 50 and the answer is half a friday like? Let him go, please absolutely holy cow.

I've gotten bigger gift cards for chipotle before.

Like get out of here that is unacceptable. I went to public's this weekend. The amount of stuff in my cart was so minimal it was like 150 bucks. If something could be 50 bucks, I'm like what do you expect me to get here? Like a thing of strawberries, a couple bananas and blueberries, Like that's 50 bucks right there.

Well, that was your problem. You were buying healthy food. You got to buy that crap. Go get some ruffles, throw your ruffles. Get some ruffles. Get some Budweiser. You maybe throw some rice cakes in there. America baby just load up that cart with nothing but carbs. You can get by with 50 bucks, no problem it is wild, though.

Seriously, what are we doing here? That's immediately like, okay, I'm out, this is ridiculous.

I feel like that's only going to get worse as time continues to pass. I agree, but you know what gets worse as time continues to pass. I agree, but you know what gets better as time continues to pass. Clark, what's that?

Corporate.

Strategy Podcast. It always shatters? Yeah, it does. And how can people help us out?

with this. There are so many ways to share our podcast. If you like us, the biggest thing you can do is give it a rating, share it with your friends. We have so many people that are in here actually that have been talking about like hey, I shared this with a few people. You know my friends are joining and they all are anonymous. A lot of people actually have exposed their identities, but a lot of people have stayed anonymous, which is totally cool. So, yeah, it's join. You know you can join the discord at any point. Just click the link at the bottom of the episode You're walking and take you to a link tree. We've got a website. We got a. Buy me a coffee. If you want to support, support us and keep us ad free and you can just jump in into this discord and provide value to others, share issues you're having, submit an. Is it me or is it corporate confession? We would love it all.

We do, and we also appreciate if you can help us financially not obligational, you don't have to do it. But we are ad free and we have been ad free for the last few months and we will be for the next few months because of one very generous donor who keeps us that way. So if you'd like to help us out there, you can always buy us a coffee. And if you don't want to do that, then do what Clark said Just join. Just join. Share with friends, share with people. You don't want to do that, then do what Clark said just join.

Just join, share with your friends, share with people you don't like. This person individual contributor talked about today. If you have that person in your life, feel like it's a Chuck. If you have a Chuck in your life, please share this podcast with them. Maybe they'll get better. Yep, couldn't?

agree more. We do have a special guest that we're going to be recording a podcast with very soon, so your next episode is going to be very special. I'm so excited. It's a success story from the Discord. So if you're not in here, you're about to get a great reason to join and see exactly why you need to be in here. Because I'm excited, you're excited, we're all excited. So good, good things coming on the horizon. Be sure to tune in the next episode for that, but until then, the wheels on the bus go round and round. I'm Bruce and I'm Clark and you're on mute. We will see you next week.