Corporate Strategy
Corporate Strategy
142. We are Grateful (Mostly)
Have you ever wondered how technology can make podcasting a breeze? Join us on a journey where we unravel the magic of Discord's sound cleaning features, which have revolutionized our recording process by eliminating pesky background noise. In this episode, we share personal stories of battling work burnout, with Bruce eagerly preparing for a Final Fantasy 7 concert with his wife and Cheesy Clark emphasizing the power of stepping back to regain focus. With a blend of humor and heartfelt moments, we discuss the importance of taking breaks and how upcoming holidays give us something to look forward to.
Gratitude isn't just a buzzword; it's a powerful force that shapes our workplace dynamics. We open up about our experiences with hiring new team members and the joy that competent colleagues bring to our professional lives. Our conversation touches on heartwarming personal moments that emphasize the little gestures of appreciation that can transform relationships. Despite the seriousness of these themes, there's always room for a laugh as we ponder the quirks of Florida weather and share our fondness for the efficiency of Mac computers.
In the spirit of gratitude, we explore innovative ways to express appreciation both at work and in personal life. Imagine a world where colleagues exchange gift cards as tokens of recognition, sparking a loop of positivity. We also invite listeners to join our Discord community, where connections blossom through shared experiences. With a playful twist, we toy with the idea of hosting a Thanksgiving Day telethon, underscoring the vital role listener support plays in maintaining our ad-free podcast. Join us as we celebrate gratitude, humor, and the importance of connection in this engaging episode.
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It'll be worth it. Can you imagine what they're thinking right now? Who, what? Who's thinking the listeners? What they're thinking, hearing that noise Just shooing Right in the microphone.
Speaker 2:Fortunately Discord has good enough sound cleaning that it removed it, so I didn't have to. You don't think they hear this. I know they don't because I can't hear it. Thank God you can't hear that at all. No, dang AI Getting too good. There's a reason why we record in here. It's because it makes me not have to remove your weird chewing noises.
Speaker 1:Or my deep breathing.
Speaker 2:I pretty much just take my mouth over the mic oddly, it did pick up the first of your weird it didn't pick up the chewing, but it picked that up. I don't, I don't understand maybe, maybe breathing is more akin to talking than chewing, is I mean? What is talking, if not breathing, with sound it it's true, but what if you want to record ASMR?
Speaker 1:You?
Speaker 2:just can't. You got to use like an actual recording utility that you know where you pick up every little thing on your mic. Fair enough. You got to do it.
Speaker 1:No, it's not no it is oh, OK, OK no it is oh okay. Are you going to intro us, or what? No?
Speaker 2:Welcome back to Corporate Strategy, the podcast. That could have been an email. I'm Bruce and I'm Cheesy Clark. Cheesy Ketter Movements Clark. Back from the grave. Risen from the dead Three days in the tomb. Welcome back, Clark.
Speaker 1:Hey, welcome back, bruce hey thank you Thank you Vibration Inquiry. I want to hear about you, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm ready for the holiday next week. I'm ready to do my work for a few days for the holiday next week. I'm ready to not work for a few days. I feel like I've hit my context switching point of inadequacy where now, even when I have time to focus, I can't, because my brain is just too much to do it. It's approaching the burnout territory and I think a few days off work is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Speaker 1:That's fair, I'm feeling it. It's only thursday it's thursday.
Speaker 2:You still have a whole another day. Yeah, tomorrow is nothing, though I have nothing on the calendar, so I'm gonna. Well, I, I am uh seeing final fantasy 7 in concert tomorrow evening, so that'll be fun, but uh, yeah, yeah, I'm excited, I actually got it for my wife, for her birthday 7 in concert tomorrow evening, so that'll be fun.
Speaker 2:I heard that was local. Yeah, I'm excited. I actually got it for my wife for her birthday. I mean, I also benefit from this gift, but Final Fantasy 7 is a beloved treasure in this household, so we're going to see the orchestration of it music tomorrow. But up until that point I'm just going to catch up on all the crap that I haven't been able to focus on today, so I'm not too worried about it.
Speaker 1:I'm good how you might give you a nice lift. That might give you a nice energy lift, you know, because I totally get like last friday. I know I was on a hot streak with my fridays being super productive last friday. Nope, not the case, huh, just going through the motion. But I was exactly like you. I was very brain dead. So I was kind of just rolling through things, not really being productive. There wasn't a shot in hell I was going to be able to do anything deep work related.
Speaker 2:So maybe tomorrow, since you'll be able to take those focus blocks, you'll be able to regain back some energy, maybe, I hope so I hope so, and you know next week's pretty light on the calendar side of things, so I'm really hoping I can just get all of the content work I have to get done done that way when I get back from the turkey days. It's, you know, it's back to the chaos, but it's not back to the chaos and I'm behind on everything. Fair enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I get to get ahead, that's my plan Nice.
Speaker 2:Uh, I like your face.
Speaker 1:What's, uh, what's going on with you Pinkies up. Hmm, I posted in the discord that you all should take some time. Hell, just take the rest of the year. Just don't go back to work. I am going to be out tomorrow and all of next week.
Speaker 2:I will be out. I think you've actually taken more time off this year than me. You're right, I probably have, which I am just stunned by.
Speaker 1:The two of us?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, wow.
Speaker 1:I'm taking all of the.
Speaker 2:Christmas time.
Speaker 1:I'll catch up to you then good, good, yeah, I just need it. I'm kind of in the same place as you. It's just like I'm getting to a point of just being cynical maybe is the right word where I'm just like tired of everyone's crap. I'm not gonna say that word crap. Keep it bg-13 for the little years in the backseat Our little corporate strategy.
Speaker 2:The young years who listen to corporate strategy, you know, start when you're six, so that way, when you're 60, you're ready to retire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So I'll keep it clean. I'm tired of everyone's crap and I need a few days, otherwise I might murder somebody. It's okay to say murder, that's a safe word. That's okay, absolutely. So I'm really excited we're not doing anything major we are. We're going to go see some friends, go to a little long weekend, little vacation on the coast, so I'm excited about that. Too bad it's cold right now in Florida.
Speaker 2:Define cold for our listeners.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah for our listeners. Cold for us is when it gets to like 70 degrees everyone puts on sweaters.
Speaker 2:It's 67 degrees outside and I'm freezing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my fingers are like a little numb. I ain't gonna lie, that's how we roll.
Speaker 2:I had to sport a jacket indoors earlier because it was just rigid.
Speaker 1:I'm wearing some waffle style long sleeve. Can you see this? I can see the waffle.
Speaker 2:It's covered in syrup.
Speaker 1:It is absolutely soaked in syrup in all the right places and I had to wear that today. I had to wear that today to keep me warm, because it's a tad chilly here, not a great weekend for the beach, but we're going to have a great time regardless, so I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice, good on you. We're going to see Gladiator 2 this weekend, which I'm excited for, big fan of the first Set. The expectation low.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I haven't seen it. I just feel like you should because the first one. You just got to go in expecting nothing and hopefully you're surprised. It's.
Speaker 2:Ridley Scott, which is interesting. I like Ridley Scott, oh, I did like Ridley Scott. So the man's interesting. You know he made some of my all time favorite movies like Alien, blade Runner, just classic. Gladiator, bangers, kingdom of Heaven, bangers all around. Man just makes some bangers but then he goes and starts making sequels to things Alien, Prometheus, it's alright Covenant, one of the worst, if not the worst alien movie ever. I'm worried about Gladiator 2 because it seems like the man doesn't know how to do a sequel but at the same time Pedrocal can polish any turd, literally like even in bad movies that he's in, like wonder woman 64 or whatever. It was 84, dude, that was the worst movie but he was so good in it like he made it watchable. That nick cage movie I forget what it was called, but like it was nick cage, I'm nick Nick Cage. Look at me, I'm famous, you can rent me at a party. Like a terrible movie, but like Pedro Pascal was great in it.
Speaker 1:So I can make it better.
Speaker 2:I'm here for it, I'm ready for it.
Speaker 1:Sometimes that's all you need is like one awesome actor or actress that just saves the day, like, wow, that movie sucked, but that person was awesome.
Speaker 2:Worth a watch. It's also got like 50 of the fantastic four in this movie, so how a new upcoming fantastic four like half of the four are here. So you know, just to get a look at some of that chemistry that we can look forward to.
Speaker 1:Interesting, interesting yeah, marvel's favorite family, yeah, should be great. Yeah, I feel like I've been let down by sequels. I can't even think when I'll tell my head I've been let down by sequels and so I think, set the bar low. You've been let down, but you can't name one. I mean, they're so bad I just don't even want to think they existed. You know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, erase them from your memory, just be like that didn't really happen.
Speaker 2:It's a bad dream I think the worst sequels I've ever seen were Pacific Rim 2 and Independence Day 2.
Speaker 1:And they came out right around the same time and they were just garbage.
Speaker 2:I don't know how you do that wrong. Aliens invade again. Fight them with ships. Aliens invade again. Fight them with giant robots. It's not hard, y'all.
Speaker 1:The plot you change. How did you not just take the playbook and repeat it?
Speaker 2:Just do it again. Change some colors. They're green robots instead of blue robots. Let's go.
Speaker 1:Like Fast and Furious, now what? There's like 36 of them or something like that yeah.
Speaker 2:They didn't go to space on 10, which is stupid.
Speaker 1:You have to go to space on 10.
Speaker 2:I don't say that jokingly Like when Jason went to space, like it was awesome. Friday the 13th, part 10, so good, such a good movie. Like really actually kind of brought back faith to that franchise because they were in the dumps, yeah, after Part 4. I mean part 5 and 6 are okay, but it really is a downward spiral from there Until you get to Jason part X.
Speaker 1:Yes, jason, in space SpaceX.
Speaker 2:They literally use the simulation room to simulate people having sex, to lure him in, to trap him. It's brilliant. Like you could only get that in, jason.
Speaker 1:This is like what's the name of that terrible movie, Sharknado. Oh yeah. The tarantula volcano one. I forget what that's called.
Speaker 2:You know I I've only ever seen like Sharknado and I don't remember a single thing about it. It was too bad to be good. Yeah, I couldn't appreciate it, so I didn't watch any of the others. It's like the Anaconda movies. There's like a billion Anaconda movies. It's like a thousand placids. People just don't know that these giant animal movies need to be made. I guess they absolutely need to be made.
Speaker 1:I guess they absolutely need. I feel like I need a giant panda bear movie in my life. Ooh, what is that? Murder Panda, murder Panda, mm, mm.
Speaker 2:Mm, mm, mm. Write that one down. We should not include this in the podcast, because I feel like you could easily green light this. I feel it. It's one of those. Just make it crap, but it's crap enough that people go see it in theaters, people would love it. Absolutely love it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I feel like our past guest on the last episode might have to steal this. Make it a film, yes.
Speaker 2:We need to pitch Murder Panda to JoJo. Yeah, JoJo would love that See if she will help us make our dreams be dreams.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it. Well, speaking of dreams, yeah, I assume that we need to talk about today. It's an annual tradition and I hope it will give you some sweet dreams. Hmm, Because this episode is all about gratitude. Oh no, Tis the season. Tis the season, Bruce. It is Thanksgiving-mas and for Thanksgiving-mas we need to come together today and I want to talk about gratitude. I got a question for you and I just want to reflect and think with the people. How do we be more grateful in our lives for the things that we have?
Speaker 2:oh, why did you do this? Why would you do this? It's a tradition.
Speaker 1:It is a tradition for us to do this.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna show a song right now into my face look, something we agreed on.
Speaker 1:We'd be better planning. This is going to be the episode pre-Thanksgiving yeah, to get people into the mood, into the season, into the groove, and it's perfect.
Speaker 2:I couldn't hear half of what you said. I think Discord still recorded it because the little box is green around your face, but I'm going to assume you said just shut up and do it, Bruce. Yeah, pretty much, that's all you need to know. Gratitude how does one be grateful?
Speaker 1:It's a good question. I said I was asking the questions, but now you're asking the questions, it's fine.
Speaker 2:How does one be grateful in this day and age?
Speaker 1:How do you express gratitude?
Speaker 2:in this day and age. I'll be honest how do you express gratitude.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest, it's tough Like life goes by so quick and there's so much going on all the time in your personal life and your work life and everything else. Sometimes you just forget to be grateful. Do you get like that, or are you constantly thinking about like man? I'm really happy right now. I'm thankful for this.
Speaker 2:When I am happy, I acknowledge it, and it's very much a ooh hope this lasts, this is good, this is great Love, this Don't want to have to go to work tomorrow and then it comes crashing down. I will say my self-awareness on the happiness scale is sad, because there's always that realization of damn, I'm really happy's gonna. It's gonna be over soon because I have to go back to work.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if it's gratitude specifically, but it is.
Speaker 2:It is like sort of the awareness of my current situation and the satisfaction of it in the moment, satisfaction.
Speaker 1:Are you willing to bring us in, cue us into what your last, I'm curious to two-part question for you personal, last time you were really happy or grateful, one of the two, and then, in the work life, when you were really happy or grateful, I want to hear both.
Speaker 2:Okay, give it to the people last time was really happy and grateful, was at lunch today because I wasn't working I almost spit the water right out of my mouth.
Speaker 1:I mean that's truth.
Speaker 2:My wife and I went to the mall. I had a turkish beef patty sandwich. It was really good, good, and I was like man, this is so good. I wish I could just stay at the mall for the rest of the day and I was grateful. I was grateful not to be at my computer.
Speaker 1:That is incredible. That is incredible. I love it. Uh, last time I was grateful at work. Give me the corporate work answer You're just dying right now.
Speaker 2:People I work with listen to this Um.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, it's already this hard. I promise, I promise he's laughing, he's I'm sure. He's got plenty of ideas. He can't control himself, so it's not that it's a long pause.
Speaker 2:I can't entirely be honest because it would be very mean. So I'm trying to, for my own sake and the sake of those around me. I'm trying to be positive and uplifting in my gratitude. I think okay, okay, you got this, it's good, I got gratitude, I think okay okay, you got this good.
Speaker 2:I got this. I got this. I was able to make an offer to someone who's going to join my team the week after next. They're going to be a technical writer. They're going to help lighten my load and make my life better. I hope, I pray they really were the best candidate by like times 10, unless they just totally pulled the wool over my eyes. Let's hope they don't listen to this. Time will tell. I was so thankful to be able to one have the rec to be able to fill it, because they acknowledge the fact that I'm about to be just the most burnt out candle in the workplace and that I was able to fill it quickly and get the candidate that I thought was by far the best. I'm very grateful for that, and I did express my gratitude as such to both my manager and those around me that I am just thankful that this finally was able to manifest itself, Because, thank God, I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1:That was great Nice job. I know you suffered through that. It was a little difficult to recall the last time, but it was good. I'm proud of you. Yeah, yeah, that was last week. Last week. Good Well, that's good. I like that and yes, it may have taken you a while to figure that out, but I'm happy you were thankful for it and it sounds like a great addition, so good for you.
Speaker 1:It is, it will be. What about you? Well, there was an easier answer. I'm thankful for everyone who listens to this podcast and for you.
Speaker 2:Okay, Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you take that road. Take that road I took. I took the high road, that's it. I got nothing else. And what about at work?
Speaker 2:oh you just. You've never been grateful at work, got it understood. No, that was my challenge too. That was really my struggle.
Speaker 1:It was easy enough. I just said I've never been grateful for my corporate job.
Speaker 2:It's hell, hell on earth literal knives in my eyes every day staring at my monitor.
Speaker 1:No, on a personal note, I also I am happy for this podcast. So that is number one. But I also was thinking about um just getting off work. Last night I had a meeting with someone across the ocean and it was late at night, so it was go to the office, come home, prep something real quick for the fan for dinner, hop on another call and then finally, like when I signed off, my wife and I were just joking with each other and I just had this moment like man, I got it so good. You know, work sucked today, but it's so good Just be joking around with a loved one, just hanging out. Nothing special, we didn't do anything, we were at home just hanging out, but we were just laughing to each other and having a great time. It was very heartwarming. I was very happy.
Speaker 2:That's just like being grateful for the podcast. That's not gratitude at work. You answered the same question twice. I'm going there next.
Speaker 1:Well, this was all just buffered for me to actually think of something I'm grateful for. No, I came up with this topic, so I actually think of something I'm grateful for. No, I came up with this topic so I did have something. I have recently hired a few people probably three, probably over their 90 days now and they're just handling things, and there's nothing better in the world than hiring someone who just does their job and does it really well.
Speaker 1:Like I walked into this meeting there was people who I've been working with for years. I'm like, okay, this person's kind of a pain in the ass. Sorry, little ears in the backseat, the little ears are just struggling this episode.
Speaker 1:And I get into this meeting and they start going. They're hitting all the points, they're covering everything. They've got a checklist. They were there prior to the meeting doing the demonstration, making sure everything was going to be perfect. There was like one little hiccup but for the most part everything was good and I just sat back and said I am so happy that I know I can trust this person to get the job done and go above my expectations. It just was such a good feeling to know I had that person, because I've gone through some hiring and firings over the last few years and it's been a struggle to find some really good people and rounding out this side of my team, I was so grateful for finding those people. To your point, having the opportunity to have that rec and expand the team to be able to cover this important product aspect of what we do, it was great.
Speaker 2:Incredible. I like that both of our work gratitudes fall onto people, or the potential of people to help make our lives better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean Kind of us just screaming help, help, please. And then finally we got the help that we probably should have gotten like a year ago, and now we're grateful for it.
Speaker 2:Could a tool or technology make you grateful?
Speaker 1:Make you grateful. I mean, you could be thankful for it.
Speaker 2:Are you thankful for a tool or technology as part of your job?
Speaker 1:I mean, I just love the Mac. I say it every time. If I had to work with a Windows machine every day, I would probably kill myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, couldn't imagine it, could not imagine using Windows at work, like it's bad enough on a Mac, like the things that fit Well. Firstly, I say it's bad enough Using Teams. Word Excel is bad enough on a Mac. Like I cannot imagine how much worse it is on Windows. Like just don't understand how that company continues to be the dominant business, with how absolute garbo that platform is. But these are things I'm grateful for I too am grateful that I have a work, mac.
Speaker 1:I used a Mac all of like a month. When I started, they gave me a Windows. Sorry, I used a. I started, they gave me a Windows. Or sorry, I used a Windows machine.
Speaker 2:They gave me a.
Speaker 1:Windows laptop and I literally used it for all of like a week and I'm like, listen, I'm going to be one third as productive as I could be if I had a Mac. And they immediately gave me a Mac and it was game changing. I still sit next to people. Someone next to me today was using a Windows computer. God, they were slow, they were pulling up powerpoints and word and they were like trying to do stuff in it, like just freaking align text, different text boxes on a page. You know how long it took them to do that on a machine that's dedicated to that software for it.
Speaker 2:I know it's like that's the craziest part, you know. Um keeping it in the positive, I am really grateful for the atlassian line of products. I really am. I love jira, I'm, I'm, I love confluence, and I will be the first to admit that our company is like we are not struggling. I think we just haven't maximized our ability to use it. So I've actually this week where we started working on like um kind of a confluence cleanup committee, it's like saying hey, we could do this better, let's do it better, and just seeing the potential. I love those products and I cannot imagine a life or a job where I don't get to use them. It's certainly a job where I'm far less productive and far less happy. So I'm thankful for Atlassian. Thank you for making products that do truly make my job easier.
Speaker 1:I like that we're not sponsored. By the way, we don't get credit for them.
Speaker 2:I mean Atlassian. If you want to sponsor us, I will take it. I think I'm going to be a customer reference for them, actually, which is funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I should say like after I do the customer reference like look if you want to sponsor the podcast, I shout you guys out all the time. It would be awesome. Yeah, no, please, we would, because I money. I also am happy with atlassian and that tool, but I've been using it, for we've been using for a long time. We started using it what? Back in 2014. It's been almost a decade since we started. You know that's crazy seen their ai engine?
Speaker 2:no, no we're not.
Speaker 1:We're not permitted by our security team to use advanced features in JIRA.
Speaker 2:Sorry. Oh, I mean it's expensive, like we were looking at the licensing costs and I don't know if we're going to do it, but I'm trying to make a case. It might be one of the best usages of AI, because it crawls Confluence in JIRA as opposed to crawling the trash fire that is the World Wide Web. So you know, if you use Confluence exclusively and you put all of your information in there, the AI bot they give you is only fed on good information. So it just becomes like yeah, it just becomes this really nice natural extension to what you do. The coolest thing, though today you know every, every document I make ends up getting translated into five languages, and you know we do use there is some bot intelligence that does that, but it takes a long time to do it. With the Confluence AI, it's literally like one minute done. It'll translate into like any language you want and you could basically say, like every document, everything that's marked document, just translate it. Five languages go.
Speaker 2:I would be grateful for that. I'd be so thankful for that. So I am thankful for the opportunity to budget and buy tools that make my life better. I'm thankful that I can absolutely bring on people that I think are going to elevate the experience of working here, and I am thankful that my job continues to pay me. That's good. It's good getting paid because then I can enjoy the moments where I'm not at my work which are the best moments of my life.
Speaker 1:Yes, I a hundred percent agree with you. I want to bring some, some helpful tips to the people. Yeah, and I'm going to ask you a hard question you already have. Well, I'm going to ask you a hard question. That's for the softballs. This is going to be the hard one. What is something that you should have been thankful for that either you forgot or you didn't think about in the moment, or you never said thank you to someone? Is there anything recently that comes to mind for you where you're like man, I should have said thank you Mine.
Speaker 1:I'll give you mine while you think yeah, go first. Because I was thinking about this. I was like we had a present. It was similar to the thankful thing that I said, but I think initially I was just like proud and like grateful and thankful.
Speaker 1:I didn't express it so I didn't say it to anyone. I never like reached out to them and said hey, I'm thankful for you, keep doing what you're doing. I just kind of like assume they knew, because at the end I like clapped for them and I was like great job, team, you did awesome Ha pizza party. Just kidding, I didn't do that, but I thought about it after. I'm like I really should like send them a note and just say hey, you're doing a great job, keep up the great work. Because those personal notes notes go a really long way and I think it's a really great way to show gratitude is just sending a note after a meeting or, you know, if someone does something nice to you, just something super quick, take 10 seconds and be like hey, appreciate you, great job, something along those lines.
Speaker 2:Of that tip. I do that all the time. Uh, I think even for things where it might not even seem necessary to do it. I try to acknowledge the fact that anytime someone doesn't do just their job, they're going above and beyond the call. And not only will I thank them privately, but we have a shout out program in our Slack so you can submit a thanks and then it gets bubbled up and they get like a hundred dollar gift card. So I do that any chance I get.
Speaker 2:When I see someone doing the work, work, and I'm kind of like I don't want to toot my own horn, but like I am a very grateful person when it comes to other people, just in general, like I, I understand the value of collaboration and what that means and I know when I help people it's always nice to get a thank you. So I always try to give it back and tell people I appreciate them when they help me or just exist in a positive way. That's all I need in most things is just as long as you exist and you're not hurting me, thank you, thank you, because the opposite is just so common. I'm trying to think of a time where I should have been thankful and wasn't. I'm trying to think of a time where I should have been thankful and wasn't, but I am very grateful to the people that have mentored me and helped me and have guided me to get to where I am.
Speaker 2:My previous boss oh, go ahead. I was just going to say my previous boss, who hated that I called him a boss, the one who introduced me to marketing and mentored me into marketing. When I left company I was at, I had a custom xbox controller engraved for him says best boss ever. Yeah, so you know, I I try and like show the respect where it is due for the folks that have really elevated me and I I completely would not be here if not for that elevation. That's awesome. I can't think of anything, man, because I I always try to do that yeah, I think you are great.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking back to when we worked and you know when I had to do things and, um, when we were working together, I think you were very good at that. It's like they I was working on something, you would always be like great job, and then you would always give constructive criticism to me, like next time, I think we can do this better. It was really appreciated because I okay cool, you acknowledge and you appreciate the work, and now you're giving guidance for how to make things better, which is awesome. It's a great way to approach things.
Speaker 2:I'm going to answer your question incorrectly. I regret being thankful for some things. Actually, I regret telling some people thank you and I really do Like there's been people that I've said thank you out of kindness and niceness, because it's part of who I am and in actuality, I wasn't thankful. I said it because I was. It was just you gave me the minimum and I felt like being polite and nice but in reality, like you suck at your job and you're terrible and I I really wish that I didn't. Thank you.
Speaker 1:And I wish I asked you for more and I wish you could have given me more. So, oh my gosh, I'm there. There's supposed to be a grateful podcast and you, just you, just you just admitted you over index on the thankfulness and you just thank everyone for everything.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna go hit your car, I'm gonna go hit it with my car and what are you gonna thank me for that you're gonna steal your dog, no, but like there's been times that I've asked people for things and they'll give it to me and I'll say thank you and I'm like this sucks, this is not what I want, this is not helpful, but like out of the kindness and politeness that has been beaten into me by my father as a child, like I have to say thank you and I have to pretend like you did a good job and reward you for it. I am the victim of the participation trophy. I am the victim of the participation trophy. It has become part of my mentality and who I am and I spew the participation trophy onto others around me and I regret it. I do. I wish that I could say this is bad, go do it again, but I can't.
Speaker 1:So Well, that was depressing. Should we just end it there? I couldn't even like I was dying through half of that, because you just totally took this in a different direction that I had no idea you were going to do. That it's a good point, though I think you have to like you shouldn't just say thanks for everything, because then, to your point, you are encouraging and could be encouraging bad behavior, poor work, whatever it might be, and you should only and we talked about this before, I think, in a previous episode you shouldn't like be saying thank you and clapping for people and giving them these applause things if they really haven't done anything valuable, like I think there is a line, because if you just celebrate everything, then everything you know just falls into an ether and it's like okay, so that's really important, is going to be ignored.
Speaker 2:I agree. Good point, I agree, and I think it's okay to be critical of people, especially when they do bad work. Your thanks is only going to allow them to continue to do that, and it's my fault that I've thanked them. So I think this is okay, don't over-index. No, don't Don't be like Bruce. Don't thank people, don't over index. No, don't, don't be like Bruce, don't thank people.
Speaker 1:Don't do it. Our gratitude pod has just turned into a you know what. Don't be grateful Screw that, if they don't deliver the highest quality and go above your expectations, throw it in the trash. You ever thank yourself. No, no, do you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you go around patting yourself on the back not in that way, but it's more of like a dang bruce. You really did it today. You did it and I'm I'm proud of you for doing it. So for that we're gonna go get a boba tea.
Speaker 1:You celebrate your wins. Celebrate the win.
Speaker 2:I feel like that is a form of self-gratitude Self-gratitude People need to do. It is a real thing people need to do is look at the accomplishments, no matter how minor, and compare them to the people that I accidentally thanked and how much they suck and realize like you have really done something today. You really have, and you should be grateful to yourself for putting yourself in this situation and surviving another day at work, and I'm I'm proud of you and I thank you for that, and you should too.
Speaker 1:I actually liked that because I think one of my, one of my opportunities to improve is being more grateful or being more like, satisfactory with the things that I do, because I do believe there is a high output, but I'm very critical of the things I do and so I want it to be at a certain level.
Speaker 1:I want to deliver things at a certain pace and I like to work very hard and you kind of forget. You know it's okay to like pause for a minute, be thankful for what you did, show gratitude and have a reward. There is something psychologically about motivation, and if you set those rewards for yourself, you can actually be more productive too. To be like, hey, I got to get this thing done today, and if I do Boba teas, baby Boba teas after after work, and that could be a motivator for you to be like, okay, cool, like that is my reward if I do good I think that's a great set yeah, stick to it because, like, if you don't do it then you don't deserve it right.
Speaker 2:Like you set that goal for yourself, you achieve that goal or you don't, and then you know, try again tomorrow. There's always tomorrow's in the chance. But, like, I think self-motivation is a really good utility because you're not always guaranteed to have folks like Clark or me at your job that will thank you for the work you do, so you could do it to yourself. I do think that's a mentally healthy thing to do, even though I have no psychological you know data to back that thing up, but it makes me feel better for sure.
Speaker 1:I think, like if you're like, hey, after this big project, I'm going to take a vacation, I'm going to use my vacation days, I'm going to go do something fun, and you set it out, you set that goal for yourself, it sets that end date for when you need to complete your project or whatever it is, and hopefully it's under commit over deliver. You're doing it ahead of time. Be like cool boss, I'm out of here Cause I got it done. I think there is something really special about that because it gives you the motivation and you can even tell others. Be like, hey, boss, I'm going to get this done early and then I'm going to take a vacation to kind of celebrate how proud I am of this work, and they'd probably be okay with that Be like cool, let's do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a win is a win. Yeah, I think that's something people need to look at. Is a win is a win, regardless of how big or small the win is? Uh, you're not always guaranteed to even be able to celebrate the big wins, so it's it's worth celebrating the small ones and if you just never take the moment to be grateful and celebrate the moment, and what are you?
Speaker 1:what are you doing all this for?
Speaker 2:anyways, this is. I think this is something that it's a struggle for me because I'm almost robotically grateful, like we've talked about. So it's just part of who I am. I like to think about things in the moment and think about the people that are impacting me in the ways that they are. So it doesn't occur to me that others might struggle with this and like putting this out from a third, you know, looking looking from the outside in and how others might struggle with this is super interesting for me.
Speaker 1:Just very interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:I like that mindset, yeah, so to wrap it up be thankful for others. Take the time to shoot a quick thanks if someone did a good job, but don't over-index.
Speaker 2:Like Bruce, don't pat everybody on the back and say you did awesome.
Speaker 1:When really what they did was deliver a turd. Don't thank people for delivering turds.
Speaker 2:Never thank them for giving you more work.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Or if someone gives you more work to your point, yeah. It's like you take this in and you're like, shoot, I'm going to have to refine this like five times over. I'm never asking them for that again. Don't say thank you for that. Be like, hey, the output was this. Do you feel like this achieved that goal and hopefully help them push to be even better? Gift card thing we talked about this before is we had a reward system at a previous place we worked where I could send Bruce a thank you and give him a $25 gift card or something like that, and he could use that gift card at a certain shop and buy some stuff. And we used the crap out of that system because we're like, heck, yeah, I want to give him that $25 Amazon gift card or whatever it was. I think you should absolutely try to use your tools as much as possible.
Speaker 2:And lastly, be grateful, be thankful for yourself, reward yourself along the way. Once you build up a network, then you know, clark can give you or give Bruce $25 gift card. Bruce can give Jojo $25 gift card. Jojo can give Restrepo a $25 gift card. Restrepo give Clark $25 gift card, clark give Bruce. You see how this works. Like you do this circle, this ring, you know maybe put a two week buffer between it, but now you've basically given yourself a raise.
Speaker 1:Just you know throwing that out there You're looking at it that way. I'm not talking. I'm not talking hundreds of dollars. If you do this every month, thousands of dollars a year, trust me there's no way this could go wrong for you. Another way is just start taking pennies out of the register every night. I mean, who's going to know?
Speaker 2:you know this is really no one will notice you can just take the pennies.
Speaker 1:Do they want pennies? Anyways, it costs more to process those pennies.
Speaker 2:Right right, it does just take a fraction. Do they want pennies? Anyways, it costs more to process those pennies. Right right, it does. It does Just take a fraction. Just take a fraction of a penny, if you're developing software like Stripe and you're processing fees.
Speaker 1:just make sure you carve some of that out for you Like you know a hundredth of a percent. Just make sure it's direct deposit right in your bank account for every transaction. No one will ever know.
Speaker 2:Just put it in a fund called Slush and if anyone asks, just be like oh yeah, that's nothing, that's just a weird rounding error. We have.
Speaker 1:But don't worry, just round down, it's fine.
Speaker 2:It goes back into the accounts and it's not a lie, because the account is yours. It's all about how you phrase these things.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's all about phrasing. All about phrasing, that's right. Well, this was my attempt at a gratitude pod. It kind of worked. Yeah, I think so. You were a little cynical today, but we got there. Hopefully it helped a little bit.
Speaker 2:I was honest. I'm not being cynical, I'm. I'm being regretful of how thankful I have been, because now you've brought it to my attention, you made me think about it. You know what I'm thankful for. What's that, your face?
Speaker 1:I'm thankful for you and that mustache. Everybody can't see them, but that thing is starting to handle better. It's thick.
Speaker 2:It's growing. I do a mustache every November november in honor of uh clark and i's boss, who is no longer with us. He started the november train and I carry it on in his memory, so we do it. We do it for him, uh, yeah, well, thanks, clark, thanks for bringing this up, and uh, you know, making me think about things, and hopefully our audience is thinking about their gratitude and thankfulness too.
Speaker 2:The only other thing I'd add is what is gratitude without action? And you can take action, if you're really thankful for the podcast, by joining our Discord. It's really easy. We're just asking for you to hang with us. Basically, if you are thankful for the pod, then join our discord. Super easy to do it. All you got to do is go into them show notes, open up the little link tree link you do and then click join discord super easy.
Speaker 2:Now, if you're more thankful than that, you can also support the show. You'll notice we're ad free, and the best way to say thanks in the united states is to give someone money, and in this case you buy us a coffee through that link and give us money to keep the show ad free. I swear to you we have not made a single penny on anything we've done here. Everything we have made has gone into, basically, me not paying the podcast platform for a few months, and we had a very generous donor that's keeping the show ad free for the next year, but that will run out and the ads will come back. So if you're thankful for not hearing those things, that's how you can ensure that continues to happen. Anything else, they should be thankful for Clark.
Speaker 1:No, I think you guilt-tripped them right into exactly what this whole episode was all about. Getting them to share our podcast and grow and join the Discord, and you should be thankful for the people inside that Discord, because we got some amazing people in there and we are thankful for them and if you join, we'll be thankful for you too. But if you don't join, I'm not thankful for you.
Speaker 2:I think our next episode needs to be an NPR style telethon fundraiser. Keep corporate strategy ad free. We're going to be on air 24 hours live streaming to collect money, so I don't have to pay $20 a month.
Speaker 1:I'm not thankful for that. I am not thankful for that. No thanks, call it right now.
Speaker 2:We're going to do it Thanksgiving Day. Clark and I are going to avoid the turkey. We're going to stream live radio 24 hours. You better be there. It's going to stream live radio 24 hours. You better be there. It's gonna be on our youtube channel everybody in the discord.
Speaker 1:We are going to direct call you 20 times over. If we have to, whatever it takes, we'll call you. We'll call your family. If we know you we'll drive your house, we'll call your pets.
Speaker 2:We'll steal your dog, we'll do whatever it takes. I will wash your dog and I will say how much money do we? Need 20 bucks. I mean that'll get us a month. That'll get us a month of ad free. Yeah, so we're coming. Have you heard the saving word of corporate strategy? Did you know that 20 a month can give you ad free listening for at least a month?
Speaker 1:I'm hearing some, some Sarah McLachlan coming on In the arms of an angel. There's a dying corporate strategist out there and by paying just $1 a month you can help save them.
Speaker 2:Save them and save your own ears by not hearing those pesky ads 24-hour stream. Bruce and Clark Sipping tea by a river, keeping you ad free. I love it, me too. I love you. Let's wrap this thing up. I think we're good. I'm grateful for everything that's happened In the last 42 minutes. So, as always, clark, you just keep me fresh and you keep me happy. We don't have any memes. We don't have any memes. We did have a. I mean, we're already in the wrap-up phase. We can't do. Is it Me or Is it Corporate? We do have an. Is it Me or Is it Corporate?
Speaker 2:We'll do it next time, next time, next time, we'll do it next time I mean next week's Thanksgiving, clark and I have more time to record things. It won't be so. You'll get a happier, bruce, because I'll be on. You know I'm off time. I love it. Cool as always. Stay thankful, stay frosty, stay relevant. I'm Bruce.
Speaker 1:I'm Clark. Happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:You're on mute. We'll see you next week. Happy Thanksgiving.
