Speaker 1: 0:15

Welcome back to Cuddle Strategy, the nap time podcast that you can curl up with in the cozy spot of your home. I'm Bruce and I'm Clark and we're here to cuddle you. Find a comfy position, lay back and prepare to drift off into napland with the corporate strategists.

Speaker 2: 0:39

Close your eyes and just when you think you're done thinking about work, I want you to think about more work, but on a 0.5 speed. Get ready to go on a journey together. Here we go.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Clark, recently I've been having dreams about work and I realized the biggest problem with all of this is that I'm not getting paid in my sleep and they are nightmares.

Speaker 2: 1:07

Sometimes I wake up screaming, I don't know why, and I think they call these night terrors.

Speaker 1: 1:16

If one has a night terror about work? Does one have an opportunity to net workers' comp? If you die in your dream?

Speaker 2: 1:31

Could this be classified as working? Let's throw these out there. I think so. I mean, if I'm thinking about work and waking up in the middle of the night, I think I should take some time off during the day to make up for the time I was working in my night terror and the psychological damage alone means worker's cop for sure.

Speaker 1: 1:56

I'm real talk, real talk, clark Four out of the five nights this week I've had existential work, terror dreams, and I have woken up in the middle of the night screaming help, help, please help.

Speaker 2: 2:14

You know you and I are both in a bad spot because over the past week I've had the same well, not this past week, but the week before this same things. Like I woke up and I was like shoot, I got like 10 things to do. Like I just like it doesn't happen like this often, but when things are high tension, high stress, there's a lot going on. You get so overwhelmed and like just permeates your subconscious. And when it comes out in your dreams, you know, you know you are not separating work and life. It's a dangerous place to be.

Speaker 1: 2:47

Um, yes, and on top of all that, I feel like you end up in a spiral where you feel bad because you feel bad, and there's really no way to stop feeling bad because you feel bad at work, which impacts your ability to do good work. Then you get off work, you might get a little bit of free time, a little bit of enjoyment. Those thoughts creep in, though. You're like, oh damn, that email, oh that project. And then you go to sleep, and then you feel bad in your sleep, which should be the restorative part of your day, and you're not getting better. You, you feel bad in your sleep, which should be the restorative part of your day, and it's. You're not getting better, you're just getting worse.

Speaker 2: 3:31

It's, it's the death spiral. This is what happens. You know, there's people how do you get out of it? There's people I feel like live in this 24 seven which terrifies me, like this happens rarely to me, I would say like there's been points in my career where it's been like maybe a couple of weeks where, like I just can't shake this. But pretty much every year there's been like a time where I can feel it, but it's not all the time. It's like for a night or two and I have a stressful conversation or you know, something stressful is coming up. Like this stuff happens. But I'm so happy that my life is not this 24 seven because I bet you, a lot of people's are.

Speaker 1: 4:21

You know, interestingly, we one of our friends, actually it's it's worse than that. Multiple people I've talked to are now becoming more increasingly afraid of AI taking over their jobs, especially in the engineering space, and I watched last week's John Oliver. It was pretty good. It was all about AI and just being in an industry where AI is top of everything, top of every conversation. You have a bad work day, you have a bad work week and you have bad work dreams, but then there's this like 10-ton balloon. It's a balloon, right, it's a 10-ton balloon. Does it hurt? Or is it hugging you? Or is it crushing you, asphyxiating you, squeezing the life out of it? Like you can't tell because it's a balloon, but it still weighs 10 tons and it's on your body and that's ai, and I feel like I'm just waiting for it to pop and somehow, when it pops, there is no actual relief. It's just you're crushed by the 10 tons of latex which does so. So there's also that I'm dealing with that too. This has gotten vibe check hey, I'm doing great.

Speaker 2: 5:33

How are you? This has been the best week of my life doing so good, my skin's turning red. I don't know why your hair is like up right now and you're scratching on yourself Like you're getting hives in the middle of this podcast.

Speaker 1: 5:49

I am actually getting hives on my neck in the middle of recording this. It has been a week Falling apart Clark, my toes are doing okay, though. My toes are finally like really healed. I can walk on them. How's your toe, how's your big toe doing?

Speaker 2: 6:06

Toes are good. I feel great. I went for some runs. Toes are recovered, so in that aspect, great. But yeah, I still like I think I'm avoiding sleep to avoid the death nightmare. That is my work in my dreams.

Speaker 1: 6:18

So just never sleep again. We just don't need to sleep anymore, so so so I heard you got no sleep last night.

Speaker 2: 6:25

I did not I got well. To be fair, I did get like two hours, but it was not a lot, that's no sleep, not a lot.

Speaker 1: 6:32

That's useless sleep. It'd be better if you didn't sleep at all.

Speaker 2: 6:34

Yeah, that's the way I usually look at it, but this one was. It was extenuating circumstances.

Speaker 1: 6:46

I have a travel horror story to share with you.

Speaker 2: 6:47

Is it worse than a baggage fondler? It is. I would say yes, oh, okay, I'm all in. I mean, well, yours was like. Personally violating Mine was not personally. I wasn't personally violated by anybody, so I don't feel harassed, but it was just a stressful. Speaking of stress, this story is going to stress you out.

Speaker 1: 7:06

I'm ready. I'm going to take it off my shirt.

Speaker 2: 7:09

Yeah, go ahead. He has an undershirt, guys, don't worry, he's not just going bare chest on this thing, he's got an undershirt on. All right. All right, let me set the stage for you. Okay, so I was at a conference this week, a couple-day conference, you know. Leave Monday afternoon-ish there, tuesday, or no. Left Tuesday afternoon-ish just there. Wednesday, thursday. I had something today because it's Friday today. So I was like you know what I'll leave like late on Thursday. You know, get in a little before midnight, no big deal. Back home life will be good. So getting there, no issues. Get to the conference, crush it speak. We had a lot of good connections, had a lot of fun. It was really inspiring. It was an awesome conference.

Speaker 2: 7:52

But conferences are tiring. We've talked about this before. You end up working your day job while also being at a conference. So like you're in the middle responding to emails, in the morning doing work and the night doing work and work and the night doing work and so and all the stuff that happens during the day, you're just trying to like, absorb and make sure you make notes and make sure you follow up on things that you talk to people about. Like it's, it's a lot going to a conference. So it kind of just takes it out of you.

Speaker 2: 8:14

So yesterday night rolls around, conference is over, it's like 530, flight's at like 850. And we're in New York. We're heading to the worst airport in the world, which is Newark Airport. Why EWR, dude? Why? Why? I know that's a great question, answer me. I've flown in and out of Newark before, never had this, I know, I know, I know. Well, I usually like JFK is usually like the consistent one, but I've never had major issues, so I didn't think about it. I was like timing it works, I think I'll be okay. So what happens is after the conference, some other person I'm working with is with me. We basically look at like all the Uber Lyft rides and it's like okay, an hour, 10 to get the airport. We have three and a half hours at this point. It's like we're going to be just fine, like I'm not worried about that. So there's a really good Uber. I think we got around like five or five, 30, and the flight was until eight, 50.

Speaker 2: 9:19

So we're like three hours domestic flight on a Thursday night. Like how, how bad could it be hours?

Speaker 1: 9:24

domestic flight on a Thursday night Like how bad could it be?

Speaker 2: 9:26

How bad could it be? And so we see the Uber. It's like an hour long. We're like, okay, whatever, we're going to stop on the way because we have to go through Manhattan. We're going to stop at a really good pizza joint, so we stopped there literally 15 minutes. We get out, get the pizza, eat a slice, put it in a box, get another Uber to get to the airport. It's still like a little over an hour to go from the middle of Manhattan. We're halfway through our commute here. So we're like, okay, we're halfway through. We got plenty of time. It's maybe 630, 645. We still got like a little over two hours to even figure this thing out. So we're like, okay, no big deal, get in the Uber.

Speaker 2: 10:07

Dude's a pro Dude, a new york driver, he freaking. We get in there, have the pizza boxes, nice car, whatever. He immediately guns it backwards in reverse past a bunch of cars and just skirts down this side road and we're like, we're tip-top shape man, this guy, this guy knows what he's doing. Like he's, he is just like swerving in and out of cars. He's running over like the little pylons, like his car was in pristine shape, so like he was taking risks. And I was like this dude's just on a mission. I love this guy. So we thought he knows no big deal. He knows he's done this many times before, he knows we're going to the airport, he knows what's going on, so we're going, we're going, we're going.

Speaker 2: 10:35

We hit gridlock, stop traffic. You got to take, you got to take a tunnel, a tube to get over across the bridge, into, uh, into that area where the airport is. So we're like, okay, we're starting to hit gridlock traffic, but no big deal. Like Uber, google Maps, everybody says it'd be 40 minutes. We'll still have like a whole hour left. Like no big deal, we'll have plenty of time. We don't move for another 20 minutes. So we start looking at each other like this isn't looking good. We start seeing cops all around us, us just starting to roll in their vehicles, lights on, flying past everybody, and we're like, oh no, like this can't be good.

Speaker 2: 11:10

10 more minutes goes by, we don't move an inch and we're like we're starting to look at other options. We're like, okay, we're running out of time, like we got like 45 minutes to get there and feel comfortable. So we check public transport hour and a half to go from where we are to the airport. We're like well, we'll miss our flight just outright If we go. This option, like this isn't an option. Uber's like yeah, all good, you'll be there 30 minutes.

Speaker 2: 11:36

10 more minutes goes by. We're not moving at this point. We're looking at other flights. We're looking at other flights and we're like, okay, we need something later because this ain't going to work. Like, there's no way we're making this one. So we booked something an hour and a half later, like 10 or so at night, and so we booked the backup flight, cancel ours. We got it all going. We're like okay, do we wait out the Uber and sit in this non-moving traffic or do we decide to just take public transport? And you know, by that point we'll definitely get there on time.

Speaker 2: 12:08

I think the tipping point for us was the lady in the car in front of us got out of her Uber, went to the Shake Shack, got a shake, came back, got back into her Uber in the same exact spot and was just enjoying her shake in the Uber. Okay, we got to do public transport. So we canceled the Uber. We hop out. We're like okay, we got to do public transport, so we canceled the Uber, we hop out. We're like, okay, we got to do public transportation, so get into the public transportation mode, find the train, take the train over to another train, end up in Madison Square Garden. All the trains are delayed Power outage.

Speaker 2: 12:39

Power outage is happening right then and we're like, oh my gosh, like the trains are always on time. Everyone's just sitting here like we're gonna miss our flight and we still have like an hour and a half, like this is crazy. And so we're like halfway there. We're just sitting there like, okay, power outage, are we gonna get back? So delay, delay, delay.

Speaker 2: 12:55

Eventually it comes up and it basically says, okay, you got to go to this track. We start heading to that track. They switch the track. So now we're sprinting to the other side of the airport carrying our stuff, which, if you've done this, is the most stressful thing ever, because you're like holding your stuff, you're kind of missing each other, you're like we're gonna lose each other. We end up getting disconnected completely. The gentleman I was with goes to the wrong track. I go to the right track. I'm like I don't know if he made it. I don't have signal. I have no idea where this guy is. It's just me on the right track. So at that point. Somehow we get reconnected. He's still on some other train, but he made it to the right track. We get to the airport and I don't know if you know this about Newark Airport when you get to the train station in the airport it's still another 30 minutes from the train station to just get to your terminal, and that's not it.

Speaker 2: 13:43

That's not it. You get all the way to terminal A and then you got to walk 15 to 20 minutes to get to your air, like just the area to check in. And so we're like, okay, this is going to be so tough. So we get off the train, whatever we hop on, did you schedule a new flight by this time? Yeah, we already had it. We were checked in. Well, I was checked in, everything was good. We got reconnected after the initial train. So we're like, okay, we're fine, he attempts to check in, check-in's failing for him. I'm checked in, I got my boarding pass. So we look at each other and we had that cinematic moment where it's like am I going to wait with you or am I going to abandon you? The second this thing opens to the terminal. And it was that moment like don't look back, you go, you go ahead and leave me here. I'm going to try to check in and make it too.

Speaker 2: 14:32

So the second this terminal gates open. I've got my baggage in hand. I am sprinting down the way. Tons of nice people it's late at night Tons of nice people are like, hey, just go ahead, go ahead, don't miss your flight. Get to security. I got TSA, pre-checking and everything like that. So I fly through, get my luggage on the thing, dude the security, they start scanning my bag. I'm on the opposite side, I'm all clear. I'm waiting for my bag to come out of the tunnel. So I grab it and run to the freaking gate. At this point it's jammed in the x-ray machine. The guy is grabbing his tub, he's yanking, he's yanking on, he's like it's not coming out. The dude doesn't have long enough arms to like reach in there, so they call a backup long arm.

Speaker 1: 15:15

Johnny coming there, are you serious?

Speaker 2: 15:17

they called someone with longer arms they call over a dude who's like a foot and a half taller and and he sticks his long arm, johnny sticks his arm in there, starts shaking things around, eventually gets the thing that was lodged loose out. It was a tennis racket Jammed sideways. It was not mine. Somebody in front of me, yeah, somebody in front of me. It gets stuck. But because they had to reverse and forward, and reverse and forward, they weren't scanning anything in the meantime. So guess what my bag is right after. And what do they do? They say sorry, we got to rerun it. So they take it all the way to the back behind everybody who just got in line behind me that I skipped and they basically thrown my stuff after them and I'm like this is it?

Speaker 1: 15:57

This is it.

Speaker 2: 15:58

I got like five minutes Like there's no way this is going to happen. The airline calls me. Luckily I have my watch on, because I don't have my phone or anything. It's all going through the tunnel and I was like, okay, got my watch on. They called me. I'm talking, like listen, I'm going to be there in like five minutes.

Speaker 2: 16:10

I just got to grab my suitcase and sprint and he basically I'm begging him and he just hangs up. He's like you're not going to make it. Hang, please, hold on. He's like where are you right now? I'm like I am sprinting down the escalator trying to get to you. I'm sweating at this point I'm full-on, sprint, out of breath. I need like a gallon of water and I'm sprinting down the way. He's like hey, we're closing doors right now. Like I don't see you. There's no way you're gonna make it. Fortunately, I holler, I hoot and holler down the whole entire thing. Hey, I'm here and he keeps the doors open and he was pissed when I got up there. He's like you made me late. We're three minutes behind, get on there. So I'm sprinting down the thing. I get to my seat and I made it Only only to sit on the tarmac for two hours as the air traffic control team gets all the routes wrong. And then we have to go back and refuel because it's new, actually gets like yeah, yep, so all that, nothing for nothing.

Speaker 2: 17:09

You stopped for two hours. What time did you take off? We took off at like 12 30 and you didn't get home till I got home at like four o'clock unbelievable yeah and then at.

Speaker 1: 17:25

That point.

Speaker 2: 17:26

I'm like my co-worker could have just gotten on this flight too, because we just sat on the tarmac for two hours, did nothing, and then we had to go again yeah, they can't reopen the gate exactly, so I'm like I. There was no point in rushing. This is the most ridiculous experience ever.

Speaker 1: 17:38

So, anyways, I made it, but it was just a nightmare so I'm at the point now where I only fly in the morning, yeah, yeah. And if I was in your situation I would have just booked a hotel, stayed the night, got a 7, 8 am flight, got up early, gone. It is not worth pro tip for any travelers out there. It is not worth trying to catch a post 12 pm flight anymore. The air traffic control is so screwed up. The airline industry is so screwed up. I guarantee you the.

Speaker 1: 18:11

The compounding delays that are occurring are going to either mean that one, you don't get home till two to four hours after you plan on getting there, or you're not getting home at all. And also there's, like summer, storms on top of that. Like most storms happen mid to end of day. You know the heat of the day, so the sky opens up. You're not going to get there. You, you put all this together. I only fly in the mornings now. Uh, I'm sure people hate that I have to stay at a hotel an extra night, but it guarantees that I don't have to deal with any of this nonsense and it's it's actually worked out pretty well for me. If you're, if you're delayed an hour in the morning, who who cares? Yeah, whatever, you get all day, you got all day.

Speaker 2: 18:46

You're going to be just fine, I get home at 10.

Speaker 1: 18:47

I get home at 11 in the morning. Terrible, you know like. Just yeah, I feel for you, dude, I feel for you, but I will never fly late at night again Never.

Speaker 2: 18:57

It was a movie, it was a movie scene, and shout out to all the people that were there. They were incredibly nice and they're literally all like looking at me like dude, you have the worst luck. Like they don't want you to leave this city tonight. Like the tennis racket thing. The lady's looking at me. She's like I can't believe this is happening. Like someone, just get this man the bag so he can go. Like everyone was so nice.

Speaker 1: 19:30

But it literally was like a movie.

Speaker 2: 19:33

I agree with you. Like right now, the airline industry is just a freaking nightmare. Like yes, they couldn't, it was a mess. Like even the pilot was like listen. Like we've tried four times, they can't figure it out how to get us a safe flight. I'm like this is so bad. How is this still such an issue? And late at night it's even worse.

Speaker 1: 19:53

Yeah, I have no fear of flying. I hate flying because it's incredibly uncomfortable, but I have no fear of flying and even though, statistically, it's still the safest way to travel, I feel like. So I don't know. Did I tell you the last two flights I've taken out of orlando, uh, a plane crashed within an hour of my flight from like no, yeah. So when I, when I landed in denver, I landed an hour after a plane that landed there was just burning on fire, uh. And then when I left orlando to go to san diego, uh, another plane that landed there was just burning on fire. And then, when I left Orlando to go to San Diego, another plane that left Orlando to San Diego crashed. So or not San Diego, just Orlando, it got crashed on the way to Atlanta.

Speaker 1: 20:38

So, just, I have been so close within an hour of plane crashes, and we see more and more plane crashes and we know that Boeing sucks. They're just murking the people that are blowing the whistle on quality. So you know you work at a great company. When they kill you for telling the truth, it's just not a good time to fly. So I avoided it at all costs. I don't want to support this industry either. That's the thing I don't want to give them my money. That's a reward for poor behavior. So I try not to and it seems, I'm sorry. The sky just opened up right when I was telling the story and decided to take a ginormous water dump, just in my field of view. So yeah, don't fly, yeah don't fly.

Speaker 2: 21:24

That's my practical advice for everybody and thank you for listening to my story. I hope this haunts your dreams at night and you have night terrors about your next business trip. You're welcome.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Too late for that. My dreams are already haunted. We covered that I can't sleep anymore. I wake up in fear and I'm not getting paid.

Speaker 2: 21:45

This is the solution. No more sleep. That's the only thing I can think of. Unfortunately, I do agree.

Speaker 1: 21:52

I think that's the only solution. Well, that was a good episode. Good job, Clark.

Speaker 2: 21:58

I think we really crushed this one.

Speaker 1: 22:00

I think the vibes were good beginning, middle and end. I think people are going to leave this feeling better about themselves. I think they really learned something today, so I want to thank you. Thank you for this episode.

Speaker 2: 22:40

You're very welcome. I think we really knocked out of the park. I think there's a lot of material there to make people feel positive about their contributions. Yeah, pat yourself on the back.

Speaker 1: 22:48

I'm feeling positive about their contributions. I'm very painful back.

Speaker 2: 22:51

Yeah, and listen. Corporations continue to make our lives better and give us so much opportunity. I just can't thank them enough. Thank you for how awesome you are.

Speaker 1: 23:02

Oh, and perfect timing. I think this happened last. This happened last podcast too. Oh no, once the thunder starts, a little smudge comes up.

Speaker 2: 23:09

Look at this little guy. He's scared, he's just scared.

Speaker 1: 23:13

He hears the thunder and he comes to pop up. So you know it's scared. He's just scared. He hears the thunder and he comes to pop up, so you know it's natural. You know Sarah, who was on the podcast. My wife had a very similar experience to you, where her plane literally fell out of the sky. You hinted at this.

Speaker 2: 23:31

I'm like you've got to tell this too, because I've had a situation like that.

Speaker 1: 23:34

It's so scary got to tell this too, because like, yeah, yeah, no, situation like that, it's so scary. Yes, she was flying to philadelphia to be with our, our, our new, our newborn nephew clark, named after you. Um was going to visit them and on the way to philly, her plane fell out of the sky. It was continuing to fall, so much so that the the pilots were like you know what? We're not going to philly. So they just diverted and landed in some weird airport in new y, not Newark, but New York, not the city, the state. And she's like I'm just in the middle of nowhere, I don't know what to do. And I said, well, usually when this happens, the airline will comp you a hotel and take care of you. So she went to the desk and like, no, we're not comping anyone. So they just abandoned her frontier airlines, by the way, name drop frontier airlines just abandoned my wife in New York city, uh, and said, yeah, your next flight 8am tomorrow morning. So you know, you can just hang out at the airport if you'd like. But they were already past security. So like they're not in the safe part of the airport, they're in the part of the airport where, like criminals could come and rob you in the middle of the night Like thanks, frontier, name drop again for just absolutely doing the coolest thing possible.

Speaker 1: 24:44

So then I like start frantically doing research, like okay, how much is an Uber from the airport to a hotel in the middle of fricking nowhere New York state, where she is? And it was not cheap to go less than a mile it was $30. The hotel room itself $200. And I'm just like what weird planet do we live on where you just abandon a human in the middle of their travels and just like nah, fend for yourself? Yeah, man, I'm not going to fly, I'm going gonna avoid flying, just for the foreseeable future. You know, I'm done. I feel like I'm ready. I'm really ready, clark, to just drop out of society as a whole.

Speaker 2: 25:29

I'm ready.

Speaker 1: 25:32

I think if I can amass enough money to just live off grid and eat potatoes growing in my yard, I think I'm ready for that. I think I'm ready. I like that.

Speaker 2: 25:44

Unplug me I agree. I think it's time. I think it's time.

Speaker 2: 25:49

We need a revolution where we all become potato farmers, self-sustaining. I mean, you can get some energy out of some potatoes. We can figure this out. We can, we can make this happen. But yeah, that's a. That's a nightmare, like to not even have the decency of like, hey, no worries, we got a hotel, we got special rates with them. Like, we're going to shuttle you guys over there, we're going to get you guys there safe, we're doing this together and then we'll get you back here. You know, 6 am, we'll leave the hotel for your 8 am flight. Cool, sounds like a plan.

Speaker 2: 26:19

It's like typically what happens in these situations, especially Frontier Spirit name, dropping them left and right. They're just like, yeah, flight's canceled, that's it, that's all I tell you. And it's like oh, so like what do I do? And so like, what do I do? And they're just like, yeah, you got to figure it out. And they're like so is there like another flight? I'm like, yeah, we can book you on the 8 am if you'd like. It's like you didn't automatically book me on the next available flight. No, no, no, we'll take your money, but we're not going to help you unless you ask for it. It's just the most ridiculous thing ever. It's like refund or something later to be like you guys should have paid for my hotel. You got to wait on hold for three hours just to get dropped off of hold and then have to restart the whole process again and maybe you'll talk to somebody. But you have to do it right.

Speaker 1: 27:04

Like you have to do it, you have to hold them accountable. You cannot let this company take your money and get away with this kind of behavior. And then, like, I feel like we were at that point in our society where it's like it's. It's so much easier for us to be like whatever, yeah, just give up the 200 bucks. I don't, I can't do this. But like, no, don't do that. Fight, get your money. Don't let them win, hurt them, because you know there's going to come a time. I'm just saying like it does feel like if I just lick my finger and stick it up in the stormy wind, it feels like we're moving in a direction where things might get worse. And when things get worse, things get worse for everybody. That's all I'm going to say. That's all I'm going to say. I'm just going to say like if you look at what's happening in the world around us right now, let's just say a certain Mario character might have imitators. You know, there might be a Waluigi Just saying, just throwing it out there.

Speaker 1: 28:21

When one domino falls usually others fall with them. Continue, what were you going to say? No, they fall together.

Speaker 2: 28:27

I agree with you, but I wanted to give the people, because we have to give a travel tip. We're known for travel tips. People love our travel tips and Corporate Strategy the travel blog. People eat that up, so in order to get affiliations for those travel reward points that we get. I'm going to put in a plug right here. There are apps, ai apps that will make calls on your behalf and act as your AI agent. Use those against these companies. Use them. That's the one.

Speaker 1: 28:53

AI use case I fully endorse and support. Please use them. That's that's the one AI use case I fully endorse and support Please use them.

Speaker 2: 28:59

Make the robots sit on their three hour hold and fight to get you a refund of some kind. There are plenty of apps that are doing it right now completely free. You can just spam that company with AI bots who are not human, that sound like humans, and get your refund, so you don't have to even lift a finger in order to get it.

Speaker 1: 29:19

I love it. You need to do like a how-to vid. I do For the Corporate Strategy YouTube channel. Yeah, that exists.

Speaker 2: 29:27

It does exist.

Speaker 1: 29:28

Put it on there.

Speaker 2: 29:32

Oh, I love it. You know what's hilarious?

Speaker 1: 29:34

How I deal with Frontier Airline Refund Hotel. We're going to get a million views. It's literally going to keep the podcast ad-free. You know what I just realized? The podcast has been ad-free much longer than a year. I need to turn ads back on. Papa needs to recoup some pennies. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2: 29:53

Yeah, this is all out of your bank account. We're bankrupting you with this podcast. You're welcome.

Speaker 1: 29:59

Thank you. It doesn't matter. Money's not going to matter in 10 years anyway. Might as well spend it now. Enjoy, enjoy your Fiat Lux, your Fiat Lux, while you can. None of this is going to matter. It's all going to burn.

Speaker 2: 30:18

This, none of this. You know this is.

Speaker 1: 30:18

This is getting it's actually we haven't gotten to anything yet and 29 minutes we ain't getting to anything.

Speaker 2: 30:22

And you know what's pretty funny about this, like what I'm about. The topic we had for today is just too on the nose for this. We're just going to be like, yeah, I don't know if I can seriously bring up this topic. I was ready for you to, so I could tear it apart, because the first line that I say for this, after everything we just said, they're going to be like. You just told me not to do all these things and now you're telling me to do it, and the answer is yes.

Speaker 1: 30:49

Yes, yeah, I think I think we shelved today's topic for fear of we burn 30 minutes of pot Talking about just the absolute sludge that is life right now.

Speaker 2: 31:07

Oh my gosh, I'm dying. You know what I said this week. You know what I said this week at work Wait, wait, wait, hold on Before you say anything. Is all this your fault? You probably started the week saying, guys, this is going to be the best week ever. You just screwed all of us.

Speaker 1: 31:25

No, I said, I said not my job that's the way you started it.

Speaker 2: 31:32

That's what I was doing.

Speaker 1: 31:33

A week, like you know what, not my job. And this is the punishment I told you last episode never say that. And I made the cardinal sin. I was like you know, I'm feeling spicy. I'm feeling like a spicy burrito. I'm gonna say not my job and this is what happened. All of this is my fault I agree the world, the world, literally.

Speaker 2: 31:55

It said to you it's like oh yeah, you just made a whole entire podcast while never saying it, and then you just said it. You hypocrite, we're taking it out on everybody. That's the way it works um, weird shout outs.

Speaker 1: 32:09

but there's this movie. I don't know if it's still in theaters right now. It's called Life of Chuck. It's based on a Stephen King story. I don't know why, but if you enjoy this episode, I feel like you'll enjoy that movie. Just shoutouts, shoutouts. Life of Chuck, good movie, good movie.

Speaker 2: 32:25

Enjoyable Great people. Why not yeah?

Speaker 1: 32:30

Why not? This is a shoutout spot. You got any shout-outs you're going to make Clark?

Speaker 2: 32:34

Yeah, we can use a shout-out. We got to name this one like. This is the filler episode of Corporate Strategy, where there literally is nothing but us just rambling with each other.

Speaker 1: 32:43

This might be the only one. If anyone goes in trains for 20 episodes, we're allowed to do one of these.

Speaker 2: 32:57

We're allowed to do one in 169 nice episodes? Uh, we're allowed, dude. That's the reason I stopped watching that show, I'll be honest, because it's like 30 episodes in, you're still watching him train. It's like goku man, I need you to hit fast forward, like hit fast forward to where you get a little muscle mass on you. That's. I don't want see the process anymore. I've seen 20 episodes of the process and you're not getting any better.

Speaker 1: 33:17

When I was a boy, a young scrub I remember I would get up really early in the morning this is like I'm five years old and I would get up at six and turn on the TV and they always had weird anime on and one of them was Samurai Pizza Cats, highly underrated. The other was Dragon Ball Z and I remember Goku running on the back I think it's Shen Long the dragon, and you know he's running on the back of the dragon cause he's dead and he has to get to the other side. And by the time that arc finished I was in college. Just, you know, it's crazy.

Speaker 2: 33:52

That's insane, yeah, it's crazy. That's insane, yeah, my goodness. Yeah, no exaggeration, that's, that's crazy. I do have a shout out. You made it, let's hear it. You were talking about like tv back then. I took I flew on jet blue, not sponsored, last night. Uh, jet out, jetblue, shout out. Thanks for sitting on the tarmac for two hours.

Speaker 2: 34:16

Their technology, their technology is so crappy. Yeah, how crappy is it? I couldn't believe it. We're sitting there and they have like direct TV. They have these like three inch by three inch screens. I'm not kidding, three-inch by three-inch screens. And they got a little. The UX of this, the user experience of this, is so bad. It's built into the armrest, right? Yeah, it's built into the armrest. So you put your arm down, you change the channel and you're like gosh, dang it. So then you have to position your arm perfectly. I'm'm for this little tiny screen that's got static half the time. I'm like who thought of this? There's no headphone jack, there's no audio. No, is this what it was in the 90s when I wasn't flying? Is this? Is this how people lived?

Speaker 1: 35:04

well, no, I remember. I remember when I was a again a young scrup around like five, uh, the shen long the. We would be on planes going to visit my grandparents, and it was. You had a tv built into the top of the plane and you would watch a tv like you. It would again. It was a three inch by three inch screen, but you'd be six rows back and you'd be like I think that's macaulay culkin, I think this is home alone, but you couldn't hear it. It was just like if you had the privilege to sit in a seat close enough to the tv, you could watch home alone, but uh, no I I thought it was a crazy person because I was looking around I was like where's the headphone jack?

Speaker 2: 35:52

like they've got movies, they have a movie section. There's no headphone jack.

Speaker 1: 35:56

This is crazy. You know what grinds my absolute gears without flying today. This is, this is the thing that I truly, truly don't understand, and it's it's not consistent, but I almost, I almost feel like it needs to be a law, like a rule when do you keep your ticket?

Speaker 2: 36:18

Hmm, where do you keep your ticket? I mean, now I think I've got it all on my phone. Okay, that's the right answer. I rarely get paper.

Speaker 1: 36:27

We probably see, when you're in the gate waiting to get on the plane, like most people will whip out their phone and they're scanning the phone Right. Yep, it's logical, it's easy, it's convenient. Most people have cell phones, most people, some people still do the paper ticket. Then why, in the ever loving aerial blue blazes, is it that only like 50% of the planes or less have power ports for charging, like usb power, like most planes I get on? I think delta has it and united has it? Yeah, you do not have any means of charging your phone. So you could find yourself on a delayed plane where you land, need to get on a layover and your phone is dead, like D E, a D dead. Because even if you put that thing in airplane mode which, like you, should, not because the airline tells you to, but because it'll save some of your battery juice, like it still drains looking for signal in the sky. I don't know why.

Speaker 1: 37:32

I don't know why, but like that that was last night my wife and she ended up having to buy a 50 phone charger in the airport just to charge her phone so she can get an uber and go to the hotel.

Speaker 2: 37:43

Yeah, oh my gosh that's crazy yeah, I that's exactly what happened to me. Like last night, phone was on five percent when I got to the gate. I'm like please do not die on me right now. Double click for the face, scan it, I'm in. I would have been dead, I would have been dead in the water, I would have had to print it out and they would have been like dude, we're closing these doors.

Speaker 1: 38:02

And I'm guessing on JetBlue, there was no charger, there was no place to charge your phone.

Speaker 2: 38:08

Yeah, Texted my wife and phone died and I was like okay. So then I didn't want to annoy the people next to me because I was already right on my way. But when we actually, after sitting on tarmac for two hours thanks a lot, JetBlue I went to go get my bag, you know how I charged my phone. I'd get my laptop out, plug my phone in in order to charge it. So I killed my laptop. I sacrificed my laptop battery to charge my phone.

Speaker 1: 38:37

Yep, it's, I mean it. It is wild, it is a while to me yeah, oh, but the shout out that I had.

Speaker 2: 38:39

I had to digress a little bit. The shout out that I had was on my three inch by three inch tv that had static running through and I couldn't hear anything. I watched an awesome espn documentary about a, the 1997 stanley cup between the detroit Wings and Colorado Avalanche, and they just beat the snot out of each other. Every single game. Like blood everywhere, like actually fight Full out brawls.

Speaker 2: 39:01

Yeah, every single game, it was nonstop. There was literally like 30 fights throughout the series. There were riots in the street Like there were. It was insane. So I had no idea what anybody said in that whole entire thing, because it was three inch by three inch and I had no audio but it was super entertaining to watch. Yeah, it literally was just them brawling. You know, riots in the street, people just punching each other. I'm like this is super entertaining. So now I got to actually watch the whole thing.

Speaker 1: 39:25

You know, shout outs, shout out sports documentaries. I hate sports, can't watch them, can Hate sports, can't watch them, can't stan them. And even still I can watch a sports documentary any day, all day, every day. They're so well put together, they capture all the good parts and cut out all the stuff I hate about sports. So it's ooh a little narrative package with none of the fluff, great Shoutouts.

Speaker 2: 39:48

Shoutouts Last.

Speaker 1: 39:49

Dance. Last Dance is awesome Shoutouts, fab Five. You probably watched that one Last Dance. Yeah, last Dance is awesome.

Speaker 2: 39:54

Great Shout-outs. What was that? Fab Five, Fab Five.

Speaker 1: 39:56

You probably watched that one maybe I didn't see that one. It was the Michael Jordan one. Okay, what was the Michael Jordan one? Maybe it was Michael Jordan.

Speaker 2: 40:06

There's, I mean there's a few, I can't remember. We just watched like a bunch of these two years ago.

Speaker 1: 40:14

It was on netflix shout outs f1 drive to survive. Oh, was that good, I gotta. Oh, it's so good, I mean, it continues to be good. Uh, just shout out sports. Shout out sports sports. I might have been wrong about you.

Speaker 2: 40:25

Well, michael jordan is the last dance, but you were thinking of? Were you thinking of the lebron james one?

Speaker 1: 40:29

oh no, I was thinking of the dream team.

Speaker 2: 40:31

Last dance, michael jordan dream team for the Dream.

Speaker 1: 40:33

Team. Last dance by Jordan Dream Team for the US Olympics basketball.

Speaker 2: 40:36

Yes, shoutouts, that was really good Shoutout. Yeah, I agree, got any more. No, that's it. Okay, I think I got them all.

Speaker 1: 40:47

Great podcast. You can get all the good sports documentaries. There's no other ones that are worth watching. Just watch those, and watch them on a 3x3 screen with no sound. Love it? That's your tip, take it.

Speaker 2: 41:04

We're 40 minutes.

Speaker 1: 41:06

Do you think 40 minutes is enough for a filler episode? This is all pod too. We literally started with an intro.

Speaker 2: 41:20

I mean, how long can we fill? We fill. I mean, we could just walk, we could walk away at this point. Just let it keep running and we'll come back. Like after dinner, I'll text you?

Speaker 1: 41:24

yeah, well, you want to. You want me to pay the charge for the overage on the hours we upload. Is that what's happening here? This is why we get our ads back on.

Speaker 2: 41:32

We can't even afford our overage.

Speaker 1: 41:35

I'm gonna call this episode filler episode. Do not listen. And I'm gonna turn on ads. I'm gonna set every like 15 seconds to run an ad on this because, you said do not listen. Everyone's gonna listen. Everyone's gonna listen. They're gonna be like what the heck is wrong with these boys.

Speaker 2: 41:53

You know what this is. This is a viral scheme that we're pulling at the last ditch effort. This could be the last episode of CorporateStrategybiz.

Speaker 1: 42:01

Oh, I like this.

Speaker 2: 42:03

This is the series finale. This is a series finale ever.

Speaker 1: 42:06

Screw your topics, that you put effort into Clark Screw, that. I think this is actually a great place to end the show. I've I've wanted to end it forever. I've wanted to, wanted to kill this show. I mean take it up on the old yeller Shout outs. Old yeller Make you cry. Shout out, Shout out.

Speaker 2: 42:24

Shout outs. You know it's a great number to end on too 169.

Speaker 1: 42:35

169 169, nice, nice, shout out. Shout out to podcasts.

Speaker 2: 42:41

You know what Podcasting underrated Puts me asleep on planes? Every time. Every time I start a podcast on a plane, I'm asleep.

Speaker 1: 42:49

You just start hearing those, those dulcet tones of. And he took her out back with a hatchet and she was never seen again, except for the skin of her left pinky. Like I'm snoozing, I'm sleeping hard. Ooh, that true crime does put me to sleep.

Speaker 2: 43:09

As he flayed her into pieces.

Speaker 1: 43:12

They were unable to find anything except the crowns that once remained in her teeth. And like people like, oh yeah, this is great, this happened to a real person. I love this Number one category on Apple podcasts. Let's be entertained by people's death.

Speaker 2: 43:29

You know, I hope this is the episode that just pushes over the top, goes viral, shout out to True viral Shout out to True. Crime. Shout out to.

Speaker 1: 43:40

Really helps to sleep. Yeah, this is the episode. Clark, this is the one. This is the episode.

Speaker 2: 43:44

This is the one that I think pushes us over the top, and from here on out, we'll get thousands of listens at Epstead.

Speaker 1: 43:51

This is the one that Apple features Like they're really breaking ground over here. They're really doing something different on corporate strategy. I don't know what it is, but it sure is different.

Speaker 2: 44:01

In the age of AI, we thought nobody could be smarter than the LLMs that control our lives. But corporate strategybiz they broke the mold.

Speaker 1: 44:09

They're doing it different. That's kind of a brilliant point. Like we're, we're entering an age of such slop that even this garbage be it, is still better than the slop you might get from anything like. There's gonna come a time when even this, this very conversation, is gonna be looked back upon as art. Wow, they really talked to themselves back then. They really communicated Me. I just talked to my AI girlfriend all day and she gives me everything I need. They had to converse. They had disagreements Me. My AI girlfriend does whatever I want. I never leave the house. I sit here and she recites true crime podcasts to me. This is the future we're moving towards. Clark, I hope you're ready. They're going to look back. I hope you've buckled your seatbelt and you're ready.

Speaker 1: 45:00

Wally. No, they got it totally wrong. It's going to be a bunch of AI girlfriends just everywhere, everywhere. Take a step outside. Oh no, the AI girlfriends are coming for me.

Speaker 2: 45:15

They won't stop. I don't have one.

Speaker 1: 45:16

They're trying to attach themselves to you. You have to look out they're parasitic, they're parasitic. They run on human energy.

Speaker 2: 45:24

That's what people forget, Like they feed off your energy.

Speaker 1: 45:28

It's exactly why we partnered with Better Nutrients Heavy Supplements. If you're not taking these, you could be attacked by an AI girlfriend. It's a very real threat, but the amount of magnesium sulfate ironate that we had put into this nutrient supplement combination ensures that they cannot latch on to your brain frequencies. This will keep you alive. This will stop you from turning into one of those cave dwellers by now, while we I mean supplies are, I don't know. Clark, you see the background right. You see the tubs of nutrients. I've got back there.

Speaker 2: 46:05

We're running low, we're running real low. By now, by now, please.

Speaker 1: 46:10

Please, by now, we care about you before it's too late. Oh no, we have one left back.

Speaker 2: 46:17

People are going to look back at this moment in time and say this episode 169 of corporate strategy, this was peak of human ingenuity. Yeah, you've got, you've got the pyramids, you've got the last dance documentary, and then you've got corporate strategy. You got corporate strategy, you got corporate strategy. Yeah, this was it. Like they're going to look back in the history books and be like that was it? Like that was the end of human ingenuity, I mean it does really feel like it to me.

Speaker 1: 46:54

Should we wrap this up 45 minutes? I mean we could go. We haven't even talked about Pepsi. We probably shouldn't. We should probably save that for the next one.

Speaker 2: 47:07

Our listeners always crave For the regular Pepsi update.

Speaker 1: 47:10

You know what I've seen In our Discord. We have a Discord. By the way, if you want to join, open the oh shoot, oh my gosh, the show notes. You know what else? What's that? If you join our Discord, you get to play all kinds of fun games, including what Do you, meme Woo? You ready to play Clark? Let's do it. Alright, open up the what Do you Meme channel?

Speaker 2: 47:38

I'm in there and I see something that is disgusting to me.

Speaker 1: 47:42

I need you to describe what's going on with your mouth. Parts for the game. What Do you Meme? Which is in our Discord channel. Join the Linktree show notes. What's in there? What's the meme?

Speaker 2: 47:53

There's two, I think I've got to explain them both. You have to explain both. Should I do the easy one first?

Speaker 1: 47:59

No, you must do the first one first.

Speaker 2: 48:05

So you guys know you guys listen to every episode. You're waiting on bated breath, just on the edge of your seat, for our episodes to go live and every single week you hear about our toes. It's been like four weeks of toe updates and I can't believe we succumbed to this audience to it. We're in the what Do you Meme channel. There's a spicy meme. What you see is a long yellow, maybe recently shaved stick leg. It's not shaved. It is not shaved it is not shaved Clark do you need glasses?

Speaker 2: 48:41

No, no, I see like stubble and then the actual tip is not, but the actual thigh it starts off. You know well, well, man, Okay, maybe not. Okay, it's getting worse. So what happens in this Up and to the left? You see the sock. You see a sock. You see a sock. You see it on this little stick leg and you see this yellow body just peeling up the sock to expose a foot and as it zooms in to bring more detail, it is the most disgusting ingrown toenails I've ever seen in my life. Even worse than Bruce's, believe it or not? Even worse than Bruce's. Those are gross, Like the makers of SpongeBob, I don't understand. Like the stuff I've seen on that show. Like you've got to be some sort of messed up to build stuff. You're young enough.

Speaker 2: 49:28

You watched SpongeBob, right, I did. It was good back in the day, it was demographic, you question.

Speaker 1: 49:36

Yeah, I mean it was. I mean shout outs, shout outs, shout outs. Noodle on YouTube who put together a fantastic 20 minute documentary about SpongeBob. That blew my mind on how it was influenced by the band Ween, but interesting, like, really interesting, the creator of spongebob super into nautical environments, fish, also super into the band ween and and like you can see how those two things put together creates a spongebob. But also like it's really ren and stampy. To like the rent and stampy sure really was the boilerplate for, yeah, a gross, the gross up close-up of just the most heinous, hideous things you ever seen animated for children yeah, and like there were all, there's so many cartoons actually, human ingenuity.

Speaker 2: 50:31

Peak of human ingenuity Ren and Stimpy Pyramids. The Last Dance. Documentary, corporate Strategybiz, episode 169. Nice, yep, nice, yeah, nice, oh, I got a second one. All right, second one, second one. You know, I look at this and it just brought me back to the 90s.

Speaker 1: 50:48

Maybe it's like the UI of it, you know, like just the radio buttons on this one just like make me feel like I'm taking a survey in the early internet. I mean, the source of this is clearly dated. Yes, what do you see there? This is in response to the SpongeBob foot pic. Yep.

Speaker 2: 51:14

So you guys know, as we started to get more recommendations, ai is fulfilling our life in. You get all these opportunities to give feedback to the engines that are giving these advertisements. These recommendations say is this good or is this bad? And this one in particular says what's going on. And you got some options A, b, c, D they're all radio buttons, but that makes it easy. A it's annoying or not interesting, okay. B I'm in this photo and I don't like it. Bruce, remember that one. C I think it shouldn't be on Facebook. And D it's spam. So when someone tags you in your yellow, long leg, disgusting, ingrown toenails meme, bruce decided to choose number B he's in this photo and he doesn't like it.

Speaker 1: 52:03

I didn't submit this. Bruce didn't do this. This was our bourgeoisie correspondent, Monsieur Alex Restrepo, who posted this. I mean, I'm in the photo and I do like it, you know, is this real? Is this a real report? Like does it actually say I'm in this photo and I don't like it.

Speaker 2: 52:28

I think so Because I think you can get tagged on things, because I remember this happened to spam accounts for a while and if you get tagged in something, you can't just remove yourself, you have to report it. And I remember this like happened to spam accounts for a while and like if you get tagged in something, you can't just like remove yourself, you have to report it. And I remember this would come up and it would say, like why are you reporting this as like spam or harassment or whatever? And this was one of the things I'm in this photo and I don't like it. That is it's just.

Speaker 1: 52:53

It's just. It's a funny way to say, like remove this photo, I don't want my picture. Like, like, I'm in this photo and I don't like it, like, okay, all right, princess, we'll get that down for you, don't worry.

Speaker 2: 53:06

Don't worry, we got you, yeah I know you're like yeah, it's the balance of like you can't take someone else's photo down and you can't like I get that. I think you can untag yourself, but you have to somehow be able to report it and like this is like a serious one.

Speaker 1: 53:25

You have to take it. I don't like it.

Speaker 2: 53:26

Yeah, they're in it and they don't like it. You got to take it down. I don't like it.

Speaker 1: 53:30

No, sir, I don't like it. Speaking of I don't like it the horse you don't know, the Ren and Stimpy horse. No, sir, I don't like it. 53 minutes, look at that. I just got you closer to an hour of ad-endorsed corporate strategy action. You're welcome. Never say we don't respect your time. If you want to play, what Do you Meme? Join the Discord. You already know how. I'm not saying it again. You can buy Corporate Strategy swag. You can share this with your friends. You can sell bootleg Corporate Strategy copies of Episode 169 on Burn Disc on the internet $5.99. Ebay Check your local listings. It might be cheaper. You can do so much with this podcast, but the one thing you can't do is unsubscribe and the one thing you can't do is quit listening Corporate strategy forever. We're never going to stop. This is the last episode.

Speaker 2: 54:27

Hey, as always, I'm Bruce, and it was fun, guys, I'm.

Speaker 1: 54:30

Clark Been a great run. I'm really going to miss you. You're on mute. Everyone else I would say we'd see you next week, but this is it. We won't. This is it. This is it.

Speaker 2: 54:41

The final episode End. It Remember us 2075. Remember the good things we contributed to the world. Yeah, episode 169.

Speaker 1: 54:51

Nice.