Speaker 1: 0:03

we have a light at the end of the tunnel for us. Yeah, the sooner we get done with this, the faster we get to it and you're on mute.

Speaker 2: 0:11

See you next week fastest podcast episode ever. Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait to be done with this episode, like I don't want to even start it, but I'm ready to be done with it. When we finish, clark and I are getting Boba Tea, boba Tea.

Speaker 1: 0:30

I am really excited this is a special treat because I have been drinking just black coffee. I mentioned I relocated, I'm in a new home. Because of that, my finances have been tight. I've been like, okay, let's strap everything down, we're not splurging, we're not doing anything. Got to make sure all the finances are in a good spot and I haven't splurged, yeah actually Don't worry, I got you. I would prefer if you could just pay for me and if you could also pay for my gas to get there. That'd be great yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:00

Okay, Okay. So this will be a reward because I am thankful for you for running the Appreciation Series, so I think a tangible physical gift like a boba tea is justifiably earned by you, Clark.

Speaker 1: 1:15

I appreciate those words of affirmation. I also would appreciate some physical, some appropriate physical touch when I see you physical, some appropriate physical touch.

Speaker 2: 1:26

when I see you, I will take these fingers and they will dart towards those long brown locks of hair straight through.

Speaker 1: 1:33

Oh, that's what I was worried about. I was just talking like a fist bump, a high five a bro hug. You just went right for that.

Speaker 2: 1:40

I got something interesting to share.

Speaker 1: 1:42

I'm really excited.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Welcome back to Corporate Strategy Podcast is given in an email. I'm Bruce and I'm Clark, and I was in Denver this week, yeah, and when I was there I was hitting up some of the local, because you know I'm a huge Japanophile otaku weeaboo, as they call them and there was a bunch of little restaurants near my hotel. So I was like you know what, instead of just going to one and having a big meal, I'm going to hit a couple. I'm going to go get a snack at one, go have some snack-topus, and then I'm going to go to the other and I'm going to have a sandow, and then I'm going to go to the other and I, the one I went to for boba check this out, it wasn't boba tea, it was boba rice pudding, my dude, let me tell you. So basically, you've had rice pudding before, I'm sure, right?

Speaker 1: 2:34

Yes, rice pudding.

Speaker 2: 2:35

The classic rice pudding. It's rice with some kind of sweetener and it's pudding. It's delicious on its own, Nice and easy. And what this place did was they took that concept and they covered it in fruit mango, strawberry and grapes which are like three of the best fruits, let's just be real, I agree and they also sprinkled red bean all throughout the mix and then had boba on top. You have not lived, Like let me just tell you right here, right now, you have not lived. And now I'm just like where is this in Florida, Because I will drive hours On this delicious dish.

Speaker 1: 3:17

That is interesting. Is that what you expected? Like did you go in there and you're like this is a normal boba place. I don't know if there's anything else. So you just went in for a boba and you had the opportunity because I was I was looking at the app. I got finished my film shoot super early.

Speaker 2: 3:33

So I was back at the hotel like at three. I'm like I'm hungry because I haven't eaten all day, but like I don't want to spoil dinner, I still wanted to do that chicken sando for dinner, yeah, which was like highly rated this other place. So I was like okay, let me see. And like this place is literally like it's boba tea, but they also do boba rice dishes and I'm like I have to try this. I have to try this.

Speaker 2: 3:54

I wish I could remember what it was called. Uh, in case you live in the denver area and want to check it out. But uh, it was. So I just got the base. I was like give me your initial starter. But they had one that was like matcha flavored. Oh my gosh. They had one that was more. It was taro. It was like a taro flavored rice pudding. Like, oh, I wish I lived next to that place so I could just try all of their dishes. But it's like you know how the acai bowl craze Like why can't we have the rice boba craze? I want the rice boba craze.

Speaker 1: 4:26

I want that. I mean it's obviously less healthy, but uh, oh, it was delicious. That is wild. Yeah, I was gonna go into. Like what else did they have on that menu? Because is it like all boba, just that? But it's a rice pudding, weird boba craze, like it is such a weird fusion.

Speaker 2: 4:39

They also did like um funny little sandos that were fruity so you could get like a strawberry sando that has cream in the middle. It looked good but I was like I'm going to do one sweet because I don't want diabetes. I'm going to do this boba rice pudding Because boba is my favorite thing. I just love the chewy boba you could put it on any. If they made a savory boba you could put on pizza, you better believe I'd be eating that pizza.

Speaker 1: 5:05

I'm starting to wonder what it is about the boba that you like so much. Is it the texture? It's the chew. Is it the chew? You like the texture? You like the?

Speaker 2: 5:13

texture of it. I love chewy. I love chewy. That is my favorite mouth texture of anything Gummy bears, octopus, squid, boba If it's chewy.

Speaker 1: 5:26

I love it. You remember when we went to the World Market? Yes, and we used to get the ginger chews.

Speaker 2: 5:35

You love those things I do, but that's not my favorite kind of chew. Yeah, I would put that in the now or later's category of chew.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Okay, fair enough.

Speaker 2: 5:44

It's too hard and sticky. I don't like when it's so sticky, like it holds your teeth together. I want a chew that's almost like a bounce. It's like a bounce in your mouth, right, it's almost rubbery, but it's not so rubbery. It's not gum. You can chew through it and it breaks apart. Oh, I love that. That's my favorite mouthfeel by far.

Speaker 1: 6:03

I don't like when it gets stuck in the teeth and like some gummy stuff gets stuck in the teeth and it drives me crazy. But you're right, like boba, like acai is like the perfect texture, because it doesn't get stuck in anything. It's just fun. It also is just fun.

Speaker 2: 6:23

It's like an activity and a satisfying drink, or now rice pudding, all in at one time, which is pretty amazing. There there are certain kinds of beef jerky that I think also achieve this kind of really, you know, like it's there's there's harder jerkies and there's softer jerkies, and it's like the ones that's right in the middle where it's got like a little bit of chump to it, but it's not a chump, it's chump and it's not a chunk, it's a chump with a p, it's just. You know, that's what I'm looking for, that's what I'm looking for in my food.

Speaker 1: 6:47

It is weird that it's like it's always sweet and not savory.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Yeah Well, I mean squid octopus, like that is really that kind of chew.

Speaker 1: 6:57

Yeah, that's fair. I was trying to think of like a good example and that is, I think, the example.

Speaker 2: 7:02

That's the closest you're going to get.

Speaker 1: 7:03

Yeah, okay, how'd you feel after? Give us the post because you're traveling, your stomach's all messed up. Did you feel okay?

Speaker 2: 7:10

So my stomach has actually been great recently and I attribute that to the combination of doing a lot of probiotic drinks like kombucha, but also prebiotics like tequila, which is a legit thing that works, and I'm not saying go, you know, drink your life away on tequila, but a little bit of tequila does help actually build up prebiotics in your system and it's helped me a ton. I don't really have the travel, travel trouble, tummy troubles anymore and I also know what my triggers are, so like it's, it's seeds, it's any seeded pepper.

Speaker 2: 7:40

If there's seeds in the pepper I'm gonna get triggered. So really, every trip I've done like I've, I've really kind of had my my stomach things under control. That's awesome. I didn't finish the bowl but that was mostly just because, like I said, I'm kind of hitting up a bunch of places, yeah, and by that time I was full. So it was, it was delicious. I wish I could have finished it, but it's also a lot like the thing weighed like four pounds oh yeah, rice is a lot of sugar.

Speaker 1: 8:08

Yeah, rice puddings are dense and you add all that stuff on top of it, like I can only imagine that thing being like a thick loaf of rice pudding oh, I wish, I wish you were there. Oh, you would, I would have loved it. I would have been so excited at those places. So all right, two things. I hear tequila makes you crazy. Is that true?

Speaker 2: 8:28

I have never experienced. Well, I don't drink a lot, so what I do, I'll make a tequila old-fashioned. Oh yeah, that is good, yeah, I like that. I actually buy a very specific brand. This was recommended to me by my friend.

Speaker 1: 8:45

So I don't know the science behind this, but tequila is a prebiotic. Just now, I had no idea that was a thing like this. Is all news to me that this alcohol can be healthy.

Speaker 2: 8:50

I'm shocked it. It well it's. I mean, it's not healthy but it's good for your gut. Biome, like I do want to state, alcohol is a poison. It is toxic. If if you don't like it, that is totally on you, and I'm sure I could replace this prebiotic with another prebiotic. Unfortunately, it's just the one that I've found works best for me, which is weird, because I've done pills, I've done kombuchas, I've done prebiotic kefirs, like I've done it all yogurts, you name it. Nothing has worked as well as tequila after dinner and I do two ounces of tequila in a uh, a tumbler glass with a rock and I mix it with bitters and syrup and it's a tequila old-fashioned, and I actually use um Casa Noble Reposado, which is like a brown tequila. It's delicious. It kind of has like a peanut buttery flavor the way that I mix it together, and it's a good little after dinner drink and it legit has fixed my dietary issues. So that's really interesting.

Speaker 1: 9:49

If anyone has a non-alcoholic solution.

Speaker 2: 9:52

please share it, but this is what works for me.

Speaker 1: 9:55

I'm trying to think what else is like a prebiotic. I'm sure there's a lot of options out there. But the second thing I was going to say, the second thing I was going to say is is this the solve to the travel stomach issues? Just hop on a plane, get a little shot of tequila and then are you going to be good, I don't know, I haven't tried it.

Speaker 2: 10:13

And here's the thing Like it doesn't have to be every day, like I can literally do one or two of these a week and that's enough. Like it keeps my it keeps my biome enough in check it, without getting into the gory details. Like I have IBS, right, like irritable bowel syndrome. It is very easy for me to slip into 15 to 20 minute toilet experiences if I eat the wrong thing. Yeah, this specific fix puts me in a state of complete normalcy which I have not been used to for like a over a decade. Right Like I was, like I didn't know I could feel this way and experience this ever again in my life and this has been the only thing that's really helped with that. So that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Well, good, you have a solution. That's awesome. You know we were going to get together tonight. We were going to get our families together, we were going to hang out, and since we're not now, I can tell you partly part of the reason I wanted to come over was to make me an old-fashioned. Oh yeah, I didn't say that out loud, but I'm telling you now, I mean like one.

Speaker 2: 11:14

You should tell me next time so I bring over my stuff, because I actually have the uh bitters that I buy from a farmer's market that are better than any butters you can get from a store Right, and I also have syrup that is like very, very delicious. It's cinnamon infused vanilla syrup, oh that sounds amazing Like cancel.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Let's end the podcast. Now I'm coming over. We're just going to make this just an afternoon happy hour. I have whiskey and bourbon, so I was like I am half prepared for the old fashioned.

Speaker 2: 11:48

I have the alcohol I have been. I have been purchasing mostly Japanese whiskeys for the last year, since I've kind of fallen in love with the old fashioned, and recently I bought a bottle of the four walls Irish American whiskey. It's a blend of Irish whiskey and bourbon. It's created by the guys who made always sunny in Philadelphia, so that's really yeah that's yeah, it's the four walls. Better Brown whiskey. It is delicious, let me tell you that's my new favorite. If I'm going to get it, uh, so good, it's good.

Speaker 1: 12:21

Oh good, uh, wow, so good, it's great. Oh good, yeah, I always get gifted whiskey and bourbon, like. So I have two bottles right now for, uh, some work-related stuff. And then this house and I'm like, huh, now I have this whiskey sitting around, but I don't have any of the materials to make in old fashion. So what I do is I make a, uh, kentucky what do they call it? Oh man, there's a name for this. It's like a, a Kentucky Old Fashioned or Kentucky. No, it's Kentucky Mule, and what it is? It's whiskey or bourbon, ginger beer and some wine, and so a super simple drink, but it's really, really good. It's basically a dark mule which is super interesting, and I love it.

Speaker 2: 12:59

I get a coffee version of that multiple times a week and it's delicious version of that multiple times a week and it's delicious.

Speaker 1: 13:06

Yeah, it's coffee plus ginger beer plus lime. It's so good. You know, you told me about this one.

Speaker 2: 13:08

I'm still skeptical, but one day we're gonna go we're gonna go and you're gonna, you're gonna report back to the pod how amazing this, this coffee mule, is. Trust I will.

Speaker 1: 13:18

Oh, I'm excited once you go, mule coffee's never gonna taste the same so strange, so many weird things you're saying, putting in your mouth. But I'm in for it.

Speaker 2: 13:27

Yeah, I mean, that's what mouths are for putting weird things in.

Speaker 1: 13:32

Let's end the podcast now.

Speaker 2: 13:36

I think we did good. I think we covered enough today.

Speaker 1: 13:38

You're on mute, see you next week.

Speaker 2: 13:44

you ever wonder about the first person that like ate a chicken?

Speaker 1: 13:50

just yeah, I was actually. I was thinking about this the other day. I'm like somebody got sam noah poisoning quick, but then, wait, I knocked it into the fire and I made it charred, and this is much better.

Speaker 2: 14:05

I'm gonna put this in my mouth now because, like you think about fish or bugs and it almost there's, almost like a natural primal inclination to eat a bug or a fish, right, like they. Just they seem like food creatures but then you think about like animal chicken. It's like I don't. You know, early man is probably like why eat? Why eat this tiny dinosaur covered in feathers, like strange, and why eat?

Speaker 1: 14:33

it raw. Somebody had to do it, somebody did it raw, and they probably did it raw for a while because they hadn't really figured out how to deal with this they ate the beak? Oh, they definitely. I mean like, when you really think about it, somebody's eating everything, everything. Yeah, I mean, is there anything that hasn't been eaten? Is the real question we should be asking each other the uncharted territory.

Speaker 2: 14:57

I mean, have you seen the guy, the gannis book of world records guy, who ate an entire airplane? Yes, yes, yes. I have heard, though, that that might not be true. Oh no, like he might have faked, like he definitely, the dude, has eaten metal and plastic and like all of the material of an airplane, but he might not have eaten the entire thing. That's, that's where it's been up for debate, but I don't think there's any actual conclusive evidence that that's not true. It's just one of those things that could be true. I don't think there's any territory that we haven't tried. When it comes to edibility, yeah, 100%. We either have eaten it or we know that we cannot eat it.

Speaker 1: 15:38

Right, If you think about nowadays, people are smart enough not to eat the products and goods that we have around us. No one's going to take the headphones and be like I'm going to eat this AirPod now. So like it makes sense. But the raw material I mean, if it's a TikTok challenge, yeah, that's true, that's true. I mean, people eat Tide Pods, so I mean oh my gosh. So when you think about it, every raw material has definitely been consumed consumed in some way.

Speaker 2: 16:10

If you think about it in a weird way, like we do eat metal, right, like vitamins, minerals, metals are part of those and we do consume, like you know, iron is in blood, yeah, when you're eating, even like cereals. Cereals have like high iron in them. So like we eat stuff that we don't think that we should eat, but we do right, even even if it's trace amounts of the thing. Like you know, even radiation doesn't fish like mercury, like we eat things that are poisonous, alcohol, but it's all about moderation and knowing what it does to the system and how much.

Speaker 1: 16:42

This makes me think of do you remember that show my strange addiction, or whatever?

Speaker 2: 16:46

Yes, there was a lady. Yes, there was a lady.

Speaker 1: 16:49

Yes, there was a toilet paper one. There was another one that you know, the little like sandwich knives that they give you at restaurants where they stab it through the two sides of the sandwich to get them together. Yeah, this lady would buy bags off the internet oh no, thousands of them and she would sit in front of her TV and she would eat them Little piece by little piece. She just consumed that plastic. She must have cancer or is dead now right.

Speaker 2: 17:14

I mean she was just preparing for today. Where it's in our water, it's in our blood, it's in everything. Like she was ahead of the game really.

Speaker 1: 17:24

Maybe she was just like prepping for the next stage of our bodies evolving.

Speaker 2: 17:28

Yeah, she was just getting ready for it. She knew what was coming.

Speaker 1: 17:33

Okay, weirdest thing that you eat on a regular basis. That the normal average human would think is weird that I eat on a regular basis.

Speaker 2: 17:41

I don't eat it on a regular basis, but I do love anchovies and I know a lot of people hate anchovies. You do, yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:47

Okay.

Speaker 2: 17:48

How do you? How do you raw garlic's another one that I love, oh, okay.

Speaker 1: 17:51

I've heard a lot about raw garlic being really good for your immune system. I love it. Yeah, you just like take a close? Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:59

Weird. But I mean, if you do want the health benefits for it, and I think also there's a little bit of stomach settling you don't actually chop into the whole clove, you nibble and chew. That's a. That's an important part of like getting some of the gases out. But right garlic, like it gets in your blood. That's why your breath stinks afterwards. It's not because it's actually stinky, which it is interesting. Yeah, your blood becomes stinky right, those are weird.

Speaker 1: 18:23

Anchovies is a weird one. Do you buy like a little jar and you just like pick them out?

Speaker 2: 18:26

yeah, or I'll get them on pizza yeah, oh yeah, pizza makes sense. That was the one I thought of. Give me anchovies on there, love it. I love anything like. I love intense and salty flavors.

Speaker 1: 18:35

Yeah, I'm trying to think of like what else is weird? Like regular, like I eat the little seaweed flake things. You know I'm talking about. You buy little seaweed packs. I like those, those are good and that one's weird. People think that's a weird one. I love those. The other ones are so good, yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:50

The other one is like when we buy a, like we buy half a cow or quarter of a cow, because that's how we we do our meat, because we have a lot of those options around here with all the cattle farms and they always give you like the bits that no one else eats. So they give you like the full livers or they give you like in some cases they'll give you like the tongue and other things and like I've always wanted to eat those. Yeah, yeah, it's really, it's really strange and so it kind of it's psychologically weird. It never tastes that bad, but it's psychologically weird because you're like OK, I'm looking at this thing, I'm cutting this thing, and I know it's a tongue, I know it's a liver, I know it's whatever it is, it's a heart. Like those are weird things to eat, but they actually never taste that bad. Like if you can just close your eyes and eat them, you would probably be like, oh, yeah, that was good.

Speaker 2: 19:39

And then you're like oh, that's a that's a bold testicle Weird, I'd eat it. I'd eat it, I think. As long as it's cooked and prepared properly, I'll eat it. Uh, the lines I draw are really around raw foods. I won't do raw chicken. I know there are places that do serve raw chicken and that's like a delicacy, like japan's big in the raw chicken, right, like that's really. Yeah, there's a restaurant in san francisco, so I will never, ever eat that. Yeah, same thing for century eggs, like sorry.

Speaker 2: 20:10

Uh meat concept Not going to eat that Like that's, that's my line, right, it's like right. This feels like it could easily diverge into poison. Uh, I'm not, I'm not going to mess with that. So if it's cooked, if it's prepared and if it's edible, I'll eat it. Yeah, what about beef tartare?

Speaker 1: 20:31

What is beef tartare? I don't know what that is Basically. Think of ground beef, literally just ground beef, raw. And then they put a little seasoning on it. Yeah, yeah, they put a little seasoning on it. They put a little. I think it's oil. I, I'm going to be so wrong, someone's going to roast me for this. You put a little like oil or like sauce on it and then you eat it.

Speaker 2: 20:49

No, no, no, I will eat medium rare ground beef but I need flame to have touched all the sides that have been exposed to the air. Yeah Right, like that's my line. I need, I need flame. Flame is important.

Speaker 1: 21:07

Fire. Somebody discovered raw meat is a bad idea.

Speaker 2: 21:12

I agree, the rarer it is, the tastier it is. I completely agree you nuke the flavor, the more heat you add. But you do need a little heat, just a little bit, the sear, the whole browning effect.

Speaker 1: 21:25

Whenever you get that that flavor is so good, and I mean the sear, the whole, what's the effect? The browning effect, the char, yeah, yeah, whenever you get that like that flavor is so good, it's so good. Yeah, oh, it's called the Maillard. Reaction is what it is when you get the browning Maillard N-A-I-L-L-A-R-D. Maillard Sounds French. I have no idea. Maillard. I don't know the etymology of that word, but I do know it creates incredible flavor, that's all I know. I love it. Well cool, you want to go get some boba tea?

Speaker 2: 21:57

I think we've talked enough about how to survive corporate On this episode that we can Excuse ourselves for some delicious boba tea. Actually, clark, I have a timely topic. This is literally like today. Today you're gonna be listening on monday, but like, have you seen the jobs report?

Speaker 1: 22:13

breaking news. No, actually somebody posted it somewhere, was it in our discord?

Speaker 2: 22:19

uh, probably, and it's also just all over the news everywhere and spoiler alert jobs are down right right, it's hard to find a job.

Speaker 2: 22:30

And I'm not telling anyone anything. They don't know, but now it's proven with stats, math and facts. I thought it'd be good to talk about sort of a symptom of this cause, which is when there aren't jobs available or there aren't good paying jobs available, what do people find themselves doing? Staying at a job they may not like because it's secure, it's comfortable, it's trusted. Hey, I don't have to worry about AI taking my job as long as I stay here. I'm just going to buckle up and hunker down. So I figured what we could do is talk through some tips, because I know you and I we're happy, but not everything is is peaches and boba, as they say there. There are things that we have to swallow to get through our jobs and like, let's just talk through some tips. I like you it's?

Speaker 1: 23:21

uh, it's rice pudding and boba. You were close. It's rice pudding and boba now that's instead of peaches and boba. Yeah, you were very close, though I messed it up.

Speaker 2: 23:30

Let's just start. Let's start the whole thing over.

Speaker 1: 23:34

Let's roll back the tape we'll edit that part out and we'll just insert that clip in and we'll be good perfect, all right I'm so glad you're gonna do that for me on this episode.

Speaker 1: 23:43

It's interesting because it's a time of tariffs. It's a time of potentially revolutionary change in how we do work, especially knowledge work. Yes, and I think it's interesting that at's like is it around? Companies don't know enough, like I'm theorizing on why, but companies don't know enough about what the six months look like in technology trends, so they're afraid to make any significant moves or continue to scale. Or is it because of tariffs and all the things happening around the world that it's like just the economy is not growing, at least domestically, yep, as big as it used to be? Maybe it's a combination of both. I mean, there's a lot of things.

Speaker 2: 24:33

I like, I think you've you've hit a lot of it, right. There are, there are tariffs, there's AI, but then there's just like the general sort of state of things. Right, like we've. We've had capitalist correspondent correspondent Alex Estrepo come on here before. We've talked about late stage capitalism before. It is just harder for companies to be profitable when all you're chasing is profits and the first thing that always gets cut are people.

Speaker 2: 24:58

And you know, I've, I've definitely felt this in my tenure of work, which is over 15 years. Now 10 year of work, which is over 15 years, now corporate work, I should say, which is over 15 years. We're expected to do a lot more in the same or less amount of time than we were 15 years ago. Right, like, if I thought about the jobs, if I had my job today, 15 years ago, the expectation would be that I'm not producing as much, that I'm not producing as quickly and it's just going to require more time, more people, more energy, more work. That is not the expectation. Do more with less, faster. Yeah, that is just very true, right.

Speaker 2: 25:42

And so it becomes hard to swallow the pill of. I'm going to have to stay at this job for I don't know how many years now, because of there are no other jobs like this available or I can't find them.

Speaker 1: 25:54

And it's also, you know, I think the expectations are higher because you know technology is better, you know we have better tools and resources to do our jobs, and I think technology being more instant and everything being more instant means we're always available. When back then it's like, well, jim went home for the day, like let me try his home phone real quick. And it's like, let me call his home phone, he's not home. Guess, we're not talking to Jim until Monday, like that's the way it kind of went. It's like you didn't have access to any of these things and so now it's like, yeah, now I can just shoot you a text and be like hey, I need you on this call in 30 minutes. And I mean, unfortunately, it's happened to me this week like three times where it's like can you join this call? I'm really urgent, I need to talk about something like really like minutes before the meeting. I'm getting an instant notification to have to join a meeting. Like that's the worst feeling ever. And to your point, like those are the.

Speaker 1: 26:45

I think generally and I want to caveat everything we're about to say we are so blessed in our positions for the work we do sitting on the computer, doing knowledge work, our hands are soft, we make good money in tech Like everything we're about to say is so.

Speaker 1: 27:02

You know it's going to sound very privileged to people who don't have these types of benefits, but it is hard work, it's draining work, it's mentally like you kind of have to flip a switch and be ready for, potentially, your day shifting 20 different directions and every 30 minutes you're changing context, and that's really difficult to do and you're exhausted at the end of the day. Exhausted at the end of the day. And I don't know about you. I've been feeling this more and more lately, where I feel like I'm not able to be present outside of work because my mind is just racing, like I can't seem to shut down after the day is over because so many things happen that I'm just now like decompressing and I'm like oh yeah, I forgot Like I got that action item and this action item, that meeting that I need to set up for next week and this report that's due tomorrow. Like it's so difficult to stay on top of everything because of the expectations, like you're saying, and so it makes it really hard to stay happy when that's the case.

Speaker 2: 27:57

I mean it's funny. For me it's the opposite. I find it hard to be present about work because there's just so many context changes. You know I, you and I are very different in this way. I'm a very emotional, like emotionally attached person, right, like I want to put myself in my work and see the effort that I've put into it, show some kind of accomplishment, and when I'm switching 20 different projects, it's like it's so much easier for me to disconnect and be like I don't care, whatever, right, because, like, I'm not attached to the work, so I can shut the laptop, I can walk away and be like. You know, if work just disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't even be able to tell you what I did, because I don't care, yeah, and like, walk away.

Speaker 2: 28:39

It's. That's not a good place either, because I'm the kind of person that needs the, the achievements, the, the wins, to motivate me to continue to do it, and because it's chaos and it's churn and burn, which is truly what I do is churn and burn. Get stuff done, but don't do it all yourself, don't get it right, don't make it perfect. That it puts me in this. I am burned out by every meaning of the word. I am burned out, but I'm still trying to accomplish what I need to accomplish get things done and not lose my job.

Speaker 1: 29:10

Yeah, it's funny because I think I've been feeling burnout. It's hard to describe what burnout is until it happens to you and I wouldn't say I've had like severe burnout. Like I think it's still, I'm still functional, I'm still doing things, but is it like my best work? Am I satisfied with it? Do I feel fulfilled doing it? The answer is no, and you're probably feeling similar. It's like I know what I need to do to be effective enough and I'm still working hard, but it's like it's not that passionate drive towards something that I really love doing and it's draining every day because you kind of close the laptop and you're like I just don't feel the satisfaction of work. And it's probably been a year for me. And I think to your point of like you know the job report that came out and you know jobs being down.

Speaker 1: 29:55

How do you make the best of your situation? It's a little bit of what you and I were talking before. It's like I have this kind of therapy session where I actually feel like lately I've been shifting out of burnout and I've actually been looking forward to work a little bit more. And I don't know what the change in that tide is, because my role is the same. The work I do is the same, the teams I work on are the same. Generally, the projects I'm leading are the same, and so I don't know if it's just like a time thing where it's like, okay, you might just be in a funk and like then you're going to pop out of the funk and like feel a little bit better about things, or if it is truly a significant change in a situation that either you change your mindset or something happens around you that pushes you out of that state, cause I can't explain why. That's the weird thing.

Speaker 2: 30:39

When was the last time you went on vacation?

Speaker 1: 30:40

It was Japan right, I went on a Japan. It was a work trip, that's true. So when did you? I did? I did go to. I went to Colorado for a week. That was my last vacation. It wasn't that long ago, two months ago.

Speaker 2: 30:53

You when you finished up that vacation, did you have anxiety and dread building up in you, like, ah, I don't want this to end, I don't want to stop this, I don't want to stop this, I don't want to go back to that nightmare hellscape that I call work on Monday. Was that, you know, present in the back of your mind? Oh yeah, I felt that a million times. You, my friend, are burned out.

Speaker 1: 31:17

Welcome to love. That's a great way to look at it.

Speaker 2: 31:20

But it is right, like you can't even enjoy time away because there's a present dread about, well, this thing that you know should be very fun and enjoyable and like a relief and relaxation, is actually somehow creating anxiety inside of me because of the fear that I will have to return and deal with the fallout of me not being there or whatever it is. That's burnout. You got it. I've got it too. I deal with it every single day and I know that I have it because it used to be when I go on vacation, I would get excited to go back to work. I'm like you know what? This is great, I'm ready to get back to the office.

Speaker 2: 31:59

Think about like the olden days where you and I worked together. I was like you know, this is fun, but I can't wait to go and work with Clark and my friends and do stuff. Now it is actually like if I got hit by a meteor and died at the very last minute of my vacation, that would be a pleasant surprise, because at least I wouldn't have to go back to work on Monday. You know, like that's where I'm at, but I'm also there's the sort of Damocles hovering over my head that if you don't go back to work on Monday. You're going to be homeless in six months and your whole life will be over and there's nothing you can do about it. So welcome burnout. That's exactly what it is.

Speaker 1: 32:35

Yeah, and to your point about like the job report makes it even worse, because you're just like, okay, well, should I even try to leave and is it worth it to like, look at other opportunities and you know, feel, and then you just feel stuck.

Speaker 2: 32:52

You're like I'm stuck. There are none. That's the problem. Yeah, there are no opportunities. It's so. Yeah, it's such a terrible feeling. I think I told I got reached out to by a recruiter and like it was like it was a joke, right, like higher position than I'm in right now, half of the pay, yeah, like this is that I'm in right now, half of the pay. Yeah, yeah, this is insane.

Speaker 1: 33:08

Like no, yeah, you realize what you just sent me.

Speaker 2: 33:13

You want me to work more for less? Yeah, fantastic.

Speaker 1: 33:18

Yeah, it's a really sucky feeling and, luckily for me, like I feel like somehow those tides are turning. I can't explain it, I don't know why, but like I'm glad for you, I feel better Like not a hundred percent.

Speaker 1: 33:31

And that's the thing is like I feel I feel better, like I'm more excited to go to work and like work on stuff, but I know there's other things about the job that are still sucky and I'm like, okay, I think this is just going to push me back in the other direction. And so to your, to the I guess the whole point that you're trying to bring up, like how do you stay happy? I think it is about what is in your control, what can you change? Your perspective, the people you work with, the way you act, the way you look at work. You know, could you change something as an experiment to see if that would make you feel better?

Speaker 1: 34:05

And what I mean by that is like, usually, if you're just in the office and you like hide in your you hide in your office, hide behind your desk, hide behind your computer the whole time, and you like just log into teams meetings, even though they're meeting like right down the right down the lane from you in the meeting room, it's like maybe try going to the meeting room and like just being close your laptop, go to the meeting room, be fully engaged on the topic instead of multitasking, and like that's an experiment that I think is worth trying to be like, do I feel better about that, like was that worth it? Or do I actually feel worse because now the existential dread of coming back to my computer and opening up Slack and seeing 50 messages that I missed in the meantime, like that could be worse? But I think to your point. It's like if you are in a spot where you're feeling this way, I think you have to try different things within your control to make the best of it, change your environment.

Speaker 1: 34:52

Change your environment.

Speaker 2: 34:54

It's a good one because I do something similar. I find that if I don't block my calendar for time to work on things that I need to work on, it will get blocked for me for things that I don't want to do. And not only do I do that, but I said do not disturb, so I'll put like hour, hour and a half on my calendar. I'm going to go work on this paper that needs to get done, this messaging, whatever, and I want to turn off notifications entirely. I don't care how important the emergency is, one you're to be able to disconnect and deprioritize the crap because there's so much crap. And one thing I've found is not responding to every email and every message actually helps the other person more than it helps you by responding to them, because it forces whoever's asking you for the thing to go off and do something themselves and giving them an hour, two hours to either deal with it or not, like that's good, it's a good, it's a good thing to have. That can actually create productivity on both sides.

Speaker 1: 36:01

I think the one thing I'd caveat this with is if you're early in your career, you just start a job. I think it's better to be more available, and one you don't know your worth.

Speaker 1: 36:13

I think as you get further into your career. You know the value you bring, you know your worth and to your point it's actually. It's more important I think we talked about this on a prior episode. It's more important that you're saying no to more things that then you saying yes to, because you need to basically prioritize your time to focus on the highest value work. And if you're always available, you're always responding to everyone. You're teaching everyone around you that I'm always available, I'm always going to respond, I'm always going to be there, rather than being like, hey, it took me a week to get back to you, but frankly, it's not a priority and so I'm responding to you now. Here's the details I need, Like let's get this moving, and it's like you had to wait a week because that's where you fall on the priority chain. I'm not being rude, I'm just being ruthless with my time.

Speaker 2: 36:54

Right. Well, I do think there's. The advantage of being early in your career is you're not going to get asked a thousand questions in a day by 1800 different people. Uh, because you're the only one that knows. Right, like when you're early in your ic, you don't have the kind of disruptions that a either you know, an experienced ic or a manager is going to have to deal with some. You're just lucky.

Speaker 2: 37:19

Enjoy that, enjoy that time period, enjoy that time forever. Eventually you will be the one they bother. Right now you are bothering other people. So, uh, for I would actually say, in that case, help the person you are bothering by. This is something that one of my mentors told me very early on evaluate is this thing that you're going to go ask for help with going to take longer than 15 minutes for you to go do on your own? If the answer is yes, go bother a person. If the answer is yes, go bother a person. If the answer is no, if you could actually figure out how to solve this thing on your own within 15 minutes, do it and don't ask for help. Because, like those little disruptions, those little 15 minute disruptions, that's what causes non productivity for everybody. So, help a burned out person, follow that rule.

Speaker 1: 38:04

Yeah, I like that. So, yeah, it's about. Maybe that's like. The next tip is, if you're trying to make things better because you just feel like you have no help anywhere, change your approach to actually help others first and build I talk about this a lot with my team is like your relationships with people.

Speaker 1: 38:23

Think of them like bank accounts. You make withdrawals, you pull money out, you ask for things. You keep on saying, okay, bruce, I need this, bruce, I need this, bruce, I need this. And now your account is negative because you just keep withdrawing money, right, you keep on asking for things. You've got to at some point give back and say what is Bruce struggling with? You know what is he working on? How could I help Bruce? And like, you've got to deposit you know nice acts, things to the valuable person you're trying to work with back into it and maybe that would actually make you feel better in your workplace because you're like okay, now I know I've got Bruce as an ally and I've got a positive balance, so next time I need help, I know he's going to be willing to help me, because I've helped him with many, many things and you also understood a little bit more about Bruce as a person, therefore making your work hopefully more fulfilling that way too.

Speaker 1: 39:14

Yep, I love that one. It's really good. I always tell my team I'm like audit your request. If you're always asking someone for something, be conscious of that, because at some point they're going to tell you no and they're going to be like stop, leave me alone. Like you bug me all the time, like you're not providing any value to me, like stop, you can't just keep depleting the account.

Speaker 2: 39:37

You got to give back into it, you got to think about it that way. I love it and it's so true and you know, in in the scope of like, creating a survivable environment where you're going to stay here for X number of years because of the uncertainty. Thinking about, like, that account, that relation, what did you call it? The?

Speaker 1: 39:48

bank account, like the relationship bank, your relationship bank account.

Speaker 2: 39:52

Yes, invest heavily in that, because you're going to be stuck. If you think you're stuck there, all of your coworkers are also stuck there, so you are all in the same space together. It doesn't matter what level you're at, the jobs just don't exist. So invest in the relationship bank account with your coworkers, because they ain't going anywhere either. Yeah, and that's what helps me.

Speaker 1: 40:14

Yeah, and that's especially if you're in the industry.

Speaker 2: 40:16

Yeah Right, like, I deal with some very let's just call them challenging personalities on a day-to-day basis in my job, and something that's really helped me recently is accept the fact that they're never going to get any better and find ways to work with them that always achieves the result that I need to get to to achieve that result and this is going to be a case by case basis for everybody but the first thing you can do is have a private conversation with them, and it's just as simple as, hey, individual, I want to make sure that I'm working with you exactly the best way that we can like, be productive and make this relationship work. And, like, you just say that, like, I literally had this conversation like, hey, how do we work better together? I want to improve this. And one they will be so excited to tell you exactly what they want, because, chances are, they're a challenging person.

Speaker 2: 41:07

Um, they're also a selfish, narcissistic person, and they're more than happy to divulge whatever the heck they're thinking and then do whatever it is they want you to do, right, because, like, even if it's not your job, you don't want to do it, you're not comfortable with it. Well, like, whatever it is, it's not going to change who they are. You cannot change them. You are stuck with them. So finding that sort of mea culpa between the two of you that is going to lead to so much less stress on your end.

Speaker 1: 41:34

I like that and maybe kind of the moral to that too is stop trying to fix things that you can't fix. Yeah, Like people are people you can't change, Like that's. At some point you have to accept it and be like okay, Bruce is Bruce. I'm never going to be able to get him to act the way I want. So I'm going to stop trying and I'm just going to accept it and I'm going to look at the situation differently and say, all right, how do I cope with that? How do I actually work well with that individual? Or do I just ask them directly hey, I'm just struggling to know how do I better help you and kind of change the narrative a little bit and maybe you'll you'll find something out that could change or reframe the situation so that it is a more positive place or person to work with. I like that, yeah.

Speaker 2: 42:19

And you know, if you're not comfortable going to the person directly, find someone else who works well with them that you are comfortable with Right. Like hey, I noticed you have a really good relationship with Janet. Like what's the trick? I want to make sure that I'm working with Janet as well as you are, and I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you. Yeah, 100% agree. There is no foul in trying to improve workplace relationships and the way you work with other people.

Speaker 1: 42:44

I like that. A quick one that you said earlier, but I think we should call it again, is maybe just take a vacation If you're feeling really burnt out and you've got time off. Like, take the vacation, take an extra day for the weekend and be like you know what. I'm just going to start using my vacation time. Maybe it's been too long since you just had a day for yourself and, honestly, I think it's even better if you have, like kids, a significant other, whatever it is. It's like, pick a day when your significant other is at work, when your kids are at school, and go do something for you. Go to work, go do something you like doing. Just get out of work and go do something for yourself.

Speaker 2: 43:22

I'm going to add one more to that Plan your vacation around your work. And this might seem like counterintuitive, but I notice a lot of people and it's because they have kids, and kids have summer break, spring, spring vacation, but they plan their vacations around their children and what that does is it creates this huge workplace deficit where, like 18 people are missing in july and august and you need them. And then they come back and they're swamped and like, oh, I just I can't do it. Like, right, there's like the whole freak out of. Well, you were gone for a week and a half and the business continued.

Speaker 2: 43:56

Like, if you really want to take a successful vacation, look at your quarters, look at when when is the hard times, when are the more boring soft times and take your vacation during the boring soft times, right, because you're not going to come back to a headache or a nightmare or oh, I need you to do this. I need you to do it before the end of the day, like you know. I know you were out last week, but, sorry, this needs to get done. Like all you're doing is you're washing away all of the good you got from your vacation and coming back and like the technical debt has now fallen on you, right, there are always going to be times of less, more boring, just administrative thing where you can go missing for a day, a week, two weeks, and it's not going to have the kind of impact as crunch time, right, and like maybe you work for a place that's always crunch and, if that's the case, just disappear when you need to disappear.

Speaker 2: 44:50

You do you, but I feel like, emotionally for me, I usually plan to take more time off around the end of the year December, november, that's when I cash in everything, because it's just, it's not as busy, right, like sales slow down in Q4 of the year, so I can disappear for a week and not come back to 800 emails and ransom notes and all the crap that I get every day of my life and it feels good, I come back refreshed, I come back better. It does mean that during the year I'm dealing with burnout and stress and all of that more, but I would so much rather do it this way than to take a week off and then come back to a nightmare and have everything undone.

Speaker 1: 45:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:32

I agree.

Speaker 1: 45:33

Yeah, it's a great way to think about it. Yeah, use it, plan it wisely, take you time. Don't just take time off to be with your family or whatever. Like you gotta have you time. Not that that's not important, by the way you should take time off to be with your family and everything. But I'm saying sometimes you just need time for you to like get away, do something that you enjoy, maybe even just be by yourself for a little bit. Yeah, that's really important.

Speaker 2: 45:55

Recharge. If you've got a three-day weekend, come up, make it a four-day.

Speaker 1: 45:59

Make it four, five, six. Why stop there? Why stop there? Quit your job. You know it is always fun when you get like a three or four-day weekend. When you get a four, yeah, three or four-day weekend and then you take like two additional days off and then you come back. You have like one day left in the week. Yeah, all right guys, it's Friday.

Speaker 2: 46:17

So nice, I love that. I love that.

Speaker 1: 46:20

What's funny is I tried to.

Speaker 2: 46:21

I tried to do that this week, right Like, cause I was in Denver three days this week so we had Labor Day off, so I took Friday off last week and this was supposed to be a short week, right Like, fly up on Tuesday, fly back on Thursday. But there was so much chaotic, nightmare fuel that occurred between Tuesday and Friday it felt like I worked 10 days in four. So it can backfire on you, but generally I find extending the three day weekends into four day weekends is always a good strategy.

Speaker 1: 46:51

Yeah, I like that. I like that tip I'm trying to think of like another one to maybe this one's, this one's, maybe a little, a little spicy.

Speaker 2: 47:02

Oh, I bring this. We love the spice.

Speaker 1: 47:06

Maybe, if you're stuck someplace, find out what's the most minimal amount of work you can do to stay employed.

Speaker 2: 47:13

Quiet, quitting Quiet quit, we are Quiet quit. I am a huge advocate for quiet quitting. Do the job they hired you for and nothing more, unless you are financially invested in the success of the company, right, in my case, I have a lot of stock. That stock is very dependent on the success of the company, which I have to help ensure. I cannot quiet quit. I have to do the opposite of whatever quiet quitting is. I have to. If someone's failing at their job, fill in and do it for them. Otherwise I don't get paid. But if, given the luxury, oh bro, I'd be quiet quitting like eight years ago, I can't wait to quiet quit.

Speaker 1: 47:56

It's so funny because I think of, like, as a manager, how I handle performance situations and like, usually someone who's struggling gets less responsibility. They don't get that next responsibility, they don't get more work, they don't get new opportunities. You don't ask them to do more important things, like you just be like, okay, I guess we're just going to leave them here doing what they do or take things off their plate, and then, if you just do enough, everybody just leaves you alone, like, okay, they're always just good enough doing this thing and it's just less work.

Speaker 2: 48:25

Yeah Well, I think too, it sets an expectation, right, jimmy's not going to do that. Like, don't give him that project, he's not going to do it. He's going to do what?

Speaker 2: 48:35

Jimmy was hired to do and that's fine. That's what Jimmy was hired to do. Like, more people need to quiet quit. I do 100% believe that. I think, especially in corporate, like quiet quitting is not a bad thing. That is the thing we were actually hired to do and because we had overachievers, they ruined everything and forced us all into the hustle and grind culture, and thanks is basically all I have to say to those folks. Now we have to come up with a term like quiet quitting. That's just doing your job.

Speaker 1: 49:05

Oh, that is hilarious. Yeah, it's true, it's true, and I think I fall into the category you were just saying thank you to. So I'm sorry to everybody, but for me it'd be so hard to do that, because I care so much about the process of doing work and I enjoy it for the most part, so I make it worse for everybody because I just really enjoy doing the work.

Speaker 2: 49:23

Get off this show. Go Go find another podcast to ruin. Go find another one, go Get out of here.

Speaker 1: 49:29

I'm out of here, I'm running away Ruin corporate strategy.

Speaker 2: 49:32

Run it away, you've ruined corporate strategy.

Speaker 1: 49:36

Ooh, okay. What other tips Making it more bearable Surviving this downturn in the market.

Speaker 2: 49:43

We talked about treating yourself, but I mean actually treat yourself, not just like on vacation days. This is a big one for me. We talked about the mule earlier. I'll check my calendar when I wake up in the morning to see like how slamma jamma is my day with meetings, and if it is absolute hate myself, then I'm going to go get myself a mule first thing in the morning. Uh, I'm going to get the the, the coffee, ginger, lemon hybrid and I'm going to enjoy that for the next two, three hours and sip it slowly, because that's going to help me get through my day without wanting to jump through a window. Yeah, treat yourself and make sure that whatever it is, whatever little thing that it is that helps you find peace and happiness outside of work, you're doing those things both during the day and after work, right? Like? Don't put more on your plate than you need to in life. Don't invite that extra crap in if you don't need it and you're not ready for it. That's just going to impact your work happiness.

Speaker 1: 50:44

Yeah, I love that. I think a lot of people just get so stuck in routine and they don't do those little things. Like you don't have to take a two week vacation, do something small. If you look at your day and you're just like, okay if I get, and do something small. If you look at your day and you're just like, okay if I get. And I I like to set goals for myself because I'm like, okay, if I do these things, I get x reward, like I'll take a, I'll take a nap or something like in the middle of the day, just because I knocked out everything else. So like I'm just gonna go enjoy that nap. And so you set that target. It keeps you motivated, it helps get your stuff done. And then you're like, all right, it's threeclock, I'm going to go get boba tea with my buddy Bruce and that's my reward. And I'm excited because I look at my list. I look at my list. I want you to look at it. How many things are crossed out on that list?

Speaker 2: 51:23

Why are you writing things on paper?

Speaker 1: 51:26

My brain was so overloaded when I woke up this morning. I'm like I can't put it. I can't touch my Stay away from my computer. I got to write it all down and guess what? I crushed it all. And you know what's on this list? It says Boba.

Speaker 2: 51:38

I'm buying you two Boba teas, because now I just feel bad for you.

Speaker 1: 51:42

But I did it right. It's like I set that goal.

Speaker 2: 51:44

I knew there was light at the end of the tunnel and it made it more manageable to get through the day because I knew there was something to look forward to. You know, I think like it's interesting, there are societal expectations for us as human beings, and like we're at 50 minutes. But here I'm going to go on a slight tangent Do it. Engagement rings right, like engagement rings were created by the mafia to sell diamonds. Okay, I didn't know that, but what does everyone buy when they get married? Why? This did not exist before it was created and it was completely marketed and manipulated. Breakfast is the best meal on the day. Right, you've been lied to your entire life. Breakfast is completely unnecessary. It's not the most important meal of the day. That was created by the corn industry to sell cereal and sugar uh, to basically combat cane sugar.

Speaker 2: 52:39

I knew that I've been told so much crap. You gotta go skiing on vacation. You gotta you gotta fly to hawaii. You gotta do a 12-hour flight to hawaii and go to one of the most expensive places on planet earth, otherwise you're not having a good vacation. You have to have kids. You need to live in a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house that is not attached to your neighbor.

Speaker 2: 53:01

Like society loves to tell people what good is, and I'm telling you right now, you need to tell yourself what good is, what makes you happy. Do it for me, it's having a mule in the morning when I have a day full of meetings, and it makes my days better and people be like. Well, you know, the reason millennials can't own houses is because they buy expensive coffee and have avocado toast. Maybe that's what makes us happy. Maybe we were never going to buy houses and we always. We knew that this was going to happen and the economy was never going to afford it, because you can't have single income homes anymore and the coffee was the cope. That's what helps us get through the day. So shut up, quit putting your expectations on me and telling me how to live my life and telling me what good and happy is. I'm going to find it myself and truly, this is how I feel good Reject what society tells you and do what feels good.

Speaker 1: 53:59

Thanks for listening to Corporate Strategy Podcast. It could have been email. I'm Mike Girard. I mean, I agree with you. I think a lot of life, as you go through it and you get older, you realize stop comparing yourself to others, you're never going to be happy that way.

Speaker 1: 54:15

Stop looking at what everyone else has, stop doing what everyone else is and like expecting to be fulfilled. It's like find the things you like and do it unapologetically. You know I'm going to go do this thing. I don't care that whoever thinks it's weird that I bowl four times a week, from six to 8am, every single morning, because I love it, I love bowling, you love bowling, go bowl, go bowl. Who cares what people think about it? It's like if that's what fulfills you and makes you excited, like, go do it. You should find those things you really like and like, go pursue those things and not feel like you're judged or have to do the hustle culture or whatever. It's like do what you do that makes you happy.

Speaker 2: 54:53

I love that, at or whatever it's like, do what you do that makes you happy. I love that. At the end of the day, the heat death of the universe will kill us all and none of this will matter. So enjoy what you can, while you can enjoy it Like some boba tea that's about to go in my mouth.

Speaker 2: 55:07

I'm about to destroy some boba tea, but I think that's it right. We have no choice. We've been going for an hour. We have no choice. We're been going for an hour. We have no choice. We're stuck at the jobs we're stuck at.

Speaker 2: 55:17

For the time being, things are not good, but, like Restrepo has said in the past on this podcast, everything comes in waves. I believe in my heart of hearts, this too shall pass, just like everything has passed before it, and we will come to a time where there will be jobs aplenty. So get through this rough patch. Do what you come to a time where there will be jobs aplenty. So get through this rough patch. Do what you need to do to feel good. Fight, burnout, quiet, quit, build the relationships with others, because they're not going anywhere either, and your day will become more survivable.

Speaker 2: 55:51

If you have tips that we didn't go over, I would love to hear them. Do you know where you can do that, clark? You know where you can give us those tips? No, it's actually in our Discord, our corporate fam Discord. You can get there by going to the show notes, clicking on our link, joining the Discord. It's a great place to have a conversation. The Corporate Strategy Channel great place to tell us how you are coping in these trying times. I would love to know what do you do that we're not doing? That we can pick up and do and we'll talk about it on the next episode of the pod. Do that. If you want to support the show, you can do that too. You can go into the buy us a coffee. Buy us a coffee, help pay for the program. We have ads on here because you're not doing that. And hey, if you can't support us financially, you know what you can do share this with a friend.

Speaker 2: 56:36

Share it with a friend, because they have money and you don't. So get them to listen to the show and get them to support us and buy us a coffee. That's, that's the trade-off right. You either have one choice or another give us money or give us friends that's it.

Speaker 1: 56:50

Well, also, there is one last thing. Yeah, it could be death, but another last thing is we did start the Is it AI challenge.

Speaker 2: 56:56

And it's cool Our first one is tied, it's 50-50.

Speaker 1: 56:59

I did not expect this. I am so ready. Let's play, let's play. I don't know if I want to give the answer yet. I kind of want to give everybody a few more days Because we need to break this tie. Maybe next episode we'll We'll release it, because the fact that it's 50-50 proves my point that AI image generation is getting so good. You might not even know.

Speaker 2: 57:19

Can you? Okay, can you just tell me? Well, I guess they could hover over the image and see what I voted on. I want to know. I think I'm right. I think I'm right. Can I justify it? No, I'll wait. I'll wait, I'll wait, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 57:31

Tag back in and say, hey, we're going to be announcing, we need someone to break the tie. I'm going to message everybody, I'm going to tell them somebody break the tie. We need to know and we're going to talk about it on the next episode.

Speaker 2: 57:42

We have a lot of fun games in our Discord. Is it AI? Is the new one, which? It's just what you think it is. It's two pictures. One is AI, one isn't, although debatable, and we need to figure out. If it is AI, what about the crab one that Aika shared? Do you think the crab is real?

Speaker 1: 57:58

I think the crab's real, that picture is so real.

Speaker 2: 58:01

I think it's real. It's got to be a real crab. I agree. I think Aika found a crab is what happened. I think so.

Speaker 1: 58:07

I just wanted to share this cool crab. He's like this will get attention.

Speaker 2: 58:13

Put it in it, ai, it's got to be, that's got to be a real crab but ai burgers.

Speaker 2: 58:17

So you can go in there. You can share your, your ai versus real pictures you can go to is it me or is it corporate? Do forward, slash, confess and share, share true stories that you didn't want to share with your name attached to. Or you can go to what do you mean? Or you can post a meme about something we've said or done or lived on the previous episode. But lots, lots of fun things to do in the Discord, lots of fun ways to engage and really just we want to be your friend. So join the Discord and hang out with us. It's a great place to be.

Speaker 1: 58:44

Love it. Like. Share, subscribe. Share with people around you. If you want people to be cooler to work with, share this with them. They'll probably learn a little bit.

Speaker 2: 58:53

We have an individual who's been on the pod before. We talk with them not just in the Discord but even in private messages, and they share the pod with their team and they found great success with doing this. So do share us. Broadly, I think one thing like neither of us are certified experts, right, like Clark. Well, clark, you actually might be certified. I'm just I'm certified broken human being.

Speaker 2: 59:19

None of us are experts, but we've lived this right, like if you've made it this far in the pod and you're thinking who are these losers that feel that they can tell us what they know about work? We're just people that are trying to make surviving corporate a better place. Share this with others because you have to initiate the kind of behavior you want to see, even if you disagree with what we say. Like there is, the practice of nothing is going to change if you don't take the first step to change it. So you know, sharing this pod, helping create the culture that we want to build and I don't just use we, as in Clark, as I, we as in the corporate strategy movement in the fam I think most of us agree Corporate could be a better place. Sharing this pod is one way to help make that happen. I love it.

Speaker 1: 1:00:08

I love you, you too. Oh, thanks, I'll see you soon, very shortly.

Speaker 2: 1:00:14

I'll see you real soon for some boba tea and on that note to the boba, I'm Bruce and I'm Boba Clark. And you're on, boba Mute. We'll see you next, boba Week.