SPEAKER_00: 0:06

You ever just um like start a project or a podcast and you realize like ow I'm really hungry I was trying to see how long I could hold my face to make it make you think that I was frozen, but then I realized I was blinking. Yes, you were like it didn't even like occur to me. It's like don't move the face, don't move anything, but then my body was just doing what my body does and blinking.

SPEAKER_03: 0:34

The blink really does give it away.

SPEAKER_00: 0:37

Uh do you ever start a project and you realize you're hungry?

SPEAKER_03: 0:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 0:43

Yes, and it's a mistake.

SPEAKER_03: 0:44

But you weren't hungry before you started.

SPEAKER_00: 0:48

So so wait, wait. Are you like deep in the project or are you just starting the project?

SPEAKER_03: 0:52

Like, let's just hypothetically say I just asked Craig to join a podcast. And then after I hit join, I was like, oh I just felt it. Why didn't I feel that like five minutes ago when I could have gone had a handful of peanuts? It's like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's only after hypothetically Craig joined a podcast, and you're like, oh man, famished.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16

I ain't dying. There's something in the brain that there's a stimuli and then there's a response. And usually people eat when they're stressed, when they want to procrastinate. So are you telling me you don't want to do this? You just want to go eat a little snack? Do you need me to filibuster so you can go get a snack?

SPEAKER_03: 1:39

I said it was hypothetical, Clark. I said it was hypothetical.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44

How dare you?

SPEAKER_00: 1:45

Because I have done that where I'm like, I actually think I kind of did it today. Where like I was on the you know when you're on the edge, you know, you're you you ate, but it's been like an hour, and you're like, I can probably eat in like an hour or so, just another little snack. It's time to snack. Yeah, yeah, it's snack time. But then you like you know you need to start working on something. And so I was like, well, you know, I could start working on something, but then I'm only gonna be able to focus for like 30 minutes. So why don't I just go eat the snack now and then I'll start it in 30 minutes? And then that was a mistake because it just cascaded into, well, now you know I'm just gonna eat in like 30 minutes, anyways, lunch. So why even get started? I might as well wait.

SPEAKER_03: 2:26

I like that logic. I like that logic. That's good.

SPEAKER_00: 2:29

Now that checks out. You can't focus if you're hungry. You know, that's the way that I look at it. Is like, I'm not just gonna sit there hungry and being able to focus, that's impossible.

SPEAKER_03: 2:38

You're not you when you're hungry. Snap into a Snickers.

SPEAKER_00: 2:44

We've got the meats. Wait, that's not it. That's not it at all. I wonder our European listeners are probably like, what the heck are they talking about?

SPEAKER_01: 2:55

We love to see you smile. Hot pocket. Let it rip. That's not food.

SPEAKER_03: 3:05

But that is a slogan. You also didn't mash it up with something. I mean, it should have been like Subway, let it rip. You can't mix and mash them. Oh, are Subway still a few? You just did it. You did the we have the meat. So I did the I did the McDonald's Hot Pocket, and then you you did Subway, let it rip. Subway's can't still be around, right? Subway is one of the most franchised, if not the most franchised restaurant industry or franchise franchisee on the planet. French Fry Z. French Fry Z? Don't you make me roll back the tape? Don't you do it. I actually like that a lot. Yeah, what are you? I'm a French Fry Z. I'm a French Fry Z. What generation are you, French Z?

SPEAKER_00: 3:57

I'm dying. This man is absolute nonsense, and I'm loving every second of it.

SPEAKER_03: 4:01

Good, good, great. Great, great, good.

SPEAKER_00: 4:03

But no, the reason I say that is because I feel like I haven't seen a subway in a long time. And I feel like the last time I ate a subway. You think I'd have to drive by one, you know? If it's the most french fries-y location in the world, restaurant chain in the world, then you think I'd see one.

SPEAKER_03: 4:26

You know, it is kind of ironic because the one thing you can just expect to see in the most podunk nowhere land of towns is a subway. Because again, they are the most franchised franchise out there. Uh, so I'm I'm actually kind of shocked in in Podunk land. They don't have one of those. Maybe, maybe that's a business opportunity. We should franchise a subway and do an entire podcast expose on it.

SPEAKER_00: 4:58

I'm gonna get really podunk with you right now. Maybe this is the next place we go for our live episode. Around the corner, there's an intersection. Only intersection in town. One-way streets from all directions. Go past this intersection. There's a gas station there that we lovingly call the Handy Way. That's not its name. That's not a gas station chain. We just call it the Handy Way. And then guess what's inside that gas station? Or was it? I don't know if it is anymore. Yes, there was a disgusting looking subway.

SPEAKER_03: 5:32

And I just can't believe people eat there. Well, I think we know what our mission is now. I think we know what our mission is.

SPEAKER_00: 5:42

What's your go-to order? What are you getting at subway?

SPEAKER_03: 5:45

At a subway? I mean, the chicken teriyaki, I think, is the only thing that has any flavor there whatsoever.

SPEAKER_00: 5:51

You disgust me.

SPEAKER_03: 5:51

You disgust me. I disgust you. Excusez-moi, French Renchie. You want to say that to me?

SPEAKER_00: 6:01

I just there's so few things I would probably eat at a subway, but the one thing that I feel like is always just gonna slap. Is the Italian meatball sub.

SPEAKER_03: 6:16

Oh, you're out of your frickin' podunk mind, sir. You're gonna get something that needs to be like saucy and slightly juicy at a subway? You know, all those meatballs have been sitting in that vat of so-called Italian sauce? They don't even have a real name. They're just called Italian sauce because they don't know what the Italian word for whatever that is is. There is no word in the beautiful language of Italiana to represent that red goop that the meat sphere resides in.

SPEAKER_00: 6:53

Listen, something about the meat in that meatball just sounds way more appetizing than getting nasty ligament chewy chicken in my teriyaki.

SPEAKER_03: 7:03

Firstly, how dare you call it chicken? It's not, okay? Whatever it is, chicken ain't it. It is some kind of fungal hybrid uh that they slather a sweet teriyaki sauce on. And the best thing I can say about it is at least the sauce is sweet. And you get it on like a honey oat bun, and you put some, you know, plastic cheese on there, an onion, maybe like an onion or two, some salt and pep, a little bit of extra sweet teriyaki, and you got yourself something that is almost passable as food grade food.

SPEAKER_00: 7:44

You know what? You're kind of convincing me. You're making me kind of hungry. That's how this all got started. And you know what I have to say to you? Five dollar.

SPEAKER_01: 7:53

Five days.

SPEAKER_00: 7:59

Oh, I think we just ended there. That was just gold. That whole entire we just went right around the circle. We came right back to where we started. It was beautiful. You want to just end it and go to Subway? You want to just meet me at the Handyway?

SPEAKER_03: 8:13

Alright, let's go. Let's go to the Handy Way. Let's go to the Handy Way Subway. I want to see what this is all about. I think it's time for some investigative journalism. You, Clark, me, Bruce, Handyway Subway. Is this real? Or is this just Handyway?

SPEAKER_00: 8:31

And I demand a meeting with the French Fry Z.

SPEAKER_03: 8:35

I want to meet the French Fryzee who's running that place, and uh, we are going to get to the bottom of this. Well, it's fun. You know what we'll never get to the bottom of? What's that? Corporate strategy, the podcast. It could have been an email. I'm Bruce. And I'm Clark, and you gave it to him. You did it. I was worried you were gonna do two in a row without ever getting. Uh the we have not yet published the one where we did. We're we're we're still a week ahead, which is wild.

SPEAKER_00: 9:02

Dang.

SPEAKER_03: 9:03

We've got a buffer, we got a pod buffer for the first time in our life. So it is it is hard for me to like quantify time now, but it's okay. It's okay, it's all good. We'll be okay, we'll survive this. Um, but yes, I'm so excited for you to see or not see what I did in that event.

SPEAKER_00: 9:21

Oh no. Are you telling me you actually went and did some custom edits?

SPEAKER_03: 9:27

I did some custom edits. I sure did.

SPEAKER_00: 9:30

This is really bad podcasting because at this point, everyone's already heard it before they've heard this.

SPEAKER_03: 9:35

Yes, but you haven't heard it, which is fine because they've heard it. But it is now time before the time of the person hearing this. Yet you have not heard this in this time, but they have heard it already. But by the time they hear it, you will also have heard it. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00: 9:52

I don't know if you can see me, but I'm twiddling something in my fingers just to remind me if this is real or not. The the Weeble bubble has fallen over. Or is this inception?

SPEAKER_03: 10:04

It did not wobble back up. This is a problem. This is a huge problem. This is a huge, huge problem. Um we did an episode on time. Actually, one of our uh one of our listeners, who's who's a friend of mine IRL, texted me about it. Uh they uh they actually sent me something that I I owe them a read on. But I'm gonna I'm just gonna read you the thing I'm gonna read and then respond to in a future episode.

SPEAKER_00: 10:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 10:30

Uh hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

SPEAKER_00: 10:32

So this is in response to an episode that is out or is it out?

SPEAKER_03: 10:36

It is it is in response to the time episode we did. And uh yes, that is out. And they they said they listened to the episode on time and they thought I should read this. Would be interesting in your thoughts and on the concept of tempo. Now, the title of this PDF they sent me, and this this person served in our military, is called War Fighting. So I I do need to read this because I'm so curious uh about the alignments there. We may have to have them on as a guest in the future.

SPEAKER_00: 11:03

Um I want to read it. I want to get a good read.

SPEAKER_03: 11:06

I'll send it your way. I'll send it your way. Get you get you a good read. That's what I'm gonna do. Um hey, hey, uh me. Oh, I'm I'm I'm just sticking my fingers in the air.

SPEAKER_00: 11:17

Hold on. Hold on. Jazz pants.

SPEAKER_03: 11:19

I'm I'm wiggling. I'm wiggling, just imagine now. You're wiggling your fingers. Okay, so I feel I feel some Wi-Fi over here. I feel some radio waves over on my left. Oh, right in the middle. There's the vibration. Hey, I'm checking out these vibes. They're feeling all right. How are you?

SPEAKER_00: 11:40

Did you just bait me into a vibe check?

SPEAKER_03: 11:43

Sure did.

SPEAKER_00: 11:46

I don't think you should be feeling any of those waves. The only waves I feel are when I see my.

SPEAKER_03: 12:03

I sure can.

SPEAKER_00: 12:04

Let's see, how am I doing? Uh doing good. It's been a little cold, but it's been nice, a nice change of weather, a nice change of pace.

SPEAKER_03: 12:14

Did you just say it's been a little cold? As if we haven't had the largest drop in temperature in your entire life in our state in the last four days. It literally killed everything, Clark. It didn't a little cold.

SPEAKER_00: 12:33

If you walk around, like our plants cover the plants, they still died. Like, doesn't stand a chance. Crunchy grass, everything's dead.

SPEAKER_03: 12:42

I vibe check. So I went outside with my wife to cover the plants, and um the temperature was actively dropping. It was middle of the day, I think it was Friday when we we heard that this like catastrophic freeze was coming. And like we were outside for 30 minutes covering the plants, and it dropped 10 degrees in that amount of time. I've never felt something like that on my skin before in my life. Because like I felt cold and I felt hot. You know, I I feel it get hot, but I never feel it drop 10 degrees in like 30 minutes. No, uh I went outside when it was around 20 to walk my dogs, and my flesh hurt. I've never felt that kind of cold before because the wind was whipping through. And last weekend, right? Yeah, it was 20 degrees on Saturday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I had I had full-blown winter wear on, like actual winter wear. And because it's so humid and the wind was just whipping through the neighborhood, like it felt like I wasn't wearing anything at all, just cutting right through to the bone. It was the worst. I've never felt pain from weather like that before on my body. It hurt to exist.

SPEAKER_00: 13:57

We were outside with some friends, and yes, Saturday was it was exactly what you're saying. At some points, it was like sunny, and like the sun was warm. Like I was in a t-shirt at one point during Saturday, and then the wind shifted and dark clouds came over and it dropped. Yeah, so it was so cold. Like the wind, the whole entire temperature change here was like it was like a 35 degree temperature change in like a matter of hours, which is wild.

SPEAKER_03: 14:25

People, especially co-workers that live in like northern or western states, will often give me crap. And I'm like, it's cold outside, and it's 64 degrees. But the the actual level of coldness we experienced that weekend, so just to give you an idea, uh, 1989, the year I was born, was the last time it was that cold.

unknown: 14:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_03: 14:46

So record breaking. And because of that cold, uh, the orange growers moved out of Florida because it killed all the oranges. Yeah. And I think before that, it was like in the 1800s, is the last time it was this cold. So this is like a generational coldness, which is wild. So that's insane. We survived.

SPEAKER_00: 15:05

Yeah, we did. None of our plants did. Yeah, our plants are dead, and our grass is just crunchy. You walk on your grass, it's brown and crunchy.

SPEAKER_03: 15:13

Our grass was already dead, the lawn crew killed it. Um, but you know, the the actual uh our fruit trees, I think only three of the six are gonna make it, which is no.

SPEAKER_00: 15:22

You think they bounce back or no?

SPEAKER_03: 15:24

I don't know. There some of them are like starting to like weep. When they weep, it's a bad sign.

SPEAKER_00: 15:30

Yeah, it's not looking good. Yeah, it sucks. You know, that's that's a vibe check. We got a vibe check now. It was 70 something yesterday. So yeah, welcome to your state.

SPEAKER_03: 15:43

And then it got it's getting it's getting cold again right now because it was warm this morning. Yep, and then I went outside to walk my dog after lunch. I'm like, why is it cold again? Yeah, why is it getting colder?

SPEAKER_00: 15:53

Oh no, it was colder like an hour ago than it was like at five in the morning.

SPEAKER_03: 15:57

Yeah, yeah, you you cannot compete with Florida weather for just being the weirdest. Hey, you know what else is weird? What's that? Yeah, something that you know, uh, I was perusing the Career Advice subreddit, which I often do, and I saw the topic that I was like, we have to talk about this. This is so good. I'm gonna read it because the the post itself is it's fantastic. Uh, the difference in white and blue-collar work is absolutely insane. I've worked around some blue-collar job sites before getting my corporate desk job, and the difference in environment is crazy. Blue-collar workers seem to have basically zero filter at all, and they will tell you about the hose they hooked up with last weekend. They will make jokes about how hot your sister is. If you're doing something wrong, they will literally tell you to F right off to your face. And frankly, a lot of these times, uh a lot of this seems to make them more trustworthy, air quotes, or authentic. These were quoted, so I have to make it sound that way. Uh, as if it's just real people being real people. White collar, on the other hand, everyone fakes it. Everyone is just trying to climb the ladder. Your co-worker at work is the complete opposite outside of work. You don't know what's real or fake. Everyone's just playing a game. And on top of this, you have the HR police around every quarter. If you said 90% of the shit you would say on the job site at a corporate job, you would be immediately fired. The whole thing just kind of comes off in authentic. And I know you and I both have done our share of non-white-collar work before. So I wanted to I wanted to get the vibe check on the authenticity of this post. And do you agree? Do you agree that white-collar workers are inauthentic, uh backstabbing weasels that are all just trying to move up the ladder and secretly kill you? That's uh that's what we have to unpack today on this episode.

SPEAKER_00: 18:03

I don't remember a few of those things being in the post, but you know, I I definitely can understand how you ad-libbed those and where they came from. The motivation.

SPEAKER_03: 18:11

And I get it. You weren't paying attention to the whole thing. It was a long read. I I I'll forgive you for that.

SPEAKER_00: 18:16

No, it's funny. Like comparing the two different job sites.

SPEAKER_03: 18:21

It's true. I mean off the cuff, I completely agree.

SPEAKER_00: 18:26

Yeah, like I have, you have, worked in those environments, and there's like zero filter. And the things that are said are HR violations left and right, but it doesn't matter because no one's caring about that stuff except for the like high-level executives, and even them, like the executives of let's say, like concrete companies or something like that. It's like, yeah, they're high-level executives, they have to dress up nice and go into a room, but if they're on the job site, they probably are just as bad. Like it's just the culture of the type of work.

SPEAKER_03: 19:02

Well, and you know, I was thinking about when I worked at the uh wizarding school for the whites as a landscaper. The the funniest thing was like people would just say the most heinous things you ever heard in your life in the break room or in the workshop or in the shed where they kept all the tools. But like the second you were on campus doing work, like the language changed. And it wasn't for fear of HR or anything, but it's like you have to give off a like a semi-professional vibe out in the field, quote unquote, because there are students around. And like, yeah, we never thought about HR as it was, but like we were thinking, like, oh yeah, you could get fired if you said something inappropriate in front of a student, right? But like the second they got to a safe space, it was unleashed the things that you would hear and just be like, wow, no filter, huh? Like, really, just saying that out loud for everyone to hear, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_00: 20:02

I feel like parts of this are just human and exist in both. Like you never you never worked retail, right?

SPEAKER_03: 20:13

No, never. I regret it.

SPEAKER_00: 20:16

And you never worked in like a restaurant.

SPEAKER_03: 20:19

No.

SPEAKER_00: 20:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 20:20

So this is my hands in the dirt.

SPEAKER_00: 20:24

I did a little of that, but I worked in retail for a short step. And it you have like your stage face. I've noticed this even in professional environments where like you go out, you have to be like cordial and appropriate, and your interactions have to be like very clean. But the second that door closes, like it's all coming out, and you're making fun of the last person you talked with and how ridiculous they were, you're you're safe, safe ears bitching about what whatever is happening out there, that you know, you're just over with that day. Even the white-collar work, like I'd say that's pretty normal. It's like when you're in the boss's meeting or in an off hands or whatever, you're not just gonna start joking with your buddies and being like, hey, Carol, this is the stupidest thing. It's like you're gonna keep your mouth shut until you get to a safe place, and then you're gonna open up and like say what you mean. And that process, it's largely just it's bonding because you're commiserating over a shared experience that you both agree with, or maybe you don't agree with, and you get peer pressured into just not saying anything because you don't want to be, you know, the black sheep of the group and be like, no, that was great. I love, I drink all the Kool-Aid, I'm totally in for that. But I think it's just a human thing that you can bond on, and that's why people do it white collar or blue-collar. I think it happens in both places just a little differently.

SPEAKER_03: 21:39

You know, it's it's interesting. Um, on the other side, on the white collar side, the this person talks about people being inauthentic and you know, not being trustworthy because they're all just trying to climb the ladder and get to where they're going. You know, I can think of some people I've worked with that we'll just refer to them as like the cheerleader types, where they They don't just drink the Kool-Aid. It it perspires out of their. It's like those old Gatorade commercials where they'd have the orange sweat, and you'd be like, is that possible? Could I drink so much Gatorade that I actually sweat orange? Is it in me? Gatorade? The answer is no. But this person does, right? Like, you know this type, right? Like they are so, it's almost cult-like behavior. I don't know about you, but those people make me feel really uncomfortable. Because I I don't trust them inherently. I do feel like they're very inauthentic because that's just not how people behave in general, right? Unless you're like some kind of religious zealot and you like, oh, you know, I I really believe in these these Martians and they are they are going to take us back home to Mars one day. Like that's your that's your full faith and belief and you're proselytizing, like, kind of makes sense. But to do it for a company, to simp so hard for a company to the point you are bleeding it from your pores. I don't trust those people and I don't feel comfortable around them. And in you know, in networking type situations, I avoid them because I just don't find them to be trustworthy. I don't find them to be like the kind of people I want to partner and pair and work with. It just makes me uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00: 23:18

Uh, do you do you feel that way? Oh, yeah. You know, you made me uh think of, and this is kind of where my thought was going, I think, but it's trust. If you have a lot of the unauthentic people around you, they don't trust you. Correct. That's what I get from this, because I can tell you, working with enough people, even senior level executives, to you think they're this certain buttoned up person, you think they're all in on the Kool-Aid, and then when you start working with them closer and you build trust, that filter goes off. And they're just human. And like you start hearing things that you're like, oh shoot, like you're talking, you're talking some shit. And I believe in the lizard people, yeah. But it's like that's trust. It's like they feel disingenuous, you feel like they're playing a game until you build that trust level, and then you connect on a human level, and then you're like, no, you're just like all of us, like you do this too. And so I'd say back to this person, it's like, no, the people around you just don't trust you, and you haven't built that rapport with them to open up the human element of it.

SPEAKER_03: 24:20

Yes. And I think that's exactly to the to the person who posted this on Reddit, you know, in blue-collar world, you can build trust with people almost instantly because they're going to show you the worst side of themselves. And when you know someone's worst, you kind of know, like, well, they can't get any worse than that, right? But the the shocking thing that happens in white-collar jobs, and like we've seen this time and time again, is you see somebody, you're like, oh, they're so professional, they're so put together. And then you'll hear, like, oh, they did this horrible thing and they got HR'd, or you know, they show up to a company event and they get sloshed and just make a split buffoon of themselves. You're like, oh, I don't know, this was this was inside of Jerry. I didn't realize this is the kind of person he was. And it it completely, you're going the opposite direction, right? Because in blue collar world, it can only go up. You're like, wow, you know, blue-collar Jerry, you know, I thought he was a piece of trash, but the way that he stepped in and helped out, like, really showed Jerry's got a heart of gold underneath all that filth and grime, right? But you see the opposite happen in white collar. And I think that's the dichotomy, is it's always going to be a fall from grace because you want to put on this professional face. And I will say, just speaking personally, a big reason I am so openly myself in corporate environments is I don't want people to think that about me. It's like, oh, Bruce positions himself and so professional and buttoned up, but like, look at him. He's got action figures in his room, and he's such a, you know, whatever. Like, no, I I put all that, that's my first impression is you're getting a very authentic real me. And it's not going to be an up or a down, it's going to be consistent. You're going to get Bruce always.

SPEAKER_00: 26:03

It's it's interesting because it's a little bit of the game, a little bit of the culture. Like blue-collar workers have this thing of like, you know, they have this strong culture where they have each other's back, they laugh at keyboard warriors because they're like, they're not as tough as us or whatever. But it's like, in reality, it's just them bonding together around, you know, a shared feeling and a shared culture to bring them closer. But you know, I when I was working blue-collar jobs, I had some crazy people I work with. Like one dude was a one dude was an ex bounty hunter. He's like, I literally would catch people right out. He's like the easiest ten thousand dollars I ever made. Dude had a bounty on him. I drove by the jail, he was walking to turn himself in. I picked him up, threw him in my car, and I made 10 grand driving a quarter of a mile. He was gonna turn himself in anyways. But he was like, like he had the craziest stories, and like you're like, this dude, this dude could kill me in like a second if he wanted to. But then you get exactly what you're saying. You get to a job site, and the dude puts the whole team on his back. He does everything. You see something falling, he like saves you, he's like, I gotcha. And like you just felt calm, even though he had this demeanor about him. But that's what you bond over because you kind of have to have each other's backs in that environment, in that culture. There is no game that's outside of that. It's just you guys bonding together to get the job done. I feel like in white-collar work, it's what you said, it's the dichotomy. It's the opposite. It's everything's a game, everybody's there to climb the corporate ladder and do something for themselves. So until you form a connection, until you build rapport, until you break that wall down, you're not gonna see that side of them. Because there's an upside to not showing that. And I would say I don't look at it at myself being disingenuous, but I definitely I keep a guard up.

SPEAKER_03: 27:49

Yeah, I don't know. No, that's a great way to put it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 27:52

Yeah, like I'm not dis and I'm still me, but if you try to talk about things that don't feel comfortable talking about, I'm not gonna entertain it just because one, I don't think it helps me, and two, I don't really trust you to be able to tell you all these things. Because you know, you know, chatty Kathy, Chatty Ron, like there's certain people that always come to you and always talk about things trying to get reactions. Yeah, and if you if you're playing the game and you're trying to go up the ladder, you don't want to be associated with those type of people. But if you build that trust to be like, I understand your motivations, I know you're not gonna rat on me if I say this right now, then yeah, I'm gonna open up to you and just be human.

SPEAKER_03: 28:27

Well, and I you know, I think the funny thing is, is the the best thing you can accomplish in a white-collar job is to create a blue-collar environment for your team where they feel comfortable to be their real selves, right? And obviously, there is a there, there's almost a personality separation, I think, between blue-collar workers and white-collar workers. Yes, you and I are both examples of people who can fit in either space, but I think a lot of folks will either fall into I like doing blue-collar work, I like the space, I like the the kind of environment that yields, and then there are white-collar workers who are could never fathom being in a blue-collar environment. But if you can, and I think if you take away the two terms and said, like, I create a space for my team where they feel they can be open, trust, rely on each other, and know kind of what is the best and worst uh I'm gonna be able to get out of my peers. Like, that's a good thing. It's a good thing to know, like, hey, you know, I have a really great teammate. They always pull 100% whenever I ask them to do anything technical, but God forbid, I ask them to, you know, go and send out an email. They're never gonna do it. They just they will not send an email, but I know that about I know what their high and their low is. And if you can create that kind of environment where you can yield that kind of result, you've done it.

SPEAKER_00: 29:48

Yeah. Yeah, at the end of the day, you're a team.

SPEAKER_03: 29:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:53

And I do, I do think what you're saying is is really important because you can you can change the culture of the people around you to build that, where it's like, no, everyone's genuinely themselves, which is better because they're less focused on putting on a facade and playing a weird game. Because you're like, there's no incentive to that. Like you need to be yourself, you need to get your job done, but you will do better work if you feel comfortable and if you feel like you trust the person next to you. And I think that's the key. Like good teams and bad teams, regardless of white collar, blue collar. But if your team trusts each other, and if you build a strong culture where it's not like this weird game that everyone's playing, and then you're in the right place and you're gonna win. And like to this person, it's also probably looking at you're probably on a bad team where they're incentivized to do the wrong things, and you're probably at potentially a bad company where they incentivize people acting like this instead of just like humans.

SPEAKER_03: 30:49

And so you have to that go ahead. Go ahead. I I was just gonna say that spans both environments, right? Like the the the poster here waxes very poetic about how authentic blue collar is, but there are some absolute psychopaths in that space, as there are in white collar. So it it you cannot automatically assume one is inherently better than the other. People are weird, man. And you're you're you know, you're gonna get a box of crayons anywhere you go, and there's always gonna be one that's shoved deep up someone's nose.

SPEAKER_00: 31:23

Right. And in blue collars, the thing people don't realize like blue collar is just as bad as white collar in some sense of their clips. Yes, yes, they are, they have their group and like they hang out with their group, and you don't get into their group, and they're gonna tell you why they don't like you. And it's it's way that could be really bad. Yeah, yeah, it's way more harsh, you know, depending on what environment you're in. And so you kind of get coddled in white collar of people just aren't telling you they don't like you. But in reality, they're not opening up to you because they probably don't trust and like you.

SPEAKER_03: 31:56

And I mean, like, you know, that is something you have to deal with. And I think the funny thing is is in a white-collar world, you still get the same thing. There are absolutely clicks, and they're absolutely like, oh, I'm not gonna welcome Bruce. Bruce is weird. He is not welcome in our our little cool kids club. The problem is you don't even see it because it's all done at like the HR level, and you know, it's all, oh, we're just not gonna move Bruce up this year. We're not gonna put him on that team, we're gonna isolate, we're gonna put him on an island. Like it happens at the management level, and you don't even realize like you're being clicked when that's absolutely happening. It's just at least in blue collar, it's very obvious because, like you said, they'll tell you in white collar, it is all hidden behind HR and management.

SPEAKER_00: 32:40

Yeah. So definitely like a culture difference of the two. And I don't know that I like I don't know that I prefer one or the other. Like, I'm I'm okay with trade-offs. Yeah. And you just have to learn how to like manage and deal with those situations because at the end of the day, I think it's just all about building a team you can trust and being around people that you can open up to, which means you trust them inherently, and you're gonna be more successful. Like, I think back to all the team, like the teams that we worked on. There were teams we liked and we worked really well on, and we were motivated to work, and we were rallying around a goal, and then there were teams we didn't like so much. And how did that go? Like, we didn't really talk to anybody, you know, we stayed in our silo. It felt like we were all like not just being humans, but it's because we just didn't trust each other and there wasn't a good rapport on the team, and that happens anywhere.

SPEAKER_03: 33:30

That's everything, you know. We haven't talked about the our our little construct CAC in a while, which stands for culture, autonomy, challenge, and compensation. But and and both of us were very sort of hard on CAC uh at the end of last year, and we were doing our retrospective, like, eh, who needs any of this anymore? It's all it's all going to hell in a handbasket anyway. But like, this is really where culture comes into play, right? Like when you have that good CAC, chances are whether you're white collar or blue collar, you are going to have a better working environment because of the trust and the the kind of culture that you know pres produces uh a better working environment.

SPEAKER_00: 34:10

Right. Yeah, that if you're feeling what this person is feeling, the culture flag, the red flag should be going up. Yes, you should be talking about like we've talked about before. It's try to find a different team because you're complaining about it or like you calling these things out is just a sign that you're not, that your team's not trust, trusting you. And either you're on the outside or it's just not an environment where you're gonna be trusted. And if you feel this way, then it's a sign to you know, find something else in the company or plan E, pull the exit, get out because you're in the wrong place and you're not gonna be successful.

SPEAKER_03: 34:43

Well, and I think the the the I the real irony here is I can easily see the exact opposite of this happening, right? Like I get out of white-collar work, I'm just looking at, you know, I'm gonna go join the the nearby farm and just do some farming for a couple of years because I need to, I need to re-re connect with nature. And like you show up and you're the outsider, and they're like, hmm, nah, nah, Clark's not for me. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna engage with that individual. Like it could literally happen the opposite way, just as easily as it does this way. I think you'll just get it, like you said, you'll get it a lot faster because they're a lot more open about it.

SPEAKER_00: 35:20

Yeah, absolutely. And you're gonna have to earn your way too. But I think it goes like like showing that you bring value to the team in white collar or blue collar doesn't matter. It's like you gotta show you're willing to put in the work. And and then people are gonna like that's an effective way to build trust, is saying Bruce can depend on me to get the job done. And I think that's the way I look at it for white collar or blue collar. It's like that's how you're gonna earn your stripes in blue collar, and they're like, okay, Clark holds his own, not a slacker, gets the job done. They're gonna start trusting you more and more because you're being an effective part of the team. But if you're not being an effective part of the team, they're not, and they're never gonna open up, they're gonna be disingenuous. And I think that's the answer. It's like you gotta be a little introspective here too, you know, to looking at yourself to saying, Is it is it me? Am I not contributing? Am I not, you know, opening up to them and showing that they can trust me? Because I think that's if everyone around you is and you're feeling that way about everyone, and you can't find anybody you can connect with, you're in a bad spot because it likely is common denominator, you like I can't even imagine like you always can find somebody. Even when I started at the company that we worked at together, it was like I had you, you know, and you opened up to me. We built that trust together, but then I learned how to contribute, I learned how to add value, and like that helped our team grow and mature, and we were really, really effective. And we're doing this now, however many years later. So I think that's the thing is like look at yourself, see if it's something you're doing wrong first, and then look around you and be like, okay, if it's not me, it's just certain groups of people, but I have some allies, bad culture. Like, maybe I gotta go somewhere else.

SPEAKER_03: 36:57

And and I would add, sort of as a key takeaway here, if you listen to this episode and you're like, wow, I've never had this problem before, you are so lucky, right? Like you are in paradise, never leave, stay where you are forever. You are in culture karma, right? Like that's what you want is to feel like this is a weird problem to even talk about and have. Unfortunately, uh, a lot of folks do deal with this. But if you find a space where you have this openness, this trust, this camaraderie, hold on to it because that is one of the most precious resources you can have at a company.

SPEAKER_00: 37:35

It's a fleeting moment in time, too. Like the times that we had, even though we weren't making a lot of money, like we had great times. I drove by our old place yesterday just because I was in the area running. And I was like, I was nostalgic. I was like, we had so many good times working at this place and hanging out. I was like, this place is great, but that's like those are the fleeting moments in time where you look back and you're like, I'm really happy for that time. And it's because we were able to build that kind of environment.

SPEAKER_03: 38:02

Yep. Did the uh the Golden Girls theme song start playing when you drove by? You know, oddly, and I don't know if you like see little moments kind of flash on the screen in your mind.

SPEAKER_00: 38:13

I don't know if this means anything for you, but uh Colors by Beck, that song. Oh yeah, for whatever reason, that song is like perfect song for driving past that location for that.

SPEAKER_03: 38:26

Oh, yeah, I I could see that. I could see that. I mean, we we heard it a lot uh in in various car rides. Yeah, um, I'm a Beck head. I mean, I've seen Beck a lot. Yeah, you are, and he just dropped a new album. Did he really?

SPEAKER_00: 38:39

Yeah, I don't know how I felt about it. I listened to it, I was like, uh, not my favorite.

SPEAKER_03: 38:43

Yeah, it was okay, you know. It's weird because on the whole, I think Beck's whole shtick is he does something different every time, and that's really always played to his favor until like the last album. Um maybe which one was the one who was like that one. I can't remember which one that was. That one was so good. You know who I'm talking about. I'm so tired of being alone. You know that one, that one is so good, yeah. But uh the other ones, no, absolutely not. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 39:21

You don't you miss all the shots that you don't take.

SPEAKER_03: 39:24

You really do, you really do. Uh, I think the stat is actually 96% of the shots you don't take, you miss. Which really does bring into question what happened to that other four percent. Uh, probably an investigative pod series that we could take on for ourselves, really dig into that number, figure out what's what's happening there. I'm I'm thinking it has something to do with quantum mechanics.

SPEAKER_00: 39:47

I think so. I think we could learn it. Why not?

SPEAKER_03: 39:49

I think so.

SPEAKER_00: 39:50

I think so.

SPEAKER_03: 39:51

We'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_00: 39:52

Well, it was fun. I appreciate you bringing that topic. Oh, yeah, anytime going back to the web of the Reddit career advice and seeing what nonsense is happening there.

SPEAKER_03: 40:01

I saw that today. I was like, we gotta, we just gotta. We gotta dip into this.

SPEAKER_00: 40:06

I love it. Well, we have one on deck for next week, which I think is gonna be fun. Should we tease it? I'm excited. Tease it. You gotta tease it. Yeah. So I had two employees come to my office, I was telling Bruce this, and they were debating documentation. We had a long debate around the level of documentation, the availability of documentation, what is good documentation. So you have people on your team that are dedicated to documentation, and I'm excited to get into it next week. So if you have any thoughts and you're listening to this, post them in the Discord. And then we have a couple listeners submitted. They won't have heard it by the time we record it.

SPEAKER_01: 40:44

Are we that far ahead? Yes, gosh dang it. Well, this is gonna be good.

SPEAKER_00: 40:54

No, you never know. Our listener submitted topic can come in in the middle. And then that will give us one week of buffer. It could happen. Give us a tad of four.

SPEAKER_03: 41:03

Give us the buffer. Please. Please. Well, cool. Uh, good, good, uh, good combo. White collar, blue collar. I think we I think we nailed it. Uh, quit both. Green collar. That's the way to go.

SPEAKER_00: 41:16

Dude, my head was just thinking green collar. Like, what is green collar? Right, what is it?

SPEAKER_03: 41:22

That's the second part of our investigative series. First, what it what happened to the 4%? Second episode, where is the green collar? Uh, maybe it's something to do with green sleeves. I don't know. We'll have to we'll have to find out.

SPEAKER_00: 41:32

I'm thinking we go so deep. Like maybe one podcast episode a year. Because we have to do so much research, we have to gain so much knowledge. That's what we're gonna have to do. One a year.

SPEAKER_03: 41:43

Yeah. Well, you know, it for this episode specifically, we are gonna have to have like an orchestrated soundtrack to go all like you know how it's like, and suddenly they realized there was a fourth color, the gray collar, and it'll be like, you know, and then it now it's shut out. Right when you made the noise, and you're always good at the jingles and the noises. I'm disappointed. I I'm I'm channeling like my inner true crime podcast. You gotta have it, right? Like, there's gotta be that that sort of trailing noise that happens every time we introduce the next wrinkle in our research, you know? And then they discovered the pink colour.

SPEAKER_00: 42:32

You know these frames of our faces in the middle going to black and white of our reactions.

SPEAKER_03: 42:38

Mm-hmm. Freaking out right now. Two podcasters react to collar colors. Two million views on YouTube. Like, comment, subscribe, ring that bell, smash that like button, leave a comment for the algorithm, and uh oh, don't forget to set your notification times now because that's an important thing to do too. Every 15 minutes, if possible. Uh, we got rid of the dislike button because we hate quality. Thank you for subscribing. This is my video on how to fix your toilet.

SPEAKER_00: 43:08

I hated every second of that. I'll be honest though, I got baited into clicking a YouTube video that felt like uh a when YouTube started video that I gotta tell you about. It was just this, so I saw it had it had 28 views. I don't know why it popped up, but it did.

SPEAKER_01: 43:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 43:26

It was just this kid that looked like he was screaming, veins sticking out the neck, not looking at the camera, looking away, and just going. And I had to click on it. It was only 16 seconds. It was 16 seconds. I had to click on it because you never know, that could be the next goal that's out there, you know, like all those other things.

SPEAKER_03: 43:44

Did you feel satisfied?

SPEAKER_00: 43:46

No, not at all. It was very disappointing because it was exactly what you just did. He was like, I'm starting this channel, like, comment, subscribe, notification. I was like, I hate this, and I immediately clicked out of it. It was awful.

SPEAKER_03: 43:58

Isn't it sad? That like the hustle grind culture has just taken over everything. Like, you literally can't do anything anymore without being hustled because that's all we are. At the at the end of the day, human beings are hustlers, and all we do is hustle.

SPEAKER_00: 44:17

11 years old, 12 years old. In in early YouTube, you would have got him just screaming some nonsense, and you would have just died laughing. Like, probably shed you. How funny that was.

SPEAKER_03: 44:27

There would have been a moment when he would have like raged around, took a remote control, and shoved it up his butt, and we would have been like, This is the best video ever.

SPEAKER_00: 44:34

Ever. Now, like it's the worst because all they want to do, yeah, the hustle culture. It's awful. I hated that.

SPEAKER_03: 44:41

Did you know, by the way, uh, did you know that that video was fake?

SPEAKER_00: 44:45

No.

SPEAKER_03: 44:46

Yeah. Hate to ruin it for you. That whole thing was fake. The whole waffle pone uh generation of yeah, him losing his mind, the remote control, and the all of it. Fake. Wasn't real.

SPEAKER_00: 44:58

Disappointing.

SPEAKER_03: 44:59

Isn't it? Isn't it?

SPEAKER_00: 45:01

There's some things in life I just don't want to know if they're real or fake.

SPEAKER_03: 45:04

Just like Leroy Jenkins, fake.

SPEAKER_00: 45:06

Yeah. No. I think you told no, you told me, you burst in my bubble on this one.

SPEAKER_03: 45:11

Yes. We've talked about that before. Leroy Jenkins, fake. Waffle Pone, fake. Homestarrunner.com, fake.

SPEAKER_00: 45:20

This is messed up.

SPEAKER_03: 45:21

Strongbad email? That's not real. No. No. Strongbad is a fictional character.

SPEAKER_00: 45:31

You hit me with fake, fake, fake. I thought I was gonna get a real.

SPEAKER_03: 45:34

No, there's no, there is no nothing on YouTube is real. Not a single video.

SPEAKER_00: 45:41

False. There's gotta be something.

SPEAKER_03: 45:43

There's not one single video on YouTube that is real. Don't believe me? You want to see how deep this rabbit hole goes? Sign up for my new podcast. It's an investigative series where we look into strange myths and phenomena that happened on the internet space and in the world of collars. We'll be investigating things like what happened to those 4% of the shots that you didn't take and how did they make it into the basket? White collar, blue collar. What about gray collar? And YouTube fake question mark? Yes. In fact, nothing on the entire platform is real. It has been fake the whole time. None of these people, none of these videos, none of it real.

SPEAKER_00: 46:24

I think I want to cancel this podcast just from that rant right there. Just no more.

SPEAKER_03: 46:29

Kill it right now. Well, I've been trying to kill it for years, so you know this is what it took. Hey, where can they find us? Not on YouTube. Not yet.

SPEAKER_00: 46:46

Question mark? We have one episode on YouTube, and if you find it, good for you. You will not be disappointed.

SPEAKER_03: 46:52

We have one for now, question mark. Hey, where else? Where else can they find? Oh no, no, go ahead. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00: 47:04

You're listening to us somehow, right now. Right now, yeah. I mean, unless Bruce like slid you some sort of NP4 file that you're now with your iTunes and some weird encrypted Discord message of a hidden episode. Unless you're doing that, you're on a podcast platform.

SPEAKER_03: 47:22

Do you remember the mini CD? The mini CD, not the CD, but the compact disc. The compact discette. The mini compact discette. You remember that?

unknown: 47:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 47:34

And I just had a ring of them.

SPEAKER_03: 47:36

Oh, great. So uh I do occasionally burn episodes of corporate strategy to the mini CD. And when I'm out shopping, I will plant them into the back pockets of passers by in hopes that they might become a lifelong listener, preserving my secret identity, but doing the work of the good marketer. No, go ahead. No, I was gonna, I was just gonna say, Clark, I wanted you to tell them what about the Discord.

SPEAKER_00: 48:05

Well, you say, how can they how can they find us? That's the episode you probably found us. You're probably listening to us here. If you scroll down, there's show notes. In the show notes, there's a whole bunch of links. You can join the Discord, which is awesome. We have a whole community of people. You can submit a topic. And sometimes there's a really, really fast turnaround if we're not in this weird moment of time where we're actually ahead. So if you want to hear something, want to hear us talk about something and add some ridiculous ad lib before and after, join our Discord completely free, stay anonymous, a ton of fun games. We are about to unlock, unlock, we're about to release who is winning and losing the Is It AI challenge for January, and we're gonna launch a new one that's been a hit. There's been tens, tens of people, tens of participants fast, fast, voting really quick. And I am realizing I am really sucking at generating these images versus AI versus real because people are onto it fast. So either the world's getting really good at determining what's AI and what's not, or I just really, really suck at generating images. I don't uh you know, it just between us.

SPEAKER_03: 49:14

I don't think you do. I think this is a this is a testament to the fact that AI cannot replace us. It's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think like our senses, you're doing a favor because you're bringing the best. You're bringing the best the business got, and we're tearing it apart. You're training the John Connors of tomorrow to fight this slop. So thank you, Clark. Thank you for your service. Of course.

SPEAKER_00: 49:39

But yeah, you can do other stuff too. You can buy give us a few dollars. What else can they do?

SPEAKER_03: 49:44

Share, like, subscribe, share, like, comment, subscribe, ring the bell. Um, we do have our 200th episode coming up, which Clark and I probably need to talk about. Uh, it's gonna be it's gonna be something or it's gonna be nothing. So prepare yourself for that. And uh the best thing you could do for us if you want to actually help us out is uh yes, this show costs us money, but uh it also costs us a little bit of our soul every time we put one out there because we leave it behind. We leave it in the pod uh on that compat disquette that's in the back of your pocket right now. So mini compat disquette. If you could, if you are a recipient of one of those discs, please share it with a friend. And if you're listening to us on one of your regular podcast platforms, just click that share button and just scroll through your contact list. I don't care who it lands on. Do a roulette. Let's call it corporate strategy roulette. Go on your phone, click share, click contact, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, stop. That's the person you're sending it to. Send them a link, say, hey, I know we haven't chatted in like five years and I should have removed you from my phone, but this podcast just asked me to send itself to you. So here it is. And what is gonna happen is they're gonna listen and they're gonna do this with their friends, but more importantly, you're gonna reconnect. You're gonna you're gonna find a lifelong friend that you've lost to time. So please go do this. Uh, you'll be doing us a ginorous favor. We would appreciate it for you.

SPEAKER_00: 51:06

I love that.

SPEAKER_03: 51:08

Great. Well, I think that's it. I think that's another episode in the bag, done and dusted. Uh, as per usual, keep it classy, even when you got your blue collar on. I'm Bruce. And I'm Clark.

SPEAKER_01: 51:22

And you're on mute. We'll see you next week.