Accidental Live Start And Reset

0:00

Oh. Oh great. Now it's live and I didn't do that. Hold on. Pretend you didn't see this. Hold your breath. Hold your breath. Hold it. Hold it.

Theme Park Streams And Chaos Wins

0:28

Welcome back to Corporate Strategy, the podcast that could have been an email. My name is Anthony, and I'm joined by my guest host, Clark. See, they won't even know why it's really funny. They won't even know why it's really funny. They don't understand what happened to make this hilarious. And why I did it. I'm not saying that we were live and not actually live, and we already did all the intro. But I'm saying I did this rap before, and you said no, my name is Michael, and I said I don't care. That that definitely did say that. Already happened. But we're doing it again. I let you just keep going. You let me do it. So we improved. We learned, we improved. Yes. And next time, next time we're gonna get this intro down. Maybe we've nailed it multiple times. So I don't know. At this point, I'm just chalking it up to the universe hates me. Really hates me. Just sick and tired of my existence. You know, this is about as far as we got. And I said, and I'm gonna say it right now. If you're here and you're listening on the podcast provider of your choice, we also do a video podcast. So this is also on YouTube that you can find us, corporate strategy.biz. And if you did find an episode prior to 2026, so if you listen to anything before this, we didn't do episodes live on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah, no video. So it was just on the podcast providers. But now we do a video. So check us out. Check it out. We also do really fun streams where I make Michael do theme park management and somehow has managed to do go two for two with his successes. So I'll be honest, I am shocked and impressed by myself that the last one, Jurassic World style build a park, worked. It was so hectic. Like Roller Coaster Tycoon, I don't know if these are just the vibes, or if this is just the actual way the game goes. Rollercoaster Tycoon was so chill. It was easy to tell what was going on. I could see people doing their little walk, I could see a little guess count. Like it just made so much sense. You could do so much. We had Ranger Rick clean up the park. Jurassic World was like, you had no idea, like zero guidance for what to do. You didn't know if people were in the park or not. Dinosaurs just hated us and just kept breaking down fences and just running through the park, doing kamikaze missions to our power plant to try to ruin and sabotage everything. And then we just ended up doing something very inhumane and tranquilized every single one of those state sources. And I will forever remember the pain that they caused us. But somehow, somehow, we did it successful successfully, and I don't understand how. The that game, if you didn't watch the stream, it is something to behold because it defies the mythical manned month. Like literally throwing more bodies at the problem actually fixed the problem. And that's what was so magical about it was you were struggling because you were trying to do things the right way. And it turns out spending tons of money and doing them the wrong way is actually how you get a good Jurassic Park. Yeah. Jokes on you. Roller Crush Tycoon, it's like it was so logical. It's logical. Okay, you start with X amount of dollars. You may or may not already have some people coming to the park. You build some attractions to hopefully get them excited, and then they come in, they spend money and they do rides and buy stuff and all that. Yeah, Jurassic World was not that way. It was like you have zero insight to anything going on, but apparently people are coming in, and you're just trying not to let dinosaurs escape out into the wild of your park to do God knows what out there. So it just was like it was a totally different vibe. It definitely was like a more advanced version. Roller Coaster Tycoon, I felt like this is easy. I understand. I put marketing campaigns out there, they come. Building a dinosaur theme park, it was like everybody's gonna come see the dinosaur theme park, man. You better be ready. Like you better start having dinosaurs, otherwise, people are gonna be really mad. And you know that going into that. You had an entire like fossil scavenging operation where you were just like, hey, I'm just gonna take these fossils and scrap, I'm not turning it into dinosaur, I'm gonna go sell them because we're we're about to go bankrupt over here. We're just selling fossils, we're just selling them 50k. That's really what it turned into. 50k. I wonder, I wonder if you could run that whole park successfully just by doing expeditions for fossils and just selling fossils, never having a single dinosaur. I would assume eventually that well runs dry. There's only so many fossils on the earth, and we gotta turn them into gasoline. So, you know, it's this you would you would eventually run out. You'd be fighting the oil industry for them fossils. Yeah. Fair, fair. Well, if you missed it, they're a lot of fun. We do them, try to do them like once a month. So subscribe on YouTube and you'll get to see us doing some streams, having some fun. Wow. Somehow I've been successful in both. I think we need to up the ante a little bit. Maybe either do like a harder mode or try something else to see if I can fail miserably. Well, next time you're doing a hospital, we got a hospital sim you're gonna do, and that's gonna be that's gonna be the test.

Health Updates And Self-Inflicted Injuries

6:10

This is not gonna be good. You know, I always say to anybody I mentor, I chose computer science and going into software engineering because it's low risk. I'm not responsible for people's lives, and now you put me in charge of a hospital. Yeah. Yeah. Seems like a great idea. Why not? I mean, no one died in the dinosaur. I mean, and you had a dangerous one, and that thing was happy as a clam. The dangerous one was like, I am so happy here. As long as you keep the goats coming, I will never break free of my enclosure. This is paradise on earth. One more goat, please. I am shocked. I am shocked that State of Sources did not run over some people. Like it was close. It was close. It was close. It was close. You know, today's gonna be a good stream. You know, why is that? No. You're standing, you're standing, going into a vibe check. Your feet must be feeling better. Everybody wants to know. Yeah, feet are good. Uh toe is no longer bleeding. Finally, nice. The blood has stopped. The it looks it looks like the poison took, and it looks like I have no ingrown nail on my right border of my left big toe. So time will tell, but it's it's looking good, it's feeling good. It's looking good, it's feeling good. Good. Everybody was asking. What's the rest of me that wants to die really now? The toe is fixed, everything else is broke. Well, Philisten. Phil said, what's going on? Uh I mean, as you can see, if you're looking, if you're looking, it looks like I got punched in the face. Just woke up this way. Just woke up with a bruised eye. Yeah, no, I got a bruised eyelid just from sleeping. Uh, had a fever yesterday out of the blue, just got super sick. No idea why. No idea why. I was thinking, like, should I tell, should I tell old Michael we should probably cancel the pod? Like, no, I'll be better tomorrow. I didn't manifest it, made it happen. Um and then you know, just I want to yeet myself into the sun. I do, just like right into it. I feel like that is the solution. All my problems is just first class one-might ticket flying headlong into the massive ball of gas we call our sun, which is actually a star. Yeah. So that's what you're referencing. You said you want to just throw yourself into a geek myself. Okay. Geek. Skirt. Sun. I'm sorry about your health. It has been tough. I mean, it's nothing about health. It's it's everything else. It's everything else that it's sun meet work. The health is fine. The health is fine. Whatever. You get a fever on a Tuesday, you get a you get a black eye on a Wednesday. Hey, it's made up the motto, right? But like everything else, that's the sun. That's for the sun. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to hear that. It's like the health. My predicaments and my my thing, my conundrums always come down to like some weird health thing that's going on. And it's pretty rare. It's not that frequent. Oh, yeah. I was just drinking out of a little, we could have been twins. I was drinking out a little mason jar. We could have done both. I already finished mine though, right before this. Uh, so I gotta ask you about that in a second. But update on my ankle, my ankle's good. Good. What changed? I took it easy. I did the rowing machine instead of jogging on the treadmill for a few days. That seemed to help. And then I just did some light walking. So rehab. I'm feeling back, back fresh. Back fresh. Have you have you heard the word that jogging is terrible for you? I have. Okay. You should probably stop. You should probably stop.

Fitness Consistency Over Perfect Advice

9:40

Just as a it's you know, it's funny. I was watching something, uh, it caught my eye on YouTube, and I posted a LinkedIn thing on it today about just like simple health stuff. Like, I'm in the best shape, I would argue, that I've been since I was a college athlete. And all my career, like, I was definitely out of shape. Definitely an overweight at times. And like I just wasn't the the key is I wasn't consistent. Like I kind of just fluctuated. Like I looked at my I looked at my weight graph and it just was like this. It was random waves, up and down, up and down. I just wasn't consistent. But the last five years, I've been incredibly consistent. And the internet, like, the stuff it puts out there around fitness, everything is wrong and everything is right. One thing you could hear jogging is bad. And then you look up other skies, like jogging is the best thing in the world for your heart. And so, like, I feel like it's so confusing nowadays. Like, like what actually works. And so I made a post about it of like for me, it's really simple. It's I strength train for 30 minutes five days a week. I do cardio, I do not only like a fast, hard set of cardio five times a week, like I hit 10 to 15 minutes, and then I also do like walking, and then after every meal I try to walk for like 10 minutes, and then you just gotta stretch and you gotta eat right. And like that's that's it. That's it, that's all. That's all. There's no magic formula, it's just like just be consistent about it. Do the simple things right. We don't always have weights and fancy machines and all this stuff. It's like go back to basics. Most of what I do is fancy machineless. I do have a rowing machine that's collecting dust. Um, and it's mostly just out of inconvenience. But my understanding is jogging and running specifically is just really bad for all the things between your bones and like wears it down. But like walking is phenomenal for you because it's not, it's like the body was meant to walk and it wasn't meant it's only meant to run or jog in like spurts, where you know, like a jogger or a runner will have more bonal-based health issues later on in life, you know, in the bonal side of the body, all of your bonals. Um, but but walking, I've heard like walking is like walking in flexibility is like the magic. If you want to live to be like 97 years old, then you've gotta walk. You've got to walk. Yeah. Yeah. The treadmill helps. I think running on like hard ground is worse for you. I think if you have like a treadmill that absorbs the compression of the hits, it's a little bit better. But I do agree with you, like it does wear down the cartilage and it does wear down your joints. And I think that's been pretty proven. But the benefits like of and what are you really trying to do, right? You're trying to get into a certain your heart rate into a certain zone of cardio, and you can do that to your point on a rower. You can do that on a bike with other forms of exercises. You can even do like squat jumps or like squatting up and down and like get your heart rate up. There's a lot of ways to do it. That's not jogging. This is this is not in any way, shape, or form an endorsement unless they want to pay me, in which case it is. Uh, Apple Fitness, my God, I love it so much. Uh, Apple Fitness Strength Training, Pilates and Yoga. My God. Like the strength will get my heart rate up to a 174 every time. Like a 20-minute strength train, my goodness. So good. And I honestly feel like I'm in the best shape I've ever been in. Not because I'm doing it consistently, but because the way they formulate the programs, it focuses on more than just like chest and arms or like squats. There's a lot of other muscles that it works that I feel really helps me with my posture and my day-to-day comfort. And it does feel like it's it's coordinated around like aging gracefully. So shout out to Apple Fitness, pay me. I've heard nothing but awesome things about Apple Fitness. I've never done it. I've always like been in fitness, and so like I know what I'm doing in the gym, and like I kind of just do what I know to do. But I think for anybody that's not no idea savvy, no, like you should do Apple Fitness or something like that, and you'll get incredible workouts. Yes. I guarantee you those will kick my butt doing what they do. But they're they kick the instructor's butt. That's the crazy, like you're dying at the end, and I'm like, oh good, it's not just me. This is the healthiest person I've ever seen in my life. It's 20 minutes, yeah. It's compound movement, it's working multiple parts of your body, and so that way it does get your heart rate to incredible. And I think like what you said, like for longevity, and I actually think this is true. If you're like, if you think you don't need to do this and you're grinding out your career, this will catch up to you. Like you've gotta be every day, you have to be focusing on your health, meaning diet and fitness. And I think for longevity, you have to do strength work, you have to do stretch and mobility, you have to do cardio. And one I think that is underrated is like balance. You know what's incredibly hard that I started doing today? I did a what stand on one foot, and it's easy if you're looking at something, if your eyes are open, right? Stand on one foot and balance, close your eyes. And if you close your eyes, it it gets so incredibly difficult so fast. Like just going from open eyes to closed eyes, like you just lose it. Yeah, that's hard. But well, we do a lot of yoga and a lot of like the single foot leaning forward, like it took a long time before I was even able to do anything like that because it's just I didn't have any balance whatsoever. Yeah, yeah. If you think about like leading causes for injury when you get over, it's usually around falling down. Yeah, you know, it's usually a lot of it's like you take a bad tumble because you don't have strong balance and your joints aren't properly stretched and functioning well, and so everything just kind of goes wrong. But and then you know, the worst part about those injuries is usually when you get injured like that, you can't do cardio. Yeah, and so it just all compounds in like this terrible sequence of things that in a lot of ways causes people to get in a really bad spot. I fall down my stairs once a week as a cry for help. Like, let me tell you, it's you gotta stop falling. Terrible for you. Okay, I'm not gonna say it out loud, but did you did it do this? Did you did you get that from the stairs? It was because I ran into a door. I am worried about your black eye. And I I noticed it a little bit, but not a lot. Now I can really see it. Now you can unsee it. Now everyone watching is just looking at this one spot of my eye because it's like the Mondo drew. I look like freaking Rocky Balboa. I woke up this way. I just, I literally, I mean, we talked about I went to sleep and I woke up and thought I was having a heart attack and went to the hospital because I managed to pull all the muscles in my back. I destroy myself in my sleep. My sleep is not restful, it's not rejuvenative. I have the wildest dreams. I can't eat chocolate like six hours before going to bed. Otherwise, the dreams will facilitate into nightmares. It's terrible. Oh my god. Save me, help me. I'm gonna throw myself down the stairs again as a cry for help. Maybe someone will save me. That's crazy. You've like, you've played around with chocolate and you're like, oh, that's the that's the root cause. Chocolate is a one-way ticket to Nightmare Town. Like, and it's it's not just like, ooh, spooky scary. It's like, no, it's like horrific stuff. Nightmare. Like, save me, please. Uh, I will not do chocolate. Like, anywhere in your bedtime. It's got to be through the digestive process. That's crazy. Yeah. It's so like random because chocolate is like the thing associated with like happiness and bliss and indulgence. It causes you to have nightmares. Oh, it's terrible. This is terrible. Oh, I don't know why I think that's so funny, but that's hilarious. Yes. Some people are like, you know, oh, you know, I can't watch a scary movie before I go to bed. It's like, nah, I'll watch horror. It's fine. Like chocolate though, stay away. Do not let that anywhere near me, like within a four-hour window of me going to sleep. That's crazy. Huh? Okay, good to know. Yeah. You know, it just it maybe maybe you suffer from chocolate-induced nightmares. Has this ever happened to you? Call 1-800 chocolate to join my lawsuit. We're gonna take down big chocolate. I'm tired of these nightmares. We're suing every chocolate manufacturer on the planet for giving me bad dreams. Join my lawsuit. Let's go. 1-800 chocolate. Is it is it a specific kind of chocolate or any chocolate? Like dark milk. Dark, obviously, because it's thicker or it's it's got more of the cacao in it, it makes it much worse. Much worse. Milk chocolate. So it's like if it's a chocolate chip and an ice cream, I'll probably be fine, right? If I'm having like ice cream at eight o'clock, it's a dessert. We went out, we're we're enjoying a little scoop on the town, maybe some mint chocolate chip, I'll be fine. Not a big deal. But if I had like a bite of dark chocolate, like a little square as a nine o'clock, ooh, tasty treat. No, I'm done. It's nightmare time. Wow. You're gonna see stuff you wish you'd never thought of. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. You know, associations are so funny of like the cause and effect, and how you realize that one day like, you know what's interesting? I had nightmares last night, and I had chocolate last night. And then the night before that, I also had chocolate. And somehow I'm still having nightmares. But like, how did you put two together? Well, I did, I mean, there's been there's been talk, you know, for a long time. The old wives had tales about uh about chocolate causing nightmares. So it's not this is not like a radical Anthony discovery. This has been this has been known. It's been spoken. The word is out. Uh, I just quickly put it together. I'm like, why is this happening to me? And I'm like, oh yeah. I did have some. What I love is the spicy dark chocolate. It's like dark chocolate infused with chili pepper. So good, so good. But that's like a midday snack. That's not a nighttime snack. No, no. Yeah. See, sometimes chocolate is good for you, sometimes chocolate is bad for you. There you have it, folks. That's it. There you go. I think it's night terrors. Don't feed them chocolate after six. Don't do it. I'll turn into a gremlin. You will. Well, I do have something to talk about today. Do you want to talk about stuff that might help some people for our corporate strategists out there beyond just our nonsense? I don't. Okay, cool. Yeah, we can just call it. I'm good. We did a poll. We did a poll once for people who are new. We did a poll once to ask, like, do we just talk nonsense for too long? And the overwhelmingly strong result was that people wanted more goofing around. They want less corporate. Yeah. For getting corporate. We don't want tips. We just want you guys talking nonsense in our ears for an hour every single week. They want to hear about my chocolate dreams. Chocolate dreams. Some stay dry and others use the cream chocolate dreams. Take a verse. Well, we do have something

What Executive Presence Really Means

21:24

to talk about today. Alright, let's do it. And it kinda goes into what we were talking about of you know your chocolate presence that comes out at certain points. I do want to talk about I want to talk about presence. Presence in the workplace. Oh no. How do you want to be depicted? Oh, I think you mean presence with a T. Sorry. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't I don't give gifts in the workplace. No, absolutely no, no. That one's a quick one. Just not. Episode over. Don't do it. You just you set the wrong expectations. People expect it from them forward on. It's it's a slippery slope. No, presence with a C. Yes. Is it in the room with us right now, the presence? Yes. Yeah. Like what is your people talk about this actually when I was getting promoted to the executive level, director level. Oh. When executive. The question was, does he have executive presence? And I thought that was interesting of like, what kind of presence do you want to create amongst your team, amongst the executives, amongst your boss? What are the different strategies and things that you should do? I think you have a really peculiar way about you that's really uniquely Anthony that over it has helped you be successful, but I think it's I think I would say it's controversial to go about it with your style. Oh yeah. I would not recommend anyone try what I've done. It guaranteed failure. Look at me. But it's worse than that. I'm literally like eager to yeet myself under the sun. My presence has done me no favors. It's only it's a crime, it's crimes. All crimes. But you you've been successful, you've been promoted, you've gotten new jobs, you continue to have new opportunities. It's worked for you. Yes. So I wanted to get your perspective on like, what are your thoughts? Do you change who you are depending on the audience? Do you do you have a way that you'd recommend you doing it for everybody? This one's really tough because I am very much a believer in you shouldn't change anything about yourself. We talked about this in the public speaking thing. Like, you should never change anything about yourself. The second you do, everyone's gonna know and they're not gonna like you for it. So, like, that's I I would 100% stand by that statement for public speaking or for work environment. Like, hey, if you're a weirdo, be a weirdo. Like, don't change that. Now, the problem is you might be a weirdo in the wrong place, in which case you're going to get fired for being a weirdo, but there is a place that will accept your weirdness. So, like, I do think there is a little bit of, hey, I wanna, I want to work at a hospital, but I also want to be a weirdo. It's like, well, that's probably not going to work out for you because there's a level of seriousness expected at a hospital that weirdos aren't allowed to kind of goof off with. Now, behind closed doors, when you're away from patients, sure, be your weird self. But like, you know, in front of someone who's bleeding out, maybe not the time to, you know, talk about your Pokemon cart collection or whatever. Like, and that's probably the most extreme example. But for me, I found jobs where my presence is appreciated, endorsed, and encouraged. And I marketing really loves presence. So, like, I I started to move more into uh places that accept not not only accept who I am, but desire who I am and the way that I am. I'm gonna say something cringy, but I think I I think I know what you're saying. Get it. You've got to build your brand, bro. You've got to build your brand. The cringiest but truest statement is like before you build it, you gotta understand it. And you have to understand that you are a brand and you have a brand. And that also cringy to say, but it's a hundred percent true. The first day you start work is the day you start building that brand. Sad hashtag LinkedIn post. And that's how we unlocked all the secrets to B2B sales, right? Really? But I mean, it's so true though. Like you could you could take that statement and think about sales. Because when you get on the phone with a customer, if you are literally monotoned, reading from the script, Johnny no name, they're not gonna buy from you because you're so inauthentically fake, unless that's actually how you are, in which case sales is probably not right for you. But if you get on the phone and like you're chummy, if you're jolly, if you're funny, if you're nerdy, geeky, like any of those traits are going to create an attachment to you because they'd be like, oh yeah, that guy's geeky, but he knows what he's talking about, and he's kind of fun to be around. Like, there is a truth to building your brand and your brand being part of your workplace success, sadly. But to my first point, like you gotta be who you are, you have to be very authentic to yourself. So there is a there's a little bit of chicken and egg, which is who are you and where do you belong? I like that. Yeah, it's to go off of one of your points of around like people can smell in authenticity. Like when you're not authentic, I think humans have this innate capability to pick up on the social cues of like this person's not being real. Yeah, and it's interesting too, like in the age of AI, like, how quickly were we able to pick up if something's AI written, written by AI or not? Like the human brain is just really, really good at picking up on those patterns, and I think you can sense it in people, you can feel it, of like this person's not being themselves. So I think what you you're saying is a hundred percent true. You have to be true to yourself, and it goes back to what we were talking about, like you mentioned on our public speaking episode last time, around it's you really can't fake it till you make it. Like that won't carry you very far because the people who are socially you know adept and they're able to pick up on those cues are gonna notice it and they're not going to want to buy from you, to work with you, whatever it is, because they know you're not being yourself, and like because of that, like are you genuine? Can you be trusted? Like, they question underlying things like your integrity because of that. Like, do I really know who Anthony is? Or do I just know Anthony that puts on his face and talks like he knows what he's talking about? And I think that's what people like try to figure out, and so that that's it is interesting because when I think about presence, like I think a great place to start is what do you want people to think of when they

Authenticity Beats Fake It Till You Make It

28:30

work with you? What do you want them to feel? And it goes back to public speaking. It's funny, like how many parallels there are of like when you're working with people, how do you want them to see you? How do they want how do you want them to perceive you? How do you do you want them to come to you with problems and to trust you? And like you have to think about all those things of like, how do you want to come off? And then you need to start making sure that you uh bring yourself to work every day in every situation, being authentically yourself. Do you remember it was a couple couple months ago we did an episode on blue collar, white collar, and like the differences in sort of expectations and camaraderie and how people get along. I think that that fits right into this. Like the public speaking, the blue collar, the white collar. It's so much of it, to your point, is the kind of presence that you are both allowed to have at that kind of role, but also should bring into specific kinds of roles. One of the hardest things, I think, for people in general is knowing themselves. And this is like, you can't just go look in the mirror and have a conversation with yourself, sadly. I think you got to be a little more introspective with that. The way I think about it is if there's someone you like, and I don't mean like infatuate, I mean like you're my okay, Michael, you are my best friend, IRL. And when we go to Boba tea and you know, we're ordering a boba tea, and I'm making jokes with you and the cash register person and like having a good time, and that's my genuine self, right? I'm naturally just being who I am and who I want to be. If you could encapsulate that and then put that in the workplace, would your workplace like it? Or would they be like, that's not appropriate behavior? And I think that's almost the first step to presence, right? Like think about a time or a place where you were able to be your natural self and you felt really good about how you were, whether it's with a friend, your family, a neighbor, you know, a social situation. Where are you at your best? Encapsulate that. That's your true self in the matrix. We call this the residual self-image, how you see yourself, Neo. And then you take that, and how can you apply that in the workplace? And I think that's your first step on this journey of bringing presence to the workplace. Because if you can't do that, like if I couldn't be the person I am when I'm out with Michael getting Boba T at my job, it's gonna actually impact not only my morale and my performance, because I'm gonna be censoring myself, I'm gonna be lessening myself. But people around me are gonna be like, you're kind of skeevy. There's something inauthentic about you. And like, I do think that some people get pigeonholed into that. And I've seen people in the workplace where they're not comfortable being themselves. And when I start to talk with them, because you know, you know me, I like to open people up and get their their honest self. Like, why aren't you why don't you do this? Why don't you be more open about this? Like, well, I'm afraid how people will react. And it's like, no, no, no. Be your bold self. Get out there, do this. It's absolutely appropriate. So I think step two is find a mentor or someone who can enable you. Maybe you're a little bit nervous about being more genuine. Find someone like me. Every company has someone like me, and they are absolutely going to be willing to help you be your authentic self. Just have that open conversation. Yeah, I I agree with everything you're saying. And I think uniqueness is a big part of what makes humans so special. Like every one of us is unique in every in in some aspect, right? Like those two people are the same. And I think that that like trying to blend yourself to be someone else, like just doesn't work because your human nature is different. Like each of us is different in some way. And if you lean into that weirdness, I think that that is what makes you unique and special, and that's what makes people interested in working with you because you are different, and you're drawn to people opposite tract, right? Like you're drawn to people that are different from you because you they they see the world differently than you do, and they see things from a different angle, and so it like brings different qualities to your life. And I do think it is important that you find a way to be yourself and don't sacrifice that to gain a position or because you think that's what everybody wants. And I I I think that's for multiple reasons. I think I've I've definitely had times in my career where I've been I tried the fake it till you make it thing, and it just wasn't successful because at the end of the day, it just wasn't me. And I think at like you can't just show up every day someone that's not yourself and try to come off of this image. It's it takes a toll on you energy-wise. And then like if you if you somehow do something different than what you've tried to make an image of, or what you portrayed yourself of uh or portrayed yourself as, or if you have made yourself up to be and maybe told lies about who you are and what you are and all that, like eventually it's you're gonna slip up and it's gonna catch up to you because and they're gonna be like, wait, who is this person? That's not who I thought I was working with. And wait, I thought you had this. Why'd you say that last time? And like that goes back to the not not being genuine, not being authentic. Like, people pick up on that, and you cannot keep that up forever. And that's why it's even more important to lean into the positive qualities of yourself when you're establishing your presence and working with others.

Personal Brand At Work Without Cringe

34:22

Yep. It's it's kind of sad. I've literally, I'm sure you have too. I've seen pictures of people that had like long hair and you know, like, you know, a style and a vibe. And you're like, dude, you look sick outside of the workplace. What are you doing? Like, why'd you cut your hair? Like, why, why are you all button up Johnny? It's like, well, I want to move up. Firstly, you're never gonna move up. Like, throw that, throw that idea out the window. You only move up because you can move up, not because you've changed to who you are and they're gonna promote you because of that. That is not how that happens. I am living proof of that. I literally have a giant anime poster in my background. And I have been promoted twice since having a giant anime poster in my background. It does not hurt me, it helps me. Um, what what you see on the YouTube, this is what people see that I work with. This is the first time I went to your office in the workplace when I was starting at Big Corp. Your whole entire office was wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling comic books. Yeah. I am now a senior director of marketing. Like it has nothing to do with the fact that I self-censored or that I hid away my passions or I changed my personality. Those things helped me start conversations and get my points across as almost enablers in a way. It's like, oh, you like that? That's cool. I like that too. And then I attach myself to other people like me because I know, like, oh, these are the people I can work with and find more success with. You gotta be authentic. You gotta be true to yourself. Like it it is, it does make me sad because I feel like a lot of people go to work as soulless husks of who they are and don't realize that they're actually hurting themselves more than they're helping themselves by doing this. Yeah. Yeah, you're sacrificing your true self to put on a face that ultimately is not going to help you. And it also is going to probably hinder you because people can sense that, they can feel it. And you're also going to lose esteem. You're going to lose that energy. And like, why am I? You'll start questioning yourself. Like, why am I doing this? Why am I acting like this? Oh, I should respond this way. Like, it the whole thing is just a very slippery slope to where it's not being successful. And leaning into those things that make you unique and being yourself oftentimes have nothing to do with being successful in the role. Like, to your point, you can be uniquely yourself and kick ass at what you do and be the weirdest weirdo in the world. But if you're an incredible sales engineer, like you do you, man. Like that is genuinely what's going to matter is the work and the value that you bring to the company in your own style, not in someone else's style, not you know, in a way that's not genuine to yourself or not authentic. Like that won't help you be successful to Anthony's point. So I think there is something that's that's really important about that. And I I hate to say it, but even people who like put images up of themselves, like in the the Teams chats or the Slack channels or the the outlook, and it's like AI generated, and then you meet them in person, you're like, it doesn't look anything like that. It's not you. That's that's part of it. Like it screams you should just own your own how you are, own who you are, and be yourself. And you're gonna be more successful than trying to put on front. And then when people mention meet you, they're they're not like you don't look anything like I thought you would, because you put on this face, you try to create this image of something that's not real. Sorry, there was just a loud thud in the background, and it was my poodle slamming your body against the ground. No big. Uh you okay, you made me think of a really good example. Uh if for whatever reason, if you made it this part of the pod and you don't believe me, I want you to think about all the times you've called into customer support. Okay. How many times have you called into customer support and you were greeted by, well, this is pre-AI, you were greeted by a person reading from a script, and you could tell that they were just staying within the confines of the script no matter what you said. How frustrating was that for you? And how quickly were you just like, I just want to speak to someone that is capable of speaking, versus you call into customer support. And I've had this happen so many times. You call into customer support, and it's someone who's like got a personality. You know, they might have their Minnesota nice and they're they're treating you like the, you know, hey, how are you doing today? Hey, I guess that's Canada. I don't know. But you know, they've they've brought themselves into the support conversation. I just generalized all of Canada into a single bad accent. FYI. Shoutouts, Canada. Love you, Canada. Um like think about those calls where it is a person who is not reading from the script. They're being themselves, they're treating you like a human being, but they're not changing who they are. They're using their natural voice. They might throw in like fun nomenclature, they might call you a hun. They might, you know, say, uh, just a second dude, like whatever. But immediately you are more comfortable in that situation because I'm talking to a human being who's talking back to me. And in this moment that I need support, I feel like I'm actually being listened to by a real person, not a script reader. Right. And I think that's all the proof that you need, really, of the difference it makes with authenticity and being your normal self, bringing what you can bring to the conversation versus reading someone else's words or pretending to be some buttoned-up thing because the beam counters are watching. I love that example. That that is a perfect depiction of, you know, everybody who's above the age of 18 has experienced that. Yes. Of like you call, you call support and you know. Like, you know, when it's someone just like, yeah, all right, like reading off the script, reading the problem today, give me your account number, like, and you just immediately get turned off of like this really sucks. But if you get someone who is using the nomenclature of Han or Bud or whatever, like you are immediately like, oh, this is this is cool. This is casual conversation. Like, I'm curious about this person. Who is this person? It I I guarantee you, if you look at all the post support surveys I've done, because I always do them, by the way. I always do the post-support survey. If you were a natural human being, you always got just full star marks, even if you didn't fix my problem. It's like, whatever. I like this person. They tried, versus this person literally just read from the script the entire time. Like, I cannot, I cannot with this. That's the that is the impact of presence.

Customer Support Scripts Versus Humans

41:00

Like, that is what presence does is it it rewards you because the people around you see, hey, this person has a presence. They're not just a zombie, they're not just a a robot corporate shill. It's just spouting out the Kool-Aid. It's there is something more to them. And I I can't advocate for it enough because I truly believe it is where I've gotten to where I am because of the presence I bring. Right. You know what wins in social? You know what wins in corporate? You know what wins in marketing? It's LeBron James who are doing something like that. Well, he thinks he's yeah, well, not this year, not this year, but not this year, but previous years. If he doesn't retire next year, it could be next year. Not okay, okay. But but like everybody who wins, it's the genuine stuff. Like, look on social media. It doesn't matter what they look like, big, tall, tall, small, maybe even like impaired or disabled. Like the people who are genuine are the people who win because they're they understood that I can be myself and bring value in a way that I can uniquely bring it. And I think that's like what you have to remind yourself. Like, no matter how who you are, how you are, bring yourself and you're gonna be more successful than trying to fake it to be something you're not. And it is unfortunate because to your point, you know, I think I I did this at points when I was at Universal, when I was at Big Corp with you, like where I tried to shift how I was to make that executive presence. And now that I'm doing my own thing, I'm just myself. Like people don't want to work with me, and you know, if they're not interested in that, like it's whatever. It's like, all right, you're a philanthropist. Cool, I don't want to work with you either. Yeah, just but like the thing is is like people connect with that, they can feel the empathy, they can feel that I can relate to their problems, they can feel that I can help them. And I think people gravitate towards that, even though I'm not, you know, a dude who's older, who's been doing this for 40 years. It's like they lean on that, that energy, that what I bring value to the table. They see the examples, they see the work that I do, and like that's the value that draws them to continue working with me. And I think that's like the difference, and you have to realize that for yourself of like find the value that you bring, and then just be yourself genuinely doing it. You're going to be successful. I want to add one more thing because you you actually made me think about this. You're, you know, we Michael and I are both very type A. We're very friendly, we're chummy. I would say we're chummy. You might be a more serious person. Like you might be a more stern, strict, or serious person and be thinking, well, dang, I don't, I'm not all roses and rainbows all the time, like these two. Like, what does that mean for me? And I actually want to say, don't change. Because some of the most fun people I have worked with are more stern and serious, but it's when they're able to be stern and serious and authentically themselves that it's if they're really enjoyable to work with. It's like, I I know Gary is a little bit of a hard ass, but that's what makes Gary great. When I go to Gary for you know a review, I'm gonna get the 100% red ink Gary review that I can't get from anybody else. So for the more intense people, what I will say is simply don't change who you are. Just realize some people might be intimidated by that. So if you are open about the fact it's like, yeah, I'm Gary, I'm a bit of a hard ass, like that immediately takes all of the pressure away because there's a self-acknowledgement there. And I I would say it goes both ways. I'm hey, I'm Anthony, I'm a total goofist, right? Like I will throw out a little bit of a you don't need to be intimidated by me, even though I'm type A, or you don't need to be intimidated by me even though I'm strict or stern. That's just who I am. And we're all different, like you were saying, Michael. We're all unique. And the second you change that or hide that or try to tell someone like, hey, this isn't gonna work because I'm I'm trying to mask that, you've you've put yourself in a corner. Yeah, 100%. I agree with everything that you're saying. And I think that's the that's the best tip we can share with anybody. Unfortunately, I'll do the other side of this. Unfortunately, there are situations where you do need to fit a mold in order to get promoted or BA on the team or whatever it is, and it's usually set from the top. Military set the weather. Yeah, they said they set the weather and be like, I want this type of person on my team, not a jelly person, I want a serious person, I want someone who's gonna tell how it is. And they they create a culture of people who are like that. And you have to ask yourself, like, do I want to try and be like that and go against how I am, you know, and how I truly how my true self is. And I think you should really question of like, is that a good idea? And if you're gonna do it, I think it's you probably don't want to do it for long because I think it's gonna wear on you more than you think, unless you just truly love being around a bunch of people who might be rude, might be not the most fun to work with. And if you want to try to blend in with that and do that, like by all means go for it. But I think everybody would much rather prefer working with people that are easy to work with in an environment that they can have fun and be themselves in. Well, I do think the military is a perfect example because there is an entire onboarding process that is about shaping, breaking, and molding you into a military person.

When Culture Forces A Mold

46:33

Doesn't matter if it's United States military or uh, you know, a member of the European military. There is a there is a uh basically a grooming that occurs when you join that kind of organization. And I that's true for many different things, uh, law enforcement, uh, you know, sections of healthcare. They are going to expect you are going to bring a level of seriousness, professionalism, uh, a level of, you know, I can I can hold under pressure and I'm not gonna break, I'm not gonna tell a joke, I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna be emotionally vulnerable. Like they expect you to do that. But I think there are certain personality types and proclivities that lean more towards that to begin with, which is again why I go back to the first thing I said, which is know yourself. There are people who are absolutely born to go into the military because they've got the mentality, they've got the ideology, they've got the willingness to put up with it and to be that kind of military-minded individual. And then there are people like me that I will be getting yelled at by someone and I will crack a joke and they will hit me over the head with a rifle and I will die. And it'll be labeled a training accident. And then it will become a conspiracy 20 years later. They'll be like, why did Anthony die at the camp? We're doing an entire six-part podcast series looking into was this manslaughter or was it murder? Tune in next week to find out. Our sponsor beats headphones. You thought they were gone, but they're back. Apple bought them, but they haven't got rid of them. And that's really why you need to think about who you are before you join something, because they will make a podcast about you. I love that spiral, and I'm really disappointed that the sponsor of that segment was not Chocolate Night Terrors. I thought Chocolate Night Terrors was gonna be the one who sponsored that segment. 1-800 chocolate. You can join the cause. We're taking down big chocolate. Has this ever happened to you? You've been listening to your beat headphones. Yes, they still exist. Beats by Dre, owned by Apple. You've got a chocolate night terror. I'm sick and tired of it. I want to eat chocolate before I go to bed. Big chocolate won't let me. 1-800 chocolate. There you go. And if this is not a sign that we we're done. We're done again. I don't know what else would be a sign. In a tight 48 minutes, no less. Tight. Tight. Tight 48 minutes. Tight. Only one redo. Only one redo from the very beginning. That's pretty good for us. You know, if if we include the redo, it would actually be around 67 minutes. Yeah, you're right. A lot of that exclusive content just went. Just out the window. Just between us. Just 67. I don't I still don't understand what that is, and I don't want to know. It's so dead now that I was just hoping you would do it. Like I was hoping it's so dead. It's so over and gone. You know, the real missed opportunity of 6'7 was it didn't catch on in time for June 7th. Like 6'7. Yeah. Yeah. If only the kids were smarter, if only the kids had a little bit better timing with their juvenile antics. We could have had 6'7 day. How good would that have been? This is why they pay you three bucks, the marketer. 6771 69911. Do you see how it all coordinates? I don't like any of that. If you really start to think about it, if you really start to think about it, you kind of connect the dots and see why jet fuel really can't melt steel beams. I'm just saying, you know, the gas stations 7-11 were in on it. I knew it was going there. And I hate it every second of it. You took us on this journey. You made me go there. You did this. You made

Discord Patreon And Final Bits

50:36

me do this. Hey, if if you if you have ever had chocolate before bed and need to talk about it with a support group, do we have the place for you? It's called our Discord. You can join our Discord right now. Go to the link in the show notes below. Click on that link and join the Discord. We have an entire channel. Hashtag Chocolate Night Terrors. Get in there and share your story and be heard. We want to hear from you. Don't keep it bundled up. We know big chocolate's coming for you. Get in our Discord right now. Hey, maybe you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket and you want to help out. Do we have the chance for you to step up and put those chocolate night terrors to rest? You can join our Patreon today and support anti-chocate organizations like ours. We don't endorse it. We don't eat it. We know what it does to your night terrors. In fact, all money procured by us by our Patreon goes right back into this show to stop big chocolate from oppressing the masses and giving us all nightmares. Is there, Michael, Michael, I'm calling in. Is there any other things that we need to call out before we we chuck this into the sun, like I'm going to do to myself later? Well, I would say one thing is uh share, share with your friends. Share it, share with your acquaintances, share with someone who might not be in the might not be being their true self at work. And you want to give them a tip. And you want to just like lightly nudge them in the direction of maybe you need to be your true self. Just a thought. I love that. Share it with them. I also feel like after you did the whole infomercial thing, I just need to go like terms and conditions apply. Risks of death, stroke, heart attack. And nightters. And night terries happen. Chocolate with caramel. Chocolate, chocolate with peanut butter. Oh, goosey. Yeah, yeah. Mint chocolate chip. Mint chocolate chip. Just listing all the chocolates of like test results have not been thoroughly studied or verified. Please consult your doctor before having chocolate. I I have it. For our next Patreon exclusive content, it's gonna be I'm gonna I'm gonna take chocolate before bed and I'll tell you about the nightmare I have. That's Patreon only. That's Patreon exclusive. The only way you could see that is by signing up for our Patreon. That's the only way. And giving us money, which goes right back into the show, by the way. I haven't pocketed a single dollar. I think we just keep expanding this test. Like we try Research's peanut butter cup one time, we try like I don't know, Twix the next time. Like just try to play with the variables here and see what kind of flavor we get out of Night Terrors, you know. Anthony's Chocolate Night Terror Journal. Interesting. The problem is this will actually drive me to the point of insanity. Like I'm I'm on a razor's edge right now, and I probably need therapy. And like we're gonna push it. We're gonna be like, hey, what if we just screw with this guy's sleep a little bit more? What if we remove the one thing that rejuvenates his soul before he goes off to work every day? You are right on the edge of greatness. I can't. I think so. I think this is the final thing to push you over. The edge of glory. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, uh, you know, Shakespeare once said, you are beautiful no matter what they say. Words won't bring you down. You are beautiful in every single way. No, words they won't bring you down. And I think we could all take something away from that. Uh, as always, I'm Anthony. And I'm Michael. And you're on mute. We will see you next week.