Tech Reset And Lost Settings

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome back to Corporate Strategy, the podcast that could have been an email. I'm Anthony.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

And I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

I hope I'm breath all the way till then, and I did a drum roll. You're welcome. So proud of you. Also, you'll notice the little logo staying on her face a little longer this time, and that's because Anthony has lost all of it. All of it's gone.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

So you're telling me just when we thought, just when we thought we had this thing figured out, we had it so smooth. You're telling me we somehow don't have it now.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

There's a real Anthony level uh sort of a little bit about me. I've never I've never shared this with anybody, but I'm kind of like just you know, the coolest and the best, and no one's ever done it better. But here's the thing like all of that is true, no humble brag about it. It's just true. I will mess that up 99% of the time, 100% of the time, because of my inability to let things be. So I had last time, last episode, last live stream, we masterfully did the intro remotely, which is just never happens, never happens. And I decided it was perfect time to like factory reset everything, do it clean, make it good. And I accidentally blew away all of our corpse strategy OBS profile, all of our stream settings, all of our volume adjustments, uh, everything. It's gone. So this is a it's a fresh audio mix, it's a fresh intro, it's a fresh everything. There might be issues. Please let us know if there are issues and I will get them fixed. But the the goal really is to have a dedicated corporate strategy device. And now we do. So there's just we're all set. We're this close. We're this close to yeah.

YouTube Search And Finding The Show

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Well, welcome back to the number one corporate strategy podcast in the world. It is it is the okay. Quick quick uh another just side rant. When you search corporate strategy on YouTube, uh do it right now. Michael, this is great. This is great right now. Okay, do it. Go to youtube.com I I'm sure you've heard of it before. Uh H forward slash forward slash YouTube.com. Go there. Search corporate strategy. Yeah, there. Okay. I'm searching. Notice anything.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Uh I did notice that I got things from corporate versus business strategy. Quick study. A plan is not a strategy. And then, and then I see corporate strategy, the channel of which I am subscribed. You actually see the channel. I do. I see it right there. Maybe I should have gone to incognito because I am, in fact, subscribed to our channel.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

When I looked for corporate strategy on our personal, my personal account, not only does it not show up on page one, it doesn't show up on page any on YouTube. And like I got really specific. I was like, Corporate strategy podcast, Anthony Michael figuring it out. Like, just nowhere to be found. Like, what the heck?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

YouTube. Okay. Yeah, I went on I went on uh you know incognito browser. I just wanted to check. Yeah, it's not even close. I'm on like page six and I've seen nothing. Yeah, so thanks. We're doing really great with our lives. And you know, it's funny if you guys haven't seen it. Now, if I type corporate strategy.biz, it does come up. I do see it. I see the live episode we're doing right now. But we have started something new. We have started doing shorts and actually doing things on our LinkedIn page and our Instagram page and YouTube shorts. So who knows? Maybe those will be helpful, but it's kind of cool because we get to clip all the stuff that we've been doing on the show for a long time. We can even go back and like try to find some really cool clips with the platform that we're using to hopefully share some of that bite-sized value. So, anyways, if you guys like those, let us know.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yes, please let us know. And uh, I don't know about you, Michael. Uh, on the vibe check scale of things, I'm doing pretty good. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 4:30

I'm doing great. I actually just saw like we have people chatting to us inside of our inside of our live show here. People are talking about how terrible we are about everything that we do. You did. You fixed something live. Look at that. You didn't even know I was fixing it and I fixed it. People probably don't understand the level of production

Shorts Strategy And Patreon Support

SPEAKER_01 4:50

that goes into this show every week. I mean, we've been planning the thing we're talking about today for weeks. It's crazy. It's crazy. This is a big one. It's a big one. This is so big. You guys don't even understand the amount of time and effort. The amount of time and effort. See, if you're not on the YouTube watching this, you don't see our faces as we're trying to hold it, keep it together and talk about these things. But yeah, you know, it's good. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy with the new stuff we're doing. I actually think the shorts are going to bring some new people in and hopefully bring that bite-sized value. Oh, yeah, that was cool. So thank you guys for the engagement. It's been a lot of fun getting this new platform up and running. And the cost is really, really good. So it does up our cost a little bit as a show, but I think it'll be worth it.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

If you want to help with the costs, you can check out our Patreon. It's in the doobly-doo below. We are uh growing, we're spending more to do more, and that in turn costs more. And I want to give a big shout out to someone very special in our life. Uh, his name is Michael's wife, who is helping out with our Instagram. And thank you so much, Michael's wife, for helping out with all of that. Our Instagram, I mean, it's it's growing like a weed. I know both of you are working on it. Yes. Shout outs to both of you. It doubled. Yes, it doubles in the amount of people we had.

unknown 6:12

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

It doubled. No, it's funny because I don't know how to do any of this. I haven't been on Instagram since like Instagram came out. One good god, you can't even see like people you follow anymore. It's the worst. I see suggested, I see ads. I'm literally like asking her, I'm like, I don't know any of these people. She's like, Oh, yeah, it says suggested right there. I'm like, I got five of those in a row. What is this garbage that I have to deal with now? Before it was just streams of only people I know, and now it's a bunch of people I don't know. But I keep on going over to her with everything I'm doing. Yeah, I keep going to her with everything I'm doing. Like, how do I do the sticker thing? How do I do the poll thing? She's like, it's not that hard. You just click the button.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

I'm like, oh, so I feel like a boomer now. I I consider myself grateful. When I tried running our Instagram, and I tried for like two weeks, I gave it a real honest try. That was the first time in my life I ever felt old. Like, I'm not even gonna lie to you, Michael. That was the first time in my life I felt like an old person. Because I'm like, I don't understand this platform. I haven't been on social media in probably uh 15 years, almost almost two decades. So like it was a shock to the system to go on that platform and be like, what is any like what do you post words here or is it just pictures? Like, I don't know. I don't know, makes me feel really uncomfortable. Big shout outs and thanks.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

There's like you post and there's like posts, but then there's like reels, no, and there's like highlights, and I'll be honest, I I still haven't figured it out. So if you guys got any tips for us that you think would help, put them in the comment section. We're gonna we're gonna get it there. It's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

I got a tip. If you can't donate to the Patreon to help us do the things we're doing right now, you could follow us on Instagram if you have an account, and we would appreciate the heck out of you. Good tip. That is a great tip. Great tip. Please do. I actually have one more tip. Something I yeah, something I I don't think I told

Super Nino Heat And Dehydration

SPEAKER_00 8:11

you this. Um I it's hot outside. It's hot everywhere. Very we're in what they call a super niño. Are you familiar with this? Yeah, the super niño. It's not just an L Nino. I know the El Nino. It's it's just no simple El Nino. It's been upgraded. Why did we take Supergirl in theaters? We got a super niño in the weather. Why did you take El out of Nino?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

El Super Nino?

SPEAKER_00 8:43

They'd be like, What's El Nino mean? And I'd be like, it means the niño, but now we've just done super niño, so it's it's in perfectly understandable English, but it's hot outside. It's like 96 degrees Fahrenheit in Canada right now. It's 91 in Florida, right? Like it's hot. This weekend, your boy Anthony got heat exhaustion. No way. Yeah, you did not tell me about that. I got real bad heat exhaustion. Wait, you've never had it before? I've never had it in my life. I used to work outside eight hours a day.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah. Yeah. That's that's surprising. If you being a landscaper that you've never had that before is really surprising.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

It was awful. And the lesson I learned is I had to go do a this is gonna sound so weird. I had to go do a film shoot on a boat for uh a candidate that I know and I'm helping with their campaign, uh, local local candidate uh for our district. And it was really nice. Like we went out on the boat, we pretended to fish, like because you know, for the film shoot, and you know, just three dudes being dudes on a boat, you know, and I'm I'm a dude. And it was fine, it was really nice, it was good weather. You know, I think it was like 90 something degrees, but you get the the breeze from the ocean, you know. I'm pretending to fish, I'm fine, I'm drinking, I drank a bottle of water on the boat, it was out there for an hour and 30 minutes. Wearing sunscreen, get off the boat, come back, we go to a restaurant afterwards. I start to just like feel like I have a headache. I don't know why. Yeah, and I'm just drinking water, right? Like I'm like, I'm just really thirsty. And the headache just starts getting worse and worse, and then it proceeds to evolve into like COVID symptoms, like there's kind of weird, like complete body aches, uh dizziness, like uh my sinuses just start like exploding in in awful, you know, pain, runny nose, cough, sore throat, my ears are burning, like everything in my body hurts. Like, am I dying? What's going on? Like you have heat exhaustion. So the heat is no joke, and it heat exhaustion can last about two weeks. I still have the headache, like the headache is lasting. Yeah, yeah. Every other symptom's gone, thank goodness. That night was wild. I hallucinated all night long, you know, as I do, and uh it's just it was a rough 24 hours. I'm doing better now, but legit, y'all. Drink water and drink lots of it, just so much water, you don't want none of this, you don't want none of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Yeah, I've definitely like because I played sports that were outside for years, and like we had tournaments where we'd play like three games in a day on a sweltering summer day in Florida, and I definitely have been there, and you're like puking up everything, like it is just miserable, and there's really no way to recover, but just give it time, yeah. And just like if you can get like a straight IV into your body, that is the only way to like really get out of just the circular loop of just heat exhaustion pain all over.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

I was looking up like local places just to go get like liquid IV. Like, maybe this will help. It's too late at that point. Whatever.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah, secondly, you were in too deep.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Dehydrate the heck out of myself.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

It was terrible. Whew, awful, yeah. Yeah, I always say so. One of the things of like dehydration is your body when you sweat or when you're outside and your body's like just trying to stay cool, you lose so much salt. And so electrolytes, obviously, you know, help kind of replenish that, but also you just need like salt and potassium. And so, one of the best things you can do if you are feeling like really dehydrated, take a shot of pickle juice. Go get some pickle juice. No one likes it. I actually like it a lot. That's what plants create. Yeah, yeah. You you just put it in the little shot glass, you take a couple shots of pickle juice. I make my wife do it all the time, and it cracks me up because she's like icked out on it. But I'm like, hey, you've been outside all day. Like, this is gonna help. I promise. And it it's it's worth it every time. So remember

Pickle Juice Electrolytes And Pickle Snacks

SPEAKER_01 12:56

that. Remember that next time you go out on the boat. I drink it.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

I have uh pickle-flavored marshmallows right now, they're delicious. Wait, wait, wait. Sweet and pickle? Yeah, it's delicious, it's great. I don't know how I feel about that. I I absolutely do. I'll take a picture and post it in our Discord, but you can join by clicking on the link in the doobly doo. They're so good, they're so good. It's pickle-flavored marshmallows. I'm gonna try one handmade in in Central Florida.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

I'm gonna have to see you. One because update on uh last time we had the episode on the live episode. Uh, we still have not bought Pacopia, so I'm gonna need to, you know, doink your my switch to your switch so we can so you can re-up my uh my child usage on Picopia so my wife can keep on playing. But then also I really want to try one of these marshmallows.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

You must.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

I feel like it'd be so weird on like a s'more, a pickle marshmallow and a s'more. I don't know if it'd be good on a s'more, but they're great by themselves. I just pop one every now and then like this is good, this is fun. Why is everything pickle these days? I saw like pickles, pickle chips.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Dill chips are not new. Dill chips have been like in the UK forever. That's uh yeah, that's true. That's an old pickle. It's new to us, yeah. It's new to us. Yeah, we're we weren't pickle appreciators until recently. I mean, I've always loved a pickle.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

I do. You know, have you ever bought like a big pickle that's been sitting in a bag? Like you buy a bagged pickle, yeah. It's just the big handheld pickle you can walk around and eat. Great snack. So good. Absolutely go to any great snack, yeah. Top tier. Go to any like trashy gas station and you can buy one. It's probably been in there for like five years, but I'm telling you, doesn't matter, it's a life-changing experience. Yeah, it's a life-changing experience. You gotta try it. It's pickled. Why? That's true.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

It's pickle at the end of the day. It's pickled, it's pickle, they will outlast us all. We will be pickles one day. You know, uh, the best thing that could happen to us is when we die, we fall into a bog, and then we become human pickles. Oh, yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, I want to be you know, going back, going back to your health issues. I feel like everyone on this podcast should be really concerned about you. It's just one thing after another. I feel like it's been months of Anthony health issues, and it's not like it's not like they're connected, they're all disconnected.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

You know, I'm very good at dodging death. Yeah, I just you know, narrowly bobbing and weaving outside of the health crisis, the heart attacks, the heat exhaustion. Uh, I'm gonna try playing in a thunderstorm next time.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Just going outside and you just don't do that many like things. Like you work remotely from home and like you do gaming stuff with your wife, and you do the podcast with me. Like, it's not like you're involved in this crazy life where you're like a rodeo clown or something.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

I'm secretly part of like an underground nerd mafia. And I gotta I gotta go out at night with my my keyboard that's what it is, bust some skulls, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Yeah, maybe lose a toenail. Yeah, maybe lose a toenail, maybe get heat exhaustion. Like that's where maybe all this aesthetics are.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Have a miniature heart attack in the middle of the night, but actually pull every muscle in your back during your sleep, you know. That's yeah, that's the kind of life I live.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yeah, honestly, I'm starting to think that's the case. If it was just one or two things spread out, now it's like been five disconnected series of events. Yeah, we're worried about you. That's all I'm saying. Don't worry.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

It's all part of the plan. Trust me. Hey, speaking of uh speaking of being remote and doing podcast type stuff, speaking of all that.

Why Icebreakers Matter For Remote Culture

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Speaking about it, speaking about it, hey, I had a really good idea for a topic today, which is you know I had a great idea for a topic today. You'll never believe it. It's it has so much to do with with you know being remote and being able to communicate with people over remote distances. But being the being the cool guy I am, I'm gonna let you introduce the topic because I already think you know what it is.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

You're just so kind, you're such a great co-host.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

I really am.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

And I'm so happy we've been planning this for weeks, and it was all your ideas. So thank you so much. This is a deep-hitting topic today, and you know what it is? It's icebreakers. I'm helping consult with some different teams right now, some different companies, and I can feel, especially the remote ones, it's just like there's this weird kind of culture. And I'm coming from a hybrid uh situation. So when I was at Universal, we were three days in the office and two days at home. But I started there when we were full-time in the office. So I was very much used to like being in the office, having a presence, seeing people in person, and it still was part of my rhythm. So now that I'm in like the fully remote world, I'm definitely starting to understand you have to figure out a way, especially if you have a team, to break down those walls. And one of the leaders I'm working with now, they ask these great icebreaker questions that actually do break down the walls and they get people discussing. And I thought it'd be fun to talk about that. Of like, if you're on a team, you're feeling kind of disconnected, it's not feeling very fun, people aren't super engaged. Like, what are some ways that you can get people engaged and start working together and have a little fun doing it?

SPEAKER_00 18:32

You want to do a little roleplay? You wanna you wanna break my ice? Yeah, I'll break it. Alright, bust my ice, go on.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

You want me to ask you one? Yeah, give me one. Alright, I'll give you a real one.

Hot Dog Sandwich Debate Gets Serious

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Is a hot dog a sandwich? Is a hot dog a sandwich? What the hell is a sandwich? It's got a piece of bread, it's got something in the middle, put condiments on it. Now the form factor might be a little different, you know. It's it's a sliced bun that's done. See, that's where we get into this debate. Like, is it just about something that folds content inside? Or is it about, hey, a taco is like a corn, a corn chip? The other ones are bread. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, Anthony. I got this.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

I got this. Yeah, uh, hi, Anthony, uh Corpse Strategy Podcast Cabinet and email. Uh hot dog is a sandwich because if you take two pieces of Oreo and put ice cream in the middle of it, that's a sandwich. And I would argue that's less of a sandwich than a hot dog is a sandwich. So based on the qualifications of the ice cream sandwich, and then we have, you know, our submarines, our hoagies, our BLTs and Rubens. The hot dog is on the side, like if we're looking at this as a spectrum, ice cream BLT, hot dog's over here, right? Like burrito might be closer to a sandwich than an ice cream sandwich is. But if we're willing to label the ice cream sandwich, the ICE, ICS, as so referred to by the US government, then we must qualify the hot dog as a sandwich. And I rest my case.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

That is that's a great argument, Anthony. Thank you for your contribution to this discussion. I love how passionate you are. Did I break the ice?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Is the ice thoroughly broken?

SPEAKER_01 20:40

I think you one, this is topical because obviously July 4th is coming up. So if you're an American, we have a holiday. There's a lot of a lot of things happening with barbecue and so on. So, like these icebreakers, if you make them topical, are gonna kind of resonate in people's minds. And it's gonna be fun. Like it's something I'm bringing up right now because I really enjoyed it because it did exactly what you just did. Of you had to think about it for a second. You're like, wait a second, hold on. Like, this is such a ridiculous question, but I love it because I can create this angle. And by you, I didn't even think about like the ice cream sandwich aspect of it, but it's almost like the ice cream sandwich defines the sandwich category of it's not about the contents, no, it's about how it comes together. Correct. Man, clip that. That's gonna be on the the shorts here in a second. That's the real corporate strategy tip. That's your name. That felt like very metaphorical, metaphorical. It's not about it's not about you know what it is and how you define it, it's the structure. How it comes together.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Yeah, the structure. I think if if we're following structural rules in that case, um any two-story house is also a sandwich. Vis-a vis the multiple, it's a double decker sandwich. There's a layer, yeah, there's a layer in between. I'm the meat in the middle of my house. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a big map. The sandwich is a delivery vehicle for the hands that are big enough to fit around the containing mechanism, which is also eaten as part of its design. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

It's interesting. It's interesting. Now a taco. Like when you think about a sandwich, well, when you think about, I think something that breaks this argument of a hot dog being a sandwich or even a taco being a sandwich is one, it's because a hot dog usually the bun is connected. There's no breakage of the bun. Same with a taco. It's one holistic container. Sandwich. A sandwich usually has two distinct ends. And I don't know that a hot dog can fit that.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Disagree. Okay. Evidence. Uh exhibit A, Your Honor. Okay. The submarine. The hoagie. Yeah. Start as baguette bread. This is true. Proximity France delivered to United States. So we could cut it down the middle, preserving the tiny bit ring that holds the submarine together. I might argue the hoagie proves the hot dog.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

The hoagie might break that construct. Yeah, I agree. Or the hoagie, maybe is hot dog is a hot dog a hoagie. Maybe that's the better argument. Is a hoagie a sandwich? Good question. Be honest with you. Gyro. Giro. Yeah. Is it, by the way, at this point, it's one of those things like I'm too afraid to ask. Is it Hero or Gyro? I don't know. I know it's not gyro. I know it's not gyro. I 100% know it's not gyro. I'm with you there. I know what it isn't. But I'm not questioning what it is. My favorite comment, and I saw this in a few places, but um Aika in our chat said, Great argument. You are wrong though, but great argument. You should try working with this.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

I respect that.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Yeah, that's how I feel. Like when I work with people. Yeah, you're wrong, but I appreciated the argument. Thanks. Please feel free to contribute next time. Okay. Okay, I got another one for you. All right. I have I have beef hot dogs for this weekend. We found this healthy type of hot dog. It's a beef hot dog. And I got to thinking about this question, how it relates to my beef hot dogs when I realized they were beef hot dogs. And I thought to myself, is my beef hot dog just a hamburger?

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Hamburger is also a sandwich, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

But yes. Good point.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Yes. The beef hot dog. Yeah, a beef hot dog is a hamburger. Yes. A beef hot dog is an even more portabilized version of the hamburger. It is missing the cheese, though. So I would say, like, in order for the beef hot dog to truly be like a classic hamburger, portable, more portable. Pocket, pocket hamburger? I think the the beef, the beef hot dog with the beef hot dog with the cheese layer in the middle is the ultimate portable hamburger. Because it's encased with the the the pig intestine. But all the other ingredients are there. So I mean you just that's hamburger on the go.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Are pigs in a blanket? That's what a beep hot dog is. Also known as the long burger. The long burger, yes, correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. You know, in Europe and London, don't they call like any sandwiches burgers?

SPEAKER_00 25:46

In Europe and London, they literally refer to any kind of bread that has been turned crispy as a biscuit. Is that a cookie? No, it's a biscuit. Is that bread? No, it's a biscuit. Like literally, you could point to something like that painting on the wall over there. Oh, that's also a biscuit. So you know we can't go on UK standards here. I'm just putting all of our European friends on blast. Yeah. Everything is a biscuit and everything is a pot. And that can't be true, but apparently it is. So I I just I don't think we can go off those rules.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

All right, we have some clarification in the chat. It's not hero. It's not gyro. It's gyro. And that just feels worse.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

That feels actually the most incorrect. That sounds Greek to me. So I'm gonna I'm gonna go with it. Eero.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Eero. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's

What Great Icebreakers Reveal About People

SPEAKER_01 26:40

right. Yeah. But yeah, these icebreakers have been fun because they're they pose these ridiculous questions that like anybody can engage with. Now, I think the hot dog one, some people have never had a hot dog because of your religious beliefs. Like you may never have eaten a hot dog, you know, it's true that's better.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Yeah. But they know what a hot dog is. So that's what I think is great about yeah, I think it's great because it sparks this debate. And it kind of gets your brain thinking of like, what else could we put in this ridiculous debate debate to learn something else about everyone around me? Like this brings out different perspectives that get you asking, like, why do you think about the long burger being a hot dog? Like, when was the first time you had a hot dog? How do you cook your hot dogs? And like it starts all these conversations that eventually get into how were you raised? How did you grow up? How did you experience something for the first time? And that's what I think so like magical about it is it just gets people into the conversation and getting to know each other without making it awkward of like, say your name, say your age, say your height and weight, and then say, you know, the first job you ever had. Like that's such a boring way to go about it.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

A big part of icebreakers for me, because I think a lot of people, I'm not gonna say a lot of people, I don't want to generalize. Some people think icebreakers are stupid. This is a waste of time. I want to know that actually. Like the whole point of an icebreaker is to get to know the person. Like, if you think the icebreaker is stupid and waste of time, I want to see you roll your eyes. I want to hear you say, no, it's a hot dog. End of story. Like that's helping me understand your personality, how you think, how you work through things, but also everyone else in the room is picking up that behavior too. So it's really useful from just a human behavior analysis perspective. People see me get excited about figuring out what are the rules of a hot dog. That's the guy you want to go to if you want to have a religious debate about hot dog sandwiches. Meanwhile, guy over there is like, no, it's a hot dog. It's you get the you get the humanity, but also how do I work with this person and what can I expect when I come to this person with an ask that might be a little funky or weird? Like, I love icebreakers because it truly is it's it's better than an interview on a culture and people front. It really gets everyone kind of in their social discomfort zone or their comfort zone based on you know what they do or don't like to talk about.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Yeah, 100% agree. Like it creates, it makes the other person on the other side a human, but then you learn so much just by asking a question like that of like who's gonna engage, how are they gonna go about it? But I feel like there's a right and a wrong way. Like you said, icebreaker, but I don't think it's I think there is a wrong way to do an icebreaker where it's just like, oh, this feels so cringy and like I have to share something personal about myself that I don't want to share. Like, I like to keep a line between my personal self and my work self. And sometimes I don't like doing the super personal questions of like, you know, who what was the name of your your first heartbreak? And it's like, what? Like, what kind of question is that? And why would I tell people that I work with about it? So I think the wrong way to do it is picking something like that where it's like extremely personal. And when you meet someone for the first time, it wouldn't be someone that you like tell them. So I think you have to pick something that's like it's very topical, it's very relatable, it's something that everyone knows, and it's also kind of a ridiculous thing that starts a debate. Like another one that came up um is like, is cereal a soup?

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Right?

SPEAKER_01 30:20

And it's like, okay, let's think about that. Yeah, like there's cold soups out there, there's sweet soups out there. Why couldn't cereal be a soup? Why is a cereal not soup? Yeah, it is a soup. Yeah, exactly. Is chili a soup? Yeah, yeah. And what what is chili? If I have pasta in my chili, as many places do, is that still considered chili? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Why not?

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Yeah, yeah. I feel like why do they call them cookies if you bake them? I mean, the world is begging for answers, but no one is raising their hands. No one's prepared to answer.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

No one's prepared for the outcome. They're not ready. They can't handle the truth. They can't handle it. So I thought it'd be interesting to talk about it because I feel like I'm seeing I'm seeing it done well. And like I've only experienced it when it's been pretty terrible. And while it might be kind of goofy, I think what I would say to that, like, I don't know if you feel like this, Anthony, too, but like I could see in like an executive meeting or if an executive is there, then being like, this is goofy, this is kind of stupid, like I kind of don't like this. But like, if you don't take yourself so seriously for a second, I think you'll realize this is actually a very positive thing because at the end of the day, we're all just people and we're getting to know each other. We're learning about each other's working styles, we're understanding more of who this is as a person and what forms their thoughts and their feelings and things that could be relatable to them. And it ultimately just brings us together as people. Like we were talking about, we hinted at this at our last episode. Sports is like an example of that. Like World Cup is going on right now. There's a bunch of like gaming conferences and things like that, and like brings people together, and like those things are great, and I think that's how you build a positive culture in a company.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

I completely agree. And if if you are in a in a room or an event next time there's an icebreaker, you're like, ugh, I don't want to do this. Just remember, it's not for you, it's for everyone else. And the same is true for them to you, it's for you to observe everyone else. So I think that's that is really the big thing. Uh I I don't think there's ever been a bad time for icebreakers, especially when you're starting like a new project, new team, new anything. But there certainly are bad icebreakers for sure. Uh absolutely do you want to hear

Bad Icebreakers And Simple Ground Rules

SPEAKER_00 32:50

one? I would love to hear one. I looked up one.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

How many of you have made your bed this morning? Oh one boring? Like extremely boring? It's like, yeah, I made my bed.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Like, do you want honesty or do you want like and I don't did you get the sense too? Like with the question that do you feel like you're gonna get judged a little bit? Like you kind of like it almost puts you on the edge of like, I need to lie because I don't want to look bad, especially if I'm the only person who's like, I never make my bed.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

I I think that's one thing to look out for with icebreakers is it should never put anyone in a situation that will make them look bad or make people uncomfortable. Like, there is a discomfort with public speaking and public interaction for for introverts. Discomfort is fine, but actual I would say borderline malicious intent, like if it could produce an answer that would hurt someone's opinion, another one I saw. That's really good. Uh someone these are all based on real stories. Like, someone asked, What's your most controversial opinion? Like, never ask that. Never ask that to a group of people.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Like, why would you want to do that? Why would you want to spark that type of conversation with each other? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

A good one. I suppose you're all wondering why I've gathered you here today. How do we kill Superman?

SPEAKER_01 34:36

It's that's one of those where it's like, it would make sense if you knew it, but people for people who like don't understand it, they're like, I don't even know how to participate in this.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Yes, yes. But I mean that would be fun because then you'd be like, I don't know who Superman is. You got one guy who's go, I'll tell you who Superman is, and it's like it becomes a little bit of an education interaction. Oh, okay, can we do this? No, because of the kryptonite. Oh, okay. So like it would, it's a good team builder, especially for those who have knowledge and those who don't. So I I like that one. I think that's pretty cute. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Yeah. So I think if I know we're keeping this one a little short today, but yes, you know, I think if you are if you're joining a new team, if you are at a new company, if you are just trying to, you know, break the ice, for lack of a better term, with people around you, try to look for an icebreaker that is not going to put people on the spot, but it's actually going to spark a little bit of friendly debate with something that's generically topical and relatable to everyone. And I feel like that's what's so beautiful about the goofy is a hot dog a sandwich question because it does exactly that. It's cereal soup. Like it gets people talking and engaged, it gets you the ability to read how they are going to play off that situation. You got you get to ask follow-up questions of like, why in the world do you boil your hot dogs? Use a grill like a normal human being, and you kind of get to find those people, and then that gets to be a fun thing of being like, oh, it's hot dog boiling boy over there, Anthony. He loves to boil them hot dogs. Like, that's just a fun thing to create an environment where you're all just like laughing and talking about it more and more.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Package says you could boil them.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Package really it does, but it's just it's one of those things that just feels wrong. You can't explain why it's wrong, but it feels like it. Package, package, don't lie.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Package, hot dog the instructions. Hot dog is package within a package. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Is it just another delivery vehicle?

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Yes. The hot dog is the ultimate mystery food, is what I'm starting to realize on this pod. Like, yeah, we talked about icebreakers, but really I'm I'm fixated on just the concept of hot dog. So we don't really know it. It's a broader sausage, you know, category.

unknown 36:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Yes, a hot dog's a sandwich because people eat freaking uh the uh the the the the the the the sausage and pepper sandwiches from New York. That's just the hot dog. Oh, yeah. I mean a sausage sandwich is literally a hot dog. It just doesn't have ketchup and mustard on it. It's just it's peppers and onions. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

What's the quality that truly make what a hot dog is?

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Sour sauerkraut and uh sausage?

SPEAKER_01 37:21

That's a hot pot.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

That's a franc. Sure. How do you get the beans above the franc?

SPEAKER_01 37:30

So I think that's our our tip for you today. You know, if you're starting out a new team, if you're working with a corporate group, like and you're planning something and you want to get people engaged, like pick something silly, pick something relatable, pick something topical that's gonna spark some fun debate and continue the conversation and keep it going. Don't do something boring, don't do something that's gonna feel like a test, don't do something that's about gonna be about politics, religion, money. Like just stay away. Yeah, yeah, stay away from all of those things because that's just gonna be an absolute nightmare, and no one's gonna ever want to come to an event you host ever again. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

And don't don't do anything that's gonna make your audience potentially look bad. That's the other thing.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, did you make your bed this morning? Do you flush the toilet and wash your hands every time? I hope so. I really hope so. You are in your room. All right, raise your hand if you wash your wash your hands.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

It's like, uh, is it too early to put my two weeks' notice? Uh yeah, I think I'm done with this place. Just leave a markout. This is not the place for

Discord AI Game And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 38:39

me. Uh, speaking of the places for you, if you want infinite icebreakers that will never end, you can join our Discord. Inside of our Discord, we have really fun activities and really great conversations. Right now, Michael has an is it AI up that literally no one knows. Like it's hopeless. Actually, I feel like we gotta release it today.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Okay, June is over. This was our June challenge. June like it's ahead of the July 4th. Okay. I feel like I gotta tell you guys. I feel like I gotta reveal the secret of what this truly is. All right. What do you think?

SPEAKER_00 39:15

Do it. You could you could share your screen if you want. It'll I was gonna say, should I share? Share it, please. Right. By all means. I'm gonna open it up. I'm gonna share it. And I'm gonna tell you which one's real. I'm listening.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

And which one's AI generated.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

I will report to the the Discordians. Uh listening.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

I gotta, I gotta, I gotta zoom in. I gotta, I gotta really zoom in. Okay, okay. I got I got the answer below. All right. We're in a good spot. I'm gonna share my screen. Okay. You said that triple times now. Oh no, nothing sharing. Oh boy. Can you see this? I can see it. Okay. So we had two images. We always vote in our Discord which one's AI. And we have basically a vote on one or two. So the one on the left is one, the one on the right is two. Okay. Current vote counts are six votes for number one being AI and number two being real. And Anthony, I got some bad news. I think we're cooked. I think we're cooked because number one is real. Dude, I knew it. Shot on an iPhone. Number two is AI.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

But like, look at look at look at this. There is a clue. There's actually a clue. Because I looked at these things for like 15 minutes. There is a clue. So I had a feeling number one was just really good camera software, right? Like, yeah, it's not well, okay. We have to we have to take the definition of AI and step back here because every camera phone is using some kind of AI cleanup now. True. Yeah, I agree. Right? Like, so technically they both are, but number one is a real picture that a person took of a real scenario. The reason why I knew can you scooch over to number two real quick? Scooch on over. See that grill? Zoom in on that grill. The the black part. How deep? Right there. There how does that grill work? It's too close to the to the metal. Yeah, to the grace. Like it doesn't understand what a grill is. So it just like there's just there's black under the grill, but there's no room for the heat or anything to pass through. I saw that and immediately thought that ain't real. That is an interpretation of real. Look at these weird like sausages back there. Sometimes they link. I will say that one in the very back, like it almost loops, but it does have a tail. It's just a funky looking tail.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

Yeah.

unknown 41:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

There's some weird, like, look at this one too. Like you can kind of tell it's not connected in a weird way. And yeah, like what is that? Look at that zucchini right in the middle. It's not connected to anything, it's not on a skew. Yeah, like this one is just horizontal versus the verticals.

SPEAKER_02 42:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Yeah, it's just a floating zook. It's good though. I mean, I'll I'll give it this. It's good. It got it got much better. You know, when we were initially starting, like, I feel like the majority of people just knew like immediately. Now I feel like many people just can't tell. Like it's really, really hard to differentiate.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Shoutouts, I and me. I just want to, you know, shoutouts Ikea and myself. We are the John Collins. Yeah. We are gonna fight the machines and win. Super, super impressive. Good job, though. Good, good. I mean, good test, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

This is a good one. That was a good one. Good test to see like how is AI progressing. And you guys should be so ashamed of yourself in the Discord because usually you are on it. I can't shame the losers. I can congratulate you two. I am really impressed that you two got it. You two were having conversations, but this is the first one that's like truly trumped. Like there's been close ones, but everybody always properly picks the one that's generated by AI. This is the first one where the majority got it wrong. So, anyways, if you want to play, come join our Discord. I'm gonna announce it. We'll do the July challenge soon. We'll do something topical, we'll do something fun. Some would say it's close to an icebreaker. If you want to join our Discord channel, you can vote and state your opinion. So feel free to join on in.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

Hey, if you don't want to join the Discord, that's fine. If you want to help us out financially, we love that. You can do so by going to our Patreon. We have a direct link in the show notes. And coming soon, because I deleted it when I refetched my laptop, uh, is a presentation uh I will be giving on public speaking. So uh if you'd like to see Did you actually delete it? I did. Uh no.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Yes. The one thing we said we're gonna create and give to the people we delete.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

I'm gonna redo it. I'm gonna redo it, but I did delete it. So I'll be recreating that and uh putting that up on the Patreon soon. We have more content like that coming. So if you'd like sort of more personal, intimate educational content, that will be up on the Patreon. And thank you to our existing Patreon supporters for putting up with our little slow release of content. We are getting better, I promise. It's just it's it's been a year. It's been a real, it's been a real super niño of a year, you know what I'm saying. Uh outside of that, please share the pod. Please be kind and uh go go say hello to a neighbor in your in your neighborhood. Just say hi to them if you've never met them before. Introduce yourself. Uh neighbors are what make the world go around, and it doesn't hurt to be nice.

SPEAKER_01 44:43

So try to walk up to them and say, maybe walk up to them and say, Is a hot dog a sandwich? And just get the response. Don't even say your name first, just start with that.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

If they say yes, be sure to say, Hey, you know who agrees with you? This podcast I listen to. You should give it a listen. It's corporate strategy. The podcast that could have been an email. And until next time, I'm Anthony and I'm Michael. And you're on mute. We will see you all next week.