Live Stream Hiccups And CAPTCHA Secrets

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Welcome back to Corporate Strategy, the podcast that could have been an email.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

I'm Anthony. And I'm Michael. Oh, that was a long time. That was a long time to be holding my breath.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

It did it did a new thing today. I mean, I I was flawless. I was perfect. You'll see in the replay that I nailed this intro. Um, but YouTube did this thing where it's like, hey, you can't go live for 30 seconds. Try again.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

So I did. Oh, good. Yeah, they were just worried, you know, you were trying to DDoS attack them, so they had to prove you weren't a human. They had to bring up Cloudflare. They did enter CAPTCHA.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

They did. I did. I did all those things. Cloudflare. Yes. Yes. My DNS host. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yes. You know how smart CAPTCHA is? ReCAPTCHA? Like the dude who invented it.

SPEAKER_04 1:01

Do you know the story? Isn't it? Well, no, but firstly, observation, isn't it not actually about getting the test right? It's about how long it takes for you to do the test.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

That's a little bit of it, yes. Yeah. But it actually was meant that the guy who uh who built Duolingo. I don't know, he's the guy who like built the CAPTCHA system. And it's a genius idea. He basically was like, we took manuscripts of books that have never been digitized, and we basically just scanned those into bits and pieces, and we got people to transcode them for us. And by using an algorithm where multiple people are telling you exactly what the letters are, you basically just take the top vote for what the accuracy is. And then you're able to transcribe all of these books and documents that have never been transcribed before, and he sold that to like companies and services that did book scanning and publishing. Isn't that wild?

SPEAKER_04 1:56

So CAPTCHA was actually like a data hunter. Like it was, it was, we were, we were training it. It wasn't to catch the robots, it was for us to train the thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah. This guy's like, hey, any company that actually needs to do like you need to you know digitize your your books, and you easy way to do that. We'll scan them for you. We'll get them to tell us exactly what they say, whether they're handwritten words, whether they're digital, like old degraded copies, and we'll get the world to tell us what the actual letters and words are, so that way we can digitize them easier, and we'll sell it back. What it I mean, what what what what I mean, what what if I I mean you have to think about you have to think about like right now, all the new captions we get. It's like choose the motorcycles, choose the stairways, choose the car. You have to think you're just training image translation for the channel.

SPEAKER_04 2:47

So well, that was my question. That was my next question. So what if I am actually like translating unbeknownst to me like the anarchist cookbook? And you could be. Uh, but am I responsible? Do I go to jail?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

You I don't think you can be held personally liable for this. However, you can put a tag on your LinkedIn that says you contributed to the to the translation of the anarchist cookbook.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Okay, cool. I just want to make sure the world knows that I was there to help teach everyone how to make napalm. You know.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

I mean, everyone already knows how to do it with the latest AI models anyway, right? I'm just saying that's why the government shut down Fable. It's a national security risk. Come on, Anthony, get it together. It's because of you classifying words, you classifying stoplights in a series of images. This is your fault.

SPEAKER_04 3:38

Everything is my fault always. That's what I've learned in life, is that most things, if something goes wrong just in the general life of those, it's probably my fault. I it's probably you. I kind of love that though. I kind of love being the villain in everyone's life. That's it's who I am, it's who I will be.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

I think you're too hard on yourself. I think you need to be less hard on yourself. I think you need to be nice to yourself and kind. And I think you need to see the version of Anthony that we all see here as corporate strategists. Failure. No, no, no, no, no. The highly successful, career

LinkedIn After AI Becomes Slop

SPEAKER_01 4:20

transitioning marketing enigma that you are that has made me the happiest person alive. So thank you.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Oh, I'm glad I made you happy. Glad I make you happy, Michael. Um, also, marketing enigma. I'm gonna go update my LinkedIn profile. Hold on, hold on real quick.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Well, the the background, do you still have the same um image as like your header image on LinkedIn? I professionalized it.

SPEAKER_04 4:45

Yeah, I professional. Well, there was there was a time when I didn't know if I was gonna have a job. Like, so I was like, I probably need to clean up LinkedIn because now AI is gonna look at this and be like, this person's a total fool. So I had to, you know, in the old, so I mean, here's the sad thing, right? Like, I used to be very active on LinkedIn and I would make jokes and posts, and occasionally I'd provide valuable content, but most of it was just like, hey, if you stumble across something that Anthony's doing, he's gonna make you feel better. Like that was my general vibe is if you come across something that I've done on LinkedIn, you're gonna see it, you're gonna smile, you're gonna feel better about yourself. Like it was all about the surprise. If you looked at my bio, it was like I made up my own bio. I had a funny header, I would make these funny meme posts, and I made LinkedIn a better place. And then something happened, which was AI. And uh I I couldn't stomach it. I like I literally couldn't stomach reading these AI just shit posts effectively, just nonsense, really professional grade writing about nothing. So I quit using it. But things like my Falcor banner lingered. And then when I found out, you know, I might not have a job in the future. I was like, I gotta clean up my LinkedIn because I might need to use this platform to find a job. Fortunately, I I don't I don't feel like I'm in that situation anymore. Uh, regardless, I got ghosted by like six recruiters, which was fun. That's great. Yeah, but uh yeah, LinkedIn sucks. I hate it. I I really try to avoid going there at all costs.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

I have to give a shout out to so all my friends, including yourself. So I've been posting on LinkedIn like actively for a couple of years now.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

You have been.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

And obviously, you know, part of it was because now I run my own business, so I need to be active. Like LinkedIn is a good place to find the people that my business works with. So, you know, it's a great place for me to be posting and doing thought leadership stuff and also, you know, just posting updates about things because it's fun. Um, but my friend always loves to make fun of me. And he texted me the other day and he said, Hey Michael, have you considered getting pregnant to increase engagement on your posts? And he sent me a picture. He sent me a picture of this person who posted a picture of them being pregnant, and the the headline was The Path to Authenticity has been violent for me. It's just a picture of them pregnant. I swear.

SPEAKER_04 7:09

The LinkedIn is like I love that. What getting pregnant? Twitter was always bad. Like people are like, no, Twitter's been bad since Elon Musk got it. Like, no, that's that was always there. The thing is, is like a lot of people left when Elon Musk bought Twitter, and all that was left was the refuse, but the refuse is always there, like right, it's always been there. I've never used Twitter for that reason. It's just a it's a shit pit. Um but LinkedIn was not that. LinkedIn had merit and value until AI happened, and now it is literally just a content hole. Like many places, it is just a content hole for slop to fill your feed. I don't think it's healthy. I I really don't think it's healthy. Like the scrolling, the feeds, yeah, the the influx of information. Like we're doing something to ourselves. We really are.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

In general, I think that's like the the uh bear case on social media, like the way that it's impacts on society. Yeah, I I agree with you, and I don't do this. The only social media I really do. Obviously, I've started doing like Instagram just for us for core. I appreciate you and your wife doing that. Yeah, we gotta we gotta try to get some more engagement here. We have some really good clips and people watch those.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

Sadly, it's some good engagement.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

It's the only way to grow is to use these platforms, right? Right. So, other than that, like I really don't do social media except for I lurk on Reddit and I lurk on X or Twitter now or whatever you call it. Like, that's all I do. I never post anything except for on LinkedIn. But I agree with what you're saying. I do think I think it's kind of an social media is kind of a net negative for society, unfortunately. And it's gotten so much worse. Like ever since I knew when Instagram started, and I was on it, like one of the you know, early adopter groups of it, and it was so pure and so fun. You're just people taking random pictures of crap like at the zoo or this thing on the ground, and like you only saw the people you followed, and now I go on there and it's like suggested, follow, add. And I was talking to my wife, I'm like, I literally don't know if I saw anything in the last five minutes of anyone I even know. It's just spam. That's all it is. It's awful.

SPEAKER_04 9:30

Well, like the I think the big problem. So, like Reddit, I don't really count Reddit as a social media. I see that as a news aggregator, right? It's a link aggregator, really. It is a feed, but it is it is less of a yes, you do get a lot of nonsense on there, but you also get like if you if you tailor your feed well enough, you're just going to get like authentic source kind of posts managed by a community. And that's the thing, right? Like Reddit is community-based. So if you're in a good community, the good community moderates. So

Algorithms Break Boundaries And Attention

SPEAKER_04 10:05

Reddit is like a neighborhood, right? Like I'm in a neighborhood, I choose to live in this neighborhood because I like the houses, I like the people. Yeah, there's gonna be some people I don't like, there's gonna be some people I I block and ignore, but for the most part, like I'm good with this. I think the problem with Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn is like you don't get a say in your neighbors. You're just like shown, like it's like I I didn't want to see uh pregnant uh violence. Like what is what does that even mean? I don't want to see it. Uh and like if you think about how how we were pre-social media, you would socialize with your neighbors because you live near them. Like it's kind of something you can't avoid. Proximity. You would socialize people you work with, right? That's a different you have communities, your neighborhood community, your work community. You might bowl, so you talk to people at the bowling alley. Maybe you talk to people at the grocery store, but for the most part, you kind of keep to yourself. But like you are never forced to be in proximity of uh people at the flower shop if you don't go to the flower shop. Where on Instagram, it's like, no, you gotta see what the flower shop's up to because the algorithm has decided it wants to boost this post and get it in your face. And I think that's the problem is like social media doesn't consider uh the boundaries that we would put on ourselves, uh just by nature of being human, where it's like, yeah, I choose not to go there, so I'm not gonna see what's in there, and you don't get a choice anymore. And now we're just being slapped in the face with pregnancy violence. It's just it's great.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Well, I agree with you, yeah, because Reddit is driven by the things you're you've shown interest in. And like the pro of a platform like that is you choose the communities you join, which is very different, you know, than the algorithm-driven social media platforms of Instagram, Facebook, X. And it is unfortunate because like it used to be, even with X or Twitter, you could just scroll and see the people you followed, like what they posted and whatever. Now it's so driven by the algorithm. Like, if you don't interact, if I don't like a post, then I don't get posts like that. Right. It starts feeding me other things until I like something. Yeah, and then if I like something, all I get is that thing. Yes, like the World Cup. Like, I like this thing about the World Cup. I'm like, now I know I don't see anything tech related, I only see World Cup. I'm like, how did that happen? I don't even follow anybody that does World Cup stuff, and it's just because of the algorithm.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

I remember when I was trying to do our Instagram for corporate strategy, and like I had not used any kind of social media in probably 10 years to that point. I killed my Facebook long, long time ago. That was the only social media I ever had. I was gonna like the first 500 people on Facebook. Like, sad, I killed my account, but whatever, I hated that platform. So, like when I was on Instagram, it was so weird because it would be like, oh, here's an advertisement, like here, here's a post about a vacuum. Like, okay, I guess maybe that's an ad. I don't know. Is that an ad? Like, I don't know. And it's like, oh, here's a post about like some e-girl. Oh, here's a post about a rocket going off. I'm like, this is just this is like it's contextual overload, and I feel like it's just trying to fish and understand like what I'm trying to do with this account. Exactly. But it it's like it's feeding me things I don't want to see. And that's like that's the I don't know. I don't know. Like we're we're wrecking ourselves. Like we really are wrecking ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:28

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

I think the brain just can't handle all that, and that's what I'm worried about for the youth.

SPEAKER_04 13:32

Like it's just too much. It's just too much. I mean, I think the youth actually has it figured, uh, for the most part. I think so. It really does seem like the youth, yes, uh I not full generalization, like many of them have social addiction. But from what I've seen, especially in like the uh let's say the teens to like the mid-20s now, they're backing away from social media and they're they're engaging more with physical media, which is funny. Like they're they're almost becoming versions of me, like they're collecting CDs and books and physical like DVDs because they want to like distance themselves from these platforms. I think the real problem is people of our generation, uh, your and mine, and uh the Gen Xers and especially the boomers, uh, who cannot regulate uh or understand like and that's the problem is they don't understand what the platforms are doing to them. And I think it it's just wrecking their brains. It's just wrecking their brains. Yeah, yeah. I agree. I see it.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Speaking of my peers, yeah, yeah,

Health Check Heat Exhaustion Lessons

SPEAKER_01 14:36

yeah. Go ahead. Wreck my brains. Speaking of wrecking brains, I think we want a vibe check from you. We're worried about you, sleep paralysis, conditions with your chest, right? The foot issues, the the heat exhaust. Heat exhaustion. We need an update. Are you okay? I mean, did you survive the heat exhaustion? Barely. I had a headache for a week.

SPEAKER_04 14:55

I still get like little twinges of it. It's wild. Don't don't recommend dumping heat exhaustion. It's bad things. Gotta hydrate. You gotta hydrate. Uh, and it's funny, like I guess the the lesson learned is you gotta hydrate one, but you really gotta have electrolytes. Like that's yeah, that's the big thing. It's what plants, so potassium, yeah, electrolytes, like those three things, you gotta have them. You've got to got to got to have them. And uh, that was my big mistake was I didn't have electrolytes in me that day.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

And I paid ailments price, no more health ailments. Everything's been good this week, life's good. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:30

Yeah. Also, I think I I accidentally zoomed in on the stream real quick, and everyone's gonna see it. It was an accident. I was just moving window so I could I could see Michael better.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Uh no, no, it was kind of smooth. This run was kind of smooth, and then you did this, and now it's zoomed in right to my nose, and it's on my face, like my my freaking lazy ass face.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

Uh it it it got me. No, I'm good. I'm good, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm just tired. Tired. I feel that.

AC Gratitude And Maintenance Reality

SPEAKER_04 16:00

Yeah, I feel that. Yeah. How are how are you?

SPEAKER_01 16:03

How does it spline general feel? One, it's hot. It's very hot. It's hot, but it's great like AC. Yeah, AC is just a phenomenal thing. Can we all just take a moment? No, we can't. To be so, so thankful for AC. We really can't. I just want to say thank you.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

We are in a privileged position, you and me.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Mine is going off right now. Yeah. And I just want to say thank you. I want to say thank you to you, AC, because somehow it's keeping us cool. I think the vast majority of people who listen to the show don't have AC. Everybody in Europe, everybody in the northern states. Yeah. I mean, where I grew up in Michigan, we didn't have AC. No.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

And they're the they're the ones who are suffering. It's so funny because yeah, it's like 95 degrees outside. Like, are you dying? It's like, nah, just don't go outside. I just stay inside. And they're like, but it's hot inside. No, it's not. We have air conditioning here. Yeah. And I mean, it's funny, uh, you know, an air conditioner is like a $15,000 thing if you have a whole home air conditioner, right? Like at the minimum, you're paying, you know, well, it it comes with all houses in the southern hemisphere, so you don't get a choice, it's just baked into the cost. But you I do feel for our non-florida neighbors who are, you know, you can't just go buy an AC because it's it's not like you're in a super niño. Uh, you can't just do it.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

But and also you if it goes out, like good luck, because this is the time of year. This is prime time for ACs to die. And if yours goes out, you're gonna be feeling like the rest of the world.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

Pro tip: if you do not have an engagement, if you have an air conditioner, which I always really realize this is like just narrowing down our audience to the two of us, if you don't have an air conditioner and you if you have an air conditioner and you don't have a maintenance plan, get one. I cannot recommend it enough. It costs like $100 to $200 a year, which seems like a lot. It's not, I promise you. It will extend the life of your air conditioner. They'll come out every six months, they'll do a full like evaluation of it, and you will you will spend less than you save by not having to replace your air conditioner sooner rather than later. And you will catch things before they break, which means they can get repaired for cheaper. So uh, you know, insurance is a scam. AC repair is not. Just take my word for it.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Well, I'm gonna put on my boomer, my boomer hat really quick. They just don't make them like they used to, Anthony.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

Oh my god, they just don't make them like things to I'm ending the spot.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

You know why, you know why I say that? Because my my wife and I, our first house we bought together, it uh it had an AC unit from the 80s when the house was built. Was it a train? Ran? No, no, it was not it was not a train, it was not a it was not a hamster wheel either, if that's what you were going for. I know no, I mean like the train, the brand, the train. No, okay, no, I don't think so. But it it ran like a champ. Like the thing is still running to the people we sold our house to. And I had a I had a guy in older where I live, it's very like handyman, like they're grumpy old men, but they get the job done and they can fix pretty much anything you ask them to. He came by and like I asked him, like, okay, well, I just saw zoom in, by the way. I was trying to see if I could see a zoom in on your face and zoomed right in on your face. Zoom right in on my next one. I'm not sure. The guy came over when we had an issue one time, and he I was like, Okay, do you think we like need to replace the system? And he's like, Listen, I just do this to make a little bit of money, make a living. I'm not trying to sell you a new system. He's like, do not get rid of this. Never touch it. So it literally falls apart. He's like, I have a fan and a part for it to replace what you need. And he's like, just keep on fixing it because it will run for 20 more years, likely. And if you get a brand new one, it's gonna break in five.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Well, yeah, but I agree with you on the maintenance plan. I think people don't look at that and then it rusts over, especially new machines. Like, you gotta, you gotta have it these days. You know, uh there's a problem.

Personal Sacrifice Versus Corporate Pollution

SPEAKER_04 20:01

I um there's there's a serious problem though. I'm gonna say something I'm gonna regret saying. There's a serious problem in society as a whole because there's been this movement, this onus. Oh no. There's been this onus on us that we, the people, need to be better about energy consumption, and we need to be better about buying smart appliances that are energy efficient and all of this stuff because we're saving the planet. Meanwhile, meanwhile, you look at the businesses and the corporations and the oil rigs and like all of the freaking terraforming machines out there that are just destroying the environment. Like, drop in a bucket my 20-year-old air conditioner. Never gonna never gonna come close to the carbon impact of one rocket launch, right? Like, never gonna come close. But you and I must buy the energy efficient air conditioner to do good for the planet, and like that doesn't make a hill of beans compared to a rocket launch, but the fact that they're making these things like more energy efficient means they're having to cut and sacrifice things that used to work well, right? Like, so we pay for it. But meanwhile, like what are we doing? Like, who are we helping? Yeah, like what's the point? And uh sadly, the brainwashing of the people it's it's really sad. Like propaganda. Propaganda. I'm someone who deeply I mean I'm wearing a freaking PBS shirt. I deeply care about the planet, but it doesn't start with us, it starts with them. Uh and that's that's my stance on this is like we have made such a weird decision to oh, don't, you know, don't use that paper straw, Michael. Don't use it. Yeah, because you're gonna kill the planet if you slur from that straw. Meanwhile, just a single rocket launch like it creates a carving. An impact so big, like you could measure it in the ozone. So you know, it's just it's just it's just the things, it's just the things that we accept as people and don't question and just smile and nod and wink at. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Yeah, it's funny. There's a lot of examples of that. And it's like another one is it's like, okay, we all got to contribute. I somebody stopped me the other day. I was leaving the DMV. I was getting on my license of registration. It actually was so much better than it used to be, by the way. Let's just pause to thank the Lord. You don't have to sit in a hot, sweaty DMV with a thousand people anymore and wait five hours to get called. It was streamlined, it was effective. But I walk outside and this group stops me and they're like, hey, you know, you could end world hunger if you just you know contributed ten dollars every single month. Yeah, you could. And like you and you're like everyone did that, sure. Sure. But the funny thing is, it's like, and then you have these examples where like Jeff Bezos' like ex-wife, he's paid her like I don't know, milli billions of dollars.

SPEAKER_04 23:06

Even giving away billions of dollars a year. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Yeah, she's giving away these billions, and like she could solve what they've said is like the amount of money that she's gained, she could have solved world hunger by now. And it's like, oh yeah, I could give ten dollars a day, or the people at the top could just be like, hey, we're just gonna figure this out.

SPEAKER_04 23:21

Yes, yes, collectively, yes. Uh, that's true. And then even still, like, money is still not part of the like money is part of the problem, but the other part of the problem is there's just too gosh dang many of us, and we keep breeding like rabbits, and everyone's like, oh, but the birth rate's going down. Like, who cares, dude? Quit losing the ozone layer. We're doing this.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

There might be no place for us to live.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

Oh my gosh. Like, you can't even afford to buy a house or go to college. But like, no, pop out four kids. That's a great idea. It's a great idea for society. Uh, don't worry. It's gonna get hotter. That's all

Heat Living And Bear Boy Lore

SPEAKER_04 24:00

I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Buy an air conditioner.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah, that's it's gonna get hotter.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

That's my status update. It's it's hot, it's hot, and that's all I feel. You you know, I'm an outdoor, I'm an outdoor guy, and it kind of stinks this time of year because you go out and you like you have to be indoors at certain hours. Like there's a you don't want to be outside past like 10 a.m. And you can't really go outside until like after 6 p.m. right now. So like you need to be indoors for a good eight to ten hours during the day, and you have like this window of maybe an hour, but where we live, it's also it's 6 a.m. outside and it's 500% humidity. So you walk out and you're like sweating already.

SPEAKER_04 24:36

That's wild.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

I mean, this morning was really nice.

SPEAKER_04 24:38

We were walking the dogs, it was like seven o'clock, and it was like, ooh, it's kind of nice out right now.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Yeah, and it is nice.

SPEAKER_04 24:43

Even towards like seven, eight o'clock. It's yeah. I mean, even the thing about where we live, because we're so close to the middle of the planet. Well, horizontally, the middle of the planet, like the equator. Even when it's 60 degrees and sunny, it's still hot. Because you're just getting so much sun. And like, like, I don't know. I don't like being in the sun. I mean, you can tell. You could tell.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Yeah, I don't like being in the sun all that. You need vitamin both sides. Yeah, yeah. I've lived both sides of like harsh winters, yeah, and beautiful summers up north. It's way better to have the sun all year round. Oh, I have a lot of fun. You feel better, you look better like the tan you get on your skin. Like you don't get the the winter depression from all the snow. Like, you can uh thank God for AC, you can always cool down.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

There is a reason that my neighborhood is 90% like 60 plus, right? Like there there comes a realization in everyone's life when the wrinkles and the grays really start to set in. You're like, you know what? I don't want to be cold anymore. And uh they all come here. So it's uh it's just it's the way of the world. I think we're tropical creatures, you know? Like, I think so. Whether you believe in evolution or not, you don't see the monkeys hanging out in Antarctica, right? Like, there's no monkeys in Minnesota because it's cold there. Yeah, he got out of there real quick. Like, we're gonna stay in here. This is a place for bears. Like, if we evolve from bears, then it'd be totally different. And be like, yeah, let's go live in the the North Pole. I'm a bear, I'm a bear human, but no, no, I'm I'm a monkey man, I'm an ape man.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Ape-man-like jungle, you know? Can I be? I want to be the bear human, and you can be the ape man.

SPEAKER_04 26:34

I am the ape man.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Those can be our code names.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Yes, all right, cool. I've I've wanted to get off our real names for so long, so I I would love to be ape-man.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Same here, like song by the king. Anthony and Michael is just so lame. Like I kind of want to go back to using a different different name, you know?

SPEAKER_04 26:51

Bear man, ape man. Yeah, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Yeah, yeah. No, bear human ape man.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

Oh, well, it's bear boy and ape man.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

I feel about these. Never mind, cancel it. Cancel it. We're sticking with Mike Lady Anthony.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let's let's let's test this out. Let's test this out real quick. You're listening to corporate strategy, the podcast. It could have been an email. I'm Ape Man, joined by my co-host, Bear Boy. Say hello, Bear Boy.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

It's bear human. Get it right.

SPEAKER_04 27:28

Trust me. Bear boy gets the double B alliteration. It's gonna stick. I promise. It's gonna stick.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Oh, I love it. Well, I got something sticking on our fun topics.

Spicy Career Takes That Work

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Yeah. Fun topic last week. Sticking on our fun topics for this week. I thought we would do something. I like I want to give the people, I want to give the people these clickbaity little things of like how to grow the algorithm. Yeah, I want that, I want to clickbait them into this. I want to get them with the sauciest, spiciest takes. And it's funny because we usually, it's as I was thinking about this episode, and as I was thinking about previous podcasts we've done, um, we're always like so positive. And you could spin any of those things to be like so incredibly negative. I'll I'll give you one example that I think would be hilarious. So I was thinking about, I was like, okay, what's one like secret I have for like growing your career in corporate? And if the positive spin, the positive Michael, the usual person who comes to this podcast, was like, be selective on who you spend time with. The very clickbaity rage bait Michael would be like, hey, don't be friends with people. Like, just just don't be it's the same thing. Like, just don't be friends with people unless you can have something to gain from it. And that's like the negative side to it, but it's it's true. It's like you've got to be selective on who you work with. And if you spend all your time with this person who has zero decision power, they don't manage you, and you're wasting time and effort helping them with something, you're not growing in your career. It's a nice thing for you to do. Yeah, it's morally right, but when you're in the rat race, it's not gonna help you.

SPEAKER_04 29:15

You absolutely need to make an impression with the people because promotion is never just a boss says you're promoted. It never is right. There's an approval chain. I went through this this year with my team because I wanted to get one of my teammates promoted. Like there's a chain. You've got to make a case, you gotta prove it. You gotta get papers filled out. You need to understand the chain and you need to understand who to prove you are worthy of the promotion. Um I think that's a really good tip. I my to help your algorithm, hold on, let me phrase this correctly. You can get promoted with this one weird trick. Ask for it. I'm not even kidding. Like ask for it. Like truly go to your boss and say, Hey, I want to get promoted. What do I need to do to get there? That step is probably tell me if you tell me if you think I'm wrong, Michael. But that's probably the most important thing you can do in the promotion journey is simply ask for it. No one is ever going to hand out a promotion to you. Ever. It's never gonna happen. You have to take the initiative and say, hey, I think I'm I need to move on to the next step. What do I need to do to get there? And force that conversation to happen.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

You know what's funny? I've got a good story about this uh from an experience that I had. So I had a I had a manager at one point, and I've always been very ambitious in my career. Like I've always like been the go-getter, like I'm the one who does the extra work. If there's something that comes up, like, don't worry, I'll do it. And they sat me down. This person managed me for probably six months and they were like, So do you want to like be promoted or like grow in this role? And I'm like, what? Yeah, it felt like such a stupid question. I'm like, what do you mean? Like, or are you happy just like doing what you're doing now? You seem like you really enjoy it. And I'm like, it never even crossed my mind that my intention was unclear. Yes, that I didn't want to be promoted, and that I was just showing enthusiasm for what I did. I'm like, no, no, duh, I want to be promoted because I want to earn more money. I want the title and the recognition and I want to grow my career. And so like it never even hit me. I never stated my intent to my boss of like, hey, my goal, my five-year goal from now is to be at this position. So therefore, I want to in the next two years be promoted this level and so on. And it's something that I swear, like nobody does, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_04 31:30

It I mean, like it it like I joke that it's the one weird trick, but in all honesty, that's how it starts. Because no one assumes to understand what your intentions are. Every manager just thinks they're content in their position. And like this is something I've learned is I've actually had conversations with my team where I'm like, hey, what do you what do you want your next step to be? And they're like, I'm really happy right here. Like, I don't want, I don't want to move up, I don't want to manage, like I want to be right here. I'm like, oh weird. Yeah, like, but good. This makes it easier for me to make keep you happy and like, you know, focus on what you need. And also helps me identify the people on my team who want to move into either new roles or more leadership positions and focus on getting them there. But you have to have those conversations now. A good manager like me will have that conversation with the team. I'm not gonna wait for you to say, hey, I want to get promoted. I'm gonna say, hey, what's your next step? Like, do you want to get promoted? Do you want to move to a different role? Like, will you want to do something different? Like, what do you want to do? I'm gonna force that conversation because I'm a great manager. And I keep saying it. And if I keep saying it, I I think that will manifest it to be true. I agree. But many managers are not great. In fact, most managers are terrible. So you need to step up if you want a promotion and have that first conversation. And it's it's literally as easy as hey, I've been doing my job for a year and a half. I think I'm pretty great at it. I feel like I'm I'm sort of maxing out my potential here. What do I need to do to get to the next level? And this will start a compounding operation where chances are your HR or your leadership has some kind of standard uh document that says, hey, if you're this level, your expectations are X, Y, Z. If you want to be the next level, then it's gonna be X, Y, Z plus A and B. That's your if you start doing that, then we have to promote you to be at that level. There's really no question about it. So have that conversation to understand what that next step is.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Right. Yeah, after the situation that I had, I made it a habit to tell my boss, but sucking up a little bit too, of like, hey, I love working with you. I'm learning so much. I want your job one day. Nice. Like, I did that a lot. And I would do that because yeah, I actually did that even to like skip levels. I'm like, listen, like, this is your position is what I want someday. But that aligns, like, and I barely I told them that all the time because I just wanted them to know like that is my career path. That's what I want. Because then it goes into their head, like, oh, you know, this is a person I look at that could potentially grow into that role one day. So how do we give them the right opportunities? And I can tell you, I was invited to conferences, I was invited to speaking opportunities, I was given these things because they knew that was my intent, and then I put in the work to actually show that I I could get ready for it.

SPEAKER_04 34:15

Well, it was the craziest thing because one day he just disappeared and

Managers Promotions And Letting People Leave

SPEAKER_04 34:20

they never found the body, and you got the job, which was great. And I like I know you earned it honestly. I would never suggest otherwise. But like I, you know, it it things happen. Bodies go missing, and then there's just a position for you to step into because you're there and you're ready for it.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

You've been you've been working. Right. Yeah. You go above, you do a step, a step-level meeting, and you go above your manager and you talk to their boss, you tell them, listen, I want your I want their job one day about your own boss. The next day they go missing, they go missing. And then listen, you're top of mind. So, really, I'm not gonna say what to do, the steps in between your skip level meeting and you know getting promoted, but I'm gonna say there's a logical path that you take very logical to get a new position.

SPEAKER_04 35:03

Very logical, yeah. Yeah, they you know, uh no one was ever gonna say they were dead weight, but dead weight doesn't float. I'll tell you that right now. Yeah, sinks to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, which is not where they went, by the way. I'm just saying, like, if you chose an ocean and decided to sink dead weight, that's a good one to do it. Maybe a good place to do it, you know?

SPEAKER_01 35:24

Yeah, yeah, just throwing it out there. I got uh I got another one for you. Give it to me. If you're a manager, tell your people you want them to leave. Oh I do that every day, but mostly just because I don't like them. So it's funny because I say it like that, but I actually did that. So I would grow people on my team. What does that even mean? What the heck are you saying? As a manager, you want to promote your team, right? But sometimes there's nowhere to promote them to. And so like I always looked at it as like, I want my team to take my place. I want them to, you know, grow into my level. I want them to have the right skills and the experiences, but still bring their unique flair, but to be ready to take my position. And part of as a leader, your job is to make space or opportunity for your team to grow into. And I've had many times where unfortunately, like I hit my cap and I told my team, I'm like, listen, I want you to do your best work here and to be motivated and to hit whatever goals that you want to do. But there will be realities that I have to face if you want more money, if you want to get a promotion and there's no path to growth, if you want a different position and you want to do something else and I can't provide that to you. And I'm like, I fully support you leaving if that's the case. If I can't promote you and you deserve to be promoted, then either I need to go or you need to go and find a better opportunity for yourself. Because at the end of the day, it matters that you're taking care of individually. It doesn't matter that I'm taking care of and we're a big company. So I would encourage them. I'm like, tell me, if you're not happy and you want to leave, I'll support you. I'll write you a recommendation. I actually did that for somebody on my team. Yeah. I wrote them a recommendation for a new job because I'm like, listen, I have no growth for you in the next year and you want to be promoted faster. So tell me where you want to go and I'll write you a glowing recommendation.

SPEAKER_04 37:06

I love that. That's really good. And it's true. Uh, you have to be realistic with the situation. You know, if you're just moving up a level from, you know, associate to senior or whatever, like chances are the promotion is going to be pretty easy because there's no cap on the role. But if you're looking to actually move from individual contributor role to uh director or leadership role, management role, sometimes those positions don't exist. And there's no way for you to start doing that job until that job is available. Like you can do training, you can take on some extra responsibility as part of that role, but there's no real way to self-promote or to get yourself in a promotion position, and you have to seek elsewhere or find the Atlantic Ocean. And like sadly, that's you know, it that's just the reality of work. There's only so many spaces, there's only so much headcut, there's only so much budget. So I I love that as a manager, uh, helping your team find those positions and get to places that might not be on your team, could just be lateral in the company, or it could be external outside the company.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Really good point. It's counterintuitive, but it helps nobody if your team doesn't have any path to growth and they're upset with what they do. They're just going, their work and the value that they provide is just going to continue to go down because they have no intrinsic motivation to do it if they don't get that reinforcement that they need, if they don't get the growth they need, if they don't get the training that they need. Like you as a manager, it is your responsibility to provide that. And then also remember this is a company. Yeah, it's a business. They're a person. And they're you can replace them, you can be replaced. You should look out for the best interest for them as an individual and whatever their goals are and help them get it. And that's going to ultimately help you get the right people on your team that want to work and be promoted and make you a good manager so you can be a good leader for your team.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

Completely agree. And you know, it's funny, you're not going to hurt anyone's feelings if your manager is in line with your career path and your growth. Like, say there's nothing for you. You have a conversation with Michael because Michael's your manager, and Michael's like, hey, I'll write your letter of recommendation. I'll, I'll, you know, uh reach out to my network, see who I know, and get you some interviews. When you leave and you go get that promotion by moving to a different job, there's no rule that says you can't come back, right? Like then you go get that job, you get the experience. You're like, hey, you know what? This place isn't as good as my last place. I would love to do this job there. Boomerang, baby. Like it happens more than you would ever believe. People leave to get a promotion and then they come back a year, two years later, uh, with promotion in tow, and they get another pay raise coming back. Like, that's the game. That is really the game. And people who are good at playing it, that's what they always do.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

Yeah, a hundred percent. All right, I got another spicy one for you. I've been I've been cooking these, I've been cooking these up at the kitchen all day long.

Replaceable Truth And Corporate Ego

SPEAKER_01 39:58

I'm very nervous. What is it? This is a harsh reality check. You're replaceable, you're not as important as you think you are. Me? Yeah, on this podcast, I could swap you out right now and no one would even care.

SPEAKER_04 40:12

I think you're right. I think you're right. No, I think you're right.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

Uh no, no, no. I'm talking about an organization, and I know this because I left my position at Universal, and like it's for me, like, I actually I was okay with it. One, because I had a long lead time, but two, because I knew I prepped my team to be okay without me. But at the end of the day, like, you think you're so important to your position, and you're so important to this company, and like you put in these blood, sweat, and tears to you know, put everything into this, and you know, you think you're so valuable, and you're like, if I leave, they crumble. I would argue that 98% of the time, that is never true. The company's gonna be just fine without you, they're gonna replace you, they're gonna carry on, and it's not going to matter. You want to see what 2% looks like? Hit me.

SPEAKER_04 41:02

You're staring at them. You're the two percenter, huh? I I mean I really am.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

Uh but I think even over time, like if you have to really think about it, yeah, they would figure it out. They might hit a blip for a little while, but they're gonna figure it out.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

Um, you're the two percent. I I think I have the two percent, but uh not forever, not forever and always. Uh I might be right now, but it it's certainly not forever. My my goal has been to not be the two percent and actually be someone who could eventually get laid off. You know, there's nothing wrong with getting laid off, get a nice package. Um, but I do agree with you. You most people I would say up until my current job at the startup, I was replaceable. They could always replace me. Um, but that's true of most people at companies. I'd say startups are like the one exception to the rule where when you have someone who is in a knowledge work position that is so crucial to every facet of the company, it is you do have a two percenter, but you you can go. You absolutely can go.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

You're gonna be replaced. They're gonna be fine. They don't need you as bad as you need them at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_04 42:20

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

I think I got like two more. Oh, dang, dude. Like I've been cooking. I don't want to get promoted that bad.

SPEAKER_04 42:32

No. I got nothing else. Give me your two. Nothing? No.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

This is a weird day.

Timing Your Promotion And Owning Your Narrative

SPEAKER_01 42:39

You have nothing to contribute to this. You always got spicy takes.

SPEAKER_04 42:42

I mean sadly, I I do think promotions really come down to doing the job that you want to get promoted into, having the conversation, and then at least in my experience, like going and doing it, and then staying just viciously vocal about it. Uh, reminding people, yeah, you know, I've been doing this job, I do all this now. It's what was asked of me to get promoted, just a reminder. Uh, when when budget season comes around, don't forget. Like, don't forget, right? So, like that's my path, that's my plan. And I do the same thing as a manager. Yeah, squeaky wheel. I do the same thing as the team, right? Like, if the team needs promotion, I point out like, hey, they're doing they're doing their job plus plus, and promotions coming around, and we don't want to lose this person, so like let's make sure we treat them well. Like that's what I got. That's it works, and uh I I don't have much else beyond that.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_05 43:45

I think more comedy.

SPEAKER_01 43:46

I'll hit you with my two. I think you're gonna have more comedy. Yeah, okay. So one of mine, and I think this will resonate well with you as well. Nobody working with you is actually. That's smart. Well, yeah. Duh. I'm not that smart. We did a whole episode on this, you know, last last episode for all the freshers. Just to let them know, like, listen, you don't need to be intimidated. We're all just figuring it out. Not the last episode, two episodes ago. But the reality, and like, I always was so scared going to the workforce. I was like, oh man, but this guy's so smart. Like, he has these years of knowledge, he understands the system so well. He's a great programmer. Like, there's no way I'm gonna be able to ever get there. And when I look back in hindsight, and even now, like I realize they have more context and experience working in that domain area.

SPEAKER_05 44:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:43

But at the end of the day, they're not that much more intelligent than I am. I just have some catching up to do in order to get to the place that they are. They understand the communication style of their leaders, they understand how the systems work together, they know where the dead bodies down in the Atlantic Ocean are hidden. Like you don't know that when you come in, but you will get there. And as long as you work hard, as long as you ask questions, as long as you're curious, you're gonna get there like everybody else.

SPEAKER_04 45:08

Yes. I like I don't think this is as much for promotion per se as it is just general mental well-being, is you have to remember seniority. And the, you know, I say this as someone who is the most like the third most senior employee at my company, right? Like just because I've been here a long time doesn't mean someone who comes in next week doesn't know how to do something better than I do. It just means they need to learn a lot of the systems and the sort of functionality and how to apply the things they know better than I do to make it work, right? Like, and I I don't care if you're a developer, a marketer, a salesperson, like you are very smart. Even firsthand the job, you're very smart. You know things that no one else knows. The trick is you have to integrate yourself with the existing systems and then figure out how to use your intelligence to better those systems.

SPEAKER_01 46:03

Yep. Well said. I think that's well said. And even if you can bring value even if you don't know any of the things that they do. So you don't need to be quiet. Like you can actually bring a perspective to say, hey, at my last job, like we actually did this or we used this tool, and like that maybe could be helpful here. Do you guys want me to, you know, do a one present one slide presentation or next team meeting about it? Like just bringing that outside perspective can bring a lot of value. And I can tell you that from now doing some consulting as my own business as well. Like, I don't know the context when I'm coming to this business. I don't know the systems, like I'm still learning, but as I'm stepping in, I can bring all my previous experience and all the history and things that I've done and bring those things to the table to say, hey, here's a gap that I've seen. Here's how I solved it at Universal, here's how I solved it when I worked at Apple. Like, you know, maybe there's a way that we can adapt it for this company. So I think that's the value you provide is an outside perspective that nobody else who's been there for a long time can even see because they are only stuck in the current line of sight of everything they've been working in.

SPEAKER_04 47:05

So that does that does give me one more thing. It this is not about getting promoted, actually. This is about not getting promoted. If you haven't been in your role for at least two years, don't go asking for a promotion. You should have negotiated that when you came in. Uh that's and like that's something I had to learn the hard way is uh when you are taking on a new role, negotiate for two years, right? Like because they're you might get a five percent bump, you might get you know a bigger bump if it's a good if it's a good year, but they're not gonna promote you. You could be doing uh double the work that was expected of you. You could be doing the job of your boss, you're not gonna get promoted until you've been there over two years. And it's not even like a performance thing, it's more of an HR thing, right? Like it's just not a good look from a business perspective for someone to come in and just start to receive promotions uh after being there for six months. A year you're like, wait a second, why didn't I get promoted? I've been here four years and I haven't been promoted. And like this person comes in, it's just a it's a bad optics. So negotiate for where you want to be in two years now, and then in two years you can start having the conversation about the promotion.

SPEAKER_01 48:22

I love that. I've seen so many people take positions and like think immediately that they should be promoted, like six months after. It's crazy. And yeah, and it's like I get it. I get it if you're a hard worker, you took a lateral move, you see more growth in an area, and like that is your idea of like, okay, I'm gonna get to the position I want to. But I have hit those walls before where it's like, eh, we just promoted you like 18 months ago. Like it's a lot of people. We can't promote people, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it takes a lot to fight for people, it takes a lot to go through the system. And like someone, if you're not at the highest levels, like looking down at that and seeing like that you just promoted this person last year. How about we give someone else a shot instead of this person again?

SPEAKER_04 49:00

And that's not to be confused with a role opens up in your company and you apply for it. That's different, right? Right, right. Very different, yeah, very different. I saw that happen a lot in sales where it's the salesperson would be getting promoted, but really they were just applying to take over a bigger territory and take on more responsibility. It's like, yeah, you apply for that job, you get that job, you take on that responsibility. That's different than getting the full HR promotion. Like, hey, you get a title bump and a pay raise. Like, nah, not for two years. Yeah, yeah. I love that. All right, here's another one.

SPEAKER_01 49:32

Give it to me.

Make Your Own Title By Filling Gaps

SPEAKER_01 49:35

Make your own job title. Yes. I do that. This is this is a real thing. I have something. I always thought yeah. It's a totally like when people jump when people jump into into like a career and they like are doing things, and you know, they there's naturally a point where you see gaps and you see an opportunity to take advantage of. And it's up to you to take advantage of that opportunity and not just like sit back and not go for it. And I think that's something that people don't do a lot, but I've seen some people do it really successfully. If they're like, hey, no one manages like content production for us as a company. Like, I'm gonna try to be the person who does content production, and then I'm gonna go to skip level meetings and I'm gonna talk to these managers to tell them, hey, I'm running content production for our company right now. And you know, hey, if you have any requests like this, bring them to me. And you start to define what your position is. And as you do that, and as you provide more value, if that's something you're good at and if there's truly a gap, I've seen this happen with um quality assurance as well, of like we have quality assurance and it's nestled with engineering. But then I've seen people step out of that. I've seen good quality assurance leaders step into that role and they're like, wait a second, why don't we have a quality assurance function where we pull all the quality assurance people in and then eventually we'll grow a team that all reports into quality assurance rather than into engineering? So we have a healthy line of demarcation, engineering versus quality. And I've seen people make their own jobs and their own careers and grow rapidly because they were the person who saw the gap, they went after it, they made themselves the point person, they put in the work, and then they ultimately just started growing to be that leader, to say, hey, skip level. I need, I think we should have a position that does this. And I think I would be the perfect person to run this team and present all the reasons why, show the details to say in the six months since I've been running it, we've improved quality by X, or we've done, you know, 10x the content production that we did previously. People are so scared to do that because like, well, I got a manager and like I don't want to like step on their toes. The reality is that that opportunity is waiting for either you to take or for the skip level manager to realize that's a need. And then by the time they put the position out there, they think nobody on their team is qualified to do it. So they want to bring somebody else in. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 51:58

I mean, I did this in my current job because I was hired as a director of marketing, but you know, coming in so early and being someone who's very good at public speaking, I said, I'm going to be the chief evangelist of this company. I put it on my LinkedIn, I made I added it to my title and Outlook, and I did the job, right? Like I'm not paid on that job per se. Like I'm paid to do my marketing job, but I am the chief evangelist. It's anytime I do a press interview or or have something published in my name, it says chief evangelist. It helps, right? Because if someone says they're in marketing, it's like but now I teach evangelism courses at my company and you know I help with any evangelism activity. Like, I'm the guy. That was not part of my hiring agreement. I took that on for myself, I made the role, and then I added it to my responsibilities because I knew it would be a good thing to do. And it's on my LinkedIn. It was never you now. No one ever said Anthony IW, chief evangelist. It was like Anthony just did it, and no one complained. Yeah, yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

I would say know that you are providing value and it's a true need. Yeah, yes. Okay, if you don't have people like if you start taking things on and it's like one thing every month, like it's not a lot of work, takes you like two extra hours. Like, no, no, no. This should feel like an overwhelming avalanche of work that is severely underserved for your company and provides value. And everybody that sees it is like, I need to go to Anthony now because I need like marketing materials on this or whatever. Like, it has to be a drastic need for you to make that position that you can fulfill. If you're not getting the demand, don't go and ask for a new position. They're just gonna be like, what are you talking about, dude? Like, that's such a minute thing in the business, like no one cares.

SPEAKER_04 53:45

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

That was my last one. That was your last one?

SPEAKER_04 53:51

Yeah, I guess the uh the only other thing I have to add is you don't deserve a promotion. So that's it. I I don't personally, no.

SPEAKER_01 54:03

No, you're absolutely right. You're not getting one. I mean you're not getting one. To be completely fair, I was 10 minutes late to to watch today, so it's kind of a bad look if I were to even ask for a promotion right now.

SPEAKER_04 54:15

Yeah, uh, you're not getting one period. It's just not gonna happen. Not doing it for you this year. No, no pay raise, no promotion for Michael. Sorry. Maybe next year? Maybe don't show up 10 minutes late next time.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

Yeah. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_04 54:29

I'll be on time. Next year, 2027. 2027. If you don't show up 10 minutes late in 2027, maybe you'll get promoted. Maybe. I like it. Yeah, it seems like a pretty easy bar to reach. Yeah, I think so. I think so. Uh yeah, that's really that's all I got.

SPEAKER_01 54:45

That's all I get. That's it. I'm sure we

Discord Patreon And Share With One Friend

SPEAKER_01 54:48

have more. If you have more, if you have more, jump into our Discord. Sure. We want to hear all about these spicy takes. Because I think there's a lot out there that people just don't know about. And if you want to know more, you can jump in to our Discord by clicking the link down in the description. You go down. There's this thing called a lunk tree. A lunk tree. Link tree? Link tree. Lunk tree. Uh-huh. Lunker, lunker tree. You click on the lunker tree link, and then it takes you to a bunch of things that we do on Corbus Strategy. We've got our website, we got our podcasts, links on Apple and Google. We got uh buy me a onesie on our shop. We got uh Is it me or is it corporate in our Discord?

SPEAKER_04 55:24

No one, no one does that anymore. No one does is it me or is it corporate? No one does. What do you mean? Those are dead. Everyone plays is it AI now?

SPEAKER_01 55:33

That's the only one anybody plays in our Discord anymore. That's the only one that matters. Is it AI? So if you want to guess if random pictures are AI or not, jump into the Discord.

SPEAKER_04 55:41

We need to clean up our Discord. We gotta get rid of some of these channels. It's all dead. It's a freaking dead. Everyone's just playing AI. Everyone's playing AI and talking about how AI is gonna kill us all. That's all the Discord is. Get in here, join the conversation, AI will kill you too.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

Uh Patreon, yeah. You can join our Patreon and the link. You can uh what else can you do? You buy me a coffee. Do we still do buy me a coffee or do we kill that?

SPEAKER_04 56:03

We killed that. Patreon replaced buy me a coffee. Um, but if if you like the show, if you made it this far, then you just got free content. Congratulations. If you pay for that content, you'd be helping us make more free content, which is a good thing to do. You know, in the beginning I talked about how, like, you know, using a plastic straw is it gonna save the world, but maybe giving ten dollars to corporate strategy, the podcast that could have been an email, maybe that does help. Uh, and if you can't do that, the least you can do, and this is the absolute least you could do, is take this video or this podcast, wherever you listen or watch, and share it with one friend. It's been proven that sharing corporate strategy with one person just increases the happiness level for the planet because then they'll share it with one person and then they'll share it. It's a it's a choo-choo train of corporate strategy, and we all want everyone choo-choo choosing each other. So please share the pod with your friends, family, and neighbors and help them grow uh their corporate game like we grow together.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

Choo-choo choose the right uh decision.

SPEAKER_04 57:11

Yes, on the train. Choo-choo choose us. Choo-choo choose. Choo-choo choose corporate strategy. The podcast that could have been an email. Uh I think that's that's it then. I'm Bear Man. Oh no, I we uh you're bear boy.

SPEAKER_02 57:28

Uh that's all we have time for on this episode, this stellar episode of Corporate Strategy, the podcast, it could have been an email, coming from a solar system beyond the outer rim. Your host today, we're Ape Man. And dear boy, he accepted it. Thank you as always for listening. You're on mute, and we'll see you next time.