Cold Open And LaCroix Lore

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Welcome back to Corporate Strategy, the podcast include an email.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

I haven't even cracked my It feels so good. I'm Anthony. And I'm Michael. It feels so good to be here in person, live. Oh, you already cracked your drink. We were gonna do that. Whoa! Oh, uh-oh. And now you did it. I did it. Now you did it. Sorry, I forgot. I forgot.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Okay, we're we're fixed. We're back.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Alright, I'm I'm going long form crack on this can. So Anthony, uh, important question for you.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

What are you drinking?

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Oh, I'm drinking uh uh everyone's favorite LaCroix with cherry lime natural essence. Wow. Hashtag sponsor.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Thanks for sponsoring. Not for sponsoring us. LaCroix, we love you.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

We will drink this today and it's important to remember that every can of La Croix comes with exactly zero calories, zero sweeteners, and zero sodiums, which is the exact amount of sodiums you should consume every day. Drink LaCroix, it's good for your blood.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

I actually heard that you can just drink this all day long and eat and drink nothing else, and you'll survive. You will actually feel great.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Scientifically, chemically proven that if you do a direct La Croix IV into your veins, hashtag sponsored by LaCroix, you can in fact uh pull a fountain of youth. Turns out the conquistadors were looking in the wrong spot. When they were, you know, they were Ponce de Leon is looking for the fountain of youth around the St. Augustine area of Florida. Turns out he should have been looking in the rivers of La Croix.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

I mean, really, it's kind of unfortunate because it was in his backyard this whole time. This whole time. Ponce de town. He didn't have to travel across the world, it was right there.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

It was right there.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

The Western world could have never been discovered.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

All Europeans live in the same landmass, yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

La Croix, they basically gave us this information. So if this is not factual, it's all on them, not on corporate strategy.tru. The podcast that could have been an email.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

I'm Michael. I'm Anthony. I'm the each dude. And I'm on mute. This is so good.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

See you next week. See you next week. That's it. So

Back In Studio With Sound Panels

SPEAKER_00 2:33

we're live again. We haven't been live in a while. Where are we? What changed?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

What's different? What changed? Um, well, hopefully the sound is crisp and clean and clear because we are in a professional sound studio right now. Uh it's still the same location that we were in last time we were together, but uh the upgrade has been there are now sound panels literally everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Yeah. I I walked in and it's such an eerie feeling because you speak, but there's no echo, there's no reverberation. And so it just feels like your your voice just goes and dies in like your ears. It takes it took me a second, sensory, sensory-wise, to be like, what is going on?

SPEAKER_02 3:16

It uh best way I could describe it for those not in the know is if you ever wore a pair of uh audio reduction headphones, like on a plane. Yeah, it's that sensation, but just all around you.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yeah, it's it's it's nothing cuffing your ears, which is why I think it's weird. You're in a whole room that feels that way.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yes, it's it's odd. All the sound, every sound we make disappears the second it leaves our mouth.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Every breath you take.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Yes, I'll be watching you. I'll be watching you.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah. Do you ever just come in here now and just scream? Bloody murder? Just bloody murder. If you're mad. All the time. Just bloody murder scream in this room, and it will be completely deafened. You'll feel fine.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

I've actually scheduled five minutes after every meeting I have now. I come into this room and I scream at the top of my lungs and then I return to work.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

That's the only way to do it. It's the only way to do it. I mean, honestly, we've been told, we've been told these are the secrets to corporate life, actually. If you guys want to know how to survive in corporate, one is every morning let out a blood-curdling scream before you start work. That always works. Two, after you get off work, just pull up Grand Theft Auto and just start running people over. And one of those two, I'm not, I'm gonna say one was truth, one was a lie of something someone actually said to us in a corporate building.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

This is very healthy. Uh yeah, we were told by a coworker one of these things.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

One of those two was legitimately sad. And we kind of looked at each other for a second. We're like, should we be scared?

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Should we get involved in this conversation?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Should we be scared for our lives? Yeah, it'll be fine. It was all fine at the end of the day, surprisingly.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Uh yes. And um, oh, hey, we got a question.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

We are gonna have a a question. I can't even speak a chat-based question. Discord question came in. A question's already coming into the live stream.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Yeah, this is the uh this is the Discord user-focused episode. This is our user experience episode.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Aren't you the marketing guy? Come on, give us something flare-wise.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

I'm tired. I'm so tired. I'm exhausted.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Well, VibeCheck, we're in a new place.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

You old place, but it feels new because it's been years.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

We're both coming off of vacation. We're both more than a weekend now, so we should be good. How's

Vacation Health Check And Toe Tales

SPEAKER_00 5:24

the health? How's the health?

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Oh, it's great. I think I broke my toe. Uh I you know, I have IBS. It's not a secret.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah, I think we've said it maybe on every episode.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Every episode I tell you about my IBS. Well, I was in a rush to get to the bathroom, and I kicked the door in full force. No. And I think I broke my uh what is it? One, two, three, fourth, fourth toe. Fourth toe.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Well, good news, people, it's not as big toes, so it's not gonna be a nail problem. No. It's going to be just broken toe.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

It's a little bruised. You can kind of see the piglet.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah. You can kind of see the top. I I do see them. It doesn't look too bad, guys. We're gonna be, I think we're gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

It's been over a week, it's still hurt. Does that mean something?

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah, it's not a good sign. The problem is with broken toes, unless it's like sideways, they're not gonna do anything for that.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

I I didn't go to the doctor.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

They're just gonna look at you and be like, it's it's gonna help help, it's gonna fix itself.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Right, right. I'm not I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. Uh yeah, so you know, health-wise, it's it's more to its toes all the way down. I'm thinking, I'm thinking what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna find a good doctor, and I'm just gonna have my toes chopped off. Toe removal surgery.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

I think I was thinking, I was thinking that, or you just go steel-toed boot everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

That could work too. Yeah. And that, you know, the double, the benefit of that is you have this heavy boot on, so you're getting a nice calf and uh glute work.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Exactly. You have weighted calves and it would out in your soles. You'll be able to lift those weights every single step. Every step. Also, it doubles as a protective mechanism if someone tries to attack you. Imagine what you could do with a steel-toed boot. The second someone enters my domicile, it's not supposed to be here.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

I'm gonna chunely leap across the room with steel-toe boot to face.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

That's that's the second benefit. A third one could be if you have a medical card with it, like get it prescribed by your doctor to say you have to wear these. Yeah. And then you go through TSA with any metal you want.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Oh, that'd be great.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Because then you can say, hey, listen, I can't take them off.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

That'd be great.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Doctor said, I got a note.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

I think you got it.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Steel toe boots.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

I think you got it. I I am gonna start rocking the steel toe boot 24-7. Yeah. I think it's the only way to protect these toes, these piglies.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

You

Crocs Travel Comfort And Shoe Theft

SPEAKER_00 7:35

know, I hate to talk about feet even more, but I also, so my vacation last week is I went to Colorado. Calorado. I always say it that way, and my wife hates it. Calorado. There is no A in Colorado. She's like Colorado. How do you say chocolate? Chocolate. How do you say pillow? Pillow. How do you say milk? Milk. How do you say Colorado? Colorado.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Weird.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

So my wife hates it when I say it that way. But yeah, I was there. I went on a hike, and as we were hiking down the hill, my sh my hiking boot was like a little too big. Was it steel toe? It was not steel toe. But my front toe just got slammed into the front over and over. Both my black, both my both my big toes are black now. I I'm wearing socks. I don't want to succumb you to this, but they both have turned black, so that's not a good sign. That's a great sign. We both have feet issues.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Yes, we do. Yes, we do. Uh but you had to fly home with bad feet.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Which is not good.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

I'll be honest, something that is incredible after a long hike, and when you have black toes like me, um, is Crocs.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Get a pair of Crocs. Yeah. They're the comfiest thing in the world. I thought it'd be weird. I was like, if I go barefoot crocs on a plane, is that weird? And it feels wrong. Like it feels like you shouldn't do that, right? But then I thought about people wear sandals on a plane.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

That's not weird. The amount of crocs I see on plane makes me want the croc. Because I feel like I'm missing out on the secret. It's the best. Just like the Fountain of Youth Cherry Lime Le Croix. I think Crocs. Le Crocs? Le crocs. Le Crocs are actually the secret to comfort travel. I've never worn a pair of crocs before.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Really?

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Never.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

So I it's I've I've actually had my woes with crocs, unfortunately. I one have an extremely broken in pair, and they're incredible. They're like five years broken in. They've like shrunk in size and they just fit my foot perfectly. I bought a new pair because my wife is like, you gotta stop wearing those. Like those are really old.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Do they have a little charms in them?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Yeah, no, I've never done that. Okay. I took them to the beach and I thought, you know, I'll just leave them on the boardwalk. It's like not even 50 feet from us. It should be fine, right? Somebody stole my Crocs. Yeah. My new pair of Crocs. Why wouldn't they? I was standing right there. I would steal them too. It was crazy. I think you got what you deserved. I mean, to steal someone else's footwear is a crazy move.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Uh no.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Like barefootwear?

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Grounded.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

I disagree with you. Grounded.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

You're not making it out of this house. I'm stealing your footwear. Just for that audacity of what you just did.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Is that not a weird move? No. To steal someone else's shoes that they've gone barefoot in?

SPEAKER_02 9:58

I think shoes are the most stolen thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

You think so? I I know so. Have you had shoes stolen from? Have you been a shoe stealer?

SPEAKER_02 10:04

I'm a shoe burglar.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

I'm gonna go downstairs, and there's gonna be none of my shoes at the front door.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

They're all be gone. Yeah. Someone's gotta steal them.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

We've talked about feet a lot.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

We do talk about feet a lot in this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

I mean, if you're coming on live and you're seeing this for the first time, you're probably like, what in the world am I tuning into?

SPEAKER_02 10:22

Bless this mess. Bless this mess.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

I need crocs that are sponsored by LaCroix. LaCroix Crocs. LaCrocs.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

LaCrocs. Could we, could we, could we get a white pair of Crocs and get the little corporate strategy logo as a charm? Ooh, that would be cool. Can we get a charm?

SPEAKER_00 10:41

I love that idea. I think you can custom make charms. Okay. I think we can figure this out.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

I think that would be the hottest item on our spreadsheet.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

I think we stopped selling everything else.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Except for croc charms.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

For croc charms.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

We gotta figure this out. Can I get my face?

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Is it a croc charms?

SPEAKER_00 10:57

I feel like you can. I mean, even in Discord, you have your own emoji, so at this point, we can definitely figure that out.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

I want this. I will buy the croc. The corporate croc. Uh we'll rock them. We'll rock the croc on the stream. Corporate croix croc. Corporate LaCroix Croc. Ooh, I want a LaCroix can on my croc with the corporate strategy logo on it, too. This is getting so meta, and I love it. I love it. I want it. I want it. Hey. Speaking

Listener Questions And Hot Takes Setup

SPEAKER_02 11:26

of meta. Yeah. We got a whole bunch of stuff to talk about today. We got a whole bunch. There's a laundry list of things to get through.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

We have user requested questions. Yes. Some things that must be, they're dire. Yes. Like some of these questions that came in on the chat, I'm like, this is so important. Like the first one that came in on this live stream. That's the most important question of all. Yes. And I can't wait to tell everybody about the answer.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

So we're going to answer questions live. We're going to answer questions submitted via Discord. Yep. And we have what?

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Corporate hot takes. Hot takes. We put a so we put a survey out there on Instagram. We put it out there on Discord. And corporate hot takes was tied for the number one thing people want to hear more of. Okay. So I think we've got to do it. Alright, where do you want to start? Do you want me to start you off? Yeah, kick us off. So I didn't tell you about this topic at all, so don't worry. He's not unprepared. I just failed to inform him about normal. But in typical Michael Anthony fashion, I will start talking and he will have ideas and they will come out. And it's going to be great. Alright, first one. You ready?

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Ready.

Email Is Not Your Task List

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Your email is not your to-do list.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

My email is not my to-do list. That's a hot take?

SPEAKER_00 12:36

That's a hot take. That's a hot take? You think everybody, I I would wager, I would wager, 80% of people watching this right now, all they do is answer their email, and that is the way that they do work every single day. That's a sad piece of information you just gave me. I feel like it's people just respond to the most urgent thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

I have started checking my email less and less because I've realized that nothing of important comes in there. So like what I do is I'll keep Jira up, refresh that if I need to. You know, if I the new activity on Jira, that's not number one. If it's not in Jira, it doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

IMHL, LMFAO.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

I I live by that rule too. I tell every team I work on, I'm like, listen, if you can't visualize it and we don't see the work moving through our systems, it doesn't exist. We shouldn't be doing work in email, shouldn't be doing work in Teams. No. You have to have it in a place where you can see it and understand where your limitations are, where your bottlenecks are. That way you can optimize and help improve.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Email is really for external communication, the way I see it.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Like outside your company. Outside of company. So like client, customer facing. Right. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

It's also if you're in the Outlook infrastructure, you use it to set up meetings.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

But yeah, I think I check email maybe three, four times a day. I love that. Max. It's like, is there anything cool? I'm back to Slack, Jira, the places that matter.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah. Yeah, it goes back to our episode that we had last week, just talking about like the tactical versus strategic. If you're living in the tactical and you're a firefighter, you are answering email all day long. Like the hottest thing that comes in, you're like, I gotta respond, like right now. And I feel like a lot of people, I'm working with a few clients now, that I just see that behavior of everyone responds to email so fast. And I kind of feel weird because for me, I do the same thing as you. Like for the most part, I don't answer email except for like two times a day.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

And like the rest of the day is doing work that I have planned and I have scheduled. I'm not firefighting the next email that comes in.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

I think the most disappointing part of why this is a hot take in general is if you think about the concept of email, which is an abbreviation, by the way. Yeah. This is true for electronic mail. Now, the important part of that is the mail part, which is a notoriously slow way to communicate. That's very true. So I think email was always meant to be something that was once or twice a day.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Not a all day, everyday the second I hear that swoosh, I'm checking my phone. Like, please don't.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Please don't make the noise.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Get out of here with that. That's a bad behavior.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

That's not a hot take. And I think a lot of people do that. I think a lot of people are just living and dying by it. And I th I think um I said it very close to it, but I think there's a quote that goes, your email is someone else's to-do list. Which I think is like the truest statement. Because think about it. Someone's sending you a note to get something done. Yeah. So they're executing on their to-do list and getting you to do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Do you really want to live in that life?

SPEAKER_02 15:20

No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

It's a bad life to live in.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

I will intentionally not respond to emails. Yeah. Like I'd be like, you know what? If I say nothing to this, if if I'm not the only solo person on this, someone else might respond, and then I don't need to. That's very true. You have just you have just cast a line into the corporate ocean with the wrong bait if you're sending me email. Now, if it's a slack, it's like, well, great, it's DM. It's directly to me. Yeah. I'm online. If I don't respond within the next like hour or so, they're gonna be like, what's wrong with Anthony? Yeah. So I just do you think?

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Okay, here's a question for you. Do you think?

SPEAKER_02 15:55

I don't. Never.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

We know that. Never in my life. I definitely don't. I just react. Do you do you think that answering your email, being the first person to answer every email, will get you promoted?

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Absolutely not. Yep. It's a it's terrible behavior. Uh email warriors, those who respond to emails too fast. Yeah, I worry. Yeah. I worry. I'd be like, I always be the kind of person that's gonna come in the office and light the building on fire.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

I love to sit back and just like let people who don't actually know things respond over and over again. And then I love to chime in and be like, well, actually, yeah, like this is the situation, these are the details behind it, this is what we're gonna do to take the next step. I love to be that guy that chimes in after 10 people have emailed all the wrong stuff, and I can just lay down the law. And then it's so funny because it just goes quiet.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

No one else says a word. They're like, all right, Michael's got it. Like, just let him do his thing.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah.

unknown 16:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Are you ready for the next one? I'm ready. Lay it on me.

Busy Is Not Always Productive

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Being busy is not productive.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Being busy is not productive. Uh so this just it unlocked some trauma from me. When I was in college, when I was in college, learning. Oh, wait, just bring us all the way back to college? Learning my computer science when I was learning that. And uh, I remember showing up to class and I'd spent so long working on this program assignment, and I couldn't do it. It was bowling. I could not get there.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Bowling's dude, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

I I couldn't score it right. And I remember the professor who was an absolute piece of trash. I still hate this man's guts. Uh, because I always asked him for help and he never helped me. And I'm like, what's what are we paying you for? And I I remember submitting the assignment, like, I could not score the tenth frame, couldn't do it. And he's like, Well, then you're not gonna pass this assignment. I'm like, well, I did the rest of it. And he said to me, and I'll never forget this, do not confuse effort with accomplishment. And uh I hate that man. Given his dietary lifestyle, it is not outrageous to think he is no longer on this earth. So I uh to your to your question. To your question, uh busy is not productive, yes, but I don't think there's enough information in that hot take to be fair. Because you can be incredibly busy and incredibly productive. Yeah. You can be incredibly busy and incredibly unproductive. Yeah. It's are you busy on the right thing?

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Yes, I absolutely agree.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Yeah. I think that's the better way to say it. Right. And I can attribute that to like what I'm seeing with a lot of people that I work with right now is everybody.