May 5, 2025 • 55 mins
We explore survival strategies for uncomfortable workplace situations that everyone faces but no one enjoys discussing. From overcrowded parties to endless meetings, we share practical tips for maintaining your sanity while still appearing engaged and professional.
• Why hiding in the bathroom or retreating into your phone makes things worse
• How to strategically position yourself at networking events by volunteering for useful tasks
• The art of gamification: turning boring meetings into mental challenges
• GROVER: a foolproof conversation framework for painless networking (Grow-up, Relationships, Occupation, Vacation, Eat, Relax)
• The empty glass escape plan: using drink refills as perfect conversation enders
• Why mirroring can keep conversations going with minimal effort
• Finding the sweet spot between showing up and preserving your mental health
• Creating artificial deadlines and time constraints to escape painful situations
Share this episode with anyone who's ever been trapped in a work event wishing they could escape. Your friends will thank you!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
bad knees.
My knees are on the way out, soI can't.
I can't stand anymore you'remaking me stand alone.
Yes, you must stand.
Well, I got an x-ray, you know.
You know it's the worst.
You know it's the worst is whenyou go to a doctor and they
like I need to do all thesetests, okay, cool, my knees feel
(00:20):
weird.
They just feel weird,especially when I stand.
So get, I get the x-ray andthey're like well, bruce, I've
got news for you.
I've never seen better knees inmy entire life and I'm like
well, that's not good.
So what's going on down there?
Yeah, you might not have neverseen better knees, but still it
(00:43):
do hurt.
So I love that.
Love that about me in generalis every time I go to the doctor
, they're like, yeah,something's definitely wrong,
but it's not with you, Like okay.
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, that's like the worst when you have something
going wrong, like you know.
You hope it's something easy.
You hope it's just like oh, youknow I like slightly tore.
You know you hope it'ssomething easy.
You hope it's just like oh, youknow I like slightly tore.
You know my meniscus orsomething like that, like it's,
it's something that's so obvious.
You're like, okay, we've got apath to recovery here.
When you go to a doctor andthey say, yeah, you look fine.
(01:18):
And then you're like I don'tfeel fine, yeah, it's the worst
now you have to go down thatfork in the road that says now
you're going the specialistroute and you're going to have
to go to a specialist to figureout what's wrong with you.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yep, which I don't want to do, I don't want to do.
I actually spent an hour and ahalf at a specialist today to
basically just get anotherappointment scheduled, which is
great.
Great, I've had ingrowntoenails for like years now, so
I'm finally getting them dealtwith.
Go to get it dealt with todayand they're like actually we'd
rather do it at a differentoffice.
Is that okay with you?
I'm like I've only waited anhour and a half, so yeah, no, I
(01:54):
guess we're going to do it at adifferent office then.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Cool of those things, this is one of those things
that you need to make sure andeveryone here needs to take in
this tip If you have an issue,especially on your feet, get it
taken care of right away,because most of the time it only
gets worse and it will onlytake longer to recover.
And, unfortunately, if you waita long time to do something
(02:21):
about it and then you have toget surgery or something, you're
not going to be walking.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
It's going to suck yes, fortunately mine are not as
bad as they used to be.
Um, I was able to rebuild myarches, which helped a lot, but
still I want it done.
I just want to get those thingscut, lasered, poisoned,
whatever the heck they do, andthen never deal with it again
because you know, I last weeklast week I was a conference I'm
(02:44):
standing all day.
It really starts to burn on the17th hour on your foot.
Just got to get it done, I'mdone.
Just get it taken care of.
Just get it chopped off.
Big toes what is it?
Garden pruners Just put the bigtoe in our garden pruner, chop,
chop.
They cook them.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I was gonna say you don't need the little, you don't
need the garden pruning tool.
All you have to do is just havesomeone bite down, thinking
it's a carrot, and that thing'sgone.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah I think that's a lie.
I don't think that's true.
I think that's a myth we'vebeen told for for decades on.
Here's how I know, because I'vetried to bite my finger.
I'm like I use the samepressure on a carrot on my
finger and it was not able tochop off.
So no, you've actually donethis.
Yeah, why have you done this?
(03:37):
If someone tells you yourfinger can be bitten off with
the same strength of a carrot,why wouldn't you test it?
I mean this is easy science,right?
Like, okay, a carrot requiresthis much pressure.
Okay, I mean you could, evenyou could do it like with your,
with your you know your fingers.
Basically, I can snap a carrotin half, but I can't snap my
finger in half with the samepressure.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It doesn't make sense , it doesn't make sense, I think
you're failing to remember onecritical fact around this that
proves it's true.
Yeah, what is that?
I want to take you to a place.
I want to take you to Mordor.
I want to take you to Mordorand I want to take you to the
scene where Smeagol bites offFrodo's finger with the ring on
(04:21):
it like a carrot.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Wow, yeah, no.
Do you call that bite likebiting?
Okay, when you chomp into acarrot they can't see us.
We're on camera.
But like when you chomp into acarrot, do you open your mouth
as wide as humanly possible?
Then put the entire strength ofyour entire body into your jaw
muscles to close down on thatcarrot.
Do you require that muchstrength for a carrot?
It depends, it depends.
(04:46):
Sméagol went in for a bite.
It wasn't just like oh, Sméagolwants to bite a carrot now.
No, it's like Homie literallyunhinged his jaw to then use all
of the force in his mouth tochomp on young Frodo's finger.
I agree, I agree, but weFrodo's finger.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I agree.
I agree, but we know it'spossible, just depends on how
much force you're going to putdown.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yes, you can bite off a finger, I don't doubt that at
all, but I don't believe thatthe finger has the same density
and tooth requirement.
You try, he's Clark's trying toright now, cause.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I don't know, it's scary.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I'll be honest it's scary I know that's as hard as I
buy the carrot.
Nothing, you got a little.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I got a little finger indent for my tooth, I don't
believe I got in that I okaywe've done the experiment live I
.
I mean, I I'll be honest, I atecarrots, so I'm really sad
because I ate I love carrotstoday I ate my last carrots.
So I can't do a side-by-sidecomparison with you, because I
would do it right now, live oncamera, and I can't do it.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I love me a carrot.
You know what my wife's beendoing recently.
That is great.
She will fill a little cup ofranch and then put all of the
carrots in the ranch.
So like remove them from thebag, put them in the ranch, keep
that in the fridge.
So then you just grab thelittle cups and you're just good
to go.
How great is that.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Isn't that the smartest thing?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yep, crazy, I'm a hummus guy personally.
Ooh, you like the hummus?
Huh?
Oh yeah, I'm a ranch man.
I'm a ranch man through andthrough, because I'm white.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yes, it's young cultured.
I eat garlic, lemon hummus andit's delicious.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I do love hummus, but not on a carrot.
I'm sorry the things people puton carrots.
I just hummus, it's good, I'lleat it.
If it's like a restaurant, likeit's a good delivery device,
but like if I'm having a hummus,I want it on like some pita
bread.
Like give me, give me somethinglike some pita bread.
Like give me something you knowstarchy with that hummus.
The thing I don't get peoplewho do like peanut butter on
(06:52):
carrots, active psychopaths likeneed to be put on a list.
People dunk in their carrots andpeanut butter and they put
little raisins on top.
They'll do that with celery too, and I'm like you're insane,
you need to be put on a list.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I mean you need to know the actual name Ants on a
log.
That's what it's called Ants ona log.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I'm not a celery guy who likes celery.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Do you like celery?
I do.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
It's the worst, but again, celery is a delivery
mechanism for ranch and I'vealready mentioned the whiteness.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
There's these things called straws that you can just
use instead to suck up the ranch, if you'd like.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Straight ranch down the gullet.
Give it to me now, chickenwings, if I saw that Buffalo
chicken wings Ranch or Buffyblue cheese.
Which do you?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
prefer.
I'm dying because I'm imagininglike in a corporate office.
Everyone's carrying their waterbottle around, but you walked
in with a thing of ranch hidden.
Alley, slam it on the table,you start drinking.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I promise you this If we ever work in an office
together again on my first day,I promise you on this podcast I
will walk in the office with abottle of ranch and a straw and
I will be slurping and be like,oh hey, clark, how's it?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
going.
That's it, I mean you'd befired immediately.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
It would be like get out.
That's a great way to assertdominance.
I guarantee you.
You walk into an office with abottle of hidden valley and a
straw metal straw, metal strawbecause you've thought about
this, right, like it's one ofthose metal bent straws.
Like this is not.
This is not some gag.
This is I.
I planned on doing this.
I brought the straw, I broughtthe ranch.
I know I know what my goal is.
It's one of those metal bentstraws.
Like this is not.
This is not some gag.
This is I.
I planned on doing this.
I brought the straw, I broughtthe ranch.
I know, I know what my goal is.
(08:29):
You walk in.
You're like hey guys, this isgoing just just drinking some
ranch straight face.
Serious, the day is long, noone's ever going to mess and
they can't fire you.
They can't be like oh, brucedrinks ranch.
Like what?
What are you going to go tellHR?
Are you going to go tell HR Idrink ranch?
Turns out you're the bigot here.
(08:51):
You don't know me, you don'tknow my culture White.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Clearly white.
If you didn't know, we wereboth white at this point of the
show.
We are the whitest peoplearound.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Drinking ranch Metal straw at this point of the show.
We are the whitest peoplearound.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Drinking ranch metal straw.
Here we go.
Yeah, I'm good on ranch.
If you're good on ranch, I dolove ranch.
I want to go back to something.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I want to go back to something.
Don't do this.
I actually missed a greattransition.
So, speaking of Lord of theRings, speaking of Lord of the
Rings, I was in San Diego lastweek doing my job.
San Diego, I was in San Diegodoing my job.
(09:35):
I was working a conference andshout outs to some of the
listeners of the pod whoactually worked the conference
with me.
You provided us a topic today,but before we get into that,
before we get into that, I wason the show floor and one of my
jobs I uh, I run trivia in ourbooth.
I do it as an activity to rileup the masses, everyone.
I try to get as many people asI can show up to the booth and
(09:57):
we run through 10 triviaquestions and I make the
questions.
They're pretty difficult, but Ithrew some softballs in there
and the is really just to getleads.
We scan everyone who comes anddoes trivia and the winner walks
away with a $500 Lego kit, likelegit.
That's it.
You show up, you play, we dosix different rounds of trivia
throughout the event and we giveaway six expensive Lego kits.
That's awesome.
(10:17):
You would not believe thenumber of people in my booth
watching me do trivia with them.
I bet I have a picture.
I can share it in the Discordif people are interested.
I do want to see it.
This is all leading up to Lordof the Rings, so I put softball
questions in there, mostly justto kind of calibrate people.
So they're like oh yeah, I cando this, and then I just rail
(10:41):
them with the hardest questionspossible, because I don't want
everyone raising their hand atthe same time, cause then it
makes it very hard for me to say, okay, out of the 20 of you, I
think you had your hand up first, right, so one softball, nine
hard questions.
My softball question was whatis the name of the character
Strider in the Lord of the Rings?
(11:02):
That's my softball question.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Do you know the answer what is the name?
Speaker 1 (11:08):
like the actual person, what is the actual name
of the human character who goesby the pseudonym strider in lord
oh shoot, are you serious?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
so no, I'll.
I mean we talked about thisbefore.
I am awful at trivia because Idon't remember actor actresses
names ever.
It's my wife that's good attrivia.
If we ever have a contest andthere's physical activity or
trivia, I'm doing the physicalactivity.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Okay, and it has been established.
You are not the kind of nerdthat just knows nerd facts.
But I guarantee you there arepeople listening to this right
now screaming into their podcastdelivery device the name of
this character.
Now would you believe me if Itold you at a nerd conference?
No less is a tech conferencefor techie people, nerdy people
(11:53):
that know all the nerdyquestions.
Not a single one of 20 peopleknew this answer.
But, like my fellow employeeswere looking at me like is this
a a joke?
Is this a prank?
Like how does no one know?
They know what a freakingtardigrade is.
They know what kind of barkcreates aspirin, they knew that
one, but they don't know thecharacter Strider's real name
(12:16):
from Lord of the Rings.
And like I was stupefied, like Iwas getting angry.
You could tell I was likegetting physically upset, cause
I'm like are you guys messingwith me?
Now?
This is a softball question.
This is like if you've seen themovies, if you've lived a life,
you know this answer is Aragorn.
It's Aragorn.
What's wrong with you?
And then I started giving themhints and like you would not
(12:37):
believe the number of people whoare like it's Legolas, it's
like, no, it's not.
It's like no, it's not.
Stop saying that it wasn'tright the first time, it's not
right the fourth time.
Like, is it Gimli?
I'm like, do you think Gimliwould go by the name Strider?
Strider, gimli.
Like you've named every single,they went Sam Frodo, is it?
Is it Gollum?
Like, what the hell is wrongwith you?
(12:58):
People, like 20 people aroundme, could not get this answer.
I was.
I was gonna die.
Like the people who I had, youknow, helping me in the booth
were looking at me like this is,this is the most insane thing
I've ever seen in my life, butit happened.
It's a real thing.
That happened.
No one knew strider was aragornand it started to make me
question my own sanity, like didI get this wrong?
(13:20):
Do I not know lord of the rings?
And it's like no, it's not me,it's the children that are wrong
.
Absolutely wild experience.
Um, eventually had to give upthe hint like he literally
becomes king at the end.
And they were still like whobecomes king at the end of lord
of the ring?
I'm like did you guys watchthese movies?
Have you not read the book?
Do you not exist in culturelike?
This is sad, this is really sad, but wow there are half
(13:47):
positive point for me.
I feel validated you sure,should you sure should?
There were people far, farnerdier than you ever want to be
that were like scratching theirhead, like it's like a loss,
literally.
I'm not exaggerating.
Four times the name legolas wasthrown out and I'm like it
wasn't right the first threetimes.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Stop saying it well, you got to give me a hard one.
What was one of your hardtrivia questions?
If you remember any other?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
oh, that was a song.
Oh, what was a hard I'm gonnaget it wrong I'm not.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I'm not volunteering to answer this.
I just want the people to knowwhat was the native american
tribe?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
uh, that was that their language was based on the
code used in World War One, thecode talking for World War One.
Oh, I don't know, and it'sreally hard because everyone
knows well, not everyone, butmost people know world war ii,
which, I'll tell you, was navajo.
Can everyone look?
It's navajo?
It's like no, still not navajo.
(14:44):
Uh, world war one was different.
That's a hard, I would neverknow.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Do you want to give me the people or no?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
yeah, I'll give the answer.
It's, it's choc-ta, just incase you're ever in that uh
situation where you need toanswer that question.
I make it hard for a reason Idon't want everyone raising
their hand like I want.
I want the one smart guy to getit and win the lego kit.
But yeah, yeah, it's fun.
I have over 100 questions now.
It's great.
Wow, it's a good time.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I enjoy doing it yeah , that makes the whole entire
conference thing fun becauseit's there's so many things
where it's like, okay, I get alittle squishy thing from your
company and you try to do asales pitch on the floor, like
nobody wants that Nobody.
Yeah, I can see, I can see yoursquishy thing over there.
But you did something fun.
You gave out a real prize, youdid something engaging.
(15:32):
You probably got a ton ofengagement from the crowd and
that's how you bring trueinterested people to your booth.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I'll tell you a story since, since you seem vaguely
interested in this.
Um, this actually started I atmy previous job, big corp.
We we both worked at togetherwe were doing a conference uh,
it was cube con and it was ourfirst time doing it and I
actually had to run this entireshow.
Like I basically said, ourevents team doesn't know what
they're doing.
(15:59):
I'm going to do it, I'm goingto prove them wrong, and I
regret ever saying that, but Idid.
We managed to show up, have ourbooth do all the things, but I
could not get engagement in ourbooth.
Like, no matter what we did, Icouldn't get engagement Like
we're doing presentations andwhatnot.
It wasn't working.
So, literally on the second day,I thought, well, what if I just
build a quick little slide deckof some trivia questions and
(16:22):
you know we give away some ofour more high end swag to the
people that participate and youwould not believe the number of
people Like if I just say we'redoing trivia in five minutes,
we're giving this stuff away.
You want to sit and wait, waitaround, like 30 people, just
instant change to the boothdynamic and that was like real
time.
I like trivia.
I wonder if other people do too.
(16:42):
I'll put together somethingreal quick, put it up on the
screen, we'll do it.
And then it was like people cameto like we got it, we have to
do this every hour, like I'llget more questions.
I guess, uh and I brought thatwith me to my new job basically,
basically, they're like, whatkind of draw can we do?
And I said, well, I've donetrivia in the past and it works
really well.
And guess what Deal does?
So we just do it because itworks.
(17:03):
But yeah, don't let your dreamsbe dreams.
Do trivia.
I love it, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Did you see any other activities going on that were
of equal interest, or no?
Sometimes, like, raffles arefun, fun.
It's like everybody pulls araffle ticket.
You're like we're doing thedrawing at 2 30, we're spinning
the lottery balls and whatevernumber we draw, I've done
raffles in the past and I don'twant to ruin the illusion for
you, but I will.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Usually we pick the winner.
Uh, just so you know.
Uh, if, like, if I give you aticket and I find like, oh, this
is a potential buyer of ourproduct, like they're, they're
about to spend millions on us.
Like, oh, what a weirdcoincidence.
Their tickets, the one we pull,definitely have done that in
the past.
Sometimes, we're honest, I'vedone it both ways where it's
(17:47):
been like, completely honest,pull the ticket, read the number
oh nobody.
Okay, let's get the next one.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Oh, nobody, the number, oh nobody okay, let's
get the next one, oh nobody.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Okay, we're gonna do this for 20 minutes, and that's.
That's part of the reason whyit's good to pick a winner is
yeah generally.
You know, if you're like overthere, okay, let's do the real
ticket now.
Yeah, um, raffles are good.
I think trivia is the bestbecause it's engaging right.
Yeah, everyone is involved withthe activity.
We've done vr booths in thepast.
That was okay.
(18:18):
We've done Tetris competitions.
That was one of my ideas.
That I don't think turned outso well is what ended up
happening was we got a fewinitial people excited to play,
but then the same two peoplejust coming to our booth back
and forth, back and forth,trying to outscore each other,
which is good if you want peoplein your booth all day, but it's
not good if you actually wantpeople to try to compete.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
That's interesting One that I think would be kind
of cool is almost like aBattleBot Royale.
It's like everybody with thelittle finger bots so you tap
the things, you try to punch thehead up.
What's the name of it?
Rock'em, sock'em Robots.
How sick would a tournamentlike that be, where you have it
right in the center of yourbooth, you're like, hey,
everybody, make sure you getyour names in and you have what
(19:02):
30, 40 people that can go in,and then you just have a
tournament, everyone's gatheringaround and be like, let's go.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
I wanted to do a Street Fighter tournament and
basically, if you beat me, uh,we'll give you some some cool
swag kind of thing.
Like I thought that'd be fun.
Rock and sock and robots is agreat idea, though, because it's
so, it's.
It's such a cool physicalobject like I thought the, uh,
the hoops, you know the arcadehoop game, basketball, I mean,
it's not, it's not bad, you know.
(19:29):
You know what I'm talking about, but like, I thought that would
be a really good one if you doa high score challenge on that.
Only problem is the noise.
A lot of times there's uh yeahthey'll yell at you, they'll be
like you're too loud, gottaquiet down.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Which yeah, it's like the problem with vr and even
like to your point, even likethe street fighter.
It's like only so many peoplecan participate and it's it's
like on a screen, so it's likeit doesn't feel as engaging the
rockck'em Robots.
You set up a battle booth.
That'd be pretty sweet.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
We should do it.
When we start our own company.
We'll do Rock'em, sock'emRobots one year and the next
year we'll do Beyblades.
We'll get a big metal bin.
Have you seen the gears?
Where they actually light onfire.
Yeah, we'll do that, that'd becool.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Sounds like a plan.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And then whoever loses has to cut off their pinky
.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yes, pinky gone.
Actually, you have to bite itoff like a carrot, like a carrot
, oh, and that's all we got foryou today, folks.
Great podcast Hope you enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
We didn't even do an intro.
It's too late now.
21 minutes.
Welcome back to CorporateStrategy, the podcast.
That could have been an email.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I'm Bruce, I'm Cork and I'm still blown away.
Like I talked about, what isthe point where it's
inappropriate?
This felt inappropriate, thisis it.
I'm sorry this actually feelsdirty.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I feel bad about this one.
That's why I said 21 minutes,because I'm going to have to
edit this in and I don't want tolook for it.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yep, good call, good call, so that's it Good episode
Clark Great job.
You want to shout out to oursponsors real quick before we
close.
Close, let's do it.
Bayblade, let it rip that's it.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That's, that's the show.
So, okay, cool, we will.
We'll skip vibe check.
We're 21 minutes in.
The vibes are non-existent.
Today I was at this conference,by the way, doing lord of the
rings trivia, and one of ourlisteners told me you should do
a podcast about this.
What was this, you might ask?
(21:40):
Well, we had hosted a party andwe invited a lot of different
people to come to this party andI was in a room that you know,
bigger than any normal sizedmcdonald's uh, that had like 200
something people crammed inthere, with music blasting,
alcohol flowing, and I'd neverfelt so uncomfortable in my life
(22:01):
.
And he said you should do anepisode about, like, how to deal
with this.
Cause it's my job to be there,right, like I can't opt out of
this.
But like there comes a pointwhere no party is fun because
it's just so cramped and I lovethat idea because it's not just
the party.
How do you deal with worksituations that you hate?
(22:22):
Right, like you're an introvert, this is uncomfortable, you're
in a meeting that just won't end.
Like, how do you mentally, willyourself through the
discomforting situation and comeout stronger at the other end?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah, it's tough, I mean every job is going to be
something that you hate.
And, unfortunately, what you'resaying is and I think these are
the types of scenarios thereare things you have to do.
There is no opt-out, there isno realigning to not be involved
in doing the thing you hateanymore.
It's like this is something Igot to do.
Here we go and like how do youmake the most of that situation?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
How do you bite down mentally and survive?
I'll tell you what I did atthis party One old fashions help
.
They really do.
They really do.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I was going to say you like old fashions, help,
they really do, they really do.
I was going to say you like oldfashions, so I would start with
a few old fashions, justbecause that'll loosen you up a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, like 10 or 20, I think does the job.
In all seriousness, pleasedrink responsibly.
I think I had like one theentire time.
For me it was make sure thatthe people because we throw this
party on to obviously attractnew customers to treat existing
(23:43):
customers well, make them feellike our brand matters, our
product matters, as long asthey're having a good time.
I don't need to really doanything, so I would walk around
, you know, talk to a few peoplethat I knew, make sure they're
happy, and then I kind of wentto the front and just watched
the door right, Like for me itwas very much a the closer I can
get to not being in this room.
(24:03):
This loud, hot, sweaty personfilled room.
If I need to go, stand outsideand help you know people coming
in, going out and making surethey're they're supposed to be
here.
That's going to be my job.
But basically I took the pathof least resistance.
It's like how do I make thesituation as bearable as
possible for me?
So I put myself in that placeto do that.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, yeah, I think that that was one thing I was
thinking of is, if you can'thide, put yourself in a place
that'll be like the leastmiserable in the situation.
Like if it's a loud concertroom like I got a schmooze a
little bit, whatever, and therehave a band or a comedian on
stage or whatever.
It's like just float to theback and just like be there, but
(24:47):
not really be there.
You mean, you know what I mean.
Like don't be in the middle ofit, just get to the edges.
That'll help.
Or another option is just go tothe bathroom and hide, but you
probably need to be seen.
That's the.
That's the downside.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Well, I think I think that's the mistake a lot of
people make is they will eitherthey'll go hide in a spot where
they're no longer visible orthey'll retreat into their
technology, like I'll just pullup my laptop.
I hate this meeting.
I'm just gonna pull up mylaptop and do some email.
I'll use my phone.
That's the thing is like.
Retreating into comfort canoften look worse than not being
(25:22):
there at all.
Right, because it's like, oh,they're not engaged, they're
doing something else right now.
Why are they even here, right,like?
I think that's something peopledon't realize is, if you're not
there, people aren't thinkingabout you.
But if you are there and youlook miserable, people are like,
oh, what's wrong with thisperson?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, yeah.
Hiding is the worst thing youcan do.
I think in those situationswhere you need to be present and
to your point, like getting onyour computer or being on your
phone, the whole time looks evenworse.
It's like you're there and theneveryone's like you're there
and then everyone's like thisperson's just being forced to do
this.
They should have never come inthe first place.
(26:03):
Worst thing to do.
I think something you said isinteresting like make yourself
useful.
Like find something.
Like if you're like, oh man,this is gonna suck, but look
around you and be like, oh,people are having trouble.
Like getting in, let me justlike go over there and act like
I'm helping.
And like giving people highfives when they come in, because
then it makes you look like ahero.
It's like bruce is gettingpumped up at the door.
He's letting everybody in.
That was a bottleneck before.
(26:23):
Like he's the man, he's doingeverything we need him to do
right now.
And then you're visible toeverybody because they're
walking.
It's like great, go grabyourself a drink at the front.
Like you're dodging the smalltalk, cause you can be like,
yeah, bring them on in, get thenext person in, and you're kind
of ignoring everyone else andpushing them to go do the
activity, kind of genius it is,and I feel like that is
(26:43):
gamification.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Right, like what you are doing.
You are gamifying somethingthat you would otherwise not
enjoy, like I know a lot ofpeople they'll have to.
They're forced to go to varioussales kickoffs and sitting
through some of these kickoffconversation or, like you know,
speeches, whatever can be justgrueling right, like, if you're
a technical person, you're justlike this is boring, I want to
(27:05):
get to the good stuff.
Or maybe you're just like I'm,I'm done, I can't wait to get to
the party or whatever.
Gamify the experience.
So, like, one thing I like to doif I'm in a meeting or any kind
of presentation that I justfind absolutely abysmal is do a
counter right, like count thefiller words that person use, uh
, count the number of times theysay the product.
(27:25):
Like, just make it somewhatinteractive.
Like take notes, but like noone knows notes you're writing.
If you're like putting a littletally list together, it's like,
oh, I don't know what Bruce isdoing, but he's engaged in this.
Like you can do that and thatmakes it a little more fun for
your brain helps you engage andit makes it look like you want
to be there versus how youactually feel, which is
(27:47):
screaming on the inside.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, absolutely yeah .
If you're in one of thosesituations like what you don't
want to do is multitask Because.
If one of those situations likewhat you don't want to do is
multitask, because if you'relike multitasking, not paying
attention, it's the same as likedisappearing you'll get caught.
Everyone knows you're just yeahyou're gonna get caught, you're
not engaged like it's not goingto be a good look.
Gamifying is a great way totrick your trick your brain to
pay attention, while also doingsomething that's somewhat
(28:09):
interesting.
I also do a trick, and maybethis is too.
This is too much.
You tell me what you think.
I try to think.
How do I be the devil'sadvocate in the room?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
It's a fun game for me.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
It's a fun game for me because I'm like what are
they missing?
Let me have some fun Cause.
I know I'm like this is not avaluable conversation, but I
have to be here.
I'm like how can I be a littleprovocative?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
but drive a point home.
That could be kind of fun.
You are the antithesis of me.
So what I like to do in meetingsituations where I'm like I
want to get this over with ishow do I find the agreement
between myself and the personwho's holding us hostage?
So if it's a product managerwho sucks at their job and
they're just like not letting usget through the thing, like
okay, what ground am I willingto give up to get this over with
(29:01):
?
Like how can I get through thisconversation quicker so I can
get off this call?
Meanwhile, little Clark overhere is like how do we make this
worse for everybody in the room?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Like how do we drag this to?
Speaker 1 (29:15):
absolute hell and back.
You're drawing it out, I'mdrawn to a close.
I think both are appropriate,actually, like I have no problem
with either of those becauseyou've got to do what's right
for you.
Right Like, if your brain, ifthat scratches your brain and
makes the process bearable, doit.
But just realize someone elsein that room is going to fight
you.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, it's.
It's interesting because it'slike I would only do this in a
meeting.
That I just don't think isvaluable.
But I have to be there.
So I'm like, are we going tomake this entertaining and
potentially valuable?
And so I try to like poke atthose points.
But to your point also, anotherway to do it is just try to not
engage in the conversation andjust be agreeable.
It's like good, but I thinkbecause of it's not the pareto
(29:57):
principle, but whatever law itis, it's like whatever, whatever
activity you're doing is goingto fill the time allowed.
So if it's an hour-long meeting, it's going to be an hour.
Doesn't need to be an hour?
No, but most likely if you'restuck there, it's going to be an
hour.
So how do you make the most ofit?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
pro tip schedule meetings that are 15 minutes
shorter than what you think theyneed to be, and then always say
if we need to run the meetinglong, we can do it.
We can do the whole 30, but Ithink we can knock this out in
15, just a little bit anyways, Iliterally did that.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I did that with a meeting this week.
I had a one on one and theyscheduled 30 minutes.
I'm like we only need 30minutes.
Make it 15.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
And did it go 15?
It's easier that way.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, it was great.
I was like okay, I don't wantto get to the point where I'm
asking about your children'soccupation anymore.
I'm not interested in thatno-transcript.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Any finger related injuries, perhaps Tooth marks,
need to know for a friend.
I like this.
How many digits do you have,and why is that one a shade of
orange?
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Let's count together One, two, three you have, and
why is that one a shade oforange?
Let's count what I like aboutone, two I think, sorry, the
point.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
the point is you can prepare for these things too,
because you know, you know whenyour jelly is, when it's going
to be bad, like you're like, oh,this is going to be one of
those, it's gonna be one ofthose parties, it's gonna be one
of those events, it's to be oneof those, can be one of those
parties, it's going to be one ofthose events, that's going to
be one of those meetings,whatever it is.
You know, so you can mentallyprepare and say, okay, can I
shorten this?
Is there anything I can do inpreparation that can make this
(31:45):
more brief than it is?
Schedule it, agenda it, stickto you know your questions, get
to an agreement and get out whenyou don't have control.
Bring the gamification right,play the little brain activities
, stay engaged, but don't feellike you need to be 100% in,
especially if you know better.
(32:06):
You know you.
But I think one other thing toois there's a little bit of
clever manipulation that canoccur right, like if, say, you
had a conversation with someoneand they're like we need to
schedule a follow up, and youlook at your calendar and you're
like, oh shoot, I've got thattwo and a half hour training
(32:27):
tomorrow, or I can schedule thismeeting right in the middle of
that training.
Sorry guys, I have to bail.
I have a really importantconversation with one of our
customers.
It's the only time they canmake it.
Are they going to ask thecustomer is this the only time
that you could really make thiscall?
No, they're going to be like.
Thanks, bruce, for going offand taking care of this problem.
We totally understand.
You can always watch thetraining replay afterwards.
(32:51):
Efficient scheduling oreffective I should say effective
scheduling of other things cansave you.
Now, I would never say thatI've done this just because
people who listen know me and Idon't want them to know if I've
effectively scheduled them ornot, but it's a route you could
take Strategic scheduling.
I'm just saying no one's goingto be the wiser yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
All right, I've got a managerial tip for you.
If you know your whole entireteam is going to be succumbed to
this situation, take the bruntof it for your team.
Yeah, guys, listen, you guysjust go do whatever.
This isn't going to be valuable, but someone has to be there.
I'll be there and I'll let themknow.
You guys are on you.
You got pulled into a highpriority fire like, like, take
(33:37):
one for the team is what I do.
All the time I'm like don'tattend this, I got it.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I mean, as Bruce says , if I suffer, so shall the
masses.
We're going, we're going intogether.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I love these tips, I, you know.
It kind of makes me think oflike like your situation there.
There's all the meetingsituations and there's town
halls and whatever quarterlyreviews that like everyone has
to go to and it kind of sucks.
Networking is also a necessaryevil in your career.
Yeah, and your question kind ofmade me think of like should we
dovetail this into how do youeffectively network as well?
(34:14):
And something you made me thinkof is, like from the
gamification standpoint, it'slike okay, I am an introvert, I
hate networking.
It's not fun.
One use all the things we justtalked about.
If you drink, you know, get alittle loose, drink a little bit
, gamify it.
Make it a point to say I'mgoing to meet 20 people tonight
and I'm going to learn wheretheir hometown is, like making a
(34:35):
game for yourself, a challengeto Be like I'm going to hit 20.
So you get a little loose, youhop in there and you're like
I've got a mission.
I'm learning 20 people's names,where they grew up, and like
then you're going to be walkingaround introducing yourself,
you're going to be askingquestions about them, which
automatically makes you lookgood and hopefully it makes the
night go faster because you havea mission to do.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
One more tip on top of that, because I love that If
it is an event that has alcoholor just drinks in general.
So let's say you're goingaround oh hi, nice to meet you,
clark.
My name's Bruce.
Oh, cool, all right.
What's your hometown?
Oh, mars, nice, awesome, that'sgreat.
Well, my drink's empty.
(35:17):
Do you want something?
Oh, your drink's full.
Okay, well, I'm going to go geta drink.
Bye, and what you don't do isyou don't refill your drink and
then you go meet the next personGenius.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Yeah, I got to get a refill, man.
I got to top up and then youjust walk away.
That's a genius idea.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
They're not going to pay attention to you.
You're gone, you're out of.
I'm going to make sure Brucegoes and gets his refill.
He seemed real sus about thatdrink.
It's like no, no one's thinkingabout that.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
If they do, it was a crap.
Somebody might say, hey, itlooks like you haven't filled up
that drink yet.
It's like, oh yeah, I gotstopped along the way.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
I'll make it over there.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah or I'm really thirsty, I'm thirsty, I'm a
borderline alcoholic I've got apro tip for you networking wise
to make you feel like the bestperson in the room.
It's low effort and it's a goodthing, like a good mnemonic or
a acronym to remember in thesenetworking situations.
Acronym to remember in thesenetworking situations it's
(36:15):
Grover, g-r-o-v-e-r.
The blue monster.
Where did you grow up?
Oh cool.
Do you still have family there?
What do you do for work?
Tell me more about your role.
Where do you vacation?
What's your favorite food?
How do you like to relax?
Literally, those questionscould carry a conversation for
two hours.
(36:36):
Grow up occupation.
We're going to go through ittogether.
Grow up relationships.
Grow up Occupation.
Grow up relationships,occupation, occupation V, which
is vacation, e, which is eat,and then R, which is relax, and
if you can just remember Grover,you can get through any
networking conversation.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
That's great.
I actually remember that We'vetalked about this before.
But I like to find weird thingsand consume nuance and unique
media.
So I always go right into like,oh, I've seen any good movies.
And the worst is when someone'slike I don't watch movies.
I'm like, oh, have you read anygood books?
I don't read.
Oh, I didn't watch movies.
(37:16):
Like, oh, you read any goodbooks?
I don't read.
Oh, I didn't realize I wastalking to a sociopath.
Like, I'm sorry, what do you doin your life?
Oh, I mostly like to go out andlook at leaves on the paths of
hiking trails I walk.
I'm like, oh well, hope you dieso I never have to speak to you
again.
But it's good, I'm going to useGrover moving forward, because
(37:37):
I have found myself in thatsituation where me and the
person I'm trying to networkwith have nothing, nothing in
common and I truly don'tunderstand how the human brain
can choose not to engage withbooks, movies, music, video
games or other media in thismodern world we live in.
But those freaks are out there.
They are.
And they're not listening tothis podcast because they
(37:58):
wouldn't.
I'm just telling you theywouldn't.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
That's the best thing about Grover is like every
single one of those thingseveryone has and everyone's done
.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Everyone has grown up .
Speaker 2 (38:08):
You have a relationship because you're here
, you have a mom and dad orsomething.
At least you somehow made it onthis earth.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Well, relationship if you're at a work event can be
like, oh, you know, who else doyou know here?
Right, it doesn't have to beyour immediate relationship.
It can be like, oh, what's your?
How did you find out about thisevent?
Like, what's your relationshipto Jeff who's hosting this thing
?
Right, like I like relationshipbecause it's an easy in.
It's not just familial, it'sthe, it's locational yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
And then occupation you're here, you obviously have
a job, you do something.
And then the vacation likehopefully you vacation, even if
you don't just move to likewhat's your favorite food, what
do you like to eat?
Like what's a good meal for you.
And then the relax it's likeeveryone does something outside
of work.
Like you do something.
Tell me what that something is.
So all those things are sorelated.
I heard this on a podcast.
I heard it.
I'm like holy cow, this isamazing because everybody does
(38:58):
these things.
So you can easily have a 10minute conversation and learn a
lot about the person.
And it looks incredible for youbecause you just asked them
everything about them and seemsuper interested in that.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
I will also mention this, just because I had to sit
through an eight hour trainingon it, but it does work.
I don't like personally, butlike if you, if you need this as
a crutch, use it.
There's a, there's a techniquecalled mirroring mirroring we'll
do it.
Well, do you know how to?
Speaker 2 (39:27):
do it clark.
I mean I I'm not ready to roleplay with you if that's what
you're talking about.
But yeah, pick a truck roleplay with me.
Yeah, yeah, you know, like whenwe do the same mannerisms they
can't see us.
So this is not really in themark, but yeah yeah, yeah, role
playing with you right now.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
So I I just mirrored Clark, cause he said roleplay
with you and I just saidroleplay with you, question mark
, and that got him to respond tome with more words.
And that's the entire trick.
All you do is you pullsomething from the final part of
what the person's sayingusually the noun and you repeat
it back to them as a question,and you would be surprised how
(40:05):
long conversations can go,because humans like to talk
about themselves by doing that.
I hate it.
It's a great sales technique.
If you try it on me, I willpunch you in the mouth, but it
does work on like 99% of thepopulation, so I mean I could
totally imagine you walk someoneand you're like okay, what do
(40:25):
you do for work?
Speaker 2 (40:26):
And they're like oh, I'm a data scientist.
You can literally say datascientist, data scientist, yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Oh yeah, no, I like to crunch numbers all day.
It's a.
You know I like to crunchnumbers all day, it's you know,
I went to school for it and itwas.
It became a passion of mineSchool for it.
Oh yeah yeah, I went to likeliterally it goes on forever.
And the crazy thing is youthink it doesn't work, but I've
seen it work.
It works.
(40:52):
So many people will fall for themirror and then you can throw
in what's called a label.
You can learn all of this from,like Chris Voss's hostage
terrorist negotiation training.
You can do what's called alabel.
So, oh, maybe I've mirrored you17 times and you're starting to
catch on to what I'm saying.
So then you can just say, oh,do you seem like a really
intelligent person?
And they'll be like, yeah, I ama really intelligent person.
(41:14):
You know what I love to do is.
And then you just get them on.
The next thing Labeling is just, you seem like something based
on what they said.
It's great Like humans are somanipulatable.
So if you are an introvert andyou hate all of this, use these
as weapons against theextroverts, because they fall
for it.
They're so excited to talkabout themselves.
They'll never stop giving theopportunity A hundred percent
(41:35):
these are great tips.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
I like that.
I like that because there'sdefinitely also times where it's
like I'm tired and I don't wantto have to be thinking about
like how to be interested in youand these are great topics to
go to go are great tools to usein those situations, which is
awesome.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
I think most of the problems we deal with when it
comes to events anduncomfortable situations is
people, so knowing how to workpeople very important skill yeah
, absolutely bet you didn'tthink, 21 minutes into this
podcast about biting off fingersthat taste like carrots would
be giving you a banger tips likethis, did you?
Speaker 2 (42:12):
that's what I always wonder.
I want like a first-timereaction to someone that
actually listens to it all theway through.
And in the, the beginningthey're like what in the?
And then by the end they'relike oh yeah, yeah, it's pretty
good.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
It's kind of helpful.
It's kind of helpful.
I almost stopped in theretalking about Gollum unhinging
his job.
You know, here we are.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Here we are learning about Grover and I'm going to
use networking event.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Grover is great.
I love that.
I love that.
Thank you, clark, alwaysproducing the good tips, always.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
That's why we do a podcast together.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
I mean I stole everything we've talked about
today, you know literallyeverything.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Wait, even Gollum unhinging his jaw to bite off a
finger like a carrot.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
The glass thing I actually that's mine.
I mean, someone might'vethought of that before, but, as
as someone who hates talking topeople for extended periods of
time, having an empty glass issuch a good one.
Hand motions and techniques,it's just.
It's a good tool to have forpeople who have nervous energy,
like I do.
But second, oh, it's empty.
I'm thirsty.
I need more good talking withyou.
(43:11):
Maybe I'll see you later.
I'm going to go get a refill.
Yep, I love it.
Audi, audi 9000.
Speaking of which, clark, myglass is empty, so I think we
should get at it.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
I think so.
I'm so low, I think you need todrag this on while I finish my
drink.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
I need to go get a refill, so I'll see you later.
Well done.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Well done Plan E Well done, well done.
Plan E Exit the conversationComes in in so many ways.
Plan E Legendary.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
You need a plan E for just anything.
In general, that empty glass,it's the best planning there
ever was.
I think it's.
Do you have anything else?
No, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
I'm good.
If you're good, oh good.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Great, great, yeah, fantastic.
Uh, we have no memes.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Wait do we Are you serious?
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Pepsi fruit juice.
Pepsi fruit juice flood.
Uh, hold on.
This is the what do you meanchannel.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
But this is a real thing.
Hold on.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
You know as fans of a certain individual named pepsi
man, I have to.
The pepsi fruit juice flood wasa flood of seven 176 000
barrels, 28 million liters offruit, vegetable juices, into
the streets of lebanon lebanonlebanon, it's in russia.
R Russia and the Don.
I mean Russia, hold on.
So like wait.
(44:38):
It's kind of weird when youlist a place I've never heard of
than Russia, one of the biggestcountries on the planet, and
the Don River, caused by thecollapse of a PepsiCo warehouse.
Yes, what do you mean?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
This is crazy, hey two minor injuries.
I want to know what thoseinjuries are.
The only major concern is itcould have damaged the aquatic
ecosystem of the Don River, butthe water sample showed no
evidence of environmental damageGood news.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
I mean I can't imagine what Pepsi does when I
just drank one of them to myeconomic system.
So like 28 million liters inthe water, I'm sure those fish
are like diabetic now.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Well, remember, it wasn't PepsiCo.
Pepsi, it was fruit andvegetable juices.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
I didn't realize.
Pepsi produced fruit andvegetable juices, which is also
a concerning fact that we'relearning from individual
contributors.
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (45:38):
I mean, you would think this is like way back when
2017, this wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
Why did we not hear about the Pepsi flood?
Speaker 2 (45:46):
How did how did individual contributor find this
?
Why are we just freaking outabout this?
I have so many more questions.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Uh, for the for the first time, listeners usually in
what do you mean?
We, we, we ask people to post ameme that summarizes the
previous episode.
Uh, this time individualcontributor has literally hit us
with the most fascinatingwikipedia article of all time
about the pepsi fruit juice.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
I am opening google maps, okay, the location real
talk.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
You're at the site of the pepsi fruit juice flood
clark.
I know you're an avid kayaker.
Do you bust out the kayak?
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
I mean, you talked about a vehicle to deliver ranch
.
This is a vehicle to enjoyvegetable and fruit juice.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
How sticky do you think that ore is, like you kind
of?
I mean shove that thing, Ithink it's liquid going into
like syrup.
I mean it's liquid, yeah, but Ithink it's still sticky.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
I thought you meant sticky as in once you leave that
body of liquid like you'resticky for life, like the fruit
and vegetable juices.
It never leaves those crevices?
Speaker 1 (46:55):
No, never.
I mean like, I'm just thinkinglike when you, when you shove an
ore into any kind of liquid,there's a little bit of splash
on you, like your arms.
You know how.
You know, sometimes, when youlike you drop a soda or
something in the kitchen and youget that little spray on you
and then for the rest of the dayif you, if you touch your arm,
it's like, oh yeah, feel sticky,like that's you for the rest of
(47:17):
your life.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
if you're at the pepsi juice flood of 2017 I
think what's important to notehere is and we haven't even
brought this up everythingyou're saying is we don't know
what the what the weather islike this time of year.
It happened in april.
I just looked it up live reportliberty in russia.
Right now it's a cold, 42degrees as a high.
(47:41):
So it wouldn't be frozen yeah,42 fahrenheit, yep, so it
wouldn't be frozen.
Right now it's relatively humid92 humidity so, yeah, you're
swimming in fruit juice.
But imagine when that, whenthat evaporates and you're left
with just stick.
How do you de-stickify a?
Speaker 1 (47:59):
town, you don't?
I think the town is now, youknow how, when you boil
something sweet and that littleleather, that sticky leather, is
left, that's that now, this isthe origin story of Candyland
Genius.
(48:20):
Yeah, we just, I think we justmade a movie.
I think we just, I think wejust made a brand new movie.
I'm going to go, we'll call itMichael Bay after this.
Hey, mr Bay, I've got an ideafor you.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
You know the children's board game Candyland.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Let me tell you about the Pepsi fruit juice flood of
2017.
Now we get there.
There's no video of this, isthere?
Speaker 2 (48:43):
I don't know.
I'm doing a ton of research inthis very moment because I have
so many questions.
What does this town look like?
Speaker 1 (48:51):
This is why we should never, ever, just click on a
channel in the middle of anepisode.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Like we need to we need to confirm beforehand.
Yes, I'm going down thererabbit hole this this is bad.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
I mean, are there pictures?
Are there pictures?
I need to know Of the actualflood?
Speaker 2 (49:10):
No, it does look like a very cool.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
Oh my gosh, there are no, there's not Holy crap.
Look at this.
You got to share the screen.
I got to see this.
I'm just going to post it inthis channel.
Look at that.
Oh my gosh, those are theleather strips.
Look at that.
It's literally like the leatherfruit jerky strips lining the
(49:36):
sidewalks and gutters of this.
It's a quite nice little town.
Speaker 2 (49:40):
Yeah, it's got great architecture, Looks very
peaceful, and look at thoserivers.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
This is amazing.
This is absolutely insane.
This is absolutely insane, thisis wild.
I'm so happy this is happeningright now.
Look at that car, the car'sjust, I mean firstly, old move
to drive a car down that becauseyou're never, ever going to be
able to get out of the way.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Oh the ants, animals, bugs.
This is how you have personswalking through it, I know.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
Bold, brave Oldugs.
Oh my, this is how you havePersons walking through it.
I know Bold, brave, old, bravehuman beings.
Can you imagine how many ants,like just trillions of ants?
After this is done, the hills,I mean the area itself could
probably be lifted up and walkaway with how many ants they're
going to be.
A hundred percent be lifted upand walk away with how many ants
(50:38):
they're going to be.
100 just arriving on the fruitnectar juice sticky residue of
this incident, you know what'sabsolutely not true, that there
were no environmental damagesfrom this like there's no,
absolutely this is
Speaker 2 (50:51):
absolutely not true like, the more we talk about
this and think about thelogistics of having to clean
this up and the environmentalchanges or animals that coming
out and bugs and other thingsthat just ingested.
How much sugar is in this?
This is very bad for theenvironment terrible for the
environment.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
I mean, I just posted one more picture in the what do
you?
Meme channel the appropriatechannel for this conversation
and all of this of the actualfactory and how it exploded like
there's no way.
This is terrible.
This is not good.
We shouldn't have this manymillion gallons of pepsi fruit
juice just on hand in any onelocation.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
This should not happen that there's red puddles
all over the parking lot.
This is incredible.
Speaker 1 (51:38):
I'm genuinely fascinated by all of this.
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Well, this was fun.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
This was fun.
Thanks for the meme.
Individual contributor.
I mean, I don't know if it's ameme, but you know we appreciate
it nonetheless.
As always, you're one of ourfaves.
If you want to play, what Doyou Meme?
All you got to do go in.
What do you mean?
Channel in our discord?
Oh, how do you get to thediscord, you ask.
You're so curious.
You're so curious.
Hey, listener, how do you getinto the discord?
Clark?
Speaker 2 (52:13):
Well, there's so many have to do is scroll down.
That's it.
Open up your device, Scrolldown.
There will be a link tree.
It looks like a tree and itlooks like a link.
And you click on the link treeand it will open up and it will
tell you everything you can do.
You can join the Discord withone click.
You can submit a podcast topicthere.
You can do so many fun thingslike what do you mean inside a
(52:37):
Discord channel?
And with our Linktree you canalso access our website where
you can also submit a podcasttopic, and you can also buy a
baby onesie.
What can't you do with theLinktree?
Speaker 1 (52:45):
Well, instructions unclear.
I scrolled so far.
I'm now listening to the firstepisode of Corporate Strategy,
the episode that could have beenan email.
Thanks, Clark, I scrolled toofar, I scrolled way too far.
You know what I'm going tore-listen to all 160 episodes,
why not?
I'm going to binge them.
You know what you can't do onthe link tree.
What's that?
You can't share it with yourfriend.
(53:07):
Actually, you could share itwith your friend.
What you can't really do is youcan't share the podcast with
your friends, which is what wewant you to do.
We don't ask for much.
We've asked for money and youdidn't give us any.
We asked for friendship and,well, we tried.
But what you could do is youcould share this episode with
your loved ones, friends, family, neighbors, enemies if you
(53:28):
didn't think it was very good,but sharing is truly how we grow
.
We would love to get morepeople in the discord.
We'd love to grow the grow.
We would love to get morepeople in the Discord.
We'd love to grow the community.
We'd love to have morelisteners and we have a goal for
this year, which I think was15,000.
What?
Speaker 2 (53:43):
was the goal.
I think it was 10,000.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
We'll have to re-listen to the episode.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
We're off track.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
We are not hitting that number, so there's no risk
of us having to buy the Discordat the time.
Baby onesies, so it's reallynot a problem.
But if you want to make it aproblem, share it with your
friends.
Truly, how we grow, we arecompletely word of mouth based.
Sure, say it with your mouth,say it with your mouth, say it
with your mind and share it withyour friends.
(54:11):
I think that's all we got thisweek.
Give us your memes, join theDiscord, support us, share us.
We love you.
Remember, if you are in afactory with 7.8 million gallons
of sticky juice, check thempressure gauges.
I'm Bruce.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
And I'm Clark.
Please don't flood my town.
Speaker 1 (54:34):
You're on mute.
The Pepsi's coming for you.
We'll see you next week.
bad knees.
My knees are on the way out, soI can't.
I can't stand anymore you'remaking me stand alone.
Yes, you must stand.
Well, I got an x-ray, you know.
You know it's the worst.
You know it's the worst is whenyou go to a doctor and they
like I need to do all thesetests, okay, cool, my knees feel
(00:20):
weird.
They just feel weird,especially when I stand.
So get, I get the x-ray andthey're like well, bruce, I've
got news for you.
I've never seen better knees inmy entire life and I'm like
well, that's not good.
So what's going on down there?
Yeah, you might not have neverseen better knees, but still it
(00:43):
do hurt.
So I love that.
Love that about me in generalis every time I go to the doctor
, they're like, yeah,something's definitely wrong,
but it's not with you, Like okay.
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, that's like the worst when you have something
going wrong, like you know.
You hope it's something easy.
You hope it's just like oh, youknow I like slightly tore.
You know you hope it'ssomething easy.
You hope it's just like oh, youknow I like slightly tore.
You know my meniscus orsomething like that, like it's,
it's something that's so obvious.
You're like, okay, we've got apath to recovery here.
When you go to a doctor andthey say, yeah, you look fine.
(01:18):
And then you're like I don'tfeel fine, yeah, it's the worst
now you have to go down thatfork in the road that says now
you're going the specialistroute and you're going to have
to go to a specialist to figureout what's wrong with you.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yep, which I don't want to do, I don't want to do.
I actually spent an hour and ahalf at a specialist today to
basically just get anotherappointment scheduled, which is
great.
Great, I've had ingrowntoenails for like years now, so
I'm finally getting them dealtwith.
Go to get it dealt with todayand they're like actually we'd
rather do it at a differentoffice.
Is that okay with you?
I'm like I've only waited anhour and a half, so yeah, no, I
(01:54):
guess we're going to do it at adifferent office then.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Cool of those things, this is one of those things
that you need to make sure andeveryone here needs to take in
this tip If you have an issue,especially on your feet, get it
taken care of right away,because most of the time it only
gets worse and it will onlytake longer to recover.
And, unfortunately, if you waita long time to do something
(02:21):
about it and then you have toget surgery or something, you're
not going to be walking.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
It's going to suck yes, fortunately mine are not as
bad as they used to be.
Um, I was able to rebuild myarches, which helped a lot, but
still I want it done.
I just want to get those thingscut, lasered, poisoned,
whatever the heck they do, andthen never deal with it again
because you know, I last weeklast week I was a conference I'm
(02:44):
standing all day.
It really starts to burn on the17th hour on your foot.
Just got to get it done, I'mdone.
Just get it taken care of.
Just get it chopped off.
Big toes what is it?
Garden pruners Just put the bigtoe in our garden pruner, chop,
chop.
They cook them.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I was gonna say you don't need the little, you don't
need the garden pruning tool.
All you have to do is just havesomeone bite down, thinking
it's a carrot, and that thing'sgone.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah I think that's a lie.
I don't think that's true.
I think that's a myth we'vebeen told for for decades on.
Here's how I know, because I'vetried to bite my finger.
I'm like I use the samepressure on a carrot on my
finger and it was not able tochop off.
So no, you've actually donethis.
Yeah, why have you done this?
(03:37):
If someone tells you yourfinger can be bitten off with
the same strength of a carrot,why wouldn't you test it?
I mean this is easy science,right?
Like, okay, a carrot requiresthis much pressure.
Okay, I mean you could, evenyou could do it like with your,
with your you know your fingers.
Basically, I can snap a carrotin half, but I can't snap my
finger in half with the samepressure.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It doesn't make sense , it doesn't make sense, I think
you're failing to remember onecritical fact around this that
proves it's true.
Yeah, what is that?
I want to take you to a place.
I want to take you to Mordor.
I want to take you to Mordorand I want to take you to the
scene where Smeagol bites offFrodo's finger with the ring on
(04:21):
it like a carrot.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Wow, yeah, no.
Do you call that bite likebiting?
Okay, when you chomp into acarrot they can't see us.
We're on camera.
But like when you chomp into acarrot, do you open your mouth
as wide as humanly possible?
Then put the entire strength ofyour entire body into your jaw
muscles to close down on thatcarrot.
Do you require that muchstrength for a carrot?
It depends, it depends.
(04:46):
Sméagol went in for a bite.
It wasn't just like oh, Sméagolwants to bite a carrot now.
No, it's like Homie literallyunhinged his jaw to then use all
of the force in his mouth tochomp on young Frodo's finger.
I agree, I agree, but weFrodo's finger.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I agree.
I agree, but we know it'spossible, just depends on how
much force you're going to putdown.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yes, you can bite off a finger, I don't doubt that at
all, but I don't believe thatthe finger has the same density
and tooth requirement.
You try, he's Clark's trying toright now, cause.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I don't know, it's scary.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I'll be honest it's scary I know that's as hard as I
buy the carrot.
Nothing, you got a little.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I got a little finger indent for my tooth, I don't
believe I got in that I okaywe've done the experiment live I
.
I mean, I I'll be honest, I atecarrots, so I'm really sad
because I ate I love carrotstoday I ate my last carrots.
So I can't do a side-by-sidecomparison with you, because I
would do it right now, live oncamera, and I can't do it.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I love me a carrot.
You know what my wife's beendoing recently.
That is great.
She will fill a little cup ofranch and then put all of the
carrots in the ranch.
So like remove them from thebag, put them in the ranch, keep
that in the fridge.
So then you just grab thelittle cups and you're just good
to go.
How great is that.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Isn't that the smartest thing?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yep, crazy, I'm a hummus guy personally.
Ooh, you like the hummus?
Huh?
Oh yeah, I'm a ranch man.
I'm a ranch man through andthrough, because I'm white.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yes, it's young cultured.
I eat garlic, lemon hummus andit's delicious.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I do love hummus, but not on a carrot.
I'm sorry the things people puton carrots.
I just hummus, it's good, I'lleat it.
If it's like a restaurant, likeit's a good delivery device,
but like if I'm having a hummus,I want it on like some pita
bread.
Like give me, give me somethinglike some pita bread.
Like give me something you knowstarchy with that hummus.
The thing I don't get peoplewho do like peanut butter on
(06:52):
carrots, active psychopaths likeneed to be put on a list.
People dunk in their carrots andpeanut butter and they put
little raisins on top.
They'll do that with celery too, and I'm like you're insane,
you need to be put on a list.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I mean you need to know the actual name Ants on a
log.
That's what it's called Ants ona log.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I'm not a celery guy who likes celery.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Do you like celery?
I do.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
It's the worst, but again, celery is a delivery
mechanism for ranch and I'vealready mentioned the whiteness.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
There's these things called straws that you can just
use instead to suck up the ranch, if you'd like.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Straight ranch down the gullet.
Give it to me now, chickenwings, if I saw that Buffalo
chicken wings Ranch or Buffyblue cheese.
Which do you?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
prefer.
I'm dying because I'm imagininglike in a corporate office.
Everyone's carrying their waterbottle around, but you walked
in with a thing of ranch hidden.
Alley, slam it on the table,you start drinking.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I promise you this If we ever work in an office
together again on my first day,I promise you on this podcast I
will walk in the office with abottle of ranch and a straw and
I will be slurping and be like,oh hey, clark, how's it?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
going.
That's it, I mean you'd befired immediately.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
It would be like get out.
That's a great way to assertdominance.
I guarantee you.
You walk into an office with abottle of hidden valley and a
straw metal straw, metal strawbecause you've thought about
this, right, like it's one ofthose metal bent straws.
Like this is not.
This is not some gag.
This is I.
I planned on doing this.
I brought the straw, I broughtthe ranch.
I know I know what my goal is.
It's one of those metal bentstraws.
Like this is not.
This is not some gag.
This is I.
I planned on doing this.
I brought the straw, I broughtthe ranch.
I know, I know what my goal is.
(08:29):
You walk in.
You're like hey guys, this isgoing just just drinking some
ranch straight face.
Serious, the day is long, noone's ever going to mess and
they can't fire you.
They can't be like oh, brucedrinks ranch.
Like what?
What are you going to go tellHR?
Are you going to go tell HR Idrink ranch?
Turns out you're the bigot here.
(08:51):
You don't know me, you don'tknow my culture White.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Clearly white.
If you didn't know, we wereboth white at this point of the
show.
We are the whitest peoplearound.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Drinking ranch Metal straw at this point of the show.
We are the whitest peoplearound.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Drinking ranch metal straw.
Here we go.
Yeah, I'm good on ranch.
If you're good on ranch, I dolove ranch.
I want to go back to something.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I want to go back to something.
Don't do this.
I actually missed a greattransition.
So, speaking of Lord of theRings, speaking of Lord of the
Rings, I was in San Diego lastweek doing my job.
San Diego, I was in San Diegodoing my job.
(09:35):
I was working a conference andshout outs to some of the
listeners of the pod whoactually worked the conference
with me.
You provided us a topic today,but before we get into that,
before we get into that, I wason the show floor and one of my
jobs I uh, I run trivia in ourbooth.
I do it as an activity to rileup the masses, everyone.
I try to get as many people asI can show up to the booth and
(09:57):
we run through 10 triviaquestions and I make the
questions.
They're pretty difficult, but Ithrew some softballs in there
and the is really just to getleads.
We scan everyone who comes anddoes trivia and the winner walks
away with a $500 Lego kit, likelegit.
That's it.
You show up, you play, we dosix different rounds of trivia
throughout the event and we giveaway six expensive Lego kits.
That's awesome.
(10:17):
You would not believe thenumber of people in my booth
watching me do trivia with them.
I bet I have a picture.
I can share it in the Discordif people are interested.
I do want to see it.
This is all leading up to Lordof the Rings, so I put softball
questions in there, mostly justto kind of calibrate people.
So they're like oh yeah, I cando this, and then I just rail
(10:41):
them with the hardest questionspossible, because I don't want
everyone raising their hand atthe same time, cause then it
makes it very hard for me to say, okay, out of the 20 of you, I
think you had your hand up first, right, so one softball, nine
hard questions.
My softball question was whatis the name of the character
Strider in the Lord of the Rings?
(11:02):
That's my softball question.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Do you know the answer what is the name?
Speaker 1 (11:08):
like the actual person, what is the actual name
of the human character who goesby the pseudonym strider in lord
oh shoot, are you serious?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
so no, I'll.
I mean we talked about thisbefore.
I am awful at trivia because Idon't remember actor actresses
names ever.
It's my wife that's good attrivia.
If we ever have a contest andthere's physical activity or
trivia, I'm doing the physicalactivity.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Okay, and it has been established.
You are not the kind of nerdthat just knows nerd facts.
But I guarantee you there arepeople listening to this right
now screaming into their podcastdelivery device the name of
this character.
Now would you believe me if Itold you at a nerd conference?
No less is a tech conferencefor techie people, nerdy people
(11:53):
that know all the nerdyquestions.
Not a single one of 20 peopleknew this answer.
But, like my fellow employeeswere looking at me like is this
a a joke?
Is this a prank?
Like how does no one know?
They know what a freakingtardigrade is.
They know what kind of barkcreates aspirin, they knew that
one, but they don't know thecharacter Strider's real name
(12:16):
from Lord of the Rings.
And like I was stupefied, like Iwas getting angry.
You could tell I was likegetting physically upset, cause
I'm like are you guys messingwith me?
Now?
This is a softball question.
This is like if you've seen themovies, if you've lived a life,
you know this answer is Aragorn.
It's Aragorn.
What's wrong with you?
And then I started giving themhints and like you would not
(12:37):
believe the number of people whoare like it's Legolas, it's
like, no, it's not.
It's like no, it's not.
Stop saying that it wasn'tright the first time, it's not
right the fourth time.
Like, is it Gimli?
I'm like, do you think Gimliwould go by the name Strider?
Strider, gimli.
Like you've named every single,they went Sam Frodo, is it?
Is it Gollum?
Like, what the hell is wrongwith you?
(12:58):
People, like 20 people aroundme, could not get this answer.
I was.
I was gonna die.
Like the people who I had, youknow, helping me in the booth
were looking at me like this is,this is the most insane thing
I've ever seen in my life, butit happened.
It's a real thing.
That happened.
No one knew strider was aragornand it started to make me
question my own sanity, like didI get this wrong?
(13:20):
Do I not know lord of the rings?
And it's like no, it's not me,it's the children that are wrong
.
Absolutely wild experience.
Um, eventually had to give upthe hint like he literally
becomes king at the end.
And they were still like whobecomes king at the end of lord
of the ring?
I'm like did you guys watchthese movies?
Have you not read the book?
Do you not exist in culturelike?
This is sad, this is really sad, but wow there are half
(13:47):
positive point for me.
I feel validated you sure,should you sure should?
There were people far, farnerdier than you ever want to be
that were like scratching theirhead, like it's like a loss,
literally.
I'm not exaggerating.
Four times the name legolas wasthrown out and I'm like it
wasn't right the first threetimes.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Stop saying it well, you got to give me a hard one.
What was one of your hardtrivia questions?
If you remember any other?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
oh, that was a song.
Oh, what was a hard I'm gonnaget it wrong I'm not.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I'm not volunteering to answer this.
I just want the people to knowwhat was the native american
tribe?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
uh, that was that their language was based on the
code used in World War One, thecode talking for World War One.
Oh, I don't know, and it'sreally hard because everyone
knows well, not everyone, butmost people know world war ii,
which, I'll tell you, was navajo.
Can everyone look?
It's navajo?
It's like no, still not navajo.
(14:44):
Uh, world war one was different.
That's a hard, I would neverknow.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Do you want to give me the people or no?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
yeah, I'll give the answer.
It's, it's choc-ta, just incase you're ever in that uh
situation where you need toanswer that question.
I make it hard for a reason Idon't want everyone raising
their hand like I want.
I want the one smart guy to getit and win the lego kit.
But yeah, yeah, it's fun.
I have over 100 questions now.
It's great.
Wow, it's a good time.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I enjoy doing it yeah , that makes the whole entire
conference thing fun becauseit's there's so many things
where it's like, okay, I get alittle squishy thing from your
company and you try to do asales pitch on the floor, like
nobody wants that Nobody.
Yeah, I can see, I can see yoursquishy thing over there.
But you did something fun.
You gave out a real prize, youdid something engaging.
(15:32):
You probably got a ton ofengagement from the crowd and
that's how you bring trueinterested people to your booth.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I'll tell you a story since, since you seem vaguely
interested in this.
Um, this actually started I atmy previous job, big corp.
We we both worked at togetherwe were doing a conference uh,
it was cube con and it was ourfirst time doing it and I
actually had to run this entireshow.
Like I basically said, ourevents team doesn't know what
they're doing.
(15:59):
I'm going to do it, I'm goingto prove them wrong, and I
regret ever saying that, but Idid.
We managed to show up, have ourbooth do all the things, but I
could not get engagement in ourbooth.
Like, no matter what we did, Icouldn't get engagement Like
we're doing presentations andwhatnot.
It wasn't working.
So, literally on the second day,I thought, well, what if I just
build a quick little slide deckof some trivia questions and
(16:22):
you know we give away some ofour more high end swag to the
people that participate and youwould not believe the number of
people Like if I just say we'redoing trivia in five minutes,
we're giving this stuff away.
You want to sit and wait, waitaround, like 30 people, just
instant change to the boothdynamic and that was like real
time.
I like trivia.
I wonder if other people do too.
(16:42):
I'll put together somethingreal quick, put it up on the
screen, we'll do it.
And then it was like people cameto like we got it, we have to
do this every hour, like I'llget more questions.
I guess, uh and I brought thatwith me to my new job basically,
basically, they're like, whatkind of draw can we do?
And I said, well, I've donetrivia in the past and it works
really well.
And guess what Deal does?
So we just do it because itworks.
(17:03):
But yeah, don't let your dreamsbe dreams.
Do trivia.
I love it, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Did you see any other activities going on that were
of equal interest, or no?
Sometimes, like, raffles arefun, fun.
It's like everybody pulls araffle ticket.
You're like we're doing thedrawing at 2 30, we're spinning
the lottery balls and whatevernumber we draw, I've done
raffles in the past and I don'twant to ruin the illusion for
you, but I will.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Usually we pick the winner.
Uh, just so you know.
Uh, if, like, if I give you aticket and I find like, oh, this
is a potential buyer of ourproduct, like they're, they're
about to spend millions on us.
Like, oh, what a weirdcoincidence.
Their tickets, the one we pull,definitely have done that in
the past.
Sometimes, we're honest, I'vedone it both ways where it's
(17:47):
been like, completely honest,pull the ticket, read the number
oh nobody.
Okay, let's get the next one.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Oh, nobody, the number, oh nobody okay, let's
get the next one, oh nobody.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Okay, we're gonna do this for 20 minutes, and that's.
That's part of the reason whyit's good to pick a winner is
yeah generally.
You know, if you're like overthere, okay, let's do the real
ticket now.
Yeah, um, raffles are good.
I think trivia is the bestbecause it's engaging right.
Yeah, everyone is involved withthe activity.
We've done vr booths in thepast.
That was okay.
(18:18):
We've done Tetris competitions.
That was one of my ideas.
That I don't think turned outso well is what ended up
happening was we got a fewinitial people excited to play,
but then the same two peoplejust coming to our booth back
and forth, back and forth,trying to outscore each other,
which is good if you want peoplein your booth all day, but it's
not good if you actually wantpeople to try to compete.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
That's interesting One that I think would be kind
of cool is almost like aBattleBot Royale.
It's like everybody with thelittle finger bots so you tap
the things, you try to punch thehead up.
What's the name of it?
Rock'em, sock'em Robots.
How sick would a tournamentlike that be, where you have it
right in the center of yourbooth, you're like, hey,
everybody, make sure you getyour names in and you have what
(19:02):
30, 40 people that can go in,and then you just have a
tournament, everyone's gatheringaround and be like, let's go.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
I wanted to do a Street Fighter tournament and
basically, if you beat me, uh,we'll give you some some cool
swag kind of thing.
Like I thought that'd be fun.
Rock and sock and robots is agreat idea, though, because it's
so, it's.
It's such a cool physicalobject like I thought the, uh,
the hoops, you know the arcadehoop game, basketball, I mean,
it's not, it's not bad, you know.
(19:29):
You know what I'm talking about, but like, I thought that would
be a really good one if you doa high score challenge on that.
Only problem is the noise.
A lot of times there's uh yeahthey'll yell at you, they'll be
like you're too loud, gottaquiet down.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Which yeah, it's like the problem with vr and even
like to your point, even likethe street fighter.
It's like only so many peoplecan participate and it's it's
like on a screen, so it's likeit doesn't feel as engaging the
rockck'em Robots.
You set up a battle booth.
That'd be pretty sweet.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
We should do it.
When we start our own company.
We'll do Rock'em, sock'emRobots one year and the next
year we'll do Beyblades.
We'll get a big metal bin.
Have you seen the gears?
Where they actually light onfire.
Yeah, we'll do that, that'd becool.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Sounds like a plan.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And then whoever loses has to cut off their pinky
.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yes, pinky gone.
Actually, you have to bite itoff like a carrot, like a carrot
, oh, and that's all we got foryou today, folks.
Great podcast Hope you enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
We didn't even do an intro.
It's too late now.
21 minutes.
Welcome back to CorporateStrategy, the podcast.
That could have been an email.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I'm Bruce, I'm Cork and I'm still blown away.
Like I talked about, what isthe point where it's
inappropriate?
This felt inappropriate, thisis it.
I'm sorry this actually feelsdirty.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I feel bad about this one.
That's why I said 21 minutes,because I'm going to have to
edit this in and I don't want tolook for it.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yep, good call, good call, so that's it Good episode
Clark Great job.
You want to shout out to oursponsors real quick before we
close.
Close, let's do it.
Bayblade, let it rip that's it.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That's, that's the show.
So, okay, cool, we will.
We'll skip vibe check.
We're 21 minutes in.
The vibes are non-existent.
Today I was at this conference,by the way, doing lord of the
rings trivia, and one of ourlisteners told me you should do
a podcast about this.
What was this, you might ask?
(21:40):
Well, we had hosted a party andwe invited a lot of different
people to come to this party andI was in a room that you know,
bigger than any normal sizedmcdonald's uh, that had like 200
something people crammed inthere, with music blasting,
alcohol flowing, and I'd neverfelt so uncomfortable in my life
(22:01):
.
And he said you should do anepisode about, like, how to deal
with this.
Cause it's my job to be there,right, like I can't opt out of
this.
But like there comes a pointwhere no party is fun because
it's just so cramped and I lovethat idea because it's not just
the party.
How do you deal with worksituations that you hate?
(22:22):
Right, like you're an introvert, this is uncomfortable, you're
in a meeting that just won't end.
Like, how do you mentally, willyourself through the
discomforting situation and comeout stronger at the other end?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah, it's tough, I mean every job is going to be
something that you hate.
And, unfortunately, what you'resaying is and I think these are
the types of scenarios thereare things you have to do.
There is no opt-out, there isno realigning to not be involved
in doing the thing you hateanymore.
It's like this is something Igot to do.
Here we go and like how do youmake the most of that situation?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
How do you bite down mentally and survive?
I'll tell you what I did atthis party One old fashions help
.
They really do.
They really do.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I was going to say you like old fashions, help,
they really do, they really do.
I was going to say you like oldfashions, so I would start with
a few old fashions, justbecause that'll loosen you up a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, like 10 or 20, I think does the job.
In all seriousness, pleasedrink responsibly.
I think I had like one theentire time.
For me it was make sure thatthe people because we throw this
party on to obviously attractnew customers to treat existing
(23:43):
customers well, make them feellike our brand matters, our
product matters, as long asthey're having a good time.
I don't need to really doanything, so I would walk around
, you know, talk to a few peoplethat I knew, make sure they're
happy, and then I kind of wentto the front and just watched
the door right, Like for me itwas very much a the closer I can
get to not being in this room.
(24:03):
This loud, hot, sweaty personfilled room.
If I need to go, stand outsideand help you know people coming
in, going out and making surethey're they're supposed to be
here.
That's going to be my job.
But basically I took the pathof least resistance.
It's like how do I make thesituation as bearable as
possible for me?
So I put myself in that placeto do that.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, yeah, I think that that was one thing I was
thinking of is, if you can'thide, put yourself in a place
that'll be like the leastmiserable in the situation.
Like if it's a loud concertroom like I got a schmooze a
little bit, whatever, and therehave a band or a comedian on
stage or whatever.
It's like just float to theback and just like be there, but
(24:47):
not really be there.
You mean, you know what I mean.
Like don't be in the middle ofit, just get to the edges.
That'll help.
Or another option is just go tothe bathroom and hide, but you
probably need to be seen.
That's the.
That's the downside.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Well, I think I think that's the mistake a lot of
people make is they will eitherthey'll go hide in a spot where
they're no longer visible orthey'll retreat into their
technology, like I'll just pullup my laptop.
I hate this meeting.
I'm just gonna pull up mylaptop and do some email.
I'll use my phone.
That's the thing is like.
Retreating into comfort canoften look worse than not being
(25:22):
there at all.
Right, because it's like, oh,they're not engaged, they're
doing something else right now.
Why are they even here, right,like?
I think that's something peopledon't realize is, if you're not
there, people aren't thinkingabout you.
But if you are there and youlook miserable, people are like,
oh, what's wrong with thisperson?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, yeah.
Hiding is the worst thing youcan do.
I think in those situationswhere you need to be present and
to your point, like getting onyour computer or being on your
phone, the whole time looks evenworse.
It's like you're there and theneveryone's like you're there
and then everyone's like thisperson's just being forced to do
this.
They should have never come inthe first place.
(26:03):
Worst thing to do.
I think something you said isinteresting like make yourself
useful.
Like find something.
Like if you're like, oh man,this is gonna suck, but look
around you and be like, oh,people are having trouble.
Like getting in, let me justlike go over there and act like
I'm helping.
And like giving people highfives when they come in, because
then it makes you look like ahero.
It's like bruce is gettingpumped up at the door.
He's letting everybody in.
That was a bottleneck before.
(26:23):
Like he's the man, he's doingeverything we need him to do
right now.
And then you're visible toeverybody because they're
walking.
It's like great, go grabyourself a drink at the front.
Like you're dodging the smalltalk, cause you can be like,
yeah, bring them on in, get thenext person in, and you're kind
of ignoring everyone else andpushing them to go do the
activity, kind of genius it is,and I feel like that is
(26:43):
gamification.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Right, like what you are doing.
You are gamifying somethingthat you would otherwise not
enjoy, like I know a lot ofpeople they'll have to.
They're forced to go to varioussales kickoffs and sitting
through some of these kickoffconversation or, like you know,
speeches, whatever can be justgrueling right, like, if you're
a technical person, you're justlike this is boring, I want to
(27:05):
get to the good stuff.
Or maybe you're just like I'm,I'm done, I can't wait to get to
the party or whatever.
Gamify the experience.
So, like, one thing I like to doif I'm in a meeting or any kind
of presentation that I justfind absolutely abysmal is do a
counter right, like count thefiller words that person use, uh
, count the number of times theysay the product.
(27:25):
Like, just make it somewhatinteractive.
Like take notes, but like noone knows notes you're writing.
If you're like putting a littletally list together, it's like,
oh, I don't know what Bruce isdoing, but he's engaged in this.
Like you can do that and thatmakes it a little more fun for
your brain helps you engage andit makes it look like you want
to be there versus how youactually feel, which is
(27:47):
screaming on the inside.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, absolutely yeah .
If you're in one of thosesituations like what you don't
want to do is multitask Because.
If one of those situations likewhat you don't want to do is
multitask, because if you'relike multitasking, not paying
attention, it's the same as likedisappearing you'll get caught.
Everyone knows you're just yeahyou're gonna get caught, you're
not engaged like it's not goingto be a good look.
Gamifying is a great way totrick your trick your brain to
pay attention, while also doingsomething that's somewhat
(28:09):
interesting.
I also do a trick, and maybethis is too.
This is too much.
You tell me what you think.
I try to think.
How do I be the devil'sadvocate in the room?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
It's a fun game for me.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
It's a fun game for me because I'm like what are
they missing?
Let me have some fun Cause.
I know I'm like this is not avaluable conversation, but I
have to be here.
I'm like how can I be a littleprovocative?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
but drive a point home.
That could be kind of fun.
You are the antithesis of me.
So what I like to do in meetingsituations where I'm like I
want to get this over with ishow do I find the agreement
between myself and the personwho's holding us hostage?
So if it's a product managerwho sucks at their job and
they're just like not letting usget through the thing, like
okay, what ground am I willingto give up to get this over with
(29:01):
?
Like how can I get through thisconversation quicker so I can
get off this call?
Meanwhile, little Clark overhere is like how do we make this
worse for everybody in the room?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Like how do we drag this to?
Speaker 1 (29:15):
absolute hell and back.
You're drawing it out, I'mdrawn to a close.
I think both are appropriate,actually, like I have no problem
with either of those becauseyou've got to do what's right
for you.
Right Like, if your brain, ifthat scratches your brain and
makes the process bearable, doit.
But just realize someone elsein that room is going to fight
you.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, it's.
It's interesting because it'slike I would only do this in a
meeting.
That I just don't think isvaluable.
But I have to be there.
So I'm like, are we going tomake this entertaining and
potentially valuable?
And so I try to like poke atthose points.
But to your point also, anotherway to do it is just try to not
engage in the conversation andjust be agreeable.
It's like good, but I thinkbecause of it's not the pareto
(29:57):
principle, but whatever law itis, it's like whatever, whatever
activity you're doing is goingto fill the time allowed.
So if it's an hour-long meeting, it's going to be an hour.
Doesn't need to be an hour?
No, but most likely if you'restuck there, it's going to be an
hour.
So how do you make the most ofit?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
pro tip schedule meetings that are 15 minutes
shorter than what you think theyneed to be, and then always say
if we need to run the meetinglong, we can do it.
We can do the whole 30, but Ithink we can knock this out in
15, just a little bit anyways, Iliterally did that.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I did that with a meeting this week.
I had a one on one and theyscheduled 30 minutes.
I'm like we only need 30minutes.
Make it 15.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
And did it go 15?
It's easier that way.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, it was great.
I was like okay, I don't wantto get to the point where I'm
asking about your children'soccupation anymore.
I'm not interested in thatno-transcript.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Any finger related injuries, perhaps Tooth marks,
need to know for a friend.
I like this.
How many digits do you have,and why is that one a shade of
orange?
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Let's count together One, two, three you have, and
why is that one a shade oforange?
Let's count what I like aboutone, two I think, sorry, the
point.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
the point is you can prepare for these things too,
because you know, you know whenyour jelly is, when it's going
to be bad, like you're like, oh,this is going to be one of
those, it's gonna be one ofthose parties, it's gonna be one
of those events, it's to be oneof those, can be one of those
parties, it's going to be one ofthose events, that's going to
be one of those meetings,whatever it is.
You know, so you can mentallyprepare and say, okay, can I
shorten this?
Is there anything I can do inpreparation that can make this
(31:45):
more brief than it is?
Schedule it, agenda it, stickto you know your questions, get
to an agreement and get out whenyou don't have control.
Bring the gamification right,play the little brain activities
, stay engaged, but don't feellike you need to be 100% in,
especially if you know better.
(32:06):
You know you.
But I think one other thing toois there's a little bit of
clever manipulation that canoccur right, like if, say, you
had a conversation with someoneand they're like we need to
schedule a follow up, and youlook at your calendar and you're
like, oh shoot, I've got thattwo and a half hour training
(32:27):
tomorrow, or I can schedule thismeeting right in the middle of
that training.
Sorry guys, I have to bail.
I have a really importantconversation with one of our
customers.
It's the only time they canmake it.
Are they going to ask thecustomer is this the only time
that you could really make thiscall?
No, they're going to be like.
Thanks, bruce, for going offand taking care of this problem.
We totally understand.
You can always watch thetraining replay afterwards.
(32:51):
Efficient scheduling oreffective I should say effective
scheduling of other things cansave you.
Now, I would never say thatI've done this just because
people who listen know me and Idon't want them to know if I've
effectively scheduled them ornot, but it's a route you could
take Strategic scheduling.
I'm just saying no one's goingto be the wiser yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
All right, I've got a managerial tip for you.
If you know your whole entireteam is going to be succumbed to
this situation, take the bruntof it for your team.
Yeah, guys, listen, you guysjust go do whatever.
This isn't going to be valuable, but someone has to be there.
I'll be there and I'll let themknow.
You guys are on you.
You got pulled into a highpriority fire like, like, take
(33:37):
one for the team is what I do.
All the time I'm like don'tattend this, I got it.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I mean, as Bruce says , if I suffer, so shall the
masses.
We're going, we're going intogether.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I love these tips, I, you know.
It kind of makes me think oflike like your situation there.
There's all the meetingsituations and there's town
halls and whatever quarterlyreviews that like everyone has
to go to and it kind of sucks.
Networking is also a necessaryevil in your career.
Yeah, and your question kind ofmade me think of like should we
dovetail this into how do youeffectively network as well?
(34:14):
And something you made me thinkof is, like from the
gamification standpoint, it'slike okay, I am an introvert, I
hate networking.
It's not fun.
One use all the things we justtalked about.
If you drink, you know, get alittle loose, drink a little bit
, gamify it.
Make it a point to say I'mgoing to meet 20 people tonight
and I'm going to learn wheretheir hometown is, like making a
(34:35):
game for yourself, a challengeto Be like I'm going to hit 20.
So you get a little loose, youhop in there and you're like
I've got a mission.
I'm learning 20 people's names,where they grew up, and like
then you're going to be walkingaround introducing yourself,
you're going to be askingquestions about them, which
automatically makes you lookgood and hopefully it makes the
night go faster because you havea mission to do.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
One more tip on top of that, because I love that If
it is an event that has alcoholor just drinks in general.
So let's say you're goingaround oh hi, nice to meet you,
clark.
My name's Bruce.
Oh, cool, all right.
What's your hometown?
Oh, mars, nice, awesome, that'sgreat.
Well, my drink's empty.
(35:17):
Do you want something?
Oh, your drink's full.
Okay, well, I'm going to go geta drink.
Bye, and what you don't do isyou don't refill your drink and
then you go meet the next personGenius.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Yeah, I got to get a refill, man.
I got to top up and then youjust walk away.
That's a genius idea.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
They're not going to pay attention to you.
You're gone, you're out of.
I'm going to make sure Brucegoes and gets his refill.
He seemed real sus about thatdrink.
It's like no, no one's thinkingabout that.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
If they do, it was a crap.
Somebody might say, hey, itlooks like you haven't filled up
that drink yet.
It's like, oh yeah, I gotstopped along the way.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
I'll make it over there.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah or I'm really thirsty, I'm thirsty, I'm a
borderline alcoholic I've got apro tip for you networking wise
to make you feel like the bestperson in the room.
It's low effort and it's a goodthing, like a good mnemonic or
a acronym to remember in thesenetworking situations.
Acronym to remember in thesenetworking situations it's
(36:15):
Grover, g-r-o-v-e-r.
The blue monster.
Where did you grow up?
Oh cool.
Do you still have family there?
What do you do for work?
Tell me more about your role.
Where do you vacation?
What's your favorite food?
How do you like to relax?
Literally, those questionscould carry a conversation for
two hours.
(36:36):
Grow up occupation.
We're going to go through ittogether.
Grow up relationships.
Grow up Occupation.
Grow up relationships,occupation, occupation V, which
is vacation, e, which is eat,and then R, which is relax, and
if you can just remember Grover,you can get through any
networking conversation.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
That's great.
I actually remember that We'vetalked about this before.
But I like to find weird thingsand consume nuance and unique
media.
So I always go right into like,oh, I've seen any good movies.
And the worst is when someone'slike I don't watch movies.
I'm like, oh, have you read anygood books?
I don't read.
Oh, I didn't watch movies.
(37:16):
Like, oh, you read any goodbooks?
I don't read.
Oh, I didn't realize I wastalking to a sociopath.
Like, I'm sorry, what do you doin your life?
Oh, I mostly like to go out andlook at leaves on the paths of
hiking trails I walk.
I'm like, oh well, hope you dieso I never have to speak to you
again.
But it's good, I'm going to useGrover moving forward, because
(37:37):
I have found myself in thatsituation where me and the
person I'm trying to networkwith have nothing, nothing in
common and I truly don'tunderstand how the human brain
can choose not to engage withbooks, movies, music, video
games or other media in thismodern world we live in.
But those freaks are out there.
They are.
And they're not listening tothis podcast because they
(37:58):
wouldn't.
I'm just telling you theywouldn't.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
That's the best thing about Grover is like every
single one of those thingseveryone has and everyone's done
.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Everyone has grown up .
Speaker 2 (38:08):
You have a relationship because you're here
, you have a mom and dad orsomething.
At least you somehow made it onthis earth.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Well, relationship if you're at a work event can be
like, oh, you know, who else doyou know here?
Right, it doesn't have to beyour immediate relationship.
It can be like, oh, what's your?
How did you find out about thisevent?
Like, what's your relationshipto Jeff who's hosting this thing
?
Right, like I like relationshipbecause it's an easy in.
It's not just familial, it'sthe, it's locational yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
And then occupation you're here, you obviously have
a job, you do something.
And then the vacation likehopefully you vacation, even if
you don't just move to likewhat's your favorite food, what
do you like to eat?
Like what's a good meal for you.
And then the relax it's likeeveryone does something outside
of work.
Like you do something.
Tell me what that something is.
So all those things are sorelated.
I heard this on a podcast.
I heard it.
I'm like holy cow, this isamazing because everybody does
(38:58):
these things.
So you can easily have a 10minute conversation and learn a
lot about the person.
And it looks incredible for youbecause you just asked them
everything about them and seemsuper interested in that.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
I will also mention this, just because I had to sit
through an eight hour trainingon it, but it does work.
I don't like personally, butlike if you, if you need this as
a crutch, use it.
There's a, there's a techniquecalled mirroring mirroring we'll
do it.
Well, do you know how to?
Speaker 2 (39:27):
do it clark.
I mean I I'm not ready to roleplay with you if that's what
you're talking about.
But yeah, pick a truck roleplay with me.
Yeah, yeah, you know, like whenwe do the same mannerisms they
can't see us.
So this is not really in themark, but yeah yeah, yeah, role
playing with you right now.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
So I I just mirrored Clark, cause he said roleplay
with you and I just saidroleplay with you, question mark
, and that got him to respond tome with more words.
And that's the entire trick.
All you do is you pullsomething from the final part of
what the person's sayingusually the noun and you repeat
it back to them as a question,and you would be surprised how
(40:05):
long conversations can go,because humans like to talk
about themselves by doing that.
I hate it.
It's a great sales technique.
If you try it on me, I willpunch you in the mouth, but it
does work on like 99% of thepopulation, so I mean I could
totally imagine you walk someoneand you're like okay, what do
(40:25):
you do for work?
Speaker 2 (40:26):
And they're like oh, I'm a data scientist.
You can literally say datascientist, data scientist, yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Oh yeah, no, I like to crunch numbers all day.
It's a.
You know I like to crunchnumbers all day, it's you know,
I went to school for it and itwas.
It became a passion of mineSchool for it.
Oh yeah yeah, I went to likeliterally it goes on forever.
And the crazy thing is youthink it doesn't work, but I've
seen it work.
It works.
(40:52):
So many people will fall for themirror and then you can throw
in what's called a label.
You can learn all of this from,like Chris Voss's hostage
terrorist negotiation training.
You can do what's called alabel.
So, oh, maybe I've mirrored you17 times and you're starting to
catch on to what I'm saying.
So then you can just say, oh,do you seem like a really
intelligent person?
And they'll be like, yeah, I ama really intelligent person.
(41:14):
You know what I love to do is.
And then you just get them on.
The next thing Labeling is just, you seem like something based
on what they said.
It's great Like humans are somanipulatable.
So if you are an introvert andyou hate all of this, use these
as weapons against theextroverts, because they fall
for it.
They're so excited to talkabout themselves.
They'll never stop giving theopportunity A hundred percent
(41:35):
these are great tips.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
I like that.
I like that because there'sdefinitely also times where it's
like I'm tired and I don't wantto have to be thinking about
like how to be interested in youand these are great topics to
go to go are great tools to usein those situations, which is
awesome.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
I think most of the problems we deal with when it
comes to events anduncomfortable situations is
people, so knowing how to workpeople very important skill yeah
, absolutely bet you didn'tthink, 21 minutes into this
podcast about biting off fingersthat taste like carrots would
be giving you a banger tips likethis, did you?
Speaker 2 (42:12):
that's what I always wonder.
I want like a first-timereaction to someone that
actually listens to it all theway through.
And in the, the beginningthey're like what in the?
And then by the end they'relike oh yeah, yeah, it's pretty
good.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
It's kind of helpful.
It's kind of helpful.
I almost stopped in theretalking about Gollum unhinging
his job.
You know, here we are.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Here we are learning about Grover and I'm going to
use networking event.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Grover is great.
I love that.
I love that.
Thank you, clark, alwaysproducing the good tips, always.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
That's why we do a podcast together.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
I mean I stole everything we've talked about
today, you know literallyeverything.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Wait, even Gollum unhinging his jaw to bite off a
finger like a carrot.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
The glass thing I actually that's mine.
I mean, someone might'vethought of that before, but, as
as someone who hates talking topeople for extended periods of
time, having an empty glass issuch a good one.
Hand motions and techniques,it's just.
It's a good tool to have forpeople who have nervous energy,
like I do.
But second, oh, it's empty.
I'm thirsty.
I need more good talking withyou.
(43:11):
Maybe I'll see you later.
I'm going to go get a refill.
Yep, I love it.
Audi, audi 9000.
Speaking of which, clark, myglass is empty, so I think we
should get at it.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
I think so.
I'm so low, I think you need todrag this on while I finish my
drink.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
I need to go get a refill, so I'll see you later.
Well done.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Well done Plan E Well done, well done.
Plan E Exit the conversationComes in in so many ways.
Plan E Legendary.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
You need a plan E for just anything.
In general, that empty glass,it's the best planning there
ever was.
I think it's.
Do you have anything else?
No, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
I'm good.
If you're good, oh good.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Great, great, yeah, fantastic.
Uh, we have no memes.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Wait do we Are you serious?
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Pepsi fruit juice.
Pepsi fruit juice flood.
Uh, hold on.
This is the what do you meanchannel.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
But this is a real thing.
Hold on.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
You know as fans of a certain individual named pepsi
man, I have to.
The pepsi fruit juice flood wasa flood of seven 176 000
barrels, 28 million liters offruit, vegetable juices, into
the streets of lebanon lebanonlebanon, it's in russia.
R Russia and the Don.
I mean Russia, hold on.
So like wait.
(44:38):
It's kind of weird when youlist a place I've never heard of
than Russia, one of the biggestcountries on the planet, and
the Don River, caused by thecollapse of a PepsiCo warehouse.
Yes, what do you mean?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
This is crazy, hey two minor injuries.
I want to know what thoseinjuries are.
The only major concern is itcould have damaged the aquatic
ecosystem of the Don River, butthe water sample showed no
evidence of environmental damageGood news.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
I mean I can't imagine what Pepsi does when I
just drank one of them to myeconomic system.
So like 28 million liters inthe water, I'm sure those fish
are like diabetic now.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Well, remember, it wasn't PepsiCo.
Pepsi, it was fruit andvegetable juices.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
I didn't realize.
Pepsi produced fruit andvegetable juices, which is also
a concerning fact that we'relearning from individual
contributors.
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (45:38):
I mean, you would think this is like way back when
2017, this wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
Why did we not hear about the Pepsi flood?
Speaker 2 (45:46):
How did how did individual contributor find this
?
Why are we just freaking outabout this?
I have so many more questions.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Uh, for the for the first time, listeners usually in
what do you mean?
We, we, we ask people to post ameme that summarizes the
previous episode.
Uh, this time individualcontributor has literally hit us
with the most fascinatingwikipedia article of all time
about the pepsi fruit juice.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
I am opening google maps, okay, the location real
talk.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
You're at the site of the pepsi fruit juice flood
clark.
I know you're an avid kayaker.
Do you bust out the kayak?
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
I mean, you talked about a vehicle to deliver ranch
.
This is a vehicle to enjoyvegetable and fruit juice.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
How sticky do you think that ore is, like you kind
of?
I mean shove that thing, Ithink it's liquid going into
like syrup.
I mean it's liquid, yeah, but Ithink it's still sticky.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
I thought you meant sticky as in once you leave that
body of liquid like you'resticky for life, like the fruit
and vegetable juices.
It never leaves those crevices?
Speaker 1 (46:55):
No, never.
I mean like, I'm just thinkinglike when you, when you shove an
ore into any kind of liquid,there's a little bit of splash
on you, like your arms.
You know how.
You know, sometimes, when youlike you drop a soda or
something in the kitchen and youget that little spray on you
and then for the rest of the dayif you, if you touch your arm,
it's like, oh yeah, feel sticky,like that's you for the rest of
(47:17):
your life.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
if you're at the pepsi juice flood of 2017 I
think what's important to notehere is and we haven't even
brought this up everythingyou're saying is we don't know
what the what the weather islike this time of year.
It happened in april.
I just looked it up live reportliberty in russia.
Right now it's a cold, 42degrees as a high.
(47:41):
So it wouldn't be frozen yeah,42 fahrenheit, yep, so it
wouldn't be frozen.
Right now it's relatively humid92 humidity so, yeah, you're
swimming in fruit juice.
But imagine when that, whenthat evaporates and you're left
with just stick.
How do you de-stickify a?
Speaker 1 (47:59):
town, you don't?
I think the town is now, youknow how, when you boil
something sweet and that littleleather, that sticky leather, is
left, that's that now, this isthe origin story of Candyland
Genius.
(48:20):
Yeah, we just, I think we justmade a movie.
I think we just, I think wejust made a brand new movie.
I'm going to go, we'll call itMichael Bay after this.
Hey, mr Bay, I've got an ideafor you.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
You know the children's board game Candyland.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Let me tell you about the Pepsi fruit juice flood of
2017.
Now we get there.
There's no video of this, isthere?
Speaker 2 (48:43):
I don't know.
I'm doing a ton of research inthis very moment because I have
so many questions.
What does this town look like?
Speaker 1 (48:51):
This is why we should never, ever, just click on a
channel in the middle of anepisode.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Like we need to we need to confirm beforehand.
Yes, I'm going down thererabbit hole this this is bad.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
I mean, are there pictures?
Are there pictures?
I need to know Of the actualflood?
Speaker 2 (49:10):
No, it does look like a very cool.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
Oh my gosh, there are no, there's not Holy crap.
Look at this.
You got to share the screen.
I got to see this.
I'm just going to post it inthis channel.
Look at that.
Oh my gosh, those are theleather strips.
Look at that.
It's literally like the leatherfruit jerky strips lining the
(49:36):
sidewalks and gutters of this.
It's a quite nice little town.
Speaker 2 (49:40):
Yeah, it's got great architecture, Looks very
peaceful, and look at thoserivers.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
This is amazing.
This is absolutely insane.
This is absolutely insane, thisis wild.
I'm so happy this is happeningright now.
Look at that car, the car'sjust, I mean firstly, old move
to drive a car down that becauseyou're never, ever going to be
able to get out of the way.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Oh the ants, animals, bugs.
This is how you have personswalking through it, I know.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
Bold, brave Oldugs.
Oh my, this is how you havePersons walking through it.
I know Bold, brave, old, bravehuman beings.
Can you imagine how many ants,like just trillions of ants?
After this is done, the hills,I mean the area itself could
probably be lifted up and walkaway with how many ants they're
going to be.
A hundred percent be lifted upand walk away with how many ants
(50:38):
they're going to be.
100 just arriving on the fruitnectar juice sticky residue of
this incident, you know what'sabsolutely not true, that there
were no environmental damagesfrom this like there's no,
absolutely this is
Speaker 2 (50:51):
absolutely not true like, the more we talk about
this and think about thelogistics of having to clean
this up and the environmentalchanges or animals that coming
out and bugs and other thingsthat just ingested.
How much sugar is in this?
This is very bad for theenvironment terrible for the
environment.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
I mean, I just posted one more picture in the what do
you?
Meme channel the appropriatechannel for this conversation
and all of this of the actualfactory and how it exploded like
there's no way.
This is terrible.
This is not good.
We shouldn't have this manymillion gallons of pepsi fruit
juice just on hand in any onelocation.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
This should not happen that there's red puddles
all over the parking lot.
This is incredible.
Speaker 1 (51:38):
I'm genuinely fascinated by all of this.
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Well, this was fun.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
This was fun.
Thanks for the meme.
Individual contributor.
I mean, I don't know if it's ameme, but you know we appreciate
it nonetheless.
As always, you're one of ourfaves.
If you want to play, what Doyou Meme?
All you got to do go in.
What do you mean?
Channel in our discord?
Oh, how do you get to thediscord, you ask.
You're so curious.
You're so curious.
Hey, listener, how do you getinto the discord?
Clark?
Speaker 2 (52:13):
Well, there's so many have to do is scroll down.
That's it.
Open up your device, Scrolldown.
There will be a link tree.
It looks like a tree and itlooks like a link.
And you click on the link treeand it will open up and it will
tell you everything you can do.
You can join the Discord withone click.
You can submit a podcast topicthere.
You can do so many fun thingslike what do you mean inside a
(52:37):
Discord channel?
And with our Linktree you canalso access our website where
you can also submit a podcasttopic, and you can also buy a
baby onesie.
What can't you do with theLinktree?
Speaker 1 (52:45):
Well, instructions unclear.
I scrolled so far.
I'm now listening to the firstepisode of Corporate Strategy,
the episode that could have beenan email.
Thanks, Clark, I scrolled toofar, I scrolled way too far.
You know what I'm going tore-listen to all 160 episodes,
why not?
I'm going to binge them.
You know what you can't do onthe link tree.
What's that?
You can't share it with yourfriend.
(53:07):
Actually, you could share itwith your friend.
What you can't really do is youcan't share the podcast with
your friends, which is what wewant you to do.
We don't ask for much.
We've asked for money and youdidn't give us any.
We asked for friendship and,well, we tried.
But what you could do is youcould share this episode with
your loved ones, friends, family, neighbors, enemies if you
(53:28):
didn't think it was very good,but sharing is truly how we grow
.
We would love to get morepeople in the discord.
We'd love to grow the grow.
We would love to get morepeople in the Discord.
We'd love to grow the community.
We'd love to have morelisteners and we have a goal for
this year, which I think was15,000.
What?
Speaker 2 (53:43):
was the goal.
I think it was 10,000.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
We'll have to re-listen to the episode.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
We're off track.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
We are not hitting that number, so there's no risk
of us having to buy the Discordat the time.
Baby onesies, so it's reallynot a problem.
But if you want to make it aproblem, share it with your
friends.
Truly, how we grow, we arecompletely word of mouth based.
Sure, say it with your mouth,say it with your mouth, say it
with your mind and share it withyour friends.
(54:11):
I think that's all we got thisweek.
Give us your memes, join theDiscord, support us, share us.
We love you.
Remember, if you are in afactory with 7.8 million gallons
of sticky juice, check thempressure gauges.
I'm Bruce.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
And I'm Clark.
Please don't flood my town.
Speaker 1 (54:34):
You're on mute.
The Pepsi's coming for you.
We'll see you next week.
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