Appreciation Series: Tangible Gifts

We explore "Tangible Gifts" as an appreciation language in the workplace, discussing why it ranks as the least chosen language despite companies spending billions on reward programs centered around physical items.

• Most employees prefer words of affirmation, quality time, or acts of service over physical gifts
• Food ranks as the most appreciated tangible gift in workplace settings
• Gift cards place second in effectiveness as they allow choice and personalization
• Corporate branded items like mugs or umbrellas usually end up unwanted or discarded
• Effective gift-giving requires knowing someone's interests and preferences
• A meaningful gift demonstrates that you pay attention to what matters to the recipient
• Important to distinguish between gifts (personal appreciation) and benefits (work compensation)
• Asking before giving a gift can prevent awkwardness and shows respect
• Personal stories show how contextually appropriate gifts can create lasting positive memories
• The best gifts solve problems or enhance experiences rather than creating clutter

If you've enjoyed this episode on appreciation languages, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. You can also support us by leaving a review or joining our Discord community through the link in the show notes.

Click/Tap HERE for everything Corporate Strategy

Elevator Music by Julian Avila
Promoted by MrSnooze

Don't forget ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ it helps!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
right when craig jumped in, you completely froze.
Good, great I was like this isgoing to be a great start.
You're just completely frozensolid.
The second we hit start.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Did you see me power?
Slam my keyboard I did.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
You looked like that little, the meme, the gif of the
cat, like just slamming hiskeyboard.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
You know you looked look like it, that was me.
I was doing the meme becauseyou know, I I hit the return
button, enter.
Sorry, I hit the enter button.
Yeah, return is for apple,enter is for.
You're right, everyone else.
Uh, did you know, that, did you?

Speaker 1 (00:39):
know that.
You know I always wanted to.
I did know that, like becauseI've always seen the difference.
But like you know my brain, I Idon't, but I wanted to tell you
my thing in my brain so you cancorrect me.
The thing in my brain is like Ithought if you just rearrange
the letters, it'd be enter justspelt wrong.
And I thought they were justtrying to be cheeky.
Is that the reason?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well, there's no U in enter.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
So good guess.
Enter but no, there's enter andthen there's enter, and that
was the Mac way, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know, you're a little bit younger than me, Just
a little bit, just a little bit.
But you might not have ever hadthe opportunity in your life to
touch a typewriter, have youever?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
touched a typewriter.
I actually I have my grandpahad a typewriter and he actually
typewriter.
I actually I have my grandpahad a typewriter and he actually
made me type one of my paperson it when I was in, like when I
was in elementary school, I hadto type a paper on it was
really, really frustrating mygrandfather also had a
typewriter and it was very funto play with as a young lady.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Uh, the return key on apple comes from the typewriter
, because when you'd hit thatbutton on the typewriter, the
it's not a stylist, I forgetwhat it's called.
The little pin, little tracker,returns to its initial initial
position and then feeds thepaper, so it'd be return line

(02:00):
feed uh lf yeah right lf rightyeah linux command right, yeah,
yeah, who doesn't know?
uh, so there you go and enter isjust because it makes more
sense on a keyboard, becauseyou're entering commands, so
keyboard enter return typewriter.
Although you know, macmacintosh being macintosh, they

(02:21):
want to be all fancy, so theykept the return.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yep, and that's why they go with enter, just spell
wrong.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
No, no, that's not the word.
I learned nothing.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
I learned nothing in the last 30 seconds.
No, it's like British, you know, it's just the UK version of
English, where they just likeremove letters and they spell
favorite with a U.
That's how I'm choosing tospell enter.
I think they did it first.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
I think they did it first and we did it differently.
I do like color with a U, Ifeel like color is so much
better with a U why?
Did we get rid of the U, but wekept colonel with an L.
That's the dumbest wordespecially since we have two
versions of kernel in theenglish language kernel, the

(03:09):
rank and military, and thenthere's kernel in your, your cob
of corn popcorn, yeah, andlinux.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Don't forget your linux kernel.
Yeah, don't forget your linuxkernel, which is is that spelled
the same way as popcorn kernel?
Yes, it's the same as popcornkernel.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Oh my gosh, I could have told you what the
significance of that meant ifyou didn't ask me right now.
I did know that too.
It was like there's thefirmware, there's the kernel,
there's the operating system.
Because the kernel is below theoperating system, I want to say
Nope, Nope.
The kernel doesn't no, it's not, it's really not oh it sucks.

(03:49):
You got time, it could, so Icould google it, but I'm not
going to in fact.
Good, I don't want to.
I don't want to share thisinformation with our listeners.
Go learn it for yourselves,that's the important lesson
today.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
this is the anti-ai bruce coming out, where he's
just saying you have to rememberthis through your physical
brain, do not cheat.
Remember this.
This is good for you.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
I actually I had to update.
I'm going to be updating bothmy LinkedIn as well as my author
profile on my business websiteand the funniest thing was like
they're like my business website.
And the funniest thing was likethey're like can you please use
AI?

Speaker 1 (04:33):
So it's AI optimized words and I'm like oh my gosh,
just why don't you?

Speaker 2 (04:35):
just do it for me.
Then, Like it's all point isgetting clicks and investment.
I don't, I don't care.
I haven't touched my LinkedInin over a year.
So I was like sure, If you wantto just take over, I don't care
.
I haven't touched my LinkedInin over a year, so I was like
sure, if you want to just takeover, have fun, have fun.
I hate that platform with apassion.
Burn it to the ground.
Do whatever you want with myprofile and it's just like can
you use AI to update your bio?

(04:57):
Because we really need the AIwords.
This is so stupid.
It is so stupid that we're andthis is like a real thing right,
Like basically every companytoday.
If you're in the marketingdepartment, you already know
this.
This is not new, but if you'renot, you might not know this.
Natural search is down by over60%.
So, like Google utilization,Bing, DuckDuckGo, whatever

(05:20):
you're using is down by 60%compared to like last year, when
it was down 14%.
Like this is such a monumentaljump in number drop that it's
forcing all peoples of marketingilk to have to relearn all the
keywords because it's all aboutpleasing the AI.

(05:42):
Here's a free lesson for anyonethat wants to do AI optimized
writing.
Believe it or not, the mostimportant thing you can do is
not use AI to write for AIoptimized writing, because it's
good at sensing itself.
The reason I'm using it for mybio and my profile is because it
looks for that kind of thingfor people.

(06:03):
But when it's looking forinformation specifically about
your company, when it's lookingfor information specifically
about your company, it's allabout what you say in the
heading one, heading two andheading three of your writing.
And if it finds a good heading,then it's going to read the
text in it and then it's goingto absorb it and it's going to
parrot it back and it's going togo do all that.
But that's trick.
And if it, if it picks up on ailanguage in that text, it's

(06:27):
going to reject it.
So it's looking for nuancedhuman written thing.
So at least you know our jobsare safe for another year or so.
But uh, it's just the times.
Are it changing?

Speaker 1 (06:38):
they are.
It's interesting, like when yousaid that it's all about
pattern matching and so if youuse ai to write those things,
it's going to be I already know.
This isn't new information.
Like I'm not going to add thisor index this and you know
exactly.
Basically build it into thelarge language model.
It's like I don't need to, I'vealready got that information
and so you'll just kind of getburied underneath everything

(06:59):
else as a source.
Who's already using thatinformation?
And ai is not really greatcreative thinking, so like it's
not going to come up with newstuff that it doesn't already
know.
That's kind of the whole way itworks.
So it's interesting, like theway you said that, that it
impacts your job that way.
It impacts my job from like,like you basically just said,
natural search is down, meaningsearch engine optimization is

(07:20):
down, meaning ad spend is down,like all of that is less and
less effective because nobody'susing Google to search things
anymore.
I find myself more and moreusing chat GPT, because it's
just easier, rather thanscrolling through 10 links to
just type in my question.
Yeah, I know, I'm sorry, butit's true.
It's like it's.
It's more effective for a lotof the things I'm searching for
than like clicking through threelinks and like trying to find

(07:40):
the information, and so, like,the new thing is now basically
agent optimize what's the word?
They got a thing for it nowAgent engine optimization or AI,
engine optimization so.
AEO instead of yeah, it's AEOinstead of SEO, and so like
that's becoming.

(08:00):
The new thing is like how youoptimize your site.
It needs to be basicallyoptimized for large language
models to be able to scrape iteffectively, and so you have to.
You've probably seen it before.
If you go to like stripecom orwhatever, they have all their
documentation.
Like LLMstxt is the new thingon everybody's site, because
that's where they want all theLLMs to look in order to index

(08:22):
their site to find theinformation.
So it's no longer having likeone indexhtml with a bunch of
links and a bunch of sources.
It's like now optimized forlarge language models, which is
really interesting.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
And the disgusting thing about all of it is is AI
is actually stat ranking people.
So, believe it or not, I amclassified as like an authority
to AI, and this was thediscovery of my company, was
they're like oh, ai reallyrespects whatever you write and
like it will actually take itand integrate it into its
engines.
I'm like, yeah, because I'm ahuman being that still writes
words Like I'm not cheating,like everyone else in their job.

(08:54):
Of course it respects what Iwrite, like it's just funny,
right, like I'll go readsomething, I'll learn about it,
I'll write it, and that's myprocess.
But discovery is, oh, if brucewrites something, now the ai has
ranked bruce as an author, as atrusted source.
Yeah, there's, there's a word,it's an eeat, and I couldn't

(09:14):
tell you for the life of me whateeat stands for, but it's.
It's four different words and Iam one because of some,
something, something, authority,something, and, and.
So now I have to get my profileset so, as I continue to be an
EEAT, I can help the AIs takeeveryone's jobs.
So you're welcome everybody.

(09:35):
Thank you.
I'm part of the problem becauseI'm doing my job well.
As per usual, doing good workis a punishment for both you and
everyone around you, so what awonderful, fantastic future
we're working ourselves into.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
We have a lot to look forward to.
Having a great time out here,really looking forward to it.
Yeah, it's interesting.
I was at a tech conference inJune and one of the guys I met
there is like a renowned StackOverflow super user who worked
at Google for a long time.
Now he works somewhere else.
He answered like over 10,000 ormaybe even more than that

(10:12):
things on Stack Overflow and hisanswers were always like ranked
as the right answer and soobviously, when AI came around,
they just scraped all of hisstuff and so it was interesting.
As I was talking to him, he waslike, yeah, I was trying to
figure out, are they actuallyusing my answers for like coding
related problems since theyscraped Stack Overflow?
And I was trying to ask himlike, hey, what's like the

(10:34):
Google verified way to dosomething?
And he was purposely askingbecause he's like I solved this
problem in a unique way that noone saw before Google didn't
solve before.
I solved it, I wrote the codefor it and when I asked it to
answer this question, itrepeated my code back to me, my
unique code that I posted onStack Overflow eight years ago,
and he's like this was reallyinteresting because obviously I
didn't give it authority to dothat, but I'm sure Stack

(10:57):
Overflow didn't either.
But now it's proof that it'strained off data that's out
there on the internet and it'sstolen.
All that as like unique answersyou want my prediction?

Speaker 2 (11:08):
tell me prediction.
I'm ready.
Within the next five years,we're gonna see ai data centers
get blown up and burned to theground like it's going to happen
.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's five years, yeah it's
gonna be like.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
It's gonna be like terminator, but the machines
aren't the threat, it's gonna bethe people.
Yeah, because this is comingfor so many people's jobs.
Uh, there was my wife actuallyposted in our discord um, all of
the jobs that were threatenedby ai and all the jobs that
weren't.
And you look at either of thoselists and it's terrifying

(11:44):
because I don't want to be agarbage man, but also, what else
can I do?
And you're going to see, it'sgoing to be like the end of
Fight Club, but for all of theseAI data centers.
And part of me is excited for itbecause Viva La Revolution.
Like, it's been a while and Ithink I think we've we're
reaching that boiling pointwhere we need to start burning

(12:06):
down buildings.
But part of me also doesn'twant to live through any more
historic events in my life, assomeone who's lived through many
.
So you know it'll be.
It'll be interesting.
Yeah, I can't wait.
No, it's not going to be fun.
It it's not going to be fun.
It's going to be miserable andwe're going to be very hungry
and it's going to suck, butmaybe we'll live through it.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Well, they're going to define what fun means.
So once AI defines what funmeans, trust me you're going to
have fun and you're going tolike it.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
I'm going to have fun picking up trash Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Let me tell you that article was so interesting.
It was like jobs that aresecure from ai, like dishwasher,
house cleaner, like things thatare like, why, like, why
couldn't those have been likethe first things that ai goes
for?
But I think, um, somebody elsein the discord was coming back
and they were like it's because,you know, robotics with ai are
not at the level where they'recommoditized and where it's

(12:59):
affordable for people to havethem, so those jobs will be safe
longer than other jobs whereit's like web developer.
It's like people you can justcode all you can write agents
that will write all of yourwebsites for you, based off a
single prompt, and so it wasreally, really interesting to
look at the results of that.
And, yeah, definitely some ofthose jobs.
I was not expecting, like, datascientists to be on there, but

(13:20):
it is interesting of thinking ofthat loop.
It's like the data scientistsare the one who train these
large language models, and nowthe large language models have
gotten so good they no longerneed data sciences to basically
train the large language models.
They can just scrape all thedata and follow the pattern, and
so it's really, reallyinteresting kind of looking at
that data and unfortunately, Ithink your pessimistic look at

(13:41):
the future is probably going tobe very true.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
You know what isn't pessimistic.
What's that?
Welcome back to CorporateStrategy.
Podcasts could have been anemail.
I'm Bruce and I'm Clark.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
What's up, Clark, how you doing?
Hey, it's good to see you.
I'm happy we're here.
Hey, you know it's funny.
Usually we just banter at thebeginning and just have some fun
.
But before we even startedtoday's podcast, we had a
revolution about my brain and itdidn't even make it.
It didn't even make the cut.
That was like the most valuablething that we've talked about.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
You burned some really good pod.
Unfortunately I should have hadCraig jump in sooner.
Do you want to share therevelation we came up with to
the class?

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, Well, we've got a theory theory.
We don't know if it's true, butwe have a lot of evidence that
would point towards it beingtrue.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
So I start by saying this all came about because I
see clark just chugging like aliter bottle of cold, it's gone,
that's great.
He literally starts the pod.
There's, there's half a bottleof cold, a liter of cold brew in
his hand.
We're talking cold brew, coldpressed coffee that's heavily,

(14:50):
heavily caffeinated.
And I mean, I am an enjoyer ofcold brew myself, but I will
only do it, like you know,sparingly, because I have
reduced my caffeine intake.
And I said Clark, stop, howmuch is cold brew a day?
Because it's like it's fouro'clock on a Sunday.
You go to bed in four hours,like how much cold brew are you

(15:11):
drinking?

Speaker 1 (15:12):
And you said I said this is probably my second, and
that's like within.
That's within like the last fewhours.
And then that kicked off thiswhole thing about what are you
doing with your life?
Why are you making these lifechoices?
This is really bad for yourhealth.
And then we started gettinginto.
You know some of the interestingfacts of how my body and my

(15:34):
brain reacts to caffeine?
And the answer is we don'tthink it does.
So I've I've been drinkingcoffee for a long time.
Um, background my dad basicallygot to start drinking coffee
when we were really young andeven to this day he still drinks
fully caffeinated coffee, likeeight o'clock at night.
Anytime we're over there, he'slike you guys want a coffee and

(15:55):
we're like, no, it's like eighto'clock at night, like we don't
need a coffee.
We're going to bed very soon,but like we just grew up
drinking a lot of coffee.
So by the nature of that, I justlove the taste of coffee.
Like it's really refreshing tome to have coffee in the morning
, a hot coffee, in theafternoons or evenings having
like a nice little cold coffeeor an espresso, like that's very
normal.
But what's interesting is likeI don't get a strong buzz.

(16:17):
I can drink a cup of coffee andgo to bed Like it has almost no
effect on me.
And so we were discussing likeokay, well, what else is unique?
Do you have regressions if youdon't drink coffee for a while?
And the answer to that is notoo.
Like anytime we go my wife andI go on trips and we don't have
like easy access to coffee, orwe go a few days without it, I
usually am just fine, and on theother hand, she gets like a

(16:38):
headache from the withdrawal.
And so we started talking aboutthis and Bruce was like well,
maybe there's something going onwith your brain where the part
of your brain that basically youknow is trying to get your body
to go to sleep, it is blockingthe caffeine from like reaching
that part of your brain.
So maybe you have anintolerance, and I think it's
true.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
I think it's very true.
I'm leaning so much into trueand it's interesting.
I watched a whole masterclasson sleep, which is how I learned
about, like, how caffeineactually works in the brain and
everything you have said seemscounter to how the brain
actually works, which makes methink that your brain is
actively rejecting the chemicalcaffeine and that and like I was

(17:20):
telling you earlier, it's likeit's not unusual.
There have been cases of peoplewho can't get drunk.
You know they'll, they'll smokemarijuana and they can't get
high, and it's because theirbrain actively rejects the
chemical, so the body justprocesses it and disposes of it
as waste.
Uh, it doesn't get attached towhatever the receptor is on the
brain side to create thechemical reaction.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, I think you're caffeine resist resilient, like
you have no effect of caffeineyeah, yeah, it's interesting and
like it is kind of cool because, yeah, I don't.
I don't get regression, I don'thave trouble sleeping, like if
I drink coffee before bed, noissues, I'm a good sleeper, I
even when I have it, I don't getjitters or like a buzz in any

(18:02):
way.
Um, I was telling bruce, I wakeup pretty early and right now
my wife is waking up a littlelater because she's on summer
break and she basically, whenshe gets up, she gets coffee
ready and everything like that.
I've already been up for maybean hour hour and a half.
Nothing like no effectwhatsoever.
But I like the ritual ofdrinking coffee, so I'll drink a
coffee, but it doesn't likewake me up, like I already feel

(18:23):
the same as I did when I wake up.
So I think this is very trueand I think what's probably
better for my body and maybe mybrain or maybe it doesn't matter
is that I switched to decaf,especially in the afternoons.
Is that better for me?

Speaker 2 (18:37):
I don't think it's going to matter.
I really don't.
You don't think so.
I think because your brain isrejecting it.
And the big clue for me wasactually when you said you took
a five day hiatus and then youcame back and you drank, but you
didn't feel any different, likewhen I've given up caffeine for
weeks or months at a time, thatfirst time I have a coffee

(18:58):
after being off of it, likewhere it's left my system
completely.
It is like, oh, you know, likeit is like a shock to the system
.
Like even after the first sipyou're like, oh my gosh, I could
kill a boar if I wanted to withmy bare hands, right.
So like that to me, tells me,if there's no physical change
for you, you are resistant tothe chemical.

(19:21):
Yeah, very interesting right.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
I don't think that's like college, like Like I've
never put this together untiltoday and that's why this is a
really interesting revolution toshare with everybody, because I
think it's like the placeboeffect, because people around me
act like that, like I rememberin college, like my, my roommate
, really close friend of mine,he, he would drink like coffee.
We take coffee, we take like aquick nap and we wake up and be
like all right, we're ready tolike study or do homework or

(19:45):
whatever, and take like a quicknap and we wake up and be like
all right, we're ready to likestudy or do homework or whatever
.
And I remember like I didn'thave like really any impact from
that, like it tasted good, itwas fine, I slept right after,
no problem.
But I in the next after I wokeup, I was totally fine, but he
was like off the walls, he'slike shaking, he's like really
really hyper and like yeah, andfor me I was like I just got to
feel normal, like we took a nap.
So I I feel a little refreshed,but maybe this is it this whole

(20:07):
time.
I should do a test or ifanybody listening to this
episode has anything like thisif you have caffeine resilience
or if you've done some sort oftest like this.
Maybe that's what I should do,just to figure out if this is
true.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
I think it is, I think it is.
I think we should get you onblack tar heroin and see how
that works for you?

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Yeah, I think it is.
Yeah, I think we should get youon black tar heroin and see how
that works.
Yeah, as a counter, you know,keep the coffee in, but like
introduce something else.
That way you find out.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Variable X you know, we got it.
We have to find out.
We must know more.
I've got some.
I got some neighbors who arebrewing some, some fresh meth.
Oh yeah, send that down yourway and see if that energizes
you a little bit, yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, please do.
I was also telling Bruce, Idon't have a an addictive
personality and, like I alwaysattributed it to that.
So I think, even if you know Istarted this, it would just be
like a one or two time thing.
I'd be like that was fun.
What's next?
Well, it's not.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
I mean you, you might not have an addictive
personality because you haven'tactually tried a substance that
you can get addicted to.
Maybe is the thing you knowlike if, if that's if the coffee
thing, I mean like you're notsmoking cigs and you know doing
doing crack in the evening, soyou're you're not really doing
substances that are highlyaddictive, so I wouldn't be.

(21:19):
I wouldn't be.
I mean like maybe sugar, right,like I guess you can get
addicted to sugar, but like,have you ever been addicted to
sugar?
I you get a headache if youdon't have your Snickers in the
afternoon.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
No, not, really no.
And also, what's interesting islike I can eat the same.
I don't think this is related,but I'm going to bring it up
anyway.
I can eat the same thing overand over, like over and over and
over again Same day chickenbroccoli.
I could eat that every meal,every day.
I'd be totally fine.
Disgusting, I know.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
I know that's ugh.
Just baked chicken, Just baked,you know, grilled.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
I mean I prefer grilled.
I prefer grilled because thenyou get the char marks on it.
It's delicious, it's so good.
Why do you need anything elseyou?

Speaker 2 (22:00):
know I'm disgusted by everything.
It disgusted by everything.
You just I um it's funny one ofmy favorite foods I love a good
, uh, fried chicken, like a,like a uh, you know, like a
chicken wing or a.
Like a lightly fried chickenwing, like, not a, not a heavily
like.
I like that crispy skin, that'sgood.

(22:22):
But I don't like a lot ofbreading and I also don't like
no breading, so I'm veryparticular.
But if it's done right, like achicken sandwich, for example,
love me a chicken sandwich.
Yeah, just mm.
So good, give it to me.
A chicken tender Mm Friedchicken.
Boneless chicky tender MmCovered in hot sauce.

(22:44):
Yeah.
Buddy Tiki tender covered inhot sauce, yeah buddy, oh yeah,
oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
It's a gift.
It's a gift to us all.
You know what else is a gift?
Oh what, Tell me.
It's one of the appreciationlanguages Tangible gifts no way.
Caffeine, fried chicken,tangible gifts in my mind, and
it ties right into our topic.
Can you believe?

Speaker 2 (23:05):
that.
Can you give chicken as atangible gift?
I need to go change all myanswers on the test.
I'll be honest.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
I will be honest if a co-worker were to show up my
office and be like hey, I've gota chick-fil-a chicken sandwich
for you.
I just thought it'd be a nicegesture.
I might say tangible gifts ismy number one, yeah, yeah,
that's what I might switch it onthe spot.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah, I think if they brought me like a plate of hot,
hot fried chicken with frenchfry on the side, uh, slathered
in some kind of sweet and hotsauce, boneless, that would be
my number one, my number one Iwould drop everything I would
feel so appreciated.
Gratitude service.

(23:48):
Screw all that Quality time.
I'm about to have some qualitytime with hot chicken.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
That's what I'm going to do.
I think tangible gifts justgoes to the top.
If fried chicken is involved,tangible gifts is number one.
So if you're ever feeling likeyou need to appreciate someone,
but you don't know what theirappreciation language is, just
get them some fried chicken andlet's just say 9.9 times out of
10, they're going to be like,yeah, this is amazing.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
I feel so appreciated , right?
I mean, unless they're avegetarian, then you know you're
going to upset them.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
They can pick the breading off.
They'll be fine.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's not how.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
There is no r and enter, and that's not how
vegetarians work.
No, you and enter.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
It was very close oh, it's a tangible gift.
Tell me about it.
I want to know what the heck,is a tangible gift.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
All right, so continuing our series, we're
talking about the appreciationlanguages of there.
There there are five.
This is number four tangiblegifts.
So we have one more after this,which is physical touch, but
tangible gifts.
That is the one we are talkingabout today.
I want you to think back.
We're going to go through anexercise here.
Okay, what would be one of thetop gifts a coworker or a boss

(25:05):
has ever given you?
I have mine.
If you want to put some thoughtonto it, I can go first.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, go for.
I have mine too, but go first,Okay.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
So one of my old bosses many years ago, actually
at the company I'm at now butlike right when I started he was
a great, awesome boss, but hedefinitely, you know, made sure
that he remembered things likemy birthday or big events.
He's like, oh yeah, it's yourwife's birthday, or like you
guys usually go on a trip thistime of year.
Like he was really really greatabout like remembering things

(25:38):
that I was interested in andthat I did, and he gave me this
gift.
He was like I noticed you'realways writing things down, so
this year for your birthday, youknow I got you this really cool
leather bound book and so hegave it to me.
He's like it has, I think, allthe things you know you normally
write down.
You know your tasks, yourto-dos.
It's organized by the day ofweek.
He's like I really think youknow this would be a gift that
you'd like, so I hope you likeit.

(26:00):
And like it's in the style thatI like he was paying attention
to the things that I did withinmy book and like how I would
always bring it out at certaintimes of meetings and then he
gave it to me.
So it was super thoughtful andwhen he did that, I was like
this is awesome, like it'sexactly the style I would like.
I'm not huge on gifts, but Ireally feel appreciated that you
put the time in to likerecognize things I'm interested

(26:21):
in and then, you know, found thespecific gift that matched
those things.
That's definitely my all-timefavorite.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
I'm going to paint you a picture.
All right, paint me a picture,I'm ready, I'm going to take you
back in time.
Yep, I want you to imagine, ifyou can, being outside it's
August, oh hot.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
It's hot, I feel hot.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
You've just picked, let's say, 400 weeds in the sun.
It's so hot, it's so you arecovered, your work uniform is
covered in sweat.
You smell terribly, yourfingers are just.
It's that weird combinationbecause you've been picking
weeds with your fingers thatlike they are pruning because of

(27:07):
all the weed juice, because youknow plants, plants have liquid
, so somehow, somehow, yourfingers are pruned, even though
it is so hot, 99 degrees, thehumidity is high, the sun is
baking down on you, the stenchof your body is the combination
of body odor and sunscreen andyou're just soaked through with
your uniform but it doesn't feelgood.

(27:28):
And then on the radio someonecomes on and says hey, someone's
birthday, get over to the staffroom.
So you hop in your little golfcart, go over to the staff room
and in there is a Caravelle icecream cake.
And let me tell you, every timeit was someone's birthday it

(27:50):
was a tangible gift for me and I, to this day, love Caravelle
ice cream cakes, love them, lovethem.
I don't have a preference,really.
When people are like, oh, youwant to get a cheesecake, or you
want to get a chocolate cake,maybe a pie, I'm like well, is
Caravelle an option?
I don't do that normally withfood it's like oh, can we get a

(28:13):
Caravelle cake?
Is that what we can bring fordessert for the holiday event
Because in my mind there isnothing better on the planet
than that cake and whoever'sbirthday it was that day, give
me 15 minutes of just cream,sugar and air conditioning.

(28:37):
That's amazing.
I like I'm just I could crythinking about it I love that.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
I know that feeling all too well.
I have never once been like Iwant an ice cream cake when I
felt how you did Ever.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Oh, you have no idea.
You have no idea the sensationthat first bite.
Remember you're in a room fullof people that smell terrible.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
Yeah, I was going to say it's not just me, it's Rick.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
You're with a birthday person, you're with the
entire grounds crew.
They all smell of last night'salcohol, today's bad decisions
and sweat.
It doesn't matter.
As soon as you bite into thatdelicious, creamy ice cream cake
and they've got the littlecrunchies on the inside, it's
like a layer of crunchies.
Oh, it's so good.

(29:27):
I love that.
It's so good, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
There is something about that that now today, when
you do yard work, I bet youthink about there.
Better be an ice cream cakeinside just waiting for me.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
I don't do yard work.
Those days are behind me.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
You've done yard work .
You have trees, you have plants.
I've seen your yard.
Yeah, but that's like a one anddone it's a one and done I go,
shove that tree in the groundand make sure that the sprinkler
hits it.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
I ain't touching that thing ever again.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Right Like that's the long cruise job henceforth.
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
Well, there you go.
That's why it meant so much toyou, because it was like that
reward, it was contextual forsomething to cool you down.
It was that sign of like we'recelebrating something momentous
and it's a nice relief ofeverything, all the hard work we

(30:16):
put in.
This is just a nice littletreat and that's really what
it's all about.
It's really what it's all about.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
I've got a couple facts for you.
A couple facts for you.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Okay, tangible gifts.
It is the least chosen language, I can see that, yeah, yeah, I
agree, it's kind of like likewhat are you going to get me as
a coworker as a gift?
You know, I'm like.
I got to see that.
You know why.
Would that be anyone's numberone in the workplace, totally
outside of it, but during?

Speaker 2 (30:42):
yeah, even, even the Caravelle ice cream.
Here it's a moment on the lips,forever on the hips right, like
you know, temporary relief to aproblem.
I've got to go back out in thatfricking sweltering sun and get
back to pulling those weedsLike today's not home.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
That is true, and you know what's so interesting in
the workplace, in corporateworld in general companies spend
billions, billions with a Bwith a B, billions on reward
programs that give gifts toemployees when that is the least
chosen language in theworkplace.
Isn't that interesting?

(31:16):
Isn't that really aninteresting fact?
And you all know we've talkedabout this before on other
episodes Pizza party, stupid,yeah, pizza party.
Or I get 20 points and I get toredeem this for a little
clicker that's got my company'sname on it.
That's amazing.
I can't wait.
Nobody wants that, but allcorporations do it.
It's so it's so interesting andso so like.

(31:38):
Why do they do it?
The main reason they do it isbecause it's easy.
It's easy to like have a littlestore, someone branded stuff on
it.
There's millions of programsout there you can choose from.
It's just simple and easy andthey think people like that
stuff.
But why is a bonus a tangiblegift?
I think a bonus could be atangible gift because I get a
quarterly bonus.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
I actually think this is something interesting.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
I think it's different I think there's a
difference between a a benefit,which is a bonus if you do well
in your job, or time off, whichis a benefit of doing your job,
and a gift, like I think you'vegot to separate those two and I
think the book talks about it alittle bit.
It's like those things arebenefits.
You deserve those thingsbecause you're signed up to do
your job, to get those things.

(32:25):
But it's not something you'regoing to feel.
You're not going to feel moreappreciated if you get a bonus
right.
I wouldn't, because it's like Idid my job.
I got the bonus because I hitmy targets.
I don't feel more appreciated.
I just did what I was supposedto do in order to hit this
incentive.
That's more of a benefit orincentive rather than a gift.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Okay.
So I mean what you said upsetsme because if B billions are
being spent on tangible giftsand it is just a temporary
relief, I feel like if, thinkingback on acts of words of
appreciation, quality time, yeah, and acts of service, the, the

(33:07):
experience one gets, the feelingone gets from, if you know the,
if the VP of your office sendsyou a Slack message and says,
hey, I just want to reach outand say thank you so much for
that report you sent.
It really saved me in a meetingtoday.
Like you're going to feel goodfor the rest of the day.
You know, like you're going tofeel good If you do that jam

(33:30):
sesh, you know pair programmingwith someone and you just have a
really great conversation.
You learn something new.
Like you're gonna feel good.
It's gonna, it's gonna impactyour morale for like a day, if
not more.
Like they give you a you knowyour little clicker or the
company logo a mug oh, they lovethose electronic mugs that keep
your coffee warm.
They love them literally somuch.

(33:53):
Like straight to garbage for me.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
And like I know that there are some people that
really appreciate those littletchotchkes, but I am not one,
yeah, at all yeah, and it'sinteresting because, like, going
back to your example of thegift you can remember most, no
one has really gotten you a goodgift in the workplace because,
like, okay, if you think aboutthat gift that ice cream cake,
right, this, uh, the book does astudy and it's like, okay, if

(34:16):
you think about that gift, thatice cream cake, right, this, the
book does a study and it's likeokay, well, if you are going to
give these types of rewards,what's at the top?
Food is at the top.
Like, food is one of the bestgifts you can give.
If it's a really crappy rewardsystem, give food.
You know, pizza party.
That's why that's number one,because it's like the top thing
is food.
If people are going to receivethese crappy incentives, or,
apparently, if you're alandscaper, an ice cream cake,

(34:37):
which I can totally see that.
So, like, food is number one.
Number two is gift cards.
People love their gift cards.
You get a gift card.
I know it's terrible, but ifyou have to, give a crappy gift.
You can do a gift card becauseat least with the gift card,
you're not giving me somethingthat I have to deal with.
I can.

(35:01):
At least with the gift card,you're not giving me something
that I have to deal with I canat least choose what I want to
spend it on.
So benefits there.
People will appreciate foodfirst.
Gift card second.
The last one that they have islike experiences are one of the
top, as you talked about.
It's like giving a sharedexperience.
Being like hey, I just amgiving you a, let's say, a gift
card to go to a restaurant soyou and your wife can go have a
great dinner, Like that's one ofthe top, is you're giving them
a financial incentive orsomething to go enjoy, something

(35:21):
that would typically cost moneyor that they would have to make
the time to do.
So you're kind of giving themthe reason to do it.
Another reason is like and Iguess you know one of the other
things that come up on people'stop is they're like hey, well,
what about longer lunches orleaving early?
I think you and I talked aboutthis on one of like if someone
does a good job, tell them hey,just take off early today, Like
you did so good on thatpresentation, what a gift.

(35:42):
And I think people debate like,is that a gift or is that
benefit?
Like, is it benefit from justdoing my job well or is this
actually for me?
And I think it's interestingbecause that one kind of toes
the line, because I think a lotof people would appreciate that.
But it's less of a gift, Eventhough you feel appreciated.
It's more of just a benefit fordoing well at your job.

(36:03):
Most of the time it's not likeyou going out of the way.
So what are actual tangiblegifts?
Then you got to ask yourselfthis what would they be?
What would tangible gifts be?
It kind of goes back to the onethat I got.
It's paying attention to whattheir interests are, what's
meaningful to them, what wouldmake them feel special and
appreciated and like going outof your way to get them that
thing.

(36:24):
So something that sometimesisn't the most easily attainable
, it's those are the things thatreally matter to those people.
So, like for me, getting thislike book, that was perfectly in
the style I liked, the formatwas awesome in terms of like
each of the pages, of how Iwrote notes, and it was
something that I just reallyappreciated because, like, they
didn't have to spend the timenoticing those things, finding
something that was similar andthen putting in the time plus

(36:46):
the financial incentive to likebuy that thing for me and then
give it to me on my birthday,which I thought was really
really cool.
So those are the types of giftsthat go a really long way for
people who do have this lovelanguage or this appreciation
language as one of their top.
Those are the things that makea difference.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Have you ever sent a tangible gift?

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Have I sent one.
So I would say one thing thatsucks for me I'm an awful gift
giver.
This is not a yes answer, is it?
It's a no?
It's a no because I am theworst gift giver, like I don't
know what.
Maybe it's just a me problem.
I'm really bad at giving giftsso I kind of choose not to.

(37:27):
But obviously for people whohave that as a love language in
my personal life or as anappreciation language in the
workplace, like that's going tosuck for them, right.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
So my personal life or as an appreciation language
in the workplace, like that'sgonna suck for them, right?
So I need to work on this.
As an individual, I'm a prettydecent gift giver, even though I
don't really like.
So the thing about me is I onlylike gifts in in irl, right,
like if, yeah, I have a verygood friend.
I have a very, very good friendwho I've never actually met in
real life, but he sends me thecoolest gifts and the thing I
love about all, I have one.
You can see it.
It's back there.

(38:02):
It's a.
It's a cube.
You can't really see it.
The plant's covering it up.
It is a cube from hellraiserand you have no idea what any of
those words, no, but it means alot to me and that's the thing
is, he knows me so well and heknows.
Don't Google it, no, no, I'mnot Google it.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
I'm not, I'm not, maybe I am, I'm not, I am.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Don't Google it.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
No, no, I have to use AI for something on this
podcast Now.
I'm going to look it up rightnow.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Good Lord, it's just in real time.
The soul is leaving my body.
He sends me gifts that reallytap into the core of surprise
and the whimsy of the things Ilike, and he never it's.
He never sends me something Iexpect, so it's always a really
fun surprise and I do the same.

(38:52):
I try to do the same back forhim, and when I give, I gave you
a gift recently, yeah I wasactually gonna bring that up and
when I give gifts, the bigthing is one, I gotta know the
person.
I'm not gonna give you a giftthat if I don't know you.
Like there has to be ameaningful relationship between
me and the person in order togive the gift.
Two, I have to know, like, if,if we share an adjacent, like,

(39:16):
that's really good becausechances are I know what you're
missing and I know how to fillin that hole.
Or option two, which is, Ithink, like me and you, I know
what you like and it's it'sfishing, and I I don't know jack
, nothing.
So I can't just go like, oh,I'm gonna get clark, this, uh,
fishing bobble here.
I think he'll like this andyou'll be like bruce, this is

(39:38):
for, like, children.
So instead I look at my life andI say what has brought me
comfort, peace and joy as anexisting human being, like what
is the thing that I, since I'veadded it into my life, has
gotten tangibly better?
And I'm thinking about thisthing.
I'm thinking, well, I don'tthink Clark would have this and

(40:00):
my wife is the same way.
So we're constantly like, okay,what do we get for this person
that?
You know, we don't know jackabout fishing, but we know x, y
and z, and that's that's how wegive gifts.
I actually gave both of my lasttwo bosses gifts and I know for
a fact they loved them, becauseI still get to hear about them
occasionally and that's the signof a good gift sent?

Speaker 1 (40:23):
absolutely.
I was actually going to bringthat up when you were thinking
of your.
Your other example, the one yougot me this year for my
birthday, we use every day.
I'm not going to tell peoplewhat it is, because that's
between you and me, that's asecret, but it was so good.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
I ran my fingers through your hair in the parking
lot.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
That did happen.
Folks, don't let them fool you,don't let them tell you this
thing and think it's all words.
It's actions too, acts ofservice.
That's what I appreciate.
He follows through.
He follows through on what hesays he's going to do and to do
and that's why I appreciate himand I feel more appreciated.
That's why I'm still employed,but the gift was awesome, like
it's you basically did, and youexplained everything that that

(41:01):
goes into this appreciationlanguage.
Actually, working in theworkplace, it's being thoughtful
about what they care, aboutgoing out of your way to show
you, put thought in, but to makesomething that's useful for
them, that they can get repeateduse out of.
And you're not just like, oh,yeah, here's, you know, a gift
card or yeah, here's 20 pointsin our reward system, like you
are actively thinking about whatare they going to.

(41:22):
You know, feel appreciated bysomething that I give them and
like that is all that thisappreciation language is all
about.
The worst thing you can do isyou can give a bad gift to
someone who has this as theirtop.
In the rare case they have thisas their top, if you like, go to
a conference and you pick up abunch of free stuff and you
bring it back and you're like,hey, at the conference I got all
this cool stuff that you didn'tget to go to and I'm just going

(41:45):
to give you my leftovers.
Like that's one of the worstthings possible to do to
somebody, and that has happened.
Or if it's just generic, likeyou said, like a mug with the
company's name on it, you'relike oh, I got two of these,
like I'm just going to give oneto you.
That doesn't do diddly squat topeople who have tangible gifts

(42:09):
as their appreciation language.
It usually will just make itworse, because now you're just
giving them crap that they'relikely like what am I going to
do with this?
Like I'm just going to throwthis away the second you leave
this room because I don't wantto have to deal with this extra
fluff that you're just droppingand dumping on my desk.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
So don't be one of those bad gift givers don't do
it, don't do it and it's notworth.
I think it is also important tonote because I don't like
receiving gifts from co-workers,and I've actually told
co-workers this, because they'vesent me things before like
please don't do that again.
Like thank you, but I don'tlike this.
Like it wigs me out right likeI just don't, I don't want it, I

(42:47):
don't like it, so please don't.
And I think you should havethat conversation with people,
because there are other weirdoslike me out there that do not
like that.
And on the corporate side, I'mnot getting gift cards either.
That's money that could havebeen just put in my paycheck.
Why am?
I having to do this weird extrawork to get it translated into a
red lobster gift card, when youcould have just given me 25 and

(43:10):
I could go to a betterrestaurant, right, like yeah, I
just I feel like gifts don'twork very well unless you really
know the person, and very fewpeople do so.
I think like I don't know, Idon't know just the bottom of
the barrel for me, but when it'swhen it works well, it's great
yeah, agreed.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Yeah, this one's always tough because it's like
how do you?
And it goes back to ourquestion we're going to answer
on the last episode.
We're going to do a whole bunchof breaking things down and
figuring this out how do youfigure out if somebody is, you
know, has tangible gifts as oneof their top appreciation
languages?
How do you find that outwithout giving them like crap
that they're not going to careabout, like it's going to be

(43:49):
really hard, or giving themsomething?
And they're like, hey, that'scool, like you?
What if I put a lot of thoughtinto it?
You know, I thought you weregonna like it and it just
doesn't land.
Like that's gonna be a littleawkward.
It's like oh, I spent like 200bucks on this thing for bruce
and he just doesn't seem to care.
Like that would suck.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
I think it's really easy actually like I think this
is really especially if it's a,if it's a, if it's a peer-to-pe
to direct.
It's simply hey, you did reallygreat on this.
Like you start with a word ofappreciation, right, and you go
through the whole rigmarole oflike you made serious impact
with your, your latestPowerPoint.
You know, no one else couldreally come up with a story to

(44:28):
the way you told it and it itbrought a lot of outcome to the
business.
Thank you so much.
I found something I would loveto send to you.
Is it okay if I send you thisas a reward and then they can
choose?
They can say, oh, that's sothoughtful, thank you, I'd love
that.
Yeah, I'll send you my address.
Or they can say I reallyappreciate that, but no, I'm

(44:49):
good, keep the gift, happy thatI was able to help.
That's the conversation.
It's either a yes or it's a no,but it's there's going to be
appreciation either way, becauseit's the thought paired with
the, the position of asking.
So, like I do think just askpeople if they want to get a
gift.
Some people just don't giveaway their addresses to people

(45:09):
like it's a big thing these days, people like their privacy,
especially if you're remote.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
I 100 agree with you and actually now that I'm
thinking about it is I'vedefinitely gotten better over
the years.
Like something I've been doingrecently is giving people books,
like people coming up withsomething or they they're
talking about something like youknow what you might really like
.
This book like, do you mind ifI get you a copy?
And I've never been turned down.
I've done this three times nowin the past year and a half and

(45:34):
I haven't been turned out asingle time.
And then when I get it to themit shows up on their desk or
whatever.
They seem really appreciative,they're like that was really
cool, like it shows that youcare, you were listening, you
offered something that I wouldprobably be interested in.
Now you know I'm going to readit and what I always tell them.
Like you know, if you don'twant it or like it doesn't hit
the mark, think about if you cangive to someone else.
Like feel free to drop it backoff at my desk if you don't want

(45:54):
to keep it, or just give it andpass it on to someone else that
might find it useful.
So I always try to like extendthat, to be like I won't feel
bad, and I actually think that'spart of it is saying hey, I got
this for you.
You know to your point aboutfinding out if this is a top
appreciation language for them.
It's like hey, I was thinkingabout you, I got this for you
just because of you know ourconversation last week.
I think this would really helpwith something you were talking

(46:15):
about and it's like no hardfeelings, if you don't want this
, totally cool, just come andbring it back or just give to
someone else who you know mightfind it useful.
That's totally okay with me.
So, like re-gifting is fine andI think that helps people like
take the pressure off of it,especially like for me, these
were managerial things.
So it's like I'm a managergiving it to an employee.
It's an awkward position forthem to be like Ooh, I don't

(46:36):
care for this, I'm not a readerlike really awkward position for
them to be in, but I think byme saying that, I think it just
took that off and they're likeokay, cool, so this is like no
pressure and I can take it if Iwant, or I can just leave it,
and everybody who I've done thisto happily receives it and they
seem to really enjoy it,because they come back and like,
hey, I started reading this, Ithought this was really cool,
what did you think about this?
And I then I knew it hit themark.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
You know, I've talked to these people, you've given
the books to, and they told mein confidence they're like this
guy just loves burning trees.
He just loves cutting downtrees and wasting paper.
Like I said, I wanted theKindle version, but no gave me a
physical object.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Thanks, clark.
He gave me a physical book thathad 300 pages, but only 20 were
filled out.
It was called Corporate Stratand it just ended just like that
.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
It was really weird.
That's a deep cut.
That just wasn't it.
Let's just take the 20 pageswe've written, let's print it as
300 and let's sell it and let'ssee what happens.
Let's see what happens oh we'llcreate another volume with the

(47:46):
rest of the page.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
Yes, good call.
This is how you test the waters.
Is it going to catch enough?
Eyes fingers crossed.
People just flip through thefirst few pages.
They don't look past 20 becausethere's nothing there, just
blank pages past 20 buthopefully we get like pictures
of wiener dogs and ascii art.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
You know just like why is every page a picture of a
wiener dog and ascii art.
What is this?
What is this?

Speaker 1 (48:08):
that's what I'll say.
If you liked what you read, youcan subscribe to get the real
book in seven years, when itcomes out, by paying $19.99
today or give us a five-starreview on Apple Podcasts.
That's all you got to do.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
That's it.
I love this.
I think this is the winningidea of the pod.
Thanks, clark, you did it again.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
You're 100% welcome.
I'm happy to be here.
So remember tangible gifts.
It is the least chosen languageIf you have a crappy reward
system.
People are going to like foodfirst.
Gift cards, shared experienceseverything else underneath there
Really crap.
They're just crap.
I don't want an umbrella withthe company's name on it.
I don't want a mug with thecompany's name on it.
First of all, even if TangibleGifts isn't up there, no one

(48:52):
wants those things in general.
Like no one wants those things.
Why would you ever want thosethings?

Speaker 2 (48:59):
So just don't give those things.
It's so stupid to assume.
Oh, you know, I have mycollection of drinkware in my
house.
You know what would look greatWith all of my brownstone mugs?
That I have A big old mug thatsays Big Corp.
Meh, that's really going to fitin with the rest of my vibing

(49:25):
drinkware decor.
So thanks, thanks, big Corp.
Thanks for that.
Appreciate that Big Corp.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
And if you're a manager, Also those.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Invermuggs just die after a year, and what a waste.
What a waste of both technology, energy trash Just stop.
Stop with the tangible gifts,please, for the love of God,
stop the tangible gifts, please.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
I agree.
Now, if you do have someone whodoes like gifts, just remember,
put some thought into it,notice things about them, things
they're interested in, get toknow them, and I think you
actually said something reallyimportant.
That is one of our follow ontopics, but it tends to be
personal, like you can't reallydo this with an impersonal
relationship, like you need toknow something about them

(50:08):
outside the workplace in orderto do this.
So you have to notice theirinterests, you have to ask them
questions, you have to be, youknow, generally genuinely
curious about what they'reinterested in, and that will
help you come up with ideas ofwhat would a meaningful gift
look like.
But I think you have to dosomething that you said, bruce,
which is so important.
It's even if you don't knowanything about the box that is
part of Hellraiser and you justhave to Google it really quick.

(50:31):
Try to think about things thatyou find useful, that might
cross paths with them in theVenn diagram, to be right in the
middle of that Venn diagram, tobe like these are things that
may hit the mark that I alsohave enjoyed and personally used
, hit the mark that I also haveenjoyed and personally used.
I think this might be a goodoption for them and then offer
to them.
Be like hey, I was thinkingabout you.
There's something that I useall the time that I think you
would really like too, based onour conversations, would it be

(50:51):
okay if I sent that to you?
No pressure, if not, it's justsomething that I thought would
be nice.
And if you say it like that, Ithink most people will be
receptive and you'll find outreally quick being actually, you
know, I'm kind of a minimalist.
I don't want more stuff.
No offense at all.
I just really appreciate thegesture but I'm not interested.
And that way you'll know wheredo they stand with that one on
their appreciation languages andyou don't have to go through

(51:11):
that experience again, you mightlearn something about that
person.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Like, yeah, I'm trying to cut down on waste,
really appreciate this.
And instead you know, like youmight go say, hey, I'm gonna go
donate the 20 dollars I wasgonna spend on this gift to have
a tree planted, uh, in a forest, and you know, thank you for
what you've done.
Like there are many ways toappreciate if you have to spend.
To appreciate, just this is anidea it's a great thought.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
I like that awesome.
Well, that's tangible gifts, Ithink I love it.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
I think it's great.
Think it's great.
I think it's good.
I think it's a.
It's a.
This is a good breakdown on thehighs and the lows, but I stand
by my earlier statement.
I don't think anything cancompare to the first three.
Uh, when it comes to a giftversus actual words of
appreciation, actual qualitytime or an act of service.

(52:03):
Yeah, 100% agree.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
Yeah, I think this one is especially in the
workplace, like outside of theworkplace, on a personal level,
like I can totally see why thisone would stack a little bit
higher, because holidays,birthdays, like all those things
are very personal and so ittotally makes sense why that
outside of the workplace?
That would be there.
But inside the workplace Ithink you really do have to
think about.
Is this a gift or a benefit?
And I think most people aregoing to just appreciate the

(52:27):
benefit of being like hey, wejust really appreciate how hard
you work.
We're going to give you anout-of-band raise or promotion,
or we're going to give you therest of this Friday off.
Just take it off, you don'tneed to report anything, Just
want to have a day.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
That's really a benefit, not a gift.
So just make that delineationand I think most people actually
would appreciate that more thanan actual gift.
I definitely would Agree.
We did it, we did, we did.
We have one more left to go,one more, and then we have the
afterthoughts, yes, the capstonecourse where we finish it all
up put a nice bow on it and kickit down the street.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Can't wait or push it down the stairs.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
You know you're never going to forget.
You're never going to forget.
That is a true act of service.
You're welcome.
It is.
You're very welcome.
You're very welcome.
Hey, if you have appreciatedthis series on appreciation, we
would really appreciate it ifyou would share the pod with
your friends, family, neighborsand animals pets that's right,

(53:30):
they can listen too.
You can always turn onCorporate Strategy on your TV,
your HomePod, your Alexa device,whatever the heck it is you
have in your house, so thelittle ears can listen.
The cats, the gerbils, the dogs, the snakes Turns out they love
corporate strategy too.
They deal with it.
So please share it, get thoseplays up on the pod and, if you

(53:53):
feel so inclined, give us a nicereview, because that is truly
how we get discovered, with noactual marketing budget for this
pod.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
So please, thank you, you know a review can cross two
, well maybe even three,appreciation languages.
I'm just saying you give us aword of affirmation, you do an
act of service by actually goingand leaving the review, and
then it's a tangible gift.
I get it, we get it on theboards and everybody gets to see
it.
I look at it all the time.

(54:22):
It's really how I value myself-worth.
So please give us five starsand look at that.
You've got three off the list,right there.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
And if you ever see us IRL but you want to know who
we are, cause you don't know us,we'll give you a high five,
which is, you know, positivetouch or whatever the heck the
next episode is about.
I don't know, I haven'tlistened to it yet, so we'll get
there.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Don't say positive touch, it's physical,
appropriate physical touch.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Because I don't want to know what a negative touch is
.
We're all a bunch of ionsfloating in a Petri dish and
we're just looking for thatpositive touch.
Give me your electron, baby.
I want that electron.
I want that electron.
You think the the the physicist, chemists and scientists who
just heard me abuse every singlefacet of the atom.

(55:10):
You're welcome.
I don't actually know how anyof that stuff works, you're
welcome.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
That's why we built software, and nothing more than
that.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
That is hate, Quick shout out.
Hey Clark, do you watch?
Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
I did.
I watched the whole thing.
I haven't watched the recentseason, though Not there yet.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
The recent season is so good so I'm going to shout
out Always Sunny.
But really I'm going to shoutout episode four of this season,
which is literally 100%corporate jargon.
Really, the entire episode.
They just speak incrediblespeaking corporate jargon the
entire time and it's hilarious.
So if you enjoy some of thenonsense we've spouted, that

(55:55):
episode was very funny.
Actually, I think episode threeof this season has been one of
the best episodes of all time.
But I just thought episode fourwas funny because it's all
corporate jargon.
The episode literally calledlike thought leadership.
So enjoy, uh, I think that's.
Uh, you know, we gotta go herdsome cats ourselves.
We do so with that.

(56:17):
If you ever want to get in ourdiscord, you want to leave us a
review?
We can do any of those things.
In your show notes there isbelow ads.
There is a link tree.
You can click on that andthat'll get you access to our
Discord.
You can hang out and talk withus.
You can buy some swag, likecoffee mugs that clash with your
collection.
You can also, if you want tobuy us a coffee, give us a
little monetary reimbursement,because this is a paid podcast

(56:46):
by us.
You can do that as well.
So we'd appreciate it, and wehope you appreciate it too.
But until then, keep circlingthe wagons.
I'm Bruce and I'm Clark andyou're on mute.
We'll see you next week.