December 21, 2023 • 61 mins
Ready to spice up your food palette? We kick off the episode by teleporting your taste buds to the vibrant flavors of Cajun and Creole cuisine, courtesy of a Zatarain's frozen meal. As I (the host) savor this satisfying delight, we journey through the rich history of these culinary styles and share why hydration plays a crucial role in your daily life.
As we glide into the holiday spirit, we unravel the psychology behind gift-giving during celebratory occasions such as Christmas, Diwali, and Hanukkah. What's the story behind your generosity? We shine a spotlight on the interplay between gratitude and giving, nudging you to acknowledge the smallest acts of kindness that often go unnoticed. For the volunteers among us, we delve into recognizing and thanking you for your contributions, whether big or small.
We round off the episode by expressing our gratitude to you, our listeners. Your engagement and feedback are what keep us going, so don't hesitate to drop us an email with your suggestions for future topics. As we look forward to 2024, we promise an hour of captivating content per episode, designed to inspire and arouse your curiosity. So, join us as we continue to explore various facets of life, culture, and more in our upcoming episodes!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to help yourself.
Food and philosophy with Brianand Nick.
What's eating Brian?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And I'm Brian.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I got in a hurry.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I was like I.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Changed one little bit of inflection.
I just totally go off the rails.
All right, no way.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
We'll fix it in post.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
There's it's too.
It's too far gone.
This, yeah, it's off the rails.
It's a crazy train.
Well, what I was gonna sayafter you said and I'm Brian
it's the most taxing cinnavisetime of the year.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Wow, singing, singing on the podcast.
I don't know if we've ever sungbefore on the podcast.
That sounded like singing, thatthey came out.
You're like thanks a lot.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I thought I thought you were like gonna quit cringe
and In squee and fix that inpost.
You get auto-tuned it.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Which you mean, brian ?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
What am I eating?
Well, I had for lunch a.
So, in going back to my Cajun,roots are not really Cajun.
I always say Cajun, I alwayssay Cajun, but my actually my
background is not Cajun.
It's from Louisiana but notCajun.
I did not know this.
But Cajuns, or people that camefrom the north Through, like
(01:37):
Canada.
They came from Canada and cameall the way down to like, where
Louisiana is.
Those were Cajuns, right, butother people, like the people
that were my ancestors, camefrom France or Belgium, you know
which were where my family.
Yeah, creole, and I believe so.
I think, anyway, they came inthrough the port.
(01:59):
You know, they came by shipinto the Gulf and came in
through New Orleans and so,anyway, my, I'll just say my, my
French background, my LouisianaFrench background.
Let's say that okay.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Cajun Canadian.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And this is obviously probably the most removed from
that as possible.
So it's basically very loosely,but Zatarain's Zatarain's
frozen foods, that's how youpronounce.
I thought it was Zatarin.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I don't know, I don't know.
That would mean that the A orthe I is not pronounced or it
could be Zatarin.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
This is a terrain that's, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
You're hurting my brain.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Sorry, okay.
So this says it's been atradition since 1889.
So they've been making frozenfood since 1889.
So I trust in that.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
So anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I got this frozen meal, did it in my hotbox,
that's.
That's almost as big takethat's Norma specifically for
Norma, if she's listening myhotbox.
I found out that another toastmaster has two other hotboxes
and she does not call themhotboxes.
She calls them by the real name, which are actual name hot,
(03:21):
logic.
I think it's called anyway,okay hot logic, something like
that.
So anyway, I put this in there.
This is blackened chicken withwith yellow rice and it has.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
That is so ethnically .
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, yeah.
So but it was good.
It was a good meal.
It was actually pretty feelingfilling and it it did have about
520 calories in it, so it's agood, a Good meal, and again it
was.
It was filling enough.
I don't think it was like aHuge, gigantic meal, but it was
(03:58):
good enough to Quell the hunger.
Had a little bit of spicinessto it, but not a lot, though
Just a tiny bit, and it was notany of the things that I always
say.
So it wasn't like vegangluten-free.
It basically had all the stuffin it.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So if you have any allergies.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
This is probably not your your meal of choice.
I did buy another.
However, you say that nameZadarain.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Zadarain, whatever it's fine.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Um, I did buy another one of those, so I would be
trying another one of thosemeals also.
Um, at some point.
Just, I do like the little logo.
Can you see the little logo?
I like logos.
Logos are like for me a recentfascination, because if you
start, it's one of those thingsthat you don't really look at
Like nobody, you sort of glossover it because it's just on the
packaging.
(04:47):
And how often do you just likepick up a packaging and like
really study the logo and so yousee the guy on there?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, he's like a guy .
Speaker 2 (04:55):
It's a silhouette of a guy playing a I wouldn't say
trumpet, but it's not.
I think it's like a clarinet orsomething.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It might be a clarinet.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's really thin and it has a bell shaped end to it
Based on my my children's uhmarching band.
That's either a tenor saxophoneor it's a clarinet, but I don't
know anything else.
That's that shaped.
It could be like a maybe the.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Which of those is probably most associated to the
region, I would say musicaltastes of the region.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
What's a brass?
It's a really brassy, brassyinstruments like they have, like
tubas and trumpets and Stufflike that.
When I mean think of, think ofsomebody.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Playing the Saints school marching band.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Exactly.
Think about somebody playingthat when they're playing that
on a super brassy, bright,brassy instruments, right?
So I'm thinking that's maybe atenor saxophone, but if anybody
works for the zattery zatarineis uh Company we have listeners
who work for that company, butyou've yet to pronounce it
properly, so they don't know whoyou're talking about.
If, if there's anybody outthere who listen?
(06:00):
Who listens who?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
has connections there .
Speaker 2 (06:02):
If they can tell us what instrument the guy is
Playing, then that would beawesome.
But anyway, good, it was a goodmeal and I would.
I would probably have some moreof these at some point with my
special way of heating them up.
Um, brian's beverage corner.
Hydration is important,according to my most important
toast master's friend.
So I have water and I also I'mgonna drink.
(06:25):
I think I drank one of these alittle while ago in the podcast,
um, but this one's a differentflavor.
So palm, the you know thecompany that does like the
pomegranate stuff, so you dolike pure pomegranate juice and
okay, yeah, not palm like pa,yeah, p o m.
So this is pomegranate honeygreen tea and it's in a little
looks like a snowman, but it'sin a little bottle and yeah,
(06:51):
what we're gonna ask uh, what'sthe sugar?
Yeah, that's a good question.
The sugar is 32 grams of sugarwith 26 grams of added sugar, so
I might as well drink a coke atthat point, you know like, or
some soft drink at least, Iguess You're getting some
benefit of having how much isyour sprite?
(07:12):
You just hold up a sprite.
How much is the spray having it?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, it has 38, all of which.
No, oh Wait, how does that work?
It says including 38 grams ofadded sugar, 76 percent.
What's the 76 percent 76percent of your of your sugar
intake of daily, daily, yeah sothis one's 52 percent so again
(07:41):
how many I guess it's oh gosh,it's small 12.
That's 12 ounces, so it's thesame as it can yeah it looks
smaller than it can, but it'swhat like 33 percent less than a
sprite About that.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
But, and I would think, theoretically, you're
getting some benefit becausethis has Green tea in it,
although it's not actual greentea, because it's made from
green tea extract.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
So, well, in pomegranate, like yeah,
pomegranate green tea is likegood about antioxidants, so but
I wonder how much of that iscounteracted by the oxidative of
sugar.
Well, the first three.
Does it balance out or does it?
Is it a?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
negative.
First three the first threeingredients are green tea, which
they say in parentheses iswater, and green tea extract.
So it's not even really brewedtea, it's like they took an
extract to make the flavoring.
Then the next two ingredientsare sugar and honey, and then
after that is pomegranate juiceconcentrate, pomegranate fruit
extract and natural flavors.
(08:41):
So I don't know if the sugaroffsets the potential health
benefit of getting just you know, I don't know, but anyway I'm
going to be sipping on it anyway.
Uh, not for health benefits,just because maybe, hopefully,
it'll taste good.
Which all that sugar in it?
It probably will.
So so, yeah, that's where I'm,that's where I'm at with Brian's
(09:04):
beverage corner today.
What about you?
What are you and drinking?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I'm eating an eclectic mix of meats and
cheeses and crackers.
It's a charcuterie, oh nice.
I had saw my.
My boss hosted a gathering theother day and insisted, insisted
, that he not have any leftovers.
We Each took a little bit homewith us.
(09:33):
So I'm enjoying.
That.
That's part of most of what Ibrought back, as well as
charcuterie Supplemented withthose leftovers.
Yeah, it's like good olpepperoni, um Some salted
cashews and blueberries andgrapes and apple slices.
(09:54):
Like lots of just Grazing semihealthy food.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
There was also sausage and olives, and yeah,
for some reason grazing to mealways feels healthier, even if
the food is not as healthy.
Like, for some reason it feelslike if you're having a little,
you got a little plate and youput a little bit on it and you
have it and you just have acouple bites here and then you
have more bites.
It always feels healthier.
But I think many times it's notbecause you're eating more
decadent foods that you wouldn't, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Like you might not eat it.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You might not sit down and have a charcuterie
board by yourself for dinner.
Right, yeah, so they're gonnaput some pretty decadent things
on there that are like sort ofstrong flavors and things like
that.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
And yeah you know, I bet, in terms of calories In,
taking in is probably less orfewer.
Fewer calories, yeah, fewercalories, because you're gonna
get full faster, right, likeyou're.
With each bite, you're givingyour Digestive system time to
say, hey, I'm full, yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
In theory.
I think I tested that there atall.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Unfortunately, I think many times when we have
charcuterie it's like or atleast in when I do it's it's
you're having that and thenyou're like it's an appetizer
and then you're gonna have awhole meal.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
You know, it's so like right, you know you haven't
given your body time betweenthe appetizer and the whole meal
to say like hey, I'm a fool now.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Either that or you're just saying, no, I'm having,
I'm gonna have this meal youknow, you're like I mean.
Yeah, you're like I'm still,I'm sort of full, but I'm the
food coming out, so I'm gonnaeat it.
You know, yeah, exactly, it'slike shut up stomach.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
When's the?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
last time I've listened to you anyway right In
terms of beverages.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I have Water on Glaw.
Yeah, I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
In the straw list straw list, straw list bottle
because, as everyone knows, inour last episode, I, you made
the commitment straw Yep and Iflew it flown it into the trash
can yep angrily.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yes, and there was, there was a, the satisfaction of
a sound right.
So getting into my Beverage isI also yeah aforementioned
sprite.
Yeah everyone, here's your ASMRmoment or listening or nails on
the chalkboard, I have no idea.
Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Wow, that was loud.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Satisfying, yes, man.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Marshall's gonna be so mad at you.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
It's much better than the actual taste like
Satisfaction has been had.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Marshall listens on his headphones while he's
jogging, so he's gonna be reallymad at you, oh.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Why are you in the bushes?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It's like he's gonna, like he's gonna yank his earful
ear.
Is the earbuds out and throwthem like.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
No idea that Marshall's, you know, suffers
from Soda PTSD.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know if he does or not,but I'm just saying, if you've
got earbuds in, that's gonna belike right up in there.
So oh really, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I Should have.
Maybe I shouldn't have put itright up on the mic.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, we can apologize in advance to Marshall
for that and anybody else outthere who does have any kind of
Misophonia or anything like that.
So, but you know, it is thegift that keeps on giving, you
know.
So sure, just Just like ourpodcast.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
We in our previous episode we were very generous
with our time.
We were audience will be verygenerous with their attention.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Please, please.
Listen all the way to the endthere's, there's gonna be a word
special, special material.
The end, the ends of ourpodcast are always where the
best stuff is, you know, rightin the closing.
Yeah, there you go With themeandering Right, right?
Well, if you haven't alreadyfigured that out, our we're
(13:56):
trying to continue from our lastepisode, since it is the season
of giving.
To some extent, most of theworld, or a large portion of the
world, celebrates Christmas.
Yeah, there's also a lot ofdifferent, different other
holidays around this time ofyear, and many of them are
seemingly centered around Givingin some way in the end of the
(14:18):
year.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Right it's yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, and as you mentioned to, there's also tax
considerations, which I'm sureeverybody tunes in this podcast
to listen to tax considerationsregarding their giving.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
So we did have, was that it?
It's so taxing right.
Oh gosh episode we did.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
That one, that was a long episode.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, you get to go in your fair tax, so that was a.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Episode that was like an hour that's.
I think that was our longestepisode ever.
I would commend you if youlisten to that whole thing.
An hour and 40 minutes,Probably the closest that Nick
and I have come to fighting onair, you know so.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Genuinely, genuinely.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
We?
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
No, it's all.
It was all Scripting notscripted, but yeah, but it was
part of the.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I can't remember it was something about that.
I can't remember, man, I Doremember we this is go ahead.
I was gonna.
I said do remember, we did do apodcast about gift giving,
episode all the way back.
Oh, if you want to hear whetheror not we've improved or
Whether or not there's anythingdifferent with us since we've
(15:31):
been doing this podcast threeyears now, go back to episode
number four, which was all theway back in December of 2020.
So it would have been, as ofrelease of this podcast, over
three years ago and I.
Do hear somewhat of a difference.
I'm not saying we improved perse, but what I'm saying is
quality.
At least we are quality to prove, mainly due to technology, not
(15:54):
because we learned how to speakany better, but but if you do
want to go back and listen tothat, we have a long discussion
about Giving gifts and how theprocess of giving gifts and
things like that.
So, anyway, we thought it wouldbe a good tie-in for this
episode, but even though we'regonna be talking on a slightly
different aspect of gift givingin this, you know, in this
(16:18):
episode.
So yeah.
How do you want to start us out, nick?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Hmm, well, how about the holidays?
Mm-hmm and and then not justquote Christmas, right, I think,
I think it's a Diwali has thegifts giving component to their
lights, that it's a India.
There's, yeah, lights calledDiwali and gifts are exchanged.
(16:49):
Off the top of my head, there'sHanukkah to give gifts.
Mm-hmm, of course, christmas,like I don't.
Just it seems it's a thinghumans do, yeah, at this time of
year, maybe for differentreasons, but maybe it has to do
(17:10):
with the weather, like I don'tknow if this I'm not agrarian or
agricultural at all, but I, Iimagine in the colder months is
when you sow the seeds so thatin spring the things bloom,
blossom and produce yeah kind ofgiving that sacrifice to the
earth and gratitude for theearth produced, but then Hoping
(17:36):
to also reap next year.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah, I think.
I think that that's sort of sortof Builds on what we were
talking about in the lastepisode about Having a mindset,
certain mindset we talked aboutin the last episode, carol
DeWeck's book of mindset, andthat Growth versus fixed or
abundance versus scarcitymindset and I think a lot of
(18:02):
giving At least I feel like some.
Some of the conclusion is thata lot of giving comes back to
that is do you have, you knowwhich of those mindsets do you
have?
And, and in Even let's talkabout Thanksgiving, you know
giving?
You're sharing a feast and doingall the things that you do
during Thanksgiving Is reallyinto mindset of yeah, it's, it's
(18:25):
, it does talk about the hey,we're gonna eat, we're gonna
feast on all this food becausewe know the next year we're
gonna have more.
We know that they're, that the,the land is gonna provide for
us and that we're gonna havemore, so we're gonna we have.
We have the luxury of feastingon all this food.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
We don't have to stock it up for the winter per
se, and Because we're gonna havemore news here, and then
there's the just on the noseThing of giving yeah, thanks
right right, thanksgiving, kindof be generous with your
gratitude.
That's something we didn't talkabout last episode.
(19:01):
It's like you can be generouswith a lot of things.
Time, yeah, I think that's anunder.
I think that's a.
It's an underappreciated, orsomething that I've learned also
put it this way something thatI've learned in the last little
while dealing with non-profitorganizations and volunteer
organizations where people arealways volunteering, is that you
?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I feel like you have to have a Tremendous amount of
genuine progress, and I thinkthat's a really good thing to do
.
I think that's a really goodthing to do.
I feel like you have to have atremendous amount of genuine
praise, and I say genuine inthere.
I try to emphasize that becausePeople are gonna know if you're
(19:38):
just faking like people knowsay hey, thanks, yeah thanks.
A lot like you know, people knowit's like you really do have to
Really genuinely feel thankfulthat these people are
volunteering their time orgiving their money or doing
these things, and Then expressthat, and I feel like what I
didn't realize at the beginningof dealing with an organization
(20:01):
like that is how much youactually need to over emphasize
that, because people, people dowant to feel like they're heard
and that they're seen and thatthey're noticed and that their
efforts are noticed and thateven their donations are noticed
, if it's just a financialdonation, and so I I typically
will thank everyone all the timefor everything, and and and I'm
(20:25):
not doing it in a disingenuousway, I'm actually doing it on
Somewhat, I don't want to sayselfishly, but when I'm thanking
someone, it's reminding me ofthat fact, it's reminding me of,
wow, this person did this thing, and I have to, didn't have to
yeah, and I have to get myselfin that mindset like they could
have done nothing and they didthis, whether it's that that's a
small thing or a big thing.
(20:46):
And so I do genuinely step backand say, oh gosh, I really
appreciate this, and it's notjust a pat thing at the end of
an email or a text message orsomething else or a conversation
, it's genuinely.
In fact, we just had an eventfor all of the Not every single
(21:06):
parent, but all of the Parentswho really gave a significant
amount of time, effort andenergy to our marching band
season in the fall.
We had a party.
That was.
It was, I would say it was alittle bit exclusive, like it
was.
You'd really had to have giventime and we gave little mock
awards and things like that, butit really was a Show up.
(21:28):
You don't have to do anything.
You've already volunteered allyour time.
We're gonna provide you with alittle bit of an event that you
can just come and enjoy and youaren't expect nothing is
expected of you because you'vealready given so much.
And so we had a little thank youevent at the end of the season
and Everyone seemed to like thatand I feel like that's sort of
(21:50):
what you have to do sometimes isjust, you know, express that in
a very straightforward way isif, if you're, if you are, if
you don't know by now, then weare very thankful for everything
that you guys did, and so it'sa.
It was an interesting learningthing for me, because I don't do
(22:12):
it for the thanks, and so, youknow, going back to what I think
you said this in the lastepisode is, you know, viewing
the lens, viewing the worldthrough the lens of your own
thing, is like I just go intovolunteering because I'm like
well, there's a space open, I'mgoing to volunteer for it and
I'm going to do the job, but Idon't expect anything in return
for that.
But then I had to realize thatother people, they need to know
(22:35):
that.
You know that some people havethe feeling of like I at least
need to like I thank you somekind of gratitude for that, and
so, again, it was a learningcurve for me.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, well, there's a lot that I'd like to comment on
, I guess briefly, with some ofwhat you're saying.
It reminds me of times I'vethanked someone and they'll say,
oh, you would have done thesame for me, and I'm like I
don't say so.
(23:05):
But I'm like no, I don't hatedoing that, and I wouldn't even
do it for my mother, so the factthat you did it is why I'm so
thankful, right, it's like myexpectations of someone doing
that for me are very low, right.
So when someone does it, evenif they think it was very small,
it was big to me, you know,yeah, and now I'm forgetting the
(23:29):
other things that came to mindwith what you were saying.
I think.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Well, we were talking about gift giving and I feel
like that party, to some extent,that we just did was a gift to
you know even though it's anevent, it was a gift that we
were giving to them, and peoplewere actually.
The funniest thing about it wasthese are all people who are the
type of people who join in.
They just look for something todo.
(23:58):
They're like hey, I knowthere's a lot of jobs, I'm just
going to find something to doand I'm going to do it because
they're just volunteers bynature.
So these are all the top notch,you know, people that really
just make the whole organizationwork because they're there to
serve, right.
And when we told them we weregoing to be having a party and
that they didn't have to doanything, they kept asking us
yeah, but are you sure, Can I dosomething?
Can I bring something?
(24:18):
Can I do?
And we're like no, the wholepoint of this party is to have
something where you don't haveto do something.
That's the whole point of it.
We did have a chili cookoff, sowe're like, if you want to cook
chili, feel free, but it is notby any means required.
Like we'll have plenty of chili, you don't have to cook any if
you don't want to.
And it's just, even when thepeople started showing up for
(24:40):
the party, the first thing theywould ask you oh hey, how are
you doing?
Is there anything I can do tohelp?
And so it was a really funnything, because you're trying to
give someone a gift withoutanything in return and their
mindset of a volunteer in thatway is like oh, I'm going to, I
want to try to help in some way,you know.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
So yeah, and with thank you for that, like all
that's right on and it helpedremind me of some of things I
was wanting to share is comeback to that scarcity or
abundance mindset, like givingthanks right, showing genuine
appreciation, being generouswith your praise is free, I mean
(25:24):
yeah, like technically quotetalk is cheap, right, but
there's basically no limit tothe amount of things that you
can give.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
So long as quoting myself here.
If you don't feel it, don't sayit.
You mentioned something alongthose lines.
That has to be genuine.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Right, and so if you don't actually kind of recognize
the benefit that somebodycreated for you, or if you focus
on owing them thanks, thenyou're probably not going to
feel that gratitude.
Yeah, and I think you knowwe've also talked about how
(26:07):
giving should be with no stringsattached and things, but at the
same time, like if I give you agift and you don't thank me for
it, I'm going to wonder if itwas a good gift.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And I think even if we give, there's always kind of,
the gift has a purpose, right.
The gift is to be of service,right?
Even with the band boostersthing you were talking about,
that the parents give their timeto produce an outcome.
(26:44):
They want to produce a benefitfor the band boosters club.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
If you don't thank them.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
You don't pay them by virtue of them being volunteers
, right?
And you don't thank them.
They're going to wonder iftheir efforts are doing any good
.
They haven't, right?
Yeah, so volunteers are paid in, thanks.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
And I've said this before in the pod, probably more
than once, I don't know whenMaroche episodes, because it's
always been off hand but in myview, even people who are paid
are also volunteers.
Anybody you work with, whetherit's from authority or
(27:33):
authenticity or for a paycheckor whatever, they still have to
be paid in thanks, because ifthey don't feel like they're
doing any good, they won't havethat workplace satisfaction,
they'll go somewhere else.
If you're not grateful.
It's going to be an unpleasantwork environment and they'll go
find some other place to workthat's more satisfying right.
(27:55):
Living wage is easier andeasier to come by on the planet
than it ever has been in thehistory of mankind, so more and
more people do what they do attheir pleasure, and the best way
to make sure that they havethat satisfaction is knowing
(28:19):
that what they're doing is avalue.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
And you do that very easily through, thanks.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
It's interesting because the excuse me one of the
articles that I pulled up wasit's entitled why A Grateful
Brain Is a Giving One, so it'stalking exactly.
We're talking about gratitudeand says the neural.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
It's kind of making a loop, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And the subtext on that title is the neural
connection between gratitude andaltruism is very deep, suggests
new research, and one of theparagraphs in there as you were
talking, I was reviewing it, andso this says there is a much
older, pre-self-help conceptionof gratitude as an emotion with
moral motivations.
(29:01):
To first century philosopher,cicero, gratitude was a matter
of religious obligation, quoteto the immortal gods.
But modern psychologists such asMichael McCullough and
colleagues have systematized itin this way Gratitude is a moral
barometer, an acknowledgementthat one has been the
beneficiary of another person'smoral actions.
(29:22):
They go on to argue thatgratitude is also a moral
reinforcer, meaning that you'llsee a quote, unquote thanks from
others as a reward that willlead you to give more in the
future.
So they're basically sayingexactly what you're saying is
hey, if you're somebody, even ifyou've got a team of people
that you work with that arebeing paid for their time, right
(29:44):
, yeah, they, you still wantthem to perform at their top
level.
Well, one of the ways to getthem to perform at their top
level is to be grateful for them, to say, hey, grateful for you
guys as a team.
You guys are doing a great job.
I really appreciate all thehard work that you guys put into
all of this stuff, and eventhough they're being paid for
their time, everyone wants everyperson on their team to operate
(30:07):
at their highest capacity.
Not meaning run them into theground, but you want them to
thrive, and I feel like that'spart of it.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
And I think there's that.
So what I'm hearing and some ofthat is, there's this idea of
when you give, you're givingback.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
And that's where there's like this positive
feedback loop of generosity andgiving and gratitude.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
There's also you know the phrase, that's not as I
haven't heard it nearly as oftenas I once did, maybe in the 90s
or so, but there's pay itforward.
There's a movie called Pay itForward, but it has Kevin Spacey
, so people don't like to talkabout movies that Kevin Spacey
and them anymore.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
But there's still that idea, and I think the idea
is probably and I think theother kind of talking about
quote, pay it forward.
Right, that's a phrase that weuse to talk about basically
giving back or giving quoteforward where somebody does a
favor for you.
You know, person A doessomething for you, but there's
(31:20):
no way for you to pay them back.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Or for whatever reason.
Well then, pay it forward andhelp person C and just make kind
of a longer, wider chain of,you know, generosity giving and
gratitude across the humanspecies, as opposed to just
within a smaller circle of twopeople.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, that's the drive through, that's the drive
through a project or whatever.
Not necessarily a project, butyou know.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Pay for the person behind you.
Right, exactly, you knowwhatever the bill is, and then
Right.
Yeah, I think, at least in mygeneral area of the country.
I feel like that was a fad,like that seems to have.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I don't know if it's because of, like, the different
pay apps and, by and large,people just roll up to the
window and yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
They paid before they tried to do that with me.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yeah, I would have already paid, because I usually,
if I go to Starbucks orsomething, I do it on the app
and it's prepaid, and then Ijust pick it up at the drive
through or wherever.
Yeah, yeah, also, I think thatnot well, not to get too off.
But I think that has to do withsocial media too, because, like
, certain things come in and outbecause it's like, oh, okay,
they go viral on social mediaand then they go, okay, yeah,
(32:36):
that's now we know about that.
It's been done.
That was sort of cool, andlet's move on to the next thing
you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
And this is a bit of a tangent to our end of year
giving generosity concept.
But something else that hit meplaying with these words.
So you know there's payingforward right.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
And basically talking about paying and thanks.
The other non-monetary kind ofpayment that we can give is at
least in the American languageis pay attention.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I don't know?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
You know, one of the few things I remember from
French class and when I was inhigh school is when you want to
say the same thing in French,here it's literally translated
to just give attention.
But here in America, right, wecall it because at least the way
our teacher described it to usis that we're so financially
(33:38):
focused and payment focused andeconomy focused and whatnot that
we say pay attention.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Like your owed attention or it's deserved kind
of thing.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
And even with that context, though that's something
, that's another thing that wehave in abundance and we
squander it, give it away forfree on things like social media
, video games and commercials orwhatever we're addicted to, but
(34:11):
what everyone's addicted to,what everyone craves, is
receiving attention Right, andwe have that in ample supply.
So rather than staring intoFacebook ad or a mobile game, we
could be making eye contactwith the person who's just next
door or just downstairs, orturning our cameras on in a Zoom
(34:34):
call and looking at the camera,right, like just giving
attention, which is its own kindof thanks.
Right, it's a way of showingappreciation and respect and
care.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
It's interesting a story that my wife used to work
for a company and it's sort ofthis story sort of illustrates
what you're talking about thatyou know this kind of thing is
free and important is they hadthis thing that was.
It was a larger company and theyhad this heart and soul awards
that they used to give everyyear.
And when she first started there, she worked for this company
(35:10):
for 13 years and when she firststarted there, they you know,
they used to give a little giftor like some kind of monetary
compensation, like a bonus orsomething If you got, if you won
this award.
She won the award one year andthen the CEO would come down and
like talk to you and like, youknow this small group of people
and shake your hand and say, hey, you guys are like the heart
(35:31):
and soul of this company and youknow, because you've been
wrecking, you're beingrecognized for your efforts, and
then they slowly back that off.
So at one point it was justthis no monetary compensation.
The CEO would come down andlike say hi and shake your hand,
and then at some point you justwon the award and the CEO
didn't even come down and sayanything to you and she was
(35:52):
always like, so bewildered bythat.
Because how much does it costthe company to have the CEO come
down for one hour and talk tothe people who you're rewarding
for being the heart and soul ofthe company?
It costs them nothing, right,no it?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
cost them something.
Well, my point is average CEOsalary.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Divide that by the number of hours in a year, Of
course, but my point is, mypoint is my point is them coming
down, that's already in thebudget, but him coming down and
shaking your hand can go a longway into doing exactly what I
just said that you'll see athanks from others as a reward
that will lead you to give morein the future.
(36:35):
So just by coming down anddoing that, you might be
inspiring the next leadership ofthis company.
That takes it to the next level, which means that you, as a CEO
, look better.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
In my defense you said it costs nothing.
So I was challenging that Ifyou had asked what are the
benefits they're losing from theCEO not doing that, anymore.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
I was like.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Oh well, absolutely everything.
You're saying that you'regetting more engagement out of
people.
Maybe I should have said what?
What extra does it cost?
Speaker 2 (37:04):
them Like how much more, how much extra does it
cost them?
Maybe that's what I should havesaid Does it?
Speaker 1 (37:09):
cost them anything extra.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
No, it doesn't cost them anything extra.
It costs them one hour of theCEO's time to come into the
building, and it's not like theCEO is in France and they have
to fly him in, like the CEO isin the same building.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
So even then, I think , like you're saying, though,
focusing on those benefits,right, the cost, yeah it's, it's
minuscule, it's small or it'salready paid, depending on how
you put it.
But then, yeah, there's allthese benefits.
Just next year there'll be morepeople who want that same award
.
They're telling themselves I'mgoing to be the employee of the
(37:48):
year this year.
Now, even if they don't make it, you get your underperforming
people performing.
You're performing peopleoverperforming and in a way that
they feel good about right,because you're not running them
into the ground.
They're just engaged.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I think that.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I think that it's a small price to pay right.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
I think that who's dialed that in locally is Dave
Ramsey and those of you outthere.
Dave Ramsey is local to us,since we're here in Nashville,
but he does a lot of events thatare to give thanks back to his
loyal employees, his employeesthat have been there forever and
even just all of his employees.
(38:29):
I know there's a thing everyyear that he does where, at
least I remember I don't know ifhe's been doing it for
consistently, but for many yearsthey would just buy out Costco
and only employees would be ableto, and each employee got a
thousand dollar gift card andthey can just go buy stuff at
Costco.
(38:50):
And that is now, how much couldthat have cost Pretty penny,
right, that's actually a hardcost, unlike what I was just
saying.
But again, if you're talkingabout perks and benefits and
other things, and the reason whythey got that is a thank you
for being part of thisorganization and continuing to
move it forward A thousanddollars is not that much to
(39:10):
spend per employee, you know sointeresting yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
So that's definitely an example, especially if that's
towards the end of the year,like that'd be an example of end
of year generosity.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
And I think it is.
I think it was near Christmastime, like it was holiday time.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
So they go to Costco, do basically a shopping spree
for Christmas or the holidayfeast, food for the big family
gathering.
If you've got a big familygathering, you've got any big
food items.
Yeah, costco is a great placeto get those.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Well, what's interesting to me is that it's
like the warehouse grocery storeyou know, yeah, and I think
what's interesting to me is that.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
So, whatever, your equivalent is in your area.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
It was almost an expectation you were going to be
spending that money, becausehe's given you that card when
you're standing in Costco saying, okay, go, you've got an hour
before the store opens, go shop,you know.
And?
Or however long they gave him.
And so I think that's aninteresting thing, because it
wasn't like he was giving you agift card when you're sitting at
your desk at your office andyou're like, okay, cool, I'll
spend this at some time.
It was like a tangible thingthat happened right then that
(40:20):
you're like and this also, bythe way, him being a big budget
person, this isn't hitting mybudget, this is outside of my
budget, it doesn't affect mybudget at all, because somebody
just handed me this and said gospend it.
And I'd be interested to knowif anybody saved any of that
money and used it over the year,or if they just said, yeah, I'm
going to use this for myChristmas gifts, or whatever
(40:41):
they did, because I'm sure itwasn't required that you spend
it all while you were in therethat day, but Sure, anyway.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Even if they spent it in a way, they had presumably
across one or two bank accounts,right A thousand dollars anyway
.
So whatever they spent atCostco their own money they
didn't have to spend.
So now they have a thousanddollars that they had budgeted,
whatever they spent at Costco orfor Christmas or whatever that
(41:12):
they can then spend or save asthey see fit.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Well, so Go ahead.
I was just going to say there'sanother article that I have
that talks about the benefits ofgiving, and so the other one
was being a grateful brain, butthis one is health benefits of
giving, and it has Looks likefour different things.
(41:39):
It says so.
One of them is greaterself-esteem and satisfaction
with life.
Second is a lower risk ofdepression.
Third is better physical health.
And fourth is a longer life.
And this fourth one we can goback to those other ones too,
but this one hit me because Ihave had some heart issues, as
(41:59):
everyone knows.
I think I don't know if I'vesaid it on the podcast before,
but anyway they did a study of200.
Excuse me of adults with heartdisease who had spent up to 200
hours helping others in theprevious year, and those people
that spent the 200 hours I don'tknow what the how they did the
(42:24):
study or anything said thosepeople that spent the 200 hours
in the previous years were lesslikely to have a heart attack or
die in the following two years.
And then it did say, however,those who spent more than 200
hours didn't get the samebenefit, which might be because
giving more time made peoplemore stressed or tired.
And it says other researchershave found that volunteering one
(42:47):
or two hours a week offersmaximum benefits.
So that would be around twohours a week, would be around
200 hours per year.
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
So there's kind of like you can give too little and
you can give too much.
Right Sort of a middle groundbullseye aspect of it.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Aspect to it.
Well, I think the other kind oflike end of year giving that
comes up, would be Maybe it'sanother fad, I don't know.
It's been around a few years.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
So it was the giving Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
We went from Black Friday that evolved into Cyber
Monday, and now charities areadding to the chain with their
giving Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Well, we're getting last minute end of year
donations to charities in beforethe end of the year so you
might be able to adjust your taxbracket or get some other tax
benefits that I am not an experton.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
Yeah, and I think it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
I would like to know.
I don't know the answer to this, but I would like to know how
many people give for that solepurpose.
No-transcript Sure.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
I feel like, yeah, it's a nudge right.
It's somebody who is kind ofthinking about it like, oh,
there's tax benefits too.
I'm sold now.
Right, it's the last straw thatwas needed to budge people.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Well, and I think the reason why I would want to know
that is just because myinclination and this is going
back to my Not to get too muchinto this subject, but it's
going back to the episode thatit is taxing episode is Because
the premise of the fair tax, orone of the premises, is that
(44:56):
very few people give just forthe purposes of giving a tax
break At least that's not theironly purpose.
For doing so.
They feel like, yeah, I'm goingto get this fringe benefit.
I think I would say, if I hadto guess, that more wealthy
people are doing that type oftax planning.
At least in my experiencedealing with people on the
(45:17):
financial side, people that arevery wealthy have a tax person
that's helping them throughoutthe year.
It's not just somebody thatprepares their taxes in February
or March.
This is somebody who'sconsulting with them over the
previous year in anticipation offiling their taxes the
following year.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Right.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
And not many people have that.
First of all, most people don'titemize their deductions anyway
.
Oh gosh, this is getting to bethe most boring podcast ever,
but most people don't.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Oh no, not yet.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
You're like oh no, we've been here before.
No, but most people don'titemize which.
That's how you're going to getthat right off, and then most
people aren't giving enough forit to really make a huge
difference anyway.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
But I think that's where some of the giving does
come in the roundabout sort ofway or incidental way, isn't?
Speaker 3 (46:14):
it.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Those people who don't make enough to justify
having a tax professional andwho don't make enough to justify
really paying close attentionto their tax profile and bracket
and all that.
They see all the advertisementsof tax-free weekend or the CLE
advertisements for reducer taxes.
(46:40):
Give now.
And they just sort of take iton faith that, oh, I won't have
to pay as much in taxes.
Give to charity.
And then every year they learnthe same lesson like, oh yeah, I
didn't give enough, I'm betteroff just taking the standard
deduction.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
But they still gave, right, they still gave more than
they would have otherwise given.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
That's why they're not paying that tax, because
they were told that they mighthave to pay less on their taxes.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Well, the question that I always ask, on more of a
philosophical level since thisis food and philosophy with
Brian and Nick is-.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
Which eatin' Brian?
Oh sorry.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
If Right, all of a sudden we're back at the
beginning.
If we Mike, the question Ialways ask is if we took that
away, like if tomorrow we thetax code, like we didn't get
what I want, you know, we justleft the tax code as it is but
we just said, yeah, there's nomore write offs for charitable
giving.
What does that do?
(47:39):
I think that people would stopgiving to charities and I think
no, I think absolutely not.
I think people would still give.
I think people are generous atheart.
I think people want to give.
People want to in our area.
People want to support theircauses, and the way they do that
is say, hey, I've got extramoney and I want this cause to
(48:00):
be fought for.
You know, or I want this causeto be defended or I want this
cause to be promoted.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
I don't think anyone's arguing that giving to
charity would just stop.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
I think, and I personally hold, that I think
giving would change.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
If right, either you know, some charities would win,
some charities, many charities,would lose.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Like there's plenty of charities who get more per
year in donations when theyadvertise.
So to speak about givingTuesday and create the demand or
the interest to give more, andso maybe, yeah, they won't stop
(48:46):
getting donations, but theymight get fewer donations.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Well, and I guess to get us back on track a little
bit in terms of the giving part,is, you know, going back to
this, knowing that you're goingto get health benefits and
knowing, based on ourconversation we had in the last
episode, about your mindset whenyou're making these gifts or
when you're being generous.
Right, I feel like that's themore important part than
(49:16):
anything else is, because thetax stuff I mean that it's there
, but the I think the givingTuesday thing, it puts people in
a mindset, it puts people in asort of like.
What I said is, when I saythank you to people that have
volunteered for organizationsthat I deal with, I'm saying
that to remind myself a littlebit and to get myself in a
(49:39):
better mindset, to say, oh,remember, you always have to be
gracious, you always have toexpress gratitude, and you all,
because these people are givingyou know and create that cycle
that we just talked about.
So so I think you know.
I think, that's what, for lackof a better term like look at
the, look at the.
You know the Christmas spirit,you know get in the Christmas
(50:01):
spirit and I know in America wehave a very commercial sense of
Christmas to some extent.
But I think that it is a timewhen you step back and you know
you don't think about yourselfas much, you think about other
people and you think about whatyou're going to give get for
giving to other people, and soit was with what you're saying
(50:25):
reminds me of and how to winfriends and influence people.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Whereas a whole, I don't know.
It felt like maybe at least awhole page, not two or three
pages.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
So in that book, devoted to reprinting something
you know, like an advertisementby a department store that was,
you know, the company justencouraging people to remember
the reason for the season andhow?
You know, yes, this, all theshopping, is stressful for you
(50:57):
and it's also stressful for ourcashiers.
Right, and in the spirit ofgiving like, if you've got any
smiles to spare, please considersharing a few with cashiers.
You know that there's a lot ofstress, there's a lot of hubbub
and a lot of stressed people forthem to interact with, and you
can give them a great gift ifyou just toss a smile their way.
(51:19):
Or a merry Christmas, you know,yeah, and the character phrasing
greatly of course it was muchbetter written by some VP of PR
at that time, it was still agood.
It's a good thought, it's agood sentiment.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Yeah, I think I mean sort of going back to that, the
giving.
It's an interesting thing thatyou touched on.
There is like we're talkingabout giving and sometimes we're
talking about giving gifts, andalso we were talking about
things that you can give thatare, in essence, a gift, but
they don't cost anything.
They're not, you know, like yousaid, a nice.
(51:59):
I tend to try to be like thatwith service people throughout
the year and I find that I getan interesting reaction.
Is just making eye contact,just not being on your phone,
not like being present in themoment?
So I mean, that's a you knowsort of loaded term or whatever,
(52:20):
but you know it is self-helpand self-help circles.
It's like be present with thatperson for a second, I think.
I think making a connection withpeople never goes out of style
and it can be a tiny, tinyconnection and a tiny tiny
interaction with someone thatmakes them feel slightly better
for that day or that makes themfeel like that they haven't gone
(52:44):
through the day and nobody'snoticed them.
I mean it's, and a lot of timesin servers, cashiers and things
like that, it's like, yeah,here's my stuff, here's my money
.
Like, yeah, just move it along,give me my stuff here's, I'll
pay for it.
I want to go like and I feellike probably that's a bunch of
people throughout the day thatare just hey, this is a
transaction, I'm not here tomake friends with you, I'm not
(53:04):
here to be pleasant, I'm here tobuy this stuff and your job is
to sell it to me.
And that's my interaction withyou.
And I found that, like I said,just making eye contact with
someone and asking them howtheir day is going.
I mean, I know cashiers arestuff A lot of times are
required to say how your day isgoing or they're trying to make
conversation.
But if you just stop for asecond and say, how are you, how
(53:26):
are you, is it busy today?
How have you been, you know,and the some of the reaction
that you get is sort of like wow, yeah, it's been okay, like I
mean, I feel like they are alittle bit taken aback by that,
because I don't think everyoneasks those questions, but it's a
little thing you can do.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
I'd like to break the script.
You know, if they cashier asksme how are you doing, you know
it's just part of a.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (53:49):
They were.
They were making fun of me.
I was going to say that, oh goahead, let me finish.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
I'm going to do a quick I might.
I might look at their name tagand you're like I'd be doing a
lot better if my name were Bryceand it just sort of you know,
breaks the script.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
But go ahead I was going to say they were making
fun of me at the at one of myoffices the other day because we
were.
We were talking about howeverybody enters the office,
like when, when people come in,what do they do?
And like so one of the partnersthere, he comes in, he's very
boisterous, he's like just a,he's just like hey guys, how's
everyone doing?
(54:26):
You know, just like over thetop, you know everyone, exactly
yeah.
He's like it's going to be agood Tuesday, let's go.
You know, like, like that youcan hear him throughout the
entire office, you know, and,and we all love him for it.
But the thing is, you know,then they then I was like, well,
wait.
So if he's like, what do I,what am I like?
(54:47):
And they're like, oh, you comein and you're like, hey, how are
you doing?
No, but really, how are youdoing?
No, but how are you doing?
Are you doing okay?
Is everything okay?
Are you good?
You good?
Everything good, like, andthat's total.
it is totally me, I go to eachperson and I'm like no, but
really, how are you doing today?
Like guys are you?
I mean, is it good, are you notgood?
You know?
Speaker 1 (55:06):
it's like it takes you 56 minutes to get to your
desk because of a lot of timesit does, a lot of times it does.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
but I'm like, literally I do.
I do it to remind myself, toslow down a little bit.
You know, like to like I don't.
I feel weird walking intosomeone's office, even if I have
something that I need to talkto them about, because I'm a
nine, I I want to like come inand I don't want to just be like
, hey, yeah, so on that casethat you're working on, I want
to know we need to.
I emailed you about it.
(55:34):
I just want to go straight intoit.
I feel awkward doing that.
So then I have this like howare you doing today?
What's going on?
How was your weekend?
Is everything good with you?
Okay, good.
And then you know, let themtalk for a second, and then then
I go into like, hey, the reasonI came in here is because I
need to talk about X, y or Z,and I don't know, maybe that
just maybe that's for me, maybethat's selfish reasons, because
I need to make myself feelbetter, but I'm hoping that it
(55:56):
makes them feel better too atsome point that they're like
that I do actually care, likeI'm not doing that.
Speaker 1 (56:03):
And again, it has to be genuinely yeah, I think if
you feel it when you say it,you're fine, it's it's asking.
My computer is glitching weird.
Speaker 2 (56:15):
Oh, no, well, you're fine on my end.
I can hear you.
Speaker 1 (56:18):
Okay, good Cause, like screens are shifting.
Like someone's hacking me orsomething Like in the movies.
Yeah, I'm losing video.
Oh, yeah, you're slowing down alittle bit.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
Yeah, you're glitchy a little bit on my end, but I
can still hear you.
Everything looks fine.
Speaker 3 (56:33):
So I don't know, maybe we'll wrap it up for you
soon.
Speaker 1 (56:36):
Yeah, I think I might all that's distractions Maybe
lose my point, oh.
But yeah, I've definitelyworked with people where it's
like they.
I've interacted with themenough such that when they come
to me and say, hey, how are youdoing, I'm like good, what do
you need?
You know, like like it's.
Thank you for asking, but Iknow you're here for something,
(56:59):
let's just get to it.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
You know yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:02):
Cause it's like how's it going?
How's it going, oh, good, good.
Oh hey, by the way, could youdo this for me, like it's yeah,
and I think that yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:15):
Probably good though.
Well, I can see that that wouldbe.
But the thing is, I thinkpeople know that you know.
I think people know if you'recoming in and like, oh, how are
you doing, like they, they knowif you're, and especially people
you're around very often itmight not be like that for a
cashier or something like that,but for somebody who you're
around all the time, you know.
(57:36):
No, but I'm, I really am like Ido care, you know, but
obviously we're at work, sowe're doing work, but at the
same time I do care about howare your weekend was and I do
care about those things.
So anyway, yeah Well, I think Ithink we might have covered it.
Is there anything else youwanted to talk about?
Speaker 1 (57:59):
Um no, you've been very generous, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (58:05):
Well, I will say that on an ending closing note.
I think tomorrow I thinktomorrow is our three year
anniversary of this podcast.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
If I'm not correct, if I'm not mistaken, this
recording, or you're you'resaying, from our published date
uh, from a published date First.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
Actually, I take it back.
The first episode was publishedNovember 5th 2020.
So we passed.
We passed our three year.
We missed our birthday, I knowexactly.
So we've been doing this threeyears and I just want to say
thank you, nick, for being partof this with me, thank you for
always being willing to recordand being a good member to have
(58:46):
a conversation with, and and foreverything else.
Just, I think it's cool thatwe've we've gone this whole time
and, um, you know, we alwaysstill seem to have something to
talk about and have it hang out,you know, and things like that.
Speaker 1 (59:01):
So so, yeah, Thank you for asking me way back when
and thank you for putting me onthe spot to thank you back.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
Yeah, exactly, Exactly yeah no, it's, it's.
Speaker 1 (59:15):
It has been a lot of fun and I fully believe it'll
continue to be a lot of fun.
Yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (59:21):
We just, I think we're into my life, I think
we're currently at 82 episodespublished, so that's a good,
that's a good amount of timetalking, so that's good, all
right.
Well, and also thanks to theaudience for out there.
You listen, uh, even if it'snot on a regular basis.
(59:41):
If you listen, uh, weappreciate it, we appreciate you
.
And also, if you want to emailus too, you can.
You know, definitely email us.
You'll hear that in the outro,but, um, email us and tell us
how we're doing.
You know, email us and give ussuggested topics.
We're what we'd, we'd be morethan happy to run with suggested
topics and things like that, uh, that you want to hear us spout
(01:00:03):
about, because, um, we can'tguarantee, like the?
Uh, the quality of theconversation.
We can, we can only guaranteethe quantity, which is about an
hour per episode.
Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Thank you for the gift of your attention.
Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Right, exactly, all right.
See you guys all in 2024.
I mean here, you'll listen tous in 2024.
All right, geez.
Welcome to help yourself.
Food and philosophy with Brianand Nick.
What's eating Brian?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And I'm Brian.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I got in a hurry.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I was like I.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Changed one little bit of inflection.
I just totally go off the rails.
All right, no way.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
We'll fix it in post.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
There's it's too.
It's too far gone.
This, yeah, it's off the rails.
It's a crazy train.
Well, what I was gonna sayafter you said and I'm Brian
it's the most taxing cinnavisetime of the year.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Wow, singing, singing on the podcast.
I don't know if we've ever sungbefore on the podcast.
That sounded like singing, thatthey came out.
You're like thanks a lot.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I thought I thought you were like gonna quit cringe
and In squee and fix that inpost.
You get auto-tuned it.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Which you mean, brian ?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
What am I eating?
Well, I had for lunch a.
So, in going back to my Cajun,roots are not really Cajun.
I always say Cajun, I alwayssay Cajun, but my actually my
background is not Cajun.
It's from Louisiana but notCajun.
I did not know this.
But Cajuns, or people that camefrom the north Through, like
(01:37):
Canada.
They came from Canada and cameall the way down to like, where
Louisiana is.
Those were Cajuns, right, butother people, like the people
that were my ancestors, camefrom France or Belgium, you know
which were where my family.
Yeah, creole, and I believe so.
I think, anyway, they came inthrough the port.
(01:59):
You know, they came by shipinto the Gulf and came in
through New Orleans and so,anyway, my, I'll just say my, my
French background, my LouisianaFrench background.
Let's say that okay.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Cajun Canadian.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And this is obviously probably the most removed from
that as possible.
So it's basically very loosely,but Zatarain's Zatarain's
frozen foods, that's how youpronounce.
I thought it was Zatarin.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I don't know, I don't know.
That would mean that the A orthe I is not pronounced or it
could be Zatarin.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
This is a terrain that's, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
You're hurting my brain.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Sorry, okay.
So this says it's been atradition since 1889.
So they've been making frozenfood since 1889.
So I trust in that.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
So anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I got this frozen meal, did it in my hotbox,
that's.
That's almost as big takethat's Norma specifically for
Norma, if she's listening myhotbox.
I found out that another toastmaster has two other hotboxes
and she does not call themhotboxes.
She calls them by the real name, which are actual name hot,
(03:21):
logic.
I think it's called anyway,okay hot logic, something like
that.
So anyway, I put this in there.
This is blackened chicken withwith yellow rice and it has.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
That is so ethnically .
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, yeah.
So but it was good.
It was a good meal.
It was actually pretty feelingfilling and it it did have about
520 calories in it, so it's agood, a Good meal, and again it
was.
It was filling enough.
I don't think it was like aHuge, gigantic meal, but it was
(03:58):
good enough to Quell the hunger.
Had a little bit of spicinessto it, but not a lot, though
Just a tiny bit, and it was notany of the things that I always
say.
So it wasn't like vegangluten-free.
It basically had all the stuffin it.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So if you have any allergies.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
This is probably not your your meal of choice.
I did buy another.
However, you say that nameZadarain.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Zadarain, whatever it's fine.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Um, I did buy another one of those, so I would be
trying another one of thosemeals also.
Um, at some point.
Just, I do like the little logo.
Can you see the little logo?
I like logos.
Logos are like for me a recentfascination, because if you
start, it's one of those thingsthat you don't really look at
Like nobody, you sort of glossover it because it's just on the
packaging.
(04:47):
And how often do you just likepick up a packaging and like
really study the logo and so yousee the guy on there?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, he's like a guy .
Speaker 2 (04:55):
It's a silhouette of a guy playing a I wouldn't say
trumpet, but it's not.
I think it's like a clarinet orsomething.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It might be a clarinet.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's really thin and it has a bell shaped end to it
Based on my my children's uhmarching band.
That's either a tenor saxophoneor it's a clarinet, but I don't
know anything else.
That's that shaped.
It could be like a maybe the.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Which of those is probably most associated to the
region, I would say musicaltastes of the region.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
What's a brass?
It's a really brassy, brassyinstruments like they have, like
tubas and trumpets and Stufflike that.
When I mean think of, think ofsomebody.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Playing the Saints school marching band.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Exactly.
Think about somebody playingthat when they're playing that
on a super brassy, bright,brassy instruments, right?
So I'm thinking that's maybe atenor saxophone, but if anybody
works for the zattery zatarineis uh Company we have listeners
who work for that company, butyou've yet to pronounce it
properly, so they don't know whoyou're talking about.
If, if there's anybody outthere who listen?
(06:00):
Who listens who?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
has connections there .
Speaker 2 (06:02):
If they can tell us what instrument the guy is
Playing, then that would beawesome.
But anyway, good, it was a goodmeal and I would.
I would probably have some moreof these at some point with my
special way of heating them up.
Um, brian's beverage corner.
Hydration is important,according to my most important
toast master's friend.
So I have water and I also I'mgonna drink.
(06:25):
I think I drank one of these alittle while ago in the podcast,
um, but this one's a differentflavor.
So palm, the you know thecompany that does like the
pomegranate stuff, so you dolike pure pomegranate juice and
okay, yeah, not palm like pa,yeah, p o m.
So this is pomegranate honeygreen tea and it's in a little
looks like a snowman, but it'sin a little bottle and yeah,
(06:51):
what we're gonna ask uh, what'sthe sugar?
Yeah, that's a good question.
The sugar is 32 grams of sugarwith 26 grams of added sugar, so
I might as well drink a coke atthat point, you know like, or
some soft drink at least, Iguess You're getting some
benefit of having how much isyour sprite?
(07:12):
You just hold up a sprite.
How much is the spray having it?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, it has 38, all of which.
No, oh Wait, how does that work?
It says including 38 grams ofadded sugar, 76 percent.
What's the 76 percent 76percent of your of your sugar
intake of daily, daily, yeah sothis one's 52 percent so again
(07:41):
how many I guess it's oh gosh,it's small 12.
That's 12 ounces, so it's thesame as it can yeah it looks
smaller than it can, but it'swhat like 33 percent less than a
sprite About that.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
But, and I would think, theoretically, you're
getting some benefit becausethis has Green tea in it,
although it's not actual greentea, because it's made from
green tea extract.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
So, well, in pomegranate, like yeah,
pomegranate green tea is likegood about antioxidants, so but
I wonder how much of that iscounteracted by the oxidative of
sugar.
Well, the first three.
Does it balance out or does it?
Is it a?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
negative.
First three the first threeingredients are green tea, which
they say in parentheses iswater, and green tea extract.
So it's not even really brewedtea, it's like they took an
extract to make the flavoring.
Then the next two ingredientsare sugar and honey, and then
after that is pomegranate juiceconcentrate, pomegranate fruit
extract and natural flavors.
(08:41):
So I don't know if the sugaroffsets the potential health
benefit of getting just you know, I don't know, but anyway I'm
going to be sipping on it anyway.
Uh, not for health benefits,just because maybe, hopefully,
it'll taste good.
Which all that sugar in it?
It probably will.
So so, yeah, that's where I'm,that's where I'm at with Brian's
(09:04):
beverage corner today.
What about you?
What are you and drinking?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I'm eating an eclectic mix of meats and
cheeses and crackers.
It's a charcuterie, oh nice.
I had saw my.
My boss hosted a gathering theother day and insisted, insisted
, that he not have any leftovers.
We Each took a little bit homewith us.
(09:33):
So I'm enjoying.
That.
That's part of most of what Ibrought back, as well as
charcuterie Supplemented withthose leftovers.
Yeah, it's like good olpepperoni, um Some salted
cashews and blueberries andgrapes and apple slices.
(09:54):
Like lots of just Grazing semihealthy food.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
There was also sausage and olives, and yeah,
for some reason grazing to mealways feels healthier, even if
the food is not as healthy.
Like, for some reason it feelslike if you're having a little,
you got a little plate and youput a little bit on it and you
have it and you just have acouple bites here and then you
have more bites.
It always feels healthier.
But I think many times it's notbecause you're eating more
decadent foods that you wouldn't, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Like you might not eat it.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You might not sit down and have a charcuterie
board by yourself for dinner.
Right, yeah, so they're gonnaput some pretty decadent things
on there that are like sort ofstrong flavors and things like
that.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
And yeah you know, I bet, in terms of calories In,
taking in is probably less orfewer.
Fewer calories, yeah, fewercalories, because you're gonna
get full faster, right, likeyou're.
With each bite, you're givingyour Digestive system time to
say, hey, I'm full, yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
In theory.
I think I tested that there atall.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Unfortunately, I think many times when we have
charcuterie it's like or atleast in when I do it's it's
you're having that and thenyou're like it's an appetizer
and then you're gonna have awhole meal.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
You know, it's so like right, you know you haven't
given your body time betweenthe appetizer and the whole meal
to say like hey, I'm a fool now.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Either that or you're just saying, no, I'm having,
I'm gonna have this meal youknow, you're like I mean.
Yeah, you're like I'm still,I'm sort of full, but I'm the
food coming out, so I'm gonnaeat it.
You know, yeah, exactly, it'slike shut up stomach.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
When's the?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
last time I've listened to you anyway right In
terms of beverages.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I have Water on Glaw.
Yeah, I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
In the straw list straw list, straw list bottle
because, as everyone knows, inour last episode, I, you made
the commitment straw Yep and Iflew it flown it into the trash
can yep angrily.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yes, and there was, there was a, the satisfaction of
a sound right.
So getting into my Beverage isI also yeah aforementioned
sprite.
Yeah everyone, here's your ASMRmoment or listening or nails on
the chalkboard, I have no idea.
Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Wow, that was loud.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Satisfying, yes, man.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Marshall's gonna be so mad at you.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
It's much better than the actual taste like
Satisfaction has been had.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Marshall listens on his headphones while he's
jogging, so he's gonna be reallymad at you, oh.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Why are you in the bushes?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It's like he's gonna, like he's gonna yank his earful
ear.
Is the earbuds out and throwthem like.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
No idea that Marshall's, you know, suffers
from Soda PTSD.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know if he does or not,but I'm just saying, if you've
got earbuds in, that's gonna belike right up in there.
So oh really, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I Should have.
Maybe I shouldn't have put itright up on the mic.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, we can apologize in advance to Marshall
for that and anybody else outthere who does have any kind of
Misophonia or anything like that.
So, but you know, it is thegift that keeps on giving, you
know.
So sure, just Just like ourpodcast.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
We in our previous episode we were very generous
with our time.
We were audience will be verygenerous with their attention.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Please, please.
Listen all the way to the endthere's, there's gonna be a word
special, special material.
The end, the ends of ourpodcast are always where the
best stuff is, you know, rightin the closing.
Yeah, there you go With themeandering Right, right?
Well, if you haven't alreadyfigured that out, our we're
(13:56):
trying to continue from our lastepisode, since it is the season
of giving.
To some extent, most of theworld, or a large portion of the
world, celebrates Christmas.
Yeah, there's also a lot ofdifferent, different other
holidays around this time ofyear, and many of them are
seemingly centered around Givingin some way in the end of the
(14:18):
year.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Right it's yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, and as you mentioned to, there's also tax
considerations, which I'm sureeverybody tunes in this podcast
to listen to tax considerationsregarding their giving.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
So we did have, was that it?
It's so taxing right.
Oh gosh episode we did.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
That one, that was a long episode.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, you get to go in your fair tax, so that was a.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Episode that was like an hour that's.
I think that was our longestepisode ever.
I would commend you if youlisten to that whole thing.
An hour and 40 minutes,Probably the closest that Nick
and I have come to fighting onair, you know so.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Genuinely, genuinely.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
We?
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
No, it's all.
It was all Scripting notscripted, but yeah, but it was
part of the.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I can't remember it was something about that.
I can't remember, man, I Doremember we this is go ahead.
I was gonna.
I said do remember, we did do apodcast about gift giving,
episode all the way back.
Oh, if you want to hear whetheror not we've improved or
Whether or not there's anythingdifferent with us since we've
(15:31):
been doing this podcast threeyears now, go back to episode
number four, which was all theway back in December of 2020.
So it would have been, as ofrelease of this podcast, over
three years ago and I.
Do hear somewhat of a difference.
I'm not saying we improved perse, but what I'm saying is
quality.
At least we are quality to prove, mainly due to technology, not
(15:54):
because we learned how to speakany better, but but if you do
want to go back and listen tothat, we have a long discussion
about Giving gifts and how theprocess of giving gifts and
things like that.
So, anyway, we thought it wouldbe a good tie-in for this
episode, but even though we'regonna be talking on a slightly
different aspect of gift givingin this, you know, in this
(16:18):
episode.
So yeah.
How do you want to start us out, nick?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Hmm, well, how about the holidays?
Mm-hmm and and then not justquote Christmas, right, I think,
I think it's a Diwali has thegifts giving component to their
lights, that it's a India.
There's, yeah, lights calledDiwali and gifts are exchanged.
(16:49):
Off the top of my head, there'sHanukkah to give gifts.
Mm-hmm, of course, christmas,like I don't.
Just it seems it's a thinghumans do, yeah, at this time of
year, maybe for differentreasons, but maybe it has to do
(17:10):
with the weather, like I don'tknow if this I'm not agrarian or
agricultural at all, but I, Iimagine in the colder months is
when you sow the seeds so thatin spring the things bloom,
blossom and produce yeah kind ofgiving that sacrifice to the
earth and gratitude for theearth produced, but then Hoping
(17:36):
to also reap next year.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah, I think.
I think that that's sort of sortof Builds on what we were
talking about in the lastepisode about Having a mindset,
certain mindset we talked aboutin the last episode, carol
DeWeck's book of mindset, andthat Growth versus fixed or
abundance versus scarcitymindset and I think a lot of
(18:02):
giving At least I feel like some.
Some of the conclusion is thata lot of giving comes back to
that is do you have, you knowwhich of those mindsets do you
have?
And, and in Even let's talkabout Thanksgiving, you know
giving?
You're sharing a feast and doingall the things that you do
during Thanksgiving Is reallyinto mindset of yeah, it's, it's
(18:25):
, it does talk about the hey,we're gonna eat, we're gonna
feast on all this food becausewe know the next year we're
gonna have more.
We know that they're, that the,the land is gonna provide for
us and that we're gonna havemore, so we're gonna we have.
We have the luxury of feastingon all this food.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
We don't have to stock it up for the winter per
se, and Because we're gonna havemore news here, and then
there's the just on the noseThing of giving yeah, thanks
right right, thanksgiving, kindof be generous with your
gratitude.
That's something we didn't talkabout last episode.
(19:01):
It's like you can be generouswith a lot of things.
Time, yeah, I think that's anunder.
I think that's a.
It's an underappreciated, orsomething that I've learned also
put it this way something thatI've learned in the last little
while dealing with non-profitorganizations and volunteer
organizations where people arealways volunteering, is that you
?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I feel like you have to have a Tremendous amount of
genuine progress, and I thinkthat's a really good thing to do
.
I think that's a really goodthing to do.
I feel like you have to have atremendous amount of genuine
praise, and I say genuine inthere.
I try to emphasize that becausePeople are gonna know if you're
(19:38):
just faking like people knowsay hey, thanks, yeah thanks.
A lot like you know, people knowit's like you really do have to
Really genuinely feel thankfulthat these people are
volunteering their time orgiving their money or doing
these things, and Then expressthat, and I feel like what I
didn't realize at the beginningof dealing with an organization
(20:01):
like that is how much youactually need to over emphasize
that, because people, people dowant to feel like they're heard
and that they're seen and thatthey're noticed and that their
efforts are noticed and thateven their donations are noticed
, if it's just a financialdonation, and so I I typically
will thank everyone all the timefor everything, and and and I'm
(20:25):
not doing it in a disingenuousway, I'm actually doing it on
Somewhat, I don't want to sayselfishly, but when I'm thanking
someone, it's reminding me ofthat fact, it's reminding me of,
wow, this person did this thing, and I have to, didn't have to
yeah, and I have to get myselfin that mindset like they could
have done nothing and they didthis, whether it's that that's a
small thing or a big thing.
(20:46):
And so I do genuinely step backand say, oh gosh, I really
appreciate this, and it's notjust a pat thing at the end of
an email or a text message orsomething else or a conversation
, it's genuinely.
In fact, we just had an eventfor all of the Not every single
(21:06):
parent, but all of the Parentswho really gave a significant
amount of time, effort andenergy to our marching band
season in the fall.
We had a party.
That was.
It was, I would say it was alittle bit exclusive, like it
was.
You'd really had to have giventime and we gave little mock
awards and things like that, butit really was a Show up.
(21:28):
You don't have to do anything.
You've already volunteered allyour time.
We're gonna provide you with alittle bit of an event that you
can just come and enjoy and youaren't expect nothing is
expected of you because you'vealready given so much.
And so we had a little thank youevent at the end of the season
and Everyone seemed to like thatand I feel like that's sort of
(21:50):
what you have to do sometimes isjust, you know, express that in
a very straightforward way isif, if you're, if you are, if
you don't know by now, then weare very thankful for everything
that you guys did, and so it'sa.
It was an interesting learningthing for me, because I don't do
(22:12):
it for the thanks, and so, youknow, going back to what I think
you said this in the lastepisode is, you know, viewing
the lens, viewing the worldthrough the lens of your own
thing, is like I just go intovolunteering because I'm like
well, there's a space open, I'mgoing to volunteer for it and
I'm going to do the job, but Idon't expect anything in return
for that.
But then I had to realize thatother people, they need to know
(22:35):
that.
You know that some people havethe feeling of like I at least
need to like I thank you somekind of gratitude for that, and
so, again, it was a learningcurve for me.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, well, there's a lot that I'd like to comment on
, I guess briefly, with some ofwhat you're saying.
It reminds me of times I'vethanked someone and they'll say,
oh, you would have done thesame for me, and I'm like I
don't say so.
(23:05):
But I'm like no, I don't hatedoing that, and I wouldn't even
do it for my mother, so the factthat you did it is why I'm so
thankful, right, it's like myexpectations of someone doing
that for me are very low, right.
So when someone does it, evenif they think it was very small,
it was big to me, you know,yeah, and now I'm forgetting the
(23:29):
other things that came to mindwith what you were saying.
I think.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Well, we were talking about gift giving and I feel
like that party, to some extent,that we just did was a gift to
you know even though it's anevent, it was a gift that we
were giving to them, and peoplewere actually.
The funniest thing about it wasthese are all people who are the
type of people who join in.
They just look for something todo.
(23:58):
They're like hey, I knowthere's a lot of jobs, I'm just
going to find something to doand I'm going to do it because
they're just volunteers bynature.
So these are all the top notch,you know, people that really
just make the whole organizationwork because they're there to
serve, right.
And when we told them we weregoing to be having a party and
that they didn't have to doanything, they kept asking us
yeah, but are you sure, Can I dosomething?
Can I bring something?
(24:18):
Can I do?
And we're like no, the wholepoint of this party is to have
something where you don't haveto do something.
That's the whole point of it.
We did have a chili cookoff, sowe're like, if you want to cook
chili, feel free, but it is notby any means required.
Like we'll have plenty of chili, you don't have to cook any if
you don't want to.
And it's just, even when thepeople started showing up for
(24:40):
the party, the first thing theywould ask you oh hey, how are
you doing?
Is there anything I can do tohelp?
And so it was a really funnything, because you're trying to
give someone a gift withoutanything in return and their
mindset of a volunteer in thatway is like oh, I'm going to, I
want to try to help in some way,you know.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
So yeah, and with thank you for that, like all
that's right on and it helpedremind me of some of things I
was wanting to share is comeback to that scarcity or
abundance mindset, like givingthanks right, showing genuine
appreciation, being generouswith your praise is free, I mean
(25:24):
yeah, like technically quotetalk is cheap, right, but
there's basically no limit tothe amount of things that you
can give.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
So long as quoting myself here.
If you don't feel it, don't sayit.
You mentioned something alongthose lines.
That has to be genuine.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Right, and so if you don't actually kind of recognize
the benefit that somebodycreated for you, or if you focus
on owing them thanks, thenyou're probably not going to
feel that gratitude.
Yeah, and I think you knowwe've also talked about how
(26:07):
giving should be with no stringsattached and things, but at the
same time, like if I give you agift and you don't thank me for
it, I'm going to wonder if itwas a good gift.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And I think even if we give, there's always kind of,
the gift has a purpose, right.
The gift is to be of service,right?
Even with the band boostersthing you were talking about,
that the parents give their timeto produce an outcome.
(26:44):
They want to produce a benefitfor the band boosters club.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
If you don't thank them.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
You don't pay them by virtue of them being volunteers
, right?
And you don't thank them.
They're going to wonder iftheir efforts are doing any good
.
They haven't, right?
Yeah, so volunteers are paid in, thanks.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
And I've said this before in the pod, probably more
than once, I don't know whenMaroche episodes, because it's
always been off hand but in myview, even people who are paid
are also volunteers.
Anybody you work with, whetherit's from authority or
(27:33):
authenticity or for a paycheckor whatever, they still have to
be paid in thanks, because ifthey don't feel like they're
doing any good, they won't havethat workplace satisfaction,
they'll go somewhere else.
If you're not grateful.
It's going to be an unpleasantwork environment and they'll go
find some other place to workthat's more satisfying right.
(27:55):
Living wage is easier andeasier to come by on the planet
than it ever has been in thehistory of mankind, so more and
more people do what they do attheir pleasure, and the best way
to make sure that they havethat satisfaction is knowing
(28:19):
that what they're doing is avalue.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
And you do that very easily through, thanks.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
It's interesting because the excuse me one of the
articles that I pulled up wasit's entitled why A Grateful
Brain Is a Giving One, so it'stalking exactly.
We're talking about gratitudeand says the neural.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
It's kind of making a loop, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And the subtext on that title is the neural
connection between gratitude andaltruism is very deep, suggests
new research, and one of theparagraphs in there as you were
talking, I was reviewing it, andso this says there is a much
older, pre-self-help conceptionof gratitude as an emotion with
moral motivations.
(29:01):
To first century philosopher,cicero, gratitude was a matter
of religious obligation, quoteto the immortal gods.
But modern psychologists such asMichael McCullough and
colleagues have systematized itin this way Gratitude is a moral
barometer, an acknowledgementthat one has been the
beneficiary of another person'smoral actions.
(29:22):
They go on to argue thatgratitude is also a moral
reinforcer, meaning that you'llsee a quote, unquote thanks from
others as a reward that willlead you to give more in the
future.
So they're basically sayingexactly what you're saying is
hey, if you're somebody, even ifyou've got a team of people
that you work with that arebeing paid for their time, right
(29:44):
, yeah, they, you still wantthem to perform at their top
level.
Well, one of the ways to getthem to perform at their top
level is to be grateful for them, to say, hey, grateful for you
guys as a team.
You guys are doing a great job.
I really appreciate all thehard work that you guys put into
all of this stuff, and eventhough they're being paid for
their time, everyone wants everyperson on their team to operate
(30:07):
at their highest capacity.
Not meaning run them into theground, but you want them to
thrive, and I feel like that'spart of it.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
And I think there's that.
So what I'm hearing and some ofthat is, there's this idea of
when you give, you're givingback.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
And that's where there's like this positive
feedback loop of generosity andgiving and gratitude.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
There's also you know the phrase, that's not as I
haven't heard it nearly as oftenas I once did, maybe in the 90s
or so, but there's pay itforward.
There's a movie called Pay itForward, but it has Kevin Spacey
, so people don't like to talkabout movies that Kevin Spacey
and them anymore.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
But there's still that idea, and I think the idea
is probably and I think theother kind of talking about
quote, pay it forward.
Right, that's a phrase that weuse to talk about basically
giving back or giving quoteforward where somebody does a
favor for you.
You know, person A doessomething for you, but there's
(31:20):
no way for you to pay them back.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Or for whatever reason.
Well then, pay it forward andhelp person C and just make kind
of a longer, wider chain of,you know, generosity giving and
gratitude across the humanspecies, as opposed to just
within a smaller circle of twopeople.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, that's the drive through, that's the drive
through a project or whatever.
Not necessarily a project, butyou know.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Pay for the person behind you.
Right, exactly, you knowwhatever the bill is, and then
Right.
Yeah, I think, at least in mygeneral area of the country.
I feel like that was a fad,like that seems to have.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I don't know if it's because of, like, the different
pay apps and, by and large,people just roll up to the
window and yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
They paid before they tried to do that with me.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yeah, I would have already paid, because I usually,
if I go to Starbucks orsomething, I do it on the app
and it's prepaid, and then Ijust pick it up at the drive
through or wherever.
Yeah, yeah, also, I think thatnot well, not to get too off.
But I think that has to do withsocial media too, because, like
, certain things come in and outbecause it's like, oh, okay,
they go viral on social mediaand then they go, okay, yeah,
(32:36):
that's now we know about that.
It's been done.
That was sort of cool, andlet's move on to the next thing
you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
And this is a bit of a tangent to our end of year
giving generosity concept.
But something else that hit meplaying with these words.
So you know there's payingforward right.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
And basically talking about paying and thanks.
The other non-monetary kind ofpayment that we can give is at
least in the American languageis pay attention.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I don't know?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
You know, one of the few things I remember from
French class and when I was inhigh school is when you want to
say the same thing in French,here it's literally translated
to just give attention.
But here in America, right, wecall it because at least the way
our teacher described it to usis that we're so financially
(33:38):
focused and payment focused andeconomy focused and whatnot that
we say pay attention.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Like your owed attention or it's deserved kind
of thing.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
And even with that context, though that's something
, that's another thing that wehave in abundance and we
squander it, give it away forfree on things like social media
, video games and commercials orwhatever we're addicted to, but
(34:11):
what everyone's addicted to,what everyone craves, is
receiving attention Right, andwe have that in ample supply.
So rather than staring intoFacebook ad or a mobile game, we
could be making eye contactwith the person who's just next
door or just downstairs, orturning our cameras on in a Zoom
(34:34):
call and looking at the camera,right, like just giving
attention, which is its own kindof thanks.
Right, it's a way of showingappreciation and respect and
care.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
It's interesting a story that my wife used to work
for a company and it's sort ofthis story sort of illustrates
what you're talking about thatyou know this kind of thing is
free and important is they hadthis thing that was.
It was a larger company and theyhad this heart and soul awards
that they used to give everyyear.
And when she first started there, she worked for this company
(35:10):
for 13 years and when she firststarted there, they you know,
they used to give a little giftor like some kind of monetary
compensation, like a bonus orsomething If you got, if you won
this award.
She won the award one year andthen the CEO would come down and
like talk to you and like, youknow this small group of people
and shake your hand and say, hey, you guys are like the heart
(35:31):
and soul of this company and youknow, because you've been
wrecking, you're beingrecognized for your efforts, and
then they slowly back that off.
So at one point it was justthis no monetary compensation.
The CEO would come down andlike say hi and shake your hand,
and then at some point you justwon the award and the CEO
didn't even come down and sayanything to you and she was
(35:52):
always like, so bewildered bythat.
Because how much does it costthe company to have the CEO come
down for one hour and talk tothe people who you're rewarding
for being the heart and soul ofthe company?
It costs them nothing, right,no it?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
cost them something.
Well, my point is average CEOsalary.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Divide that by the number of hours in a year, Of
course, but my point is, mypoint is my point is them coming
down, that's already in thebudget, but him coming down and
shaking your hand can go a longway into doing exactly what I
just said that you'll see athanks from others as a reward
that will lead you to give morein the future.
(36:35):
So just by coming down anddoing that, you might be
inspiring the next leadership ofthis company.
That takes it to the next level, which means that you, as a CEO
, look better.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
In my defense you said it costs nothing.
So I was challenging that Ifyou had asked what are the
benefits they're losing from theCEO not doing that, anymore.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
I was like.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Oh well, absolutely everything.
You're saying that you'regetting more engagement out of
people.
Maybe I should have said what?
What extra does it cost?
Speaker 2 (37:04):
them Like how much more, how much extra does it
cost them?
Maybe that's what I should havesaid Does it?
Speaker 1 (37:09):
cost them anything extra.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
No, it doesn't cost them anything extra.
It costs them one hour of theCEO's time to come into the
building, and it's not like theCEO is in France and they have
to fly him in, like the CEO isin the same building.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
So even then, I think , like you're saying, though,
focusing on those benefits,right, the cost, yeah it's, it's
minuscule, it's small or it'salready paid, depending on how
you put it.
But then, yeah, there's allthese benefits.
Just next year there'll be morepeople who want that same award
.
They're telling themselves I'mgoing to be the employee of the
(37:48):
year this year.
Now, even if they don't make it, you get your underperforming
people performing.
You're performing peopleoverperforming and in a way that
they feel good about right,because you're not running them
into the ground.
They're just engaged.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I think that.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I think that it's a small price to pay right.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
I think that who's dialed that in locally is Dave
Ramsey and those of you outthere.
Dave Ramsey is local to us,since we're here in Nashville,
but he does a lot of events thatare to give thanks back to his
loyal employees, his employeesthat have been there forever and
even just all of his employees.
(38:29):
I know there's a thing everyyear that he does where, at
least I remember I don't know ifhe's been doing it for
consistently, but for many yearsthey would just buy out Costco
and only employees would be ableto, and each employee got a
thousand dollar gift card andthey can just go buy stuff at
Costco.
(38:50):
And that is now, how much couldthat have cost Pretty penny,
right, that's actually a hardcost, unlike what I was just
saying.
But again, if you're talkingabout perks and benefits and
other things, and the reason whythey got that is a thank you
for being part of thisorganization and continuing to
move it forward A thousanddollars is not that much to
(39:10):
spend per employee, you know sointeresting yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
So that's definitely an example, especially if that's
towards the end of the year,like that'd be an example of end
of year generosity.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
And I think it is.
I think it was near Christmastime, like it was holiday time.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
So they go to Costco, do basically a shopping spree
for Christmas or the holidayfeast, food for the big family
gathering.
If you've got a big familygathering, you've got any big
food items.
Yeah, costco is a great placeto get those.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Well, what's interesting to me is that it's
like the warehouse grocery storeyou know, yeah, and I think
what's interesting to me is that.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
So, whatever, your equivalent is in your area.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
It was almost an expectation you were going to be
spending that money, becausehe's given you that card when
you're standing in Costco saying, okay, go, you've got an hour
before the store opens, go shop,you know.
And?
Or however long they gave him.
And so I think that's aninteresting thing, because it
wasn't like he was giving you agift card when you're sitting at
your desk at your office andyou're like, okay, cool, I'll
spend this at some time.
It was like a tangible thingthat happened right then that
(40:20):
you're like and this also, bythe way, him being a big budget
person, this isn't hitting mybudget, this is outside of my
budget, it doesn't affect mybudget at all, because somebody
just handed me this and said gospend it.
And I'd be interested to knowif anybody saved any of that
money and used it over the year,or if they just said, yeah, I'm
going to use this for myChristmas gifts, or whatever
(40:41):
they did, because I'm sure itwasn't required that you spend
it all while you were in therethat day, but Sure, anyway.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Even if they spent it in a way, they had presumably
across one or two bank accounts,right A thousand dollars anyway
.
So whatever they spent atCostco their own money they
didn't have to spend.
So now they have a thousanddollars that they had budgeted,
whatever they spent at Costco orfor Christmas or whatever that
(41:12):
they can then spend or save asthey see fit.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Well, so Go ahead.
I was just going to say there'sanother article that I have
that talks about the benefits ofgiving, and so the other one
was being a grateful brain, butthis one is health benefits of
giving, and it has Looks likefour different things.
(41:39):
It says so.
One of them is greaterself-esteem and satisfaction
with life.
Second is a lower risk ofdepression.
Third is better physical health.
And fourth is a longer life.
And this fourth one we can goback to those other ones too,
but this one hit me because Ihave had some heart issues, as
(41:59):
everyone knows.
I think I don't know if I'vesaid it on the podcast before,
but anyway they did a study of200.
Excuse me of adults with heartdisease who had spent up to 200
hours helping others in theprevious year, and those people
that spent the 200 hours I don'tknow what the how they did the
(42:24):
study or anything said thosepeople that spent the 200 hours
in the previous years were lesslikely to have a heart attack or
die in the following two years.
And then it did say, however,those who spent more than 200
hours didn't get the samebenefit, which might be because
giving more time made peoplemore stressed or tired.
And it says other researchershave found that volunteering one
(42:47):
or two hours a week offersmaximum benefits.
So that would be around twohours a week, would be around
200 hours per year.
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
So there's kind of like you can give too little and
you can give too much.
Right Sort of a middle groundbullseye aspect of it.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Aspect to it.
Well, I think the other kind oflike end of year giving that
comes up, would be Maybe it'sanother fad, I don't know.
It's been around a few years.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
So it was the giving Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
We went from Black Friday that evolved into Cyber
Monday, and now charities areadding to the chain with their
giving Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Well, we're getting last minute end of year
donations to charities in beforethe end of the year so you
might be able to adjust your taxbracket or get some other tax
benefits that I am not an experton.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
Yeah, and I think it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
I would like to know.
I don't know the answer to this, but I would like to know how
many people give for that solepurpose.
No-transcript Sure.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
I feel like, yeah, it's a nudge right.
It's somebody who is kind ofthinking about it like, oh,
there's tax benefits too.
I'm sold now.
Right, it's the last straw thatwas needed to budge people.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Well, and I think the reason why I would want to know
that is just because myinclination and this is going
back to my Not to get too muchinto this subject, but it's
going back to the episode thatit is taxing episode is Because
the premise of the fair tax, orone of the premises, is that
(44:56):
very few people give just forthe purposes of giving a tax
break At least that's not theironly purpose.
For doing so.
They feel like, yeah, I'm goingto get this fringe benefit.
I think I would say, if I hadto guess, that more wealthy
people are doing that type oftax planning.
At least in my experiencedealing with people on the
(45:17):
financial side, people that arevery wealthy have a tax person
that's helping them throughoutthe year.
It's not just somebody thatprepares their taxes in February
or March.
This is somebody who'sconsulting with them over the
previous year in anticipation offiling their taxes the
following year.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Right.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
And not many people have that.
First of all, most people don'titemize their deductions anyway
.
Oh gosh, this is getting to bethe most boring podcast ever,
but most people don't.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Oh no, not yet.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
You're like oh no, we've been here before.
No, but most people don'titemize which.
That's how you're going to getthat right off, and then most
people aren't giving enough forit to really make a huge
difference anyway.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
But I think that's where some of the giving does
come in the roundabout sort ofway or incidental way, isn't?
Speaker 3 (46:14):
it.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Those people who don't make enough to justify
having a tax professional andwho don't make enough to justify
really paying close attentionto their tax profile and bracket
and all that.
They see all the advertisementsof tax-free weekend or the CLE
advertisements for reducer taxes.
(46:40):
Give now.
And they just sort of take iton faith that, oh, I won't have
to pay as much in taxes.
Give to charity.
And then every year they learnthe same lesson like, oh yeah, I
didn't give enough, I'm betteroff just taking the standard
deduction.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
But they still gave, right, they still gave more than
they would have otherwise given.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
That's why they're not paying that tax, because
they were told that they mighthave to pay less on their taxes.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Well, the question that I always ask, on more of a
philosophical level since thisis food and philosophy with
Brian and Nick is-.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
Which eatin' Brian?
Oh sorry.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
If Right, all of a sudden we're back at the
beginning.
If we Mike, the question Ialways ask is if we took that
away, like if tomorrow we thetax code, like we didn't get
what I want, you know, we justleft the tax code as it is but
we just said, yeah, there's nomore write offs for charitable
giving.
What does that do?
(47:39):
I think that people would stopgiving to charities and I think
no, I think absolutely not.
I think people would still give.
I think people are generous atheart.
I think people want to give.
People want to in our area.
People want to support theircauses, and the way they do that
is say, hey, I've got extramoney and I want this cause to
(48:00):
be fought for.
You know, or I want this causeto be defended or I want this
cause to be promoted.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
I don't think anyone's arguing that giving to
charity would just stop.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
I think, and I personally hold, that I think
giving would change.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
If right, either you know, some charities would win,
some charities, many charities,would lose.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Like there's plenty of charities who get more per
year in donations when theyadvertise.
So to speak about givingTuesday and create the demand or
the interest to give more, andso maybe, yeah, they won't stop
(48:46):
getting donations, but theymight get fewer donations.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Well, and I guess to get us back on track a little
bit in terms of the giving part,is, you know, going back to
this, knowing that you're goingto get health benefits and
knowing, based on ourconversation we had in the last
episode, about your mindset whenyou're making these gifts or
when you're being generous.
Right, I feel like that's themore important part than
(49:16):
anything else is, because thetax stuff I mean that it's there
, but the I think the givingTuesday thing, it puts people in
a mindset, it puts people in asort of like.
What I said is, when I saythank you to people that have
volunteered for organizationsthat I deal with, I'm saying
that to remind myself a littlebit and to get myself in a
(49:39):
better mindset, to say, oh,remember, you always have to be
gracious, you always have toexpress gratitude, and you all,
because these people are givingyou know and create that cycle
that we just talked about.
So so I think you know.
I think, that's what, for lackof a better term like look at
the, look at the.
You know the Christmas spirit,you know get in the Christmas
(50:01):
spirit and I know in America wehave a very commercial sense of
Christmas to some extent.
But I think that it is a timewhen you step back and you know
you don't think about yourselfas much, you think about other
people and you think about whatyou're going to give get for
giving to other people, and soit was with what you're saying
(50:25):
reminds me of and how to winfriends and influence people.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Whereas a whole, I don't know.
It felt like maybe at least awhole page, not two or three
pages.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
So in that book, devoted to reprinting something
you know, like an advertisementby a department store that was,
you know, the company justencouraging people to remember
the reason for the season andhow?
You know, yes, this, all theshopping, is stressful for you
(50:57):
and it's also stressful for ourcashiers.
Right, and in the spirit ofgiving like, if you've got any
smiles to spare, please considersharing a few with cashiers.
You know that there's a lot ofstress, there's a lot of hubbub
and a lot of stressed people forthem to interact with, and you
can give them a great gift ifyou just toss a smile their way.
(51:19):
Or a merry Christmas, you know,yeah, and the character phrasing
greatly of course it was muchbetter written by some VP of PR
at that time, it was still agood.
It's a good thought, it's agood sentiment.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Yeah, I think I mean sort of going back to that, the
giving.
It's an interesting thing thatyou touched on.
There is like we're talkingabout giving and sometimes we're
talking about giving gifts, andalso we were talking about
things that you can give thatare, in essence, a gift, but
they don't cost anything.
They're not, you know, like yousaid, a nice.
(51:59):
I tend to try to be like thatwith service people throughout
the year and I find that I getan interesting reaction.
Is just making eye contact,just not being on your phone,
not like being present in themoment?
So I mean, that's a you knowsort of loaded term or whatever,
(52:20):
but you know it is self-helpand self-help circles.
It's like be present with thatperson for a second, I think.
I think making a connection withpeople never goes out of style
and it can be a tiny, tinyconnection and a tiny tiny
interaction with someone thatmakes them feel slightly better
for that day or that makes themfeel like that they haven't gone
(52:44):
through the day and nobody'snoticed them.
I mean it's, and a lot of timesin servers, cashiers and things
like that, it's like, yeah,here's my stuff, here's my money
.
Like, yeah, just move it along,give me my stuff here's, I'll
pay for it.
I want to go like and I feellike probably that's a bunch of
people throughout the day thatare just hey, this is a
transaction, I'm not here tomake friends with you, I'm not
(53:04):
here to be pleasant, I'm here tobuy this stuff and your job is
to sell it to me.
And that's my interaction withyou.
And I found that, like I said,just making eye contact with
someone and asking them howtheir day is going.
I mean, I know cashiers arestuff A lot of times are
required to say how your day isgoing or they're trying to make
conversation.
But if you just stop for asecond and say, how are you, how
(53:26):
are you, is it busy today?
How have you been, you know,and the some of the reaction
that you get is sort of like wow, yeah, it's been okay, like I
mean, I feel like they are alittle bit taken aback by that,
because I don't think everyoneasks those questions, but it's a
little thing you can do.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
I'd like to break the script.
You know, if they cashier asksme how are you doing, you know
it's just part of a.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (53:49):
They were.
They were making fun of me.
I was going to say that, oh goahead, let me finish.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
I'm going to do a quick I might.
I might look at their name tagand you're like I'd be doing a
lot better if my name were Bryceand it just sort of you know,
breaks the script.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
But go ahead I was going to say they were making
fun of me at the at one of myoffices the other day because we
were.
We were talking about howeverybody enters the office,
like when, when people come in,what do they do?
And like so one of the partnersthere, he comes in, he's very
boisterous, he's like just a,he's just like hey guys, how's
everyone doing?
(54:26):
You know, just like over thetop, you know everyone, exactly
yeah.
He's like it's going to be agood Tuesday, let's go.
You know, like, like that youcan hear him throughout the
entire office, you know, and,and we all love him for it.
But the thing is, you know,then they then I was like, well,
wait.
So if he's like, what do I,what am I like?
(54:47):
And they're like, oh, you comein and you're like, hey, how are
you doing?
No, but really, how are youdoing?
No, but how are you doing?
Are you doing okay?
Is everything okay?
Are you good?
You good?
Everything good, like, andthat's total.
it is totally me, I go to eachperson and I'm like no, but
really, how are you doing today?
Like guys are you?
I mean, is it good, are you notgood?
You know?
Speaker 1 (55:06):
it's like it takes you 56 minutes to get to your
desk because of a lot of timesit does, a lot of times it does.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
but I'm like, literally I do.
I do it to remind myself, toslow down a little bit.
You know, like to like I don't.
I feel weird walking intosomeone's office, even if I have
something that I need to talkto them about, because I'm a
nine, I I want to like come inand I don't want to just be like
, hey, yeah, so on that casethat you're working on, I want
to know we need to.
I emailed you about it.
(55:34):
I just want to go straight intoit.
I feel awkward doing that.
So then I have this like howare you doing today?
What's going on?
How was your weekend?
Is everything good with you?
Okay, good.
And then you know, let themtalk for a second, and then then
I go into like, hey, the reasonI came in here is because I
need to talk about X, y or Z,and I don't know, maybe that
just maybe that's for me, maybethat's selfish reasons, because
I need to make myself feelbetter, but I'm hoping that it
(55:56):
makes them feel better too atsome point that they're like
that I do actually care, likeI'm not doing that.
Speaker 1 (56:03):
And again, it has to be genuinely yeah, I think if
you feel it when you say it,you're fine, it's it's asking.
My computer is glitching weird.
Speaker 2 (56:15):
Oh, no, well, you're fine on my end.
I can hear you.
Speaker 1 (56:18):
Okay, good Cause, like screens are shifting.
Like someone's hacking me orsomething Like in the movies.
Yeah, I'm losing video.
Oh, yeah, you're slowing down alittle bit.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
Yeah, you're glitchy a little bit on my end, but I
can still hear you.
Everything looks fine.
Speaker 3 (56:33):
So I don't know, maybe we'll wrap it up for you
soon.
Speaker 1 (56:36):
Yeah, I think I might all that's distractions Maybe
lose my point, oh.
But yeah, I've definitelyworked with people where it's
like they.
I've interacted with themenough such that when they come
to me and say, hey, how are youdoing, I'm like good, what do
you need?
You know, like like it's.
Thank you for asking, but Iknow you're here for something,
(56:59):
let's just get to it.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
You know yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:02):
Cause it's like how's it going?
How's it going, oh, good, good.
Oh hey, by the way, could youdo this for me, like it's yeah,
and I think that yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:15):
Probably good though.
Well, I can see that that wouldbe.
But the thing is, I thinkpeople know that you know.
I think people know if you'recoming in and like, oh, how are
you doing, like they, they knowif you're, and especially people
you're around very often itmight not be like that for a
cashier or something like that,but for somebody who you're
around all the time, you know.
(57:36):
No, but I'm, I really am like Ido care, you know, but
obviously we're at work, sowe're doing work, but at the
same time I do care about howare your weekend was and I do
care about those things.
So anyway, yeah Well, I think Ithink we might have covered it.
Is there anything else youwanted to talk about?
Speaker 1 (57:59):
Um no, you've been very generous, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (58:05):
Well, I will say that on an ending closing note.
I think tomorrow I thinktomorrow is our three year
anniversary of this podcast.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
If I'm not correct, if I'm not mistaken, this
recording, or you're you'resaying, from our published date
uh, from a published date First.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
Actually, I take it back.
The first episode was publishedNovember 5th 2020.
So we passed.
We passed our three year.
We missed our birthday, I knowexactly.
So we've been doing this threeyears and I just want to say
thank you, nick, for being partof this with me, thank you for
always being willing to recordand being a good member to have
(58:46):
a conversation with, and and foreverything else.
Just, I think it's cool thatwe've we've gone this whole time
and, um, you know, we alwaysstill seem to have something to
talk about and have it hang out,you know, and things like that.
Speaker 1 (59:01):
So so, yeah, Thank you for asking me way back when
and thank you for putting me onthe spot to thank you back.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
Yeah, exactly, Exactly yeah no, it's, it's.
Speaker 1 (59:15):
It has been a lot of fun and I fully believe it'll
continue to be a lot of fun.
Yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (59:21):
We just, I think we're into my life, I think
we're currently at 82 episodespublished, so that's a good,
that's a good amount of timetalking, so that's good, all
right.
Well, and also thanks to theaudience for out there.
You listen, uh, even if it'snot on a regular basis.
(59:41):
If you listen, uh, weappreciate it, we appreciate you
.
And also, if you want to emailus too, you can.
You know, definitely email us.
You'll hear that in the outro,but, um, email us and tell us
how we're doing.
You know, email us and give ussuggested topics.
We're what we'd, we'd be morethan happy to run with suggested
topics and things like that, uh, that you want to hear us spout
(01:00:03):
about, because, um, we can'tguarantee, like the?
Uh, the quality of theconversation.
We can, we can only guaranteethe quantity, which is about an
hour per episode.
Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Thank you for the gift of your attention.
Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Right, exactly, all right.
See you guys all in 2024.
I mean here, you'll listen tous in 2024.
All right, geez.
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