Corporate Strategy
Corporate Strategy
162. How to Survive Work Events, Long Meetings, and the Pepsi Flood
We explore survival strategies for uncomfortable workplace situations that everyone faces but no one enjoys discussing. From overcrowded parties to endless meetings, we share practical tips for maintaining your sanity while still appearing engaged and professional.
• Why hiding in the bathroom or retreating into your phone makes things worse
• How to strategically position yourself at networking events by volunteering for useful tasks
• The art of gamification: turning boring meetings into mental challenges
• GROVER: a foolproof conversation framework for painless networking (Grow-up, Relationships, Occupation, Vacation, Eat, Relax)
• The empty glass escape plan: using drink refills as perfect conversation enders
• Why mirroring can keep conversations going with minimal effort
• Finding the sweet spot between showing up and preserving your mental health
• Creating artificial deadlines and time constraints to escape painful situations
Share this episode with anyone who's ever been trapped in a work event wishing they could escape. Your friends will thank you!
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bad knees. My knees are on the way out, so I can't. I can't stand anymore you're making me stand alone.
Speaker 1:Yes, you must stand. Well, I got an x-ray, you know. You know it's the worst. You know it's the worst is when you go to a doctor and they like I need to do all these tests, okay, cool, my knees feel weird. They just feel weird, especially when I stand. So get, I get the x-ray and they're like well, bruce, I've got news for you. I've never seen better knees in my entire life and I'm like well, that's not good. So what's going on down there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you might not have never seen better knees, but still it do hurt. So I love that. Love that about me in general is every time I go to the doctor, they're like, yeah, something's definitely wrong, but it's not with you, Like okay. What does that mean?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's like the worst when you have something going wrong, like you know. You hope it's something easy. You hope it's just like oh, you know I like slightly tore. You know you hope it's something easy. You hope it's just like oh, you know I like slightly tore. You know my meniscus or something like that, like it's, it's something that's so obvious. You're like, okay, we've got a path to recovery here. When you go to a doctor and they say, yeah, you look fine.
Speaker 2:And then you're like I don't feel fine, yeah, it's the worst now you have to go down that fork in the road that says now you're going the specialist route and you're going to have to go to a specialist to figure out what's wrong with you.
Speaker 1:Yep, which I don't want to do, I don't want to do. I actually spent an hour and a half at a specialist today to basically just get another appointment scheduled, which is great. Great, I've had ingrown toenails for like years now, so I'm finally getting them dealt with. Go to get it dealt with today and they're like actually we'd rather do it at a different office. Is that okay with you? I'm like I've only waited an hour and a half, so yeah, no, I guess we're going to do it at a different office then.
Speaker 2:Cool of those things, this is one of those things that you need to make sure and everyone here needs to take in this tip If you have an issue, especially on your feet, get it taken care of right away, because most of the time it only gets worse and it will only take longer to recover. And, unfortunately, if you wait a long time to do something about it and then you have to get surgery or something, you're not going to be walking.
Speaker 1:It's going to suck yes, fortunately mine are not as bad as they used to be. Um, I was able to rebuild my arches, which helped a lot, but still I want it done. I just want to get those things cut, lasered, poisoned, whatever the heck they do, and then never deal with it again because you know, I last week last week I was a conference I'm standing all day. It really starts to burn on the 17th hour on your foot. Just got to get it done, I'm done. Just get it taken care of. Just get it chopped off. Big toes what is it? Garden pruners Just put the big toe in our garden pruner, chop, chop. They cook them.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say you don't need the little, you don't need the garden pruning tool. All you have to do is just have someone bite down, thinking it's a carrot, and that thing's gone.
Speaker 1:Yeah I think that's a lie. I don't think that's true. I think that's a myth we've been told for for decades on. Here's how I know, because I've tried to bite my finger. I'm like I use the same pressure on a carrot on my finger and it was not able to chop off. So no, you've actually done this. Yeah, why have you done this? If someone tells you your finger can be bitten off with the same strength of a carrot, why wouldn't you test it? I mean this is easy science, right? Like, okay, a carrot requires this much pressure. Okay, I mean you could, even you could do it like with your, with your you know your fingers. Basically, I can snap a carrot in half, but I can't snap my finger in half with the same pressure.
Speaker 2:It doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense, I think you're failing to remember one critical fact around this that proves it's true. Yeah, what is that? I want to take you to a place. I want to take you to Mordor. I want to take you to Mordor and I want to take you to the scene where Smeagol bites off Frodo's finger with the ring on it like a carrot.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, no. Do you call that bite like biting? Okay, when you chomp into a carrot they can't see us. We're on camera. But like when you chomp into a carrot, do you open your mouth as wide as humanly possible? Then put the entire strength of your entire body into your jaw muscles to close down on that carrot. Do you require that much strength for a carrot? It depends, it depends. Sméagol went in for a bite. It wasn't just like oh, Sméagol wants to bite a carrot now. No, it's like Homie literally unhinged his jaw to then use all of the force in his mouth to chomp on young Frodo's finger. I agree, I agree, but we Frodo's finger.
Speaker 2:I agree. I agree, but we know it's possible, just depends on how much force you're going to put down.
Speaker 1:Yes, you can bite off a finger, I don't doubt that at all, but I don't believe that the finger has the same density and tooth requirement. You try, he's Clark's trying to right now, cause.
Speaker 2:I don't know, it's scary.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest it's scary I know that's as hard as I buy the carrot. Nothing, you got a little.
Speaker 2:I got a little finger indent for my tooth, I don't believe I got in that I okay we've done the experiment live I. I mean, I I'll be honest, I ate carrots, so I'm really sad because I ate I love carrots today I ate my last carrots. So I can't do a side-by-side comparison with you, because I would do it right now, live on camera, and I can't do it.
Speaker 1:I love me a carrot. You know what my wife's been doing recently. That is great. She will fill a little cup of ranch and then put all of the carrots in the ranch. So like remove them from the bag, put them in the ranch, keep that in the fridge. So then you just grab the little cups and you're just good to go. How great is that.
Speaker 2:Isn't that the smartest thing?
Speaker 1:Yep, crazy, I'm a hummus guy personally. Ooh, you like the hummus? Huh? Oh yeah, I'm a ranch man. I'm a ranch man through and through, because I'm white.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's young cultured. I eat garlic, lemon hummus and it's delicious.
Speaker 1:I do love hummus, but not on a carrot. I'm sorry the things people put on carrots. I just hummus, it's good, I'll eat it. If it's like a restaurant, like it's a good delivery device, but like if I'm having a hummus, I want it on like some pita bread. Like give me, give me something like some pita bread. Like give me something you know starchy with that hummus. The thing I don't get people who do like peanut butter on carrots, active psychopaths like need to be put on a list.
Speaker 1:People dunk in their carrots and peanut butter and they put little raisins on top. They'll do that with celery too, and I'm like you're insane, you need to be put on a list.
Speaker 2:I mean you need to know the actual name Ants on a log. That's what it's called Ants on a log.
Speaker 1:I'm not a celery guy who likes celery.
Speaker 2:Do you like celery? I do.
Speaker 1:It's the worst, but again, celery is a delivery mechanism for ranch and I've already mentioned the whiteness.
Speaker 2:There's these things called straws that you can just use instead to suck up the ranch, if you'd like.
Speaker 1:Straight ranch down the gullet. Give it to me now, chicken wings, if I saw that Buffalo chicken wings Ranch or Buffy blue cheese. Which do you?
Speaker 2:prefer. I'm dying because I'm imagining like in a corporate office. Everyone's carrying their water bottle around, but you walked in with a thing of ranch hidden. Alley, slam it on the table, you start drinking.
Speaker 1:I promise you this If we ever work in an office together again on my first day, I promise you on this podcast I will walk in the office with a bottle of ranch and a straw and I will be slurping and be like, oh hey, clark, how's it?
Speaker 2:going. That's it, I mean you'd be fired immediately.
Speaker 1:It would be like get out. That's a great way to assert dominance. I guarantee you. You walk into an office with a bottle of hidden valley and a straw metal straw, metal straw because you've thought about this, right, like it's one of those metal bent straws. Like this is not. This is not some gag. This is I. I planned on doing this. I brought the straw, I brought the ranch. I know I know what my goal is. It's one of those metal bent straws. Like this is not. This is not some gag. This is I. I planned on doing this. I brought the straw, I brought the ranch. I know, I know what my goal is. You walk in. You're like hey guys, this is going just just drinking some ranch straight face. Serious, the day is long, no one's ever going to mess and they can't fire you. They can't be like oh, bruce drinks ranch. Like what? What are you going to go tell HR? Are you going to go tell HR I drink ranch? Turns out you're the bigot here. You don't know me, you don't know my culture White.
Speaker 2:Clearly white. If you didn't know, we were both white at this point of the show. We are the whitest people around.
Speaker 1:Drinking ranch Metal straw at this point of the show. We are the whitest people around.
Speaker 2:Drinking ranch metal straw. Here we go. Yeah, I'm good on ranch. If you're good on ranch, I do love ranch. I want to go back to something.
Speaker 1:I want to go back to something. Don't do this. I actually missed a great transition. So, speaking of Lord of the Rings, speaking of Lord of the Rings, I was in San Diego last week doing my job. San Diego, I was in San Diego doing my job. I was working a conference and shout outs to some of the listeners of the pod who actually worked the conference with me. You provided us a topic today, but before we get into that, before we get into that, I was on the show floor and one of my jobs I uh, I run trivia in our booth.
Speaker 1:I do it as an activity to rile up the masses, everyone. I try to get as many people as I can show up to the booth and we run through 10 trivia questions and I make the questions. They're pretty difficult, but I threw some softballs in there and the is really just to get leads. We scan everyone who comes and does trivia and the winner walks away with a $500 Lego kit, like legit. That's it. You show up, you play, we do six different rounds of trivia throughout the event and we give away six expensive Lego kits. That's awesome. You would not believe the number of people in my booth watching me do trivia with them.
Speaker 1:I bet I have a picture. I can share it in the Discord if people are interested. I do want to see it. This is all leading up to Lord of the Rings, so I put softball questions in there, mostly just to kind of calibrate people. So they're like oh yeah, I can do this, and then I just rail them with the hardest questions possible, because I don't want everyone raising their hand at the same time, cause then it makes it very hard for me to say, okay, out of the 20 of you, I think you had your hand up first, right, so one softball, nine hard questions. My softball question was what is the name of the character Strider in the Lord of the Rings? That's my softball question.
Speaker 2:Do you know the answer what is the name?
Speaker 1:like the actual person, what is the actual name of the human character who goes by the pseudonym strider in lord oh shoot, are you serious?
Speaker 2:so no, I'll. I mean we talked about this before. I am awful at trivia because I don't remember actor actresses names ever. It's my wife that's good at trivia. If we ever have a contest and there's physical activity or trivia, I'm doing the physical activity.
Speaker 1:Okay, and it has been established. You are not the kind of nerd that just knows nerd facts. But I guarantee you there are people listening to this right now screaming into their podcast delivery device the name of this character. Now would you believe me if I told you at a nerd conference? No less is a tech conference for techie people, nerdy people that know all the nerdy questions. Not a single one of 20 people knew this answer. But, like my fellow employees were looking at me like is this a a joke? Is this a prank? Like how does no one know? They know what a freaking tardigrade is. They know what kind of bark creates aspirin, they knew that one, but they don't know the character Strider's real name from Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 1:And like I was stupefied, like I was getting angry. You could tell I was like getting physically upset, cause I'm like are you guys messing with me? Now? This is a softball question. This is like if you've seen the movies, if you've lived a life, you know this answer is Aragorn. It's Aragorn. What's wrong with you? And then I started giving them hints and like you would not believe the number of people who are like it's Legolas, it's like, no, it's not. It's like no, it's not. Stop saying that it wasn't right the first time, it's not right the fourth time. Like, is it Gimli? I'm like, do you think Gimli would go by the name Strider? Strider, gimli. Like you've named every single, they went Sam Frodo, is it? Is it Gollum? Like, what the hell is wrong with you? People, like 20 people around me, could not get this answer.
Speaker 1:I was. I was gonna die. Like the people who I had, you know, helping me in the booth were looking at me like this is, this is the most insane thing I've ever seen in my life, but it happened. It's a real thing. That happened. No one knew strider was aragorn and it started to make me question my own sanity, like did I get this wrong? Do I not know lord of the rings? And it's like no, it's not me, it's the children that are wrong. Absolutely wild experience. Um, eventually had to give up the hint like he literally becomes king at the end. And they were still like who becomes king at the end of lord of the ring? I'm like did you guys watch these movies? Have you not read the book? Do you not exist in culture like? This is sad, this is really sad, but wow there are half positive point for me.
Speaker 1:I feel validated you sure, should you sure should? There were people far, far nerdier than you ever want to be that were like scratching their head, like it's like a loss, literally. I'm not exaggerating. Four times the name legolas was thrown out and I'm like it wasn't right the first three times.
Speaker 2:Stop saying it well, you got to give me a hard one. What was one of your hard trivia questions? If you remember any other?
Speaker 1:oh, that was a song. Oh, what was a hard I'm gonna get it wrong I'm not.
Speaker 2:I'm not volunteering to answer this. I just want the people to know what was the native american tribe?
Speaker 1:uh, that was that their language was based on the code used in World War One, the code talking for World War One. Oh, I don't know, and it's really hard because everyone knows well, not everyone, but most people know world war ii, which, I'll tell you, was navajo. Can everyone look? It's navajo? It's like no, still not navajo. Uh, world war one was different. That's a hard, I would never know.
Speaker 2:Do you want to give me the people or no?
Speaker 1:yeah, I'll give the answer. It's, it's choc-ta, just in case you're ever in that uh situation where you need to answer that question. I make it hard for a reason I don't want everyone raising their hand like I want. I want the one smart guy to get it and win the lego kit. But yeah, yeah, it's fun. I have over 100 questions now. It's great. Wow, it's a good time.
Speaker 2:I enjoy doing it yeah, that makes the whole entire conference thing fun because it's there's so many things where it's like, okay, I get a little squishy thing from your company and you try to do a sales pitch on the floor, like nobody wants that Nobody. Yeah, I can see, I can see your squishy thing over there. But you did something fun. You gave out a real prize, you did something engaging. You probably got a ton of engagement from the crowd and that's how you bring true interested people to your booth.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you a story since, since you seem vaguely interested in this. Um, this actually started I at my previous job, big corp. We we both worked at together we were doing a conference uh, it was cube con and it was our first time doing it and I actually had to run this entire show. Like I basically said, our events team doesn't know what they're doing. I'm going to do it, I'm going to prove them wrong, and I regret ever saying that, but I did. We managed to show up, have our booth do all the things, but I could not get engagement in our booth. Like, no matter what we did, I couldn't get engagement Like we're doing presentations and whatnot. It wasn't working.
Speaker 1:So, literally on the second day, I thought, well, what if I just build a quick little slide deck of some trivia questions and you know we give away some of our more high end swag to the people that participate and you would not believe the number of people Like if I just say we're doing trivia in five minutes, we're giving this stuff away. You want to sit and wait, wait around, like 30 people, just instant change to the booth dynamic and that was like real time. I like trivia. I wonder if other people do too. I'll put together something real quick, put it up on the screen, we'll do it.
Speaker 1:And then it was like people came to like we got it, we have to do this every hour, like I'll get more questions. I guess, uh and I brought that with me to my new job basically, basically, they're like, what kind of draw can we do? And I said, well, I've done trivia in the past and it works really well. And guess what Deal does? So we just do it because it works. But yeah, don't let your dreams be dreams. Do trivia. I love it, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Did you see any other activities going on that were of equal interest, or no? Sometimes, like, raffles are fun, fun. It's like everybody pulls a raffle ticket. You're like we're doing the drawing at 2 30, we're spinning the lottery balls and whatever number we draw, I've done raffles in the past and I don't want to ruin the illusion for you, but I will.
Speaker 1:Usually we pick the winner. Uh, just so you know. Uh, if, like, if I give you a ticket and I find like, oh, this is a potential buyer of our product, like they're, they're about to spend millions on us. Like, oh, what a weird coincidence. Their tickets, the one we pull, definitely have done that in the past. Sometimes, we're honest, I've done it both ways where it's been like, completely honest, pull the ticket, read the number oh nobody. Okay, let's get the next one.
Speaker 2:Oh, nobody, the number, oh nobody okay, let's get the next one, oh nobody.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're gonna do this for 20 minutes, and that's. That's part of the reason why it's good to pick a winner is yeah generally.
Speaker 1:You know, if you're like over there, okay, let's do the real ticket now. Yeah, um, raffles are good. I think trivia is the best because it's engaging right. Yeah, everyone is involved with the activity. We've done vr booths in the past. That was okay. We've done Tetris competitions. That was one of my ideas. That I don't think turned out so well is what ended up happening was we got a few initial people excited to play, but then the same two people just coming to our booth back and forth, back and forth, trying to outscore each other, which is good if you want people in your booth all day, but it's not good if you actually want people to try to compete.
Speaker 2:That's interesting One that I think would be kind of cool is almost like a BattleBot Royale. It's like everybody with the little finger bots so you tap the things, you try to punch the head up. What's the name of it? Rock'em, sock'em Robots. How sick would a tournament like that be, where you have it right in the center of your booth, you're like, hey, everybody, make sure you get your names in and you have what 30, 40 people that can go in, and then you just have a tournament, everyone's gathering around and be like, let's go.
Speaker 1:I wanted to do a Street Fighter tournament and basically, if you beat me, uh, we'll give you some some cool swag kind of thing. Like I thought that'd be fun. Rock and sock and robots is a great idea, though, because it's so, it's. It's such a cool physical object like I thought the, uh, the hoops, you know the arcade hoop game, basketball, I mean, it's not, it's not bad, you know. You know what I'm talking about, but like, I thought that would be a really good one if you do a high score challenge on that. Only problem is the noise.
Speaker 1:A lot of times there's uh yeah they'll yell at you, they'll be like you're too loud, gotta quiet down.
Speaker 2:Which yeah, it's like the problem with vr and even like to your point, even like the street fighter. It's like only so many people can participate and it's it's like on a screen, so it's like it doesn't feel as engaging the rockck'em Robots. You set up a battle booth. That'd be pretty sweet.
Speaker 1:We should do it. When we start our own company. We'll do Rock'em, sock'em Robots one year and the next year we'll do Beyblades. We'll get a big metal bin. Have you seen the gears? Where they actually light on fire. Yeah, we'll do that, that'd be cool.
Speaker 2:Sounds like a plan.
Speaker 1:And then whoever loses has to cut off their pinky.
Speaker 2:Yes, pinky gone. Actually, you have to bite it off like a carrot, like a carrot, oh, and that's all we got for you today, folks. Great podcast Hope you enjoyed.
Speaker 1:We didn't even do an intro. It's too late now. 21 minutes. Welcome back to Corporate Strategy, the podcast. That could have been an email.
Speaker 2:I'm Bruce, I'm Cork and I'm still blown away. Like I talked about, what is the point where it's inappropriate? This felt inappropriate, this is it. I'm sorry this actually feels dirty.
Speaker 1:I feel bad about this one. That's why I said 21 minutes, because I'm going to have to edit this in and I don't want to look for it.
Speaker 2:Yep, good call, good call, so that's it Good episode Clark Great job. You want to shout out to our sponsors real quick before we close. Close, let's do it. Bayblade, let it rip that's it.
Speaker 1:That's, that's the show. So, okay, cool, we will. We'll skip vibe check. We're 21 minutes in. The vibes are non-existent.
Speaker 1:Today I was at this conference, by the way, doing lord of the rings trivia, and one of our listeners told me you should do a podcast about this. What was this, you might ask? Well, we had hosted a party and we invited a lot of different people to come to this party and I was in a room that you know, bigger than any normal sized mcdonald's uh, that had like 200 something people crammed in there, with music blasting, alcohol flowing, and I'd never felt so uncomfortable in my life. And he said you should do an episode about, like, how to deal with this. Cause it's my job to be there, right, like I can't opt out of this. But like there comes a point where no party is fun because it's just so cramped and I love that idea because it's not just the party. How do you deal with work situations that you hate? Right, like you're an introvert, this is uncomfortable, you're in a meeting that just won't end. Like, how do you mentally, will yourself through the discomforting situation and come out stronger at the other end?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's tough, I mean every job is going to be something that you hate. And, unfortunately, what you're saying is and I think these are the types of scenarios there are things you have to do. There is no opt-out, there is no realigning to not be involved in doing the thing you hate anymore. It's like this is something I got to do. Here we go and like how do you make the most of that situation?
Speaker 1:How do you bite down mentally and survive? I'll tell you what I did at this party One old fashions help. They really do. They really do.
Speaker 2:I was going to say you like old fashions, help, they really do, they really do. I was going to say you like old fashions, so I would start with a few old fashions, just because that'll loosen you up a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like 10 or 20, I think does the job. In all seriousness, please drink responsibly. I think I had like one the entire time. For me it was make sure that the people because we throw this party on to obviously attract new customers to treat existing customers well, make them feel like our brand matters, our product matters, as long as they're having a good time. I don't need to really do anything, so I would walk around, you know, talk to a few people that I knew, make sure they're happy, and then I kind of went to the front and just watched the door right, Like for me it was very much a the closer I can get to not being in this room. This loud, hot, sweaty person filled room. If I need to go, stand outside and help you know people coming in, going out and making sure they're they're supposed to be here. That's going to be my job. But basically I took the path of least resistance. It's like how do I make the situation as bearable as possible for me? So I put myself in that place to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think that that was one thing I was thinking of is, if you can't hide, put yourself in a place that'll be like the least miserable in the situation. Like if it's a loud concert room like I got a schmooze a little bit, whatever, and there have a band or a comedian on stage or whatever. It's like just float to the back and just like be there, but not really be there. You mean, you know what I mean. Like don't be in the middle of it, just get to the edges. That'll help. Or another option is just go to the bathroom and hide, but you probably need to be seen. That's the. That's the downside.
Speaker 1:Well, I think I think that's the mistake a lot of people make is they will either they'll go hide in a spot where they're no longer visible or they'll retreat into their technology, like I'll just pull up my laptop. I hate this meeting. I'm just gonna pull up my laptop and do some email. I'll use my phone. That's the thing is like. Retreating into comfort can often look worse than not being there at all. Right, because it's like, oh, they're not engaged, they're doing something else right now. Why are they even here, right, like? I think that's something people don't realize is, if you're not there, people aren't thinking about you. But if you are there and you look miserable, people are like, oh, what's wrong with this person?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Hiding is the worst thing you can do. I think in those situations where you need to be present and to your point, like getting on your computer or being on your phone, the whole time looks even worse. It's like you're there and then everyone's like you're there and then everyone's like this person's just being forced to do this. They should have never come in the first place. Worst thing to do.
Speaker 2:I think something you said is interesting like make yourself useful. Like find something. Like if you're like, oh man, this is gonna suck, but look around you and be like, oh, people are having trouble. Like getting in, let me just like go over there and act like I'm helping. And like giving people high fives when they come in, because then it makes you look like a hero. It's like bruce is getting pumped up at the door. He's letting everybody in. That was a bottleneck before. Like he's the man, he's doing everything we need him to do right now. And then you're visible to everybody because they're walking. It's like great, go grab yourself a drink at the front. Like you're dodging the small talk, cause you can be like, yeah, bring them on in, get the next person in, and you're kind of ignoring everyone else and pushing them to go do the activity, kind of genius it is, and I feel like that is gamification.
Speaker 1:Right, like what you are doing. You are gamifying something that you would otherwise not enjoy, like I know a lot of people they'll have to. They're forced to go to various sales kickoffs and sitting through some of these kickoff conversation or, like you know, speeches, whatever can be just grueling right, like, if you're a technical person, you're just like this is boring, I want to get to the good stuff. Or maybe you're just like I'm, I'm done, I can't wait to get to the party or whatever. Gamify the experience.
Speaker 1:So, like, one thing I like to do if I'm in a meeting or any kind of presentation that I just find absolutely abysmal is do a counter right, like count the filler words that person use, uh, count the number of times they say the product. Like, just make it somewhat interactive. Like take notes, but like no one knows notes you're writing. If you're like putting a little tally list together, it's like, oh, I don't know what Bruce is doing, but he's engaged in this. Like you can do that and that makes it a little more fun for your brain helps you engage and it makes it look like you want to be there versus how you actually feel, which is screaming on the inside.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah. If you're in one of those situations like what you don't want to do is multitask Because. If one of those situations like what you don't want to do is multitask, because if you're like multitasking, not paying attention, it's the same as like disappearing you'll get caught.
Speaker 2:Everyone knows you're just yeah you're gonna get caught, you're not engaged like it's not going to be a good look. Gamifying is a great way to trick your trick your brain to pay attention, while also doing something that's somewhat interesting. I also do a trick, and maybe this is too. This is too much. You tell me what you think. I try to think. How do I be the devil's advocate in the room?
Speaker 1:It's a fun game for me.
Speaker 2:It's a fun game for me because I'm like what are they missing? Let me have some fun Cause. I know I'm like this is not a valuable conversation, but I have to be here. I'm like how can I be a little provocative?
Speaker 1:but drive a point home. That could be kind of fun. You are the antithesis of me. So what I like to do in meeting situations where I'm like I want to get this over with is how do I find the agreement between myself and the person who's holding us hostage? So if it's a product manager who sucks at their job and they're just like not letting us get through the thing, like okay, what ground am I willing to give up to get this over with? Like how can I get through this conversation quicker so I can get off this call? Meanwhile, little Clark over here is like how do we make this worse for everybody in the room?
Speaker 2:Like how do we drag this to?
Speaker 1:absolute hell and back. You're drawing it out, I'm drawn to a close. I think both are appropriate, actually, like I have no problem with either of those because you've got to do what's right for you. Right Like, if your brain, if that scratches your brain and makes the process bearable, do it. But just realize someone else in that room is going to fight you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. It's interesting because it's like I would only do this in a meeting. That I just don't think is valuable. But I have to be there. So I'm like, are we going to make this entertaining and potentially valuable? And so I try to like poke at those points. But to your point also, another way to do it is just try to not engage in the conversation and just be agreeable. It's like good, but I think because of it's not the pareto principle, but whatever law it is, it's like whatever, whatever activity you're doing is going to fill the time allowed. So if it's an hour-long meeting, it's going to be an hour. Doesn't need to be an hour? No, but most likely if you're stuck there, it's going to be an hour. So how do you make the most of it?
Speaker 1:pro tip schedule meetings that are 15 minutes shorter than what you think they need to be, and then always say if we need to run the meeting long, we can do it. We can do the whole 30, but I think we can knock this out in 15, just a little bit anyways, I literally did that.
Speaker 2:I did that with a meeting this week. I had a one on one and they scheduled 30 minutes. I'm like we only need 30 minutes. Make it 15.
Speaker 1:And did it go 15? It's easier that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was great. I was like okay, I don't want to get to the point where I'm asking about your children's occupation anymore. I'm not interested in that no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Any finger related injuries, perhaps Tooth marks, need to know for a friend. I like this. How many digits do you have, and why is that one a shade of orange?
Speaker 2:Let's count together One, two, three you have, and why is that one a shade of orange? Let's count what I like about one, two I think, sorry, the point.
Speaker 1:the point is you can prepare for these things too, because you know, you know when your jelly is, when it's going to be bad, like you're like, oh, this is going to be one of those, it's gonna be one of those parties, it's gonna be one of those events, it's to be one of those, can be one of those parties, it's going to be one of those events, that's going to be one of those meetings, whatever it is. You know, so you can mentally prepare and say, okay, can I shorten this? Is there anything I can do in preparation that can make this more brief than it is? Schedule it, agenda it, stick to you know your questions, get to an agreement and get out when you don't have control. Bring the gamification right, play the little brain activities, stay engaged, but don't feel like you need to be 100% in, especially if you know better. You know you.
Speaker 1:But I think one other thing too is there's a little bit of clever manipulation that can occur right, like if, say, you had a conversation with someone and they're like we need to schedule a follow up, and you look at your calendar and you're like, oh shoot, I've got that two and a half hour training tomorrow, or I can schedule this meeting right in the middle of that training. Sorry guys, I have to bail. I have a really important conversation with one of our customers. It's the only time they can make it. Are they going to ask the customer is this the only time that you could really make this call? No, they're going to be like. Thanks, bruce, for going off and taking care of this problem. We totally understand. You can always watch the training replay afterwards. Efficient scheduling or effective I should say effective scheduling of other things can save you. Now, I would never say that I've done this just because people who listen know me and I don't want them to know if I've effectively scheduled them or not, but it's a route you could take Strategic scheduling.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying no one's going to be the wiser yeah.
Speaker 2:All right, I've got a managerial tip for you. If you know your whole entire team is going to be succumbed to this situation, take the brunt of it for your team. Yeah, guys, listen, you guys just go do whatever. This isn't going to be valuable, but someone has to be there. I'll be there and I'll let them know. You guys are on you. You got pulled into a high priority fire like, like, take one for the team is what I do. All the time I'm like don't attend this, I got it.
Speaker 1:I mean, as Bruce says, if I suffer, so shall the masses. We're going, we're going in together.
Speaker 2:I love these tips, I, you know. It kind of makes me think of like like your situation there. There's all the meeting situations and there's town halls and whatever quarterly reviews that like everyone has to go to and it kind of sucks. Networking is also a necessary evil in your career. Yeah, and your question kind of made me think of like should we dovetail this into how do you effectively network as well? And something you made me think of is, like from the gamification standpoint, it's like okay, I am an introvert, I hate networking. It's not fun.
Speaker 2:One use all the things we just talked about. If you drink, you know, get a little loose, drink a little bit, gamify it. Make it a point to say I'm going to meet 20 people tonight and I'm going to learn where their hometown is, like making a game for yourself, a challenge to Be like I'm going to hit 20. So you get a little loose, you hop in there and you're like I've got a mission. I'm learning 20 people's names, where they grew up, and like then you're going to be walking around introducing yourself, you're going to be asking questions about them, which automatically makes you look good and hopefully it makes the night go faster because you have a mission to do.
Speaker 1:One more tip on top of that, because I love that If it is an event that has alcohol or just drinks in general. So let's say you're going around oh hi, nice to meet you, clark. My name's Bruce. Oh, cool, all right. What's your hometown? Oh, mars, nice, awesome, that's great. Well, my drink's empty. Do you want something? Oh, your drink's full. Okay, well, I'm going to go get a drink. Bye, and what you don't do is you don't refill your drink and then you go meet the next person Genius.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got to get a refill, man. I got to top up and then you just walk away. That's a genius idea.
Speaker 1:They're not going to pay attention to you. You're gone, you're out of. I'm going to make sure Bruce goes and gets his refill. He seemed real sus about that drink. It's like no, no one's thinking about that.
Speaker 2:If they do, it was a crap. Somebody might say, hey, it looks like you haven't filled up that drink yet. It's like, oh yeah, I got stopped along the way.
Speaker 1:I'll make it over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah or I'm really thirsty, I'm thirsty, I'm a borderline alcoholic I've got a pro tip for you networking wise to make you feel like the best person in the room. It's low effort and it's a good thing, like a good mnemonic or a acronym to remember in these networking situations. Acronym to remember in these networking situations it's Grover, g-r-o-v-e-r. The blue monster. Where did you grow up? Oh cool. Do you still have family there? What do you do for work? Tell me more about your role. Where do you vacation? What's your favorite food? How do you like to relax? Literally, those questions could carry a conversation for two hours. Grow up occupation. We're going to go through it together. Grow up relationships. Grow up Occupation. Grow up relationships, occupation, occupation V, which is vacation, e, which is eat, and then R, which is relax, and if you can just remember Grover, you can get through any networking conversation. I love that.
Speaker 1:That's great. I actually remember that We've talked about this before. But I like to find weird things and consume nuance and unique media. So I always go right into like, oh, I've seen any good movies. And the worst is when someone's like I don't watch movies. I'm like, oh, have you read any good books? I don't read. Oh, I didn't watch movies. Like, oh, you read any good books? I don't read.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't realize I was talking to a sociopath. Like, I'm sorry, what do you do in your life? Oh, I mostly like to go out and look at leaves on the paths of hiking trails I walk. I'm like, oh well, hope you die so I never have to speak to you again. But it's good, I'm going to use Grover moving forward, because I have found myself in that situation where me and the person I'm trying to network with have nothing, nothing in common and I truly don't understand how the human brain can choose not to engage with books, movies, music, video games or other media in this modern world we live in. But those freaks are out there. They are.
Speaker 1:And they're not listening to this podcast because they wouldn't. I'm just telling you they wouldn't.
Speaker 2:That's the best thing about Grover is like every single one of those things everyone has and everyone's done.
Speaker 1:Everyone has grown up.
Speaker 2:You have a relationship because you're here, you have a mom and dad or something. At least you somehow made it on this earth.
Speaker 1:Well, relationship if you're at a work event can be like, oh, you know, who else do you know here? Right, it doesn't have to be your immediate relationship. It can be like, oh, what's your? How did you find out about this event? Like, what's your relationship to Jeff who's hosting this thing? Right, like I like relationship because it's an easy in. It's not just familial, it's the, it's locational yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then occupation you're here, you obviously have a job, you do something. And then the vacation like hopefully you vacation, even if you don't just move to like what's your favorite food, what do you like to eat? Like what's a good meal for you. And then the relax it's like everyone does something outside of work. Like you do something. Tell me what that something is. So all those things are so related. I heard this on a podcast. I heard it. I'm like holy cow, this is amazing because everybody does these things. So you can easily have a 10 minute conversation and learn a lot about the person. And it looks incredible for you because you just asked them everything about them and seem super interested in that.
Speaker 1:I will also mention this, just because I had to sit through an eight hour training on it, but it does work. I don't like personally, but like if you, if you need this as a crutch, use it. There's a, there's a technique called mirroring mirroring we'll do it. Well, do you know how to?
Speaker 2:do it clark. I mean I I'm not ready to role play with you if that's what you're talking about. But yeah, pick a truck role play with me. Yeah, yeah, you know, like when we do the same mannerisms they can't see us. So this is not really in the mark, but yeah yeah, yeah, role playing with you right now.
Speaker 1:So I I just mirrored Clark, cause he said roleplay with you and I just said roleplay with you, question mark, and that got him to respond to me with more words. And that's the entire trick. All you do is you pull something from the final part of what the person's saying usually the noun and you repeat it back to them as a question, and you would be surprised how long conversations can go, because humans like to talk about themselves by doing that. I hate it. It's a great sales technique. If you try it on me, I will punch you in the mouth, but it does work on like 99% of the population, so I mean I could totally imagine you walk someone and you're like okay, what do you do for work?
Speaker 2:And they're like oh, I'm a data scientist. You can literally say data scientist, data scientist, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no, I like to crunch numbers all day. It's a. You know I like to crunch numbers all day, it's you know, I went to school for it and it was. It became a passion of mine School for it. Oh yeah yeah, I went to like literally it goes on forever. And the crazy thing is you think it doesn't work, but I've seen it work. It works.
Speaker 1:So many people will fall for the mirror and then you can throw in what's called a label. You can learn all of this from, like Chris Voss's hostage terrorist negotiation training. You can do what's called a label. So, oh, maybe I've mirrored you 17 times and you're starting to catch on to what I'm saying. So then you can just say, oh, do you seem like a really intelligent person? And they'll be like, yeah, I am a really intelligent person. You know what I love to do is. And then you just get them on. The next thing Labeling is just, you seem like something based on what they said. It's great Like humans are so manipulatable. So if you are an introvert and you hate all of this, use these as weapons against the extroverts, because they fall for it. They're so excited to talk about themselves. They'll never stop giving the opportunity A hundred percent these are great tips.
Speaker 2:I like that. I like that because there's definitely also times where it's like I'm tired and I don't want to have to be thinking about like how to be interested in you and these are great topics to go to go are great tools to use in those situations, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:I think most of the problems we deal with when it comes to events and uncomfortable situations is people, so knowing how to work people very important skill yeah, absolutely bet you didn't think, 21 minutes into this podcast about biting off fingers that taste like carrots would be giving you a banger tips like this, did you?
Speaker 2:that's what I always wonder. I want like a first-time reaction to someone that actually listens to it all the way through. And in the, the beginning they're like what in the? And then by the end they're like oh yeah, yeah, it's pretty good.
Speaker 1:It's kind of helpful. It's kind of helpful. I almost stopped in there talking about Gollum unhinging his job. You know, here we are.
Speaker 2:Here we are learning about Grover and I'm going to use networking event.
Speaker 1:Grover is great. I love that. I love that. Thank you, clark, always producing the good tips, always.
Speaker 2:That's why we do a podcast together.
Speaker 1:I mean I stole everything we've talked about today, you know literally everything.
Speaker 2:Wait, even Gollum unhinging his jaw to bite off a finger like a carrot.
Speaker 1:The glass thing I actually that's mine. I mean, someone might've thought of that before, but, as as someone who hates talking to people for extended periods of time, having an empty glass is such a good one. Hand motions and techniques, it's just. It's a good tool to have for people who have nervous energy, like I do. But second, oh, it's empty. I'm thirsty. I need more good talking with you. Maybe I'll see you later. I'm going to go get a refill. Yep, I love it. Audi, audi 9000. Speaking of which, clark, my glass is empty, so I think we should get at it.
Speaker 2:I think so. I'm so low, I think you need to drag this on while I finish my drink.
Speaker 1:I need to go get a refill, so I'll see you later. Well done.
Speaker 2:Well done Plan E Well done, well done. Plan E Exit the conversation Comes in in so many ways. Plan E Legendary.
Speaker 1:You need a plan E for just anything. In general, that empty glass, it's the best planning there ever was. I think it's. Do you have anything else? No, I'm good.
Speaker 2:I'm good. If you're good, oh good.
Speaker 1:Great, great, yeah, fantastic. Uh, we have no memes.
Speaker 2:Wait do we Are you serious?
Speaker 1:Pepsi fruit juice. Pepsi fruit juice flood. Uh, hold on. This is the what do you mean channel.
Speaker 2:But this is a real thing. Hold on.
Speaker 1:You know as fans of a certain individual named pepsi man, I have to. The pepsi fruit juice flood was a flood of seven 176 000 barrels, 28 million liters of fruit, vegetable juices, into the streets of lebanon lebanon lebanon, it's in russia. R Russia and the Don. I mean Russia, hold on. So like wait. It's kind of weird when you list a place I've never heard of than Russia, one of the biggest countries on the planet, and the Don River, caused by the collapse of a PepsiCo warehouse. Yes, what do you mean?
Speaker 2:This is crazy, hey two minor injuries. I want to know what those injuries are. The only major concern is it could have damaged the aquatic ecosystem of the Don River, but the water sample showed no evidence of environmental damage Good news.
Speaker 1:I mean I can't imagine what Pepsi does when I just drank one of them to my economic system. So like 28 million liters in the water, I'm sure those fish are like diabetic now.
Speaker 2:Well, remember, it wasn't PepsiCo. Pepsi, it was fruit and vegetable juices.
Speaker 1:I didn't realize. Pepsi produced fruit and vegetable juices, which is also a concerning fact that we're learning from individual contributors. What do you mean?
Speaker 2:I mean, you would think this is like way back when 2017, this wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 1:Why did we not hear about the Pepsi flood?
Speaker 2:How did how did individual contributor find this? Why are we just freaking out about this? I have so many more questions.
Speaker 1:Uh, for the for the first time, listeners usually in what do you mean? We, we, we ask people to post a meme that summarizes the previous episode. Uh, this time individual contributor has literally hit us with the most fascinating wikipedia article of all time about the pepsi fruit juice.
Speaker 2:I am opening google maps, okay, the location real talk.
Speaker 1:You're at the site of the pepsi fruit juice flood clark. I know you're an avid kayaker. Do you bust out the kayak? Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, you talked about a vehicle to deliver ranch. This is a vehicle to enjoy vegetable and fruit juice.
Speaker 1:How sticky do you think that ore is, like you kind of? I mean shove that thing, I think it's liquid going into like syrup. I mean it's liquid, yeah, but I think it's still sticky.
Speaker 2:I thought you meant sticky as in once you leave that body of liquid like you're sticky for life, like the fruit and vegetable juices. It never leaves those crevices?
Speaker 1:No, never. I mean like, I'm just thinking like when you, when you shove an ore into any kind of liquid, there's a little bit of splash on you, like your arms. You know how. You know, sometimes, when you like you drop a soda or something in the kitchen and you get that little spray on you and then for the rest of the day if you, if you touch your arm, it's like, oh yeah, feel sticky, like that's you for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2:if you're at the pepsi juice flood of 2017 I think what's important to note here is and we haven't even brought this up everything you're saying is we don't know what the what the weather is like this time of year. It happened in april. I just looked it up live report liberty in russia. Right now it's a cold, 42 degrees as a high.
Speaker 2:So it wouldn't be frozen yeah, 42 fahrenheit, yep, so it wouldn't be frozen. Right now it's relatively humid 92 humidity so, yeah, you're swimming in fruit juice. But imagine when that, when that evaporates and you're left with just stick. How do you de-stickify a?
Speaker 1:town, you don't? I think the town is now, you know how, when you boil something sweet and that little leather, that sticky leather, is left, that's that now, this is the origin story of Candyland Genius. Yeah, we just, I think we just made a movie. I think we just, I think we just made a brand new movie. I'm going to go, we'll call it Michael Bay after this. Hey, mr Bay, I've got an idea for you.
Speaker 2:You know the children's board game Candyland.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you about the Pepsi fruit juice flood of 2017. Now we get there. There's no video of this, is there?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I'm doing a ton of research in this very moment because I have so many questions. What does this town look like?
Speaker 1:This is why we should never, ever, just click on a channel in the middle of an episode.
Speaker 2:Like we need to we need to confirm beforehand. Yes, I'm going down there rabbit hole this this is bad.
Speaker 1:I mean, are there pictures? Are there pictures? I need to know Of the actual flood?
Speaker 2:No, it does look like a very cool.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, there are no, there's not Holy crap. Look at this. You got to share the screen. I got to see this. I'm just going to post it in this channel. Look at that. Oh my gosh, those are the leather strips. Look at that. It's literally like the leather fruit jerky strips lining the sidewalks and gutters of this. It's a quite nice little town.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's got great architecture, Looks very peaceful, and look at those rivers.
Speaker 1:This is amazing. This is absolutely insane. This is absolutely insane, this is wild. I'm so happy this is happening right now. Look at that car, the car's just, I mean firstly, old move to drive a car down that because you're never, ever going to be able to get out of the way.
Speaker 2:Oh the ants, animals, bugs. This is how you have persons walking through it, I know.
Speaker 1:Bold, brave Oldugs. Oh my, this is how you have Persons walking through it. I know Bold, brave, old, brave human beings. Can you imagine how many ants, like just trillions of ants? After this is done, the hills, I mean the area itself could probably be lifted up and walk away with how many ants they're going to be. A hundred percent be lifted up and walk away with how many ants they're going to be. 100 just arriving on the fruit nectar juice sticky residue of this incident, you know what's absolutely not true, that there were no environmental damages from this like there's no, absolutely this is
Speaker 2:absolutely not true like, the more we talk about this and think about the logistics of having to clean this up and the environmental changes or animals that coming out and bugs and other things that just ingested. How much sugar is in this? This is very bad for the environment terrible for the environment.
Speaker 1:I mean, I just posted one more picture in the what do you? Meme channel the appropriate channel for this conversation and all of this of the actual factory and how it exploded like there's no way. This is terrible. This is not good. We shouldn't have this many million gallons of pepsi fruit juice just on hand in any one location.
Speaker 2:This should not happen that there's red puddles all over the parking lot. This is incredible.
Speaker 1:I'm genuinely fascinated by all of this. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Well, this was fun.
Speaker 1:This was fun. Thanks for the meme. Individual contributor. I mean, I don't know if it's a meme, but you know we appreciate it nonetheless. As always, you're one of our faves. If you want to play, what Do you Meme? All you got to do go in. What do you mean? Channel in our discord? Oh, how do you get to the discord, you ask. You're so curious. You're so curious. Hey, listener, how do you get into the discord? Clark?
Speaker 2:Well, there's so many have to do is scroll down. That's it. Open up your device, Scroll down. There will be a link tree. It looks like a tree and it looks like a link. And you click on the link tree and it will open up and it will tell you everything you can do. You can join the Discord with one click. You can submit a podcast topic there. You can do so many fun things like what do you mean inside a Discord channel? And with our Linktree you can also access our website where you can also submit a podcast topic, and you can also buy a baby onesie. What can't you do with the Linktree?
Speaker 1:Well, instructions unclear. I scrolled so far. I'm now listening to the first episode of Corporate Strategy, the episode that could have been an email. Thanks, Clark, I scrolled too far, I scrolled way too far. You know what I'm going to re-listen to all 160 episodes, why not? I'm going to binge them.
Speaker 1:You know what you can't do on the link tree. What's that? You can't share it with your friend. Actually, you could share it with your friend. What you can't really do is you can't share the podcast with your friends, which is what we want you to do. We don't ask for much. We've asked for money and you didn't give us any. We asked for friendship and, well, we tried. But what you could do is you could share this episode with your loved ones, friends, family, neighbors, enemies if you didn't think it was very good, but sharing is truly how we grow. We would love to get more people in the discord. We'd love to grow the grow. We would love to get more people in the Discord. We'd love to grow the community. We'd love to have more listeners and we have a goal for this year, which I think was 15,000. What?
Speaker 2:was the goal. I think it was 10,000.
Speaker 1:We'll have to re-listen to the episode.
Speaker 2:We're off track.
Speaker 1:We are not hitting that number, so there's no risk of us having to buy the Discord at the time. Baby onesies, so it's really not a problem. But if you want to make it a problem, share it with your friends. Truly, how we grow, we are completely word of mouth based. Sure, say it with your mouth, say it with your mouth, say it with your mind and share it with your friends. I think that's all we got this week. Give us your memes, join the Discord, support us, share us. We love you. Remember, if you are in a factory with 7.8 million gallons of sticky juice, check them pressure gauges. I'm Bruce.
Speaker 2:And I'm Clark. Please don't flood my town.
Speaker 1:You're on mute. The Pepsi's coming for you. We'll see you next week.
