How To Appear Smart in Meetings PART 2 (based on the book)

Join Josh and Arika as the discover the secret world of cushy jobs and how you Appear Smart in Meetings.  

Transcript

00:05
Can I get a,  can we all just for clarification, can we get a  kind of a summary? Yes, thank you for thinking Yes, because you know, I'm not confused, but I just want everyone else to be on the same page. Right, Lisa. Including,  know. Yeah. You got water, so you kind of missed out a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So I want everyone to be on the same page. Okay. Okay.  So let's see here. Thank you for, thank you for.

00:32
asking this question for everyone. It's one of those things where you know that everyone in the room is thinking it, but you finally said it. Exactly. Yeah. I looked around the room and I felt that. So I just wanted to put that out there. Yeah. Yeah. And I was actually wondering, could Rachel, could you actually write this down? Because this is going to be like, you know, right at the end of the memo that I'm going to send to everyone else. So right. Todd, could you write the memo as well? In summary,

01:02
Endeavor  is  an important word to this company  as is unity  and we do need to be making sure that we keep both of those in our back pockets  as we progress forward from point A to point B  or at symbol.  No one knows.  It could be anyone.  Number two  at symbol  or point B.

01:30
But no matter what, we don't want to be at point A.  And we don't want  to be  an A.  We all want to be B's.  Or number 2's.  Or at signs.  Okay, that's very important. everyone write that down? Okay.  Actually, everyone write that down and then circle it three times. Okay.  B  to at.  Okay, B to at.

02:00
Everyone got that? right.  Wow.  Just so much progress was made today. I think in the future we'll come up with more protocols  for how to handle  potential  situations like this  as  we face more obstacles going through this. How do you think something like that we can prevent something like this from not happening again?  How we can, you know, when we come back in a month  and we try to figure out B,  but then we end up at A again.

02:29
Right. Do you think there are parameters that we can put up some Yes, I can think of three immediately. number one by far is...

02:40
Everyone should always we should all have the data  at all times. Okay, right everyone write that down  write that down  and underline it  twice  Yeah, do I have the data  and honestly if you guys don't have the data,  you know what? It's not the end of the world.  You know, we are a corporate. We are a family  So, you know  Go to the next day to go to the next people say hey, do you have the missing pieces of the data?

03:10
And they'll be like, yeah, I have the missing pieces. Here's the missing pieces of the data. And guess what? When everyone does that,  everyone won't be missing any data. Right.  So exactly. You really have to just double check your data  and go around. got to turn around to your neighbor and get that data,  acquire the data,  and then record the data and save the data yourself.  And then actually,  once you get the data, I want everyone to send a memo.

03:40
Their data  and send it to everyone else  and then if you're missing that data you send it back to everyone else, okay?  Now I don't care if this becomes like a memo pyramid I want everyone to send  every missing pieces of  every data to everyone  when they're when they have data that they think someone else doesn't have  Okay,  I rather be  be  drowning in data  than having a missing part of the data

04:09
Okay, is that clear?  Everyone write that down, okay?  And if,  I know you were not here for the first part of the meeting, so everyone  send him all your notes, just all of them  to this guy, okay?

04:26
And so thank you all for having me. Thank you. Yeah. Well, thank you for traveling all the way up from the seventh floor. It's a it's quite a quite a quite a walk. I'm kidding. I know you take the elevator. It was. Yeah. I guys don't have Fiji water down there. Am I right? Yeah. It's a little joke that we have up here. And they're right, guys. Yeah. Most of these most of these guys don't have their own mini fridge. It's only me. Another important question I have.

04:55
Data is covered.  Right. The mission statement  is...  You  blew that out of the water. That was flawless.  What about  double checking reports?  Are you asking me this question because you don't know  how to double check them? Oh no, I know.  I'm just asking for everyone else in this room because I definitely know how to do that.  Right. Yeah. I'm just, know, Todd missed the first part of the meeting, of course. So...

05:25
And there's a lot of,  there's a lot of two years here.  Right. Yeah. So when you're reading form W2704,  it's just- I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?  When you're  reading form  W2704-  Okay, write that down, everyone. It's just a matter of following the guidelines. Okay. So,  you know,  any time that we're  attempting to  execute  our duties,

05:54
Faithfully, we need to be certain that we're carefully reading every bit of instruction  and  So it's really all Self-explanatory on the form on the form. Yeah.  Yeah, could you actually forward the form  in an email to everyone? it's uh, it's actually already done. Oh, it's already done. Okay Wow, yeah, okay  That's great.  So everyone has it actually what I want everyone to do is I want everyone to forward that same email to everyone here at the office so

06:24
Okay, remember what I said, it doesn't matter if you're swamped in data, I'd have  you guys drowning in data than having no data at all.  Yeah, so that's just, that's,  you know, that's how I do things and it seems to work pretty well for my division.  But, you know, we're all just swinging  out here, so.  We're all human, right? Yeah, we're all We're all H-U-M-A-N-S.  Yeah, and no one in here...

06:55
is related to or in contact with any kind of AI beings, right?  I mean, I hope not,  because that is definitely breaking our  confidentiality policy. Yeah, many, many rules that we have here at the company.  There's that DOS statement that you guys all signed at the beginning. So I remember that.  Right. Oh, yes, the DOS,  of course.

07:22
Yeah, so anyways,  so what do feel about  meetings that I mean, this is not me, but meetings that could be emails  like how do you feel about that?  Like this could have been an email.  I mean, really,  I'm going to try to  summarize this for all of you in the most simple way I possibly can.

07:52
Essentially, it could be,  you know,  but  we just,  unfortunately, we have to have  in person face to face meetings incarnate because  it's just  the way corporate does things.  And there is absolutely no changing  that we are  interested in doing anytime soon.  So  I want everyone to put down their

08:21
their pencils right now  and I want everyone to look at her face.  Right. Everyone look at her face. Okay.  This  is what's missing in an email.  Exactly.  And  you can't force  human connection.  No,  I tried. just something that computers can't do.  And it's imperative  for this company. It's part of our mission statement.  Always  go with humans.

08:51
principle number two.  Yeah, I mean, it used to be part of our sign way back in the day, always go with humans.  And so that's why we just stick to the in-person meetings. And again, like I said, we're just really not interested in any form of change or adaptation to the evolving society that is Zoom and online meetings and emails.  We would rather just continue  bringing everyone into the same place.  And

09:20
and even flying people on very expensive  and  eco-hazardous jet fuel. Expensive.  So let's just keep doing that. And I think that's a really good plan. We just gotta kinda keep things the way they are and not change ever. I mean, it's, I mean, what you saying? I mean, it's  obvious, but it's also  different and it's not.  Speaking of that, I have a funny story. Oh yeah?

09:50
Do you want some more Fiji water?

09:56
Oh,  I don't know if I could say this online.  How do I do this? OK, not I can cut it out. OK, you might have to cut it out, but I'll try my best.  There was a certain boss I once had many, many years ago who  really didn't like change.  And.  Anyways,  one of the.

10:27
computers  in the office  was  malfunctioning.  It was a computer that we kept  some of our books on, like our accounting numbers.  And  someone  basically was struggling with it and  had to kind of reboot it. And she walked up and she was like,

10:52
We didn't have those for the past 30 years.  And  she was talking about, they used to use physical  books  to take care of their books. You know what I mean?  And  anyways, so she said that. She said that. And I was standing right there.  just mind you, we had gone through a lot of changes we worked very hard to have in that office.

11:22
When she said that, I just looked at her and  she goes, we didn't have those computers for 30 years.  We used books and we were just fine. And I turned to her, looked her square in the eye and I said, yeah, why change anything at all?  And she got kind of that look that you just gave me where it's almost slight amusement, but also just like a little bit spooked. And she was like, well,

11:50
Some things need to change sometimes  and I looked at her and I frowned and I'm like, no, I don't think so. I just walked away and she was like taken  off guard. mean, I just walked away. I was so pissed. She's literally the kind of person that's like we have fax machines.  Why would we ever change? Right. So it's like, well, yeah, exactly. Like why fax machines work right? But emails are keep it. Let's just keep it. It works.

12:20
Yeah, just you know, send it honestly, you know what I always said. I heard that story about the doctor bleeding  George Washington. Why not? Why do why did we change any of that? I mean, should. Yeah. I mean, I broke don't think I'm myself this morning. You know what I'm saying?  So, yeah, by the way, I'm a little tired and weak, but yeah.  So,  yeah, why change typing speed is a lot faster than the handwritten note.

12:50
Exactly, you know  Well,  thank you so much coming from the seventh floor all the way up here  in our corporate meeting  Oh, are we still doing that?  Are we not  no, we're not. Oh my gosh. I think we're I was about to say  that wraps up this meeting for the cuddly wuddly kitty company

13:12
That's  so like it kind of flows off the tongue. Yeah, cuddly wuddly kitty company That's what this is  madam I like that  I think like if we ever had like merchandise for our like podcast, which would be kind of weird Cuz I don't know how that would work Yeah, do you make visual merchandise for an auditory? Oh, it happens all the time. Whatever. I make some kind of a little sticker

13:41
Cuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly wuddly

14:09
We also started it like before we actually started, right? Oh, yeah, we we were before yeah Yeah, it's not hasn't been this long, but you have a book  that like a big podcast of just  so much nonsense You have a book that kind of explains what we were doing. What's it called? How does how to sound smart and corporate meetings or something like that? It's kind of fun to play with my boobies when I'm  It's like a guy playing with

14:39
Whatever you guys do. Oh my gosh. That's what my ex told me he did all the time  all this all this has to be cut out Some of that has to go  I'm doing a little mammary exam right now  What am I talking about?  Why we did that to begin with  oh Yeah, we got explained a little bit. Oh, yeah, there's this book. I love it's called a hundred tips and tricks to appear smart in meetings Yeah, and that's  brilliant. That's kind of what we were doing

15:09
Yeah, we were kind of doing that except poorly, but that book does a much  better job. You should actually read that book. Yeah. Let's just start at the next meeting. Anytime like my boss says something, I'm just going to quickly  write it down and if hope that nobody looks at the paper, which is just me like writing my grocery list. Well, how about this? We'll take a pause.  We'll circle back,  read the book  and we'll do another podcast once you read the

15:34
Okay, with new protocols. With new protocols. procedures.  With new restrictions up  and healthy,  you know,  goals. The guidelines will all be  intact. Yeah, and a renewed mission statement for the company.

15:52
Everyone hopefully this time will have the data. Yeah,  and Jeff won't need to go to the bathroom so much and you know We're going to have everyone oh Write down all the notes pay attention.  Oh Yeah, so it's fourth of July.  Yeah, fourth of July. You know  independence. What do you think about that word?

16:13
As you like sprawl the,  it was like such a director thing to do.  Picture this. Actually, actually that book with corporate speak,  it actually does  have a lot to do with like the film industry and how pretentious the film industry can be. Right, you told me about the name for clothes pins. Yeah, the clothes pins. It's like C, like C270. And it's like,  literally people will ask, hey, could you, could you.

16:42
get me four C270s  and no one calls it a clothespin, but it's literally a clothespin and they buy it from the fabric store  and it's so confusing.  It's just a way to be pretentious. It's very pretentious  and like, that's gay.  Gotta cut that out. Sorry. Sorry everyone. Sorry everyone. She's from the nineties. Hey, nineties corner.

17:09
No, they say things like okay check the gate What does that mean? What does the gate mean? It means nothing it basically that just means like check the film to make sure that it's okay so No, what like check the gate like it's just a stupid term that we say  so So  what does it mean  if it's coming out of your mouth you want somebody to do something so that basically means we're done

17:39
I'm happy with the shots. Check the gate. I mean, like, make sure the film is in, like, all prepped up and in the canister. So, yeah, it's stupid. It's dumb. So is a way of saying, like, that's a wrap? Yeah, no, well, no, that's a wrap, meaning telling everyone else that's a wrap. But check the gate. Tell your crew that's not actors. That's like, OK, like, make sure make sure the film is safe and put in a can. So put in a can.

18:08
But instead of saying put it in a can, they say check the gate. So there's actually  many, terms and words in the film industry.

18:18
But yeah,  that's wild pretentious. I just don't know what to make of all that  Just  Independence just think of that. Are you excited to watch the fireworks? Yeah the beach  guys We are going to be in Huntington Beach, Thur City USA Yeah, so if all the stockers out there want to kill us will be right there's going to be literally thousands of people and you won't find me I mean just grab a firework and blow it in our face. So that's probably the easiest way to go

18:48
Yeah,  that's in my diary actually People should be careful with those illegal fireworks  Actually, yes guys don't  don't lose a finger. Okay, somebody blew both of their hands off last year right by the pier Yeah, oh, I remember that Yeah, that was the house kind of you were there right when we're walking by that remember when we heard that person screaming  I Don't remember screaming. I I somebody like crying and wailing. I just remember like a big

19:18
Like a big bang  and like what was that like a firework went off? I do remember that but remember the paramedics or somebody yeah, I know I remember like everyone was there at the beach. Yeah, they're like taking  it off. me like two days ago. Somebody told me like yeah, someone blew their both of their hands off  Just north of the pier where we were Yeah, I mean, that's gotta be what that was. hate to say it but like please don't do that. Please don't be that dumb never handle like

19:47
Those kinds of fireworks definitely not legal in California. I don't know how he got them in the state, you know, that's so sad.  So it made me so sad. I just was like, oh my God, like that's devastating. Oh, for a firework. That's so sad. I just feel like people just got to be careful. I'm the person that

20:08
That happened to ever listens to this. I'm very sorry for using your story. I just July I hope that I warn people other people not to not to do that. Fourth of July is like the only holiday where you mix alcohol with like high explosives. Yeah, that's the only legal ones are pretty I think some of them can be pretty like gnarly. So I think all the legal ones like they're legal for a reason like if a kid like were to hold them they would get burned.

20:36
But it wouldn't like blow your hand off. All the illegal ones would like do serious, like they're literally explosives. Right. So that's  like literally the difference. Like if if something can like seriously harm you or not, that's right. That's the illegal legal. And honestly, California is pretty lenient in Illinois. You can't you go on this. There's no there's no stands in Illinois. Nothing. You can't buy fireworks. You only you can buy little poppers and little sparklers. That's it.

21:04
And maybe like maybe those really tiny ones that shoot up in the sky and like blow up like 20 feet in the air  above  But like no like all of these like weird like big ones. Yeah, I mean California  For being as liberal as it is. I'm shocked at the amount of fireworks you guys have  But yeah, that's just my it might just be because we're so close to the Mexico border and So they're gonna get in anyway. Yeah, like I just think people like

21:32
And Arizona, like people get, I think a lot of fireworks from like Arizona and Mexico.

21:39
That's true. Not a lot of things in Arizona can catch fire, you know, if you're in the desert. Anyways, people don't care about this. What are we talking about? Yeah. Anyway, I hope you guys have a safe Fourth of July out there. Yeah. If you're going to if you're going to use  crazy illegal fireworks, just really keep your distance. Yeah. Also be like smart about it. Yeah. And you guys have to think synergistically about fireworks  and you have to think, you know, just  pull up the data, pull up the data.

22:09
You know, look into it,  look into the data, and then ask your team  what's the best  path forward.  Yes, exactly.  Are we united?  And are we  endeavoring?  What are you going to do during the day?  I actually might stream for a little bit, like a Fourth of July stream.

22:36
Okay, don't get lost in that because I know you might spend hours doing that.  I might play like a couple very patriotic video games where America wins.  So are you not interested in the parade?  Oh, yeah, there is. There's a parade, right? At 10  a.m.  Yes. Oh, my gosh. It's so early.  the street is already like kind of getting shut down. So  I don't know, because 10 a.m. to what? 9 p.m.  is a long time.

23:06
It's a long time. Yeah. just like chill out and chill out and drink on the beach. it'll involve hours and hours of...

23:15
Chaotic walking Walking why oh just around your restaurant. Yeah, okay, and it's two rushes It's the lunch rush and the dinner rush. They work 11 to 7 Are you gonna go are you gonna watch the parade or you're just gonna

23:40
Well, if you're going to see the parade, wake me up. Actually, yeah. And I might join you. And then I might drive back here, do my little stream, get ready for the fireworks. I think you really underestimate how difficult driving is in Huntington Beach on the 4th of July. You don't think I'll have a chance at going there?

24:03
The parking structure so you're gonna go to your work parking structure and then walk to see the parade Well, Erica you are dying. So we're gonna you can tell we're gonna wrap this up. Sorry I got I worked all day and I got to work all day again tomorrow. It's gonna be the busiest day of the year So I gotta be on my game, but you know what you have good integrity you have good team Manship and then you have good synergy

24:34
So thank you. Yes. Yes. And all you have to do is make sure you have all the data for tomorrow. I was trying to come up with more adjectives, but I can't. I'm so dead. I'm dead inside. El Muerte. Oh, kitty. OK, love you guys. Happy Fourth of July. I hope you guys have fun. 250 years. It's 249 years.

25:02
Hopefully we'll still have this podcast next year so we can celebrate 250 years of independence.  Take that, Britain.  Yeah, our taxes are now higher than they were when we were under you. Yeah,  sucks to suck, doesn't it?  Actually,  Erica, you're mostly English.  Rage against the machine.  I don't know  if that's...

25:29
Okay,  Bye, guys. Good night.