Recap E. 49 Jon Gordon #MUIYB Podcast

Okay, so I saw Kelsey's eyes rolling. I started stumbling. I got nervous. I tried to reel it in, couldn't do enough. Started that rocking back and forth. Her new beau, he is so screwed when he gets to know the real you.

Okay, I don't know what you're talking about.

I hope he listens to my podcast. He's like, what did I get into?

I love your positivity.

Did you tell—

did you tell him yet about your podcast, that you're a co-host on a podcast?

No, I would never.

No.

So what'd you all think of John?

I liked it. Yeah, I liked it.

That was good.

That's a good summary. Let's go to the game.

Hey Mikey, I liked it.

Hey Mikey, I liked it.

It was nice.

I liked when he said, um, you're culture is a talent multiplier and that you have to make sure that your culture grows when your office is growing. And it made me start thinking about us. Our culture has been like off the charts phenomenal and we're growing. And I started to think like, is it expanding with the new office people? Is it? I think it is. I think you guys do an amazing job. But it's something like I don't think I was really considering prior to hearing him say that.

Well, don't deflect because you say you guys, but you are one of the guys. And, um, it, it's— I think it's this momentum. It's, uh, it's like a rolling stone as it gets— or rolling snowball as it gets bigger and bigger. It's hard not to get caught up in the momentum. And I actually have seen it, is that when a culture becomes strong enough and there's enough momentum, enough people, that someone comes in that doesn't fit, they almost reject themselves. It's like a centrifuge. They get kind of kicked out.

It's true.

It's a good imagery. I like that.

Yeah, actually it is.

You see a person? Because he's like, I enjoy the image of a person flying through the air in a spiral.

It fits.

Yeah, it's like a salad spinner. But I'll tell you one thing, it was great is, uh, that tree we have outside our, um, or, or in the common area in our space here And, uh, I, I did a video of you putting up your leaf and Aaron was putting up hers and Corday was today. What I think is great is not just that process, but the excitement of creating the tree in the first place.

Yeah.

So just for people who don't see it or don't know what I'm talking about is, uh, the idea came about of us tracking our own individual personal goals and that the company's responsibility is to serve the corporate goals in the context of serving everyone's individual goals. And this tree is a physical presentation of us achieving our goals. Every time you achieve something, you add a leaf to this growing tree. But I think what the big takeaway for me was just the enthusiasm from Erin specifically to get that tree up there and how excited she was.

Yeah.

To me, that's the culture. When someone who has a natural talent doesn't, you know, uh, cut that off or cordon it off so that she can do it at home, she's expressing herself here in her natural state and the way she wants to express herself. And brings it to the presence of the company. I think that's representative of culture.

And the culture and the leadership in that is that you guys make opportunities for her to be able to do that. I love that she's had opportunities in not just that project, but in other projects to really express this talented artist that she is, that she gets to do that as well. I think that's a unique quality of this, of your leadership that Kelsey and you, Mike, have that you find those places for people to shine.

I like, he said, what's their buy-in, like for the employees, for the team, and what is their vision? And that's so important because your vision has to coincide with what their vision is, or you have to at least express what your vision is so that they they are on the same page when it comes to everything.

I think he said something to that point, to get them to buy in, they need to weigh in, or something. He phrased it something like that. I love that point too. I also like his— he had another, uh, phrase he used. He said, people are not driven by numbers, they drive the numbers.

Yeah, I wrote that down too.

I like that too.

In so many businesses, and, and I was one of them for so long, like, it's, it's about the numbers and put goals up there and show numbers ticking and it's not a big motivator. Leaves on a tree are a much greater motivator.

It is.

I also like when he said, like, if you don't intentionally build your culture, then you're left to the whim of whatever culture naturally happens, which isn't always a good thing. And I do think that you have to kind of foster the best in people and that positive space for everybody. Otherwise, it's just everybody's own devices.

Exactly.

Yeah. At the end of the day, every business has a culture. The thing is, are you being deliberate about developing it, or are you just letting it kind of grow like a garden with, you know, weeds coming out? Um, we gotta rock and roll because we got so many things we have to cover today, but we're not gonna leave this interview or this discussion without doing a game. Jay Shlone. Oh yeah.

So, uh, one of his clients was, uh, Campbell's Soup. So I have Campbell's Soup trivia.

Oh, I love Campbell's.

I love Campbell's Soup. What's your favorite, guys?

Did you say you love chicken noodle?

Or— I like the condensed chicken noodle.

Oh, I like it.

Mike, I thought you said I love Campbell's Soup trivia, like you had it before. Did you have Campbell's Soup?

I have.

I have.

I'm pretty sure that is a blue material on the inside of a Campbell's Soup label. I don't know, but it tastes great.

Yeah, yeah. No, this is actually— this is a fun— this is a fun one. This was fun to do. All right, so Campbell's was founded in 1869, and in the late 1800s, as one of the first labels for their canned tomatoes, what was the image on the can? Was it an elephant standing on a tomato, a stack of tomatoes similar to a totem pole, or two men carrying a giant tomato? Are you ready for question 2?

Yeah.

Okay, question 2: The red and white colors that Campbell's uses on the label were derived from what? Was it the stripes on the American flag, Cornell's university colors, or the limitations in labeling machinery? Oh boy.

Now what if Cornell picked its colors because they were limited in colors? And then Campbell's picked Cornell. So ultimately it's the limitation of colors.

And then this one I knew without having to look it up. I'm curious if you guys know because we're all from—

Well, la tea da.

We're all from Jersey pretty much, right? So Campbell's was founded in New Jersey. Where is the main headquarters currently located? Is it in Monmouth County, Gloucester County, or Camden County?

Hmm, now, hmm.

I'm gonna make a gutsy guess here.

All right, you guys ready for the answers? Yes, sir. Okay, so one of the first labels that they used for their canned tomatoes was an image of what?

The elephant.

The elephant.

Stacked tomatoes.

Ah, you guys are all wrong. It's two men carrying a giant tomato.

Could have gotten any of them. I really— I was thinking all of them were—

I don't know why I thought of the elephant standing on tomato. I think because I was thinking of Dr. Seuss and I remember that's what—

oh yeah, something like that.

That's cool, that's cool.

The fresh tomatoes, you know?

Yeah.

Oh, I wonder why they did the two men because they don't do their logos or labels As far as I remember, it's just the food item, if anything, right? Or it's not even just— it's just, it's just text now.

It's just text. Yeah.

No, but this was back in like the late 1800s.

Yeah, but I thought they would stick with it from the late 1800s.

We're never going to change our label ever.

Put on your stove—

yeah, that's good— rooftop hat. Yeah, stovetop hat, right?

Stovepipe. Yeah, put on your stovepipe hat.

Put on your hat made of breadcrumbs.

I like it better.

Stove top.

Huge oven on his head.

Stuffing. Build with stuffing.

Build with stuffing.

Stove top stuffing.

Oh, stove top stuffing.

Stove pipe hat. It does look like a stove pipe. That makes sense.

Yeah.

Doesn't look like a stove top.

All right, question 2. The red and white camel's colors were derived from what?

I said limitation in printing.

I'm saying limitation as well.

Cornell University.

Oh, oh, was it Cornell's?

No, they definitely picked— how old is Cornell? Cornell's— what, it wasn't there?

Weren't they 1868?

For— yeah, yeah, one year prior. Oh brother, I should have never asked that question.

Uh, what's their mascot? Cornell, they're the Big Red or something.

What's their bear? Big Red Bear, I believe.

Big Red Bear. Yeah, please tell me it's Big Red Bear.

I'm serious.

Cornell, we're the Big Red Bears.

There's worse. There's way worse, uh, uh, which one call it mascots than that. Kelsey and I actually were talking about some of them like a week or two.

I got something that will blow your mind, so let's do a real quick one. Like, what mascot is the most bizarre ever?

Is it a platypus? Doesn't somebody have a platypus?

Do you want me to go with one that's like local to me? Yeah. So Vineland, New Jersey, Vineland High School is the Fighting Clan, and it's a chicken.

Oh, okay.

Bad all around.

How's clan spelled?

Uh, C-L-A-N. At least I got that.

Okay.

Billie Ann Gregg at Prop First Professionals, do you want to know her high school— this is true— her high school mascot?

What?

The feet. F-E-E-T. Swear to God, type in high school— Amy, you can pull it up. Type in high school, uh, mascot feet. F-E-E-T. And it's where she went to school. Wait a second, and the mascot is a—

it's a, it's a foot. Like a hairy foot is like somebody's dressed up like a hairy Isn't it like a Converse shoe, like the foot's coming out of it, like, or something? Oh man, you— yes, there's— well, there's— she went to Web, right? I think.

Yes, Web.

Yeah, it was the Converse with like wings on it, but then there's another one that looks like a hairy animal foot.

The feet.

The feet.

The Web.

That's ridiculous.

You would think one that's worse.

You think it would be like the, um, what was the Greek mythology, or was it Roman I think it was Greek with the, with the foot with the wings on it. Who was that?

That's the, that's, um, the mess— the, the guy Marathon, the— that was— that came from the marathon.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you would think it would be something like that, like something, you know, cool.

Exactly. What was the worst one?

Was it Icarus or something? No, Icarus was the—

the wings, the wings. Yeah.

Oh, okay. So here, once we're— this is true too, and Amy, everyone look at Amy, you have to look— Google this one. Okay, there is a— I believe it's a college mascot for a fashion institute, and it's called Scrotie. S-C-R-O-T-I. Masked. Swear to God. Watch Amy look it up. Scrotie mascot.

What is that?

Watch her face. Watch her face. Get to the images page.

I'm going, I'm going. It's a scrotum. It is a person in a full— it's a whole penis, actually. Oh my God, you guys, unbelievable.

What school is that? I think it's a fashion—

Rhode Island School of Design mascot.

How do you spell it?

Stop it right now.

Go check out— just check out Rhode Island School of Design mascot.

My aunt and uncle went there.

S-C-R-O-T-I-E.

Both of you go look. This— I want to watch the reaction.

This is horrific. Like, really?

I had to look in your mouth before.

Oh, thanks, Kelsey. I had a tumor.

Oh, lies!

How is this possible?

Why did you check his mouth first?

Something was stuck in my tooth and I couldn't tell. I tell Kelsey, I said, I think it's a tumor, I might be dying. And I was like, can you look? And she just looked at me.

Straight up lies.

Yeah, no, he was—

look at the mascot.

For real, no joke, how is this like— how is this like for real?

How— the backstory I heard is this: they had a, uh, vote for the mascot and the student. There was a rally and the students, you know, as a joke decided this and it was selected.

It's very graphic.

It's really graphic.

Yeah.

Yeah, can you imagine going to a game, you got that running around?

I believe I'm seeing vascular art.

Yeah, and things are blue. Certain parts are blue.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You still pulling it up, Kelsey?

Yeah, I got it now.

Is this horrible? It's horrible.

Yeah, some of these costumes that they have created are a little too much detail.

A little much.

Yeah, it's a little too much.

Look at the red bow around the back.

Yeah.

Yeah, they should do a little more artistic license on that, I think. Yeah. All right, let's continue on because we got to get to our next question.

Yes.

Oh, because I was planning on talking about scrotie for like the next 10 minutes.

It is.

It is though. Come on, Jeremy. It's the Cornell Bear. It's not red, uh, but I think they call it—

ignore Big, ignore Big.

It's just the Big Red. No, but, but they're— but I think they're called Big Red. I, I, I, I—

oh, that could be true.

That's still—

that's Big Red.

Yeah. Okay, so Campbell's was founded in 1869. Where are the main headquarters currently located?

I say Monmouth.

I say Camden.

I say Camden.

It is Camden. Yep.

You know why I say Camden? Because it's so close to Philadelphia, right?

Yeah, it's right outside of Philadelphia.

Yeah, yeah. So I was like, that's like—

it was more industrial.

Yeah, that's what I should have said.

Cool.

Don't we have a big food plant though in Monmouth? Is there not a big food plant in Monmouth?

In Monmouth?

I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure.

Oh no, it's the horse track down there. Maybe it's where Burger King gets its meat.

But I like Burger King Whoppers.

Maybe—

how could they confuse a horse track and a Amy, I'm with you.

Whoppers are the best burger fast food-wise. French fries, you got to go to McDonald's, and it's such a hassle because I got to go to McDonald's for the proper french fries. I got to go over to Burger King for my right burger, and I got— I used to have to go to Wendy's for my chicken. It's just—

it's—

but have you had the Impossible Burger yet?

No.

It's so good.

It's not. It's— no, it's not good. Really? Jeremy, the chef is like, it's gross.

That's all I get is the Impossible Burger.

And the thing that kills me about it is I can understand why people would want a meat alternative, and honestly for a meat alternative, it's, it's not horrible, but it's super, super processed.

So I do not deny that. I'm just saying flavor-wise it's awesome.

Yeah, flavor, flavor, it's not bad, but texture—

I have to try it.

Yeah, yeah. And it definitely, for me, it settles differently. I can digest that way easier than I can a Whopper, even though I love the flavor of Whopper. I don't feel great afterwards. When I have an Impossible Burger, I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tell us about your bowel movements with the Impossible Burger.

How are they?

I was like, no thank I like it.

Not that scary. Scrunchy.

Can I clarify what Mike was doing before? So he was picking food out of his teeth and then eating it, and then after I caught him, then he was like, can you check, is there any more food in here? And he opened his mouth and I was like, I am not looking.

Gross.

There was no tumor involved.

True. It's all factually true, but it seems like you put a little spin on it. So what it was was the Girl Scouts have just released all their cookies and it's an onslaught. Like, they all arrive within minutes.

There are literally like 16 boxes in our office right now, right? Isn't there something funny? Well, 13, because I ate the Tagalongs.

And why the Samoas? And it has the, the coconut, and the little coconut is more like here on the side, got stuck in. So I'm like, I gotta get it, and I got it. And then I'm like, and I didn't rub it around in Kelsey's face too much.

He's pretty aggressive.

I ate it, I ate it to protect him.

It's progressing. Sorry.

Oh, I protected her. I didn't want her to get—

I didn't want to move, Mike. It was the right move.

It was a great move.

I mean, a tissue would have been fine too, but you know, that's okay.

I could use cherry sauce on her tissues. So there's this— there's those, uh, I gotta show you.

Let's just show you.

He has a container of cherries hidden in the office.

Yeah, this is from— this— these are the cherries from our— whatchamacallit— from, uh, our retreat. It was from Amy's birthday last year. Of Rainey's birthday. And so they haven't been eaten. They've just been sitting around. So then I think Kelsey started, or maybe I did, but they've been going back and forth. So she'll hide it on me somewhere. I just saw it a little ways ago. I hide it on her. So most recently I was like, oh, I'm gonna wedge this in her tissue box and put one tissue. So when you pull it up, the whole thing comes up. Uh, you can see the tissue stuck to it. The thing is I put it on an angle and it leaked all in her tissue box.

Yeah. So I had to get a tissue and I was like, no, I don't know if you can see, but that's all cherry juice on all my tissues.

I gotta get you new tissues.

So you can't have a tissue?

No.

I can't think of a better story to end it on than me picking my teeth. Uh, that was, uh, Jon Gordon and we were talking about how to increase the energy, uh, the culture, improve teamwork. And I wanna invite you to make sure— I wanna invite you to get his book. So it's Energy Bus. Also go to his website, positivedaily.com. Check out Jon Gordon. That's J-O-N-Gordon.com. Uh, oh, and we love if you rate and review the show, so go to Rate Our Podcast. Any questions you have, email me at askmike@mikemichalowicz.com. Are we good to go, guys?

Thanks.

Good.

Well, thanks.

See you guys.

Wish you a good time.