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Hey, listeners.

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Welcome back to another episode of Two Dads and Tech talking about things that you think about but don't want to talk about or maybe don't have anyone to talk to about, sometimes loudly, while drinking coffee.

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The podcast. I'm Troy Monson. I'm the CEO and founder over here at Demo. We are a place to evaluate software without being forced into sales cycles.

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And I'm Daniel Burke, husband, dad to two incredible boys, sales leader, LinkedIn lunatic, and Beehive newsletter evangelist. Thanks for tuning in for the next 45 minutes. We hope you enjoy this episode.

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Daniel, how about you say we go ahead and get into it? Let's do it. Hey, Troy, before we get started, let's give a quick shout-out to our sponsor. Have you ever noticed how many billboards are out there?

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It's smart, simple, and incredibly effective. That's adquick.com, A-D-Q-U-I-C-K.com. Check it out and see how far your message can go. Daniel, you are an incredible reader. Hey, man.

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You gotta, you gotta just, you gotta just make them, make them believe it. Make them believe the words. [laughs] Hey, great job. Um, before- Thank you...

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before we get into the whole podcast as well, thanks for shouting out the sponsor there. Um, one, obviously happy birthday. Uh, I hope you have had- Happy birthday... an amazing birthday, man.

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We celebrate birthdays year-round here in the, uh, Two Dads in a, in a, in a Truck podcast. [laughs] I... Why, why, why am I so bad? [laughs] We should change, we should change the name

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every- Every single episode we call it something different. That'd be hilarious. Um, I, I wanna quiz you. Oh, goodness. I wanna quiz you on something. Okay, okay. Quiz me. Quiz me.

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So I, I know that you are a, a big social media guy. I also know- Yep, yep... that you are up to date with today's slang.

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So I'm gonna read you a definition, and I want you to tell me what slang word goes with that definition. Okay. I- This is gonna be fun... as I'm reading these right now- Okay, okay... I think you're gonna do a good job.

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Okay. Um, to lie or exaggerate. To lie or exaggerate. Cap. Attaboy. Um, charisma or a vi- Rizz... charisma. Look, [laughs] you, you don't even... [laughs] I don't even need to say the definition. You'll already know.

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Um- Just give it to us... pretty much- Ohio... pretty... [laughs] I don't have those two on this list. Okay.

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Um, so this, this- So we're, we're like kinda like Boomer, Boomer millennial slang, not like Gen Alpha 12-year-old slang. 'Cause- Exactly... I could go both ways here... like 40-year-olds say this. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

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Okay. So this next one is, it's a short word for another word, and it's often used... I thought it was used to talk about somebody's butt, but I guess it's- Yeah... an ex... Yeah. [laughs] Attaboy. Um,

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this one might, might stump you a little bit. To do something exceptionally well or stylishly. Oh. This is, this is less Gen Alpha and more like Gen Z. Either slay or ate.

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I love both those answers, and it is slay. Good job. There you go. Um, sketchy. My thesaurus isn't working here. Sketchy? There's another word to describe it.

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It's giving me two words to describe this word, but one of those words has the word in it, and I don't know if that's a good enough hint or not. I don't know. I'm blanking.

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I think I, I think I dialed my IQ so far down that I'm having trouble coming back up. No, no, no. It's okay. Your IQ is, I know it's not really high, but I'm gonna- Failed all my test scores.

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The IQ limit was not even reachable. Um, all right. I'm gonna give the first definition, and this is gonna give it away. Okay. But suspicious or sketchy. Oh, sus. Okay. There it is. Yeah. It's sus. I know. Sus. I know.

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Yeah, yeah, like sketchy... 'Cause sus, yeah, yeah. I, I, I can see where, I can see where the ChatGPT may have thought that, that that's the definition for sus.

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[laughs] Um, something really, really good, often food related. Mm. I know you know this one. Ate? Like, I, I don't know. That's, like... I don't know. I, I probably do know, but these definitions are hard.

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I don't, I don't work this way. My, my brain just goes straight to the word, not what it means. I know. You, you work flip-flop. So this one's bussin. Oh, yeah. Right? It's definitely. Yeah. That's bussin. Okay.

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It's bussin. I haven't used that one in a while. Yeah, it's been a bit. That's like two years old. Um- Yeah... agreement or confirmation. I think my brain just stopped.

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So, so you go up to, let's just say, a friend, and you're like, "Hey, man, you wanna go to PF Chang's later?" And that friend then says one syllable.

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I, I'm sa- I'm thinking of all the ways that I would say yes, and they're all idiotic and not normal. Like, I'd be like, "Bet." I mean, I... All right, bet. Bet? Okay. It's bet. It's bet. [laughs] Okay, cool, cool.

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I actually th- like, that is, yeah, yeah. That is exactly what I would say, but I was like that can't be the answer. But it is. It's very common. Yeah, there it is. Yep, yep. There you go. So average or mediocre.

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That movie was so... Mid. Attaboy. When somebody gets more replies and engagement than the original postOh, they got ratioed Attaboy. This one I, I actually have never heard.

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Outdated or trying too hard to be trendy. Boomer? No, it says cheugy. Have you heard that? C-H-E-U-G-Y. Cheugy. That's... No, that's gotta be, that's gotta be youngins. That's, that's... We're, we're, we're too old.

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Yeah, I think we might be just too old for that to be something we know. I've got one last one here for you. Somebody who goes overboard trying to impress somebody else, typically a female.

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Like, typically they try to impress a female. This isn't typically a female. Maybe it is. I think it goes both ways, but- Like alpha? I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't know. I don't know. This one's simp. Oh, yeah.

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Simpin', simpin' hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I thought the simp king himself would know- [laughs]... what a simp was, but, uh- No, I, I, I simped before simping was cool.

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That's how I got Courtney to marry me back in the day. [laughs] You were such a simp. Still simping though. Hey, we're gonna do a quick pivot here.

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So, a- and I'm bringing this up because you posted about it yesterday on LinkedIn. For the listeners, first and foremost, let's congratulate Daniel Burke here. He's lost over 40 pounds. He's ran 300 miles. Yeah.

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Thank you. He's completely done a life change here in 2024. Now, what he did was he posted about it on LinkedIn. Mm. Do you think workout posts/health-related posts are cringey on LinkedIn slash...

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I'm not saying your post was cringey, but- Uh... do you th- [laughs] But do you think- [laughs]... do you think when you see them, do you think that they're cringey?

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So here's my thought on posting cringe content on any platform, LinkedIn included. If you're posting something that is genuine,

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then you can say, this is maybe progressive, you can say pretty much whatever you want. Here's what I do. I often post incredibly cringe content that I am aware is cringe because it's cringe.

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That's like half of my brand on LinkedIn. The other half of my brand is sales leader, newsletter operator, strategist, and recently in the last six months, this health aficionado. I'm not a health expert.

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I'm not a health guru. It's literally just sharing what my own experience and my own health journey has been like. It's, it's kinda random. I don't share a lot about it, but when I do, it seems to resonate with people.

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So yeah, I t- I talked about lost a bunch of weight, ran a bunch of, you know, miles, three races in 2024, kind of as like a, hey, you, you have the ability, anyone reading this has the ability to completely uproot their entire lives and change.

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And it, it doesn't take that long. I think people think, "Oh man, it, you know, committing to something for years is so difficult."

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And mind you, my health journey is going to extend far beyond just the last six, seven months. But it only took three months, two months to, to really solidify the, the habit of being healthy.

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Now it's just, it's just who I am. It's going to carry me through '25 and beyond. Um, but yeah, do, do I think it's cringe? I do think there are people that are cringe with what they post.

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I, I absolutely think there's cringe content out there. It's clickbaity. It's, it, it's disingenuine. Like, you, you know there's an angle. Um, you know, I think be yourself. Post, post what you want. Um- Yeah...

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but I've been on LinkedIn Lunatics quite a bit as well, so it's, it's, it's fun. It's fun to see yourself up there on Reddit every now and again. You know, I actually have never looked at that Reddit thread.

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And, and to your point- No?... I, I, I'm in complete agreement that I think a lot of people do it more so for the engagement and more so for- Yeah... um, I don't know if it's self-fulfillment, whatever it might be.

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And that's perfectly fine if it is. You know, sometimes, like, we, we like ego boost, right? Um- Mm-hmm... but you can tell when some people are posting it just for an engagement post versus some people that are- Yeah...

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like you mentioned, very genuine. Like, hey, you can change and turn your life around if you started today- Yeah... kinda thing. Um, but yeah, I've never been on...

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I don't know if I've ever been on LinkedIn Lunatics as, as a, as a thread or discussion. I don't even know what you'd call it, but- I don't know. I don't know. I don't know... I'm not a, I'm not a Reddit guy.

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Um, but yeah, I was, I was wondering that 'cause I saw your post. I didn't think yours was cringey at all, by the way. I thought it was definitely genuine. Um- Thank you. Thank you... but it did make me think.

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It did make me think about it, and so... 'Cause I- There's some cringe ones out there. There's some cringe ones out there. Should we call everybody out that's cringey? I think we should. Okay. Yeah.

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Let's just start listing them off. I got like 10 top of mind right now. All right, cool. You start. Actually, do you want- No. [laughs] I'm kidding. That would be so bad. We're kidding.

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We'll, we'll write it down and, and just share it just enough to each other to see, and then no one else will be able to... Uh, yeah, right.

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Honestly, I, I guarantee there are dozens of people that think I'm probably the cringiest person on the internet, and I actually love that about myself. Like, hey, hey, think that about me.

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I'm happily married with two awesome kids, own a house, have a great job. Like, I'll be cringe. I'll be cringe because I have a great life. Yeah. But it's fun. Yeah. It's fun to... I, I,

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I like, I like rubbing people the wrong way sometimes. Hey, you know, to heck with them. Um- Yeah, exactly. So I got something else for you. I- Tell me... on Christmas Eve...

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Do you watch the Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve with your kids, just, like, see where Santa's flying and stuff? I should have. Yeah. Uh, didn't even think about it. That would've- Yeah...

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my, my three-year-old would have loved that. Oh, my son loved it, and so we watched the Christmas, the Santa Tracker, whatever it is, and you can see how many presents he is delivering and everything like that.

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Um, what I realized was it wasn't even Santa that was going across the entire globe delivering presents. It was Brian Lamana. Oh, no.Brian Lamana?

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It was Brian Lamana that did-- So I don't know if your son got any presents from Santa. It wasn't Santa. Oh, I was just talking to my wife about how I had a feeling Brian Lamana was going to ruin Christmas this year.

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Um, he told, uh, he told his audience on LinkedIn that he bought a dog. Cute dog. Took a picture of it on the Gong rooftop, which is like a dog paradise or something crazy in Chicago,

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and the dog looked like it was ready to steal Christmas from little boys and girls. I don't know why. I can't tell you. I can't, I can't even characterize exactly what I felt in that moment, but something,

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something in me boiled up inside and said, "Brian Lamana is here to steal Christmas." Yeah. I never would've took him as somebody that had a direct relation to the Grinch, but I thought the same thing about...

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I immediately turned the phone to my wife and I said, "Look at this dog and tell me what you think." And she said that same exact thing. No thought- Unacceptable.

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Brian, if you're listening to this, I'm calling you out and I need you to respond, or else. I'm gonna do another pivot here. Okay. Is it about Brian Lamana?

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What if we just pivoted back again to Brian Lamana? [laughs] No, we- People, people who don't know who Brian is are so confused. Yeah. And, like, who knows if Brian even hears this. Ideally, he does. That'd be so funny.

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I was actually- 90% chance he doesn't... there is a 90% chance that he does not. I, I... He's in Chicago, about two hours away. Oh, right. I told him that we should go grab lunch or dinner or something like that.

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He said, "Yeah." Isn't that really cool? Dude, I'll fly up. We should do an in-person podcast with Brian in the Gong Tower. We should, and the whole podcast- He could totally hook us up...

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should be like, you know how you have, like, your Chuck Norris sayings? It should just be- Absolutely... 50 minutes of us talking about Brian Lamana [laughs] and, like, things that he does.

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[laughs] And he's in the background, but we cut him off. Every single time he takes the mic, we just cut him off and keep going for like 45 minutes. Dude, I personally would love that. Um- Same...

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so I've got a, I've got a question for you. I think this is an obvious answer, and I hate saying that. I'm, I should delete that, but I won't for the sake- You should... of anybody listening. But you should.

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Do you think a company would succeed or succeed more with or without sales or marketing? So, like, if you took away sales or you took away marketing- Hmm. I have a spicy take on this...

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and, and, and let me, let me actually, let me... I think I'm gonna love your spicy take, but let me also- Do it...

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caveat this in saying if there's no, if there's no sales team and you're only doing marketing, there does have to be somebody there to, like, take the order. I'm not saying it's 100% PLG.

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Like, there is somebody to have a discussion, but if you're like- Yeah...

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if you're doing no outbound or anything like that, do you think a company will be more successful if they only had marketing or if they only had sales?

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I'm not just saying this because I have a background in marketing and sales, but I do believe genuinely, myself removed from the equation, the absolute best salespeople understand and consistently implement marketing and growth strategies in their selling, and the best growth marketers

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deeply understand what it is to sell to the person on the buying end. And in that case, whether or not they've actually sold could be debatable, but they understand it.

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And so I think too often, growth marketing, marketing, whatever, growth, however you wanna spin that, and sales are so deeply siloed in an organization that, one, there are projects that are working cohesively or in parallel that aren't actually connected or bridged, so there's, you know, 3X as much manpower being done for what 2X actually could accomplish if there wasn't a silo.

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But also, there are these different personas and ICPs and projects and initiatives created, again, in parallel, but neither side knows the other is doing something similar.

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And so that horsepower that comes from, you know, two people, three people, four people working on a single goal together is unachieved or unattainable because there's a silo.

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So I think the best sellers are growth marketers. The best growth, growth marketers are sellers. But why do you ask? That- What do you think?

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You know, what's the, the most annoying part is, like, that is such a cop-out answer, like, kind of to say. It is a cop-out answer. You know? A- and it's because you don't wanna get in trouble. Um, so what do you-

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Here's what I think. Probably half of a sales org and half of a growth org in a company, let's say, beyond 500 people, could probably be eliminated. Yeah. I agree with that.

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Going to ask you something, so I'll, I'll, I'll answer your question. Okay. Let's say, let's say... Okay, great. So you eliminate marketing or you eliminate sales.

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Your, essentially, your answer was the best, the best marketers are sellers and the best sellers are marketers, which is super annoying. Yeah. But [laughs] yeah- I love it...

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'cause, like, you can't get in trouble for it... I'm gonna cop out of every question.

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But let's say, like, let's say you do marketing successfully, or you do sales successfully, but the product is just a crap product at the end of the day. Do you think that that company can still be successful?

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'Cause I see a lot of products going through this right now. I think it depends. I just watched the movie with Channing Tatum and Black Widow from Marvel. What's her face? Oh, Magic Mike. I love that movie.

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No. [laughs] I'm kidding. The one, the one about NASA, Apollo 11. I can't remember the name. It's on Apple TV. Yeah, I know. It's a great movie.

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Watched it last night, and, uh, her, her entire role, she was hired by the president of the United States to sellGoing to the moon, because the funding in the '60s and '70s were absolutely depleted. NASA had nothing.

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They had this grand vision, "Let's go to the moon, let's..." You know, the moon race of getting there before Russia, all this great stuff happening, but they just didn't have the money or the funding to get there.

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So they hired this girl, who is the actor that plays Black Widow from Marvel, who I'm blanking completely on right now. And she went and literally sold the United States on taking astronauts to the moon.

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So this whole movie is about her sales tactic and marketing prowess of selling a product that, of course, was a dream, and achieving the impossible, all these things that were invented for the purpose of actually going to the moon.

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Now you ask, can a seller sell a, a crap product? And the reason I think of this movie is 'cause she did a lot of really, really shady things to sell the moon.

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I mean, just straight up, like, lied, like, a lot, like, to senators and politicians and just to get money.

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Um, had, like, all these different personas and voices she used when they were talking to someone who-- with an accent, and just fake backgrounds, aliases. I'm like, good grief. Insane. Like a, a, a psycho.

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Like a, a sociopath. But she sold the idea of going to the moon, and in this case, the product didn't exist. It was achieving the impossible, creating something to get where had no one had ever been before.

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So the reason I think of that movie, I think if the seller is insane enough, I don't, I don't think you have to lie. I'm not encouraging that, but if they're insane enough to go become, almost like method acting, become

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the product, I think they can sell anything. And I'll, I'll shift gears to saying what I have done in the last two and a half years at Beehiiv. Beehiiv is the absolute best newsletter platform on the internet.

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That is my belief right now at this point in time on December 27th, 2024. When I joined, we were 10 people. The product was nascent.

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It had not grown to 80 employees, to 20 million in revenue, to, you know, tens of thousands of highly active massive senders. We sent 16 billion emails this year. I mean, we have grown astronomically.

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But here's what I did very, very effectively when I was hired two and a half years ago.

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I convinced the buyers that this is the absolute de facto best newsletter platform that has ever been breathed into existence in the history of mankind.

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And whether or not we actually were in tw- 2022, you better believe I positioned Beehiiv like the only logical thing to buy if you were sending newsletters in 2022. Yeah.

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So a lot comes back to the seller. If you can't sell your product, there's probably something about the product that sucks, because there are products that sell themselves.

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But you as a seller need to figure out how to sell the product, even if you have no help from the product. Yeah. That's my opinion. Yeah. Yeah, and I love the, I love the thoughts there.

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Um, I'm gonna come back to your question- Yep... which was pretty much repeating my question. Um, I think

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to build a semi-successful company, you can easily do that without marketing, and what I mean by semi-successful is very subjective. I know a lot of founders.

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Now that I'm in this whole founder space, I've, I've become friends with many founders who have scaled their business to one, two million in revenue with just themselves as founder-led sales, no marketing team.

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They're kinda just out there doing, like, mass outbound and things like that, 'cause it is the cheapest way to actually go out and get in front of a lot of people. Yep.

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And they're doing it really, really well, and they do it really well through referrals, so they have really close relationships with, with their customers, and then they grow that way. Yep.

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But I think to scale a company to a decent size, you'll definitely need marketing. Um- Mm-hmm... so there's, there's my cop-out answer too. Like, I think both of them are, are very important. Yeah.

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And I do agree with you, like, that best sellers are, are good marketers as well. Right now I see a lot of companies, um, hitting some churn because- Mm-hmm...

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they have a lot of hype behind the product, but when people use it, it doesn't work as it was described- Mm. Mm... or it doesn't work as maybe people would have thought before, before purchasing it. Um- Yeah...

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so that's why I asked that. That's why I asked that. And so that, I think that's an amazing segue to tipping culture. What are your thoughts on tipping culture this, this year and, and [laughs] tipping in general today?

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Yeah. Yeah. W- like, what's going on? Scarlett Johansson, by the way, is, uh, the actor I, I was talking about from that movie. Anyways, tipping culture.

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I went to breakfast with my wife and kids and her mom this morning, so my mother-in-law, and I tipped what I thought was generous. It was a $70 bill.

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Um, like the whole check was $70 after taxes, and I gave $20, so it was like 28%, which is like, you know, I was feeling, you know, it's Christmas time, you know, Happy New Year, tip generously.

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And what I thought to myself was 28 is good. Like, any server or waitress looking at 28 is not upset. I think that's good.

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But there are, I think, expectations now where the 15% of 2010, I would say, is now, like, kind of offensive, where you only get 15%, and it's like from the waiter's perspective,

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"Oh, so you're telling me you did the easy math of multiplying the decimal by two and then, like, more math to make it 15% instead of just giving 20%?"

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And so I think especially with very low value purchases like $5 coffees and stuff, the expectation is like-25, 35, 40% in some cases where it's like a, a $2 coffee and the tipping screen isn't even percents, it just says one, two, and $3.

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I'm like, "Yo, that's 100% tip." So tipping culture, two opinions. One, I feel like what should have been a, an act of generosity of, "You did a great job.

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Here's a tip," has turned into an obligation and a culture of if you don't... if you aren't generous here with this tip, you are wrong, which completely defeats the entire meaning of generosity.

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It's no longer about generosity. It has nothing to do with generosity. It's, "No, you have to tip or else you are morally bad." I think that's messed up. I think the second thing,

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at the end of the day, people who are relying on tips aren't paid well, and I think there's something to be said about if you're not paid well and need tips,

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either you work at the wrong place, go get a job that doesn't pay so poorly that you actually need tips or... Well, a- actually I think that's what it is. Like if, if, if you need these tip- I don't know. I don't know.

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Uh, it's- I don't know. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna finish your answer there. Yes. The last part. Or provide a service so damn good that it makes- There it is... somebody wanna tip a generous amount. Yes. And- Yes.

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And, and- And, and I agree with you. I feel like even 20% nowadays is almost like, "That's it? 20%?" Only 20? Um- Yeah, yeah. I know. Yeah. It, it is...

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It's gotten, it's gotten out of hand, but I also, I get it from the other perspective, like that's what people live off of, and I know that they ch- well, some choose to go in that industry, some end up in the industry, right?

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Same with B2B tech sales. Mm-hmm. Some just kind of end up here. And so yeah, it's... I was randomly thinking about this.

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My, my buddy had a somewhat viral post on LinkedIn where there was like, he had a contract signed and he sent over an image that said, "Please choose your tip." [chuckles] And it was like the 10%, 20%. Yes.

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Um, but I thought it was funny, and I was thinking about it. Um, same way I'm thinking about another question for you, and then I'll let you ask me a question. I feel like I'm spit balling over here. All right.

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All right. All right.

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Do you think influencers, like fitness influencers, Instagram influencers, not necessarily LinkedIn influencers, but we can throw them into the mix for this question, do you think they are more harmful to mental, to mental health than helpful?

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Hmm. That's a great question. I, I will, I will use AG1 as an example, and let me say that I am an AG1 affiliate because that's probably useful for everyone listening to this to know.

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I, I do not... I, I don't sell many products. Like I, I'm, I'm not just like mindlessly like Amazon affiliate.

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You know, there's like the Amazon, TikTok, and Instagram accounts that just like have a page of a billion different links, and they get paid off of a- all of them, and they're wealthy.

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I am an influencer for AG1, and I actually use AG1, and I've actually personally experienced the effects in my own life from drinking AG1 or Athletic Greens, you might know it by.

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There are, I don't know how many thousands of AG1 influencers, like a lot. A lot of AG1 influencers.

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And I think a lot of them, and when I'm-- Like I, I, I often see like the product placement and some people just like shout outs for the affiliate link and stuff. I'm like,

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"Do you actually though take it like, like are you just trying to get an easy, you know, payout here or..." And so I, I think there's, there's a facade that influencers can typically create

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that you s- so you asked about mental health. It almost creates this very fake reality of the followers of that person saying or thinking or believing to themselves like, "I have to be this certain way.

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I have to use the makeup that they're selling. I have to use the, the greens that they're consuming. I have to, you know, have my life together." Even the product placement of like, wow, they drive this fancy car.

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They don't have a job, so their job is being an influencer, which is very, like very select few people make six, mid-six, sometimes seven plus figures influencing.

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But the people who are watching these TikToks while they're taking a dump at work are all upset that they're making $20 an hour in their desk job while they watch this person make $20,000 a day selling their item of choice, whatever partnership they're selling that day.

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And so I think it goes hand in hand with what I believe social media does to mental health. Influencers, I think, can improve mental health.

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I know a lot of influencers who are actively attempting to improve mental health, like mental health influencers, those exist.

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But I think the danger is trying to convey what you're influencing as what's normal or what should be achieved or what like your North Star is as a person.

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And so these people start to get obsessed with the image and the influence of the, the different people they're following and start to hate their own lives.

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Like, gosh, these, these people, their families look so perfect. Their hair looks so beautiful. They're... They, they get all these free clothes from their partnership.

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They're so skinny or they're so ripped or all their accolades. They make so much money.

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I mean, it can weigh on you just like I think doom scrolling on LinkedIn or Twitter or YouTube or TikTok or wherever you doom scroll can weigh on you simply by trying to mentally exist in a world that is not yours.

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What do you think? That's exactly what I think, right? It's both good and bad. Yeah. But I'm gonna force you to answer the question. Do you think it's more harmful or more helpful?I think

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the blanket statement, I would say it's more harmful. I think it... I think I would, I would say it's more harmful than good. I think I'd agree with that.

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Um, and who knows, maybe there's economic effects that we're not even thinking about, like maybe from a business perspective, them selling all those AG1s is a really good thing for the economy. Who knows, right?

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Like, maybe it's supplying- Yeah... jobs. Um- Right... but yeah. Even me, I look at some...

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I don't have Instagram anymore, but I look at TikToks, and I see, like, this dude who's doing a workout, and I'm like, "Ooh, I should do that exact workout that he's doing," 'cause he is ripped, and I'm trying to get more- Yep...

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more in shape. But just 'cause I go and do that workout 100 times doesn't mean I'm gonna look like him, right? And so- Yeah. Yeah. I, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm guilty. I'm guilty as ever.

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Well, and there's genes, genes at play here with, like, with fitness influencers. I follow, like, uh...

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There's a runner who I'm like internet friends with, Brady, and he did a 2:26 marathon a couple months ago, and I did a 2:59 half marathon at the same time. So we all know the differential here.

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I don't follow people like that to be like them. I follow them because they inspire me. It's like, wow, humans are capable of that?

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Then I must be able to do, you know, this calculably [chuckles] lesser thing, and I know for a fact I will never, uh, like, objectively never run a 2:26 marathon. That is a fact. I will not- Hey...

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be able to do that ever in my life. Don't, don't be saying that, man. But I will be able to finish one. No, no, no. I don't... Uh, uh, I will die before I run a 2:26.

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That is me sprinting faster than I can for two and a half hours. [laughs] Give it a few years, man. No, no, no. Give it a few years. Can't do it.

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Give it, yeah, maybe 20 years, but then I'm 50, and then I definitely can't do it, because I'm 50. [laughs] That's funny. All right. I'm gonna give you... I, I saw this bit on TikTok. I, I- Yeah...

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feel like I've been having a lot of TikTok inspiration today. There's a lot of TikTok inspiration.

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And, uh, I'm gonna give you, uh, essentially a phrase or a word, and you have to say the first word that comes to your mind. You cannot say two words, you can't say three- Okay. Okay...

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and you have to say it pretty fast, all right? Okay. Okay. Let's see here. We'll start, we'll start, we'll start with, um, Christmas. Drink. Crayon. Colors. Sales.

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Behot. [laughs] Brian Lamana. Who? [laughs] Brian Lamana. [laughs] Yeah, go ahead. Brian Lamana. Gong.

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LinkedIn. Software. Taco Bell. Poop. [laughs] And I'm gonna finish off with cringe. LinkedIn.

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[laughs] Beautifully done. B- I would've said poop with, uh, with, with Taco Bell as well. That's funny. Yeah, it's like the...

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I actually enjoy Taco Bell every, like, six months, but it, it's definitely gonna ruin your, your gut. There's, there's, there's nothing good that comes from Taco Bell except while you're eating it. [laughs] Yeah.

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I always tell my wife that you pay for it twice. Um- Mm. Love it. You mentioned you gave up alcohol, I don't know what it was, five, six, seven months ago. Yep.

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Do you ever see yourself drinking alcohol even if it's casually again, or is this something that you're probably just saying goodbye to forever? I don't know yet. I...

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It was almost six full months ago, and my current commitment is to go a year without it.

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I didn't have a drinking problem, um, and so it was a choice just for my own health, because the health journey I was on due to my heart, my cardio, weight loss, a lot of different things,

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I wanted to eliminate anything that felt like it was, like, pulling or holding me back from getting to my goal and my health. So alcohol was one of those things.

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I've decided to go a year, so that would bring me to almost July of next year. I'm definitely flirting with just never drinking it again, but I don't know yet. Uh, because I do enjoy it.

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I mean, you know, I, I enjoy a good thing of scotch or bourbon, and I'll, you know, periodically get, like, an Old Fashioned or something when I'm out with my wife. Red wine.

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Like, I, I love, I love to have a good drink, you know? But right now, gonna make it a year and then kinda reevaluate when I get there. Love that. I'm- Yeah... I'm definitely a social drinker.

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Um, I don't drink a lot- Same... though, especially compared to- Yeah... like, uh, like my wife's family. They... I mean, they're both retired, so every single day- Sure...

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there's cocktail hour at like 5:00 or whatever, and- Yeah... on weekdays I, I don't drink at all. Um- Yeah. Yeah... but on the weekends, yeah, I'll crack a beer or something like that.

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Or I'll go, like, the light route and I'll be like, "Hey, get me a tequila soda. Get me a vodka soda." Right. Because, you know, I'm so, like, masculine.

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Yeah, I mean, that's what I was gonna say, too, is you're just incredibly masculine and, and, and just really good-looking.

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But besides that, I think what I've found, I'm a social drinker as well, or was before I gave up alcohol, and there was always a part of me that was like, "Uh, can I enjoy myself without this?"

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And would it be a stigma or stigmatized to those around me if I withheld? And what I found e- emphatically, one, I do still enjoy myself. I get a club soda with lime almost every time I go out, um, which I love.

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I mean, you see me drinking Spindrift all the time because I love Spindrift, and a club soda with lime tastes basically like, uh, you know, Spindrift.

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And no one ever asks, I don't think once in six months has anyone ever asked, like, "Oh, are you, are you sober?" Or w- like, w- like anything. The, no one's even- Yeah...

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acknowledged it, and I think now in 2024, almost 2025, like, we don't really have to... acknowledge. Like, it, it's very acceptable to just not drink for a number of reasons. Yeah. Yeah, I think that

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not drinking is definitely becoming more normalized. And you're right- Yeah...

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I think a lot of people don't want to stop because they're, especially, like, in the corporate world, if they go to a corporate event and a dinner and they're like, "Yeah, I'll just take a water," or whatever that drink might be, and it's not something alcoholic- Mm-hmm...

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they might fear that they'd be getting asked, like, "Oh, why don't you drink?" And then at that point they might be judging you, like, "Oh, did something happen?" Yeah. Like, all that stuff, right? Yeah. So I agree.

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I think it's, I think it's very normalized now. Um- Yeah... and I think it's honestly for the better. It's probably the- Yeah... one of the worst things for you, especially if you develop a, you know, an addiction to it.

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And so- Mm-hmm... um... Yes. I mean, it's wild. It does not take that much alcohol to totally change your actual overall health and diet. I mean, even social drinkers, I think, I think...

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This is my, this is my challenge to everyone watching this or listening to this,

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is cut out alcohol for 30 days, and I think you would actually be really surprised, one, how you feel and the difference that you feel, and two, how much you find in retrospect you were drinking.

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Because I think a lot of people, "Oh, I'm a social drinker." Like, you cut it out and you realize like, "Wait, I actually drank more than I thought I did." Like, Friday night, three, four drinks.

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Saturday night, you know, couple drinks with the guys. You drink while you're golfing, drink while you're... You know, and Sun- like, it adds up.

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12 drinks in a weekend, like, that's not nothing, and that's enough to change your entire diet and physique. So that's a challenge. Take it or leave it.

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Nothing against you if you don't take it, but I think 30 days without alcohol, you'll, you'll find a lot about yourself. I feel like I've always wanted to take a 30-day break, and I never have. Um, and who knows?

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Maybe there's that stigma where if I go over to my in-laws, I'm like, "Oh, I won't drink," but they drink, you know, like I said, a cocktail every single night. Yeah.

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I feel like there's a, a, a subconscious part of me where it's like, uh- Yeah... I feel like I need to have this drink. Um- Yeah... and my wife enjoys to have a beer and some wine, too. I actually hate wine- Mm-hmm...

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so that's something I don't drink. There you go. Yeah. Um, but she likes to have a beer on weekends, and I've- Which is okay... I know she'd be like, I know she'd be like, "Wait, you're not drinking?"

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Like, that's interesting. But- Yeah. Yeah... um- Yeah... who knows, man? Maybe I'll, maybe I'll- Yeah... take a break in 2025 at some point. We'll see. Well, I think that just about wraps it up here.

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I mean, we, uh, I don't have any questions for you, but I think this was a good episode. What do you think? I think that's a good episode.

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We don't have any more listener questions based on the last one, and I think we recorded two, and we'll probably record three or four more before the next one actually airs. So- Yeah...

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we don't have any listener questions. Drop those questions on LinkedIn- Drop those questions... on TikTok, on YouTube Shorts now, on Instagram Reels. Drop them. That's right. And let me say this- When you know...

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the handle is @twodadsintech on all social platforms. We also are at twodadsintech.com. That's where you can find where to listen and watch our podcast.

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We're also accepting sponsors deep into 2025, so if you or your company would like a beautiful, well-read 30 to 60 second ad slot by yours truly and/or Troy Monson, hit us up. You know where to find us.

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Troy Monson is a beautiful man, and he will read whatever you tell him to, no questions asked. You heard it here first. I will literally read anything. But all right, Daniel, this was a good episode. All right.

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Uh, what, what, what did we say that we were gonna do last time? Uh, I can't remember. Like, it was... Like, bye. Oh. Oh, oh. Oh, wait, wait. Um, oh, yeah... ASMR. Wait. Oh, is it? Oh, yeah.

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And please like and subscribe and all that stuff because this is how we feed our family. This is how we eat our food. Uh, so please. I, I literally have eaten three grains of rice for the last four days.

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Please, please, please, please, please subscribe. I actually lost 40 pounds because I haven't eaten in six months, and this is the only source of income for me.

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My son said that he did not want me to be his dad anymore if I did not make money off this podcast. So please.

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My son told me he prefers Troy Monson as his dad, and it actually has nothing to do with you [laughs] liking, subscribing. Um, a- anyways, we have to go now.

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[laughs]