Discover the intricacies of human connection as we navigate the subtle dance of communication, where every gesture and word can open doors or build walls between us. Our journey begins with a reflection on two high school students whose lives diverge due to their contrasting abilities to express themselves effectively. Their story is a powerful reminder that our paths are often paved by the quality of our interactions with those around us. As we dissect the art of communication, we'll uncover the pivotal role empathy plays and how nonverbal cues can speak volumes, often louder than words.
Have you ever contemplated how your body language might be shaping the narrative of your interactions without a single word being spoken? This episode peels back the curtain on the silent conversations we have every day, exploring how our stance, gestures, and expressions can comfort or challenge, sometimes without our conscious intent. We'll also tackle the cultural tapestry that colors our exchanges and the delicate balance needed to navigate these diverse waters with respect and understanding. Through practical insights and candid discussions, we're equipping you with the tools to communicate with confidence across any cultural divide.
Wrapping up our exploration, we sit down with the heartbeat behind Seller 54, where passion for wine and storytelling intertwine. In an intimate chat with the owner, we're uncorking the rich history and personal tales that have shaped this boutique brand into my personal favorite. It's a conversation that illustrates the profound link between our passions and how we share them with the world. So, pour yourself a glass and join us for a toast to the myriad ways we connect, convey, and captivate through the power of communication.
Discover the intricacies of human connection as we navigate the subtle dance of communication, where every gesture and word can open doors or build walls between us. Our journey begins with a reflection on two high school students whose lives diverge due to their contrasting abilities to express themselves effectively. Their story is a powerful reminder that our paths are often paved by the quality of our interactions with those around us. As we dissect the art of communication, we'll uncover the pivotal role empathy plays and how nonverbal cues can speak volumes, often louder than words.
Have you ever contemplated how your body language might be shaping the narrative of your interactions without a single word being spoken? This episode peels back the curtain on the silent conversations we have every day, exploring how our stance, gestures, and expressions can comfort or challenge, sometimes without our conscious intent. We'll also tackle the cultural tapestry that colors our exchanges and the delicate balance needed to navigate these diverse waters with respect and understanding. Through practical insights and candid discussions, we're equipping you with the tools to communicate with confidence across any cultural divide.
Wrapping up our exploration, we sit down with the heartbeat behind Seller 54, where passion for wine and storytelling intertwine. In an intimate chat with the owner, we're uncorking the rich history and personal tales that have shaped this boutique brand into my personal favorite. It's a conversation that illustrates the profound link between our passions and how we share them with the world. So, pour yourself a glass and join us for a toast to the myriad ways we connect, convey, and captivate through the power of communication.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Take a breath, let's dive in. I am not perfect and we all have things we need to work on, and that's okay. One of the areas that I am personally focusing on is how to communicate more effectively, and I think that most people in general have that same issue. Communication isn't simply just saying something and that is the end, all be all. Communication is listening and also comprehending, and there is an equal exchange, because without a certain level of understanding, then we cease to get our point across. Communication is also trust. When you trust someone, you tend to listen more to what they have to say.
Speaker 1:Communication is such a dynamic thing to think about and it's nuanced and it's multifaceted. For example, in a professional environment, you may have a mixed demographic of age groups. Maybe you have to work with a lady that is 60 years old or a gentleman that is 80 years old. In corporate America today, how I communicate with that person or those people is vastly different than how I communicate with an 18 year old or a 25 year old. Like I can say, dude, I can say what's up to younger people, but even in the professional environment, I didn't have to change how I speak to be understood If I don't say yes, ma'am, or yes, sir, regardless if I'm the superior of someone else, it's taken as a form of disrespect. So you have to navigate those social situations and know that you have to cater to your audience in order to get your point across. Sometimes you have to be round about with the younger generation, because if you shoot straight they don't listen, because more times than not everything's about feelings. And you know, for the older generation they may say, well, facts don't care about feelings. But again, if the point is to be understood, then you have to speak to your audience. How they understand you, and a lot of the times that's how you end up with toxic communications, because people may yell, people may talk at you as opposed to talking to you, and maybe they don't actively listen or even allow you to rebuttal. But we'll go back into that later on when we on the matter of toxic communication. But for now we're just going to focus on this communication in general and how communication can drastically alter your life, even if you've done nothing wrong.
Speaker 1:Here's an example. Say that you have two students in high school and one of them is extremely athletic and when it comes to academics they're a stellar performer and they make roughly 90 to 100 on their tests, homework, assignments and so forth. However, when it comes to group projects and, excuse me, when it comes to group projects, when it comes to class participation, they falter in that area Because they don't know how to. Maybe they're nervous when they're in groups, maybe they're shy, so they don't participate at the same level as the other students and maybe they don't raise their hand and engage with the teacher as often as the other students. Regardless, their academic merits are still 90 to 100. That student has now lost 25% of their entire great average because of the fact that they do not participate in the class or engage enough. On the other hand, you have another student that is not as academically gifted not, as you know, as not a stellar performer when in when matters of sports, they're not. They lack physicality. However, they're charismatic, they're charming, they know how to speak very well, they are sociable and they engage with all the other students and on average maybe they get a 78%. You know, 75, 78% average on homework, assignments and and so forth. Well, 25% of their overall grade is based on participation and that C student just became an A student because of class participation.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, one communicated better and so life favored them more because they knew how to engage with people. They knew how to connect and maybe that person that could connect more they're not necessarily qualified, they just have a better personality the person that was more qualified they got left behind. Neither person did anything wrong, it's just that one could connect and we can connect and form relationship relationships. Life tends to favors you more, the people that are more outgoing. They tend to be better public speakers. You know everyone likes the person that. They know that when they talk to them they feel understood and they can form relationships with. People don't tend to enjoy the company of others that there's awkward silence or they feel like there's tension or it just feels unnerving because you don't know how to relate to the other person. When you can't relate to something, what do you do? You avoid it, but again, in the snare that I just mentioned, neither person did anything wrong, but the world is going to perceive one as being better, and the one that's going to be perceived as better is the one that can be heard more, not the shy one.
Speaker 1:As I mentioned earlier, communication has to also deal with trust, and it's amazing that the other day I encountered something that was kind of profound and I laughed at it in the moment until I saw it come to light. So a friend of mine was telling me that their mom makes their dad die their beard and I laughed and I said, you know, if I was older I would love to just be gray, or you know, I can't wait until I start having that pepper-hered. Look, I know I'm 15 years away from that, but I'm looking forward to it personally. And in that moment, yes, you know, we laughed and we joked about it. And then I saw one of my neighbors that I hadn't seen in a while and I said, man, your beard looks like it's darker than mine. And he told me that his wife also told him to dye his beard. And that kind of added to this episode, because I realized something Both people dying their beard weren't dying their beard for them, they were dying their beard for their significant other.
Speaker 1:Because the truth of the matter is it's a roundabout way of saying, if I'm dyeing my hair and my hair has color and it's not gray, and your hair is gray, then the world knows how old I am, by proxy of you. So, instead of the significant other saying I don't want the world to know how old I really am, they go hey, husband, dye your beard, because that can be a touchy subject for some people. Some people don't want to get older and they don't want everyone to know how old they are. And yeah, and everyone has a different viewpoint on that, but it would take a great level of security to tell your significant other that I want you to dye your beard because I want to feel young. That's where communication and trust is important, because you want to trust that when you say something to another human being, that one, they're actively listening and two, if you say something, you're not going to be hurt by being vulnerable. And trust is such a key part in that. Being vulnerable is to be naked and to just let someone know you're in security. That's scary, I know.
Speaker 1:I myself. One of the areas that I think that I struggle in is professionally speaking. I communicate very well, I get my point across and I speak to individuals how they need to be spoken to. In my personal life, I realize that sometimes I tend to over talk. You know people sometimes and I cut them off, and I do it because I'm so excited because I'm always busy, I'm always doing things and I feel like everything that's in my head I just want to get it out because I hadn't seen my friends or maybe a family member in so long that I tend to occupy most of the conversation and I realize that now I have to kind of reel that in a little bit to give the other person more time to get their thoughts out and that just as I'm excited, they're excited too and in order to reciprocate that, I care I need to just shut up sometimes so that they can have room to breathe and talk, and when I'm over talking them, I'm cutting off how they feel, I'm cutting off their sense of security and it makes it seem like I'm selfish. Probably it also makes it seem like I'm self-centered or that it's all about me, and I had to take some time to think about that and my conclusion is that I need to slow down when speaking to people closest to me and treat it as if it was my professional in my professional life and I'm working and I'm growing in that area. But I'm happy that I'm working on it now because I see that so many people are struggling in it and I know that I'm not the only one and communication is different for every human being.
Speaker 1:I had the privilege of learning about the art of rhetoric, the art of public speaking, and had amazing professors to help me become a great professional speaker, but not a great personal speaker in my everyday life. And, yes, it's nice when you can deliver a speech. It's nice when you feel comfortable in your own skin talking to strangers and how easy it may be. But then the people closest to you it's harder to communicate with them at times because they know who you are. Think about how vulnerable you feel just to stare in someone's eyes Like anyone you could be your best friend. Try staring into their eyes. Just look into their eyes for 30 seconds, see how unnerving that is, and that's your best friend, you know. Or or your significant others. It just makes you feel naked and that's a scary place to be. All right, let's switch gears a bit. If Communication is Not your strong suit, let's go into Five areas in which I think it can help you. It's helping me currently as we speak, and if something works, I like to share it with others so they can have it as a benefit in their life. So we're gonna start off with.
Speaker 1:If you want to be an effective communicator, you have to actively Listen to the person you are speaking to or the groups of people you're speaking with. It's important to pay attention and genuinely understand, know what the other person is saying without interrupting. Does someone speaking? Let them speak and don't just Rush in and cut them off. I'm guilty of that personally, and the reason being is that by you allowing someone to get it all out, it helps to build rapport. You know the other person can truly feel like you know what. You're not interrupting me. I can now trust you and also Give you the same respect that you have given me, and in the perfect world, that's hard work. I'm not saying that it's perfect, but chances are. If you take the moral high ground and Always Choose to listen, you're not interrupt. You can always understand where the other person is coming from.
Speaker 1:Secondly, and you always want to be clear and concise in your messaging, be straightforward and you want to avoid unnecessary jargon, and what jargon is is basically people who Speak in certain terminologies that are specific to them. So if you are a Doctor and you only use medical terms and you're speaking to an everyday person and Instead of saying you know you say cardiac arrest as opposed to saying heart attack, then Most people might not know what cardiac cardiac arrest is, but most people may know what a heart attack is. So that's why clear and concise messaging is important. The other component to and I'll dive into this more later is nonverbal communication. Your body language, your facial expressions, gestures those are also messages that can Indicate whether or not you're paying attention. If someone's speaking to you and you're on your phone, that might not be a good, good way to say that hey, I'm listening to you. It's important to be aware of, you know these things, because Sometimes they completely contradict the message that you're trying to have the other person receive.
Speaker 1:I Think that Empathy also gets overlooked when we're communicating with others, understanding and sharing feelings you know of other people. It really enhances the communications because if you're coming from the viewpoint of I understand, and that understanding is is conveyed, then chances are you know you have. The goal is to build trust and I think that outcome is more than likely guaranteed. It's not always going to be Perfect, but empathy definitely helps when resolving conflicts, because if you don't understand me, I don't understand you, then we have resolved nothing, we have built nothing and we are going nowhere. And, lastly, feedback is essential. When someone's speaking to you, you want to always give them feedback. You know this can help the person that's giving you information. Or if you're giving them information, it you're getting the clarification. You know the clarification, it's okay, this is how I think, or this is how I feel. And or you know, or saying, I don't understand. You know you're letting the person know that, hey, more information is needed. Or you know let's dive deeper. Or or you're saying, or you can say that, hey, I got it, message received. In either way, the feedback portion of speaking with someone is essential, because that's how the resolution takes place. Whatever the resolution is, resolution doesn't necessarily mean that two individuals or a group of people are having a fight with each other. The resolution means that we have left the situation with full understanding of what was being conveyed, and that's important. So I definitely want to take the time to go into um things that lead to toxic communications or create toxic communication.
Speaker 1:Before that, though, I want to dive back into nonverbal communication and how that can significantly impact verbal communication in multiple ways. You know, as I was saying earlier, you know nonverbal communication can either reinforce or contradict the message that someone is trying to to communicate. You know nonverbal cues can. They can either reinforce what a person's verbally saying or it could just be like the the bomb that goes off right. For example, a person might say they're I'm doing great, I'm fine, and you know their facial expressions saying I'm red, hot like a chili pepper. You know it. It it can add emotions, like nonverbal communication can sometimes Be out of emotional context. You know the tone of your voice. Your body language can help express feelings like happiness or anger, or like I'm surprised, afraid, or you know, or many other things. So what are you doing those situations? You have to be aware of what your body is doing when you're speaking to people. You know if you're talking to someone and you're not looking them in the eye or you seem distracted, what kind of message are you trying to say? But regardless, whenever someone's speaking to you, they're, they're Looking at you for reassurance and they want to feel like they're being heard. So it's important to be aware of whatever your nonverbal cues are or what your body is doing when you're speaking to other people. You know Nonverbal communication can reveal the nature of relationships between people.
Speaker 1:You know, for example, the dispens, you know, people maintain between each other. Their body, language, body orientation and touch can indicate a level of comfort or intimacy or dominance. You know, there, there are some times and I'm sure you know we've seen this in passing that two individuals are speaking and it's as if One person is trying to make themselves as small as possible and the other person may be trying to make themselves as large as possible, and that's, you know, messaging in itself, and we could look at it as one person is being dominant and the other person is being dominated, or the other person may seem, you know, like they're being controlled or what have you. This is again the outsider's perspective, but how we speak, in our, in our body, gestures, they, they also convey a message, and we want to always be aware of what that message is, is conveying or how it can be perceived. Here's a few tips that I would like to share that could enhance Some positive communication.
Speaker 1:You know, when speaking with others, it's important to Remember that communication is a two-way street. One person cannot dominate a conversation. Multitasking when, when speaking with other people, can be seen as being disrespectful. You want to give individuals your undivided attention at all times when you know you're talking with another person or groups of people. Clarity is important and sometimes, when You're too wordy, it may seem as though You're trying to To not be genuine or you don't know how to, how to get your point across. Simplicity is important when a complication, when a conversation is overly complex, that means the message is not being received and therefore understanding is not being had.
Speaker 1:And listening Doesn't just involve you know you just responding to something, because If you're just responding, that means you're hearing. Remember, listening Means understanding, listening means attentiveness and listening ultimately also means care. So there has to be an ethic of care involved to actively listen. And when we were speaking about nonverbal cues and body languages, if you're Folding your arms while listening, or folding your arms while someone's speaking to you, that means you're closed off from it. Your body language is conveying that I don't want to hear this, I don't. But if I'm open, my arms are open. That means I'm also Open to receive whatever it is that you're trying to give me or or trying to convey for lack of know, a better terminology.
Speaker 1:And we also have to take into consideration cultural differences when we talk to people. I think that's something that's completely overlooked in communication in general is cultural differences. You know, maybe the cultural differences is simply a difference in age, or it could be a difference in race or ethnicity, and we have to be aware of those things. In some cultures it's and I've mentioned this before it's not polite to stare someone in the eyes right, and so you have to be aware of that. Maybe that's why someone doesn't want to talk to you, because they feel like you're disrespecting them. Some cultures, people, don't shake hands, and so we have to be culturally aware of who is around us, because everyone's equally important and everyone you know gets to have a say. You never want someone leaving feeling that they're not valued because you're not acknowledging the cultural differences between the individuals.
Speaker 1:And sure you can have the mindset and mentality that well, this is America. But at the end of the day, america is a melting pot and so long as everyone is here, we have to get along with each other. So you might as well not try to disrespect an individual if it can be avoided. So cultural the differences definitely matter. You know, you have to remember that you can't speak to everyone the same way, and cultural differences could also mean that we're all the same race, but the generation, the generational gap, separates the things that we like. So, you know, if you're a person that's 25 years old and you're in a working environment where everyone's a baby boomer, chances are you can't just talk about video games. You have to talk about things that everyone kind of have an understanding of, because the age gap separates us and our experience separates us and we could be of the same race, but that doesn't matter because we still have our own cultural differences, regardless of what our races are.
Speaker 1:You know, in preparing for this episode, I started to think about marketing and branding and things of that nature, and I've realized that throughout history, communication is something that has always been weaponized, whether we know it or not. Communication is a weapon, and weaponizing communication essentially means that using communication strategies or like information with the intent to harm or manipulate others. What I must emphasize that this is unethical, because it completely is unethical. It's important to understand that these tactics exist and you have to be aware of them so that you can protect who you are, you know, as a person and in those you love, and you can't protect or understand something unless you take the time to study it, for example, propaganda.
Speaker 1:You know, in this case, this involves spreading information, specifically, that's biased in nature, right, and everyone knows that. It's biased and misleading and it influences people's attitudes, their beliefs, their actions, and this is mostly in political context. And, you know, the most important thing is to be aware of the fact that you're not just a person. You're a person who has a lot of connections, and this is mostly in political context. And you know, the most famous example of this is is Hitler's Germany. That's the perfect example of how propaganda can be used. The second you know context in which it's commonly used is the young Americans that signed up. That, you know, to be a part of the Second World War. You had teenagers ready to go. It wasn't just because of a draft, there were people who were ready to go. Not saying it's good or bad, I'm just saying that propaganda. Look at, look at diamonds. You know diamonds are a girl's best friend.
Speaker 1:The information and who we are as people today came from somewhere. Things that we believe, the way we shop, communication. Something was communicated to us and we live those things. You know. A new terminology that's, you know, came up in recent years as well is gaslighting, and gaslighting, you know, this is simply a form of psychological manipulation where someone tries to make another person doubt their own perception, memories or sanity, and this can be done through constant denial of facts, dismissal of feelings or testing of information. Again, I'm sure we all know someone that does this, and if we don't, it's important to be aware that people do these things in our everyday lives, and this is just regular communication that we may not even realize that it's taking place.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you go around an individual and you don't know why is it that whenever you're around them you feel uplifted and inspired and you feel like you could accomplish anything. And there are other times you go around an individual and you feel constricted. You feel like your thoughts are not where they need to be. You feel constrained or you feel small or you don't feel free. You feel as though you can't be yourself. Maybe that's being taken place, you know, in different forms of communication. You know like someone dog whistling and this could be a coded message that you know is innocent to some people of a different generation, but it could completely mean something different for someone that's, you know, being targeted. It's definitely one of those things that I personally think it's dumb, but it does happen.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's also character assassination and this involves like simple things, like in any, whether it's the work environment or a high school, or, you know, a playground in the kindergarten. You know when someone spread rumors or lies or just tell half truths to damage the reputation of another person or group, and this is done in a lot of personal relationships. You know, when you have a large friend groups, this is done in the workplace or in a public sphere, like you know college. You know where maybe you're just succeeding a little bit better than everyone else around you, and so the rumors ensue, the choppy down a peg. If you know what's going on, then you know how to handle it better.
Speaker 1:And some people, whether it's politically speaking or professionally speaking, they use fear mongering in order to be in power. So instead of someone building up, you know, a relationship of understanding and trust and respect, what they do is they tell you worst case scenarios. They tell you things to make you always on edge so they can constantly be in control, and that's abusive. But let's just be honest with each other. Everyone I'm sure that most people knows circumstances in which there's someone that always tells you worst case scenario, as if that's the worst case scenario, and it's the only scenario that is possible, and you do everything, you work faster or you do more because someone told you something that man, the consequences of not getting this thing done or not getting it done fast enough is it's going to be devastating, it's toward detriment and that's also manipulation. But again, it's something that we face in our everyday lives. Now I want everyone to remember that communication should be used to build understanding and trust and respect and not to manipulate and harm others. It's important to identify like these things, like when you see them, and be like you know what that's gaslighting, you know what that's fear mongering.
Speaker 1:Oh, this commercial is definitely propaganda. The things that we see and the things that we say and the things that we hear, sometimes they're a lot bigger than what we make them out to be. You know, I'd like to convey that and all of the schooling that I've ever done and I'm sure most people have done, and there's far more people that are more qualified and will verse to speak on this, the subject of communication, than myself, and I'm acutely aware of that. But rarely have I ever come across, and I don't think that I have come across that in any of the communication classes that I've taken or leadership classes that I've taken, I don't think that any of them have ever mentioned introspection and or communicating with yourself. And I'm not referring to the people who talk to themselves and then respond out loud. It's not what I'm referring to.
Speaker 1:What I am talking about is if we are able to communicate what with ourselves, effectively meaning we know what we want, we know what we don't like, we are confident in the things that we believe and we have the tough conversations with ourselves, like, for example, if I say, am I a good communicator? That's me having a conversation with myself. I don't know. Let me analyze this. Oh, yes, I cut people off when that I'm close to, when I'm talking to them. That's not good communication. Okay, how did I arrive to that point? I arrived there by asking myself that question Am I financially versed? Let's see. I believe in saving, I believe in investing, I do the necessary things to have a great future. Okay, I asked myself a question.
Speaker 1:I internalized, I reflected, I was able to come to the conclusion that, yes, but communication has to start with you. The more self-aware that you are is, the better your communication is going to be with others. Then the expression that self-love is important, but love starts with you, and if you don't love yourself, you cannot love others, because love has to come from you. Therefore, my conclusion is if you cannot communicate with yourself, how can you communicate with others? If you don't know who you are, if you don't know what it is that you want, how can someone else know those things? If you're lost, you're the perfect target for someone to gaslight. You're the perfect target for someone to use fear mongering tactics against. You're the perfect specimen for propaganda, because you don't think internally. How does my actions affect those around me? What do I believe in? Where do I stand? What are my boundaries? If you're not asking yourself these questions? That also goes in line with maybe that's why your New Year's resolution never come true, and you know.
Speaker 1:What's also important is that not everyone is going to be able to give some immaculate speech. Not everyone speaks eloquently, that's true, but there is someone that does whatever it is that you do better than you. Maybe watch a couple of YouTube videos on how to navigate, communicating in the workplace. Youtube's available, tiktok's available. All these resources are available. Maybe you don't understand that. You know you're bad at communicating, and you do you are, but you know that someone else is better than you. Maybe ask them what they do that you don't, you know. I believe in a system of having a coach and I believe in going to those who know more than I do and surrounding myself with people like that. They're far better and I think that lowers the times of take for me to get to where I need to be. I'm not perfect by any means when it comes to communicating, and I'm working on being better because I want those they're in my personal life to have the same level of appreciation that those in my professional life do, because, at the end of the day, they're not perfect, because at the end of the day, they matter more. So we have to think about that. You know, as I mentioned in a previous episode, that in every episode that I release, my goal is also to share a story about life experiences that I've had, because I want all of you to have a deeper understanding of who I am. My aim is to have my platform grow so I have the strength numerical strength and reach to confront the things in society or in my personal life that I'm not at the level to do as of yet, and so, in being as honest as I possibly can be, my aim is to grow with all of you out there. I'm relatively still new to this podcasting thing, but I think that people tend to like things they understand and, again, my goal is to be understood, and so, being that this episode is about communication, I would like to share a story about communication with you In one of my internships.
Speaker 1:I was a paid internship and it paid very well and, being on the younger side of things, when you're being paid well, it's a great feeling, because now we can. You know, I've always been a saver and, regardless of the fact that it was an internship, I still worked full time. I still went to college full time and I interned full time as well. I wasn't dating anyone. I just had school, the gym and my job, internship. So I was literally. I was not spending money, I was simply just making money and starting out.
Speaker 1:The internship wasn't bad in itself. The corporation wasn't bad. It was actually a great corporation and it was relatively new as well, so it had a lot of life and vibrancy. I think where the corporation went wrong was with their lower leadership, everyone in the higher leadership positions. They were seasoned, they had, you know, multiple job experiences in the financial industry and that's where it was. It was in the financial industry and confidence that comes with people who have experience in what they do and they're great at what they do genuinely, and when they speak, you actively listen, because it's like being given gems or nuggets of gold that you get to take with you. And that was and I consider that an investment, just to even have a conversation with some of these upper management people.
Speaker 1:The lower level management of things were complete opposite. There were people who were insecure, very, you know, manipulative and the you know the olden days terminology of like complete slave drivers. And you know they were extremely belittling, had very unrealistic expectations and just lazy. And, to make matters worse, you know, there were people who were, you know, closer in age to the interns. So the fact that you know, like you have, like these I mean I'm not saying I'm saying this, you know, with a grain of salt I don't think that because someone graduated from college, it makes them better than people who did not go to college or what have you.
Speaker 1:College is no indication of like how intelligent a person is. There's lots of amazing people that didn't even graduate or didn't go to college, that have completely revolutionized the world of today. And you look at people like Mark Zuckerberg, I don't like him personally, but he didn't finish college. When you look at people like Bill Gates, I don't like him, but he's still, you know, an intelligent person that has done extremely well and has completely revolutionized the world around us.
Speaker 1:But there's a difference between a person that is confident and a person that is insecure, that is constantly surrounded by people who are younger than them, that are doing better than them, and these people didn't treat the interns with any form of respect whatsoever, like the belittling, the cond, you know, just the condescending comments, the constant micro management. And I remember one of the other interns, completely brilliant guy, and he never made a mistake ever, and I remember the team lead at the time was just constantly just Looking for things, you know, just looking for things to just make a problem, essentially To just show how you know how much authority they held or what have you. And he made his first mistake as a result, because someone's constantly being a burden and they're just, you know, hovering over you and it makes you nervous because you're not used to that kind of stress, and neither was I. And then I made my first mistake. Just even witnessing that, I made my first mistake. And the more the condescending, you know, things would occur in the belittling comments and the micro-management, the more mistake all of us made. And we're all top tier students. And again, this is a paid internship and it wasn't a situation in which we were even competing against each other in the sense that, oh, only two job slots would be available. It was one of those things where everyone there was so qualified that all of us, unless we didn't want to, could get a job, you know, directly after internship. But by the end of it, none of us actually finished that internship.
Speaker 1:And I remember the final straw, like that day, like we were there with each other and the supervisor, you know, made a mistake and the supervisor, as opposed to owning their mistake, was saying things like you know, if I had better help, you know this wouldn't happen and you guys suck, and things of that nature. And you know I'm one of those people that I'm always calm and reserved, you know, until I'm like, okay, this is a level of my threshold. It has to do with respect, especially if I give an individual respect and I realize that something is being harmful to me. I will always retaliate, because there's a point in which someone is being critical and professional and there's also a fine line when someone is being just a piece of crap and just you know, just again would not take any responsibility for their actions, for their direct mistake. And I remember looking at the person that day. I looked at them. You know, I literally I took my badge off and I looked at the person and I said STFU.
Speaker 1:And I remember saying you are one of the dumbest people I've ever encountered in my entire life and you are over us and we're all more brilliant than you are. Like, where do you get off? Like, like I said, great people who do great things every single day, who are good people, should never have to be subjected to someone that is incompetent and insecure. It wasn't our negligence that led to this mistake, it was your incompetence. You are one of the dumbest, effing people that I've ever met. I was like I don't know how you got this job. I really don't. And then I said the worst part is that you're over all of us and we're all brilliant. Like, none of us have ever made a mistake until you started doing the things that you were doing, like the constant burden and what have you.
Speaker 1:And when, when, by the time I was, I was done and you know, honestly, like I did it out of, like you know I was just like this is enough, this is the money doesn't matter. I was like I already have a job by the time I was done. Now, three of us left at the same time, and then this, this other person whom we know, we never really spoke to, they left too. So four of us total left that internship together that day because it was we had enough.
Speaker 1:And in any situation today that can happen, where, if you're not communicating respectfully, if you're not taking the other people's thoughts and feelings into account, you can't blame them for leaving and never wanted to come back. There's a certain point where the money isn't enough, when your, your mental health is being affected by your environment, it's time to leave. And if someone is constantly being in some way in my personal view, like abusive and you're constantly just listening to this, day in and day out, all that stress and all that anger, you're holding onto it. It's not going anywhere and you're hearing that over and over again. Eventually, a dam is going to break. Just so happens that that day did, and they lost four of us in one day. So be mindful of what you say and how you treat people, because communication truly matters, and if you're not good at communicating, let's change that.
Speaker 1:And once again, you know, thank you so much. Thank you, thank you and thank you. I'm so happy with how everything is going and I just want to continue growing with everyone. It was very privileged to see that the podcast has reached, you know, a total of 17 countries and to know that in 17 countries, individuals care enough to tune in and listen. That's a very, very big deal to me and I'm grateful and just so blessed to be able to have people tuning in, and I'm grateful for that. So thank you.
Speaker 1:The next episode will be an interview with the owner of my favorite wine company. So let's talk about Seller 54. In the next episode, you guys will get to learn the origins of my favorite wine and the history behind. You know the owner, and maybe you guys will check out the wine yourselves and also fall in love with it. So once again, thank you, magnificent ones, for everything. Thank you for subscribing, you know. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for your likes, thank you for everything you know. I'm truly, truly happy and thank you for the growth that I'm receiving and just know that there's so much more to come and I am working diligently to make sure that all that comes in due time. Thank you.