Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Looking Back: Link Escaped a Pyramid Scheme

Episode Date: June 27, 2022

While Rhett and Link are out on vacation, check out this 2nd throwback episode Link details how he was able to escape a pyramid scheme multiple times. Link also explains what happened when he took Rhett's advice on staring at his neighbor while he showers, and they finally settle how to end an email...or not. Originally aired 10/27/2019. If you want new episodes, be sure to follow Dispatches From Myrtle Beach, Link's new podcast with his dad! Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Don't miss the biggest Mythical live event of the year! Visit MythiConTickets.com for more info! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Ramble. Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation.

And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I'm Link.

And I'm Rhett. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we're throwing it back another time because we're still on vacation and we've got an episode from the archives, specifically the 211th episode that we would like to present to you today because we think it's worth listening to again

or again for the first time. You wanna know about how I escaped a pyramid scheme? Yes. Well, that's what I taught. I talked about all of my experiences with pyramid schemes. I had multiple. And we actually learned the difference between a pyramid scheme and a multi-level marketing scheme.

This is also the episode where I was talking about, it was like the second, it was like a middle installment, I don't know if it's the second one, about my window in my shower. Oh, that your neighbor could see you shower. Yeah, and like you, I mean, you had told me in a previous episode. I gave you some advice.

Yeah, so then- This is how that turned out. This is me reporting on that, which then I'm pretty sure this is planting the seed for one of the first vlogs that we did when we started vlogging on the Rhett and Link channel. Oh yes. Sore subject for some that we're not doing it.

But hey, it's nice to know. You can't do everything. That was the genesis of it. Also very interested to hear how this went because I can't remember what we said. The best way to end an email. Is it with thanks? Is it with best?

Is it kind regards? How do you end an email. Is it with thanks? Is it with best? Is it kind regards? How do you end an email? The world wants to know. Have at it. And hey, just wanna remind you, if you want a fresh new episode of a podcast, my fresh new podcast with my dad, "'Dispatches from Myrtle Beach' comes out every Thursday.

So listen to it this Thursday and catch up on the last ones, all right? Please enjoy this episode of Ear Biscuits. This week at the Round Table of Dim Lighting, we're gonna answer the question, how did I, Link, the guy who escaped a pyramid scheme, escape a pyramid scheme? Okay, you've got me, I've clicked.

You wouldn't have been able to hear anything unless you would have somehow clicked play someplace. So we're gonna explore that question. And we're gonna explore that via a question that we received from a Mythical Beast and some other questions that we received. We're gonna give our best, we're putting our advice hats on.

We're gonna be talking about multi-level marketing, our personal experiences with that. We might work up some ire. We might get angry or we might get happy. We might laugh, we might cry. I think. We might offend somebody. I think you might get angry. I don't think it's about us getting angry.

I think some people will feel attacked, but that will be unintentional if that happens. Before we get into those questions, do wanna say, we got a lot to be excited about around here. It seems like every single year, at the end of the year, like starting around October. October's a- Things get busy for the Rhettster and the Linkster.

A mythical month, you know? We always got things happening in the month of October. October 11th, your birthday. My birthday, but we got, of course, our novel, The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek, coming out on October 29th, and the Bleak Creek Conversations and all that goes along with that.

But we're doing something very, very special. We are celebrating with a Carolina classic. We're gonna throw a big pig picking party here at the Mythical Studio. We're calling it the Bleak Creek Barbecue Bonanza. We're gonna do it as authentically as we possibly can. If anything is worth doing, it's worth doing with pig. I mean, and there's a very.

That's, I don't know, I can't stand by that statement. Anything worth doing is worth adding, is worth doing with a pig picking. Okay, good. Pig picking. Which is the scene of the opening chapter of Lost Causes of Bleak Creek is a pig picking. Yeah, and it's also what we have used

to signify big moments in our lives, at least growing up. So we were like, why don't we bring this to LA? Can't you do a pig picking in LA? Let's figure out how, and this brings a mythical beast out. Pre-order the book, it's good for everybody. You wanna go ahead and get into one of these questions though?

Yeah, after the break, we'll get into the multi-level marketing, but I wanna give, we have a question about showers, and it's a good occasion for me to give an update on your shower advice from last week because I did take it. But let's read the question. This question comes from Falling Star Girl.

My boyfriend leaves the shower curtain open after he takes a shower. It drives me nuts. I don't like the inside of my shower being exposed. Plus, I spent good money on the curtain to complete my bathroom decor. What do you guys think of this? He leaves the shower open, but the curtain,

I would call that meaning the curtain is scrunched. It's closed up on itself, but which leaves the shower open. We all know what's happening here. I don't think anyone needed that clarification. Well, you know. But I know your brain works in a strange way, so. I needed it. It's fine that you said it out loud.

I mean, I'm feeling your pain because if you leave a shower curtain scrunched up, it starts to get that pink stuff on it. How on earth, of all the things that could grow, even in a damp shower-like environment, how could it turn a shower curtain pink? Do you know what I'm talking about? I think that might be from you and your family.

My family doesn't generate pink mold. You've never seen like a pink residue on a shower curtain? I've seen like a- Growing up, I've seen like a gray- I remember seeing that a lot. Maybe like a brown mildew of some kind. But pink? That might have been something else. That could have been an alien.

I distinctly remember we had like a, you know you got the decorative shower curtain which might be made of fabric or something, but then you got the plastic shower curtain on the inside which, you know, keeps all the moisture in. And that thing became pink at the bottom. And slimy probably. And slimy. Well, thankfully, I currently.

It might have been because of the pyramid scheme. I currently do not have to deal with a shower curtain because our shower has a door and actually the last, every house I've ever lived in in California has had a shower door and not a shower curtain. Must be because of the earthquakes. You don't want that curtain wrapping around you during the big one.

You don't have a bathtub with a shower in it. I mean that's really when you got, you know you gotta have a shower curtain when you're taking a shower in a bathtub. But I know growing up. Which is how I grew up. My brother and I had a traditional bathtub with a shower in it and I know that we kept that thing

open all the time because it was just a boy's bathroom and I know my mom would come in there after she cleaned things up and like close it again and then we would just open it again because it's just a boy's bathroom. And I know my mom would come in there after she cleaned things up and like close it again and then we would just open it again because like why? I just, I feel your pain. I don't know how you motivate your boyfriend because it's one of those things that like if you really, there's so many things that I care about, you know?

It's like I go in after my kids and I turn off the lights and I close their drawers and I pick up their clothes and towels off the floor. Like I cannot get my sons to pick up the towel. I'll sing a lot of Lincoln. I can't get her to pick up the towel off the floor. Or like the clothes that he took off before he got in the shower.

And I've tried all types of things and I have not succeeded. I don't know how to do it. And you know, you know how it's gonna stop? Just don't go in there. When they move out. And then they begin managing themselves. I know but she doesn't just want her boyfriend to move out.

She wants to have some sort of hope. I just wish I had a simple solution. I mean it's the right thing to do, not just for decorative purposes but also for sanitary purposes. Maybe if you like take a microscopic image of that slimy stuff that he's helping create, it's kinda like when you look under your fingernails,

the stuff under your fingernails under a microscope, you won't bite your fingernails anymore. Well what if, I mean, when did you recently, when did you recently show me videos of, was this a Mythical Society thing? Where you showed me videos of you going around your kids? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's right.

I got so frustrated going behind him and turning off the lights and picking up all the stuff that I would video me doing all of it and then send them the video. But the key point you're leaving out is you would make disgruntled sounds without speaking. You would just communicate like the way that humans communicated before we had words.

I was grunting. And you were grunting your disgust and your disappointment in them. Well in the second video I kept saying, why, why, why are these underwear in the sink? I think you should stick with the grunts, man. Don't resort to language because you're trying to connect with a deeper part of their brain,

like the impulsive part of their brain that is, we're not talking about the neocortex at this point, right? You're trying to get down into the instinctive parts of the brain to change deeply rooted behaviors. So I think that what falling star girl could do is she could video herself, first of all, get a closeup of the wrinkled up shower curtain and hopefully some mold, even if you need it.

Oh, you like my idea. Even if you need to add a little mold to get some kind of culture started there, you get and you get a closeup of that and you make a whatever your disgruntled sound is, and then you have yourself opening the shower curtain. Again, you're not saying anything, you're not confronting them in the moment,

you're not confronting them when he's at the house. You just send him these videos and you do it every single day. Eventually, he's going to get tired of seeing these videos and then he'll start, it'll change his behavior. I did it two days in a row and then my kids just kind of, they laugh at me. It just wasn't that effective.

It's so much easier, first of all, she's dealing with an adult man. And I'm not? What are you saying? You're dealing with, oh. You're dealing with children. And also, what you're doing is intruding in some respects on their space.

I know you're their dad, but you're going into like their personal area and doing like a controlling dad kind of thing. Yeah. This is the shower that they share. So, you know, I feel like this is a slightly different territory, but I think your technique is sound. I just think she needs to take your,

you need to stop your technique and transfer it to a falling star girl and she needs to do it on a regular basis and I think it will impact the behavior of her boyfriend. I think something really embarrassing needs to be inside the shower that he's gonna want to hide by closing the curtain. Like...

A picture of him naked. Yeah. So even when he's not in the shower naked, he's always in the shower naked. You know when he's inside the shower naked, he closes it because he doesn't wanna expose himself. But if you take a picture and then go to like, what is that, bighead.com is a place you can get things blown up to like paste onto the wall.

Not a sponsor. Not a sponsor. I don't even know if that's it but. I think that is it. Take a picture with a high res camera. You know, when you blow things up, you want it to be, you want the detail to be there and then you just vinyl paste him on the inside of the shower.

Now you're gonna have to deal with that when you take a shower, but he will, I guarantee you he will close that shower curtain from here on out. Don't, forget about the videos. Or you could just use like permanent marker and just write his secrets inside of the shower. Yeah.

That is fun though. Yeah. Speaking of getting in the shower. I wanna hear your update, but what is it? Fathead.com, again, still not a sponsor. Not Big Head, Fat Head. I wanna hear your update, but this does remind me, because I wanna ask if you remember this

when you were in England. I noticed it in Scotland, but then when we got to England, until we got to the London Hotel, which had a normal walk-in shower with a door, every single shower that I used in the UK, no shower curtain, and I'm talking bathtub with shower built in, so traditional, but there is a glass door that is on a swivel

that only goes halfway down the bathtub. So did you see this? I saw it in five different places. So there's a bathtub and then there's like a plexiglass wall built above the bathtub that then- Only goes, it goes from like the, you know, you got the shower head coming out of the wall. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

And coming from that wall, you have- It comes out three quarters. It comes out half, 50% of the way, not three quarters. Yeah, so when you're standing in the tub taking a shower, all the water and you're standing in the middle of the tub, that's where the plexiglass ends and the water bounces off of you. It's assuming that no water goes past you.

If the water passes you, which it did. I mean listen, I'm an American and I guess I shower in a particular American way because what I found is that in my dad, in my mom, in my brother, in my sister-in-law, in my wife, and everybody that was with me was like, we're getting water all over the floor. When we went to London, we had the same thing, yeah.

What is it, what are we doing wrong or what are they doing wrong? Because this is not a good design. How is this a good design? Yeah, I mean water's all over the floor. That did happen to me in the Airbnb that we were staying in. What are we missing? Could you just hashtag Ear Biscuits,

explain that to us on the internet because I don't know. Do you guys wear like a large sponge while you shower that absorbs all the excess water. I don't know how you overcome this. They're like constantly trying to block all of the water and bounce it back into the. I don't wanna be thinking about that when I'm showering. It's high pressure.

Well, low pressure in some places. Well, if it's low pressure, that helps, but it's a high pressure situation. Anxiety. I have a door on my shower, not a shower curtain. That fully seals. Oh yeah, but the thing that I'll do is I have a door on my shower, not a shower curtain. That fully seals. Oh yeah, but the thing that I'll do

is when I get out of the shower, I annoy Christy because I leave the door open so that all of the moisture in the side of the shower can dissipate more quickly than if you close, if you seal it back up and then it just stays wet and I think that's when you start to produce, bacteria starts to grow. Pink mold.

I fear that pink slime. I've noticed. But then Christy has told me a couple of times that it's a totally clear glass door that when I leave it open, she's ran into it a couple of times. So now I have to just leave it cracked a little bit. Just leave a little gap in it.

You think about a lot of other things than the things that I think about. I know, I'm gonna die young. I'm gonna die young, man, but I've thought so hard. I've never thought about this particular thing. I just get out of the shower. I don't know, I couldn't tell you what happens. Well, this morning and yesterday morning

and for, well how long has it been? Yeah, well I've tried it a few times. I've tried your advice, okay? Stare down. I get in the shower, I look out the window, on the previous podcast you told me, don't try to hide from your neighbor when he's driving into work,

just give him, assert your dominance. Right. Well I'm lathering up and here he comes getting in his car, he's facing me, sitting in the driver's seat before he puts it in reverse and looks behind him, I'm like oh gosh this is it. Yep. And I instinctively started hunching,

I was like come on Link, pull it together. Yeah, moment of truth. Be dominant. I was actually washing my face at the time, so I had to stop so I could stare at him, so my forehead was lathered up. Okay, this is changing everything. I got a lathered up forehead.

I don't know, I don't know. I'd already done the shampoo, so I had a low lather right at the brow. Okay. And I'm just looking at the guy, hoping that he does not look at me. But he's not close enough that I can immediately tell, you know, with the reflection on the windshield

and everything, and I'm like, just hold your ground. Maybe he'll put it in reverse and take off. Right. And I'm like, yes, I can tell he put it in reverse, and then he's gonna look over his shoulder. And apparently he wasn't looking at me he's like gonna look over his shoulder and apparently he wasn't looking at me until he started to look over his shoulder to back up and I noticed he started to turn and then boop,

he looked back, he had noticed something. Right. Me. Naked bathing man neighbor asserting his dominance. With a light lather. On his forehead. He saw me, he definitely saw me. Uh-huh.

And I just. You held your ground? I flinched. Oh gosh. But I didn't duck. I didn't like. You flinched. I didn't like and like fall down. I flinched and then I,

I don't even think he picked up on the flinch. And then I just looked at him and he like, he looked at me, man, and then he put it in reverse and he took off. Can I see what the stare is that you're making? Well it's a long ways, like picture suds on my forehead. Because I'm realizing that my advice could backfire at this point.

I was washing my face. Because if you're doing. I have a special face brush. Because. I'm washing my, here I'm you're doing it. I have a special face brush. Because. I'm washing my, here I'm doing it. Okay. Look at me. All right. I'm washing my forehead with the face brush.

Face brush. I got a special brush for my face. It's round, I go in a circular pattern like my mom taught me back when I used to use her Noxzema. She's like, this is how you don't get zits, son. Wash your face in a circular pattern. So I have my own face brush and I'm doing that and then all of a sudden I see him up there,

he is, and I lower the face brush and I just, this, this is what I did. That's the look? Yeah. Don't blame it on the look. He couldn't see the details. Well, I just. He knew I was looking at him.

I do know that. We should have practiced because that look can be misinterpreted as you're interested. Oh. What, no it doesn't, I'm just looking, I'm just, I'm just. I mean you're in your shower though, think about it for a second. It's gotta be intimidating, almost like children

of the corn. Like lowering the eyebrows. It's gotta be intimidating. Almost like Children of the Corn. Like lowering the eyebrows? It just can't seem in the least bit seductive. Nothing that you're gonna say now is helpful because it's too freaking late. The next day after that, I'm taking a shower and I'm like, oh yeah, the stare down. And I look out there, the car's gone.

Oh, you won. He leaves at a different time now. He leaves at a different time. You did it, man. I did. You did it. You forced his hand. Yeah, he goes to work earlier. Yeah, he's like, I'm not gonna do this.

And he probably was like, man, he takes a shower at the same time every day. And he's finally stared me down. I think he wants more from the relationship. Either way, you've won. No, he's finally stared me down. I think he wants more from the relationship. Either way you've won. No, he's thinking that about me. He thinks I want more from the relationship from the neighborly banter.

He wants to move beyond it so now he's gotta avoid. All I'm saying is at this point. When I see him at the mailbox, I don't know what I'm gonna do. That's a completely different MO at that point. Act like nothing happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's friendly neighbor situation MO at that point. Act like nothing happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's friendly neighbor situation. Right, right.

That's like, hey man, how you doing? How you been? Hey, hey. I haven't been looking at you from my shower. I haven't seen you in a while while in my shower, naked lathering myself up. That's a different link. That's the, again, that's the link that needs to be brought out in case of emergencies.

Not the everyday friendly link, business as usual link. It's a mission accomplished then, huh? That's very awesome. Okay, cool. With Uber Reserve, good things come to those who plan ahead. Family vacay? Reserve your ride as soon as you book your flights.

To all the planners, now you can reserve your Uber ride up to 90 days in advance. See Uber app for details. How about another question? You wanna ask it? This gets into the pyramid scheme stuff. Oh gosh, we're going.

Sneaking in asked, a friend, put that down. This just strikes me. A friend has been brainwashed by an MLM scheme. Well tell us how you really feel about it. She's been roped into all the feel good seminars and is losing money. She's become a bad friend because all caps, everything comes back to the MLM message.

You joked about it in your song Friends Till the End, but how would you handle this situation? And we talked about our opinions on MLMs before. But we about to go back to it as well. And I know you have a story. I just have a life experience. You have an anecdote. I wanna say a couple of things.

First of all, I know some of you listening are involved in MLMs. And let's be specific. It could be Amway, it could be Herbalife, it could be Herbalife, it could be Mary Kay, it could be, what's the one we make fun of in the song? LuLaRoe? LuLu, LuLaRoe.

LuLaRoe, is that, that's it with the leggings? Is that it? The leggings. But she had to go when she joined LuLaRoe, yeah. Pampered Chef, I think does this. Still around, huh? So let me say a couple. Tupperware parties from back in the day. I'll say a couple of things.

We use the term pyramid scheme in the question at the top and possibly in the title of this video, I don't know. Let me just say, first of all, pyramid schemes and MLMs are not the same thing. And people who are in MLMs are very offended by being called a pyramid scheme. And so I wanna recognize that right off the bat that pyramid schemes are illegal, right?

It's a scam. They might be better described as a pyramid scam. And usually in a pyramid scheme, there's actually no quality product or product at all and you get paid for recruiting. And it's kind of this like circular, well, it's actually a pyramid, but it's all based on deception

and it's recognized as illegal from the Federal Trade Commission. Whereas an MLM, a multi-level marketing, I'm not even gonna use the scheme, a multi-level marketing, I'm not even gonna use the scheme, a multi-level marketing company usually has a viable product that is being sold and can be sold to someone who's not a member of the thing, but people get commissions or people get commissions

on sales and also people are encouraged to recruit. Other people to sell. So and like the multi levels to the marketing which could be likened if you were to draw it as a pyramid, it is an aspect of it because it's, you're not just selling something but you're trying to get people to sell things underneath you so that when they sell,

you get a, not only do they get a commission, but you get a commission off of their sales. And then that continues to go up. That may not happen in every one of these. That goes up the, The pyramid? Up the levels, yeah. And the pyramid, the levels, there's less people

as you go up until it goes up to one person who's in charge. But the product that's being sold is not a scam, right? In a reputable MLM, which I think all the ones that we just mentioned are presumably reputable. They're legal, yes. So, but the thing that we wanna talk about is specifically what being a part of one does to your friendships and relationships

because it does, especially if not managed properly, change the dynamic. Yeah and as an outsider sneaking in a friend of someone who's inside of this thing, her experience is pretty common. She has a negative view of what her friend being involved in the MLM because of the way it's impacting their relationship.

She's a bad friend because it always comes back to her either, to the MLM message, which is, "'Hey, you should buy these products from me,' or, "'Hey, you should also sell these products.'" A lot of people get involved, they don't have, they're looking for a very flexible job, they're looking for something that- You can do from home.

You can do from home, you can set your own hours, and there's a promise of being very lucrative. Side story, when I worked at IBM, there was a stint where my boss on the side was involved in an MLM. And the only reason I knew this because one day he asked me to go to lunch with him. He had never asked me to go to lunch with him before.

I mean, I go to meetings and he's there and like we have, sometimes we have a meeting in his office where like, you know, I would be held accountable to the stuff I was supposed to be working on, but I never just go to lunch with the guy. He was a nice enough guy. We go to lunch at like the, some restaurant around the IBM campus.

Yeah. And we get our food and we sit down. You're like, what is about to happen? All of a sudden, no, I'm like, okay, we're just getting lunch, hey. Oh, you thought it was just lunch. Thought it was just lunch. It's never just lunch, Link.

Well, get this, dude, all of a sudden, he pulls out of his briefcase. Oh, he has a briefcase. He had like a wedge, like a cardboard wedge. He puts it on the table. It's just made of cardboard. Did he want you to sit on it? It was a pyramid.

No. Well it was a wedge. And then he- It was a presentation tool? Yes, he pulled out a spiral bound, landscape oriented notepad and then a flip freaking book and he starts to open up the flip book and he puts it on the thing and he was like,

you know I just wanna tell you about an opportunity for you to be your own boss and make some extra money on the side. Red flag. As I've been doing. This is before laptops apparently. And I'm like, hold on, this is my freaking, we worked for a company that made laptops.

Dude had a spiral bound wedge. You gotta admit there's more drama in it though because he breaks out the, you have to break out the stand before you break out the notebook. I started sweating, I'm like what the heck. Is he assembling a cardboard weapon? Do I need to leave before it becomes fully functional? At least we were in public.

It wasn't like this is a clan, it's like come to my garage, you know? Which I think being in public makes it all the more embarrassing because anyone who sees you knows that you're now on the receiving end of an MLM presentation. And we've both, I'm sure you've seen it, I've seen people having to endure what I was enduring.

Get this, dude, I'll never forget it. Okay, dude. The first slide, man, when he flipped it over, the first slide was- A stock image. Yes, a stock image of a sport car. Oh, no, a red image of a sport car. Oh no, a red one, convertible.

It was a red sports car, yeah. This could be yours. Would you like to drive this? And he had this, I mean, it's not like, the dude had people skills in normal life, but something made him like, he became this weird android. And he's like, do you like fancy cars? And I'm like, no.

You know, I'm not really. Close that book. Honestly, I was like, ah. Have you seen my car? I'm not really, I'm not really, no, I'm not really into sports cars. I've never really gotten that. Is there a pickup picture

that you can paste over this one? You know what, that's what you can do with a notebook. I drove a non-extend cab Tacoma at the time. I remember that. Like a barely, I had to get in it sideways. Had to put my legs over your lap in order to ride with you. I told him I wasn't in the cars, and then he's like, he's unfazed, he's like,

and he flipped over. How about women? It was a mansion. Oh. It was a freaking picture of a mansion. How about big houses? And you're like, well actually no. You know, I was like, I'm. It's a lot to clean.

I was like, Chrissy. There's a lot of showers that have to be closed. Lot of potential for pink slime to crop up. I prefer, have you heard of a tiny house? Of course, that was before tiny houses. Why are you crying? You think you're so funny? Rhett thinks he's so funny right now, and you are funny.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're not so funny to make yourself cry. Yeah, well, I mean that was. Did you rub your eye or are you crying? I feel like I was funny in a, like I feel like I've been funny for like three times in a row. Yeah, yeah, you really,

you really need to start weeping. So I'm like, you know, Christian and I just got married, you know this, and we're house sitting for a couple. I mean, yeah, I would like a big house someday, but I'm not really into that. Wow, what does he got on the next page? So he's like whoops, and he's like, well what about, and I don't remember what the picture was,

but there was a picture. What a weird way to, I mean, why don't you say, do you want more money? I mean, because most people would be like, yes. Why you gotta attach monetary value to what you're anticipating what I'm gonna like? I know, it most people would be like, yes. Why you gotta attach monetary value to anticipating what I'm gonna like? I know, it's so weird. He flips it over and now he's hitting me with, would you like to give more to charity?

Oh, yeah. I was like, oh, okay. So are you about to present a charity? No, he's about to present a multi-level marketing campaign so if I join, he makes more money. You can give more to charity. No, so that he can get that house and that car, man. Yeah. But he's guilting me with charity.

What am I supposed to say? No, I'm not really interested in giving more to charity. I think it's a choose your own adventure thing. He probably wasn't just going to the next page because I think they teach you in the presentation, they're like. You think it's like a 911 flip book? When you meet someone who is not into material things,

go to charity. Yeah. Well. And then if they don't like charity, you should probably end the meeting. Let me tell you something, brother. He didn't skip a slide. Okay.

So this is to catch everybody. And that's how it's designed. He's going on the script and it was so uncomfortable. And it wasn't fair. You know, it makes me angry even now because this dude's my boss. I mean it's like, I'm not suppo, you know, it's not appropriate.

You felt pressured. Yeah, it's like you can't. You could have easily felt pressured. Yeah, you have power over me as my boss and now I've got to, what, I gotta start, please train me how to go up to strangers in this magazine section of Barnes and Noble. That's happened to me twice by the way.

And it has, right? At Barnes and Noble in North Carolina, that happened where people, they started conversations with me in like the coffee shop section. And I was like, this guy's being friendly and it was that, it was MLM stuff. It's not worth it to be that person

because you have to, you get to a point where you gotta sell your wares and again, I cannot remember what company he was with or what he was selling but you get to a point where you're either going up to, you're being weird to strangers in Borders bookshop back in the day or you're hitting up your friends and relatives and every time you're talking to, and there's a whole Facebook component to it now.

Well that's what happens, that is what, and I'm not really on Facebook, and my wife isn't really anymore, but she was for many years, and that's what would happen. You would have someone who you haven't spoken with since high school who reaches out and asks a question, you're like, hmm. Hey, I haven't spoken to you in a long time, how are you doing?

And then you respond to them, and they're like, I couldn Hey, I haven't spoken to you in a long time, how are you doing? And then you respond to them and they're like, I couldn't help but notice I'm gonna find some segue into talking about how you need this particular product and it's like, I don't feel like we have to explain why that seems kinda just dirty and deceptive. I understand that, listen, I get it, we sell things all the time. We just tried to sell you some stuff at mythical.com.

But I think that we're being pretty straightforward with like, okay, yeah, we sell merch. Go to the store and buy it if you want to. But I don't try to sell my merch directly to my friends that I have relationships with. try to sell my merch directly to my friends that I have relationships with. And also I'm not trying to then get them to sell it because I just don't want my friendships to be defined by that.

It just, I don't, I know how it makes me feel. I know how you felt in that situation and I know how it makes me feel when I feel like someone is trying to enter into a transactional relationship with me. And listen, coming from two people who live in Los Angeles, which is the most transactional town on the place of the fanet, the face of the planet,

anytime you begin to sense that someone is investing their time into you because of what you can do for them financially, it just feels bad, man. Icky, icky. And when you join an MLM, you are, now I'm sure there's people, obviously, humans tend to rationalize things, so I'm sure there's people who listen right now,

and first of all, if you're benefiting from it financially or you've moved way up into the organization, there's absolutely nothing I can say that's going to change your mind because you're going to deflect anything that we say that makes you feel uncomfortable because you got confirmation bias. You want to continue to confirm the fact

that you're in this thing and make it okay. And that's fine. I'm not trying to take you out of it. I think what we're talking to is, we're actually talking to, what was her name? Sneaking in and how you deal with someone who's in it. So we're not talking to the person who's in it, that's your deal, but if you've got a friend who's in it,

I just think the short answer is you have to be honest. Because the alternative is just saying I'm not gonna be your friend anymore. Have a boundary conversation. Listen, I'm not comfortable with lacing our friendship with ulterior motives, you know? I don't like questioning whether you want me to buy something or help you sell things.

And then I think there's probably a lot of people who after they hear that from a friend will be like, oh, I'm sorry, if that's the way you feel, our friendship will have absolutely nothing to do with my involvement in this thing and I'll never talk about it, you feel no pressure from me. At that point, sure, you can have a healthy friendship and I'm sure that's how people who have found a way

to maintain healthy friendships manage their relationships. But the moment you cross that line, you just have to think, with any potential friend that you have, the moment that you make it about the MLM, there's really no going back, unless the person is just gonna be super honest with you and you're gonna overcome this conflict.

It puts the other person in the difficult situation that sneaky nin is in, that now they have to be the one to have this awkward conversation with you when this is really all you're doing. Yeah. You know, it's like you've put them in an awkward position and you can rationalize and say, well, they'll tell me,

but it's extremely difficult to tell somebody these things. It's almost as difficult as staring at your neighbor while naked and bathing. Right, but sometimes you have to do these things. And good things do happen, but you've got to get over that hump. Right. Shop Best Buy's ultimate smartphone sale today. Get a Best Buy gift card of up to $200 on select phone activations with major carriers. Visit your nearest Best Buy store today.

Terms and conditions apply. Maybe I'm conflating things here, but I remember early on in our marriage, Christy would be invited to a lot of parties. That's where a lot of them start, right? Because what they'll do is, it'll be for like selling kitchenware or I remember as a kid,

me and mom and Jimmy and Emmy, the four of us went to this like party where they're like got all these fancy pots and pans. And they talking about the pots and pans for so long, we were invited to a dinner party. Where's the dinner? It was no dinner, it was just pots and pans for so long. We were invited to a dinner party. Where's the dinner? It was no dinner, it was just pots and pans. Now they were cooking a bunch of stuff

but we weren't allowed to eat it. Three hours after we thought we would've been eating, we're freaking starving, we are. You're looking at empty things that could have food in them. They started making dinner and then it's just like, by the time we got the meal, it was the best thing I'd ever eaten

because I was about to die of starvation. It's like 10 o'clock at night. Well they wear you down so you say, sure, whatever, I'll join. Give me the dadgum spaghetti. And I was like, and you start to become like, your brain became mush and by the end of it, It's like a police interrogation.

We're buying the pots and pans. My mom and Jimmy are buying them because the food tasted so good. It was just like, but basically we just survived a near death experience. It's like, oh my God, thank you all for these pots and pans. We gotta bring this home. And there's these freaking jewelry parties.

And when Christy and I, especially earlier on in our marriage, we were on a tight budget and I remember, you know me, I'm very frugal. Really? And it would just get my goat when Christy would come back from these parties with her friends and everyone would have been highly pressured to. I had to buy something.

Had to buy something. Or else. And if I bought enough, then so and so who hosted the party, you know she's not doing well financially, so it's like, if I bought. Young couples are really, really susceptible to this because again, you're. If I bought more, it would help her,

and then I'm like, but we don't have the money for this. You were guilted into buying things because of group think. Yeah, it's that kind of like couples in their 20s, it's like that's where a lot of it gets started because you're all trying to figure out a way to make more money. I understand the motivation and you're like, we gotta find something else.

We gotta supplement what we got going on. And I'm not saying that just across the board, there's not a healthy way for this type of company to exist where you're kind of using word of mouth and different, because listen, there's all kinds of ways to sell people on something. I think it's the fact that the main avenue

by which these things work is through friendships. And you can't just say, hey, don't do this, because what I would say is don't do this with friendships that you value, because if they said that at the big feel good seminar that you go to, then who, only try this with people who you don't really care about the friendship, well that's not gonna work

because those people don't trust you as much. And let's get in, yeah, they build an entire social construct and an identity structure around being involved in the MLM. And again, this goes back to my escape as a kid in our family. Now, my stepdad at the time, Jimmy, he was a drafter. What's it called when you, he wasn't an architect,

but he did draft, you know, he was a drafter. A draftsman. A draftsman in the big city of Raleigh. He'd go up there and he would draft all these plans and it was a cool freaking job. I remember going in there and seeing everything he was drawing, it was amazing. I don't remember what happened to that job

but maybe he was unhappy, maybe, I can't remember why he stopped doing that. But then there was a period where it was like, okay, now he's a plumber, you know? Which is amazing, I mean, the dude went and he knew another trade or he figured it out and he was, as far as I can remember, doing pretty well, but apparently not well enough to not do other things.

Like I remember he was also, for a while, he was selling vacuum cleaners door to door. Rainbows. Not rainbow, he was selling Kirby. Kirby vacuum cleaners, like heavy ass vacuum cleaners. Like I'm talking like a 50, like solid metal. Well they're water based. They're barrel water based.

No, rainbow's water based, but the Kirby was just, it was like steel. Just heavy? Kirby, just heavy. Just heavy, no water involved. Now, in Door-to-Door Salesman, that might make people feel uncomfortable, but that's not sacrificing friendships. I don't understand Door-to-Door Salesman.

I respect the fact that to support his family, he was doing, he was exploring many options to pull it together. And selling vacuum cleaners door to door cannot be an easy job. And there's a lot of pressure involved in that, like going, just knocking on people's doors and then finding yourself in their house vacuuming

and trying to sell them this really expensive vacuum cleaner. I mean, it's a lot more expensive than the ones that you could buy at Kmart or Sky City at the time. But it's not as heavy. I mean, those are not as heavy. And you know, there's not as much of that going on. The Cutco knives thing is still happening. In the first year of marriage,

Christy and I bought a whole wad of Cutco knives, which by the way, we still use. You can't go out to people's doors in general and now you can make appointments for selling things, but you can't just go out to people's doors, not anymore, man. My point is, I don't wanna over-criticize my ex-stepdad Jimmy for getting involved

in the MLM that he did because he was trying lots of things to pull it together for the fam, you know? So I give him credit for that. But we found ourselves involved in, he became an insurance salesman. So again, mostly by appointments and referrals, he was meeting with people to sell term life insurance through what was called A.L. Williams at the time.

Now it's called Primerica. And if you look on Wikipedia, I just wanted to verify that it was a multi-level marketing organization. It actually also says in the Wikipedia that a few years back Forbes ranked it in the top 50 most trusted, I think it was insurance companies. Well, and again, that goes back to what we talked about before, regardless of the marketing methods,

it is a good product. That's what that is saying, right? Again, it doesn't mean that the product is bad. Right. And I used to think that. I used to think that there must be something wrong with this product if it has to be sold in this high pressure way versus just being on the shelf with other products.

But no, it's just a different way to do it. So it doesn't mean, it could be great insurance, is all I'm saying. Especially when it comes to something like sports drinks and supplements or cleaners like with Amway. It's like, well, I can just go to Target. It's like, why do I have to be, why do I have to experience this higher pressure

in my home or sales pitch for something that I can just get off of a shelf? And the reason why is because, you know, the prices are higher for something that you could get off Amazon. But again, they're trying to work the margins because, and they're also trying to get you to sell it. So the system generates money for, I guess,

the people at the top. But the fact of the matter is, a lot of people get involved in these things, they just fizzle out. But there's a whole world bit around it where you show up at conventions and you start to feel good about it. Like as a kid, I knew who this guy A.L. Williams was.

It was like, man, he started this company, here's his success story. Jimmy really bought into it. We went down to Boca Raton, Florida. Wow. And there was this like really fancy hotels and they were all pink, like the slime in my shower. And I was like, wow, this is amazing.

It was one of the first times we had been on vacation as a family. Right. But he had to go to all these pep talks seminars and oh if we were really lucky, you could get to see the A.L. Williams himself at one of these things. He was like a celebrity to these people.

They were like, okay, you gotta stay through Sunday, but we'll have a church service for any of you who wanna go to that, and it became this little, this community of like. Again, a lot of times some sort of faith component gets inserted into this because it begins to permeate so many aspects of your life and your relationships.

So why not add that component because all that does is generate even more community feel. Well, it makes you feel good about what, yeah. You're part of a family. You're a part of this thing. But it starts, I mean, even at that young age, it's like I remember things that now I interpret as just I felt weird as a kid

because it's like, I mean cultish is a strong word, but it has a little bit of that vibe where it's like. I don't know, any time, I always get really uncomfortable when people start trying to combine faith with consumerism. Like that seems like a real special kinda not good. And I'm not saying they were doing like church services and touting their insurance within it, but there's this underlying message that like,

we are so good and we're good for you and we're good for people that we're doing these type of things. And there's usually someone or groups of people with success stories that are tremendous, they're like gifted motivational speakers so they sell all this hope just like the flip book with the mansions and the cars and stuff

and it's like, if you're down on your locker, if you don't have direction and you need to scratch it together. You get everything, you get a community, you get to make a living, there's no doubt that this is an attractive thing to a lot of people. That's why so many of them are super successful. And so then it becomes this odd evangelistic component of going back to the people that you're trying to sell and you're no longer

selling them a product, you're selling them a lifestyle of either being rich or being happy or being, you know, it's like you start to take that out, that energy out to people but when those people have nothing to do with the thing, the first thing they experience is just, this is freaking weird. Well, because most people are able to pick up on an agenda

and for good reason. We don't like it when we feel like someone's actions are motivated by an agenda that we don't quite yet know what it is. When you send me a message on Facebook, I sense that there's an agenda, but you're not sharing that with me. When you invite me out message on Facebook, I sense that there's an agenda, but you're not sharing that with me. When you invite me out to lunch,

it seems a little bit weird. There's some sort of agenda, but I won't find out until you break out the weird presentational booklet. And that's just not a healthy way to navigate friendships. Friendships and relationships are difficult as it is. When you bring this other layer of agenda into it, it's going to make things more complex

and you cannot blame someone for having a problem with it and being like, I don't wanna be your friend anymore or I definitely don't want our friendship to be characterized by this. What was the last thing that filled you with wonder that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic? Well, for us, and I'm going to guess for some of you, that thing is... Anime!

Hi, I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show. With the best celebrity guests. And hot takes galore. It's a weekly news show.

With the best celebrity guests. And hot takes galore. So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. For us, I mean, I only remember going to that one seminar that was a vacation where it was like we didn't get to do a whole lot of vacation because it was like, I had to stand outside of these meetings that they were having. Yeah, it wasn't very fun. It was quite a downer. You didn't see much of Boca or Raton. I remember that Jimmy had an office

that had a whole slew of paperwork. And then, you know, stuff he was trying to get off the ground associated with this thing. There would be some people that he would get to like work underneath him, but I don't recall any of that really taking hold. I remember there were certain people that he seemed to idolize within the higher ups within the organization

that were like, okay, the guy who brought me in, the guy who brought him in, the guy who brought him in, the guy who brought him in, I'm actually gonna get to meet today. And it was just like this weirdness, you know, that was like, how did it end for us? I don't, well, I think to put it simply, they got, mom and him got a divorce and we moved out. Now,

That's how it ended for you. But I don't think it had anything to do with the involved, A.L. Williams or Prime Eric or whatever it's called now did not have anything to do with their divorce or their breakup, I think it was totally separate and I just think it simply fizzled out. After a while of it not working, a couple of years, it's just like this isn't working for me.

You gotta buy in. What am I doing? You gotta buy in fully and those that do buy in can experience a lot of success. They can get that car and that house. There's just a lot that comes along with it. But so my language is a little overblown that we escaped as if it were a cult,

but I do feel like it was, I mean, when you go into that pink hotel and you're going to all the seminars and you're bought in, we were definitely bought in for a little while. But you made it out. But we made it out. And now you know how we feel about it. But I think the answer for sneaking in is you just,

you have to be honest. You gotta say, I don't want our relationship to be characterized by this. If you can bring yourself to that, otherwise you're just gonna sort of, the relationship will probably just dwindle. My summary critique of it is if it's more about recruiting people to do something that you are also doing

instead of the product itself, if you can't just isolate the product on the open market and give it an honest comparison and it wins, then you shouldn't believe in the product enough to pour your whole life and change your whole lifestyle around it. I mean, it's a bunch of smoke and mirrors. It's selling a bunch of false hope.

Boil it down to the product and make an honest assessment of it. Do you have to have these vitamins and this energy drink and are you drinking their Kool-Aid or should you actually just compare it to Kool-Aid? Is there a Kool-Aid one? Because I might join that one. Kool-Aid with a C.

Like they went uncreative. Well, we took a long time on that one. So let's, let's, let's. It matters! Let's answer another one here from Rachel Daniels, which this one is, boy, this hits so close to home for me. What is the best way to sign off an email? I always say thanks, but what about best or regards?

How do I know what's appropriate? I have thought about this so thoroughly. Now, I'll just start by giving what my practice is, and I feel stupid about this, okay? I just feel dumb. What I do is thanks with an exclamation point. And I do it, that's what I do almost always, even though if I'm not thanking you for anything.

And then sometimes I won't do an exclamation point if I feel especially like I'm really, there's nothing I'm thankful for at all. So I guess I'm thanking you for reading to this point. I too, if I'm going, sometimes I'll just sign it link. And then the third alternative is just Rhett. There's nothing and then I feel like I'm being cold, I'm not being warm.

I'll do that in a reply or a chain at that point. Or I might actually just drop my signature. They know where it comes from. In one sense, it's like when my dad puts love dad on a text, it's like, dad, I know where it's, I see that it's coming from you. Yeah. Emails work the same way.

Do we really have to have a signature? The from is at the top, why put it at the bottom? Now my default is to say thanks comma and then put link underneath. I've probably done that. And I'm just, in terms of what I'm thanking them for, I'm thanking them for taking the time to get that far in the email to actually read it.

It's not about the content of the email, it's that okay, apparently you've read it to this point. But sometimes you are thanking them for something. So what if you are thanking them for something? Do you say thanks for that and then you're like, thanks for reading the email? Do you double up or is it just all purpose thanks? No.

Because that's confusing. Have you tried best or kind regards or sincerely or? Sincerely sounds like a letter, not an email. I have friends who use best and lots of people that I respect use best. And I think the only reason I can't use best is that it's such a foreign thing to the way that I think and speak,

and no one said best growing up. Like it would be, why is it, it's like when all of a sudden somebody says, I want you to call me Ricky instead of Richard. It's like, why? You know, I can't start using best. What is he trying to prove? It almost feels like at the end of your email

you would sign like James McLaughlin. It's not that it's false but it's not what you go by. I do think that. That's also my middle name and my last name. I know, I'm just saying it wouldn't be false but it would be a little proper. Or like RJ. RJ?

Yeah, I do feel like saying best is that weird because my criteria for the tone of my emails is if I was standing beside you as you read this and I was reading it out loud to you, is that something I would have said? Definitely wouldn't say regards. Yeah, it's, but I think the flip side of this, because I'm on your side, but the flip side is, we are pointing out the lost art of the written letter.

Lando's teacher invites people to, friends and family members to write letters to the, addressed to the kid in the class through the school, because she wants to teach kids the lost art of letter writing. And whenever kids get a letter, she's like, they're so excited. Okay, it's letter time, some people have got letters.

A parent can write a letter, but it goes to the school or like a grandparent or? Yeah, yeah. And she just, okay, got it. I've been writing your kids for years. Okay, good. Best. It is the best.

But then she said, what they don't know is if they do get a letter, then I make them write a letter back and they have to learn what that's like. I think that we're applying this colloquial conversational criteria to email signatures because we don't appreciate the fact, there's nothing wrong with the formality of a letter. And I think best, I mean, you hate it sincerely,

but is it just gone or is it something that we should try to embrace and open up to as an answer to this question? Sincerely, Link. Well, you know, I feel like sometimes, I think this applies to texts as well, you know, like if you were to write thanks period at the end of your email,

it would send a little bit of a shutter through something and be like, whoa, what did I do wrong? I gotta reread this email. He's, you know, like- Because of the period? The period. Yeah. And I don't, I track with what you're saying, but I feel like trying to somehow recapture

the essence of letter writing and put that back into emails, we're beyond that. It's gone. First of all, I don't think that our kids use email. I think email is becoming almost exclusively a business thing. And because the way that it keeps the threads together

and you can group things and it's the kind of way when you need to communicate about something business-ish or business-like, you need to communicate in that way. And then some people are, I don't really know what the criteria is for me deciding to send a Slack message to someone here at work or to send an email. But I will say that I often,

because you can just as easily create a group in the same way that you can create a group on email. What I'm getting at is I don't know what the application for this will be because I think that all the emails that I send at this point are either, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna have this thing at my house and I don't wanna go through the formality of creating an evite for it or something like that.

It's just like, hey, I'm sending you information and then what do I say at the end of it? If it's to a bunch of friends, I'll sign off in some way that's just supposed to be fun and cute and funny. But I don't have a default. For me, this is what do I say when I send a business email? And I know that if I just transitioned completely to best, it would be like, hmm, okay.

He's got his, he's buttoned up. There's something cool about best though, because it says no matter. Maybe it's the best response. I hated it when we first started talking about it, but just hear me out. Any written word is open to so much misinterpretation. You know and it burdens me that so many things happen

over text or email that with a simple face-to-face conversation or even a phone call, crises could have been averted left and right. Misinterpretation, feelings being hurt, restless nights of analyzation of what did he mean? It's so and so upset, there was a period at the end of the thanks. You know, the simple four letter word.

Best is gonna solve this? Best really captures, no matter what you think or might have read between the lines or have interpreted from what I've written, just know that my intentions were good. I only meant the best. Okay, let's examine a test case because I don't agree with you on this.

Because if I write you an email and the last sentence in the email is, and that's why I think you're an asshole. Mm-hmm. Best. Best. It's like gosh. You know what I'm saying? It's like that doesn't work.

That's condescending at that point. First of all, when I did get that email from you, I didn't even notice the closing because I was- Well, I said thanks. With an exclamation point because I do it out of habit. I'm just trying to give it its best shot because I do think it's a problem. I don't think there's an answer.

And I hate to say that. If there was an ending that could do what best is trying to do, I would be all for it. But I think we're so self-aware and we're so judgmental as people that like, we always, it's like, well, that's weird, that's pretentious. It's not something you would say, so why type it? Like regards, yeah.

Yeah, it's like like get off your high horse or get in the real world. Like we're just communicating here. Be normal. How about just something like. What are you in an MLM or something? And here's the thing, at this point, I don't think you, this isn't the situation

where you can invent a new phrase because then you're just weird. Like if I was just like, you know what I'm gonna do? When I get done with an email, I'm just gonna be like, yep, Rhett. You know what I'm saying? Quirkle's link. It's almost like,

Quirkle time. Because yep would work, because it would be like, you know how like, okay. That's how my dad. Because I also, I'm the guy that usually, if I'm not too busy, I read through the email that I just typed to make sure

that it doesn't say something crazy. And so I read back through it and then I'm like, yep, send, you know? Oh, it's your, it's what you actually said. That's what I meant to say, Rhett, signature, gone. Why don't you just type, okay, sending now, pressing send. How about this message has been approved by Rhett McLaughlin.

Oh gosh. That's cute. That feels, yeah, to be an automatic signature or something. It's like a dad joke whose kids decided not to talk to him five years ago. What about sent from my phone? Because that still is the automatic signature

on my emails on my phone. Get rid of that crap. That is done, people. Sent from my phone is just an excuse for not rereading the email or not taking the time to write. I mean, just, who, no one cares about email. Don't apologize for something you don't know if you said it or not.

I've gotten so close to taking sent from my phone. Do I say that? First of all, it used to say like sent from my iPhone or, you know. You're right, because that was a default. And that felt pretty pretentious. I have an iPhone. Does it? Now mine just says sent from my phone

and the reason that I have not taken it out of there is because autocorrect, man. Sometimes your phone will do something that your keyboard would never do. And so it's just like, did he just, does he want me to kill the whale? I don't have. Or does he want me to save the whale?

I don't have anything. I just tested myself, there's nothing. I don't have a signature. On my phone, I don't even have a signature. Well. On my work stuff, I have a signature. Yeah but, and I understand like we've got a lot of people here who have signatures.

I'm sorry, I'm just deleting emails now. I got a team out in the inbox. And they've got like, you know, you've got like the Mythical Entertainment, you know, logo and you've got your title and you've got your contact information. I think that's important depending on, you know, what your job is.

Here's what I think it should be. But that's not a signature. Here's what. No, that's a signature. That's not a, what do you call it? What is the, what is it? Sign off. I think the sign off, here's my proposed No that's a signature. Yeah it's not a closing. That's not a, what do you call it? What is the? Sign off. Sign off.

I think the sign off, here's my proposed solution. Salutation? There's a, what is the? That's the opening. Hello. What is the correct letter term for that though? See we've lost all this. You should know this.

This is the kind of thing that you would remember from school. I need to ask Lando's teacher. The closing of a letter is called the? The desalutation. Desalinization. I don't know what it's called, but this is what I think it should be.

I think when you read back through your email, you get in the rhythm of hey, I'm reading this, I'm thinking, I'm putting my mind in the head space of the person who's receiving this, I'm reading back through it to make sure nothing dumb is in there. And then when I get to the bottom, what do I, having gotten the momentum

of just reading back through it. When you get to the, what do you call it? Valediction or complimentary closing. Complimentary closer, closing. Complimentary closing, I remember that. The valediction. I was a valedictorian of my high school class. So you read back through it and you're like

getting the vibe, putting yourself in their shoes and then you just, whatever you feel like you would've said if you would've given that as a speech, you say it at that point. Thanks, yep. Yeah. Hitting send now. You're 100% right.

And then just whatever you feel, just add it on. It's never the same. Sometimes it might be best. Sometimes it might be a middle finger emoji. Do they make that? Yeah. Yeah, that.

Jenna is adamantly nodding yes. Is that your complimentary closing? The middle finger. The middle finger emoji? What is yours? I mean, you're our assistant. You're communicating on our behalf. What is your closing?

It depends. It depends on who I'm talking to and- You know what time it is. It's a lot of times thanks with an exclamation point. Thanks exclamation point. The last email she sent to us was thanks with an exclamation point. Okay, I always send exclamations to you all. You are usually asking us to do something though.

Yes. Our job is more about you asking us to do things than us asking you to do things. Thanks exclamation point is more like, in anticipation of your compliance, I am thanking you. Right. Here's all the things that you guys should be doing that I've asked you about.

Thanks for trying. I think you just need to. No, I think that works. I think you're doing great. But if you don't put anything, you just need to. No, I think that works. I think you're doing great. But if you don't put anything, you are a jerk. You might be seen as a jerk. Well. He just signed Rhett.

He didn't even take the time to put a complimentary closing. Every time somebody does that though, I respect them though. It's just like I said what I wanted to say and I just want you to remember who said it. It's a power play, it's like staring at someone from your shower.

See, I don't need more power, I've got so much. What if it was just the staring eyes emoji, can it just translate into an email? Is there a showering naked? I'll be watching you. I don't know that we've helped in this one but we gotta stop. I'll never delete this.

I'm keeping a record of this. Hashtag Ear Biscuits. Give us your complimentary closing and why it's the best if you don't think it's best. We tried so hard to give you what you needed, to give you an answer. Sorry, Rachel Daniels. Link went out there, you believe so hard in best

but I dismantled it very quickly. And now we're left with, it's what you make it, man. All the best. It's what you make it. Always the best? Always. Always? Always! That's a bit too love letter-ish.

How about all way? All the way. All the way, best all the way. Okay, I don't think we've helped. I think love, you know, the world could use a little bit more love. I'd say love to my mom if I send her an email. What about for a whole month,

every email you send, no matter to who it is. It'd be love? It'd be just love. That's like a David Dobrik bet. It's like, you know. Okay, you don't wanna, okay, well then maybe it would be good then. Yeah, right, yeah.

Maybe people would watch it. Maybe we'll get views. I don't think David Dobrik would do an email prank. I don't think that just shows how old we are. Hashtag your biscuits, let us know what you think about all the stuff. Do you have a rec? If you wanna defend MLM, go for it.

My recommendation, I'll keep it quick, is Ken Burns' Country Music. I've been watching that, you know, every episode is, I think there's eight of them. It's a documentary on the meticulous development of the amazing and best, I wouldn't say best genre, I can't say that, I was just trying to work best in, of the amazing and best, I wouldn't say best genre, I can't say that, I was just trying to work best in,

but I'm very fond of the genre. One of the better genres. Country music, lots of Merle Haggard, one of his last interviews before his death. It was tough to watch the first episode because I was, you know, since he's passed, but it's cool to see him, he's got that gleam in his eye. How many hours of a commitment is this?

Probably 16 to 18. Yeah. So that's my recommendation. Go to pbs.org, look for your local listing. If you wanna stream it and they're not showing it anymore, you have to give them a little donation, but hey, it's worth it. Kim Burns was thinking about watch time before YouTube.

Yeah, he was. All right, well. The king of watch time. We'll speak at you next week. Thanks for hanging out and if we offended you, what, you know what, just introspect a little bit. Yeah, I'll meet you at the Barnes and Noble in the coffee shop. I'll be the one with a cardboard prop up

for my presentation.