NZXT PODCAST - #182 - Maria (harley__hart)

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

On this week's episode of the NZXT Podcast... We have our Inventory Control Manager, Maria, talking about her responsibilities at work, her love of WWE, and her hatred for cheese! Follow Maria on Instagram and Twitch: https://www.instagram.com/harley__hart https://www.twitch.tv/harley__hart/about Catch the replay at twitch.tv/NZXT!

Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 182 of the NCC podcast, the official podcast of the NCC community. This podcast recorded live every other Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific Saturday time on the official NCC Twitch. It is available to stream on demand on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, oh wait, not Google Podcasts anymore. Apple Podcast, Spotify and SoundCloud. My name is Mike. It was me as always is Ivan. How are you doing, Ivan? How we do, baby boo?

Happy to be here on another beautiful Friday, live from the brand, you know, new NST office. That's why I have the new background here. And today we have a very special guest. She is someone who does a lot of important work around here at NST. So we're going to ask her a bunch of questions about that. But before we get into that, I do want to make one quick announcement, and that is that if you are tuned in live on twitch.tv slash nzxte right now, you can enter a giveaway for an NST poochie plush. I don't have one in front of me, but Mike. Oh, there's one. behind me, I think. But yeah, so type the exclamation giveaway in the chat.

You'll get a link to the giveaway. And if you stick around to the end of the show, you will get a super secret extra special word that will give you a bunch of bonus entries into the giveaway. So stick around. But yeah, without further ado, let me introduce the one, the only.

Maria, how are you? Thanks for having me. Of course. Thank you for joining us. Now, I've actually been wanting to have you on the podcast for a really long time, and I'm glad they were able to finally make it happen. The reason why I've always wanted you on the podcast is because you're always like, you're always been like one of the people around the office who likes to have a lot of fun, you know? You're not just there like sitting at your desk typing numbers into a spreadsheet all day long. You're always trying to have fun and do fun activities and even make people arm wrestle for some weird reason. That's like your thing.

You like seeing people fight. But for those who don't know you and what you do, let us know who you are and what you do and what you do here at NSXT. Well, so I'm Maria. I work at NSXT. So my position is inventory control manager. What that means is I oversee most aspects of inventory, mostly pertaining to DTC. So I see it coming in. I see order management.

I see inventory going out. And then we do cycle counts every quarter to make sure the inventory is accurate. And then you also let Mike and I bug you when we're trying to ship stuff out, right? Yes. That's the most important one. Finally redirect you to the order management team. Yes. No, that's true.

Like, whenever Mike and I have an issue, it's always like, just ask Maria. She'll know. And then even if she can't help, she'll point us in the right direction. I know you're not at the new office today. You're in your awesome little streaming layer there. But how do you like the new office? the way. I like it. It's really nice. It's different because I'm so used to working in warehouses, so removing the warehouse from that space is new and challenging for me. It's weird, right?

It's weird because I usually have the convenience of the inventory, like, right outside the door, and it's not that easy anymore. It's in another building room. Even as I'm sitting in this new podcast room, even though this podcast room is much bigger, much better. I actually have AC and ventilation and windows now. I miss the beeping sound of the forklift during the recording here. It's weird. I would always message I did to do. I can hear the forklift on the podcast right now. Yeah, it's funny. It's like, beep, beep. Well, like I said earlier, you have a very important job around here. So, like, what are the key responsibilities of your role? So making sure that the inventory is available in the system, I guess, so that orders can happen.

Because if you guys don't see the inventory, then you're not able to process an order. So my job is to make sure it gets received in so that it's available. That way you guys can create orders and send stuff out to customers, influencers. or even people in the community. Yeah, so the challenge, I think, is just being able to keep up with everything coming in, keeping up with all the new parts. Anytime we have new product coming out

and just getting used to the new skews. What does it like a typical day look like for you? Like, what do you come into the office? Like, is it like super busy at the beginning, super busy at the end, or the entire day is just super busy? So first I come in, I say hi to everybody. because that's important. You need to acknowledge everyone in the office.

And then I sit down and just start reviewing emails, look at receipts to see if anything needs to be processed. Catch up on Slack because Slack is a thing. I can't have messages go unread because anxiety, I don't know. Everything needs to be read. So for those that have hundreds, thousands of months, messages unread. I can't. I don't understand it. Read your messages, please. Seriously. But yeah, no, that's normal. Just catching up on emails, Slack messages, and then

working with anybody in the office if they need help. How did you end up, like, working at NCCC? Like, did you just end up here randomly, or did you get recommended by friend or something? So I was working a job, and it was funny because my partner at the time, we were talking about, are we going to buy a console? Are we going to buy a PC? Because I had never played PC until I came to NZXT. And the very next day after we were like discussing that, I got a message on LinkedIn from a recruiter for NZXT and they're asking if I'd be interested in becoming an inventory supervisor for this company. And I'm like, who are you? I've never heard of you guys before. Like I'm a little curious so I had talked to my partner at the time and he's like oh my god they're reaching out to you

I'm like are they like a big deal I've never heard of them before I started doing my research I was like oh that's cool they build computers for gamers like never ventured into that because I'd always been in the apparel industry and distribution for that so we started going through interviews and I guess you guys liked me because you hired me I think one of my favorite interview questions throughout the whole process was if I played video games. That was the first time that any interviewer asked me that question. But it wasn't just like brief like, okay, cool, she plays video game. She like listed like Eugene took it a step further and was like, well, what class are you? I'm like, oh, okay, not off the hook. So yeah, it was a lot of interviews,

but eventually I came in and I like it here. Yay. So, what do you like most about working at in zxt and why is it this podcast so i think it's a couple things um one the product that we put out um anytime i bring up nzxte to like anyone that i play video games with they get excited about it so being passionate about our product um i think that's important when you work for a company that you like what they're putting out. That's pretty cool. The other thing is the people. Ivan and Mike are really cool to work with. Everybody at the office is really chill. Everybody vibes together and I make them arm wrestle occasionally. We'll get into that soon. We'll get into that later. No, I mean, it's a really good work culture, I think.

the work environment's nice. It can be stressful at times just because, you know, increase in orders where office moves. But I think we work together to kind of get through things. And yeah. Is that tend to, is, I was going to ask a question

about, like, what's the hardest question? Is that, like, is that, like, usually the hardest part is, like, when things change, like, especially skews changing and stuff like that? few changes for sure because now I have to review all of our older stock and see what we need to clear out. And like I think I mentioned earlier, just keeping up with all the new parts. Like, you know, when we have new items coming out, now, again, I have to review all of the old stock and figure out how we're going to push it out. But the other challenge, like I kind of touched on was just, you know, whenever we have these big sales and it's great for the company.

but now the work to push all the inventory out can be stressful. Someone actually has to work around here, right? Yeah, sometimes. It's not us, so someone's got to do it. What's a very rewarding part about the job? You know, like, I know it could be stressful at times. I know it could be difficult and, you know, sometimes just like chaotic. But what's like a, like, what's like the rewarding part about this job specifically?

I mean, as a gamer, we get a really cool discount. I got my first build through the company. I waited a year to purchase, but I'm glad I did because I got to familiarize myself with all the parts. Like I had to have the H510 Elite case. I had to have the Crackin Z-63 in my build. Yeah, so those are the rewarding parts. Whenever we have new products coming out and there's just a lot.

samples floating around in the office. That's pretty cool, too. And can you share what your most memorable experience has been at NCXT? You've been here quite a while. I think you've been here four years? Three. Three years, almost four going on four. It's like four.

But yeah. So, like, what's the most memorable experience you've had working here? It's going to have to be maybe. I think the first game night where we started having karaoke and just singing with everybody. Yeah, no, it was. So we took the biggest conference room and we had decorated it to give it like the karaoke vibe.

We shut all the lights off. We put like old Christmas lights up. And to have everybody together and kind of singing, like it was a really nice moment. Yeah, that was fun. We got to do our first game at the new office. I nominate you. I nominate you to set that up.

Yeah. That was always the thing. So anytime everybody wanted to get together, like, in the warehouse, they'd come up to me. Like, Maria, what are we going to do another game night? Like, let me figure my life out. And then I'll let you guys know. But then it was a group effort because I couldn't handle doing all of the, like, the activities on my own.

So, like, I would have Kevin K. help out with doing the karaoke room. And then Ivan's come in and played magic cards in the break room. We've had Smash Brother tournaments. We've had cards against humanity. My arm wrestling matches,

which have always been fun because we would put two people against each other in the warehouse and have posters made and just kind of hype it up. Yeah. And that's actually what I was talking about earlier about how you've always been someone around here who wants to do more at the office besides work and I love that you know because you're you're encouraging

almost like like you're like being a community manager within the company which I think is super fun and when when we went like remote during the pandemic I think that's like around the time you got hired and you were like one of the not few people but but one of the people that were going into the office. And I was also one of the few people that would go occasionally. So for me, it was really special when these, like, little moments were happening at the office. Because that was, like, probably the funnest thing I experienced before the pandemic was, like, literally just, like, a random Wednesday night. Like, let's just all play video games and do karaoke or let's have a Mario Kart tournament and things like that.

And when all that went away, I was really, really bummed. And you were always like, you know, even though there was people helping, but you were the one driving things, you know, you were like making spreadsheets and organizing times and scheduling events and rooms and setting up brackets for arm wrestling matches and things like that. So it was really, really cool. But besides all the fun stuff you've done here, I'm sure you also have some goals in mind for your role here.

here. So, like, I'm curious. What are your future goals with NZXT? What do you, what do you aspire to be around here? What do you want to accomplish? So definitely be on the podcast again. Okay. You can take over my job. I'm tired of doing this thing. But I think next step is global. I think it'd be fun to go to the other regions and kind of see what their inventories like and make game nights and arm wrestling matches over there. Yeah, that would be kind of cool. I haven't thought about that. Just go to go to Taiwan and then make everyone fight like in a cage.

That would be cool. So when I came in, it was as inventory supervisor. And then I got promoted the end of last year to inventory control manager. So I think two-year plan would be. be to do this role. But then after that, I think global would be next steps and being on podcast again.

Global inventory control manager sounds like a scary person you do not want to mess with. Right, Mike? I mean, I'm just the social media guy, so yeah, definitely. Seriously. For those that are tuned in live, I'm sure you can all

tell. Out of the three people on the stream right now, me, Maria, and Mike, Maria hands down has the best camera, the best lighting, the best setup, all three of us. So I'm assuming Maria that you like to stream video games in your downtime. Is that correct? I do. Did.

Do. Did. Do. Okay. You do. Where can people catch your streams, by the way? So I do have an account on Twitch. I think it's Harley

2 underscores heart because just the one underscore was taken already. I've got to find that person so you can arm wrestle them. No, I'm terrible at arm wrestling. I'm really good at booking the events, but not being in them. So, like, what inspired you to start streaming in the first place?

So there was a conversation in the office one day that I was having with Jaros. And he told me that, anybody could stream. So I was like, cool. I'll try it. The end. I thought it was a lot deeper than that.

Yeah. No. I mean, honestly, at the time, I was going through my separation. So having video games and my little community helped get through that. But it's a lot. Oh, my gosh. I mean, you guys had like a whole formal setup right before. And for me, I think my audio testing is all of like five minutes of recording just to see if all the things sound good.

And yeah, so I think Mike's helped me learn that maybe invest more time. No, not really. It's, I mean, if it's like if I'm doing a game stream, it's literally like what she said. It was just like five minutes of like, okay, just got to make sure I'm not too loud or I'm not too soft compared to the game with. two other people, you have to make sure that all three your guys' levels are, you know, not too much, you know, either someone's too quiet or too loud. So that's just because there's other people. In game streams, it doesn't take that.

But yeah, it is a lot to stream. There's other people involved. Yeah, no. The echoing is not cool. I got to tell my homie to turn it down. Yeah, friends that would not wear headphones. so then they would have the stream, they would talk, and then it literally create like a triple echo

and it'd be the worst thing I've ever had. Yeah, Lord. Yeah, no, streaming was fun. So originally when I got into it, it was just to play Nintendo games. Like, that was the intent. I'm just going to play Nintendo games because that's all I've played all my life.

But then I had started playing this game Dead by Daylight. And that was fun. It was fun playing with it. friends. And then the Ada Wong skin came out. So then we started cosplaying us her on the stream and that was

fun. But then I found out about another game called Fortnite. What's that? Yeah, what is that game? Never hurt. It's pretty good. You guys should check it out. Maybe one day we do a stream where we're playing Fortnite. How do you spell that?

Fork, knife. Fork knife. Fork knife. Got it. Work knife. Yeah, so I started streaming with that. And it was fun because I was putting content out on social media. I had old friends seeing me and reconnecting with them that way.

Like, oh, I saw you. We're playing dead by daylight on TikTok. And now I found you. And now we're friends again. Like, okay, cool. making friends in other regions we had there was a guy we were playing with in Norway

and I had a friend who would always say oh yeah you're from Sweden don't ever confuse the two because they'll get mad at you even like local friends I would just find these people they would come across my stream and they'd be like oh I actually live a couple cities away from you so we were making friends all over the place So I think that was my favorite part about streaming

Just the bringing people together The power of video games Yes So out of out of the So you had Nintendo You had Dead by Daylight you had Fortnite What out of those What was your favorite game you ever streamed then?

I think It's hard Mike I know it's tough Because you're like oh man There's some good ones but I think I have to go with Fortnite That was the one that We were streaming the longest, and I think that's the one we've had the most friends.

That's the one. I play it with my kids, too. So it's always fun when my daughter carries me. Do you do build or no build? No build. No build. No build. I was like, we don't build.

That's, I was like, oh my God, you guys are building. I can't. I remember I used to be able to make the tower really quickly on, uh, on good, troller and my friends would not know what to do on keyboard and mouse and I'd laugh and then I look at these people that literally like if you ever see those like Fortnite build contests

it's insane it's crazy you just you hear the tapping and I'm like dude how are you coordinating all of this that's like actually what made me hate that game when it first came out and I tried it I was like yeah I'm not going to be doing that but it's too complicated

I just want to just want to shoot because I like PubG and like the other battle royals more during that time. But then Fortnite no build and I'm like, okay, I'm kind of down for it. It's very fun. Yeah. How about this? What was out of like all the stuff, I remember you talk about like all these like fun memories that you made,

you have like one that you're like this one. If you had to leave, you forget everything about streaming except one memory, what would that one memory? One memory. Wait, say that again. So if you had to forget everything about streaming except this one memory that you had, what would that memory? Oh, um, okay, I know. So it was the time when I was about to get affiliate because I was working towards affiliate. And I had just gone out to karaoke with some people from NZXT.

And it was really late. And the place closed. And, you know, we're all hanging outside. and I think it was Lauren and Sergio that I was with. And there's like a donut place nearby. I think it was like a, I don't know if I'm allowed to say the brand, but there's a donut place nearby. And we're like, oh, let's go get donuts right now. So the guys went to go get donuts.

I got on the freeway to go home because I'm like, you know, it's three in the morning. I could get my hours in and I can get affiliate. So I got home and the guys are like, where are you? like you're supposed to meet us for donuts. I'm like, no, it's all good. I'm going to go home. I'm going to get affiliate tonight. So you ditch them?

He's not a fan of donuts. I imagine Laurent and Sergio sitting inside a crispy cream just waiting for you. Like, where is she? While she's like on the freeway, like speeding going home so she can play with the games. That's hilarious. Yep.

So I went home, logged in, got my hours in. and went to bed for a couple hours. I woke up and I got the email. Like, congratulations, you got affiliate. Yeah. So it was worth. It was worth it. Yeah, that's a really cool story.

Floret says I can't see donuts the same anymore. All right, Maria. So there is this rumor about you flying around the office and I want you to confirm if it's true or not. Flying? Yeah, it's circling around the office here. And this rumor is that you are. are a huge, huge, huge, huge major wrestling fan.

Is that true? Can you confirm or deny this rumor? I think the office knows how big a fan I am because at the Christmas game night, they all got together and they got me this bad boy. Wow. This is like, like, there's some weight on this thing. Wow. You see that?

I don't think I've ever met a bigger wrestling fan than Maria. You know, I follow her on Instagram and her stories are always like... All wrestling. It's all wrestling clips. Don't give me started because you're just not going to stop. What got you into wrestling? I got another backstory. What drew you to this?

So I was 12 years old. It was a Sunday evening. And my parents went out for a walk. And what that meant was the living room TV was freed up because my dad lives in the living room. So he always hugged the TV. My brother turned on Sunday night heat, which if you guys are old school wrestling fans,

that was like their Sunday wrestling show. It would be like one hour. And if there was like a paper view, it was to help build up that pay-per-view. There would be like interactions between wrestlers fighting later that night. So my brother puts this on. I think it was like Ken Shamrock versus Steve Blackman.

I think they were feuding at the time. And I'm just like, oh my God, this is awesome. I mean, mind you, we're in this era of like 90s, ninjas and karate and Power Rangers. So like the fighting was already there. But this was different because, I don't know, you got a couple guys in the ring wrestling, their storylines. And yeah, it just built up from there. So after that, every Monday, every Sunday, and then pretty soon Thursdays for Smackdown.

and then, yeah, it's just this obsessive thing. You know, you would watch Monday Night Raw and then the next day in middle school, everybody would be talking about what happened the night before. Stephanie getting married to Triple H instead of tests. Then that's interesting, like, because when I was a kid, wrestling was only on Saturdays and Sundays at noon on Fox, on Channel 11 here in L.A. And, like, that was it.

There was no Monday Night Raw or anything, but that's awesome. You not only got to fall in love with it, but you had, like, a bunch of content to just suck you in, huh? Yes. No, I mean, Attitude Era was great. And then John Cena came along and ruined it. Oh. That actually is a good segue to my next question here.

who are some of your favorite wrestlers past or present and why do you admire them? So past is going to have to be the Hardy Boys and Lita. Those are always my favorite. The hair, like this is pretty normal hair color right now, but usually I'm like pink, purple, blue. And that's all because of Jeff Hardy. So if anyone's ever wondered where all my crazy hair colors come from is because I grew up watching Jeff Hardy. and I just thought it was cool that he had all these crazy hair colors. You do have a different hair color every week.

I got to. Not every week. It's every season. Okay. But yeah, no, they were great back in the day. And they were crazy. They were daredoubles. They were jumping off ladders.

And it didn't matter that they weren't always winning matches because they were always putting on a good show. But fast forward to now, now that I'm grown up and I know. that there are other wrestling promotions out there. It's like favorite wrestler's going to have to go to Kenny Omega. So with Kenny, he, he's wrestled for nearly every wrestling promotion. He got really big in New Japan. And then he started a new company, AEW, because the WWE needed competition. And he did great there.

What I love about him is he puts on really great matches. Like if you're a wrestling fan, you already know. Meltzer, five stars. This man was putting on six star matches. So it's great because it's not just what you're doing in the ring. It's the story that you're telling to. And the buildup to it. There is a really famous video of Kenny Omega.

I don't know if you guys have ever seen it. But he's wrestling a 12-year-old girl. I've not seen that video. It's great because when you're in a ring, like we know that it's fake but you're supposed to kind of like wait wait wait hold on it's fake what

sorry I'd like to break it to you Ivan yeah so so he's wrestling in the ring with this girl and he's making it so believable in the wrestling world he's putting her over basically so she's like kicking him she's doing like moonsault

and he's kind of going with it Did you find it, Mike? Yeah. Ten years old. Okay. Okay. Ten years old. Oh my God.

Yeah. He's like. He's going with it. Yeah. That's awesome. That's a, oh, wow. Wow. He's like physically like having like, oh my God.

And he flips her. He flips him. That's sick. He's not really hitting her. Yeah, I know. That's really cool, though. this 10 year old girls doing really good though honestly yeah

no so what was really cool was um well okay so I stopped watching wrestling because John Cena ruined it right yeah I got pregnant with what this how did John Cena I thought he I thought he like made it like fun and stuff like that because everyone did his you know his thing sure but it was the PG era of wrestling So they had to tone it down.

And it wasn't as fun and with the attitude anymore. So a lot of people lost interest. The jorts, the jean shorts that killed it for you. Ivan, I think he should cosplay John Cena for a little. I don't know. I'm like Mike. I always thought, well, I guess because my nephew's pretty young. but when he was a kid, I just remember him, like, wearing John Cena shirts

and always going like this to me. Like, I always thought John Cena was, like, the cool guy, but I guess not. Now I hate him, too. Yeah, I mean, he blew up on the internet. I think it's interesting that my kids knew John Cena, not as the wrestler, but as, like, you know, the song that comes on

and that you can't see me. So how do you think, wrestling has evolved over the years. Like you mentioned the attitude era and then you mentioned the PG era. Like where are we now with wrestling here? Yeah then I'm so glad you asked. So we are in the Hunterhurst-Helmsley era right now and that is because Triple H has taken over. So Vince McMahon is no longer in charge of the WWE. It's Triple-E. It's Triple. H and he's doing great things. He had a really good WrestleMania 40.

He used to be in charge of the developmental promotion, NXT, very similar to NZXT. I was like, wait, what? You know what's funny? I got a funny story about that. So that NXT, hashtag NZXT, it trends every week on Twitter. And every time it's true, whatever, I don't know what day it is, but every time it's

trending, people tag us because they think it's us. So they'll tag us like on wrestling post like every week. It's kind of funny. That's great. Yeah. See, that's another perk of working for this company is that I feel closer to wrestling already. Yes. So we're in the in the triple H era. We're in the triple H era right now. Okay. We'll see how it goes. Do you, since you watch a lot of wrestling, so let me preface this. So I watch a lot of, I don't watch wrestling at all, but I watch a lot of baseball. And for me, I see like my life almost like a baseball season in a lot of ways, you know, because the baseball season is so long.

And I think I get a lot of like valuable lessons from watching baseball, you know, like, because in baseball, the best players strike out, you know, 70% of the time. So for me, I always tell myself, well, it's okay to mess up, you know, like the, the best baseball player you know he he doesn't get on base all the time just got to try your best Ivan come on you can do it so do you feel the same with wrestling like do you um do you see any parallels between wrestling and your life you know uh does it influence your professional life your personal life at all how do you how do you uh see wrestling in your life um i mean i think a really good comparison is the cody roads run right now

So back story Cody went on to WrestleMania last year to face Roman Reins and he lost and it was a big deal so you go to this year and he ended up winning so think less than there is

don't give up just because you don't win your first title match maybe you win the next one you hear that Mike don't give up give up I like it Have you actually attended like a live wrestling event? Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay.

They're so fun. And like for Ivan, so you understand. Because I've gone to baseball games. The way that like the Dodgers would come out when they're stepping up to the plate, it's kind of similar to like wrestling entrances. They've got their music that they walk out to. Everybody gets typed up. You got to look up baseball in Korea.

Because baseball is super popular in Korea. and there's like some players like the best players that come in almost like wrestlers like some of them dress up like Elvis and like zip line from the stands and like the dog like all this funky stuff I'll send you some videos of that later I've gone to I've done a raw done a smackdown I've done the NXT we've done a couple AW shows I've taken my kids they love it I thought it was going to be too much for them because it gets really loud everybody yelling for their favorite wrestlers. But no, they loved it. They were at there yelling and had a good time. Have you ever been to any of those extreme backyard wrestling events? Not backyard. I have gone to indie shows, like local ones that aren't televised. And those are fun.

I think, yeah, no. Backyard wrestling would be fun to go to. I'd be afraid that I'd get involved, though, and want to hop in the ring and start doing the moves myself. I think you'd be good at that. All right, I have one more question for you before we get into my favorite segment of the podcast, which is the part where Mike asks you the most random questions possible that we can think of. So my last question to you, Maria,

why do you make people in the office fight against each other? What's up with that? Like, why do you like to see people arm wrestle and beat each other up? you know it wasn't always arm wrestling so in the wrestling world we had a title belt back in the day it was the hardcore title but then recently it was the 24-7 title and the rules for that were you had to defend the title at all times so what i did to have fun at work was i brought one of my toy title belts in and i was like we're going to defend this you guys have to play each other rock paper scissors in order to win. And the more macho guys were like, well, I don't want to play rock paper scissors. Let's arm wrestle for it since we can't actually wrestle. So that's how that came about. And then we just made it into bigger things because we would have a game night. So it's like, oh, it's like, let's schedule this pay-per-view style arm wrestling event. And we're

going to make posters and we're going to hype it up and you guys are going to have entrance music and yeah you even had a referee wearing a referee my special guest referee Sam Santos yeah so Mike next time you visit the office you and I have to arm wrestle all right you you you Gibronie oh oh oh I don't know I even has a lot his arms and his arms fan is like huge I feel like he'd win easily just because he has so much leverage I think I'm I'm old enough now where I have the old man's strength. Yeah, dad strength too. That's that's impossible to be.

Double-wam. That strength is a real thing, man. It's crazy. My dad never works out. He doesn't, he only goes on walks with my sister's dog. He doesn't work out. We're moving from his house to this another house.

And literally, like, I was picking stuff up. And I work out regularly. I was picking stuff up and I was like having a hard time and he picks up the same like like weighted box no problem like it was like it weighed like nothing this man does not work out this man was out of army for like 40, 50 years now still has that strain it's crazy it's true it's real true like darky in the chat says

I'm so strong I can actually open a jar believe it or not wow yeah all right Mike it's time for the for the rapid fire questions here take it away i love this one so just answer however you think you want to go into detail go for it but don't feel like you have to um where these two are song related so you talked about karaoke so what's your go-to karaoke song panic at the disco i write since not tragedies oh classic classic classic you didn't even have to think about yeah that's a classic see that's what

people need to do is they need to have a karaoke song everybody needs to have like their go-to Because you never know. What if you go to karaoke and now it's your turn to pick a song? You're going to be the jerk that's there forever looking for a song because you didn't have this pre-plant. I also make sure that you have a song that everyone knows and can sing to. I always like Bon Jovi or something like that. So it's just like anyone can sing it. Everyone's going to have a good time with it.

And then another song related, what's your walkout song if you're at a WW? Probably Rio Ripley. Oh, what song does I've seen her on TikTok a couple of times What is her song? Damans, I think, in your dreams Or something like that

It's been motionless and white It's pretty heavy and really awesome Motionless and white Okay, I like that Gaming, so it was going to Gaming What games do you currently play? Currently, I was playing The Hades 2

Yeah Yeah not because it's released now but when they had like people playing it before it released I was playing that the first one was really good playing that obsessively until my thumb muscles were hurting

yeah I um I bought 80s 1 for a very long time I bought like two three years ago whatever when it first came out never played it and I saw Hades too and I was like all right I'm gonna do it and I told I was like I'm gonna play Hades and literally

my controller I have never had my I didn't I haven't used a control in a while my thumb as I'm doing like my dash and everything like that my thumb actually started hurting I've never had that before on a controller I was like what is this

Ivan you gotta try it hurt your thumbs with us I've had my thumbs bleed from playing Mario Brothers 3 I know the feeling seriously uh well speaking of Hades was the best weapon that you're playing with 80s 1 or 2.

Whichever 1, you're getting like 20% extra of the Oh, the extra darkness or whatever. So whatever that is, that's the weapon I'm using. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. What are your favorite games of all time? I just got chills. Donkey Kong Country 2. Oh, I love that game.

That's a good one. I love that game, man. That's a good one. I mean, graphics, music, everything. Burnout 3, Take Down. Oh, I love Burneau. I love. I tried revenge.

I hated it. Take Down 3 is, yes, that one. Burn on. And the soundtrack's really good on that one, too. It's like all Warped Horrorworthy songs. Yeah, I remember playing. Bernard was actually, I think, one of my first ever games of all time. Like on the GameCube, yeah, because my dad's like, okay, we got you a GameCube.

You can play some video games. And then that, that went downhill after that. then I think another one's going to have to be Ocaryana of time Ah I have this So when people Oh Major's mask

Yes they assume that Majors Mask is my favorite Zelda game but Like it's up there It's a second but the first one will have to be Ocary enough time I like that Good choice is good obviously

Those are Those are super good anyways Would you ever want to if you had the ability to go pro in a game, what game would that be? Um, Tetris. Oh, Ivan.

Ivan. Yeah. She's better than me on Tetris. I'm so good at Tetris. She's good. Do you think you could ever, like, go for the world record kind of thing, or? I mean,

not to brag, but, like, I am good at Tetris. We have another person that's good at Tetris at the company, Pauline. Yes. She is a Tetris queen. Pauline is so good that when I played against her, I asked her, hey, do you mind putting a camera on your hands so I know you're not cheating?

I was like, there's no way this person is this good. It was insane. She's like, she's one of those Tetris freaks that just, if you watch her play and then you just can't believe someone's actually playing it. I remember we had a Tetris like meetings where we just played Tetris for like an hour Yeah

I loved those The Mario Kart meetings were pretty cool too We got to bring those back We should Yes What are you most proud of But never have an excuse to talk about My wrestling knowledge

Like wrestling trivia All right I'm gonna give you a wrestling trivia question then. Oh God, I'm not going to get it right. Where was the ultimate warrior from? So my wrestling knowledge is limited to attitude era. Oh. And after.

Well, then I don't know. I only know like the super old stuff. Okay, what was what was the Undertaker's manager's name Hall Bearer Oh my God, dang Jesus

That there you're She definitely has the She definitely can back it up Are you related to Brett the hitman heart Unfortunately no But I did start a channel in Slack Called the Heart Foundation And that was me in all of my direct reports

That's hilarious What conspiracy theories do you believe? leave in? That wrestling is fake. Conspiracy theories? I don't know. Aliens are real. That's not a conspiracy anymore.

That's pretty much true at this point. All the likes that have been happening around the world. Yeah. Yeah, I can talk about aliens all day. Love it. I have a fun. So everyone asks. what superpower would you want

but what's the superpower that you would not want I don't want to read people's minds I think that's I think people that's like oh I totally want that is like the worst that you want man that sounds awful it's intrusive for one but the other

thing is if someone's thinking something that I don't need to know about then let's just keep it unknown please thanks in advance Do you prefer creamy or crunchy peanut butter? Creamy. I'm the weird one. Wrong answer.

Crunchy. Crunchy peanut butter. Yes, I agree. What would constitute a perfect day for you? Let's see. Reading. Streaming. gym with my kids

and lots of snacks your kids work out with you? Yeah. That's cool. We have a gym in our apartments. They're not allowed to do weights because they're too young, but they do the treadmill and the elliptical.

Imagine Maria like training her kids to be wrestlers. Just like just yelling at them. That's the ultimate play out. Faster, harder. No. I mentioned earlier, the little one wants to do pottery, which is why he doesn't require typing skills. And my older one, she's so cute. She wants to work at NST, and she wants to be a streamer.

Oh. All right, she can have Mike's job. Yeah, she can take my job. I'll retire. What type of bread would you be? A cinnamon roll. I'm not expecting that answer I like that

I mean technically I'm technically it's a I like that okay what is the most ridiculous fact you know yeah sorry I'm gonna pass on that one nothing's coming to mind

and then for the final one think about it would you rather have bionic arms or bionic lake Arm. Ar. Yeah.

Why? Because I'm not that strong. And I need to win my arm wrestling matches. Oh my God. Can you imagine wrestling? Maria, and she pulls out like a robot arm. Oh, yeah. You know, you know who has bionic legs is Laurent.

Who has a very important question. Oh, yeah. You've been asking it like 10 times in the chat, which is, who is your favorite coworker? I'm assuming he thinks you're going to say him. So you got to say someone besides Laurent. Not going to be him. Ooh.

I don't have one favorite. I have a... Okay. Lawrence's one of them. Yes. I do like hanging out with Lauren at the office. You don't have to lie. You don't have to...

You don't have to lie. You know, it's okay. Like me being at the office, he does bring some kind of fun. and quirkiness. So it's like Laurent, Maryland, Bangler. All people you sit next to.

Yeah, conveniently. Yeah, it can be leads to people. Honestly, I hope that you like the co-workers that you work with. So that's... I do. Everybody's really great. And I think with this new office move, everybody's become closer to.

Just keep it that way. Yes. All right. one, it's not really a question, but it's a comment that we definitely want to ask you about. So ZBot 1989 in the chat here says that you love stinky cheese. Is that true? I hate it. I hate cheese.

I don't eat any cheese. Are you lactose? Are you lactose intolerate? No, I just don't like cheese? What? What about pizza? No pizza. The only pizza I will eat is Papa Johns, but you have to order it a certain way.

Which is? They have a light cheese option where they don't use as much cheese and I have to over bake it. Wow. I don't think I've ever met someone that wasn't lactose or tolerant that did not like cheese. Oh, no. I will eat ice cream all day every day, but cheese, no. If I needed it like cheese, I never would have scheduled this podcast. Oh, my.

Why did we save this till the end? I wish I would have known those information sooner, Z-Bot. Pauline says I don't like cheese by itself. I literally shredded bad, the shredded cheese, bag of shredded cheese at like 2 a.m. is like the best. It hits. I literally walk by the- At 2 a.m. Mike?

Oh, cheese, man. You got to open up. It's literally dead at night. It's all quiet. You just open the bag of shredded cheese. You just like eat it. Fast thing in the world. Yeah, I will walk by the fridge, open it, and get like three slices of cheese and just stuff it in my mouth.

I love cheese. No, thank you. All right, well, there you go. She's not a cheese fan. But even though you don't like cheese, we were still very happy you joined us, Briya. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. We really appreciate it. Thanks for having me, guys.

Is there anything you want to say to? People who are tuned in live, we're listening after the fact. Yes. So just remember, Mary Poppin said, in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and the job's a game. I like that. I like that a lot, actually.

Yes. So if you ever wonder why I'm always doing fun things at the office, that's why. It can't always just be boring work. It has to be fun. You're going to make, you're going to make everyone cry around here. That's a great quote. I like that quote. Maria Poppins. Maria Poppins. Okay. All right. We got to make a slacky moat.

Yeah, we got to get Maria like an umbrella. So she like to get flood down. Your warrant is on it. We're going to see a meme in the next five minutes. Yes, Lorette. Please make the Maria. Poppins, Slack a moat. Thank you. All right. Yeah, thank you, Maria. We really loved having you on here, and we can't wait to have you again.

Thanks, guys. All right. Let me get into some announcements. I'll give the code word for those that are in the chat for the Pucci giveaway as well. But first, right now, we have an NXT Memorial Day sale. You can buy some select game PCs. and you get a free NSXE function 2 keyboard

Let's see if I can show my keyboard Function 2 keyboard and a lift to mouse I'm not going to lift my mouse while supplies last so you can go to nzxt.com or exclamation point sale I think I even just did that in chat

if you guys want to take a look at the Memorial Day sale we have a craft project with Starfield so we have a mouse mouse mouse padded in case inspired by the game Starfield the case is pretty dope and if you're looking into it

and you want to get something Starfield related go ahead and do nzc.com and check out the craft section CRFT. We have a flex subscription service which is honestly one of the coolest things I think we have done. You can get a game PC for as little as like

$59, $49 a month. It comes with a warranty. You can upgrade every two years and you can cancel any time. So I highly recommend it for people that are traveling or they are doing like an internship or something like that and they're just working there for a couple months. Highly, highly recommend.

It's pretty dope. You can do nz60.com slash flex if you're listening. Discord, the discord.org.g slash nzxte. We're doing so much fun stuff. We have a lots of fun stuff coming up. We have a wallpaper and setups contest every month. So you can submit your NZC theme masterpiece or your game setups and you can win surprises. check hashtag wallpaper dash contest or hashtag setups dash contests channels in discord.g.g slash nzixd.

Maria, where can we follow you on social media? So I am on TikTok and Instagram, but I am more active on Instagram. And then I have Twitch. Harley underscore underscore Heart. Yep. I'll put the two underscores. When are you going to get another Twitch stream, Maria? Well, now that I have this pretty light behind me, I don't know.

Maybe I'll hop on tonight. Oh, what game? What game? Oh, my daughter was telling me Hades 2, so I think that's what we're going to go. There you go. That's a great one. We should do Hades to stream soon, Ivan. Let's do it.

All righty. So for those that are here, we're giving away. a little poochy plush as our way is saying thank you for those that are joining live and, you know, talking with us, giving Maria some awesome questions and just, you know, interacting with us.

I'm going to give you guys a code that gives you 500 extra entries into it. I think you're like this code, Maria. The code for the 500 extra entries, as our way saying thank you guys for joining us live, is not playing Undertale.

Not playing Undertale is the code. you know she's Maria definitely was not playing Undertale for 32 minutes when we saw her discord so I was working she was working

just she did not play video games that work it is she was strictly working and not playing undertail so that is the code not playing undertail that's her way of saying thank you guys for joining live thank you Maria for joining us you're awesome

awesome guests and I think that's it Anything else, Ivan, before we head out? No, I just want to thank Maria one last time and also thank all the people who tuned in live. And if you live in the United States of America, have a happy Memorial Day weekend.

Oh, yeah. Stay safe. Stay happy. Stay everything. Just enjoy the long weekend for those in the U.S. And thank you guys for joining us live and tune in every other Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the official NCT Twitch. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes on

podcast, Spotify and SoundCloud. You got any questions for us? Send an email to podcast at n60.com or tag at NCC on social media. Thank you, Maria, for joining us today. You are awesome. Go take a look at her Instagram or her Twitch. And hopefully we'll see some Hades too tonight, Maria.

All right. Thanks, guys. See everyone. Bye.