Something You Should Know - How to Find Hidden Collectibles in Your Home & Powerful Career Advice You Haven’t Heard Before

Episode Date: September 3, 2018

Whenever you get a new credit card in the mail, you are encouraged to sign the back of it. In fact many say, “Not valid until signed.” But should you sign the back of your credit cards? For security reasons, maybe not. But there is something you might want to write in that little box instead. We start the episode by discussing that. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1444/should-you-sign-the-back-of-your-credit-cards Supposedly the average American home has about $2600 worth of stuff collecting dust that could be turned into cash on eBay or a garage sale. But how do you know what stuff? Brian Kathenes is a managing partner at National Appraisal Consultants in New York and author of the book, Betcha Didn’t Know That! https://amzn.to/2NzLb4G. Brian joins me to offer some advice on what to look for in your attic or your parents’ attic that could be worth a lot of money – as well as things that aren’t worth wasting time on.  So what’s the difference between green tea and plain old black tea? Green tea has certainly gotten a lot of great publicity for all its health benefits but could regular tea be just as good for you? You just might be surprised to hear this. http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/antioxidants-in-green-and-black-tea How do you get ahead in your career? If you care, you have probably already checked out various experts who talk about the importance of networking, a good resume and a firm handshake. But there are some lesser known strategies that are equally – if not more – powerful. Employment expert Vicky Oliver author of the book, 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions https://amzn.to/2Pv8Bsv joins me to offer some lesser known but powerful suggestions to move up the career ladder. This Week's Sponsors Glip. Get a free Glip account at www.glip.com/something care/of Vitamins. For 25% off your first month of personalized care/of vitamins go to www.TakeCareOf.com and use the promo code SOMETHING  Hoka One One. Get free expedited shipping on your first pair of shoes by going to www.hokaoneone.com/SYSK and use the promo code SYSK Hotel Tonight. Download the app Hotel Tonight to your phone and get $25 off your first eligible booking. Realtor.com. Start your next home search at www.Realtor.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Something You Should Know, do you sign the back of your credit cards when you get them? Should you? I'll discuss that. Plus, are there valuable collectibles hiding in your home? You might be surprised. For example, any coin before 1965, a quarter, a dime, a half dollar, a dollar, is almost all silver. And sometimes people don't realize that. And those coins in today's market are worth at least four times their face value. Plus, green tea. It gets a lot of press for how healthy it is, but what about regular black tea?

Could it be that it's just as good? And some powerful ways to get ahead in your career you might not have heard before. For example... Look up on the company's website how other employees are dressed and then dress 25% more polished than you'd need to be if you were already working at the company. And I think that that is a pretty good rule of thumb. All this today on Something You Should Know.

As a listener to Something You Should Know, I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know was all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks. Well, you see, TED Talks Daily is a podcast that brings you a new TED Talk every weekday in less than 15 minutes.

Join host Elise Hu. She goes beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future. Learn about things like sustainable fashion, embracing your entrepreneurial spirit, the future of robotics, and so much more. Like I said, if you like this podcast, Something You Should Know, I'm pretty sure you're going to like TED Talks Daily. And you get TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts.

Something You should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. I've gotten some really great emails in the last week or so. Most of them quite complimentary about the podcast and a few that took issue with something they heard a guest say.

But I like that because that means people are paying attention. And if you have a question or a comment or want to take issue with something you hear, you can always write to me. I read every email and try to respond to all of them. My email address is mike at somethingyoushouldknow.net. We start today with a question that I bet you've asked yourself. Should you sign the back of your credit card in that little white box? It does say on many credit cards, not valid unless signed.

But more and more people are recommending that you do not sign the back of your credit cards. It does very little to deter a thief from using it, and in fact it gives them a sample of your handwriting so they can work on duplicating it before they use the card. Many experts are also recommending that instead of your signature, that you should write on it, Ask for Photo ID. Now this will clearly take a few more moments at checkout,

but it will deter burglars because they likely won't have a photo ID to show that has your name and their picture. And that is something you should know. I remember hearing some statistic somewhere that said that the average American home has about $2,600 worth of stuff that could be sold on eBay. And while that sounds intriguing, the problem, of course, is figuring out what stuff. Of all the things in the attic, in the closet, in the boxes at Grandma's house, how do you know what's valuable or if anything is valuable? Well, to the rescue is Brian Kathanis. Brian is a partner at National Appraisal Consultants in New York. And interestingly, years ago, the Nixon family actually hired Brian

to appraise the Watergate papers from the Richard Nixon presidency. He's also co-author of a book called Bet You Didn't Know That, and Brian really has his finger on the pulse of what is and isn't valuable. Hey Brian, so I think when people hear that they might really have valuables in their home, their first thought is, yeah, well, probably not my home. And I think that's very true, and I think in many cases, and we found in many cases, that people are stepping over things that may have great value, and it's just a matter of understanding some of the very basic concepts of what makes unusual collectibles valuable.

And what are some of those concepts? It's back to good old supply and demand. If there is a huge supply of things in very low demand, they probably won't be very valuable in the future. If there's very low supply and a high demand, those things could become very valuable. The trick is figuring out what you have that is in high demand and in low supply. And if you're speculating or thinking about the future, what do you think might be valuable in the future? So how about some examples? Maybe something that

people might think isn't worth much but actually is? Some of the things that stand out to me are certain types of coins. And for example, any coin before 1965, a quarter, a dime, a half dollar, a dollar, is almost all silver. And sometimes people don't realize that. And those coins in today's market are worth at least four times their face value. Now, that can change as silver prices change, but people miss those. The opposite end of the coin, or the, no pun intended, is our Indian head pennies. And everybody thinks they're extremely rare, and they're not. They're worth a couple of bucks, but the rare year that everybody

needs to look for is 1877. That was the year that they made less than one million of those Indian head pennies. All the other years Indian head pennies were made, they made many, many millions. Do you know why they made so few in that one year? Don't know. Whether they didn't think it was at demand for them, but that was the year that substantially less amount was made, and therefore, low supply, high demand, everybody wants it. So what's my old baseball card collection worth? Oh boy, I wish I had all the ones that I clipped to my spokes of my bicycle. And I wish I hadn't scraped out Mickey's mantelpiece when he struck out that day.

Most of your baseball cards probably have very little value and could be clipped to your bicycle spokes. But some of the early ones, especially rookie cards by some of the major players, can be very valuable. How has eBay changed this whole business that you're in? I think eBay has brought the world together in a way that no other medium could have. There are people in New Jersey that are buying postcards of their hometown from a guy that collects postcards in San Francisco, and there's no way those people would be able to find each other. The other thing that eBay does is if you have a set of those old colored Pyrex bowls and you know that a set of all five of them

might be worth $200 and you just have the green one, you can probably sell the green one on eBay to the guy across the country or the woman across the country that's missing the green one. For probably a decent amount of money? Probably. The amazing part is if you go on eBay and you look up something that you think you have that's rare, most of the time you'll find 30 or 40 of them available on eBay that very same week. The ones that you don't see up there very frequently, that's when you might have a winner. So when you sell something on eBay,

particularly when you sell it as an auction, can you feel relatively assured that that's what it's worth because that's what somebody was willing to pay for it? Very much so. But every item in the world has about five or six different values to it. So one of your baseball cards, for example, might have a retail price of $35. It means if you walked into a baseball card store and said, I'd like to buy that card, the dealer says it's $35. If you brought that same card in and said, I'd like to sell you this card, the dealer's not going to pay you $35 because he needs to make a decent profit,

a decent living, and covers overhead and insurance. He might offer you $20 for that. Now, if you had filed for bankruptcy and the sheriff said everything's going to get sold on Tuesday, you might get $3 for that. So there's retail, there's wholesale, and there's liquidation value. And there's many other values related to appraising. So when an appraiser, you ask an appraiser what something's worth, the appraiser's going to ask you, why do you want to know? And that'll help us figure out which value will be most helpful to you. So if I'm listening to you getting all excited that there may be a fortune somewhere in my attic,

and I decide I want to go poke around and see what's there, what kinds of things should I start looking for? Well, if you have relatives that are old and long gone, I'd look for paper documents, anything related to military documents or military collectibles. Maybe it's a World War II medal. Maybe if you have relatives that go way back, it might be a Civil War discharge paper or a military appointment that might be signed by a president. Paper things get overlooked in many, many cases. As far as coins, we said anything before 1965 is going to be interesting. Maybe the relative collected stamps. And glass, early glass and Victorian items are very, very collectible.

Even modern items like Barbie dolls, and maybe even more important than the Barbie doll, might be the box that the Barbie doll came in. The doll, original Barbie dolls, in the original boxes have sold for up to $5,000. And boxes alone have sold for $2,000. And so people hear you say that, and they start to think, well, maybe I ought to start collecting

whatever is the equivalent to the hot toy or the hot thing right now and hold it and keep it in the original box because one day that might be worth a lot of money. Yes, and that person and about three million other people are thinking the exact same thing. And if there's three million of them stuffed in a basement somewhere, they're probably not going to be valuable. It's like the old McDonald's collectible toys or any of the fast food giveaways that came out in the Happy Meals. Before people started collecting them and they just played with them and then tossed them out, they've become very valuable. But now everybody's collecting Happy Meal toys. They're putting them away and making little shrines to them or protecting them in

acid-free folders. And it's just, they're just not going, I don't believe they're going to be valuable because there's so many of them out there. Supply and demand. There you go again. So when I think about my parents' attic or my parents' basement, you know what I think of? I think of all the stuff up there, mostly it's clothes and books. And clothes, if they're vintage clothes, talking Victorian era,

they can be very collectible. Now, if mom happens to have one of those over old paper Nixon for President miniskirts from the 70s, then that's pretty collectible. But for the most part, clothes are not, unless they're early Victorian clothes. Books, you know, when people talk about I have a book from 1895 and that's an old book, in the grand scheme of books, that's, when people talk about, I have a book from 1895, and that's an old book, in the grand scheme of books, that's not really old. If Gutenberg came up with movable type three or four hundred years before that, now that's an old book. So early American history is interesting, botanical books are very interesting, theology and family Bibles usually

are not. I'm speaking with Brian Cathanis. He's a partner at National Appraisal Consultants in New York and co-author of the book, Betcha Didn't Know That. One of the most annoying things about taking vitamin supplements is that all the bottles of all the supplements, they all seem to

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today. Look for the Search for the Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, Brian, when you go to a garage sale, and I'm sure you must visit garage sales, what are the things you find typically that are still maybe undervalued that potentially are real finds? I think today with the advent of eBay and all the online auctions and the data that's available for research on the Internet, there's a tendency for people to price things a little higher than they probably should be. In my neck of the woods out here in northwestern New Jersey, garage sales aren't real garage sales. There aren't as many bargains as I would hope to

see out there, although they still creep up. Years ago, people would just put price on it to move stuff out. Now I think garage sales are becoming more of a revenue source rather than a clean out your garage sale in essence. So perhaps the idea of going to garage sales in the hopes of finding that amazing magic something that's worth thousands or millions of dollars, those days are probably gone. Right. I think the magic something's probably in the house and never made it to the garage sale table. Things like?

Furniture, jewelry, costume jewelry is very, very popular now, and glassware. I think you'll find glassware in pottery. There's a lot of early American pottery that's becoming very popular that is, in many cases, still being used in the home, and people don't realize their value. What do you mean exactly when you say glassware? You mean just any kind of drinking cup? Oh, no, glassware as in cups that you drink out of or stemware as in goblets and things along those lines. So anything that would be kind of a clear glass. And remember, we're looking for not pressed glass, which was a cheap and easy way to make glass, but we're looking for leaded crystal glass that was actually blown and carved. And the

difference between that is pressed glass came out of a mold. You can usually see the seam or the mold mark, whereas blown glass is smooth all the way around, and usually it's cut on a special sharp wheel. So the edges and the facets of a piece of stemware or a goblet or a bowl are going to be sharp and very crisp. What about old glass bottles? Old glass bottles are very collectible.

People would go digging through dumps for them, but now with all the concerns about what else is growing in the dump, people don't do that as much. But collecting bottles is a very, very popular and sometimes lucrative field. Even mason jars, the old canning jars that we remember people making jams and jellies in are now becoming a little more collectible because everybody threw them out. They weren't collectible for the longest time. What about vinyl records, you know, old 33s, 45s, 78s?

A lot of people have a lot of those laying around, so my sense is that vinyl records are not very valuable. There are a couple of good vinyl records. They haven't quite gotten there yet. 78s haven't caught on yet, with very few exceptions. And we're looking for the Butcher Beatle album, and then we're looking specifically for Bob Dylan's rare issue of the one that has Talking John Birch Blues on it.

So there's a couple albums out there that are special. The early, early rock and roll, certainly early Elvis is very collectible, but a lot of vinyl records just aren't making it yet. Well, and I remember my dad had a bunch of old 78 records in the attic that everyone thought was going to be valuable, and when he passed away we did some research, and they're not worth anything because everybody's dad had a bunch of old 78s and they were all the same 78s. Exactly right. Bing Crosby and Enrico Caruso somewhere in the house, right?

Which gets back to the supply and demand situation. If everybody has one, then none of them are valuable. Sure. That's right. And I think once somebody comes out with a price guide to 78 records and the rarest of the rare and has a big auction around them, then they can become very popular too. So that might be worth hanging on to. Who knows? I would imagine eBay helped to drive the price down because once eBay showed up, everybody could list all their 78s, and when everybody saw how many 78s there were, the demand dried up and the price went down.

And there's just so many out there. Once again, people go on there and go, wow, there's 40 other people that are listing the exact same record here. So since you've been doing this a while, I bet you've come across some pretty interesting, unusual, and perhaps pretty valuable finds. So talk about some of those. Well, actually, one of my most exciting finds, because one of my loves is manuscripts, is we did an appraisal, just an insurance appraisal for a local library, and they had a $50,000 copy of the Declaration of Independence sitting in the basement that they didn't even know they had. So that wasn't bad for a big old document leaning up against the boiler down in the basement. What made it worth that?

Well, there are a variety of copies of the Declaration of Independence, and people like them because they're focused on American history. But depending upon who did the printing and when the printing was done determines their value. The most rare copy is what's called the Dunlop copy, and that was actually printed around July 4, 1776. That's the one that you've heard about that was found behind a painting and sold for $8 million. Later on, a guy named William Stone was asked by Congress to make a duplicate of the original Declaration of Independence, and he spritzed a little water on it and put a piece of tissue paper over it to lift some of the ink off, made a plate, and those Stone copies were sold for about a half a million dollars

done by a guy named William Stone. Later versions have gone for less, and they shouldn't be confused with the one that we can still buy in the gift shop at the local museum. What about autographs? I'm sure it depends on whose autograph you're talking about, but a lot of people collect autographs, so what about the value there? Autographs are still incredibly popular from a variety of fields, whether it be historical documents like the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the rarest being a guy named Button Gwinnett, who died shortly after signing the Declaration of Independence. He died in a duel,

and all of his papers were burned up in a fire. So if you want Button Gwinnett's signature, you're probably going to have to pay about $100,000 for it. And that's about the same price that you'll pay for an autograph of William Henry Harrison, who signed as president since he was only in office for 30 days. He died of pneumonia after catching a cold, giving the longest inaugural speech in history. So, referring back to your supply and demand argument, I would assume that dead people's autographs are worth more than living people's. Yes, they typically are, and they're also harder to get after they're dead.

Typically, the value of autographs go up after people pass away. If they were in the public eye at one point, whether it be a celebrity like Elvis or a historical person or someone known for her good work like Mother Teresa. So what's the most valuable thing you've ever come across? Ooh, the most valuable individual item probably would have to be a signature of Christopher Columbus, which is probably in the million-dollar range.

I have, I don't remember exactly what year it was, but I have a program from the New York Yankees old-timers game from a long time ago that was signed by, you know, all of them, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Cleet Boyer, Whitey Ford, all those guys. I wonder what that's worth. Sounds like it's worth a bundle.

Care to take a guess? Off the top of my head, it'd be hard to tell, and we usually don't rattle off numbers without seeing it or knowing something about it. But if it's in good shape, we're probably talking a couple of thousand dollars. And the neat part is, is you have a bit of American history that nobody else has. So I think the question a lot of people would have about this is, because it's a pretty big undertaking to, you know, go over to mom and dad's house and go through all their stuff or go up to your own attic and go through your own closets, if there isn't much of a

chance of finding anything. So is there, I mean, what are the odds that if you make the effort, it's going to pay off? I think the word that I hear is people have about $3,000 worth of things in their house that they think are absolute junk. The trick to that is getting knowledgeable in each of those areas or asking the right questions before you toss things out. So if you have an idea of what you're looking for, you'll come across some things that'll be fine. You may not get a trip to Disney World out of the deal, but you'll probably do a whole

lot better than if you just tossed it in the garbage. What about, because I see some of them on the cover of your book, and I know when my dad passed away, we found a whole bunch of albums full of postage stamps. Somebody, I don't think he collected them, but maybe his father collected them. But it was a lot, a lot of postage stamps. Are they valuable? Stamps are collectible, but most of the stamps that we see are in the form of accumulations rather than real collections. An accumulation is some big box of old stamps that people tore off of envelopes and saved. A collection is usually well organized and put together with thought. And you can think about when you were a kid how you collected baseball cards.

Well, the way I collected stamps was I had $10 to spend. It took me a couple of months to come up with that $10. You're just selling papers or doing chores in the neighborhood. And I went to a stamp show, and every dealer said, son, buy one $10 stamp, and you'll do okay in the future. Well, I had a choice of buying one $10 stamp or 50,000 other stamps for 10 bucks. I took the big bucket of stamps home. None of those are worth anything at all. If I had bought that $10 stamp, I would have been in much better shape. Well, I think after listening to you, people would almost feel compelled to go

look because I know for me, I would always wonder what if, what if I didn't look and there's a declaration of independence or a Christopher Columbus autograph in my attic. Brian Cathanis has been my guest. He is a partner at National Appraisal Consultants in New York and co-author of the book, Bet You Didn't Know That. There's a link to his book in the show notes. Thanks, Brian. Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast. And I tell people, if you like something you should know,

you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most. Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue. It's a great conversation. And he spoke with Dr. Sarah Hill about how taking birth control not only prevents pregnancy, it can influence a woman's partner preferences, career choices, and overall behavior

due to the hormonal changes it causes. Apple named The Jordan Harbinger Show one of the best podcasts a few years back. And in a nutshell, the show is aimed at making you a better, more informed, critical thinker. Check out The Jordan Harbinger Show. There's so much for you in this podcast. The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you love Disney? Then you are going to love our hit podcast, Disney Countdown.

I'm Megan, the Magical Millennial. And I'm the Dapper Danielle. On every episode of our fun and family-friendly show, we count down our top 10 lists of all things Disney. There is nothing we don't cover. We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney-themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed, but you definitely need in your life. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts. This episode of the podcast is being released on Labor Day. So let's talk a little bit about your labor, your job. Anyone who works for anyone in a workplace with, I don't know, two or three people or more,

has problems, issues, and barriers to getting ahead in their job and career. And you've probably heard a lot of the standard advice about moving up the career ladder, but today we're going to talk about ways that are also quite effective that you may not have heard. Vicki Oliver has been speaking and writing about career issues for some time now. She's written several books, one of which is 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions. And she's here to offer some lesser-known but quite powerful advice to getting ahead in your career. Hi, Vicki. So let's just dive right in here and kick this off with some specific advice for those who want to get ahead in their career. I think that something that is uncommonly known is that you can be your own motivator.

If you are working for a boss who never says anything nice, who never compliments your work, you should learn how to do it yourself. You should, through self-talk and saying to yourself, well, I guess if he or she is yelling about it, it must be good. You can motivate yourself. You can pump yourself up. You don't necessarily have to get your approval from your boss. You can give it to yourself.

And I imagine that's a fairly common problem. And something I've noticed in my career is that a lot of people who end up being bosses aren't really trained how to be a boss. They've just been promoted because they've done a good job. Right. A lot of times we are promoted beyond the level of our competence, really, because you could be promoted for a task that you know how to do very, very well, but then let's say you're a coder, right? You're a coder and you know that task of coding, but then you get promoted into management, but you really haven't dealt with people.

And at no place in college or in school, after college, business school, maybe you don't really learn those skills. Those are things you have to pick up on the job. And sometimes it's difficult for people if they really just haven't been exposed to it before. Yeah, I know I've worked for bosses. I've talked about this before, but I've worked for bosses that seemingly are like really good at getting the job. I don't know how they get it, but somehow they're good at schmoozing and they get the job. But once in it, they don't really seem to know what they're doing. One great thing about today is that the mentors do not necessarily have to be ahead of us on the food chain at the office. They can also be our own bosses or they could be colleagues.

Mentoring can work however you make it work. So if somebody comes in above you and that person doesn't really understand the job or you feel like he or she is slightly incompetent, you can begin mentoring that person. It doesn't matter that you're working for that person. You can still mentor them. How? I would say something like innocuous, like, oh, you know, if you have any questions about anything at all, you know, feel free to lean on me and I'll show you the ropes.

Something like that, where you open the door for that person to come back to you and ask you questions. And it can be a great way of ingratiating yourself with a new boss and also getting ahead yourself eventually if they depend on you. Also, just in terms of getting work done, if you are the go-to person, you know, you should embrace that role. Like, don't be shy about it, because then work will continue smoothly rather than facing a series of disruptions. What else? What about dress? Because certainly people have gotten much more casual in their dress, maybe too casual sometimes. But it does seem that there is less emphasis on that, and yet people still

notice. They do. I wrote a book called 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions, and in that book I advocated for getting the job to look up on the company's website how other employees are dressed, and then dress 25% more polished than you'd need to be if you were already working at the company. And I think that that is a pretty good rule of thumb. Now, that said, once you're working there, you know, let's say everybody, it depends on the culture, let's say everybody's skateboarding in the office, they're very young, you know, they're very hip, and dress doesn't seem to matter. I still think that dressing up a little bit can help you advance because when it comes to pitching clients

or schmoozing clients, people will think of you if you're dressed right. If you're just dressed in shorts all day long, they're not going to think about you to send you out on those missions. And, you know, there's been going to think about you to send you out on those missions. And, you know, there's been so much research about how dress really does matter. And there have been plenty of books written about it that people do, maybe they don't consciously notice, but your image is wrapped. That's the wrapping paper of your image. It's your brand. You know, today, each of us is our own individual brand. And that applies even if you are working at a company and you have five bosses. Like, you are still your own brand.

And within the company culture, you have to carve out your own brand. And I think it's a better ploy, really, to try to dress up a little bit, even if you work in a casual workplace. Not too much, because you don't want to be just completely, like, you don't want to walk in in a three-piece suit if everybody else is wearing shorts. That's ridiculous. But I think you want to show that you're professional and that you can be counted on, especially when it comes to clients. You know, there have been all kinds of studies, for example, when people go into department stores, right? And if you're wearing shorts,

let's say you're wearing shorts in Birkenstocks, it's a very hot day. I live and write in Manhattan. It's 95 degrees here right now. And a lot of people on the streets are wearing shorts. But if you walk into a department store wearing shorts, you're going to be ignored. And that's kind of similar. Like if you walk into work and you're just so cashed out, you're going to be ignored for the higher assignments. Well, I think that's really true because people notice even if they don't think they notice. It's all part of that brand. It's all part of that image. And people do notice. They do notice. They notice. They notice little things like, are there stains, you know, on your shirt? I mean, has your clothes gone to a dry cleaner,

you know, anytime recently? People notice that even when they don't feel like they're noticing it, they're picking up on it. So it's important to kind of, I'd say, you know, look professional within the bounds of your corporate culture. Great. What else? What else can people do they may not have thought of? Today, millennials are painted with kind of like a wide brush. And a lot of people who are older than millennials, you know, don't really love the idea of working with younger people. But I think there's a lot to learn, you know, from every generation of worker. And millennials who come in, as a general rule, their computer skills are so vastly much better than those who they are working for.

And the people who are there who are older should try to learn from their millennial coworkers. Learn from them and embrace them, you know, embrace them. Make them feel welcome. And I think that can help separate you out. So, you know, take the high road and embrace those millennials and learn from them and put them on your team and just try to be that person, you know, the person that learns from the incoming employees rather than competing. Because, you know, in competition, you're not going to be able to probably, you know,

if you're not a millennial, you're probably not going to be able to compete with them. So instead, bring them on your team, you know, and learn from them. Talk about playing the politics game and how that matters and how to do it. All of us have some types of personalities that we can deal with better than other types. And who we like to work with and who we don't, a lot of that goes back in time to our family, you know, our own family structures. My mother is very authoritative, you know, our own family structures. My mother is very authoritative, you know, and for me, I'm better off with somebody that's not so authoritative. You know, just the person will remind me too much of my mother, right? So I don't like to work for overbearing

people because they remind me of my mom, you know. Hi, mom. But they do, you know. But as a general rule for everybody, I would say, you know, try to be flexible, try to be team-oriented, and try not to take it personally when you don't seem to get the credit that you deserve. A lot of bickering at the office, I think, is about credit and not getting it. In fact, you know, a lot of times I call it the trickle-up theory. Credit really trickles up. So if you're doing a great job, unfortunately, whatever your boss is, the person getting the credit for your great job. And if you realize that that's usually how things work, it won't be so upsetting when you're not credited for your fantastic tasks. Asking for a raise, asking for more money is always difficult,

and yet everybody wants to make more money. Is there an approach that maybe makes it a little easier to do and is still effective? You never want to come off as asking for too much or having people feel like you're grasping, it's better to sort of say, you know what, I would love to talk to you about my performance overall and set up a date to do that and then go in and talk about what are realistic expectations for my advancement.

That's a good way to do it. What about the tricks that people think, well, you know, if I stay late, the boss will think I'm working extra hard. If I get here before he does, then, you know, that'll earn me points. Do you think it does? I'm a little wary of that. I think that maybe that worked about 25 years ago, you know, in business. I think that today, because of the speed of the Internet, because people are so much faster at their tasks, I think that efficiency is more rewarded than process, than just sort of sitting there to be seen, you know.

But that said, I think it helps to get in early in the morning. I believe more in the early riser than the person that hangs around at the office really late. Because let's say you get there five minutes before your boss comes in. He or she doesn't know how long you've been there. You know, it's something good to be there really like first thing in the morning. If you're going to play that game, that's what I would go for. I know you're big on, you know, etiquette and people being polite in the office, but you know, I mean, that seems pretty common sense, self-evident stuff. Yes? It sounds like a minor thing, but it is so major. And that ranges from saying good morning to people, taking your earbuds out of your ears

when you're in the elevator, you know, not listening to music and tapping on your desk, you know, when you're listening to music. It's just all kinds of things. And I think at the heart of it, it's that business is still people-oriented. And you're in an office place, there are other people there. And you don't want to be perceived to be in a bubble. You don't want to be perceived to be in your own music bubble, you know, singing your own song or whatever while you're working. You want to be a people person. And depending on who you are, that can be very, very difficult. But certain easy things like saying good morning, looking at people, like just acknowledging them, you know,

or if you're a man, maybe letting a woman get on the elevator first. Now, there may be people who take issue with that, but I don't think you can go wrong with just following the ordinary common decorum tips and just having great business etiquette while you're there in the office. And by the way, it even applies when you leave because you cannot talk about confidential company business. You might be in a bar, you know, a half a mile away from where it is you work, but you still cannot bring those company secrets out. You have to be an ambassador, really, for your company, even when you're not there on premises.

There's some pretty long-standing advice or belief anyway that sucking up to the boss is not a good thing, that sucking up in general is not a good thing. What do you think? When there's a new boss that comes in, I think a little sucking up is okay because new bosses sweep in and they have with them sweeping powers of change that they can enact if they so fit. So somebody comes in and he or she may have the license to bring on 20 new people and get rid of 15 people who are there. You don't know probably how much power that person has unless you're privy to those secret meetings. I don't think you probably know. So you're working for somebody brand new. And I believe it's a good idea to try to ingratiate yourself with that person. Try to be the go-to person so that that person will come

to you. You mentor that person. You show him or her the ropes, and then you become an indispensable person at your office. I remember talking, interviewing someone who had researched a lot of very successful business people, and he said that the one thing they all had in common to a person was that they all had mentors. Do you think that's important? It's always helpful to try to find mentors and if you can't find them in your own place of business, try to find mentors outside of your company. Try to bounce ideas off of people who are knowledgeable about business and knowledgeable about your own field, even if they don't work there. I would try to do that.

It just keeps a certain perspective that you can bring with you to push forward. Great. Perfect. Good, timely advice from someone in the trenches. Vicki Oliver has been my guest. The book is 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions. You'll find a link to her book at Amazon in the show notes for this episode. And thank you, Vicki, for being here. Thank you for having me. Everyone talks about how great green tea is for your health.

But what about plain old ordinary black tea? Isn't that good for you? Well, it turns out black tea is no lightweight. In fact, it's been black tea is no lightweight. In fact, it's been shown to help fight bad breath and tooth decay, protect your heart, reduce stress, and even help you lose weight. Just like green tea, black tea is also packed with immune-boosting antioxidants. Both green and black tea are really good for you,

and they even come from the same plant, but it does seem that green tea gets more of the positive press. But that's mainly because it's used more in a lot of the research that's done on the health benefits of tea. And that is something you should know. All of the links mentioned in this

episode, including the books written by my guests, as well as the links for our sponsors and the promo codes to use for discounts. They're all in the show notes for this episode. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Hey, hey, are you ready for some real talk and some fantastic laughs? Join me, Megan Rinks, and me, Melissa D. Montz, for Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? We're serving up for hilarious shows every week designed to entertain and engage and, you know, possibly enrage you.

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