Episode Transcript
Don Mock 0:20
All right, episode 79. We’re back and we’re back with Zoe, special guest. Say hello, Zoe.
Zoe Mock 0:25
Hello. Hello, Zoe.
Don Mock 0:26
There ya go. All right. Episode 79.
Zoe Mock 0:29
It doesn’t feel as special anymore. I feel pretty regular.
Don Mock 0:32
You’re kinda like a regular guest now.
Zoe Mock 0:33
I feel pretty… I mean, some might call me a member of the team.
Don Mock 0:35
Well, true story, you actually reached out to me and said, “Hey, can I come on the pod?”
Zoe Mock 0:41
I said, “I miss my dearly beloved father. I’ll go bother him while he’s working.”
Don Mock 0:45
But true story. You did not come for lunch. Next time you need to plan it for lunch.
Zoe Mock 0:49
I did not come for lunch.
Don Mock 0:50
Yeah, you didn’t come for lunch because…
Zoe Mock 0:51
Well, I’m a real working person now.
Don Mock 0:52
That’s what I was gonna say.
Zoe Mock 0:53
I have a corporate nine to five.
Don Mock 0:54
I know.
Zoe Mock 0:55
I am a successful participant of society.
Don Mock 0:57
I know. I feel very accomplished that that has happened. Without naming names – since you brought it up. How’s it going? What are your thoughts on entering the working world and being a successful participant in business and commerce?
Zoe Mock 1:15
It’s a trip.
Don Mock 1:16
Yeah.
Zoe Mock 1:17
It’s crazy.
Don Mock 1:18
Don’t say anything that’s gonna get yourself in trouble, either.
Zoe Mock 1:20
It’s a big learning experience. I’m learning a lot. I’m really enjoying it. Like baseline, I’m really enjoying it. It’s really great.
Don Mock 1:27
Awesome.
Zoe Mock 1:27
There are a lot of things that feel like elementary school again.
Don Mock 1:31
Really?
Zoe Mock 1:32
And I mean that positively but in like, “Oh, we’re doing this right now.”
Don Mock 1:34
Yeah, I thought you would have immediately… my initial impression of you saying that actually was negative.
Zoe Mock 1:40
No.
Don Mock 1:40
The he said, she said, the cliques, the bad part of elementary school
Zoe Mock 1:44
No, not like that. Just everything is so planned out again. I haven’t been in – call it eight hour schedule –
Don Mock 1:54
You mean it’s structured?
Zoe Mock 1:55
It’s super structured.
Don Mock 1:56
Yeah. Well, I mean, we all have these magical electronic boxes that have calendars on them. And everything is so calendar-driven. Right?
Zoe Mock 2:04
Yes.
Don Mock 2:05
That is one of the interesting aspects, at least, of my career, that I’ve noticed over the long time we’ve been going here. It’s definitely more calendar-driven. It’s not “Oh, I can’t do that now.” It’s “Oh, I’m not available until next Tuesday. And that kind of drives deadlines and things, which I find actually really interesting. It didn’t used to be that way. But now that everyone’s on Microsoft Teams, and “Oh, let me look at your calendar. Let me book you for a meeting.” It’s that kind of stuff. So –
Zoe Mock 2:32
It feels –
Don Mock 2:33
Regimented like elementary school?
Zoe Mock 2:35
I just haven’t had the structure. Covid took away the structure for me, because it was –
Don Mock 2:38
Interesting.
Zoe Mock 2:39
It was a lot more spread out. And college is, “Oh, I don’t have class until 12. Sleep in until 11:30.
Don Mock 2:45
Whoa. Okay.
Zoe Mock 2:46
Which doesn’t happen for the record. There is the option.
Don Mock 2:48
Yeah.
Zoe Mock 2:50
But now we’re back to, “Oh, it’s so and so’s birthday on Friday. Everyone gives a nice little -“
Don Mock 2:54
Hey, cupcakes!
Zoe Mock 2:55
“We’ll clap for that.”
Don Mock 2:55
In the break room.
Zoe Mock 2:56
They brought in doughnuts. That’s the very juvenile feel of it.
Don Mock 3:02
Are we like singing Happy Birthday, Marie, and all that stuff? Is there…?
Zoe Mock 3:06
No.
Don Mock 3:07
Okay. Thank God,
Zoe Mock 3:07
But there was a…
Don Mock 3:09
There was a what?
Zoe Mock 3:09
I was I was given the pleasure of a different rendition of Happy birthday, which I’ll tell you later.
Don Mock 3:15
Okay. Fascinating. I’m curious.
Zoe Mock 3:17
Yeah. It’s a lot of personalities, too. That’s come back, too. Kind of clickey. Everyone has their people.
Don Mock 3:25
Well, you get… you have a blender of 100 different people on a floor, from all different walk – I mean, that is one of the benefits. Diversity in the workplace is a great cultural asset.
Zoe Mock 3:36
Yeah. So my supervisor is 15 years older than me, from what I’ve put together. I met with the quote, unquote, “seasoned vet,” the senior tech advisor, who retired and then came back because he was like, “I have nothing to do during Covid. I’m bored.” And he’s talking about my supervisor and how young he is and how much of a young whippersnapper and blah, blah. And I’m like –
Don Mock 3:58
Whipper snapper?
Zoe Mock 3:59
“I hate to break it to you. He still has 15 years on me.” I don’t know. Just the goofiness like that. That’s also the adjustment of like, “You guys really don’t know how young I am.”
Don Mock 4:12
Yeah. Well, you look and appear older than you are.
Zoe Mock 4:15
I’ve been told that so many times.
Don Mock 4:16
Yeah, exactly.
Zoe Mock 4:17
In the last six weeks.
Don Mock 4:18
Well, it doesn’t help when you sit at your desk and knit during your breaks. When you break out the –
Zoe Mock 4:24
It’s actually crocheting.
Don Mock 4:25
Crochet needles. You know, “What are you making?” “Oh, another scarf.” No, just for the record, you do not crochet.
Zoe Mock 4:32
I don’t have the fingers for it.
Don Mock 4:34
It’s a needlepoint instead. No.
Zoe Mock 4:37
For a while it was embroidery.
Don Mock 4:40
That’s funny. That’s really funny. All right. So you’re back. You’re here. You’re fun. You’re part of the team, all that good stuff. What are we talking about today? I don’t even know what we’re talking about. I have no clue what you want to talk about. You invited me here. So it’s your show. You should have done the intro.
Zoe Mock 4:54
I invited you to my own – to your own office.
Don Mock 4:57
I know. It’s exciting. Well, we’re recording this on a Friday. So it’s Friday today.
Zoe Mock 5:02
Silly goofy. Silly goody fun time.
Don Mock 5:04
So what are we talking about?
Zoe Mock 5:05
I thought from the list of ideas I have right here – super long list to keep us going, we should dive into the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten.
Don Mock 5:13
Weirdest object I’ve ever eaten.
Zoe Mock 5:15
Object? Were you going to say object?
Don Mock 5:18
Weirdest thing?
Zoe Mock 5:19
I think, “Oh, I know your answer, too.”
Don Mock 5:20
What? You don’t know what my ob – you don’t know my ans –
Zoe Mock 5:23
I think I know your answer.
Don Mock 5:23
You don’t know. Well, mayb- Well, okay, let me see… Why did you pick that topic? Weirdest thing we’ve ever eaten?
Zoe Mock 5:29
I don’t think…
Don Mock 5:33
It’s just an interesting idea.
Zoe Mock 5:34
It’s an interesting idea. It’s the one that seemed to pop out and be the least structured right now. For our silly goofy fun time.
Don Mock 5:42
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve eaten this. But are we just going right into it. Is that what’s about to happen?
Zoe Mock 5:47
I think we should go right into this. Okay. You say what it is. I say what I think it is and I know this will be a story.
Don Mock 5:54
I wasn’t going to just come out and say it. I was going to tell the story, but I will go right to the end of the story.
Zoe Mock 6:00
No, no.
Don Mock 6:01
The strangest thing I’ve ever eaten – now we’re playing by your rules. It’s okay. The strangest thing I’ve ever eaten is coagulated blood.
Zoe Mock 6:08
Okay, nevermind. I was wrong.
Don Mock 6:10
Okay. Yeah. Steamed coagulated blood.
Zoe Mock 6:13
I thought you would have said live goldfish.
Don Mock 6:15
Oh, that’s a good story, too. We’ll tell that story.
Zoe Mock 6:17
Exactly.
Don Mock 6:18
Okay. Yeah. I had forgotten about that. All right. So –
Zoe Mock 6:20
I knew you would have.
Don Mock 6:20
For those that do not know, and are listening to this with bated breath and curiosity. I was actually born overseas. I was born in Hong Kong. And for the first 18 years of my life or so, I used to travel back and forth to the Far East, with my parents and whatnot. So I would go to Hong Kong every other year or so. Go to Singapore. All that good stuff. Yeah, you’re being distracted right now. Because you’re watching something else. I’m telling a good story here.
I’m watching Mike in his cubicle watch the kid clients.
Kid clients.
Zoe Mock 6:55
Sorry. This is such a live –
Don Mock 6:57
Are you having a trip?
Zoe Mock 6:58
I’m having a trip dowm – I mean, that’s KR and
Don Mock 7:01
That’s KR and Amelia.
Zoe Mock 7:02
And Amelia?
Don Mock 7:02
Absolutely. Absolutely. And Amelia cried because they didn’t pick the right lego. Alright, for that – we’re interrupting our own podcast.
Zoe Mock 7:09
We’re going back to the Far East.
Don Mock 7:10
For those that want to know what our little side track was about, go to our YouTube channel.
Zoe Mock 7:16
And you can watch kid clients.
Don Mock 7:16
You can watch kid clients
Zoe Mock 7:17
Which I was one 10 years ago.
Don Mock 7:19
Yeah, the kid client videos are great. Love those. I wish we did more of those. Anyway, time in. So I used to travel to the Far East a bunch of times. And hey, there’s a lot of weird stuff over there. You know what I mean?
Zoe Mock 7:30
Different.
Don Mock 7:30
I shouldn’t say “weird” being that it’s not as culturally prevalent here.
Zoe Mock 7:35
We’ll say different.
Don Mock 7:36
So yeah, I mean, they got ants and insects and grasshoppers and all the weird stuff. You get a lot of dimsum you got a lot of ox tails and chicken feet. My dad loves chicken feet, All that good stuff.
Zoe Mock 7:45
I do remember that.
Don Mock 7:46
So the Hong Kong rule of travel. There two rules that I grew up being told is the Hong Kong rule of travel which is “Buy it when you see it, because you’ll never see it again.” So if you’re on the fence about buying something, or you travel, Just buy it, because when you go back to get it, you won’t remember or whatever.
Zoe Mock 8:04
It won’t be there.
Don Mock 8:05
And the second rule, the cardinal rule is just “Eat everything that comes your way and then ask what it was tomorrow.”
Zoe Mock 8:12
Okay.
Don Mock 8:13
The next day go, “Hey, what did we have for lunch yesterday?” That type of thing. Otherwise, you’re gonna psych yourself out. It’s just that type of thing.
Zoe Mock 8:21
With different foods.
Don Mock 8:21
So we had these great families that we used to visit family friends and we have these amazing meals. Dimsum, all sorts of good stuff. And one of the things was these little squares, steamed. It was kind of a gelatinous-ey I guess. The prism of memory. I’m not 100%.
Zoe Mock 8:42
Sure.
Don Mock 8:43
Cuz it’s been it’s been a while.
Zoe Mock 8:44
Call it like a jello square.
Don Mock 8:46
Yeah. And grayish in color. And like, “Yeah, I’ll give it a shot.” I mean, I’ll try anything once. Why not? Right?
Zoe Mock 8:53
Yeah.
Don Mock 8:53
Oooh, uh-uh. Zero to 10, do not recommend. It was an immediate, “Yep. Somebody give me a glass of water. I gotta wash this thing.” Not good. Then the next day was what is it? I think it was pig blood. I think something. It was just like, do not need to do that again. I don’t know why that was… I mean, everybody scarfed it down. And we all tried it and stuff like that. But I’d say that’s probably the strangest thing I’ve ever eaten. But over in the Far East, you have a lot of amazing fanciful dishes that are absolutely incredible.
Zoe Mock 8:55
Very creative.
Don Mock 9:01
And unbelievably creative. Yeah. So that was the first thing that popped in my mind. But it’s not what you thought it was going to be. You thought it was going to be… Do you want to tell the story? The goldfish story?
Zoe Mock 9:37
I wasn’t alive for the goldfish story.
Don Mock 9:39
No, but my version of the story. We’ll play telephone.
Zoe Mock 9:41
Okay, okay. Second hand goldfish story. Well, you know what he’s eaten. It’s my memory that you were on the school bus, in elementary school, pretty young. And you’re in the back and you see this big bag of candy. And you’re like, I want that bag of candy. And you’re like, What do I have to do to get that bag of candy? Some kid along the way, somewhere on the bus, somehow is like, “Hey, if you eat this goldfish live, you can have the bag of candy.”
Don Mock 10:11
Yeah. So we had a – I don’t even know what you call it.
Zoe Mock 10:14
Book fair?
Don Mock 10:14
Yeah, fifth grade, sixth… it was some type of school fair of some sort. And everybody got prizes. There were games. It was like a carnival day or something. One of those kinds of things. And somebody had won a gigantic bag of candy. Like huge. But to your point, you’re absolutely correct. Someone else had won a goldfish. I mean, again, this is the 80s.
Zoe Mock 10:36
Everything flies.
Don Mock 10:36
Yeah. We’re sending kids home with goldfish. And yeah, that was the bet. The bet was “Hey, if you eat this whole, if you eat this live goldfish, I’ll give you the bag of candy.” That kind of thing. And that basically is the story. “I said give me that damn goldfish.” Just didn’t even swallow it. I mean now –
Zoe Mock 10:55
Didn’t chew, just swallowed.
Don Mock 10:55
Yeah, just whook right on down. Give me the – put my hand outt. “Give me the bag of candy.”
Zoe Mock 11:01
One of my friends has done that.
Don Mock 11:02
Really?
Zoe Mock 11:02
Yes.
Don Mock 11:03
Is there an interesting story there?
Zoe Mock 11:05
Recently.
Don Mock 11:05
Recently?
Zoe Mock 11:07
It’s not interesting.
Don Mock 11:08
Okay.
Zoe Mock 11:08
It just happened.
Don Mock 11:09
It’s just Ugh.
Zoe Mock 11:10
It’s just the thing that we don’t talk about.
Don Mock 11:13
You know, what’s funny is, I think I had my eye on the prize and I don’t even really remember swallowing the goldfish. It wasn’t – I don’t have –
Zoe Mock 11:20
You blacked out. It was just…
Don Mock 11:21
Any visceral memories of wiggling or that kind of stuff.
Zoe Mock 11:24
Was it like the size of your palm? Was it like a little minnow?
Don Mock 11:26
Teeny. Teeny goldfish.
Zoe Mock 11:27
Teeny teeny.
Don Mock 11:28
Yeah, you know how goldfish get fat and then their eyes bulge out. You have those type of – I think they’re like the moors. M-O-O-R. It wasn’t one of those. It was –
Zoe Mock 11:38
Tiny.
Don Mock 11:39
Yeah, it was a 1980’s pet Shop goldfish.
Zoe Mock 11:45
Non-GMO.
Don Mock 11:45
I mean, it was… call it an inch and a half. You know what I mean?
Zoe Mock 11:49
So like, oversized minnow.
Don Mock 11:51
Yeah, teeny goldfish, whoosh, right down the hatch.
Zoe Mock 11:53
Throw it back like a big pill.
Don Mock 11:54
Give me that bag of candy. Delicious.
Zoe Mock 11:56
What does everyone on the bus say when that happens?
Don Mock 11:58
I’m pretty sure it was one of those… There was a lot of hooting and hollering. It was equal parts super gross and equal parts huh, okay.
Zoe Mock 12:07
Okay. And they didn’t call you Gold Fish for the rest of the everything?
Don Mock 12:10
No. I don’t… it wasn’t on the bus, though. That’s the only thing that wasn’t.
Zoe Mock 12:14
Where was it?
Don Mock 12:15
It was just on school grounds.
Zoe Mock 12:16
Oh, on school grounds. Oh, even better. Interesting.
Don Mock 12:22
Yeah. That’s a weird thing. I totally forgot about that. Yeah. All right. Well, let’s turn the tables. What’s the strangest thing that you think that you have ever eaten? Keep it clean. Because, I don’t want to know certain things. I don’t want to know.
Zoe Mock 12:38
On the work podcast, for sure. Mmmmm. I would say some sort of blood pie.
Don Mock 12:44
Blood pie? Like a blood sausage? Like a blood meat?
Zoe Mock 12:47
Yeah, a blood meatpie sort of deal.
Don Mock 12:49
Now, you didn’t need that at our house.
Zoe Mock 12:50
No.
Don Mock 12:50
Where was – ?
Zoe Mock 12:51
That was in London.
Don Mock 12:52
Okay. Oh, in London. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
Zoe Mock 12:54
Yeah. And then sort of like –
Don Mock 12:56
English food, traditionally, is not the best of foods.
Zoe Mock 12:59
Yeah. Then there was like a blood something on a skewer? I think like a blood sausage on a skewer of some sort. When I was at Stonehenge, it was –
Don Mock 13:09
Blood sausage on a skewer?
Zoe Mock 13:11
It was not memorable. Just we’ll call it blood meats –
Don Mock 13:15
Blood meats?
Zoe Mock 13:15
Were the weird thing.
Don Mock 13:17
You know what’s weird is both of us are talking about blood.
Zoe Mock 13:19
That I like to stay away from.
Don Mock 13:20
What’s up with that?
Zoe Mock 13:23
I’m not a big fan of them turning blood into food. But that’s my personal opinion.
Don Mock 13:28
Yeah, for the few people out there that have tuned in to listen to advertising and design tips, tricks, or other… this is not the podcast for you. This is how to eat blood.
Zoe Mock 13:41
How to get a job in design.
Don Mock 13:43
Yeah, maybe we do that –
Zoe Mock 13:44
Advertising.
Don Mock 13:45
Maybe we do a different podcast about that.
Zoe Mock 13:48
You gotta loosen up. We have to let the people know every once in a while that we’re real people through our lives.
Don Mock 13:52
Here’s what I would love. What have you guys eaten out there that’s strange? Send us an email of strange things.
Zoe Mock 13:58
Oh, we’re opening it up.
Don Mock 13:59
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Zoe Mock 14:00
The next time you email him about anything client related, I need the subject line to be the weirdest thing you’ve eaten.
Don Mock 14:06
That would be incredible. That would be incredible.
Zoe Mock 14:09
Preferably if it says virtual cup of coffee.
Don Mock 14:11
Oh god, I was concerned. I was about to say 10% off your next invoice, if you said to me an email that has whatever the weird – no. The reason why I think about that, there was a funny promo for production company in the 90s. All the Superbowl ads were great. There were the these two or three years in a row, where all of a sudden, all the ads had monkeys in them. It was like chimpanzees were in everything.
Zoe Mock 14:33
We’re going bananas.
Don Mock 14:34
This is before MailChimp and I’ll show you that for whatever reason everybody had had apes and chimps in their things. And I remember getting this mailer from a production company that was like 10% off if you bring us a concept and we film your commercial with with monkeys in it. I always remember that, because it was just so weird and unique and strange.
Zoe Mock 14:53
Bizarre.
Don Mock 14:53
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I mean, drop us a note at hello@mocktheagency on what the strangest things you’ve eaten are.
Zoe Mock 15:01
You can tweet at us @mocktheagency.
Don Mock 15:02
Yeah, interesting.
Zoe Mock 15:03
Also find us on the interwebs at mocktheagency.
Don Mock 15:04
Oh, wow. Listen to you. Are we wrapping this up?
Zoe Mock 15:06
No, no, no. Just…
Don Mock 15:08
Interesting side note is years ago we designed all – Speaking of food – we designed and redesigned all of Walmart’s private label pet food brand, Ol’ Roy. Ol’ Roy stuff.
Zoe Mock 15:18
I remember that. I remember that. Yes. We had a few dogs that that we knew in that campaign.
Don Mock 15:23
Yeah, we did hundreds of SKUs for them. Huge 50-pound bags of dog food, all the way down to the teeny little wet can, wet trays of dog food. You know all things dog – treats, dry food, wet food bones, biscuits, all some of that.
Zoe Mock 15:39
Have you ever tried dog food? Cause one of one of your children used to love eating dog food.
Don Mock 15:44
Whooooa, what’s?
Zoe Mock 15:44
On a side note. Remember that?
Don Mock 15:46
No, I don’t remember that.
Zoe Mock 15:47
No? We used to find –
Don Mock 15:48
Oh, yeah. I do remember that.
Zoe Mock 15:49
We used to find V with Kibble Bits in her gums.
Don Mock 15:53
Well, but that was – I mean, let’s not make it seem like it was… This wasn’t a frequent thing.
Zoe Mock 15:59
Oh, no.
Don Mock 16:00
This was a one time –
Zoe Mock 16:01
This was, we found her one time. She’d crawled away and was hanging out with the dogs.
Don Mock 16:05
Yeah, as a baby.
Zoe Mock 16:06
No, as a –
Don Mock 16:07
As a toddler. Not even a toddler.
Zoe Mock 16:08
As a scooting around on her on her butt, itch person.
Don Mock 16:11
Yeah, she took a little bite of some kibble. Didn’t know any better. It was like, “Hey, man, the puppies are eating this. Why don’t I?” Anyway, the point of the story is – so rudely interrupting me – is we designed all this stuff.
Zoe Mock 16:44
Mmmhmm, design.
Don Mock 16:24
And I just said, “Hey, send us an email about things, about which strange things you’ve eaten?” Well, I would say no less than three times a week, we get emails about people, about their dog food, or their thing or “Hey, my Walmart doesn’t sell this.” Or “Oh, there’s a problem with this food” or “Oh, I bought this such and such.” And this and that.
Zoe Mock 16:45
How are you guys the contact for this?
Don Mock 16:47
The magic of the internet.
Zoe Mock 16:49
They find it somewhere.
Don Mock 16:50
They Google Ol’ Roy. We come up because we designed all the stuff. Then no one reads anymore. They just immediately hit “contact us,” and then vent their frustration. So don’t send us any more emails about Ol’ Roy or eating Ol’ Roy or whatever. But do send us emails about strange things that you’ve eaten in the past. I think that could make for a fun topic.
Zoe Mock 17:11
That’d be funny.
Don Mock 17:12
All right. Well, I think that’s it for today.
Zoe Mock 17:14
We’re 17 minutes in.
Don Mock 17:15
We’ll end on that fun note. Where can people find us, Zoe, even though you’ve already said it?
Zoe Mock 17:21
We got to do it for the optimization as many times as we can say it.
Don Mock 17:23
Yeah, sure.
Zoe Mock 17:25
On the interwebs at mocktheagency.com
Don Mock 17:27
Mocktheagency.com.
Zoe Mock 17:29
Design and advertising. On Instagram and Twitter @mocktheagency. You can find everyone who works here on LinkedIn.
Don Mock 17:39
Yeah. And five-star reviews for everybody.
Zoe Mock 17:41
Drop us a line should you have any problems with your Ol’ Roy.
Don Mock 17:41
Please don’t, please don’t. Michael, since I know you’re out there listening, you will appreciate the end of this podcast. Thanks, everybody. We’ll chat with you next time. Thanks. Bye.
Zoe Mock 17:55
Bye bye.
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