You’ve seen their memes, and you’ve loved them… This week Tyson & Alexa sit down with the dynamic duo behind @SurfingCorporate, Aileen Marciel and Glenda Pacanins, to discuss their long climb from corporate SVPs to creating the hilarious @surfingcorporate brand. They discuss their corporate journey, their experiences working outside the US, their best and worst interactions with HR, and their takeaways about Corporate America all with their trademark sense of humor. Saddle up.Want more? Listen to Tyson & Alexa on Surfing Corporate’s Season 3 debut episode anywhere you listen to podcasts!
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@surfingcorporate on Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
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Alexa Baggio on Instagram, Tiktok, and LinkedIn
Tyson Mackenzie on Instagram at @hr.shook
Alexa
Tyson.
Tyson
Hey, what's up, man?
Alexa
What's going on?
Tyson
Not too much. Just same old, same old.
Alexa
Honestly, you're not. You're not allowed to say that anymore. I'm shunning you. What is your morning routine? That's what I want to know. I'm trying to be so sorry. I know you hate. You hate. What is it?
Tyson
Ice breakers.
Alexa
Ice cream and ice breakers. I'm going to start every episode with an ice breaker now.
Tyson
All right. Okay.
Alexa
All right. Clearly.
Tyson
I know. I know. I'm so. And this is just going to be not the content that you're looking for. Look, so my morning routine is. Is is not that exciting. I have as everyone knows, I have almost a one and a half year old, and she sleeps in the bed with us. Feel so my morning routine is trying to sneak out of the bed without waking her up and she's taking a liking to sleeping on my pillow.
Tyson
I sleep with a silk pillowcase and girlfriend loves it. Like she just wants to get right up on there.
Alexa
So ignorant non mom question because I do. Okay.
Tyson
Mm hmm.
Alexa
Is it is is the baby sleeping in the bed like one of those controversial.
Tyson
100%?
Alexa
Oh, yeah. And just for my own. My own entertainment. Purely. What are that? What is the controversy? Like, I'm sure that's one of those issues. Like I said, as you said it, I was like, people have strong opinions about that. So, like, really quick.
Tyson
Sure.
Alexa
So why do I want to do it.
Tyson
In in North America? We feel as though we need to isolate our babies into rooms by themselves and let them cry until they go to sleep. Right. Me and my husband made a very early decision that that wasn't for us and that we were very pro baby co-sleeping with us. She's co-sleep, but that's pretty much her entire life.
Tyson
I'm also still nursing, so from that perspective, it's real easy for me to just like whip it out in the night when she's like fussing around and I don't have to, like, get up and like, rock her back to sleep. So between, like, me being a lazy mom who doesn't want to get out of bed in the middle of the night, and also just like for us personally, like we felt it was the right decision for our family.
Tyson
We've got a nice big bed. It's very cozy in there. So for us it just it worked. But there's a lot of like controversy because people feel like you should sleep, train or that it's not safe. But as long as you're doing it safely and like there are ways to do it safely, then it, it it actually is like in every other like culture.
Tyson
I feel like it's a.
Alexa
Very, very normal. Leave it to Americans to, like, take something that we've been doing for centuries, totally normal and make everyone feel bad.
Tyson
Like they're doing 100%. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And look, my.
Alexa
Ex's mom was Kenyan, and I have a few friends that have had kids recently. And I remember she was talking to one of my friends and I mean, she's like, she's from rural Kenya, like mud hut Kenya, like, not like there's no like it's just like what the tribe does is what the tribe does kind of thing. And she was like, I don't know why Americans feel the need to, like, throw their kids in another room and let them cry like every civilization on the planet has left.
Alexa
They're like, when the kid cries, you go to it. When it stops crying, you leave it alone. And nobody has 27 year old sleeping in bed with mom and dad, like.
Tyson
Yeah, I like you put it like that. It really just depends on the family and like, what works for them. Like, I'm not going to judge either way, Like I am like, not about shaming my parents for our.
Alexa
Shit out in my crib.
Tyson
Oh, totally, totally. Not me. I gladly just slept at any point in time anywhere. Any time. I still abide by that rule. I am a very sleepy human, so don't worry about me crying it out. I will just go right right to sleep. Okay. But anyways, back to my morning routine. So my husband is still off with the baby.
Tyson
He's on paternal parental leave again. Canadians, we get all sorts of time off. So he's on parental leave. He stays with her. I get up, I sneak out. Sometimes she wakes up with me, in which case I bring her downstairs. Then we get the coffee. The coffee's already made. It's very important to me to set my coffee the night before so that I hear, like, when I'm lying in bed, I hear, like, beep.
Tyson
And I just, like, I. There's. There's nothing. Actually, my husband does it. But anyways, there is nothing better than that.
Alexa
One of.
Tyson
Those hearing the sound of your coffee machine going.
Aileen
Up anyhow.
Tyson
So from there I don't drink my coffee first. Okay, hold up, hold up here. It's like a major hack. Athletic greens AG one. I am not.
Alexa
Going to wear one. We are not sponsored.
Tyson
By not sponsored that.
Alexa
Big a deal.
Tyson
Totally open to it because they pretty much sponsor everybody else like Tim Ferriss and everybody else. But it actually is legit, I swear by it. I have just noticed like huge differences in just my ability to be a human. So I'm a typical millennial who thinks that green powder is going to fix my entire life. So I found the 81 an empty stomach.
Tyson
Then I drink like eight liters of coffee and I don't do anything else. I just I try to, like, sit until I have to, like, mosey into my my home office. I work from home, right? So I'm not like, really getting ready to.
Alexa
Do anything that you like. I'm sitting at my desk.
Tyson
No, I don't. I'm like, real laissez faire about that. Usually I, I sort of dip a toe in with slack on my phone to start, you know, I'm just like, sipping my coffee on the couch, chilling. It really just depends on what my daughter's doing. And then yeah, then I just like, get to work and I usually work a little bit and then I come down for more coffee.
Tyson
And at that time I usually try to eat something, to eat something after I have friggin like vibrated, you know, because I'm on so much. 81 and caffeine and caffeine.
Alexa
Yeah.
Tyson
Yeah. So that's, that's my typical routine. It's not that exciting. I'm going to ask you about yours, but I can I can take a guess that it probably involves running with a lot of heavy weights on your back.
Alexa
I love it. You think I'm like chocolate cake or something? Yeah. No, no, it does. I wish it did. I'm not. I'm not that militant, though. Um, so my. Well, let's. I'm going to talk ideals because this never happens perfectly the way that I would like it to every day. I am not a creature of habit. In fact, in some ways I loathe habit.
Alexa
It makes me very agitated when I'm doing the same thing all the time. That or I just have undiagnosed A.D.D.. It could be maybe a little bit of both. Um, perfect. Perfect day for me is wake up, make coffee. I don't do anything before caffeine like I am. Every meme you've ever seen about does not function without caffeine like that.
Alexa
So I have, like, the first thing I do is make coffee. And then I actually usually read for like 30 to 45 minutes in the morning because I know it's more normal to read at night. But by the end of my days, like my brain is fucking fried and work like reading feels like working, it's something I'm like really into.
Alexa
So I try to read in the morning because it's one of the only times I can really I feel like take a minute and ingest the information and enjoy it. And I read much faster in the morning, blah, blah, blah. And then I try to do like 10 minutes of meditation. I'm trying to add 10 minutes of Spanish vocabulary practice every day.
Alexa
But I've been nice with in on that pretty hard, probably averaging like two of seven days a week on that one. Um, and then, um, I usually try to go work out after that. So I will try to get, I usually work out five or six days a week, some combination right now of running or CrossFit, but just depends on their immune.
Tyson
Response and exactly what.
Alexa
Their job. I don't eat in the morning. I intermittent fasting. Not intentionally. I just have always been that way. And then everyone was like, Oh, intermittent fasting. I was like, You mean skipping breakfast? I've done that. No, not intentionally. I just don't. My stomach is not great in the morning. It needs a minute. It might be all the black coffee, like I drink black coffee and I drink probably four cups of it before I'm a functional human.
Alexa
It's a disgusting habit. I do it to my ears. No moderation in my coffee habit whatsoever. At one point I was using for Stigmatic like the Oh yeah, mushroom coffee, which I have. Obviously it's much harder to get on the road. I'm not going to be that asshole that carries my coffee grinds around the world. I know, I know some people that have done it and and then whatever I'm doing, I try to at the very latest, be at my desk by 930, like dressed and ready to go.
Alexa
Sometimes it's a little earlier for meetings like tomorrow morning. I have a meeting at 7 a.m. just because of time zones and other things. And some days it's a little later because something came up. But I am pretty militant about like you got to get dressed for the day and you got to you want to set a boundary to like be at your desk as a remote worker.
Alexa
That's always been kind of a line for me. So that's my perfect morning. You know, I'd love to skip the workout and just have guns and look great in a bathing suit without working out. I just pray that 45 minutes of reading and a lot more coffee, but say, let me. That's it. And I can't wait to ask our guests the same question.
Alexa
So, see, it's so much more interesting when we give you an icebreaker. Tyson I've learned that you you the Rosie sleeps in the bed and you like coffee like me. See, that's the whole point of this silliness. All right. So without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and introduce our guests because we're very excited that they're here today.
Alexa
All right. Our guests today are the incredible duo behind one of our favorite accounts, which is at surfing Corporate. Tyson, I know you're a big surfing corporate fan. Our listeners have definitely seen the hilarious names that they post on social media that we are constantly reposting. And first and foremost, we have Aileen Aileen's climb up to the corporate ladder was an unconventional She grew up in Caracas, Venezuela, where she had a successful career as a creative director for cable television networks.
Alexa
In 2007, she moved to Mexico, where I currently am escaping from the increasing political and social tensions of Venezuela. Her time in Mexico, as head of content and executive producer, led to a 2013 move to Miami, and a short gig turned into a full time role as an SVP by 2017, however, burnout and life threatening surgery led Aileen to create surfing, corporate help, surfing, corporate to help others who are navigating tricky corporate waters and to ignite conversations about how we can all, both employees and employers contribute to making the work, making work better, more human, more purposeful and more fucking enjoyable.
Alexa
And her counterpart is Glenn. Doug Linda's journey Corporate Journey began 25 years ago in media. She climbed the ladder from intern to SVP. Currently, Glenda works as a partner and executive producer at No Status Quo Studios, a production studio focused on premium content featuring the Latin sensibility for global audiences, all while balancing her generous involvement in nonprofits focused on fostering women's professional development and youth empowerment.
Alexa
And we can't forget to say wife and surviving mother of two teenage daughters and a dog and is a self-described recovering suits. Glenda is now surfing corporates Voice of Reason and podcast co-host. What's up, ladies?
Glenda
Hey there.
Aileen
Oh, well, some.
Alexa
People thought.
Glenda
That was so cool. That was like my bio on 1.5 speed. That was awesome. Yes.
Alexa
Thanks. So everyone, everyone listening to this is going to tell me to slow the fuck down. Great.
Aileen
That's my machine. So yeah, I see you.
Alexa
Slow to me. Yeah.
Glenda