Nonverbals: The Key to Relationships

With less face-to-face interaction, we’re leaving out the biggest factor in relationship building

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $4,000 Vacation + $1,000 VISA eGift Card

The Ultra High End - Chef iQ Smart Wireless Meat Thermometer

The Superpremium - Palo

The Premium Core - Unbound

The Accessible Core - Nonverbals: The Key to Relationships

The Affordable Luxury - Would You Trade Time?

The Everyday Luxury - New Ducky Tran Tees

The Bespoke

This is the last week to enter for February! Make sure to get your friends and family to enter and win the vacation bundle.

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $4,000 Vacation Voucher + $1,000 in VISA eGift Cards [ARV $5,012]

• Odds: For every 660 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) vacation bundle Prize

• Contest Period: January 31, 2024 at 10 AM CST to February 27, 2024 at 10 PM CST

See Issue 1 for more content about The Bespoke Prize.

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winner

The winner for Issue 13 is DANNY from Arlington, Texas! He won the new transparent Beats Studio Buds+ with AppleCare. This is his submission for “a picture of things that are opposites”:

I can spot a few opposites:

1. Left or Right

2. Hand or Foot

3. Correct or Incorrect

4. Socks or Crocs (Danny must have meant this one!)

Congratulations to DANNY! You can now experience complete silence and loud music at the same time!

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: Chef iQ Smart Wireless Meat Thermometer (2 Probes) [ARV $130]

• Odds: For every 90 Ducky Tran premium members by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) set of Chef iQ Thermometers

• Contest Period: February 21, 2024 at 10 AM CST to February 27, 2024 at 10 PM CST

For those that don’t know, I love to cook. I love to experiment and make extravagant meals if I have the time for it. I’ve been wanting these thermometers for a while now, so to push my dreams on you I’ve made the prize something I have been eyeing for months.

For most meals, just a taste here and there, or just cooking until it turns a specific color can tell you if it’s ready. But not for meats, especially if you are a carnivore like me. You cook the chicken breast for 2 seconds too long, it’s rubber. You cook your steak 15 seconds too long, it’s rubber. You cook your pork chop 30 seconds too long, it still needs more time (just in case) but it’s still rubber.

BUT — with a meat thermometer, especially if you’re tech-savvy like me, a smart wireless meat thermometer can help you get the perfect chicken, steak or pork chop without cutting it up into small pieces… after you didn’t cook it enough… and now it’s too raw and you have to eat diced steak and mashed potatoes.

Submit your picture to win a set of Chef iQ Thermometers.

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is the Palo, Disney’s exclusive Italian fine dining experience on their cruise ships.

If you know my wife, Stacy, she’s a Disney fanatic. She talks, thinks and dreams about Disney all the time. When we booked our first family Disney cruise on the Disney Wish in 2022, all she could talk about for a few months was a restaurant called Palo. Why you may ask?

Well — it’s exclusive. And Stacy loves exclusive stuff.

And — it’s fancy. Stacy and I were always fancy diners and liked to go eat fancy foods when we were in college.

Most importantly — FOMO. She read everywhere online how wonderful it was and so we can’t miss out if we go on a Disney cruise.

We booked the reservation and she was RIGHT (no, she's didn’t make me write this part). Palo’s brunch was probably the most memorable part of the entire cruise. I’m not really a morning pastries kind of guy, but their almond croissants are literally the only thing I remember eating on the entire trip. To show you how unlikely that is for me, I’ll put it in perspective, that’s like remembering the seat number of the last movie theater chair you sat in.

We tried Palo again on the Disney Magic, but the dinner session since the brunch was all-booked out (exclusive). From the moment you step into Palo, you're transported to a world of sophistication and charm. The ambiance is refined yet welcoming, with soft lighting and elegant decor setting the stage for an unforgettable meal. The food was flavorful and the service was impeccable. If we had a choice the brunch would still be the session to book, but either will give you a wonderful experience.

Here are the items we had on the Disney Magic recently:

Whenever we go on another Disney cruise, Palo will certainly be the first thing we book. It was just a great experience that was well worth the wait for its exclusivity, fancy ambiance and highly-rated delicacies.

The Premium Core

This week’s Premium Core topic is the non-profit organization, Unbound. Like all the non-profits I write about, I believe Unbound is one of the best examples of a non-profit or charity that is truly acting on its purpose and goals:

1. They received the highest rating of A+ from charitywatch.org under the topic of Child Protection & Sponsorship Charities. Just for comparison the Susan G. Komen and American Heart Association doesn’t even show up on their top-rated charities list, meaning they received a lower score than B+.

2. They only take $4 to raise $100. This is probably one of the best figures I’ve ever seen in a charity. They truly focus on their goal of helping the impoverish population.

3. In 2022, 91.4% of their funds were used for their charitable programs.

4. Lastly, the highest paying executive of Unbound, which is the CEO, was paid about $290K in 2021. This may seem a lot but compared to the CEO of American Heart Association that gets paid $3.1M/year, it really shows the difference in charity funds utilization. Also, the charity raised $139M that year.

Unbound is an international organization based in Kansas City, Kansas founded by Catholics. They help marginalized families become self-sufficient. Since founded, they have been able to sponsor over 1 million people worldwide.

Since I grew up in a large Catholic family of 10 and my family was financially-insecure for most of my childhood, I’ve always sought ways to help those that were impoverish. It became my nature to do volunteer work to help those less fortunate or unable to help themselves.

Not to say being poor was a negative thing, I had some of my fondest memories because money was never in the picture. Life was more sincere and playful. Just like what The Notorious B.I.G. wrote, “Mo Money, Mo Problems.”

However, there are necessities that can be met for many of the impoverish communities with some funding. That’s where the non-profit, Unbound, comes in. You and I may be unable to go help these impoverish communities around the world, but the staff and volunteers of Unbound can take your place to help these communities.

To help these charities, you can volunteer, donate, share their existence and share their message. And if you are moved to donate, go to this donation link here so you can donate.

To show support to Unbound and Ducky Tran’s commitment to support the community at-large, I have the following offer:

Deal #1: Any member that forwards their donation receipt to me by March 1, 2024, [email protected], I will match the donation on March 5, 2024 up to $1,000 total.

The Accessible Core

Nonverbals: The Key to Relationships

The focus is social wealth and this week I wanted to reveal how important nonverbal communication is to any relationship.

To start, nonverbal communication makes up 55% of the way we communicate with some studies indicating it may be much greater than 55%. In the last decade, we’ve seen a huge shift in interpersonal relationship and daily interactions alter due to the advent of social media platforms, mobile calling devices, texting, video calls and online gaming. We are just not great as communicators as we were in the past.

Many of our daily conversations are misinterpreted, forgotten, belittled or never started because we lack the nonverbal communication component. In this study, the researchers speak to how nonverbal communication builds a social bond that can improve a person’s mental and physical well-being. Here are a few examples to show the power of nonverbals:

1. Remember when your pet walks up and just cuddle next to you, without any words it tells you that it loves you. (Yes, it’s not just for humans.)

2. Your family is in a public place and your mom makes that face that indicates you’re going to get a whooping when you get home. That face speaks more words than you wanted to hear.

3. Remember when a hug from a close friend/family was all that was needed to lighten your day.

4. You need your check but want to be cool about it, so you do the put a check on an invisible paper gesture. That one second spoke an entire sentence.

Like every newsletter, I want to let you know the importance about a wealth topic but also show how to apply it. So today let me tell you some nonverbal communication you could do for a friend, family or pet so they know you are thinking of them:

1. Sneak a treat in the food bowl under the normal meal so your pet gets excited about meal time. Also, it’ll make you feel like a hero. Who says the nonverbal was one-sided.

2. Write a letter to remind your significant other about a great memory you’ve both shared and place it in their wallet/purse.

3. The next time you meet up with a friend, bring them something they like to eat before you go out. This simple gesture will show that you take time out for your friends, before and after you meet up.

4. For your family, just make them a small meal or dessert from scratch. Something that you normally don’t make already. If you don’t cook, try it out. It’s not about tasting good, it’s about not poisoning them. Also, it’s nice to put some time into your relationships and cooking for them shows that even if you’re a terrible cook.

Nonverbal communication is essential to relationship building because it creates a bond between the individuals. Also, it shows the time you’re willing to invest into the relationship. So don’t forget, don’t just tell someone you love them, make sure you give them a hug too!

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 13 Community Poll Results

This last week’s poll results:

1. There’s a split between those that recently hung out with their best friends and those that haven’t had time to hang out with their best friends for at least a month. With more than half indicating the latter, we should try to make time for our best friends. Even if not in person, we should video call them and spend 15-30 minutes sharing our lives with each other to nurture the relationship that created “best friends”.

2. All the voters agree that a balanced full-time work schedule should stay between 30-40 hours. I lean towards 30 but with the efficiency of 50, or 60 if my work is doing woodwork.

3. You have spoken! The Bespoke contest prize will remain the vacation package. Let me know where you would go if you won this prize in the comments.

This Week’s Community Poll

The Everyday Luxury

(The referral program is only viewable on the email version of the newsletter.)

I just got the new Ducky Tran tees and they look a lot better. I’ll remove the shop for now as I make an order for the new ones. If you got one from the referral program, you’ll be getting the new ones also!

Visit shop.duckytran.com with the weekly password: chefiq