Elon vs. Zuck – $1B Compute vs. $1B Humans

0:01Speaking of trillion, because you just said the word trillion. If you think about Elon versus Zuck, Elon is spending a billion dollars on compute versus Zuck is spending a billion dollars on humans because Zuck is poaching all these people from like OpenAI or whatever, right? These top AI researchers. Whereas Elon, did you see the new Colossus? He's got like Colossus 2 that he's going to build. It's like an order of a magnitude bigger than all of the other kind of data centers combined. And he'll do it faster too, I bet. Yeah. And then, but it's like he's betting more on compute. He thinks that that's real intelligence, right?

0:36Versus Zuck betting on a human. So who knows which one's right or wrong? This is just another reinforcement that there's no right or wrong way to do business. But it's just, it's so, you gotta have guts to make either of these bets and these guys aren't afraid to do it. It's funny because you see Zuck over here with a Thanos. These infinity stones over here are basically AI researchers. so that's all the ones he's been taking yep yep and and you know what's funny and he's paying me like 100 million bucks or something like that what's funny is they're all asian and indian people are they really yeah that's so funny the one thing to keep in mind with elon and i was talking to my brother-in-law heathen about this yesterday night what i admire about him as an entrepreneur forget his views and what you think about that right if you just look at it from like an entrepreneur standpoint like he has a diner here i don't know if you've been to it i want to go but the lines the lines have been ridiculously long and sometimes it takes hours and hours just to get in yeah but if you look at what he tends to do as an entrepreneur he tends not to do what the status quo is and a great example of this is when everyone's talking about software and ai he's building that but for years he's been building actual robots that can do stuff not just fill of popcorn in the diner, but actually clean your house or live in your daily life.

2:00If you look at what he's did with Tesla, you already know my opinion on the Tesla car. I don't think it's a great car. I love the car. I hate the car. I think the seats are crap and he won't put in more parts because he doesn't want to make the manufacturing more complex. But I'll give him credit for two amazing things that Tesla has done with the cars. The first is I think they have some of the best technology and i think they're gonna end up being a technology company that's licensing out that technology to all the other car companies over time especially with like things like self-driving the second thing that he did is he pretty much owns all the gas stations for electric he has the infrastructure you want to charge your electric car it doesn't matter if it's a chinese one or a german one or a u.s one you're probably using the tesla network in europe and in America and probably in LATAM as well.

2:49You know what's interesting too? So this retreat, so three people drove there. All three people had electric cars. None of them were Teslas. One was an Audi. Actually, two were Audis and then there was my car, right? But when I used to have a Tesla, it was so easy to charge everywhere and it's fast charging everywhere, right? No, it's still fast for Porsche. Porsche is compatible with their networks. I've tried charging it in those networks. You have to find specific places. They're only opening up specific ones. Not every charging station is open to an outsider car like mine. But eventually, I believe he'll change it.

3:19He said that years ago, but he's still not active. Yeah, but he'll make more money from it. He'll juice the revenue. I think that's... I think the most impressive thing about Elon is not even just the tech. It's more so the manufacturing stuff, right? You look at how quickly he's built these Colossus centers, but you look at the factories he's built for Tesla. He's actually proudest of that. And I actually think that's harder. I think that it'll take me years and years and years to learn that. And the same thing for you too. And I still don't even think we'd figure it out. Yeah, I don't know Yeah.

3:46But like I look at like what he did with SpaceX is revolutionary. I think of what he's doing, not with Grok, but with the humanoids or whatever he wants to end up calling it, that all end up being revolutionary. Robots. Yeah. He ends up focusing on stuff that is innovative and really, really hard to do. He just wants to make humanity better. Honestly. Yeah. Same with like Neuralink. If you look at what he's doing as an entrepreneur, I don't think, and I'm not saying Zuck's done a terrible job. I don't think it's challenging to pay people a lot of money. I think it's challenging to do stuff that no one else has done.

4:23I just wish before, you know, Elon does the next thing or whatever, someone releases a book on how he works because that is worth studying for everybody in the world. You get what I mean? To work on so many different things and play Diablo and have 12 kids. Like, how does it work? And that is worth, like, I wish one of the biographers revealed that. Yeah, but if you look at his company versus the competitors, like if you look at Facebook, what Facebook's done really well is M &A. Yeah. Microsoft has done M &A really well. Look at GitHub. What they bought GitHub for, I believe it has roughly that much now in revenue annually or something like that.

4:59It was crazy, the numbers I saw. Look at YouTube. They bought YouTube for what, one point something billion? One billion. And it did what, almost 10 billion in revenue last quarter? I think it does more revenue than Netflix. Yeah, so it's like, if you look at Google, they've done extremely well from M &A, so has Microsoft, so has Facebook. WhatsApp, Instagram. I know people talk about like, oh, WhatsApp, they haven't monetized it. The user base, The amount of people that use WhatsApp is ridiculous. The majority of the world. But if you look at Elon, what has he done well from an M &A standpoint?

5:34SolarCity? Exactly. Because it's company. All right. What he's done well is not M &A. What he's done well is build. He likes doing things the hard way, it seems. It's always the hard way. Maximum difficulty. I mean, even when he plays Diablo, like I mentioned last time, Diablo 4. He plays on hardcore mode, which means if you die, you lose it all. I think that's how he plays life, too. Like, might as well just go for it all. Yeah. So anyway, you guys can choose how to do it. You pay one person$1 billion or buy$1 billion more compute. That's how you play it. Yeah. But what personality are you? I'm more of a buy it than build it.

6:15I think I'm more of a build it kind of guy. But also, you know, it's interesting because single grain was an acquisition, right? I think had I just been involved with the other two acquisitions, I think they would have worked out anyway. But I don't think I'm like against either. But I do like building stuff from scratch. I would say when it comes to software or like SaaS, I prefer building. I don't prefer buying. I've bought a few, but I just tear apart the product and I'm just buying it for its traffic or its brand. I'm not really buying it for the tech. Yeah, same with the answer to the public.

6:53So I prefer building when it comes to SaaS. I tend to buy when it comes to service-based businesses, but I don't understand service-based businesses as well as I understand software. Yeah, so I think it just depends. There's no right answer here. Yeah, I don't think there's right answer. I think because of my experiences, I have PTSD because I know humans are so, we're all different, right? And you add a lot of complexities each time you buy, But you have a good integration team for that. I think I do believe the future is going to be smaller teams. And so I'm a little gun shy on looking at anything to buy right now.

7:26So that's where I sit. Dude, randomly, you want to see a change I made with my team on the homepage? What? I forgot what they had it. I think it was something like digital marketing agencies believe Google and Meta own the attention, but LLMs is proving otherwise, right? They had something like that, and the call to action was something like, let us help you be found everywhere. And I changed it. It took iterations. I was just texting my team yesterday, and we were just doing it on the fly. It took four iterations of it, and they all got published. Searches everywhere. I like it. Yeah, there you go.

7:59And then I put markers believe. I was like, why do we have digital marketing? It's like, oh, we get good traffic from that keyword. I'm like, we already have it on some other side, so we removed that from the homepage. I'm like, just put markers because we're not pitching to digital markers, and they know that. I mean, we're not pitching to agencies. and they know that. And I was just like, markers believe Google and Meta own attention and I changed LLMs to ChatGPT because when we talk to most companies, like even when I was in Hong Kong and ChatGPT is banned unless you use a VPN, it's not really banned, but ChatGPT is not available there and they all use VPNs to access it.

8:32No one talks about LLMs. No one talks about Grok. No one talks about perplexity. They just assume everything is ChatGPT. So I'm like, we should just nail it head on and just focus our messaging purely around chat GPT. And yes, we can do perplexity and all the other ones, but chat GPT is what everyone's talking about. So we should just focus on that. That's what we call the first mover advantage. Typically first mover, if you have a good product and you're known as the brand in the space, you're going to get the attention. And you know what's interesting? I was looking at our traffic stats, just website traffic.

9:01And whenever we talk about like AIO or chat GPT optimization or like any of these LLMO or whatever, it's always five to 10 times more traffic than anything else that we publish right now. So I'm just like, guys, why don't we just keep doing that? Like forget all the other stuff, right? Same as social content. Yeah, just forget about it. Oh, and by the way, I was reading something. A bunch of SEOs were complaining again. Ha ha, right? They're complaining again on X. About? They were complaining about how traditional SEO is dying, but there was a silver lining to it. The silver lining is they've never been busier than ever right now.

9:34So we have some mutual friends, maybe some mutual enemies as well in there. and they were just saying that they'd never been busier because when things get tough with traditional SEO, people are like, they want to get that traffic back. They want the same thing back. And it's no different than this SaaS founders retreat I was at where everyone wants to get their traffic back. I'm like, guys, like it's on its way down. Don't abandon it, but it's a sunk cost thing where you don't, it's okay if you spent money on it. It's time to move on. Yes, when Eric says move on though, because I think a lot of people are gonna - Not throw it away.

10:05It's in a wrong context. He's not saying SEO is dead. He's not saying Google is dead. He's saying that you need to adapt with the platforms and you need to be there when people ask questions to Google in AI mode or whether it's in the AI overviews. But also you need to be there whether it's perplexity, grok, or chat GPT, not just for bottom of funnel, but also top of funnel, middle of funnel, and you need to adapt. What he's saying is throw away your mindset of, oh, I spent all this money on traditional SEO and I'm losing traffic. What Eric is specifically saying is that's fine. A lot of those factors are very relevant to optimizing for AI and LLMs.

10:45Adapt with it. Don't fight and go against the grain. If you've ever built a website, you know how tough it can be to keep a strong design while ensuring site performance is fast. That's where Framer comes in and it totally changes the game. Framer is the design first no code website builder that lets anyone ship a production ready site in minutes. I recently built a custom landing page in just a few hours. Animations, fast load times, responsive layouts, all without writing a single line of code. It was easy to use and the end result was polished enough to look like a developer spent days on it.

11:15One of my favorite things is that Framer's AI handles translations with a single click. So your site can be up and running in multiple languages almost instantly. And with real-time collaboration, your whole team can jump in and work together. No issues with versions or miscommunication. Whether you're starting from scratch or using one of their templates, Framer lets you focus on design while handling the technical side for you. Animations, responsive layouts, search optimization, and all the things that matter. Ready to build a site that looks hand-coded without hiring a developer? Launch your site for free at framer.com and use code MS to get your first month of pro on the house.

11:50That's framer.com, promo code MS. Framer.com, promo code MS. Rules and restrictions may apply. When I first started my business, the overwhelm was real. I didn't have the tools to help me scale. If only I had Shopify from the start to handle all the behind-the-scenes work. Shopify is the platform behind millions of businesses globally from huge names like Mattel and Gymshark to the smallest brands just getting started. The best part about it, it has everything you could need. Say you're ready to launch your own design studio. Shopify has hundreds of templates to create a beautiful store that matches your brand style.

12:22Or if you need help with content creation, Shopify has got AI tools that write your product descriptions, craft page headlines, and even enhance your product photos. Shopify lets you easily create email and social media campaigns to reach customers wherever they are, whether they're scrolling or strolling. If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. Turn your big business idea into with Shopify on your side. Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash marketing school. Go to shopify.com slash marketing school, shopify.com slash marketing school. And, you know, we talk about search everywhere optimization.

12:58it's a term you coin but it's more so you need citations everywhere so I had that group that sass group I was like hey guys just go to chat gpd right now search for what's the best marketing podcast seven out of eight people marking school was at least number two if not higher right yeah and so but what's the reason for that it's because we're cited on youtube we've been publishing we're over 3 ,000 episodes on marking school I don't know if you know yeah um you publish all the time on your youtube I publish all the time on youtube we're publishing on twitter we're everywhere right it's not just links anymore and you actually published something on x today i don't even know if you know this you scheduled something yeah but yeah but basically it does talk about how like yeah you need to have like some type of brand reputation there's sentimentality around your brand we did one on uh how chat gbt evaluates brand mentions so why don't you talk about that because i think this is related to this yeah so i had a post on uh a data post that my team ended up creating, I can't see the footnote.

13:52Oh, there you go. I can see the footnote in it. So looked at over a hundred sites in 14 different verticals to see why chat GPT recommends certain brands more than others. And we wanted to really look at brand mentions and we looked at domain authority. It doesn't really have too much of an impact on chat GPT. So if you get mentioned on a high domain authority versus low domain authority, not too much. Context, like what is the context of that you're being mentioned in, that has a high score. The thoroughness, if someone just says like, oh, NP Digital or Single Grain is good, but without being super thorough and giving reasons why, the thoroughness does matter.

14:30Age, the age of the business and the more people mentioning you over time, that's helped. Quantity was another one that was really high. Relevance of the site, a little bit lower, that was medium-ish. And I think that's going to change over time. Sentiment had a high rating as well is what they're saying about your company, positive or negative. So if you had to pick the main factors, you want to focus on context, thoroughness, quantity. So a lot of these brand mentions and sentiment, they want to be positive. Those are the four main factors focused on when it comes to brand mentions to get chat GPT to cite you more often.

15:09So again, it's not just based on, links still matter, but you look at the internet now, if you're an LLM, you're crawling a bunch of different things. You're multimodal and you want to try to be in as many places as possible. And by the way, a lot of this stuff now is just republishing. You're republishing short form content. And when I think about SEO now, when our blog posts, we're more aggressive now with the transactional, you know, bottom of funnel content, like programmatic SEO, right? Because we're just like, why not go for it? Why not have more shots on goal? It's no different than organic short form.

15:39Why not have more shots on goal? So I was kind of lighting into my brand team yesterday because I pulled up Opus. because our 80 minute conversation, there's actually a lot more moments that we miss that my team doesn't publish, right? Whether it's you say something interesting or I'm like, some of these are actually good and some of them are like duds, they're not that good. But then when I look at the ones that we manually choose sometimes, I'm like, that's not even a good moment. Like, why is that even being published to Instagram, right? It's gotta be something that you're willing to share with your friends or share with your mom or something like that.

16:07And so why would you not use something like an opus or like an overlap or something like that? Anyway, I did ask again, what's the best marketing pod to grok? We're number two again. I don't know why we're constantly number two. Who's number one? Amy Porterfield. Yeah, you knew that. Okay. She has a good podcast. Okay, who do you think is number one for ChatGPT? Amy Porterfield. No, Marketing Over Coffee. And I don't know why this is like - I don't know. I've never heard of this one. John Wall and Chris Penn. Marking School with Neil Patel and Eric Su is number two. Gary Vee Audio Experience is number three.

16:40But Gary's constantly still everywhere, you know? Yeah. So, and then I searched for it on Claude too, but. How's he adapting to the AI role? I don't hear much about him in AI stuff. So, you know, it's interesting. I look at his YouTube channel from time to time and all of his content, you know how they've repurposed him speaking, right? It's always, social media is in there or AI is in there. So I think he's trying to capitalize on driving social media or AI traffic to drive more leads through his business. That's what I think. So he is talking about AI. Yeah, he is. Basically like if you're not using AI, you're screwed.

17:10And then he has to talk about VFriends a little bit too, because he's pumping that. But I think he's mostly focused on his business now. Yeah. Good for him. He's also had quite a few exits. People don't realize that about Gary. They look at him as a social media personality. Great operator. He's an amazing operator, and he's done very well building companies and flipping them. And flipping them for a lot of money. And I wouldn't say flip because it sounds bad, but more so building them and exiting them to a strategic buyer like American Express or whoever it may be. Resi, yeah. Yeah. People don't talk about that.

17:42I think he's very good with people too, right? He has a, I have a guy that used to work at Singleton Raghav that works. And I talk to Raghav all the time and he's worked there for a long time. So he treats his, like once you're in with him, he treats you really well. But what I noticed, and like, it's not like I'm close to Gary or anything, but he'll message me every now and then say, hey, just hope everything is well. Like on Instagram, right? And I think that level, I know a couple of people from like my high school that do that just to check in. That goes a long way. I don't do that personally.

18:08I should do it more, but I'm just not like that. but on Claude who do you think is number one? We are. Yes. Why do you think that? I just guessed because the way you asked I was like The way I asked Gary V is number two though and then number three is like call to action from Unbounce but we're constantly number one or two why is that? The only solution the thing that makes sense to me is we're cited in a lot of different places. Yeah. For a long long time many many years. Yeah. And that is a moat if you can stay consistent for a very long time because Gary constantly appears here too you're going to have an edge over other people.

18:42Yeah. I haven't checked out his social profiles lately but I didn't realize he's pushing out AI content. I still thought he was pushing out a lot of motivational content. No, I think he's locked it in a lot more. Yeah. Anyway, that's it for today guys and we'll see you tomorrow.