Business News Roundup: Tiktok $32b Revenue - Tariffs - Doge Goal

0:00This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. Happy March 14th. What's up, everyone? I just started a little different today, Chris. You know, we start the show the same way every time. I feel like I'm, I hear myself. So happy March 14th, Friday day here on our business news of the week. What's up, Chris? What's up, bro? How you doing?

0:43I'm good, man. Just going through these headlines. TikTok doing billions. We got Southwest blowback. We've got Trump and Elon stirring it up with tariffs and who knows what else. And hey, inflation is not as bad as we thought. So now we see the damn stock market get going and we'll get rolling. Those are some of the headlines that we'll be talking about today. How says you, Christopher? Hey, I'm just got a little laugh about your new intro. I didn't think about it, but you're right. I'm like, every time we post one of those reels, I'm like every week, Friday morning. There's logic. It's like 5 a.m.

1:26Ryan Alford has tagged you in a reel. You know, first thing I wake up, open it. Happy Friday. Good morning. No, everything's good, man. I can't believe we're halfway through March already, but I'll tell you what, I'm grateful daylight savings is over. Yes. Oh, me too. It's just kind of depressing when it's dark at five o 'clock. So hopefully everyone is caught up with that. I don't really have a hard problem with that one hour difference per se. I do feel like the Sunday feels a little shorter, but it's worth the hour change. And, hey, it's just funny to me. And I think people I can relate. I know that it's for business and things.

2:10But your mindset changes on almost like my productivity. Yeah. Because I'll say this. And, look, I don't – I control most of my time. I'm an entrepreneur, and I can come and go as I please. But like I feel the pressure sometimes of like, OK, I know the wife and the kids are always getting dark outside. It's time to go, even if it's not necessarily I'm missing anything yet versus when it's still bright and sunny, you know, 536 o 'clock. I'm not stressing it. I'm getting more shit done. I know I can go home and get a couple of things done around the house, you know. And so it's just funny how, and I even noticed it in Greenville where we are, Greenville, South Carolina, people out more around the office around that time.

2:57I'm like, the daylights just keeps people in a different. It's got a real impact, man. Yeah, it does. You could see it. You could feel it. Yeah, there was a lot more active yesterday in the evening than it typically was. I feel more productive myself too. When it's dark at five, you just want to stay home. You don't want to get up and go to the gym and do anything else. Yep. So we appreciate everyone for listening. You need to watch it on YouTube. You can see my Chris and I were debating pre-show my pinkish purplish. I'm getting ready for Easter, trying to add more color here. I'm usually white, black in a standard, but I've got my, what'd you call it?

3:35Moth or lavender, lavender, my lavender shirt. You can only see this lavender if you watch us on YouTube or on Spotify. So we do have the video. Joel, our producer, has set up the camera nice. I've got a new contraption here for the belt. It's shiny and glowing. You know, got a new lens a little bit here, Chris. I got a camera closer to me. So, yeah. That belt's looking big. Hey, hey. Hey, look, number one in marketing, number four in all of business today, and number 48 in all podcasts in the U.S. There's over 2 million podcasts in the U.S., and we're number 48. Hey, we can't do it without you listening, so keep listening, reviewing, and tell your friends.

4:26Tell a friend. Tell a friend. You got to keep up with the news and all of our great guests that we have on. We've had some killer guests lately. Hey, if you're a fan of business and what it takes to start your own company and the ins and outs, this episode we had this week with No Bake. Hey, it was about cookie dough, baby. Cookie dough. You kidding me? I was like, I get to talk about cookie dough and business and all this stuff. I got sent some cookie dough, Chris. That stuff's tasty. So we appreciate Jimmy from No Bake. He broke it down, literally. Talked about living in a van down by the river, essentially, to make it through, to get to the other side.

5:08Him and his wife run the company. So if you want to know what it takes to run a business today and control your own life, making your own bets and all that, Jimmy Sexton, great episode this week, launched on Tuesday. But we've got the business news of this week. And it's hard to like, Chris, these numbers are so staggering. We talk millions and billions all the time. It's a lot of damn money. But TikTok ad revenue could top 32 billion if it doesn't lose its biggest market. It's a big if, right? Yeah, exactly. If it could top 32. You're saying there's a chance. This is like Dumb and Dumber. Exactly.

5:56What are the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me getting together? About one in a minute. Yeah. So you're saying there's a chance. Optimistic would be the title of this article. They say, what did they say? Hope's not a strategy. So I hope they can get it figured out. I don't think Trump's going to mess around. I think he's going to tell them, you know, sell or make a deal with somebody. I think there's going to be some fireworks as this comes down to the deadline. That or we're going to have a lot of teeny boppers patrolling Washington with signs and petitioning the government. Crying on the internet.

6:40Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because like it's saying here, obviously, Metta stands to benefit the most if they're banned. And I'm interested to see because, I mean, Matter's got a lot of power, right? They have a lot of political power. So I'm interested to see. I don't know why they wouldn't just maybe, you know, acquire TikTok. Like they did Instagram, you know? You would think that Mark has floated that out there. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's got the capital probably to one of the few people or few companies on the planet. I mean, what about Apple, man? I mean, Apple floundered with the iPhone.

7:22Apple buying TikTok? I mean, you talk about like they're always – Google's their biggest competition in a lot of ways. Talk about being able to jump right to the head of the – I mean, I – I don't know why you wouldn't because then that puts them into competition with Prime, right? Now you've got Apple TV. they've got the media side already but they don't have the streaming like user generated content funnel right right they don't have that they you know apple tv is great the content's great play billions of dollars for really good actors to make really good content it's sick yeah you know it wouldn't be the craziest thing no so i don't it doesn't seem very tim cook like but not at all everything seems safe with him including his outfits uh it's i don't know there's little innovation apple in the 90s when they had the really cool like mac colored computers you remember that yeah desktops yeah jobs yeah creative with it let's make apple great again i mean you know So, look, I love their products.

8:34I have their phone and they're like, it's steady. And they're definitely in a mature phase of the brand. But man, it's just surprise and delight me a little bit. You know, like I need surprise and delight, Chris. Like I'm with my electronics and the few things that I take joy in. Like, I need surprise and delight. It's been a long time since Apple's wooed me with a new phone. No. You got the debacle that was the headgear. uh that was uh the the metaverse compared to the old days man when you went from flip to color to camera it was like every time you're like innovation yeah straight up like now you could have music on it and take pictures it was real every year or two you were actually getting a new tool it's so bad now that the innovation is turning it off like people people detoxing Yeah, we're literally like, yo, get me away from this thing.

9:32Get me away from my phone for five hours. People are paying$10 ,000 to go to Costa Rica for a week to not use their cell phone. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, keep your eyes out. This TikTok thing is going to be interesting the next 60 days, I think. Fireworks are coming. Because it's funny. This is how the news works. Because they bought like 60, 90 days, something like that. And it goes immediately to the back burner of the news, right? Because we'll bring that up. That clock's counting, though.

10:04This is from our good friends at Marketing Dive. Chris found this one. I mean, how cult brands like Crocs, Southwest, see influencer marketing evolving. It's so funny and interesting on some levels to me, Chris. One, we know media is changing. We know how reaching people and having influence, you know, TV, just running a TV ad, you know, to audiences that aren't watching it, that are either fast forwarding or just not watching it altogether. It doesn't work. but it's also interesting that you know like d2c brands have been crushing influencer marketing for like five six seven years now the big brands are like oh yeah we got to reach people with this influencer game like no shit like this is how you have influence how you get scale you got to activate like real people doing user-generated content or hey go figure shameless plug get on podcast.

10:53That's another form of user generated content by non-celebrities. I mean, Chris and I are celebrities now in our own minds, but, but we weren't and you that, but in all seriousness, this is new media. It's not, I mean, you call it influencer marketing fine, but I just, it's just new media. It's just new media. Exactly. Yeah. And this is how, this is the content that people consume this is what influences them and there's that this level authenticity that comes with influencers the right ones and this is how you reach people yeah we got a bunch of new names for the same shit right like yeah it's still media still content right it was content 30 years ago when we were watching leave it to beaver or whatever that was uh the andy of a show, you had ads running on the TV or you had radio spots.

11:48This, and some of this media is not gone forever, but I'd even argue, you know, radio is being replaced in a lot of ways by streaming and podcasting because people are listening to podcasts in the car. Then they're watching it on their TV that they've, you know, put up on the screen from, you know, casting from YouTube or whatever. This is just how media is evolving. and this is how you got to reach the audience and these are like individual influencers are like different tv stations yeah yeah right you got a bunch of different actors you don't have to pay you know yeah you do some of those rates are getting up there pretty high but it's not as high as tom cruise or you know rosie o'donald no she might be affordable now but she's doing uh Music videos.

12:41Did you see that Tom McDonald music video that Rosie O'Donnell did? Yeah, that's wild. That was wild. I called him that one.

12:51She had dreads. That guy's a master marker himself. Yeah, he is. No matter what his messages are, which some of them I probably agree with, and then some of them, like, all right, we're a little far out there, buddy. But anyway, executive at South by Southwest. South by Southwest is going on today. Another conference that I haven't attended in 10 years. And I feel like, you know, some part of me like wants to be there. And then part of me is like, I don't know. There's a lot of influential people there that I like rubbing shoulders with and having dinner with and having that personal connection.

13:28So that I appreciate. But in the in the list of things to do, Chris, and the businesses to run, it's like it's hard to find time for that. you know yeah you gotta prioritize so hope everyone's having fun in austin getting drunk you're you know what time is it yeah it's like we're recording this middle of the day you're a little hungover at your next at your third session right now you're wanting an afternoon beer it's too early but you might get one at lunch cocktail at lunch at the uh iheart radio tent oh those were the days those were the days um so hey you need to get into new media influencers people and podcasting if you hey if you want to learn more about podcasts go to the radcastnetwork.com chris we're up to 30 shows dude 30 shows and counting we've added 22 shows this year.

14:32That's a lot. It's in March. So, if you want to learn more about joining the Radcast Network, growing your show, go to theradcastnetwork.com helping people do what you should do. Generate great content, make money doing it, and grow. Elon Musk believes Doge will reach the goal of a trillion dollars in savings. Yeah, we've talked about this week after week and i feel like you know he's been the punching bag of late i mean no one likes their jobs being taken and the perception that you know getting into i don't know security issues and all that shit i think that's sort of the uh excuse for how we can hate on it look why does everybody gotta have something to protest is it just it's just our nature it's just what we are like we Like, gotta hate this side, gotta hate that side, gotta hate this.

15:25Like, I admit that sometimes it's easy to sort of, certain actions are just, are lightning rods. But this sometimes just feels like I gotta, I gotta protest something, right? Well, it feels like just, it feels like this is a result of what the media does. They stoke a fire that's not even there. and if you're not someone that's aware enough to know you're getting played watching the media right there you're just it's a bunch of people reacting i think right like but i do think you have a lot of very upset people that just you know want to use their first amendment rights and that's completely fine but because i mean did you say the people down there in miami like literally like with different signs it's like yeah what rally are we at yeah so there's this protest it was going viral and everyone's saying have you seen the protests and no one has seen them i haven't seen any but there was like groups of people but everyone's holding a different sign it's like one's like we didn't vote for elon then the next one's like a blm sign the next one's an lgbtq sign so it just seems like everyone's protesting but they're all protesting different things, which is, I don't know, fine, I guess, you know, do your thing, bro.

16:44I mean, here, these were the quotes from Elon. And I'd like to know, like, what issue do you take? What do you take issue with these quotes and what's attempting to be done? I'm just here trying to make the government more efficient, eliminate waste and fraud. And so far, we're making good progress, actually. There have been many good audits done by inspector generals and by the government accountability office. They just haven't been implemented. Nothing's been done. I think the GAO identified that there were 17 million dead people in the social security database several years ago. It's now 20 million, but we didn't do anything about it.

17:26Which doesn't sound crazy to me. No, I think that's probably 100 % accurate. But I think I almost wonder if we're biased because we've been in business and you understand there's things you need to change that don't always change. Right. So. But I that's why I'm trying to wonder why is everyone so upset about this? Right. Like. Shouldn't we be applauding eliminating waste and fraud? I don't know. That's what I understand what the protests are. This is in the tactic book of complainers. If I can't complain or bitch about the actual, like what we just read, what the goal of the way of what you're trying to get done.

18:07If I can't complain about that, I complain about how you're going about getting that done. because no one would i think reasonably argue assassination you know like no one would argue with the goal of gaining efficiency with the federal government if you are you're just dumb i think nine out of ten people would agree with that but if i want to be contrarian and i don't like the person that's enacting it then i bitch about the way they're doing it this is in the playbook of politics you're right the way they're doing it which was well we don't like these young hackers in there doing yeah because they're too young he is he couldn't be a day over 22 and he's getting access security card it's like that's the same guy that's serving you drinks you know yeah when you go to dinner all right it's wild man political political playbook is if I can't gain traction disagreeing with your goal, I then gain traction by bitching about the way you get it done and making hay out of that.

19:17Southwest Airlines will charge to check bags for the first time. You notice this, this is probably the biggest, In scouring the news, this hit my feed, X, Instagram, was people bitching about this checking bag fee for the first time. Launch basic economy tickets. For the first time in 50-plus years, Southwest Airlines will charge for checked bags. Starting May 28th, the airline had previously used free checked bag as a major selling point. Elite frequent flyers and certain credit card holders will still get one or two free bags. The reason is there's pressure from the investors. They want to sell more seats, make more money, generate more revenue, higher operational costs and the need to increase revenue.

20:07I mean, you know, damn it, it's a business. They're trying to make more money. I'm curious to see what the fee is. I mean, I noticed even when I was at the airport a few weeks ago, it was with American. It's definitely more expensive to check a bag than it used to be. Yeah. Like it was like between$15 and$80. So as a business owner, right, if I'm running the airline, that's an easy way to add on some extra revenue. And I know it's getting more expensive, but I don't know. I feel like Southwest, I don't think this is a good move for them because I think they had such a loyal cult following. It feels like giving up potentially.

20:50I get the money. It's like 800 million in earnings this year, 1.7 billion by 26. That's a lot of money. But at what cost? You're perceived as the low cost carrier. For 50 years. And you've had it for 50 years. You better have the research to show that this isn't going to hurt. That's all I'll say. You know. Yeah. You can make up 1.7 billion in fees, but are you reducing the top of the other number, which is sales? That's what I wonder because I feel like Southwest has a strong brand following. The people that I know fly Southwest are loyal to Southwest. So I'm interested to see if this is going to affect that because they still have other perks.

21:36I know you can fly with your significant other after a certain amount of miles or it's reduced tickets, and that's usually a good deal. So we will see. This was after fair and schedule, bags fly free is cited as the number one issue in terms of why customers choose Southwest. That was July of 2024. That's pretty strong data right there. Everything. Yeah. I mean, come on, dude says what's changed is that we've come to realize that we need more revenue to cover our costs. Oh, Oh, that seems like a very dull statement. Well, it seems the other airlines are probably happy about it, you know, and maybe it is good for us as a consumer.

22:22Maybe it'll drive more competition for us. Yeah, exactly. Tesla rebounds after Trump defends Musk and brings EVs to the White House. Tesla's shares dropped 15 % on Monday due to weak sales and uncertainty. By Tuesday afternoon, the stocks had rebounded 5 % after Donald Trump publicly defended Musk. Lots of defending. On Truth Social, Trump called Musk, calling him a truly great American, and accused a radical left of illegally boycotting Tesla. He announced he would buy a Tesla as a show of support. One? How many? I got to buy more than one. He should have made a cool billion on that. on the freaking sale of, what, all the coins, the Trump coins?

23:17Yeah, the meme coins. Billion dollar Trump currency for crypto. Yeah, so anyway, it's the back and forth between Trump and Musk every week and the haters not liking things. Speaking of crypto, Chris, what's happening to crypto's market? is down um last week trump did sign an executive order for a crypto strategic reserve so that's i didn't see xrp was on that xrp solana i believe ethereum and you would think that would you know drive the market up but it did not everything's kind of lulling along with the stock market so you know it is what it is patience any uh time to buy yeah i about to say i'd be buying that xrp it's at like two bucks and i feel like i don't know what the how big the head room is i just feel like it's ten dollars in a year or two yeah i mean that's like bitcoin's at like I think 81 was at 120, right?

24:30It'll probably go to 250. So it's like really great time to buy, but you know, that's not usually what people do. They follow the fear. So along with the market, it's a little slow, but I think there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that we're probably trying to figure out. I mean, our whole economy. Yeah. Franklin Templeton joins the XRP ETF rush, Files preliminary application with the SEC. Yep. I mean, it's all indicators that this is clearly moving towards being part of the regular financial system. What is the XRP news? What is it right now? We record this show a little bit early, so you never know by the time you're hearing this, it could be up or down 8 ,000%.

25:17But we're up like 7 % today. 223 I'm I'm gonna I think I'm gonna go big on a second purchase here while it's I'm buying the dip baby buy the dip you gotta buy the dip don't take a dip buy the dip what a nasty habit that is you got to what else we got today some tariffs yeah the tariff news is like okay everybody's retaliating every day every day Canada's coming back. We have some guests on our other show talking about the tariff tax and all this stuff that's happening between the countries. And I think everybody's kind of like, okay. I do feel like we're sort of getting to this point where Trump is going to have to start to kind of in-game explain.

26:13You know, like, what's the – I got it at first, but now we're dipping into, like, this territory. where he was like, this stuff's really enacting. So let's explain, you know, if there's some strategy, I know you can't give away your entire strategy, but at a certain point, you're going to have to start, if some of this data, some of these things that have nothing to do with him, that are driving financial, I mean, they have to do with him, but you know what I'm saying, like, were enacted. I mean, no inflation number, what, 65 days, 70 days into his presidency is 100 % at his feet. You know, his policies are not in play enough to both credit or hold against definitive every number yet.

26:59However, the sentiment he does have to sort of control with America. I agree. And I think he's going to have to start to sort of in-game explain what do you want. Okay, it's one thing to go, yeah, there'll be a little short-term pain. Well, at a certain point, you're going to have to explain what you anticipate happening and what you expect from your constituents. You know, how much pain, what's the pain tolerance? You know, like I can hold out for some uncle, but at a certain point, the hand breaks. I totally agree. And that's the sentiment I feel. And people I talk to, everyone was super happy when he got in.

27:43there's things being done but no one knows what's going on because like you said all we i feel like we hear about is tesla tariffs and it's like all right i can get on board with this if i know where we're headed yeah like what what's the like yeah what's the rallying cry right tell me that this is going to drop interest rates but explain why right if that's our end goal show me a little bit of the roadmap to get there without, and maybe that's what we all need to be kept in the dark. We know Trump's a negotiator. We know this is business at the end of the day, but I do feel this week, many people have been like, yo, all right, dude.

28:22And they're getting annoyed. Like Trump needs to stop talking so much. What are they doing? And I think it's that we all need a little bit of reassurance right now, I think would be great. Yeah, totally agree. It's just It's like, all right, give us the play. And not even like politically just to support them to support them, but give all Americans kind of the, all right, here's what you can expect. Here's where we're going with this. because it has ventured, and again, being someone that generally supports the policies, or for the majority, supports the policies of that side right now, I even get a little, like, I'm trying to go down the court, and I'm looking for the pass, and I'm going to, oh, but I don't know which way we're going, a little bit.

29:17But so we got to call the play a little bit. We've said what it is on some level, but it's time to come back around because the last thing you want is the perception that it's throwing a bunch of darts and seeing what sticks or that there's not a plan. I don't think that that's what's going on because I'm smart enough to know that a lot of smart people are pulling the right strings here. But I do think we've got to sort of course correct or just course correct the country to know what to expect or what the goal is. Because I don't think ultimately being in a tariff war with every single ally we have is healthy.

30:15no it doesn't feel like it no and i think that's why like we're in the middle of the game right now we're feeling the pain it's like we're in halftime and we're not we're not we're not sure what's going to happen yeah because i think i'm confident i'm confident but i think the first 30 days that some of the the benefits were so clear it's the messaging was clear i'm not as clear 30 60 days later. I agree. But I will say the one thing I'm clear on, Chris, and that is the trading card market. I did see a statistic. The trading card market in 2025 is up more than the stock market. So someone's going to message me and say I'm full of shit on that.

31:03No, I didn't see a stock or something. An article was about, you know, as a whole. I'll tell you what, Chris, here's what I I know. I go into, and, you know, now having kids that trade and do stuff, you go to the store, you're looking at the shells. Those shells are barren, man. Poke, you want to talk about grown men fighting. Go watch two grown men fight over a pack of Pokemon. That's a funny thing. I might start a YouTube channel on that. I'll go into Walmart, and my kids are into the Pokemon, and I do grab a couple packs here and there, but I'm not like hoarding it or like getting, you know, stealing every box out of the store.

31:41But I'll go, cause I'm going in there and had to look at football cards, baseball cards or something and, you know, or something else. But then I'm looking at that cause I'm into it now. And there'll be dudes like, you know, pulling back and forth on a pack almost. Like it's crazy. Have you, have you seen people, have you seen the, I don't even know where they sell Pokemon cards. I've never even seen them in a store. There are groups upon groups upon groups of the Pokemon fanatics. People fight over a lot of things in Miami, but I haven't seen Pokemon cards in the middle of one of them yet. But I know there's somewhere it happens.