Cutting Through the BS on Economy Shifts, Crypto Trends, Luxury Disruption, and the Future of Business

0:00Hey everybody, it's Nicole Byer here with some hot takes from Wayfair. A cozy corduroy sectional from Wayfair? Um, yeah, that's a hot take. Go on and add it to your cart and take it. A pink glam nightstand from Wayfair? Scalding hot take. Take it before I do. A mid-century modern cabinet from Wayfair that doubles as a wine bar? Do I have to say it? It's a hot take. Get it at Wayfair.com and enjoy that free shipping too. Wayfair, every style, every home. This 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.

0:42Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It is January 10th, 2025, our weekly marketing and business news of the week. I'm Ryan Alford, your host. I'm joined by Chris Hansen down in Miami. What's up, Chris? What's up, Ryan? How are you, brother? Good. Happy New Year again. Again. I know. Can you say Happy New Year more? You keep saying it all January. Is it only good the first 10 days of January? I read yesterday someone said you can't say it after the 7th.

1:26I don't know why the 7th. Hey, we buck trends around here. Happy New Year, wherever you are. whenever you are, however you're listening. Coming to you from the studios here at my place called Social House in Greenville, South Carolina. That's where we do this show. I got a co-work lounge here in Greenville. If you visit this wonderful city, stop by and see us. You can co-work, you can drink, you can watch games, you can hang out. Mixed use and, of course, the studio of your number one marketing and business show on the planet is right here. So come and see us. You know, Chris, just getting back into the groove, back from the old DR, Dominican Republic.

2:06Had a nice week with the fam, wife and kids. Yep. Nicole and I had a good time with the boys and did the beach thing on the DR and the resort and all conclusive and all that stuff. So, you know. You look a little tan. Yeah, I got a little tan. A little brown. It's funny. I didn't realize that. I know it's sort of their wintertime there. But obviously the temperature is still like 85. The sun wasn't quite as strong as it normally is, which is nice. We haven't gone in January in a long time. But we had a good time. A little fun, a little sun, a little Coco Bongo. No, we didn't do that. We hung out at the resort.

2:50Lots of Mexican beer. El Presidente. Hey, not a bad beer. I did kind of miss my altar, though. My craft. my craft beer in the states yeah ultra high in mick ultra yeah exactly so uh i hope wherever you are whenever you are listening i hope the new year has kicked off i hope you haven't blasted through any of your uh new year's resolutions yet you know if you're having a dry january sorry for you if you're uh you know working out i hope you're sticking with it i don't know what all those resolutions has the gym been more busy for you yeah it wasn't for the first couple days but then yesterday was out of control busy it was packed yeah so has to be expected saw some new faces yeah hopefully they stick with it man i hope so i know i just do it every you know i'm a four to four four time four to five a week guy you know if you just make it a lifestyle you gotta make it It's just your lifestyle.

3:51And look, some days I only get 20 minutes in, but you got to do it. You got to get the heart pumping. Show up. Show up. It's what we do, and I just try to make it, I don't know. I've been at it the whole way. I grew up with it. I think it's thankful that my parents were kind of that way. They got in that early 80s, 90s thing with people starting to work out. So I guess it's in our blood. And my sister and I have always been kind of that workout crew. So I don't have to set the resolutions around working out. What I might have to do, though, is set it on, you know, maybe cutting back the carbs or something.

4:26I have to dial back the carbs sometimes. But I dropped to like 20 LBs before the old DR trip. So I was feeling pretty good. I feel pretty good now. I'm just going to stick with it. I think I'll stick with the carnivore diet that I like, which is just steak all the time. Give me a book, bro. That's what I brought for lunch today. I'm like, just give me that steak. And, you know, I like some chips and stuff or carbs or rice. Yeah, it's nice. But if I got a good steak or a piece of meat, I am the true, like, dude. Like, meat and potato guy. That's how it is. We want to send our love to everybody in California and L.A.

5:06is impacted by the fires that are just out of control there. You obviously pre-record this before the Friday release, but it is not pretty. And so I don't, you just never know. We take a lot of things for granted. And, you know, the wind meets fire over there. And it is just an ugly scene. A lot of people losing homes and cars and valuables and lots of, you know, and life, I'm sure, will be taken. I don't know what the toll is exactly, but definitely want to send thoughts, prayers, and just, you know, an acknowledgement that that shit sucks and we'll see where it lands but it hasn't looked pretty Chris I know you have family that's been impacted yeah my sister was flying back to California yesterday when it all kind of started happening from Florida and now and she lives in the neighborhood where it's all going down so I know like right before we got on the show I got a text that they're trying to get a flight back here to just get out of there because it's going to be an apocalyptic, you know, burn zone after this is all said and done.

6:17So definitely thoughts and prayers with everyone out there. And hopefully it comes to an end soon. Yes, for sure. So everything we talk about on the show is an article of some format, usually from our friends at Google. If we're being honest, you know, Google and business news, seeing what's happening. But when we want to talk about politics, we want to keep it straight down the middle as much as possible. stay independent. It's like, because you get pushed one way or the other when you're reading news. Too far left, too far right. We want to keep it straight line. That's why we partner with Independence Center.

6:55I was reading one of their articles that was talking about the tax cuts and jobs report and everything that's happening now with sort of the battle between Congress, left, right, all of these complex things. They're sometimes hard to understand. You hear about it, You think you should care about it, but you don't understand exactly. That's why Independence Center brings to you articles that really tell you exactly what's happening, how to interpret what the right or the left might be saying to you. You got to go to IndependenceCenter.org, IndependenceCenter.org. Sign up. You'll get articles, surveys, all kinds of data into your email box that's independent, that tells you what's happening in politics without the spin.

7:38independentcenter.org official sponsor of Right About Now lots of random news here this week I think kind of a lump these into two for one here with Meta slash Facebook and old Mark Zuckerberg hey I give credit to anybody that can change right? We can judge him he's one of the most wealthy guys on the planet owns one of the most I don't know, use known platforms on the face of the earth. Right. And, you know, sometimes we go a little far with things. I think they say, what is it? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. So the filtering and the holding back of information that's happened, the censorship that's been prevalent on the social media channels is being dialed back because he acknowledged himself literally that our fact checkers were politically biased.

8:37I mean, while I was saying no shit, I was applauding him. So two things can be true. It could have definitely gone too far, but I can applaud you for at least acknowledging it, making me up for it now. It's interesting when Mark starts hanging out with all the UFC guys, which we'll get to the second part of that news. He's toughening up a little bit. This isn't about, okay, who's tough and who's not, but it's like, it is, we're in America, and there should not be censorship. You don't have to like everything you hear is the bottom line. I hear a lot of shit I don't like, but it doesn't mean that I can tell someone not to say it or hold it back or start censoring it, especially when you have platforms as big as this is.

9:23So, they're eliminating third-party fact-checkers across Facebook, Instagram, and threads, replacing them with user-generated community notes. Similar to what Elon is doing with X, Mark stated that fact-checkers have been too politically biased and caused more harm than good. Yes. What do you think about this? a round of applause because i i remember on 2020 right the election then you had covid stuff and you had all these doctors getting flagged for misinformation yep it was really eye-opening honestly that was the first time as an american i've ever felt like holy shit like what is going on yep so yeah it is interesting i mean at that point i thought mark zuckerberg was a tool but uh I don't know, man.

10:17The guy started competing in jujitsu and doing mixed martial arts and seems to have changed. Yeah. I mean, it's this is one of the notes that says the move aligns with a broader shift to the right and met his leadership and comes as president elect Donald Trump prepares to take office. How about we just say it moves closer to what is right by the American law, not right or left. And I don't know if you've been on X. The community notes change they've done is awesome. Yeah. I mean, you real time have people fact checking, right? But it's not politically biased and it's not – you're not being just shut down.

11:07I feel like that was the other part of the matter too, right? Is there were just censoring and shutting down accounts, completely removing your voice. Obviously the other side and other people feel like it's political pandering. And I just feel like. When is more censorship better ever? Yeah. When, when is that? It's, and I get, and even in Mark acknowledge, we're going to catch less bad stuff, but we'll also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down. You know, so there are trade-offs. But there are trade-offs when you have free speech and when you have freedoms.

11:48And, you know, for the most part, we've got to live with the good and the bad. It's what makes this, and more good happens than bad when you don't censor. Right, and make it make sense. I know they've changed, like, or on the topic, I just thought of this. I know they've changed some other policies. you know this is relevant to ryan and i we have another company called vacay with hemp products there was heavily censorship on instagram and facebook with those types of products cannabis medical marijuana they changed policy on that too i saw because i know even when we've dealt with that it's like there's some really vile stuff you can look at on instagram god forbid we post a sleep gummy jar you know what i mean i think that's where now too we're coming to more of a balanced approach of quote unquote censorship like maybe the sleep gummy is okay but the naked girls could be censored a little more if we're gonna do anything right yeah exactly yeah it's funny how you know the the lines get drawn i guess it just yeah well follow the money a lot of times it brings me back to the whole like you need to be vaccinated but also my body my choice it's like all right well which which yeah which is it a way you know but that's but it's better for everyone else if if you know like everybody's spinning something you know let's just admit it and so let's all be able to you know put our spin on it and have the community notes like okay it needs that that's fine but don't i look at the community notes is like the town hall that you're giving the people a voice because to my understanding community notes i think works where people can vote on the fact checkers response and based on that that's what becomes the community note yeah exactly so it's a collective agreement not just some third party saying no false because i don't believe in this i think i'm just gonna strike this up to mark coming to his senses a little bit here and evolving as a business leader.

14:00Along that same thing, UFC boss to join the board of Facebook. Wild. Yeah. Several appointments to Meta's board. I mean, just a quick note here. How many people still call Meta Facebook and how many people still call X Twitter? This has been like the worst changeover in names of all time. I've never called it Meta. And for the most part, I like the guys that, you know, have done it. But like, it just shows you that's a hard genie to put back in the bottle or to change. It's a hard rebrand. Hard rebrand. I mean, what percent of people truly call Meta Meta? And what percent call Twitter X? The people that work there, probably.

14:53That's it. i would have seen yeah because even why isn't the app say meta it still says facebook like i think they know yeah yeah and i think if mark had to do that one over again he probably would i don't know that elon would because he's kind of had at least some rationale around x for a long time owned like x.com for like 10 or 15 years or something like that but it's like uh i don't know I think he named X too. Yeah. Yes, he does. I think. Soda and Seven. Nah, that was from Seinfeld. That was his favorite. That was George's favorite names. Soda and Seven. Anyway, random names and cupcake. UFC CEO Dana White, John Elkin, and Charlie Songhurst.

15:46Elkin is the head of XOR. Songhurst is an ex-Microsoft executive, and they're all on the Meta slash Facebook board. Zuckerberg highlighted their expertise in AI, wearables, and future technologies. Dana White, a close ally of Donald Trump, transformed UFC into a global business. White expressed excitement about contributing to AI and emerging technologies. He's known for advocating free speech. White has faced controversies, including a viral exchange over anti-LGBT remarks by UFC fighters. It's like they got to throw this in there. Like anything that goes against it. Who wrote this article? Oh, okay.

16:32Yeah, I know why. Mainstream media. All left-leaning. Meta-Trump relations. Meta's recent moves signal improved relations with Trump after a history of tension, especially post-January 2021's Capitol riot. Mark Zuckerberg donated$1 million to Trump's inauguration fund and had personal engagements with him. Were you aware of that? The million-dollar Trump's inauguration fund? Yes. Yeah. What do you make of that? Smart business? Yeah. Politics. I want to attribute all of it to jujitsu and a change of heart, but I just think there's a lot more moving parts than that going on. I think so. So we can call that what it is.

17:20But at the same time, I can appreciate that he's getting some tougher points of view on the board. You know, Dana White won't take any shit. He's going to speak his mind. You know, like it, love it, leave it. And he's built a global empire with UFC. You know, probably, I don't know if it's the fastest growing, but it's one of the most popular sports in the world right now. across the board. I mean, I know soccer is always a behemoth in American football here, but UFC is kind of universally, I mean, it's blasted boxing. You know, like, geez, boxing just can't get out of its own fucking way with cheating, scandals, bad judges, and who knows what.

18:00And fights take it too long to put together. Dana gets the shit out of the way. It's like, all right, here we go. It's got one. You don't have all these organizations. It's just the UFC, right? Middleweight, heavyweight, whatever it is. You don't have the IBF, WBO, WBC. Good God. All they do is get in the way of boxing. Dana knows how to build a business, streamline it, build a global brand, put the players or the fighters as the champions and putting them out there, their personal brands and all that stuff. He gets it. We'll see what kind of impact that has, but hats off to Mark. I don't know if I'd ever say that on this show.

18:42kind of panned the metaverse for so long, which, you know, is still not really come to fruition that I wasn't sure that I would ever agree with anything Mark Zuckerberg did. But you know what? We can all change. And I'm not just saying change because he came to my belief side or something like that. These are just common sense things to me. There's some politics going on here. Yes. But I think the board stuff, you know, some smart people with diverse backgrounds, I think that's the way you got to grow, right? you got to they know they needed a change there i mean people were pissed off everyone knew there was a lot of censorship going on yeah so and we've talked about it i think facebook's numbers are they're not growing right i mean most people are using different platforms tiktok instagram facebook's if it was my flat they had such a high percentage yeah i mean they had such a high percentage like you know they got 300 million users something like they got 70 percent of us or something like that it's hard to grow on top of that base there's only one direction to go and with other platforms growing you're losing attention i mean it's all battle for attention and time on site and why they want time on site because they have ads and everything else that they're selling so if you're in a battle and a race for it for the mind share of attention and people spending time on the platform, you've got to continue to evolve that platform to what you're seeing and feeling and what's, again, acknowledging things that went a little too far.

20:19So we'll see. I think it will have an impact. I mean, these are things that will have an impact on people, I think, coming back to the platform should it come to fruition the way it's laid out here, right? Next up here, we've got Toyota is exploring rockets. Just rockets, baby. Tacomas, Tundras, rockets. No, EVs, batteries, not rockets. We're out with the, okay, no gasoline. We're going to electric. Nah, we're going straight to rockets, baby. They announced a$7 billion investment in Interstellar Technologies, a Japanese startup developing orbital rockets. Expand mobility beyond Earth and compete with companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX.

21:16The future of mobility shouldn't be limited to just Earth or just one car company, for that matter. That's what Toyota stated at CES this past week. The startup that they bought conducted seven launches of its suborbital Momo, not FOMO, Momo, rockets, reaching space for the first time in 2019. It says, plans include developing the Zero and Deca rocket lines to deliver satellites into orbit. Hey, they want to get in all that government money, right? That's what this sounds like. and you know they don't want bezos being the only one launching rockets into it i mean everyone's launching rockets we're like what are we launching where are we going are we all going to be riding in rockets soon because i'm a little confused yes it says toyota's move into space technologies reflects growing interest among automakers to diversify into emerging industries like space exploration.

22:23Yeah, but like, how do people really go into space? Like you hear about like a handful. Richard Branson and like Jeff Bezos and his friends. Yeah. The investment is a strategic step to compete in Japan's growing private space market and on the global stage with companies like SpaceX. I don't know if this is just PR. They're obviously making real money. I mean,$7 billion. This is my question. Yeah. Because they have a quote here, right? We're exploring rockets too because the future of mobility shouldn't be limited to just Earth or one car company for that matter. Okay, well then why are aeronautical and airplane companies making this?

23:01Like, why is it our car companies? Why isn't Boeing announcing this? You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. Not that I'm sure Boeing is working with companies like X and contracting and whatnot. But it's just like, are any of us looking at rockets as mobility in our near future? No, not in our lifetime, buddy. And even if it was, how many people are like, yeah, dude, let's go. Where are we going? Mars? Yeah. This is not a consumer news bit here. It's like business. It's interesting, though. And it just shows you the influence of Elon, too, with what he's doing with SpaceX and all that. They're just like, hey, I want to get in on that.

23:39They don't want to lose the PR war either, the news cycle. You know, even when Elon's not talking about Tesla and EVs, SpaceX is in the news. And so it's mind share. Again, attention share, brand share. And yeah, there's been real money on real technology and real rockets. But this stuff is not going to impact probably for the next 20 years. So it matters. But this is news. Yeah, dude, look at my Prius. We're building rockets now too, bro. Yeah. Okay. Somebody's sitting in a room somewhere going, look, we got all these articles written about the rockets. You know, that's the win right now. Lots of zeros on that check they're writing.

24:24Speaking of lots of zeros, massive tuna sold for$1.3 million at Japan auction. $1.3 million. I need to start fishing, man. I got to get that big rod out. Got to start fishing. A 600-pound bluefin tuna sold for$1.3 million at Toyoso Market's first auction in 2025. It was made by the Ondera Group, a Japanese company operating sushi restaurants and other businesses. That's a lot of sushi, man. 600 pounds of bluefin. That must be some expensive stuff. It better be tasty. I wouldn't mind having a little of that. A little bite of that 1.3. I feel like I've tried it before somewhere. I mean, I've had bluefin tuna, but I don't know if it's a special place.

25:13You know, like, well, they're saying they have Michelin star restaurants and it's definitely some fancy. Because my question is, does the tuna taste better if it's 600 pounds versus 300 pounds? I don't know. I guess a$1.3 million tuna tastes better than a$600 ,000 tuna. Would you know in a taste test? Yeah. Is this like wine? Like, line them up. $1 ,000 bottle. $500 bottle. I would guarantee you people could taste the difference. There's probably, you know what I mean? It's like you and I drink coffee, and there's people like, oh, you can't taste the difference in the beans. Am I going to be frowned upon for having rice and soy sauce on this?

25:52Yes. You put wasabi on this, you're going to roll the rice out you. You're like, oh. Is this like the equivalent of putting like A1 on your steak? Yeah. Yeah. And I don't even do that. I don't do that. I do. I do. Oh, you do? Your A1 guy? Not at like Ruth Chris or something. Because they won't give it to you. Yeah, they'll be like, get out of here. Get out of here. I don't like to kill the, like, I put a little salt, pepper, some seasonings, different things on the outside of the steak, like the char. But then I don't really want anything else, you know. Maybe butter. Like, I know that's Ruth Chris saying, put a butter patty on whatever.

26:26It just depends on the cut and how it's prepared. I mean, you know, I get a, you know, cheap steakhouse, like old school. Ryan's Quincy Steakhouse you may listen to those guys yeah I might want some A1 give me some 57 on that Heinz 57 ketchup and mustard mixed together whatever it is secret sauce every secret sauce is a combination of ketchup mustard and mayonnaise mixed with some spices and vinegar it's like oh here we have the Heinz 57 barbecue just has more mustard than ketchup Yeah, exactly. Secret sauce. No secret sauce here for the 1.3 million bluefin. And in our automation story of the week, Chick-fil-A is moving to a factory that automates the squeezing of their lemons.

27:25saying they're going to save 10 ,000 hours of work from the workforce and a lot of fingers that get smashed up, squishing those things. And Chris and I had debated before the show, is it still considered fresh squeezed if it's not done by a human? I guess fresh still means it's a fresh squeezed lemon, no matter if it's a robot, a machine, or a human. But, I mean, if you're not, the blood, sweat, and tears are squeezing those things with your hand. yeah that human energy love isn't going i will say chick-fil-a's got some good lemonade now like they have great lemonade and and we also said i'm impressed it's not a concentrate i'm impressed that they're actually squeezing lemons yep so fresh lemons water and sugar and but even that diet lemonade is pretty good splenda or whatever i'm craving it now dude i might need to make a run after this going to meet me and ryan's doctor be like hey brother let's making a quick stop at chick-fil-a he's gonna love that he's you get the diet lemonade you like really ordering sugar water right in front of me dude oh that you know we've already talked about how they pull the wool over your eyes you know chick-fil-a's fooled everybody and thinking that's actually the healthy choice for the kids still french fries and fried chicken but you know it's chick-fil-a baby so it's got to be good yeah but we believe in god so you know they're like Yeah, doing God's work.

28:47And I do love Chick-fil-A. Me too. I like the people there. I like the brand. Had their former CMO on the show in our weekly interview episode. And good guy. But no more squeezing the lemons by hand. Just evolution here, Chris. Everything changes. The robot's coming. It's coming. Take note. Yes. Take note, we're always fired up here on the show. Thank our sponsor, Exponent. X marks the spot for energy. Plant-based, all the good stuff, none of the bad stuff. They do fuel Ryan Alford and right about now. So we appreciate them. Check them out at Drink Exponent on Instagram and their website. That's the feed.

29:38Find them and you will thank me. It tastes healthy. It tastes like, you know, we're talking about the natural lemon flavor. Their flavors taste like the flavor you would think it would. It doesn't taste artificial. That's all I like about them. It feels healthy. It's a clean energy. And all the best products that go into the ingredients. So appreciate the exponent. Appreciate them. That's all we got for this week. Send our love to California. Let's get that shit taken care of. Chris, any final thoughts? Have a great weekend. Take off the year to a great start and hit the ground running. There we go.

30:21Hey, stick with those resolutions, whatever they are. Just stick with goals. Get your goals together. Let's make 2025 the best year yet. The best is yet to come on this show in life and in general. Be positive. Stay safe. Look out for one another. I appreciate Chris Hansen. I appreciate you for listening to this show. We know you have choices. Thank you for making us number one. RyanIsRight.com. You'll find all the highlight clips, links to our sponsors, and links to social media. We'll see you next time on Right About Now. This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production.

30:57Visit RyanIsRight.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.

31:11Thank you.