🧔🏻 “The Beard Cup” — World Cup man-fluencing. Prime Day trick-or-treat. Napa’s AI Spa. + T-Rex Handbags

0:00Yetis, Nick and Jack here from the T-Boy Studio. Quick announcement, if you want to join Team T-Boy, we're looking for a video editor to support our social media efforts. If you love the show, love to edit, and have a knack for good hooks, we want you. If you can add some sprinkle dinkle and razzle dazzle and you know what a profit puppy is, that's what we're talking about here. We're doing a roster hiring challenge this week, so tap the link in the show notes if you want to try out. Basically, create a 30 to 60 second video around a story we did on the show. Best video gets a role with the T-Boy team editing our clips.

0:27Now, Jack, let's hit today's pod. This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, June 22nd, and today's pod is the best one yet, and this is a T-Boy. The top three pop-its his new stories you need to know today. Baby, Jack's been prepping this pod from Positano, looking pretty good over there. All right, more on that in tomorrow's show. I'm not sweating, Nick. That's olive oil. But Jack, three fantastic stories for today's T-Boy. What do we got on today's show? This World Cup showcases the best groomed men on planet Earth. That's right, Lino Messi's facial hair is actually the biggest business opportunity of the year.

1:06For our second story, Amazon's Prime Day begins tomorrow, but watch out for fakeflation deals. We found three ways to make sure you're getting a deal, not a dupe. And our third and final story, a luxurious spa in Napa Valley was just sold to a surprise Wall Street buyer. Because besties, there is AI data on that massage table. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories, what a mix of stories, most interesting mix in the biz. We got cow leather, we got fake leather, which is pleather. Now we have mushroom leather, that's a real thing these days. Oh, do we? That's happening. But what about T-Rex leather?

1:37As in leather from the hide of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Because get this, scientists and fashionistas collabed to create the first ever dinosaur handbag. And it just went up for auction, baby. It's like the plot of Jurassic Park and the Devil Wears problem. Extinct reptiles, so hot right now, Mugatu. Fashion finds a way. Now, Jack, can you sprinkle on some context for us, please? Yes, Nick. Paleontologists pulled collagen out of the femur of a skeleton T. rex leg bone. And then they grew those skin cells in a laboratory. Voila. Yeah. Genuine grade A dino leather. We're talking pterodactyl and gabbana.

2:13Versachosaurus raptor rex. That's a Hermesosaurus rex, Jack. Now, the auction was asking for$500 ,000 for this handbag. But then no one bid over$150 ,000. So they canceled the auction. True story. The issue was that nobody can agree on the details of this item. I get it, Jack. Like, is this leather 67 million years old? Or is it just a few months old? What do you think? Is it natural or is it grown in the lap? And will it bite me? So we may need a whole label of dinosaur leather in order to figure this all out. Like, we're going to need some stegosaurus suits with my brontosaurus boots to normalize this thing.

2:47Get ready with me in my triceratopsuit case. The influencers, they're coming for the dinosaurs. Jack, let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.

3:20Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

3:30Monarch. Uh, Yetis. One lobster roll? No joke. 50 bucks on Nantucket. And why is that a problem, Jack? Because we're going to Nantucket this summer on a joint family T-boy trip. It's a write-off. It is expensive, but we will travel with peace of mind because our finances are organized in Monarch, despite the lobster rolls. Monarch is the personal finance app that tracks everything. Accounts, investments, savings goals, and spending. Get your first year of Monarch Core for half off, just$50 with promo code T-Boy. Monarch shows visually how much you're spending this month compared to the average month, which is really useful.

4:02So like, honestly, this month, been a doozy jack. Booked a lot of travel, but I know the future months won't be as bad after lobster roll season. You know because Monarch showed you. Last year, you had a spike in May for travel bookings, but a dip in the summer because the travel was already paid for. You can even ask Monarch's AI assistant anything about your finances. Like, what are the key changes in my spending so far this year compared to last year? And how much was spent on lobster rolls last summer? Use code TBOY at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core at half off, just$50.

4:32That's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code T-Boy. Bureau Premium Non-Alcoholic Beer. All right, Yeti, it's a little behind the scenes here. Before our New York City live show back in April, Jack and I went sober for two weeks. True story. Couldn't risk getting sick. I didn't want to be groggy. I couldn't afford a hangover. It was New York, baby. Okay, but Jack, celebrating the wins is what we do. And so for our live shows, we crack open something special. So we drank Biro, the premium non-alcoholic beer brand co-founded by Tom Holland. Yeah, I actually first saw it at my grocery store.

5:06Delicious tastes like a celebration. Feels fantastic and looks legit. More on the looks in a sec. And if it's good enough for the actor who played Spider-Man, it's good enough for us. You see, it pairs well with a pickleball game, a profitable earnings report, or with the best podcast. So, Yetis, if you want to celebrate the wins with all the taste of a premium lager or IPA, but none of the alcohol, there's no better choice than Bureau. Okay, pause the pod. Did we mention the can is straight up gold? This thing will stand out at every one of your next parties. Trust us, we've done it. Only beer we know that actually upgrades the scene like a promotion.

5:39So, Basties, if there's a win you're celebrating every day, Bureau is the non-alcoholic brew brand you gotta bring. So use code T-Boy for 20 % off your first order at BureauBrewing.com.

5:53For our first story, the World Cup is really the Super Bowl for men's grooming. 11 handsome men from 48 countries running around and sweating on the field together. Schwitzing out there. Feast on these creative hair options, guys. That's the biggest business opportunity of this World Cup. But besties, tonight is the night. The defending world champs, Argentina, lace up for their second match against Austria. The final World Cup for the world's best player, Lionel Messi. Yep, Lionel Messi, sixth and final dance. He was 18 when he first got to the World Cup. Now he's retiring after 38. He's actually going to be 39 by the time the World Cup ends.

6:31Happy birthday, by the way, Messi. Thanks for being a Yeti. But Messi's not just going to be on the pitch. He's also going to be at Ulta Beauty, launching his perfume. True story, at the one in Kansas City, by the way. Messi Elixir is the fragrance that he launched on the same day that the World Cup began. Yellow card, by the way, it's technically a cologne, not a perfume, but we'll continue with the pod. And this thing smells like empanadas in victory. Yeah, it does, Jack. But if you spray too much, you got to watch out. Your date will flop. That is a lot of cologne. Messi also launched a sports drink in 2024.

7:02It was called Moss by Messi. Yeah, Moss by Messi. It's the Gatorade of goals he's been promoting drinking it for a while now. But this month, just as he launched his new fragrance, his hydration brand is getting shut down. I'm sorry, pause the pod, Jack. Lionel Messi is pivoting from sports drinks to perfume? That is the perfect setup for the rest of the story. Yetis, that contrast captures it all. Because this isn't a World Cup. This is the biggest showcase of the best-looking men on planet Earth. It's the Beard Cup. It's the Super Bowl of skin and hair and faces. It's a marathon of men's beauty with an Olympics of dude looks thrown into it.

7:38Because unlike with our Super Bowl, no one wears helmets in the World Cup. You got 22 very visible faces on the field to play. And unlike the four big American sports, these players hail from 48 countries on all the continents except Antarctica. So it's become a crash course for American guys on global attractiveness. The NFL, it's full of familiar looking guys to Americans. The Stanley Cup, it's full of broken teeth. But the World Cup, that guy's a 10 in Brazil. Bill, he's an 11-year Nick. Spoiler, Jack just told his barber he wants to look like the midfielder on the Cape Verde team, by the way.

8:10So we're going to see a new look starting tomorrow. So for this World Cup, forget the beer ads, the car commercials, and the Xfinity wireless commercials. All attention is going to be on the man mugs. It's the biggest marketing opportunity during the World Cup. Curious men open to trying a new look because of that product they just saw during the World Cup. It's men's grooming. As one CEO of a cosmetics company put it, The World Cup is 50 Super Bowls for us in one. Don't bend it like Beckham. Bend those bangs like Beckham. It's like David Beckham's left foot, David Beckham's right foot. Does David Beckham have a unibrow?

8:44No, because he grooms himself, Nick. So besties, shaving, hair care, skin care. This is their Ulta Bowl with 5 billion viewers, and we think you're going to notice it. That's why Dr. Squatch launched a World Cup deodorant for dudes this game. Dove Soap just launched a Soap for Men at these World Cup games. And Axe Body Spray launched three new flavors at the World Cup, sold in a commemorative bottle shaped in the shape of the World Cup trophy. And of course, Lionel Messi is now shutting down his sports drink to pivot to perfume. So Jack, what's the smell of that takeaway over at the World Cup?

9:19Sometimes you gotta crunch the Arithma Trends. Ah, the Arithma Trends. Yetis, to find out what happened in the past, you follow the money. To find out what will happen in the future, you follow the trends. And sometimes following the trends is as simple as adding them up. An arithmetic of trends. Smell maxing. The fastest growing fragrance sales right now are among 20-year-old men. That's one trend we told you about. Another is Brotox. Because at TikTok and Zoom, men are more focused on their skincare than ever before. And the sons of Sephora, the top growing customer segment at Sephora right now, has an X chromosome and a Y chromosome.

9:54So besties, multiply that by the growth of soccer and the World Cup stage. This is the men's grooming World Cup because of Arrhythmia trends. You just add up all of the trends. For our second story, Amazon Prime deals have become sus. So we'll show you how to call the Bezos bluff. But this is the last Prime day you'll even need to worry about maybe getting tricked. But besties, happy Amazon Prime Day I Mean Week to all those who celebrate out there. Last year during Prime Day I Mean Week, we reminded you that no sale is urgent. There will always be another sale. It's like dating. There are plenty of fish in the sea and there are plenty of shark ninja blenders out in Amazon land.

10:42And the proof? Just look at the mattress industry. These guys are infamous. Mattress, mattress, mattress. seven weekends out of the year are the official mattress holiday of the entire country. Labor Day, Memorial Day, President's Day, MLK Day, New Year's, they're all mattress weekends. Come on down to Bob King's Eyes Factory. Now, as early as seven days ago on Amazon, there was already early Prime Day deals, even though it starts technically tomorrow. So as we said, there's always another sale. Still, you're going to be tempted by Prime Day, which begins officially tomorrow. Now, Jack, we should point out this is the earliest to Midsummer Primes Day in our years, isn't it, man?

11:19Right. They usually do it in July, but they did it in June this year. They wanted to avoid America 250 celebrations and the World Cup knockout rounds. So Jack and I jumped in T-boy style and studied the marketing tactics of not just Amazon, but of the other online retailers. Because Walmart, Best Buy, Target, they all zucked their own version of Prime Day. They have big deal days this week too. So Jack and I will reveal to you their discount tricks so you can call their Bezos bluff. Okay. The most egregious pricing trick on Prime Day, fake discounts. Fake discounts. Yeah, we called it fakeflation when we first discovered it last year, I believe, Jack.

11:53Not all retailers do this, but some do, and you don't want to get tricked. A huge culprit. Who is it, man? Shark Ninja. Shark Ninja. Oh, one sec. I just got to get another one of these toasting oven air frying blenders for$3.99 off. This company has about 50 vacuums for sale on Amazon, and they all have a really high number with a cross out and then a much lower number before that looks like a great deal. You get attracted to that red number that has the line striking through it at first. Your eye goes there. But that regular price, the higher one, that's never actually the price. It's fake flation.

12:27That's a ruse to make the real price look better. Which leads to our first way to call that bluff. Go to camelcamelcamel.com. It's a little bit of a financial trick shot here. You paste the URL of the product you're looking at and it will show you the pricing history. You want to make sure that that regular price they're advertising actually was the regular price. Otherwise, this isn't a deal at all. That's right. For the Shark Ninja Vacuum Toaster Air Fryer, that 50 % off deal you're looking at, it might actually be the regular price. It might be a perma sale. And you shouldn't feel special if it's just the regular price.

13:00So that's the first way to call their bluff. But Jack, what about the second way? Simply ask the bot. If you prefer to buy directly from the manufacturer, they probably have a chat bot in the bottom right of the website. And those chatbots are basically like salespeople. You ask nicely for a dealer discount. Often, they actually say yes. They'll put it right in the checkout, 20 % off. Thanks for asking. To quote the movie Elf, he's a friendly chatbot, Jack. A friendly chatbot. Now, the third way you can beat the Bezos bluff is what we call the digital walkout. The digital walkout. Basically, you add that shark ninja to your cart, but then you just bounce.

13:34You ditch the thing. You ghost it. And then you wait for an email to come with a discount code to tempt you back to the shopping cart. You basically play e-commerce hard to get. And the study showed this doesn't always work according to New York Times dealbook, right, Jack? Now, the fourth trick to beat the Bezos bluff you might have been thinking of already. You got to ask the AI. Agentic shopping is the future where you don't search for the best deals. You don't vet it to make sure it's a good deal. Your AI does it for you. It's the butlerfication trend we've taught you about. Like a 24-7 personal shopper you don't have to give a hydration break to.

14:09So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies trying to get$12 off a microwave today? This may be the last Prime Day that your emotions can be preyed on. Yeti's wonderful use case of AI, using it to cut through the dark tricks the marketers try to pull on us. Prime Day works because of one thing, fake scarcity. It gives you a sense of urgency that's not actually real. The countdown timer, the only three left, the 48-hour window, So all designed to make your brain skip the price check and hit the tap to buy. But AI doesn't have emotions. So those psychonomic tricks won't work on them. You prompt your chatbot with something like, I need a 4K TV.

14:48Buy it during Prime Day if the price drops below 900 bucks and it still has a 4.5 plus rating. The chatbot will scan the infinite options online and do it if it finds the deal. And now besties, Jack and I just shared a few human moves you can make to call Prime Day bluffs made by the marketer. But once you make the switch to agentic shopping, you'll be untrackable. And that is why this is the last Prime Day your emotions can be preyed on. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. Upwork. Yeah, it is. Before we had a podcast, we had a newsletter. And the moment that newsletter began growing, it's not when we came up with the clever subject lines with the emojis.

15:25It's when we found the right freelancer. Freelancer built a referral program that grew our newsletter, which helped launch this podcast, which helped us sell our company, which we eventually spun out, and which eventually got us to where we are today. Yeah, that's the story. Having the right expertise at the right time, that can make or break your business. So Upwork is a one-stop platform to find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across web and software development, data and analytics, marketing, business operations, and more. If you need a freelancer, Upwork is where you get it. Thousands of growing businesses already trust Upwork to hire flexible, high-quality freelance talent for everything from one-off projects to ongoing support.

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16:31Well, I'm proud to say that we are hiring right now at T-Boy, and this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Because Sponsored Jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95 % more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. So besties spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes, less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of the show will get a$75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast.

17:02So just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed-sponsored jobs.

17:19For our third and final story, why did a legendary Napa Valley spa get bought by a private equity firm? Because inside those deep tissue massages, Nick, is actually AI data. But yet, to sprinkle on some context, Jack, the other weekend, Ma and I did one of our Super Saturdays. Ready for this? You know the Super Saturday. You know, we got a babysitter for the day and then we treated ourselves up in Napa Valley. Go on. Okay, this place, insane. The vineyards as you approach, hibiscus towels when you enter, an indulgent treat yourself with salmon miso bento bowls by the pool charcoal infused infinity sauna kind of a place.

17:59You know what I mean? I've never been to a place like that. It's called Stanley Ranch. And back in 1856, it was founded as a working vineyard. But because people like Nick don't want to visit a working vineyard. It was converted in 2022 to a 135-room luxury hotel and spa. Now, this is what Jack and I found fascinating. While I was having lunch, I was Googling the history of Stanley Ranch Resort and got this shocker. It filed for bankruptcy last year. Turns out the previous owners mismanaged the whole thing like that couple in Beef Season 2 on Netflix. The owners defaulted on a$220 million loan.

18:32They did, yeah. Looks like they went overboard on the hyperbaric oxygen chambers. Okay, but here's where things get crazy. A few weeks ago, we got a new headline. That Napa spa just got acquired by a New York City private equity firm. The New York City private equity firm. We're talking Blackstone, a publicly traded private equity firm worth 150 billion bucks. They probably own something you ate, wore, or walked in today. Because Jersey Mike Submarines, Spanx Underwear, SeaWorld. Yeah, that's SeaWorld. Blackstone owns some or all of those brands. In fact, remember last week, Jack and I sat down to interview Ben from Bed & Jerry?

19:10He wants to buy back Bed & Jerry's from its parent company right now? Not if Blackstone gets there first, right, Jack? Blackstone is reportedly bidding for Bed & Jerry and all of its sister ice cream brands right now. But besties, when you break down Blackstone's business, their biggest bet has always been one particular theme. Real estate. And in the last year, Blackstone made some very curious real estate moves, specifically in the Bay Area of California. Sensing that AI was booming, Blackstone bought a 25-story office building in downtown San Francisco. And very quickly leased the entire building to Anthropic.

19:43And two months before that, Blackstone bought the most expensive hotel in San Francisco. The Four Seasons downtown, probably renting it out to visiting AI executives. And then last month, Blackstone went full treat yourself and bought that Napa Valley spa. Stanley Ranch, home of the IV CBD Swedish aromatherapy massage thingy. Yeah, it works out for a Super Saturday. Other than the unlimited essential spa oils, why did Blackstone make all of these particular buys? Definitely not for the working vineyard. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Blackstone? Sometimes you got to go deep tissue to find the data.

20:24Yeti's Warren Buffett pioneered a wild type of investing, we noticed. Buy a business just to get data on the industry. Did you know that Berkshire Hathaway, a trillion-dollar company, owns 100 car dealerships littered across the country? True story. Not because they think car dealerships is a great business. Berkshire Hathaway owns those dealerships for the data. Whether people buy a car or not is an early indicator of consumer confidence. And that data is useful to the rest of Berkshire Hathaway's huge business empire. Well, similarly, we think Blackstone bought three properties near Silicon Valley for the data on the AI industry.

20:59The office building and the hotel, I think those are just bullish bets on AI. they're making money by serving the AI industry. But that Napa Valley Spa, we think that deal is all about the data. Blackstone will know if the AI industry is in trouble before anyone else because they'll see AI workers canceling their massage appointments. And Jack, they'll know if AI is booming because those AI workers can upgrade from the 60-minute massage to the 90-minute massage. And Blackstone will use that cutting-edge data that nobody else has as an indicator to make bigger trades on the market. Besties, never forget that Napa Valley spa, because sometimes you got to go deep tissue to get the data.

21:37Jack, could you whip up the takeaways to welcome us back? The World Cup athletes are a fire hose of looks and styles on our TVs. It's an opportunity for the men's grooming market. All you got to do is follow the Arithma trends. You end up with a boom in men's grooming. For our second story, Amazon Prime Day is Tuesday through Friday of this week. Do your work not to get tricked by faux deals. But with agentic shopping, your emotions cannot be preyed on. And Blackstone bought a spa in Napa Valley, not for the profits, but for the insights into AI. Sometimes you got to go deep tissue to get that data.

22:10All right, yeah, that's the spot. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Starbucks is closing all their South Korean locations today for a mandatory history lesson. Because of a wild story, the chain dropped a special edition metal cup last week that seemed to mock pro-democracy protests that resulted in a 1980 violent crackdown. Turns out the marketing department was using AI to come up with that cup idea. They didn't really give it a second thought. The backlash was so bad, Starbucks sales fell 26 % in South Korea. And now they're closing all the locations basically to apologize and put the employees through mandatory history training.

22:49And second, with Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire last week, we noticed an interesting trend. In 1807, John Astor became the first millionaire in the United States. Because he was selling fur pelt to Europeans from America. In 1916, John D. Rockefeller became the first billionaire in the United States. Because he had a monopoly on the oil industry. And in 2026, Elon Musk became the first trillionaire in the United States. So by this pace, we basically go up an octave every 100 years and should get the first quadrillionaire by the year 2137. And finally, a wild new Ozempic issue. Returns. These clothes are too big, man.

23:26Too many returns. Retailers are facing a wave of costly returns because you're not a size 38 anymore. You're a size 36, but you didn't realize it. 80 % of GLP-1 weight loss drug users redo their wardrobes. But they're still figuring out exactly what size they are now. So they have to re-redu their wardrobes, and that's why returns just hit all-time highs. Now time for the best fact yet, and this one is some T-Boy trivia from Michael Melito from lovely San Diego. Lucky Charms is owned by General Mills, based in Minnesota. Lucky Charms is the pioneer of the marshmallow cereal. It's been a fantastic development for dentists, especially pediatric dentists.

24:01Huge for business. 80 % of those marshmallows, by the way, they're made at the Lucky Charms plant in Buffalo, New York. But there's actually a technical term for the marshmallows in Lucky Charms. What is the specific term for a Lucky Charms marshmallow? Like, it's in the dictionary. This could be in the spelling bee. Drop your guess in the comments, and Jack and I will reveal it on tomorrow's pod. Yetis, you're looking fantastic. Hey, Jack, you are glowing. Welcome back. Oh, and we got to remind all the Yetis about that job opportunity, by the way, right, man? Yeah, if you want to be our video editor, making clips of the best one yet for our social feeds, we want you.

24:37The Razzle Dazzle, Sprinkle Dinkle. Tap the link in the show notes to try out for T-Boy's editing team. And you know that guac is always extra. We need a 30 to 60 second video submitted by you by this Friday. And Mr. Beast, we already told you. We got the resume already. Thanks for all the DMs, dude. Yeti's Nick and I. We'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait.

25:01And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti Anissa down in Leesburg, Virginia, a six-year Yeti. And happy 37th anniversary of his 29th birthday to Dave Adiosanifeld. And Indigo Star is the most productive person yet hanging out and celebrating a birthday in Boulder, Colorado. Happy birthday to Michael Orlando in Portland, Oregon. And Adi Desi, enjoy that birthday down in New Jersey. And happy big number three to Maxi Martel, the pod son himself. Little Maximus, happy three years. Can't believe it. We're going to have a lot of choo-choos, a lot of wah-wahs. And yes, there will be cupcakes.

25:37Oh, and Molly, congrats on getting maxied at three. Amazing work. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.

25:48This is Jack, I own stock of Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway. Hey, this is Adam Grant, host of TED's podcast, Rethinking with Adam Grant. One assumption many organizations rarely rethink? How their financial operations actually get done. That's why smart leaders turn to Bill. the intelligent finance platform that helps businesses and accounting firms scale with proven results. In fact, Bill reports that 98 of the top 100 U.S. accounting firms trust them to manage, move, and maximize their clients' money all in one place. The right systems can free up time, reduce drag, and make growth more intentional.

26:21Visit bill.com slash proven to talk with an expert about automating your business finances and get a$150 gift card as a thank you. Terms and conditions apply. See offer page for details.