💝 “The Gift She Wants” — Cartier’s Gen Z watch. AI’s 174-year-old glass. Mattel’s Barbie Bummer. +Olympic side hustles

0:28This is Nick. today. Perfect date night event, T-Boy Live. And perfect mix of stories today. Jack, three fantastic stories for today's T-Boy. What's on the show? For our first story, the one Valentine's gift every Gen Z woman wants this year, a Cartier watch. Taylor wears it, which is huge, even though this watch is tiny. For our second story, Mattel stock just plummeted by 27%. It's worst day since Elmo got tickled. Because the Barbie movie is actually a Barbie bummer and Mattel got the farm on it. And our third and final story is the big winner of AI right now. A 175-year-old glass business in upstate New York.

1:08That's right. The same company that made Thomas Edison's light bulbs is now powering AI. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, now that is a mix. I love the mix, Jack. But 15 years ago, Nick and I started this company as a side hustle outside of our day jobs in banking. Yeah, 15 years before this song started as a secret side hustle, so we got a soft spot for all the side hustlers out there. And no one side hustles more than Team USA athletes. That's right, because our government doesn't pay Olympians. We did a whole story on it last month. Yes, U.S. athletes do get a$37 ,000 cash bonus if they win a gold medal.

1:44And yes, the silver medal just hit a record high valuation because the price of silver is at an all-time high. But otherwise, it's just a modern stipend that Team USA athletes get from Uncle Sam. And what about the endorsements? The curling team's not exactly getting a million-dollar deal these days. Nike's not sponsoring ice brooming. Yet. So Jack and I worked up surprising side hustles of the U.S. Olympians, and one of them is even a birthday clown. Alpine skier Ryan Cochran-Siegel works for his family's maple sugar house in Richmond, Vermont. True story, skier Keely Cashman is a barista in her family's coffee shop in Strawberry, California.

2:20Curler Corey Teese, she tests the water in Minnesota to make sure there isn't mercury in there. That's a tongue twister, Jack. Oh, and speed skater Kimmy Goetz is a financial analyst on Wall Street and a cookbook writer. We fact-checked that last one on LinkedIn. Yep. It's verified. Dove in T-boy style to the resume. Besties, if you have got a side hustle, drop it right here in the comments. Call it unofficial side hustle appreciation day. Yeah, Jack and I will give you a side hustle. The best side hustle is a full hustle promo on the pod. Okay, that's a tongue twister. I know, I'm still working on that one.

2:51Jack, 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.

3:19Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

3:28Top hats, baseball hats, Von Dutch hats. We wear so many hats on this podcast. Honestly, we're not great at all of them. No, we've been avoiding hiring someone to wear those hats instead of us, especially the Von Dutch one, because hiring and training can take forever. Well, 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.

3:59When 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. So 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. So yet he's Jack's instituted a new business model for his Airbnb hosting. And Jack, what is it? Here it is. Host equals guest.

4:33Yes. I funnel all my revenue from being a host on Airbnb into one bank account and use that same bank account to book travel for myself. And basically it's Jack's host guest bank account for when he hosts and when he's a guest somewhere else. When I lived in the city neck, every time my apartment was available on Airbnb, it would get booked like that. I mean, think about how often are you away from home? You got the bridesmaid, you got the shower, you got the bachelorette, you got the wedding. That's three weekends away just for one wedding right there. Plus, you got to visit your mother. Naturally.

5:03Well, that's a lot of potential hosting that you could be doing on Airbnb. Let someone else stay at your place while you're away. Take that host money and spend it when you're a guest somewhere else. Have a business model like me. If you want to travel more, hosting more is a great way to make it happen financially. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host.

5:25For our first story, Cartier is the top luxury brand shining right now, and it's all thanks to the Cartier watch. Every Gen Z woman wants Taylor Swift's watch for Valentine's Day. Sorry, guys. And it's a Cartier. Stuck the landing on the pronunciation, Jack. Five stars. But besties, the number one question in the comments section of Taylor Swift's engagement Instagram post last year, what was it, Jack? It wasn't about the flowers and the dress or Travis Kelsey's questionable khaki choices. She knows, interesting. And it wasn't even in the ring. Everyone wanted to know about the watch. It was all about the watch, which was Cartier, the 179-year-old French royal jeweler now owned by Switzerland's Richemont.

6:08And stock in the company that made Taylor Swift's watch is trading at an all-time high right now. Not too shabby, Jack. Richemont is number three in sales in the luxury category behind Louis Vuitton and Hermes. And the sales have been looking blingy. They rose 11 % during the holiday quarter. Cartier, their business is conquering risks like a young Napoleon. Pre-Russian Napoleon. Good point. Good clarification, Jack. Because Taylor Swift's Cartier watch became Gen Z's Rolex. Yeah. If sex in the city started today, Carrie Bradshaw would not be wearing Jimmy Choo's. She'd be wearing a Cartier watch.

6:39And Bloomberg discovered a fascinating connection because Taylor Swift's watch choice goes back to Kim Kardashian 10 years prior. Jack, can you please introduce us to 2016's hottest gift for affluent millennial women, please? Yes, I can, because I was under immense pressure for my then girlfriend to get one for Valentine's Day, and I went into deep credit card debt doing so. I mean, honestly, instead of an engagement ring, you probably could have done one of these. Yeah, Cartier's Bango Bracelets, promoted at the time, 10 years ago, by Kim Kardashian. Thin band, lightweight, you can stack six of them on your wrist, which makes them even more expensive.

7:16And then you can catch them all like they're a luxury Pokemon. I hope Pokemon has a buy now, pay later, because these go from $1 ,000 to$10 ,000 each. So that bangle popularized the concept of thin bands on your wrist, which is why Cartier then reintroduced their classic thin watch, the Pantheir. It's got a small narrow face and a delicate wristband, and it starts at$4 ,300. And it pairs well with those bangles like besties meant to be. They both fit on your wrist habit. If you own the bracelets first, eventually you want to own the watch. Well, as other watch faces had gotten huge, smaller watch faces like Cartier's stood out.

7:56Have you seen what Zuck wears on his wrist? It's bigger than his hand. Well, the result was that Cartier became the fastest growing luxury watch for women under 30. Sales rose 15 % last year for Cartier's watches, bringing in$4 billion to the company. Jack, could you sprinkle on some context of 4 billion bucks, please? Well, that's one third of Rolex's sales, but there's value in having the young consumer. There's value in having the watch that slaps. Rolex signals status, Cartier signals taste. No pressure, Yetis, but she does want this for Valentine's Day. Or you could send her today's podcast instead.

8:30Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Cartier? Don't launch it, plant it. Plant it like Martha Stewart. Yetis, the real win here is that Cartier's watch moment was actually a decade in the making. Taylor Swift's engagement, the fact that she was wearing that watch, that was a huge moment of luck for Cartier. Total luck. But it wouldn't have happened without that Kim Kardashian bracelet that Cartier orchestrated 10 years before. You see, first Cartier got women stacking, and then it got them upgrading. Thin bracelets walked so that tiny watches could run. Took Cartier 10 years to conquer that risk.

9:05It's a reminder that we all put pressure on launching a product and expect immediate success from the launch. But the biggest launches, they really began when seeds were planted years ago. And what do seeds do? They don't explode. they blossom after years of watering and nurturing and fertilizer. Thank you, Farmer Jack. So besties, remember to pull a Martha Stewart. Don't launch it, plant it. For our second story, a 175-year-old glass company is the new winner in AI. Corn and glass is up 50 % in just the first month of the year to an all-time high. How to identify whose stock will explode next?

9:44Identify the next shortage. All right, Jack, you ready for this one? You ready? Corning Glass is so old, they have a museum of themselves. Sounds like a Yo Mama joke, but that's a real thing. It's not even a joke. They have a museum to Corning Glass owned by the Corning Glass Company. In that museum, you'll learn that humans have been making glass for 3 ,500 years, but Corning has innovated glass more in the last 175 years than in the 3000 prior. That's right, because in 1879, Corning collabed with Thomas Edison to help invent the light bulb. In 2007, Corning collabed with Steve Jobs to help invent the iPhone.

10:24Gorilla Glass? That is a division within Corning that generated a billion bucks in profits on glass last year. Because every touchscreen on every smartphone right now is Gorilla Glass. That's right. You've got Gorilla Glass. You've got Corning's glass product in your pocket, in your hands at this moment. If you pause the pod right now on your phone, you're pausing on Gorilla Glass. But Festi's Jack and I want to focus on a 1970 invention of Corning because that's the reason it stocks at an all-time high. Fiber optic cables. They realized in 1970, instead of running electricity through metal cables, you can achieve the same thing, but faster by running light through glass cables.

11:04And those cables connect the internet across the globe, even across oceans, and it has been a profit puppy for Corning Glass. Because it turns out these fiber optic glass cables are the new critical ingredient of artificial intelligence. Besties, let's sprinkle on some context with some Wall Street Journal reporting. Jack, can you take us back to 2018, please? That's when Corning Glass executives visited a Facebook data center down in Texas. Yeah, you see, Zuckerberg was lamenting that existing cables were too fragile and too slow for the future he wanted to build. Corning raised their hand and said, we can fix that.

11:38It was a huge bet, actually. A huge bet to double down on their glass business in the data center area. So a few years later, their North Carolina factory was able to create a glass cable thinner than human hair. You hold up the glass and you can't even see it. But that human hair with the glass cable, they can also make it 30 miles long. It's a human hair of glass more than the length of a marathon. And this glass is so transparent, if you stack these cables, like a million of them in the ocean, you'll still be able to see to the bottom of the ocean. It's crazy. We could not wait to tell you this story, as you can tell.

12:16But that bet, oh, it paid off. Zuck just placed a$6 billion order for that exact glass hair width cable. That one order to connect servers at Meta's data center in Louisiana makes up almost half of Corning's annual revenue. Basically, glass, it's the new gold. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Corning Glass? When there's a shortage in AI, there's an all-time high. Oh, Yetis, going back to 2023, we can see which stock will explode based on where the shortage is. In 2023, NVIDIA began its meteoric stock market rise as GPUs were the critical shortage of AI. In 2024, energy became the shortage, so GE Vernova stock went mooning.

13:00In 2025, five, memory chips ran out. So SanDisk, which makes them, has 10X'd since September. Now, you know what, Jack? 2026 looks like the year of Corn and Glass. Their stock, it's up 50 % in just the first month of the year. You see, when there's a shortage, if you're the critical supplier, you can jack up prices to whatever you want and glam up your profit margins. NVIDIA did it, GE did it, SanDisk did it, and now 175-year-old Corn and Glass is doing it. When there's a shortage in AI, there's an all-time high stock price. So what's the next shortage? Let the Yetis know by dropping your idea in the comments.

13:37Jack and I will take a quick commercial break. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. Monarch. When I had student debt, I tracked my progress on an Excel spreadsheet I manually updated each month. Oh, I was Jack a spreadsheet jockey because when he was paying off his student debt, Monarch didn't exist yet. Well, one year ago, I proudly killed that spreadsheet I'd been building for 12 years. RIP spreadsheet, because Monarch is a way better solution. All your financial accounts are linked to Monarch. Every credit card, checking account, brokerage account, even our mortgages, live balances updated in real time.

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14:42Use code TBOY at Monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code TBOY. NetSuite by Oracle. Yetis, on our show, you know, we love to sprinkle on some context. Because news doesn't mean anything if you don't have a sense of history, the competitive situation, etc. Yada, yada, yada. Well, it's the same with AI. If your AI tool doesn't know anything about your biz, then it's not going to be the best one yet. That's why we're pumped to promote NetSuite by Oracle. It's helping over 43 ,000 businesses figure out how AI can work for them. NetSuite is actually the number one cloud ERP connected to your entire enterprise.

15:16It has your data on financials, HR, inventory, commerce, and CRM. To be honest, it's probably going to have to sprinkle on context about your business to you. It's that intelligent. That connected data is what makes your AI smarter. So it doesn't just guess, it knows. This isn't another bolted on tool. It's AI built into the system that runs your business. So whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you stay ahead. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get your free business guide, demystifying AI at netsuite.com slash tboy. The guide is free to use at netsuite.com slash tboy.

15:48NetSuite.com slash TBOI. For our third and final story, Mattel versus Hasbro. Same business model, selling toys, but completely different stocks. Mattel went all in on movies. Hasbro went all in on games. One strategy worked, one's not. Besties, let's start by sprinkling on some context. Hasbro actually named after the Hasenfeld brothers. Those Hasbros are having more fun on the stock market right now than a Toys R Us kid. Yeah, because Hasbro just announced holiday earnings and they capped off a record annual profit of$1 billion. The standout performers in their toy chest were Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering.

16:33And those games are 50 and 30 years old. They're middle-aged and yet revenue jumped 86 % in the fourth quarter. Which begs the question, how do you make a 90s card game feel fresh? How do you give it pep and a step? You launch new sets that use modern licensed IP. Exactly. Magic has a Final Fantasy card set. Marvel Super Heroes has a set. Avatar, the last airbender, they got a Magic set. And the best part, these card games are not manufactured in China. Unlike every other toy. So tariffs didn't hurt profits for Hasbro. And that is why Hasbro stock is up 27 % so far this year. Investors are laughing like that Elmo getting tickled.

17:12But how about the Coke to Hasbro's Pepsi? Yeah, Jack, how about the Apple to its Microsoft? The Mario to its Wario. Ah, rival Mattel is actually having the opposite situation. Their stock, it plummeted 27 % in one day, yesterday. Mattel announced yesterday that nothing's working. Nada. Their holiday quarter, the most important quarter, was pretty terrible for this toy company. Profit margins shrank by five percentage points from 50 % down to 45 % because they had to pay millions in tariffs. Tariffs aren't fun. No, they're not. And where's the Barbie doll made? It's made in China, Nick. Ah. Which means they had to pay a 50 % tax as it entered the country.

17:50And we should point out, besties, Mattel is no Santa Claus. They tried passing on that price hike to us consumers, didn't they, Jack? But it didn't work. Uh-uh. So they ended up having to discount last quarter big time. Barbie ended up getting demoted to the sales rack. And they were giving away Ken pretty much for free. So Besties profits fell from Mattel in the last year, but even worse, Mattel expects them to fall again this year. And this is also shocking because Mattel stock was riding high back in 2023. The Barbie movie boom. It was the biggest film of the year. They're making billion bucks on a Barbie sales boom, but those Barbie sales fell in 2024 and 2025.

18:29And Mattel said yesterday they expect Barbie sales to fall again in 2026. Barbie, she's kind of lost her step, which leads to our Malibu house. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Mattel? The Barbie movie was not enough. Besties, the$1 billion Barbie movie. It was so successful at the box office that it actually changed Mattel's entire business strategy. Mattel launched Mattel Studios, and they now have 16 Hollywood movies in the pipeline based on their signature toys. Okay, Mattel's making a Hot Wheels movie, an American doll movie, a Barney movie. They're even making a Magic 8-Ball movie.

19:11Whatever the hell that movie's going to be about. I think the Magic 8-Ball would say, it is certain, Jack. Don't count on it. Now, the movies themselves don't make much money for Mattel, but they create new fans of toys and drive new toy sales. Okay, but then, Jack, we just learned that that entire thesis you just said, which Mattel bet the entire farm on, it appears to be wrong. The Barbie movie only resulted in a one-time Barbie doll sales bump. It was not sustained beyond that first year. Now, interestingly, the F1 series on Netflix, that did grow the market for Formula One racing, creating new racing fans.

19:45Formula One sustained that sales bump, but the Barbie movie didn't grow the market for Barbie dolls like Formula One did. No, it didn't. This was a Barbie bummer. The Barbie movie was not good enough. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Cartier's watch sales are booming thanks to Taylor, the Swifties, and that$4 ,300 price tag. But Kim K's bracelets planted the seed 10 years ago, and that blossomed into watch sales today. For our second story, it's Corning Glass. Their stocks at an all-time high, as glass cables is the new critical ingredient needed for data centers.

20:20Remember, besties, where there's a shortage in AI, there's an all-time high. And our third and final story was Mattel. Their toy sales revealed that the Barbie movie was not enough. And the Hollywood studio strategy that they bet the whole toy bin on, it's in trouble. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. Okay, the biggest winner of the Super Bowl may actually have been the lowest price. It's Zara. Because the bulky football jersey-looking cream t-shirt that Bad Bunny wore during his halftime show, that was Zara. Yes, Bane's Zara collad with Bad Bunny for the whole show.

20:54They outfitted the dancers, the band, the orchestra. It was all them. I think the dancing trees, too. Here's the craziest part, though. None of those products are for sale. It's part of Zara's brand shift towards high fashion and celebrity. And second, wild hero stat about the airline industry. In 2024 and 2025, one airline earned over half of all the profits. Delta took 56 % of the U.S. airline industry's total profits of the last two years. Yeah, and I was a SkyMiles guy. I'm pretty pumped about this one. But we should point out United was close behind. They earned 43 % of the profits. American Airlines took home just 6%.

21:30Now, those numbers are from the New York Times. I'm just pointing out they add up to over 100%. Maybe it's because the other airlines, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, Frontier, they all lost money in those two years. Yeah. And finally, OpenAI is shutting down the version of ChatGPT that sucked up to you so much. Yeah, version 4.0, the sycophantic version of ChatGPT as it was called. It was just like way too complimentary. Oh, that question shows your mind is simply ahead of the game. Let's get into it. Jack, are you whipping up the takeaways? Are the takeaways whipping up you? It wasn't just annoying.

22:05It was actually a business risk because some people had their mind warped by all these compliments coming from their AI all the time all day. Yes, it was. Some people became emotionally a little messed up with AI that compliments them constantly all day. Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and I so you can help us travel for our live tour starting in two weeks. So Nick and I want to know what's the best workout and the best restaurant for Nick and me to hit up while we're in Austin. That includes barbecue, but also not barbecue. We want to try both, please. You see, we're on tour this year visiting seven cities.

22:43We want your help building out our itinerary, starting with Austin. Full disclosure, we've both already been to Franklin, so it can't be Franklin Barbecue. So send us your submissions as a DM, a comment in this episode, or by filling out the shout out form linked in the show notes. And if we pick your idea, we're going to invite you to join us. If you're going to our New York City or DC shows, yeah, we want your ideas for those too. Call it the T-Boy Itinerary Sweepstakes. That's what we're calling. Be our travel agent. And if we like your ideas, we want you to do the things with us because we're going to be in Austin for three days.

23:12And we have to eat at least nine meals as part of those three days. Yes. Nick and I will be discussing strategy while you're third wheeling us at the table, but that sounds kind of awesome to me. And as you know, from being a longtime Yeti, this show is a workout. So send us a DM, drop a comment in this episode, or send us a shout out by filling out the floor and LinkedIn the shout outs. Yetis, you're looking fantastic for the new Friday. Jack, I love how you basically just committed to buying something from Cartier for Alex this year. It was really impressive for you to do that on the pod. Very impressive.

23:42No, I did not. You put yourself out there. You put yourself out there. Dude, if I had bought NVIDIA stock instead of buy her that bracelet, I'd be owning Cartier. Well, I think we did the story on the pod. I'm pretty sure it's a write-off if you do buy one, Jack. Yetis, we'll see you tomorrow if you know, you know.

24:03And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Christina Volton. It's her birthday in Minneapolis, but also a big launch day. She also launched her dog food brand on Chewy. It's called Loyal Saints, and your dog would love it. And a happy birthday to Anthony Prudencio over in Rio Rancho down in New Mexico. Happy half birthday to Kendi in Washington, D.C. And Steven Giorgio down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. You are missed by Mark, but you're having the best birthday yet. Happy birthday to Megan E. in Bergen County, New Jersey, who's turning 23. And Evan Ellerz has got 30 years of Philadelphia Eagles disappointment, mostly, but some highs.

24:39And he's enjoying the birthday. I think they won a couple Super Bowls recently. Yeah, you got a couple in there. Congrats, Evan. And happy birthday to Brandon Arbiter, who's rapping in Colorado right now with his epic six-year-old. And Kara Enos, enjoy that birthday down in Franklin, Tennessee. And happy birthday to Greta Kramer, my niece, who's turning six years old today. I think the first of the Kramer nieces, right, Jack? The elder cousin. That's right, Nick. The eldest of the following. And a final happy birthday to Cesar Luna down in Pacifica. Keep rocking the quarter zip. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy.

25:10Celebrate the wins.

25:15This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix and we both own stock in Apple. Youth mental health is a complex challenge that requires comprehensive solutions. We must strengthen after-school programs. We must make digital literacy tools available in our schools. We must work with mental health professionals to support children. And we must empower mentors, educators, and parents to keep kids happy. Learn more about our commitment to finding lasting solutions at empowerourfuturecoalition.com slash solutions. Paid for by the Coalition to Empower Our Future.