🤝 “TikTaken” — TikTok (finally) sold. Diet Coke vs Coke Zero. Madison Square Garden 5.0. +Chimney Sweep Surge

0:28This is Nick. broke the laws of economics and made guac not extra for us. That is a first ever. They've never done this for anybody, Nick. Chipotle, thank you for the warm capitalist hogs, Jack. Three fantastic stories for today's show. What do we got on the T-Boy? For our first story, TikTok has finally officially been sold. But while the U.S. got the chassis, China kept the engine. Because the M &A of TikTok's U.S. business actually stands for messy and ambiguous. For our second story, Why are zero sugar sodas surging, while diet sodas, pretty much the same thing, are dying? Well, because boomers do diet, zoomers do zero.

1:08And our third and final story. Harry Styles is performing at Madison Square Garden for 30 shows starting in May. Lovely. Unless the garden gets moved. Get this, Penn Station is coming back and MSG is getting the boot. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Oh, what a mix of stories to kick off the week. Love the mix, Jack. Welcome back from an outrageously cold weekend. I mean, Jack, I'm checking the numbers here. One half of the U.S. was hit with some kind of snow or ice or wintry frigging mix. The high on Saturday here in Vermont was negative four. The high! And I'm not talking about a wind chill.

1:43Jack had to wear three yak sweaters. I saw a picture of it. He's like a giant meatball. But Nick and I, we're a business show, and we found one surprise winner of the biggest snowstorm in, like, maybe ever. It's actually one of the oldest industries, is it not, Jack? Chimney sweepers. Chimney sweepers. The hottest new job is literally hot. According to the New York Times, the profession of chimney cleaning is surging over in London. Get this, the Chimney Sweep Association membership is up 27 % in the last five years. And the reason is high and volatile energy prices. Just last week, with that storm on its way, natural gas prices rose 75 % in the US.

2:18And when prices pop, you search for a cheaper substitute. Grab the marshmallows, honey. You pivot to the fireplace. If you got one, the wood stove. In Europe in particular, Russian gas is no longer a reliable heat source. So those Londonites are going all in again on logs. That's why 2026 is the biggest year for chimney sweepers since Charles Dickens. I mean, we're getting a Mary Poppins level pop over there, Jack. Chim chimney, chim chimney, chim chim true. Yeah, congratulations to Dick Van Dyke. Still living, by the way. Not too shabby. Still chimney sweeping, I think, too. I bet so. In this economy, a chimney and a profit buffet.

2:58Jack, let's hear that great story.

3:25Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

3:35Top 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, 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.

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4:39Yes. 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. 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.

5:09Well, 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.

5:31For our first story, it's final and official. TikTok's U.S. business is now American-owned, TikTok will not be banned. We'll tell you who the new owners of TikTok are and if they're actually in charge or not. Yetis, the president of the United States, the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and all nine Supreme Court justices agree on one thing. TikTok cannot be legal in the United States if it continues to be owned by China. Well, now, six years into this TikTok saga, TikTok U.S. is not owned by China anymore as of last week. That's the big news. TikTok announced that they have separated off their U.S.

6:10business and sold 80 % of it to non-Chinese investors. ByteDance, a Chinese tech company that owned TikTok, is keeping 20%, but they're giving the other 80 % to mostly American investors. They're giving the other 80 % to the consortium. The consortium. I feel like we need a music thing there, Jack. The consortium is made up of billionaire investors mostly connected to the Trump White House, and they got a sweet deal. We say they got a sweet deal because they got to buy 80 % of TikTok's American business at a$14 billion valuation. Jack, can you sprinkle on some context? $14 billion, that's the same valuation as Snap.

6:45It feels to me like TikTok is more valuable than Snap. It's basically one lift if we look at the numbers, Jack. So what happened here is this consortium, they basically got offered to buy Apple stock, but at a huge discount to Apple stock's actual price. TikTok was on the TJ Maxx sale rack lately. But Jack, pause the pod for a second. When you mention the consortium, I'm envisioning like a team of characters in Star Wars, the consortium. Like, what do we mean by the consortium that bought TikTok? Leading the pack is Oracle, which is owned by Larry Ellison. Besties, of course, you know Larry Ellison in the news for buying Paramount for his son and now trying to buy Warner Brothers Discovery as well.

7:23Well, now his tech company, Oracle, will house and audit TikTok's source code on its U.S.-located data servers. Okay, so we got Oracle owning 15 % of TikTok U.S., and Silverlake, a random private equity firm in California, they own another 15 % of American TikTok. Oh, you want random? How about MGX, a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund? They're going to get 15 % of TikTok U.S. as well. All right, so Jack, let me whip out the whiteboard and calculator here. Three times 15%, That's 45%. Jack, who owns the other 55 % of American TikTok? We didn't get exact percentages of the rest of the investors, but they include Michael Dell, billionaire founder of Dell Computers, and VC firms like Susquehanna, General Atlantic, and seven other VCs who previously had invested in China's ByteDance.

8:10Mr. Beast, the YouTube star, he tossed his hat publicly in the ring and said he'd love to own a piece of TikTok. He got left out. Ah, looks like he got left out. Now, ironically, the biggest owner of TikTok US today, who is it, Jack? Still ByteDance. It's ByteDance from China. Their 20 % is bigger than all the other investors, and they get to keep one seat on the board of the company. Besties, like we said at the top of the pod, in this case, M &A doesn't stand for mergers and acquisitions. It stands for messy and ambiguous, especially because of our takeaway. T-Boy VC got left out of the deal, too.

8:43So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at American TikTok? Remember that Burger King catchphrase, where's the beef? Well, for the TikTok sale, where's the algorithm? Yetis. This sale of TikTok US to prevent TikTok getting banned, it may follow the text of the law, but not the spirit of the law. Because the most important part of TikTok is not being sold at all. The algorithm. The algorithm. That remains in Beijing. Now, reminder why China owning TikTok was a problem in the first place, it's because of propaganda. China is the most sophisticated propagandist the world has ever seen.

9:18And they were in charge of Americans' media diet, the For You page, which we scroll for like four hours a day. But Jack, it appears China is still in charge of that media outlet's algorithm situation. TikTok's press release actually said Oracle will secure the algorithm. It also said that the US entity will have the power to moderate, i.e. take down content from TikTok it doesn't like. But the key here is still the algorithm, which determines what you see next and is the reason people like TikTok in the first place. It's still made in China. TikTok US will pay ByteDance to use their algorithm.

9:55That's the situation here. Like a McDonald's franchise paying McDonald's corporate to license the Big Mac. You know what, besties? Lindsey Graham, the senator, summed it up well. We've gone round and round and ended up not too far from where we started. Because if TikTok is a car, we Americans got the chassis, but China is keeping the engine. Where's the beef? Where's the algo? For our second story, there's a new business battle brewing between diet soda and zero sugar soda. Boomers love one, zillennials love the other, but they're pretty much the same thing. Diet Coke versus Coke Zero Sugar. This is the parent trap of branding.

10:33Oh, besties, whip out the calendars. We got 13 days till the Super Bowl in San Francisco, but we already know one commercial we're going to see on TV and one that we won't. Diet Pepsi will not have a Super Bowl commercial this year. Pepsi Zero will. And the reason? Well, Pepsi's CEO put it this way. We've gone all in on zero sugar. A majority of Pepsi's marketing budget this year is going to their Zero Sugar branded sodas. We're talking Pepsi Zero Sugar, Mountain Dew Zero Sugar, Crush Orange Soda, Zero Sugar. Across the soda aisle, the words Zero Sugar are everywhere right now. We're talking about our buddies over at Dr.

11:10Pepper. What's going on with Dr. P. Jack? Keurig Dr. Pepper owns a bunch of soda brands, and five years ago, they had zero with the word zero sugar on the can. Today, Dr. Pepper has 40 different soda brands with the word zero on that label. And the reason is in these numbers. Diet Coke sales are up just 1 % in the last year, but Coke Zero sales are up 5%. Diet Pepsi sales are down 4 % in the last year, but Pepsi Zero sales are up 18%. But yeah, just so we're clear here, both Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Zero, they're both calorie-free. They both use artificial sugar imitators, and they're nutritionally 100 % the same exact product.

11:50Plot twist here, it's basically the same thing. Yeah, there's a slight difference in taste, but like, okay, come on, come on, come on, come on. Coke Zero Sugar is a little tamer on the aspartame, but it's 99 % Diet Coke. I mean, when Jack and I are looking at the strategy here, it's like the plot of The Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan, right, Jack? Yeah, these two are the same. Same, same DNA, just different outfits. Do you want the Napa lifestyle or the London lifestyle? I can never decide, Jack. But here's what we find fascinating, Yetis. It turns out there is a huge generational divide in terms of which soda label you actually reach for.

12:20Boomers have embraced the word diet ever since Diet Coke was invented in 1982. But that word diet, it's kind of like a different era, right, Jack? It conjures images of Weight Watchers, calorie counting, Jane Fonda fitness videos, just like a life of, I don't know, scarcity and restraint. Yeah, if you were born in the 80s or 90s, like your mom definitely had an entire cabinet of snack wells, the diet snack wells. You know what we're talking about. But zero sugar, on the other hand, resonates with zillennials who are wellness-minded. Zillennials, you're not doing diets and you're not counting calories out there.

12:52Instead, after Pilates, you're checking your aura ring to see your blood sugar levels. As one marketing executive put it, besties, diet is a radioactive term for anyone under the age of 40. Diet is like Voldemort. You don't say it. And that's why over Thanksgiving, your parents' fridge was filled with soy sauce packets and two liters of Diet Coke. Meanwhile, your roommate has a jar of hot honey in their fridge and a 12-pack of zero-sugar Pepsi. Gets me every time it's a giveaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the soda wars, man? If a brand is a book, we very much judge it by its cover.

13:29Okay, so Yeti's diet and zero-sugar, they're almost identical products. and yet totally different performance and totally different customer basis. I think it's crazy how we consumers can be so turned off by the word diet, even though it's 95 % the same as the word zero, which we love. But the truth is, because of consumer psychology, psychonomics, we don't drink liquid, we drink the label. And that actually goes way beyond just soda. It's a reminder to all of us that for quick consumer decisions like what soda to grab, we make surface level decisions. Yeah, like you watch a YouTube video based on a tiny thumbnail picture, or you buy a lip gloss brand based on its weight when you hold it in your hand.

14:07The truth is we're uninformed on these things. So if a brand is a book, we have to judge it by its cover. It's the same in politics, right, Jack? Like the same issue presented with different words can provoke very different reactions from people. The diet versus zero soda divide, it's a reminder that if a brand is a book, we very much judge it by its cover. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

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16:14For our third and final story, New York's Penn Station, the most traffic transit hub in America, is on the brink of finally getting renovated. The new Penn Station glow-up looks incredible. It's a glamour, baby. But the stock market winner is actually Madison Square Garden. Oh, yeah, it is. You've seen it. You felt it. If you enter New York City through Grand Central Terminal, you feel like a royalty. If you enter New York City through Penn Station, you feel like a rat. Yeah, because when New York demolished the old Penn Station back in 1963, and my dad has still never forgiven him for it. It was a crime against humanity.

16:51Penn Station's replacement, which we still have today, makes 107 million transit passengers a year feel like they're in some kind of a subterranean hunger games. Hey, Amtrak, I volunteer myself as tribute. Nick, you're in survival mode down there. Oh, it's every commuter for themselves, Jack. For decades, city leaders have tried and failed to redo Penn Station, but continually fails. A big reason? Madison Square Garden, which was built on top of the new Penn Station in place of the old Penn Station. You see, Yetis, the world's most famous arena actually requires 1 ,000 columns to support that arena.

17:26That's why Penn Station, which is underneath it, feels so cramped. All those columns are holding up the garden right above it. But here's the news. The political planets appear to be finally financially aligning, largely because of President Trump. The New York City real estate tycoon wants to leave a legacy on the city, so he's prioritizing a Penn Station glam-up like no other president has before. And we dove in T-boy style. Last week, Amtrak named three finalists to redevelop Penn Station from top to bottom. This is the project of a generation. And the most exciting of the three plans is called Grand Pen.

18:00Grand plan, and honestly, the plans are Napoleonically grand. Napoleonically. I'm gonna go with that one, Jack. It's a rebirth of classical architecture inspired by the original Penn Station. It looks fantastic. It looks kind of like the Coliseum. Oh yeah, it's got an ancient Roman riz, Jack. That's what it's got. The plan also calls for a public park and a grand commuter train hall for the passengers all above the ground, not below the ground. But pause the pod, Jack. I'm no architect, but if there's going to be a grand public park and a grand train hall where, what's there right now, man? Madison Square Garden is there.

18:34So the only way this plan happens is if this famous basketball and hockey arena moves across the street to a giant vacant lot where the Hotel Pennsylvania used to stand until it was recently demolished. That's the key. Nothing can change about the current Penn Station as long as MSG is squadding on top of it. And with the famous basketball and hockey arena out of the way, that would open up America's biggest development opportunity. Which leads me, Jack, to the paycheck. What is the cost of this? Where is the bill? How are we doing this? It's up there. The cost is estimated at$7.5 billion for moving the arena and building the new station.

19:13Okay, but Jack, considering President Trump's administration just gave Argentina a$20 billion bailout,$7.5 billion feels like, you know, pocket change billions right here, man. Which leads to the interesting stock market angle here. And what is that? The winner, if this happens, is Madison Square Garden. Madison Square Garden, not on Madison Avenue, a circle, not a square, and no gardens on the premises. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at MSG? In real estate, it's all about the veto. Yetis, America's law and order holds property right, right up there with life and liberty as the most important thing.

19:50And Madison Square Garden Entertainment, the$7 billion publicly traded company, owns the arena that is blocking this mega project. And only, only if they agree to move across the street will the new Penn Station ever become a reality. That's why, regardless of which developer and which plan gets chosen by Amtrak and the Trump White House, it will only happen if MSG Entertainment gets a humongous check, like billions of dollars, and gets a brand new arena in the world's richest city and capital of live entertainment. MSGE, as it's called, is already one of the greatest entertainment stocks. I mean, totally, Jack.

20:25They own the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, and they're hosting Harry Styles for 30 shows this year, starting in May. But Madison Square Garden also owns the veto to renovate Penn Station. And that veto is very valuable.

20:41Jack, could you all whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? TikTok US is not owned by China anymore. It's owned by a consortium of mostly US investors. Burger King asks, where's the beef? We're asking, where's the algo? Because it's actually still in China. For our second story, Diet Coke is out, Coke Zero is in. 99 % same product, very different consumer reaction. Yeah, it's like the parent trap. If brands are books, we very much read them by the cover. And our third and final story is Penn Station. It could finally get renovated, bringing it back to its old glory for$7.5 billion. But only if MSG agrees to move across the street.

21:18That veto is very, very, very valuable. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First perfect finale to Dry January, Jack. Tom Holland, the Spider-Man actor, is now a British beer mogul. And so is his co-founder, a Yeti fan of the pod, John Herman. His non-alcoholic beer brand, Beer-O, just hit a$100 million valuation. Beer-O, they had$10 million in sales in their first year. Now they're doing$30 million for fancy fake beer. Speaking of fancy, they've partnered with Aston Martin in Barry's Boot Camp. Non-alcoholic beers, getting some sex appeal out there.

21:52Second, the United States Postal Service is hiring an agency to try to glam up their image. According to Ad Age, it is a wild and wide-ranging opportunity, not just doing USPS ads, right, Jack? Newman! The Postal Service wants to emphasize how it uses AI and show that it works with rivals like Amazon. They even want you to redesign the post office lobby. They're looking for a mail-in glam up. Because when you control the mail, you control information. And finally, the biggest winner from Davos is a small French sunglasses startup. That's right, because French President Emmanuel Macron had a sore eye, so he wore aviator-style glasses while giving speeches at the Davos events.

22:34Turns out they're made by Maison Henri-Julien, a small French brand that sells them for 700 euros. And all that attention on the French president drove 4 million bucks in sunglass shade sales. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one, because it's Monday, is T-Boy Trivia. Jack, you're the trivia master. What do we got? It's about Madison Square Garden. Self-proclaimed nickname, right? What do they call it? The most glorious arena on the planet or something? It's the world's most famous arena, and I think you just got banned by James Dolan because of that, Jack. True. So Madison Square Garden, not on Madison Avenue.

23:08It's not square, and it is not a garden. But the question trivia here is, how many Madison Square Gardens have there been? This isn't the first, or the second, or the third. Nope. It's actually the fourth Madison Square Garden. That's right. Madison Square Garden has moved three times. This is the fourth, and a new one would actually be the fifth MSG. Get this. Before it moved to the current location, it was actually on 49th Street. It was uptown. It came downtown. I don't know if 49th Street's uptown. Yetis, you are looking fantastic to kick off the week. Jack and I will be with you here every day to make you the most interesting person in the room.

23:44but we also want to meet you in a room, don't we, Jack? Yes, we do. And we're coming to New York City on April 8th and to Washington, D.C. on March 11th. March 11th. We've already sold out our live shows in Austin and Los Angeles. We would love to see you in D.C. and New York. Grab your tickets. We got a link in the episode description. And Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know.

24:10And before we go, a happy birthday to Tariq Abiola. turning eight years old in Milton, Ontario, the first son of Usman and Bimpe, brother Otto is pumped. Happy birthday to Ashita Swamy, turning nine years old up in Lakeville, Minnesota. And Samantha C., happy birthday down in Santa Clarita, California. Happy birthday to Trevor Baldwin in Birmingham. And Austin Jacobs got the big 32 down in San Jose. Happy birthday to Caroline Mountain over in Sierra Leone. And Christy and Tim enjoy the anniversary celebrating in the big OH Ohio. And a huge congratulations to Yana Embry from Kiev, Ukraine, who got promoted to director of customer success and is moving to San Francisco.

24:49Yana, you're going to have a blast. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-Ball. Celebrate the wins.

25:24We'll see you next time. dot com slash proven for a special offer.