🐥 “Unplugged on Sunday” — Chick-fil-A’s vending machine. College Football’s $50M firings. CreedTok’s viral hit. +Exclamation Inflation!!!!

0:28This is Nick. active Uzbeks. We love you for listening to the best one yet. To all the Uzbekistanian listeners right now, just trying to be the best on top of business news in the entire country. You are. Jack and I got your backs. So thank you for listening from across the pond. Jack. It's across three ponds. Yeah, actually it's a landlocked country. Jack, three fantastic stories for today's team boy. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, college football coaches are getting fired in record numbers this year, but they're getting paid eight digits to not coach anymore. So Jack and I will explain why it can be more lucrative to just get fired.

1:05For our second story, Chick-fil-A just launched the chain's first ever vending machine, and it's open 24-6. But it's not just Chick-fil-A. We've noticed that we're in the middle of a vending machine moment. And our third and final story, why are Creed, Star Wars, and the vampires from Twilight all going viral 10 years later? Well, it's because of the fan edit. And pretty soon, that will replace movie trailers altogether. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Wow, what a mix of stories for T-Boy Tuesday. Love the mix, Jack. Trigger warning. Yeah. Nick and I have found a new type of inflation.

1:41Okay, but this is one you're gonna love. Because it's exclamation inflation. I'm sorry, Jack, I think you mean it's exclamation inflation. exclamation. That's right, Yetis. The use of exclamation points, especially in work emails, is way up to an all-time high. Because, Bazzi, there are only two types of people in this world, and you know who they are. Those who never use exclamation points, and those who love to use exclamation points. Get this. A professor of business management at USC just analyzed exclamation points in work emails across America. And it turns out that data is so wild, it deserves honestly an exclamation point.

2:21Because women use exclamation points in the office three times as much as men do. And women are most likely to use an exclamation point because they're afraid to sound unfriendly. That's why you hear, can you do that thing you said you do? Thanks! Thanks! But then you tend to worry if using all those exclamation points looks unprofessional. Which leads to a vicious cycle that repeats and repeats and repletes. The more you use, the more you stress. But here's the news for everyone using exclamation points. Don't worry. It turns out employees who use exclamation points are not perceived by their colleagues as unprofessional or less competent.

2:57In fact, across the board, exclamation points make you appear warmer and more likable for everybody. Whether you're male or female, working at a bank or a startup, it's a yes for the exclamation point. Now, Jack and I are not telling you to include like a six pack of exclamation points and each and every email, are we, Jack? There's diminishing punctuation return. Yes, there are. But if you want to say thanks in advance to end your email, you be you. Because there's a point to the exclamation point. No, no, no, Jack. I think you mean there's a point to the exclamation point. I think you passed the line.

3:27Let's just do a hyphen right here. And then Jack, let's hit our three stories. Fifteen 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.

3:56Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

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5:13And then Jack, we got to make sure each coworker is countersigned, I think. Oh yeah. And then we have to track down each employee and make sure they know their health insurance options. Oh, right. Did everyone know open enrollment ends tomorrow? Nope. No one did. Yetis. We are just podcast hosts. We also run a media company here and full-time employees mean full-time benefits too. Which means roughly 46 ,000 forms, documents, and tasks to process for each team member. Oh boy, if you're a small business, you'll want to outsource all that to Gusto. Gusto is online payroll and benefit software built for small businesses.

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6:18One more time, gusto.com slash tboy. For our first story, Louisiana State University is paying their head football coach$53 million to leave. It's the third big coach this year to be offered$20 million or more just to leave the university. So Jack and I will explain this sudden surge in golden parachutes hitting the gridiron. Yet he's less than one month ago. LSU was ranked number four in the nation in college football. Update, now their head coach is Gonzo Dunzo Fired. Why? Because LSU has lost three of the last four games and committed the cardinal sin of SEC football. They lost to Vanderbilt.

7:04Oh, that one's going to hurt the Commodores out there. So here's the news. LSU has fired their head coach. But here's the wild news. What is that? They're reportedly going to pay that fired coach 90 % of his remaining salary per his contract. Sit down, stand up, and cash that paycheck again. We're talking$53 million to no longer do your job. Brian Kelly is out of a job. He can go home and watch LSU on TV and enjoy the highest salary in the state of Louisiana. But Jack, I'm sorry, pause the pot. It's not just the LSU mud tigers, is it, my friend? They're not the mud tigers, but I see where you're going there, Bobby.

7:42Boucher. Penn State is paying their fired football coach$49 million, and the University of Florida Gators is paying theirs$21 million. How about Bill Belichick? He's coaching at UNC right now because his girlfriend told him to, and they're barely winning any football games these days. But Nick, if the UNC Tar Heels want to fire him, they'll have to pay him$30 million to do that. So besties, add all these examples up, and the optics in the context of the education industry are laughable. Universities have been telling us for decades they have no choice but to jack up tuition by twice as much as inflation.

8:19But now they're paying CEO-like salaries to people who don't even work for the university anymore. Not just unsportsmanlike conduct, uneverything conduct. But yet here's what Jack and I find fascinating about this story. I'm sorry, how is this legal, Jack? The three universities we just mentioned, they're public universities. Like they're state-ish run universities. There must be rules, checks, and balances involved. I mean, universities know it looks bad if taxpayer-supported universities are paying the football coach 10 times more than the governor gets. That's why they found a loophole. These big D1 football programs, they set up new affiliated nonprofit corporations to manage their athletic department and pay their football coaches.

8:59Basically, Jack, you're saying the financial equivalent of an offensive guard to protect their quarterback business. More the financial equivalent of a stiff arm because they keep the whole salary of the coach at arm's length from the rest of the university. Now, we should point out, besties, that these college football entities do finance themselves. They get plenty of money from TV deals, game day tickets, and game day concessions. Okay, plus there are the big booster donations, right, Jack? Oh, yeah. Like, a Texas Tech billionaire superfan, he earmarks his annual donation to go just to the athletic department.

9:32So this is key. taxpayers are not paying these coaches to not coach football right now. Because when Bill Belichick eventually gets fired at USC, it won't be UNC sending him COBRA information for his unemployment. No, no, no. Who will it be, Jack? It'll be one of these loophole organizations, the stiff arm entity that's arm's length from the rest of the university. That's why these coaches are not getting golden parachutes. They're getting golden jockstraps. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are curious about what the heck is going on in the big business of college football? The more money is at stake, the less patience there is.

10:07Yetis, like so many elements of American society, college football looks completely different today than it did 20 years ago. For college football, there are three 380-pound forces that have tackled away the history and tradition you may have remembered. One is NIL, name, image, and likeness. You see, the top D1 universities now have 20 million bucks a year to pay high school kids to come and play in their program. Second is the transfer portal. It's not just high school kids the universities pay to come play. Universities recruit kids from other colleges, and it's a constant free agency situation.

10:40And number three, college football playoffs. They've grown from four to 12 teams and probably are going to keep growing bigger thanks to money. The result? Very little patience from athletic programs that don't make the playoffs and very high willingness to pay coaches who will bring them back to glory. Now, the upside here is parity. It's easier for smaller university teams to now compete with the bigger ones. Like Vanderbilt, which is ranked number nine in the country right now. But the downside, it's that coaches get hired and fired and players are one and done at a school as quickly as a TikTok video.

11:10Because the more money at stake, the lower the patience there is. For our second story, Chick-fil-A. They just launched their first vending machine and yeah, it is unplugged on Sundays. But it's not just Chick-fil-A. Amazon, the car industry, champagne companies, they're all launching vending machines across America. Now, Yetis, a little insight Jack and I have noticed while covering this industry. There are no fast food wars, because Chick-fil-A, yeah, they already won them. The average Chick-fil-A location makes$9 million in sales per year. Jack, could you sprinkle on some context for us like it's salt, baby?

11:49That's twice as much as Shake Shack and McDonald's and nearly five times as much revenue per location as Taco Bell. Apparently, the chickens would prefer to be eaten at a Chick-fil-A, actually. This next bit of news is going to bring the average sales per location way down, but for good reason. And here's the news. Chick-fil-A just launched their first ever vending machine just last week. Press G7, chicken wrap comes right down for you. Boom! It's happening at a hospital down in Georgia. We're talking temperature-controlled, restocked daily, the first vending machine from Chick-fil-A. There are a lot of caveats, though.

12:22For example, you can't customize your order. Yeah, you can't say hold the pickles. You can't order waffle fries either. Only waffle chips. And worst of all, they don't have fried chicken in these vending machines. Nope. They're only serving two cold wraps like a dingy airport kiosk. Don't even ask about the Polynesian sauce. Besties, the lack of hot food is probably why Chick-fil-A didn't really do any press about this. Jack and I had to discover this story. But like the real Chick-fil-A, their vending machine is only open six days a week. Because the Lord doesn't maketh nuggets on the Sabbath.

12:54But this is part of a bigger trend, Yetis. The vending machine has expanded beyond snacks, sweets, and sodas to everything. This is what we found fascinating about this story. We are living in a vending machine moment. Last month, Amazon's One Medical launched a vending machine for prescription drugs. That's right. You tell your doctor to send your drugs to the vending machine, and then boom, you press B3, and there's your dose of thytastrosol drops. At San Francisco's airport, AG1, the supplement company, you have a vending machine opportunity. Yeah, it went viral because techies were lengthening their life on that flight from SFO to JFK.

13:31And then last year, Moet and Chandon opened the first ever champagne vending machine with an ID scanner to make sure you're 21. Not possible. Oh, apparently very possible to get champagne in a vending machine. Kylie Cosmetics has a vending machine at the Las Vegas airport. Oh, and then craziest of all, Jack, can you tell us about the car vending machines? Carvana has 38 car vending machines. Tap T17 for your Toyota. Now, we should point out Carvana's had these car vending machines for years, but their founder just did an interview and said this. The Carvana vending machine gimmick actually saved the company.

14:06Oh, and Jack, of course, they're also now the reverse vending machines. You put in a plastic bottle, it gives you money. And don't forget about the vending machine side hustlers out there who we covered in a story on this pod last year. They're making money owning and stocking their very own vending machine. Oh, and then there's Poppy's viral vending machine we almost forgot about. Remember, we did that story this year too. Like we said, we're living in a vending machine moment. It's gone from the snack industry to the everything industry. So I'm just gonna press H4 to get our takeaway here, Jack.

14:38And Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in vending machines? America's economy used to be a service counter. Now it's a vending machine. Yeah, honestly, Eddie's, our economy is just starting to look like a vending machine. First, for the convenience. I mean, e-commerce got us used to having everything on demand and vending machines fill the gaps in real life. Second, contactless culture. People often prefer the fast frictionless payment option instead of the face-to-face with the cashier. And third, robotics. Humans are the most expensive part of running a business and automation has always been vending machines' big advantage.

15:13And now, Basties, we assume Chick-fil-A is testing a cold vending machine so they can eventually unveil hot. Although I don't think robots can deep fry chicken thigh quite yet. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Still, every American business used to have a service counter. Now, we have a kiosk economy. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. Walmart business. Yetis, we cover business trends on our show, and they move faster than you can spelled GPU. One minute it's vibe coding, the next it's agentic. Tomorrow it's probably going to be in-person old school again. Yeah, well, while you're managing this to stay ahead, the last thing you need to worry about is supplies for your company.

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17:32Check Decagon out at decagon.ai slash tboy. That's decagon.ai slash tboy. For our third and final story, movie studios are hiring amateur TikTok creators to market their films better than the movie trailers do. Because to win in today's internet culture, you need to let go of your marketing. But Jack, if we're going to tell the story, I mean, honestly, I should full disclosure this thing. I just never watch boxing. I feel like you watch boxing and I just don't watch boxing. Okay. One of my most fond movie watching memories is watching Rocky IV on the team bus on the way to our furthest away away game in high school.

18:16When Rocky caused Drago to start bleeding, I like jumped out of my seat. Okay. First of all, you should have had a seatbelt on. Second of all, I'm a lover, not a fighter. You can't blame me, Jack. But the movie Creed, that is another arguably the best of the boxing movies. Well, Creed gave Hollywood executives two shots of what they love most. It was a trilogy and it was a sequel at the same time. Because besties, what Rocky Balboa the fighter was to boomers in Gen X, Adonis Creed the fighter was for millennials and Gen Z. Now, the first Creed movie was published in 2015. But this summer, Creed went viral again because of a TikTok video.

18:55Get this, 10 years later, this one TikTok video got 202 million views and 2 million likes. The video on TikTok crafts moments from all three of the Creed movies into a one-minute editing masterpiece with Kendrick Lamar playing in the background. And in the comments, Creed fans were going nuts. And according to the data, then they went to their TVs to watch Creed. Yeah, because watching this TikTok-shortened mashup of the movie, it didn't actually hurt viewership of the movie. No, it enhanced viewership of the movie. According to the data, Creed Films' viewership on Amazon Prime jumped 29 % in the week following this fan edit publish.

19:36Boom, pause the pod. That was the light bulb moment for the movie studios, not just Amazon. Actually, Nick, that was the dollar sign moment. Oh, I was ready for you, Jack. Because Lionsgate, the studio behind John Wick, The Hunger Games, and The Twilight Saga, just hired 15 TikTokers, plucked them right off the web. Jack, why did an epic movie studio just hire a bunch of amateur TikTok artists? To focus on creating fan edits just like that Creed one. Yeah, that's it. Because these fan edits drive interest for movies way better than the studio's polished movie trailers can. So now the studios are saying, hey, take all 12 hours and 37 minutes of the Twilight movies and transform these vampires into an awesome TikTok video for us.

20:20I don't care if Edward Cullard bites your neck with his fangs, just do it and do what would make you love the video. How about this other example? Star Wars, owned by Disney, famous for having an incredibly active legal team on the hunt for IP violations. Well, when they saw a similar fan edit video of Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader? Yeah. They reacted on the official Star Wars TikTok account with this comment. Okay, fine. I'll rewatch. That's right. Shockingly, Star Wars was into it. They didn't send a cease and desist. They said, keep doing what you're doing. We love these videos.

20:56Disney doubled down on it. Now, initially the Creed edit that we first mentioned, it got muted when it was initially published, presumably because of an IP violation. But days later, TikTok unmuted that video. And why do we think they did that, Jack? The studio probably called TikTok and said, it's okay. Let that post stay up. It's been amazing for our business. People are watching Creed again. Let him cook. By the way, we put a link to the Creed video in the show notes. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in Hollywood? Edits are better than trailers because they're made by fans, not focus groups.

21:31Now, yeah, it is. That Lionsgate movie exec who hired 15 TikTokers, he described their work as love letters from the fans. Because even though that Creed video got 202 million views, the creator didn't make a buck from it. Right, and Jack, that's the key. The video was so good because it was a labor of love, not for a paycheck, different incentives. Studios hiring TikTok editors, they have to let go of their corporate creative and review process for it to succeed. They just got to let fans do their thing. And And that means getting out of their comfort zone, taking a risk. The creator will do something outside the box.

22:06Controversial. Maybe even against the guidelines or their legal team. I don't know about the legal team. I think they might step in for that. Okay. But here's the deal. Focus groups, yeah, that helps polish trailers for TV. The goal there, it's general awareness. But to go viral on TikTok, where people are actually spending their time to drive real love, let the fans do their work. Let them cook. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? LSU fired their head coach, but they're reportedly paying him$53 million now. It's golden parachutes on the gridiron. It's golden jockstraps because with more money at stake, there's less patience, but more willingness to pay.

22:46For our second story, Chick-fil-A opened a vending machine in a Georgia hospital, the only cold wrap so far. And Yetis, we're in a vending machine moment because we're becoming a kiosk economy. And our third and final story, movie studios are hiring editors off of TikTok to make fan edits, which drive huge interest in movies, even old movies. Invite the fans into the process, because edits are better than trailers. They're made by fans, not focus groups. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, we have got a protein-packed Wall Street week, baby. First, huge week of earnings.

23:23Microsoft and Google announce their earnings tomorrow, and Amazon and Apple announce on Thursday. And then we've got the Fed meeting on Wednesday, where the Federal Reserve is likely to cut interest rates by a quarter point. And then on Thursday, President Trump is meeting China's President Xi, and he's been signaling that a big trade deal will be announced. And second, Amazon is reportedly about to announce their largest layoff in company history. According to Reuters, 30 ,000 corporate workers will be laid off starting today. Some numerical context, that would be almost 10 % of Amazon's entire corporate workforce.

23:56We got a lot of buddies working there, so we're thinking of everyone who may be affected. Now, this doesn't include Amazon's warehouse workers, which is another million workers, but given Amazon's huge investments in robotics and AI, they're not out of the woods either. And finally, Lululemon has officially gone full spectrum. Lulu just partnered with the NFL for Team Apparel. Now, we should point out, Lulu's stock is down 65 % from their December 2023 highs, but they're hoping that the New York Giants and some football spandex can save them. Okay, but there is a reason why we said full spectrum, right, Jack?

24:29Lulu started as a yoga brand, and now they're doing football, the opposite of yoga. I'm doing acrobats in my head to make this work, Jack. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one is an answer to yesterday's T-Boy trivia. Jack, what do we got? What is the height of the tallest player in NBA history? Bonus points if you can name the player as well. It's actually a tie. The height is seven feet, seven inches. The players are Manute Bull and George Murasan. If you see a photo of George right now next to Shaq, he makes Shaq look like Muggsy Bogues right there. Nick, I just confirmed it. Manute Bull, the late great, could in fact touch the rim without jumping.

25:09No big deal. Yetis, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. And if you plan to use an exclamation point today in your work emails, then you may as well drop down and give us five stars with a double exclamation point. Well, yeah, use the exclamation point in your review of the show. Yeah, exactly. That actually really does help us grow the pod. And we love reading reviews, especially the ones with exclamation points. Go exclaim yourself and Nick and I. We'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know.

25:41And before we go, a congratulations to Yeti's Courtney Sheehan and James Manning, who just got engaged over in New York City. Courtney and James, we can't wait to see the ring picks. Congratulations, guys. Huge news. And happy birthday to Crystal Mendoza over in Germany, who is eating black forest cake right as we speak. And Luang Lack in Honolulu, Hawaii is celebrating their first birthday with their newborn son, Jaden. Congratulations on the family celebration. And happy birthday to the Volsangani in San Jose, California. He's always got a phone charger at the ready. That's a buddy I want in my circle.

26:15Love that dongle drawer. And Anna Virial over in Napa, California is the best to you yet and celebrating the best birthday yet. And with the Category 5 hurricane expected to make landfall on Jamaica today, we're sending our thoughts to our Caribbean besties right now. And Tamika Lavender and Lavender Logistics Incorporated down in Peoria, Illinois, boy, congrats on the three-year anniversary of doing logistics. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins.

26:45This is Jack, Nick on stock of Lululemon and Shake Shack, and Nick and I both on stock of Apple. Beer-o premium non-alcoholic beer. All right, yeah, he'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.

27:18Delicious 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.

27:52So, Bastis, if there's a win you're celebrating every day, Bureau is the non-alcoholic brew brand you got to bring. So, use code T-Boy for 20 % off your first order at BureauBrewing.com.