Business News Roundup: Tiktok $32b Revenue - Tariffs - Doge Goal

Speaker 1 This is right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network Production.

Speaker 1 We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month,

Speaker 1 taking the BS out of business for over six years in over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.

Speaker 2 Happy March 14th. What's up, everyone, everyone? I had to start it a little different today, Chris.
You know, we started the show the same way every time. I feel like I'm I hear myself.

Speaker 2 So happy March 14th, Friday day here on our business news of the week. What's up, Chris?

Speaker 3 What's up, bro? How you doing?

Speaker 2 I'm good, man. Just going through these headlines.
TikTok doing billions. We got Southwest blowback.
We've got Trump and Elon. Stirring it up with tariffs and who knows what else.

Speaker 2 And hey, inflation is not as bad as we thought. So now we just need this damn stock market to get going and we'll get rolling.
Those are some of the headlines we'll be talking about today.

Speaker 2 Uh, how says you, Christopher?

Speaker 3 Hey, I'm just got a little laugh about your new intro. I didn't think about it, but you're right.
I'm like, every time we post one of those reels, I'm like, every week, Friday morning.

Speaker 2 There's

Speaker 2 lots of 5 a.m. Ryan.

Speaker 3 Ryan has tagged you in a reel. You know, first thing I wake up, open it.

Speaker 2 Yep. Happy Friday.
Good morning.

Speaker 3 No, everything's good, man.

Speaker 3 I can't believe we're halfway through March already.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 3 I'll tell you what, I'm grateful daylight savings is over.

Speaker 2 Yes. Oh, me too.
It's just kind of depressing when it's dark at 5 o'clock. So hopefully

Speaker 2 everyone like...

Speaker 2 is caught up with that. I don't really have a hard problem with that one hour difference per se.

Speaker 2 I do feel like the Sunday feels a little shorter but it's worth the hour change and hey it's just funny to me and i think people i can relate i know that is for business and things but your mindset changes on almost like my productivity yeah because i'll say this

Speaker 2 and look i don't i control most of my time i'm an entrepreneur and i can come and go as i please but like i feel the pressure sometimes of like okay i know the wife and the kids are home it's getting dark outside

Speaker 2 It's time to go, even if it's not necessarily I'm missing anything yet, versus when it's still bright and sunny, you know, 5:30, 6 o'clock. I'm not stressing it.
I'm getting more shit done.

Speaker 2 I know I can go home and get a couple of things done around the house, you know.

Speaker 2 And so it's just funny how, and I even noticed it in Greenville, where we are, Greenville, South Carolina, people out more

Speaker 2 around the office around that time. I'm like,

Speaker 2 the daylights just keeps people. It's going really for action, man.
Yeah, it does. You could see it.
You could feel it.

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 3 it was a lot more active yesterday in the evening

Speaker 3 than it typically was. I feel more productive myself, too.
When it's dark at five, you just want to stay home. You don't want to get up and go to the gym and do anything else.

Speaker 2 Yep. So

Speaker 2 we appreciate everyone for listening. You need to watch it on YouTube.
You can see my, Chris and I were debating pre-show, my pinkish, purplish.

Speaker 2 I'm getting ready for Easter, trying to add more color here i'm usually white black in a standard but i've got my uh what did you call it moth or uh lavender lavender my lavender shirt you can only see this lavender if you're watching us on youtube or on spotify so we do have the video uh joel our producer has set up the camera nice i've got a new contraption here for the belt it's uh shiny and glowing you know got a new lens a little bit here chris i got a camera closer to me so you're looking good brother hey that belt's looking big.

Speaker 2 Hey, hey, look, number one in marketing, number four in all of business today, and number 48 in all podcasts in the U.S. There's over 2 million podcasts in the U.S., and we're number 48.

Speaker 2 Hey, we can't do it without you listening. So keep listening, reviewing.

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Speaker 2 tell your friends. Tell a friend.
Tell a friend. You got to keep up with the news and all of our great guests that we have on.
We've had some killer guests lately.

Speaker 2 Hey, if you're a fan of business and what it takes to start

Speaker 2 your own company and the ins and outs, this episode we had this week with No Bake, hey, it was about cookie dough, baby. Cookie dough.
You kidding me?

Speaker 2 I was like, I get to talk about cookie dough and business and all this stuff. I got sent some cookie dough, Chris.

Speaker 2 That stuff's tasty. So we appreciate Jimmy from No Bake.
He

Speaker 2 broke broke it down, literally talked about living in a van down by the river, essentially, to make it through to get to the other side. Him and his wife run the company.

Speaker 2 So if you want to know what it takes to run business today and taking your own, you know, control of your own life, making your own bets and all that, Jimmy Sexton, great episode

Speaker 2 this week, launched on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 But we've got the business news of this week. And

Speaker 2 it's hard to like, Chris,

Speaker 2 these numbers are so staggering. We talk millions and billions all the time.
It's a lot of damn money. But TikTok ad revenue could top 32

Speaker 2 billion if

Speaker 2 it doesn't lose its biggest market.

Speaker 2 It's a big

Speaker 2 if, right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
If. Yeah.

Speaker 3 It could top 32 be.

Speaker 2 You're saying there's a chance. This is like dumb and dumber.
It's like,

Speaker 2 what are the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me getting together?

Speaker 2 About one in a minute.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So you're saying there's a chance.

Speaker 2 Optimistic

Speaker 2 would be the title of this article. They say, what do they say? Hope's not a strategy.
So I hope they can get it figured out.

Speaker 2 I don't think Trump's going to mess around. I think he's going to tell them, you know, sell.

Speaker 2 or

Speaker 2 make a deal with somebody.

Speaker 2 I think there's going to be some fireworks as this comes down to the deadline. That, or we're gonna have a lot of teeny boppers patrolling Washington with signs and petitioning the government.

Speaker 3 Crying on the internet.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 I mean, it's interesting because, like it's saying here, obviously, Meta stands to benefit the most if they're banned. And I'm interested to see because, I mean, Meta's got a lot of power, right?

Speaker 3 They have a lot of political power.

Speaker 3 So I'm interested to see.

Speaker 3 I don't know why they wouldn't just maybe, you know, acquire TikTok. Like at Instagram, you know,

Speaker 2 you would think that Mark has floated that out there. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean, he's got the capital probably to one of the few people or few companies on the planet. I mean, what if, what about Apple, man?

Speaker 2 Yeah. I mean, Apple, you know, floundered with the iPhone.
Apple buying TikTok?

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 you talk about like they're always there. Google's their biggest competition, like in a lot of ways.

Speaker 3 Talking about being able to jump right to the head of the, I mean, I don't know why you wouldn't because then that puts them in competition with Prime, right? Now you've got Apple TV.

Speaker 3 They've got the media side already, but they don't have

Speaker 2 the streaming, like

Speaker 2 user-generated content funnel. Right.
Right. They don't have that.
They, you know, Apple TV is great. The content's great.
Play billions of dollars for really good actors to make really good content.

Speaker 2 It's sick, you know.

Speaker 2 It wouldn't be the craziest thing. No.
So I don't think it doesn't seem very Tim cook-like, but not at all. Everything seems safe with him, including his outfits.

Speaker 2 It's, I don't know, there's little innovation.

Speaker 3 Apple in the 90s when they had the really cool, like, Mac-colored computers. You remember that?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Desktops.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Jobs was

Speaker 3 a little creative with it.

Speaker 2 Let's make Apple great again. I mean, you know,

Speaker 2 look, I love their products. I have their phone and they're like, it's steady.
And they're definitely in a mature phase of the brand.

Speaker 2 But man, it just surprises and delight me a little bit. You know, like, I need surprise and delight, Chris.

Speaker 2 Like, I'm, I'm, I'm, with my electronics and the, the few things that I take joy in, like, let's, I need surprise and delight.

Speaker 3 It's been a long time since Apple's wooed me with a new phone.

Speaker 2 Tell you. No.
You got the debacle that was the headgear, uh, that was uh

Speaker 2 the

Speaker 3 metaverse compared to the old days, man, when you went from flip to color to camera.

Speaker 2 It was like every time you're like innovation, yeah, straight up.

Speaker 3 Like, now you could have music on it and take pictures.

Speaker 2 It was real

Speaker 3 every year or two, you were actually getting a new

Speaker 2 tool. It's so bad now that the innovation is turning it off,

Speaker 2 like people go, people detoxing. Yeah, we're literally like, yo, like, get me away from this thing.
Give me away over my phone for five hours.

Speaker 3 People are paying 10 grand to go to Costa Rica for a week to not use their cell phone.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 So, anyway, keep your eyes out. This TikTok thing is going to be interesting the next 60 days, I think.
Fireworks are coming because it's funny.

Speaker 2 This is how the news works because you boy, they bought like 60, 90 days, something like that. And it goes immediately to the back burner of the news, right? Because

Speaker 2 we'll bring that up.

Speaker 2 That clock's counting though

Speaker 2 uh

Speaker 2 this is from our good friends at marketing dive chris found this one i mean how cult brands like croc southwest see influencer marketing evolving it's so funny and interesting on some levels to me chris number one we know media is changing and we know how reaching people and having influence uh you know tv just running a tv ad you know to audiences that aren't watching it that are either fast forwarding or just not watching it altogether doesn't work but it's also interesting that you know like d to see brands brands have been crushing influencer marketing for like five, six, seven years.

Speaker 2 Now the big brands are like, oh, yeah, we got to reach people with this influencer game. Like, no shit.
Like, this is how you have influence. It's how you get scale.

Speaker 2 You got to activate like real people doing user-generated content. Or, hey, go figure.

Speaker 2 Shameless plug. Get on podcasts.
That's another form of user-generated content by non-celebrities. I mean, Chris and I are celebrities now in our own minds, but

Speaker 2 we weren't. And you that, but in all seriousness, this is new media.
It's not, I mean, you call it influencer marketing, fine, but I just, it's just new media.

Speaker 3 It's just new media, exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And this is how, this is the content that people consume. This is what influences them.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 there's that, the level of authenticity that comes with influencers, the right ones.

Speaker 2 And this is how you reach people.

Speaker 3 Yeah. We got a bunch of new names for the same shit, right?

Speaker 2 Like, yeah.

Speaker 2 Influencers. It's still media.
It's still content.

Speaker 2 It was content 30 years ago when we were watching Leave It to Beaver or whatever that was, the Andy Griffith show, you had ads running on the TV or you had radio spots.

Speaker 2 And some of this media is not gone forever, but

Speaker 2 I'd even argue, you know, radio is being replaced in a lot of ways by streaming and podcasting.

Speaker 2 Because people are listening to podcasts in the car, then they're watching it on their TV that they've, you know, put up on the screen from, you know, casting from YouTube or whatever.

Speaker 2 This is just how media is evolving. And this is how you got to reach the audience.
And these are like individual influencers are like different TV stations. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Right?

Speaker 3 Got a bunch of different actors you don't have to pay, you know.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you do.

Speaker 2 Some of those rates have been up there pretty high, but it's not as high as Tom Cruise or, you know, Rosie O'Donnell. No.

Speaker 2 She might be affordable now.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 she's doing music videos.

Speaker 2 Did you see that Tom McDonald music video that Rosie O'Donnell did?

Speaker 3 Yeah, that's wild.

Speaker 2 It's wild. I called him up.

Speaker 2 I don't know. She had dreads.
Oh, that guy's a master marketer himself. Yeah, he is.

Speaker 2 And no matter what his messages are, which some of of them I probably agree with, and then some of them, like, all right, we're a little far out there, buddy. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But anyway, executives at South by Southwest. South by Southwest is going on today.

Speaker 2 Another conference that I haven't attended in 10 years. And I feel like, you know, some part of me like wants to be there.
And then part of me is like,

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 2 There's a lot of influential people there that I like rubbing shoulders with and having dinner with and having that personal connection. So that I appreciate.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 in the list of things to do, Chris, and the businesses to run, it's like it's hard to find time for that.

Speaker 2 You know. Yeah, you're going to prioritize.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 hope everyone's having fun in Austin, getting drunk.

Speaker 2 What time is it? Yeah, it's like we're recording this middle of the day. You're a little hungover at your next, at your third session right now.
You're wanting an afternoon beer.

Speaker 2 It's too early, but you might get one at lunch, Cocktail at lunch at the

Speaker 2 iHeartRadio tent.

Speaker 2 Oh, those are the days. Those are the days.

Speaker 2 So, hey, you need to get into new media, influencers, people, and podcasting. If you, hey, if you want to learn more about podcasting, go to theradcastnetwork.com.

Speaker 2 Chris, we're up to 30 shows, dude. 30 shows and counting.
We've added 22

Speaker 2 shows this year. And

Speaker 2 it's in March.

Speaker 2 So if you want to learn more about joining the Radcast Network, growing your show, go to RadcastNetwork.com. Helping people do what you should do.

Speaker 2 Generate great content. Make money doing it.
And grow.

Speaker 2 Elon Musk believes Doge will reach the goal of a trillion dollars in savings.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we've talked about this week after week. And I feel like you know, he's been the punching bag of late.
I mean, no one likes their jobs being taken, and the perception that you know, getting into

Speaker 2 I don't know, security issues and all that shit. I think that's sort of the uh excuse for how we can hate.
On it, look, why's everybody got to have something to protest? Is it just our nature?

Speaker 2 It's just what we are. Like, we like gotta hate this side, gotta hate that side, gotta hate this.

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 2 I admit that sometimes it's easy to sort of

Speaker 2 certain actions are just are lightning rods, but this sometimes just feels like

Speaker 2 I got to protest something, right?

Speaker 3 Well, it feels like just

Speaker 3 it feels like this is a result of what the media does. They stoke a fire that's not even there.

Speaker 3 And if you're not someone that's aware enough to know you're getting played watching the media, right?

Speaker 3 You're just, it's a bunch of people reacting, I think, right? Like,

Speaker 3 but I do think you have a lot of very upset people that just

Speaker 3 want to use their First Amendment rights, and that's completely fine.

Speaker 2 But because I mean, didn't you say the people down there in Miami, like literally, like with different signs? It's like,

Speaker 2 what rally are we at?

Speaker 3 Yeah, so there was this protest, it was going viral, and everyone's saying, Have you seen the protests? And no one has seen them.

Speaker 3 I haven't seen any, but there was like groups of people, but everyone's holding a different sign. It's like, one's like, we didn't vote for Elon.
Then the next one's like a BLM sign.

Speaker 3 the next one's an LGBTQ sign.

Speaker 3 So it just seems like everyone's protesting, but they're all protesting different things,

Speaker 3 which is, I don't know, fine, I guess. You know, do your thing, bro.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 these were the quotes from Elon. And I'd like to know, like,

Speaker 2 what issue do you take?

Speaker 2 What do you take issue with these quotes and what's attempting to be done? I'm just here trying to make the government more efficient, eliminate waste and fraud.

Speaker 2 And so far, we're making good progress, actually.

Speaker 2 There have been many good audits done by inspector generals and by the government accountability office. They just haven't been implemented.
Nothing's been done.

Speaker 2 I think the GAO identified that there were 17 million dead people in the Social Security database several years ago. It's now 20 million, but we didn't do anything about it.

Speaker 2 Which

Speaker 3 doesn't sound crazy to me.

Speaker 2 No,

Speaker 2 I think that's probably 100% accurate.

Speaker 3 But I think I almost wonder if we're biased because we've been in business and you understand there's things you need to change that don't always change, right?

Speaker 3 So,

Speaker 3 but I that's why I'm trying to wonder: why is everyone so upset about this, right?

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 3 shouldn't we be applauding eliminating waste and fraud? I don't know that's what I don't understand. What the protests are.

Speaker 2 This is in the tactic book of complainers. If I can't complain or bitch

Speaker 2 about

Speaker 2 the actual like what we just read what the goal of the of the way of what you're trying to get done if i can't complain about that i complain about how you're going about getting that done right because no one would i think reasonably argue

Speaker 2 you know like no one would argue with the goal of gaining efficiency with the federal government if you are you're just dumb i think nine out of 10 people would agree with that but if i want to be contrarian and I don't like the person that's enacting it, then I bitch about the way they're doing it.

Speaker 2 This is in the playbook of politics.

Speaker 3 You're right. The way they're doing it, which was, well, we don't like these young hackers in there doing it.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Did you see how old he is? He couldn't be a day over 22. And he has my

Speaker 3 security card. It's like, that's the same guy that's serving you drinks, you know, when you go out to dinner.
All right, dude.

Speaker 2 It's wild, man.

Speaker 2 Political

Speaker 2 playbook is:

Speaker 2 if I can't gain traction disagreeing with your goal, I then gain traction by bitching about the way you get it done and making hay out of that.

Speaker 2 Southwest Airlines will charge to check bags for the first time.

Speaker 2 You notice this, this is probably the biggest, like in scouring the news, this hit my sort of feed X Instagram was people bitching about this checking bag fee for the first time.

Speaker 2 Launch basic economy tickets. For the first time in 50 plus years, Southwest Airlines will charge for checked bags.

Speaker 2 Starting May 28th, the airline had previously used free check bag as a major selling point. Elite frequent flyers and certain credit card holders will still get one or two free bags.

Speaker 2 The reason is there's pressure from the investors.

Speaker 2 They want to sell more seats,

Speaker 2 make more money, generate more revenue, higher operational costs, and the need to increase revenue.

Speaker 2 I mean, you know, damn it, it's a business. They're trying to make more money.

Speaker 3 I'm curious to see what the fee is. I mean, I noticed even when I was at the airport a few weeks ago, it was with American.
It's definitely more expensive to check a bag than it used to be.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Like it was like between $50 and $80.

Speaker 3 So as a business owner, right, if I'm running the airline, that's an easy way to add on some extra revenue.

Speaker 3 And I know it's getting more expensive, but

Speaker 3 I don't know. I feel like Southwest, I don't think this is a good move for them because I think they had such a loyal cult following.

Speaker 2 It feels like giving up potentially.

Speaker 2 I get the money. It's like 800 million in earnings this year, 1.7 billion by 26.
That's a lot of money. But at what cost?

Speaker 2 You're perceived perceived as the low-cost carrier.

Speaker 3 For 50 years.

Speaker 2 And you've had it for 50 years.

Speaker 2 You better have the research to show that this isn't going to hurt. That's all I'll say.

Speaker 2 You know. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You can make up 1.7 billion in fees, but

Speaker 2 are you reducing the top, the other number, which is sales?

Speaker 3 That's what I wonder. Because I feel like.

Speaker 3 I feel like Southwest has a strong brand following. Like the people that I know fly Southwest or loyal to Southwest.
So I'm interested to see if this is going to affect that.

Speaker 3 Because they still have other perks. Like I know you can fly with your significant other after a certain amount of miles or it's reduced tickets and that's usually a good deal.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 3 we will see.

Speaker 2 This was

Speaker 2 after

Speaker 2 fare and schedule. Bags fly free is cited as the number one issue in terms of why customers choose Southwest.
That was July of 2024.

Speaker 3 That's pretty strong data, right?

Speaker 2 That's everything. Yeah, I mean, come on, dude.
It says, what's changed is that we've come to realize that we need more revenue to cover our costs. Oh,

Speaker 2 that seems like a very

Speaker 3 dull statement. Well, it seems the other airlines are probably happy about it, you know, and maybe

Speaker 3 it is good for us as a consumer. Maybe it'll drive more competition for us.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. Tesla rebounds after Trump defends Musk and brings EVs to the White House.

Speaker 2 Tesla's shares dropped 15% on Monday due to weak sales and uncertainty. By Tuesday afternoon, the stocks had rebounded 5%

Speaker 2 after Donald Trump publicly defended Musk. Lots of defending.
On Truth Social,

Speaker 2 Trump called Musk, calling him a truly great American and accused a radical left of illegally boycotting Tesla.

Speaker 2 He announced he would buy a Tesla as a show of support.

Speaker 2 One?

Speaker 2 How many?

Speaker 2 Yeah. I gotta buy more than one.
He could have should have made a cool billion on that

Speaker 2 on the freaking

Speaker 2 sale of

Speaker 2 what all the coins? The Trump coins?

Speaker 3 Yeah, the meme coins.

Speaker 2 Billion-dollar Trump currency for crypto.

Speaker 2 Yep. So anyway,

Speaker 2 it's the back and forth between Trump and

Speaker 2 Musk every week and the haters not liking things.

Speaker 2 Speaking of crypto, Chris, what's happening to the crypto's market?

Speaker 3 It's down.

Speaker 3 Last week, Trump did sign an executive order for a crypto strategic reserve.

Speaker 3 So that's...

Speaker 2 I didn't see XRP was on that.

Speaker 3 XRP, Solana, I believe Ethereum. And you would think that would

Speaker 3 drive the market up, but

Speaker 3 it did not. Everything's kind of lowing along with the stock market.
So,

Speaker 3 you know,

Speaker 3 it is what it is. Patience.

Speaker 2 Any time to buy, yeah, I've got to say, I had an I'd be buying that XRP. I, it's at like two bucks, and I feel like I don't know what the how big the headroom is.

Speaker 2 I just feel like it's ten dollars in a year or two.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, that's like Bitcoin's at like, I think, 81.

Speaker 3 It was at 120, right? It'll probably go to 250. So it's like

Speaker 3 a really great time to buy, but you know, that's not usually what people do. They follow the fear.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 3 along with the market, it's a little slow, but I think there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that we're probably trying to figure out.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 the whole economy. Yeah.
Franklin Templeton joins the XRP ETF rush, files preliminary application with the SEC.

Speaker 3 Yep.

Speaker 3 I mean, it's all indicators that this is clearly moving towards being part of the regular financial system.

Speaker 2 What is the XRP news? What is it right now? We record this show a little bit early, so you never know by the time you're hearing this, it could be up or down 8,000%.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 we're up like 7% today.

Speaker 2 2,000.

Speaker 2 I think I'm going to go big on a second purchase here while it's... I'm buying the dip, baby.
Buy the dip. You got to buy the dip.

Speaker 2 Don't take a dip. Buy the dip.

Speaker 2 What a nasty habit that is. You got to.

Speaker 2 What else we got today?

Speaker 2 Some tariffs. Yeah.
The tariff news is like, okay, everybody's retaliating. Every day.

Speaker 2 Every day. Canada's coming back.
We have some guests on our other show. talking about the tariff tax and all the stuff that's happening between the countries.

Speaker 2 And I think everybody's kind of like, okay.

Speaker 2 I do feel like we're sort of getting to this point where

Speaker 2 Trump is going to have to start to kind of in game explain.

Speaker 2 You know, like, what's the, well,

Speaker 2 I got it at first, but now we're dipping into like this territory where like this stuff's really enacting. So let's explain.

Speaker 2 You know, if there's some strategy, I know you can't give away your entire strategy, but at a certain point, you're going to have to start.

Speaker 2 If some of this data, some of these things that have nothing to do with him that are driving financial, and they have to do with him, but you know what I'm saying? Like, were enacted.

Speaker 2 I mean, no inflation number,

Speaker 2 what, 65 days, 70 days into his presidency is 100% at his feet. You know, he just, his, his policies are not in play enough to both credit or hold against definitive every number yet.

Speaker 2 However,

Speaker 2 the sentiment he does have to sort of control with America.

Speaker 2 And I think he's going to have to start to sort of in-game explain what do you want.

Speaker 2 Okay. It's one thing to go, yeah, there'll be a little short-term pain.

Speaker 2 Well, at a certain point, you're going to have to explain what you anticipate happening and what you expect from your constituents. You know, how much pain, what's the pain tolerance? You know, like,

Speaker 2 I can hold out for some uncle, but at a certain point the hand breaks. Yeah,

Speaker 2 I totally agree.

Speaker 3 And that's the sentiment I feel. And people I talk to, everyone was super happy when he got in.

Speaker 3 There's things being done, but no one knows what's going on. Because like you said, all I feel like we hear about is Tesla, tariffs.

Speaker 3 And it's like, all right, I can get on board with this if I know where we're headed.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 What's the like you said? Yeah, what's the rallying cry?

Speaker 3 Right. Tell me that this is going to drop interest rates, but explain why.
Right. If that's our end goal, show me a little bit of the roadmap to get there without.

Speaker 3 And maybe that's what we all need to be kept in the dark. We know Trump's a negotiator.
We know this is business at the end of the day.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 3 I do feel this week, many people have been like, yo, all right, dude. And they're getting annoyed.
Like, Trump needs to stop talking so much.

Speaker 3 What are they doing?

Speaker 2 And I think it's that we all need a little bit of reassurance right now I think would be great yeah totally agree it's just like like all right give us the give us the play

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 and not even like politically just to support them to support them but give all Americans kind of the

Speaker 2 all right here's what you can expect here's where we're going with this because it's it has

Speaker 2 ventured

Speaker 2 and again being someone that generally supports the policies

Speaker 2 or for the majority, supports the policies of that side right now.

Speaker 2 I even get a little,

Speaker 2 like, I'm trying to go down the court and I'm looking for the pass and I'm going to, oh, but I don't know which way we're going. A little bit.
So

Speaker 2 we got to call the play a little bit.

Speaker 2 We've said what it is on some level, but it's time to come back around because

Speaker 2 the last thing you want is the perception that it's

Speaker 2 throwing a bunch of darts and hope seeing what sticks or just

Speaker 2 or that there's not a plan.

Speaker 2 I don't think that that's what's going on because I'm smart enough to know that a lot of smart people are pulling the right strings here.

Speaker 2 But I do think we've got to sort of course correct or just course correct the country to know what to expect or what the goal is. Because I don't think ultimately

Speaker 2 being in a tariff war with every single ally we have is healthy.

Speaker 2 No. It doesn't feel like it.

Speaker 3 No, and I think that's why we're like, we're in the middle of the game right now. We're feeling the pain.

Speaker 3 It's like we're in halftime and we're not, we're not, we're not sure what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Because I think

Speaker 2 the first I'm confident, but I think the first 30 days, the some of the benefits were so clear. And so the messaging was clear.
I'm not as clear 30, 60 days later. I agree.
But

Speaker 2 I will say the one thing I'm clear on, Chris, and that is the trading card market. I did see a statistic.
The trading card market in 2025 is up more than the stock market. So

Speaker 2 someone's going to message me and say, I'm full of shit on that. No, I didn't see a stock or something, an article that was about, you know, as a whole.

Speaker 2 I tell you what, Chris, here's what I know.

Speaker 2 I go into, and, you know, now having kids that trade and do stuff, you go to the store, you're looking at the shelves.

Speaker 2 Those shells are barren, man. Pokey, you want to talk about grown men fighting? Go watch two grown men fight over a pack of Pokemon.
That's a funny thing.

Speaker 2 I might start a YouTube channel on that.

Speaker 2 I'll go into Walmart, and my kids are into the Pokemon. And I do grab a couple packs here and there, but I'm not like hoarding it or

Speaker 2 stealing every box out of the store. But I'll go because I'm going there and had to look at football cards, baseball cards, or something,

Speaker 2 or something else. But then I'm looking at that because I'm into it now.

Speaker 2 And there'll be dudes like,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 pulling back and forth on a pack almost.

Speaker 2 It's crazy.

Speaker 2 Have you seen people?

Speaker 2 Have you seen the i wouldn't even i don't even know where they sell pokemon cards i've never even seen them in a store there are groups upon groups upon groups of the pokemon fanatics people fight over a lot of things in miami but i haven't seen pokemon cards in the middle of one of them yet but i know there's somewhere it happens yep all i know is tops released their newest football cards tops finest little guy here on this on today look look how colorful it is chris i mean can you see that?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I thought it was funny a little bit.

Speaker 3 Send me a pack down here.

Speaker 2 I know. Let's send you some.

Speaker 3 Hey, these things aren't cheap, man. Need some Miami, some Miami players.

Speaker 2 I know. So, uh, we got this Topps hobby box, Topps, finest, two autographs per box.
I'm gonna open one pack like I've been doing on air for the drama. Uh,

Speaker 2 these are uh fun, Chris. You've got like they've got more what they call insert cards than anything.
So, you got your favorite players and

Speaker 2 refractors and

Speaker 2 holograms and autos and all that. So you got to watch the YouTube to get the full effect here.
These are just, I mean, I'm impressed as like a marketing guy, like the graphics and all this stuff.

Speaker 2 That'd be, how fun would that be if you're a graphic designer getting to work at like one of the companies and you're like getting to do sports cards, designing that? Joel's agreeing.

Speaker 2 So we'll go first top pack, first pack magic here. Tops find us.
Appreciate our friends at Tops. Hey, appreciate me more if they start sending me some stuff.
You know, like send some stuff here.

Speaker 2 Let's see what we got here, Chris. This is pretty much a banger box right here.
Like supposed to be all hits all day.

Speaker 3 Those BBs.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 We'll see how it goes. Ah, look how beautiful that is.

Speaker 2 Hinan, Ricardo. Oh, Tim Tebow is in the box.
Who knew?

Speaker 2 You got the throwback. Mike Singletary,

Speaker 2 Ray Lewis, all these old school players. I think these are base cards.
They do. Now they tell you that these are common cards.

Speaker 2 They just come out and tell you on the card, oh, we got an auto, first box auto.

Speaker 2 And it's a player, John Hannah. Hannah, John Hanna.
I don't know who he is, Chris, but it's an auto.

Speaker 2 Autograph in the box. That's a real auto.
That's not like just made up, Chris. That's like pen written.
Ooh, Peyton Manning. The field generals.
Who knows?

Speaker 2 I don't know these cards well enough to know, like, oh, that's a number one, Chris. This one's out of 290.
Dan Mojahowski, the magic man.

Speaker 2 Who knows? Peyton Manning.

Speaker 2 You know who that is, right? Oh, yeah. Kurt Warner.

Speaker 2 That's an old one.

Speaker 2 Michael Hall Jr.

Speaker 2 We've got some reflection going on here. It feels like it could be numbered, and that's a common.
Okay.

Speaker 2 Roger Stahlbach. I mean, they throwing in the old school with the new school here, Chris.

Speaker 3 Any hitters in there?

Speaker 2 Yeah, that

Speaker 2 I don't really know.

Speaker 2 The players' names aren't ringing a bell, but some of you got a numbered card and an auto.

Speaker 2 That John Hanna strikes me as a

Speaker 2 if of all the autographs that you want out of the box, I'm not sure John Hanna is the highest on your list, but who knows?

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 We appreciate Tops

Speaker 2 for making cool cards.

Speaker 2 I mean, this is definitely the,

Speaker 2 if you're an art lovers, this is the set. Like, complete, like, abstract, all kinds of stuff going on.
Pretty cards. What's interesting to know is like Topps is getting the licensing back.

Speaker 2 If you look, the helmets don't have the actual symbols on them because they don't have the full license of the teams. They've licensed with the players.
It's strange.

Speaker 2 All the licensing rules and sports cards. They've got more things than you can keep up with.
But Topps Vinus Hobby Box. Check them out.

Speaker 2 I got another, at least one more autograph in that box. So I'm hoping it's not another John Hanna, but I'm sure he was a great player in his day.

Speaker 2 There you go.

Speaker 2 It's fun. It's legalized gambling, Chris.
Opening the pack. It's like a scratch card for kids.

Speaker 3 Yep, straight up.

Speaker 2 But they're fun. At least they're worth something.
You're opening something that has value back on the other end.

Speaker 3 Hey, I'm still waiting to go back home and get my old collection out of my parents' closet.

Speaker 2 Hey, you got to get that thing. Send me some pictures of that.
I can tell you if he's a worthy thing. Get in that market movers, marketmovers.com.
Go see what your cards are worth.

Speaker 2 Hey, Chris, any final words here?

Speaker 3 Everyone, kick off your spring to a nice start. Spring has sprung.

Speaker 2 Yes, it has. Hey, got longer days.
Time to make it happen. Get out there.

Speaker 2 Hey, it's

Speaker 2 in your hands. We talk about the news.
We can talk about all this stuff. We live in the greatest country in the world.
Get out there and make it happen. It's all about numero.
Uno.

Speaker 2 Appreciate you, Chris.

Speaker 2 We appreciate everybody for listening. Go to ryanisright.com, find the highlight clips, links to all this stuff, and all these great sports cards we've been pulling out.

Speaker 2 Hey, a little fun here on the show. It's our show.

Speaker 2 Do whatever the fuck we want.

Speaker 2 We'll see you next time right about now.

Speaker 1 This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network Production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities.

Speaker 1 Thanks for listening.