What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere

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This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. Today, we have two great listener questions lined up.
And then after the break, we're continuing our new segment, the Reddit hotline, where we pull questions straight from Reddit. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehours at

propertymedia.com. Again, that's officehours at propertymedia.com.
Or if you prefer to ask on

Reddit, post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit. Jesus Christ, that's something I never

thought I would say, Scott Galloway subreddit. And we just might feature it in our next episode.

What a thrill! Let's bust right into it.

First question, I have not heard or seen these questions.

Hi, Scott. Patrick here in South Africa.

I am a pro-capitalist, pro-democracy, pro-Western kind of guy.

And I wondered if you had any thoughts on Brand USA,

given what has happened between Trump and Vladimir Zelensky in the Oval Office.

As someone who has looked to the West with admiration, I am concerned about whether or not the USA is indeed a fair-weather friend and what damage is being done to Brand USA.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Scott, for all the great work you do.
Thanks for the question. And I'm an enormous fan of South Africa.
I've been to Cape Town a few times. Obviously, safari is sort of a singular experience.
I actually enjoy spending more time in the cities than I do safari. It's like two or three days of, look at that lion, look that zebra.
That's great. A couple days, that's fine.

And then I start doing the afternoon drive, and everyone gets angry at me because I'm not going on both drives for this magical experience.

But anyways, I absolutely adore Cape Town.

If I was a younger man, there's a lot of shit I would do if I were a younger man.

But one thing I might consider doing is if I could figure out a way to make sort of a Western salary and live in Cape Town. I just thought in terms of quality of life, it seemed just like a fantastic place to live.
So just a little bit of data. According to the embassy, the part of Trump's presidency that Americans disapprove of most is his handling of the war in Ukraine.
Also, more than half of Americans believe that Trump is too closely aligned with Russia, including more than a quarter of Republicans. Since the beginning of Trump's term, foreign opinions of the U.S.
have plummeted. Get this, just 27% of Canadians now see the U.S.
as an enemy country. A majority of Americans still see Canada as an ally.
This is, anyways, across the EU, the most common answer to who is the U.S. to the EU is a necessary partner over an ally, a rival, and an adversary in every European country.
They're seen as sort of basically become more from an ally to a necessary evil. Look, first off, let's back up.
What is a brand? A brand is a promise more than it is the actual performance. And that is before you buy a car, before you attend a university, I'm about to do a college tour with my son.
And he listed the universities he is interested in seeing. And it came down to things like, it looks like fun, or I like the logo or the website is cool.
Basically, he has no idea. And he's facing, he's basically going to make a decision, which might be kind of a quarter of a million dollar decision when you look at how much it's going to cost his parents to send him to four years to one of these universities.
So he's going to make a quarter of a million dollar decision with 90 plus points of gross margin, meaning that the majority of that money will go to the bottom line for whatever institution he ends up at based on brand. I mean, Hilga will do maybe a one or a two hour tour of the university, but it's basically essentially the promise, the branding, the messaging, the reputation of the university that will dictate these enormous purchases.
Now, bring that back to a country. There are millions of decisions made every day around trade partners, who you're going to do business with, where your kids want to go if they're incredibly talented and they can go anywhere, where do they want to go to apply their exceptional human capital? What treaties do we enter? Will we let a military base be constructed on our own territory? Do we like their media? Will we not cooperate with bad actors that want to hurt them? Will we not launder money for terrorist organizations? There are millions of decisions every day, either pro or against certain countries.
And here's the brand impression of the United States. We're enormous.
We're enormously wealthy and successful. We make a lot of mistakes, but our heart is in the right place.
We're always seen, loosely speaking, as the good guys for the majority of powerful nations and economic powers around the world. And we have reaped enormous benefit.
People want to buy our cars. People want to consume our superhero movies.
People want to send their best and brightest to our universities. People want to cooperate with us.
The brand America is one of the most beneficial, invisible, powerful aircraft carrier squadrons ever, ever manifested by an organization anywhere. The U.S.
brand is staggeringly powerful and has produced all sorts of margin and ancillary benefits for 200 years for the United States. And that brand has fallen further, faster than any brand in history over the last two months.
We are now seeing, what is the U.S. brand right now? Surrender to Putin with a mix of measles? I mean, what is our brand right now? You can't trust us.
We're not consistent. Tariffs on, tariffs off.
I think the U.S. brand has fallen further faster than any brand of this size and this depth in history.
Thanks for the question. Question number two.
Hi, Scott. I hope you're doing well.
I've been following you in the podcast for a few years now. Thanks for all that you do, especially with regard to helping out young men.
Anyway, my question today is about the value of market research in the era of AI. Given that you sold your company to Gartner, which is one of the largest tech research firms in the world, I'm curious about your perspective on this industry.
I'm a 34-year-old principal analyst at a large market research firm. And I'm concerned that the influence of these firms is actually declining as companies are increasingly using generative AI to get insights into potential markets.
What's their take on the value of market research? Will it have a place in the future? And if you see it declining, where would you advise someone with market research experience to explore as a next career step? Thank you. That's an interesting question, but rather than talking about market research, I'd like to turn this back to me.
Let's talk about me. So my first firm, when I was 26, I started a company called Profit Market Research, and basically we helped big brands figure out their internet strategy and manage their brand's assets, like a hedge fund manager would manage stocks in a portfolio.
And I really enjoyed it. It was fantastic learning, incredibly taxing personally, a lot of travel, a lot of golf and dinners with clients, things like that.
And I sold the firm for my stake, at least I sold, I think, for a valuation of $33 million, which felt like a lot of money at the time. But the Dobbomber implosion and divorce took care of most of that.
And then I started a company called L2, which was a strategy firm that you referenced that I sold to Gardner. I got that one right, went to a recurring revenue model.
Basically, we would collect a shit ton of data and then meet with a brand on a regular basis and give them our insights around what we think they should do with their digital footprint. And would charge a Nike half a million a year and a smaller brand like a Rolex, a hundred grand a got to 20 million in revenue sold for $160 million.
And it was acquired by Gartner. Let me be clear, a nice group of people, they've grown their shareholder value dramatically.
They're clearly doing something right. Everything they did made no fucking sense to me.
When we were acquired, it was like that Seinfeld episode where George Costanza decides to do the opposite of every instinct and it ends up in life. His life starts going much better.
Every decision they made post-acquisition is exactly the decision I would not have made. I was such a fish out of water.
I was literally a tuna on the deck of a fishing boat, flapping around, trying to figure out how the fuck did I end up here? How do I get off of this boat and back into the water? I was such a cultural misfit. And again, I don't think it's them.
I don't think it's me. I just think it is.
This is a firm that basically figured out a way to kind of industrialize and institutionalize what I would call good, not great research, and then sell it to the North Oklahoma State Bank, whereas we were doing kind of more bespoke, I would argue, insightful research for brands like P&G and Nike. But look, their company's worth several billion dollars, and L2 was sold for $160 million, so clearly they're doing something right, and I'm doing something wrong.
Now, your question around AI, I do think companies like Gartner and research companies are going to be able to do a lot more with a lot less. And this is what I think the honest all hands would be.
And that is, I've got great news. Our revenues and our EBITDA are going to go up.
I've got even better news. I'm going to need a third of you to do this in the next five years or a third fewer of you, or maybe two thirds fewer of you.
But you don't say that at the all hands. I think AI

is effectively to corporations what Ozempic is to the obese, and that is it shuts off the signal that you need to eat more. And AI in boardrooms, and I know this firsthand, is shutting off the signal that if we're growing our revenues, we have to hire more.
That's just the automatic signal. Oh, we're growing? We need to hire more.
Well, actually, ever since the meta-earnings call three quarters ago that said, hey, we grew revenues 20% and we did it with 22% fewer people, which took earnings up 70%. Let me get this.
I can have the great taste of increased revenues without the calories of increased costs. Well, hold on here.
I like the cut of that jib. Oh my God, that's out as right as rain.
That's disco. And I'm talking like 70s disco, real disco.
And so a lot of companies are trying to figure out, especially information driven companies, how they use AI to create 80, 90% of the value of an analyst for 10% of the cost. Now, what does that mean? If you're an analyst in a market research firm, quite frankly, you want to be a samurai and AI is your weapon boss.
Otherwise, someone's going to come along with more skilled and more dangerous and put you out of business. I've said this a lot.
AI is not going to take your job. Somebody who understands AI is going to take your job.
So I actually think that Gartner will likely – what do I think of shareholder value there? What will happen? I don't know. That's an interesting one.
Will AI help or hurt them?

I would argue for a firm like that,

it may help them in the short run.

They're going to be able to cut costs.

I do not think you want to be an analyst

in a market research firm right now.

Or let me put it this way, a mediocre one.

And by virtue of just probability,

the bulk of them are mediocre.

An exceptional analyst who really understands AI

and knows how to become incredibly productive and put out interesting data. Like, what do you do? You figure this shit out.
I remember when I moved to New York, they hired an assistant for me. I was running an e-commerce incubator called Brand Farm backed by Goldman Sachs, Maveron, J.P.
Morgan. Different story, different story.
And they hired an assistant for me and the assistant came in and said, I just need to tell you that I don't use, I don't like, and I don't use them. I'm like, okay, you can't work here.
And to say that you don't understand AI or you're not interested in it probably means you're not going to be able to work in a market research firm. So this is what you want.
You want a second screen at work. You want your screen, your typical computer screen, and then you want a second screen that has nothing but AI on it, that has mid-journey, that has anthropic, that has chat GPT, and a bunch of the other cats and dogs.
And every time you do a task, you want to turn to your second screen and think, how can my second screen help my first screen? What additional insight, data, research, ideas really get good at prompting? And before you know it, your head's going to spin around all the different shit you can do. Turn this into a chart.
What is a different way to frame this? What types of visuals might better display this information? What additional data, parables, historical, anthropological evidence can you do to support the following argument that I'm making in the above two paragraphs, right? I just, just so incredibly powerful. But your job, and you sound, you know, you are young, you're 34, you need to be a weapon.
Oh, let's lay off the guy who really understands AI. Says no firm ever right now.
You want to be that guy. In sum, let me finish where I started.
AI is not going to take your job. Somebody who understands AI is going to take your job.
We have one quick break. And when we're back, we're diving into the depths of Reddit, the bowels of Reddit.
We're about to do a colonoscopy on Reddit.

And I promise to do what I always ask my colonoscopy doctor to do before I go under.

And I think it's fucking hilarious.

I say, will you run your fingers through your hair when you're invading me?

And they always think that's really funny.

And then I'm out.

By the way, that drug, what's it called?

Propanapol that they give you for the colonoscopy?

That shit is money.

Wow.

Wow.

You are sleeping like a corpse there. We'll be back for our questions from Reddit.
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Visit ucsd.edu slash research. Our first question comes from DebtItAll777, and they ask, Hi Scott, what are the two things you've changed your mind about in the last few years, and who are the people who most influence you? So I would say they're kind of two profound changes in my life or I feel as if I found a little bit more of my purpose.
I think I used to say my purpose was to create economic security for others. So I'm looking at things or look through things through a professional lens and thought, okay, I've always been very focused on economic security and I thought, okay, now I want to provide economic security for other people.
That's changed. I think what I find my purpose now is I'm trying to raise two good men.
And by the way, sometimes I'm not very good at it. I'm still struggling with it.
I find parenting, I find almost anything I've ever focused on, I can usually get pretty good at. I don't know if I'm any good at this parenting thing.
I know I'm not bad at it, but I don't know if I'm good at it. But I've decided my purpose is to raise loving, patriotic men.
And I don't know if I would have said that a few years ago, that that is my purpose, if you will. The second thing is, and again, everything for me is kind of, it's very crass, but I'm very economically driven.
I've decided every year that anything above my current wealth, I'm going to give away or spend. So I'm spending a lot more money and I'm giving away a lot more.
And I know that may sound like virtue signaling, and it is, but I'm trying to really focus on doing a lot with loved ones, getting more involved and trying to plant, you trees, the shade of which I won't sit under. And I'm very focused.
I feel like for the first time in a while, I have purpose. And my purpose is being a relatively good father.
And that gives me some comfort because I think I was sort of wandering around, okay, what is the point here once you get to a certain status of economic security? And the people who most influence me, I get a lot of influence from the young people I work with. I find them really inspiring, really intelligent.
I like the way they look at the world, and I spend a lot of time with them, so I think they inform a lot of my view and kind of keep my perspective a little fresher than it would be otherwise. So I get a lot of inspiration from the kids in the firm.
I think of them as my muses. And there's a lot of great influences out there, a lot of great podcasters, my co-host at Pivot Kara.
I get a lot of cues from her on parenting. I think she's a wonderful parent.
I really like Sam Harris. I get a lot of insight from him.
A lot of things I hold on to. If you have economic security and people who love you, you have an obligation to speak out.
He said that and it really sort of struck me. There's a lot of wonderful role models out there.
But anyways, the two things I think have changed the most, I'm focusing on or really focus on the reward I get from being a father and trying to catch up in terms of adding value to, I saw a chart that just struck me and it's such a nice thing that I try to remember and that is there's a chart tracking how much time people are spending helping other people they will never meet and it's at an all-time high. And I thought to myself, I'm not high enough on that chart.
I need to get a little bit more focused on helping other people, even if there's no reciprocal benefit. Anyways, kind of a, I don't know, a hallmark answer, but anyways, I think it's mostly true.
Is that true? Anyways, next question. From 1.6960 reads, Scott, what is the topic you'd like to learn more about i'm i've said that in my next life i'm coming back as a navy seal a broadway dancer or an evolutionary anthropologist i've always regretted not serving my country um i've always had to be fun my dad wanted me to go to annapolis and took me for a tour there and then i found out that back then it was all men men, that you weren't allowed to leave the campus the first year.
And then I made the mistake of going to Hillgard Avenue, which is where all the stories are at UCLA. And it was like a fucking Cinemax movie.
And I said, no, I'm going to UCLA. But I've always regretted not in some way serving.
I'd love to be a Broadway dancer. I just admire people who can dance.
I cannot. And I'm just so enthralled and enamored.
My first girlfriend, my first obsession when I moved to New York was a Broadway dancer, Michelle Potter. She was in the play Chicago.
And she came out. She's the first person on stage.
And the way the dancers move, I was just so starstruck and crazy in love with her. She did not reciprocate my affection.
She was not nearly as in love with me as I was with her i think she's back in kansas teaching dance class anyways michelle i hope you're i hope you're doing well nice person too anyways uh but more than anything i'd like to come back as evolutionary anthropologist i'm just fascinated by our lizard brains or amengala whatever it is our instincts that um create the behaviors or motivate us or shape what we do and who we are every day. I find it fascinating.
If you want to believe in nature over nurture, just have two kids. I mean, we just haven't treated our two sons that differently, and they are absolutely a different species.
So I'm fascinated by what happened thousands of years ago to us and how it impacts the way we respond to things. I'd also be very interested in learning more about adolescent psychology.
I'm trying to coach young men and understand more about it. I feel as if to be really thoughtful about it, you want to understand kind of what they're going through.
And I don't feel as if I know about it to be as helpful as I could be with some of the young men I talk to who are clearly struggling. So I'd like to learn more about evolutionary anthropology and adolescent psychology.
Thanks for the question. And lastly, D.
Ryan, 7575, asks, what's your podcast recording setup while traveling? Huh. That's an interesting question.
So I have one of our best hires is a gentleman named Drew Burroughs, who's our technical director. And Drew will, when I go on a long trip, sometimes join me and just follow me around and make sure that we're totally set up.
And he sets up all the studios. I have exact replicas of my studio in my London, New York, and Florida homes.
If that sounds privileged, it is. But what he also does for me is he puts together a travel kit.
And it basically looks like kind of a dop kit for an aging, self-conscious prima donna. I'm all of those things.
So imagine a large large toiletry kit and in it, it has a mic, a bunch of cords, um, and a really good headset and you plug it into your computer, bring up, um, Riverside and boom, you're ready to go. And then I test shots, test lighting, work with true because I'm usually in some hotel somewhere and it's really fit my lifestyle.
Now, here's the problem. If you look at the churn in podcasting, if you were to look at the 100 podcasts and the 50 new entrants and the 50 that dropped out and who will likely be the winners and losers over the next 24 months, I think it comes down to one word, video.
Stephen Bartlett, who's sort of a role model of mine, despite the fact he's 30 years younger than me. The first time, literally the first day I was in London, two and a half years ago, I went on his podcast and I walked into a studio and he spends all his money, puts it all back into production value.
It's basically a TV show posing as a podcast. He has these cameras, which is just in Austin at Sopai, and he had recreated a studio and there must've been 16 cameras and three cameramen and people editing real time and producing photos as a gift for me when I left.
He's got the strongest video game. And if you look at what's happened over the last couple of years, essentially Spotify and Apple have ceded ground in the podcasting world to YouTube.
People are listening to more podcasts on YouTube in terms of time, listenership in terms of time than Spotify or Apple. And it's based on how good your YouTube game is and your ability to optimize.
And Stephen was showing me how they optimize for guests and test titles and thumbnails. I mean, they're just, and we're not that.
And unfortunately, my desire to kind of optimize for my lifestyle, which includes having a mobile kit, is probably

not where the industry is headed. I think you're going to see, I've predicted that Stephen's going to overtake Rogan as the biggest podcaster in the world because of his video game.
So my dop kit is just a setup. It's just a Shure, I believe, mic, some cords, a stand, maybe we'll publish on Reddit our exact setup, and Riverside.
And then the key is I have a very talented individual who helps me figure out the lighting. And then just like writing a book, the kind of the magic in podcasting similar to a book is in the edit.
And that is our producer, Jennifer Sanchez, will spend a lot of time trying to make me sound smarter by adding in sound effects, or more importantly, not what's in the podcast, but what she decides to take out. I think the majority of magic happens in the edit, but my mobile kit is essentially a fancy toiletry kit with a few items, but I wonder if those days are coming to an end and the new kind of kings and queens of podcasting are going to have serious production values.

Appreciate the question.

That's all for this episode.

If you'd like to submit a question,

please email a voice recording to officehours at proptamedia.com.

Again, that's officehours at proptamedia.com.

Or if you prefer to ask Reddit,

just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit,

and we just might feature it

in our next Reddit Hotline segment. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez.
Our intern is Dan Chalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy,

No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.