Diddy Up in Smoke, Interest Rates Drop, AI = Artificial Influencers

This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and caching checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It is our weekly business news of the week here on September 27th, 2024 September, just blowing by people. Yeah, get ready. It's going by fast. I'm joined as always. I'm a good friend in Miami. Chris Hanson, what's up brother? What's up, Brian, how are you bro? I'm good. I'm good. And of course, the lovely Brianna Hall. Hey. Hey, hey. I used to do that. Let me go and hang out and go, hey, hey, you know like when a hot girl's walk by, hey, get that, hey, you know, you did that Chris. Yeah, that was really 2000s for sure, 2004, and like 10th grade, hey, yeah, I do it to me. Hey, anymore. Not wife walk by sometimes like, hey, no, hey girl, hey girl, hey girl, hey girl, hey, there we go. Oh, I hope everyone's doing well, wherever you are, whenever you're listening, however you're watching, we appreciate you. Then a busy week. We've got, I guess her hurricane, McGueden, or whatever you want to call it going on. Helene. Yeah, Helene. Storms, all I know is this, on day of record, I had no power for almost 24 hours in a modern world. minutes warning that a storm was even coming in. Is it even before the storm from Florida comes up the coast or whatever? It's just a random thunderstorm in Greenville, South Carolina. I mean, I've been out without power almost 24 hours. I'm calling bullshit on that. It was rough getting to the office this morning. Like, yeah, I was driving over sticks and trees and big old rocks. You had rocks blown all off the the railroad tracks up there too. If you've got anybody come through that, I was like, damn, I'd be in my out of you with this. I'm like, it'd be in my, I don't know, my bike or something. It's kind of, it felt like hurricane or a tornado would come through. It looked like it in downtown Greenville. There were trees down everywhere. Yeah. Chris, are you buttoned down the hatches? Is that what they call it? Is that what we say? As much as I can, not much I can do unless 30th floor of a condo, but just just take care of the vacay allowance for us, you know, make your other heavens. Yeah. I'm as ready as I'll be. I mean, I've been through some hurricanes, but it's looking like it's going to be on the Gulf Coast, which I was literally just at. So I kind of hustled back to Miami, hoping to avoid getting stuck over there. Let's see latest forecast. They're calling for it this hurricane. USA Today has a halane's explosive forecast. One of the most aggressive hurricanes in hurricane history, 70 not increase in 72 hours. That was coming from Monday. It's an aggressive forecast for a good reason, trying to get ahead of possible intensification before it hits Florida. So they're trying to kind of sound the alarm bells that out. How would light the guy the alarm bill myself yesterday? Yeah. Like a three o'clock. Hey, you might get your power turned off. I got in the gas. We did have, we had supplies brought in right before the episode. Our Instacars driver was bringing in the gas can in the batteries. I wish I had him yesterday. My generator was pumped for about three hours and then had no look after that. But we're prepared now case we get stuck again. Yeah. So this is saying it's going to be a category three hurricane at landfall with 115 mile per hour winds. So wherever you are, just be ready. You probably already ready. If it's Friday for you, which it is, we recorded sometimes a day or two earlier, but no matter what, stay safe out there. We've got our emergency preparedness kit. It just showed up here in the office. So we'll be here ready in South Carolina for storm number two of the week. Hopefully my power's back on. We'll stay on and be safe rather than sorry. So we'll see where things go. You never know what the hurricane. They get scary. I mean, if you don't prepare, it's like you've screwed. And then it's I can imagine it's frustrating down there. And Miami, the crystal in those areas, because you don't exactly know what's going to happen. And so you can prepare for the worst. Then nothing happens. It's like, it's kind of drive you crazy. Yeah. I mean, I've seen these storms to say, Xag and cut 90 degree right angle. When you, I remember specifically, we thought when you were going to hit us, we were prepared. And then it last minute cut across the state. And you're kind of like, all right, well, that was a big excitement for nothing. But you don't know, right? Because in the places it does hit, it gets wrecked. So I prepared it. I got my water filled up the gasoline. You know, like I said, I was in Sarah sort of county that closed pretty much the county early. So people could prepare. It's I think Florida's got a pretty dialed in as far as like getting the power trucks ready. Like I feel like this is a good job with making sure all the resources are where they need to be. God forbid. It's my first storm season as an East Coast resident. You traded earthquake. I don't think we ever had an like an actual noteworthy earthquake in my entire life. Like you'd be walking and you'd be like, oh, that was weird. What was that? A little job shaking. Yeah. My sister just had her first one in LA like two weeks ago. I don't want to do that. I think she felt more scared. I think she was scared for her than her cane. Because at least her hurricane, you kind of like mentally prepare for it. You know, it's coming. You're not just making up your house. Yeah. Yeah. That's actually that shake just because I know where I felt it is South Carolina before. Actually, actually on my boat, which was weird. And sure enough, there was like, I was not sure. It was really quick. And then I read the next day that there had been one in that area. It's like really minimal. But strange nonetheless. So you never know with it with these natural disasters. I will say I'm going to give a shout out to my boys, 1000 horses, went to their concert on Sunday. I got the concert gear on. It's got to support the guys. Best for Southern rock country band. You want to see go support them. They're actually going on a little mini tour here. So go give them some love. They come in your account and lift them up 1000 horses. Great rock band, country rock, whatever you want to call it. It's just good music. I'll tell you what's not good music. Oh, diddy. Oh, diddy. Bad one entertainment. Some of the shit that he's accused of is not funny, but it is. I'm sorry. You know, maybe it's the 14-year-old boy in me. But the, I don't know, thousands of bottles of baby oil or whatever. Kevin, that alone is not a crime, I hope. What if he bought stock in baby oil company? Who knows, man? How much baby oil you need? A little bit goes a long way. So I've been told. He's just told me that. He's done there in Miami. He got it, baby oil. I never, never knew a diddy party. But on all the parties in Miami, baby oiled up. Oh, yeah. You got to put that oil on. I assume so. Sean Diddy Combs jailed by judge after sex trafficking indictment. So this comes to us from AP News. Sean Diddy Combs. So did he drop the pee off of his name? Yeah. It's just Diddy now. It's just Diddy. Okay. That was P Diddy. Headed jail to await trial in a federal sex trafficking case that accuses him of presiding over sorted empire of sexual crimes. He's accused of a lot of different things, including female victims, male sex workers, people drugged up in the studio, a conviction of every charge against him would equate to at least 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence. And it says this indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. Look, there's no tolerance for like 85% of what you just said, but doesn't it feel like when you hear that though out loud of what you would think crazy, crazy Hollywood parties would be would include like 80% of that? Like yeah, like let's throw out the trafficking and all that stuff. But let's just say, okay, prostitutes and drugs, alcohol, and going way overboard. Okay, sounds like a Hollywood crazy party that happens every weekend probably. But then it's just like, where do you cross that line? At what point if you're diddy? Okay, you got, he's a mogul man, you got everything of the world, all the money, all the girls, you got family, you got kids now, you've made a lot of hits, you've made hits for other people. When is your appetite for this stuff just cross over to where I can't be satisfied with just a normal Hollywood party with drugs and alcohol and and maybe some people get naked because they want to, but not because they're forced? When do you go, I can only get off or be satisfied by the extreme of the extreme. Is it like insatiable appetite or is it just insatiable ego? Like that you can do it. I don't know where. I think I think power is the most powerful drug there is. And I people that can't, I feel like it's just about controlling people more than even the money. I just can see, I mean, he calls big perm. Hey, get the baby already. We got, I need 400 bottles tonight. We're having a freak off baby. He did he's worth $600 million to your point. Yeah. Yeah, it's got it. He said. Yeah. So I want to, you want to cross that line into creating it potentially, allegedly, these crimes that are unacceptable. But damn, just you can have fun. I mean, these people, it's like, you could do out anything you want, but you got to, it's got to get to this criminal level. I don't, I don't know. Someone's with psychology, you need to have to explain that a little more to me. I think that there will be some interesting theories that come out about this. And the list of people that's probably, how many people are shaking their boots right now? Go on. Oh, shit. I 10 years ago, where they, when they were coming up and they, they were sort of famous or they're like, he's at that party and felt fun at the time. But and there's been stories for years of these parties. You've had artists talk about this stuff, but it was almost like left off because he was such a mogul. He had so much left off because it's like, ah, he throws the best parties. Okay. It's great. Now it's like everyone's looking back at anyone that's ever been to those parties. Kind of suspect. I mean, I think it's one of those things where like Hollywood's kind of always been known for like, if you look at Hugh Hefner, you look at all these people who bring in young, beautiful people and promise them, you know, all the riches in the world. If they do certain things or if they look a certain way or if they act a certain way. And now it's like, well, at what point does that person become a victim of you if you are a powerful person? Yeah. Yeah. When that line of influence and promises of opportunity crossed, like, just to call more balls, baby, oh, now I'll make you famous. I can't get off the show. It was something, it was something godly, like like 500 cases or something. It was something ridiculous. Let me see if I can find it. He bought out costumes. Yeah. Johnson and Johnson, he owns stock. That's Johnson Johnson baby oil. 1000 bottles of baby oil and free golf. What's the freak off? That's the name of the parties. That was the big orgies or sex parties. I know. This doesn't have anything to do with business, but it was just too, it's freaking pee ditty. It's like probably has something to do with business actually. It's hard to avoid it. Maybe that the perils of business of like excess. Oh, we just like to pour it, pour it on people. Yeah. Oh, like a funny party prank. I just figured baby oil. Pain that skulls off now. I don't know. Come on. Chris, I mean, you and I don't have enough hair to worry about, but like, is it pain to get your, surely you've got baby oil or something of the equivalent in your hair, Brianna? I plead the fifth on this. It's not like laying out the sun. I'm having such a huge baby oil. Like, when she'd lay out of the pool, like 20 years ago. Yeah. It's hard to get anything out of your hair. Like any kind of oil, any kind of substance. I just got to scrub out. I wasn't trying to make you go there. I was more distinct when you're laying out, like using some type of lotion or something. I can see my wife complaining about it. I mean, yeah, it's annoying getting anything stuck in your hair for sure. Yes. Well, thankfully, the world is turning a corner and we're really utilizing AI. So maybe one day we won't even have celebrities that can purchase 1,000 bottles of baby oil because we'll have these AI-generated influencers, virtual influencers. They're gaining traction. They've like millions of followers. Have you guys seen these? I have. Yeah, I think. They're completely bot, robotic influencers. Yeah. I've seen like fake, like, those like models, but it's already exactly. And they can do brand deals and they can they post as if it's like really them, like a real person. I saw one this morning and she was talking about her birthday and then her bio says a robot living in California. If I'm one of the platforms, you're going to, I think, reach this point where people are going to want, they're going to want to know what's real, what's fake. I don't want to think it's bad for me. If I'm suck, I'm probably just saying there's no fake profiles. Even if you describe it as that, are we real people or are we not? Is this social media for living humans or is this social media for robots? If you're influencing a robot, a robot's been programmed to say what you want about your product. That's not true influence. Yeah, 100%. So it's like, and I get that there's a transaction for money for influence sometimes, and it's not 100% organic. But at least there's some amount of trade between a human on the other end of the company paying the other human on the other end. One, I think it goes back to, and you guys can probably both attest to that. So I'd like to hear both your perspectives. But being an influencer and deciding where you take your personal brand and what opportunities brand partnerships you believe in and are willing to take on versus a robot that could take on anything where you guys are going to curate what makes sense for you to partner with. Felicia, the robot's taking offense that because she's in nature only Felicia robot that only does natural things. You know they're going to come out with that too. Like she's going to, you're going to have an ad that says, I am an artist who tells us, but I stand for X and I only work with Y. I mean, it's probably already out there, right? I mean, I think it's part of business news specifically in regards to some different things. So Yahoo Finance had this article, Amazon launches AI powered video ad generator ahead of the holidays. So in summary, you can use Amazon's new AI tool to automate video ad creation, enabling brands to convert product images into video ads. So that would target advertisers looking to streamline campaign production, especially for smaller brands. So basically, it significantly reduces the time required to produce a video ad and it could take it just from an image and turn it into a video. Cool. I guess if you're a business and you're on Amazon and you don't want to sell more product, not great for digital agencies. Maybe. I don't know. I think there's in between point and there's always going to be it. Yeah, I can build a website on my own, but an ad agency can probably be better. And then AI can do a third version. Yeah. So it's more about that agency's learning. I get to see day I come up with the creative ideas that sort of drive the best campaigns. Yeah. I'm not saying that we won't one day, but there's usually there's a human insight and emotional insight that I haven't seen that I flexed usually missing from even like chat GPT copy and everything's like that. And that doesn't mean won't be there one day. But I think that I think you're going to see this fine line of, I don't know, people are going to revolt against the unreal. I sure hope so. I saw a video this morning, a guy, he's a developer with the blockchain, the Bitcoin type stuff, in Web 5, right? We're talking Web 3, talking Web 5, but he was talking about right now, and mostly social media platforms, he'd be shocked at how many of the profiles you're interacting with their bots. And that's the big, like what you said is, how do we even know we're interacting with the real person and not just a bot? I think there's too many more plot, too many platforms, you don't want another one. But I think if Zucker, whoever doesn't get these under control, that's where the, I think they could get taken out is where you have to be 100% verified that the real person, like a human being. Elon's talked about doing it with X. I thought it was already getting done, but it's not because this guy's prime example actually was X. I still think there's a fine line here that we've seemingly started to cross. And I think you'll start to see some pushback on that. And I don't know, I can't help but think that there will be, there will come a reckoning for all this. And it's not going to be, I don't think this is just going to continue unabated, so to speak. So I almost think you're going to have like the naturalists and then the tech. I find there's a movie somewhere about that, right? I totally agree. It's like we only want to do with real, only real. So Forbes online has a article from earlier in the year says the future of trust and verification for social media platforms. So this is saying in recent years, public trust in the media has plummeted to unprecedented lows. There's a bot dilemma, eroding trust and spreading misinformation. And then there's a case for introducing human verification for social media users. Human verification involves confirming that a real person and not an automated bot operates a social media account. So it's going to be like biometric verification to prove your human. I think you're going to see that, which is good, except you lose your anonymity. Oh, good am. I mean, shouldn't that be happening anyway on some level? Yeah, some people, you big. Yeah, you read a lot of trolls if they actually had to say who they were. Yeah, for sure. Speaking of, I would love to get your guys's perspective on our next article. Let's talk a little bit about Alex Jones and info wars. Oh, yeah, it's interesting. So a judge ordered that they're going to liquidate Alex Jones's info wars business. Anything that has to do with info wars, all the assets are being auctioned off to help settle the $1 billion settlement that is owed to the Sandy Hook families. So accountability and media influence. How do you guys feel about that? Well, one, this guy lost his fucking mind. You know, like, everybody wants to get behind these conspiracy theories, but like, why did he fall on the sword for this? Yeah, I mean, Chris, do you have an opinion about that? I think it's interesting for someone that didn't fire a bullet to have to do this. Yeah, but he said it was all hoax, right? Over and over and over again. Right. But and to be fair, though, then why is CNN Fox MSNBC, why are they all not getting liquidated to power damages? And they have had to power in certain situations. I happen to like Alex Jones, I think he's been ahead of the game on a lot of stuff. He obviously missed it with this one. Big, big miss. But I don't think it detracts from like, he's educated a lot of people, especially with the COVID stuff way ahead, what was going on. So it's not my problem isn't really with him. It's more of, all right, if we're going to have this precedence and he's applied all media outlets, not just targeted towards that, I agree with. So we can all agree that it shouldn't, if this is going to be the law, if this is the accountability that we're going to have for media journalism that it needs to be universal. Yeah. And I just personally wouldn't put my millions of dollars in assets on the line for an opinion that even if he still believes it to this day, wrongly is so polarizing and so like, you're talking about kids, you're talking about people get killed. Why do you have to, why do you want to put your whole reputation on the line for that? When you don't 100% know, like Chris said, you weren't, you weren't the shooter. So it's interesting to have to be this responsible for it. But I don't know, I feel like you can't go 100% all in. You can say I have this thought. Here's a side of the coin. Here's one perspective to look at. There's all sorts of ways to voice that and to have your right to freedom of speech without, according to this, the jury and a judge found out that he broke the law and are holding him accountable. But I do agree, Chris, like if this is the standard, then let's apply it because we all know we talked about the hypocrisy of media and some of the things that they get away with saying and doing with really no accountability whatsoever. It's like the million things they've said about Trump. And maybe they got right 30% of it. I don't know. But what about the other 70%? It's like, ah, just okay. It's part of it. And I get that this is a very sensitive topic versus one man that half the country doesn't like, but it still doesn't make it okay. So it needs to be a standard for media accountability or not. And you can, everybody can have opinions. We have opinions. We're sharing opinions on this show. But I don't know. I'm just not going to personally feel compelled to want to use my best guess on things of that nature, me personally. Yeah. In just honoring Sandy Hook and the 21st graders and six educators who were killed in the new town Connecticut shooting back when that happened, thoughts and prayers always with those families. And the problem is, I think I'll say is Alex has done, I do think he's enlightened and done a lot of things, but you lose all that fucking credibility. Like on again, taking a stand on something like this. So like, you've built this for business. You've done these things. And so if I don't want to think Alex is doing it for the stick himself, then don't fall on your sword for something that would be so outlandish that it almost seems like you were. We got to paint with that same brush too. Because I see the same thing. It's like, yeah, I've shared my political views, but I get all fox and I'm like, god damn, like they are. It's just wearing out these conspiracies and it's like over and it's like, the stuff that's so obvious that I see with my own eyes that I support. I'm like, okay, I get it. But then they go down these rabbit holes too. They just like, this is just so partisan. I think it's a good, like I love hearing your stands because you're such an independent thinker. You really are the kind of person that like has both sides and I'm a little bit more conspiracy minded. Like I will go down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole gladly any day of the week. And I think it's just interesting to hear that from you Ryan from a business standpoint being independent and thinking kind of through that lens is really healthy. It is. That's why I'm proud response or independent center. I am independent. Like I do not claim to be one of the other. I vote with common sense and my business mind, my moral values. And I've shared where that is, but independent center.org go check them out. All the information is about policies. It's about information and it's about having dialogue and it's not about partisan politics. I encourage you to go check that out. Sign up for the newsletter. You'll get information. Learn about the policies. Learn about what the dialogue needs to be about, which is ultimately the impact that's having to the bottom line for businesses for people. And to be able to have a dialogue where we're not just immediately starting with partisan discussion about left, right, otherwise. And look, no matter where am I beliefs and things fall, I'm not voting with a red or a blue pin. I'm voting with what I believe to be right for my family. And I do support independent center. Go check them out, official sponsor of right about now, independent center.org. We'll have a link in my bio as well and on the show. Speaking of business, our next article that I'm going to read comes to us from apnews.com. This is interesting. This is a, it is a Biden administration recent law that's come into effect. And it is a change to non-compete and overtime pay for US workers. So the FTC made a decision to ban non-compete agreements, which is super interesting from business and as a business owner for you guys, labor laws, economic regulation. So what do you guys think about this? Banning non-compete agreements for US workers. Chris, how did you start all this? We use non-compete to my medical business for our salespeople, obviously. When this came up, we talked about it. It's not fully applying. Like if someone works for me and they they switch companies and literally go steal our business, you can still go after them, which is reasonable. However, and I'll be fair, I've been on the other side, but when I left my first career medical job, they hit me with some legal paperwork trying to threaten me. I remember 26 and I'm like, screw you guys. I'm just some young college kids trying to make it and they were threatening me with complete false information anyway. So that's when I kind of forgot my first taste of corporate bullying, right? So I'm on both sides. I think there's a middle ground here, but obviously in my main business, we do lies, non-compete and we'll continue to do so legally. I see those sides of this. And I mean, it's a business owner. I think you can protect yourself. Like Chris said, I mean, if someone is working for you and they leave and they take trade secrets and they do things, whether they sign a non-compete or not, you can take them to court. And so you can still get done what you need from a business standpoint, which is all that ultimately matters, but I do think as I've been the employee, I was the employee for 16 years of my career. I've been an entrepreneur for seven or eight now. So I've been longer an employee than an entrepreneur. So I don't discount both sides of it. And I've had to sign them as an employee, especially we're going to add in some business. This is highly competitive. And didn't love parts of it, but now being a business owner, I do understand that you spend a lot of time money, sweat, energy, developing practices, ways of doing business, intellectual property. And for that, just to be thrown out completely doesn't complete. I don't it didn't sit well with me that there is just, I don't think it's an all or nothing discussion. It's like, okay, if we want to change the length of time, if we want to change some of the language to make it maybe more fair, maybe it was too far one way or the other, but that is think just to pretend or make anyone think that that doesn't still exist. The right to having competitive advantages or having things that you've built and invested in and that people could just take that or walk with that and somewhat the implication that you could isn't the right implication either. Yeah. And that's kind of just like how the media writes a click baby title. Oh yeah, there's no non-copypeds anymore. US Chamber of Commerce has already filed a lawsuit against the FTC calling its decision a dangerous precedent for government, micro management of business. Lawsuits could delay any implementation of the FTC's new rule potentially for years. So something to just kind of keep an eye on. Yeah, we'll see. New overtime rules kind of it's in that same article. So both the non-compete and the overtime rules are in there. So starting July 1st of 2025, you would have to pay overtime to salaried employees that work over 40 hours a week. Crazy. But there's an income cap. So only for- And if you vote for Trump, there'll be no tax on that overtime. Crazy. But maybe I think commas already copied that. So maybe no matter who you vote for, you'll get it. Yeah. I think one you'll actually get it one you'll actually do it. If it's history. Yeah. Yeah. What happened to those student forgiveness? Exactly. Right. All right. I think that's about it for me. Oh, yes. Any final thoughts, Chris? I'm just ready for the selection to be over with. Honestly, I have election fatigue. But I do feel like it's yeah. As soon as it's over, it starts over. It's like, I don't know. The campaigning never stops. The theater must go on. It is theater. I'm just looking forward to hoping that my ideal candidate goes in office so I can start spending money more freely. Yeah, exactly. Preach. Yeah. So we'll see if you get your wish. We appreciate you for listening. Hopefully you're watching on YouTube or Spotify. I mean, we've got all these nice cameras. Chris looks so nice in the vacay lounge. Don't don't make it all go to waste. Didn't just be listening. When you can look at how pretty Brianna is over there, you know, she's got to we needed to beautify the settle a little bit here. So Chris and I do our best, even though my thousand horses teacher is rocking today and banding. Was a groupie? I'm a groupie today. Yes. You're to find us Ryan is right.com. You'll find links to the show. All the other links to different places to watch. Listen, share highlight clips and links to Radical or ad agency. The Radcast Network has all our other great shows. And of course, links to the beautiful, the wonderful, the Mr. Chris Brobey Hanson on on Instagram. Go find them where that blue check is and girls he's taken right now. Sort of. No. No. He's got a good one. We appreciate you. We appreciate. I appreciate both of you guys. Thank you. Thanks Ryan. We'll see you next time. All right about now. This has been right about now with Ryan Alfred, a Radcast Network production. Visit Ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.