The Week of April 12 | Jeff Bezo's "Billionaire" Bunker Explained

This is Right About Now with Ryan Allford, 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's a weekly marketing and business news here on April 12th, 2024. Joined as always. I'm a good friend. Chris Hansen. What's up, brother? What's up, my brother? How are you? I'm good, man. Hey, unofficially, officially in the new studio space. A little teaser. We don't have the full set up, but we're actually in the room. So, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm feeling like I've got space. You don't know this show business. Everything feels maybe bigger or whatever. Our studio is like 12 by 12. Maybe it is best. Yeah. And we're putting a space to do what we needed to, but we're going big, baby. Get the new desk coming in. I think we're going to pick it up this afternoon. Actually, I just got a text message. We're, uh, go bigger, go home, they say lean in, baby. I need to get up there and I want to, we got to do a live recording in the new studio. Exactly. We will. You need to play in your next trip, for sure. I hope everyone. G Vegas. Yeah. G Vegas is feeling good. It's supposed to be 80s all next week, too. So it's good. I hope everyone out there is wherever you are, whenever you're a hardware view or we appreciate you for making us number one are weekly by weekly show. We'll be going to, uh, quasi daily, probably start every other day. Probably Monday, Wednesday, Friday here the next couple of weeks. We're working out the kinks, no definitive guarantees. But we're working our way towards what we think will be the best daily business show on the planet. We're already pretty close, my friend, but our own minds, but we're going to leave. We're going to remove all that with the, with the new format. So I'm pretty pumped about that. We're taking the, you can't take the BS out of business unless it's every day straight up. There's so much BS. We got to take out of there. I hope everyone had a good eclipse week. And I'll make a little note at National Championship. Yukon one and someone won the bracket at work. You don't want to be the boss and win the bracket. I didn't really bask in it too much. You feel bad. Like you're not supposed to do things like the boss shouldn't get presents. You shouldn't like that was my first thought when you told me you won. I was like damn bro. There was no politics. There was no money involved. We did no money exchanging hands. There was, I would have let the second place take it. It was just purely bragging rights. So I accepted the award. And I felt a little bad about it. I was like, what else was to do not do a bracket? Then I'm not participating. You can't win. You don't participate in everybody's. What didn't Ryan do it? Okay, I did it. Not one motherfucker's kid. I love everybody. I didn't really want to win. But sometimes you get, look, I don't think I've ever won a bracket like once in my life. I'm 45 years old. I think I've won once ever. And so of course I win our own work bracket. But I'll take it. We'll take the wins wherever we can get them these days. Take the W about. Take the W. I hope everyone enjoyed the eclipse. I'm going to say something. I'll probably get some hate dems for it. But I don't give two shits about the eclipse. Everybody. I know what happens. It's a rare occurrence. And it's astronomy. And it's not that I don't care about science. But I'm like changing plans. My kids have the glasses. I looked up there for five seconds. And I'm like, that's cool. All right. Now what was I doing? Did you, could you guys see the eclipse there at all in Miami? Yeah, I nearly went blind. There was a mob outside the gym literally like 20 people as I was leaving. I took a glance. It definitely did fry my eyeballs before a woman handed me a pair of the glasses. I took a look. It was cool. Yeah. I can appreciate it for what it is. I appreciate it. But the world went on. And but I will say we have a couple articles related to it. One, I'm going to start with a funny one. There's a, this comes to us from our friends at TMZ. That should get your head in the right space. TMZ.com. Mexican station airs testicles on live TV. That's not the moon blocking the light. One Mexican TV station solar eclipse coverage Monday was totally nuts. I like this writer. As in the pair of testicles that somehow ended up on the screen. And they might be famous. Check it out. For Mexico's RCG media, we're commenting just as the eclipse entered totality. But things really got interesting when they cut to a different angle of a bright light. Presumably the sun. Seconds later, the test eats dipped in frame blocking the light. And giving audiences a brief but very up close look at someone's family jewels. You can see the visible shock of the faces of the two anchors on set. As for how the testicles ended up in the broadcast. RCG media reportedly asked viewers to send in personal eclipse footage, which in hindsight was a very risky idea. There's even a theory floating around social media that the balls in question were attached to Tommy Lee. The motley crew drummer reportedly posted and deleted a nearly similar eclipse re-creation with his testicles, which might have somehow leaked into the RCG control room. Update from yesterday sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ these balls do not belong to Tommy Lee. Good to know. Good to know. I feel much better. Someone else's. That's funny. Live TV folks. Our next article is a little bit more down the business line in marketing. Not that balls aren't about the business. Hey, we say we're taking the BS out of business. We're going to take the balls out of business though, Chris. Are we? No, definitely not taking the BS out of balls. This comes to us from eMarketer.com. How Netflix, Sheen and Schemes are bringing malls back from the dead. Mall foot traffic is returning to pre-COVID-19 levels. In 2013, visits to indoor shopping malls were down 5.8% from 2019 levels compared to a decline of 15% in 21%. Per place or data, place or AI, the comeback of the mall in 2024 report. Visits to open air shopping centers and outlet malls are also recovering. Continued mall success requires the right mix of brand and attractions to keep today's consumers engaged. Breaking with tradition, while retail remains a mall staple, experiences and restaurants are major drivers of mall traffic. That's good news for Netflix, which plans to open two brick and mortar locations in 25. The first with the King of Pressure Mall in Pennsylvania. Featured 250 seat theater, amusement rooms, dining space, and a retail marketplace. Within retail brands are rethinking the traditional mall model, experimenting with short-term leases and pop-up events to peak consumer curiosity and a sense of urgency. Mopey going back to the mall yet there's mall rats returning. It was Friday night shenanigans hanging out on Ruby Tuesdays. Yes. Hey out at Spencer's. Get the weird gifts. Spencer is an hot topic. Hot topic. Spencer's. I want to shake the magic eight ball and see what happens. Yeah. I think that's black light. Yeah, I've got to get some black lights at Spencer's. Yeah. I mean, you should be due t-shirt. The mystery machine. You guys know what I'm talking about? You guys were in there buying that shit. We know. You know who you are when you're listening. You're shaking your head like, no, that wasn't me. We know. But yeah, interesting with Netflix, huh? Netflix essentially setting up an experiential movie theater. Talk about the pendulum swinging full circle back. Streaming. It's like the DVDs didn't really work. The streaming blew up. We had my buddy Mark Randolph, the founder of Netflix, he talked about all that. She go back and listen to that story. Shameless plug. He's a badass in business. And it was a great episode. If you want to learn all about that story. But nonetheless, we got all the streaming. We set up experiential. I love it though. I'll tell you this. This is all coming back. The more experiential you can make your stores and these experiences is a huge brand play. I guarantee you, if they do it right, it will work in increasing brand resonance and overall awareness. And look, sometimes you want to get out of the house a little bit. And having, I love the amusement rooms, dining space, retail space. Let's get some beverages going, like a little bar. They hit me. Like, I'm moving theater. They're inventors. Yeah, David Buster. Yes. That's what I was talking about. Winner. I want to play a little give-all while I'm watching movies. Yeah. Shoot a few hoops. Shoot a few hoops. It might be noisy. But hey, you can put some headphones on if you needed or whatever. If you want an individual listening. But in all seriousness, I do think the movie theater needs rethinking, like to modern times. And there's some places. There's some places around here, even in South Carolina. Smaller markets that you have dining or like waiter services, a couple that I've heard of. That's what I've done. But they're describing the service. You got to make it. And the extra wood. Then it's just like, no, it's not like home. You can make it. I want like a fruity drink or something. I don't have the shit to make that at home. So you get a full bar experience. While you're watching a movie, the movie experience can be improved if Netflix wants to be on the forefront to increase their traffic there. And then online, that makes sense to me. It's a good brand play. They want to be about entertainment. Netflix knows what their core business is. It's streaming subscriptions. Is that $9.99 a month? The $10.99. What is it? It's $19.99 a month now. I think my bill's gone up twice. Maybe more than that. They know what their core business is. But look, they want their brand to be synonymous with extraordinary entertainment experiences. Online. Easy streaming. Offline. Cool access to fun places where I can watch. Content entertainment. This is a big brand play. That's what they're going for. And what's the takeaway we all about? Look, what do we love to give on this show, Chris? What do we want to give people? Starts with value, baby. That's the value. You want your brand to be synonymous with something overarching. Yes, you want your core business. You have your channels for monetization. But you want to be associated with a core block that people know you to be for so that you can create these brand extensions that go beyond so that it gives you permission. Look, Netflix has earned permission to do this. It's not. Chris, you and I sit here and we had this article and we read about, we learned about it. We don't go, what's Netflix doing? That doesn't make any sense. I'm thinking, fucking brilliant is what I was thinking. Exactly. Because they've earned permission as a brand delivering excellent content experiences online and streaming. And so going and improving what is really a stale experience is to be honest, going to the movies. That's what I've formed with extra butter is good and all. But we got to be upgrading, baby. And so that's what this is about. So kudos to them. Don't know if I want to see the mall get more popular. So my kids want to go there and hang out with creepy Tom and over dramatic Sarah. Yeah. Yeah. We all know who they are. Tom and Sarah. He's creepy. She's over dramatic. And she just stay away from my kids. But. Netflix is weird. Other than that, I'm cool with the mall and the movie theater and all that shit coming back. And let's get back in your own in IRL, baby, in real life. This isn't real life, but this we haven't really come brought to fruition the the AVP segment, the Apple Vision Pro. And partly because of things like this is coming through us with marketwatch.com. They're always watching the market, baby. Some Apple Vision Pro users are finding that the virtual reality headset isn't so easy on the eyes after all. The AVP is generating ooze and oz and black eyes and other met mallet melodies, maladies. Let's just call it what it is. It's causing issues among other among all these early adopters of the herald of mixed reality headset. There's varying reports of issues while may have been well reviewed the high tech wearable comes with an important caveat. Wearing it for an extended period of time, more than an hour or so, wrist neck pain headaches, eye strain and back aches, according to users of the device, and Apple literature. It may also cause urinary issues, cancer and hemoglobin issues. Diarrhea. Just pains. Sounds like a prescription for pain is what it is. Nonetheless, it sucks because I don't want this to be happening. But I could have told you this is probably going to happen. There's big old goggles on your head. I have played around enough with the other versions of this, the MetaQuest and all that stuff that it's disorienting and I don't know. You can only deal with it for so long. Even my kids that play with it like crazy when we first got it, don't really play with it anymore. And I think it's partly because of this. They don't describe it this way, but I think it has a lot to do with it. They're back to Fortnite. Back to good old Fortnite. Back to good old Fortnite. I thought this was interesting because again, it's an issue. It's an issue with adoption. Obviously, they only have so many units to sell. But I also caution brands with going too overboard and development around this until they could get this figured out with the hardware and the software. Because it's a problem. Because if people can only wear it for 15-30 minutes, it's not a real-world solution for all day working from home business environment or other applications. So have you got your hands on any, Chris? No, I haven't. You're in Miami, though. Do you see a lot of people with them? No, and that's what I'm just realizing now is I feel like a couple of what was in a month or two ago when they released. Yeah. You were seeing them everywhere. And now you mentioned I haven't seen any at all, even just on social media. There was a lot of stuff going viral. And now I don't see anything. Yeah. I don't, I think you're gonna still see some stagnation there until they get all this stuff worked out. And if you want to learn from me directly, join my newsletter, ryanoffer.com, backslash newsletter. Sign up. I give daily advice on marketing, personal branding, podcasting, life. Give that a shout. Join that. It's free. It's daily, just like this show. Give away our best advice. Also on the business front, we were framed from talking about the economy too much. You can have a whole show about the economy and numbers. But I think this is important as it relates to business and the impacts it can have. This comes with us from CNN.com. Stubbornly high. US inflation grew stronger than expected in March. Surgeon gas prices. Sky high mortgages in rent. Send inflation. More rising more than expected in March. It's up three and a half percent for last 12 months ending in March. That's year over year. According to the latest consumer price index data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's considerably up from last month. And March the highest annual gain in the past six months. I think it means interest rates will not be getting cut. Which means those mortgages are going to remain extremely high. So you're probably going to continue to see people scared to sell because they know they'd have to buy, rebuy in this market. The biggest impact will be on the housing market. But it all trickles down. And chips just cost too much, Chris. Prices just haven't been dipping. Good. I'll just say, you know, I'm blessed that I'm not seeing every five, 10 cents the way I've heard other people are as far as they're purchasing. But I do notice that we have four kids by groceries. Those grocery bills are a lot higher than they were three or four years ago. And my wife does most of the grocery shopping. But we split it up enough that I see it too. I look at my shopping cart and then it rings up. And I'm like 274 dollars. I'm like half full. The shopping cart's like three quarters full. Not even half full sometimes. I'm like, what did I buy? Did my kids throw like some gold stakes in here or something? They're like 17 back candy. I don't know. Do you feel it in your day to day? Do you see it? Yeah, man. And everyone I talk to, especially my friends that have families and whatnot. But even if I go get lunch, say I go to get like a steak bowl, do something healthy, it's $30. It's insane. I constantly wonder how is your average family getting by right now? Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's funny you say that. If you get something healthy, you add that stuff on, you're getting salad. Me even, and you're in Miami, but even here in Greenville. I see the matter. I'm like, okay. All right. I'm grabbing like a tin out of my wallet. And I'm like, old Clark is walled. Like when the bill is too high, I'm like shoving the tin back in to go for the hundred. Like, tin's not enough. Wait, it's got a salad and some bread crumbs or something. I don't even know what. Oh, you got chicken and avocado on this bitch. Okay. 1747. What? I mean, for a salad, it's like it's been going viral all these videos of younger people saying, like, I'm making more money than I've ever made, but I'm more restricted on my budget than ever because everything is just so expensive gas, food, housing. I'll tell you this. We were joking. There's a house. I sold a house 10, it's exactly 10 years ago. And we're in Greenville, South Carolina. Lovely place. Don't move here, though. We got to meet people moving here. I sold it for $495,000. $555,000, $500,000 in December of 13. So we'll call it 2014. And this house just went on the market. I happen to still get the updates because I'm like, I have a Zillow saved. It's had no structural upgrades. I looked at the pictures. They've done a few little cosmetic things in the bathrooms, but no structural upgrades. It's a big house, 4,000 square feet, maybe $3,800. And Chris, no structural upgrades. It was 500,000, 10 years ago. What do you think that house is selling for? It's a little game. What do you think that house is selling for? 10 years. 150. Keep going, buddy. 1.2. Keep going. 1.8. No, it's 1.297. Shit. It has, what's the math? Someone do the math for me. Doubling would have been $5,000,000. Like, 250, 225%, something like that. No structural changes whatsoever. Welcome to Greenville, South Carolina folks. Welcome to the real estate market. To say I wish I'd just sat on that house is one thing. This market's been going crazy. But they talk about, I see it all 30% up. It's 34% up. Shit. It's 225% up in my math book. 10 years. So let me tell you what's not up, 225%, salaries. No one's making 225% more. I'm not saying if you have a climb the ladder or you've got 500 side gigs, whatever it is. But the average salaries in this market haven't gone up to it or 25%. So all you do is pricing out the market. You've got a lot of people moving in where the New Yorkers, other places where real estate is higher. So you're changing the market dynamics. And I'm just talking about the micro lens of this market. But that's the impact. You're changing economies. You're changing the landscape. You're changing politics. You're changing a lot of things because of these price increases. So be careful what you wish for. Now I know I was sitting here saying that as a good old-fashioned capitalist that I don't believe that prices shouldn't increase. Is quality increases or things like that happen. But it's just slippery slope. And so for this to keep continuing, it's... I never thought we were going to go into recession. And I still formally believe that we can stay out of it. But the prices or the pay or the something has to start going. And in business owners like myself, I can't pay more for things and then pay my people more. It's like I can't increase my rates with clients. 200%. Right. Thus I can't increase my employee's salary. Like something has to give. But they have higher costs. I have higher costs in everything. Everything I ever did is an business owner costs more. And so... And so... And so... And so... And so... And so... And so... And so... And so... And so... And so... And so... But it was like 80 apartment communities across the country. And that's again, I think, part of the reason you have these massive funds owning clusters of cities essentially. That they can charge whatever they want, you know. But different where my situation like I'm in an condo, it's independently owned. It's up to that guy. But I know even right now I'm waiting. He said, I'll get back to you in the week. I need to see what market rates are for. What rates my rent to. Essentially. So I'm going to say my damn, yeah, which I could charge you. Yeah, exactly. So I'm interested to see what he thinks is a fair increase. Yeah, down here in Miami, I don't have a feeling it's not going to be a very good feeling. And is it going to be in line with salary and overall wealth increases or is it going to be in line with some other dynamic? So that's the thing. So they eat and I don't have the solutions, but you have to just, this is where you need to have to be paying attention to what's going on and making sure you're on the side of that needs to come down period. Don't care where your politics for. It's not a political thing, it's an economic thing. So inflation needs to halt because we need those interest rates to fall. And that will set it in motion. And I get the whole thing like how it all works, it works both ways. So it's applying to man, all that stuff, I get it. But slippery slope were on there. Speaking of different brackets for different people, finally today, that's company.com brings us Jeff Bezos billionaire bunker explained. Literally, it's not really a bunker. So to speak, I don't think. And this is down in your area, buddy, founder of Amazon has recently been on a spinning spree in Miami. He's come check out the vacay lounge. Jeff, if you're listening, get down there and check. Come on to Jeff, come on to where he's cultivating that growing real estate portfolio and the ultra exclusive community of Indian Creek, nicknamed billionaire bunker. Last week, Bezos showed out a reported 90 million on a third piece of property in the area, meaning the new that he now owns three of just the 41 lots. Other residents of the gated community include Tom Brady, Jacelle Wundren, and superstar DJ David Gweta. Never had a spell. Did I say that? Gweta? I know who he is, but yeah, I'm saying that right, Kai, you know who that is. That Gweta, getta, all right, I knew you know you getta. I know who he is. I know his music, but I don't ever know how to pronounce his name. So now I do. Thanks, Kai, David Gweta. Anyway, he's got some money, too. They're all in this bunker together, billionaire bunker. Do you know this area, the Indian Creek area? Yeah, I'm familiar. It's definitely very busy. Yeah. Is it safe, though? So you spend that kind of money on that land? Is it in any jeopardy of going under water? I guess that depends who you talk to, right? Yeah, I guess probably definitely flooding. Yeah. Anyway, they got enough money that could afford it if it happened, right? They got it insured. Whatever the insurance costs, no telling. I was going to say, what's the insurance on a house like that? Shit. Yes. But I'm glad Jeff's doing all right, get himself a more bunker, more space to stretch his arms out. I wonder if it could park his, his boat there. If they had to, that's a great part of bridges for. Wasn't that what he's trying to do in the Netherlands? Yes, have bridges adjusted to fit his make a yacht. Yes. And all because he decided to sell some books online, man. Like that. Fuck unlocked it, man. Good for him. He's looking good. Yeah, it looks good. He's taking care of himself. Yeah, all these CEOs have figured out, you can have all his money. But if you don't feel good, you don't take care of yourself. What do you get to spend it on? Be a great guest and vibe science. Let's have Jeff tell us what he's doing. Exactly. I was like, we've never even heard of it. And shameless plug along those lines. Todd Anderson was on today, just released today. We're the day we're recording here. And so if you go back, if you look at vibe science, Chris and I is health and wellness podcasts, we're bridging the gap between modern medicine and alternative wellness approaches for a complete holistic look. And we had Todd Anderson on who talked about it. It's like, you can have a billion dollars in the bank. But if you have a sore throat that day, you're not all you're thinking about is that sore throat. If you have cancer, you have a billion dollars in the bank. You're not even thinking about the money because you don't all you want to do is get better. Just the importance of wellness. And say anything like basis is figured out. I can't help this money. But can I live well longer to enjoy it, have impact, give back to people. And so it is important. So go check that out. Vibescience.media for any of that info. Because again, it's all blessed together. It's a business show, but we're guiding you. You see what Jeff Bezos is doing. If you wanted that billionaire bunker, you better take care of your health and wellness. A lot of billionaires out there into this biohacking and what health and wellness. Like they're on to something. You don't you can become that before you become the billionaire. Exactly right. Exactly right. And we'd love for y'all to check that out. Vibescience.media. And of course, check out macfoxbikes.com. I got that X2. It's down to Lake Chris. I left it at the lake because that cruiser has become like the beach cruiser. Lake cruiser doing that thing, riding that thing around the X2. It's a mountain bike. It's a city cruiser. It's a lake extraordinaire is what it is. Electric peddler, you can pedal, you can scoot, you do it ever. I got both those batteries on there. I got 90 miles. I got a big seat. Chris, you can even come ride that thing with me. We can go to see her own that baby. Look at that. It's a banana seat. Yeah, I might go make for some good content. You're a great content right there. I might get a side cart on that thing. Let's see if my boys over at Macfoss can get a side cart on that thing. Now that would be it. Now we'd be talking. Go check about a Macfoss bike on social media. Use Ryan offered 150. You'll get 150 off the X2. Ryan offered 100. And it's $100 off the X1. It get that X2 baby upgrade. You want that big thing. And let me tell you, it's fun. The kids love it. And my friends are jealous. Go check them out. Tell them that we sent you from right about now. Macfossbike.com. Love them. So we got today, Chris. We found all thoughts. No, not at all. Everyone have a great weekend. Yeah, that's it. Have a good weekend. Hey, it's masters weekend. And yes, Tiger Woods supposed to be playing. So he should be well into round two. Hopefully hasn't dropped out by now, but an injury. I don't mean that jokingly. I mean, it's better for golf if he's playing. And we'll see what happens. Scottie Schuffler is going to win though. You heard it here. That's all we got for Chris Hansen out of the VK Lounds in Miami. Go follow him on Instagram. Chris Brovy Hansen. I'm at Ryan Alfred on all social media platforms. You'll see that blue check to both next to both of our names. We really appreciate you for making us number one. We'll see you next time. Bye now. This has been right about now with Ryan Alfred, a radcast network production. Visit Ryan is rake.com for full audio and video versions of the show, order one choir about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening. This is the story of the one as a custodial supervisor at a high school. He knows that during cold and flu season, germs spread fast. 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