Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Business News That Matters: Amazon Bid for TikTok - Elon Musk Leaving DOGE - Hooters Needs to Perk Up - OpenAI Worth More than McDonald's

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

SUMMARYIn today’s Weekly Business News episode, host Ryan Alford covers significant business headlines. He discusses Amazon's potential acquisition of TikTok, highlighting its implications for social media marketing and e-commerce integration. Ryan also touches on Elon Musk stepping down from his Dogecoin-related position, Hooters filing for bankruptcy with plans to restructure, and OpenAI's remarkable $40 billion valuation. The episode emphasizes the dynamic nature of the business world and the importance of staying informed and adaptable. The show is a production of the Rad Cast Network, known for its popularity and extensive reach.TAKEAWAYSAmazon's potential acquisition of TikTok and its implications for businesses and social media marketing.The impact of TikTok's user demographics on marketing strategies for brands targeting younger audiences.Hooters filing for bankruptcy and the challenges faced by traditional dining establishments in the current economy.The broader implications of Hooters' bankruptcy for the restaurant industry and necessary adaptations for survival.Elon Musk's recent decisions and controversies, particularly regarding his role in the cryptocurrency and AI sectors.The ethical and innovative discussions surrounding advancements in artificial intelligence, particularly with OpenAI.The growth and resurgence of the trading card market, including sports cards and collectibles.The potential for trading cards as a lucrative investment opportunity amidst fluctuations in the stock market.The importance of businesses staying informed about technological advancements and market trends.The evolving nature of consumer behavior and its impact on various industries, including dining and entertainment.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is our weekly business news here on April 4th, 2025. Today's headlines, Amazon making an offer for TikTok. Huh. Elon's leaving the position so soon. Hooters filing for bankruptcy. Men everywhere in sadness. Open AI closes 40 billion in funding. Now worth more than McDonald's and Chevron. Those are today's headlines here on the Business News of the Week. This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over one 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 cash in checks?

Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys? Ryan Alford here. Good to be here. We're in studio in Greenville, South Carolina. My home. Born and raised. I've lived in Manhattan, ventured to Chicago and LA and well traveled, but we're here in G Vegas as we call it. It's social house, my social club and lounge and co-workspace mixed use. Come see us on the Swamp Rabbit Trail in the beautiful city of Greenville anytime. And we're just pumped to be here as always. You got numero uno today.

I haven't done monologue single, you know, by solo, by myself without a guest or Chris, who's taking care of some business here today on record day down in Miami. He's got some big things going on. And so just me on the mic, but it's kind of fun. I haven't done it in a while. I got to remember that to carry all the audio.

So bear with me a bit. I have the gift of gab, but you know, I have to remember that I don't have these pauses or breaks where I could turn to someone for, you know, comedic insight or just maybe smarter things than I have to say. So I appreciate you wherever you are, whenever you are listening. Again, this is our business news of the week. We try to really break down what we think, we do this once a week. We're going to be moving more to this format in the future, but right now we're trying to break down and bring to you what are those business articles,

headlines, and things that really matter to business. We take the BS out of business. So as you know, news changes every day and it's hard to stay ahead of it sometimes, especially with the current administration. But what I try to do is extract the things that seem both interesting, but also potentially impactful for day-to-day business and really small business at the end of the day. My agency works with big, large and small companies, but ultimately we're trying to extract those things that, hey, you should be paying attention to because maybe it's a national business interest

or it could impact you because we do have a lot of entrepreneurs and people getting after it. So again, we're on YouTube, the full video, get an interactive experience, a little different than the audio. So check us out there. You can always watch it on Spotify as well. And always remember all of our content is at Ryanisright.com. You can also check out our newsletter, it backs up newsletter, that same thing, but go to Ryanisright.com. I've made some refreshes to the site this week and made it a little easier to navigate around and get to the stuff that you want.

You can also get our media kit there. If you're a sponsor or someone looking, you've got a business want to hit it. We are your number one marketing and business show on Apple. We've been that for almost three years. So you want to get your message heard, go click on that media kit and get in touch. We'd love to feature you on the show. So let's get to those headlines. Amazon making an offer for TikTok here.

April 5th was the deadline. That's Saturday by my math tomorrow here this releasing on a Friday. We'll see if that actually happens, but as of recording, Amazon was making a last breaking offer. So it's possible that when you listen to this, with the way things move, maybe Amazon buys it, maybe Trump approves a certain deal.

He seems to be willing and dealing. And this is why I've been a little, like I get a little crazy with all the platforms anyway. I tell clients all the time, you can kind of go nuts with, okay, there's 17 platforms. It can be overwhelming with knowing where to post, where to have impact, where to move the needle for your business. And I always say, get one or two really right before you water it and spread it thin across a ton. And for me, you know, having this show, having the reach that we do, all of our accounts are verified and were before you could buy it. But I bring that up to say, I mean, I've got a decent

following on TikTok, but I don't even post there that often because most of our audience is between Instagram and LinkedIn or YouTube now. And so, honestly, this whole thing with getting, not knowing it, I like to sort of build on houses that I know aren't going to fall over the next day. And it's just felt like there's been this wave. And I know you can take advantage of any platform, but it is this kind of like shadow over TikTok. And I know there's a billion people use it. I know that people are mad about it and it's a great platform for what it is. But at the end of the day, that shadow has kind of kept me from getting too vested in

it with all the content and things like that. And I just haven't had time to go down those rabbit holes, man. You get on the platform, it really is addictive and you get sucked in. They're pretty good with that algorithm. And ultimately, that's why I've kind of been in this wait and see approach and telling clients, hey, take advantage of the organic reach while you can. But now not knowing what exactly is going to happen, if it is going to get shut down, because I don't think Trump's playing around. He's going to expect something to happen. I don't think status quo, I mean, maybe he extends it for two weeks or

something to get a deal done, but I think this is real. Amazon's really interesting. Uh, they've got prime video, they've got other things, but they don't really have the social media, you know, network amongst, you know, if I think of the big, I don't know, three or four, you've got Google, you've got Facebook or Metta and you've got Amazon, I'd throw Walmart in there as well. Amazon has obviously Prime, and I don't want to discount that. A lot of people watch Prime video and those things, but they don't have this social media and video component. And that could be,

think about Amazon shopping on steroids on TikTok. The integration could be crazy. I mean, TikTok shop and all that stuff's already kind of taken off. But if you mix that in with the infrastructure of Amazon, it gets real interesting. I mean, I can see it now. You're going down the rabbit hole. You just go, you know, in two swipes, you know, anything you'll want at your fingertips with Amazon built into TikTok. That could be interesting. Don't know if it's going to happen, but it certainly makes sense. I can see why Amazon would want it in the portfolio. All that data, the number of people who use it, time on site, integrate that in with shopping and prime shipping in that experience. Oh, and hey, be verified, but let's make prime even better. Your prime verified. I could go down a lot of

holes for integration on this thing. And it gets interesting. It's going to be interesting how it all plays out. There's been other bits, supposedly Microsoft was in the game. I mean, why wouldn't Microsoft want to get in there? Again, this is a data and reach play for all the users and all the attention that's on these platforms. Once you have attention, once you have billions of people using your platform every day, you have attention and you have data and you have knowledge and that's leverage. Because when you have attention, it creates leverage to do what you want to do, to sell things, to market things, to have influence over volumes of data. So again, interesting Amazon making an offer might be sold, but Xamarin just runs. But those could be the implications. It could be interesting to see Amazon, verified Prime. You get a blue check and a Prime star or whatever it is.

Their symbol is the Prime logo in italics or something. Next up, Elon, supposedly leaving his position as Doge, his unelected position. There's been so much uproar. You've had Tesla's getting burned, which is bullshit. And all this hate for a guy who's just trying to save the country, some money. And yeah, we can do it on the road. It's self-serving. Okay.

Fine. But you know what he's trying to save? You know, the future of our economy and the finances, you, we can't be 50 million, 50 trillion in debt. What are we going to leave for our children here? Yeah, 50 trillion in debt and owing China and all these other countries money. And it just doesn't, it's unsustainable. And so the guy's been trying to figure that out. I agree. He's been kind of like a, you know, a bull in a China shop. I could be that way myself a little bit on a smaller scale,

but like my wife says, so I just walk around the house. I'm a big dude. I bump into shit. It's like, oh, oh, you know, I did it. I mean, that's kind of like Elon here. He's bumping into lots of stuff and nobody likes layoffs. Nobody likes the negative news, but also don't like 50 trillion in debt.

So we got to get out of debt. So our currency doesn't go to shit and that we actually can do what we need to do in the future and protect the sanctity of the country and what our best interests are. But I will say, and I can see, Donald and Elon are not idiots. They know and have seen the polarization that this has caused. I also have wondered the same thing. Like has Elon running his own company? You know, like he's got one of the largest companies in the world.

Uh, value wise, uh, multiple got space X, you got Tesla and I don't know how he's running the government too. I mean, not running the government, but running the government efficiency department. So I think though, if it's causing the polarization and Elon needs to take care of business at home is probably the best thing. He's probably enacting things, shook things up. And look, that's what we need to do. It is status quo central in Washington.

I don't agree with every single move that Donald Trump makes, but I agree with shaking it up and making us think a little differently because you keep doing the same, you get the same results. And it hasn't changed. You've got these stalwarts in Washington that have been in these positions for years. And at the end of the day, they're all fighting for their own power, their own position and their own right to, you know, have cocktails and fly out of Washington. How many, every time a month, that's what it seems like. I know that there, there's some Patriots in there.

I know that it's not that simple, but this is what happened when you put change makers in positions to make stuff happen. You know, I can appreciate, I'm a man of action. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but we got to make stuff happen. Like, it just can't be theory. We've been in this theory mode in the US government for, I don't know how long, but you know, it would be great if we drain the swamp and it would be wonderful if we save some money and got out of debt. And then every other president is adding three trillion a day, something like that. And these numbers, it gets tossed around, but it's real fucking money.

And it is time for us to make some tough choices and tough decisions. And so I don't like that it impacts people's jobs. But what I'm not going to tolerate what no Americans tolerate is, you know, people collecting checks for dead people for social security or fraudulently, you know, ripping off the government. So that, which means us, by the way, taxpayers, sometimes we, I think we, we create this facade in our heads that there's the separation between our pocketbooks and what the U S government is think we, we create this facade in our heads that there's the separation between our pocketbooks and what the U S government is. No, we fund it.

It's called taxes and everything we do, gas purchases, groceries, everything. And when you turn the blind eye to this, you're paying more taxes one way or another. And so it hurts the bottom line. It hurts the money in the market. And it's part of the reason, you know, we've got some of the challenges that we do right now. So you've got to have that those cuts. So we'll see what happens with Elon, you know, happily married man, and haven't been to a Hooters in a while. But I, but I, I saw this article and, you know, it felt like business news to me, just to have interest.

I mean, I need it. I feel like the man of the people, I got to let people know the Hooters has filed for bankruptcy. Uh, and the headline kind of made me chuckled. Joel our producer. I think it did the same for him. He was looking at, he kind of had that same look as I did. He is like, I was like, it said Hooters falls for bankruptcy, but they plan to stay afloat.

And I added a little bit of even more fun. You know, I was like, hopefully the market start parking up and we'll be good. Sorry. It's easy. Low dad jokes and low hanging fruit, but definitely uh, definitely some tears being shed across the nation. I mean, it's sort of a, uh, mainstay, isn't it? It's within the, I don't know, he goes, the, the, the viewpoint of America, the Hooters bars, you know, and I will say this, this might be controversial. I think their wings are good.

They're different. They're a little different than a traditional Buffalo wing. I'll admit, they got the breading on them, but I enjoy Hooters wing. I hope that everyone can appreciate that, but Hooters says they are actually going to stay in business. They're refiling some things, doing some things. It's always funny to me. I guess you come up early in your career and you always think, well, if someone's filing for bankruptcy, that means they're going out of business, but not anymore. You file for bankruptcy, restructure, and hopefully we can keep the Hooters afloat as they plan to.

We'll see. Open AI is worth more than McDonald's. That's hard to believe to me. I get it, because I know how big these companies are and I know how impactful AI is. So it's less that I, not wrapping my head around AI, but more that it's worth more than McDonald's this fast. You know, this technology is not that old. It's just, that's how fast it's worth more than McDonald's this fast. You know, this technology is not that old.

It's just, it's how fast it's moving. Different integrations. I tell you what though, if you aren't using AI, you aren't using chat CPT, dude, you gotta get like, come on, it's time to. Yeah, I mean, I tell people all the time, jobs aren't going away. It's just, there's gonna be people that know how to use AI

and they're more efficient and more fast. And the ones that don't. And those people's jobs will go away. At least in the short term, long term, it's going to have implicated, bigger implications, but in the short term, that's the reality. Because while you're slow and not using that AI, someone else is, is moving faster, quicker, making educated decisions, using strategy, doing work, not doing tedious work that you're still doing and doing it faster. So that's what you're up against. So you gotta learn that.

And this is why OpenAI, you know, with users and data and all this stuff and technology and infrastructure, it is word more than McDonald's. It's so funny to me like this, this like when you close like it closes 40 billion in funding. So they they raised 40 billion. But they're worth more than McDonald's. So you're raising money, and it makes you

worth more than something else. And I get it. Somebody's gonna DM me and write you how well this stuff works. I know how it works. But it's still funny to me that the value it's like, well, if I could raise what's whatever what's McDonald's value or let's say McDonald's worth, I don't know $500 million, 500 billion, excuse me, don't think it's that I'm just making up numbers here either way. Well, I can go raise 501 billion, does that make my company more valuable than all I guess because I got cash, but

it's, it's just interesting. You raise money to make your company worth more and to go invest. And look, that's probably, that 40 billion, you're just paying the power bill. You know how much power these things generate? The heat dispersion and power alone on these is crazy. But I tell you what, it'll summarize a podcast faster than you can blink an eye. There's stuff we did three or four years ago that we don't have to do anymore. And so you got to use it in automating with this. And now this tasks and everything else, it's scary good. I felt like, I don't know, even a year ago,

I felt like when I used these technologies, like just the basic functionality, it sounded like AI. But now you can train these things and get it like ask the right prompts. These prompt engineers, you know, it's kind of like, if you want the right answers, you got to ask the right questions. And that's what it is with AI. And if you can start asking the right questions and training these things and AI. And if you can start asking questions and training these things and saving things, because you can save it and it's learning and it's getting scary good. Like some of the creatives, both the strategy and the creative, I still think I can out duel it in a creative writing match, like with thought. But damn, coming

to an insight based on data, that is helpful. Did a research study for a client website used to study. Are you kidding? Like summarizing that and kind of extracting a few takeaways for me, like I would have taken me five days of probably like, you know, three hours a day hitting that thing. And it did it in like 30 minutes. Like it gave me some insights. It formulated some things for me. It allowed me to sort of output that human overlay to the data and the inputs that they gave me so quickly

that would have taken me days. And that's what this platform and these things do. And you've got Gronk and you've got all these other variations that are not open AI, but the day is coming. And now it's worth more than a Happy Meal. My kids showed a tear, you know, the Happy Meals around the Offert House are crazy. Those are your biggest headlines of the week. It's going to be interesting to see how TikTok plays out.

It's coming, people. It will be interesting. I can already see the memes if we get, if we've got a shutdown, you know, I don't want that to happen because it impacts a lot of small business, a lot of people, but part of me wants it for the memes. I mean, I know that's, that's not like, uh, the depression factor though, uh, of every, you know, 18 to 24 year old. And yes, I know my mom's on it too. Like everybody uses Tik TOK or a lot of people demos do, but let's be honest, it's still 18 to 24 year old. And yes, I know. My mom's on it too. Like

everybody uses Tik Tok or a lot of people demos do, but let's be honest, it's still skews younger. And that for text goes away. They're not gonna know what to do with their time. They move over to Instagram. That's kind of why I stayed on the Instagram, the IG baby. It's where it's at. I just my platform. I've been on there since 2009. Like literally when they first came out. Find me at Ryan Alford on there, by the way.

Hey, shoot me a DM. Comment on the show, good, bad, ugly, indifferent. We appreciate it. We'll see what happens. Hooters, Elon, and OpenAI, just raising that cash, baby. Cash. I'm excited about a series we got coming up on the trading cards you've been watching. We're not opening any cards today. You're going to get blown away.

Probably tease one more news episode. I'm going to share some stats that will blow your mind for how big this trading card industry is between Pokemon, NFL cards. The stock market might be going down, but the trading card investment's going up, we're actually recording the first guest this series. Got one of the hottest companies in sports cards. So little teaser there. We appreciate you for listening. You can subscribe on YouTube to see the full episode. Again, rate and review on Apple podcasts and my newsletter at Ryanisright.com. Of course, we appreciate you. We can't do this without you. And thank you for making us number one. We'll see you next time on Right About Now. to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening. Music. you you you you