Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Cutting Through the BS on Economy Shifts, Crypto Trends, Luxury Disruption, and the Future of Business

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

SUMMARYIn today’s episode of Weekly Business news, hosts Ryan Alford and Chris Hansen explore a range of topics from personal anecdotes to significant business news. Ryan shares stories from his recent vacation, setting a relaxed tone. They discuss the ongoing California wildfires, Meta's shift in content moderation, and the appointment of UFC CEO Dana White to Meta's board. The episode also covers Toyota's investment in space exploration, Elon Musk's influence, a $13 million tuna auction, and Chick-fil-A's automation of lemonade preparation. The hosts blend humor with insightful commentary, making for an engaging and informative episode.TAKEAWAYSImpact of wildfires in California and personal connections to those affected.Changes in Meta's content moderation policies, including the removal of politically biased fact-checkers.Introduction of community-generated notes for fact-checking on Meta's platform.Appointment of UFC CEO Dana White to Meta's board and its implications.Discussion on the challenges Meta faces in rebranding and public perception.Toyota's $7 billion investment in space exploration and skepticism about its practicality.Influence of Elon Musk and SpaceX on public perception and brand recognition.The sale of a bluefin tuna for $13 million and its implications in the culinary world.Chick-fil-A's automation of lemonade preparation and debates on freshness.Evolution of food preparation and the role of automation in the food industry. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

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 cashing checks? Well, it starts Right About Now. What's up guys? Welcome to Right about now. It is January 10th, 2025, our weekly marketing and business news of the week.

I'm Ryan Alford, your host. I'm joined by Chris Hansen down in Miami. What's up, Chris? What's up, Ryan? How are you brother? Good. Happy new year again. Again.

I know. I think, can you say happy new year like more like you keep saying it all January. Is it only good like the first, you know, 10 days of January? I read yesterday. Someone said you can't say it after the seventh. I don't know. Okay. Well, I'm going to, Hey, Hey, we buck trends around here. Happy new year, wherever you are, whenever you are, however, you're listening. Coming to you from the studios here at my place called Social House in Greenville, South Carolina. That's where we do this show. I got a cowork lounge here in Greenville. If you visit this wonderful city, stop by and see us. You can cowork, you can drink, you can watch games, you can hang out, mixed use. And of of course the studio of your number one marketing and business

show on the planet is right here. So come and see us. You know, Chris, just getting back into the groove back from the old D R Dominican Republic had a nice week with the, with the fam. Wife and kids. Yep. Nicole and I had good time with the boys and did the beach thing on the DR and the resort and all conclusive and all that stuff. So, uh, you know,

a little tan. Yeah, I got a little tan, a little brown. It's funny. I didn't realize that. I know it's sort of their winter time there, but yeah, obviously the temperature is still like 85. The sun wasn't quite as strong as it normally is, which is nice. We haven't gone in January in a long time, but we had a good time. Little fun, little sun, little cocoa bongo. No, we didn't do that. We did hang out at the resort. Lots of Mexican beer. El Presidente. Hey, not a bad beer. I did kind of miss my ultra though. My craft beer in the States. Ultra. High end, make ultra. Yeah, exactly.

So, wherever you are, whenever you are listening, I hope the new year has kicked off. I hope you haven't blasted through any of your new year's resolutions yet. You know, if you're having a dry January, sorry for you. If you're, you know, working out, hope you're sticking with it. I don't know. What are all those resolutions? Has the gym been more busy for you? Yeah, it wasn't for the first couple of days, but then yesterday was out of control busy. It was packed. Yeah. So. Has to be expected. I definitely saw some new faces. Yeah.

Hopefully they stick with it, man. I hope so. I know. I just do it every, you know, I'm a four to five a week guy. You know, if you just make it a lifestyle, you gotta make it just your lifestyle. And look, some days only get 20 minutes in,

but you gotta do it. You gotta hit the heart pump. Show up. Show up. It's, uh, what we do. And I just try to make it, I don't know. I've been at it the whole way. I think it grew up with it.

I think it was thankful that my parents were kind of that way. They got in that early eighties, nineties thing with people starting to work out. So I guess it's in our blood and my sister and I have Always been kind of that workout crew So I don't have to sit the resolutions around working out what I might have to do though is set it on You know, maybe cutting back the carbs or something either dial back the carbs sometimes but I dropped like 20 LBs before the old DR trip, so I'm feeling pretty good. I feel pretty good now.

It's gonna stick with it. I think I'll stick with the carnivore diet that I like, which is just steak all the time. That's what I brought for lunch today. I'm like, just give me that steak. Steak and you know, I like some chips and stuff are carbs or rice. Yeah, it's nice.

But if I got a good steak or piece of meat, I am the true like dude, like meat and potato guy. That's how it is. We want to send our love to everybody in California and LA is impacted by the fires that are just out of control there. You obviously would pre-record this before the Friday release, but it is not pretty. And so I don't, you just never know. We take a lot of things for granted and you know, the wind meets fire over there and it is just an ugly scene. A lot of people losing homes and cars and valuables and lots of, you know, and life,

I'm sure will be taken. I don't know what the toll is exactly, but definitely want to send thoughts, prayers, and just, you know, an acknowledgement that that shit sucks. And we'll see where it lands, but it hasn't looked pretty, Chris. I know you have families been impacted. Yeah, my sister was flying back to California yesterday when it all kind of started happening from Florida And now and she lives in the neighborhood where it's all going down So I know like right before we got on the show. I got a text that they're trying to get a flight back here

To just get out of there because it's gonna be an apocalyptic, you know burn zone after this is all said and done. So definitely thoughts and prayers with everyone out there and, uh, hopefully it comes soon and soon. Yes, for sure. So everything we talk about the show is an article of some format, usually from our friends at Google. If we're being honest, you know, Google and business news, seeing what's happening. But when we want to talk about politics, we want to keep it straight down the middle as much as possible. Stay independent. It's like, because you get pushed one way or the other when you're reading news. Too far left, too far right. We want to keep it straight line.

That's why we partner with Independent Center. I was reading one of their articles was talking about the tax cuts and jobs report. And everything that's happening now was sort of the battle between Congress, left, right, all of these complex things. They're sometimes hard to understand. You hear about it. You think you should care about it, but you don't understand exactly. That's why Independence Center brings to you articles that really tell you exactly what's happening, how to interpret what the right or the left might be saying to you. You got to go to independentcenter.org. Sign up, you'll get articles, surveys, all kinds of data into your email box that's independent, that tells you what's happening in politics without the spin. Independent center.org official sponsor of right about now. Lots of random news here this week.

I think kind of lump these into two for one here with Metta slash Facebook and old, old Zucker, Mark Zuckerberg. Hey, I give credit to anybody that can change, right? We can judge him. I mean, he's one of the most wealthy guys on the planet owns one of the most, I don't know, use known platforms on, on the face of the earth. And you know, sometimes we go a little far with things. I think they say, what I say, the road to hell is paid with good intentions. So the filtering and the holding back of information that's happened, the censorship that's been

prevalent on the social media channels is being dialed back because he acknowledged himself literally that our fact checkers were politically biased. I mean, while I was saying no shit, I was applauding him. So two things can be true. It could have definitely gone too far, but I can applaud you for at least acknowledging it and making it up for it. Now it's interesting when Mark starts hanging out with all the UFC guys, which we'll get to the second part of that news. He he's

toughening up a little bit. And this isn't about, oh, who's tough and who's not, but it's like, it is we're in America and it should not be censorship. You don't have to like everything you hear is the bottom line. I hear a lot of shit I don't like, but it doesn't mean that I can tell someone not to say it or hold it back or start censoring it. And especially when you have platforms as big as this is. So they're eliminating third party fact checkers across Facebook, Instagram, and threads, replacing them with user generated community notes. Similar to what Elon is doing with X, Mark stated that fact checkers have been too politically biased and cause more harm than good.

What do you think about this? Round of applause because I remember around 2020, right? The election, then you had COVID stuff and you had all these doctors getting flagged for misinformation. Yep. It was really eye-opening honestly. That was the first time as an American

I've ever felt like, holy shit, like what is going on? Yep. So yeah, it is interesting. I mean, at that point I thought Mark Zuckerberg was a tool. But I don't know, man. The guy started competing in jujitsu and doing mixed martial arts and seems to have changed. Yeah. I mean, it's this. This is one of the notes that says the move aligns with a broader shift to the right and met his leadership and comes as president elect Donald Trump prepares to take office. How about we just say it moves instead of like being it moves closer to what is right by the American law,

not right or left. And I don't know if you've been on X, the community notes change they've done is awesome. Yeah. I mean, you real time have people fact checking, right? But it's, it's not politically biased and it's not, you're not being just shut down. I feel like that was the other part of it too, right? Is they were just censoring and shutting down accounts, completely removing your voice. Obviously the other side and other people feel like it's political pandering. And I just feel like-

When is more censorship better ever? Yeah, when is that? And I get, and even Mark acknowledged, we're going to catch less bad stuff, but we'll also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down. You know, so there are trade-offs, but there are trade-offs when you have free speech and when you have freedoms. And, you know, for the most part, we've got to live with the good and the bad. It's what makes this and more good

happens than bad when you don't censor. Right. And make it make sense. I know they've changed like, or on the topic, I just thought of this. I know they changed some other policies. You know, this is relevant to Ryan and I, we have another company called VK with hemp products. There was heavily censorship on Instagram and Facebook with those types of products, cannabis, medical marijuana. They changed policy on that too, I saw. Cause I know even when we've dealt with that, it's like, there's some really vile stuff you can look at on Instagram.

God forbid we post a sleep gummy jar. You know what I mean? And I think that's where now too, we're coming to more of a balanced approach of quote unquote censorship. Like maybe the sleep gummy is okay, but the naked girls could be censored a little more if we're gonna do anything, right?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's funny how, you know, the lines get drawn. I guess it just follows the money a lot of times. It brings me back to the whole, like, you need to be vaccinated, but also my body, my choice. It's like, all right, well, which, which, which is it, but that's, but it's better for everyone else. If, if, you know, like everybody's spinning something, you know, let's just admit it. And so let's all be able to, you know, put our spin on it and have the community notes. Like, okay, it needs that.

That's fine. But don't. I look at the community notes is like the town hall that you're giving the people a voice because to my understanding community notes, I think it works where people can vote on the fact checkers response. And based on that, that's what becomes the community note. Yeah, exactly. So it's a collective agreement, not just some third party saying no false, because I don't believe in this.

I think I'm just gonna strike this up to Mark coming to his senses a little bit here and evolving as a business leader. Along that same thing, UFC boss to join the board of Facebook. Wild. Yeah. Several appointments to Metta's board. I mean, I mean, just a quick note here. How many people still called Meta Facebook and how many people still call X Twitter?

There's been like the worst changeover in names of all time. I've never called it meta. And I tip it. And for the most part, I like the guys that, you know, have done it, but like, it just shows you that's a hard genie to put back in the bottle or to change. It's like a hard rebrand, hard rebrand. I mean, what percent of people truly call meta meta and what probably call

them, the people that work there. Probably that's it. I would've say, yeah. Cause even why isn't the app say meta? It's also Facebook. Like, I think they know. Yeah. Uh, and I think if Mark had to do that one over again, he probably would.

I don't know that Elon would cause he's kind of had at least some rationale around X for a long time. Own like X.com for like 10 or 15 years or something like that. But it's like, I don't know if that's gone well. You named X too. Yeah. Yes, he does.

I think. Soda and Seven. Nah, that was from Seinfeld. That was his favorite. That was George's favorite names. Soda and Seven. Anyway, random names and cupcake. UFC CEO Dana White, John Elkin and Charlie Songhurst.

Elkin is the head of XOR. Songhurst is an ex-Microsoft executive and they're all on the Meta slash Facebook board. Zuckerberg highlighted their expertise in AI wearables and future technologies. Dana White, a close ally of Donald Trump, transformed UFC into a global business. White expressed excitement about contributing to AI and emerging technologies. He's known for advocating free speech. White has faced controversies, including a viral exchange over anti-LGBT remarks by UFC fighters. It's like they got to throw this in there, like anything that goes. Who wrote this article? Oh, okay. Yeah, I know why. Matri Media.

All left-leaning. Meta Trump Relations. Meta's recent move signaled improved relations with Trump after a history of tension, especially post-January 2021's Capitol riot. Mark Zuckerberg donated one million to Trump's inauguration fund and had personal engagements with him. Were you aware of that?

The million dollar Trump's inauguration fund? Yes. Yeah. What do you make of that? Smart business? Yeah. Politics. I want to attribute all of it to Jiu Jitsu

and a change of heart, but I just think there's a lot more moving parts than that going on. I think so. So we can call that what it is. But at the same time, I can appreciate that he's getting some tougher points of view on the board. You know, Dana, why won't take any shit. He's going to speak his mind, you know, like it, love or leave it. And he's built a global empire with UFC. You know, probably, I don't know if it's the fastest growing, but it's one of the most popular sports in the world right now across the board.

I mean, I know soccer is always a behemoth and American football here, but UFC is kind of universally, I mean, it's blasted, you know, like, geez, boxing is kicking out of his own fucking way with cheating scandals, bad judges and who knows what, and fights take it too long to put together. Dana gets the shit out of the way. It's like, all right, here we go. It's got one. You don't have all these organizations. It's just the UFC, right? Middleweight, heavyweight, bantamweight, whatever it is. You don't have the IBF, WBO, WBC. God, all they do is get in the way of boxing. Geez. Danan is how to build business, streamline it, build a global brand, put the players or the fighters, you know, as the champions and putting them out there, their personal brands and all that stuff. So he gets it.

We'll see what kind of impact that has, but hats off to Mark. Didn't know if I'd ever say that on the show, you know? Kind of panned the metaverse for so long, which he, you know, is still not really come to fruition. That I wasn't sure that I would ever agree with anything Mark Zuckerberg did, but you know what?

We can all change. And I'm not just saying change because he came to my belief side or something like that. These are just common sense things to me. There's some politics going on here. Yes. But I think the board stuff, you know, some smart people with diverse backgrounds. I think that's the way you got to grow, right? You got to know they know they needed to change there. I mean,

people were pissed off. Everyone knew there was a lot of censorship going on. Yeah, so and we've talked about it. I think Facebook's numbers are they're not growing, right? I mean, most people are using different platforms, tick tock Instagram, Facebook's if it was my flat, they had to high percentage. Yeah, I's, if it was my company. It just needs a direction change. Yeah, I mean, they had such a high percentage, like, you know, they had 300 million users. I'm like, they got 70% of the US or something like that.

It's hard to grow on top of that base. It's only one direction to go. And with other platforms growing, you're losing attention. It's all battle for attention and time on site. And why they want time on site? Because they have ads and everything else that they're selling. So if you're in a battle and a race for it, for the mindshare of attention and people spending time on the platform,

you've got to continue to evolve that platform to what you're seeing and feeling and what's again acknowledging things that went a little too far. So we'll see. I think it will have an, I mean, these are things that will have an impact on people. I think coming back to the platform, should it come to fruition the way it's laid out here, right? Next up here, we've got Toyota is exploring rockets. Just rockets, baby. Tacomas, Tundras, rockets. No, it's EVs, batteries, not rockets.

We're out with the, okay, no gasoline. We're going to electric. Nah, we're going straight the out. Okay. No gasoline. We're going to electric. No, we're going straight to rockets, baby. They announced a $7 billion investment in interstellar technologies. A Japanese startup developing orbital rockets, expand mobility beyond earth and compete with companies like Elon Musk, SpaceX. The future of mobility shouldn't be limited to just earth or just one car company for that matter.

So Toyota stated at CES this past week, the start of the startup that they bought it's conducted, conducted seven launches of its suborbital MOMO, not FOMO, MOMO rockets reaching space for the first time in 2019. It says, plans include developing the zero ADECA rocket lines to deliver satellites into orbit. Hey, they want to get in on that government money, right? That's what this sounds like. And, you know, they don't want to base us being the only one launching rockets into. I mean, everyone's launching rockets. We're like, what are we launching? Where are we going? Are we all going to be riding in rockets soon? Because I'm a little confused. Yes, it says, it, Tor was moving to space technologies reflects growing interest among automakers to

diversify into emerging industries like space exploration. Yeah, but like, how do you were really going to space? Like you hear about like, like, a hand Richard Branson and like Jeff Bezos and his friends? Yeah. The investment is a strategic step to compete in Japan's growing private space market and on the global stage with companies like SpaceX. I don't know if this is just PR and like,

I mean, they're obviously making real money. I mean, some billion dollars. This is my question. Yeah. Cause they have a quote here, right? We're exploring rockets too, because the future of mobility shouldn't be limited to just birth or one car company for that matter. Okay, well then why are our aeronautical and airplane companies making this? Like why is

it our car companies? Why isn't Boeing announcing this? You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. Not that I'm sure Boeing is working with companies like X and contracting and whatnot, but it's just like, and contracting and whatnot. But it's just like, are any of us looking at rockets as mobility in our near future? No, not in our lifetime, buddy. Probably. Even if it was, how many people like, yeah, dude, let's go. Where are we going? Mars? Yeah. This is not a consumer news bit here. It's like business. Like it's interesting, though. And it just shows you. So the influence of Elon too, with what he's doing with SpaceX and all that. Like they're just like, I want to get it on that.

They don't want to lose the PR war either. If all the news cycle, you know, even when Elon's not talking about Tesla and EVs, SpaceX is in the news. And so it's mind chair again, attention chair, brand chair. And yeah, there's been a real money on real technology and real So it's mind chair again, attention share, brand share. And yeah, there's been a real money on real technology and real rockets, but this stuff is not going to impact probably for the next 20 years.

So it matters, but this is, this is the news. Yeah, dude, look at my Prius. We're building rockets now too, bro. Yeah. Okay. Somebody sitting in a room somewhere going, look, we got all these articles written about the rockets. You know, that's the, that's the wind right now. Lots of zeros though on that, that check they're writing. Speaking of lots of zeros, massive tuna sold for 1.3 million at Japan

auction. 1.3 million. I need to start fishing, man. I need to get that big rod out. I got to start fishing. A 600 pound bluefin tuna sold for 1.3 million at Toyosu. Toyosu Market's first auction of 2025. It was made by the Ondera Group, a Japanese company operating sushi restaurants and other businesses. It businesses a lot of sushi man 600 pounds bluefin, but that must be some expensive stuff like it better be tasty. I would might have a little that Will bite it at 1.3. I feel like I've tried it before Somewhere I'm at that bluefin tuna, but I don't know if it's this special place You know that like well, they're saying it's's a cool place. Star restaurants and definitely some fancy.

Because my question is, does the tuna taste better if it's. 600 pounds versus 300 pounds? I don't know. It gives a one point three million dollar tuna tastes better than a six hundred thousand dollar tuna. Would you know in a taste test? Yeah, just like wine, like light them up, $1,000 bottle, $500 bottle? I would guarantee you people could taste the difference.

There's probably, you know what I mean? It's like you and I drinking coffee and there's people like, oh, you can't taste the difference in the beans. Am I going to be frowned upon for having rice and soy sauce on this? Yes. You put wasabi on this, you're going to roll the rice out. You're like, oh, American.

Is this like the equivalent of putting like A1 on your steak? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't even do that. I don't do that. I do. Oh, you do? You're A1 guy? Not in a, not in a, not in a like Ruth Chris or something, but- Because they won't give it to you. Yeah, they'll be like, get out of here.

Get out of here. I don't like to kill the, like, I put a little salt, pepper, some seasonings, different things on the merit, like on the outside of the steak, like the char. But then I don't really want anything else. You know, maybe butter, like I know that's the Ruth Christine, but butter, patty on the-

Just depends on the cut and how it's prepared. I mean, you know, I get a, you know, cheap steakhouse, like old school Ryan's Quincy steakhouse. They may listen to you. Yeah, I might want some A1. Give me some 57 on that. Heinz 57 ketchup and mustard mixed together, whatever it is. It's their secret sauce.

Yeah, whatever. Every secret sauce is a combination of ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise mixed with different ratios and vinegar. It's like, oh, here we have the Heinz 57. Barbecue just has more, more mustard than ketchup. Yeah, exactly. Secret sauce. What is no secret sauce here for the 1.3 million bluefin. And in our automation story of the week, And in our automation story of the week, Chick-fil-A is moving to a factory that automates the squeezing of their lemons, saying they're going to save 10,000 hours of work from the workforce and a lot of fingers that get smashed up squishing those things.

And Chris and I had the debate before the, the show, is it still considered fresh squeezed if it's not done by a human? I guess fresh still means it's a fresh squeezed lemon, no matter if it's a robot, a machine or a human, you know, but I mean, if you're not, the blood, tears of squeezing those things with your hand, you know?

Yeah. That human energy love isn't going. I will say Chick-fil-A has got some good lemonade now. Like they have great lemonade. And we also said, I'm impressed it's not a concentrate. I'm impressed that they're actually squeezing lemons. Yep. So fresh lemons, water and sugar. And even that diet lemonade is pretty good.

Splenda or whatever. I'm craving it now, dude. I might need to make a run after this. Want to meet me and Ryan's doctor. Be like, hey, brother, let's make a quick stop at Chick-fil-A. He's going to love that. You get the diet lemonade. You know, really order in sugar water right in front of me, dude. Oh, you know, we've already talked about how they pulled the wool over your eyes. You know, Chick-fil-A's fooled everybody and thinking that's like the the healthy choice for the kids. Still french fries and fried chicken, but you know, it's Chick-fil-A baby. So it's gotta be good. Yeah. But we believe in God. So, you know,

they're like, yeah, doing God's work. And I do love Chick-fil-A. I like to, I like the people there. I like the brand had their former CMO former CMO on the show in our weekly interview episode. And good guy. But no more squeezing the lemons by hand. Just evolution here, Chris. Everything changes. The robot's coming. It's coming.

Take note. Yes. Take note. We're always fired up here on the show. I think our sponsor, Exponent, X marks the spot for energy, plant-based, all the good stuff, none of the bad stuff. They do fuel Ryan Alford and right about now. So we appreciate them. Check them out at drink exponent on Instagram and their website. That's the feed. Find them and you will thank me. It tastes healthy. It tastes like, you know, we're talking about the natural lemon flavor. Their flavors taste like the flavor you would think it would. It doesn't taste artificial. That's all I like about them. It, it feels healthy. It's a clean energy and all the best products that go into the ingredients. So appreciate the exponent.

Appreciate them. That's all we got for this week. Send our love to California. Let's get that shit taken care of. Chris, any final thoughts? Ever have a great weekend, kick off the year to a great start and hit the ground running. Chris Hansen There we go. Hey, stick with those resolutions, whatever they are, just stick with goals. Get your goals together. Let's make 2025 the best

year yet. The best is yet to come on this show in life and in general, be positive, stay safe, look out for what another. I appreciate Chris Hansen. I appreciate you for listening to this show. We know you have choices. Thank you for making us number one. Ryanisright.com. You'll find all the highlight clips, links to our sponsors and links to social media. We'll see you next time or right about now.

This has been Right About Now with Ryan Ulford, 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.