Right About Now with Ryan Alford - The Week of November 10, 2023 Marketing and Business News: Elon Musk’s AI Chatbot ‘Grok’ Will Only Be Available to X Premium+ Subscribers

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to The Radcast, a top 25 worldwide business podcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. What's up? Welcome to the latest edition of The Radcast. It's Friday, November 10th, 2023. Our weekly business and marketing news. Whatever the hell else we want to talk about.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Joined by my co-host, my friend, my Kimisabe, Chris Hansen. What's up, brother? What's up, man? How are you today? Oh, if I was any better, it'd be illegal. Ha ha. I love that. I love that. I love that.

Starting point is 00:00:47 I feel like I'm high on life. Just like my friends in Ohio. I'm sure. It's Friday. Oh, yeah. Let's talk about that. Hey, I'd probably have to start somewhere else, but since I was high on life, I'm like, Ohio voted this week not to legalize medical marijuana that's already legal there recreational marijuana will go on sale december

Starting point is 00:01:12 9th in ohio dude it's coming like a wave it's coming it's coming quick i i saw this and it hit my radar and i'm like okay okay, we're business and marketing show. We do a little smaller talk here. But the business of marijuana is about to explode. And here's what caught my attention. I feel like there's these tipping points with certain things in industries and with like things changing persona. things in industries and with like things changing persona when you think about ohio at least me grew up in south carolina good old midwestern state right ohio you think conservative we're having our beers on the weekend and we're saving up for life that's might be stereotyping

Starting point is 00:02:02 but i think that's just generally i think they embrace that too hard-working culture middle america but damn we're gonna get high now so here's the thing if ohio is legalizing recreational marijuana i feel like it's this tipping point of the wave if if we were like riding going okay okay, it's coming. I think we're about right here when Ohio legalizes it. Yeah, 100%. It's saying that 2024, Florida, Nebraska,

Starting point is 00:02:35 South Dakota will have the recreational vote on the ballot as well. Yeah, then we'll be at half the states because we're at like 23, 24 states now recreationally so we'll be at 20 half the union the train has left the station it has and okay i'm not and i'm not here advocating really for or against it it's hey we're we're governed by the people for the

Starting point is 00:03:04 people by the people right whatever the people say now my my personal opinion is regulate the shit out of it make some money on it yeah yeah tax it yeah people are done people are gonna do it anyways you might as well yeah don't let my kids have access to it treat it like alcohol it seems to kill a whole lot fewer people. So let's stop overcrowding our jails with people that are selling or smoking marijuana. They might be smoking it, but they won't be selling it anymore. Who sells beer out of their house? And who's more likely?

Starting point is 00:03:47 Because the opposition a lot of these times is, oh, it's going to be, we're worried about kids. I think the dispensary that you have to show a 21 ID and up is going to be a lot more discretionary on selling to kids than the guy at the parking lot. I've never heard of a kid that's walked into a dispensary and gotten weed. But I hear of a lot of them that get it from the after school special guy. And who's regulating that market? Yeah. Laced with all the hells in it. Exactly. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:04:16 I just think it's fascinating. And it's, I think, the sign of the wave about to smash. I think we got a lot of 65-year-old men in Washington, D.C., living and guiding a lot of things that don't match up with reality today. Yes, 100%. We'll see where it goes.

Starting point is 00:04:38 And I don't even personally smoke. I did in college, but it's not about but it's some things just seem to make sense it's like everything you said you know like like you said depending what state you're in

Starting point is 00:04:50 we have guys still in jail for marijuana offenses and then other states I can walk in and buy a chocolate bar with lavender in it it's

Starting point is 00:04:58 let's just do it it financially makes sense at the very least yeah I think we should let the if someone is in jail and that's all they've like literally all they've done. No, no violent.

Starting point is 00:05:08 Like sometimes there's like these add on things. Like if someone was a violent criminal and a weed seller, keep them locked up. But, and this is what people say. He knew it was a crime at the time. So he broke the law and he's in jail. If we don't have laws,

Starting point is 00:05:23 we have anarchy. You know what? It doesn't mean the law and he's in jail. If we don't have laws, we have anarchy. You know what? It doesn't mean the law was right. Exactly. We're starting to overcome that. So anyway, we'll see where it goes. Speaking of getting hammered, hammered home. It's not just as interesting.

Starting point is 00:05:39 Hey, we like to warm you up a little bit. Hey, we got to butter you up before we give you all the the business and marketing hoo-ha we got to butter you up with some interesting maybe interesting or however you want to go but it's the holidays there's usually a lot of boozing around the holidays like it love it or hate it not saying we support it but these are facts we support the facts so there's an article out it's about the countries and the percent within the country that have had six or more drinks in one sitting over the last month. If they've had six or more drinks in one sitting, unless the percent. And I thought the U.S. was going to be higher on this list. I won't lie, but it actually surprised me because i think

Starting point is 00:06:27 of this who was number one is a fairly like kind of healthy country i think of them in the like the winter games and i don't know like everything so number one denmark with 37 percent of people in the country that can legally drink at six or more that's pretty high that's a lot that's you're leaning towards half you're closer to half than you're not exactly that's exactly what i was thinking i was like and let's all let's acknowledge the beer over there is typically like eight to ten percent per serving as well this ain't bud like next no this ain't maddie light boys no it's just like 3x what do they call those things uh gravity gravity bongs gravity beers yeah romania i can't i understand romania i think i'd be a little depressed drinking if i was there yeah 36 percent and no look if you

Starting point is 00:07:24 listen we love you. If you're in Romania, listen to the radcast. Don't mean it personally. It's just, I just don't know much going on there other than what they're really good at. Yeah. So 36%. This made sense.

Starting point is 00:07:37 The UK, 35%. I think in the UK. So just for, we all know. So I'm in our podcast studio. I've got Sawyer on the ones and twos. I've got Cameron here to my left.

Starting point is 00:07:48 There's three of us in here. If you're at 35% to 37%, it means that one of us, definitively, one of three in the whole country is having six or more drinks every month in one sitting. I take six or more drinks every month in one sitting. I wonder how big this study was because I feel like in my circle of friends, I feel like they're having six drinks or more three nights a week. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:17 It's all circles. That's why I'm like, I don't know if I trust the U.S. stats on this one. Hey, and let's be clear. There's no judging. I would, just based on beer drinking alone, I definitely fall on this one. Let's be clear. There's no judging. Just based on beer drinking alone, I definitely fall on this. No judging here. It's just surprise of the volume. Luxembourg.

Starting point is 00:08:34 Why is it America number one? We like to be the winners. America's all the way down to number 10 at only 23%. I'm good for America. I'm proud of us. 23%.eland's at number nine 24 ireland 25 would have thought ireland a little higher australia 26 belgium 28 that makes sense belgium beer that's all you think about right germany 30 luxem. We got a lot of the Western cultures.

Starting point is 00:09:06 You don't see a lot of the European Union on Japan. No China, nothing in Africa. Obviously, no Middle Eastern countries because they don't drink alcohol for the most part. Yes, exactly. I thought Japan. I mean, I've heard they can get down. Yeah, they don't even not the top 10. I thought Japan, I mean, I've heard they can get down. Yeah. Not the top 10.

Starting point is 00:09:28 So there you have it. They need to get their numbers up. I thought that was interesting for everyone out there. Hammered Homes, the name of the article. We'll have a link to it in the show notes. Moving on. Some of our marketing and business news. TikTok is phasing out.

Starting point is 00:09:46 It's $2 billion US dollar creator fund and launches the new creativity program. The creator fund was launched in 2022 to help its users derive income from their content. The fund started with $200 million and it had rapidly grown over the last three years upwards of $2 billion from which creators were paid. Platforms has announced they'll be shutting down the creator fund in lieu of a new scheme interesting choice of words

Starting point is 00:10:14 called the Creativity Program designed to help creators foster their creativity generate higher revenue potential and unlock more exciting real-world opportunities. It sounds like a way to lower how much they pay people. What do you think? That's exactly what it sounds like.

Starting point is 00:10:33 Let's cut the fees and change the name. Yeah, change the name, cut the amount, and let's give them some digital NFTs. My first thought was like, we'll give them some free courses on creating better content. Like, yeah, there's,

Starting point is 00:10:48 we're going to give them some more. We're going to give them more digital art and more emoji. You guys get extra access to special emojis. Yes. Real world opportunities. All right. Let's just see how that comes together. Look,

Starting point is 00:11:03 I commend them for doing it no you're wrong just i committed them for paying it with the creator fund i just yeah i'm cynical and a marketer and so when you change your name and you don't have numbers attached to it but you say what it used to be we'll just see about that right instagram's actually coming back out with because i got it i got a uh notification because i get i'm on the bonus real plan brother i was getting a few hundred dollars i was getting like five hundred dollars a month from that thing they shut it down like six months ago they said i noticed they're gonna put it back in place here in november december i'll be cashing

Starting point is 00:11:40 getting the big money again boy get into paypal no matter how much time or percentage exactly that's what i'll cover your kids that's how much i've been trying one post for i was gonna say it'll cover your kids prime habit for about a week cover those sports drinks for the boys exactly man that shit that stuff adds up i'm telling you just when you got four, like I do. Four boys, we go to the gas station. That's a $27 trip every time. It's like Primes.

Starting point is 00:12:11 All for some hydration. Yeah, candy and the protein bar or something. And it's like, what? $27? Did we get gas? We didn't even get gas. I am a... The Alford household is like a consumer, like a marketer's dream.

Starting point is 00:12:29 Like, head of the household. How much spending? We do it. Convenience stores can buy them with grocery stores. So if you want to be marketing to someone, you need to be marketing to my kids and my wife. It's six deep every time family the the household check like you go to the restaurant we can't get out of mcdonald's for less than 80 bucks anyway first world problems better get on that creator fund get on that tiktok creativity program bro i gotta get

Starting point is 00:12:58 over on tiktok start feeding these babies instagram is finally testing a feature to let you turn off read receipts for the DMs. That way people don't know if you've read it. Instagram is testing a new feature that allows users to turn off read receipts for direct messages. This means that even if you've read a message, the sender won't

Starting point is 00:13:20 see the scene label below it. They won't know that you've read it, so you can't say, oh, I didn't see that. I know. That's essentially what it is. I used to get people, I don't really anymore, I think people know, get enough, I think, 400 DMs a week. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:36 I would get people, I saw or you read my thing and you didn't respond. Yeah. They give you an attitude if you didn't reply. I've had that too. It's been a while i'm like yeah just because i read it doesn't mean it was worthy of a response yeah but yeah it's hard to believe you can't turn that off it's annoying on i guess you do that on text messages too i'll get those and i'll be like I'll get people that send me a text and I'll respond to them. And I'm like, I'll see that they still have that on.

Starting point is 00:14:08 I'm like, I don't like it. I have mine off. I don't, I've never been a fan of it. Like, yeah. So I welcome this edition, honestly. Yeah. I feel like it's one of those things. Couldn't they have, like, this is one of those things they've already had ready to go that they've been sitting on for probably two years.

Starting point is 00:14:25 And they're like, let's just hold on to that and make a news article and get us in the press again. Yep. We wouldn't be complete in our news edition without a mention of Elon Musk. So here we go. Elon Musk. What have we got from Elon this week? The AI chatbot GROK. G-R-O-K.

Starting point is 00:14:52 Not to be confused with Gronk. Yeah, for you New England Patriot fans. GROK will only be available to ex-premium plus subscribers. Elon Musk's startup XAI has unveiled its own chat bot called grok currently beta testing with a select group of users grok will be exclusive to x premium plus subscribers once it exits beta offering real-time access to information via the x platform Grok is touted to incorporate humor in its response, reflecting Musk's style. More details about Grok's public launch

Starting point is 00:15:31 will be expected soon, alongside reports of X selling recycled handles for $50,000 U.S. dollars. It's a good moneymaker. When your company loses half its valuation, you've got to make that money up somewhere. It's a heft moneymaker. When your company loses half its valuation, you got to make that money up somewhere.

Starting point is 00:15:48 It's a hefty price tag. Some of these articles come out, it's I always want to give the marketing spin to it. It's like until it comes out, and I know exactly what the hell it's going to do, it's hard to know. It could be the greatest thing ever. If it's like funny, entertaining, it provides value, okay.

Starting point is 00:16:07 I understand why you'd have to pay for it and be a premium subscriber. But if it's some shitty chat bot like most of them are, then I'm like, eh. You can make people pay for something that sucks. But we'll see what happens. It's more the fact that everywhere you turn, it's AI, chat this, chat GPD, bot that. Everything's getting automated. And if you want to learn from me directly, join my newsletter, ryanoffer.com backslash newsletter. Sign up.

Starting point is 00:16:39 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 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. Speaking of which, ChatCPT continues to be one of the fastest growing services ever. In less than a year, ChatCPT hit 100 million weekly users,

Starting point is 00:17:01 and over 2 million developers are currently building on the company's API, including the majority of Fortune 500 companies. Damn, why didn't we think of this? Why didn't we have generative AI as part of our business development plan? It seems so simple now. Yeah. Now that someone's done it and sold a billion dollars worth of it, it's like, damn, should have made that robot that knew how to predict things. That robot that can reply, yeah.

Starting point is 00:17:32 Yeah, knows how to essentially chew up everything that's on the internet, everything that's ever been done, and regurgitate it. And sometimes really well, and a lot of times in a way that's starting to sound all the same. Yes. A hundred percent. I think I can, I think they should come out with a test. I want to take this test.

Starting point is 00:17:54 Give me 20 things that are written by chat GPT and 20 things written by human beat, like a, well, a good writer. Like I get to name the writer because I know good writers. And I will bet you $1,000 hard cash that I could pick out 75% or more of it.

Starting point is 00:18:16 I agree. I think at this point I could too. It has a style, I feel like like that just is inauthentic. Here's what I think, you know, if you're listening, here's your value for the day. Don't use chat CBT to write.

Starting point is 00:18:34 Here's what it's really good at. It's really good at ideation, starting and research. So you can, so if you're trying to think of a marketing campaign, a business idea, and you have the start of your concept or the business, the premise, you can feed some of those thoughts and ideas into chat GPT for sharing other positioning, competitive pressures. for sharing other positioning, competitive pressures.

Starting point is 00:19:11 You can ask it questions related to that that gives you summarized information. That's a great use of ChatGPT. That's how I use it now. I'm thinking about something, and I think it's clever. Like most of the things that I think about, I think it's clever, and ChatGPT reminds me if it's not. Unfortunately, that's about 20% of it's not as clever. About 80% it's not.

Starting point is 00:19:31 I think it is. But I'll use it for research and for expanding on an idea. It might give me a few more. If I was writing a book, this is where, again, not to write the book for me, but it's sometimes it's hard to turn like an idea into multiple thoughts and a organization structure, like 10 parts. It helps me like brainstorm. I feel it's like someone else to bounce stuff off of to a degree.

Starting point is 00:20:06 Yeah, exactly. It's like having another person there yeah me and my robot friend that's going to be the iteration though someone and they've already said they're gonna you're gonna have you're gonna have storm two storm two is gonna be a little doggygy robot that's like your chat TV team friend. Literally, like my personal assistant slash pet slash whatever. And it'll take Storm 1 for a walk that he doesn't really want to do. I would like to see that. I could clone him. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:20:41 I know that's a thing. For those listening, Chris has a chocolate lab correct storm's chocolate right yes yeah chocolate yeah chocolate lab that loves to eat you'd usually hear him eating right about now grinding around in his dog bowl but he's mad at chris having his brunch yeah i don't know where he's he's probably sleeping in the other room right now. He's had his breakfast. Now he's back for his siesta. Yes. Oh, finally, today, as TV ad market stumbles, Warner Brothers Discovery restructured sales organization. I want to talk about this.

Starting point is 00:21:20 Team had this on the list. I want to talk about this because we're playing into the diversification of streaming and things like that. But Warner Brothers Discovery, it rolls off the tongue, is restructuring its advertising sales division in response to a challenging year for ad sales. The new structure will follow an agency holding company model and include agency specific teams. The company will also have executives overseeing strategic areas such as sports, digital ads, and client partnerships. This move follows similar reorganizations by other media companies like Paramount and NBCUniversal.

Starting point is 00:21:58 So here's what's happening. here's what's happening. Number one, fewer people are watching linear TV, and the ad buys have gone programmatic, which is a fancy term for video display ads or display ads that follow you around the internet. That's so interesting how our industry likes to complicate things that don't have to be complicated that is programmatic advertising a banner ad yeah banner ad that that all the programmatic means is it was bought in an auction this is the ebay of ad buying bought at auction

Starting point is 00:22:41 so that you get the lowest price possible so you're bidding programmatically which is like via a computer that's smarter and faster than us there you go your ad lesson but nonetheless you have all the it's splintered used to be okay i gotta buy a tv ad an outdoor board TV ad, an outdoor board, my print, my magazine, my mailer. I'm done. Now, should I use TV? Should I not use TV? Should I use connected TV?

Starting point is 00:23:15 Should I use a video ad network? Should I do Facebook videos? Should I do TikTok video? Should I use LinkedIn? Should I use Twitter? Should I use programmatic? Should I use display? It's gotten complex.

Starting point is 00:23:28 And fewer people are just buying straight line TV. They want a deal and they want to diversify. And that's why these big networks are diversifying and they're scrambling because it's just not. We sell a bunch of TV ads to a bunch of really big brands. But you know what I say, Chris? Hopefully it opens up TV for us. Guys like us run. We'll sneak in there and still get our 400,000 impressions cheaper,

Starting point is 00:23:52 hopefully one day. I'm right there with you, bro. Getting the power back to the people. Yes. The people and the brands. Speaking of brands, Chris, I noticed I I didn't want to say this early on, but it was like between the blue sky in the background and the vacay lounge, I noticed a little bit of a glow in you today.

Starting point is 00:24:14 I wasn't really sure what it was. And then I remembered, I think you used a certain magical code called Rad Ryan. I did. I did. In fact, I had to, I had to give the Caldera labs a try after hearing you talk about it so much and sending me selfies every evening as you apply it. I could just see the tightening in your skin. And I just was like, I need some, it needs to get me some of that. You're starting early now like i i gotta i got several years on you and you're

Starting point is 00:24:47 starting so early this is gonna pay off for you time you're my age you're gonna look 25 it's gonna save me that that 50 60 botox expense hopefully i don't know i'm just saying these circles the darkness under the eyes has never been better never been less because of icon one of my favorite products icon you literally put that on you put the skin cream on then you put the icon on then you put the good on my favorite chris and i were talking about that gives you that glow that's for at night when you go to sleep gets because it's like soaks into your. But here's the little insider tip. Maybe it's like a little cold day and you're like, skin's looking a little dry. Okay, well, you get that good.

Starting point is 00:25:32 You don't want a lot of that because you don't want to look greasy, but you get one drop of that stuff. You put that on and suddenly, boom, bam, you're glowing. That's what you get. It works. It does work. It is legit. I think I've been using four days now, the good. I did have a moment the other day in the bathroom where I'm like.

Starting point is 00:25:51 Something's different. Something's different. Yeah. Yeah. Go to calderalab.com. It's easy. It's the holidays. Look, don't be selfish.

Starting point is 00:26:01 Don't buy for you. Buy for your loved one. If you're a woman, your man needs something, this is premium luxury skincare delivered to your home. Gift time is coming. Get it now. Get ahead of the buying rush. You don't want to be waiting in line when you're going,

Starting point is 00:26:15 I have left. You don't want to be that guy. You get 20% off right now. This is Black Friday type deals. 20% off with Rad Ryan. CalderaLab.com The official skin care of Ryan Offord. The Radcast and all my friends including Chris Hansen.

Starting point is 00:26:32 You're looking pretty, boy. You're looking pretty. I'm trying. Trying to keep up. Look, guys, if you didn't listen to this week's guest episode, Jasmine Starr will blow your fucking face off. You need to go listen to that episode. She was a rock star. Intense.

Starting point is 00:26:48 Maybe the most intense guest I've ever had. And I'm telling you, I was like ready to run through the brick wall. Like I almost ran right through this glass radcast. I almost blew up my studio. I'm like, whoa. It was like Ric Flair and then a woman.

Starting point is 00:27:04 She would have, I feel like she could have done a whoo. And I. Like, whoo. She would have. I feel like she could have done a whoo. And I would not have been surprised. She was awesome. Listen to her. Business advice, social media. She's got an amazing platform for social. So hit the back button.

Starting point is 00:27:18 Go listen to Jasmine Starr. And next week, my guilty pleasure, my Clemson Tigers and the voice, I'll call him the voice of the ACC. I'm putting that moniker on him. Eric McLean, former offensive lineman from Clemson. He was a rock star and now he's a rock star for the ACC network. If you watch college football at all,

Starting point is 00:27:38 you watch any ACC, you'll see big Eric McLean. Really good guy. He's got a podcast out now doing lots of great things. Just a genuine good guy who's getting after it. Proud of him. Happy to have him on. That's next week. My Clemson Tiger.

Starting point is 00:27:56 Any final words, my friend? Enjoy your Friday. And remind everyone to check out takeofak.com. Holiday essentials. Exactly. a vacay.com holiday essentials. Exactly. Take a vacay.com. That's Chris and I's premium plant-based brand. It is the holiday time.

Starting point is 00:28:13 You want to engineer your mood, go there and look, use, I'm going to give you a little secret podcast. You'll get 20% off. I'm just going to throw that out there. Chris, use the code podcast. Get 20% off i'm just gonna throw that out there chris use the code podcast

Starting point is 00:28:25 get 20 off you can take a vacay.com you'll get premium plant-based goods right to your door and all third-party lab tested the best you can buy from chris and i appreciate you brother from the vacay loungeounge, Chris Hansen. I'm Ryan Alford from here in G Vegas. We appreciate you whenever, wherever, however you are for making us number one. We'll see you next time on the Radcast. To listen or watch full episodes, visit us on the web at theradcast.com or follow us on social media at our Instagram account, the.rad.cast. Or at Ryan Alford.

Starting point is 00:29:08 Stay radical.

Right About Now with Ryan Alford - The Week of November 10, 2023 Marketing and Business News: Elon Musk’s AI Chatbot ‘Grok’ Will Only Be Available to X Premium+ Subscribers

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