Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Trump Inauguration News, Cryptocurrency Trends, and Amazon NOT Prime

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

In today’s episode, hosts Ryan Alford and Chris Hansen explore the latest in business and marketing news. They kick off with a discussion about the upcoming presidential inauguration and its potential implications for the business world. They spotlight the attendance of high-profile billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, examining how their presence underscores the event's significance.The conversation then pivots to cryptocurrency, where Chris shares expert insights into market trends and the growing optimism surrounding crypto's future. The hosts also analyze recent changes in the banking sector and Starbucks' controversial new policies, blending thoughtful critique with a light-hearted tone. Throughout the episode, Ryan and Chris maintain a dynamic and engaging dialogue, offering listeners both information and entertainment.TAKEAWAYSCurrent business and marketing news as of January 17, 2025Significance of the upcoming presidential inaugurationAttendance of influential billionaires at the inauguration and its implications for businessThe relationship between politics and business leadershipDiscussion on cryptocurrency trends and market sentimentImpact of political changes on the cryptocurrency marketInsights into the banking sector and skepticism about reported profitsStarbucks' policy changes regarding restroom access for non-paying customersBroader societal challenges reflected in business practicesEvolving retail trends and consumer behavior, including sizing inconsistencies in clothing 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 our weekly business and marketing news of the week here on January 17th, 2025.

I'm joined as always by my good friend, Chris Hanson. What's up, brother? What's up, Brian? How are you today, bro? Good. I'm good. Always getting right. Always right here in good old Greenville, South Carolina, home of the Swamp Rabbit Trail that we're on here at Social House, my company, the best coworking lounge in Greenville. If you're

in Greenville, South Carolina, give me a shout out. Just Google Social House. We've got a social lounge and club and hang out and cowork. Mixed use space, it's where our studio is here in the beautiful downtown heart of Greenville, South Carolina. You know, I don't give Greenville enough love. Trying to do that a little bit more. It's a great town, come visit.

You know, everyone else does. So we love you. Come on, we'll break some tour, more tourism dollars to the, to the city. It's a beautiful place. Come see the bridge, come see the green trees, the foliage, and, you know, stop by and see us at Social House. We love our hometown. What's up, brother? What's cooking this week? You know, just still getting back in that new year's rhythm, but doing good. Yeah. New years. Have we got an inauguration coming up on Monday? Can present Trump. It's a pretty unique thing. Like, is this, is it, it was like one other time.

I forget. I think I read this a while back. I should have my history better. I know, but we're in between like presidents, like elected, not elected, elected in office. Like it's a pretty unique situation, right? Yeah. I don't know. I can't think of anything. It's happened. Some random president that I should remember. Someone's going to give me some schooling over that. Yep. But Trump will be back in office. Whoever's asleep at the wheel will get out and, uh, we'll, we'll get on with this, with this thing. Talk about policies, not about elections and everything else. So look, the, uh, we do have part of the show notes cause I thought it was pretty interesting,

like all the business related stuff that's happening in and around the inauguration. Some of the things, and that's what you're going to see. So it's going to be pretty loose. Chris and I are going to kind of flip flop on a few topics as we opened up the playbook here on right about now, we're going to talk crypto. We're going to talk the impacts of the inauguration, financial news, inflation, the inauguration, financial news, inflation, some store closings, the impact of that, and a few other topics that we'll get into. But we'll start right off the top, the inaugurations on Monday. And I was fascinated on my Eucharist, just like the overall list of attendees. Like, it's powerhouse, man. I know that a lot of important people show up for every presidential election, but there's a divide, a substantial business flair, business aroma from this inauguration with the people

that are going to be there. I may give you the list to get your reaction here. So Which billionaires will attend other than Elon Musk? Well taste Tesla SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will be there his net worth is 423 billion we have CEO Mark Zuckerberg who we talked about last week 205 billion net worth Amazon founder Jeff Jeff Bezos, 232 billion. Lots of bees flying around here. Damn, dude. We'll attend. And so Mark, Jeff, and Elon are going to be seated together on the platform alongside Trump's cabinet. CEO Sam Altman of OpenAI will also be, I love

this man. I'm just going to tell you as a business guy, I haven't always agreed with all of these people and you can call it politics, pandering, whatever you want. I like what it signals for business and for what it and unity on some level, you know all The other side and what's been happening last four years they painted this picture of unity coming in but it's been anything but and as polarizing as I can admit Maybe Donald Trump was at one time or another I think he learned and I think he's bringing a lot of powerhouse people together. A lot of people are excited about business and it's time to get down to brass tacks and make America do it business again, big time.

So I love this. I don't know what you think about it. I dig it. I mean, I'm Elon. I like what he's doing. You know, obviously my whole thing, I was telling someone earlier today, we need people with business experience. And I think this is being talked about a lot more where we have too many lawyers in politics, right? We got too many teachers or whatever.

All I know is- Yeah, career politicians. Right. No one's worked in the private sector and ran a business. Therefore, why would you be in charge of handling a budget or any type of management if you've never managed anything in your life? So I love all these business guys. You know, Zuckerberg, I'm glad he's had an about face supposedly, right? Yep. It doesn't matter if it's genuine or not. He's removing censorship. That's good. And you want, I mean, these are the arguably the largest companies on the planet with the most influence and power.

I want them to be in alignment with our president, you know, yeah, anything for national security interests. Right. We, like you said, yeah, the cohesiveness 2020 was very, you know, big tech versus Trump, it felt like right. Or even censorship when it came to something like COVID, for example. So it wasn't necessarily just politics, right. But I like seeing all these guys, man, I think, you know, especially, you know, me being time I spent Houston, someone like Tillman for Tita, like I've seen what he's built there. You know, he's owner of the Rockets, hotel owner. He wants to do casinos. The guy's a business guy.

He's experienced. He was big on TV shows. Um, so it's like people have track records. These are the type of people that I want making decisions. Yeah. Smart business people, you know, that have put aside maybe their differences. I mean, freaking Mark Zuckerberg is going to be hosting a black tie event like Monday night. Yeah. Bezos and Zuckerberg, their companies have both pledged a million dollars to Trump's inauguration fund again, call it politics, call it pandering, whatever you want to call it.

It helps America that these people are getting along and you can play the fiddle, all the rich Richard on that. I'm sorry, but we want it. It don't always work from the bottom up. You know, I know that a lot of people like to trump that pun intended. Uh, and I'm just here to tell you that there's a balance in all of this, but we need innovative smart business people being a part of key decisions and removing of key decisions and removing friction and tension internally. It doesn't mean everybody has to always agree, but we want the smartest minds talking more about policies

that help America and America's people rather than in fighting. That does nothing. That's no good for anyone. Everyone's playing a game, but at least now we're all playing the same game. Right. Yeah. It's called, let's all get ahead.

You know, it's called America winning, you know, and like you always say, high tide raises all ships. Right. So, yup. Yeah. I'm liking where this tide is going. We've got to see it in action. So nobody's, nobody's waving the flag of victory here

like that every problem is solved. That's not what we're doing. I'm just saying I like the direction and the unity that I'm seeing from a lot of smart people. That's what it comes down to. Well, smart people. They're a lot of important things for business. I run multiple business.

I know how hard that shit is. It's hard. You got to be smart. You got to be lucky. Sometimes you got to, you know, know how to ride the waves and do all those things. But it takes real chutzpah to manage a budget, manage a company, manage people and people that have done at the highest level having say and having influence and having, you know, like we can all play, I mean, you can play the victim card all you want. Oh, there's rich. I mean, we can do that.

But I think the upside here is good for all Americans on the whole. If you choose to see it that way, Country singer Carrie Underwood will perform. You know NFL, she's done been doing the old Carrie Underwood. She's done it. She everywhere. Who knew? American Idol. Now she's doing NFL football, singing at the inauguration and not, not to be outdone the village people look hey all people baby we'll we'll do a YMCA it was a Trump rally staple they'll be performing at multiple inaugural events I wonder if they'll play YMCA no Oh, no doubt, baby. Yeah. There'll be a YMCAing it up. That's, that song stood the test of time, I guess. Yeah. That's like theme songs. Yeah. I know they tried to get him to stop playing it. Yeah. Rallies. So, I mean, as related. So okay.

Let's give you some action. So stuff here. Get in with crypto Chris, our new name for Chris. Yeah. I look, I'm a marketing guy. I like to give everybody kind of a name, you know, this one may or may not stick, but we may or may not have a jingle made. But what are the impacts?

OK, Trump's coming off. What's the business impacts? We're going to talk about a few of those. I think starting with crypto, I'm officially back on the train to been off the train for about four years. You can align that with certain things or not, but more just the reality of not wanting to keep up with it every day and it seemingly kind of fluttering.

But the game's back on. Talk to me, Chris, about what you're hearing, what you're seeing. You know, I know we've got some headlines related to that, but what's cooking on the crypto front? Yeah. Crypto Chris in the house. I think the main, the two biggest things probably that were mentioned, right. Is Trump's inauguration.

Trump is vocally, you know, pro crypto, the crypto community is a huge supporter of Trump. Um, so just naturally the sentiment is very positive around that. And then you have Trump also basically firing, he's stepping down and resigning. I think it's Gary Gensler, the SEC head who is not a crypto guy, not a fan of crypto, very stringent policy. So he steps down the day of the inauguration. So that also is a good sign.

So a lot of assumptions there, right. And then, you know, we talked a little bit before we were talking about XRP. You know, word is XRP will be handing a lot of the digital payments for a lot of the major institutional banks here, probably this year. And I think you were talking about that's went up quite a bit. I don't hold on the XRP anymore. Oh, it does. I'll stop there to just give you a little XRP update. Hey, XRP crowd, some love. They're freck, they're loyal.

They are a loyal bunch and I'm going to name one. I'm going to give him credit. Callan, he's a amazing, talented, uh, creative guy. That was on my team for a number of years. He's independent now, like all those good guys do. So, but he told me that XRP, he's one of the fanboys. Oh my God. He would talk to me for hours about XRP and all this stuff. And look, he had me at hell. I was just like, cause I was trying to get into it. This is three or four years ago. And so I bought some and sold some did all that. Made a little, little coin, but then it's been kind of like everything else with the policies, you know, kind of been a little flat line, just kind of like not doing

going up a little going down a little all that shit. But nonetheless, when I got back in the game, you know, three or four months ago, I went heavy with XRP sub a dollar, like seventy seven cents, cents, somewhere in there. And let's just say it's, I think it's pressed at three bucks a day for the first time or it's going over. It's pumping and all, like Chris said, all the metrics, all the stuff behind it's pretty solid. So this is not financial advice. Consult your financial advisor, banker, a rabbi, priest, whoever you, whoever your wife, your significant other, your husband, whatever, whoever, whenever.

But this, we give our, this is an opinion show. We do share what we do sometimes for good, sometimes for bad, you know, if you need to know what not to do with your wife, I can tell you that. But, you know, but on the crypto front, XRP is pumping and a shout out to Callan for that advice back in the day. Cause that's why it is. Why can't I jump back in? I knew the, you know, a lot of the details behind it and it seems to be validated. Most people in the know think five, 10 plus over the next 12 months. So there's my XRP spin and you know, it is professional gambling. So only a bet which you can afford to lose is what I would say. That'd be my advice.

Which also there was word that the banks, many of the major banks will soon be announcing that they can be custodians of your cryptocurrency holding. So if you were, this is probably for your older people, right? That don't understand technology as much. But for example, if you want to own Bitcoin, I'm sure the banks will have it where you can even purchase Bitcoin through your bank and they'll be the custodian and they'll hold it for you. So I think as far as mass adoption,

that's a step where this is now easily accessible to everyone that uses a bank. So, good news. Yes. And so crypto news, seek your financial advice accordingly. But I would say put in what you can afford to lose. And I think it's definitely safer than college football gambling at this point. Better return. cause I will say you don't see the complete like, okay, a dollar one day, zero, the next swings. Yeah. I don't, I don't see that. Yeah. If we see a lot of sense, you know, it's, it's kind of a fun, like 10% or down 10% within a week. You know? Yeah. It's more, it's still a little, a more volatile and the swings are a lot greater than the stock market,

but it's more in line with the stock market than it ever has been as far as the percentage of swings. You just don't see like, I remember four or five years ago, you'd see 3000% swings in a day. Now today, like your biggest gainers might be up 40 or 50%. And I'm not saying that's not significant. That is significant, but it's not 4,000%. Like, like five years ago, it was a, and it might be a lot of percent for six hours. Yeah. It drops back down. So

for six hours. Yeah, it drops back down. So just depends how aggressive you want to be and how involved and active. But exactly. And so cryptos on the upswing. I did see, you know, inflation, the numbers were so so so interest rates were probably going to hang tight. And we like to keep it on the positive end. This isn't meant to be down or stuff. It's been it's been it's really meant to be more WTF. This is I'm a business and marketing guy,

but I'm not a financial like planner expert. Like I don't pretend to be like we're going to bring. We bring you knowledge and articles and things and some opinions. So, but with that said, here's where I start to go. Hmm. And just saw the news JP Morgan just posted record annual profits as major us banks thrive in the final quarter of 2024. JP Morgan's net income soared 50% to more than $14 billion in the fourth quarter as the bank's profits and revenue easily beat Wall Street forecasts. Other major banks reported better banner earnings for the year. So we've

had a so-so business year. We've had a high interest rate year and the banks have banked it. Hmm. I just went. What do they say? There's smoke. It stinks and it gets in your eyes. There's usually a fucking fire somewhere. I it just smells to me. You know, like there I I'm sorry that I'm cynical, but I am.

And so when it feels like it's been a mediocre year and the real estate market sort of floundered and no, I'm, you know, I'm not the biggest defender of real estate either. But like, but I would say the banks making all this money just doesn't smell right to me. What says you? It seems just doesn't make sense. Right. When interest rates are high, everyone's kind of tight, running lean.

And then it almost makes me think of that huge chase scandal member when everyone was hacking the ATMs or they could deposit a check for a hundred thousand and pull out 20 and they really had no money. It's almost like, do they do stuff like that on purpose to write it off and like, you know, claim losses on the earnings? Yeah. That literally ran through my head, which is crazy, but- Emotional damage. That's where I go.

I just think in a society that we're in, we should all look at it in question. Does that make sense? When I mean, banks were, I don't know. I just, I don't like it. I'll say that. I'm not a fan of the banking system. We'll leave it there. We'll give that comment a ding because I think that just say my I'm my intuition is normally right for good and bad. Unfortunately, and I think this is what we should be hearing related to us in this. That's what happens. I think when the banks go up, I think it's that for everyone else,

unfortunately. I'm not a bank hater. That's our friends that are bankers. I think it's an inverse relationship. Yes. Inverse. It, what's good for them. Isn't always good for us, especially fees. But now, Hey, they don't have to make money on fees. Just all these interest rates that are so favorably in their favor. Anyway, we'll leave it there. So impacts from Trump, we've got the market, you know, inflation hanging around, unfortunately, which is helping the banks. Uh, I saw this, that was interesting. Comes from our good friends at CNN. Starbucks ends its open door policies.

I didn't know they still had this. So Starbucks ends its open door policies. Starbucks has introduced a new code of conduct for customers. I didn't know you could actually do that. I don't think they start doing that. You know, code of conduct for my clients. Ending its open door policy that allowed non-paying individuals to use restrooms or hang out in cafes.

Maybe that'll boost my cowork business. You know, they can't hang out at the Starbucks. They're not drinking coffee anymore. Uh, the policy aims to prioritize paying customers and enhance the cafe experience. Wow. I think they actually wrote that in print. Kind of wild.

Yeah, exactly. Go figure. It shouldn't every policy do that. I mean, it's even as you keep going, it's like, you can tell they're targeting a certain demographic that they, that, that problems that everything swung too far. Just like old Zuck getting in line, like, you know, and it's the, it says the open door policy face challenges. No shit.

Oh, when you started denying people the bathroom they've been using for the last 12. No, it's more that the open door, it's face challenges. That's why they've changed it. They said, with non-paying customers, homeless homeless individuals and those seeking shelter or restroom access. It caused tension among employees and distracted from paying customer experiences. I mean, it's like, did you not see that coming? Uh, yeah. And I get it.

You gotta go to the bathroom, but it's a business. Sorry. I've had been there. And you know what I normally do? I'll go buy a cup of coffee or I'll go buy a cheeseburger. I'll go use the bath. You know, like, those kind of like your duty there. It's not their duty to run a business, have a bathroom for you to use it. Sorry. And yet neighborly and nice and all that. And if you know your local and if you're, if you're giving them patron is throughout

the week and they know you and you stop in and you had the emergency, okay, fine. You know, of course, but like same time, it's not a public restroom. It's a place of business. So a band says new rules and incentives. Bands include panhandling, vaping, discrimination, and outside alcohol consumption. I'm just picturing a bunch of like homeless guys drinking beers, like pan at the table. Yeah. Sitting at the table listening to, uh, in the cherry ice vape.

It's like, yeah, this could be a great SNL skit. Play in one of those songs that's so, you know, typical coffee house with the smell of the coffee. Training will be provided to employees to enforce the rules. I mean, I'll be honest. There's a Starbucks in my neighborhood. There's homeless people in my neighborhood. And for the most part, it's the same people I see them every day. They, they go in, but I'm in my mind, when I read this, I'm thinking Portland,

San Francisco, Starbucks, bread and butter home locations, right? Where, cause this isn't happening in the Starbucks that I go to. Yeah. No, not, not really the ones I do either, but I'm not in a big metropolis city. And look, I'm not hating on homeless people or people that use it. This isn't a hate bash on any of them. It's just more of the, I don't know, the common sense of business and what and like your private business, you're allowed to refuse customer service and yeah. And like, you're not running a public bathroom. Like that's not their job. And they're not beholden to that. So

and anyone who's owned a business with a bathroom knows you already know wants to clean it anyways. And now you've got a bunch of non paying customers using it. That's I mean, that is going to cause disruption to your business. Yeah. And this is where I think we're getting like rid of some common, like some things have crept in that are not, you, you know, great for business, not competent, not good for paying customers, not good for. Overall, another one would be Amazon ending its try before you buy program. We did that.

Yeah. It's a, it's moving to Tinder. Sorry. It's all Tinder, it's moving to tender. Sorry. He told Tinder. Had to go there. Yeah. Uh, Amazon ends try before you buy program. Can't have that milk or you buy the cow, uh, launch and closure. Amazon launched the, these are the the dates Amazon lost program in 2017. It'll phase it out at the end of this month

It allowed prime customers to try up to six apparel items at a time for a week Before deciding what to keep in return. I they just wear it go to the event and send it back reason for ending stated by the customers prefer a broader selection of items and faster delivery speeds growing lines on AI powered features like virtual try on personalized size recommendations and improve side charts. Size charts. I mean, they didn't say what we know to be true, which is too many people

truly trying before they're buying. I know that at Nordstrom, bro, people would come, this was back in the Ed Hardy t-shirt days, come in and buy like $120 at Hardy t-shirt on a Friday and then come back Sunday with like literally makeup and like cologne. And I'm like, Sunday with like literally makeup and like cologne. And I'm like, you're right. That's exactly what people are doing. And I think to be fair to Amazon, their sizing is all over the place. They need to improve the size charts.

I hope they did. And I know a lot of it was cause you had products being manufactured in Asia and they're smaller than most Americans. Yep. You ever order like your normal sized dress shirt on Amazon and it's for like a child? Oh yeah.

It's like a kid's XL. It's usually child, look, I mean, you don't, I have a, we have a full episode of me talking about size issues as a six foot or 70 pound man. I bet you. Dude. Yeah, bro. Either I get the Bermuda cut off the, you know, or, yeah, yeah, I've, uh, I've gone

through that. I, you know, I, I'm XL double XL slim, you know, like that I'm a weird size anyway, cause I don't have a gigantic fat stomach, but I'm broad shouldered. So unless it's a, you know, a muscle fit or something like that, it's out to hear, you know, a foot wider than I am. And so, Oh God. And you know, I think the Asian size is not the standard you get an eight. I get an XL men's made in Asia.

My eighth grade son can't wear that thing. Yeah. So I can't get it over my head. You know, it's a nice medium. I can't pull that off. But yeah, the sizing is a big issue. It's not universal. I knew that Asian triple XL. Yeah. I'm like, I'm like five X in the Asian XL. I don't know why. I mean, you gotta really dig to find it out.

You have to go to like their little click down link and then it'll tell you, you know, Oh, our XL is men's whatever, but maybe they improve that. But I, I have to totally agree. I think the majority of it is people buy stuff and return it. And after they were, you know, you get the they do. And I think here's what I'm gonna say. I'm gonna pick a fight with Amazon. I mean, I like him overall. I really do. Jeff. I love you, man. Jeff Bezos, call me. We'll have you on

the show anytime you can talk about any of this. But but I'll say this. Here's my bigger problem with Amazon. Keep get rid of the tribe for you by thumb anyway. So totally fine. Here's where I have a bone to pick. If you're going to be two days shipping, or you're going to tell me that you will have this tomorrow or Friday within the when you go to buy it That shit better be there nine out of ten times Let's just say I've ordered four or five things the last month

Based on okay. I don't want to go buy it locally because I don't need it today But I need it tomorrow or the next day And it tells me I bought this camera case You know we got productions do and you know friggin run an agency here I needed a rig for one of the cameras and I needed it Friday Ordered it last Wednesday. It said be there Friday You just casually get these emails on Friday up Not going to come today. It'll be there to you on Tuesday. And let's just say that used to be one out of every 20 things you'd order. Okay.

Not going to always get it right. I'm reasonable, not the unreasonable customer, not that guy that thinks you're going to get perfect every time, but it's good to be like three, four out of every 30 to 40 percent of the time we are not hitting the date. And this isn't weather delays. This isn't we got seven feet of snow on the ground here in South Carolina. And I know there's no elsewhere, but you know, and I'm not expecting it the same day or even overnight. But when you tell me you're going to have it that day and I'm planning on it, you got

to get that shit right more than you get it wrong. And it's getting bad. Like two days, no longer two day prime. You bought the prime. I pay the prime fee for the guaranteed two day and it ain't guaranteed two days anymore. I was literally reading about this like two days ago and a ton of people complaining about it and exactly what you just said. And I don't know if it's, I don't know if they did. I think it was someone saying they were going to raise the price

of prime maybe. Yeah. Well, fine. You can do that, but here's what's happening Amazon and it's a slippery slope. You have learned, you have earned trust with buyers like me, because you've gotten this way more right than you've gotten it wrong over the years with the two day or guaranteeing, you know, one day or three, you know, telling you the day, you got it right 90% of the time, but your brand starts eroding trust real damn fast. When you start getting this wrong more than you get it right. And it will have an impact. So be careful. And you know, it's happening.

People are realizing, if I have to wait more than two days, like, I don't really need this shit that, or I'll just go to the store or here's what's happened. Chris there, Jeff, listen carefully. Or here's what's happened, Chris. Jeff, listen carefully. You're not going to like this one. This is even worse. I'm going to walmart.com app. It's been an awful lot. I spent more on the Walmart app in the last month that I have in the last two years combined. Because I, we buy, look, my wife and I are both high level positions, multiple companies.

She's a principal at a middle school working her ass off. We don't, we, we rely on these services, you know? And so Walmart has all these, the, the, the retail footprint. I'm getting shit same day and gladly paying for it. And so it's eroding trust and you're going to a competitor. So be careful. And now look, they're doing billions of dollars. They're not going out of business. That's the way Ryan offered to say, all I'm saying is be careful. Yes.

The, the big ones fall hard. I've watched it real fucking hard. You've got people now where I've saw this last week, you know, showing alleged proof, right? Of Amazon marking up prices right before their sales and then marking down to basically all they totally do that. 100%. Yeah.

And I could, it's a little shitty, but like, I can even like as a business owner, like, okay, fine. Well, it's like your choice marketing, right? It's kind of like, all right, dude, you guys want to play that game. Fine. But at least you're going to play it. Come through on the two day shipping. Exactly. Or the, if you tell me three day, like that's my problem is they're, they're telling me, like if I, let's say it was a Tuesday and they're saying it'll be to you Friday. They're just saying coming to you Friday because they do that now. It says prime. That's not today. It's three day. But I okay. But I know I'll get it by Friday because I need that

shit this weekend and you don't get it to me till Tuesday or Monday. That's a problem. Especially if it's not one out of 10 times, it's three out of 10, four out of 10, which is what's happening now. So I know people are listening and shaking their head on this one because I can't be the only one. It's they're eroding some trust with me. You're definitely not the only one. And so it, I'm, and I'm a forgiving, reasonable guy because I run business.

I know how it all works. Like I get it. I'm not expecting perfection, but you got to get it right. More than you get it wrong or you need to fix your date system. And every one of those is not related to snow in Kentucky. I'm sorry. You know, I get to the time of year there's trial. I mean, look, there's hurricane.

There's always a weather issue. So we can use that in the 10%, but it can't creep to 30 or 40. Or you need to send me a damn note. How about this, Chris, send me a note that we told you Friday, they have all the AI, they have all the money, all the tech, send me a note, the moment you know, that's no longer going to happen. Like you told me it was going to happen. Like you told me it was going to happen and you can cancel the order or keep it. Right.

Would you proceed or cancel? Because part of the decision in buying the product was determined on when you were going to get it. True. I'm on a soapbox on this one, man. Because but I think it's real. It is like, and look, I deal with this too. I hate it.

If I tell a customer, I want, I want to do what I say I will do, or I want my people to do it. And we don't always have that, you know, happen. And when I don't, I hate it, but I got to own up to it. But not what Amazon doesn't do anything. They just send you a note the day you're supposed to get it. Usually at nine o'clock at night where you can do nothing else. You're paralyzed.

I'm expecting it Friday. The deliveries come so damn late in the day now that you're still hoping for. It's this seven. I'm sitting there with my wife. One of us might be expected package and we're still holding out hope at like eight 15 because them to give them credit Those fuckers will show up, you know 830 you might can still get it and we're still holding out hope and in the tracking will still say on time on delivery Whatever it is and then about

957 so I'm like halfway asleep watching TV We're sorry to inform you. This will be there on Tuesday. Thank you. In and out. No, you know, like no ability to, it just says you will now get it Tuesday. It doesn't say you can cancel or doesn't say you can do anything. And I know on the back end, they're good about it.

Like I could cancel it once it got here and they'll refund my money, but you counted on it. You know, you assumed it and they got you my money. But you counted on it, you know, you assumed it. And they got to all the way. No let down every time for sure. And so it's a. They've built like this is a bank account withdrawals and deposits. They got a big they've they've come through way more.

But we're getting to a point of where I didn't think I'd ever be with them with eroding those deposits of withdrawals of trust. Shame. I got to say about that shame. I need that toilet paper to arrive on Friday, like they said it would. We got problems at the Alfred House. We got six dudes in the house. I mean, you know, six people, five dudes. We need some TP.

I mean, talking about TP, but like, you know, but like, yeah, sometimes I'm doing this, you do this. Hey, got an event on Saturday night. You've done this before. I'm sure it's just delivering on Friday. Good. I don't have to go to the store. It's the brand I bought from them before.

So I know the size fits. Not the other thing, not the Asian five X, but you know, something you bought before. Yeah. New shirt. Don't have to go out to the mall. All the reasons you do e-comm and that's when I use it in a hundred and PM comes around and you get the email. We're sorry to inform you. This will be delivering on Wednesday. And I'm like, yeah, like, cause it's Saturday, the events the next night. I now I got him to go to the mall. This will be delivering on Wednesday. And I'm like Like cuz it's Saturday vids the next night I now I got him to go the mall I got a good deal with the riff-raff. I gotta go buy Spencer's and some kid with an ugly t-shirt on blowing bubblegum in my face I'm just like, you know, I gotta go deal with that. I don't want to deal with that Then you get home, you know, like my case my buddy about seven more things that I don't need some kind of popcorn brand

I've never heard of. I mean, you know, that's what happens when you go to the mall. And then you're going to return the shit that's getting shipped to Amazon. That's coming too late. Exactly. Like I got back to Mexico and there was all this like, you know, beach clothing and shit I'd order that came too late. Same thing.

It's it'll. Oh yeah. And then it came, you know, like the day I flew out and I come home and I took her, this is just a pain in the ass. Now I got to go ship all this back. Cause I'm not going to ever wear this. Yep. So there's my 10 minute ran on Amazon had nothing to do with try it on, but it set it up for me perfectly. Chris, I've been waiting for that one. And I hope, I think that's relatable though. You think there's a lot of nodding of the head. So Jeff, call us, we'll bring you on. You can explain how you're using AI and robots and everything else to get this right. But

Walmart, Uncle Sam, Sam Walton, you know, get more of my business. Had more spray paint delivered same day than I could count. Been doing some, you know, like a couple of different little hobbies now that like ease my mind fixing up old, fixing figure. Yeah. Yeah. They don't want to give that out. The sides of great.

It's lovely Greenville, South Carolina graffiti farm. No, no fiction up old golf carts. I've been re re re imagining what everyone called it. Like refurbished and refurbished or like, yeah, re buy refurb. I haven't sold a couple of them that I've got yet, but I've got them refurbished and they look pretty nice. Okay. I started a YouTube channel on flipping golf carts or something.

That sounds like a good YouTube channel. Yeah. So I'd watch it. Yeah. I come up with a clever, like something like related golf like name, like, yeah. Better than flipping carts, but something like that. People that would be a, that would be a total, uh, well switcheroo, you know,

mind switch because you think you're going to see golf carts like flipping, like, which is common, which is common. There's an old series of pages dedicated to dudes flipping golf carts on golf. You know, I actually call it flipping birdies. That's a good word. Flipping birds. And I didn't mean that to anyone. I'll probably get, that'll probably get banned off there.

Actually, no, we're not censoring anymore. So, yeah. But anyway, I digress. I think that's all we have time for today. As much as, you know, I got on my Amazon rant, but, uh, the last thing that was kind of on our list, one in five job postings are faker on unfilled. Uh,

so be careful out there if you're looking for a job, I will admit, you know, because you know, I always read stuff like this and I go, have we ever done that? I've never done it purposefully, but here's what's happened. I have posted several jobs where, okay, business changes or I promote someone and, and then it never gets filled because we made it an internal decision. But it's also hard as a small team. When you get a lot of Apple, like reaching back out and communicating to everyone,

even when you don't, and we try to do better than most of this, it's hard, like keeping up with every single thing when you don't, I mean, when we're, you know, seven to 10 people in this office. And again, I'm not justifying it. I'm just admitting that it can be difficult in trying to do the, you know, the right thing and trying to keep up with every single person and every follow-up and all that. So it's hard sometimes, but I don't think I've ever

purposely posted a job for it to be an absolute fake that I was not gonna not gonna fill. But it's obviously on the rise. I don't know what it says, it says example. I don't know what or why doesn't say necessarily why people would do it. So I don't know what would motivate the company. Maybe get candidates that they look at, but aren't planning to hire. Yeah, like a database of potential. Or to look like they're growing. Look at all we have 21 open positions. Yeah, that's true. Fake, fake the sentiment. That's true. That could be a tactic. I don't know.

Yeah. Make it seem like a growing exclusive company. Yeah, exactly. All this talk about inauguration politics has got me thinking about our sponsor independent center, independent center.org. Go sign up for their newsletter. sponsor, independent center, independent center.org, go sign up for their newsletter, get news straight to your inbox about policies, about progress, about what's happening, about understanding some of these really complex things that are going on.

I don't always understand it. This bill that's about this policy and this number and all that. And like, I'm educated. I feel like I'm a pretty smart guy. My wife might disagree, but I think for the most part I am. And sometimes I don't even get it all. That's why we partner with independent center. They cut through the noise.

They bring it straight to why something matters. Removing the politics, removing the right and the left, keeping it straight down the center, independent center. Dot or go sign up for the newsletter. Chris and I support them. You should support them just because they're gonna give you free news. It's free.

Go sign up, get free insights, surveys, all kinds of knowledge about what's happening on the policies and not the politics. Independentcenter.org, official sponsor of Right About Now. Chris, you know, you ever wake up and you're a little groggy. You're like, I mean, it happens, you know, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah. It's like, you need a little more pep.

Does it happen even to you? I mean, look at you, you're, you're a walking're a walking figurine model, but we know it happens to you. I get tired sometimes. Yeah. Fatigue hits. It does. You need to get in the tanks. And, but I bet you, but do you want sugar?

Do you want fake sugar? Do you want like all the bad stuff? I want clean energy, baby. That's what I'm talking about. That's why I reach for the X. X marks the spot. Exponent drink exponent.com and drink exponent on Instagram. Zero sugar, planet powered, adaptogens, nootropics, electrolytes, and amino acids all in one can.

It's fusion energy, baby. Got the sector C here. We've got orange eclipse right there. Look, thing I love about this brand. It feels good. I get a little bit of that pep in the step removes the fog. And ultimately I don't have the crash. You don't have the crash from the fake sugars, the real sugars, all that stuff. Exponent official energy drink of Ryan offered and right about now we appreciate them and you will too. Go give them a shout out.

Chris, any final words today as we close things out? Everyone have a great weekend. Get active, get some sun, move your body. Hey, move your body. Yes. We, Chris and I do another show, Vibe Science. It's not always complicated, is it, Chris? It's like the simple things. Yeah. Simple things. Water, sleep, good food. Exactly. So keep it simple, but keep it real. Hey, I appreciate Chris Hanson, my good friend, good contributor to this show.

Couldn't do it without him. Go to Ryanisright.com. You'll find highlight clips, links to Chris and I's social media, anything and everything related to the show, the sponsors. Hey, look, this is how this works. We give you free content. Hopefully you enjoy it. A lot of people seem to, but support the sponsors. Go support Chris on Instagram. You know, he's got a reputation to uphold. We need some likes and followers. Come on, man. Kidding. Guy's got more attention than he deserves. Nah, he deserves it all. He's the salt of the earth. Just like you are. We appreciate you for making us number one. 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!