Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Why Authenticity and 'Being Known' Are the Keys to Success in Today's Media Landscape Amid 2025’s Turbulent Business Climate

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

In the New Year's special episode of "Right About Now," recorded on January 3, 2025, host Ryan Alford and co-host Chris Hansen discuss business trends, personal branding, and the evolving landscape of podcasting. They highlight the surge in gym attendance due to New Year resolutions and the importance of personal branding on social media. The duo also explores the rise of podcasting as a mainstream medium and makes predictions for Bitcoin's future. Emphasizing health and wellness as foundational for success, they encourage listeners to embrace change and leverage digital tools for personal and professional growth in 2025.TAKEAWAYSNew Year reflections and resolutions, particularly regarding gym attendance.Discussion of a significant hacking incident and its implications for national security.Importance of personal branding and leveraging social media for growth.The rise of podcasting as a mainstream medium and its evolution.Predictions for Bitcoin's price and its market trends in 2025.The changing landscape of the workforce and employee retention challenges.Emphasis on adopting a lean business model for smaller teams.The critical role of health and wellness in achieving business success.Encouragement for listeners to embrace positivity and determination in the New Year.The significance of authenticity and engagement in building a personal brand. 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. Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys. Welcome to right about now.

Happy new year as we start 2025 here on our weekly marketing and business news of the week, January 3rd, 2025. What's up, Chris Hansen? What's up, big dog. How are you? I'm good, man. Happy new year. Happy new year. If you're listening? Good, man. Happy new year. Happy new year.

If you're listening to this, it is the new year. We are admittedly, we do pre-record these, but we are in 2025 when you're listening, cause this release on the Friday. I am definitely on the beach at this moment in time. I'm just going to place shift myself. I'm having, okay, it's around noon when we're recording this. I'm probably on my first like beer or margarita mix with some pancakes.

Nice. That's a breakfast and champions brunch of champions. Exactly. What's cooking Chris in Miami? You know, like it's the new year. Any year. Yeah, man. I expected Jim to be very busy. Yeah. With your resolutioners.

Yes, exactly. It's so funny. Like it is funny how like, you know, we joke about that. But like, it's so true. Like every that's why I built my own home gym. Like I'm doing it all. I got the garage. my garage has been converted because I kind of, I'm getting old, man. I know it.

Like I go in and I like having some people around some humanity, but it just sort of drives me crazy. Cause like, you know, I'm not Mr. Olympia, but I got a routine. I'm consistent. Doesn't take new years. And I walk in and I'm like, I'm proud of people. But at the same time, like, damn, man, I, I'm waiting for shit.

And don't have to wait on waiting for it to hurt to send out a little bit. Come like, you know, March, February, March, exactly. We're on a little bit of a skeleton crew. I'm in my new office. I've got the wall of fame behind me, the many big time guests we've had on our weekly guest episode of Right About Now. I'm standing. I've set up for the, you know, I got my mic in here, got everything. I thought this thing shining on the lights would be good. Number one in business and marketing, nine countries. We appreciate you wherever you are, whatever language hopefully getting translated to you,

but we appreciate it. And, you know, just felt like, hey, it's new years. I needed some bling. So I got it on the shoulder. This thing's heavy too, man. This is not, you know, when they make these, I'm not kidding around, you know, we'll be taking the business.

Sounds expensive. That's real steel right there. Hey, we're taking the BS out of business for you. I've had a lot of great stories this year, some good things kicking off that play into the trends that we've been talking about. And, you know, it was, wouldn't be the, the, the, the cookie crumbling anymore with the administration that's leaving, unless we had a good hacking from China before they left, right?

A nice hack from our biggest adversary. Come on in. You know, we try to, you know, the edutainment is what I'd call our show. Trying to educate you, opinion, have fun. But I mean, this shit is scary when you think about like, you know, one of our biggest adversaries in the world. Uh, obviously we don't want to be, you know, fighting in the middle of the war, but we fight over resources, other things.

And the fact that they can break in, even though it's unclassified info and get to the computers of a lot of elected officials or non-elected officials, just government people, it should scare you a little bit, right? and get to the computers of a lot of elected officials or non-elected officials, just government people, it should scare you a little bit, right? Yeah, especially when it's our treasury department, you know, it's our money. So money does rule the world. It's concerning because it makes you think, all right, if they got in, what else can they get into? And exactly. That's what it is. That's where the fear comes. It's like, okay, all right.

Maybe they did or didn't get the most important things this time, but the fact that they can, what, what happens when they do and just like, you know, all that the all China has to do is go, no, you know, the, the U S just trying to slander us, we didn't do it. I mean, they came out and said that like, yeah, we didn't do it. Like, you know, like, what are they going to say? Yep. You caught us.

Uh, sorry. Damn. We're just, they got us looking around. I was, you know, on my space and I accidentally hit a button and it got me into the treasury department. I accidentally hit a button and it got me into the treasury department. I was just scrolling around on 1010 or whatever the version of Amazon is over there in China and President Yi just happened, you know, whatever. Secretary Yi backdoored his way into the, oh, it happens.

You know, I hit the wrong key up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start and got in. I don't, you know, who knew? wrong key up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B a start and got in. I don't, you know, who knew? So sorry. We didn't do it. I mean, it's just like denial. And I mean, it's hard to know. It's even hard to believe our own government sometimes, right?

Like what really got taken or not. The fact that they're acknowledging it shows you that something happened, but will we ever have truths in there? Yeah. How bad was it really? They got in, but they didn't get any classified. Oh yeah. Of course.

No classified stuff. Little soft, soft landing. They got president Biden's solitary history. You know, that was it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They got his metamucil formula for the morning. Yeah. Biden's solitary history, you know, that was it. It got his metamucil formula for the morning. Whatever it is.

They got his, uh, his nap schedule for the day. That mean that is 62 pages. Let's be honest. Oh man. I sleep at the wheel, whatever you want to call it. I mean, it could happen under any, you know, any presidency. So I'm not saying that it's specific to that, but it does sort of follow the general line has been the last few months with like sleep at the wheel, everyone. Right? Yeah. So no new codes, just really unclassified stuff. Yeah. Nothing, nothing important, really unclassified stuff. Yeah, nothing, nothing important. Nothing to see here. And but it did say in a major incidents quote, but non classified. I don't know,

man. It's just okay. A digital key was compromised. Oh, I think my son Clayton could probably like break into this like state department. Oh, like what? I don't know what to believe here, but let's get that shit locked up. Okay. President Trump, let's, let's, let's button it up a little bit. We could buy the best hackers right in the world. Can't we buy the best like taste of criminal to no one. Let's just it up a little bit. We could buy the best hackers, right? In the world. Can't we buy the best like taste of criminal to no one.

Let's just put them on the payroll. Maybe they do that. I don't know. That's what I saw in born identity, right? It's where I get all my, my, uh, government knowledge. So they offer the bad guys a deal and convert them over. Yeah. What's, uh, what's the biggest, I mean, you know, we talked last time about winners and

losers, but anything like on your radar, like 2025, like, you know, we've got a few more news articles we'll talk about. I'm going to talk about podcasting. We've been talking about that a while. Radcast network, some exciting trends in podcasting and video. The things we've been telling you for years. Go look at my Instagram feed. I've been telling you this story, but we'll get to that shortly.

The but what what's what's twenty twenty five feeling like for Chris Hansen? I'll pick you back on what you said. And I know I said this, you know, last week, the personal branding, social media, short form content, I mean, literally, right before we recorded, there's another girl, I just started following her. She does, you know, talks about laws of the universe and stuff like that. She's educating. And even she said, you know, I started this like six months

ago, she's like, I put up one video on TikTok and got a million views. And she's like, I put up one video on TikTok and got a million views. And she's like, you're never going to know unless you put yourself out there. And I think we all need to probably the older generation, just kind of get comfortable with the fact that this is where media and entertainment is moving to your smartphone and it's probably going to be on streaming platforms or podcasts or whatnot. And we talked about all the time with podcasting,

but just as someone newer to it, I think, you've been in this, what, eight years now, year and a half, two years in, and I don't think everyone should have a podcast, but I think if you have a message that you wanna get to the world and you have the time and dedication, or if you're a business owner,

I don't care if you're building houses or cleaning pools, make content. If you're a pool cleaner, shoot TikTok content. I think we're at such a point where people are craving authenticity and normalcy, where 15 years ago, everyone's watching the Kardashians. Now you have people, and another perfect example, I had lunch with a buddy of mine back home over the holidays and his wife is

a pretty big fitness influencer. Her sister, they built out a platform. They've got their own app, you know, and he's telling me, I mean, like they've got this many subscribers paying this much a month where it's like their followers are invested in them and their family, you know, his, he's, they're kind of do the family stuff, the kids, the workouts, the nutrition, but he's like, we're making good money on just doing what we would normally do. The only difference is my wife is just filming some of it. Right. So I think to tap into that, people are looking for other financial opportunities right now,

right? Everyone's diversified income streams. Social media is an easy thing that you can jump into that may or may not work. Right. But Ryan says it all the time. It pays to be known. I will stand by that regardless if it's making more connections. Could you have a presence online meeting other people in your network? Working with cool companies. Put yourself out there. Just fully be yourself, put yourself out there and the right things will come back to you. That's my advice.

Yep. For sure. 100% we've preached that a lot. And I think but it's it's never been more true with the proliferation of all these channels and it I think tell them about the Radcast. Now, yeah, man, I mean, you've seen in real time. Yeah, exactly. Like we're building the you know, we we spend eight years building this show. And then the last year sort of pressure testing like eight to 10 shows on the network using the things that we've done to tell stories, to build audience growth. And eight out of the ten shows have 10x

their downloads, seven out of ten are top 30 in their category and we're helping brands and people grow and monetize their podcast because podcasting is the future of content and podcasting is a kind of a word. There's a lot of purists that want it to only be audio. And, but the reality is it's multi-platform audio, video, social media, and you can do serial content. You can do weekly content. There's a lot of ways to do it, but this genie is not going back in the bottle. Like literally, we have all the data.

I'm actually even going to pull up one of our charts, some of our research we've been looking at. One of our partners sounds profitable. Give them a shout out that really show where the industry's going and what we're doing with the network with shows that come on. But here's the biggest thing. And this may not seem like a big statement, but more people now tune in and watch podcasts than those that don't. This was just past the threshold. It's always like 30 or 40% of people. So it was somewhat niche. Now it's fully mainstream and we can all agree, unless you got your head in the sand, that the presidential election was If you got your head in the sand that the presidential election was in large part determined by what happened.

And it's crazy. So this genie is not going back in the bottle. More people are doing it. Watchable podcasts are growing in popularity. One in three people now say they actively watch podcasts with videos. So again, the two yearyear change is significant in how this landscape is changing from just audio to audio video and then the interplay of social media. And it can't be ignored. Hopefully you're watching

this on YouTube or Spotify or any of the social media networks, but YouTube is driving over 50% of podcast discovery. So you've got nearly double the next source. Next source is the internet and Facebook, 27%. So what does that mean? When people were asked how they find or learn about new podcasts, over 50% said YouTube. That's crazy, isn't it, man? I mean, even as you're talking, I was thinking back home over the holidays, my mom was telling me, you know, she listens to a podcast every day. And she shares an office with a woman and she was telling me, oh, well, now she started listening to it every day.

Well, I'm thinking, all right, she's near 70 years old. And that is now her biggest source of entertainment and information. thinking, all right, she's near 70 years old. And that is now her biggest source of entertainment and information. Yep. Even my dad, he doesn't have cable, he uses YouTube TV. You know, you can call it TV, right? But it's YouTube.

Even if you've got the major networks utilizing it, it's streaming. Exactly. So, I mean, like you said, we've talked about this as long as I've been working with you. But I can, if anyone takes a pause and just look at your own life in your group of people, you're around and how they're receiving most of their data, it's all through the smartphone. Only people I know watching TV is because they're streaming a movie or sports.

Yeah, sports or sports or, or, or movie or like, you know, Netflix series. Yeah. I mean, no one is watching normal cable television. No, very few. And even if you are watching what we used to be on, I'd say The Bachelor. That's on Netflix now. You know, yep. So half of weekly podcast consumers follow a favorite host on social media. This is that interplay 62% of people that listen to the show, follow

that host on Instagram. You know what I'm saying, man? It all is the interplay of social media and podcasting combined with the power of those channels all working together. And that's what we're doing at the Radcast Network. The biggest thing is you got all these people that are measuring audio, you got people doing measuring video, you got measurement of social media. Well, we're bringing that all together. It's called Podcast Total Influence, PTI baby podcast total influence

We're branding at we're literally bringing to bear the multi-platform impacts that podcasts have and You can fight the audio game all you want, but the reality is this industry with sponsors with ads needs to to be Integrating all of these things in for a Multi-platform experience for sponsors and that's what we're doing because again the interplay of these media is what makes it super powerful And you know how I say super powerful. I integrated in right here, baby It's called X mark the spot exponent. It is the energy drink this that fuels

Right about now and Ryan offered. And again, it's exactly what I'm saying. I'm practicing what I preach, but it's true. I only work with the brands I love. I love these guys. I love the branding. I love how clean it is. We're talking about fusion energy, adaptogens, nootropics, electrolytes, and amino acids,

zero sugar, plant-based, healthy as it gets. Gives you that pep. You see it, X marks the spot for energy and clean energy, which is what matters. X-Bone it, official energy drink, Ryan offered, and right about now. Boom. That's what I'm talking about. You need to watch that on YouTube.

Gotta see how cool these new cans are. Got some new flavors coming out, Chris. I'm pumped, man. Let's take a lot to get me excited, but damn energy drinks will boom. Woo! I go Hulk Hogan. Got my belt.

Do whatever, I'll go Ric Flair. Whatever you want. Woo! Good old Ric Flair. So yeah, man, podcasting is where it's at. The Radcast Network, if you're interested, look, shoot me a DM on Instagram, go to, or better yet, just go to the RadcastNetwork.com. You fill out that form if you're interested in helping us.

We'll help you grow. We'll help you monetize. We'll help you leverage this, whether you're a business solopreneur. All you gotta do is be ready to grow. We'll build a big community got an app launching February 1st the radcast network official app just the community for growth hacking in podcasting and everything else Got a lot going on brother excited about it

Hey, yeah, man. Oh What else we got in the news? Hey lots of predictions for Bitcoin 200,000. That's an IOU. You might want to hold onto that one. That's one Bitcoin 200K. That's real dollars. I mean, you know.

When you got my dad started to talk about predictions, that's a good time, right? That's when you know, and I said this six months ago, when the mainstream media starts talking about it, and all these random people that haven't talked about in four years, it's not going anywhere, right? We're it's down a little bit. We're at 94,800 today. Big deal. Okay, it was at 60,000 three months ago. But

yes, there's all kind of wild estimates here, you know, all the way up to 200,000. I don't know. Who knows, right? I comfortable saying 120. But I think with this new administration, and who knows what's gonna happen with banking policies and whatnot. So it's looking bright futures But I think with this new administration and who knows what's going to happen with banking policies and whatnot. So it's looking bright. Future's looking bright.

Yep. It said approval of US spot Bitcoin ETFs in 2024 marked a pivotal moment broadening institutional and retail investor appeal. 2024 Bitcoin halving event, reduced supplies, supporting price momentum. You know, I'm seeing everything from one 20 to two 50, you know? And I think it's safe to say, isn't it? That the broader market seems to come along. If Bitcoin's raising universally, I mean, unless it's just some crap token, like what

Hock to a girl, whatever the fucking scam that was like. Yeah. But yeah. Like, what do you say? High tide raises all ships. Exactly. Yeah. So your, your big movers Bitcoin and then, you know, your Dogecoin stuff like that.

You know, I think all that is going to rise up with it. Probably things like Doge and more of these quote unquote meme coins will have larger gains probably, but then they'll probably drop off harder as well. Yep. So big things coming from crypto was in our winners losers and recommendations for 2025. So it's really just another investment platform.

I mean, let's, you know, it's a legitimate place. I joke a lot about gambling and all that sort of is legalized gambling. It was so funny. I saw somebody joking about, you know, like brokers just are essentially bookies. It did the whole analogy, right? Stock market bookies. We did the whole analogy, right? Stock market bookies. We just legitimize it. We put them in suits and, uh, called it wall street. And you know, but it just set up a big step away from off track betting.

Same skill set. Yeah. Oh, it's so funny. Like I also, I, you know, saw the news. Lots of CEOs turning over this year. CEO departures says nearly 2000 CEOs have stepped down from their roles. When January and November. It feels like It's a tough year in business. It's a tough year in business and I almost feel like we're also like this short-term is a man. Everything. Like it's easy come easy go.

Convenience rises. It seems like it's all related to me a little bit. And look we all love our conveniences. We all love this stuff, but I think that how does that relate to business? Just think people they're impatient and they think they want change. And sometimes you got to stay the hard road and then sometimes just you just time for change, man. I'm not, every situation is unique. I just think it feels like a sign of the times, right?

The, all right, out with the old, in with the new, and old, now defined as 18 months. And when you see it with your own workforce. Yeah. With our own businesses, right? The employee turnover is, it's not someone giving you 20 years of their life. You know? No.

Like they used to in the old days right now. I mean, I think most people I know, they're at a job maybe two to five years and move to the next one. Yeah. At most, I mean, I had a conversation with a buddy yesterday, hey, I want to completely switch industries from real estate to software. And you can just board. Yeah. And Hey, each their own. It's fine. Yeah. It's just, I'm getting more and more to this, like lean approach of like, okay, I, my recommendation is, and I mean, look, once you're Coca Cola size, different game, you know, like, but let's just

say, micro teams, like five but let's just say micro teams, like five to 10 people that are all highly skilled, highly smart and all pulling the same direction and building, you know, like high equity stakes so that everybody's kind of rowing it. And then build, you know, build your administrative, you know, overseas, VA's, whatever around that. But you have like a central nucleus of a centralized skill set all pulling one direction with what I mean, not such centralized like company, but then like five or six people

that all have unique skill sets, but then building the ancillary around it, but not necessarily a company where you have 50 employees on the book. I think that's the way that it's lean, mean, baby. Nimble, nimble, nimble, gotta move quick, gotta be able to, I just think, and again, I'm kind of painting with a broad brush that I don't mean to, but I just think, and again, I'm kind of painting with a broad brush that I don't mean to, but like, I just think being able to move nimble, consistent revenue the exact same way

is not consistent anymore. Like, I think you've got to be nimble month to month or quarter to quarter when you're a small business, an and entity and there's a lot of different ways that you can sort of pivot and evolve throughout a year's time across a subset of disciplines. And that's sort of what we're doing with like Radical Ink. Got the Radcast network, which obviously I think the mainstay and been building that for seven years. But I think the ancillary things around it with ways with which to monetize when you have a group

of skill sets in serve in business services is becoming unique. It's a little volatile, but if you're nimble, you can take advantage of it. That's my thoughts on that. But lots of CEOs stepping down, except for this one. CEO of life. We're staying right here. I know. And hey, speaking of that, getting your life right, you got to get your health right. That's what Chris and I do on Vibe Science. Go check that out.

Vibe Science podcast. Got some big hitters coming up on that show as well. We're taking you to your highest five. Look, all this circles around. Like you can talk about business, about all this stuff and podcasts, personal brand, all that means nothing if your health is shit. Cause think about it, Chris, like, but if the moment we do all this stuff, I could hit the lottery, we could have a big sales, we could, you know, sell one of our brands for nine figures.

But does it mean anything if you're in bed with, with the flu? Like in that moment, or I mean, even worse, like, you know, something more. So you got to take care of your health and wellness, mind, body, energy. We bring on the best guests. We're empowering you. We're navigating it for you. Like we're not, we don't know it all. We're not doctors.

We just play them on our podcasts. No, I'm kidding. We don't. We bring in a lot of people smarter than us that tell you about it. So we're empowering. It's an empowerment show on health, wellness, mind, body, energy.

That right, brother? That's right. Yeah, this is Park, Vibe Science. Yes, check that out, Vibe Science podcast. Look, it's the new year. Got hacked by China. I'm not gonna overwhelm you with too much. We appreciate you for listening.

We know you have options. I like wearing this belt, so I'd appreciate if you keep listening. I don't wanna have to hide it or send it to somebody. So go subscribe to that YouTube channel. Go watch us, Spotify or YouTube. You can see Chris and his pretty face with his Mark Wahlberg t-shirt on.

Yes. Shout out to Mark. Municipal. Municipal sponsor plug. And we appreciate all our sponsors, branded bills, independent center, exponent. Appreciate everyone for making this happen for us. We couldn't do it without the support of the listeners,

the sponsors, and I appreciate you, Chris. Likewise, brother. Cheers to a great year. Any final words as we close out today? I just want to send everyone good vibes, abundant energy for the new year, health, wealth, happiness, love, and I hope everyone just has an amazing, beautiful year.

Yes. Well said. Hopefully your college team won in the playoffs. That will have been determined by now. So, uh, good luck. Whoever's UCF. I know mine did. Yeah. You know, you're dead. I'm supposed to get knocked out by Texas. Texas probably beat Arizona State. We don't know. I've recorded this before. But anyway, we wish everyone a beautiful, lovely 2025.

We can't wait to be a part of it. We got big things coming and it all starts with you. Check us out at Ryanisright.com. All the highlight clips, links to our sponsors, linked to all of our social media. And of course, we appreciate you. 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.