The Best One Yet - ☎️“TBOY Hotline Ep #2” — Networking hacks, Investing #girlmath & the 5-min phone call

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Nick & Jack take your calls & discuss…The most valuable person in their network If an MBA is worth itThe correct way to eat strawberries #BerryGateDecision making with the SOWhat Gen Z is better at than Millennials (not just TikTok). Single or in a relationship, what’s better for entrepreneursTBOY Co-Founder MatchmakingAnd there’s more…Sit down (literally) with the voices of pop-business, Nick & Jack — The ex-Wall Streeters (now besties) answer questions on investing, entrepreneurship, work, life, and best places to eat. Guac is always extra, but this business advice isn’t. Got a question or need advice? Hit us up [e-mail] (we love voice messages). Want more? Click here to listen to our 20 minute daily show, The Best One Yet. Watch us on YouTubeGet the Saturday Newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletter  Submit Shoutout Requests Submit The Best Fact YetFollow us: on InstagramAnd connect with us on Nick’s LinkedIn & Jack’s LinkedInSpotify Poll: Is Nick eating strawberries right? Spotify Q&A: What was your favorite part of this episode? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I think we should clear something up right away. You want to address the glucose in the room? Not too long ago, we found ourselves in a controversy. It was a berry controversy. Berrygate. So we had on Instagram on video. You have them. Of Nick eating a strawberry.

I feel like you're bringing out a surprise studio guest. And I feel complicit in the crime because I witnessed Nick eat a strawberry. And I've seen Nick eat strawberries before. But Nick, how do you eat a strawberry? Okay, this is how I eat the strawberry. And you can, right? Okay. I just want to point out to those only listening and not watching on YouTube. Nick just ate the strawberry from the back side. So he put the entire green stem into his mouth and then the rest of his strawberry into his mouth.

Just to make sure there was no misunderstanding there. Jack, do you have my attention undivided? Okay. Nick, what you're doing right now is highly unorthodox. He's putting the entire strawberry into his mouth. Now, the last time this happened was on Instagram one month ago. Oh, my God. And about 300 of you commented. Did Nick just eat the stem of the strawberry? Can I make a little public statement defense of myself right now? Here's why I eat the whole strawberry. I got four reasons for you, scientifically verified.

You ready? First, precedent. Eat the whole blueberry. Yeah, but they don't have green leaves. Not done yet. Second, it's the healthy thing to do because the top of a strawberry, that green part, it's like a salad of fruit. So a giraffe eats the leaves.

It's basically a lettuce on the strawberry. All right. What else? Third reason why? Sustainability. You're going to throw it. out like a third of the strawberry? I mean, I'm seeing people, they're walking around. It's usually inefficient. They need to wash their hands. I just bought the whole

one out. What's reason number four? Financially responsible. You bought the whole berry. You don't buy a hamburger throughout the patty, Jack. You eat the bun in the burger. Now, I know that Nick eats the entire strawberry. I know it's weird. I've come numb to it. That's why in the video where we posted it, I didn't react. Jack, can I just remind you something here? If you're not eating the whole strawberry, are being hypocritical, unhealthy, anti-climate, and fiscally irresponsible.

Not to mention, I have to go find somewhere to throw away the stem if I don't eat it. Yeah, you like forget stuff and get lost. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the party still because I just ate the whole strawberry. I don't go to the bathroom and wash my hands. And can I ask a little question here? Sure. I don't think the burden should be on me to defend why I ate the whole strawberry. The burden should be on you as to why you bite off two-thirds of the berry.

Okay, okay. And then throw out a third of this thing. literally sweating because your arguments have been so persuasive. I've never felt better, Jack. So you've turned the tables and you're asking me why I don't eat the stem. Yeah. Why are you throwing out part of the berry and like running around like a madman? You've converted me.

Thank you. No, you know, like prior to this, I've been eating entire strawberries for a while now. Jack, after this comes shrimp tails and applecores. Let's save that for another hotline pod. The church of strawberry. Nick just started it and I'm the first convert. Yiddies, I'm preaching and there ain't no stop to this sermon. Jack, let's hit our Hotline pod.

Hey, you've reached Nick and Jack at the T-Boy Hotline. We couldn't get to the phone right now, but you know what to do? Leave a message after the beep. Leave a message. Ask us any question, and we will answer your question live on the T-Boy Hotline podcast. We'll get back to you. You know what to do. This is Nick. This is Jack. And today's T-Boy Hotline pod is the best hotline yet.

T-Boy Hotline, where you're in charge. You ask questions, we answer them. Jack and I are going to talk about investing, life, money, pringles, jingles. We're eating strawberry stem gate. Oh, and then Jack? The T-boy matchmaking? T-boy matchmaking. We're saving that for the end.

That's good. We're also going to say whether entrepreneurs are better off being single or being coupled up. This is episode two of T-boy Hotline. We hope to do this monthly. So if you have a question, make sure to send it in to Nick and Jack at T-boypod.com. We got the phones ringing. We got your voicemails. We're getting your voices on the pod.

And Jack, should we hit the dials, man, operator? Speaking of telephone, we got an operator. Rachel. Representative. Our creative director is calling in right now. She's going to handle your questions. Rachel, pressing zero. What's going on over there at headquarters?

What's up? Headquarters is rocking. Morning, really cute top. You guys can't see it. We trust you on it. We are recording this on a Cevice Wednesday. Which is your favorite day of the week. But Rachel, we heard the phone lines were lighting up over there.

What do we got for our first caller for T-Boy hotline number two? This question is from an anonymous call. Daily listener and big fan here. My question for you all on the T-Boy hotline is this. I recently have been offered a job promotion. The job is what I want and the pay raise is good. However, the job location would require a move from the beach town of Charleston, South Carolina, to the political Washington, D.C., a city which I've never been. My partner is intimidated to relocate and because of the economy, my company is not paying for the move. What are your thoughts on moving to a new city to follow your career and accepting a job that will be an expensive move?

Thank you all for all the knowledge that you share from an anonymous Yeti. So we like the three box framework when it comes to thinking about your job. Grab the boxes. Income, impact, and quality of living. Ideally, you want all three, but you can also settle for two out of three and that's a win. Also, ideally, we would come up with a third I word for this. But we're going quality of living for now. We're going quality of life for now.

So on income, it sounds like this is a piece of life. So that's a check. That's a win. That's nice. On impact, sounded like it was a job he's excited for? Yeah, thrilled about it. There was good enthusiasm. It sounded like a good job.

So I think that's a check. Check, check. So quality of life, that seems to be the issue here. And could we just say two amazing cities? Like, D.C. is a lovely place. Charleston, we got engaged in Charleston. Zero George Hotel is stunning. I mean, you could have oysters for days.

So they're both great places. But they're different places. True. One is a coastal colonial town. One is a metropolitan. City. So I think the quality of life is the big question here. And so you mentioned your partner is anxious about going there. There's a conversation to be had there. There's also the three boxes for your partner. Right. Income, impact and quality of life. On the income, you're going to make

more money. So that's good for the whole household. But how's that for your partner? Does your partner have to switch jobs too? And then what does that look like? On impact, what does it look like moving to Washington, D.C.? And on quality of life, what's it look like? So you kind of in this case you're saying have to do the three boxes, but for two people. Yeah, it sounds like in the three box framework, this works for anonymous from Charleston, but you need to consider the partner who's going to be on board with you. Now, when it comes to having discussions with partners like this, the most important word of all is the most important verb of all. Yes. Listening. It's not about talking to your partner and telling them about this job. It's about talking to your partner and

listening to what they think of this opportunity because you can't have an imbalance in a relationship where one person is resentable or frustrated because he didn't have that conversation. So the most important thing for Anonymous right now is not to be talking, but it's to be listening and listening to what their partner thinks. It's also to avoid finding solutions as your partner is expressing their anxiety or concern. Great point, Jack. A huge flaw of mine is always to try to jump to a solution. I love throwing solutions out there.

And it's not healthy necessarily. But look, if your partner is anxious to go to Washington, D.C., that is a valid feeling. Yes. And maybe it's like, yes, this could be stressful. But it could also be an adventure. When Alex and I moved from Vermont to Michigan and then Michigan to California. Like on one car ride. Oh, God.

It was so stressful. We drove across the country before the job was even lined up. Well, Jack, that makes me think of another framework and analysis for making this decision. You ready? Based on the voice of this listener, I'm going to, again, that Anonymous is in their 20s. Okay. Okay.

Your 20s are for trying. Yeah. Your 20s are for trying. Yes. Because it does become harder with life later on to try new things. Oh, totally. So with your 20s, we're not saying every time you have to try something new, but when opportunities prevent themselves in your 20s, your 20s are for trying.

Yeah. And so that's a great reason to take a leap. I also think everyone should live in a city at some point. Yeah. I don't know if you have yet. And maybe Charleston's your dreamtown And maybe that's a reason to stick with it But unless you're like super committed to Charleston

I think Washington, D.C. would be amazing. They have great oysters in D.C. too. And you know what? Charleston's beautiful. It's still going to be there if things don't work out in D.C. And vice versa, D.C. will continue to be a wonderful place to live if you want to stay there forever. Where did you propose to Molly in Charleston?

Okay. Literally at the Zero George Hotel with a, we sabred a bottle of champagne, had oysters. And it was getting dark out. You sabred a bottle of champagne? It was so cool. With a machete? How's that work?

It was a knife, but I kind of like this machete image you have because I want to roll with that from now on. How long did you go before calling people and telling them about it? And was I your first call? Honestly, I probably was like, Mom, let's whip up the takeaways, Jack, on the engagement. Can I go back to that, by the way? Summer of 2018, I had another year of grad school. Alex and I were planning to go to Michigan to finish my grader. graduate school. We had an apartment in Ann Arbor. Alex was committed. She had a job set up in

Ann Arbor. Then we got the opportunity to sell market snacks to Robin Hood. I mean, it's analogous to what Anonymous is saying right here. It was such a wildly exciting but scary opportunity because we had to move to California. We didn't have an apartment. The deal hadn't closed yet, but we had to make a decision. Was I going to go back to Ann Arbor and start my final year, which would have precluded the possibility of the sale to Robin Hood. So, look, Alex was such a driver of that for me. She said, Jack, we are on a kayak and a lake right now, and we're not going back to shore until we decide on what we're going to do. And I think we should go to California.

We made the decision we're going to California. Alex started looking for an apartment. She set herself up with a 200-hour yoga program. It was incredible. You took a risk. And it may not have worked out. But it did work out. But part of this is when you're in your 20s or you're at a certain age, you're willing to take some risks.

Couldn't have happened, though, if my partner and I hadn't agreed to take that risk together. Right. And we reframed the crazy risk as an adventure. And it was awesome. All right. Rachel, caller number two, who we got on the line. The next question is a fun one. It is from Jack in New York City.

Hey, Nick and Jack. Is Jack from New York City here? What's your best financial trick shot? And would you recommend people try it? I mean financial trick shot should be on a bumper sticker first of all. This is like a personal finance hack, right? So he's asking about a finance trick shot. All right, we have to interpret that for a second.

When I hear finance trick shot, here's what I'm interpreting. What I hear is how do you create value out of nothing like magic? Mm-hmm. And I think I have an answer. Okay. You ready? Takeout. Fancy.

Fancy takeout? Fancy takeout. Here's how I love to create value out of nothing, which is a financial trick shop. When we order takeout or we order delivery and it shows up at our door once or twice a week, I don't just leave it in the plastic and we're like eating out of it

and trying to like finagle with the plastic forks. I'm getting the top shelf china. Yeah. I'm getting the fancy chopsticks we bought in Japan out. The best napkins in your pantry? Jack, we may be drinking kombucha, but we were drinking it out of the wine glasses that were on our wedding registry.

Now, I've witnessed this. We did this actually this week when you were in San Francisco. We ordered Suvla last night. Yeah, we did. And we removed them from the takeout boxes, put them in some gorgeous China. Yeah. And ate it. And I looked at the table and I was like, this is a beautiful gourmet dinner.

Candles going for you nice napkins and the fancy fine china that we otherwise would never use. It's almost like packaging. Like packaging is really important as to how you feel when you open up a product. Yes. And takeout packaging is awful. It's not good. The food can be really good. It's a downgrade.

But it's tainted by that plastic. And that's why this is a financial trick shot. Because what you've done is created value when you take your delivery food and put it in your fanciest cookware. It's an investment of five minutes to actually plate the food. And then the value you're receiving, the quality of the dinner experience, is significantly higher premium to what you paid for the delivery. Fancy takeout. Yeah. It's basically a really fancy dinner at home, which can be really nice.

At the cost of basic takeout. Light up a couple candles and no one had to do any work for it. Jack, we threw your Greek salad into these Simon Pierce plates. and Jack was enjoying sparkling spin drift in a wine glass. This is a really creative financial trick shot. A never eating takeout again from a plastic container. I don't want to see any kind of a crunkily paper napkin on your plate, man. I am upscaling my pad tie.

All right. So what are you got? What do you got? So mine is called the almost investment account. Okay, okay. It's when you almost buy something, but don't. And then you reward yourself by putting that money into the stock market instead. Oh, okay.

That is a trick shot. It's almost like a deke. It's celebrating not spending by investing instead. So my wife and I both do this. So if I see like an incredible pair of $200 Air Force ones that I want to buy, these are actually three-year-old Air Force ones. I need to upgrade these. So I probably should just get a new pair.

They look fantastic. But let's say I decide not to splurge on a new pair of sneakers. Instead of spending $200 on Nike's, I'm going to invest $200. Maybe it's a Nike. I happen to just do the S&P 500. Can we just say you invested in Nike because that's just cool? So let me wave up the takeaway. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

You were telling a great story. So instead of buying the Nike Air Force ones, which you realize you may not need, instead, you ended up putting that money into Nike stock. We've done it over, you know, we've probably had like 35 transactions that we didn't buy it. And instead, we put those 35 transactions into the stock market. Right. And after a year, guess what? It's up 22%.

You know what this sounds like, Jack? What? This sounds like Wall Street girl math, kind of. Kind of. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's another way to think about the money you didn't spend. There's something there.

There's something there. That's a string we got to pull. The next question is coming from your voice, ma'am. So play it, please. Hi, this is Heidi in Houston. The cost of education is going up, but is a return on investment. How do you think having a master's degree, like an MBA, set someone apart from someone without one?

what about the saying your network is your net worth? And how can networking outweigh an advanced degree? I mean, we could talk about the MBA side because we went to business school, but I kind of am obsessed with that last line that I've never heard before. Your network is your net worth. Your network is your network. I mean, it sounds like a takeaway would whip up, but I don't think we've ever said that. And I kind of want to put it on a pillow.

I mean, we have a vast network. Nick is one of the best networkers out there. I love, you know, I kind of wish it was the business card days. I wish we had a little T-Boy business card. One networking opportunity has led to another so many times. And I think that's the most powerful thing. One door opens up another door and the second door is bigger than the first door. Here's a way to think about networking as a visual.

Your network is a plant. It's a pretty plant. It's a fig tree plant that's in your room. It's like the one right behind you, Jack, the giant palm tree over here. But that network is a plant. And that means like it's beautiful. It gives you joy. It gives you opportunity.

but it needs to be nurtured like a plant. It needs to be watered. How do you nurture it? Okay. Great example I think of us nurturing a plant is our spreadsheet that is literally labeled network. So, all right. So yeah, here's what Jack and I do.

We have a spreadsheet labeled network, a Google spreadsheet we both had to. And since like 2016, we just add every business partner we meets name to it, their job, their location, and something interesting about them. And then when Jack and I have opportunities,

come up over time. We just go through that doc. We'll spend five minutes reading through it and being like, that's the person. The one person we met at CBS in 2020, who we think is relevant to this random thing in 2024. And we've got all their info right there. I know that sounds kind of like clinical. Yeah. Like the fact that we take notes. But that's how you have to network. It's true. You can't burden your brain with remembering everything. Right. Oh my God. You have an organized system. Previous generations had a massive Rolodex with notes on the back of the business cards. This is totally normal to have a spreadsheet with like members of your network who you can tap into who knows how, who knows when, but at some point in the future and it will benefit you. And this is why this network is like a lovely, fiddly fig leaf tree is because you got to water it.

Jack and I go into that doc like every month and we're like, hey, this person who we met at CNN, this person who we met at Facebook. Like we want to add these connections in and we know that we can just literally read through it like an easy roll of that. and nurture it over time, and it's going to come back and keep illumine. Fascinating thing about the network is that one networking contact can lead to a bigger one. So think of it as like exponential. For instance, we had that opportunity to speak to McDonald's that one time. Right. What was that?

A few months ago. Yeah, yeah, in the fall. We were going to speak at a McDonald's corporate event because we got invited through a member of our network. I don't think we've said this publicly, by the way. We have not told the story publicly. Here's the thing. We almost said no because we looked at the opportunity and it was not a paid opportunity. Right.

And we had to do some work for it. And so, you know, why are we even doing this? Right. It's easy to look at this situation to be like, okay, you're going to do a lot of effort. You're going to prepare a whole presentation. You're not going to be paid for it. We decided to do it because it expanded our network. We knew that that room was going to be full of a lot of powerful people, a lot of people in media and in advertising.

Yeah. And in food because it was McDonald's. And we wanted to get in front of that audience and let them see us. And we did a great job. It was the best one yet. You were great. It was so much fun. And a couple months later, we get invited to present in front of Upfronts,

which is the biggest advertising event of the year. We were told explicitly that we were invited because they saw us at the McDonald's event. We were like, whoa, you were there. That was awesome. By the way, Ronald McDonald is that person. So, Heidi, getting an MBA or a master's degree, it will expand her network because everyone there has the same intention, which is to build their network. But we just want to say, you can also build your network without a master's degree. It's not the only way to build the network.

It requires saying yes, getting out there, meeting people, taking notes on them, and then realizing that meeting one person and saying yes to one thing can open up the door to a whole bunch of other things. Jack is so good at this. If you think about what you need to know about someone to make a connection, you need to know their name, because you don't know their name, it's weird. You need to know their contact and further email address so you can actually get in contact with them. And Jack knows an anecdote about the person's like extended family when they studied abroad in Tucson, like seven years ago. Jack will pull up a detail about someone's kid playing softball. Jack will literally know how many RBI's your cousin hit.

And he will bring it up in a conversation and it lights other people up. So I think that's kind of your secret with networking is you got the name, got the contact, and then you know a best fact. I'm really good at remembering. hometowns. Yes. And that is like such a fun way to connect to somebody. Jacko would be like, Schenectady, New York. Zipko to 012, 3, 4. And they'll be like, I didn't know that about. I know a lot of fun facts about a lot of small towns. Yeah, it's a really good. That's a good one. Rachel, what's her next question? I have a question. Who is the most

valuable person in your network? Without question, the most valuable person in my network is my wife. Yes. Before I had her as my partner, I was not confident enough to be an entrepreneur. We were side hustlers. Yes, we were. And you were driving me in a great way, which was incredible. You were such a good partner. Yeah. But we were side hustlers.

I never thought that I could be an entrepreneur. I didn't grow up around entrepreneurs. My family didn't really understand entrepreneurship. So it just never fit the label for myself. But then Alex asked me, Jack, why not you? Why can't you and Nick build the next great media company for millennials, covering business news in a different way? Why not you?

Yeah. She kept asking me that. And I was like, I don't know. I guess you're right. Let me tell you, on LinkedIn, no one's saying that to you, Jack. Alex challenged me and said, Jack, you should do this more. It shouldn't be a side hustle. You have an opportunity to go full hustle with Nick.

Go for it. You know, it's such a funny way to think about it. But like, you're right. Your partner is your network. And they're the closest person in your network. And when you think about, like, what makes a strong network, it's trust. Who do you trust more than each other? And like, of course, we're our network together.

But, like, Molly, like, who else would I trust more than Molly on stuff? And bring questions to her and ideas. It's such a close network your partner and you never think about them as your network. But they are. I've been with Nick in San Francisco all week. And each night we get back and we tell Molly everything about how the day went and every detail of every meeting. Yeah. And she's so into it.

She's the best listener about our days and has incredible feedback for us. And as I'm plating the takeout meal on like on some nice dinner plates, Jack will be rehashing. And then in this one conversation, we dropped a takeaway line right to close the sale. And then Molly will, like, jump in and be like, well, was your pitch like this? And we're like, oh, my God, we didn't think about it. Next time we'll pitch it like that. Not only do our wives provide, like, insights and really good feedback and a new perspective. Because sometimes Nick and I are in the weeds of our day-to-day podcast production,

we can't reflect and think of things from a new perspective. And Alex does that for me. And I know Molly does it for you. But they're also a person. person to celebrate the winds with every day and a person to vent with sometimes and a person who's just there and aware of everything that we're doing. Are you trying to say, does Alex give you feedback? She has given me feedback.

We can just call, we can rebrand this feedback now. Constructive feedback. It's constructive feedback at your one-on-ones every thing. Sometimes I'm like, Alex, you know, you could deliver that feedback a little more delicately. I have told her that. And then you're like, I didn't see this. on the calendar. Thank you so much for that question, Heidi. We hope we answered it sufficiently. Rachel, what's the next question, please? What have we got? Now we have Caroline Buckhite in

Naples, Florida. And she wants to know, what do you wish you knew in the first few years post-grad? Oh, first of years post-grad, what I wish I knew? Commit to an airline. Stop being so promiscuous with all these airlines when you're in early 20s. I was like, what was I doing? Comance Bank, flew me twice to Europe. And I didn't even have a frequent flyer. How many miles. I wasted all those miles. I could have got incredible status early on and a bunch of upgrades. What are you?

Like platinum status? You'd be on the botanium status right now. I honestly, I'll be on Delta flights. I'd be like, man, there was that flight to Chile for work. It is killing me 20 years later. I wish I had known right after school that the job I'm going to have in five years is not the same job I'm going to have today. Actually, we didn't even know the job existed, to be honest. So my job right when I got out of school would be to figure out what I like to do.

figure out what parts of your job I enjoy the most, and then do those as much as you can. Because when you get out of college, you're still so young. The chances are you're not going to be doing the same thing in five years. Totally. But you never are thinking beyond five years with that. You never are. You're thinking about your job description and trying to do it. Instead of just trying to do your job description, find the parts of your job description that get you excited.

And then go for as many opportunities to do that as you can. And then look for a job that does even more of that one thing that you look. like to do. So you're saying like, look at your job, but analyze what you actually like about it, and then find those character traits in other potential opportunities. Right. So are you someone who loves research? Yeah. Someone who loves writing? Do you love sales and traveling? Do you love operations? Do you love data analysis? Yes. You're probably going to encounter many of those things in your first job, but really focus on figuring out which one you like the most, because that's your career. Can I, can I use this framework to analyze your career for a second? Please. Okay. This is

exciting. Okay. You're N-Agram 1. You love the research. You love the details. Jack, here's how I see you applying the traits you love from a job into your new role today. When you're working in finance, you're an analyst and you love the details. You love the research. You all of understanding the context of what was happening in the stock market, what was happening in a macro level, and how that affected your clients. You do the same thing with me today on this podcast. I know. Yeah, when we are fleshing out a story on Lulu Lemon's earnings report, you're in there looking

at the macro angle around shipping and you're looking at the stock movements to understand what was the cause and what was the effect. At its core, you're trying to figure out what happened and why. Now you're just doing it on an entertaining podcast. You're not dancing around a German bank. So when I was 25, my boss was. was the main relationship manager for BMW. Okay.

And he invited me to come to BMW with him. He was very excited. This sounds very fantastic. That is such a cool client. Yeah, yeah. So you know what I did on the flight? I read the entire annual report that BMW had published six months prior.

And Jack, what did you do for our podcast this week about BMW? I read the BMW report again. When I was 25, I realized I freaking love going deep on these businesses. Yeah. And truly understanding the ins and outs. And now we do that. to debt. You don't have to do that role at a bank. You can do it apparently as a podcast host. So I figured out shortly after college that I love doing research on companies and then synthesizing

them in fresh, unique ways. Speaking of synthesizing, can you whip this up into a takeaway what you're describing for the Yeties out there in terms of this question? In your first job, you should figure out what you like to do and then do that thing as much as you can because you're building the foundation of your future. In five years, you're probably not going to be the same company as you are today. So figure out where you should be by figuring out what you like to do. Can I just say how much I love that you pivoted to look directly into camera A just now? I saw what you did. You were speaking straight to the hotline listeners right now. That was great. Caroline, love Naples, Florida, by the way. Yes. Thank you for the question.

Rachel, what do we got next? This one is from Alejandro Alonis. And this is a two-part of the question. The first part of the question is, what is your favorite blueie episode? Favorite blueie episode? The Chinese takeout one. It is incredibly comically stressful. Really? Yeah. It's pretty amazing.

They managed to have the music go really, really quickly as they're eating at this restaurant and everything kind of falls apart. It's a little freaky, but it's really enjoyable. Favorite bluey episode? Rug Island. The father makes pretend that he's on an island with his kids. Yeah. And it was inspirational for me.

I think that's something you could do. I've yet to play pretend like that with the boys. Wow. And I need to do that more. The pod son would love that. What's the second part, Rachel? This takes a turn. The second part of the question is,

do you think the Fed will drop rates? Is there a bluey episode about that? I can't remember. Monetary policy? I think Jerry Powell makes a quick appearance and then they have to solve the case. My favorite bluey episode is quantitative easing. So the question is,

will the Fed raise interest rates this year, I think? was the question. I don't think the Fed's going to cut interest rates this year. Inflation is just too big a risk. We need to put this darn thing out. Inflation can destroy an economy. Oh, totally. We're complaining about the 9% inflation we had a couple summers ago. Rightfully so.

9% inflation squeezes household budgets by 9%. That's painful. Yeah. But we have seen multiple countries have inflation that's so bad, it destabilized. the economy to the point that the government falls apart and some kind of revolution happens. Inflation can be like a disease that just stays and stays and you can't get it out of your system. It gets worse and worse and worse. Bad inflation begets worse inflation, which begets worse inflation. It happened to Germany in the 1920s. It led to the Nazi. It happened to Turkey a few years ago.

They have 90% inflation right now. Today, prices are 90% higher than a year ago. It is just like, like a wildfire. It can spread massively. So what I think is that the Fed needs, the risk of inflation getting out of control is way more important to think about than the risk that we haven't cut rates enough. And that may be the housing market stalls for a while. Right. One way to think about what the Fed is doing right now and why they're not dropping rates yet is something from carpentry and from woodworking and from like DIY housework. Measure. Measure. twice, cut once. What the Fed is doing right now is the same thing our old roommate Dave used to do and he would

put shelves like all over the apartment. We'd be like, Dave, what has it taken so long for you to put up that shelf? And he'd be like, I'm measuring it twice and then cutting once. I'm taking my time to make sure all the measurements are correct because it is easier for me to take this time now than it is to cut a new hole and have to redo the whole thing. Right. So that is exactly what the Fed is doing with its delay of lowering interest rates. It's saying, I want to be really sure that I've measured this accurately before I make the change of cutting rates.

I want to make sure inflation is gone before I get rid of this mechanism for getting rid of inflation. And inflation's not gone. It's not. The goal is to get to 2% because that's the Goldie Locks just right amount. And we're at 3.5% as of this recording. We're talking about double digit latte. I did have a double digital latte last week. So I think, just like you said, Nick, we need to measure twice and cut once.

And we're measuring right now and it's the wrong length. So rates are going to stay high a little bit longer, I think, before rates get cut. That's what the Fed's doing. They're measuring twice before they cut once, just like a carpenter or someone who was way better of putting up shelves than I am. Now a quick word from our sponsor. This next one is from Jessica Hewens in Rollinsford, New Hampshire, just outside of Boston. Just outside Boston.

Jack, this one's on your phone. voicemail. Hi, Nick. Hi, Jack. I'm curious. What's the backstory with your theme song? Did you write it? Did someone write it for you guys? Are there any B-sides that didn't make the cut? As far as podcast songs go, in my opinion, it's a T-boy. The T-boy jingle. It is to understand the T-boy jingle. We got to go back six years to a room with one of Robin Hood's co-founders. It was actually Bezier's idea to have a jingle for our original podcast. Right, right. We're also in the room trying to figure out how are we going to do these legal disclosures in the podcast and not make them super boring yeah just to sprinkle out some context yet he's jack and i

sold our company to robin hood we were there and we had transitioned the podcast over to robin hood as robin hood snacks snacks daily but we were being told we needed to include legal disclosures in there and we're like all right this is a fun entertaining uptempo podcast what are we going to do how are we going to suddenly say this is not financial advice where we're going to put that we're part of a big financial institution and Bejou came up with this brilliant idea that was inspired by Virgin Atlantic Airlines. What he realized was that airlines had the same disclosure issue we did in the finance industry. So he was like, just like they have to tell you, put on your seatbelt as the flight's taking off all armrest was going the upright and locked position. Put your mask on before you help others with their

masks. What Virgin did is they created a really enjoyable, entertaining, musical like deserves an Emmy video of their safety procedures. it musical, they made it fun. They talked about TSA standards and FAA regulations through like a Broadway style two minute video. So basically we kind of sucked the idea. Or rather we stole like an artist on this one and we decided to come up with a jingle when we were at Robin Hood for our podcast then, which was the Snacks Daily Jingle. But then when we went independent in 2022 and called the show the best one yet, we wanted to keep that going because starting the show with a jingle was just such a fun, powerful way to start my day.

T-Boy City on your outlet, Jack. We used to commute to work together on the same car at like 6.30 a.m. And hearing that jingle just lifted me up. We always listened to the content. And we were like, that was something that could have been such a downer, but it was such an upper. So we used the same idea when we relaunched independently as the best one yet. We reached out to a couple of musicians in Austin, Texas, called Blacklack.

Incredible rappers down in Austin. They happen to be fans of the show. Duo that isn't just amazing. So we told them, since we don't need to do legal disclosures, because we're not part of a finance institution anymore. Can you just tell our audience about us and about the show? This was magical. We literally gave them our brand strategy document Jack and I used for like business decisions. And they interpreted our brand strategy into musical notes so that this music was literally meant for our brand, T-boy.

Kind of an epic 30-second biographical rap jingle to open up the show. Do you remember the inspiration songs? that we shared with them? I don't actually. We had some rap songs that we shared with them. Fresh Prince of Bel Air was actually an early inspiration.

We were like, we wanted something that we gave them like a mood board audio-wise. H to the Izzo was one actually by Jay-Z. And Beyonce was another. Funny enough, they're married. And we loved how like

Fresh Prince told a story through the lyrics. Oh, in West Philadelphia, born and raised. On the playground is where I spent most of my days. Jack Nick. That's it.

Same kind of story. telling in both of them. Thank you for reminding me of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. That was one of the most amazing creative endeavors ever. So we had a couple of back and forth on the creative and we ended up with an unbelievable product that we're very proud of. It jiggle is a T-boy. I love that thing. Rachel, what's the next question? Rachel, what do we got? Now, this next one is in a question. It's a pitch from a Yeti as part of our new segment we're adding. Can you guys sprinkle on some contacts before we play her recording?

This is exciting. We got matchmaking, Jack? Tell it. Oh, we got matchmaking. You got this. Okay, okay, okay. Here's what Jack and I remember. thinking. We noticed there are all these incredible besties and yetis out there launching companies. Also, let me quickly point out, people have gotten married through this, through a mutual love of this

podcast, they've gotten engaged, they've started companies together. It's wild. Through a mutual love of our show, and that means so much to us. So we're trying to give this matchmaking idea of people coming together because of our show. We're trying to give it a platform. And we're applying it to business.

Basically, Jack and I discovered that we got Yeties, who want to be match made with a fellow co-founder, don't we, Jack? Last episode of Tebowo Hotline. Collid. Collid called in and described that he was looking for a co-founder. Nick and I talked about what to look for in a co-founder. Co-foundership.

It's a beautiful thing. But after that episode, three people reached out and said, hey, I'm looking for a co-founder too. Literally, it was like another guy who wanted to leave his job in San Diego and said, I got to connect with Collet over here. So Jack and I passed on the information to Collet, and we set them up. They've had a couple of phone calls. It was cute.

Next episode, we'll let you know how Callad's doing. But that inspired another listener of this show to reach out in the search of a co-founder. Rachel, we got a voicemail from Lila, don't we? You do. Push and play. Hey, Yatties. Lila here from Venice Beach, California. I've recently heard of your matchmaking services on my hunt for a co-founder.

I'm looking for someone who would be as stoked as me about launching the Jerry Wiper, a windshield wiper for your ski goggles and scuba mask. So a bit more about me, I live for a powder day in the mountain. I'm from the windy city. I studied business and entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley. I'm a zolennial and a dink, and I cannot do a cookie crisp, but I can make a really great dolphin sound. If you're interested, hit me up. All right, we got to play corporate cupid on this, Jack.

We got to find someone for Lila. Co-founder Cupid, absolutely. Jerry Wipers is the company. Did she say windshield wipers for ski goggles? This feels like the shark tank would be interested. I mean, it sounds like a fantastic product. All the fogging, all the sleet, the ice, the snow. Not to mention you just look cool wearing that kind of thing.

I want like one of those cyber truck single wiper things. I just want to be having a conversation with someone to just turn these bad boys on. So, Yeties, you just heard a quick profile of Lila, who is from the Windy City, went to Cal Berkeley. But she's not doing logistics. Has a brilliant idea. Man, if you're interested in working with Lila, reach out at Nick and Jack at T-Boypod.com. We're going to do a little bit of vetting for her.

Yes, we will. And then pass on the contacts and let her take it away. That's what we do. We're corporate cupids over here, doing a little bit of co-founder matchmaking. Lila, that idea sounds amazing. Thank you for putting yourself out there. And if anyone else wants to be in episode three,

T-boy matchmaking could be for you. Hit us up at Nick and Jack at T-boypod.com. Rachel, do we have any more questions? We have some rapid fire ones. Rachel, rapid fire. Let's do it, baby. We more strawberries? Let me just put this entire strawberry in my mouth.

I'm so glad I converted you. Oh my God, you did it. Good for you. Good for you. Rachel, ready for you. You know, it's healthy, sustainable, financially responsible. Generally, what is Gen Z better at than millennials? Not being cringe.

Also, just like wearing our clothes. Like, everything we used to wear is nostalgic now, and it's so much better than when we wore it. Were you Jinko Jack? by the way, you were Jinko guy? Oh, baggy jeans? Yeah, totally. So, millennials came up with Yola. Yes.

Genzi came up with Riz. Mm-hmm. That slaps. Gen Z is good at these. What's next, Rachel? What are millennials better at than Gen Z? Phone calls. Eating a whole strawberry.

Sometimes you need to make a phone call. And I'm totally down with a phone call. Love a phone call. You can cut through so many emails and so many back and forth by just making a quick phone call. Can we talk about the five-minute phone call, Jack? You call a friend. You haven't talked to him while and you say, hey, we got five minutes.

Because the reason people don't make phone calls, I think it's going to be like a 30-minute thing. And the reason some people don't make phone calls is because they've just been in the texting world and a DM world their entire lives. Did you know my dad didn't give me a cell phone until I went to college? No, I did because I tried calling you never picked up. Yeah. So that's why I'm down with phone calls, which is all I did until I was 18 years long. Yeah, do a five-minute phone call today. Call a friend and say, hey, we're capping this at five minutes.

Then we're going our separate ways. But it's better than like 70 texts. Rachel, what's next? How many credit cards should someone have? Three. Right. One for gas, one for travel, and one for everything else. If you get four, Dave Ramsey's going to come and spank you.

You want the gas card to get at least 3% cash back. That sounds good. The travel card, you want 5% cash back. Love it. And for everything else, try to get 2% cash back. But if you're carrying a balance month to month, you got to pay that down. Yeah. If you got credit card debt, one credit card max or none, because that is the worst credit card debt.

I know they're digital payments, but a great way to limit this is, what do you call my wallet again? Oh, asset light? I'm an asset light wallet. I can't fit more than three credit cards in there. So, like, that's it. But I'm very strategic with which card I swipe based on points. I'm kind of a points diva. But are you a guy who cares about the look of the card?

Not at all. Really? No, I like Apple Pay. Like, I'm doing the best. Look at this. Yeah, that's true. This is my wallet. It's just a little add-on to my iPhone.

It's basically a don't. There's only one physical card in there. And I only use it when they don't accept. I don't use physical credit cards anymore. I'm not impressed by like titanium credit cards. I find it particularly unhelpful because you sit down your wall and it's like edging in pia.

It could stab you. More of a weapon. I don't know if the world knows that Nick is so ass out light. I'm extremely ass out light. Jack always knows when he comes to my house. He's like, where's the stuff? He has a bunch of empty closets. Who has empty closets?

If I had empty closets, I would fill them with things. I can't. No, it doesn't. Jack was napping in a car. closet. I was like, we got a bed for you over here, man. Ascent light lifestyle. It begins with the wallet. Nick loves freedom and flexibility. That's true. His favorite verb is pop. Like, he likes to pop down to Santa Barbara and pop over to Salt Lake City. And not having things is how you're able to pop. I don't like being weighed down. You're right. What's next, Rachel? Should we work later than five?

If you want to get promoted, yes. Because the competition you're working with is going to work past five. We're not saying you have to work until midnight. But the reality is, is you are in the marketplace with other workers who are going to work the long hours. And maybe you're not trying to get a promotion right now. But the better thing to do than work after five is actually a New Year's resolution of mine. Oh, what is it? Which I've shared with you. Yeah.

Work smarter, not harder. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. There are probably hours of your day that you're working that are super inefficient or you don't even have to do it. Remember the breakthrough we had like six months ago? It was actually Rachel's idea. Oh, yes. We were,

after we recorded the show and Adam, our producer, edited the show, we would listen to the show late night and give editing notes to our producer at. Every day, Jack and I would prepare the show, record the show, and then wait a couple hours while Adam did some awesome editing. And then we would listen to the show at like 6 p.m. Pacific

and then I sent Adam notes at like 7 p.m. It was like another hour of work. Yeah. And it was after 5 o'clock. Why did we even do that? That was not working smarter. That was just working harder. That was working harder.

And Rachel had the idea. It was a great idea. Adam is a fantastic producer. Let Adam run with the final listen. Let him make the final call. Yeah, totally. And we have been completely on board with his editing decisions. And we saved ourselves an hour of work.

That was such a smart move. Totally. Work smarter, not harder. I bet you there's something in your work day every day that you don't need to do. And it will actually have no cost. Except it'll win you back an hour of your day. You can work until. until 5 p.m., if you're working smarter, not harder.

Rachel, what's the next question? Would you take pay cut for your dream job? Yes. And I have. And we have. We have. For this job. We did.

Here's why you should take a pay cut for your dream job. Because it won't be a pay cut for long. No. I think I've taken a pay cut with every new job. But if it's your dream job, you're going to flourish. Right. And before you know it, it won't have been a pay cut. You'll be making more money because you're doing so well.

It's a long-term mindset. Because if you're loving what you're doing, and you're doing it for a long time, the money will follow. In general, Jack and I have found that when you let money be the guiding reason for a decision, it doesn't end up in great places. Instead, you do a thing that you love and the money ends up following because you're doing something great. Like, we see this with our show too, where it's like, Jack and I don't make business decisions for this podcast based on will it yield the most money.

We make decisions based on will this grow the audience and then will this engage the audience. Everything Jack and I do falls into two buckets, growth or engagement. If it grows the audience, that's great. Eventually, the show will monetize that and we'll make money off of it. If it engages the audience, delights them, make them want to listen more, then eventually we will monetize that and money will follow. It's never about directly making money on the show. It's about growing to reach new Yeties and engaging the besties we currently love.

Beautiful. Rachel, what's next? Would you rather be Mr. Beast or the CEO of Amazon? I'd rather be Mr. Bees because I love it. YouTube paste. I don't like that description. I reject Mr. Beast is probably going to become the CEO of Amazon.

No, in all seriousness, I don't like to manage. And a CEO has to manage. Mr. Beast gets to create. Yes. I'm sure he does some management. But he is doing creative stuff and he's just doing the work

that is the core work of the company. And that's what I love. That's why you and I love. why you and I do our own research and writing and our own development of the stories. It's all pretty creative process. I freaking love it. And I would never want to switch to be a manager. Jack's YouTube face?

You can't get that anywhere else. Let me tell you something here. CEO of Amazon is not pulling off a YouTube face. In a lot of corporations, you either take the individual contributor track or the manager track. That's a new term. I love the individual contributor track. It's so funny because we both went to management school. Yeah.

We got MBAs in management. And we can tell you, like, there's a glorification of managing that shouldn't be correlated necessarily to compensation. Individual contributors, people think individual contributors, they hear individual contributors and they think that means lower than manager. Right. Managers have the prestige. Not the case.

Take it from two guys who got MBAs and now are individual contributors. No, when we were at Robin Hood, though, we naturally assumed that the path to success will have to become a manager. and we started going down that path and quickly realized we'd have to stop doing the podcast. It would have been a disastrous decision. That's not happening.

So I want to be Mr. Beast because he's an individual contributor and a CEO as a manager. I don't want to be that. Jack, what a fantastic show. That was a blast. We even talked about how nice is couch is. It's a cloud.

I feel like we're on a cloud. Look at this boucle. This is gorgeous. Blue clue. Should we whip up some takeaways? Jack, I would love to whip up some takeaways like the top of a strawberry. At the top of the show, we discussed a career change.

Yes. And we discussed the three boxes of income, impact, and quality of life. You can't just think about your three boxes. You also have to think about your partners. You have to listen. And your 20s are for trying. A financial trick shot, the fancy takeout. Buy something from your local restaurant.

It's going to come in crummy plastic containers. Put those on your finest china. Get your best napkins, light some candles, and have a wonderful date night. Financial trick shots create value where there currently is no value. Oh, Jack, the almost fund. Take what you would have spent on a thing and invest in that thing instead. I almost bought Nike's. I invested in Nike instead.

And now it's worth 22% more than last year. Yeties, your network is your net worth. And your partner is the number one connection in your network. Jack, things you wish you knew in your 20s? Right after graduating college and starting your job, figure out what you like to do and then do as much of that as possible because that's your future career. Then find an airline and commit for life.

And a huge shout out to Blackalack, the awesome, Austin-based musicians who created the jingle on this show. Jack Nick, that's it. Yeah, it is. That is episode two of T-Boy Hotline. Thank you to everyone who's listened and extra thank you to everyone who sent in a question.

How about those voicemails? And I think, Jack, I think I'm pretty sure we've ended the Barrygate controversy. I'm a cover. And if you want your question to be in T-Boy Hotline episode three, email your question to us at Nick and Jack at T-Boypod.com. If you're launching a startup and you're looking for a co-founder, Jack and I can be your corporate Cupid. We can play Matchmaker for you.

We like doing it. We do really love doing it. That's T-Boy Hotline episode two. Nick and I, I'll see you next time. Thanks again. Can't wait.