The Best One Yet - ✨✍️ “The Hire Hack” — Storytellers’ job pop. Siri’s Google girlfriend. Don’t Fight the Fed. +Peak Pizza

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, January 13th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. All right, Jack, you remember that driving range I took you to in the Presidio in San Francisco the other week? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:00:16 I found a better one. Lincoln Park Golf Course, right? Yeah, I self-operated on this one. I owe you a better round next time. I'm sorry about that. Were there more coyotes? Because that determines the quality of the golf course in San Francisco. I never found that.

Starting point is 00:00:30 And we'll never know what happened to it. I hope you just found your own golf clubs instead of your mother-in-law, like you used to. I got a spray. I bring a spray with me now. Jack, three stories for today's team boy. What do we got on the pot? For our first story, Apple just surrendered the AI war to Google because new series is coming out later this year and she'll be Gemini powered. Siri is breaking up with Chad GPT because Google has built a Cinderella castle.

Starting point is 00:00:55 For our second story, if you're looking for a job right now, we have the perfect hiring hack of the year. It's actually the oldest hiring hack ever. Because the top skill in every industry right now is storytelling. And our third and final story. The Trump administration launched a criminal investigation into the chairman of our Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. Jerry Powell, but finance people on both sides of the aisle have raised their hand and said, I object. So Jack and I will explain. But yet he's, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What? A mix of stories for Teaboy Tuesday. Love the Mix, Jack. I just found a fascinating list on the internet. Most common restaurant types in America. You ready for this? Okay, sprinkle on the

Starting point is 00:01:35 takeout context for us, please. Chinese restaurants is number five. Mexican restaurants is number four. Burgers number two? No, burgers are number one. Coffee shops are number two. But number three, pause the pod. It better be pizza jack. Pizza. $75,000 pizzerias in America, according to Ibus world. But that's a problem yet, he's a pizza problem because pizza is falling fast. According to the Wall Street Journal, We are past our pizza peak. That's right. The Wall Street Journal published America is falling out of love with pizza. The honeymoon.

Starting point is 00:02:06 It's over. Now, to sprinkle on some more context, Nick, pizza's success in America was its delivery advantage. For decades, pizza dominated the yellow pages in your phone book. The pizza is so boxable. They even invented their own pizza box for the pizzas. But in the delivery app age, that advantage has been neutralized.

Starting point is 00:02:25 In the past, pizza restaurants had their own delivery drivers on staff. But now every restaurant has delivery drivers because of the delivery apps. And in this economy, an $18 family-sized pie from Dominole doesn't taste like value like it used to. I'm sorry, Jack, but the carb to cash ratio, it's just till's too low. It just leads to the sad news. Pieology Pizzeria, Bertucci's, Anthony's coal-fired pizza and wings. Oh, boy. Each filed for bankruptcy last year, R-I pizza.

Starting point is 00:02:54 Besties, this is the great pizza pause, the pie apocalypse. I think it's more of a high equilibrium. Because we're still eating pizza, just a little less than the past. Mamma Mia, Jack, someone's got to call Maria on this one. I thought you were going to say Michelangelo, but let's go with Maria. Hey, Donatello, let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm.

Starting point is 00:03:17 It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at. Liz, if you know you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show.

Starting point is 00:03:39 First, a quick word from our sponsor. Our first story. Apple's Siri just broke up with Open AI and is hooking up with Google instead. Apple intelligence powered by Google. This is why Google is now worth more than Apple's. It's got us thinking about some fairy tales here. But yet he's the biggest tech since the internet, it's been a gigantic swinging a miss down in Cooper Tino.

Starting point is 00:04:12 We're talking about AI. Yeah, we are. Because in June of 2024, which was already late back then, Apple finally unveiled Apple intelligence. Their take on artificial intelligence. And here was the vision. Siri was going to become fluent in AI powered by chat, GPT. And how did that look, Jack?

Starting point is 00:04:28 Never came. No, it didn't. We're on the iPhone 17 and it's still not yet. So to finally, finally make Siri AI fluent, Apple just confirmed this week, they're tapping Google's Gemini and Google. Google Cloud. Huge win by Google to become the large language model that powers the world's eye devices. That's why, for the first time since 2019, Alphabet's market cap is now larger

Starting point is 00:04:51 than apples. That's right, the timing couldn't be freakyer, right, Jack? Google's valuation hit $4 trillion yesterday for the first time ever. It's just the second company to ever hit that milestone. Jack, this is like LeBron leaving Cleveland. Not taking his town to South Beach. He's taking him to Menlo Park. But also South Beach. Because Google's powering like everything. now in the background. That's a fair point. Now, Bessie's this is why Jack and I find this fascinating. It brings up an underappreciated part of business. Because anything that's the default on an iPhone, that's tech's golden ticket right there. I mean, Jack, if you're the default, that's an immediate profit puppy baby. Everyone is opted into you. So Google winning this golden ticket,

Starting point is 00:05:31 default AI provider on all Apple devices, it reflects so many things. Jack and I thought, like each of these could be its own takeaway, right, Jack? The first thing this story reflects is that antitrust is dead. Totally. A federal judge let Google off the hook last year for being a monopoly. So now Google is brazenly expanding its monopoly into new monopolies. Okay, so that's Google. The other point here is that Apple is kind of waving the white AI flag right now.

Starting point is 00:05:56 Nick, we're four years into the AI race. Apple was the most valuable tech company, but Siri still speaks AI like a toddler does. Jack, this is the second rival Apple's had to tap in order. to improve AI on its iPhones, man. And yet AI is still not really on our iPhones. Okay, the third thought Jack and I had here was like, Open AI, it's continued the cold streak. Open AI used to be so hot, but now it's like,

Starting point is 00:06:22 Hey, Siri, turn off chat, GPT, turn on Gemini instead. Ever since Thanksgiving, Sam Alman's been peeing the pants on an awkward code red situation out there. Every percentage point of market share open AI is losing, Google seems to be gaining. But besties, the biggest thing this story represents is that we all had it wrong when it comes to Google and AI. Google's moat didn't get crossed by AI. AI became another Google moat. All right, Tinkerbell. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Google?

Starting point is 00:06:51 In Google's castle, email was the first mode. Search was the second mode. And now AI is becoming the third. Yeti's Gmail controls 75% of the U.S. email market. Google Search is even more powerful with 90% of its market. 90 plus. Yeah. And then came Chachie BT. We all thought that it would finally neutralize Google's internet advantages. Remember what we were saying, Jack? Like, instead of checking Gmail, you'd let ChatGTPT act like your assistant and summarize that giant Bachelorette party email chain. And instead of searching the web, you'd let ChatGPT search the web and find that Hanukkah gift for your mama. But it looks like we're all wrong, because Google overcame OpenAI's threat and built their own chatbot just as good. And Google built that chatbot

Starting point is 00:07:34 into Chrome, into Chrome books, into iPhones now. You want proof? Last week, Samsung announced that Gemini would power the native chatbot on all Samsung devices. This week, Apple just announced the same thing. Combined, what percent of American phones is that, Jack? All Apple phones, all Samsung phones, that's 70 percent of the American smartphone market powered by Gemini. Besties, Google just became the default diva again. First for email, then for search, now for AI assistance. Google, they got enough moats to make Cinderella jealous.

Starting point is 00:08:09 I think your fairy tale geology is off. I think you're thinking of Repunzel, Jack. For our second story, this month is the hottest month of the year for switching careers and applying for new jobs. And the number one skill

Starting point is 00:08:25 most in demand to get you hired right now, it's not AI. It's kind of the opposite of AI. It's storytelling. But besties, don't worry. We're whispering here

Starting point is 00:08:33 it's just you, Jack, and me. Your secret safe with us. We know you spend it yesterday afternoon scrolling. You're looking for new jobs. You got like a dozen tabs open. They have two computers. They have their work computer and their private computer. Besties. Happy job jump January to all those who celebrate. One of the most popular New Year's resolutions, it's career-related. Finding higher paying or more fulfilling jobs. And the second week of the new year is when you get to your career pivot resolutions. But to sprinkle on some contact, it is a tough market out there, isn't it, Jack? In November, the number of job seekers was more than the number of job openings in this country.

Starting point is 00:09:08 Plus, Jack, you got AI as the new gatekeeper for HR. No interview unless the chatbot likes your resume bullets. But besties, it is with that backdrop that we were shocked to see the number one skill to stand out these days. Storytelling. Corporate America's hottest job is the world's oldest job. Yeah. People are being paid to tell stories at corporations. Storytellers, like ancient Greek philosophers, they would have crushed the Super Day at Goldman Sachs this year,

Starting point is 00:09:33 Hey Homer, you just got an interview of McKinsey. Reciting The Odyssey, that's how you get the job at bay in these days. On LinkedIn, the number of job postings with the word storytelling in the description doubled last year. There's 70,000 of them right now. On earnings calls, CEO said the word storyteller 469 times last year. That's three times more than 10 years ago. And now, Basties, we should point out, if you hear storyteller, you're probably thinking novelist, playwright, frontier cowboys by a campfire.

Starting point is 00:10:00 But the Wall Street Journal profiled a corporate takeover for the word. Storytelling is the new marketing. And marketing is needed in every industry. That's why Microsoft is hiring a senior director of storytelling. That's why Chime wants a financial storyteller. Notion merge the comms, social media, and influencer teams. It's what, Jack? A 10-person storytelling team.

Starting point is 00:10:20 Ready for this one, English majors? Vanta, the tech company, is paying 274 grand for a head of storytelling. But our favorite detail of this story is a job posting from Google. Oh, you've got to read this out loud, Jack. Storytellers play an integral role in customer acquisition and long-term growth. Besties, if Jane Austen were alive today, she would be the C-O-O of Kellogg's. I don't know about Kellogg's. Well, she would bring some sense and sensibility to the balance sheet, Jack.

Starting point is 00:10:48 So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies looking for jobs by storytelling? As Plato once said, those who tell the stories rule society. Yeah, it is one fundamental reason for this surge in corporate storytelling is just there are fewer news. newspapers out there. In the past, news analysts, reporters, journalists, they wrote stories about companies. But with traditional journalism declining, today it is the brands that have to promote themselves. And they're not doing it on old media. They're doing it on podcast, blog posts, their own social media channels, and on their own substacks. Okay, but as a couple of business storytellers here, Jack and I were thinking about it, and we think it's actually more deeply a response

Starting point is 00:11:28 to artificial intelligence. In a world of increasingly fake AI slop, content stands out. You see, AI is good for research, calculating, summarizing, but humans are still best at storytelling authentically to other humans. The CEO of Duolingo was on our pod last year and basically said this much. He said like the pendulum of power is swinging right now, from engineers to artists. That is why whatever industry you're applying to, Yeti's storytelling is the new hiring hack. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Jerry Powell, chairman of the Fed, told the world on Sunday night he's being criminally investigated by the Trump administration under false pretences. On Monday, the financial world came to Powell's

Starting point is 00:12:16 defense. We'll explain why. But best is, this drama goes all the way back to 2017 when President Trump appointed Jerry Jerome Powell to chair our nation's central bank. But ever since then, President Trump has been insulting Powell publicly hundreds of times. He blames him for pretty much every economic while. This spring, the president escalated, though, from name-calling and scapegoating to threatened indictments. Now, to sprinkle on some context, America created the Federal Reserve in 1914. We gave it independence to insulate it from politics. And why do we do that, Jack? It's a unique institution. So that the Fed does what's best for the economy, not what's best for the president's approval ratings. Well, fast forward to today, and now the Trump administration

Starting point is 00:13:00 has escalated their frustration with our Fed chair to an unprecedented love. to a criminal investigation. The DOJ has subpoenaed Jerome Powell's Fed and threatened an indictment of him. That's according to Powell himself, who set the narrative on Sunday night in a press release and a video. A video that kind of looks like the hostage video,

Starting point is 00:13:19 to be honest, but a very intense video nonetheless. According to Jerome Powell, the criminal investigation into him is about his testimony to Congress last year, about renovations of historic Fed office buildings which have gone way over budget. That's right. It looks like it comes down to architecture and interior design.

Starting point is 00:13:37 But the Fed chair, Jerry Powell, says that is a false pretext. The real reason he's being investigated is, let him explain. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public rather than following the preferences of the president. Basically, he didn't bend the need to President Trump. He didn't drop interest rates fast enough. Now, Basties, we should point out, cost overruns of a gun. government construction project are not something that usually gets the Department of Justice's

Starting point is 00:14:09 investigations. And Powell's term ends as Fed Chair in just four months. So why investigate him now? Well, the most likely scenario it looks like is President Trump is punishing Jerry Powell for not taking those orders to cut interest rates faster. Now, this could go nowhere. Politically motivated indictments, which this certainly looks like it is, are often thrown out quickly by the courts. And it also could backfire on President Trump. When Jerome Powell is done as Fed chairman, he can retire or he can stay on the Federal Reserve's board. And you know what? Now Jerry Powell is more likely to stay just to prove how independent the Fed should be. Like the stubborn neighbor who doesn't mow his lawn just because he can.

Starting point is 00:14:48 So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies watching the Federal Reserve? Our future could go two ways. A political Fed or an independent Fed. Yeties, the president has said he'll replace Jerry Powell in May with someone who will follow his orders. But that doesn't mean the end of an independent Fed, because the interest rate committee is made up of 12 different officials. So what you're saying, Jack, is Powell's Trump-picked successor would only have one vote out of the 12 votes to change interest rates. Right. But if the other board members get threatened with prosecution, then the central bank could lose its most important asset, it's independence. Besties, a politicized non-independent Fed, it might do things like cutting interest

Starting point is 00:15:30 before elections to juice up the economy and make voters happy. That would probably give the economy a short-term sugar high, but like during the pandemic, it could lead to an inflation spike. And that, that scenario, that is why all three former Fed chairs still alive wrote a letter on Monday defending Jerry Powell and the Federal Reserve's independence. Nick and I are history in econ majors. We can tell you, only weak economies with weak democracies have politicized central banks. And you know who else defended the chair? Four former Treasury secretaries. More than half of those officials, Nick's mentioning, were appointed by Republicans.

Starting point is 00:16:05 And H.S officials, Jack, Bank of America's CEO, said that, quote, markets will punish us if we don't have an independent Fed. Like Jerome Powell or don't like Jerome Powell, the whole financial world seems to agree. We want an independent Fed, not a political one. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Tea Boy Tuesday? Apple confirmed yesterday that Gemini will power Siri, starting later this year. Hopefully it'll finally be AI fluent. And chat GPT, you're out. AI didn't cross Google's email and search modes. AI is becoming another Google moat.

Starting point is 00:16:40 For our second story, storytelling is the new corporate word for marketing. And it's also the new hiring hack. Yeah, happy job jump January. Storytell about yourself in interviews so you can story about the company for a paycheck. And our third and final story, Jerome Powell said Sunday he's being investigated under false pretenses by the Trump administration. And the whole financial World, even some CEOs defended Fed independence. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. Abercrombie and Shake Shack both had a disappointing holiday earnings season. Abercrombie stock dropped 17% yesterday on news that you traded down from the Hollister brand. And Shake Shack's holiday sales also disappointed, but interestingly, they blamed it on the weather.

Starting point is 00:17:23 A lot of wintry mixes in the Northeast. Too cold to go get a Shack burger, I guess. Is it, though, honestly, soft. And second, yesterday, bank stocks and credit card companies fell on a Trump tweet over the weekend. The president is continuing his affordability messaging, this time focused on the credit cards. He says he's going to limit the interest rate credit card companies can charge to 10%. And he called for a one-year cap of 10% effect of January 20th, but unclear if he can do that legally without Congress. And finally, Jersey Mikes is expanding to Europe. So is the NBA.

Starting point is 00:17:55 For the sandwich chain, Italian is the most popular. cold-cut sandwich, but will Italians actually want a 12-inch sandwich? I don't think Italians want an Italian-American Italian sandwich. But the National Basketball League is a better bet because basketball is already popular in Europe. So the NBA is pitching investors on a new league with 12 teams across the continent. And they're charging a $1 billion price tag to own those initial 12 teams. The London Bridges versus the Berlin Walls. Who you got? Now, time for the best fact yet.

Starting point is 00:18:28 This one an answer to our T-Boy trivia from yesterday. You ready, Jack? Yeah, the question was, where does Venezuela's name come from? Yeah, and the hint was that the name Venezuela is connected to spaghetti and meatballs. So you ready for it? Yes, I am. There is no one clear answer to where the name comes from, but there is one commonly accepted by historians, and here it is. It comes from a voyage in 1499 by Americo Vespucci, the Italian navigator.

Starting point is 00:18:50 When he got to the region, now known as Venezuela, it reminded him of Venice, Italy. Oh. And in Spanish, the name for the Italian city of Venice is Venezuela. Really? And that is where the name Venezuela likely came from. Pretty flimsy connection to spaghetti and meatballs, but I'll take it. Have you been to Venice, Jack? I have not.

Starting point is 00:19:13 Then the spaghetti and meatballs stands. Yiddies, you'll look fantastic for Tea Boy Tuesday, especially if you're ordering a slice tonight to make up for the peak pizza situation. Rest in peach, Bertucci's. in peace. And if you are applying to a new job, remember to send today's pod to another buddy who's also probably applying to a new job, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. Have you had the best one yet? That's how we grow the show. If you know, you know. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Floreshang down at Mountain View, California, long-time Yetty. Snacker, termed Yeti. Thanks for being with us.

Starting point is 00:19:52 Happy birthday to Laura down in Scarsdale. And Abby Klaus suggested the Roots app for Banuary, Jack. She wanted to get that message to you. It's another app that makes you pop. before doing your mindless scrolling. And a congratulations to Andre Newellyn in Irvine, California, returning back to the gym after a long hiatus and a new Yeti. And a big thank you to Andres Espinosa and Fernandina Beach, Florida, who successfully told everyone who will listen to listen to this show. Andre's thanks for being the best one yet.

Starting point is 00:20:25 This is Jack. Nick on stock of Shake Shack and we both own stock of Apple.

The Best One Yet - ✨✍️ “The Hire Hack” — Storytellers’ job pop. Siri’s Google girlfriend. Don’t Fight the Fed. +Peak Pizza

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