The Best One Yet - 🛠️ “There’s power in plumbing” — Gen Z’s blue collar work. Tesla’s worst quarter yet. Google’s incognito deception.

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

Vote for TBOY to win the Webby Awards: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2024/podcasts/shows/businessGen Z’s newest passion isn’t TikTok, it’s plumbing and other skilled trade jobs — Gen Z is leading a blue collar job surge, because AI can’t fix a clogged toilet.Google just admitting that Chrome’s “Incognito Mode” for searching the web privately actually isn’t private at all — And we know it all thanks to a lawsuit, the truth serum of business.And Tesla just suffered its worst quarter yet, with car sales falling 9% — But we’ve got the solution for Tesla’s “Elon Problem”.$TSLA $GOOG $CATSubscribe to the best newsletter yet: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Sepiche Wednesday. April 3rd. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a team boy, baby. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Huge announcement happening in a minute, isn't it, Jack?

Nick and I are very excited to announce something in our intro. But in the meantime, Jack, three stories. What do we got, man? For our first story, it's Tesla. Tesla just had its worst quarter ever. For pretty much the first story, time car sales fell at Tesla last quarter. So Tesla's trying out a whole new thing, and that new thing is old school commercial.

For our second story, Gen Z's latest passion, it's not Snapchat and TikTok, it's plumbing and carpentry. Gen Z is jumping into blue-collar jobs faster than any other generation. And our third and final story, Google just admitted that incognito mode has never actually been incognito at all. If you thought your online searching was safe, the answer is. is incognite no. But Yetis, before we

get that wonderful mix of stories. What a mix. Perfect mix today, man. This year, we have the most important election of our lifetimes coming up. Yetis, never has so much for so many, been on the line, not just for this country,

but for the entire world as we head into the polls. We're talking, of course, about the Webby Awards. Ah, the Webby Awards, the leading award for Internet excellence. The Webis. It's the

Oscars of the Web. The Webbies are hosted by the International Academy at Digital Arts and Sciences. Sounds important, Jack. You ready for this? They have 3,000 judges who evaluate 13,000 entries to get an award. Just a lot of listening, man. And Nick and I just discovered that our pod, this show, has been nominated for a Webby Award. Teaboy is officially a finalist nominee for the Best Business Show out there.

This is quite an honor. The Best One Yet is one of five podcasts nominated for Best Business. show, and we face some tough competition. The other nominees include Caras Swisher and Scott Galloway's Pivot Podcast. The other nominees include Neely Patel's Tech Podcast. And How We Survive, a podcast from Marketplace. And new rules of business from Chief. And us.

And us. Jack and I will literally pillow fight Professor Galloway with a bowl of ranch dressing on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to win this award. But honestly, that's not necessary. All you have to do is vote for us. Two of us could take on one Scott Galloway. I think that's what we're saying, Jack. But what we're really saying is we'd like you to vote for us to win this Webby Award. Because we need you to vote for us to win this Webby Award.

So we shared a link in this episode description for you to vote today. Yet he's just click the link, vote for T-Boy as the best business show. So go vote to make the best one yet, officially the best business podcast yet. This is Nick, this Jack, and we approve this message. Paid for by the best one yet for America SuperPack. LLC. Nasty's, it's your Pontriatic duty. Vote now, the links in the episode description now. Let's hit our three stories.

It's before this song. Two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn that had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm. 50%. That's a fat tip. Tea boy city on your at list. 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. First, a quick word from our sponsor. Our first story. Tesla just announced that car deliveries shockingly fell for the first time since 2020. Tesla's got a bunch of problems right now, but we have one big solution to propose. Well, Jack, let's start with the stock market. Worst performing stock in the S&P 500 last quarter.

Quarter just ended. Who was it, man? The worst stock in the first quarter wasn't like Tupperware or GameStop. It was Tesla. Well, this isn't going to help things, Jack, because yesterday Tesla announced that last quarter they delivered 387,000 cars. Sounds like a lot, but it's actually 9% fewer cars than they delivered last year in the first quarter. And it's 15% fewer cars than analysts were expecting.

Second quarter just began and Tesla's stock is already down 5%. If somebody's got a Jiffy Loob gift certificate, send it over to Tesla because they need to tune up. I need a new chassis. Who can give me a new chassis? Now, Tesla blamed three things for the disappointing quarter. First, Tesla updated their cheapest car, the Model 3, so they had to pause some of the work in their factories. It couldn't sell us, man. Second, shipments of cars on the Red Sea got disrupted by those Houthi rebel attacks that we've told you about on this pot. And third, Tesla's Berlin factory in Germany suffered, get this, an arson attack last quarter.

That's right. Some protesters lit the factory in Germany on fire. Now, yeah, he's added all up here, and these are valid excuses. It sucks when your factory is set on fire. That's not fun for anybody, Jack. But Tesla ignored a big unspoken issue that we're calling the Elon problem. Now, Yetis, let's sprinkle on some context here. Overall electric vehicle sales, like all the brands out there, they have slowed down,

but they're still overall growing. Electric car sales in the U.S. are expected to have risen 15% in the first quarter. So overall electric car sales are up. Tesla's car sales are down. Jack, can you work out the math for us over there? It implies that Tesla's sales drop isn't an industry problem. It's a Tesla-specific problem. Now, besties, Jack and I have covered on this pod before the sad reality that electric vehicles have become like vaccines. They've become political. According to Pew, self-described Democrats

are nearly three times more likely to buy an electric car than self-described Republicans. So in theory, Tesla should be marketing to Democrats, right? Because they're more likely to buy an electric car. Tesla should be at every sole cycle in the country. country check. Like the fact that there isn't a Tesla in Isle 6 at Whole Foods, shocker. I didn't know you had to be a registered Democrat to ride a Peloton Nick. The Tesla tailpipe should be shaped like a donkey. But instead, the CEO Elon Musk is doing the opposite of catering to Democrats. You can just look at Elon's Twitter to get a sense of what he's thinking and you see a very hard turn to the right just by reading his Twitter page. Elon's Twitter account is just full of conspiracy theories right now. What wouldn't surprise this this year, Jack? is if he endorses Donald Trump for president later this fall.

Honestly, Elon is like two steps away from riding an elephant into the RNC with like our Logan Roy poster. This is a paradox that honestly we're all still figuring out. Yet he's try to square this one. The top electric vehicle company is run by a conservative media mogul. The top electric car company is run by a conservative media mogul. But we think Tesla can make this work and we have a solution and that solution is our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over Tesla?

The next cool thing Tesla should launch, it's not a car. It's a chief marketing officer. Yeah, it is. Back in 2019, Elon famously said these three words. I hate advertising. Instead of paying for advertising, like every other car company, he just made great cars and then tweeted about those great cars. And the press and the public ate it all up.

But the opposite is now true. Each time Elon tweets, it ends up turning off potential would be. VEV buyers. Who are your typical Democrats? We think that's a big reason why Tesla's sales have actually fallen in the past quarter. That's why Tesla now reluctantly is embracing advertising. Tesla started doing ads with Google and YouTube. Never thought we'd see it the day. It makes sense for Tesla to do ads to try to sell more cars. But what it really needs is a strategy to shift the narrative. And a chief marketing officer is the position that can redefine the brand and the message of Tesla. Tesla needs people to focus on the great cars they produce.

not the controversial chief executive behind those cars. And yeties, Tesla famously has no CMO. But that's exactly who should be their next tire. For our second story, your next electrician yetis? Well, odds are they're going to be 22 years old and got a TikTok account. Because Gen Z is becoming America's blue collar generation. All right, full disclosure, Jack. Still don't totally understand what an Allen ranch is.

In Allen Ranch? It's also known as a Hex Ranch. It's the one that's got like six sides. You'd need it for a lot of bike repairs. It feels like the obscure cousin of the wrench family. I'd like to meet this Allen individual who got a wrenching him. Or how about Phillips? Who is this Phillips guy?

And why the plural? Anyway, Yetty's. Last year there was a shortage of plumbers in America. Jack and I, we covered it on this podcast. You had a clog pipe. You had to wait two weeks for Pete the plumber to make that house visit and pull out his snake drain thingy. There's not just plumbers.

There was a blue collar shortage across a whole. whole bunch of trades in the United States. We're still facing it today. And the reason for the shortage of blue collar repair people, it's us millennials. We're the problem. It's us. There's a whole generation of people, millennials, who passed on the trades. Don't even know when Alan Ranch from Phillipshead, Jack. There was this belief when Nick and I were in college that if your job wasn't internet related, you were somehow not succeeding. Yeah, there is this belief when Jack and I were in school that the four-year liberal arts college degree with a double major and study abroad in Bartholona was the dream every millennial and their parent was pushed toward.

And that dream left millennials with a whole lot of debt and America with not enough plumbers. And not enough carpenters, not enough roofers or construction workers, pipe layers, electricians, the list goes on. Guess what? Gen Z is coming to the rescue. Get this, Yetis. Gen Z likes TikTok, crocs, and dance videos, but they love wrenches, jackhammers, and a good pair of pliers. According to the Wall Street Journal, Gen Z is putting on overalls and answering the plumber call. We repeat, Americans like under the age of 28 are jumping into blue-collar jobs like never before. Jack and I were fascinated with this story. We actually think this is a really good thing because we found four reasons why Gen Z is doing blue-collar work that millennials wouldn't do.

First reason why Gen Z is getting into blue-collar jobs? The cost of college. Two-thirds of millennials who pursued a bachelor's degree did so by taking on student debt. not just a little debt, $27,000 a debt on average. And for many, that debt is still haunting them. So to avoid that debt, Gen Z is going to a vocational school instead, which is way cheaper. Attendance of vocational schools is at a record high right now. And the second reason, Gen Z's into blue-collar jobs? Paydays. Instead of going to Williams College, Will became a welder, and he's getting paid on day one in his plumbing apprenticeship. Oh, and Jack, what kind of numbers

did we see for the paydays of these new jobs? This was a big surprise. According to ADP, The average pay for a new construction worker right now is $48,000. But the average pay for a new job in the professional services industry, like marketing or an accounting job, $39,000. $48,000 for construction, $39,000 for a desk job. You could pay $100,000 to muse on Shakespeare or get paid $100,000 to fix a carburetor. And the third reason Gen Z is taking on blue collars,

they're not as dirty as you think. Yeah, this was actually the funniest one, but like blue collar jobs, They're just kind of clean these days. Some people fear that if their kid doesn't get a four-year bachelor's degree, they might end up becoming a grease monkey. But here's the reality. This ain't dirty jobs with Mike Rowe anymore, is it, Jack?

Trade jobs are technical. Like, you can't fix a smart refrigerator unless you have some software experience these days. My brother does construction. He uses geometry all the time. You got the blueprints. You got a chainsaw. It's all very technical stuff, man. Don't forget about the Allen Wrench.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all? All our buddies doing blue-collar jobs in Gen Z. Artificial intelligence can't fix a clogged drain. Yeti's the surprise fourth reason why Gen Z is becoming the toolkit generation? It's AI security. AI job security because artificial intelligence has suddenly changed the job calculus for young people thinking about their future careers. Get this.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a majority of young people think that blue-collar jobs offer better job security than white-collar jobs. because of artificial intelligence. More people are worried about AI taking over a writing job than a plumbing job. The first thing AI is expected to take over? Coding and software jobs. So Gen Z is sticking with hardware. The hardest of hardware.

Like wrenches and hammers and nails. Because AI chat pots, they'll never be able to fix a clogged drain. Or reconnect the toilet handle to that chain thingy that lifts the plunger thing. On top of the thingy thing. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Google just admitted that their incognito browser that you use never actually was incognito. Thanks to a class action lawsuit, Google had to spill the truth about the incognito browser. Chrome's incognito browser, if you know, you know.

You're pretending you don't know, so let us explain. Yeah, when Jack wants to Google some French sardines, he's using the incognito browser. This is a version of Google's Chrome web browser that was introduced 16 years ago that was marketed to customers as private. Incognito. It's like the burner phone of internet browsers. Untraceable back to you. You could Google whatever you want. No one will find out.

Incognito. It's so stealthy they gave it its own logo. Like a spy with binoculars and a trench coat. It like implied that like 007 couldn't even break into this thing. Everything about incognito's name and branding. It screams your secret is. with us. And that is why Jack uses incognito to Google French sardines. I don't know why you're doing it, man. But Nick, in your city of San Francisco, a class... You see it all uncomfortable over there.

I don't want to comment on this sardine nonsense. It's not a thing unless you make it a thing, Jack. I think it's officially a thing. So incognito mode, it was Google's browser to make you feel like your secret is safe with them. That nothing that you Googled would come out anywhere else. But a class action lawsuit just alleged that Google was tracking you the whole time. Here's the news. Google just settled that lawsuit and acknowledged that there is some truth to the claim. Incognito is not actually incognito. A lot of truth, actually. Google said they've been tracking your incognito browser for 16 years. So Google now says they're going to delete 16 years worth of data because they misled us into thinking it was all private. All right. Few. They made a mistake and they fixed it. Incognito is now truly incognito.

I'm sorry, Jack. But you're really. wrong there. Here's the wildest part about this lawsuit. Google's not going to stop tracking us. They're just going to disclose from now on that they're tracking us. As baddies, as part of this lawsuit, Google promised to add a sentence to their incognito marketing and that's it. And what's that sentence, Jack? It'll say when you open up the incognito browser, this won't change how data is collected by websites you visit and the services you use. Translation Jack. The only real difference for using incognito mode is that the history won't show up on your history tab.

Okay, so incognito, it's not inco, it's faux Cognito. It's no Cognito. It's incognito, no, is what this is. There was one other outcome of the lawsuit. Google is going to add an option when you open up the incognito browser to turn off cookies. So unless you want to help Google monetize your private internet browsing, we suggest you block those cookies. That'll make incognito a little more incognito. But still not totally incognito.

No, it won't ever be. What's what those sartines? So, Jack, what? What's the takeaway for our buddies who are anyone browsing the internet? Lawsuits are the truth serum for business. Yeah, it is, if someone is sued and the judge finds the claim valid, then the court enters something special. It's this phase called discovery.

Discovery is when lawyers have the power to request private records like emails, messages, and other highly protected evidence that the company doesn't want getting out there. Look, Bessies, if you know anyone who's been sued, discovery is considered like the worst. Like, you have to give everything private. You have to give it to the lawyers. And in this case, the evidence discovered in discovery makes Google look really bad. For example, they have an email from 2019 when the CMO of Google emailed the CEO of Google saying,

we shouldn't use the name Incognito because it's not really private. Another engineer emailed this. We need to stop calling it Incognito and stop using that Spy Guy icon because it's misleading. And they have another email that says Incognito's branding should actually be, you are not protected from Google. Someone at Google thought, instead of calling it incognito, they should call it, you're not protected. Well, Besties, thanks to this lawsuit, Google is disclosing what they're doing and giving us

the option to finally opt out. But not completely opt out. Because lawsuits are how we discover the truth. Lawsuits are the truth serum for business. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways force for Saviche Wednesday? Tesla's car sales fell 9% in the first quarter, while the rest of the rest of the the electric car industry was growing. To fix the Elon problem, Tesla needs a CMO.

For our second story, it's Gen Z. They're taking on blue-collar jobs in trades that America desperately needs filled. Because artificial intelligence, it just can't fix a clogged drain. And our third and final story is Google. They admitted after 16 years that incognito isn't really incognito, and it still isn't. We know all that thanks to a lawsuit. Lawsuits, they're the truth serum for business. But yet is, this pod's not over.

yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, if you're not hearing the same music on TikTok, it's because TikTok still does not have a deal with the record label, Universal Music Group. That record label is waiting for TikTok to pay up, so instead they're up in their relationship with Spotify. You may have noticed Spotify now has permission from Universal to show music videos from artists like Taylor Swift, Bieber, and BTS who are not currently on TikTok. Spotify is becoming MTV, apparently. And second, today is the biggest day for Disney in years. Disney has got its annual shareholder vote.

Today is a showdown between Disney's board of directors and a bunch of activist investors. So many questions, so much drama jack. Will CEO Bob Eager get pushed out? Will he keep his jog? Whose side is Mickey on in all of this? This is a scene from the show succession. And we'll update you tomorrow on what the vote determines. And finally, the controversial prop from the final scene of Titanic,

just sold at auction for $700,000. What my coales is talking about is the wooden door that was floating on the icy water. It sold for $700,000. That wooden door. It was controversial because, like, could Jack Dawson have fit on that wood? Like, why didn't Rose leave a little more room for Jack Dawson at the end of the movie? I thought you didn't watch Titanic. Haven't you never seen Titanic?

You're now exposed that I haven't watched Titanic and I still don't understand exactly what an Allen ranch is. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me, because we noticed it today. We thought it was interesting for you, Yaddies. The final four is set for both the men's basketball tournament and the women's basketball tournament. NC State Wolfpack and the Yukon Huskies. They both made the final four in the men's and women's tournaments.

So we got to ask, what's the difference between a wolf and a husky? Well, huskies are sled dogs. They weigh about 40 to 75 pounds, and, you know, they're domesticated dogs. On the other hand, wolves are wild animals, and they weigh double the weight between 80 and 100 pounds. And not quite double, but they're both canines and they both play basketball. And we don't know who's going to win, but we do know that people ultimately prioritize puppies. Yeah. Yadis, you look fantastic for Covecée Wednesday. But remember, before you go, pause the pod, we need your support. Vote for the best one yet as the best business podcast for the Webby Awards.

Honestly, Yiddies, this is a big deal. And Jack and I are really, really excited about this. We're proud to also be in this group with like four other amazing other podcasts. Very true. We're making a very big ask of you. Vote now and tell your buddies to vote too. Otherwise, Jack and I are going to have to pillow fight Scott Galloway on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with a whole lot of ranch dressing. We got a link in the episode description to make it easy for you.

Vote now if you know, you know. And before we go, congratulations to salesman of the year, Dave Zingell, who's a Yeti, who just had a big sale and is number one at the company in Cookstown, New Jersey. Jersey. Congratulations to Wendy Zapp, who just launched a new digital platform in Dublin, Ohio, and thinks restaurants should turn the music down. Congratulations to Brian O'KKK, who's got a new job in Dallas, Texas. And a happy birthday to Yeti Davida Vito, who's celebrating in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a T-boy.

Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Crocs and Disney, and Nick and I both on stock of Peloton and Spotify.