The Best One Yet - ❤️‍🔥 “We met on LinkedIn” — LinkedIn is the unofficial dating app. Beyonce’s country music pivot. The Right to Disconnect law in Australia.

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

Daters are choosing Linkedin over Tinder and other dating apps — Because historically, Americans have found their future spouse at work.During the Super Bowl, Beyonce announced her new album Act II, dropping March 29th, and her musical pivot to country — Because country music is now a growth industry.And Australia is passing a law on “The Right to Disconnect” — If your boss sends you an email at 8:19pm, you legally have the right not to respond.Plus, more of our publicly-traded poetry. And a Valentine’s Day kickoff.$MSFT $SPOT $SPYSubscribe to our newsletter: 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, Cevice Wednesday, and Valentine's Day, February 14th. And today's pod, it is the best one yet. It is a D-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh, the Dow Jones Industrial Average. You are showing us no love for Valentine's Day, are you, my friend?

Stocks dropped by 700 points yesterday. It's the worst day of the year so far. Wall Street, let's kiss and make up tomorrow. You owe us an apology. We're waiting. Our favorite flowers, tulips. But Jack, first story for today's show, what do we got, man? For our first story, the top dating app in America isn't what you think it is.

The top dating app is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is for lovers because love is often found at the workplace. For our second story, Beyonce just announced her next album. And guess what? It's a country music album. And why is that trick? Because country music is America's growth industry. Third final story, what do we got, man? Australia's Senate just passed.

to bill giving workers the right to disconnect. Yeti's answering your boss's email at 8 p.m. May soon become illegal. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories today. Wild mix of stories for Valentine's Day. Yesterday, you may recall, Nick and I opened up our hearts on this podcast. Yesterday, we shared our love letters to two of our favorite brands. Jack and I, we were feeling the vibes.

We got a little poetic. Nick and I wrote poems about our favorite companies and we read them aloud. Jack and I whipped up a couple of publicly traded poems. I crafted a love poem to Birkenstock. I'm still crying. Nick crafted a love poem to Chipotle. I'm still eating. Now, many of you responded by sending us your own publicly traded poems.

So, Jack and I jumped a teapoy style, and we read all of your publicly traded poems. And on this Valentine's Day, we want to do a reading of a couple of our favorites. Jack, the floor is yours. Kick it off. This is a poem from Gina Christina from New York about sweet greed. Thanks for clearing my throat for me, Nick. You're welcome. I'm okay, you're back. You know my order in the peak hour.

A harvest bowl is what I devour. Kaling Kienwa dance in the bowl with chicken and apples, a symphony hole. Tossed with care of vinaigrette's embrace. Each bite, a moment of grace. In this bustling world, a moment serene. Sweet green salad, a lunchtime dream. Snap, snap, snap, snap, shit, snap, shit, stuff, stuff. All right, that was the first poem on sweet green.

Our second poem is from Chirag about Invidia. Here we go. Here we go. You are more than a chip. You are a work of art. You make my heart flip. You are a feast for my heart. You are the leader in graphics.

AI is your core. And so far this year, no stocks or isn't more? Isn't that the truth? And finally, Misha wrote this one about Palaton. Roses are red, violets are blue. Peloton stock, I've lost hope with you. It's short, it's sweet, and it cuts to the core. Snap, snap, snap.

I haven't sold my Peloton stock, by the way. But I'm thinking about selling my buck. Jack and I, we feel you, Misha. Yates, thank you for your legendary T-Boy poetry. Besties, thank you for that pros. Happy Valentine's Day. Let's hit our three stories. For our first song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn.

For our first story, the most powerful, surprise dating app, right now, it's LinkedIn. Rule number one of LinkedIn Dating Club, don't talk about LinkedIn Dating Club. Yaddy's one of our favorite stories from last year. We actually did in our live show. Jack, it was about alternative dating apps. What the heck are we talking about? Instead of using traditional dating apps, more and more people are using non-dating apps to find dates. You didn't meet on Tinder, you met on Yelp. And what does that look like, Jack? You both left a glowing review about the same restaurant on Yelp, so you connected on Yelp. And now you're dating. thanks to Yelp.

There you go. Well, the reason we're turning to non-dating apps is because the majority of dating app users feel overwhelmed and disappointed. Because on dating apps, when your face is getting swiped or not swiped, it's tough not to feel judged. In the last year, that's why Matches stock is down 25%. Bumble stock is down 45%. Hinge has been hurt, but there is a solution. In the meantime, Nick and I found a non-dating app, LinkedIn, that is stealthily becoming a pretty powerful dating app. According to Business Insider, more Americans are meeting their mates on LinkedIn.

If Cupid had a Wi-Fi password, he'd be scrolling your LinkedIn feed right now. Now, we should point out, LinkedIn overall, it's just living its best life as a social media platform. Jack, could you sprinkle in some context for us over there, please? LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, and they brought in $15 billion of revenue last year from its 950 million users. Jack, I think that's 950 million eligible users. That's the proper term. Right. But why is LinkedIn low-key great for finding Mr. or Mrs. Wright? Why is LinkedIn where Americans are finding love? Jack and I found three reasons why.

The first reason is credibility because your LinkedIn profile is your life resume. Yet is your dating app profile? It's pretty limited. Like you're getting your age, you're getting your current location, and then you're showing like a picture of a puppy. Everyone's doing it. But on LinkedIn, you see that she's been endorsed for financial modeling. Or you see that he just got promoted to VP. Not too shabby. The second reason LinkedIn's a great dating app is the accountability. You can't really lie on your LinkedIn account. I mean, Jack, on Tinder, you can embellish the number of abs on that six-pack and round up to eight,

can't you man? Or use AI to enhance your profile picture. But if you embellish that job title on LinkedIn, then your boss might see it and you could get fired, so you're not going to do that. And finally, LinkedIn has references. How valuable is that for a potential date? LinkedIn has a built-in reference feature that is basically what you wish every dating app has right now. On Tinder, you have no sense of that person's dating history, and you can't get feedback from the last person they dated.

You want to talk to their ex and be like, um, can we just talk about a few things there? But on LinkedIn, they literally have testimonials. You'll see that Jamie's a go-getter from the beginning. You'll see that Julie takes a leadership role. Oh, and it's not just the references, the accountability and the credibility. You learn about somebody on LinkedIn in a way you never could from Bumble. Oh, consulting project in Paris? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just sweet, very interesting. And if the LinkedIn date doesn't work out, you can just say it was a networking event. You've got an easy out all along. No hard feelings, but I don't want you to be my SaaS enterprise provider. Oh, and if you do find the love of your life on LinkedIn, you know what happens next, Jack? No, what? Marriage announcement on LinkedIn. Got a career master.

I'm humbled and honored to announce, I'm merging. with my fiance. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies finding love on LinkedIn? LinkedIn dating works because love loves work.

Yeti's funny thing, historically, the top place where Americans met their mates, it was always at work. Because is there anything hotter than seeing someone take charge

at quarterly sales presentation? The answer is no, Jack. Get this, Yeti, 60% of Americans have had a romantic relationship with someone at work. One out of four married couples

in America met at work. According to Bamboo, the HR company. Now, besties, of course, we are talking about appropriate consensual work relations where neither side has power over the other. Of course, but LinkedIn's low-key dating status is a surprise reminder of this reality. Americans have always found love at work, and in a more remote world, they still know. For our second story, Beyonce just unveiled that her latest album will be country music. Make no mistake, Beyonce's making a business pivot because country music is

booming. Jack, let's go back 11 years 2013. You and I were living in the East Village and Beyonce dropped an album. She dropped it with no warning. This was basically the invention of the album drop. No precedent, baby, 14 songs each with their own videos suddenly available and there were no leaks. She created 14 music videos. She was like the biggest star in the world and somehow none of those 14 production teams leaked that an album was about to drop. The most incredible fee to secrecy since Oppenheimer. But Beyonce's latest album was less drop and more drip. And yet he's that drip began at the Grammys when Beyonce slyly wore a white cowboy hat. Then this past Sunday at the Super Bowl, Beyonce started in a Verizon commercial teasing that she was going to break the internet with a new album.

And then during the big game, the website of Beyonce confirmed it. Act two, a continuation of the Renaissance album, was dropping March 29th. Boom, Beyonce's first two singles on the new album are already streamable, the rest of arrives next month on March 29th. But there was still one huge element of surprise to this Beyonce Drip album drop. And what was that surprise exactly, Jack? It's a country music album. Beyonce is going country.

What is going on, man? What? What? Yeah. Yeah, he's the biggest pivot in music since Lady Gaga did that duet with Tony Bennett. I think it's bigger than that, actually. Okay, it's bigger. Not yet.

He's Nick and I couldn't believe it, but we found out it's really, a country album. The evidence was everywhere. In the video, there are a lot of Reven Engines, a lot of Stats and Hats and a whole lot of playing poker on the sign. You can see the video for Texas Hold'em. That's the single that already dropped. There's literally tumbleweeds going through a desert and strumming banjos throughout the song. She's going from pop music to Dali Pardon. This is a full Reba situation. She is shifting her career from pop to country. From Halo to Rodeo. If you like it, then you better put some chaps on it. So yet, the big question is why is Beyonce doing this? And well, She's got a lot of personal reasons why she's doing this.

She's from Texas. She grew up around country music. Looks like this ambitious talent has made country her next challenge. But there also is an interesting financial reason why she's doing it. Sounds like the lead into the takeaway, Nick. Yehah, Jack. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy, Beyonce? Country music is a growth industry.

Yeah, he's eight years ago, just one of the top 50 songs streamed on Spotify was a country song. Last year, 18 of the top 50 songs on Spotify was country. Yet this, country music streaming in America has grown 24% in the last year. But the overall music industry, it's only up 10%. In 2019, Lil Nas X kicked off the trend of pop musicians going country. Post Malone and Landa Del Rey, they both recently confirmed their next album is grabbing a cowboy hat and it's going full country. But biggest of all is Beyonce. Now, maybe this country music trend, it's driven by the musicians.

Pop stars that have taken alike in a country. Or maybe it's driven by listeners, and musicians are simply producing what customers want to hear. Either way, country music has become a major growth industry. For our third and final story, Australia said it. Just passed a very interesting bill. It's called The Right to Disconnect. Should you have a right to ignore work emails in the evenings and on weekends? Yeties, you have been there before Jack.

Can you set the scene for us, please? It's 7 o'clock, and you get a Slack message from your boss asking you to update the slide deck. Which you already updated. Then it's Sunday morning. You get an email from your boss asking for a memo, but it doesn't say what it's due. How about this? The 601 text on a Friday from Frank and Finance. Can you finish that TPS report by the end of the week?

It is the end of the week. All of that is why Australia's Senate just passed a bill called the right to disconnect. It allows workers to ignore calls and emails from work. once they've clocked out from work. Here's what it says verbatim in the bill. It says you have the right to refuse to monitor, to read, or to respond to contacts to you from your bosses. You have the right to not reply to your boss if it's too late in the day.

Straight up Thomas Jefferson work right here, Jack. And since it's your right, it means you can log off from work without the risk of getting laid off from work. Yeties, Jack and I were fascinated about this story. So we jumped in T-boy style, and we noticed Australia isn't actually the first here. There's a trend. The right to disconnect actually began seven years ago when France passed the first right to disconnect law.

In France, if a company has over 50 employees, they must negotiate a plan for when you can take calls and not take calls and emails on the weekends and stuff. And now Belgium has that law, Kenya has that law, and Australia has that lawsuit. Jack, I'm pretty sure like season two, Emily and Paris, episode three, is like all about this right to disconnect. You're right, you're right. A lot of conflicts there. But the right to disconnect, it brings up some complicated questions. How do you implement it? There's the question of practicality.

What if your job involves deals where you have to work crazy hours? You're thinking of our first year at a college, Jack. If you're a financial analyst, you're working 27 hours a day, nine days a week. I don't know how this is going to work exactly. And then there's the question of ambition. If I don't respond to my boss on the weekend, but my coworker does respond to my boss, is my coworker getting up promoted, but not me? Does the right to disconnect also mean?

the right to not get a promotion. And finally, what about entrepreneurs whose schedules are crazy? Jack, the MDs at Goldman aren't going to like this. So what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in the workforce? The real issue here is the productivity paradox that we all face. Ah, the productivity paradox. Yet is that as Jackson my term for a phenomenon that we all experience. Technology has given us more tools to work more efficiently, but it's also increased amount of work we're expected to do. Working more efficiently hasn't resulted in more free time. It's just resulted in more work assigned to you. And a perfect case study of the productivity paradox is with remote work. Multiple studies show that those working from home log more hours than when they were back at the office.

And that contradiction is the core reason that governments are pursuing the right to disconnect. It's like there's a productivity arms race among workers right now and we got to draw the line somewhere. The movement for the right to disconnect is driven by the productivity paradox. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for Valentine's Day? LinkedIn has become the unofficial dating app of Working America. Because historically, Americans have found their future spouse in the workplace. For our second story, Beyonce is pivoting her career, from pop to country with her latest album, Act 2. Beyonce, she's in her country era because country music is a growth industry.

And our third and final story is Australia. They're joining the right to disconnect movement. To solve the productivity paradox, Australia is letting you log off on weekends. But yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the two big earnings reports were Airbnb and Robin Hood. Both stocks jumped.

Nick and I are jumping into the earnings report today, and we'll come back with more in tomorrow's pod. And second, Tiger Woods ended his relationship with Nike last year, but he just found a very nice replacement. Tiger Woods announced Sunday Red, a new golf apparel partnership with Taylor Made. And finally, a brand new dating app just launched that matches you based on your credit score. And it's called score.

Score will only let you join if your credit rating is above 645. 800? That's a green flag. You want to roll with that person. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Brooke from lovely San Diego. It's one last publicly traded poem. Jack, I love your poetry voice. I'll give snaps at the end, but why don't you whip this up for us.

I better not fumble with a dumb, cheesy line. It's hard to be humble when your profile's so fine. The butterflies rumble as I swipe to the right. High heels make me stumble, embarrassing date night. My heart did not crumble, so I swallow my pride. I'm back here on Bumble, just hitting my stride. Brooke, Brooke, artist. Well done.

Poet. Well done. Langston Hughes. Yates, you look fantastic for Valenzhen. Dan, you know what? You are all our Valentine's Day, aren't they, Jack? We do love you. We love you. We love you very much. Thanks for being our Valentine. Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. There we go. A congratulations to Yeti's Joy and Anthony Lewis, who is celebrated an anniversary in Bethlehem, Georgia. Call it a hat trick. This is their third

straight anniversary getting a shout out on this pod. Let's make it for, baby. And Lauren Brune and Chris Bo Kikiyo are celebrating their first baby, Isabel, in the lovely Concord, California. And a big shout-out to Henry Gomez and Chrissy Burm, celebrating their best Valentine's yet. And a happy 29th birthday to Yeti Carmen S, who's celebrating in Tyson, Virginia. And happy birthday to Carly Aguilera, celebrating her 60th at the Salvador Dali Museum. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins.

This is Jack. Nick and I both on stock of Airbnb, Bumble, Chipotle, Pelton, Robin Hood, and Spotify. Perfect. You're hoping your breath. Hopefully I didn't continue. That was the Olympics. That was the Olympics when this happens. You know what I mean? Jack was like this.

His head was down and then he goes.